Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera

When I grow up, I want to be in an exclusive club.  One that only has 14 members.  Twelve of the first 13 were elected to the Hall of Fame.

I want to hear my name mentioned with others such as Hornsby, Cobb, Gehrig, Mantle, Robinson, Yastrzemski, Foxx and Williams.

When I grow up, I want to be a nay sayer to all the modern stats such as WAR, OPS+ and Runs from Positional Scarcity (no...that last one is not made up...I swear).  I shouldn't need a slide rule, abacus and 3 calculators to figure out how important a player is in my lineup.

#603 in the insanity set

Miguel actually took care of one of 2 events that I hadn't seen in my lifetime.  Carl Yastrzemski completed his triple crown season of 1967 just 26 days before I was born.  The other event is my Maple Leafs winning the Stanley Cup (they last completed that task 5 months before I was born.)

Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll now get to see the 2nd event happen sooner rather than later.

I hope I didn't make you laugh too hard with that last statement.

Congratulations Miguel!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

It's a good thing I have my glasses on, because I'm seeing double

OK, yes the title was my very poor attempt at humor.   I didn't want to steal Yogi Berra's "It's deja-vu all over again", so I tried to come up with something a little different.

So close and yet nowhere near the start.

For the 2nd straight day, I am fortunate enough to show off a trade package that I received in the mail, this time from Greg at the Night Owl blog.  Greg is also a purveyor of the new math, and sent me a package that was full of great stuff in return for the mere pittance of A&G that I sent his way....

Let's have a look, shall we?  (As always...forgive the poor humor, it's what I do.)

Naturally, what else can I say about the first two cards you see here....they're X-rated.

It didn't scan well, but the Romero is an X-fractor from this years Chrome...2 parallels in two days...
I'm also a sucker for the UD X die cuts.  The Rios is the first die cut Blue Jay I own, great stuff.


I don't believe that I had ever seen any of the Fan Favorites from 2004 before.  These were solid additions to the envelope, especially the '86 Barfield reprint.  The Stieb card is I believe the only card that features him without a mustache, a rare sight over his career for sure.

By the way, if you ask me another number that should be retired by the Jays....it should be Fernandez's #1.  The guy was a class act, and each of the 4 different times he played in Toronto, he was a fan favorite.

The Blue Jays drafted Eric Arce twice, the 27th rd in 2010, and the 25th rd in 2011.  For a 5'9" player, 22 HR in 299 career AB in rookie league ball may get some notice if he keeps it up. 

20 years ago, if you asked me to buy a pack of Donruss Studio, you would have got a look from me that said "are you kidding".  After 20 years, the product has kind of grown on me.

After all these years, I finally found a picture of the man that Richard Kimble was chasing:
 

Alas Reed, I never really knew ya

Sadly, my beard has the same coloration as Ford's does in this photo.

 What would I also find but a couple of cards that definitely remind me of the Owl...

Insert fire joke here

Card on the left:  Damaso Garcia from the 1985 Topps set.  It's card #702 in the set, so with my rough math, it should be featured in this blog sometime in 2016.  The mini on the right is a league leaders card from the '87 set, celebrating Barfield leading the AL in homers in '86 with 40.

For the 2nd straight day as well, I was fortunate to receive a purple refractor from this years Chrome set of Adam Lind.  What's life without a little humor? 

It's a good thing I have my glasses on, because I'm seeing double

Greg also sent me some serial numbered parallels for the insanity...always welcome!!  They will be shown off on the insanity blog in the next few days.

Greg, your generosity is very much appreciated, thank you so much!!

Thank you all for reading and suffering through the humor....Robert

Odd colored Jays and the Legion of Doom

The more that I blog, the greater the enjoyment that I receive.  I am starting to make good on the promise I made to myself that I would include more hockey posts on the blog.  Yes, this blog has been probably 85-90% baseball since I started, but there is always a hockey guy inside me dying to get out. 

