Sometimes I think that I should rename this blog “cool stuff that came from
Wicked Ortega”- this guy is forever hooking me up with the best stuff from every different sector of my collection. Yesterday (Thursday) I had to go to the Post Office to send out some stuff for
Mojo,
Dinged Corners and Dan. My cash flow has been terribly low these past two weeks and I had to empty the change bowl to do that much, but after calculating in my head I thought I would have enough left to send out a surprise package. I decided that I would send one to the only blogger who lives further south than I do, the man himself, the legendary
Alfredo “Wicked” Ortega. So I packed up some goodies for
Fredo, nothing too exciting, but I thought it might brighten up his day a tad bit…Anyway, I got all 4 envelopes shipped ($5.60) and I walked over to check my box and sure enough, there were two packages waiting for me. One came from
Ryan’s Memorabilia (and will get its own post soon) and one came courtesy of
Wicked Ortega. I wasn’t really expecting anything from either of them, two surprise packages in one day? Its gonna be a good day… I was late for work at this point, but I still ripped open the packages when I hit each and every stop light on my way in. Man, I thought, I already owe
Alfredo big time and he’s hooking me up with all this? I’m gonna have to drive down to Royal Palm Beach and clean his house and wash his dishes or something to make this even… There were a couple of cards in there that made me swerve the car in amazement, but I did manage to avoid an accident and still make it to work (about 10 minutes tardy). I am going to get right into the package. The first card that I saw was of
Robb Nen. Last week
Fredo had posted a TTM success from the former Marlins closer, Robb Nen,
and I commented on it that I was a big Nen fan back in the (pre-D-Rays) day. Robb was as reliable a stopper as there ever was and was a big reason behind the first World Series trophy coming to the Sunshine State in 1997.
I was a Fish fan that year. I went to Joe Robbie during the NLCS against Atlanta. Nen wasn’t dominating, but I don’t think he allowed a hit either. He is the career leader in saves for the Marlins (108) and with 314 in his career he is 16th All Time. I don’t think
Nen will ever go to the Hall-his 10 year career was just too short, but during that time he was completely dominate. He had 7 straight seasons with 30 or more saves, he saved one World Series for Florida and he brought the Giants to the Series in 2002. He played his final season with a torn rotator cuff and still had a career year. I could go on forever about this guy, but I will end it with his stat line from his final season with San Francisco in 2002, when he was 6-2 with a 2.20 ERA and 43 saves during the regular season, then added another 7 in the postseason. How is that for going out on top? He was a closer pure and simple and he left the game at his best, he could have come back and beefed up his career numbers, but he didn’t-he retired while being the best closer in baseball. I didn’t intend on collecting autographs of modern players that don’t have connections to the Rays, but I think Alfredo may have started me on trying to collect ‘graphs from the ’97 Marlins cuz they were MY home team then.
The photo on this card is awesome, too. The scream of intensity-you can almost imagine that he just threw a 93-MPH slider that was swung right through… Thanks so much for sharing this card with me, I really appreciate it! Wow, I have only written about one card and this post is already really long. I think I will just post the non-Rays cards that he sent in this one. This guy is a Ray now, but he was wearing a different (non-descript) uniform then. I really bet the Astros are kicking themselves for dealing this guy away! Here is this All Star’s rookie card, from the 2004 UP SP set, card #202 of Benjamin Zobrist.
Aside from sets/team sets, this is only the 5th card that I have of Zorilla in my binder. I have one of his certified autos, but no relics. Zobrist, Longoria, Bartlett, Aybar, Wheeler, Price, Davis and Howell are the only “regulars” of the past two seasons that I don’t have relics of. I don’t have Pat The Bat either, but I don’t really consider him regular…Anyway, here is another Non-Ray that is now a Ray, it is the 2009 O-Pee-Chee card of Jesse Chavez, the guy who came over in exchange for Aki.
