Good luck to Buck

Congrats have to go out to Buck Showalter for landing the manager's job with the Orioles. Buck is one of my all-time favorite baseball guys and if not for the incident involving Brian Butterfield he might still be the Yankee manager. Good teams seem to pop up anywhere that Buck spent some time. Granted he can be a bit controlling and sometimes goes overboard with his micromanagement but he's still a great baseball mind.


edit. I had originally posted this about 2 weeks ago when the rumors first started to surface so if this seems familiar it is.

More books

With most of the cards I've bought now catagorized and teamed I have realized that I'm gonna need more than 1 book per league. I'm thinking maybe one per division and see how that goes. I've also taken all of my pre-'60 cards and maybe a seperate album and paired them up with all of the non-team cards I have like the '09 WBC and randoms.

No love

So I got asked the other day about the Allen & Ginter cards from Topps and why I didn't have any. I tried to explain to my friend that although I like the look of the cards and I'm kinda into the nostalgia thing they just don't do it for me. If I wanted to get a card of a wrestler I'd buy wrestling cards. Ditto for dinosaurs and sailors. I know that in the original 1880s A&G set those kinds of cards were also included, but it just doesn't make sense to me. I guess it's something different to collect or a break from baseballbaseballbaseball. I guess.

Last of a generation

Got the last package of purples I ordered with yesterday's mail. 3 of them with a /777 refractor tagging along.

Picked up Pedro Ciriaco purp ref BCP18 #701/999
Kiel Roling purple refractor BCP63 #706/999
Pedro Florimon purp ref BCP25 #770/999

and

Wilmer Font refractor BCP87 #329/777

So with 3 of the subsets of the '10 Bowman done and out of the way I need to start trading instead of buying. I have a nice little box of cards that hopefully somebody will find interesting enough to want to trade me their purples, lol. I'm guessing a scanner is up next to make a whole trade list of what I have much easier. We'll have to see.

edit. update to the checklist page 7/25

Quick trip to the store

I got the call yesterday that the '10 Topps factory set I ordered was in, but I couldn't make my way up to the card store. So today after the day job I headed up the highway to pick her up. My usual guy Bob wasn't working behind the counter so I didn't really stick around and BS like I usually do. After hearing about the 5 red parallel cards included in all the factory sets, I had to fight the urge to open it up to see who I got. The sets are relatively cheap so maybe I'll pick another one up.

Pay to play

Last week I had spoken about putting up a list of Yankee prospects and doing a kinda report card half way through the year. Well it turns out that BBA charges for access(which I didn't know) and I'm a little low on funds at the moment so......I'll have to put that prospect report card on hold for a bit.

I do know that Jesus Montero seems to have gotten his swing back. After suffering an injury to end last season it looked like the kid was either still injured or had been possesed by the spirit of a light hitting ghost second baseman. It looks like the kid is feeling better because he has been killing the ball and he has his sweet swing back. Here's hoping that he keeps it up and makes a run for making the big club next year.

Something different

I decided to try something different this week..... different being '06 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects, lol. Busted a couple boxes looking for that pesky Longoria auto Superfractor that is as of yet unseen. I get into my second box when I open a pack and see a shiny in the middle. I quickly flick through the other cards on the way to the shiny and find that it's a Longoria......it's an auto Longoria..... it's a #/500 auto'd refractor of Longoria and not the missing link. My heart skipped about 4 beats when I was taking all of this in and finally restarted when I went to bed last night. To be honest without the cards sitting in front of me I couldn't tell you what else I pulled. I know it was a couple autos and some GU patches. Even a couple of those Xfractors. I will edit when I have the chance.

Telephone tough guy

So A.J. Burnett decides to go on a little rampage last night and hurts himself in the process. Why should I not be surprised? God forbid the guy just pitches to his contract or even close. He's the right handed Yankee version of Ollie P. Then he decided to lie about it and tried to cover it up. Good luck living that one down with your teammates chief. What a joke.

