Insanity to the Max

I am spoiled, there's no denying it.  I'm on the 37th week of writing for the blog, and each week seems to bring more surprises my way.  When my wife sees those brown envelopes in the mailbox, she revels in calling me the "big fat brat". 

Every package has been filled with cardboard goodness, whether it be 1 card, or in some cases, hundreds of cards.  Each of them from a variety of sources, but mostly from bloggers, or blog readers such as yourself.

But when you have other people hunting for cards for you, well that's a feeling that you just can't describe.  The stories contained in some of the envelopes are just as good, if not better than the cards themselves.

Case in point.  Max from the Starting Nine blog sent me an envelope last week, naturally filled with Blue Jays goodness.  OK OK, I'll only show you a handful...just because

Top center:  2003 Topps Jays team card.  No matter what anyone else says, I love that Jays logo...

Bottom left:  Dustin McGowan from Topps '52 set released in 2006.  Still love these cards, might be a set to collect down the road sometime.

Bottom center:  Jesse Barfield '88 OPC.  Always great to get another OPC card in the collection, and every time I see Jesse I am reminded of the time he gunned out a runner at 3rd base with a strike from the right field corner in the old Exhibition Stadium.  The throw was on a rope, no bounce...still the most amazing throw I've ever seen.

Bottom right:  Lee Gronkiewicz '07 Topps.  No other reason than I like saying Gronkiewicz.


I don't know if you are aware of this or not, but Max has an affinity for the dime boxes.  That's where he seems to find the best stuff for me.  This time was no exception.  Oh, by the way did I mention that sent me an email after I received the first package from him that he had forgotten the serial #'d cards, and sent them right away in a 2nd bubble mailer?  Now that's dedication...

There were 7 cards in the envelope, I'm going to show you 3...

First, one of the best nicknames in baseball today....the "Hammer"  Joel Hanrahan

I found it hard to believe that this guy was a starter in his first year in the bigs.  Joel has such a closers mentality, and the heat to back it up.  I hope for the Pirates sake they lock him up for a while, because the fans love him in Pittsburgh.

Next, Castro's biggest fan!!

MLB may not like what he said about Castro, but you know what, I defend his right to say what he said.  Ozzie is a helluva spokesman, and one of the most colorful personalities the game has right now.  I think he and Miami are a great fit together, and here's hoping that he has long term success down there.

Finally, this next card was found in a dime box...which makes me both happy and sad.

Yep, that's a 1980 Topps RC, Dave Stieb sans mustache.  Yes, off center, but I don't care, otherwise the card is in great shape and finds a welcome home here.

If you're not reading Max's blog yet, you need to start.  For a guy that was worried he wouldn't have enough to say when he was starting out, he's got a helluva read going so far, and a unique concept to boot.

Max, thank you very much for the cards, as always they are greatly appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Don't let me buy from Sportlots...please!

How did blog reader Bruce ( I don't think he has a blog) save me from myself you ask?  Bruce made me an offer I couldn't refuse after reading my week 34 opening post about '12 Heritage being trade bait.  Bruce even did all the work, had all the cards going each way hammered out on both sides, all I had to do is reply with my address and a "works for me" email, and another trade is born.

Bruce has read enough to know that Jays are welcome, especially those of the parallel/numbered variety

Bruce was also able to knock off a couple of the SPs I need for '11 Heritage, I think I'm down below 50 that I need now...

Finally, in return for all the Heritage base I will be sending him (Bruce, your package goes out Saturday for sure, thank you for your patience), he sent me a majority of my wants for the 2008 UD Series I set. 

There were also 2 cards out of this lot that stood right out....first the good, Johnny Gomes

Fly, be free!!

Now, a card that my wife described by saying "I guess they didn't need the lights on at the stadium when he pitched that night huh?"

They call me mellow yellow

OK...onto how you can save me from Sportlots....

I'm very close to completing not one, not two, but 3 sets...2011 Topps Chrome, 2008 UD Series I and 2002 UD Series II.  Here's what I need for each set:

2011 Topps Chrome, 2 cards:  20 & 170
2008 Upper Deck series I, 8 cards:  87,100,136,138,225,257,291,349
2002 Upper Deck series II, 9 cards:  502,506,521,528,531,533,586,618,721

 Any help on these would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Stuck for a post...Random Blue Jays card it is

Stuck isn't the word.  Nothing came to mind when sorting through current sets, a total blank.

