A Spastik Trade of Awesome Sandwich Proportions!

So here I am on location again! This locale is far better than work and it involves coffee and breakfast being served to me by a lovely (and nameless lady), a Troll can’t ask for much more. I wasn’t going to post trades because they take me too long, but this one needs to be posted and I will try my best to keep it short… We had our roller derby awards ceremony and prom this Saturday and while making last minute preparations I stopped by the Post Office and had a few fat (phat) envelopes. Two of them were prearranged trades that I had already written off as never gonna show up, so it was nice that they did, but one of them was an out of the blue surprise. It came courtesy of Tim, the proprietor of the great blog, the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame. Tim is a serious sports fan, but also runs one of the funnier blogs outs there and he creates a home for pro athletes whose parents obviously had a sense of humor, players like Rusty Kuntz, Harry Chappas and Dick Pole. He also collects players with more normal names like Fred McGriff and I think he collects pitchers with ironic names like Bob Walk and Grant Balfour, too. Anyway, I had sent him a couple of McGriffs and a Pole a while back without seeking anything in return, his blog makes me laugh and I figure any fodder I can share with him would benefit us all. So anyway, when we got home from pre-prom errands I tore into the envelope on the way up the stairs. He had Post-It notes all over the cards which I wish I had saved cuz they made me laugh, but anyway… I opened it up and was greeted with a bunch of Fred McGriff cards spanning his early career with the Padres and the Blue Jays. I thought it was kinda weird, he collects McGriff-I don’t, but whatever. The guy will be going to the Hall of Fame in 2010-he’s already in the blogger HOF, so cards of him don’t hurt. I dug deeper and there were two McGriff’s in top loaders in the middle. Cool, there was a 2000 Topps that I needed for my Rays team set-SWEET! I am seriously lacking in cards from 1999-2003 as I wasn’t collecting then at all and many of my traders weren’t either. Anyway, I flipped the card over and found another note-it said something about a McGriff sandwich. Okay. I attempted to pull through all of the tape-I don’t know if there was a lot of tape, but when you’re really eager and anxious any amount of tape is too much. Anyway, I got through it and sure enough, there was another card in a top loader jammed between the two Fred cards-the meat in the McGriff sandwich. I got it loose and it fell onto my (empty) desk and I screamed out loud-holy f$%in Sh%t! when I saw what it was. To my shock and surprise I found this wedged between a couple of slices of Fred-Bread. It is a 2008 Topps Co-Signers card autographed by two of my favorite players on the Rays, by two players who have very few cards out there. If I needed a spark to get excited about collecting again, this was it! It got me amped, seriously amped, but it also got me bummed that I couldn’t post it, or post anything. It’s been leaning against a pen cup on what had been my computer table for half a week now- I aint gonna lie, it calls out to me. It told me to find a way to post it and stop making excuses, so here I am! Now, back to the card-not only does it talk its freaking awesome. Say what you want about sticker autos, they aren’t my favorite thing either, but they have their place and they work on this card. The stickers enabled Topps to add autographs of two All Stars on one card. It enabled them to have autos of two of my favorite players on one card, two of the top hitting infielders in baseball on one card, two guys who have very few cards of themselves in a Rays uniform on one card. The Rays have made some crappy trades of late, but this card shows the results of two of the best trades that they ever made-say it with me-on one card. I’ve already mentioned that they were both All Stars in 2009, Jason Bartlett finished the year with a .320 batting average-6th best in the AL. Ben Zobrist placed top-ten in slugging percentage (.543) and belted 27 homers. The switch-hitting super utility guy was also 8th in the American League MVP vote. Yes, this is an awesome card and it has me really excited and I am glad that I am able to give it a proper post. It has me reignited in my Rays auto quest too now. I am desperately trying to fill autographs of everyone on the 2008 AL Champs team and am getting close. If anyone has a Matt Garza, BJ Upton, Dioner Navarro, JP Howell, Cliff Floyd, Evan Longoria, Troy Percival, Rocco Baldelli or Evan Longoria auto that they would be willing to share, it would be appreciated! Anyway, a HUGE thank you to Tim from the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame , I owe ya my friend and you really made my week with this card! Breakfast is complete and my third cup of coffee is almost gone, so I am moving on, but I just might find another location before the day is done. Thanks again Tim! Go Rays! Troll out.