Million Dollar Infield TTM Autos!

I like to steal ideas from other bloggers, there I said it… I remember reading that Zack from Autographed Cards was going to try and collect 100 or 1000 or some crazy number of autographed cards from the 1981 Donruss set. Good luck on that one! I decided that I wanna try and get at least 50 cards signed from this year’s Allen & Ginter. I have my first one, so I am well on my way! I have 80 different cards out there floating around the postal service and my fingers are crossed. I first saw this card on Cardboard Junkie’s blog and it was pretty much the reason that I started buying so much Ginter this year. I pulled this card pretty quick. To give some history on it, the photo rendering came from a photo taken in 1969, which was long after Mr. Moore’s playing career was over. It was from an Old-Timer’s game in Atlanta where the 1957 Braves took on veterans of the Atlanta Black Cracker’s and alumni from the Atlanta Crackers… I don’t know who won the game or even who participated from the ’57 Braves. Either way I was able to get Mr. Moore’s address and wrote him a letter. My Great-Uncle had played ball with Red before his death (during a game) in the 40’s. As it turns out, Red knew him and remembered and sent back a very nice and very personal letter. He also signed up this card, with the date and all and even returned it in a top-loader! Red Rocks! I wish I didn’t have to go to work because I would love to go on and on about this awesome card and his awesome career… I will say that one day I was talking baseball with Buck O’Neil and I said to Buck-“Out of you, Buck Leonard and Mule Suttles, who was the best at fielding your position?” He said (paraphrased from memory) “Well, both Suttles and Leonard were twice as good, but if you wanna see a magician at first base, go look up Red Moore”. He went on, but I can’t really remember, but apparently the guy was a human vacuum cleaner at the corner. Unfortunately he outlived Buck and pretty much everyone he played with… Red Moore was a part of the “Million Dollar Infield” along with Ray Dandridge, Willie Wells and Dick Seay. Actually, Mule Suttles was the original first baseman for that dream infield, but Red Moore filled in admirably later on in the 40’s. Thanks so much for the autograph and the fine letter Mr. Moore! Wish me luck on getting many more. As an end note, does anyone else collect Moments and Milestones? I am chasing the Carlos Pena and Scott Kazmir cards. For whatever reason I have a knack for pulling Twinkies. I have a Francisco Liriano card #66 from 2007 (18/29) and two Johan Santana's from 2008, card #87. One of them is strikeout 216 (007/150) and the other is K #149 (024/150). They're on the block if anyone needs em...E-mail me at bacontowne at yahoooooo. Go Rays! Troll out.

The Dontrelle Willis Collection Hits 100!!!

Oops! Thanks to Phil in Bama for these, but the D-Train collection idea only lasted for a day…These cards are super rad, I really appreciate it and I sent you two SWEET jersey cards that I think will make you happy (I don’t have your e-mail address) but if he wants these, I can surely work out a deal with Mister Wicked Ortega in South Floriduh… For the record, Phil sent me 100, yes 100 Dontrelle Willis cards. There are a couple of minis, a bunch of chromes and two refractors and a ton of rookies in here. Had I not agreed to back off from collecting D-Money, these would look great with the other 5 cards I had! Hit me up Wicked and make me a deal, okay? Oh, check out Thoughts and Sox right now! He is an evil Red Sox fan, but his post today is super rad! Cheers! Go Fish! Go Rays! Let’s get a Floriduh team in the playoffs one way or another…

Another Awesome Trade With Roll out the Barrel!

