Sunday, January 29, 2012

Welcome Home Carlos!!!

Okay, as always I am a little on the draw, but I felt like I needed to acknowledge this signing... Last week or month, or whenever it was, I wrote a long, long post about the Luke Scott signing... Disgruntled fan type stuff. I was seriously pissed off that the Rays weren't bringing back Damon and I felt that Scott was a huge downgrade from Kotchman offensively and defensively... I put together a list of 20 different free agents that I would rather the Rays went after who would be more productive, more beneficial to the team, more versatile and likely cheaper than Luke Scott. One of the name's on the list was Carlos Pena.Yes, he who barely lives atop the Mendoza line and strikes out more often than (insert clever zing here)...

I do acknowledge his shortcomings and know that Pena doesn't mean a World Championship, BUT he is a solid first baseman, a good lefthanded bat, a solid team leader, clubhouse guy and fan favorite and a guy who can provide real protection for Zobrist and Longoria. It allows Matt Joyce to stay in rightfield and Zobrist to live in the infield with Sean Rodriguez. Of course Tampa Bay still really needs a catcher, but now the brass can concentrate on filling that hole. I can live with DH by committee, but would be much happier if they did the right thing and brought Johnny Damon back...

Time will tell, but I am damn excited about the 2012 season. Pitchers and catchers will be rolling into town very soon and I will be there to greet them... Posts are sitting in the folder in wait... I keep saying I am back, but I keep on disappearing, so I will stop making false claims... I will just say that I love this hobby, I love this forum and I damn sure LOVE this wonderful game of baseball and this season is gonna be super special for me.

Why you ask? Well, I will tell you... My super awesome wife is starting a new (and much more lucrative) job this Monday. She will be working the same schedule as me and we will both be home at nights and just in time for the standard 7:05 start time... Aside from that my awesome Mother-in-law got us a sweet HD TV for Christmas and today my Wifey surprised me by getting cable installed INCLUDING the MLB Season Pass in HD!!!!!!! Did I mention that I love my Wife?

As an endnote - many of my wantlists have been cleaned up and updated AND I have introduced a NEW list... I am now chasing (and documenting said chase) 1979 Topps.

I had sort of forgotten about this quest until Scott from Smed's Cards hit me up with a surprise package of over 100 cards from that glorious set. A HUGE thanks to Senor Smed's for the awesomeness!!! I will, someday, post up some of the super sweet cardboard that Mr. Smed has shared with me...

Also, big ups to my homie the Cardboard Don who supplied the C. Pena illustration at the top of this post... I am very excited about Pena coming home, for real! I fully expect him to deposit 40 blasts into the rightfield seats at the Trop in 2012... It wasn't too long ago that as a member of the Rays Carlos Pena has been a Silver Slugger, Gold Glove, All Star, Comeback Player of the Year and homerun champion... Lets do it all again Los! Cheers to all! I love it! Go Rays!!! troll out.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

1,200 Words on Football???

Good evening Trollites!!! How is everyone doing? Worn out from a weekend of playoff football? Regular readers know that I am not a football guy. I don’t collect football cards and I don’t follow the sport too much. I don’t dislike it, it’s just nott baseball… I actually do have a favorite team and try to watch them every Sunday. This year my Mother-In-Law bought herself an early Christmas treat – a 46” HD TV. I have been on her couch most Sundays since. She is a die-hard fan of the same team as me. Her boyfriend is a Dolphins fan. Her family (who all live in Michigan) are big Lions fans. Her and I cheer for a team that managed to lose it’ s last 10 games perfectly, without a win mixed in. Yeah, I love the Bucs, as embarrassing as that is right now, I do love my Buccaneers…

I have been really lucky to watch them get their butts kicked in High Definition… It makes the bad plays look worse, for sure. Their final game was straight up pathetic – like they had stopped trying all together… I don’t think their head couch was the cause of their horrible play, but he took the blame and got the ax. I liked Coach Morris… I have pewter-colored glasses but I do have a grasp on reality. I know they aren’t a playoff contender, but I also know they aren’t as bad as they played the last 3 months. I hope/they will bounce back in 2012…

Anyway, with them out of the picture I had to adopt some teams to root for through the playoffs… I picked two teams for two different reasons and nearly as soon as I dedicated myself a fan, I promptly watched each of them exit the playoff picture quickly… I was very disappointed in both the Lions and Falcons… I thought each of them would put up a better fight. Since they were done so quick – I let myself ride on the coattails of one more team.

