Unlock, Number Two!

From Topps Million Card Giveaway, i unlocked my second card. Another player i had never heard of, so off to Google to educate myself, about Mr. Howard, here is what i found out:

He got to play his first major league game at age 20 in 1963 with the White Sox. He remained a White Sox for five seasons and his best years were 1965 (9-8 3.47era 120K in 148IP) & 1966 (9-5 2.30era 85K in 149IP) very respectable numbers. Then i am not sure what happen in 67 he went 3-10 and then in 68 he got bounced around on three teams, to call it a career at the age of 25. The highlight that caught my attention was in 1966 he had four complete games and two shut outs.

This Week in Cardboarding

Welcome to This Week in Cardboarding, this week i went with a blaster from Target minus the Commemorative Patch card since i already sent it off to Roll Out the Barrel and forgot to scan it. I really wish the Target version of 2010 Topps were the standard Topps card. The cardboard just feels like a baseball card should, and i love the classic logo with the giant hook. I really wish that the whole blaster was full of these instead of just two packs. Oh well, on to the break:

Pack 1

got a Johnny Bench, but i got the original so ...

Pack 2

Eleven target style cards in two packs, not bad but since they are pretty much an insert set themselves, why not have all 16 cards be the Target style cards?

Pack 3

Topps, please, enough with this pose for Ichiro cards
my first Pablo card - Kung Fu Panda - great nickname

Pack 4

Turkey card, nothing else exciting

Pack 5

Crawford-Rickey insert
Sweeeet!
and a Reggie :)
best pack of the blaster

Pack 6

Ichiro about to be attack, but in a good way
my second redemption :)
Butler looking the ball in the glove, fundamentals baby

Pack 7

Palmer original back and Pujols Gold

Great and unique photo on the Twins team card
Ruiz nice action shot

Pack 8

Turkey Lincecum, looks like Topps took two steps to the left, back when they took the photo for the 2009 Turkey and said that will be next years Turkey - so pathetic

Pack 9

Thomas-Fielder insert, REALLY Topps
an insert double in a blaster :(
Rangers team card showing off the fun of playing
Yunel getting some air - nice photo

Pack 10

McCutchen :) with the Uuuuu-gly trophy :(
why Topps, why such a horrible change????

I don't know why but i slammed Topps quite a bit this week, i still enjoyed opening the blaster. Though looking back and writing up the post, the negativity just flowed out, but i guess when your the only company you deserve all the criticism. I guess they should step up their game or the hobby will die or maybe and hopefully, MLB decides against a baseball card monopoly. I still really like the base cards but the little things are adding up and the reprints (cards your mom threw away) just bug me, i would rather have another base card. As always, thanks for checking out This Week in Cardboarding.

Milestone

I have reached a 100 different Evan Longoria cards. THANK YOU! to all you wonderful bloggers who helped me get here. Roll out the Barrel posted a blaster break of 2010 Topps Heritage and a Longoria SP he pulled. I sent an email and a deal was struck. Over the weekend I counted my Longoria cards because I knew I was getting close to the milestone, so when it came up 99, i was like sweet i didn't miss the 100th card to my collection (i even doubled checked to make sure). So yesterday when a package arrived from Barrel, i was psyched. I knew that my 100th Longoria card was inside, but the package was a little bigger than expected. I was amazed when i opened it because there was a plethora of player collection cards, tailored made to me. He definitely went above and beyond and i will be putting together another package to even things out. Thank you, that was very nice and i really appreciate it. On to the goodies:

The New PC

My 100th & 101st Evan Longoria Cards
SWEEEEEET!!!

three BJ cards
and
three Cl Cf cards
GReeeeat!! additions
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!