For me, this post covers the best of both worlds.  I decided to help a fellow blogger out a few weeks back with his Heritage want lists from the past couple of years.  I was glad to do it, because Mark from This Way to the Clubhouse sent me a return package that had lots of goodies to keep me entertained.  Mark is fully aware of the craziness I have happening in this part of the world, and he was only too happy to feed it.

Four cards he sent me were for the insanity set....I've decided to show them on the insanity blog in the coming days, so watch out for those.

In the quest for everything Blue Jay, Mark sent me a couple of odd colored Jays....purple and gold to be more specific.

Those purple refractors have always been a favorite of mine, and I need to be smart and not let them be a sickness.  The Lind is actually the first parallel I've been sent from the '12 Chrome set so far, and it's a beauty.  (aside, I've held true to not collecting the Chrome set...have only bought one rack pack!!).

The Blue Jays gold team card from '11 Topps is kind of ironic.  The only person facing the camera (fully visible anyhow) is Jose Bautista, kind of a fact of life for the Jays in 2011 as he was easily their dominant player.

Next up is a card that kind of surprised me.  The player that is featured on the card is a member of the Legion of Doom!

No....not these guys

I wonder how many people moved on after finding out that Hawk and Animal were not part of this post..

It's this guy....

Those in Canada will recognize another weakness of mine on the boards behind Renberg

Mikael Renberg of the Philadelphia Flyers.  Mikael was part of the famous "Legion of Doom" line that featured Eric Lindros at center and John LeClair on left wing.  At 6'1" and 205 lbs, Renberg was the smallest player on that line which for a 3 year period wreaked havoc on opposing NHL defenses. 

What's even better, this card gets me one closer to a long forgotten set for me...the 95-96 Collectors Choice Players Club parallel set (I told you parallels always get me into trouble).  Still a long way to go for that one, but at least I can mark #222 off of the list now. 

Great stuff Mark....thank you very much!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Blue Jay Monday: The Dime Box Dozen

For the 2nd time in as many weeks, I've been fortunate enough to be able to post about Blue Jays cards that I've received in a trade.  This time, I thought I would feature a dozen of the cards that Nick from the Dime Box blog sent my way.

The Old Judge Rich Butler card on the left is something that I've never seen before.  I believe it is from the Signature Rookies set in 1995 (if you know more about this, please let me know).  The Clemens on the right is a Pinnacle lasting memories card, which is another set that I've never seen or heard of until now.  The card is die cut on the right hand side in a wavy kind of pattern. 

It's funny how the past is ingrained into your memory.  Each time I see the words "Triple Play" regarding a baseball card, I automatically want to type "Donruss" right before.  I hope and pray that Ricky doesn't fall victim to Steve Blass syndrome, because when he's on there aren't many pitchers better than he is.

Boy, I collected a lot of collector's choice back in the day.  From reading the back of Darren Hall's card, it appears that he was the Jays closer for a portion of the '94 campaign.  I'll be damned if I can remember him.  I've written several times about Pat Borders on the blog; one of my favorite posts (and cards) can be found here.

The two '87 Leaf cards remind me to tell you all that I've actually started to compile a Blue Jays want list.  I believe that I got as far as 1989 on Sunday, and let me just say to those bloggers who have compiled decades long want lists, I have the greatest amount of respect for you.  I believe the first 12 years took me about 3 hours to compile, and I can only wonder what the next 23 years is going to require.  If you're interested in taking a look at what I need (so far), just click here.

Over the years, I will say that I enjoyed owning a lot of Diamond Kings cards.  The Carter on the left, well it's not bad, but it strikes me as ...I don't even know how to describe it. 

The one uniform that the Jays wear that I like is the red Canada Day uniforms.  I know in the past, instead of the players name the jersey would just say "Canada", which I always thought was pretty cool.

Finally, just 2 of the 5,000,000 A&G cards that you've seen on blogs this year.  The Ricky Ro on the left is an A&G back mini, while the Colby Rasmus on the right, well he just doesn't look pleased to be there.  I do want to say that I am glad that the Jays brought back the old style of lettering and the old logo.  I have always preferred the old rather than the new (it's probably just the kid in me).

