Welcome Home Carlos!!!

Okay, as always I am a little on the draw, but I felt like I needed to acknowledge this signing... Last week or month, or whenever it was, I wrote a long, long post about the Luke Scott signing... Disgruntled fan type stuff. I was seriously pissed off that the Rays weren't bringing back Damon and I felt that Scott was a huge downgrade from Kotchman offensively and defensively... I put together a list of 20 different free agents that I would rather the Rays went after who would be more productive, more beneficial to the team, more versatile and likely cheaper than Luke Scott. One of the name's on the list was Carlos Pena.Yes, he who barely lives atop the Mendoza line and strikes out more often than (insert clever zing here)...

I do acknowledge his shortcomings and know that Pena doesn't mean a World Championship, BUT he is a solid first baseman, a good lefthanded bat, a solid team leader, clubhouse guy and fan favorite and a guy who can provide real protection for Zobrist and Longoria. It allows Matt Joyce to stay in rightfield and Zobrist to live in the infield with Sean Rodriguez. Of course Tampa Bay still really needs a catcher, but now the brass can concentrate on filling that hole. I can live with DH by committee, but would be much happier if they did the right thing and brought Johnny Damon back...

Time will tell, but I am damn excited about the 2012 season. Pitchers and catchers will be rolling into town very soon and I will be there to greet them... Posts are sitting in the folder in wait... I keep saying I am back, but I keep on disappearing, so I will stop making false claims... I will just say that I love this hobby, I love this forum and I damn sure LOVE this wonderful game of baseball and this season is gonna be super special for me.

Why you ask? Well, I will tell you... My super awesome wife is starting a new (and much more lucrative) job this Monday. She will be working the same schedule as me and we will both be home at nights and just in time for the standard 7:05 start time... Aside from that my awesome Mother-in-law got us a sweet HD TV for Christmas and today my Wifey surprised me by getting cable installed INCLUDING the MLB Season Pass in HD!!!!!!! Did I mention that I love my Wife?

As an endnote - many of my wantlists have been cleaned up and updated AND I have introduced a NEW list... I am now chasing (and documenting said chase) 1979 Topps.

I had sort of forgotten about this quest until Scott from Smed's Cards hit me up with a surprise package of over 100 cards from that glorious set. A HUGE thanks to Senor Smed's for the awesomeness!!! I will, someday, post up some of the super sweet cardboard that Mr. Smed has shared with me...

Also, big ups to my homie the Cardboard Don who supplied the C. Pena illustration at the top of this post... I am very excited about Pena coming home, for real! I fully expect him to deposit 40 blasts into the rightfield seats at the Trop in 2012... It wasn't too long ago that as a member of the Rays Carlos Pena has been a Silver Slugger, Gold Glove, All Star, Comeback Player of the Year and homerun champion... Lets do it all again Los! Cheers to all! I love it! Go Rays!!! troll out.

1,200 Words on Football???

Good evening Trollites!!! How is everyone doing? Worn out from a weekend of playoff football? Regular readers know that I am not a football guy. I don’t collect football cards and I don’t follow the sport too much. I don’t dislike it, it’s just nott baseball… I actually do have a favorite team and try to watch them every Sunday. This year my Mother-In-Law bought herself an early Christmas treat – a 46” HD TV. I have been on her couch most Sundays since. She is a die-hard fan of the same team as me. Her boyfriend is a Dolphins fan. Her family (who all live in Michigan) are big Lions fans. Her and I cheer for a team that managed to lose it’ s last 10 games perfectly, without a win mixed in. Yeah, I love the Bucs, as embarrassing as that is right now, I do love my Buccaneers…

I have been really lucky to watch them get their butts kicked in High Definition… It makes the bad plays look worse, for sure. Their final game was straight up pathetic – like they had stopped trying all together… I don’t think their head couch was the cause of their horrible play, but he took the blame and got the ax. I liked Coach Morris… I have pewter-colored glasses but I do have a grasp on reality. I know they aren’t a playoff contender, but I also know they aren’t as bad as they played the last 3 months. I hope/they will bounce back in 2012…

Anyway, with them out of the picture I had to adopt some teams to root for through the playoffs… I picked two teams for two different reasons and nearly as soon as I dedicated myself a fan, I promptly watched each of them exit the playoff picture quickly… I was very disappointed in both the Lions and Falcons… I thought each of them would put up a better fight. Since they were done so quick – I let myself ride on the coattails of one more team.

More than anything I just wanted to see somebody knock Tim Tebow out, so a Steelers fan I became. The game had its moments, but Pittsburgh’s 4th quarter comeback was the most exciting 15 minutes of sports I had witnessed since the World Series. I got WAY into it. When they tied it up and forced overtime I could hardly contain myself and my excitement. It was unbelievable and soooo awesome. Of course before I finished texting the message “the Steelers just forced sudden death overtime, your done teb…” Yeah, didn’t even finish the message before Tebow connected and sealed the Steelers coffin.