The Dups

You may notice the 07 Ultra CC in both the new and old
(he sent me two :)

Random Rays

My first Delmon Young Rookie cards

All Time Favs

two Reggie cards
the A's one talks about 1969 but features a photo from 1987
Silly Topps
Reggie set his career high in runs in 1969 with 123

six Ryno cards
favs - 2002 Topps Gallery and Fleer Greats
PROBLEM - they both have different career stats on the back

Topps 270 HR and Fleer 282 HR
(all numbers are different)
Winner Fleer
according baseballreference.com
and baseball-almanac.com and cubdom.com
Really Topps
that's kind of sad

fourteen Kirby cards (all shown are new)
fav - UD CC Checklist - Stylin Art Card
WOW! a checklist, now that's a checklist

second fav of Puck - 96 UD
Kirby playing infield
Great action shot, too

three Rickey cards
and
four Carlton cards (all new)
fav - Goodwin, amazing color
and shot of him about to pitch
great classic feel to it

four Bench cards
fav - Legends of the Game
Great photo
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!!

Thanks so much, and like i said earlier, i will be sending you another package

This Week in Cardboarding

Welcome to This Week in Cardboarding! This week i ebayed another Rays team set and three extras - the Mascot insert, Longoria Blue and Longoria Bazooka insert. Upton and Longoria weren't in 2010 Topps series one, so i was really excited to see them before series two came out :) I had a slight problem with damage to some of the cards, the bottom left corner of every card in the team set was dinged. I imagine because they weren't protected by cardboard. My Heritage set was sent protected. Not sure if anyone has dealt with TNT Sportscards, but they did replace the team set. The interesting thing about it, is i sent an email when i first got the cards and then i wait three days which i felt was an adequate amount of time and sent another requesting some service. They actually snapped at me like i knew they were sending me a replacement set.

we replaced the team set. We have been rather busy. Would you rather have had me send you repeated emails and not replace the item? Please send back the damaged goods.

I honestly didn't know how to respond to that, so i didn't, but i kind of wanted to tell them they wouldn't get multiple emails if they responded to the first email and probably wouldn't get any if they protected the cards they send out. Neither time did they put cardboard with the cards for protection. Needless to say i won't be shopping them anymore. The Longoria Blue upper left corner is white, it was shipped in thick top loader with the other two inserts without penny savers, so they were sliding around quite a bit when i got them. Its not worth the hassle of dealing with them anymore so i will just move on and enjoy my pretty blue Rays card and the rest of the Opening Day goodies i got.

I really like the Longoria photo, the ball about to hit the bat
the Upton is nice too
but what i really like is that almost all the cards have the same uni
that makes for a really nice overall look

Thanks for checking out TWIC.

Mets for Player Collection

Mets enthusiast Rob M. contacted me asking if i had some Mets i could send him for a few Ichiro cards. Well for some odd reason i kept forgetting to email him, not once but twice, but he was patient with me (much appreciated) and he even added a bunch of cards i could use for my other player collections.

First up, BJ - a great vintage look with 07 Bowman Heritage
my first card from this set and me like
the black outline with the airbrush effect uni
nice

Rob then followed up with 5 Crawford cards
an 03 SP Authentic - very nice card
and my second 07 Bowman Heritage
the 07 AS mentions that CC
was the first Ray to hit HR in the AS game
TAMPA DON'T LET HIM GO!!!!
then the base Topps in 09 and 10
Thank you very much, all are cherished

and he bumped up the Ichiro cards from two to ten
Sweeeeeeet!!

Starting off with a 2001 Nestle card - oddball cards are always fun
the shiny 02 Donruss Elite is also great
the design of the 03 SP Authentic is very clean
i like the font on the Artifacts card
Ichiro accepting his AS MVP Award in full suit
two 2010 inserts,
showed the back of the card that my mom has never seen
and the Commemorative Patch
finally i got one that i want
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!!

Thanks for the Greeeeeat additions!!
Your package is going out Saturday

You voted, and I Kept

I LoVe Fantasy Baseball, after all it was the gate way that brought me back into collecting. So i wanted to share some cool news since this post will be all fantasy.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Fantasy Baseball TV SHOW

MLB.com's Fantasy 411 to Air Daily on MLB Network and MLB.com
Starting April 6 - 5pm ET

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A TV show all about Fantasy Baseball, truly amazing and super exciting. I have been listening to 411 since 05 and enjoy the show immensely. If you don't get MLB TV they will be broadcasting live via MLB.com at the same time.