I am really looking forward to seeing what Chavez brings to the table, I still think it’s a bad trade, but that isn’t Chavez’ fault. Next up is a 2001 Topps Archives reprint of the GREATEST RHP EVER. Of course I am talking about
Leroy “Satchel” Paige.
I will own the real thing again someday, but for now this one makes me happy. Here in Troll land, segues are smooth and we are gonna go from a legendary pitcher with mythical stuff to a creature of myth, legend and terror. Some folks call him Sasquatch, others call him the Abominable Snowman, but the 2009 Allen and Ginter set calls him card #LMT1, BIGFOOT!
This is my third LMT card and I am still holding onto the illusion that I will someday finish the set. Since this is a Non-Rays post I am going to show off this card from the 2008 Stadium Club set of my favorite player of all time, Roberto Clemente.
I just LOVE this picture! Okay, back to modern days… Here is another favorite of mine who is currently a Ray, but wasn’t in 2004. The is from the ’04 SP Prospects set and shows the 390th player selected in the 2001 draft, card #158 of my favorite shortstop Jason Bartlett.
I still have more cards of JB in a Twins uni than in Rays jersey, but I think that should change soon. From one great infielder to another, here are 3 cards of my favorite active Non-Ray, Brian Roberts. I had posted the full sized version of this the other day, but I now have the mini to go with it, card #63 from Goodwin Champions of Brian Roberts.
These cards are growing on me with each one I get; here is a 2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom of B-Rob. The Star for a Day on the back is from 4-24-2008 when he was 4 for 4 with his 4th hit being a game winning home run.
Yeah, he has had many games like that, that is one of the (many) reasons why I collect this guy. I really hope that B-More can get it together and build a decent team around him, Jones and Markakis while they are still at the top of their games. I would really love for Roberts to be a career Oriole, but I would also like for him to at least have a shot at the postseason before he is an aging part time DH. On a different note, I will probably make a list of my B-Rob cards soon. Fredo hooked me up, I just got some in the mail from
Ryan’s, too, and the collection is growing rapidly.
Quantity wise, he is climbing in the PC standings. Currently the rankings are as follows: 1. Crawford, 2. Kazmir, 3.Upton, 4.Tartabull, 5.Young, 6.Pena, 7.Shields, 8.Roberts, 9.Iwamura, 10.Garza. Actually, Aubrey Huff is probably in second, but he doesn’t have a binder page. Either way, considering that two months ago I didn’t have a single Roberts card and now he is in 8th place and climbing in the PC ranks, that is pretty good. He is the only player, other than Crawford, that I have the triple crown of-an autograph, jersey and bat-I just really can’t believe how quickly it is growing. Thanks Blog-O-Sphere!!! Okay, lost focus for a bit… Back to the cards that Wicked sent… The final card is another B-Rob and this is my favorite of this bunch. The design is great! This is from the 2006 SP Authentic Baseball Heroes set.
This is sharp looking-it has an up-close color portrait of young Mr. Roberts in the foreground and in the back is a black and white action rendering of him. I have only one other card from this set, and it came from Wicked as well. It is of the aforementioned Greatest pitcher of all-time,
Satchel Paige.
Anyway, I really do like these Baseball Heroes cards. I don’t know when I will post the remainder of this package from Ortega, but trust me; it was filled with some pretty amazing Rays cards! I wanted to get something up right now to thank you. Your generosity is mind-blowing and very much appreciated. I am so very glad that our paths crossed. You run a terrific
blog; you’re a knowledgeable fan and collector, a good friend and an awesome trader! Oh, and I still owe you big time!!! Thanks
Alfedo!!! Once again you made my day! Now excuse me while I go fill my binder. The Rays from this package will be posted soon, so stay tuned...Oh, and for those of you keeping score-there are 15 images on this post and not a single Rays uniform, how often does that happen on the Troll? Go Roberts! Go Rays! Troll out.
