Willy Adames - 2019 Topps Big League - Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Thursday, January 2, 2020
Throwback Thursday - 01.02.2020
Every Thursday, I post a card showing a ballplayer wearing a throwback uniform from my collection. Hopefully, he will be wearing it well, with proper pants blousing. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Let's get in on this 2019 BBA thing.
Two posts in a row - holy crap. Now if I get one up tomorrow.....
One of the latest Blog Bat Arounds comes from Matt at Diamond Jesters. It's a 9 pocket page of the 2019 season in baseball cards. I have seen a few, and Night Owl's post is what prompted me to join in. For N.O., card #1 of the project, on his page, was a horizontal card, and he didn't want a single east/west card messing up the aesthetic with 8 cards going north/south. So Greg flipped the page and did 9 horizontal cards. Looks good.
For me though, I am going to set some personal rules in my page. First, all portrait. That will be tough when you hear rule #2. All cards must be cards I own. They can only come from my trade box or cards on my desk. And since I recently got all my 2019 White Sox cards sorted and put away, I won't have that team to pick from (one ChiSox card almost made it - we'll talk). Matt's guidelines didn't have the "you must own it" rule, but I wanted to actually place the cards in a page and scan - no photo shopping allowed. I must have physically touched the cards.
Let's look at my 2019 yearbook:
1 - Flagship: Right off the bat, this is the spot where my self imposed rule 2 became an issue. Hernandez going high for the turn at second is a very good card. but in my dupes for Opening Day, I had this card:
That is what his 2019 flagship card looks like, but the flagship version is not in my dupes box, so I had to pick a second choice for the page. Hopefully it will turn up at a card show, cuz that Garver belongs in my Hidden Gems binder.
2 - Allen & Ginter: It's a nun. On a baseball card. With a glove and ball. Who packs more heat than you ever have.
3 - Gypsy Queen: I will never be embarrassed to show my love of GQ. With Ginter and Gypsy, my life is pretty complete. How great is that card? Rare to see a submarine pitcher any more, and Topps did some great framing on this card.
4 - Stadium Club: Here is where a White Sox card almost made the cut.
Throwback? Gleeful joy? It's a great card. But Juan Soto looks perfect on his card. Shooting from below, getting all that gorgeous stadium in the background, the light standard powered up, Soto's look over his shoulder. Clear winner.
5 - Big League: Topps could just drop Opening Day and have Big League replace it. It's a fun set with a few cards here and there standing out. Baseball and bubble gum. Like peanut butter and jelly.
6 - Diamond Kings: The only non Topps on the page, it's really the only Panini product I can tolerate. Unless I find Panini in a dime box, my only Panini retail purchase is a bit of Diamond Kings. Topps last gave any cardboard love to Crawford in 2002. Even though the fog in the corners cuts down a bit on the image, it's pretty. All DK's legend players look great.
7 - Greatest Moments insert: As you can guess, not a lot of insert cards in a dupe box. But quickly came upon this card of Bo. I'm assuming Topps manipulated the photo slightly, either dulling the background or cleaning Bo to make him stand out. Mr. Jackson pops on this card.
8 - Ballpark Evolution insert: Along with my love of GQ, if you put a baseball stadium on a card, I will love it forever. I need to get all the stadium clubs organized from this year's flagship, and I need to secure this entire insert set. Let's hope dime boxes are kind to me - I have 39 more to go.
9 - Archives: Spot 9 was a tough one for me. I wanted an Archives card on the page, but the only ones I really loved broke the no horizontal rule. I thought Topps did a great job with many of the subjects in the 1993 section (Ruth, Gehrig, Irvin, Wagner), I went with Mr Cub for one specific reason. Dig the centennial patch on his right sleeve. A simple copy of the Jerry Dior logo on the sleeves of the players that year.
While my 2019 is technically not finished (I have want lists, ya know), this sort of puts a fork into the year. 32 days until 2020 releases. Another year's set I won't collect.
One of the latest Blog Bat Arounds comes from Matt at Diamond Jesters. It's a 9 pocket page of the 2019 season in baseball cards. I have seen a few, and Night Owl's post is what prompted me to join in. For N.O., card #1 of the project, on his page, was a horizontal card, and he didn't want a single east/west card messing up the aesthetic with 8 cards going north/south. So Greg flipped the page and did 9 horizontal cards. Looks good.
