19 Boxes For 19 Bucks!

That is the deal going on over at My Past Time... I Love It! The man, Wicked Ortega has 19 boxes he is ripping. You can get a team slot for only 19 bucks. There a bunch of teams available - The Brewers, Dodgers, Yankees, White Sox, Astros and more are still available! Get on it! Off to work. Go Rays! troll out.

The First Ever Collective Troll Group Box Break is Done!!! The Last Pack and the Final Tally...READ IT BABY!!!

This is it. The first Collective Troll junk wax group box break is done and over with. Two months and 90 packs later and we have reached the Final Pack of 1997 Pinnacle X Press. Please scroll down because I have the stats for each team posted along with some important info for the break upcoming. Here we go!
#47 Albert Belle Chicago White Sox (Belle led the American League with 148 RBI in 1996 and he drove in 100 or more runs in each of his last 9 seasons in the Majors averaging 126 per year) #133 Matt Morris St. Louis Cardinals (The former Seton Hall Pirate was the Cards 1st round pick in 1995. He made his MLB debut in 1997 and had a great rookie campaign and finished second in the Rookie of the Year vote behind Scott Rolen. On the mound he posted a 12-9 mark with a 3.19 ERA in 33 starts. At the plate he batted .205 with 6 RBI)
#53 Javier Lopez Atlanta Braves
#129 Brian Giles Cleveland Indians (Giles was a 17th Round draft choice who spent seven years in the Cleveland Indians minor league system. The Indians traded him to Pittsburgh in exchange for Ricardo Rincon before the 1999 season and in his first full season he hit .315 with 39 homers and 115 RBI for the Bucs. Over the next 4 years he averaged 37 homers a year. In August of 2003 the Pirates sent him to San Diego as part of a package that brought them Jason Bay. He hit .191 in 39 games for the Padres last year. He currently has 287 career homers)
#??? Swing for the Fences Game Card -4
#52 John Smoltz Atlanta Braves
#90 Edgar Renteria Florida Marlins (At age 21 Renteria stole 32 bases for the World Champion Marlins in 1997)
#87 Jason Giambi Oakland A’s (Giambi made it into 140 games as a utility man in ’96. He shared time with Scott Brosius at 3rd, McGwire at 1st, Berroa at DH and Phil Plantier in left field. The Oakland A’s hit 243 homers that year and the Giambino accounted for 8% of them. He may have hit more had he spent less time sitting on second base pouting)
Now, stick around for the final tally and some important announcements….
Here are the final statistics of who is getting what cards… In no particular order, this is the breakdown for each of the 28 teams.
Atlanta Braves 66 cards
Baltimore Orioles 47 cards
Boston Red Sox 35 cards
California Angels 44 cards
Chicago Cubs 36 cards
Chicago White Sox 22 cards
Cincinnati Reds 31 cards
Cleveland Indians 28 cards
Colorado Rockies 48 cards
Detroit Tigers 39 cards
Florida Marlins 51 cards
Houston Astros 26 cards
Kansas City Royals 37 cards
Los Angeles Dodgers 37 cards
Milwaukee Brewers 48 cards
Minnesota Twins 25 cards
New York Mets 28 cards
New York Yankees 56 cards
Oakland A’s 32 cards
Philadelphia Phillies 30 cards
Pittsburgh Pirates 18 cards
San Diego Padres 44 cards
San Francisco Giants 33 cards
Seattle Mariners 48 cards
St. Louis Cardinals 27 cards
Texas Rangers 54 cards
Toronto Blue Jays 50 cards
Shannon Stewart says: “Please read on, there is some important stuff here”.
I think that covers every team. It seemed after the first pack that the Braves would run away with the “most cards” crown. They did. Out of 84 packs in the break, 66 of them yielded an Atlanta Braves card. That is 79%. In second place were the New York Yankees with 56 cards, in third place-the Texas Rangers had 54 cards. In 4th place are the Florida Marlins with 51 cards and the Blue Jays took 5th place with 50 cards. The Rockies, Brewers and Mariners were all REALLY close. The worst yield belonged to the Pittsburgh Pirates with 18 cards (21%). When ya think about it, 21% aint too bad. I’ve ripped two blasters without getting a single Rays card before. Everyone’s packages have been shipped and should be received shortly. I have NOT shipped the Phillies, Rockies or White Sox. If you had those teams, PLEASE get in touch. You have till Monday to send me an email. If you DON’T, the cards from your team will go into the second break and … Just get in touch, okay? The next box break will begin shortly. My parent’s scanner bit the dust, so I am a Troll without a scanner. I want to get one for home before I begin the next break. The next one will be run MUCH differently. I will NOT be posting all of the packs. I will post the first pack from each box and any packs that have hits in them. Then, I will post all of the highlights and the break-down of how many cards were pulled for each team. One of each pack will also be posted on A Pack to be Named Later and the link will be posted here. There are more than twice as many packs in this break compared to the last one, plus there will be a lot more variety since the packs will range from 1989 up till 2009 and maybe even a few from 2010 if those ever appear in my neck of the woods. With regards to the newer teams in MLB, the Washington Nationals will go to the person who claimed the Montreal Expos. I (the break moderator) will take the Tampa Bay Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks and any cards with multiple players from different teams. This break is complete. The next break (which is called Group Box Break 2010 in tags) will commence as soon as I get a scanner. I should note that when I shipped everyone’s cards yesterday a few of you got selected for bonuses beyond random cards. I included a total of 5 relic cards and 5 autographs randomly with your cards. I will try and do the same thing with the next break. I might post the total from the post office receipt as a warning for anyone else planning on doing this. It has been worth it. I have had a blast, met some new people and lessened my card load by about 1,000 cards (in addition to all the break cards), so I am pretty happy. I will NOT be doing anymore breaks after spring training starts. It’s been fun, but I want to keep the blog available to post “Rays win, Rays win!” Before I sign off I need to send another thank you to Adam E of the Thoughts and Sox blog for providing all of the mailers for this break. Thanks Adam!!! Go Rays! Troll out.