So what do I do?  I go to old reliable, a Blue Jays post.  2 out of 3 on the weekend against the Tribe is a good start to the season, but of course the only game I was able to watch out of the series was the game they lost on Sunday (I wonder if that's an omen). 

I have a 3 row box of cards, 2 of the 3 rows containing Blue Jays cards.  Being the fool that I am, I figure I'll leave it in the fates of someone else to prod me along.  I call to my wife, "pick a number between 1 & 250".  After laughing at me for a moment, she comes up with the number.....139.

So I go through the first row to the 139th card in the stack.

Yeah, I know.  Figures doesn't it?  I don't get a random player card, or an oddball set from some year that I hardly collected.

2007 Topps # 591  Jays Team Card.  Yikes. 

OK, well the picture is of the 2006 team, so let's take a look at the team then. 

They didn't fare too badly, 87-75, 2nd place 10 games behind the Yankees.  This team definitely could hit the ball.  Out of the 10 players who had the most plate appearances, only 2 of those hit below .280.  One of those was Troy Glaus, who had 38 HR, 104 RBI and led the team in runs with 105.  The club as a whole hit 199 HRs, a solid number for the dome, but couldn't run worth a lick.  65 stolen bases shows that the team was made more for the long ball rather than taking extra bases and playing small ball.

The pitching, well that was a different story.  There were only 2 starters that took their turn every 5th day.  Roy Halladay has his normal 16 win season, 3.19 ERA, 1.100 WHIP.  Ted Lilly manages to win 15 games even with a mid 4 ERA and 1.431 WHIP.  After that, the rotation is full of part timers that must have had John Gibbons pulling his hair out.  The only other 10 game winner was A.J. Burnett, and every other starter who started at least ten times had an ERA over 5 (Josh Towers' ERA was 8.42). 

BJ Ryan and Justin Speier both had excellent campaigns in the pen.  Brandon League also had a decent season, alas he is now the closer in Seattle.  Other than that, there was a whole lot of ordinary.  Jeremy Accardo's ERA was near 6, Dustin McGowan's ERA was over 7.  Scott Scheoneweis was trotted out there 55 times and had an ERA of 6.51. 

Here's a stat to illustrate the season in a nutshell.  The Jays had 53 games that were blowouts (decided by 5 or more runs), and they were 29-24 in those games.  That's crazy.   They scored 10 or more runs 13 times, the most being 13 runs which they accomplished 5 times.  They gave up 10 or more runs 9 times, including a 17 run and a 15 run game.  Chances are if you were playing the Jays in '06, you were in for a lot of scoring.  
Their longest winning streak of the season was 5 games...June 27 through July 1. 
Their longest losing streak of the season was 7 games...July 29 through August 5

They were in 4th for one day during the season, every other day they were in 3rd place or better in the division.  Maybe the turning point of the season? 4.5 games out on July 23rd, they went on a 9 game road trip and went 2-7, including being swept by the Yankees at the end of the trip.  The Jays scored a total of 4 runs in the 3 games in Yankee stadium, and were 8.5 GB when it was said and done. 

OK...next time we get a player card...

thanks for reading, Robert

The Joy of a completed set: 2009 OPC baseball

Yes indeed, the set that was started because of a commercial from the 70's inspiring me to figure out how many packs it took to complete a set.  2009 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee is in the books.

In the end, I cracked 2 hobby boxes, 7 blaster boxes, and 8 loose packs for a total of 185 packs before I decided that I had way too many duplicates, and would just complete the remainder via trades or purchasing singles.

The last 14 cards came in this week via a Sportlots purchase, and finally this set is put to bed.

Pictured above are the final 14, and outside of Jeter none of them cost me a kings ransom.  I've now completed 14 sets since I started the blog last August, and the train should keep rolling over the next couple of weeks here as I am very close to completing 2 other sets.

For those who followed, thanks for following along.  Who knows, maybe I'll be able to find another larger set like this someday to try and see how many packs it takes to complete. 

Thanks for reading, Robert

2012 Trade post # 27: 2 x 3 Heroes

It's been a while since I put up a trade post, but I felt this was kind of worth one, because what Jeff from 2 x 3 Heroes sent me was some cards from a set that I hadn't even looked at in a long time, let alone tried to pick any cards up from it.

