Thank You Vets!

I thank people on this blog all the time, but today I want all of the vets out there. I never served myself, but came from a military family. Anyway, I wanted to start my day off saying THANKS to all of the American Service Men and Women out there. Thanks! I won't be posting any cards on the Troll today, but I posted another group break pack rip HERE and an old fashioned Old vs New on the Nitty Gritty. I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend and thanking Vets every chance they get. I enjoyed two days off, but I am working tonight. Go Rays! Troll out.

From the Wicked Vault...

Here is another one-card post from your friend the Troll. Another Rays pitcher, but this time a starter turned reliever. Sonnanstine has been responding well to his new role. Sparing a rough outing in New York where he was shelled for 4 runs on May 19th, he has been stellar in relief. His last two outings have spanned 4 shutout innings. Obviously I would prefer to see him back to his form in 2008 when he won 13 games as a starter, but I am happy that he remains on the team and he is doing well in his new role. Middle and long relief has long been a weak point for Tampa Bay and Sonnanstine has the ability to burn up a lot of innings. He is 1-0 so far this season with a 3.43 ERA and 13 Ks in 15 appearances spanning 21 innings. Opponents are batting .232 off of him this year. This card comes from the Wicked Vault and came to me recently from My Past Time…I Love It!. It is from 2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Beginnings Signature Series and shows Sonnanstine in spring training 2006 on the front with an ON-CARD blue sharpie signature on the bottom. There is also a plastic miniature batting helmet embedded on the card. I think that is a bit goofy, but I am not complaining. I really like this card! This is the third Sonny autograph to come my way from South Florida and the 9th total in my collection. If this card wasn’t ¼ inch thick, I could fill a binder page full of Sonnanstine autographs. This card, however, is far too thick to fit into a binder page. Thanks so much for this and all of the great stuff you have sent to me Wicked! Hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day Weekend. This was a "scheduled post" but I just read on My Past Time, I Love It! that our friend and fellow blogger suffered a flood in his home this weekend. It took out more than half of his collection, plus baby pictures and many belongings. Stop by to show him some love and support. We are here for you homie!!! Go Rays! Troll out.

A Number One Draft Picks Who Is Already Winning Games in the Big Leagues...

This one card post is brought to you by Adam E from the Thoughts and Sox blog. Adam had posted this on his blog a few months back and I expressed interest because I didn’t have any cards of David Price in his Vanderbilt uniform and I thought it looked pretty cool. This was during spring training and I don’t think anyone thought that Price would jump out like he has, but he is acting like the Ace that the Rays hoped he would be when they used the first overall pick to select him in the 2007 draft. The card is from the 2007 Donruss Elite Extra Edition set, card #5, and Adam didn’t just send the Price card, he sent me the ENTIRE set!!! As soon as I get it sleeved up I will start posting pages, but for now here is David Price when he was dominating the NCAA. He failed in his bid for his 8th win the other night, but at 7-2 with a 2.57 ERA in 10 starts he is looking damn good. He has one shutout to his credit and 50 strikeouts in 66 innings this season. I do have a question about this card that maybe someone can answer for me. Why does it say (NL) after Drafted by Tampa Bayon the cards front? Thanks so much Adam for this great addition to my growing David Price collection. Look for more posts from the Thoughts and Sox vault in the near future. Go Rays! Troll out.

