I thought I bought the Blue Jays in the group break

I participated recently in a great group break by Chris over at the Nachos Grande blog.  I was excited late last week to receive a big envelope full of cards, many of which I didn't own already (a good thing).

While I struck out on any "hits", I did get some interesting cards.  Four of these cards actually picture Jays players in other team's uniforms, something I know that a lot of people don't particularly care for.

At least the first player, Raul Mondesi, is wearing a uniform that has the same colors as the Jays.

Mondesi spent 2.5 seasons in Toronto, fairing reasonably well with 66 HRs.  It was interesting to go through his career stats and see that he had stops in Anaheim (8 games) and Atlanta (41 games) to finish up his career.   I still think that the Dodgers got the better end of the deal (Shawn Green) that sent Mondesi to the Jays.

These two cards represent two players that were at different points of their career.  Ted Lilly came to the Jays in a deal with the Oakland A's for outfielder Bobby Kielty (another player I don't remember as a Jay).  Lilly had 3 decent seasons in Toronto, winning 37 games with a combined ERA of 4.52.  Pat Hentgen was at the end of his career when he returned to Toronto in 2004, and the numbers showed it.  Pat's ERA was almost 7 in 16 starts that year, and with only 2 wins by July 15th, Pat didn't pitch another game after that.  There are rumors floating that Hentgen may become the Jays pitching coach some time in the near future. 

This last card I need a little bit of help with...

This 2002 Fleer Maximum card features Carlos Delgado in a vintage uniform that I don't recognize.  I'm guessing that they wore these uniforms sometime during 2001, but I can't find anything that describes what they represent.  Raul Mondesi also sported this type of uniform on his 2002 Fleer Maximum card.  If anyone has any information about these retro duds, please feel free to comment.  I would love to know what era they are from.


These 4 cards are just a small part of a great stack of Blue Jays that will be added to the collection.   Thanks for the group break Chris!

thanks for reading, Robert

Duane Ward will agree

This card blows....

What's even worse, I think I'm seeing double now...

More cool stuff from the Nachos Grande group break to come.

Sorry I didn't give you a better post today, it just wasn't a good day for me.

Thanks for looking, Robert

Group breaks, card drafts and PEDs oh my!!

While enjoying the spoils of a couple of card drafts and a group break this evening, I decided to look a little harder at the cards I received from Wes, Greg and Matt and see if there were any tidbits in there that I could share.

Sure enough.

I found a couple of cards of guys who all of a sudden have become trendsetters and they didn't even know it.

why guys with their ability felt they needed to.....nevermind

I also found a couple of guys who weren't allowed to root for each other during a baseball game.

Let's go 'Dre!!!

I found another guy who may have been one of the top 5 pitchers in the NL before the break, but now should have a missing persons report filed on him...

Come back James, the Buccos need you!

This card is of a man who left this Earth way too soon..and is of a set that would be the only one that I would collect if I got back into football.

How many times did you see this during his playing days??

Moving on to the sport of hockey, I was very happy that Matt was very generous and sent me a couple of extras to ease the sting of my poor luck in his group break.  This Dion Phaneuf is a great addition for me, but it also led me to ask 2 questions...

Matt, thank you for the extras!!!

1.  When did the Leafs have brown in their unis?
2.  Was it a sign when the person who designed this card actually cut out the groin area of the picture to insert the swatch?

The next time you wonder about the reasons why we are going to experience another lockout in the NHL this year, take a look at this guy's contract as one of the reasons. 

12 years, $64 million contract for a 31 year old goalie...and it's the players that have to bite the bullet...

Now that I've regaled you with a bunch of cards from the present and made a little light of the current state of sports, let's enjoy a little bit of the past....who doesn't like vintage??

All well loved, just like a lot of 60's cards

Wonder if these guys ever thought they would hear the terms collective bargaining agreement, performance enhancing drugs or albatross contracts.

Nah, they were just having fun playing the game they loved.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Group breaks have been really good to me so far

Good Sunday morning, hope your weekend is going well so far.

I received another package this week, this time it was from Adam over at My Cardboard Mistress.  The link I have provided is for the final tally of all the cards that were part of the break.

I will say this, this may have been my most enjoyable break for a few reasons:

1.  Adam broke a ton of product, in varying quantities, years and lines.  It was great fun to see all the different variations of cards.  Even better when there were in hand and I got to see some more cards that I had never viewed in the past.  Great stuff.
2.  Adam puts me to shame as a numbers guy.  There was a spreadsheet posted at every portion of the break, with breakdowns for team by base cards, inserts, parallels, autos and relics.
3.  Pie charts!  I loved the breakdown by division for all the different types of cards.  For a numbers geek like me this was just as fun to look at as the cards themselves.

Finally, he didn't leave me "empty handed".  Even though I received over 150 cards of varying years and sets, Adam made sure that I scored both a jersey relic and an auto!  That kind of generosity is very much appreciated by this guy, and just further enhances my thoughts that the baseball card blogosphere is comprised of the best group of collectors out there.

Here are my "bonuses":

2 more great Jays to add to the collection.  Adam Lind auto from '09 Topps Unique and a Vernon Wells jersey card from '08 UD Masterpieces (a set which is slowly going to become an addiction for me).

To be honest, I wasn't sure what to make of this group break at first, but now that I have the finished product/cards in hand, it was fantastic to say the least!!

Add to that the extensive amount of work that Adam put in on this break, I must give him an A+!

Thank you very much Adam for the break, it really is appreciated here!!!!!

