Another landslide, and that's no Bull

A pattern seems to be developing.  For the 3rd straight week, by a margin of 16-4, we have a landslide winner.

Yep, '74 Topps put a hammering on the '61 set. I guess I'm not surprised by the outcome, but I thought that '61 might garner more than a couple of sympathy votes.   I love the old style Phillies uniform with the stylized "P", featured here on card #360 of Greg Luzinski. 

Speaking of sympathy votes, don't be afraid to vote with your heart during this tournament.   I'm prepared to live (or die trying) by the verdict handed down by the masses.  I have enjoyed putting together the '64 set, and have been buoyed by the availability of bargains for some of the pricier cards (Mantle, Rose).  It'll be a challenge to put together whatever you send me off to build. 

The final match of round 1 starts tomorrow, and probably will be the best contest in the first round, as 63 Topps faces off against 72 Topps.  If this one ends in a blow out, I will be shocked.

Thanks for reading, and voting, Robert

Good things come in 3's

I walk up the pathway to my house, and I see the mailbox overflowing.  "You hit the jackpot today" my wife tells me.

Did I ever.

Not only did I come home to start the first of 3 consecutive 3-day weekends, there were 3 packages in the mailbox for me.  Let me rephrase that, there were 2 bubble mailers, and a box that couldn't fit in the mailbox.  The wife didn't even touch them.  I honestly like to think she waits on the porch just to see the look on my face when I see them.  You know....bug eyes....

Inside the box, which came my way courtesy of Brian from Play at the Plate, were 3 (there it is again) cards for the SNI set.  Brian is one of the top contributors to the madness; with these 3 cards there are now 45 listings on the spreadsheet with PATP beside them.

Let's not wait any longer, here are 3 more serial numbered cards for your perusal.

A much needed Astro!!  J. D. Martinez is the 29th Houston Astros card that has come my way.  Even better, his serial number is 99, which knocks the two-digit serial numbers remaining to a paltry two (35 & 41).  I have a question, how did the Astros let go of this guy?  He signs with Detroit two days after getting released by the Astros near the end of spring training, and all he does so far in Tiger land is hit 13 HR and .346 in 55 games.  Not too shabby...

To be honest, I had never heard of this guy until I got the card.  80 ABs over 3 seasons with San Diego and the White Sox is probably why.  So far in 2014, he's spent the entire season with the White Sox AAA club in Charlotte.  Blake's card is serial numbered 420, and I now have 44 out of the 50 Padres cards I need for the set.

Eric Hosmer seems to struggle during even numbered years so far during his 4 year career.  2012 was not kind to him, only hitting .232/14/60.  So far in 2014, it's .268/6/42.  The Royals are only 2.5 games out of the wild card going into the 2nd half, and I'm sure that they're hoping that Hosmer can pick up the pace for them.  This card is serial #'d 1184, and it is the 33rd card for the Royals in the set.

By the way Brian, as a little aside, I showed my wife the box that you sent and told her it was filled with Blue Jays.   The first thing out of her mouth?  "Send it back, he needs to sort it first before sending".

Why didn't I think of that???

thanks for reading, Robert

By the page: Carlos Delgado

Carlos Delgado is one of a handful of players that I'll likely show off multiple pages of cards for.  The last time I looked, there were almost 200 cards of him in my Blue Jay collection, so it will probably be pretty easy to come up with several pages to display.

For the first page that I'm going to show off on this post, I wanted to put together a page of cards that featured sets that weren't as common.  I also wanted to find a couple of photos (where is that squirt gun card?) that featured good photography.

First, I'll show off my favorite trio...

One can only imagine what path Carlos' career might have taken had he remained a catcher.  Thankfully, we only had to witness 5 innings worth over 2 games during his career.  The 2000 Topps Gallery card in the center is a hilarious photo, almost appearing as if Carlos is scared of his bat.  The 2003 Upper Deck card on the right is a great photo of bat meeting ball, which for Carlos translated into 1413 base hits during his 12 seasons (3 partials) in Toronto.

Let's look at the full page:

I even snuck in a parallel card, for old times sake.   I was always a fan of the silver signature cards from MVP (don't ask me why, I can't describe it), and the '99 set is a favorite of mine. 

There's 9 more cards out of the box, bringing the total up to 43.  There's plenty more where that came from.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Bowing in homage to the Colossus

There was a time, not too long ago, that I read a tale about something so gigantic, so tremendous, it was given a name.  The behemoth's name you ask?  Well, it could only be given one name, due to its impressive stature.

It was known as Colossus.  Much like Michelangelo, it only required one name to identify it.  That one name made it instantly recognizable to the masses.

Now, I haven't read the entire tale of the Colossus, but from what I understand it is massive and all encompassing.  Many different pieces and parts just took over from what I've read, and my good buddy Tom had to use up all of his strength just to keep the behemoth in check.

Thankfully, at my doorstep today arrived a small portion of the mythical beast, in the form of 2 serial numbered cards that just happen to aid in the SNI quest.  How Tom was able to separate a pair of Cubs from this creature and send them my way, I'll never know, but none the less I am very appreciative.

Let's look, shall we?

On the left, Evan Crawford is featured in his 2011 Bowman Chrome refractor, serial numbered 700/799.   When I looked up Evan Crawford on baseball reference, I found a pitcher that was drafted by the Blue Jays in 2008.  Interesting... I wound up doing a Google search on him, only to find another baseball reference entry showing that Mr. Crawford has spent the past couple of years in the Frontier League. 