3 From 1

Sooner or later we all trade. Its a fact. I always wondered why I hadn't made a trade with Mike Pelfrey Collectibles before, but I didn't sweat it, cuz I new it would happen on its own sooner or later. Well, it finally did. Anthony, the biggest Pelfrey fan in the blog-o-sphere is slowing down on card collecting and card buying to focus on other interests. He had a HUGE trade bait post up of all sorts of autographed and memorabilia cards. Actually, I think he still has some left, so you might wanna head over there... Anyway, amidst all the goodies was an autographed card of former Devil Rays pitcher Ruddy Lugo. The younger brother of current Orioles second baseman Julio Lugo, Ruddy spent a year and a half in Tampa Bay and thus was on my radar for my autograph collection. I had sent a TTM request to him before with no. I have not got a response from his brother either... Anyway, with such a short big league career I didn't realize that Ruddy Lugo had any certified autographs out there. Who was I kidding? He was a third pick for the Brewers in 1999 and was a combined 11-2 for the Dodgers organization in 2002, so he was definitely on the prospector radar. Oh, as for how he ended up a Dodger. He was the player to be named later in the Marquis Grissom for Devon White deal. Anyway, he bumped around with several different teams before the Devil Rays signed him in 2005. In 2006 he appeared in relief in 64 games for Tampa Bay. He started the 2007 season with them, but was put on waivers and grabbed by the A's. In 2007 he had a combined perfect record of 6-0, but with a 5.40 ERA. He bounced around a little bit more, but has yet to make it back to the major leagues. He has been part of the Tigers system since 2009 where he is a starter with their AAA team in Toledo. Last year he was 13-9 in 25 starts. Wow, that a long description even for me... The short of it is I claimed the card, a 2006 Upper Deck Clear Path To Greatness Signature Series card of Julio Lugo from the trade bait page, Anthony and I exchanged a few e-mails, I had some vintage Mets he needed and I ended up with 3 sweet new cards for my collection. The Lugo was the only Rays autograph that I got, but not the only auto. He also sent me this 2008 Topps Updates autograph of Nyjer Morgan. Morgan was a favorite of mine from his days at Pirate City coming up through the Pittsburgh organization. I don't intend on collecting him, but liked the idea of adding one of his autographs to my collection, plus I love the photo of his a-Mays-ing catch. The third and final card in the deal was this 2009 Topps Heritage Chrome version of David Price. I am trying to get the complete Rays team set as chrome parallels. I don't know if this finishes it off, but it gets me pretty damn close. Thanks so much to Mike Pelfrey Collectibles for the trade! Go Rays! Troll out.

Oh No, Not Another Trade Post!!!