Thank you for reading, Robert

Group breaks and rhyming team names

Happy Friday to you all, hope that you are ready for your weekend!  I am taking the time out now to write about an interesting phenomena that I discovered shortly after starting this blog.

If you have paid any attention at all to my blog over the past 13 weeks, you'll know that I am a big Blue Jays fan.  Part of the reason I enjoy collecting Jays cards is because of their decade of excellence between 1983-1993. 

Never had I experienced the "group break"  until I started blogging.  I found it fascinating that for a small amount of $, you can claim your team (or teams), and get cards from sets that you hadn't collected in the past to add to your collection.

DAMN, what a great idea!!!

Sam over at the Double D blog (yes, I have an affinity for DDs) recently conducted a group break for the blogosphere; two boxes of '11 Lineage and two boxes of '11 Topps Chrome.  Since there were cards out of both sets that I did not have yet I decided to get in.

I paid my money, and read the details on how the break was going to go.  The first 15 people claimed their spots, and the remaining teams that were not claimed were randomed off based on the order that you entered the break.  I entered 14th, so I got the 14th team that came out of the randomizer, which in this case was the Oakland A's.  This actually made me laugh, because it seems to be a common thing for me to get A's in group breaks.  I'm beginning to wonder if it's because their colors (green, gold and white) were also my high school colors.  Anyhow, it's all about the cards right?  That's why you read...so here are some of the highlights.

Gio Gonzalez was the first card in the envelope, and that kind of threw me for a minute because there was no return address.  As I looked through the remainder of the cards, and saw more Lineage and Chrome Blue Jays, I put 2 and 2 together and realized that these were the group break cards.  Sadly, I'm now developing a soft spot for the A's; it's too bad that the team is kind of in the dumps now or it might be worth looking at collecting a few of their cards going forward. 

Heaven forbid I should start another collection now, what with the plethora of sets and team collections I already have going in both baseball and hockey.  Although Jays and A's would make an interesting combination on posts and pages.....nah, I will pass for now.   Thank you for the group break Sam, much appreciated.

Thanks for reading, Robert  (14 days)

I was so proud of myself last night because....

I cleaned my desk off...all the trades, and piles of cards to be mailed, and packs to be "processed" and put away...done, desk clean, even my wife couldn't believe it (I'm such a procrastinator when it comes to that).  Well, that went by the wayside today.  4 more envelopes arrived in the mail, and I'm sure that the mailman has a hernia after today's haul! 

Two group breaks arrived today, as well as 2 more trades...Blue Jays aplenty, some more cards off of my want list, and some interesting oddities/packs as well.  Where to begin....well, why don't I tie in one of the group breaks with the poll I ran last week asking what should I buy...

Let's start off with the group break from the Double D blog (sorry, but I've read enough of the blog and emails back and forth with Sam, and dimwit just doesn't apply here).  I jumped on the opportunity a few weeks back to get in on the group break from 2006 Artifacts, especially since my Blue Jays were tied in with the Angels and Royals.  Here we go...first, some neat cards from Upper Deck X and Timelines.

RIP Rick Adenhart

Three cards pictured here...Torii Hunter's is by far the coolest of the bunch, actually die cut in the shape of an 'X'.  The Rick Adenhart card snapped me back into reality for a moment; it made me remember that there were some very young pro athletes that passed on over the past few years.

















Next up are some cards that I really enjoyed seeing, again because I'd never seen them before.  2009 OPC baseball... I believe that these have convinced me to open a hobby box of 2009 OPC.  The card stock reminds me a lot of the early 2000's UD Vintage releases, and of course the OPC name for me is something I've enjoyed for a long time as well, going  back to my collecting days of the 70's.  Another plus is I found a hobby box online for $37+ s/h, so that will not break the bank for me. 

The next set to collect, 2009 OPC

Finally, some of the meat of the package, the jerseys/auto.

Another Jays auto, Gustavo Chacin, #'d 51/800.  Interesting to note that the card states that it was "sent to Upper Deck directly from Gustavo Chacin".  Why then use a sticker instead of hard signing the card itself?  Just askin...Both of the Ervin Santana jersey cards are gray swatches and serial numbered (the larger patch being 40/45!)









The envelope also included a pack of Bowman Platinum, which I'm gonna save for my "Packs Across America" post later this week. 

The Angels cards are up for trade, so if anyone is interested, just drop me a line.  Thanks again Sam for a great group break, it was enjoyed very much on this end.  

Thanks for reading, Robert...

Week 7 starts, and blogger generosity continues..

This is just a quick shout out to Colbey over at Cardboard Collections for the August Group Break of mid 90's Fleer Baseball.  This was a "cheapo" break (which is good for the card budget), meaning for $5 I was able to hit several Jays from the 96 & 97 Fleer BB sets.  Well, I received my package in the mail this week, and lo and behold, there was more to the story.  As you can see from the scan below...

More Jays for my collection

Colbey really took care of me..again!  Not only do you see 4 of the cards from the break (the 2 inserts on the top row, along with the Sandy Martinez base and Tiffany parallel from the set), he also sent me a UC 3 Alex Gonzalez from '95, a Joe Carter Power Brokers insert from '94 Leaf, and the majority of the Blue Jays from the 2005 Topps Total set including the Reed Johnson silver parallel shown in the scan.





















All totaled, 36 more Blue Jays to add to my collection, moving me ever closer to 500, which should be hit when I receive another trade package in the mail sometime in the next week.

Colbey, just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to get in on the group break, and also for sending a few extras my way as well....it is greatly appreciated!!

Thanks for reading...Robert