Sometimes I think that I should rename this blog “cool stuff that came from Wicked Ortega”- this guy is forever hooking me up with the best stuff from every different sector of my collection. Yesterday (Thursday) I had to go to the Post Office to send out some stuff for Mojo, Dinged Corners and Dan. My cash flow has been terribly low these past two weeks and I had to empty the change bowl to do that much, but after calculating in my head I thought I would have enough left to send out a surprise package. I decided that I would send one to the only blogger who lives further south than I do, the man himself, the legendary Alfredo “Wicked” Ortega. So I packed up some goodies for Fredo, nothing too exciting, but I thought it might brighten up his day a tad bit…Anyway, I got all 4 envelopes shipped ($5.60) and I walked over to check my box and sure enough, there were two packages waiting for me. One came from Ryan’s Memorabilia (and will get its own post soon) and one came courtesy of Wicked Ortega. I wasn’t really expecting anything from either of them, two surprise packages in one day? Its gonna be a good day… I was late for work at this point, but I still ripped open the packages when I hit each and every stop light on my way in. Man, I thought, I already owe Alfredo big time and he’s hooking me up with all this? I’m gonna have to drive down to Royal Palm Beach and clean his house and wash his dishes or something to make this even… There were a couple of cards in there that made me swerve the car in amazement, but I did manage to avoid an accident and still make it to work (about 10 minutes tardy). I am going to get right into the package. The first card that I saw was of Robb Nen. Last week Fredo had posted a TTM success from the former Marlins closer, Robb Nen, 
There’s no telling where Joey G will start next season, but chances are a contender will pick him up down the stretch and he will probably score some more runs in the postseason. Next is another speedster in Carl Crawford. CC might not be as fast as Gathright, but CC can get on base a hell of a lot better and he is under contract for the 2010 season with the Rays, so that is good news. 
This card is from the 2006 Fleer Traditions set, card #60, it’s a really nice shot of CC getting ready to lay down a bunt. Next up is another CC card, this one from the 2009 Goudey set. 
These cards look ridiculous to me; everyone has a cartoony, ghost look to them. CC looks like Mickey Mouse to me in this shot, its gotta be the white gloves. Either way, I needed it. This one was number 188 for me; feel free to check out my 
Next up was the keystone of the trade and you can see this card shining from miles away! It is from the 2007 Bowman’s Best set, card #72 with a certified autograph of Delmon Young on the front. 
Delmon, like BJ Upton, was a guy that I had never really intended to collect, but I just got so many cards of the guy I gave in, plus at their young ages, with their unlimited skills-they have a shot to be superstars... Once I started filling binder sleeves of Delmon Young, I really wanted to get my hands on some of his “premium” stuff and when I saw this card as trade bait, I had to get my hands on it! Thanks so much for the trade Omega!!! If anyone out there has any Rays autos of any kind, I will most certainly give them a good home. If you have any super nice Ryan Garko cards-send them on over to 
shiny and prismatic and cool. I already had this one, but I don’t know if I had ever posted card #46 from this year’s SP Authentic. 
I like these cards, but haven’t ripped any yet… He included a few Jonny Gomes cards but none were more significant than this one from the 2008 Topps set. It seems a pretty simple card, but a few weeks ago when I decided to finally sort all of my Topps cards into team sets, I realized that I didn’t have this one, card #559. 
I did have it, but it is autographed and that just doesn’t look right in the set. With the Gomes card, I am still missing 2 cards from 2008 Topps-card #654 of Willy Aybar and #UH10 of Evan Longoria. I will probably post my needs list pretty soon, but if you have ANY Rays from 1999-2002, I probably need them; those years are very WEAK for the Troll. For those interested, card #519 of Dioner Navarro is the last card I need to finish off 2009. Okay, back to the trade. How about a white Turkey Red? 
From 2005, it’s card #86 of Rocco Baldelli. I haven’t posted a card (that wasn’t autographed) from the 2009 Allen and Ginter set in a while, this is my first Rays code card, and it is #163 of Matt Garza. 