For me though, I am going to set some personal rules in my page. First, all portrait. That will be tough when you hear rule #2. All cards must be cards I own. They can only come from my trade box or cards on my desk. And since I recently got all my 2019 White Sox cards sorted and put away, I won't have that team to pick from (one ChiSox card almost made it - we'll talk). Matt's guidelines didn't have the "you must own it" rule, but I wanted to actually place the cards in a page and scan - no photo shopping allowed. I must have physically touched the cards.
 |
| We're going to need you to come with us, pervert. |
1 - Flagship: Right off the bat, this is the spot where my self imposed rule 2 became an issue. Hernandez going high for the turn at second is a very good card. but in my dupes for Opening Day, I had this card:
That is what his 2019 flagship card looks like, but the flagship version is not in my dupes box, so I had to pick a second choice for the page. Hopefully it will turn up at a card show, cuz that Garver belongs in my Hidden Gems binder.
2 - Allen & Ginter: It's a nun. On a baseball card. With a glove and ball. Who packs more heat than you ever have.
3 - Gypsy Queen: I will never be embarrassed to show my love of GQ. With Ginter and Gypsy, my life is pretty complete. How great is that card? Rare to see a submarine pitcher any more, and Topps did some great framing on this card.
4 - Stadium Club: Here is where a White Sox card almost made the cut.
Throwback? Gleeful joy? It's a great card. But Juan Soto looks perfect on his card. Shooting from below, getting all that gorgeous stadium in the background, the light standard powered up, Soto's look over his shoulder. Clear winner.
5 - Big League: Topps could just drop Opening Day and have Big League replace it. It's a fun set with a few cards here and there standing out. Baseball and bubble gum. Like peanut butter and jelly.
6 - Diamond Kings: The only non Topps on the page, it's really the only Panini product I can tolerate. Unless I find Panini in a dime box, my only Panini retail purchase is a bit of Diamond Kings. Topps last gave any cardboard love to Crawford in 2002. Even though the fog in the corners cuts down a bit on the image, it's pretty. All DK's legend players look great.
7 - Greatest Moments insert: As you can guess, not a lot of insert cards in a dupe box. But quickly came upon this card of Bo. I'm assuming Topps manipulated the photo slightly, either dulling the background or cleaning Bo to make him stand out. Mr. Jackson pops on this card.
8 - Ballpark Evolution insert: Along with my love of GQ, if you put a baseball stadium on a card, I will love it forever. I need to get all the stadium clubs organized from this year's flagship, and I need to secure this entire insert set. Let's hope dime boxes are kind to me - I have 39 more to go.
9 - Archives: Spot 9 was a tough one for me. I wanted an Archives card on the page, but the only ones I really loved broke the no horizontal rule. I thought Topps did a great job with many of the subjects in the 1993 section (Ruth, Gehrig, Irvin, Wagner), I went with Mr Cub for one specific reason. Dig the centennial patch on his right sleeve. A simple copy of the Jerry Dior logo on the sleeves of the players that year.
While my 2019 is technically not finished (I have want lists, ya know), this sort of puts a fork into the year. 32 days until 2020 releases. Another year's set I won't collect.
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Getting in under the gun
Ok. The whole plan was to get back to blogging a month ago. And the astute readers will notice that didn't happen. Not from a lack of trying, though a lack of desire definitely played a part.
So where have I been in the past......while. I don't even feel like doing the math to see when my posting really dropped to nothing. 7 months? Probably more. I've thought about how to address my time away, but in the end I determined the reasons don't matter much. It'd be a long chain of words that no one really wants to read. I'm not saying you whom have read to this point don't care, but my life is boring. Trust me - relating been going on in so unexciting a freshly painted bench want to go elsewhere.
I'll give you a one sentence rundown of where I was over this past time: no longer working from home, so 3+ hours of commute each day along with Uber driving burnout, daughter's wedding (401k loan thank goodness) and general malaise of life.
And we're done. Told you - boring. You were warned.
In all the free time I have mostly been playing video games because it's easy numbing of the brain after traffic to a shitty job and worse traffic home. Being creative was not on the agenda. But I wanted to get back because so much was received from so many and people we never given a proper due, and I have had ideas I should put in motion if only that I know I did said idea. Thankfully, mailings have stopped, and I cannot be more grateful that you all have lost my address. Reciprocation has recently started up again, and I owe many. Yes - OWE. Just deal with that word. Still a lot of mailing left, so if you were thinking of sending me something, please don't. Not at this time.
I don't want to drag on the start of this first post in forever, so I think that is all I want to say about my time away.....
Oh yeah...... my future wife says hi. Anyhow, I have many cards I've received scanned and posts of them planned, but let's show a few recent pickups here. Nothing great or amazing, but stuff I like. All cards were ebay purchases sometime after my last real post.
