The last of the final 8 has been determined

It appears that I saved the best match for last in the 1st round.  The voting was tight through the whole week, but thankfully I didn't have to account for any hanging chads or tampered ballot boxes.

With a final tally of 12-10, the set moving on to the final 8 is....

1963 Topps!  This is the one card that I own that probably contains the most star power.  Robinson, Aaron, Musial, Davis and White is a great group of 5, none of them hitting below .323 in 1962.

Now, we re-seed the remaining 8.  I take you back to the original post  and give you the following paragraph for determining the seeds...

After the round of 16 is completed, I am going to re-seed the final 8 sets by the number of votes they received during their particular match.   If there is a tie, it will be broken by the higher percentage of votes (for example, if one set received 24 out of 32 votes, and the other received 24 out of 35 votes, the first set would receive the higher seed).  If there is still a tie, I will put the older set in the highest seed (totally arbitrary and random, I know).

With all that in mind, here are the match ups for the quarter finals:

(1) 1965 vs (8) 1959
(2) 1960 vs (7) 1963
(3) 1974 vs (6) 1969
(4) 1976 vs (5) 1967

Tomorrow will start the next round.  1965 Topps vs 1959 Topps.  A great way to get the ball rolling.

I look forward to reading the comments in this round, because a lot of the pretenders have been weeded out, and the decisions are going to be a little bit tougher this time.  At least I think they will be....

thanks for reading, Robert

Page me, page me not

I still have quite a few cards from the many packages I've received over the past week that I need to go through and catalog/remove from the want list.

For tonight's post, I figured that I would take a few of the cards that Max sent me, and go through a few of the players and see if they were "page worthy". 

How many cards will I show off tonight?  Let's let Paul Molitor answer that...

I have always liked baseball players as part of a playing card set, especially when they are hall of famers such as Mr. Molitor.  

Is this going in a page?  Absolutely.  The card even tells me what position in the page to put it into.  I already have 2 pages worth of cards for Molitor, so this is probably going to bump something back into the box.

I always liked Pat Hentgen, largely because he was a battler on the mound.  This 1993 Leaf card is OK, but I don't think it's going to be part of a Pat Hentgen page.  It will probably end up as part of a team set page instead.

This is one guy that I really want to succeed in a Blue Jays uniform.  So much so that the Jays jersey that I own has his name and number on the back.  I guess there's just something about Canadians playing for the club that really sparks my interest.   This card will definitely be part of a page for Mr. Lawrie.

I remember the name Felipe Crespo, but I couldn't remember a lot about his time with the Jays.  A little refresher with baseball reference reminded me that he was with the Jays for 3 seasons in the late 90's, and only played 2 more seasons after that.  Crespo probably will not get a player page, and this card will probably end up with a couple of other Aficionado cards that I have...if and when I find them.

I could sit here and gush all night about the Topps Gold Label cards and how much I have liked them over the years.  This card, to me, is great.  It will find its way into a Shawn Green page sooner rather than later.

Shiny?  Yes.   Logos?  Nope.  Would absolutely love this card if it had the Jays logo on it.  It'll probably end up on a Panini page rather than a R.A. Dickey page, because to me it'll stick out like a sore thumb on a player page.   I'll put it with its Panini friends, and it'll be happy there.   Trust me.

A page for Dave Stieb?  You better believe it.   Enough cards to fill a page that aren't already in 80's and early 90's team pages that are lying loose? That's a different story.  Stieb is one of those "must have" players that must have a page dedicated to them, but I'm going to have to find some newer releases and out of the norm issues in order to put a page together.   Stay tuned for that one....

There will be a day when I have every Blue Jay card that I own organized, and in a 9 pocket page.

What date that will be, I have no idea.  I don't think that I'll even try to set that date as part of a New Year's goal.  Maybe to start a new decade??

thanks for reading, Robert

Farther than I'd ever thought I would go.

Three years ago today, I started with a two line post that simply thanked Kerry at the Cards on Cards blog for sending cards in a trade.

3 years later, this is now my 1090th post, and a helluva lot farther than I ever thought I would go in this fast paced, card crazy world we all know as the blogosphere.

So to all of you out there who read my little slice of craziness, and especially to those who send me great stuff like this:

Another great card from Wes!!