On to other news just a lone purple in Saturday's mail. A very off centered Alex Colome
BCP43 #419/999. How is it that it's now 2010 and Topps still can't figure out how to get their cards centered? I'd say about half of the nicer cards I've pulled or bought off the bay have centering issues.

Another one bites the dust

I completed another subset of the B yesterday when I booked the last of the Bowman prospects base cards. I think I might even have doubles of the whole thing, lol. Not only that but I'm also only VERY close to the finished base set. Watch out now!

edit. After looking through my A.L. and N.L. books I found the 3 Bowman base cards I needed to finish the set. Supersweet

Banner mail day

It turned into Christmas morning part 2 today when tons of packages were waiting for me when I walked in the door. My box of '10 Bowman jumbo hobby and a TONNE of purple-y goodness were laid out like a deck of cards awaiting my guidance. Lets get to the box break:

Bowman base blue:

Jeff Francoeur 93, #215/520
Adan Wainwright 104 #417/520
the Panda Pablo Sandoval 162 #150/520
Brian Roberts 37 #434/520

Bowman prospect blue:

Byron Wiley BP24 #058/520
Bo Bowman BP12 #272/520
Jhan Marinez BP31 #299/520

Bowman base gold:

Mike Leake 196
Jason Heyward 200


Bowman base orange:

Delmon Young 137 #231/250
Tyler Flowers 210 #181/250

Bowman prospects:

S. Stras BP1 x2

Refractors:

Tommy Mendonca BCP29 # 176/777
Bryce Brentz USA-BC3 #646/777

Purple refractors:

none, not a single pull

Blue refractors:

Simon Castro BCP48 #76/250

Autos:

Drew Stubbs 212
Grant Green BCP106
Jefry Marte BCP112

and a whole butt ton of expectation, Topps 100's and Bowman Throwbacks

As for the seperate packages of purples, thats a whole other ball of wax:

Tyson Gillies purple refractor BCP19 #710/999 and #613/999
Gustavo Nunez purp ref BCP33 #861/999
Eric Niesen purp ref BCP32 #849/999
Patrick Schuster purple ref BCP97 #424/999
Curtis Petersen purp ref BCP78 #324/999
Jhan Marinez purp ref BCP31 #916/999
Dillon Gee purple refractor BCP70 #554/999
Joe Serafin purp ref BCP73 #585/999
Scott Shaw purp refractor BCP34 #69/999
Rex Brothers purp ref BCP92 #153/999
Steve Lombardozzi purp ref BCP77 #696/999
Nick Czyz purple refractor BCP38 #783/999
Chad Jenkins purp ref BCP94 #762/999
Carson Blair purp ref BCP41 #841/999 ( way off center)
Cody Satterwhite purp ref BCP26 #380/999
Logan Watkins purp ref BCP11 #439/999
Cole McCurry purp ref BCP3 #237/999
Melky Mesa purple refractor BCP2 #665/999
Stefan Gartrell purp ref BCP17 #914/999

whew..... that took forever

Another long night

Damn this never ending All-Star break. I am really in the mood to listen to a game, and can't bring myself to listen to the cross town AAA team, lol. The Yanks open a series at home against the Rays tomorrow night. Mail-less again today as well, so I'm really doubleskunked. I have a couple things in the mail, but I guess they are shipping it to Cuba or the Netherlands before they bring it to NJ these days. Like I could run to the Topps factory and make my own cards before I will see the ones I ordered. I edited my base black set and gold base set along with my expectations and Topps 100 today so go take a peek at the checklist.

One part down, many to go

Forgot to mention that yesterday I completed my first subset of the '10 Bowman set. The chromes are done and I'm down to only needing a few of each of the USA and USA18 cards for them to be done as well. I will attempt to go through them later today and sort through and put the better or best version of each card in a page. Damn them for not all being centered, lol.

Jinxed it

I had to go and post yesterday about the A.L. needing the win, so my post officially jinxed the game. There I said it, blame me. Guess they couldn't just go the rest of my lifetime without another loss at the hands of the senior circuit. bah.

