Greetings Trollites! It’s been a while since I have posted. I’ve been a very busy troll. Playing mechanic has become a full-time job, but I am getting better at it. After knocking out a fan belt, water pump, oil change, fuel-injector rebuild, thermostat and starter change (on several different cars) yesterday I am amped and ready for major automotive surgery tomorrow. I have to change the fuel pump in my wife’s Jeep. Doesn’t sound difficult, but the fuel pump is INSIDE of the fuel tank. Wish me luck! Trying not to forget my promise to have all of the cards from the group break shipped out by Thursday morning I am gonna keep on going. 1993 Topps Stadium Club is done, 1994 Pinnacle is getting close. Here we go with pack # 22 on ’94 Pinnacle:#450 Rickey Henderson Oakland A’s (Great shot of the Greatest...)
#529 Rich Becker Minnesota Twins (Wasn’t there a sitcom with Ted Danson in it called Becker?)
#408 Harold Baines Baltimore Orioles
#311 Mark Langston California Angels (I know that Matt from HCoSG collects Matt Williams cuz they share the same first name. I was a fan of Langston for that same reason… Plus, back in his Seattle days the dude was a serious power pitcher… Leading the league in Ks as a rookie? That’s freaking awesome! Not being a fluke and doing it 2 more times, even better…)#478 Melvin Nieves San Diego Padres
#452 Bob Tewksbury St Louis Cardinals (Tewksbury was an All Star in ’92 and finished third in the Cy Young voting behind Maddux and Glavine when he had a record of 16-5 with a 2.16 ERA) #319 Luis Alicea St Louis Cardinals
#291 Wally Joyner Kansas City Royals (It’s a Wally World, I’m just ripping packs)
#412 Mark Hutton New York Yankees (Hutton, a big righty from Australia, was in the Yankees system since 1989, he finally made the big leagues to stay and he gets traded in August of 1996, right before they go to the World Series. That sucks.)
#314 Hal Morris Cincinnati Reds (Hal, whose real name is William Morris, had an awesome rookie season for the Reds in 1990-he hit .340 with a .498 slugging % to help them to the playoffs. He hit .417 against the Pirates to help them win the NL Pennant. Then came the World Series. He choked against Oakland, getting 1 hit in 14 at-bats, but the Reds STILL swept the A’s) #471 Xavier Hernandez New York Yankees
#340 Pat Meares Minnesota Twins (As a rookie with the Twins in ’93 Meares turned 70 doubles and had 304 assists, but he pissed off wrong Pinnacle photographer somehow and got this as his card)#378 Carl Willis Minnesota Twins
#287 Roberto Alomar Toronto Blue Jays (This pack started with a great low-down close-up of Rickey and ends with a nice wide shot of Alomar. I think the dude is safe at second though…)Okay, another rip rapped up. Just 2 more packs and ’94 Pinnacle will be gone forever. I will do my best to keep on posting tomorrow, but dropping the fuel tank is gonna keep me tied up for a bit… By way it has gotten cold in FLA again and it’s REALLY windy too. By the way, there a couple of you who still haven't got in touch about paying for your slot in this (the 1st) break. I want to ship everything out this week so PLEASE let me know whats up. Go Rays! Troll out.