This post is meant to accomplish a few things. First I wanted to welcome a new (sort of) blogger to the Blog-O-Sphere Family. His name is Ryan and he is a fan and collector of all things Baltimore Orioles. Now there are already quite a few Orioles blogs out there and there are 3 of them that I can think of which are run by people named Ryan (first OR last name) so his blog title is super appropriate. It is called Oh No, Another Orioles Blog. I suppose he isn’t THAT new. He already has 22 posts AND 22 followers to his credit, but I am ALWAYS late, so naturally I am late on the welcome wagon. Anyway, a big blog-o-sphere welcome to ANOTHER Orioles blogger named Ryan. Okay, purpose number 2. Ryan and I made a trade and I wanted to post it. Actually Ryan sent me some cards and I owe him some, but I want to get these in the binder and off the desk, so here they are. I will start with some Topps cards he sent of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Enter purpose #3-to pimp my want lists. You can find my Rays Team Set list right HERE. Ryan found it and knocked a few cards off of it which is always appreciated. This brought me down to needing just 13 more cards for total Topps/D-Rays domination from 1997 to present. Of course that number will rise now that 2010 Topps Series 2 is out and I don’t have any of those YET, but anyway… I have mentioned that 2003 Topps is one of my favorites; I now need just one more card to finish that off. I barely remember Lee Stevens playing for the Devil Rays, but THAT’S BECAUSE HE NEVER PLAYED FOR THE DEVIL RAYS!!! His last game in the big leagues was in September of 2002 and he was with Cleveland. He did play in 18 games for the Indianapolis Indians (AAA) in 2003 before officially retiring, but those Indians are a Brewers affiliate. Maybe he got a non roster to spring training with Tampa Bay in 2003? Who knows? Anyway, Topps gave him a card, #541 in their set and I needed it and now I have it. Another name I can knock off my list is from 2005 Topps Updates, a Futures Game card of Delmon Young. I don’t know why or how I still need so many cards from ’05 Topps, it seems like I have 100s of dupes, but I still need 4 more cards. Huh. Of course the fourth and final purpose is to show off some SWEET Carl Crawford cards! Along with the team set cards he sent me some fresh new Carl Crawford’s for my growing collection. Shown here is a really dark scan of card #199 from 2000 Bowman. He included a few other CC Bowmans from the past few years that I might need as well. I have my box of CC cards next to my bed and I swear I am going to sort it soon! The thing about this package that I was most excited about was the 2010 Bowman stuff he sent. People are going apesh…t over this stuff. Mainly because Stephen Strasburg cards are selling for more money than a three bedroom fixer upper does in my neighborhood. For that reason I probably won’t buy any 2010 Bowman myself, but I am super fascinated by this product. I have seen most of the Rays cards on the ‘Bay, but now I own a few of them. I really like this shot of CC sliding in safe at home in Florida against