Couple autographs of non White Sox, but technically, each one has a White Sox connection. Phil Humber won't be making the HOF ever, but he is one of 23 players to throw a perfect game. He fits into three binder pages where I plan to collects autographs of the perfect game pitchers. A few probably will never appear in there (Cy Young and Sandy Koufax come to mind), but who knows. Now Jamie Burke had a few cups of coffee in the bigs (191 total games in 8 years). He crossed the base paths for 64 total games on the South Side, with a single game in his last year with the Sox. That year, though, was 2005, which makes Mr. Burke a member of Project 2005. Best I can tell, this is the only certified autograph he has in the hobby, so he goes into the 9 pocket as a Mariner.
I am fairly certain these three player collection cards were a buck or less. Bowman had some crazy inserts in the early 2000's. Hard to tell from the scan, but the Petrick is the international edition of his card. 2009 Goodwin is the BEST year of Goodwin. Fight me.
Last is this relic card I snipped for under $10. First relic card of a Black Sox player, Lefty lost games 2, 5 and 8 (was a best of 9 back then), being one of only two pitchers in history to lose 3 games in a single World Series. I'd love to obtain cards from all 8 members of the Black Sox issued during their playing days. Maybe after I score that Cy Young autograph......
I've blabbed enough. Thanks for reading. I'll do my best to get a couple posts a week. At the very least Throwback Thursday should have continued, but I suck and failed to do that. With luck I will suck less in 2020.
Let's light this bottle rocket again!
So where have I been in the past......while. I don't even feel like doing the math to see when my posting really dropped to nothing. 7 months? Probably more. I've thought about how to address my time away, but in the end I determined the reasons don't matter much. It'd be a long chain of words that no one really wants to read. I'm not saying you whom have read to this point don't care, but my life is boring. Trust me - relating been going on in so unexciting a freshly painted bench want to go elsewhere.
 |
| Please sit on me. |
And we're done. Told you - boring. You were warned.
In all the free time I have mostly been playing video games because it's easy numbing of the brain after traffic to a shitty job and worse traffic home. Being creative was not on the agenda. But I wanted to get back because so much was received from so many and people we never given a proper due, and I have had ideas I should put in motion if only that I know I did said idea. Thankfully, mailings have stopped, and I cannot be more grateful that you all have lost my address. Reciprocation has recently started up again, and I owe many. Yes - OWE. Just deal with that word. Still a lot of mailing left, so if you were thinking of sending me something, please don't. Not at this time.
I don't want to drag on the start of this first post in forever, so I think that is all I want to say about my time away.....
 |
| Hey....remember me? |
Couple autographs of non White Sox, but technically, each one has a White Sox connection. Phil Humber won't be making the HOF ever, but he is one of 23 players to throw a perfect game. He fits into three binder pages where I plan to collects autographs of the perfect game pitchers. A few probably will never appear in there (Cy Young and Sandy Koufax come to mind), but who knows. Now Jamie Burke had a few cups of coffee in the bigs (191 total games in 8 years). He crossed the base paths for 64 total games on the South Side, with a single game in his last year with the Sox. That year, though, was 2005, which makes Mr. Burke a member of Project 2005. Best I can tell, this is the only certified autograph he has in the hobby, so he goes into the 9 pocket as a Mariner.
I am fairly certain these three player collection cards were a buck or less. Bowman had some crazy inserts in the early 2000's. Hard to tell from the scan, but the Petrick is the international edition of his card. 2009 Goodwin is the BEST year of Goodwin. Fight me.
Last is this relic card I snipped for under $10. First relic card of a Black Sox player, Lefty lost games 2, 5 and 8 (was a best of 9 back then), being one of only two pitchers in history to lose 3 games in a single World Series. I'd love to obtain cards from all 8 members of the Black Sox issued during their playing days. Maybe after I score that Cy Young autograph......
I've blabbed enough. Thanks for reading. I'll do my best to get a couple posts a week. At the very least Throwback Thursday should have continued, but I suck and failed to do that. With luck I will suck less in 2020.
Let's light this bottle rocket again!
Friday, November 1, 2019
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Cards from Orland, OH
Hey - the titles to the posts can't all be winners, folks.
So if you read Dimebox Nick's blog, and if you don't maybe you need to visit a doctor, a recent post shared his card show spoils. I remember an earlier post about a couple card shows coming up he was attending, and I was hoping one was the Orland show, as I had carved out a little time to pay that show a visit on the same day. Sure enough, I guessed correctly and got to do some digging with Nick and his father. If you haven't, enjoy his spoils. I commented I would have my own recap of the show, and here it is.