I'm expecting a few goodies in the mail today and I will post 'em up when they arrive.

How bad it is

The last couple days I decided to go through my old A.L./N.L. books and was amazed at what I saw. I started buying cards with the '86 Topps and Donruss and quit somewhere between the '89 and '90 seasons. Granted I had a few nice vintage cards that my buddy Tim had given me, but most of my collection was less than desirable, lol. I had man-crushes on some guys who lasted 2 or 3 years in the league and treated them like Mantle and Mays. Guys like Chris Sabo and Steve Searcy had pages and pages of cards while guys like Boggs and Ripkin had half a page or less. Am I alone in this phenomenon? Dunno

Other lesser known guys taking up mucho space in my books:
Hensley Muelens
Mike Harkey
Mike Greenwell ( had 3 full pages and last I knew I don't really like the Sox)
Kevin Seitzer
Al Pedrique
Ricky Jordan
and the list goes on and on

Home field advantage

Come on A.L. let's make it 14 years unbeaten. Gotta get home field for my Yanks. After the All-star break I will do a rundown on how some of the Yankee prospects are performing to date as some are promoted and others are sent packing for a bag of balls and some used bats.


edit. Just heard a great stat, 33 players are making their first All-star game appearance. That's some youth for you. (except for Arthur Rhodes who just cashed his first social security check)

George III

R.I.P. George M. Steinbrenner III

Perhaps the greatest sports owner of the last 40 years.

This is turning into a horrible week for the NY Yankee family

Box break

Got home from work to find my Bowman gravity feed box waiting along with a few purple refactors. Lets's get to the hits....

Matt Brown refractor BCP74 #766/777

Luis Esposito blue ref BCP21 #72/250


Tony Delmonico purp ref BCP50 #833/999 (way off center)
Anthony Gose purp ref BCP104 #801/999
Carson Blair purp ref BCP41 #836/999
Nick Czyz purple ref BCP38 #808/999 (way off center)

and the wunderkind Steven Strasburg chrome BCP1

oh and my 3rd Darin Holcomb auto .....

by far the worst box I've opened so far this year. Guess they can't all be great.

edit. I forgot to enter which purple refs I got in the mail and left them out

Skunked

By the time I left for work this afternoon nothing had come in the mail. I swear our town is 1/3 of a square mile but yet we wont get our mail until after 3PM. Makes me wonder where all the USPS's time is spent in town. Certainly enough bars to grab a quick brewski but I digress. All star week is for me the worst week of the MLB schedule due to the lack of baseball being played. This years HR Derby is no one you would pick out of a hat to actually hit homeruns. How does that make sense? I guess all I can hope for is another win by the A.L.


edit. I talked to my girl and she says I have some packages waiting at the house that look like baseball cards. What else would they be? Plans for the Deathstar?

Decisions decisions

I'm on the fence about trying to collect certain players instead of just plain ole card collecting. As a Yankee fan I like when I pull a Yank in a pack, but do I want to concentrate on just Yanks? Just Jeter? Just Donnie Baseball? I think collecting the Yankee captains would be a neat idea but where to begin with them?

R.I.P. Bob Sheppard, your voice will live in Yankee lore for all eternity

Better late than never

I didn't get to chime in with Saturday's mail goodies so I will add them in now. I've given up hope on that box of Bowman coming before the Holidays, lol. I also had to run up to the card store with my girl to pick up some supplies including new 3200 count boxes and new albums for my cards from Dad's. The 1985 Donruss album held up semi-ok but my older A.L. and N.L albums look like they have been though a couple years of trench warfare. I also had to pick up a large plastic bin to put all the cards and supplies in because they were slowly encroaching on the rest of the den and had to do something soon before they broke off and declared themselves an independant state with my '84 Topps Mattingly declaring himself sovereign Emperor.

On to the mail for Saturday:

A bunch of Bowman purple chrome!!