What I have for you all is 4 words, which probably aren't enough.

thank you very much 

Robert

4 lines of 3

I have plenty of material for posts over the next while.  What with the 21 count of serial numbered cards from Max that I started showing off last night, combined with the myriad of Blue Jays cards that I'm attempting to put into pages and get into binders, there are plenty of posts at my disposal.  Tonight, instead of creating two posts, I decided to find out what happens when you decide to combine two posts into one.

I decided to use Jose Bautista as the Blue Jay player to feature in a page today.

Top line:

 
It's kind of plain, and doesn't feature much of Jose's face, but the 2011 Bowman card on the left has kind of become one of my favorites of Jose, because it features a photo of him wearing #23, instead of the usual #19 that he wears. 

Middle line:

I decided to put 3 inserts in the middle row, using the horizontal Then and Now card as the middle.  Don't ask me why, I just thought it looked good in the center.  Doesn't hurt that Harmon Killebrew is there as well.   This row also made me think a bit; it made me realize that with the newer sets/players, I'll have a much easier time creating player pages with the amount of parallels that are available. 

Bottom line:

Parallel city down here.  The light blue All star jerseys really fit well with the blue bordered Wal Mart parallel.  The more I see cards like the 2011 Topps Chrome in the center, the more I'm glad that the Jays went back to the old style logo and numbering on their jerseys.  The classics really do never die.

Here's what you get when you put them all together.

A pretty good looking page if you ask me.  I still have plenty of cards for player pages to use, so I'll have lots of practice putting these together.

I still have the serial numbered cards to show off:

For tonight's post I pulled together a threesome of 2012 Topps parallels.  Let's make this quick and easy:

• Gerald Laird is serial #'d 740, and is the 31st Tiger out of 50 for the set
• Jose Tabata is serial #'d 863, and is the 35th Pirate towards the 50 needed.
• Fernando Rodney is serial #'d 917, and is the 44th TB Ray card in the set. 

To sum up:

The Bautista page means I have pulled 67 cards from "the box" and put them into pages.  The trio of insanity cards brings the total to 1144, leaving 356 serial numbers still remaining.  That number will decrease with the rest of Max's great contribution still to be posted.

If you haven't voted on the final round of 16 match featuring a great battle between '63 & '72 Topps, click on this link to make your voice heard.  It's a close race, only 2 votes separating these two!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

There has been a lot of interest in the Serial Numbered Insanity project since I started it a couple of years ago.  I've done my best to keep track of what cards have been sent to me by what person.  I counted 62 different bloggers/traders that have supported this project by sending me some great stuff.

For those of you that remember Ted from the retired Crinkly Wrappers blog, he was (and still is) the biggest contributor so far, with 90 cards towards the set. 

Out of those who are currently active in the blogosphere, there are none that have contributed more than Max over at the Starting Nine blog.  I was fortunate enough to open a package today that contained 21 more cards towards the insanity.  Once all 21 have been posted, Max will have contributed 74 cards towards the set (if my math is correct).  Incredible stuff...

These three cards tonight put the set above the 76% mark, leaving only 359 cards to obtain (less the others that Max sent, which will be shown over the next week or so).  

Let's look at the first three...

Serial Number 1284

Interesting to read that the Blue Jays are rumored to be possibly in the running to pick up Ian Kennedy, who is now pitching for the Padres.  Ian had a couple of good seasons with the Diamondbacks in 2011 and 2012, and is throwing some good numbers so far this season, even though his record is only 7-9.  Kennedy is the 33rd D'backs card out of the 50 needed for the set.

Serial Number 1354

Jackson finished 2nd in the ROY voting in 2010, losing out to 40 save man Neftali Feliz of the Rangers.  Kind of weird stat:  8 of his 28 RBI's in 2014 have come via the sacrifice fly; he currently leads the AL in SFs.  I thought that the Tigers might be one of those teams that were finished early in this project, but since this is only the 30th card for them, they might end up as one of the last.