Now, Nick had a hell of a haul mainly because he had a hell of a pull that paid for the card show. I had some bonus money that I could spend on myself, so while I didn't purchase anywhere near the amazing cardboard he did (if Nick turned his head I would have stolen a few of his cards), I still got some great paper rectangles.
I'm still working on the 2018 White Sox team set, as well as needing to get 2019 going. Technically, I still need some from 2017, but I got about a dozen for 2018 (leaving me 3 short) and all but 2 cards from 2019. Though, I REALLY need that Kopech SP. That sucker is goooooooooooooorgeous! I also picked up 75-80% of the Sox Heritage team set.
Really, I am working a lot of 2018 sets - it was a bad card year for me. And bad blog year. And bad work year. I'm digressing.... Picked up about 40 cards towards the '18 Stadium Club. Here's a few. Love those Indian throwbacks. Cleveland needs to wear them more often. One thing I noticed from the group I bought: the horizontal cards are much better images than the vertical. I hope Topps fixes that come 2019.
Nick talked about one vendors 50 cent and two dollar box. This particular vendor is there each show, and let me tell you - his cards are AMAZING! He has a box of 60's commons at a buck a card. You may think that's a bit high, until you look and the cards appear to have been pulled from packs a week ago. They are that good. And he's always willing to work out a deal. These above are a combo of 50 cents and 2 dollar cards. Peters and DeBusschere go into the Sox binder while Ruiz is an obvious bunt card. I pulled 20 cards from the 50 cent box and a dozen or so from the $2 box. I had to put back a good 20 cards cuz I just ran out of cash.
Here's some '64s for the build. All total, I knocked 14 cards off the 64 set, getting me to 77% completion. These, and the others I purchased, fit right into the quality I am satisfied with. I actually knocked 3 cards from series 7, and those cost me just two quarters each. But the highlights of my purchases come next.
Two bucks each. Some pen marks on the 64 Pizzaro stand up, but who's passing on that for $2? And one of the first really big cards for the set in the Robinson. $5-10 for that online, or more, so I am content with that one for $2. I needed the Fox/Kuenn for the Sox team set. And that ends the $2 box purchases I will show. But I have two more cards left.
Nick and I went back to do a little more digging at the table. It was this trip he scored the Bowman Kaline, McCovery rookie and the 66 Clemente (I found that) among others. And in that dig I picked up my two big purchases at $5 each.
We all know how hard it is to find Bowman color at a good price. I have needed this Lollar for his PC for quite some time. Regularly over $10 online, so I jumped at a really great copy with a creased corner. The creased '50 Bowman Luke Appling is the first of his playing days cards I have. Appling is a future PC, so finding this for a fin was a deal considering its condition. Easily twice that online.
Good show with a good time with good friends. We were all a little light in our wallets, but that happens in Orland. Oh.
 |
| Nice try. |
Now, Nick had a hell of a haul mainly because he had a hell of a pull that paid for the card show. I had some bonus money that I could spend on myself, so while I didn't purchase anywhere near the amazing cardboard he did (if Nick turned his head I would have stolen a few of his cards), I still got some great paper rectangles.
I'm still working on the 2018 White Sox team set, as well as needing to get 2019 going. Technically, I still need some from 2017, but I got about a dozen for 2018 (leaving me 3 short) and all but 2 cards from 2019. Though, I REALLY need that Kopech SP. That sucker is goooooooooooooorgeous! I also picked up 75-80% of the Sox Heritage team set.
Really, I am working a lot of 2018 sets - it was a bad card year for me. And bad blog year. And bad work year. I'm digressing.... Picked up about 40 cards towards the '18 Stadium Club. Here's a few. Love those Indian throwbacks. Cleveland needs to wear them more often. One thing I noticed from the group I bought: the horizontal cards are much better images than the vertical. I hope Topps fixes that come 2019.
Nick talked about one vendors 50 cent and two dollar box. This particular vendor is there each show, and let me tell you - his cards are AMAZING! He has a box of 60's commons at a buck a card. You may think that's a bit high, until you look and the cards appear to have been pulled from packs a week ago. They are that good. And he's always willing to work out a deal. These above are a combo of 50 cents and 2 dollar cards. Peters and DeBusschere go into the Sox binder while Ruiz is an obvious bunt card. I pulled 20 cards from the 50 cent box and a dozen or so from the $2 box. I had to put back a good 20 cards cuz I just ran out of cash.
Here's some '64s for the build. All total, I knocked 14 cards off the 64 set, getting me to 77% completion. These, and the others I purchased, fit right into the quality I am satisfied with. I actually knocked 3 cards from series 7, and those cost me just two quarters each. But the highlights of my purchases come next.