(x2)Konrad Schmidt purple refractor BCP6 #738/999 and #845/999
Nick Santomauro purple refractor BCP9 #572/999
Byron Wiley purple refractor BCP24 #850/999
Melky Mesa purple refractor BCP2 #171/999
Welinton Ramirez purple refractor BCP35 #163/999
Rashun Dixon purple refractor BCP42 #622/999
J.J. Hoover purple refractor BCP45 #56/999
Matt Tucker purple refractor BCP72 #756/999
Yen-Wen Kuo purple refractor BCP80 #594/999
Yowill Espinal purple refractor BCP84 #883/999

Not a bad haul for a rainy Saturday

Freaky Friday

Not so much hot today as just outright miserably humid. A couple cards in the mail today that I'll list at the end of the post. Yanks almost landed Cliff Lee today, that would make for one impressive rotation. They already have 3 guys with 10+ wins each on the team but he would be welcomed with open arms in my book. Send Javy packing and since I know that Cashman and Co. Have an innings limit on Hughes, send him to the pen to shore up the front end. On to the good stuff...... cards in the mail

To start we have:

Tony Delmonico purple refractor BCP50 #630/999
followed by another Tony Delmonico purple refractor, lol this one #321 and no I'm not making a run on Tony D's cards
Next up is the Starlin Castro purple refractor BCP100 #680/999
Brian Baisley purp ref BCP49 #653/999
Caleb Joseph purp ref BCP55 #855/999
Tommy Mendonca purp ref BCP29 #695/999
Edinson Rincon purp ref BCP39 #764/999
Alexis Oliveras refractor BCP75 #655/777
Rolando Gomez purp ref BCP56 #183/999
Cody Satterwhite purp ref BCP26 #977/999

Overall not a bad day at the mailbox and I also stopped by my Dad's barn and picked up the cards I had dropped there years ago for safe keeping. I'll have to go through them thoroughly and sort 'em by year and make. It also means I'll have to go to the store and get some new boxes cause these are shot. They lasted a good 21-23 years so I can't complain.

Old timers

Figured I will go to my Dad's this weekend and grab my boxes of cards from over there. I'm curious to see what I have still in books and what I relegated to the boxes back in the day, lol. Also have to remember to find my '98 Topps Gold Labels that aren't in the boxes but mixed in with misc. crapola. Now that I think about it I think I left my Auto book out in Colorado when I couldn't find room for it in the move. Somebody right now is sitting there staring at my '87 Fleer Auto Benito Santiago RC...... lololol

One lone warrior

Checked the mail today before I left for the evening job and only one envelope for moi.
Cracked her open and found a Rex Brothers purple refractor, so I can go scratch him off me list. That 36 pack box of Bowman is just mocking me from afar. I wouldn't be surprised if the UPS lady was watching me leave and pulled up after I left. And I'm starting to wonder about a couple cards I bought on feebay from a certain seller with
low feedback. I'll give him until this weekend before I start my inquiries.

Million card giveaway

Checked my email today and lo-and-behold...... Topps is actually shipping out the cards that I have "won" in the giveaway. From what my guy at the card store tells me I have done exceedingly well. Here's the short list of goodies to look forward to:

1970 Pedro Bourbon #358
2008 Mike Lowell #64
1961 Bob Oldis #149
1971 Casey Cox #82
1981 Bud Harrelson #694
1999 Kenny Rogers # 27
2003 Dan Wilson #2
2009 James Shields #174
2002 Aaron Sele #15
1959 Harry Chiti #79
1958 Bob Trowbridge # 252RC

edit. As I'm leaving tonight to go grab a slice with my girl, the UPS lady drops off a package and do you know what's in it? My cards from Topps.......lol. Now if only they would ship out that Red Hot Rookie redemption as fast.

These aren't the droids you're looking for

Got home from work last night and to my surprise there were packages waiting..... packages of what you say? Packages of cards, sweet glorious baseball cards lol. I was really hoping that the Bowman 36 pack would have come, but I'll settle for the blue refractors and gold refractors that came. Now I'm not usually into the blues/golds but they were dirt cheap and it would have been a sin to see em go to waste. Just because I'm focusing on the purple refractors now, doesn't mean that next month I wont change my mind and start going crazy for the other parallel sets. Or if need be I could use them to trade for a purple.