Way waaaaaayyyyy back in 95-96, Collectors choice pumped out a decent hockey product, again on the cheap (you've probably noticed the cheap word being thrown around a lot on here lately).  The cards featured Upper Deck's standard for great photography, and also featured a parallel set that I started when the set came out, which was 17 years ago.

The Players Club parallel was the set in particular that I decided to chase oh so many years ago, and Jeff sent me an email stating he had a few of them off of my wantlist. 

The only difference between these cards and the base were the stamped "Players Club" in foil, and the cards that did have borders were gray on the parallel version.  Nothing special about the parallel, but it was something for me to chase back then.  Well, and now of course.  As you can see from the scan, some of the cards that I still needed were of some big names, and maybe one day I'll get back into working on this set.

In addition, as everyone who stops by this blog knows, I'm a big Blue Jays fan, and Jeff also included some Jays cards to add to the collection as well.

Also, in case you haven't noticed, not only is it Easter Sunday today, but it is also crooked scan Sunday here on my blog as well.

Jeff, thank you again for the cards, they are much appreciated.  There is a mailer on the way to you now with hopefully some cards you'll enjoy.

Thanks for reading, Robert

I picked up some '12 Topps stickers on a lark

When I picked up the '11 Topps Chrome pack today in K Mart, I saw some stickers from this years Topps set, along with the album. 

To be honest, I want to say the last time I even attempted to complete a sticker album was in the late 70's when Panini released stickers/albums for international hockey.  It took a little bit of digging, but I found an eBay auction to demonstrate. 

So today, I figured what the hell, so I grabbed an album and 4 packs of stickers, all of which were 20% off (even better!). 

Here is the album, which has 33 pages on which to stick 309 stickers, which I found to be an interesting number. 

Now, on to the stickers:

Interesting mix of current players, past stars (I pulled Ruth and Musial out of my 4 packs), and mascots. 

My question to you is:  Do you collect stickers as part of your team collection, or do you stick strictly to cards? 

Between this and the Opening Day packs I picked up, these are certainly two ways to add to your collection on the cheap, and a good way as well for kids to have some fun, and learn a bit about the greats of the game as well. 

Thanks for reading, Robert

Week 37 begins with a trip to the LCS

I love Saturdays.  It's that simple.  Saturday is the one day of the week where I really do get to do what I want to do.  That of course includes a trip to the LCS.  Aside from some supplies that I needed, I also picked up a few packs of fun.

First was three packs of Heritage.  I hadn't bought any hobby packs as of yet, and of course there really isn't much difference between the hobby and retail packs that you can pick up anywhere.

I did catch one SP (485, Mike Napoli), and I now have a couple of stickers to trade:

These are cool to look at, but I will not be collecting them, so if you're interested at all, just let me know.

I also bought some Opening Day as well, which is a purchase that I have never made before.  I found a couple of different inserts in the 1/2 dozen packs that I bought that I hadn't seen on blogs before...

Lind=X-fractor

I don't recall seeing the Fantasy Squad inserts before, but they are good looking cards.  The borders blend in with the background of the card, which is kind of cool.  The blue bordered Victorino is a numbered parallel, alas the number is too high for me to use for my insanity set, so it goes into the trade pile for a Phillies fan out there.  The Jered Weaver card in the top center is reminiscent of the Topps 2020 insert set from a couple of years back.  The card has that same kind of feel and look, and if there's an Angels collector that is interested, again let me know.

The only two cards from the scan that I will be keeping are the Jays cards (of course), anything else is available.

I also stopped a K-Mart and picked up a 3 pack of '11 Chrome, hoping to get lucky and pull either of the final 2 cards I need to complete the set (#'s are 20 & 170 in case you're wondering).  No luck there, but I did land some other decent cards.

The purple Matt Garza does fit into the insanity collection, so that's one more number I can strike off of the list.  The 3 orange bordered refractors are up for grabs, just let me know about those as well. 

I also have plenty of '12 Heritage base for trade, if you're looking for any specific numbers, or if you are interested in any of the cards I've mentioned above, send an email to rmitchell6700 AT yahoo dot com

Guess you could call this a trade post, without the trades....yet

Thanks for reading, Robert