#703 David Cone Kansas City Royals (Cone was a late season acquisition by the Blue Jays in 1992 and he helped them to their first World Series, but left for free agency and Kansas City after the Series. Had an off year in ’93 for the Royals going 11-14, but came back and won the Cy Young Award for the strike shortened ’94 season)
#652 Armando Reynoso Colorado Rockies (Reynoso was 12-11 with a 4.00 ERA and 4 complete games for the Rockies in their inaugural season)
#673 Kirk Gibson Detroit Tigers (Gibby won the MVP in ’88 but NEVER made an All Star team…)
#748 Roger Clemens Boston Red Sox MEMBERS CHOICE (From the back of the card: “Clemens is to pitching what Lombardi’s Packers were to football”
#672 Doug Drabek Houston Astros (This is a great card to end the last pack of a box that bored me to tears at times. That isn’t sarcasm either, I was a Drabek fan… Drabek will forever be remembered as the 1990 Cy Young (22-6, 2.76 ERA) and also the guy who suffered all 3 losses in the 1992 NLCS against the Braves. Drabek started 7 games in the postseason, he threw 2 complete games and struck out 33 batters. He has a career 2.05 ERA in the playoffs to go with his 2-5 record. Hard luck for a very cool and decent guy)
#705 David Hulse Texas Rangers (Hulse burst on the scene as a rookie in 1993 with the Rangers batting .290 with a homer, 29 RBI and 29 steals while playing an above average centerfield. After his newness wore off he returned to obscurity. Fortunately someone has 8 copies of this card to remember him with)
#646 Joe Magrane St Louis Cardinals (Magrane was a pretty decent arm for the Cards in the 80’s, but more importantly he was part of the Original Devil Rays play by play team)
#717 Paul O’Neill New York Yankees (O’Neill was a batting champ, a 5-time All Star, 5-time World Series champ and he played on the winning side in 3 perfect games. I am pretty sure he is the only player who can make that claim)
#749 Joe Carter Toronto Blue Jays MEMBERS CHOICE
#675 Mike Felder Seattle Mariners (Felder played for 10 years in the big leagues and somehow I can’t ever remember seeing him play. I pulled the card, said “Who?” and looked him up and realized he spent a decade in the Majors. Damn)
#743 Charlie Hayes Colorado Rockies (Hayes caught the final out to seal the World Series for the Yankees in 1996. He also committed the error that ruined Terry Mulholland’s perfect game in 1990. Hayes had his best year for the Rockies in their first year. He batted .305 with 25 homers with 98 RBI. He also stole 11 bases and led the NL with 45 doubles. His son Tyree Hayes is a pitcher on the Bowling Green Hot Rods in the Rays organization. He was 7-5 in 2009)
#687 Matt Mieske Milwaukee Brewers
#661 Fernando Valenzuela Baltimore Orioles (After 11 seasons in Los Angeles the Dodgers released Valenzuela during spring training in 1991. He was picked up by the Angels, but was released by them after giving up 10 runs in 6 innings in his first 2 starts. El Toro spent all of 1992 pitching for Jalisco Charros in Mexico. He got off to a rocky start, but finished really strong and posted a 10-9 mark with a 3.86 ERA. He signed with Baltimore during spring training in 1993 and returned to MLB. He pitched decent in his one season with the Orioles posting an 8-10 record with a 4.94 ERA in 31 starts. He would extend his career until 1997 with 3 other teams. For his career El Toro was 173-153 with 2074 strikeouts)
#641 Dave Stieb Chicago White Sox
#674 Steve Reed Colorado Rockies (Reed went undrafted out of college, but signed on with the Giants organization after a non-roster spring training invite. He was picked by the Rockies in the 60th round of the 1992 expansion draft AND the submariner went on to be the Rockies most used pitcher and had a 15 year career. In 1993 he pitched in 64 games with a 9-5 record and 3 saves. He appeared in 833 games in his career which ranks him 37th All Time.)
#2 Andy Pettitte New York Yankees (It is a shocker to pull a pitcher out of this product… I think there is one pitcher to 12 hitters. I looked up Pettitte’s career numbers as soon as I yanked this one. The first surprise was not only has AP never sniffed a Cy Young, he has only been an All Star twice. He won 21 games in 1996, in the thick of the juiced ball/juiced player era… His record in the postseason is more than an entire season for most. He is 18-9 in 40 starts including 8 World Series. Wow. His 229 wins are 63rd All Time and his .629 winning percentage is 53rd All Time. He won 14 games for the Yankees last year in the regular season and he was 4-0 in the postseason. At 37 years old, I think he still has a few good years in him)
#115 Joe Carter Toronto Blue Jays (I have searched and searched and I can’t find the 1984 Donruss Carter that I was sure I had-anybody got an extra? Carter joined the power party in ’96 himself with 30 bombs and 107 RBI)
#143 Mark McGwire Oakland A’s Peak Performers (Perhaps “Peak Performance Enhancer” would be a more appropriate subset title for this card…)
#308 Paul Sorrento Cleveland Indians (Sorrento went to the Twins from the Angels as part of the Bert Blyleven trade. He never cracked the starting line-up, but did collect a ring for the ’91 Series. The following spring Sorrento was traded to the Indians and took over as their full-time first baseman in 1992. He averaged 19 homers a year for the Tribe before signing with Seattle in 1996. In 1998 he signed with the expansion Devil Rays and was their original designated hitter. He hit 17 homers for the inaugural D-Rays. He retired after the 1999 season)