Not that I think my quest is crazy, just a lil daunting at times. I've set my sights on finishing all of the subsets up to and including the purples. Sounds rather reasonable to me. The only big money cards I don't have so far seem to be the Strasburg chrome and purple. Not that I would mind pulling the refractor or the blue or gold or even the orange, lol. I've certainly pulled enough of his damn base rookie cards.

Nothing major....

It's an absolute scorcher out there today. Nothing in the mail today before I left for work. Did find a few cheap purples on feebay and used BIN to scoop them up. Bid on a few others but they have a few hours left on them. Slow day at work so I will pour through my need/have lists and double check my figures.

Checklist so far

I'll attempt to keep track of the '10 sets in this thread. I'm sure there are easy ways to do it, but this is my first attempt at blogging and I'm not very tech savvy.
These are the cards I NEED unless otherwise noted.............

Bowman base:
COMPLETE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bowman base gold:
2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 15, 19, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 40, 41, 46, 47, 52, 55, 57, 61, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67, 68, 73, 74, 77, 79, 80, 83, 84, 85, 86, 88, 89, 90, 92, 94, 95, 99, 100, 101, 103, 104, 107, 108,110, 112, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 125, 126, 127, 131, 133, 134, 137, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 147, 152, 154, 155, 156, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 169, 170, 173, 174, 175, 177, 178, 180, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 188, 189, 191, 192, 193, 197, 198, 199, 203, 205, 206, 207, 208, 211, 214, 217, 218, 219


Bowman base blue:
Due to a very small number of haves, I will keep track of them instead of the needs
58


Bowman base orange:
Due to a very small number of haves, I will keep track of them instead of the needs
154



Bowman prospects:
COMPLETE!!!!

Bowman prospects blue:
Due to a very small number of haves, I will keep track of them instead of the needs
BP20, BP24, BP35


Bowman prospects orange:
Due to a very small number of haves, I will keep track of them instead of the needs
BP100


Bowman chrome prospects:
COMPLETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bowman chrome prospects purple refractor /999:
BCP1, BCP4,BCP5, BCP7, BCP8, BCP10, BCP14, BCP15, BCP21, BCP23, BCP28, BCP30, BCP40, BCP43, BCP44, BCP46, BCP47, BCP48, BCP51, BCP52, BCP53, BCP54, BCP57, BCP58, BCP59, BCP60, BCP62, BCP64, BCP65, BCP66, BCP68, BCP69, BCP74, BCP75, BCP77, BCP81, BCP82, BCP83, BCP86, BCP87, BCP88, BCP89, BCP91, BCP93, BCP96, BCP97, BCP98, BCP99, BCP102, BCP103, BCP106, BCP108, BCP109, BCP110

Bowman chrome prospects refractor /777:
Due to a very small number of haves, I will keep track of them instead of the needs
BCP24, BCP37(X2), BCP40, BCP46, BCP55(X2),BCP74, BCP75, BCP81, BCP87, BCP101, USA-BC7

Bowman chrome propects blue refractor /250:
Due to a very small number of haves, I will keep track of them instead of the needs
BCP12, BCP21, BCP29, BCP33, BCP73,BCP80, BCP84, BCP99, BCP104, BCP109

Bowman chrome prospects gold refractor /50:
Due to a very small number of haves, I will keep track of them instead of the needs
BCP24, BCP33, BCP41, BCP109

Bowman 1992 Throwbacks:
BT1, BT2, BT8, BT12, BT15, BT19, BT20, BT25, BT26, BT29, BT31, BT34, BT36, BT40, BT42, BT43, BT44, BT45, BT50, BT52, BT53, BT54, BT56, BT57, BT58, BT61, BT64, BT67, BT69, BT70, BT71, BT73, BT77, BT80, BT82, BT84, BT86, BT90, BT92, BT93, BT97, BT98, BT99, BT104, BT105, BT107, BT110

