At least I now have a reason to watch the World Series

A couple of hours ago I heard a very loud noise in my neighborhood.

It was the screams and shouts of a fan base that has suffered for nearly 3 decades.

The Kansas City Royals are in the fall classic.   And I couldn't be happier.

I have relatives on my wife's side of the family who are big Royals fans.   I can relate to what they've gone through as Royals fans (I'm a Maple Leafs fan, remember?).  29 years is a long time to wait for a playoff berth, let alone a chance for a championship. 

The Royals are a team I can get behind, largely because my NL allegiance has shifted to the Pirates over the past handful of seasons.  I've watched how the Pirates have built from within, and coached a lot of veteran pitchers who you could say were on the "scrap heap" into some brilliant pitching performances.  The Royals remind me of the Pirates, only with a slightly higher payroll.

Having a guy with the nickname Country Breakfast only helps to enhance my joy. 

Seeing how teams like the Royals can make it to the final dance gives me hope that other "small market" teams can shrink their payrolls and build winning ball clubs.  Kind of like Pittsburgh.  Oakland.   Minnesota was part of that group for a while, until the past couple of seasons. 

It doesn't matter who the Royals face in the Series.  They have my backing 100%.   Maybe even 110%, if that's possible.  I'd also love to see a repeat of the 1985 Series match up.  Why?  Because I'd love to see the Cardinals go down in flames to the Royals (and no, that's not a prediction).

Hey, the Royals even made a card I've had for 11 years relevant again!!

Who knows?   I might even switch allegiances if the Royals pull off a World Series win.

Everybody loves a winner, right?

Go Royals!!

thanks for reading, Robert

My top 5: 2013 Topps Heritage

I received a PWE from Doug over at the Sportscards From The Dollar Store blog that contained card #259, which finished off this set, finally.  With set #27 complete and ready to be put away, I did what will be customary for me going forward, I took a good look at all the cards and came up with my top 5.  There is a kind of a disclaimer for this top 5, since I didn't bother with chasing down the SPs this year.  That means you're only going to see what I call the top 5 from cards 1-425.

This card is not on the countdown, but I'm going to show it anyways, because it appears that the Cardinals may have two great pitchers on their staff, and I thought that both of them sharing a rookie card was excellent.

Both Miller and Rosenthal came up for looks last season, and in 2013 they have been very solid hurlers for St. Louis.  A potentially great foundation for years to come...

OK, here we go:

# 5:  Card #263 Vance Worley

I forget who the other pitcher in the set was that had the same type of glasses as Worley, but I picked Vance's card for the sole fact that his frames were solid white.  The lenses are so thin that it almost looks as if he's wearing nothing but the frames.

#4:  Card #305  Todd Helton

There are a couple of miserable looking souls on the countdown, and Helton's card just screams "I'm 40 years old dammit, don't you have a stock photo you could use of me??"  It also must be miserably cold where the photo was taken, because it appears that the trees behind Todd still don't have any leaves on them.

#3:  Card #63  Jason Grilli

I could have easily made this card #2 or #1, simply because this is the defining yell at the end of outings that Pittsburgh has seen for the past two years.  This guy pitches with raw emotion, and leaves everything he has on the field every time he goes out. 

#2:  Card #35  Michael Bourn

The 2nd miserable looking player to be featured, Bourn looks like he'd rather be anywhere than having his picture taken.  Even better, that's not his bat.  Bourn wore #24 while with Atlanta in 2012.  Who wore #48 last year for the Braves?  Tommy Hanson, who went 1 for 49 at the plate.  Probably why the bat looks so new.  Stick with the leaping catches Michael....

#1:  Card #68 Cameron Maybin

I get a chuckle every time I look at this card.   Tell me that isn't the look of a player, eyes on the pitcher after returning to the dugout thinking "I'm going to get you next time".  This is one of the few cards in the set that looks like the photo was taken during a game, which gives me more reason to like it.

I'm sure that there are other cards that people liked more than these, but hey that's what makes card collecting so great.  Everyone has their opinions, good, bad or indifferent.  Let me hear what you think I missed....

Thanks for reading, Robert

Blue and White Monday: more green and red parallels

The final envelope from my Sportlots purchase from last weekend rolled into my mailbox today.  Of course, it was the envelope that I would have like to have arrived first, because it knocked off a trifecta of this year's sets.

