2012-13 OPC: I like it so far

Similar to baseball in January, it just feels weird when you hit the store and see the first hockey product of the season 6 weeks before the official start of the year.  No matter, I still didn't have to have my arm twisted to pick up the first rack pack of the season a couple of weeks ago, and then a couple more of them last week.

I like what I see so far.  I know it's going to be the typical O-Pee-Chee set of the last few years, with the cards numbered from 501-600 being the usual rookies/legends that will be a little more difficult to obtain.  That doesn't bother me however, since this is the first hockey release since 2008-09 that I am going to put together.  With no other sets to distract me, I should be more focused on completing this set. 

The base cards are nothing to write home about, the photos are sharp and with a set as large as this, the player selection is pretty deep.  I could do without the yellow circle with the silhouetted player on the lower right, but the rest of the design is fine with me.

I've only managed to pull one of the high numbers so far, a Bill Barber Legends card:

I'm kind of torn about the black and white photo.  Yes, it does convey that the player is a legend from the past, but the Flyers uniform has one of the best color schemes out there, and should (at least in my opinion) always be shown in color. 

The retro cards, which I believe come 1 in a pack (I'm sure someone out there will educate me on this..) remind me of a couple of Heritage/Vintage releases from the early 2000's.  To be honest, if you add the position of the player to these cards, you may have had a better option for the set this year.

Stickers have become quite a regular insert option over the past year, and this set is no different.  With 100 stickers, there is quite a selection, and pulling your favorite player will be no easy task.

To peel, or not to peel, that is the question:

What actually surprised me the most about this product was that it was actually available at my local big box store.  For some reason, Wal-Mart in my hometown for years hasn't bothered to carry any hockey products.  This year, so far, hockey is available.  For me, that's definitely good news, because there's nothing worse than having to go out of your way to buy the cards you want.

Thanks for reading, Robert

The guy's name was just meant for baseball.

Brock Holt.   The name just rolls off the tongue.  The one guy that is helping the Pirate fans forget a disastrous August which saw the club go 13-17 and slowly fall out of the wild card spot that the team had held for several weeks. 

What a helluva story that Brock is.  Holt started the season in AA Altoona, hit .322 in 102 games which earned him an August promotion to AAA Indianapolis.  What does he do there?  In 24 games he goes 41 for 95, a .432 average which earns him a September 1 call up to the bigs.

It's almost as if the script was written for him.  Neil Walker goes down with a back injury, Josh Harrison starts to cool off a bit and Holt gets to start at 2nd base.  So far he's 7 for 16 (.438), has his first 4 hit game as a major leaguer on the 4th, and already has the local Pirates broadcasters hemming and hawing about whether the Pirates may have found their leadoff hitter for next season.

Image borrowed from eBay auction

I already see a 2011 Bowman Chrome Gold refractor on eBay with 10 bids, with the current bid at $40.  The auction has 4 days left. 

This is the kind of guy that Pittsburgh fans love.  Not afraid to get dirty, can run the bases and seems to know the game quite well.  Holt is the first position player taken in the 9th round of the 2009 draft to hit the majors (the other 2 from that round that are in the bigs right now are pitchers).

Oh, and by the way, he didn't get a jersey number in the 60's or 70's like most September call ups usually get.  Holt is wearing #2.  If this audition keeps going the way it has so far, Pirates fans may be watching their 2013 shortstop and leadoff hitter already...

Only time will tell.

Thanks for reading, Robert

It's now official, I am crazy

It only took about 58 weeks, but I've finally been identified as crazy.  It's true, you can look for yourself over here on the Fantastic Catch blog.  Weston identifies his desire to collect all the RCs from 2010 for basketball, baseball, football and soccer (WHAT, no hockey?  oh wait, maybe that's a subtle metaphor for the fact there will be no hockey in a few days..).  Here's a quote from Weston's post...

Now don't be surprised if I widen my rookie cards I need to get to 2009 for more of a challenge, but I haven't done that yet. I'm almost as crazy as $30 a week habit wait not that crazy, but this will be still a challenge, but I think I can do it.

It's good to see that somebody has been paying attention!  Weston's not the only one however.  Mark from This Way to the Clubhouse sent me an email a couple weeks back letting me know that he had 3 more cards for the madness.  

Another nice mix of years and brands.  Always welcome any lot of cards that anyone may have, 1 or 100!
Thank you Mark, the cards are very much appreciated, and I will get an envelope in the mail for you this week (I am so behind on trades it isn't funny).

Oh, and as a little aside to the insanity project, I've been insane for a long time.  My penchant for crazy humor in my senior year of high school caused one of my classmates to write this in my yearbook.

Sanus fines insanus transit.  Loosely translated it means "sanity comes from being insane".  So you see, my insanity is a lifelong trend, not just blog related humor....

thanks for reading, Robert

Contest results

Thank you to all who responded to my question last Friday...there were some great responses to my question. 

I randomized the list 9 times, and here's the randomizer came up with...

Irondequoit and BA Benny were the winners.  I will contact you both by email today to discuss further.

thank you all for reading and participating, Robert

Tiant in the Twin Cities

You may or may not have seen my poor attempt at humor early Sunday morning on what "SP" stands for.  I humorously stated that the post was educational, when of course it really wasn't.  Instead, this post will teach me a little more about the history of one of the more colorful players the game has seen, Luis Tiant.