Nick, I just want to say thank you again for the great Jays package...those Dime Box cards were definitely a welcome sight!

thanks for reading, Robert

Sakic Sunday: An emerald in the rough

We can all play Monday morning quarterback and look back on a particular player's week, season or career and muse on how or why a particular event occurred.

Joe Sakic's draft year is no different.  Joe was drafted 15th in the first round of the 1987 NHL Entry Draft, behind a couple of future superstars that went 1-2 in the draft, Pierre Turgeon and Brendan Shanahan.

Joe wasn't even the first player taken by the Nordiques that year, that distinction went to troubled  defenseman Bryan Fogarty, who was drafted in the #9 position.

It is interesting to look back and see the players that were drafted ahead of Joe Sakic in the first round that year.  There were a few defenseman who played 1000+ games in the NHL (Glen Wesley, Luke Richardson, Stephane Quintal), one goalie who played a little over 100 games (Jimmy Waite), and a couple of forwards who didn't have stellar careers (Dave Archibald, Keith Osborne). 

Several teams missed out on a player who had amassed 138 goals and 293 points in 2 seasons in the Western Hockey League.  I'm sure at 5'11", teams wondered if he would be able to lead an offense over an 80 game schedule. 

Turns out for the Nordiques/Avalanche that Joe was actually an emerald in the rough.

Emerald parallels from the 91-92 and 92-93 Parkhurst sets.

625 goals, 2 Stanley cups and a Hall of Fame berth later, it's really easy to play Monday morning quarterback, isn't it?

All I know is, my Maple Leafs at #7 missed out on a golden opportunity.

Such is life...

thanks for reading, Robert

Homer Simpson he ain't

28 years = 20 years

The first no-hitter for the Reds in 28 years means that the Pittsburgh Pirates will now go 20 years without a winning season.

No offense to Homer Bailey, but the Pirates last night were no hit by a #4 starter.  

The Pirates were 16 games over .500 as late as August 8th.  Since then, they've compiled a record of 13-34.  In case you were wondering, that's a .277 winning percentage. 

Are the Pirates turning a corner?  In a way, yes they are.  There are still a lot of questions to be answered over the off season again for them...such as:

The Pirates now have a glut of outfield talent, 6 to be exact.  Jones, McCutchen, Marte, Presley, Tabata and Snider.  Do they trade one of those bats to get themselves another proven starting pitcher.

The pitching staff, which was one of the best the first four months, wound up full of bullet holes by the end of August.  They have Burnett and Rodriguez as a solid 1-2 punch, but after that there are a lot of questions.  Karstens can't stay healthy.  J-Mac had a great first half but fell off a cliff the 2nd half.  Erik Bedard was released.  Correia will likely not be resigned.  The kids (Locke, McPherson) may be ready to step in, but they are still pretty green.  The bullpen is still solid but needs a little more depth other than Chad Qualls and Hisanori Takahashi.  The trade of Brad Lincoln turned out to be negative for the Pirates, not because Travis Snider didn't perform, it was because the Pirates lost a swing man who was more valuable than they thought.

There is also the problem of the lack of a true leadoff hitter; a guy who can set the table for McCutchen, Jones and Alvarez.  The catching tandem of Barajas and McKenry will have to be upgraded, and shortstop Clint Barmes may be replaced as well. 

While I still compare this team to the Blue Jays of the early 80's (lots of young talent but very green), there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered in order for the team not to turn the losing streak to 21 years.

One of the promotional commercials that was played a lot during the season was "finish".  Finish the at bat, finish the game, finish the season.  

The Pirates failed to finish the season this year, and if they do so next year, I have a feeling that a lot of Pirates management will be finished. If that happens, we may just see the longest sub .500 streak rocket towards a silver anniversary.  I'd hate to see that, because it was fun to watch Pedro Alvarez this season mature into a full time player, and I'd love to see him carry this team to a playoff spot sooner rather than later.

Thanks for reading, Robert

A post for a fellow blogger...

Brian, hope you're doing OK brother....hope to see you back and posting when you're ready

Sorry Spike, but you're out!!

Pat B for PAT-P

Thanks for reading, Robert