The base sets that the envelope completed I'll start on tomorrow.  First, I have a few Blue Jays to show off.  I'll start with the cards from the envelope...

Outside of black, pink and gold, I believe that I have every other colored parallel of Colby Rasmus this year.  Not the most flattering of pictures for sure.  Hutchison is currently pitching for the AAA Buffalo Bisons, just a little more than one year after undergoing Tommy John surgery.  I wonder how long it will take us as humans to reduce that recovery time from TJ surgery to a few months. 

Ricky Romero's card on the right completes my 2013 Heritage Blue Jays team set.   Glad to have that out of the way before the end of the summer.

The next two cards are from a busted eBay auction.  I had purchased a 2013 Topps gold lot off of a seller, and he sent me an envelope filled with 30 of these....

Gold/Green, they both start with G right?

Yep, an envelope with 30 Emerald parallels.  Close!! 

Buehrle pitched a solid game against the Astros the other day, and is on track for another 200 inning season.  Mark has really pitched better lately, and I'm hoping that he doesn't force the Jays into trading him (as other pitchers have done in the past....).  Jose became the 4th player in Jays history this year to hit 25 or more HRs in 4 consecutive seasons, joining Carlos Delgado, George Bell and Joe Carter.  Jose is 6th in HRs all time for the Jays, but it likely will be next season before he catches Jesse Barfield, who is 11 ahead of him.

There's still a lot of the red/green/blue/other various color parallels to pick up.  No hurry though, it's been fun hunting for them so far...

Thanks for reading, Robert

That damn number 7 gets me every time

Maybe one day, I will learn.  Today is the first day of year 3 here at $30 a week habit, and I can honestly say that I've learned a lot so far.  But there are things that I've learned that I just do not retain.

Case in point...

I was fortunate to receive a great envelope from the Night Owl yesterday, and as usual he did not disappoint.

There wasn't a giant stack of cards in there, but what he sent helped out on a few fronts.

First, the Jays were well represented:

I've always had mixed feelings about players appearing on checklists.  I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I guess my preference is the old checklists such as this.  The Davis Heritage card leaves me with 3 cards remaining to complete the Jays Heritage team set.  If you have card #'s 34, 222 or 446 please let me know and hopefully we can work something out.

George Bell was fun to watch as a Blue Jay.  George loved the game, and I believe you could probably say he was passionate about it.  It was tough for me to watch him as both a Cub and a White Sock (is that what you call just one player from the south side?), because after 9 great years in Toronto he decided he wasn't as big a star as he should have been, so he moved on.  Looking up his career stats gave me a bit of a shock when I found out that he left the game at the rather young age of 33. 

A pair of 2013 Archives cards also found their way here, which is good because I'd sworn off buying any packs of that product.  Buying Archives last year made me realize that the set just does nothing for me.

Heritage was also represented in the envelope, 7 more cards towards the set.  I'm down to needing 13 more to finish the base set of 425.

Yes, there's 7 

I'm sorry Bud Norris, but your card just creeps me out.  Dan Haren isn't doing much for me either...

Greg also sent me 7 cards from this years flagship series 1...

Notice how the number 7 is a theme here?  Wait, there's more.  This is where my denseness comes in.

As I'm happily whittling down my want lists, I notice that I'm left with one card remaining for Series 1.

Card # 7.

Gee, I wonder who that could be?  Then I think really quickly (something new for me...) and realize that I'm a jack ass.

There is no #7 in series 1 this year.  Topps decided not to release it. 

I'm sure Greg was laughing at me while looking at my want lists.  The same way he probably did while advising me that I don't know how to spell "masterpieces". 

Greg, thank you for the cards, as always much appreciated!!

Welcome to year 3 my friends, the insanity continues....

thanks for reading, Robert

Almost counts when you're building team sets

Or having them sent your way out of the blue.  I got in front of the computer this evening, and the first thing I did was dive into the box of goodies sent my way by Pat from the Hot Corner Cards blog.

Not only did Pat take a land mine to my Series 1 and '13 Heritage want lists, he sent me all but one of the Blue Jays from the 2013 Opening Day set.  Even the mascot made its way here...

Not sure how I got the black line on the scan, but the cards are cool, even if they are copies of the Series 1 base set.  The only card missing from the team set is #61 Drew Hutchison. 