The 35th Pack of 1997 Pinnacle X Press

We are nearing the end… This will be quick as you’ve all seen most of these already. Here we go with pack #35 of 1997 X Press
#65 Will Clark Texas Rangers (I don’t think that PatP will give up any of his Will Clark cards, but if he did, a Thrill-bipping is in the making-I think this is the 6th Clark to come out of this box) #105 Todd Hollandsworth Los Angeles Dodgers (The Joe Charboneau of the 90’s. See Spezio’s comment, it applies)
#12 Jose Canseco Oakland A’s (This dude is huge!)
#44 Tino Martinez New York Yankees
#??? Swing for the Fences Game Card +8
#128 Scott Spiezo Oakland A’s (Spiezio spent 12 years in the big leagues and won 2 rings, but I never liked him. He was a career .255 hitter and he just seemed average, but not a cool average guy, an overrated average guy that always let you down)
#4 Juan Gonzalez Texas Rangers (See Jose Canseco’s comment)
#84 Jim Thome Cleveland Indians (I am really excited about Thome signing with the Twins, I think it’s a great fit and I think he still hit. Minnesota fans should be able to look forward to this. Oh, and by the way, this is a sight that I never get tired of seeing…)There is only 1 more pack to go. Shannon Stewart would tell you to check it out, but I know your dying in anticipation, so she will save her breath for now, plus I am too tired to find ANOTHER picture. Gotta get back to work… By the way, today is one of those days that I work till 7 AM and have to be in class at 8. I do not like these days. Go Rays! Troll out.

IT IS DONE!!! The Last Pack of 1994 Pinnacle is Ripped and Gone, Woo Hoo!!!