I love the A&G set, but I don’t really like Garza’s pic, he looks like an old man, but it looks better with the funky code border. Okay, this one is from 2008 UD Timeline and I think it is my first look at that year, its cool and retro looking, black and white with a funky floating head at the bottom, set off by a red background. I like it! 
This one is of BJ Upton. The last card I will show is of the American League’s Gold Glove third baseman, Evan Longoria. A nice pink card for a gold glove… He sent me a few cards from this series, the 2009 UD Piece of History, but this is my favorite. Its card #90 of Longo taking a moment to adjust his glasses before making another great play at the hot corner. 
First time trade is posted! Thanks Dave! I love the cards; hope you are happy with your take. Please check out my 
1. 1963 Topps Jose Tartabull. I got this one in person at some point during the decade of the 80’s. I believe I said something like “Your son is my favorite player, would you sign this card?” He did.
1. 1986 Fleer Danny Tartabull. This one came right around the same time and I said about the same thing, just replace “you are” over “your son is”.
1. 2000 Royal Rookies Edward Rogers Signature Series #ed 666 of 4,950. There is a bunch of reasons why this is tied for my favorite. I took the picture. Eddie was a really good friend. The fact that it is the ever taboo number 666 makes me giggle. The Wife got this for me as a surprise present. I was with Edward when he signed these; it took a really long time.
2. 1999 Team Best Carlos Pena. I think this may be the first time I have posted this card. It came from Joe from New York, Joe from the Cobb and Halladay blog. It gets in here for a lot of reasons, too. One, Pena is one of the best sluggers in baseball and he plays for my favorite team. He has a really nice signature. He is a tough signature to get. This was the first (of many) trades that Joe and I did. Pena is shown playing for the nearby Port Charlotte Rangers and I love cards from the Florida State League. AND like the other 3 cards ahead of it, it is an on-card auto.
3. 2009 Allen and Ginter Cat Osterman. I just posted this card, it is from a set that I am trying to collect as an autographed set, and it depicts my cousin (by marriage) and was another gift from the Wifey. 
Herb Simpson, Frank Evans or Willie Williams could just as easily fit here in the #3 slot.
4. 1983 Topps Bert Blyleven. He loses points for spelling my name wrong, but he is cool enough that he can get away with it. The best issue of the 80’s AND of a player that belongs in the Hall of Fame.
5. 2006 UD Sweet Spot Signatures Jonny Gomes. It’s Gomes, its thick as hell and it looks and feels like it is signed on a baseball. I had a Gomes signed baseball, but the puppy destroyed it during her first week with us.
6. 2007 UD Exquisite Carl Crawford. Yep, it’s a sticker, but it still rocks. I got this in a trade from the Night Owl. He had it, I wanted it and all he asked for in return was a Clayton Kershaw auto. I travelled to damn near every card shop within 500 miles and finally found one to send him. By this time I think he had about 30 Kershaw autos, but he still completed the trade and it was worth it. I really like this card, sticker or no sticker.
Buck served the United States during World War 2; I wish I had a pic of him in uniform for a proper Veterans Day tribute. 
I don’t, but here is a picture of my grandfather, Colonel Harry W. Generous and his family (my Dad is the boy with no shirt on) circa WWII. Happy Veteran’s Day and THANK YOU!!! It isn't so much baseball related, but I can't resist adding this one to my list of favorite autographs... 
You would have to go way back to this 
As was often the case with Topps, Fritz has to share his rookie card with someone else, some infielder named Don Buford. His other Topps issue comes in the following year’s set, 1965. Following the ’64 season, in November, Ackley’s contract was purchased by the St. Louis Cardinals. Things were looking up for him as the Cardinals were coming off of a World Series winning campaign in ’64 and they had traded Roger Craig in the off-season which freed up a job for a spot starter/long reliever. 