the Fish. I think that was from the same series where both Aki and Bartlett were injured last year. Anyway, I have admired this one from a far. With so many people trying to pull a million dollar Strasburg card they are peddling the other “hits” from this set for next to nothing. As SS has yet to throw a pitch in the big leagues CC is a proven All Star and you can find his cards very cheap. I am on a mission to collect one of EVERY single 2010 Bowman there is of Crawford. This includes the one of ones, printing plates, EVERYTHING! I know that sounds a bit crazy especially considering that Ryan sent me the three coolest cards in the set already, but I never claimed to be a sane collector. I really like this Bowman throwback of CC styled after 1992. I never ripped a single pack of that either, but people went crazy after that as well. I did not like the rookie cards of guys in street clothes. Didn’t like them then, still don’t. I honestly don’t own a single 1992 Bowman card, but still I think this one; card #BT24 is super rad! The last CC from 2010 Bowman is super rad as well. It is card #BE 14 from the Bowman Expectations set and has CC on one side and the centerfielder of the future Desmond Jennings on the flip side. I think DJ is going to do big things in Tampa Bay, probably starting next year. He rounded out the 2010 Bowman fest with a couple of Rays starters who have a shot at being first time All Stars. I like the Price, the Garza is bland. I need to find a checklist to see who else I need. The last card I will show is probably my least favorite. I HATE variation backs; I am with the Night Owl on this one. Just don’t like em. As a super player collector I have to deal with them though and I can now scratch 2007 Topps Red Back off of my CC needs list. Thanks for all the great cards Ryan!!! There will be Orioles a plenty heading your way soon!!! As a trader he officially has the Troll Stamp of Approval, so go check out his blog RIGHT NOW!!! Now, if you have 2010 Bowman cards of Crawford or any Rays, get in touch and let’s make a deal! I despise printing plate 1 of 1s, but for some reason I want them all... I love this game, I love this hobby, and I love TRADING! Go Rays! Troll out.

The Collective Troll's Better Late than Never Group Break!!!

The title says it all... About 5 or 6 years ago a bunch of you signed on for a group break. By now I am sure that most everyone has forgotten about who had which team. I am a horrible group break host and I apologize for that. I was able to dig up the official list of who has which team. I think that most everyone paid up long ago. I don't know if everyone did, we will leave this on the honor system. Anyway, I added the list on the side bar to remind myself that I need to get this done. The list will stay up until its over. Thanks for reading. Go Rays! Lazy Troll out.

Any Basketball Fans Out There???

Check out my latest rip on a Pack to be Named Later... It might include this guy. Baseball card posts are coming, perhaps a few. Stay tuned! Go Rays! Troll out.

My New FAVORITE Piece of my Collection and Some History on What Else I Collect...