While I won't take any of your time by showing you the other 73 cards he sent from my over sized 2013 want lists, I will show you a shiny refractor that came my way...

EE becomes another portion of the serial insanity set, as his #451 was needed.

Now the old saying goes that almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.  I would say that this package, while almost completing various sets, definitely counted in my book.

Thank you Pat!!  As always a great package.....

Thanks for reading, Robert

Ryan's pitch was a good one

It was nice to come home and see a manila envelope amongst the mail on my dining room table.  It had been a while since I'd seen one, and what was even better was that it was unexpected.   Ryan from the Ryan's Pitch blog was kind enough to send a surprise pack of cards my way.   I wondered if I would remember how to open a bubble mailer when I first saw it.   Thank goodness I was able to.


What was in the envelope you ask?  If you had to ask, you having been paying attention...

Blue Jays of course!!

How about some 2013 Gypsy Queen??

These are the first GQ cards to come in this year, I believe my choice not to purchase any is justified.  Don't get me wrong, the Blue Jays are very welcome here, but the look of Gypsy Queen just doesn't do it for me this year.

Ryan was able to knock off a couple of Jays from the 2013 Heritage want list.

I'm hoping that Buehrle can pickup the pace.  The last 12 years, his lowest win total was 10.  One other season was 12, every other year was 13 or higher.  Mark's going to have to get on a run to get back to those totals again.

I've got to check, but I think Ryan sent me an entire Blue Jay team set from this year's Bowman...no Cabrera, I was wrong.

He also sent a few parallels as well, including a gold Bautista, and my first Jays international parallel.

A great mix of old and new cards in the envelope, many thanks to Ryan, the cards were very much appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

The first big "chunk" of Heritage comes in

You might have seen within the past week a post from Jeff over at 2 x 3 heroes saying that he enjoys cleaning out space in his traders box.

Thankfully for me, Jeff was able to clear a good amount of his '13 Heritage traders out and send them my way.   55 cards worth to be exact.

It's kind of funny how you can look at 55 cards and find some similarities.  OK, maybe it's not funny.

How about a 9 spot of head shots??

Maybe 9 cards of guys with bats on their shoulder is more your speed.

Or maybe Yu just want one player on a scan with a Rookie Cup.

Any way you slice it, I'm 55 cards closer to this years Heritage set thanks to Jeff.   Much appreciated!!

thanks for reading, Robert

Spring has sprung

I got lucky today.   No, not that way, get your minds out of the gutter.

I had a few bucks left on the weekly budget, and on my trip to Wal Mart today, I picked up a rack pack of Heritage.

I didn't realize what I had on the first trip through the pack, but when checking the card backs to see if I had pulled any SPs, I came across a card #'d ROA-JSP.

Yep, I pulled an auto!!  It also might be the smallest certified auto I've ever seen on a card...

What is cool is that the card back, aside from the card number, is exactly the same as the original 1964 Topps card.  The original was card #71 in case you were wondering.

Any Angels fans wishing to trade for this, I'd be more than happy to hear your offers.

thanks for reading, Robert

Hollow

I admit it, I got myself all hyped up for the 2013 Heritage set.  After buying 2 rack packs and 4 looseys on the weekend, I wound up feeling a little more hollow about collecting anything from this year, especially Heritage. 

First off, to give you all a chuckle, those who remember when I first opened some Heritage packs back in March may remember that I found duplicates in each of the first three.  Well, no duplicates in the same pack this time, but the red Target parallels I found in a couple of packs have a lot of familiarity to them....

I'm chuckling to myself while writing this post just looking at these two cards.

I am cursed right now it seems.  Oh well, how about I give you a wrap up of how my Blue Jays team set is coming so far from 2013 Heritage.

11 out of 18 so far, here are the 9 base cards I have so far:

I do have 2 of the 3 SPs, thanks to a couple of generous bloggers, first here is R.A. Dickey, courtesy of Pat from Hot Corner Cards

thanks for the PWE Pat!!

Next up is EE, Edwin Encarnacion, with much thanks to Greg at Night Owl Cards...

Thanks for saving this for me Greg!!

I have posted 2 want lists for 2013 Heritage, first up is the base set, which as you may notice only goes up to #425.  I've decided to not try and complete the insanity that is 75 SPs, and limit my set building to numbers 1-425.  Love the set, just not feeling the $$ chase for all the SPs. 