#353 Ramon Martinez Los Angeles Dodgers (Kodachrome! You give us those nice bright colors, the greens of summer; you make all the world a sunny day)
#437 Jon Ratliff Chicago Cubs MUSEUM COLLECTION (More Dufex technology wasted on a bust draft pick. The Cubs made Ratliff their first round pick in 1993 and he spent 5 years in their minor league system. His minor league career totaled 11 seasons, his big league career lasted 3 pitches for the Oakland A’s in 2000)
#313 Stan Javier Oakland A’s (1994 was Javier’s 3rd stop with Oakland. He won a World Series there in 1990 and spent a total of 7 years there, but the highlight had to be getting to wear the Oaks throwbacks)
#288 Charlie Hough Florida Marlins (The knuckler in action)
#322 Jose Rijo Cincinnati Reds (Shown without the super soaker)
#374 Dave Stewart Toronto Blue Jays (Beware the man in the hat)
#447 Mark Lemke Atlanta Braves (I can hardly believe that this is the first appearance of the Lemmer! The Braves grabbed Lemke in the 27th round of the 1983 draft. After 8 years in the minors he was the Braves second baseman and he led (?) them to 4 NL Pennants and 1 World Championship. After 10 years as a Brave he spent part of a season with the Boston Red Sox and then in 1999 joined the Northern League’s New Jersey Jackals as knuckle ball pitcher. He was 5-1 in 5 starts, totaling 33 innings. He abandoned the experiment after he gave up 8 runs in 2 innings in his first start in 2000)
I have always considered my Dad to be my hero and I like seeing that from a pro ball player, especially one of my favorites. Thanks so much for this and the other 500 cards you sent 
Okay, here is who participated in the first rip along with their payment status. (Below this are the slots for the next one!)
This is who is already signed up for the next rip and their status.
Okay, I am sure that I forgot at least 1 person here, but assuming I didn’t there are 12 open slots. I have purchased all of the wax for the break. I had said I was going to limit this one to 50 packs, but that didn’t seem like enough funs, so it is actually going to include 118 packs, totaling 1,481 cards. One pack of each product will be ripped on A Pack to be Named Later and additional packs will be opened here. Everyone involved in the break WILL GET EVERY CARD PULLED OF THEIR TEAM, but I will not be posting 118 packs. I will post at least 1 pack of everything. For the boxes of 36 I will post the first 12 packs I open and if something special is pulled after that, I will post that, too. The 24-count box will have 8 packs posted. The 8 pack blaster will have 3 packs. These are all minimum figures, but I am trying to get the point across that I won’t be posting every single pack. I didn’t want the break to only include 48 packs, I wanted it to be fun and have some variety, so I bought extra, but I know I won’t have time to post 118 packs, so figure on somewhere between 40-50 packs posted. Does this sound good to everyone? Please spread the word to everyone to PLEASE READ this post. The rip including all 118 packs is contingent to all slots being filled (there are 12 open) and it also needs to be read by all participants to make sure that no one objects to me only posting 40-50 packs. In the matter of the Heritage blaster, here is how it will be divided. The new teams (D-Backs and Rays) will be kept by me. Any multi-player cards will be mine. Nationals cards will go to the Expos slot. Any single player card of your team is yours. If I pull a Lou Gehrig autograph, it would go to Nico who holds the Yankees slot. If I pull an Albert Pujols jersey, it would go to Madding who holds the Cards slot. Does this all make sense? If you want to claim a team, do so here. If I forgot you, point it out here. If you have yet to pay for your team’s slot in the previous break, please contact me. Bacontowne at yahoo dot com is my email. Okay, that is all for now. Let’s fill those 12 slots. Oh... I wanted to end this post with a HUGE THANK YOU to Adam E from the 
#124 Dmitri Young St Louis Cardinals (The Meat Hook was the 4th overall player selected in the 1991 draft for the Cards)
#6 Kenny Lofton Atlanta Braves (During spring training in ’97 Lofton and Alan Embree went to the Braves in exchange for David Justice and Marquis Grissom. Lofton hit .333 in his one season with the Braves… He choked at the plate in the postseason and signed back with Cleveland in ’98)
#137 Hideki Irabu New York Yankees (The botc says Irabu was considered the Japananese Nolan Ryan prior to signing with the Yankees. Didn’t quite work out that way in the big leagues)
#100 Jeff Fassero Seattle Mariners (After the 1996 season the Mariners sent 3 players to the Expos for Fassero giving them the best all left-handed 1-2-3 punch in the American League. Randy Johnson, Jeff Fassero and Jaimie Moyer, along with an amazing offense led the Mariners to a 90 win season, netting 1st place in the AL West. Unfortunately the Orioles rolled over the M’s in the first round of the playoffs. Fassero won the only game for Seattle when they lost the series 3-1)
#43 Paul O’Neill New York Yankees (O’Neill had a pretty nice career, but all I think of was his guest spot on Seinfeld when I see his cards. Paul O’Neill hit TWO homeruns for Bobby!)