It is time to unveil my favorite new oversized “card” that I picked up last weekend. Heres a hint-it isn't the Wade Boggs, you have to keep reading... This one blew me away and I still don’t even know what to do with it, but it hits the collector in me on many different levels. Many of use collect more than just cards and sports memorabilia. I personally have a bunch of different collections. Baseball cards have taken over as my #1 lately, but at a close second is record collecting. I love vinyl records and I have thousands of them. My taste in records is the same as cards. I don’t go crazy trying to find mint condition records to stuff in plastic and wait for them to rise in value. I find what I like and pick it up regardless of the condition and I actually play all of my records. I have records that have “list prices” in the hundreds of dollars range, but I play them and store them alongside the thrift store finds that make up the bulk of my collection. I have a lot of vintage vinyl and I collect modern (77 and up) punk rock vinyl and 7” records. My wife and I run a record label together. It’s called Bacon Towne Records and we release only vinyl records of punk, hardcore and thrash bands. Our house is decorated with framed records, records nailed to walls and gig posters from our bands. I also collect roller derby memorabilia. This is a newer collection, but the more my wife and I get involved in the sport the more fascinated I am with its history and the history of roller skating in general. A few weeks back one of my wife’s customers brought her in a pair of aluminum roller skates that are stamped 1940. Nice! My Grandfather (Pop-Pop) on my Dad’s side was a lifetime Air Force man and remained a pilot after his retirement. He was a pioneer in aviation, hung out with the Wright Brothers and Amelia Earhart and has the pictures to prove it. That began my fascination with vintage aviation. I don’t have any of that stuff at my house, but my family donated many of his pictures and uniforms and equipment to a museum in Connecticut, the rest of it is stored at my parent’s house. My grandfather on my Mom’s side was a lifetime machinist. That is the career path I have taken, too. Machinists love their tools and thusly I collect machining tools and gages. I recently bought a Starrett “Last Word” gage. Its number dates it to the 30’s and it still works! Okay, this is going somewhere… The last oversized “card” I picked up is this, a 1962 Sports Champions color record album of Twins slugger Bob Allison. I had never seen one of these before and it hits my collection on multi-levels. First, it is vintage baseball. My top level in collecting. Second, it’s a RECORD! Third it is made by Columbia Records. That is where my Grandfather worked as a machinist for 45 years. Fourth, in 1959 my Pop-Pop worked in Washington at the Pentagon and attended nearly all of the Senators games. He and President Eisenhower had known each other for many years and attended several Sens games together. According to my father in 1959 they agreed that Killebrew and Bob Allison were going to make the Senators contenders. They did team up to make their team a force, but they did it in Minnesota, but my Grandfather (Pop-Pop) remained a fan and flew to the Twin Cities to watch his old team. In yet another connection, two years ago my wife was writing a paper on ataxia, the disorder that took Allison’s life. While researching the disorder she came across Bob Allison and spent a day talking of his accomplishments in baseball. He won the Rookie of the Year in 1959 for the Senators when he hit .261 with 30 homers, 85 RBI, 13 steals and a league leading 9 triples. The Sens still finished in the basement and Allison was overshadowed by Harmon Killebrew who had too many games to qualify for ROY, but led the AL in homers in his first full season in the big leagues. Allison was an All Star as a rookie and made the trip twice more. He paced the AL in runs in ’63 and topped 20 homers 8 times in his 13 year career. You can view all of William Robert Allison's stats here. I mentioned in the top of this post that I play all of my records. I have. Every single record in my personal collection (I sell new punk rock records) has been played. I don’t know if I should play this one though. It is 48 years old and has not yet been played. It’s a dilemma. Naturally I want to track down every single record from this series, but this one will always be my favorite. Oh, in an effort to break up all of the text up top I included my other two acquisitions... A '93 Stadium Club Master Photo of Wade Boggs (even as a Red Sox hater I really like this card!) and a 2003 Prospect Premium bat relic of Carl Crawford from '03 Bowman. I will probably post this one again cuz its really neat! The Boggs is on the block Sox fans! Oh, as an end note I also collect vintage camera gear and engineering supplies and beer signage. Thanks for reading! Go Rays! I love this game, I love my hobbies! Troll out.