So, yeah Denver won and they advance, as did the Giants against Atlanta… Football isn’t so bad after all… I don’t know what team I will adopt yet. If someone can beat the Broncos or the Pats – that is the team I will be cheering…

Anyhoo, I have been trying to prep for my ongoing Trade Me Anything endeavor. I am working on getting the guidelines together which will be the first post; I am also working on getting singles and lots together. I hope that some of you will participate in this. I will probably try and post singles first, so they are easier to ship. I do have some big lots o’ cards. I would love to find someone who wants a big starter lot for 2011 Topps Updates. Get in touch if you are that guy (or gal). I also have some 2007 and 2008 Topps Heritage that I would love to find a proper home for. I (seriously) have over 1,000 cards for each year. No short prints, but pretty much a full base set of each year, plus a ton of dupes. If you wanna chase either of these – I would be glad to transfer ownership to anyone who would be willing to pay to ship them. Speaking of lots – I am retroactively chasing 2008 and 2009 Topps and 2006 and 2007 Allen and Ginter… I have (literally) a few cards from each set and I will be making up want lists for each set before I begin the “2012 Troll’s Trade Me Anything”.

Oh, one last thing, before I sign off, in honor the football playoffs I am going to giveaway the ONLY football card I have sitting in my collection. Some of you may remember a little while back when I posted a pic of me as a little kid walking alongside Doug Flutie… The Pats trained at Bryant College in Smithfield, Rhode Island. That is where my big sister went to school and while she was attending I would spend the weekend in her dorm room and spend the days watching the Pats train while gathering a ton of autographs. I had a pennant signed by the ENTIRE team. I got a helmet and had that signed by nearly the entire team. I only had cards of 4 different players, but I got all of them signed. They didn’t have a ton of stars, but they did find themselves in the Super Bowl that year. They didn’t put up too much of a fight, but they were there. I think I do still have autos from Tony Franklin and Andre Tippett somewhere (probably at my parents house) but this is the only one in my house.

This card isn’t in mint condition. The corners are soft and there is some light creasing, but it is still an on-card auto of a Pro-Bowl running back who made it to the Super Bowl. I can’t believe I am even acknowledging this, but Wikipedia cites him as being the last “white player” to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season… If you thought that this "white dude" had topped 1,000 yards, his high was 949 yards rushing in 1999. He did have 1188 total yards, but didn't hit 1,000 rushing... Anyhow, if you want this card – make a comment on this post. Tell me who you are rooting for to go all the way, OR tell me who you want to see get beat badly this year…

So yeah, if you want this Craig James autographed card, just comment HERE. If for some reason more than one person wants it, I will put the names in a hat and pick a winner. You have till I get home from work to comment. That means around 6:00 PM Eastern on Monday night. If you wanna drop a comment and tell me if you think that the Bucs are just a good head couch away from the Super Bowl, go ahead and say that, too...

As always, thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions for me on TMA, drop me a line HERE. If you want my Heritage dupes – drop me a line… If you have a 2011 Sean Rodriguez RAINBOW – my mailing address is on the sidebar. You may send it to me. No real need to drop me a line, but ya could…

Oh, if you "win" the card, I need yer address. Send it to me in an e-mail right HERE, It will ship out in a top loader in a PWE with a single FOREVER stamp on it...

Una cosa mas... I wouldn't mind having a few current Bucs cards in my collection. Not too many, nothing fancy, but a page worth in the Rays binder would be pretty neat. I feel the same way about the Lightning and the OKC THUNDER!

GO RAYS!!! Troll out.

Trying To Be a Good Person... A Non Card Post...

So my first post of the New Year isn’t gonna be about baseball cards…

The wife and housemates and I (we live in a split level duplex over a 3-car garage) are ALL packrats (HOARDERS!!!) by nature. We are sentimental to a fault, we all collect all kinds of things, we are crafty and collect broken things that may or may not someday become an art project and we have all had roommates who have left things behind which we have housed for many years. Anyway, last month we decided to PURGE!!! We have a sweet pool table in our garage which we hadn’t played all year because of all the junk. We also have a live band area, but hadn’t had a party all year, again because of the junk. Last month we had a very successful yard sale which eliminated TONS of stuff. We made HUGE Salvation Army donations, donated a bunch of kitchen stuff to a local women’s shelter and made our yearly stuffed animal and baseball card donation to the Children’s Hospital. The past 2 weeks we have been playing pool like crazy and enjoying our space once again.

We still, of course have much more to get rid of, but some of the bigger stuff has a little value to it, so I decided to list on Craig’s List rather than “blow-out” at the yard sale. I had some kid’s furniture (toddler bed, changing table, etc) that I haven’t used in 15 years that was taking up a lot of space so I crafted a listing for it last night. I put it into two separate lots and asked 60 OBO for each lot. I thought they were really fair prices, plus 60 bucks could REALLY help us out right now. Well, within minutes of posting a woman called me. She had a special situation and was looking for help. Her and her husband were out of work and they had two young daughters.

They were evicted from their apartment and lost everything. They moved in with family, but the girls had nothing. Wow. That naturally hit me right in the heart and I wanted to help her. I told her I felt for her, but I, too, needed money. I said that if I didn’t get any offers on the stuff the next day I would give her a really good deal on everything. She thanked me profusely and I forgot about it for the night. This morning, at 7 AM, I got a text message from her husband. He told me they REALLY needed everything, that they had money and please it for them. In the mean-time I got messages from 8 other parties who were VERY interested in the items. I replied to every single person saying that I wouldn’t be home till 6 PM and I had an appointment then.