#18 Chuck Knoblauch Minnesota Twins (Knoblauch batted .341 for the Twins in ’96, and in ’97 he won the Trifecta for AL 2nd baseman as an All Star, Gold Glove and Silver Slugger winner. He was traded to the Yankees for 5 players before the ’98 season)
(which I now have a relic thanks to Hackenbush of Can’t Have Too Many Cards!!!), Steve Garvey, 
Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Dave Winfield (now have a bat relic thanks to Largo Frank!), 
Minnie Minoso, Willie Stargell, Bert Blyleven, Mike Cuellar, Darryl Strawberry, Don Mattingly, Robin Ventura, Tom Seaver, Albert Belle, JR Richard, Andrew McCutchen, Rickey Henderson, Moe Drabowsky, Maury Wills, Rod Carew, Carlos Pena, Evan Longoria, Prince Fielder, Steve Carlton, Warren Spahn, Frank Robinson, Curt Blefary, Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Paul Molitor, Jack Morris, Nick Markakis, Tony Oliva, Frank Howard and the list goes on and on… I will post a want list page for my Trifecta Collection very soon-Aside from 3 cards I posted here; I am missing relic cards for all of these former players. Other things that I plan on working on are: Finishing up the 2009 Topps Heritage set, high and low numbers, finishing the 2008 Heritage set (I only need ONE freaking card), 
gathering up all 35 of the 2009 Topps Gold cards of the Tampa Bay Rays, collecting an autograph of every member of the 2008 AL Champs team (I need Upton, Navarro, Garza, Howell, Gross) and finishing up the 2008 Allen and Ginter set and starting on the 2007 and probably chasing the 2010 as well. Some older sets I am chasing and will probably never finish are the 1969 Topps set, which thanks to Wrigley Wax 
I have quite a few of now, the 1965 Topps set, the 1951 Bowman set (I have 7 cards, but just got another in the mail today!), the 1887 Allen and Ginter set (I have 2 of 50) and the 1964 Topps Giants set. The giant card is my new obsession. I don’t know how many cards are in this set-I know it includes Mantle, Clemente, Kaline, Killebrew and Robinson and I don’t have any of those, but it is an awesome set, chock full of information on the back of the card. 
I just got this Milt Pappas this week (from Clyde in Illinois, THANKS!) and that puts me up to 10 cards. When I finish this box break I am going to start posting all of the giant cards I have, one by one, front and back. I am posting this basically because a lot of wonderful folks have emailed me asking me my collecting priorities for 2010, so I thought I would lay it out here formerly. Like I said I will start a page for the Trifecta collection and I will get together a list for ’64 Topps Giants, ’65 Topps and ’69 Topps soon. I have been gathering 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968 Topps and 1954 Bowman as well, but I am nowhere near close enough to form a list. So to put the priorities in order for 2010, here we go!
2. Chase as many Rays autographs as possible!
11. Build the Jonny Gomes, Brian Roberts, Jason Bartlett, Danny Tartabull, Roberto Clemente and Pat Neshek collection
15. Acquire 5 more cards from the 1951 Bowman set
and players holding microphones. 
I do also want to build my collection of specific moment in time cards, too. 
I also plan to attend as many games as possible, both Major and minor league and take pictures and write recaps. I also plan on doing at least 5 more interviews specific for this blog-specifically interviewing players who played with Roberto Clemente, plus post pack rips on a Pack to be Named Later and trade as often as possible. Of course I would REALLY like to see Jonny Gomes as an every day starter and I would LOVE to see the Rays run the table through the playoffs... 2010 is gonna be a great year for baseball and for blogging, thanks for reading! Oh, my most pressing goals are to finish this damn group box rip and to fill up the remaining spots for the next one! Get in touch with me at bacontowne at yahoo dot com. I want to end this post by thanking EVERYONE reading this and everyone who has read and/or enjoyed this blog this past year. I would continue writing regardless, but it means the world to me knowing that people are reading and reacting and interacting. THANK YOU! I love this game, I love this hobby, I love this blog-o-spher! Go Rays! Troll out.
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