In keeping with the theme of catching up on trades, here is a big one from my FAVORITE trading partner, Ed from Roll out the Barrel. He is a Wisconsinite and a die-hard fan of the Brew Crew. I have a knack for yanking cards of Mr. Braun and the Prince so things seem to work out for us. I don't know exactly, but I believe this is like our 5th or 50th trade, and I have been really happy with all of them. Basically, any Brewers cards that I pull go right to Ed, you should do the same! Well, both of our teams have been complete disappointments this year, but we still back ‘em, so it is all good! Anyway, I got this package today, he had sent me some cards a few weeks back, but they were mixed up a while back. These came with a note that said “I needed to even up after the last trade”. Okay, I will take his word for it, I guess. I don’t recall being unhappy, but I let out a school girl like (ask my wife) scream when I opened up the cards…I will start with the good and leave the best for last. He sent along two 2007 Bowman Heritage foil cards. I will say for the record that I think this is a really awesome set. Do they make these anymore? I had collected the set and had gotten pretty close, but I decided to break it to make some trades and earn some trading partners. I never owned these shiny specimens. He sent card #160 of Carl Crawford and card #198 of his neighbor in the outfield, BJ Upton. He also sent a 2008 (I think) RED Turkey Red card of CC. I have never seen a red Turkey Red so I know I don’t have this. It looks cool, I think I would like some more! Speaking of more, he sent another CC card. This one is a 2007 SPX Gold Winning Materials card with a serial number and all. The number is 113 of 199. I already had a BJ Upton card from this series, so they make a nice pair. The Upton card has a white swatch and the CC has a grey one. I don’t know how many CC relics I have now, but I know when I started this blog I had one. I think this card may put me up to 15. I almost feel guilty for the all of the generosity you fellow bloggers have shown me. Thanks to everyone! Speaking of generous…The last card in the package was very generous! Not many people are willing to give up Jason Bartlett cards these days, but sent me the coolest one possible. It’s from the 2007 Upper Deck Elements set, card #AU (gold!)-BT with a sweet signature in the bottom corner. Any Bartlett cards are welcome here, but autographed cards are AWESOME!!! Thanks again to Ed for going above and beyond the call of blog-duty. Thanks to him and all of the awesome traders, my Rays case is looking like this. Happy 9-Nine-9 to all! Go Rays! Let’s win one for a change! Troll out.

Happy Nine 9 Nine To All! and a Trade with Beardy!

Today is a weird day. Up is down, black is white…The Rays are riding their worst losing streak in recent memory and it is getting harder and harder for me to be optimistic that they are going to be able to sneak into the playoffs…The Yankees have dominated their bullpen-even though Matt Garza and David Price both had very high quality starts against them. Carlos Pena is out for the year thanks to CC and the yanks. He left with the lead in homers and RBI-I think that Evan Longoria is going to step it up and win the RBI race and keep that in the family. I think the Rays are looking forward to next year already, I just hope that they don’t have another off-season of one-sided (in a bad way) trades. Scott Kazmir had his second start since his trade to the Angels. He faced King Felix again and pitched a gem again and left with a no-decision again thanks to Brian Fuentes blowing the save. The Angles did manage to win the game, but I really don’t care about that. I am weeks behind in posting trades and I have had some good stuff come my way. I try and keep cards separate until I post them, but that never works out…I will post up a couple of the recent ones today on this magical 9-9-9 day. Incidentally, today is my ex-wife Amber’s birthday. I won’t say how old she is, cuz we are still friends, but here is a pic of her sandwiched between my lovely wife and our son Zadeh.
I will start the trade post with one from Beardy. This is my first time trading with the bearded B-More fan. Kinda weird, I’ve been reading his “Ad-Free” blog for a while now and I’ve watched him win nearly every contest going and he has a Longo autograph card that I really want, but we just never worked anything out. Probably because if I was ever lucky enough to pull a Brian Roberts card, I think I would hang on to it. I sent him a couple of Ginter cards that he didn’t need anymore by the time he got them and he sent me some Ginters that I DID need including a SP of Pat Burrell. The smile on his face is HUGE, my guess is that they took that picture the day he signed his HUGE off-season contract with the Rays... Pat the Bat, as some call him, is the inadequate replacement for my favorite Rays player of all time Jonny Gomes. Mr. Gomes has a .280 batting average with 18 homers in 233 at bats. Pat the Bat, who makes around 7 million a year more than Jonny G, has 13 homers in 354 at bats. He boasts a .232 average and has struck out 105 times. Not really a great replacement if you ask me. Anyway, he also sent along a Doc Holliday and a card of the Laroche brother that hasn’t been traded fifteen times this year. Incidentally, I now need the following cards to call it a day with that set: 18,57,97,128,278,304,305,307,308,312, 325,327,328 and 330. He also sent along a Yunel Escobar National Pride Card which leaves me needing only card #51 to finish that set off. It’s surprised me what an annoying set to finish off that Nat Pride set is, I have a TON of dupes if anyone needs them…Anyway, beyond the Ginter goodies, the real highlight of the trade was a very shiny 2007 Bowmans Best card #13 of everybody’s favorite left fielder, Carl Crawford. I don’t know how to tell if this is a refractor or not, but it is damn shiny! Anyway, one trade down, a million to go, gotta love it! Thanks for the awesome trade Beardy! Happy 9/9/9 to y’all! Happy birthday Amber! Happy 20th Anniversary to Uncle Al and Aunt Debbie! Come back Jonny, you always have a place at the Trop! Go Rays! Troll out.

