By the page: Carlos Delgado

I have wondered a few times how Carlos Delgado's career would have turned out if he had stayed a catcher instead of the move to his permanent position at first base.  I'm sure that many Blue Jays fans are happy with the way things turned out for Delgado.  Not having the every day grind of being behind the dish allowed Delgado's bat to shine, and a great career ensued with the Jays, Marlins and Mets.

Delgado is one of the players who seems to have dozens of cards in my Jays monster box, so I decided to dig 9 of them out for your viewing pleasure.

Top row:  Bat over shoulder

Love the look of the early career Top Prospect card from Upper Deck in the center.  Can't say that I ever remember Carlos being that thin.  I also managed to find a couple of cards that feature the rare red hat.

Middle row:  Fielding 

I thought these were three great shots of Delgado showing off his glove at first base.  I put the horizontal card in the center not only because it's horizontal, but it's a great photo of him reaching for a grounder.  Ultra and Stadium club usually feature some great photos, and these 3 are no different.

Bottom row:  Hitting

Some more great photos here, especially the outer cards that both feature the baseball in the shot.  I almost put this row in the center, but I thought that the fielding cards looked much better. 

I think this might be one of the best pages that I've put together.  I really like the look of the photos, and the sets that are featured on the page are some of the best that have been produced over the years.

Thanks for reading, Robert

A gentle push

Last night I went through some of the cards that Kerry from the Cards on Cards blog sent me as part of our trade.  Since I did the 5-4-3-2-1 countdown, these 12 cards didn't make it to the post.  But they're certainly post worthy...

The Price and Revere cards up top will be the only flagship cards featuring them in Blue Jays uniforms.  I hoped that the Jays might pull off a minor miracle and sign Price, but reality struck because I knew that the lefty would command top dollar, which the Jays weren't willing to pay with an already bloated payroll.  The Ryan Tepera card just proved that I didn't watch enough Jays baseball during the season, as I don't remember him at all.

The hitters in this scan are big pieces of next year's Jays team, while the pitchers will not be part of the Jays squad in 2016.   LaTroy Hawkins has retired, while Lowe has signed a free agent deal with the Tigers. 

Love the horizontal cards that came in the envelope.   Great action shot of Ezequiel Cabrera making a diving catch.  The old time rookie cards featuring players from multiple teams was always cool, and the Garcia/Copeland card is no exception for me.  The Heart of the Order card reminds me of the combo cards from '59 Topps such as this one...

Yes, the 2015 card is a little more action oriented, but you get the idea.  Anyhow, what was great about getting the '15 Update cards is the simple fact that I didn't have Jays from the set.   I hadn't even bought a pack. 

But now with these cards in hand, I made the effort to update the 2015 Topps Blue Jays want list to include both series 2 and the remaining cards I need to finish off update.   The sparkle and sabermetric variations included (ugh).  Gentle push needed, and received.

Thanks for reading, Robert

It's not always about the latest and greatest

I get it.  Over the years you've looked at all kinds of cards on the blogs; just about seen everything there is to see.  So when somebody writes a post featuring cards from the newest or prettiest looking set to come out, people flock to it.

I'm a little different.   I like posting about older cards, especially when the Blue Jays are the focus.  This post will reflect that statement, as I received today a very thick bubble mailer form Kerry at the Cards on Cards blog.  I had offered up a stack of 2015 A&G to Kerry to help with his want list, and he quickly accepted, letting me know that he would gather together an envelope filled with Blue Jays goodness for me over time.

With about 70 cards hitting various want lists, I decided to do an old fashioned (well for me anyway) 5-4-3-2-1 post.

5 2004 SP Prospects

Raise your hand Jays fans if you heard of any of these guys.   OK put your hand down now, 'cause you're lying.   Great looking cards, but like many prospect sets, it featured a bunch of guys (at least these 5) that were longshots to make it at best.

4 O-Pee-Chee World Series Champions cards

Now I know you've heard of these 4 guys.  I almost made the mistake of identifying these as 4 1993 cards, until I looked again and saw that the Jimmy Key card features the 1992 WS logo.

