Memories, pt 2.

Good Tuesday evening to you all, hope that your week is going well.  This is the 2nd part in a series of posts that were derived from my first contest, when I asked the blogosphere to post their favorite sports moment.

The post chronicles the choice of both Colbey, and Captain Canuck referencing "The Slide".

Here is the original version that Colbey posted:

"My memory is "the slide" from the 1995 NLCS. Braves fans know what I'm talking about. Braves down 2-1 to the Pirates in game 7. 2 outs. David Justice on 3rd. Sid bream on 2nd. Francisco Cabrera at bat. Justice comes around and scores. Bream comes around and narrowly slides under the tag of Pirates catch Mike LaValliere. Awesome moment I remember watching unfold before my eyes courtesy of TBS.


1995 Upper Deck Collector's Choice captured this play on cardboard beautifully. Sadly, I don't own this card...but one day I will"

I didn't notice it the first time, but maybe a lot of you did back then.  A slight typo here actually made the slide take over 3 years to complete....this play actually occurred in the 1992 NLCS.  Part of the reason I remembered that was the case is that living here in western PA, Pirates announcers constantly refer to that team as the last time the Pirates had their mini "dynasty".  Players such as Bonds, Bonilla, Drabek, Lind, Van Slyke had their last hurrah as Pirates during this year.

In an interesting twist of irony going back to the first memories post , Kirk Gibson was actually released on May 5th of the '92 season by the Pirates.

Tim Wakefield also started his major league career for the Pirates that year, throwing a 10 strikeout complete game in his debut against the Cardinals..

The manager of the Braves was Bobby Cox, who 7 years earlier saw his Blue Jays lose a 3-1 game lead in the ALCS to the Kansas City Royals, and was on the verge of losing a similar lead in game 7 before "the slide".  The Braves' offense was definitely not a juggernaut that year, though there were some good players on the club, such as Ron Gant, Deion Sanders (who led the NL in triples with 14), Otis Nixon and Terry Pendleton.  That '92 team was built around a tremendous pitching staff with Steve Avery, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Charlie Leibrandt forming quite a formidable rotation. 

Oh, and the play in question??  I don't think I've ever seen Sid Bream run faster in his life...see it here.

Colbey and the Captain (sounds like a TV show doesn't it?) also mentioned a card.  A quick thank you to Brian at Play at the Plate which is where I found the image for this card:

By the way, the Braves did go on to the World Series that year, only to lose to the Blue Jays in 6 games.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Trade post of the bass ackwards variety

Good Monday to you all, hope that your week has started off well.

Well, to say I'm behind on sending packages/trades out is well.....quite the understatement.

So, the lazy guy here has decided to make this the catch up post.  Please stay tuned until the end, because the credits roll quickly.

The following zip codes have packages going in the mail tomorrow.

13601 (your package was received, post to go up this week, thank you!)
76063
75201
91377
90230

The person in the following zip code mailed me a package that is generous beyond my wildest dreams.   

27713

Now, there are a couple of you out there that I know I am behind on correspondence with, so this right now is my formal apology.

No Relics Pulled , you and I had started a trade a while ago starting with a 09 OPC black bordered card of Johnny Damon.  Forgive me, but where do we stand right now?  It seems that I have lost track, and an in need of some assistance.  Please let me know,  thank you.

Thoughts and Sox, consider me thoughtless and barefoot.  I do remember you stated you had some cards for me,  but I had totally neglected to look for some Red Sox cards to send your way.  For that, I apologize. 

Is there anyone else out there I'm behind with (loud echo off in the distance...) ?   Please email me at rmitchell6700 AT yahoo DOT com and let me know: 

a) that I'm a slacker
b) where we stand, trade wise...

One card rule:

Anyone for a game of liquored up leap frog??

Thanks for reading, Robert

I'm sick of cardboard...well in a way

Good day to you all, I just wanted to follow up on a comment that I had made last Friday on the Night Owl blog, after he had mentioned about how the number of hits increase when he mentions the words "sick" and "cardboard". 

Here's what I wrote:

Smart ass comment of the day.



If you get major hits on the words "sick" and "cardboard", imaging the insanity (shameless plug) you would get if you titled a post "I'm sick of cardboard"

Needless to say, I also made a spelling error (imaging instead of imagine).