Best Mailday EVER!!! A Quick Post Before Skool...

So today was the best mail day ever in the Troll Post Office box… Four amazing trade packages from Greg of “No One’s Gonna Read This Blog”, Wicked Ortega’s “My Pastime, I Love It!”, a surprise package from my buddy Ed of “Roll Out The Barrel” fame and a long awaited package from Captain Canuck which took nearly a month to get here, but arrived unscathed. There were also a few TTM envelopes, 3 to be exact. Two of them were responses from my "Tampa Bay Rays’ Autograph Project" and came from outfielder Matt Joyce and left-handed pitcher Chris Seddon (who belongs in the Big Leagues-more in-depth post to come!). The 3rd came from former Negro League outfielder and first baseman Art “Superman” Pennington. It didn’t include an autograph (which is fine) but did include this note. If you can’t read it, it says “Thanks for your very Long letter. It will cost you $25.00 to answer all you want. Thanks for your letter, Art “Superman” Pennington”
It was a long letter. I write my letters like I write my posts and the poor guy had to read 5 pages handwritten and I did ask a ton of questions… It’s funny (to me) that this is the first post I’ve written since the Bronson Arroyo one. This is quite different. Unlike Mr. Arroyo, this guy is 86 years-old, never came close to making a living (never mind a fortune) playing ball and he DID reply. I fully intend on sending him the requested money (the wife has already approved it!) and I will probably send a fifty just because... I can share his address and autograph rates with anyone who would like it. This guy is a living legend. I have to go to school-more to come, I promise!

Bronson Arroyo, A TTM Success??? Blogger Input Needed!!!!