I got home from work around 5:30 and within a few minutes the lady I had spoken with was there (she was with her husband). They were driving a van, a fairly new, very nice looking van – not really indicative of a struggling family, but they may have borrowed it from someone since they were planning on picking up some big stuff. Anyway, she checked everything out, said it was all perfect and asked what I needed for everything. I told her that I was 60 dollars each, so the two lots would be $120. I told her I wanted to help her out, but I had a number of other people who were interested, too and I really needed some money myself. She told me she couldn’t afford $120, but asked for my lowest price on a single lot. I told her I could go down to $40. She agreed and thanked me and nodded for her husband to pay me.

He pulled a fifty dollar bill from his pocket and asked if I had change. I was broke and didn’t. I wished I had told her 50 bucks and not 40 that would have made things easier. I suggested to the husband that he go to a nearby convenience store to get change and I started loading things into their van. I chatted with the woman a bit more, asked some questions about her daughters and felt more and more like I needed to help her out. To make a long story short – the man never got change for the 50 and he didn’t need to. I agreed to let her take it all for $50. She seemed overjoyed. Her husband barely smiled. He gave me the fifty dollar bill and I tucked it into my pocket and helped them load the van.

I was pretty psyched to clear so much garage space – although I was a little bummed that I came away with less than half of what I had expected. I really could have used the money, BUT I felt good having helped out a couple in need.

I shut the garage down and headed upstairs to cancel the Craig’s List ads and let the wife know that the items were sold and I had 50 bucks. This was the point when I pulled the bill out of my pocket and realized that it was fake… WTF????

On an unrelated topic... ALL my wantlists are up to date. Trade me anything bait is coming... Not sure how I am gonna do it - e-mail me with suggestions if you are so inclined... Happy New Year!

Go Rays! Troll out.

A Great Day to be a Troll...

One year ago today a baby boy named Atlas Ray was born and your friend The Troll became a Grandpa... Yeah, this time last year the wife and I were in Oklahoma City visiting with my son Zadeh and his awesome other half Holly... Y'all might remember there was a contest involved. I wanted to celebrate getting my 100,000th hit AND the birth of my grandchild. This time last year I was a much better blogger.

I wrote often and had a ton of friends and followers and I wanted to say thanks. We gave away a trio of Hall of Fame cards from 1956 Topps including this card of Al Kaline. I think there were around 150 entries - it was pretty awesome. There will probably be another contest here in Trollville very soon. You see, I have this 1887 Allen and Ginter mini that I am itching to giveaway. I just haven't decided how just yet, but I am open to suggestions... So, happy birthday to you Atlas Ray! You and your Daddy make me SOOO happy!!! Oh... By the way - I am still looking for the 2010 Allen and Ginter Lords of Olympus mini of Atlas... Anybody got a spare???

Today being Atlas' B-Day is more than enough to make today a GREAT day to be a Troll... Today could have been better - the wife and I are on opposite schedules today and I miss her a bit, BUT I did get to see my Father (shown here on Graduation Day with my tall Wife and my short Mom) which is always a treat. It didn't end there either... I decided to stop at the Post Office and I had a surprise package from the Legendary Cardboard Don himself, Senor Wicked Ortega... Wicked and I have both slowed down our collections a bit and we have gone far too long between trades... I have a stack of cards with his name on it that has been growing for months, but I have been SO LAZY with my trading of late... Anyway - A package from the Cardboard Don will make anyone's day and he certainly made my day greater!!! Thanks sooo much Wicked! I will post this trade up soon, I have updated my wantlists - he punished my insert needs for 2010 Topps and 2011 Topps and hooked it up for my Allen and Ginter Frankenset (which I have thankfully been recieving quite a few minis of late...). There were a ton of GREAT cards included, but the one I am gonna show right now is the FINAL Kimball Champion card I needed to finish off 2011 Topps Series 1. I have been begging for card #25 of Vlad Guerrero for months and it is finally safe in the binder. I do seriously plan on posting this trade, but I know my history so I can't resist posting a couple right now... I LOVE the Vintage Legends Cards from 2010 Topps. Ty Cobb styled like 1956 Topps - how cool is that??? I need MANY, but I crossed off a few today... One series that I didn't rip any of, but kinda wish I did is Gypsy Queen. I LOVE the design on every card I have seen so far including my very first mini card of my FAVORITE Rays pitcher, the pride of Lake Wales, Florida - Wade Davis... Thanks again to the Cardboard Don, you rule my friend! Thanks for reading. Much more to come - stay tuned! Oh, I couldn't resist going old school with a photo of my boy Zadeh from Christmas 1996... Speaking of old school... Check out this young Troll trailing Patriots back-up QB Doug Flutie... And then stealing his shoulder pads, ha! Go Rays! Happy Holidays to All!!! troll out.

Plagiarizing Thorzul, Fanning Manny, Making Me Sing, Sparkling Cards, A LENGTHY Ramble Troll Style...