Well it actually was a poor attempt at humor (something which I tend to achieve quite a lot), so instead of letting it go, I decided to make a post for myself about the "sick of cardboard" phrase.  Put up or shut up, right??

You ever look at the piles of cardboard on your desk/sorting area and just say !@#$!.   I've done that a couple of times lately.  Largely due to the fact that I've become a bit lazy when it comes to putting cards away on a timely basis.   Yes, it's my own fault for sure. 

Then I sit there and look at what I've obtained over the past few months.  1000+ Blue Jays cards added to my collection.  Serial insanity moving along at a great pace.  My auto/jersey card pile is beginning to grow.  My collection is finally starting to take some shape, meaning I have a quite a few cards for myself, and there's a decent pile of cards that I also have for trades.

Sometimes, you just gotta take a closer look at what you have, and the world gets a little better.  Case in point:

Rivals the Dee Gordon card of 2011, no?  I'm still trying to figure out who that is trying to take him out on the double play.

Then, this card comes across my desk from an envelope from the Topps Diamond Giveaway:

1968 Topps # 284

Naturally, since I did not know the name, I checked out his stats on baseball reference.com.  One of the first columns I always look at when doing research on the site is the far right column, which displays MVP votes, Gold Gloves, Cy Young awards, etc.   I notice for Mr. Briggs that under the 1973 season he was 26th in MVP voting.  I think to myself, all right, let's check out the stats because to get MVP votes, he must have had a decent season.  Here's his stat line.

142 GP, 120 Hits in 488 AB for a .246 Avg.  18 HR, 57 RBI, 15 SB.  OPS of .787. 

Really, MVP votes? He actually received 6 points in the MVP balloting.  I see a lot of other names in the top 20 that I expect to be there.   Reggie Jackson won the MVP that year, and other names such as Sal Bando, Rod Carew, Jim Palmer, Catfish Hunter and Frank Robinson all are on the list. 

If you take a look at the list, you will see that 1973 was definitely a pitchers year.  6 20-game winners, only 2 hitters with 30+ HR's, (Jackson led the AL with 32), and after Rod Carew's .350 batting average, the next best hitter was at .306.  Not much for offense that year I would say.

Those two cards themselves made for some entertainment value for sure.  I just have to remember how to look at them. 

I learned something today.  The words "sick" and "cardboard" shouldn't be used in the same sentence.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Only one spot left to go...

Pimpin ain't easy....take a look here at Cardboard Heaven's draft and get in while the gettin is good...

Robert

Group breaks have been really good to me so far

Good Sunday morning, hope your weekend is going well so far.

I received another package this week, this time it was from Adam over at My Cardboard Mistress.  The link I have provided is for the final tally of all the cards that were part of the break.

I will say this, this may have been my most enjoyable break for a few reasons:

1.  Adam broke a ton of product, in varying quantities, years and lines.  It was great fun to see all the different variations of cards.  Even better when there were in hand and I got to see some more cards that I had never viewed in the past.  Great stuff.
2.  Adam puts me to shame as a numbers guy.  There was a spreadsheet posted at every portion of the break, with breakdowns for team by base cards, inserts, parallels, autos and relics.
3.  Pie charts!  I loved the breakdown by division for all the different types of cards.  For a numbers geek like me this was just as fun to look at as the cards themselves.

Finally, he didn't leave me "empty handed".  Even though I received over 150 cards of varying years and sets, Adam made sure that I scored both a jersey relic and an auto!  That kind of generosity is very much appreciated by this guy, and just further enhances my thoughts that the baseball card blogosphere is comprised of the best group of collectors out there.

Here are my "bonuses":

2 more great Jays to add to the collection.  Adam Lind auto from '09 Topps Unique and a Vernon Wells jersey card from '08 UD Masterpieces (a set which is slowly going to become an addiction for me).

To be honest, I wasn't sure what to make of this group break at first, but now that I have the finished product/cards in hand, it was fantastic to say the least!!

Add to that the extensive amount of work that Adam put in on this break, I must give him an A+!

Thank you very much Adam for the break, it really is appreciated here!!!!!

Thank you for reading, Robert