So, today as I was checking my mail I had an envelope with my name boldly written and spelled correctly in amazingly perfect handwriting (my own). I let out a little scream; I still have over 100 TTM requests out there, so any day I get one back is a good day. I looked at the postmark and it was from Baltimore. I started thinking of the possible players it might be from… It could be Brian Roberts, Nick Markakis, Adam Jones or former Devil Ray (and every other team in baseball) Mark Hendricksen. Either way, between those 4 guys, it’s a total win win. I waited till the dog did her business and walked upstairs to carefully open it, penny sleeve and top loader at the ready. What the F*&K??? It turns out it’s not any of those 4 guys or even an Oriole. It’s not a card I had sent out either. It’s a bizarre looking (the future of Upper Deck?) card of Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo. I know the ladies at Dinged Corners are fans of BA, and they are generally good judges of character, plus a while back when Jonny Gomes went yard 3 times in a game, Bronson tossed a gem that night. After the game I had written Mister Arroyo a long and thoughtful letter about that game. I also included a clipping of an interview I had did with him back when he was 20 years old and a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was the only copy I had of said interview, but I thought that ol Bronson might get a kick out of some of the “rookie” things he had said in the interview. In other words, he has come a long way baby! He is a solid big league pitcher. His 11-12 record isn’t going to garner any attention for the Cy Young Award, but he gives his team the chance to win every time he takes the mound and a little less than half of the time, the Reds win. He’s also having a career year in terms of durability, even though he has always been an innings horse. He has already matched his career high with 3 complete games and he has beaten his career best by posting 2 shutouts this year. He’s 24 innings away from surpassing 200 innings for the 5th straight year, too. To the best of my knowledge, he hasn’t missed a scheduled start in the past few years and he has paced the Reds staff in starts and innings since he has been there. He had paced the NL in starts in ’06 and ’08 and he led the league in innings pitched (240) in 2006. Those kinds of things are pretty important to me. He threw a perfect game in AAA in 2003 (4th in International League history), he was an All Star in 2006 and a World Champ in 2004. Since joining the Reds he has hit 4 homers. He is even Steven lifetime with 82 wins against his 82 losses; the 32-year-old has 967 strikeouts over his career. He isn’t knocking on the door at Cooperstown by any means, but he has had a solid big league career which surprised me at least. I remember the day he signed his first contract, I was there the day he arrived in Pirate City (Bradenton) Florida after the Pirates picked him with their 3rd round selection back in 1995. I don’t think anyone (himself included) thought he would still be in the big leagues today at that time. He was very, very raw as a pitcher. Young, thin, not much fastball velocity and his signature delivery didn’t seem like anything more than a gimmick. One thing that I was correct about was that he wouldn’t be with the Pirates for long. I can pretty much make that claim about anyone though-I am shocked that Zach Duke was not traded this year! Anyway, I have spent the last few paragraphs propping Arroyo up for all of his accomplishments. Dude can pitch. He is an asset to whatever team he plays for. He seems like he is earning his paycheck. All those things said and considered… Is he THAT GOOD that he is getting SOOO MUCH fan mail that he has an outside person receiving it in Maryland, doing whatever he does with the cards sent to Arroyo and sending this card back in return? With so many TTMs out there for me (I have sent 144 so far) and such a small return so (17-nearly all Rays/Ex-Rays) I really shouldn’t bitch about anyone who replies, but is this actually a reply? He is a star, he plays baseball on TV and wins big league ball games by getting All Stars out, that is why I wrote to him, but I am upset because 1. I sent him 2 hand picked cards I thought would look great signed. 2. I sent him a really long and personal letter that I had hoped he would at least glance at. 3. I sent him a very old (Spring 1996) newspaper clipping that I also hoped he would glance at. 4. I chose to write to Arroyo rather than Felix Hernandez or Tim Lincecum or insert any All Star pitcher here solely because I don’t feel that he is a BIG star and therefore I felt I would have more of a chance that he would read and respond or at least sign the two cards that I had selected for him to sign. I am writing this to vent, but also because I want my fellow bloggers' opinions. Am I out of line here? Do you guys and gals think Bronson is doing the right thing here? Am I asking too much hoping that a pro athlete read a letter? Would you folks be happy with this card? Where do you guys think all the cards that he is sent end up? Okay, that’s all I got for now… Please check out the post below for all the shiny cards on the trading block. I will say that I recently hit a HUGE roadblock financially and my days of out of control pack ripping are on a serious hold. I still have lots available to trade, that will probably be the subject of my next few posts. If there are any locals (Bradenonites?) reading this, the Bradentucky Bombers are having a HUGE flea market slash swap meet slash 50 family yard sale this Saturday morning. I will be there will 1,000s of vinyl records and some other goodies. Wish me luck on that… Anyway, I would love to know what you all think of this strange Arroyo card that I am obviously not pleased with. Next week I promise to post more often, I am already starting to plan my off-season posts and yes I will be posting 5 times a week minimum all through the baseball off-season and they will be baseball and baseball card related posts. I have picked up a lot of things that I have been holding off writing about just to give myself some ammo when there are no game recaps to write. Some of the sets I will be writing about may or may not include: 1995 Score, Topps sets from 1961, 1969, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987 Traded, 1989, 1993 and 1996. 1995 Topps Finest, 1995 Pinnacle and Studio, 1992 Upper Deck, 1983 Fleer and possibly a look at 1986 Topps Football. I am also going to begin posting the few cards that I have in my FAVORITE ALL TIME I may try and locate and dust off excerpts of some of my favorite interviews with some players that have sadly since passed on like Johny Sain, Curt Blefary, Buck O’Neill or “Doubly Duty” Radcliffe. I will be posting current interviews that I do (otherwise unpublished) but I am unsure of the subjects just yet. I will also be posting all of my TTM successes and Ex-Ray reports as well. Oh, on a totally unrelated topic, I have received quite a few offers for the Yuto autographed insert from this years Allen and Ginter. Thanks to anyone who had written, I am basically still waiting for that perfect offer, plus the Wife thinks we should hang onto it. I disagree and if I can get a nice package together of premium Rays cards, I am on it! For now, I just really want to know what everyone else thinks about this Arroyo card. Has anyone else received one of these? Has anyone had any actual success with him TTM this year? That’s it. The Rays have Detroit coming and every game is a must win. The Bulls are in the same boat, but they have to win without many of their star players who got the September call up to the Rays… As a post note: Believe it or not, I had intended this to be a really short, what the hell post. I should know that I am not capable of that. I think I am gonna be late for work! Go Bulls!!! Go Rays!!! Troll out.