Serial number 200

Serial Number 200 is now off the list courtesy of Brian Stokes.   There are only 5 of the 15 "round numbers" left to go.  Brian's major league career ended after the 2010 season, due to a shoulder injury that actually caused a free agent contract he signed with the Blue Jays to be voided.  Stokes did pitch for a couple of months in the Diamondbacks system in 2011, but struggled at AAA and was released in the off season.  The Angels are now the 2nd team at the 49 out of 50 mark, joining the Mets on the precipice of completion (man that sounds hoity toity, don't you think?).

Max, as always, thank you!  The whole envelope is great and truly appreciated.

thanks for reading, Robert

It really is a GREAT problem to have

I had it all planned out.  Start thinning the three row shoe box piece by piece.   Putting together pages of Blue Jays with common themes, and show them off to the blogosphere.

The dry July would just fly by quickly, and the piles of cards would slowly get worked through.  Marked off the want list.  Entered into the Blue Jays spreadsheet.

It actually started off quite well.  I managed a to show off a couple of pages in between the Friday/Saturday tournament posts, and I thought I was starting to get a handle on things.

In the vernacular of today's acronym laced generation, I just LOLOLOLOL now.  Great men of the blogosphere, named Brian, Matt, Tom and Wes have added 4 packages of Blue Jays goodness (of varying amounts, I might add) to the pile, and brought a screeching halt to any progress I made over the past couple of weeks.

While perusing the great package I received today from blogger extraordinaire Wes from the Jaybarkerfan's Junk blog, I noticed the following.

Serial numbered parallel.  Jersey card.  Bat card.  Auto.  Auto.  Jersey card.  2 more serial numbered parallels.  Gold.  Green.  Silver.  Holy shit!!

I showed my better half of the cards, and explained that I wasn't even expecting this envelope today.  What does she do?  Naturally, she provides an epiphany.

"You really aren't paying for these cards, right?"  This statement made me think (she's good at that).  I've now entered over 4400 cards onto my Blue Jays spreadsheet, passing that mark largely because of the envelope that Tom sent me ( I owe you still Tom, I need to augment what I already have for you...), and thought to myself that I probably have received all but 10% of those cards from everyone out in the blogosphere. 

That's almost unbelievable.   But it is a GREAT problem to have. 

These two pages of 1991 and 1992 Upper Deck that I was able to pull out of the box only manage to put a meager dent into the "problem".

The '92 page is more interesting for me.  It made me remember that Jack Morris was a 21 game winner that year.  It made me laugh that Cory Snyder got a Blue Jays card even though he only had 49 ABs with the club, hitting a paltry .143.  Dave Parker had fewer ABs than Snyder (36) as a Jay, but also managed his final "sunset" card in 1992.  1992 was also the final season of Pat Tabler's career, but at least he managed to get a ring out of the deal.

15 out of the 18 cards here came out of the box (the other 3 were in a pile on the desk), bringing the total to 58 cards out of the box.  The problem is that I now have about 300 more that need cataloged, sorted, and put into the box for "posting".

Yes indeed, a GREAT problem to have.  Stay tuned...

thanks for reading, Robert

What's next? :Round of 16: (1) 1963 Topps vs (16) 1972 Topps

The end of the round of 16 is finally upon us.  This is the last match, featuring two pretty solid sets.  The two priciest rookie cards out of 1972 are both multi player cards, but feature some pretty good players who had long careers in MLB.  Today was the first time I had to look over the '63 set, and there are some pretty scary cards in there $$ wise, which has the cheap ass in me worried a bit.


Tale of the tape:

1.  Set Size:  1963 has 576 cards.  1972 has 787 cards
2.  Key RCs:  1963  Pete Rose, Willie Stargell  1972 Fisk/Cooper, Oglivie/Cey
3.  Cost of complete set in NM condition:  1963  $6000      1961  $7000
4.  Number of cards with high book at $100 or more: 1963: 11 (Rose RC = 1K)   1972: 1 

Blogs:  1963 Topps vs   1972 Topps

Jim from Downingtown appears once again on the blog stats; his 1963 Topps blog is actually a collaborative effort with the Troll and Commishbob both being listed as contributors.  The 1972 Topps blog is unfortunately dormant; the last post there was 4.5 years ago, and stopped at card #135.  [EDIT:  thanks to Jim for the update on the '72 blog, the link has been updated to reflect the '72 Topps countdown blog]

thanks for reading, Robert