This is it, this is the FINAL pack of 1994 Pinnacle!!! We are gonna roll through it quick… I really liked these cards a lot. Original photography, decent design, cool players, but after ripping 24 packs of it over 2 months, I don’t care if I EVER SEE ANOTHER PACK OF IT!!! Here we go!
#295 Mike Mussina Baltimore Orioles (It still blows my mind that the Moose won games for the first time in his 18th season and after winning 20 he retired. That is really awesome… What isn’t awesome is-had he stuck around for 3 more seasons of mediocrity, he could have hit the magical 300 wins plateau and been guaranteed a ticket to Cooperstown. As is he left at the top of his game, didn’t stick around to accumulate stats, and-who knows?…)
#331 Archi Cianfroco San Diego Padres
#387 Geronimo Berroa Oakland A’s
#406 Nate Minchey Boston Red Sox (Minchey set a career high with 2 wins for Boston in ’94. Yep, 2 wins)
#419 Mariano Duncan Philadelphia Phillies
#440 Kent Mercker Atlanta Braves MUSEUM COLLECTION (Mercker won 9 games as the 5th starter for the Braves in ’94, he was on the ring winning squad in ’95 and in 1996 he was traded for Eddie Murray. That’s a career there)
#490 Chris Sabo Baltimore Orioles (Had I scanned this card of the 1988 ROY you would see a nice close up of Spuds and his goggles)
#526 Mark Kiefer Milwaukee Brewers (Kiefer was 5-1 in 44 games over his career. I must have missed all 44 of those games cuz I never heard of the dude)
#500 Bip Roberts San Diego Padres (This card is a loaded weapon. Be afraid, be VERY afraid!)
#504 Bruce Hurst Texas Rangers
#391 Brad Ausmus San Diego Padres (Ausmus was a 48th round draft pick who won 3 Gold Gloves and spent 17 seasons in the big leagues getting 1565 hits. Here he is saying “Wait, I’m supposed to tag you, get back here!”)
#297 Chris Gwynn Kansas City Royals (The Dodgers used their first round pick in 1985 (10th overall) to snag Gwynn out of San Diego State cuz they thought everyone named Gwynn could hit like a Hall of Famer)
#403 Paul Carey Baltimore Orioles (File Carey under “Big power hitting first baseman who don’t work out at the big league level”-the Carey era lasted less than 20 games)
#367 Todd Zeile St. Louis Cardinals (Zeile spent the first seven years of his career in St. Louis and then became a tumbleweed that blew into 11 different cities over the last half of his career)
#495 Eddie Murray Cleveland Indians (Lets end this box with the greatest switch hitter of the generation)
Done, it’s done!!! Two more packs of X Press and this rip is over! Woo hoo! Oh, guess who says come back in an hour or two for more blogging excitement? Everyone's favorite former Blue Jays outfielder Shannon Stewart, thats who! After these last two packs go up I will finally start opening my mail again and get around to posting some of the AMAZING stuff I have received these past 2 months. Go Rays! Troll out!

Update on the First Group Box Break PLUS Pack #34 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press!

I am still going! Lucky it’s a slow night at work cuz I can barely keep my eyes open, it has been a LONG WEEK for the Troll… I have finished ripping the last 4 packs and sorted everything team by team. As soon as I post the last pack in the rip, I will post the final totals for each team. I plan on getting the following teams out tomorrow morning: Brewers, Cardinals, Mets, Marlins, Red Sox, Pirates, Reds, Giants, Rangers and Mariners. Most every other team will go out on Thursday morning. The bonus cards that I am adding in have caused some teams to need boxes rather than envelopes and I need to go buy some… I am still waiting to hear from the person who claimed the Rockies, Phillies, White Sox and Tigers-PLEASE get in touch! If I can get EVERYONES cards out this week, it will clear up about 1,000 cards which of course are all over the house...
Okay, its time for another quick rip, this one is pack #34 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press
#110 Ron Gant St. Louis Cardinals

#57 Cal Ripken Jr. Baltimore Orioles (I can’t help it, I get giddy anytime I pull a card of the Iron Man)#89 Jeff Conine Florida Marlins (I love this pic! The Niner with a sledgehammer)
#38 Brady Anderson Baltimore Orioles (1996 was Brady’s 50 homer season, complete with broken ribs and 90210 sideburns)
#??? Swing for the Fences Game Card -9
#138 Larry Walker Peak Performers Colorado Rockies
#96 Randy Johnson Seattle Mariners (The most intimidating mullet of the 90's!)
#144 Tino Martinez Peak Performers New York Yankees
Okay, this leaves just 3 packs left in this break! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I am running for it! Shannon Stewart says “Stay tuned, there is more to come!” Was this not the Shannon you were expecting? Stick around cuz you never know who will be around for the next pack. Go Rays! Troll out.

