Flight 1269 departing to Tampa Bay

Believe me, right now I wish I was on a plane headed for the south.  I don't know if I'm ready for another winter, and the climate in Florida right now is something I'm sure that I could get used to.

I guess for now I'll have to settle with getting warm via the generosity of others, specifically Jeff who heads the club PWE at the fantastic 2x3 heroes blog.  The PWE I received today had 4 cards in it, but they certainly packed a punch.  Knocking 4 cards off the SNI want list at this point is great, and knocking another team off the want list is even better!!

Let's start with the 2 cards that didn't knock any teams off the want list:

First up is Tom Wilhelmsen, a player that was featured recently on the Night Owl blog (Night Owl  wondered where 2009 was on Tom's stats, I guess Topps doesn't recognize the Golden Baseball League, which is where Tom played that season).    Tom's card is serial #'d 1076, and brings the Mariners to 36 cards out of the 50 needed.  Denard Span on the right brings the Nats to 48 out of 50, and is serial #'d 1474.

Now, speaking of Tampa Bay....

A pair of left handed pitchers brings the Tampa Bay Rays portion of the SNI set to a close.  Drew Smyly up top is serial #'d 839, and Matt Moore down below bears the number 336.   The Rays are now the 5th complete team for the set, with 3 others being either one or two cards away (Jays, A's and Nationals).

There are also quite a few teams still down in the mid 30's; teams such as Pittsburgh, Detroit, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Baltimore, Seattle and Minnesota all still need anywhere from 14 to 16 cards to finish their portion of the set.

All totaled, 1269 cards out of the 1500 needed are in house.   231 to go. 

Jeff, thank you for the PWE!!  I really do appreciate it (I have some '64s for you that I'll try and get in the mail this week).

Thanks for reading, Robert

English Insanity

I guess no matter where you go, insanity follows.   Case in point, the envelope that Martyn sent me last week had a few serial numbered cards towards the SNI set. 

Martyn added 5 more cards to the insanity set; it would have been 7 but unfortunately 2 of the cards he sent my way were Yankees, which have already completed their 50 card allotment.

Here's the latest and greatest to be added to the SNI set:

Starting off is the Will Middlebrooks RC from the 2012 Topps Update set.  This card is serial #'d 919, and is the 40th card out of 50 for the Red Sox.  Middlebrooks is currently on the 15 day DL, and is due to come off on the 20th. 

Another RC card here, this time from the 2013 Topps Update set.   Grant Green's card is serial #'d 703, and is the 48th card out of 50 for the Angels (close!).  Green is a former 2009 1st round pick who was traded to the Angels by the A's last season for Alberto Callaspo.  Green was optioned on the last day of training camp to AAA.

I can't say that I've heard of Marwin Gonzalez before I received this card.  Mr. Gonzalez is already one of my favorite types of players, because so far this season he's already appeared at five different positions, plus DH.  Gonzalez's card is #791, and is the 28th card for the Astros.

Gallardo is off to a great start in 2014, having only given up 2 ER in his first 18.2 innings.  The Brewers looked pretty good in handing the Pirates a 3 game sweep on the weekend, and they are the first in the majors to 10 wins this year.   Gallardo's card is serial numbered 764, and is the 34th card out of 50 for the Brew Crew.

Last up we have Carlos Ruiz of the Phillies.  Surprisingly, Ruiz has more stolen bases than RBI's to this point of the season.   Yes, it is still early, but I'm sure that the Phillies are counting on a little more from him than the goose egg he has for his RBI total.  This card is serial numbered 1302, and is the 35th card out of 50 for the Phils.

1122 out of 1500 so far towards the set.  Just 3 more cards until the set is 3/4 done.

Thank you again Martyn!

thanks for reading, Robert

Have modern RC's lost their luster?

I had mentioned on Sunday that our friends at K-Mart afforded me the opportunity to purchase another pack of update free of the parallels that dot the packs from other big box stores.

I showed off the inserts in that post, but one other card caught my eye.

I like this kid.  Yes, I can call him kid because he's 1/2 my age.  I really enjoyed watching him pitch for the Pirates this year, and I hope to get an opportunity or two in 2014 to watch him throw live.

It seems like I've been hearing about him for a while, but it's only been 2 years since he was drafted by the Buccos. 

But I digress.

Upon seeing this card, I saw the rookie card logo in the lower left, and it got me to thinking. 

Do rookie cards excite me anymore?  The one and only RC that I've "chased" since this blog started was the 2010 Topps Buster Posey card.  The reason I hunted for that card was to complete that set, not because I was a big RC/Posey fan.

