A dry week to say the least

Today ends the 45th week of the 2nd year of this blog.  In the previous 96 weeks, I cannot remember a time where I went an entire week without purchasing at least one card.

Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  I didn't even look at cards on eBay this week.  Didn't check my want lists, didn't look to complete any sets on sportlots, didn't handle any of my collection at all.

Dry?  I guess you could say that.  Does it concern me at all?  Not in the least.  Between the pressures of work this week (shorthanded every day, less than half staff the last 2 days..), and finding other things to do (Pirates/Tigers series was a great one to watch), my collection and the blog world pretty much took a back seat.

To be honest, it probably wouldn't hurt me to take another week or 2 off from purchasing cards.  Would it be tough?  You better believe it, because one of the things I've enjoyed doing on Saturdays is heading out in search of cards, whether it be at a card show, or the local big box store. 

Maybe the lack of interest in collecting is a sign that it's time to get what I have collected organized and put away.  I've said that many times before, but the clutter has gotten out of hand.

Maybe as I put them away, I will be able to find some cards that are post worthy, such as this Patrick Roy card:

They may not do well in Colorado next year, but with Roy behind the bench, it sure will be interesting.

Maybe I can find cards of teammates such as these two Pirates:

Both of these guys had streaks ended this evening against the Reds, but it appears to be even more promising this year in Pittsburgh than years past.

Or how about a playoff hero of the past who has another chance at glory this year...

I'm not so sure that if LA gets a 3-1 lead over Chicago in the upcoming western conference final that they will let Chicago off the hook like Detroit did.  All I know is, with Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago and LA remaining, all potential Stanley Cup Final match ups will be very entertaining. 

Let the search begin...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Blue and White Monday: Roger Clemens, Hall or Nothing

Sometimes you just never know when you'll stumble across a post topic.  While listening to the Pirates post game show today, the commentators (one is Kent Tekulve, a name you may remember from the late 70's/early 80's Pirate teams) brought up the subject of Miguel Cabrera and whether he is a lock for the Hall of Fame.

I thought it might be a little early for that kind of talk when it came to Miggy, but the discussion triggered my memory of a card I had received in the mail a while back. 

The parallel is kind of uncanny.  This card from the eX 2000 release in 1997, Roger's 14th season in the majors.  Miguel is currently in his 11th season, so the comparison is close.  The back of this card states that Roger would eclipse the 200 win mark in 1997 (his 8th win did that), and that he would reach 3000 K's in 2008 (which he did as well).

Cabrera needs another 123 hits this season to hit the 2000 mark (has a good shot at that if he stays healthy), and at age 30 he already has almost 400 doubles (needs 1 more) and 350 HRs (needs 15).  If he plays another 8-10 seasons, his numbers could reach marks that we haven't even talked about in quite some time (3500 hits?--700 doubles?--650 HRs?)

Now, even though the numbers that Clemens had were quite good, it would have been still a little presumptuous for anyone to say he was a Hall of Famer.   I'm sure that nobody could have predicted him pitching another 11 seasons in MLB while winning another 150 games. 

I think it's going to be interesting to see how the voting plays out over the next few years for the players such as Clemens, McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro and Bonds.  37.6% of the vote with the incredible numbers that Clemens put up during his 24 year career have obviously been tainted by the allegations of steroid use.   It also makes me wonder if all these players on "team alleged steroids" that are eligible for the Hall have affected the voting on other players, such as Biggio, Raines, Trammell, etc.  I know that it shouldn't, but you gotta believe that there are going to be some writers that are just going to say screw it, and send in empty ballots in disgust.

I'm curious to see if the end result for Clemens' winds up being "or Nothing".  The Rocket has 14 more tries.  I hope I'm still breathing to see the outcome.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Serial Insanity cards 833-836

Gonna start to expand the posts for the serial insanity cards for the next little while.  Have about 40 cards that I have to post, so I'll step up the number of cards in order to accommodate them all.

Here we go then, 4 cards for you today, #'s 833-836, courtesy of Cory at the Rectangle Men blog.

Card 833:  Juan Perez

Serial Number:  1415
Team:  Pittsburgh Pirates, #29 out of 50

A September call up in 2006 scored Juan Perez an appearance on a Series 2 card in 2007.  Last pitched in 2012 for the Brewers, but a WHIP of 2.000 isn't going to earn you many opportunities the following season.

Card 834:  John Lannan

Serial Number:  1001
Team:  Washington Nationals, #39 out of 50

Lannan in 2007 had the distinction of being the first major leaguer in over a decade to be thrown out of his first major league game.  Hitting Chase Utley (broken hand) and Ryan Howard will do that for you.   I guess the Phillies forgave him, as he's a member of their staff now (on the 15 day DL)

Card 835:  Ty Wigginton

Serial Number:  1313
Team:  Philadelphia Phillies, card #24 out of 50

Well traveled would be an appropriate description for Wigginton, as he's now on his 8th big league roster in 12 seasons.  Wasn't he supposed to be the next big thing at 3rd base a few years back, or am I remembering wrong?

Card 836:  Rafael Soriano

Serial Number:  418
Team:  Tampa Bay Rays, card # 30 out of 50

Wow, was the 2010 season an amazing one for Rafael!  45 saves, 0.802 WHIP and a 1.73 ERA.  Those stats didn't even get him the most Cy Young votes on his own team, as David Price had a great season (19-6).  Rebounded from an off year in 2011 to post 42 move saves as a replacement for Mariano Rivera in NY. 

Thanks for reading, Robert

Anyone ever write a post before coming up with a title?

I'm definitely not in attack mode right now.  I tried to get interested in 2013 Bowman, but it just wasn't happening.  I don't have a great deal of money to go out and hunt for the key cards I need to complete my '64, '73 and '75 sets that I'm working on.

So, as you saw the other day, I bought a "best of 2012" repack box.  I promised to show the rest of the box in my next post, so here you go!

First, the Gypsy Queens:

Pack 1, outside of the Frank Robinson moonshots insert, nothing to see here.

The Albert Pujols mini is a straight cut back, and I like the Future Stars card of Starlin Castro (must be that it's blue...something about that color with me....not sure why....)

Again, not a whole lot to see here.  The Johnny Bench mini is also a straight cut back variation.  If you need any of them, don't be shy, let me know.

The Topps Archives release in the end turned out to be a product that didn't particularly excite me.  It makes me wonder if they are just testing future Heritage releases to see if they'll work (I'm sure they will).  I think part of my reason for the lack of interest in this set is that it's kind of small at only 200 cards +SPs. 

The Singleton in the middle is a SP, card #204.  There might be somebody out there still trying to get all the SPs.

Starlin Castro seems to be another name that I keep pulling, no matter what the brand.  The floating head Mickey Mantle is pretty cool, and up for trade if any Yankees fans are in need of it for their collections.

The 2012 Heritage set was something that I swore off, and amazingly for me, I did.  I don't recall for sure, but at most I think bought about 1 blaster, and maybe a handful of rack packs. 

 

The only thing that I found interesting in this pack was the arm patch on the Vlady Guerrero card.  I can honestly say I have never seen it before, and to me it looks like the Orioles trying to copy the Ravens logo. 

Hey kids, guess who that is in the center again?  Yep, Starlin Castro was in each of the products I showcased today.  I wonder if that is somebody somewhere trying to tell me something.  The Ricky Romero Chrome in the lower left goes into the Blue Jays collection, as the serial number is not one I needed for the Serial Insanity set.

Anyone ever write a post before coming up with a title?  I just did....

I promise it will get better....at least I hope it will...

Thanks for reading, Robert