My 2010 Keepers
Decided by you wonderful people who read my blog
according to mlb.com all five are in their top 30
A Rod 4, Kemp 8, Wright 14, Holliday 18, Morales 27
(not to bad)
The League is a
12 team standard 5x5 28 man roster
C (2),1B,2B,3B,SS,CI,MI,OF (5), U, P (9), B (5)

After last season i asked for input on my keepers. I have left the results in my sidebar and last night was my draft. The draft started off with three or four people having trouble signing in and staying in the draft room, but we made our way through it. Two no shows but one was a little expected because he did the same thing last and lead for most of the season only to finish in second. Pretty amazing considering he finished last the season before. So i imagine he figured he was really good at pre-ranking players and decided to do it again. You do what works :) The other was there for two picks but said jet lag was killing him and called it a night. He ended up with three DHs Matsui, Guerrero and Ortiz, should of had preset, (Forrest Gump voice) that's all i have to say about that. The most shocking thing was Heyward went in the seventh round and Strasburg went in the eighth. I took Chapman in the 24th.

I had a plan and pretty much stuck to it but i got greedy early. Which sent me a little out of whack but i think i recovered nicely only to be overwhelmed after the 20th round with to many choices never feeling i choose correctly. I went in with the plan to get two solid closers in the first ten rounds and go heavy in hitting. By round 16 have three starters and two catchers. That way i would only be missing two outfielders and my utility.

I went in with two plans for my strategy, plan A was starting off with elite closer, cough..Broxton and if someone grabbed him before me Plan B was to grab a Second baseman in the sixth. Well Broxton got grabbed quickly, I was afraid of that, so off to Plan B. I had the choice of Zobrist and Beckham, a Ray or a Player collector, decisions, decisions - so natural i went Gordon Beckham.

Here is where i got greedy, i was planning on taking Pence in the seventh, imagining McCutchen wouldn't be available but i was afraid that maybe both would be available and sought out professional help from Cory Schwartz of Fantasy 411. I am huge Schwartz believer and value hitting way over pitching. I even earned two Yoo-hoo Showers last year thanks to that logic.

So i grabbed McCutchen because I needed speed a little more and wasn't planning on drafting it later. Back to being greedy, i was really hoping to grab Pence in the eighth round. Like i said i was being greedy, well it went to the spot right before me, i'm getting all excited and then Pence disappeared, gosh darn it. I really wanted Pence, like really, age 27 year, i think he is going to be a monster and go off.

So instead of sticking to my plain and taking a closer, i am thinking hitter because i wanted Pence, so hitter is on the brain, so i grab Elvis Andrus, early, not crazy early, but still early. Now i am off schedule and out of whack. Eight rounds and no pitching okay focus, take Heath Bell in the 9th, got a solid closer with good strike out numbers. Then Alexi goes, golly gee willikers, there goes my round ten guy. Do i go pitcher or grab MI, Billingsley is my rd 11 plan but Brian Wilson sitting right there, this will put me back on track with two good closers in the first ten rounds. I go for power with Jose Lopez, why? i am still unsure, Wilson is snatched up on the next pick. Fudge :(

I straighten out by taking SP 11, 12, 13 Billingsley, AJ Burnett, Dela Rosa. This was part of plan A taking SP 11-13. Billingsley and De La are in their second year with my team. 14 and 16 i got my catchers Suzuki and Napoli.

I really wanted to grab Ian Stewart in the 15th but i needed a second closer, so i opted for Qualls. Good thing too, because M Gonzo, Aardsma, and Lidge were the next 3 closer taken in 6 picks. I guess grabbing a closer was a wise idea. Back on schedule.

17 Floyd (4th SP), 18 Blanks, right where i wanted him (4th OF), 19 Nunez (not crazy about him but wanted a third closer), 20 Harang (lets hope for 200ks again).

There is so much luck in the late rounds that i never really sweat it, just fill in holes. Just hope i get lucky with a few of my picks and if not i usually just drop guys and play pitch or ditch, or pick up a player to fill the roster on off days. That said, I wish i would have got Magglio i kept saying next round, only to lose him in the 22nd.