In ’64 the Cardinals rotation was among the best in baseball, their 1-2-3 punch of Bob Gibson, Ray Sadecki and Curt Simmons was unmatched. Topps, however, was optimistic that things would finally go Ackleys way. They decided to include him in their 1965 set, but once again made him share a card. There were two big problems though. Ackley never pitched a game in a Cards uniform so there were no photos of him on his team for the card. Topps decided to use a picture of him in his White Sox jersey and just black out his cap while leaving his Chicago pinstripes and sleeve numbers visible. The other issue was, even though he had appeared on a two-player rookie card the year prior, he was forced to share his card again in ’65, this time with a snot-nosed, 20 year old lefthander from Miami named Steve Carlton. Carlton, like Buford before him will forever have to be known as that “other guy” on Fritz Ackley’s cards. 
As it turns out, the Cards didn’t repeat as World Champs. Ray Sadecki, who won 20 games in ’64, fell to 6-15 in ’65. Curt Simmons went from 18-9 to 9-15. Bob Gibson did even better in ’65, but it wasn’t enough, Red Schoendist’s boys were a mess. Not only did they not repeat, but they finished in 7th place. Perhaps if they had called Fritz Ackley up to the big club, they just might have repeated. He spent the entire season with the Jacksonville Suns of the International League where he went 8-11 in 41 games. Ackley never did end up playing an inning for the Cards; he never made it back to the Major leagues. He still left a legacy though. He left behind a string of percentages that would make any Hall of Famer jealous. First off as right handed pitcher, his win/loss percentage was a perfect 1.000. Unbeaten. In the field he was perfect as well; he owns a career 1.000 fielding mark. At the plate he wasn’t perfect, but damn good. He threw right handed, but batted lefty and he owns a .333 career batting average with a .500 slugging percentage. Not too shabby at all. I doubt Steve Carlton or Don Buford could come close to those numbers.
Now that we know all about the big league player Fritz Ackley was and the perfect percentages he left in the record books, this is where he came from…
Hoyt Wilhelm finished the game and the Sox won 7-1. It was his 19th win that year and his first (and only) in the Major Leagues. In 2 starts for the Sox that year he owned a 2.08 ERA in 13 innings of work. He began the 1964 season with the Sox but only pitched 6 innings for them and was sent back down to Indianapolis. He was traded to the Jacksonville Suns midway through the season and after the season his contract was purchased by the Cardinals. St. Louis never called Ackley up, even after a strong year in ’66 where he was 12-10 for the Tulsa Oilers of the PCL. He would retire at age 30 after the 1967 season where he was a combined 3-12 with the Cards and Pirates organizations. Over 13 minor league seasons Ackley was 95-94. He passed away in May 2002 in Duluth, Minnesota at 65 years old. I never saw Ackley play, I never met him and I never got his autograph, but from my visits to the card shop in the early 80’s I coveted his second year Topps card. I held it; I drooled over it and in my mid-twenties I even owned it. Ten years later it has been a while since I have even seen one in person. I feel bad for the man that he never had his own card; I wish I had the Photoshop savvy to create one. I do hope to someday finish my Fritz Ackley super collection. Oh, and if you are wondering, the “other guys” on his card-Don Buford and Steve Carlton, they did okay. I love this hobby!!! Troll out.
I did all of these things, but as I walked out of the room and towards the door to get downstairs I noticed something. Since I live with two sloppy ladies (please don’t make today the one day you read my blog!) I notice everything that is out of place and normally put it back in place. Anyway, something new was sitting on top of the living room entertainment center, something cool. I didn’t look at it too much, I left it where I found and took the mutt outside and kinda forgot about it as I rushed to get ready for class. Class was mundane. It always is on Thursdays… Anyway, I get home from class at about the same time that the wife takes her lunch break, so just as I was climbing up the stairs and noticing the suspicious oblong disturbance on the entertainment center again, she called. I had investigated it a little bit. 