I've also posted a Blue Jay want list for this years Heritage.  Of the 7 cards I need, there is only one SP left, Jose Reyes.  If you have one that you can spare, let me know and I'll do my best to dig up something for you.


I'm going to be hunting for some want lists around the blogs, I have about 75-100 dupes that I'm sure I can find a good home for. 

I am also going to go for the flagship Topps set as well, but there's no hurry to finish that set this year.  Unlike the past 2 years, I've learned that there will always be cards out there for me to chase from the base set, and rushing to get a want list up isn't necessary. 

Thanks for reading, Robert

You've gotta watch what you say, or how you say it

Over the past few weeks, I've been very careful.  Careful about what I say when I comments on other bloggers' posts, and careful about what I say on my blog as well.  There's a reason for this...

I'm a real smart ass, and my mouth can get me into trouble more often than I need to be.

The one thing I've learned over the past few years is to be careful what I say, in the workplace, at family gatherings, on vacations, etc.  A lot of what I think would not translate well into the real world, because of my smart ass mentality.

Case in point:  An article a couple of weeks back on Yahoo about this particular Heritage card surfaced.

Daniel was upset because Topps managed to catch him for a photo at the time he hurt his arm in a game last season.  Now the smart ass in me a few years ago would have piped up and made a comment about how he felt, and not have given two thoughts to putting it on the internet.  But I've learned, you've gotta watch what you say, or how you say it.  Because not only are people quick to point out your flaws, they are also quick to judge you as well.  That's just how it is in the world we live in.

After a day of thought about the Hudson card, I decided that a smart ass comment wasn't worth it, because I thought "how would I feel if I had a devastating injury like that?".  I would feel pretty shitty for sure.  People get emotional, and I can understand Hudson's thoughts on how he felt when seeing this. 

I'm glad I stayed silent.

I'm sure that wasn't the case when I first started on the blogosphere though.  I had no problem spouting off what I felt in comments, and I'm sure it probably upset one or two people along the way.  I even know of one long time blogger who stopped following me, no doubt after something I said (which was probably stupid).  I've left comments on his blog offering trades, and have never even received a response.  I've kind of resigned myself to the fact now that my stupidity back then has affected me now. 

Praise in public, criticize in private.  That was a credo that one of my former bosses taught me, and it's something that has stuck to this day.  Not only does it hold true in the workplace, but in the blogosphere as well. 

If I've pissed you off in the past, directly or indirectly, I apologize.  I may be 45, but life's lessons will be something I keep on learning until death do I part.

thanks for reading, Robert

The Purple Card Eaters

I stopped by my closest LCS yesterday, probably for the last time ever.  This is the same store that I've kind of complained about before, but it is close to me and I was in need of a couple different supply items.

Why will it be for the last time ever you ask?  I opened the door to the shop, and it hit me.  The absolute stench of cigarette smoke.  Don't get me wrong, I have no problems with people who smoke.  Mrs. Habit is a smoker (kind of an ironic statement there...), but she doesn't smoke in the house at all. 

When I walked in and that wall of smoke hit me, it truly turned me off for good.  I got what I needed, and I got out of there for the last time ever.   It really is a shame, because it's only about a 20 minute drive from my house, and the Mrs. and I are in that town at least once or twice a month. 

Anyhow, while I was making my supply purchase, I grabbed a few hobby packs of Heritage and brought them home for ripping.  To what did my wondering eyes see, but a purple refractor in each of the 6 packs:

 
I pictured only 5, because the 6th one is already in a PWE headed to another blogger.  I didn't see any odds listed for these cards, so is 1 per pack the norm, or did I stumble into a purple hot box? 

They are not serial numbered (damn), so for me, they are trade bait.  Drop a comment if you wish to own one or more of these cards, and I'll do my best to get them to you as quick as I can.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Compare and contrast

Whenever I see those two words together, I get the shivers.  Compare and contrast were the buzzwords for my high school English teachers when they wanted me to write a load of b.s. about a book that we were reading.   My whole problem was, I could never grasp just how to do it.

Likely because I spent too much time in 1st period English trying to look up the skirts of the beautiful young ladies that sat across from me in class.    Memories....

While going through the blasters (yes, I said blasters plural...) of 2013 Heritage I've bought recently, I came across one card that hit me right away.