A Collective Trol 3 From 3!

Its time for another old fashioned Collective Troll 3 From 3. This one features former Rays slugger Aubrey Huff. Until January of this year I did not own any “premium” Huff cards. He was never a favorite player of mine even though he had a few really great seasons in Tampa Bay. I think he still holds the team record for homers by an outfielder from his amazing season in 2003 when he started 102 games in right field for the Rays and hit .311 with 34 homers and 107 RBI. He also added 47 doubles, 198 hits and 91 runs scored. In his 7 years in Tampa Bay he topped 20 homers in 4 consecutive years and was a consistent part of the middle of the lineup. Perhaps his biggest contribution to the team came on his way out the door. He was traded to the Houston Astros in July of 2006 to give the ‘Stros a little bit of extra power down the stretch. That deal brought pitcher Mitch Talbot to the Rays along with super-utility-man Zorilla aka Ben Zobrist. Huff only spent one year in Houston before signing a huge free agent contract with the Baltimore Orioles. In 2008 he had his best year offensively for them. He batted .304 with 32 homers and a career high 108 RBI. He also set a career best with 48 doubles and he won his first and only Silver Slugger Award that year at the DH position. Last year he was dealt to Detroit at the deadline but didn’t offer the Tigers much production. His numbers in Detroit were .189 with 2 homers and 13 RBI in 40 games. A lot of people thought that was the end of his career. Those folks would be wrong however. The management in San Francisco saw something in Huff and signed him right before spring training so far this year he is looking good. He is back out in the field at first base and is hitting .280 with 4 homers and 20 RBI and also has 10 doubles. He is second on the team in homers, RBI and doubles so far this season. I am happy that Huff found a team and happier that he is doing well. He is in the top-50 among active players in most batting categories and at 33 years of age I think he still has a few more homers in his bat. I am far from a Giants fan, but I root for anyone who came up through the Rays system. Fan or not I didn’t want to see his career end after that awful time in Detroit. I am glad that San Francisco offered him a shot at redemption… Wow, that was a lot more than I had intended on saying about Mr. Huff! Okay, since this is a three from three post I will mention the 3 cards I am featuring. The one on top ironically came from a Giants fan. I think he sent it to me 3 weeks before Huff signed on with San Fran. This card is from 2005 Leaf Certified Materials, card #11. It is serial numbered 24 out of 250. This was the very first non-base card of Huff I got. It came from Omega Wax and it only took me 5 months to get it posted! Thanks so much to Omega for sending me this one, I really like it. One day I will post up the Martin Dihigo card he sent along with it! Soon after I got my first Huff bat relic my homie Wicked Ortega from My Past Time I Love It! had to up the ante and he sent this gem. It is from 2004 Playoff Absolute, card #11 from the Absolutely Ink set. It is a TRIPLE-a Trifecta all in one. The card is serial numbered 064/100 and includes a tiny jersey swatch, a little bat chip and a nice bold sticker autograph. I really like the concept of mulit-relics and autos on one card. I think I have 4 like this and I think they all came from Wicked. I haven’t been hanging onto to this card as long as the bat relic from Omega, but it has been sitting on my desk for a few months… Oh, speaking of Wicked. He is desperately seeking cards of former Pirates infielder Rennie Stennett. There may be a reward involved if you can hook him up. He has his Topps checklist posted but I think this would be a great opportunity for a custom card creator to make a cool card and get it autographed. Just a though. Okay, back to Aubrey Huff-he has the floor right now… Last month I got my third Mojo Huff card in the mail from a reader, thus completing a 3 card lot and readying these bad boys for a proper post. It is a 2000 Just Minors ON CARD auto of the young outfielder. Huff played for the Orlando Rays (AA) in 1999 and that was the first stop that he showed his power potential-he hit 22 homers and 40 doubles for them and virtually duplicated those numbers the next year in AAA and from there he climbed to the big leagues. I REALLY like these Just Minors autographs. I like the simplicity of the design, I like that all of the ones that I have are from Florida teams that I have watched and I like the on-card-ness of the autographs. This one came from Drew (not the blogger) with a few other autographs that I will post up soon. My autograph list is not up to date and I have come across quite a few of late. I will create a proper list of Rays autos soon. As far as my quest to get an autographed card of EVERY member of the 2008 American League Champion team- I am getting VERY close. I don’t have everyone in a Rays uniform yet, but I think that JP Howell, Matt Garza and David Price are the only 3 I still need. I do plan on posting them all at once as a tribute to that magical team. If you are new to my blog, I am trying to get one autograph from EVERY player to ever play a game for the (Devil) Rays. If you have Rays autos from ANY year, get in touch! Thanks again to the 3 traders who provided the fodder for this 3 from 3 post. Omega, Wicked and Drew (not the blogger)-y'all rawk!!! Best of luck to Aubrey Huff on the other coast. My next posts will be trades from Roll Out The Barrel and Mike Pelfrey Collectibles, a '65 Topps League Leader on the Nitty Gritty and a pack rip of 1998 Pinnacle MINT on a Pack to be Named Later. Stay tuned! Go Rays! Troll out.