Topps 100 prospects:
TP2, TP3, TP7, TP10, TP11, TP12, TP17, TP19, TP20, TP23, TP25, TP26, TP28, TP31, TP32, TP34, TP37, TP38, TP40, TP41, TP43, TP45, TP46, TP48, TP49, TP52, TP54, TP57, TP62, TP63, TP66, TP69, TP74, TP75, TP80, TP83, TP85, TP90, TP99

Bowman expectations:
BE9, BE11, BE18, BE20, BE24, BE26, BE29, BE33, BE35, BE37, BE38, BE40, BE41, BE43, BE47

Bowman USA Baseball:

USA-BC6, USA-BC17, USA-BC20

Bowman 18U National team:
USA18-BC1, USA18-BC4, USA18-BC5, USA18-BC18

lists updates 7/25

Up next

I have a few things in the mail as we speak. A couple Bowman purples a few Bowman blues that were too cheap to pass up and a 36-pack gravity feed box of '10 Bowman. Stupid Holiday weekend delaying my goodies. j/k. The 4th is actually one of my fav holidays. When else do you get to blow shit up and not have your neighbors look at you sideways?

Back at it again

After hearing a few quiet whispers I had to stop and think about it. Cards. Cards. "Atlanta has this kid Heyward.....blahblahblah." A few weeks go by. I had it contained. Then the mania began. Then the Strasburg Superfractor story was plastered all over Yahoo news. "Whats wrong with buying a few cards, maybe you'll get lucky" I tell myself. "it will only be a few packs, nothing more"........ damnit where is the shutoff switch for my brain.

I had no idea where to buy baseball cards. I hadn't bought so much as a pack since the craziness that was the '98 McGwire-Sosa home run-fest. "I know, swing by Target since you have to head that way" was what my uneducated brain began blurting out. Sure enough they had a small card section near the checkouts. "Where to begin?" I asked myself. They had some Topps products, a few assorted packs, nothing that begged to be opened.

I ended up buying a few of the combo packs that contained 10 packs from assorted companys
and assorted years, along with a couple of the Topps '10 series 2. Seemed like a nice well rounded start to an evil habit. And as I walk up to the checkout lane a stranger approached me.

"Whatcha doing with those cards?" he asked.
"Just helping my 'cousin' start his own card collection" I replied tongue-in-cheek
"If you're looking for real cards go to this place up on 34 in Aberdeen" he retorts. "Speak to my buddy Bob"

Damn that random man and his enabling ways. Damn him. Without his interference I could have just bought my crappy cards and been done with it in a few days. But no. He sends me to
a baseball card Mecca. I walk in and introduce myself to the sports dept. manager and tell him of my plight. He introduces me to the wonderful world of '10 Bowman. lol.

It turns out, that in my 13 or so year sabbatical from even looking at cards, that a lot had changed. Gone were Donruss, Fleer and Score. Replaced by Bowman who I thought went out of business sometime in the early '50s and Topps. And not just plain old Topps. 897 varieties of Topps in every color of the rainbow. Old looking Topps. New looking Topps. More Topps than you could shake a stick at. I asked him what was up with all of the Topps and he explained how they were pretty much it anymore. I asked what was up with the Bowman and he let me in on all of the details and showed me some of the set and the inserts.

"Oooooh, shiny!" is what the little voice in my head exclaimed. "I'll take 6 of the Bowman and some of those and some of those and a couple of those" Grrrrrrrrrrrr I replied to the little voice.
Grrrrrrrrrrrr indeed.

A few weeks and countless packs and visits to feebay later here I stand. I've decided to stick with the cards but in a more controlled way. No more just buying cards to buy them. No more shopping 'til all hours of the night online. I've come to the conclusion that I really like the '10 Bowman purple refractors and that they will be a nice little subset to collect. To hell with it, I'm trying to put together ALL of the '10 Bowmans sets up to the purple. Maybe even the blue refs if the purple prove to be "too easy". lol.