More Panning For Gold AND Pack #33 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press

This is gonna be a REALLY quick post… Not too much exciting going on in pack #33 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press and not too many scans. Imagination is required…
#71 Mark Grace Chicago Cubs (More Gracey)
#95 Brian Hunter Detroit Tigers (More of the other Brian Hunter)
#134 Scott Rolen Philadelphia Phillies (More of the 1996 Rookie of the Year)
#149 Greg Maddux Common Checklist Atlanta Braves
#??? Swing for the Fences Game Card +9
#80 Gary Sheffield MEN OF SUMMER Florida Marlins (Shef is golden-I do realize this scan isn't gold, but the card that I pulled is gold...)
#40 Eric Young Colorado Rockies (Eric Young’s Dad, the original EY)
#107 Bobby Bonilla Florida Marlins
I wasn’t lying, that was the quickest rip yet. There are only 4 packs (total) left of this break. Bring on the end! Since this went SO quickly, here is an update on my progress in my quest for GOLD! Thanks to everyone in the blog-o-sphere I am well over halfway done with the 2009 Tampa Bay Rays team set in GOLD. Between the 3 series there are 44 cards. (By the by I am seriously wondering if anyone is reading... If you are, the first person to send me an email with baseball as the subject wins a REALLY awesome prize!) I now have 28 of them making the team set 64% complete. I still need 16 more Topps Gold cards. If you have any of these, I need them, so get in touch. These are the 16 cards that I still need: 16 Evan Longoria, 35 David Price, 98 Akinori Iwamura, 134 Evan Longoria, 160 Evan Longoria, 174 James Shields, 177 Eric Hinske, 246 Upton, Crawford and Longoria, 321 Kazmir/Price, 567 Willy Aybar, 580 Scott Kazmir, 640 BJ Upton, UH179 Carl Crawford, UH262 Jeff Niemann, UH298 Jason Bartlett and UH318 Carl Crawford.
There will be more ripping this evening, keep on checking back cuz Shannon Stewart STILL says so! Go Rays, troll out.

Nearing Completion... Pack #23 of 1994 Pinnacle

We are moving back to 1994 Pinnacle again… We are SO close! Not much time for words and apologies in advance because there are no Shannon Stewart sightings in this pack… Here we go! #477 Pat Borders Toronto Blue Jays (Did I mention that Borders lives in Lake Wales, Florida AND that he is another catcher looking for Jesus?)
#433 Matt Brunson MUSEUM COLLECTION Detroit Tigers (Brunson was the Tigers first round pick in 1993, he was chosen 9th overall and never made it past A ball. He did steal 32 bases for the Yuma Scorpions in 2005)
#300 Mark McGwire Oakland A’s (Big Mac!)
#338 Mike Stanley New York Yankees (Stanley had this bad habit of getting traded right before his old team got good)
#455 Mike Lansing Montreal Expos
#484 Tim Wallach Los Angeles Dodgers (In 17 seasons Wallach went to 5 All Star games but never a World Series)
#453 Kirk Gibson Detroit Tigers
#273 Bob Wickman New York Yankees (Wickman appeared in 835 games over 15 big league seasons… I can’t read lips, but I think they are talking about giving an intentional pass to Shannon Stewart. His catcher agrees and congratulates him on a fine idea)
#510 Brett Boone Cincinnati Reds (Boone hit .320 for the Reds in ’94 in his first full season in the majors… I can’t believe this little dude would go on to drive in 141 runs in 2001)
#507 Bob Ojeda New York Yankees (1994 was Bobby O’s final season. He made two starts, lasted 3 innings and gave up 8 runs, AND THEN he called it a career with a 115-98 record)
#462 Tim Raines Chicago White Sox (The Rock!)
#272 Trevor Hoffman San Diego Padres (With 591 Hoffman is the ALL Time Career saves leader)
#291 Wally Joyner Kansas City Royals (Wally World!)
There is just one pack of 1994 Pinnacle to go! Stay tuned cuz Shannon Stewart STILL says so! Go Rays! Troll out.