Card #200, Clayton Kershaw of the LA Dodgers.  Now before you go out of your mind thinking that I'm turning into another Dodger blogger, don't hit that panic button just yet.  There are plenty of other great people out there that can take care of the Brooklyn side just fine.

What hit me about the card is the comparison to the #200 card of the '64 set, one Mr. Sandy Koufax.

Both players had great seasons prior to the release of the card (Kershaw's W-L record aside), and were/are star left handers for the Dodgers.  The only contrast really between the 2 players is that Koufax was part of the 1963 World Series champion team, while Kershaw's 2012 Dodger squad finished 2 games from a wild card spot, and 8 games out of first.

While I'm sure that Topps had known for a least a year that Kershaw was going to be #200 in the set to make the comparison to the '64 set a lot more tolerable, I thought about the other cards in the set and how they compared to each other.

I'm sure I'll be able to find a few other card #'s in the set that will be either as close as the Kershaw-Koufax pairing, or as far apart as the sun and the moon. 

Now only if high school English had more cards, maybe compare and contrast would have meant a lot more to me....

Thanks for reading, Robert

Moving the Heritage & Flagship inserts/parallels

As you may know, I'm not a big insert collector.  Parallels in certain circumstances, yes, but not inserts. 

I've tried to keep them moving as quickly as I can, just to keep a little room around for other cards.

So, without further adieu, let's get the party started, and see how many of these beauties we can move out in the next couple of weeks.

Let's start with flagship:

The calling card inserts look really nice,but I'm sure that there are fans of these three who would enjoy these cards much more than I. 

The chasing history inserts is an interesting idea, but there's no place for them in my collection.  Help me find them a good home.

A couple of chasing the dream inserts.  I'm sure that there are some team collectors that would be interested.

The Emerald Green parallels are of a couple of stiffs who will never amount to a hill of beans.  The '72 mini looks a little fishy to me.  Cardinals fans might enjoy the camo and cut to the chase cards.  I'm not sure if there are any Yankees fans left out there, but if there are one of them might like the Pettitte.

On to Heritage.  Let's start with the Blue Parallels, which in my opinion look kind of snappy.

Again, nothing but stiffs here.

How about a black backed base card....close your eyes because this one features two guys who just won't do anything for your fantasy team.

Neither of these guys are from Venezuela, but the card is...supposedly

I kind of like the New Age Performers insert, probably one of the few times over the years of Heritage that I have enjoyed the design.  I already have the R.A. Dickey NAP card for my Jays collection (thank you Pat)

The News Flashbacks are an insert set that I wouldn't miss if they ever stopped producing them.

Here are some more various inserts from Heritage for your consideration:

Those Trout and Jeter guys just keep popping up, don't they??

Finally, a couple of chrome goodies.

I've had good luck with the refractors, I've hit 3 so far, 2 of which were numbers I needed for the serial insanity set. 

So there you have, trade bait from the first quarter of 2013.  Let me know what you would like to trade for in the comments, and if you're just wanting to do a 1 for 1 or 2 for 2 trade, if you prefer the plain white envelope method of shipping.

Looking forward to hearing from you, Robert

Information overload

The internet is a great and powerful tool, and I've been fortunate to have access to it for the better part of the past 15 years.  With the internet, I've met a lot of great people, and some that aren't so great.

That's life in a nutshell, internet or no internet.  You're going to meet some great people, and you're going to run into some assholes.

Speaking of assholes, opinions have been compared to them.  Everyone has one of them, and more often than not they can be a little bit shitty.  But what's great about the internet is that you have access to thousands of these opinions.

What I realized tonight is a problem that I have to deal with.  The ability to take these opinions and enjoy them for their entertainment value.   The information overload that I've inflicted on myself because there are so many opinions is my own fault, as is the inability to process the opinions properly. 

Most of the time I will look at opinions about a certain card, certain set or certain player and take them as the gospel.  It's time for that to end. 

I like what I like.  I guess it's as simple as that.  Whether it be a modern release such as 2013 Heritage:

Or an older set such as 1970 Topps that isn't as widely collected:

It's multi player rookie card night just in case you hadn't noticed

If I like it, I'm going to collect it.  Simple as that.

Keep on writing your opinions.  My recent realization that what you're writing is purely entertainment and doesn't belong in the Book of Genesis will help me to enjoy what you're saying even more.

Even if I don't agree with it. 

thank you for reading, Robert