21 Glaus (early i know but he has been looking good so far this spring) 22 Barmes, Magglio went the pick right before me (this was a filler since Beckham won't have 2B for the first week or so)

23 Austin Jackson (why not take a chance on the young lad)



24 Chapman (why not this late) 25 Cameron (got me a Red Sox)

26 Sean Rodriguez
(had to have a Ray and why not someone who is killing the ball)
27 Ryan Madison and 28 Randy Wells

Here is what my team looks like

Kurt Suzuki, Oak C
Mike Napoli, LAA C
Kendry Morales, LAA 1B
Jose Lopez, Sea 2B
David Wright, NYM 3B
Elvis Andrus, Tex SS
Clint Barmes, Col 2B
Alex Rodriguez, NYY 3B
Matt Holliday, StL OF
Matt Kemp, LAD OF
Andrew McCutchen, Pit OF
Kyle Blanks, SD OF
Austin Jackson, Det OF
Gordon Beckham, CWS 3B

Heath Bell, SD RP
Chad Billingsley, LAD SP
A.J. Burnett, NYY SP
Jorge De La Rosa, Col SP
Chad Qualls, Ari RP
Gavin Floyd, CWS SP
Leo Nunez, Fla RP
Aaron Harang, Cin SP
Ryan Madson, Phi RP
Troy Glaus, Atl 3B
Aroldis Chapman, Cin SP
Mike Cameron, Bos OF
Sean Rodriguez, TB OF
Randy Wells, ChC SP

Wish me health and luck and i hope you enjoyed my first fantasy post. Good Luck to all of you Fantasy Players.

sruchris strikes again

sruchris made a comment on a recent TWIC, that he needed some help with the 09 UD Update. Once on his site, i got into a zone of looking through his need list for UD sets, and offered up a bunch of 07 help along with some 06 and 09 and even included a few 2010 Topps cards. Here was my return, some great additions to my player collections:

Longo looking so mad, the orange doesn't help
a beautiful BJ chrome refractor
a great looking Flair card

Beckham time, uuuuu-gly trophy, but nice photo
had the mini now have the regular
Awesome cards
Thank You, Thank You!!

Cl Cf additions
the 2000 Bowman chrome is a very nice shiny
great swinging shot of CC with topps total

Great dive on the Turkey
i love how they kept the hat with shades in frame on the mini
another Documentary that doesn't mention
the player in the photo - baffling
the A&G has great contrast with the red
and the 2010 topps is an amazing action shot
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!!

Addict supplying

Pack Addict had a three pack break of Opening Day and pulled a Topps Attack Longoria. I inquired with some 2010 Topps set help for it and then found the Piece of History Longoria further in his blog and offered up some Ichiro cards for his player collection. He included a great surprise and i am truly thankful for it.

Some sweet additions to my Longoria Collection:

The Documentary is interesting
because it doesn't even mention Longoria on the back
Tampa Bay fell to 1-6 to start September as Boston climbed
to one-half game of the Division leaders. Carlos Pena smacked his 20th double of the year.
but regardless its a great photo
and very welcome addition to my PC
The Piece of history marks October 2, 2008 when
he became just the second player ever to homer in each of his first two postseason at-bats.
The scan doesn't do the Topps Attack justice,
it really has a nice shine to it
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!

Thanks so much they are all great

Redemptions

I scored an Autograph Redemption of Emmanuel Burris from a blaster of Stadium back in late October. Then in February i got an email saying they were behind and if i wanted a replacement i should call. So i called only to be told they finally got it and it would ship out in three weeks. Well yesterday i finally received it and for the life of me, can't understand a single part of the autograph.

the E, i guess its an E, since it is the first letter,
looks like an S or an incomplete 8
then i can see a lower case L or is a giant lower case e
then he drew a star, well almost a star
then he started a B but made another eight followed by a z
WTF!!!!
the back of the card says
he was former NCAA swipes leader (42) for Kent State
he went to college and still can't even write his name

I have had high hopes for Emmanuel in fantasy, especially last year, only to be completely wrong. What was i expecting from someone who can't even write his own name.

Mr. Burriss, Topps this weak, really really weak.

