Not bad looking for 50 years old

You may remember last Saturday's post that covered the recent pickup of a couple of high numbers for the '64T set I'm building.  Down towards the bottom of the post I mentioned that I was bidding on a Hank Aaron card.

Well, here it is...

Beautiful!!  Slightly off center, but for $35 the card is in fantastic shape.  Corners are nice, there are no pen marks and the back is clean.

I spent 5 bucks more than the weekly "budget", but I would say that it was worth it. 

Clemente is on deck....

thanks for reading, Robert

Another completed page for the SNI set

Finally decided to put away the half dozen cards I had sitting on my desk for the SNI set.   Lo and behold, another page is put to bed!

For your viewing pleasure, here is page #103, serial numbers 919-927

 

8 out of the 9 cards are the responsibility of fellow bloggers, including the Xavier Nady card which came my way from Ted at the retired Crinkly Wrappers blog. 

I'm hoping to put another little dent into the set in a couple of weeks when I hit the big 3 day Pittsburgh show at Robert Morris University.   Fingers crossed...

thanks for reading, Robert

Overload

I might have overdone it a little bit.  The Sportlots purchase I made the weekend before last contained 100 cards, a lot of them featuring Jim Thome.  I showed quite a few of them in a couple of previous posts, and have even more for you tonight.

How about a few Leaf/Donruss examples to start?

 

Interesting that all 7 examples from this brand all feature Thome in some variation of a hitting pose.  Yea, I counted him adjusting his batting glove as a "hitting pose". 

Topps/Bowman was able to sneak in a fielding pose on the 2002 Bowman card, and the Hit Parade features something that Thome wasn't well known for, base running.  19 steals in 22 big league seasons will attest to that. 

These next 4 cards are probably my favorite of the entire lot...Heritage

The eyes are a little spooky on the 2002 card, reminiscent of some of the '52 Topps cards.  My favorite is the reproduction of the '57 Topps card with Thome kneeling and using the bat as a prop.  It's hard not to like any of the Heritage cards, maybe that's telling me something...

This group of 17 will put me over the 150 mark for the Thome collection (once I catalog them, hopefully tomorrow).  I still have a little more than a dozen left to show off.  This big purchase is something that I'm glad I did; it was a good way to knock off a lot of base cards quickly and cheaply.

I'll probably do this once more before year's end, without the severe overload.

Thanks for reading, Robert

It's been a few years

You've seen it, and hopefully read about it once or twice.   My love for the Blue Jays on this blog is no secret.  Yet, I haven't been to a Jays game live since 2008.  Every summer I found reasons not to go.   Even though Cleveland is less than a 2 hour drive from my house, I never took time out to make the trip to see the boys in blue.

But when I found out during the winter that Toronto was going to be visiting PNC Park, I had no excuse.  I immediately starting making arrangements and calling friends.   Last night, I spent the evening in the upper level of PNC and watched quite an entertaining ball game.

One of the guys that I really wanted to watch was Jose Bautista...

Easily the most entertaining player that the Jays have had over the past few seasons, I wanted to see the presence he brought to the plate up close and personal.   Jose did not disappoint, rocketing a Vin Mazzaro 1-2 pitch into the left field bleachers in the 6th inning.  The Jays bullpen went on to blow a 6-2 lead and lost 8-6, but the game was great, and it was really fun watching the game with my wife and a few of our friends from back home.

Jose is also in the middle of a great streak to start the 2014 season.  His 2 walks today saw him reach base for the 31st consecutive game, which is a Blue Jays record.  I'll be keeping an eye out to see how far he can carry that streak, and the numbers that come with it. 

$14 million for this year and each of the next two years may still be quite a steal the way he's playing right now....

thanks for reading, Robert

2 more '64s added

Been a busy week here.  Between an up and down work schedule and doing a bit of spring cleaning around the house, the blog has taken a back seat.  However, I received an eBay purchase this week that knocked off two more of the high numbers that I needed for the '64T set.

Both of them are in really nice condition.  I was especially pleased with the Bennie Daniels, which is the final card in the set, #587.

I hadn't heard of either of these players before, so a little investigating was in order.

Leon Wagner had a decent 12 year career in the bigs, between 1958 and 1969.  1964 was one of his best seasons, playing in 163(!) games, hitting 31 HR and driving in 100.  Interesting that he was traded after the 1960 season by the Cardinals to Toronto (in the old international league), and then traded again by Toronto to the Angels at the start of the 1961 season.  I can't remember seeing a trade between a MLB club and a minor league club occur in my lifetime, which made this little tidbit even more interesting to me. 

Daniels didn't have quite the career that Wagner did, playing in 9 seasons with the Pirates and the Senators between 1957-1965.  Daniels was a swing man for most of his career, starting and relieving for both clubs.   He had only one season with double digit wins, 12 in 1961.  Bennie finished his career with 45 wins and an ERA of 4.44.

These two cards give me a total of 440 in the house for the set, or 75% complete.  I've got my eye on a Hank Aaron auction right now, and if I'm lucky enough to win it that will give me one of the few big pieces that I still need to finish the set.

Here's hoping!

thanks for reading, Robert