(In the event that you don't feel like wasting your time reading the next 4000 or so words - ALL of the non-Rays cards in this post are for trade) So, it has been OVER a month since my last post and that wasn’t a REAL TROLL post. Time HAD been very limited, so I had that as an excuse, but the past 2 nights the wife has been away at work and I have had nothing but time. Last night I stared at a blank screen for a while. I made excuses in my head and put the pressure on myself. As a blogger I have been known to write lengthy posts on a daily basis and every time I go a week without posting I feel like I need to write a LONG post explaining why I haven’t. I have written that post several times (without actually posting it). I have written lengthy drafts thanking all the people who have sent me cards this past month, I have drafts explaining what I plan on posting in the near future, I have drafts of trade bait which try to ignore my absence and I have a draft from last night explaining that I have writers block in over 3000 words. None of these are really blog worthy just yet, but be warned that they may see the light of day.

Truth is this long absence has brought out a degree of writer’s block in me. More a lack of confidence than a block, more of an “I have more sh%t going on in my head than I have time to post it”, but it resonates in a block of sorts when I DO have the time. One thing I have learned about “blogger’s block” is that the best way to cure it is to steal someone else’s ideas, BUT don’t make it too obvious. My lack of time has limited my blog reading, so some days I ONLY get to read the Night Owl and Play at the Plate and since you now know that I can’t steal their ideas. No, I should dig deeper… I scanned my blog roll (which has been reduced from 411 blogs, down to 290) and checked out a couple of my old faves and before too long I picked a blog to snatch content and ideas from. The winner (not really a winner, but…) is Thorzul Will Rule.

I traded with TWR a LONG time ago, but otherwise I don’t know the dude, he isn’t really someone I consider a “blogger buddy”, but I still have been a long time reader of his so I don’t mind plagiarizing him, ha!
The first thing that struck me was his side bar “most wanted” list. I remembered that he was a fan of the Brew Crew (as I am to a far lesser degree) and a few years back when Milwaukee rented CC Sabbathia for the stretch run the Mighty Thorzul set on a mission to collect EVERY card of CC in a Brewers uniform. I have (many times) thought about doing this. I suppose that I was on my way to collecting every card of another CC (Carl Crawford) in a Rays uniform. This was a little harder for two reasons. One, this CC spent 11 seasons in the Rays organization and two, when he abandoned the team chasing the almighty dollar – I did the same thing and listed all of my autographs and printing plates on eBay. I can’t go back and buy all of those back in addition to the thousands of cards I don’t have. I would do better by continuing to wait for someone to step up and buy my CC collection. I do still have over 500 CC cards, at least 50 relics and a few autographs still. Okay, he is out.
I have a few ex-Rays that I collect to a certain extent – Joe Kennedy, Jared Sandberg, Dave Martinez, Dewon Brazelton and Quinton McCracken, but those guys aren’t on the CC Sabbathia level. I need a big name if I am gonna steal that idea. The Rays normally don’t rent players and they don’t sign many big names either. Pat Burrell doesn’t count and even though he did a great job as the Rays closer, I didn’t really like Rafael Soriano that much. I wasn’t glad to see him go, BUT I wasn’t sad to see him leave either. As I was thinking about this I was flipping through cards that I needed to scan (and I have a TON of these) and I came across the most recent stack that the ultra-generous Rod from Padrographs had sent me and this shiny card caught my eye. This might fit the bill perfectly. A BIG NAME player who barely had a cup of coffee in Tampa Bay. A dude who ate female hormones and shot the juice, BUT was still one of the best sluggers to EVER swing the bat.

I liked Manny when he was a member of the powerhouse Cleveland Indians teams of the mid-to-late 1990’s. Their line-ups would make any pitcher shake. Think about facing Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel, Manny, Jim Thome, Eddie Murray, Sandy Alomar, Carlos Baerga and Albert Belle…

Damn, that team could hit, but the thing about baseball is great pitching tends to thwart great hitting and the Braves stopped that great hitting in 1995 and in 1997 my team (the Florida Marlins!) stopped them again and the team dismantled. Of course Manny came away okay and he slugged his way back to the World Series with Boston in 2004 and again in 2007.

Now Manny never really impressed me in the World Series. The Marlins had his number in ’97 (he hit .154) and even in ’07 when the Sox ROLLED over the Rockies – Colorado held Manny homerless and kept him to a .250 average. His World Series numbers aren’t too impressive – in 21 games he has a .247 mark with 4 homers and 14 RBI. Yawn. Manny fans could make the argument that he was SO GREAT in the division series and championship series that his teams would have never made the WS, but I am losing perspective here… I will end the Manny postseason discussion by mentioning his 29 postseason homers and his batting average (over .500!) with the Dodgers in 2008.

Yeah, I definitely lost track there… What I was getting at was this – this shiny and awesome Mannywood card that Rod from Padrographs sent me is pretty freaking awesome and it really got me thinking…

Manny is one the greatest sluggers of all time. He drove in 1831 runs over his 17 year career – that puts him in the top-20 of all time and oh yeah, 1 of those runs was driven in for the Rays!!! Yeah, the dude with a .312 career batting average, 548 doubles and 555 career homers was a MESS in Tampa Bay. Even though he only made it into 5 games as a Ray, I must say he let us all down. His 162 game average has him hitting .312 with 39 homers and 128 RBI. For Tampa Bay he had 1 hit and 1 RBI in 17 at-bats. Not pretty. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that his .059 batting average was courtesy of performance enhancing drugs. PATHETIC!!!