So i decided to do some research since i am slamming Topps - yep Topps deserves it - never is there a Z at the end - a phone call will be made this Monday to see what happens. I seriously question the authenticity of this redemption because of all the variation compared to the other autos i researched. The player is lazy but why blame Topps? Simple, doesn't Topps pay the players. Shouldn't they be setting some kind of standard? I believe Topps should have some integrity and pride in the product they are putting out and since they are paying the player they have the power to decide if the player is doing the job and earning the money.

Why i am i so upset, because it is suppose to be an autograph not a mark. I, as the consumer, want an autograph not a mark. Since when is writing 5 random letters a signature, where is the pride in your autograph. Hate to be the bearer of bad news but this is a mark not an autograph. Players have become laaaazy and disgrace themselves with such antics. I usually avoid autographs because of what i expect the price to be, but players using marks instead of actually autographing is definitely another reason. That is why i don't have a Carl Crawford auto yet because Cl Cf is not an auto in my mind.

Autograph


Mark

Why do collectors put up with this? This really amazes me.

Opening Day Blues

No i am not sad, actually i am super excited about Opening Day!

Even more excited about Topps Opening Day.

Topps has Gold, but 2010 Topps Opening Day has Blue and Rays cards look magnificent in the Blue. A match made in cardboard heaven. So when BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet had a Blue Wade Davis posted from a break of his, I immediately inquired when i saw such a beautiful card. He said sure and off went a bunch of Mets and here is what i received:

Along with the fabulous Blue, he include the base and an extra Ray

He then added three very nice Aki cards
Thank You, Thank You very much!

BA Benny also added six more 2009 Topps Chrome i needed - taking my need list down to 2

two promising Rangers rookies
two Red Sox cards
and Mauer and Lowe

Great bunch of cards - THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!!

This Week in Cardboarding

This Week in Cardboarding i found a discounted blaster of stadium at my local Target. There weren't any hits but each pack did have one card i needed. So instead of posting each pack i will just feature the eight new cards, here they are:

Kazmir is my favorite photo of the bunch
would probably look better on a landscape card
and i finally got an Ellsbury
a pair of Astros with Berkman and Tejada
Berkman back handing a grounder with the shades on
definitely a unique photo
Webb and Young illustrating the leisure moments of the game
i've said before and i'll say it again
i love the photography of this set

and some of the doubles i got that i like - just to add some more pretty pictures to the post

Thanks for checking out TWIC.

This Week in Cardboarding

Three packs of 2010 Heritage.... sort of. Actually, seeing many bloggers buying packs at four dollars, made me think, maybe i should take a different path with heritage this year. For the price of three packs twelve dollars, here is what i scored:

one base team set and a chrome refractor Longo

Although I don't usually chase team sets, it was nice knocking off so many player collections from a purchase that was the equivalent of a hobby pack. The only bad thing was that shipping for the two buy it now auctions was essentially the price of a pack or what i will call the invisible third pack. So pack one was the nonSp Team Set and pack two becomes the Longoria Refractor 066/561. For the Rays I am still missing the SPs, which are Price 426, Garza 435, Longoria 439, Madden 461, Garza (ALCS MVP) 485 and for my player collections I would still like the Gordon Beckham and maybe all the cards that feature that giant trophy. I am really diggin the trophies in Heritage - I hate the base Topps trophies this year, they are Uuuuuuu-gly. I will be passing on Ichiro this year in Heritage at least the base because I already have the photo from the card like ten times. Seriously Topps take/find a new picture of Ichiro . I don't care if it is a technically a different stadium, the same shot/pose in five straight years (probably more, my collection isn't all that extensive) of cards is cheap, pathetic, insulting and uncreative. Way to show you have no integrity Topps.

Hey MLB, this is something collectors would be happy about. Next time you make a monopoly, try and set some guidelines that would actually make collectors happy. Since you seem all proud that you know what makes them happy, by the way you obviously don't. For this collector, having ten cards with the same photo makes me not so happy, actual it's very irritating. Having ten cards with ten different photos makes me happy. That said the Sporting News Ichiro is very cool and i hope to acquire it sometime. Rant over.

Thanks for reading This Week in Cardboarding.