Ya Can't Mess With Shiny! Chrome Cards For Trade...

Anyone who had read this blog knows that I have had a 3-year-long battle with an addiction to Topps Heritage. I trying to clean up the resin around the house and I’ve realized that I have a whole bunch of shiny cards that I have yet to trade away. I suppose all of these are in fact on the block and ready to trade for Heritage or Ginter cards from my list ( http://collectivetroll.webs.com/ )or shiny and/or neato Tampa Bay Rays cards. Please comment to claim a card and e-mail me to work out a deal. Here we go:
2007 Heritage Chrome Edgar Renteria card # THC68 (does anyone else find it hilarious that the number starts with THC?) Serial Number 1892/1958 2007 Heritage Chrome Gil Meche card # THC15, sn#0640/1958 2008 Heritage Chrome (high number) Curtis Granderson card #C242 (they ditched the TH before the C!) Serial #0380/1959 2009 Heritage Chrome Refractor JJ Hardy #C48, SN 430/560 2009 Heritage Chrome Refractor Miguel Cabrera #C53, SN 078/560 2009 Heritage Chrome Travis Snyder #C82, SN 1593/1960 2009 Heritage Chrome Vladimir Guerrero #C26, SN 1952/1960 2009 Heritage Chrome Refractor Chipper Jones #C56, SN 012/560-Okay, based on who has gotten cool Braves cards most recently from me in trade, the claiming order is as follows (dayf, Cap’n Canuck, McCann Can Triple) 2009 Heritage Chrome Angel Salome #C77, SN 1714/1960 2009 Heritage Chrome Refractor Mark Tei$$eira, #C15, SN 248/560 (Can you believe I pulled a chrome and chrome refractor of the mighty dollar chaser in the same hobby box? NOT HAPPY!) 2009 Heritage Chrome Brad Penney #C74, SN 1749/1960 (wow, I forgot this dude played for the Dodgers-was that like 11 teams ago?) 2009 Heritage Chrome Ryan Zimmerman #C94, SN 1798/1960 (I am not totally sure if this one is on the block, I am still thinking about adding Zim to my player collection, in other words, I will be looking for a chrome Carl Crawford in return for this one!)Okay, these aren’t chrome cards, but they are kinda shiny. They definitely don’t belong in the Troll Collection. These must go! I have home run numbers 12(2),60,61,64,70 and 314. Okay, that sums it up. Lets make a deal! If anyone is wondering why I haven’t announced the winner of the HOF contest, its coming. Ms. Esther Gin N Juice and myself have very different schedules and haven’t been in the same house at the same time (and in the mood for blogger related issues) this week. Maybe Saturday we will do the drawing. Go Rays! We need a sweep in Detroit! Troll out.

The 5 For The Hall!