I got a kick out of looking at Carlos Zambrano's offensive statistics during his 12 year MLB career.  Did you know that 6 of his 11 base hits in 2006 were HR's?  In 2008, he hit .337(!) with 4 HR's.  He also pitched fairly well during a 6 season run, winning between 13 and 18 games in every season between 2003 and 2008. 

These 2 Cubs bring the team total to 42, and the set total to 1135 out of 1500.  A card a day for the next year would finish the set. 

All hail Colossus.  Thank you for the PWE Tom, much appreciated.  Best of luck slaying the beast!!

thanks for reading, Robert

By the page: 1992 Fleer

This mission I'm on to start getting my Jays collection into pages is actually becoming quite beneficial.  Going through the cards is giving me ideas on how I would actually like to store them.  It's also providing ideas for posts as well.

Don't hate me because you may experience Blue Jays overload here on the blog.  You may or may not remember that the Jays have been a large focus of my posts over the 3 years that I've stumbled around trying to collect cards that fit into my "taste".

Yesterday's post featured a set from the overproduction era.  So does today's post.  I promise that this series will not be all about cards from the late 80's/early 90's.

I also am going to get a player page binder started as well.   I'm going to try and feature as many Blue Jays as I can fill a page for.  Some of the more "important" players are going to have multiple pages (as you can imagine), and will have several posts as well.

The end goal here is to empty the box.  9 cards (or more) at a time.  The fun part is going to be to try and keep the box emptied, because everyone out there is sending me Jays to add to the collection.

OK, enough of that...let's start emptying.  Here's 23 cards from 1992 for your viewing pleasure:

I found 23 of the 25 cards for the '92 Fleer set all in one area of the box, so in the pages they go.

That brings the total cards out of the box to 32 in 2 days.   Best I've done in a while, but now that I've got a goal and a method to get the cards out of the box (posting), maybe I'll make some headway.  [EDIT:  I found the other 2 cards wandering loose in the box, so the total is up to 34 cards]

thanks for reading, Robert

Putting some pages together

One page, one post.  I see it all the time out there.  Easy, simple, and for me, putting together some pages for my Blue Jays binders will actually start emptying my 3 row shoe box that is full of Jays cards. 

Between getting these posts together, and taking the time to get the trade list back on the blog, I'm hoping that I'll start to see the clutter that is on my desk start to drop down some.  So, without further delay, let's get the process started.

This page is going to be really easy to put together, 9 cards of '91 Score.   Yes, not the most exciting set to look at, but at least it's 9 cards out of the box.

Top Row:  Todd Stottlemyre, Dave Stieb, Wilie Blair

If I told you that one of the two starters won 15 games in 1991, I'm sure that many of you would jump on Stieb right away.  Dave Stieb unfortunately would only start 9 games for Toronto that year, while Todd Stottlemyre was one of 3 15 game winners in the rotation (Key and Wells were the others).   Willie Blair had a Jays card even though he had been traded to the Indians in the off season for Alex Sanchez.

Middle Row:  Jim Acker, Jimmy Key, Tom Henke

 
Key was already mentioned above, Acker had a tough year in the pen for the Jays, posting a 5.20 ERA in 54 outings.  Tom Henke was established as the Jays closer, and in '91 he saved 32 games while posting a 2.32 ERA and a WHIP less than 0.9.

Bottom row:  Mookie Wilson, Rance Mulliniks, Rob Ducey

Wilson and Ducey were two of 9 outfielders that the Jays used during the 1991 season.  Rance Mulliniks' career would be at its sunset in 1991.  Rance would DH in 81 out of the 86 games that he appeared in, hitting .250 with 24 RBI's. 

That's 9 less in the box.  Only a couple of hundred pages to go...

thanks for reading, Robert

What's Next? Round of 16: (2) 1974 Topps vs (15) 1961 Topps

I have far more '74 Topps cards to choose from, so finding a card that was interesting and worthy of scanning was easier than the '61 set.  Also, I'm not really sure what I was expecting out of the '74 set, but I was kind of surprised when compiling the tale of the tape that it was as inexpensive as it is. 


Tale of the tape:

1.  Set Size:  1974 has 660 cards.  1961 has 587 cards
2.  Key RCs:  1974  Dave Winfield, Ken Griffey Sr.  1961 Ron Santo, Juan Marichal
3.  Cost of complete set in NM condition:  1974  $400      1961  $7000
4.  Number of cards with high book at $100 or more: 1974: 0   1961: 17 

Blogs:  1974 Topps  vs   1961 Topps

I still haven't been able to find a blog dedicated to the 1961 Topps set, so this time I decided to link a recent post of the Night Owl to use as a reference.    The 1974 blog appears to have had its last entry written a couple of weeks back, so I'll have to take the time to read some of that now that it's finished.

I do have to say thanks to those who are voting regularly; it has been very interesting to see the comments on how collectors feel about these older sets.  Sometimes it has only been one line, other times it has been a paragraph.  But the comments have shown me how these sets have hit home with some people (positively and negatively), and that has made this tournament very enjoyable for me.

Spread the word if you can, it would be greatly appreciated.

thanks for reading, Robert