He failed a drug test, retired and so ended the Man Ram in Tampa Bay experiment. As a fan I wasn’t thrilled when he signed on with the Rays, but since my love for my team is unconditional I supported their signing of Manny and was totally optimistic about having him in the lineup. Before the season started I started thinking about all the history Manny could have made in a Rays uniform. He was 4 RBIs away from passing Dave Winfield on the All Time list, 6 away from passing Rafael Palmeiro, 7 away from Kid Griffey and just 10 RBI away from passing Ted Williams and moving into #13 on the All Time List!

I started imagining the headlines and envisioning the cards. I started thinking about the Rays facing the Red Sox in the playoffs and Manny dropping a 3-homer game in Boston. Like I said, I wasn’t happy about the signing, but the Rays got him cheap and there was PLENTY of upside. I HATED the steroid era of baseball. Everyone hitting 50 homers totally cheapened the long ball. Barry Bonds and his stupid dangling cross earring made the sport I LOVE into a joke. The record books were re-written, but the numbers had lost their luster. Manny was a part of all that, but I thought of him as a steroid era survivor. I THOUGHT that the juice was behind him and what was left was an aging, but still intimidating slugger who was padding his career numbers and might help Tampa Bay into playing some October baseball in the process. I had really imagined that he would stick around for more than 5 games. I mean did he think that he, of all people, could take PEDs and get away with it?

He did apply for reinstatement last week. I HOPE that he has a better game plan for 2012. I hope he makes it back. I would probably root for him. There aren’t many players still out there that are older than me, so I pretty much root for ALL of the old men out there. So yeah, I would root for Man Ram in 2012, BUT I would prefer for him to NOT return to Tampa Bay. I WOULD like to have some cardboard memories of him as a member of the Rays. Thanks to everyone who has actually read this far – if you did, you know that I am finally at the point where I tie in something I am stealing from the Mighty Thorzul. He became a SUPER COLLECTOR of CC Sabbathia from his time in Milwaukee. I intend to become a SUPER COLLECTOR of Mannywood – a super collector of ALL cards celebrating his 5 games in Tampa Bay. Thanks to Rod of Padrographs I have a head start. I don’t really know how many Rays cards he has, but I know that I must have ALL of them. EXHALE. Finally.
This was meant to be a quick, “I’m back blog-o-sphere” kind of post, but I have managed to ramble out more words than Manny has RBIs AND I’m not even done (yet)!!! On Manny – if he can lay off the juice and come back healthy and be close to half the player he was – he does have a shot to really climb the career lists. At 1831 career RBI he is just 69 ribs away from the 1900 club, a club that has only 10 members, of course if he could manage 169 more ribs he could be a member of the 2000 club. This exclusive fraternity includes just Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Cap Anson. I THINK that if Manny could clean his act up for 2 more semi-productive seasons he could reach 2000 and do it legitimately AND would end his career as a slugging boy scout and could work his way back into the good graces of the BBWA and give himself a shot at Cooperstown. It could happen…
So yeah, I am back… I am back and I am chasing Manny Ramirez cards (of all things). I am still trying to finish a number of sets (want lists are linked on sidebar) and I am still a Rays mega fan. Like many other bloggers I am addicted to the sparkly cards found in 2011 Topps. Basically if you have a Rays card from 2011 that is put out by Topps and it is diamond sparkly OR the color of shiny puke OR good old fashioned gold – I WANT it! I also want blue cards, red cards, sepia cards, canary cards, hope cards and refractors of all kinds… I would really like to finish off the entire team set in each and every variety. I know I won’t be able to, but I am gonna have a blast trying…

Oh, this leads me to another idea I can steal. I am sure a number of blogger’s have set out on this mission, but I think of the Night Owl… He has pledged to seek out EVERY variety that Topps has puked out of this sweet Dee Gordon card.

I intend on doing that same thing with this awesome image (from top of post) of Ben Zobrist… I have his Topps base so far, so I have a long road ahead. Since I haven’t made a real blog post in months, y’all probably don’t realize that after the playoffs this year I have a new favorite Ray. The Rays lost the game and the series against Texas, but Sean Rodriguez established himself as a truly Nitty Gritty player after his home plate collision with Mike Napoli. He WAS safe at the plate. If you don’t remember the play I am talking about, do yourself a favor and click on this link and watch this video, it is AWESOME!!!
Its plays like this that make me want to collect cards of a dude who hit .223 last year… I would LOVE to see a higher average, a few more steals and extra base hits, but this dude has played EVERY position other than pitcher and catcher and totally EARNED that run in the POSTSEASON. THAT is amazing. Period.

I THOUGHT it would spark a rally and a Rays resurgence. I was wrong obviously, but it was still an awesome moment and I became a Sean Rodriguez fan for life. That said, his 2011 Topps card, which shows him erasing former Twin and Ray Delmon Young, is all over my want list. Like Zobrist, I only have the base version of this card, SO ALL PARALLELS ARE WELCOME HERE!!!! I should mention that while I was typing this post I remembered that I had $1.33 in my PayPal account.