More than anything I just wanted to see somebody knock Tim Tebow out, so a Steelers fan I became. The game had its moments, but Pittsburgh’s 4th quarter comeback was the most exciting 15 minutes of sports I had witnessed since the World Series. I got WAY into it. When they tied it up and forced overtime I could hardly contain myself and my excitement. It was unbelievable and soooo awesome. Of course before I finished texting the message “the Steelers just forced sudden death overtime, your done teb…” Yeah, didn’t even finish the message before Tebow connected and sealed the Steelers coffin.

So, yeah Denver won and they advance, as did the Giants against Atlanta… Football isn’t so bad after all… I don’t know what team I will adopt yet. If someone can beat the Broncos or the Pats – that is the team I will be cheering…

Anyhoo, I have been trying to prep for my ongoing Trade Me Anything endeavor. I am working on getting the guidelines together which will be the first post; I am also working on getting singles and lots together. I hope that some of you will participate in this. I will probably try and post singles first, so they are easier to ship. I do have some big lots o’ cards. I would love to find someone who wants a big starter lot for 2011 Topps Updates. Get in touch if you are that guy (or gal). I also have some 2007 and 2008 Topps Heritage that I would love to find a proper home for. I (seriously) have over 1,000 cards for each year. No short prints, but pretty much a full base set of each year, plus a ton of dupes. If you wanna chase either of these – I would be glad to transfer ownership to anyone who would be willing to pay to ship them. Speaking of lots – I am retroactively chasing 2008 and 2009 Topps and 2006 and 2007 Allen and Ginter… I have (literally) a few cards from each set and I will be making up want lists for each set before I begin the “2012 Troll’s Trade Me Anything”.

Oh, one last thing, before I sign off, in honor the football playoffs I am going to giveaway the ONLY football card I have sitting in my collection. Some of you may remember a little while back when I posted a pic of me as a little kid walking alongside Doug Flutie… The Pats trained at Bryant College in Smithfield, Rhode Island. That is where my big sister went to school and while she was attending I would spend the weekend in her dorm room and spend the days watching the Pats train while gathering a ton of autographs. I had a pennant signed by the ENTIRE team. I got a helmet and had that signed by nearly the entire team. I only had cards of 4 different players, but I got all of them signed. They didn’t have a ton of stars, but they did find themselves in the Super Bowl that year. They didn’t put up too much of a fight, but they were there. I think I do still have autos from Tony Franklin and Andre Tippett somewhere (probably at my parents house) but this is the only one in my house.

This card isn’t in mint condition. The corners are soft and there is some light creasing, but it is still an on-card auto of a Pro-Bowl running back who made it to the Super Bowl. I can’t believe I am even acknowledging this, but Wikipedia cites him as being the last “white player” to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season… If you thought that this "white dude" had topped 1,000 yards, his high was 949 yards rushing in 1999. He did have 1188 total yards, but didn't hit 1,000 rushing... Anyhow, if you want this card – make a comment on this post. Tell me who you are rooting for to go all the way, OR tell me who you want to see get beat badly this year…

So yeah, if you want this Craig James autographed card, just comment HERE. If for some reason more than one person wants it, I will put the names in a hat and pick a winner. You have till I get home from work to comment. That means around 6:00 PM Eastern on Monday night. If you wanna drop a comment and tell me if you think that the Bucs are just a good head couch away from the Super Bowl, go ahead and say that, too...

As always, thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions for me on TMA, drop me a line HERE. If you want my Heritage dupes – drop me a line… If you have a 2011 Sean Rodriguez RAINBOW – my mailing address is on the sidebar. You may send it to me. No real need to drop me a line, but ya could…

Oh, if you "win" the card, I need yer address. Send it to me in an e-mail right HERE, It will ship out in a top loader in a PWE with a single FOREVER stamp on it...