It was a see through-net-Christmas stocking that was filled with an odd assortment of cards. My grandmother used to get these things for me when I was a kid. I was a brat then and I didn’t appreciate them. I wanted current wax and I was a snob with my brands, now I am much more interested in interesting cards… Anyway, I suspected that the stocking might be for me, but my wife said nothing about it. Right before we said our goodbyes and she returned to work and sat down for a hard afternoon of blogging, I innocently brought it up.
“Oh yeah”, she said, “Mission Mary brought those over for you last night while you were at work.”
Well, I had thought they might be mine, but now it was confirmed and I became filled with joy pretty quick. 
I wanted to call Mary, but I couldn't find her number. 
Most of you fine readers know her as an original Bradentucky Bomber, a triple threat skater, sometimes zombie, 
an occasional derby announcer, a beauty, a very tall girl and a friend-Mission Mary Position. 
Yeah, MMP is a good friend, always has been, but she earned herself some major friend points with this sock. I wondered where it came from, how old it was and all that.
So I used every ounce of will-power I had and moved the sock over to the bistro table for a few picks. The “bistro” table is a little marble table that the mail is put on when one spouse isn’t home, it also has a cool marble top on it and I take my card photos on it cuz I like the shiny marble background… 
Anyway, I snapped a few pics of the sock and then tore into it. It was chock full of random weirdness and awesomeness! 
A sealed, factory 1988 Fleer Update set, a hobby pack of basketball cards, 
wrestling cards, baseball coins, button, some hockey cards that were just floating around in there, including a guy who I had actually heard of,
there was a Tigers team set from 1991 Fleer and an Indians team set from 199o Donruss. Oh the randomness, oh the awesomeness! 
There were soccer cards and racing cards that I probably will not rip, but I can share them with the blog-o-sphere, perhaps for someone who writes for Pack a Day or a Pack to Be Named later. 
Some of my favorites in the sock were the 2002 Donruss Super Estrellas and the can of 1997 Pinnacle Inside. Hell, there is even a card for Alfredo's pile-the Rock delivering the smackdown! 
Oh, on a different topic-congrats to Evan Longoria on winning his first (of many) Gold Glove Award! Full post on this soon! I will also post some of my stocking treasures soon. For now, a HUGE thank you to the always awesome Mission Mary Position! Oh, and a question for my readers... Would it be a good idea to skip posting cards all together and just show pics of the lovely ladies of the Bradentucky Bombers? 
Oh, I wanted to give the prettiest Bomber equal billing-shown here with the uggliest announcer-you know I kid about the sloppy housemates... 
Once more, THANKS MARY!!!!!!!! You rock!!!!! You made my week! Go Rays! Go Bombers! Troll out.
I am pretty sure there are variations of these that I am missing, but for now I have everyone but Carl Crawford represented in the binder. 
He also sent my first Brian Roberts Goodwin’s card. He included 5 new B-Robs for the PC and I am now onto my 5th page in the binder. 
I have more B-Rob cards than Jason Bartlett and Evan Longoria combined-I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing… The card that I couldn’t wait to post was the highlight of the package, I don’t know if anyone else does, but I still go gaga over relics and this is the sweetest looking B-Rob relic I have seen. It comes from the 2006 Bowman Heritage set and this card is the perfect balance of then and now. One half of the card is styled after the classic 1951 Bowman with the name in a black bar at the bottom over a soft focused image, but the other half is Las Vegas style flash. 
I like that the card is split 50/50 with one half being the card and the other half being solid black with Pieces of Greatness in Las Vegas letters over a really big slice of lumber. This takes the prize as my favorite B-Rob card so far. 
Thanks so much Madding! In other news, the Rays picked up Carl Crawford’s option for 2010. This is good news, but it doesn’t guarantee that he will play for the Rays, you have to be under contract to be traded too, but it is a step in the right direction. Go Rays! Troll out.