Two bucks each. Some pen marks on the 64 Pizzaro stand up, but who's passing on that for $2? And one of the first really big cards for the set in the Robinson. $5-10 for that online, or more, so I am content with that one for $2. I needed the Fox/Kuenn for the Sox team set. And that ends the $2 box purchases I will show. But I have two more cards left.
Nick and I went back to do a little more digging at the table. It was this trip he scored the Bowman Kaline, McCovery rookie and the 66 Clemente (I found that) among others. And in that dig I picked up my two big purchases at $5 each.
We all know how hard it is to find Bowman color at a good price. I have needed this Lollar for his PC for quite some time. Regularly over $10 online, so I jumped at a really great copy with a creased corner. The creased '50 Bowman Luke Appling is the first of his playing days cards I have. Appling is a future PC, so finding this for a fin was a deal considering its condition. Easily twice that online.
Good show with a good time with good friends. We were all a little light in our wallets, but that happens in Orland. Oh.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Throwback Thursday - 02.21.2019
Every Thursday, I post a card showing a ballplayer wearing a throwback uniform from my collection. Hopefully, he will be wearing it well, with proper pants blousing. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.
Roy Halladay - 2013 Topps mini inserts - Philadelphia Phillies
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
What a run
For starters, a few commenters mentioned the images on my last post cannot be viewed. I snapped the pics from my phone and linked the images from my Google Photos account. Yeah - guess it's not working, so I downloaded the edited the post. If you wanna see the spoils, you should be able to now. But on to current business....
We have all heard the phrase "there's one in every group". It's extremely true here on the blogs as it is elsewhere in the world.
Many have sung the praise of the closing of JayBarkerFan/Area 40, run by the one and only Wes. This group of ours here in blog world is beyond generous. Wes' level of magnanimity is hard to follow. He has "bombed" a few of us (myself included), and I think we all recall the epic wars between Wes and Matt from Bob Walk The Plank. If you ever decide to come back to battle, Wes, I'm not sure who you could hit (cough cough) a cracked bat (cough cough cough)?
Wes is taking a leave, hopefully not permanently, and had his amazing blow out to close out his blog. I requested my White Sox and Blackhawks. So while there are other older packages I need to post, I hope you forgive me and move Wes to the front of the line.
Some serials and inserts. The Field of Visions has that DuFlex technology, I believe.
Minis, both numbered to /99. I don't have a lot of 205 minis, so never noticed they seem to be a bit smaller than current minis.
Relics. I still like the Sox vests and wish they didn't retire them.
My only Blackhawks hit was this auto of former captain Dirk Graham. A few failed prospects with the Broadway, Rogowski and Lopez, and a failed manager with Ventura. Still some great additions to the autograph binder. My big hit was this beauty...
Hard to scan a slabbed card, but you can easily make out what it is. A fantastic addition to the HOF autograph binder. I never thought I could have an autograph of this man in my possession, and here it is. Fun fact: did you know between 1949 and 1964 (16 years), only two teams not named the Yankees won the AL pennant? Both of those teams were coached by Al Lopez ('54 Indians and '59 White Sox).
Wes, thanks for the memories and thanks for the largesse of your heart. Don't be a stranger.
We have all heard the phrase "there's one in every group". It's extremely true here on the blogs as it is elsewhere in the world.
 |
| Or maybe a lot more here on the blogs |
Wes is taking a leave, hopefully not permanently, and had his amazing blow out to close out his blog. I requested my White Sox and Blackhawks. So while there are other older packages I need to post, I hope you forgive me and move Wes to the front of the line.
Some serials and inserts. The Field of Visions has that DuFlex technology, I believe.
Minis, both numbered to /99. I don't have a lot of 205 minis, so never noticed they seem to be a bit smaller than current minis.
Relics. I still like the Sox vests and wish they didn't retire them.
My only Blackhawks hit was this auto of former captain Dirk Graham. A few failed prospects with the Broadway, Rogowski and Lopez, and a failed manager with Ventura. Still some great additions to the autograph binder. My big hit was this beauty...
Hard to scan a slabbed card, but you can easily make out what it is. A fantastic addition to the HOF autograph binder. I never thought I could have an autograph of this man in my possession, and here it is. Fun fact: did you know between 1949 and 1964 (16 years), only two teams not named the Yankees won the AL pennant? Both of those teams were coached by Al Lopez ('54 Indians and '59 White Sox).
Wes, thanks for the memories and thanks for the largesse of your heart. Don't be a stranger.
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