I can't say that I've chased any rookie cards at all since the early 90's, when it was all the rage to buy 50 or 100 counts of RC's to try and cash in on the next big thing.  Now, outside of trying to pick up the big RC's from vintage sets, rookie cards just don't do it for me anymore. 

Is it because I've changed?  Is it because I've become more of a set collector now?  Is it because the hobby has other avenues for people to chase the almighty dollar?  I don't know to be honest.

I'm sure that the legions of Yasiel Puig/Bryce Harper fans probably have different thoughts on this subject, but honestly there's not one player out there that excites me enough that I need to rush out to the next card show and snatch up a bunch of their RC's.

Am I trying to diminish the importance of the rookie card?  No.  Never.  But for some reason, seeing Gerrit Cole reminded me of the rookie card "chase" of the past, and that I don't miss the chase one bit.

Maybe I'm just getting old.....

thanks for reading, Robert

Serial Insanity cards 1041-1045

5 more cards on the way to 1500...thanks to Pat and Brian for their contributions featured here.

Card #1041:  Carl Crawford

Serial Number:  1268
40th card out of 50 for the Rays

A little bit more than $82 million over the next 4 years is owed to Carl by the Dodgers.   Any chance that they might try and unload some, if not all of that deal to another team?

Card #1042:  Pablo Sandoval

Serial Number:  704
30th card out of 50 for the Giants

It seems as if Sandoval has been around forever, and yet he's only 27.  $8.25 million might be pretty cheap for him this year, and free agency should look mighty good to him at the end of the 2014 campaign if he has another solid season.

Card # 1043:  Adam Warren

Serial Number:  548
46th card out of 50 for the Yankees.

Only 4 more cards left before the Yankees "fill up".  2 of his 34 appearances were starts in 2013, but his longest outing was a scoreless 6 inning relief appearance against the A's in June.  The Yanks lost that game 3-2 with Warren not figuring in on the decision.

Card #1044:  Buster Posey

Serial Number:  1247
31st card out of 50 for the Giants

Did you know that the NL MVP in 2012 earned just $615,000?  The guy who finished third in voting that year made just $500,000.  Who says that you need to pay a boat load of money to get MVP material??

Card #1045:  Jonathan Pettibone

Serial Number:  1030
33rd card out of 50 for the Phillies

In his 18 starts Jonathan kept the Phils in the ball game.  11 times he left the game with a difference of 2 runs or less, and 4 other times the Phils were ahead by 3 or more runs.  I'm curious to see if he'll get a longer look this year now that Philly is down one pitcher...maybe more if the trade rumors are true.


thanks for reading, Robert

So I decided to go and buy some inserts...

Well, no not really.  I decided to buy some Topps Update today, and we all know that the packs are "insert driven".  There was a lot of the standard stuff in the packs, blue/green/gold parallels, chasing history inserts and the like.

There was however some new stuff inside.   The '71 minis would have been worth it if they had been inserted in the 1st and 2nd series instead of just in update.

Night and day I like these better than the '72s.  It would have been outside of the box for me to collect these if they had been released in series 1/2, due to my overall aversion to anything mini.  These 5 cards will be made available to the masses.

Another new insert is the Franchise Forerunners, a kind of "then and now" insert set.

I wonder if the Mets card could have featured someone a little bit older than David Wright as the forerunner. There were a few decent players in the Mets past as I recall.  But I don't get paid the big bucks to make those decisions, so oh well.   These are also available to the masses...

Any card with a knee to the side of the head/shoulder automatically becomes part of the top 5.  Didi Gregorius has got it going on with this card...

I wonder how Brandon Crawford felt after this...

Gregorius was one of 4 emeralds that I pulled.  I also snagged 2 golds, but neither of them fit into the SNI set, so they'll be offered as trade bait as well.

I also pulled a blue parallel of some guy who wears Mario Lemieux's number 66.  I've heard rumors that this guy is OK...

I'm sure that I'll need the base card of this guy as one of the final cards to put the Update set together.  Kind of like I needed the Buster Posey RC as the final card to finish my 2010 set.  So you Dodger bloggers out there, before you buy the 25th copy of this card for your collection, remember that this poor set collector is going to need one....

The manupatch paid homage to the 1965 All-Star game in the twin cities...

The Twins were well represented in the game, they had 5 position players + Mudcat Grant on the mound.  It was interesting to look at the rosters and see that only 8 pitchers were chosen for each league, a far cry from the bloated rosters that attend today's contests.

Standard stuff...you may now return to your regularly scheduled sporting event...

Thanks for reading, Robert