2008 Allen and Ginter Cabinet Cards That Are Available For Trading...

As promised these are the 2 cabinet cards that I picked up this weekend. These are pretty awesome and naturally I want to collect the entire set, but I don't think I have the time, space or resources for it so I will throw these out there for trade. They are both from the Historic Battles subset and include card #HB1 of the Battle of Trenton. This card features General George Washington and General Nathaniel Greene. The other is card #HB3 of the Battle of Gettysburg and features Generals George Meade and Robert E. Lee on the front. If I were to keep one it would be the Battle of Trenton. I have seen collectors use these on the fronts of their binders and they look pretty sweet. I can't figure out to affix them though. If it were a historical battle between the Twins and the Braves circa 1991 I would definitely be keeping them! As an end note this Markakis cabinet from 2007 Turkey Red is still available. Speak now Orioles fans. If I don't hear an offer soon it is going in my Orioles binder forever! Thats all for now. Go Rays! Troll out.

Group Break Goodness

So I wasn't nearly as productive as I had hoped, but I did get one more bonus pack rip for the group break posted. Check it out here. Nitty Gritty post after midnight is the plan... Off to work. Go Rays! Troll out.

Tuesday Moring Musings, Blogging as Therapy and a Card from the Wicked Vault!

After work on Friday before I took a nap and before we left for Gainesville I sat down at my desk in the dining room (which has become my card room) and had plans to schedule a weeks worth of posts. I was staring at literally thousands of cards. Blogger kindness packages, trades with readers, trades with bloggers, purchases made online and at the card shop and a shoebox from Mom and Dad’s garage. I was too overwhelmed. There was too much stuff. I can not use my computer at work anymore. I used to make the majority of my posts while I was at work, but now I can only think about posting. In my head I have passed 5,000 posts so far. Sometimes I get confused and think I actually posted them in reality and not just in my head. As anyone reading who blogs as well knows, blogging is therapy. I haven’t been blogging and I haven’t got my therapy. I really think I am losing it. I often apologize for not posting the great trades I have received. This is still a source of guilt, but more so I owe myself an apology for not continuing with my therapeutic blog sessions thus causing myself to go crazy and do so quickly… All that said I have two hours before I leave for work and I intend to see how much damage I can do. Expect to see something worthwhile on one of the 5 blogs I write for this afternoon. I don’t know which one, I will probably try and simultaneously write 3 posts and not finish any. Since I am here already I will end this one with a card. This baby comes from the legendary WICKED VAULT and is one of the many AWESOME cards that traveled to Troll-Towne from South Florida. I have around 20 unposted autographs from Senor Wicked and he keeps sending more. If I had the time I would start a new blog simply called Cards I Got From Wicked Ortega. I could post everyday for the next six months based on what I have already. Anyway, this is one of many autos that he has sent and one of many autos of my favorite current player, Rays All Star shortstop Jason Bartlett. JB is currently in third place among AL shortstops in the vote for the All Star game. I still contend that he is the best at his position in the league, but statistically he has dropped off considerably since his breakout season last year. He is batting just .246 which is quite a drop-off from last year when he ended the season with a .320 mark. He has just one homerun, a leadoff shot against the Yankees in New York last week. He is still the field leader and offensive sparkplug of the best team in baseball though. I would rather he end the year batting below the Mendoza line with a ring on his finger than have him battle for the batting title on a losing squad. Anyway, I believe this is the 5th JB auto I received from My Past Time I Love It!. It was my 8th total. This particular card is among my favorites of JB as a Twinkie. The auto is neat, legible and fits in nicely with the composition. I like the design of this series. It is a 2004 Upper Deck Etchings, a rookie autograph “Future Etchings”.
I recently received my 9th Bartlett auto in a trade. It is a pretty amazing card and I can’t wait to post that one so stay tuned! There will probably be a corresponding Joy of a Completed Page featuring 9 Bartlett autographs, too. Okay, thanks for reading my therapy session, it helped. A huge and ongoing thanks to my Homie and neighbor Mr. Wicked Ortega from My Past Time I Love It! By the by, the card at the top of the post also came from My Past Time I Love It! It is a Matt Joyce auto from 2009 UD Signature Stars. It probably deserves its own post, but I felt like killing two birds today. By the big smile on his face in the photo I would guess that it was taken during spring training in '09. Joyce didn't have much to smile about last year as he spent most of it in AAA. This isn't my first Joyce auto, but it is my first Certified one and I really like their choice of photo for this one. I think he is covering up enough of his jersey that this one could even work for 2010. When you flip the card you see that the folks at UD really really liked the picture, too. Double thanks Wicked! You rule!!! You should be getting a package from me today that will make you smile bigger than Matt Joyce in spring training! Keep your eyes open for more posting somewhere this afternoon. Oh... If the person who sent me the awesome 2010 Bowman Rays stuff last week is reading this, please get in touch. You can email me at bacontowne at yahoo dot com. The same goes for the future owner of the '85 Lance Parrish Super Card... Go Rays! Troll out!

Back From Gainesville With a Bunch of Goodies!