3 Upper Deck Goudey cards

I know what you're saying, why are you showing Vernon Wells doubles?  One of them is the red back, one is the regular.  Needed them all...

2 from 2003 Upper Deck Game Face

Scanned side by side, the cards look pretty good together.  This may be the 2nd time I've featured cards from this set on the blog, but I do like this set.  It's a different idea featuring head shots, something that I don't think lasted as a concept.


1 Gypsy Queen Jose Bautista variation

I had to dig a little to make sure that this was actually the final card I needed for the 2012 Gypsy Queen Blue Jays team set.  Sure enough, this is the Jose Bautista hitting variation card that I've needed for quite a while.  Love this card, it's a great shot of Bautista with that leg kick, shades on, getting ready to mash another pitch into the stands.

To be honest, I really could have gone on and on about the great envelope that Kerry sent.  There are a few other cards in the envelope that are going to get their own post.  There were even some Thome and Lawrie cards that need to be reviewed to see if they can be removed from their respective checklists.

Kerry, thank you for the cards, they are greatly appreciated!!

thanks for reading, Robert

Filling these pages is especially gratifying

After writing last nights post, I promptly put the 3 cards from the '64 Topps set that I showed into the appropriate binder.  While doing that, it dawned on me:  "these pages look so much better filled with cards".

Yes, that statement seems kind of redundant because any 9 pocket page looks a helluva lot better with cards than empty.  Let me explain my thought process here.  I started this set quite a long time ago, and put the cards into binder pages at least a couple of years back.  I remember vividly that the lower # pages had quite a few cards, while the higher number pages had a lot empty spaces because there was only 1 or 2 cards in them.

One of the 3 cards that went into pages on Saturday night completed one of the aforementioned high # pages, with cards 460-468 being highlighted here...

The first thing that jumps out?  Why the two Hall of Fame pitchers in the corners.  Maybe one day I'll take a look and see if any of the other pages have a couple of legends such as Gibson and Perry on them.   There's a couple of cards that could use upgrades (Thomas, Leppert), but for a semi high number page I'm quite happy with how it looks. 

I'm really looking forward to showing off all the pages once the set is completed, but with as many pricey cards as I still have to purchase, that's still a little ways down the road.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Quanity plus a bit of quality with last week's budget

I spent just over $32 last week on my collection, which netted me a grand total of 53 cards. 

First, my quest to finish the '64 Topps set came a trio of cards closer to completion with these three high number cards...

The cards ate exactly half of the $32 I spent, but they are in pretty good shape.   They also bring the want list down to 45 cards, still a little bit better than 1 per week until the end of the year.  This week's purchase on eBay will knock that number down even further.

The other two purchases were 25 card lots of Jim Thome and Joe Sakic from the Sportlots site.  I haven't received the Thome cards as of yet, but the Sakic cards arrived on Thursday.  I was quite impressed with how the cards were packed by the seller (ID: criswest in case you were wondering).  You never know what you'll get from some sellers, but in this case, I was so impressed that I resolved to not only use him again, but to give him a mention on the blog.

I decided to show off just 3 of the cards that I picked up for Sakic because I've decided to start showing off the cards from my Sakic, Thome and Lawrie PCs one at a time on another blog (yeah I know).

The funniest thing in the envelope was something I hadn't seen in over 20 years.  Some sellers use old common cards as packing, but criswest used these as filler.

Fellow hockey card collectors who bought any of the initial 90-91 Pro Set packs will remember these.  10c discount cards for NHL licensed merchandise.  I threw a lot of these away over the years, but seeing them again actually gave me quite a chuckle.   Definitely a smart idea from an experienced seller.

Even after 4+ years of the blog, I'm still trying to be budget conscious.  Being 1 or 2 bucks over one week just means that I'll try to stay that much below the next week.  What I was most happy about for last week's purchases is that I didn't blow the whole budget on just one piece of the collection.   Gaining cards for both the 64 Topps set and my PCs keeps everything fresh.  This is something that I'd like to continue going forward.

We'll see how that goes...

Thanks for reading, Robert