Una cosa mas... I wouldn't mind having a few current Bucs cards in my collection. Not too many, nothing fancy, but a page worth in the Rays binder would be pretty neat. I feel the same way about the Lightning and the OKC THUNDER!

GO RAYS!!! Troll out.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Trying To Be a Good Person... A Non Card Post...

So my first post of the New Year isn’t gonna be about baseball cards…

The wife and housemates and I (we live in a split level duplex over a 3-car garage) are ALL packrats (HOARDERS!!!) by nature. We are sentimental to a fault, we all collect all kinds of things, we are crafty and collect broken things that may or may not someday become an art project and we have all had roommates who have left things behind which we have housed for many years. Anyway, last month we decided to PURGE!!! We have a sweet pool table in our garage which we hadn’t played all year because of all the junk. We also have a live band area, but hadn’t had a party all year, again because of the junk. Last month we had a very successful yard sale which eliminated TONS of stuff. We made HUGE Salvation Army donations, donated a bunch of kitchen stuff to a local women’s shelter and made our yearly stuffed animal and baseball card donation to the Children’s Hospital. The past 2 weeks we have been playing pool like crazy and enjoying our space once again.

We still, of course have much more to get rid of, but some of the bigger stuff has a little value to it, so I decided to list on Craig’s List rather than “blow-out” at the yard sale. I had some kid’s furniture (toddler bed, changing table, etc) that I haven’t used in 15 years that was taking up a lot of space so I crafted a listing for it last night. I put it into two separate lots and asked 60 OBO for each lot. I thought they were really fair prices, plus 60 bucks could REALLY help us out right now. Well, within minutes of posting a woman called me. She had a special situation and was looking for help. Her and her husband were out of work and they had two young daughters.

They were evicted from their apartment and lost everything. They moved in with family, but the girls had nothing. Wow. That naturally hit me right in the heart and I wanted to help her. I told her I felt for her, but I, too, needed money. I said that if I didn’t get any offers on the stuff the next day I would give her a really good deal on everything. She thanked me profusely and I forgot about it for the night. This morning, at 7 AM, I got a text message from her husband. He told me they REALLY needed everything, that they had money and please it for them. In the mean-time I got messages from 8 other parties who were VERY interested in the items. I replied to every single person saying that I wouldn’t be home till 6 PM and I had an appointment then.

I got home from work around 5:30 and within a few minutes the lady I had spoken with was there (she was with her husband). They were driving a van, a fairly new, very nice looking van – not really indicative of a struggling family, but they may have borrowed it from someone since they were planning on picking up some big stuff. Anyway, she checked everything out, said it was all perfect and asked what I needed for everything. I told her that I was 60 dollars each, so the two lots would be $120. I told her I wanted to help her out, but I had a number of other people who were interested, too and I really needed some money myself. She told me she couldn’t afford $120, but asked for my lowest price on a single lot. I told her I could go down to $40. She agreed and thanked me and nodded for her husband to pay me.

He pulled a fifty dollar bill from his pocket and asked if I had change. I was broke and didn’t. I wished I had told her 50 bucks and not 40 that would have made things easier. I suggested to the husband that he go to a nearby convenience store to get change and I started loading things into their van. I chatted with the woman a bit more, asked some questions about her daughters and felt more and more like I needed to help her out. To make a long story short – the man never got change for the 50 and he didn’t need to. I agreed to let her take it all for $50. She seemed overjoyed. Her husband barely smiled. He gave me the fifty dollar bill and I tucked it into my pocket and helped them load the van.

I was pretty psyched to clear so much garage space – although I was a little bummed that I came away with less than half of what I had expected. I really could have used the money, BUT I felt good having helped out a couple in need.

I shut the garage down and headed upstairs to cancel the Craig’s List ads and let the wife know that the items were sold and I had 50 bucks. This was the point when I pulled the bill out of my pocket and realized that it was fake… WTF????

On an unrelated topic... ALL my wantlists are up to date. Trade me anything bait is coming... Not sure how I am gonna do it - e-mail me with suggestions if you are so inclined... Happy New Year!

Go Rays! Troll out.