Long Overdue Trade Post ~ B-Robs from Beardy!!!

I have spent the majority of the day and night, up till now, sorting, sorting and sorting cards some more and I do feel like I am making some headway. I had at least 50 different stacks spread out across my bedroom floor, but I feel much more organized already. I have all of my Topps cards in a binder, in order, year by year. Trying to figure out who is in each set, including the updates or traded set, is not an easy thing, but for now I am just putting one of every card I have for each year in the binder. 1999 is slim, 2000 is slim, too. I have about 4 different 2001 cards and not many more 2002’s. By 2003, I have 12 different and 2004 I have 27, which is everything, I think. I feel like I am getting close on 2007, I think I am done with 2008 and I am plugging away at 2009. I also started player binders and have pages filled up for Willy Aybar, Ben Zobrist, Dioner Navarro, Pat Neshek, Evan Longoria, David Price, Roberto Clemente and Brian Roberts. With that said, I am 4 lots behind on Brian Roberts trades alone and with my new self determined parameters, when a trade is received, it is filed in a box until scanned and posted and then and only then will it placed in the player collection binder. I titled this post “long overdue” and I wasn’t kidding, I think I received these cards in early September. It was kind of funny because on the same day I received two packages, each full of new B-Rob cards from two different sources. It was hard to pick which one to post first, so I flipped a coin and Beardy was tails, so here we go… Initially, when I declared myself a B-Rob collector, I was nervous that I would be stepping on Beardy’s toes, I had a long argument prepared, but when I sent him an e-mail nervously telling him I wanted to chase Roberts-his reply was along the lines of “Cool, good luck” and soon thereafter he sent me package with 11 new B-Rob cards including my first bat card of the All Star second baseman. My reasons for collecting Roberts are abundant. I have had a long history with him, from playing in the same organization, playing with him in amateur leagues, knowing his father as a coach for many years and also interviewing him on numerous occasions as I broke into journalism and he climbed the ladder with the Orioles organization. I can remember driving to North Carolina to watch him play in college when he was a shortstop; he was an amazing talent then and the hardest working amateur athlete that I had ever watched. When the Orioles grabbed him in the 1st round of the 1999 draft (50th overall) I was excited that we would be in the same organization. In 2000 he began his pro career in the Gulf Coast League with the Sarasota Orioles for 9 games before being bumped to their high A team. The next year he would be promoted to the Major Leagues and has been a staple of the Orioles infield ever since. He has represented the Orioles in the All Star Game twice and has twice paced the AL in doubles, this past season he set a record for most doubles by a switch hitter with 56. Despite playing for a last place team, Roberts continues to turn in all star numbers. Aside from leading the league in doubles this year, he was third in runs scored with 110, in the top-10 with 30 steals while batting .283, hitting 16 homers and driving in 79 runs as a lead-off hitter. Even more impressive to me is that he has spent the last 9 seasons with the same ballclub; he has been the only thing that Orioles fans can count on this past decade. Anyway, those are a few of the reasons why I am collecting B-Rob and here are some of the cards that Beardy sent me to get that collection going…Shown above (in order) are 2009 SPx #77, 2009 A Piece of History #8 and 2005 Topps #178. There are 10 years worth of Roberts cards out there in the World and I am making no effort to try and collect him with any type of completion, 10 years worth of cards probably translates into over 1000 different cards. Once the last 3 trades are binder ready, I should be up to 25 different cards. I would like to continue to add more, I would even like to chase some of his fancier cards, but by no means do I intend to be a completist and he will not be overtaking Carl Crawford, Akinori Iwamura, Jason Bartlett or Roberto Clemente as my primary target. Part of the appeal is that with potentially 1000 cards out there that I don’t have-many traders have more Roberts cards lying around than they have Rays cards and I am all about the trading! Anyway, back to the cards that Beardy sent… This postage stamp looking card is from the 2009 SP Legendary Cuts set, card #1 of Roberts who wears #1. I always like it when a leadoff hitter leads off a set. Next is another 2009, this one from the Upper Deck Icons set, card #13. Next is another Topps regular issue, from 2006, card #15. The back of the card talks about his evolution from “smurfish” leadoff hitter to an improbable power hitter in 2005 when he hit 18 homers. I have never been a fan of 2008 Topps, I think it is one of the most boring designs ever, but make the white background red (like they did for Opening Day) and it looks a whole lot better, this is card #157. I think I may have posted this one before, but I did it when I needed this card to finish off the base set of 2009 Heritage. Now I have an extra for the PC, card #419, horizontal…Here is another fancy card that I really like, from one of my favorite sets to get in trade, 2009 Topps Finest, card #29-it makes me really want the refractor now. That was the last of the base cards, so that means there is one card left and it is just a little bit thicker than the rest. From the 2008 Allen and Ginter set (which I absolutely love!) this is card #AGR-BR2, a game used bat relic card of the All Star second baseman. Nice! Thanks so much for all of these great cards Beardy! I always seem to come up ahead when we trade and I really appreciate it. My little collection is well on its way now. Hope y’all enjoyed the momentary break from Rays central and enjoyed some pics of another star from the American League East. I doubt there is anyone who reads this blog but doesn't read his, but just in case, check it out! http://beardysbaseballblog.blogspot.com/ Thanks so much Beardy! Go Rays! Go Roberts! Troll out.