I now have 16 cents in it, but I have a 2011 Topps Chrome Refractor (#78) of Sean Rodriguez heading my way. My immediate goal is to fill a page full of parallels (of regular Topps as well as Chrome) for Rodriguez, Zobrist and a mystery third player to be teased in the next paragraph. I would LOVE to add full pages of Desmond Jennings, David Price (who is immortalized in my blog header), Wade Davis (the Pride of Lake Wales, Florida!), Evan Longoria, BJ Upton and everyone else (for that matter) but I want to set realistic and achievable goals. That said, as bad as I want all the Zobs and S-Rods out there, I will gladly take ANY Rays!

There is another player I am gonna super-collector-parallel-obsessively-chase. I have 2 cards of him. The regular base AND the HOPE DIAMOND version. The #ed to 60 variety came from Scott of Smed’s Cards, but y’all are gonna have to wait to see who it is… Don’t let the suspense kill you! Ha!

I do have a few sparkle cards to offer up as trade bait right now. I have 10 liquor (puke) fractors, 5 regular diamonds and a couple of gold parallels. The non-Rays cards splattered through this post are all up for trade. The idea is to get Rays for non-Rays. I figure that by the end of the night I will have all of these cards packed up and ready to go and I will have 15 Rays parallels heading my way… It COULD happen. I stacked 9 out of my 10 puke-fractors on one page. I left one by itself to segue into a bitch about Topps session. I haven’t commented on Topps this year and I am sure it has all been said and said to death, but I will throw in a quick 2 cents…
I think that 2011 Topps Update is the product of the year. The value, the photography, the player selection – it is all top notch. Topps also totally nailed it with the sparkle parallels. Adding shiny cards from series 1 and 2 into the Updates is what makes me pick U and H as product of the year over Series 1 and 2. For 2 bucks a pack and good odds on catching a sparkle parallel, I gobbled up a lot of these packs. Although I haven’t been reading the blogs as much as I used to, I think just about everyone is collecting these things. I have always chased the Topps Gold parallels of my team and favorite players. I have always sought out the black parallels as well, but now there are SO many parallels to collect.

I think it is pretty exciting and pretty awesome and it has me excited and I think that all player and team collectors are into it. I know there are even some ambitious folks trying to build the entire set in puke or diamond. They are crazy, but Topps is selling a lot of packs as a result. With their current monopoly Topps doesn’t have to go all out, but they did and that is a good thing. We can bitch about a lack of products and a lack of options out there, but I for one loved the quality of the available options. Topps, Allen and Ginter, Gypsy Queen, Topps Chrome, Bowman, Bowman Platinum… Yeah, they are ALL Topps products, BUT they are all AWESOME products. Good job Topps. Of course I am gonna follow a compliment with a rip.

I have this same complaint every year it seems, but COLLATION, COLLATION, COLLATION – it SUCKS!!!! I didn’t have the cash to go out and buy a box (which I really wanted to) I just bought a TON of loose packs. Enough loose packs to yield about 600 cards. With a 330 card set, you would imagine I would be pretty close to having a full set. Not even close. At 600 cards I had 450 dupes. Not good. Fortunately there were many generous bloggers who helped me whittle my list down considerably. Still, I ended with too many blocks of dupes like this…

Nothing against Brandon League, but do I really need to fill up a page with him? On top of that I pulled 2 of his puke-fractors and one gold parallel of him… For collation to be my ONLY complaint about their flagship product, well that speaks well of Topps, BUT when you are trying to build a set by buying packs of cards, collation is pretty darn important. Topps HAS me hooked. I bought a 2 dollar pack today and if I had 5 bucks I would have bought a hanger, BUT I am saying this in print for all the world (my 2 loyal readers) to read – IF I pull another card of Brandon League (again, no offense) I am DONE WITH TOPPS for 2011. Done, for serious. I know that to Topps the idea of potentially losing the 20 dollars I MIGHT spend purchasing retail packs of cards over the rest of this year isn’t much of a threat, but…
Oh, back to my plagiarizing of the Mighty Thorzul Will Rule… Last year or sometime a while back he played a game called “Trade Me Anything”. I don’t recall exactly how it worked, but I am stealing that name/title. I have some cards that I will be posting of the trade bait variety. Some new, some old, some complete sets, some action figures, movies, anything baseball related… Basically I need to clear some space out from under the bridge AND I want to add up some new stuff to the collection. I will be posting these items (slowly) and will expect at least 1 card from my want list AND 1 surprise/mystery card of your choice. I think that if people can send me 2 cards that I want or need in exchange for something more bulky will allow me to clear space, but more importantly will give posting fodder that isn’t too overwhelming. I think we have all received mind-blowing trade packages over the years that totally made our day, BUT had sooo much great stuff in them that we just couldn’t post them. That happens way too often and makes me feel really bad, but I THINK I can handle a two-card trade post. I think…

So, stay tuned for this and be ready to “Trade Me Anything”. In the mean time I will attempt to post up the recent awesome and overwhelming packages I have received from Smed’s Cards, Night Owl, Padrographs, $30 A Week Habit, Dawgbones, gosh it is overwhelming just typing their names, ha! Anyway, just stay tuned and get ready to help me get back in the trading game…

Okay, I have officially stolen 2 ideas from Thorzul Will Rule, 1 idea from the Night Owl and I have managed to make a total fan post on Manny Ramirez. Wow, I am exhausted! The typing out 3800+ words wasn’t too bad, but realizing that deep down I am a Manny Ramirez fan, well, that is just tiring…

I don’t know how many times I have said this so far in 2011 (before disappearing off the face of the earth for a month) but I am BACK blog-o-sphere!!!