I don’t know if anyone noticed my absence from blogging over the past few days. Probably not as my presence has been minimalized with my new job, but I did have a reason… The Bradentucky Bombers had a road bout in Gainesville, Florida on Sunday May 23rd. G-Ville is around 200 miles away from my towne of Bradenton. Anyway, we went up very early and I checked the towne of Gainesville out a bit. I found a card shop and spent a little bit of money working on my collections. I grabbed the ’65 Brooks Robinson that I posted on Saturday and picked up 21 more ‘65s at a very fair price. I also bought 29 random cards from 1961 Topps which will be posted as Old Vs. New on the Nitty Gritty. The shop didn’t have much in terms of vintage, nor did it have many current autographs, but it did have plenty of odd ball stuff. I picked up my second (hopefully of many!) roller derby card. I don’t know what year this card is from, the clerk thought it was from the 90’s and it is made by Superior Trading Cards. It isn’t nearly as awesome as a SlangKo roller derby card, but it is still pretty awesome. It shows one of derby’s biggest stars, Ms. Marjorie Brasuhn, AKA Toughie. She was the Captain of the Brooklyn Red Devils in the 1950s. I never met Toughie, but I have interviewed several of her former peers and all accounts say she really earned her nickname. Along with the derby card I added another biggy to my biggest PC. It is a 1993 Topps Stadium Club Master Photo of then Yankees designated hitter Danny Tartabull. I’ve always liked the angle of this posed shot of the bull in front of an empty batting cage. The master photo is the same size as a regular card, but has the TSC logo and a lot of white empty space framing it. The back of the card is blank. I am not sure how I feel about that. I do still need the card sized redemption card that would have been exchanged for this one. Trying to maintain a size balance in the binder I picked up another master photo of his teammate at the time, Wade Boggs. After buying those 2 the shop clerk asked if I liked oversized cards. I responded affirmatively with a big hell yeah hoping that he would return with a pile of ’64 Topps Giants. He didn’t, but he did produce a rather large stack of random oversized cards from the past 30 years. I picked up some ’81 Topps Super, a few from ’86 Super and another copy of this card from 1985 Topps Super. I had posted a pack rip of this for a Pack to Be Named Later Earlier this month. Lance Parrish was in the pack and a reader commented that he would like the Lance Parrish card if I was willing to part with it. Normally I would have sent it to him already, but this pack was part of the group break so technically the Roof God owns the card as he chose the Tigers in the break. Well it all worked out because All Star Cards and Comics had a copy of the Parrish card and I picked it up cheap, so if you still want the card send me an email with your address and I will send it on its way. Anyway, it’s nearly time to leave for work and this story is becoming far longer than I had intended… I picked up quite a few more oversized cards and most of them I already have homes in mind for. I grabbed some very cool 2008 Allen and Ginter cabinet cards from the Historic Battles series which I will post another day. He also had Toys R Us master photos. I picked up a few of those, too, but he didn’t have the Tartabull so I still need that one. The last LARGE card I will show off is a giant from 2007 Topps Turkey Red, Cabinet Card #DP-NM. This cabinet card is just an oversized version of the regular Dick Perez painting from the set, but it is an amazing rendering of a pretty cool player. I would say this card is suitable for framing. I will also say it would look way better autographed. I will ALSO say that I am not so in love with this card that I wouldn’t be willing to trade it. Until this weekend I didn’t know that Turkey Red cabinet cards existed. Now I know they do and I own one of them and naturally I want more. I don’t know for sure who made it to this set, but if there is a Carl Crawford version I NEED it! I also wouldn’t mind swapping this one for Brian Roberts or Akinori Iwamura. Any takers? Anyway, this wasn’t all I picked up. The store had some very neat stuff in it and the guy gave me a great price on everything. I left a very satisfied customer with quite a few large and normal sized cards. Some stuff for my PC and some other stuff that will be heading to Texas and the land of Cards on Cards later this week. Oh, you may have noticed that there is a new header up. To learn when and where this card came from you will have to check out a Pack to be Named Later. I really LOVE the Sombrero custom and it will return soon, but I also like the idea of rotating the header picture every week to keep things fresh. Oh, the reason that I was in Gainesville wasn’t just to buy cards. We had a derby bout, too. The fans in Gainesville are AMAZING! Very knowledgeable and vocal and they have a great team to root for. Their announcer Glyph Huckster is a good friend and it is always great to work with him. They had a really big and nice rink and drew a great crowd. The crowd was silenced pretty quickly as the Bombers had their best bout of the year. Everyone was synched up perfectly and we brought our A game. We got off to an early lead and held it for the whole game and won by our largest margin on the road ever. The final score was Bradentucky 175 and Gainesville 65. Gainesville actually played quite well, we just played better! The hospitality they showed us in the after party was pretty amazing too. We had a private set-up behind the bar in a really swank bowling alley. It included 4 private lanes for bowling, buffet food, 4 movie sized big screen TVS and lovely waitresses bringing us all the free booze we could drink. It was decadent! I had a blast, but it is really hard to return to reality the next day. I felt like a star last night, but now I need to rush to work to clock in to my stupid job. Thanks for reading! Go Bombers! Go Rays! Troll out!