Breaking Wax After Midnight... Pack 31 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press

Okay, I am really cruising here. Not sure if anyone is reading, but I am psyched to be making headway… I still haven’t heard from 4 people from this first box break. If you had the Phillies, White Sox, Rockies or Tigers in the first box break, PLEASE get in touch. I would like to be mailing stuff out beginning on Wednesday morning. My house was already overcome with cards, but an extra 2000 of them in 30 different piles isn’t helping… I will post team by team totals before I ship everyone’s cards out. In the beginning it looked the Braves were running away with everything, but it has got much closer. The Braves, Marlins, Rockies, Mariners and Yankees are all about the same height. The Rangers and Blue Jays are not too far behind. Anyway, here we go with the 31st pack of 1997 Pinnacle X Press!
#112 Roberto Alomar Baltimore Orioles (Alomar was an All Star at second base EVERY year from 1990-2001, representing 4 different teams and both leagues-the Orioles were his third)
#72 Dean Palmer Texas Rangers (After putting up monstrous power numbers in ’96-38 homers and 107 RBI, Palmer was traded to Kansas City for Tom Goodwin in July of 1997)
#79 Pat Hentgen MEN OF SUMMER Toronto Blue Jays (The 1996 Cy Young Award winner in Gold!)
#15 Alex Rodriguez Seattle Mariners (A-Roid won his first (and only) batting title in 1996 at 20 years of age, just 3 years after the Mariners made him the first overall pick in the draft. He also paced the AL in doubles with 54 and runs scored with 141. He had 215 hits in ’96 which is still his career best. Thirteen years later and that was his ONLY batting title and doubles crown)
#??? Swing for the Fences Game Card Barry Bonds San Francisco Giants
#97 Joey Hamilton San Diego Padres
#146 Mike Piazza Peak Performers Los Angeles Dodgers
#101 Rondell White Montreal Expos
Okay, just five more left to go… It has been a really long day. I am work till 7 and then have class at 8. I don’t think I will post anymore tonight. I am WIPED OUT! Go Rays! Troll out.

We Have Reached the Thirtieth Pack of 1997 Pinnacle X Press

I am on a roll and nothing is gonna stop me! Not even homework, which I should totally be doing right now… Here we go with Pack #30 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press:
#80 Gary Sheffield Florida Marlins (Shef led the NL with a .465 OBP in ’96. He also had 42 homers, drove in 120 and scored 118 times. He walked 142 times while only striking out 66 times. How seldom he struck out was always impressive for a slugger. Over his career Shef struck out 1171 times against 1475 walks and 509 homers. His career .393 OBP is 11th among active players and 84th All Time)
#69 Wade Boggs New York Yankees
#135 Shannon Stewart Toronto Blue Jays (I googled Shannon Stewart and this is the first thing that came up, I didn’t look any further)
#10 Hideo Nomo Los Angeles Dodgers (The Tornado struck out 230 or more batters in each of his first three seasons)
#??? Swing for the Fences Game Card -8
#50 Steve Finley San Diego Padres (Steve Finley was a left handed, slap hitting, lead-off guy. In 1992 he hit .292 with 5 homers, 55 RBI and 44 steals. In the first 7 years of his career he never hit more than 11 homers and then 1996 rolled around and blammo! He hit 30 homers and drove in 95. That made me scratch my head a little. His brother in law Brady Anderson had a similar resurgence in Baltimore)
#148 Roger Clemens Common Checklist Toronto Blue Jays
#93 John Jaha Milwaukee Brewers (Jaha spent 8 years in the minors before getting his shot in Milwaukee. He got a full season in 1992, but was a platoon player from 1993-1995. In 1996 he got another shot at playing full time and he hit .300 with 34 homers and 118 RBI. He also struck out 118 times. He wouldn’t play another full season until ’99 with the A’s and he once again drove in 111, but that was it. He played pro-ball for nearly 20 years, but only managed 3 full seasons in the big leagues. His 162 game average is 28 homers. He reached that twice)
Another one down. Six more packs of X Press to go. Is anyone still reading these? I hope so! I am pretty sure the entire blog-alaxy has entered Play at the Plate's Ground Hog Day Contest, but if you haven't, you can enter right HERE! Go Rays! Troll out.