I have to say, I wasn’t thrilled with the way the voting went, but they have all been tallied up and I am ready to officially induct 5 new members in to cyber-Cooperstown. Of the 5 players I voted for, only one made it. We had 41 different people vote and only 1 player even got half the votes. A lot of the overlooked players from the 40s, 50s, 60s and seventies remain overlooked and no Negro League Players will get into the Blog-O-Fame. I would like to make y’all wonder a little bit more, but I am going to announce the top 5 in the voting. These are the guys that all of you want enshrined into the Blog-O-Sphere-Hall-of-Fame Class of 2009 and a half…
First, these are the 3 guys who got a lot of support, but it came too late. They are all left tied for 6th place with 14 votes a piece. In my opinion all 3 of these are 100% Hall-worthy, but Andre “Hawk” Dawson, Barry “Did He Have a Nickname?” Larkin and Tim “Rock” Raines will all have to wait until next year, close but no cigar…
Coming in tied for 4th place overall with 15 votes each are the spitter, Roberto Alomar and the Crime Dog Fred McGriff!
Tied for second place with 19 votes each are two guys whose only hope is the Blog Hall, they are Shoeless Jackson and Pete “Charlie Hustle” Rose. One I feel belongs there, the other I don’t know because not only have I never seen him play, and I don’t know anyone who has. From what I have read, the dude can hit, but it’s hard for me to back him without a visual or a trusted source…
That leaves one man; the top vote getter with a very impressive 22 votes (54%) is the Flying Dutchmen, Bert Blyleven. The guy is fifth All Time in strikeouts with 3,701; he’s 9th in shutouts and has 287 wins to go along with his two World Series rings. This guy belongs if anyone does!
There ya have it folks. This was our vote, this is our Hall.
Go Rays! Troll out.

Hall of Fame Vote

Voting closed a couple of days ago, 42 different people voted, 1 person voted 3 times, but that has been straightened out. A couple of players got a late rush of support and the voting was very, very close. In the end only the top 5 vote-getters will get in...Results will be posted soon...

Another Package From Nachos Grande!

Gosh, ever have one of those weeks where posting on here is the most excruciatingly painful thing you can imagine? It’s been like that for the Troll this week. That doesn’t mean that my mailbox hasn’t been full of good stuff though… I have packages to post from Bozeman Breaker, Roll Out the Barrel, JD Wild Cardz, Cardboard Singles and a few more… I am gonna start with this one from my buddy Chris over at Nachos Grande. Chris has decided to chase the chrome version set of 2009 Heritage. It sounds crazy, but it can be any harder than trying to finish the regular 500 card set and all its poor collation and hard to grab short prints… Through all of my ripping I had 9 (I think) shiny cards to help Chris out and he had stuff from 3 different of my want lists and a nice and shiny card of Rays catcher Dioner Navarro. I now have Sonnanstine and Navarro, I don’t know which other Rays are in the 2008 chrome, but I know I want ‘em!
He has had card #445 of former Red Sox pitcher John Smoltz on his trade list for a while, but until now I couldn’t entice this one away from him, but now its mine, all mine!
He helped out with some of the base cards for that set that I didn’t realize I still needed until now along with a bunch of 2008 high numbers cards, including the much needed Ben Zobrist (577), Willy Aybar (673) and Evan Longoria (650). If anyone has doubles of these, I can still use them for my team collection! He didn’t stop there, he also knocked a few more of off my SPs need list for this years Ginter and a couple National Pride cards, too. Oh, and an awesome sketch card of the Big Hurt who has somehow managed to make an appearance in every set this year. Come on Hurt, give somebody else a chance! Thanks Chris, it’s always a pleasure… I posted last night that it was to be Scott Kazmir’s first game with the Angels. I was wrong; he will take the ball and the mound against King Felix and the Seattle Mariners. Not an easy task. I also predicted that the return of Andy Sonnanstine was a good thing, I was wrong about that, too. This trade was a good one; I will post more of them soon. As always, my lists are: http://collectivetroll.webs.com/ I always appreciate trades! As a post note, I do have a handful more shiny Heritage cards that are available as trade bait...They will be up for your viewing pleasure shortly... As another end note, today is Paul from Carl Crawford Cards birthday, Happy B-Day Paul!!! Go Rays! Win it for Paul! Troll out.

The Kaz Trade's Silver Lining?

Scott Kazmir has a new number (22) and a new team name on his jersey. The deal is done, he will make his scheduled start today and go for his 9th win, but he’ll be doing it in red for the Angels. The silver lining is that the move frees up a spot in the rotation for Troll favorite, Andy Sonnanstine. Sonny was sent to AAA for a tune up and he had seemingly been forgotten, but he has rejoined the Rays and will get the start tonight against the Red Sox, a team that he has owned! There is other good news, too. Aki is back and hit a home run in his second game, Pena is hot and slugging like crazy and Fernando Perez and Shawn Riggans are back to give the club more pinch hitting and defensive options. This series against the Sox will probably determine whether or not the Rays can get the Wild Card. Go Rays! Troll out.