Oh, another reason for my sparse presence ‘round here… My lovely wife GRADUATED from the University of South Florida (The Bulls baby!) last Saturday! Oh, and she did so with honors, yep she is Summa Cum Laude for real! Congrats wifey!

Una cosa mas… And this is the LAST one of these… You may have noticed an original 1887 Allen and Ginter card on the side bar. It WILL be a contest prize someday soon; I just don’t know what the contest will be. I do know that trading me Rays sparkle parallels won’t hurt yer chances, ha!

Thanks, as always, for reading! Let us do some trading! I will keep on posting 4000 word ramble-fests if someone (anyone) keeps on reading… Okay? Tell yer friends that the Troll is back!

Go Rays! It’s our season in 2012!!!! Troll out.

Congrats to Jeremy Hellickson!

The 2011 American League Rookie of the Year!!! He becomes the 2nd Rays player to win the honor after going 13-10 with a 2.95 ERA and helping Tampa Bay to win the AL Wild Card... A World Series ring would have been nicer, but I am feeling pretty proud as a Rays fan right now! Congrats again to Jeremy Hellickson!!! If you have any unwanted cards of JH, feel free to send them my way! Go Rays! troll out.

Is Anyone Else Working on 2011 Topps Updates???

I am... I put all of my cards in the binder and I have 240 out of 330 (73%). I would LOVE to finish this off... As it turns out I have more than 100 dupes to trade, I even have a few Kimball minis too. Everything is up to date on my 2011 Topps list, check it out and see if you can help me HERE. I will try and create a list of my dupes, but if you have a wantlist or a link to a wantlist, shoot me a message... Lets help each other out! Go Rays! troll out.

Creating a Monster OR Taking the Plunge and Building an Allen and Ginter Minis FRANKENSET!!!

So after years of hoarding every single mini I could get my mitts on I decided to take action and get them organized. I sorted through thousands and thousands of cards and yanked out all the minis I could find. I sorted them into boxes and now have sorted them out of their boxes and move them into a binder, in other words I decided to begin the task of building a monster that we call a FRANKENSET!

Before I began the process of bindering my random minis I counted them. I had just fewer than 400 minis. Cool. I figured with just 350 cards in the set I would be well on my way. I was wrong. I didn’t consider that I had 5 different cards numbered 13, 57, 67 and 91. Turns out there are more than 120 card numbers that I don’t have. So… I have devised a list of all the card numbers that I need. The goal will be to get at least 1 card for each number and then I begin the process of finding the best possible card or player to rep each number.

To help me along on this mission I have decided that I will be willing to part with some of the minis that I have hoarded and hidden over the years… Anyway, these are the card numbers that I need. Any year, any back, any border – I do not discriminate… Send me these card numbers please:

1, 7,8,11,14,16,17,19,20,21,35,36,37,39,41,44, 48,49,51,52,55,59,62,63,64,65,66,68,69,75, 76,78,79,80,82,85,86,87,88,90,93,95,99,
102,103,104,106,107,110,113,114,121,125,131, 139,141,142,144, 145,149,150,153,154, 157,158,164,165,167,171,173,174,176,177,
178,186,187,188, 193,197,199,200,201,202,204,209,211,215,
216,218,224,226,227,232,233,234,235,239,241,244,246,247,
248,254,256,257,258,260,262,268,270,271,274,277,283,284,
286,289,291,295,297,298,300,309,315,317,319,323,324,326,
328,335,339,340,345,346,348,349 and 350.

So to save you the tediousness of counting, there are 126 (give or take a few) cards listed above. The goal is to have every slot filled and THEN I can start the process of upgrading and have a PERFECT set of all of my favorite players and historical figures.

This is, of course, easier said than done… Anyone who has attempted this process knows this. Choosing which card gets the spot in the set ain’t easy. Sometimes it’s easier than others – like card #27 which is occupied by Brad Hawpe both in 2008 and 2010. Other numbers are much harder. Card #13 pits BJ Upton vs. Eleanor Roosevelt vs. Brett Anderson. Card #50 is home to Pat Neshek, Carl Crawford, Jason Bay and Albert Pujols. In each of those number cases I have ALL of those cards. Decisions, decisions… Set into the binder this Frankenset, so far, looks bizarre… Players like Ryan Freel, Matt Murton and Austin Kearns all have (temporary) spots in the binder while fav players of mine like Pat Neshek, Justin and BJ Upton, Carlos Pena, Delmon Young and Carl Crawford are all in the dupes for trade pile. Go Figure. It is a bizarro world when Austin Kearns is a keeper and either Upton Brother is tossed aside…