The education comes from a card I purchased at the National, a '71 Topps, card #95.

It's cards like this that encourage me to look up the career statistics of a player, and I usually end up surprised in the process.  The first surprise is seeing Tiant in a Twins uniform.  I had no idea that Luis ever played in Minnesota.  Turns out that the 1970 season was the only year that Luis was in Minnesota, as he would be released prior to the start of the '71 season by the Twins.  Tiant had a decent '70 season, going 7-3 in 17 starts with a 3.40 ERA.  (Tiant also was a terror at the plate that year, hitting .406 in 32 ABs)

After being released at the end of spring training in '71, Tiant was signed a little over 2 weeks later by the Braves, but never threw a pitch for them in the majors.  Luis was released a month later on the 15th of May, then signed on the 17th of May by the Red Sox.

The '71 season is his worst statistically during his career, which is kind of understandable with Luis being part of 3 organizations over a 6 week period at the start of the season. You've heard a lot recently about how brutal the Boston media can be, and that was evident after his first appearance in Boston when he gave up five runs in only 1 inning.  A Boston Globe reporter wrote that the Red Sox signing Tiant to a contract equated to someone taking a bag full of money and throwing it into the Atlantic Ocean.  Ouch.  Tiant definitely makes up for the poor '71 season by winning 121 games over the next 7 years in a Red Sox uniform, including 3 20+ win seasons.

The final 4 years of a very long career were split between the Yankees (79-80), Pittsburgh (81) and the Angels (82).  Tiant won 229 games over his career, and led the American League in ERA twice and shutouts once.

Oh ya, did I mention he owned what may have been the greatest wind up in the history of the game?  I know that if it was me trying to perform that wind up 60-70 times a game, I sure would have been dizzy.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Random Blue Jay Monday: 2012 Topps Brandon Morrow

The randomizer turned up a 2012 card for the first time, one of Brandon Morrow, who was having a great season before an injury cost him a significant amount of starts.  The left oblique strain cost Morrow two months, and likely a lot of the momentum that the Jays had back in June.  Brandon is still having the finest statistical season of his career to date, even though he's likely going to finish with just 20 starts.

The 8-5 record doesn't tell the whole story.  2.93 ERA, 6.9 Hits per 9 innings, 1.056 WHIP, and 3.04 SO/BB are all career best numbers for him. 

It also makes me wonder if Ricky Romero's struggles are tied to Morrow's injury.  The pressure of being "the guy" may have been too much for Ricky.  When Morrow was first injured in June, Ricky was 7-1 with a 4.15 ERA.  Ricky is now 8-13 with a 5.85 ERA, and leading the American League in both ER allowed and walks. 

Whether that is a coincidence or not, Brandon and Ricky will still form a solid 1-2 punch when 2013 rolls around.  The bad part is that I'm already looking forward to that.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Sakic Sunday: Tied to Michal Pivonka

If there's one thing that blogging has taught me, it's to look closer at the cards I own.  I've read other blogs while they play detective and even deduce the actual date that a photo was taken for a particular card.

Well, I'm not that skilled.  But I did run across a couple of Sakic cards from a pair of '93-'94 releases that share one thing in common.

Both the Stadium Club and the Topps Premier cards from that season feature photos of Joe Sakic battling against Michal Pivonka of the Washington Capitals.  Usually we as collectors see the same photo of a player used over multiple sets, and in some cases multiple years of releases feature the same photo.

That's what made me grab these two cards.  Two cards, featuring Joe Sakic playing against the same player from another team in 2 different photos.  I'm sure there are probably other instances of this out there, but I cannot recall them at this point. 

I've had these cards for almost 20 years, and yet I didn't realize this similarity until I started hunting for cards for this post last night. 

Funny how that is...

Thanks for reading, Robert

A trade that was fun and educational

You have to love it when you get your end of a trade in the mail, rip open the envelope, and find a card inside that you didn't expect.  It's even better when the card actually educates you.

Case in point, my end of a trade recently received from Brian at Play at the Plate.  The card in question is scanned below for your viewing pleasure:

After all these years I've collected cards, I finally am part of the learned society.

The mystery of the initials "SP" has been solved.

Super Prospects!!!  I should have known.   For all these years I thought SP stood for short print.  What was I thinking?? 

To top it off, I received a couple more Blue Jays to add to the collection.  Adam Lind, step up to the plate please...

Adam, you can open your eyes now

Finally, Brian sent me an auto of one of the Jays 1st rd picks from the June '11 draft.  Yes, this card you're going to see also reminded me of something as well...

This card reminded me that I'm old (not ancient old, but working my way up there in years).  Why?  Well, when I see a player I don't recognize, I head to baseball reference dot com to get the 411.

This kid is 19.  Born a day before my 25th birthday.  Ugh.  By the way...Dwight?  You do know that there is generally more than 1 letter in an autograph... (not always, but when you're 19, you don't have the tenure to be this lazy with an auto...)

Fun and educational.  Brian, thank you again for another great trade...I hope you enjoyed your cards!

Thanks for reading, Robert