Anyway, I now have 100 minis up for trade, SPs, black borders, Ginter Ad Backs, stars, rookies and all. Just keep in mind I want specifically to trade minis for minis. I would be willing to trade these minis to fill holes in my Kimball Champions set, too. OR to trade for Rays Bazooka back minis OR Rays silks, relics, printing plates, autos, black borders, extended minis, etc. It isn’t easy for me to part with any mini period, so please be sure to only make serious offers and be gentle…

If you have spare copies of any of the card numbers listed above, please get in touch… In addition to my 100 Ginter minis I do have some cards that I would be willing to trade for any of these card numbers. I do prefer authors, historical figures, boxers, Rays, managers, Negro Leaguers, women, softball players or HOFers whenever possible.

I have 5 different pages with 20 cards each in them which I will be posting for trade bait... In most cases I want to trade mini for mini, SP mini for SP mini. There are a couple of fancy/rarer cards here, like a 2010 Jacoby Ellsbury NO# mini (limited to 50) and some 2007 Black Border No # minis, which are also limited to 50. Basically, if you have minis that I need, I WILL find you something awesome to trade ya…

Oh yeah, I’m almost back… I will try and post at least once per week over the next 2 weeks, but after that, it might be a daily thing, so stay tuned!

Also, ALL of my wantlists are up to date. A handful of generous folks have kept the trading pipeline pumping. Aside from the vintage (1963 and ’65) which are tops on my priority list, I am trying REALLY hard to finish off 2010 and 2011 Allen and Ginter, 2009-2011 Topps, the Kimball Champions minis set (1-150) from 2011 and I wanna start collecting 2006 Allen and Ginter. I would love to find a hobby box to rip, that would be AWESOME!

Anyway, I love this hobby, I really miss this… I scanned one of my pages, the one that is the closest to being full. I stopped using the 15-up Ultra Pro pages (for this set at least) and have begun using 20 pocket BCW pages. So far I am pretty happy with them.

Thanks for reading! Go Rays!!! Burn bright hot stove! I love this game, I love this hobby! Troll out.

(oh, BTW… I am posting this NOW, BUT I didn’t get the trade bait pages up yet. So, for now, search your dupes and see if you have anything I need… Within the next couple days I WILL post 5 pages filled with awesome minis that are up for grabs… SO – stay tuned Trollites!)

(and PPS... I have barely been online over the past month... If you have emailed me, offered me a trade, if I owe you a trade or owe you money, you should probably hit me up again... Send me an email HERE... Cheers!)

Congrats Rangers

A little late, but CONGRATS to the Texas Rangers! The Rays had some bright spots and they definitely over achieved just being there, but the better team won...
I am loving the playoffs and rooting hard for the Tigers, Cards and Brewers... I am officially a Rangers fan from here on out, but if the Tigers knock out the Yanks its gonna be hard not to back Detroit...
Go Rays! troll out.
PS. I have recieved a number of amazing trade packs this week and I intend to post them all!!! Thanks everyone - want lists are up to date. Check em out...

Howdy...

Trying to watch the game on my friend Matt's phone, it aint easy, but we are up 3-0... Wednesday night was the best night of baseball I can remember... The one bright spot of staying at the Mother-In-Laws is she has the full MLB package so we got to flip between the awesome Orioles game, the Cards game and of course the Rays game. Awesome. I am at work tonight, but I get to work with some fellow Rays fans, plus the wife and her Mom are watching the game and texting me updates... Go Rays! troll out...

Out of the Loop...

So, my wife had her surgery on Thursday... All went well, she has a fully rebuilt knee and should be better than new in 2 months...

Since we live on the third floor we decided that we would stay at her Mom's house for a week. It has been a nice vacation, but there is one problem - she doesn't have an internet connection and and none of her neighbors do either... I stopped at home to check the mail and figured I would sneak on for a second... My 2011 Ginter want list is up to date. I have been lucky to do several trades and the binder is getting more and more full...


I hope to be home by the weekend. I have a TON to post... If you have posted a trade from me, I probably haven't seen it and I apologize... Please email me the link as I will be behind 2 weeks in checking everyone's blogs. I am totally up for trading - just be patient if you send me a message... I am going to go after 2006 and 2007 Allen and Ginter as my next set quests. I have about 20 cards from each year so far, so if anyone has a starter lot - I would gladly take em off of your hands...


Oh, I recieved my winnings from the Play at the Plate 1,000,000th post contest - a box of Lineage. Ripping it was pretty awesome, I will leave y'all with a taste of shiny Roy Campanella. If you are chasing Lineage, drop me a line, I might be able to help ya out.

Oh, one last thing... I have trade packages ready to go for RGB Cards and Pirates Treasure Room. They have a little dust on them and I would REALLY like to get them out, SO if you are from one of those blogs OR if you know their addy, please let me know... Also, I have shipped a number of packages this past month, but I haven't heard from many of you. I like to know when y'all recieve stuff, so lemme know please... Okay, I'm done for real.


Cheers! GO RAYS!!!!!!!!!! troll out.