Moving Closer on 2012 Topps!

Yes, this is another cheesy "pimp my needs list" post... But, I am pretty excited about my progress on the 2012 set... A week ago I needed over 250 cards to fill the binder, today, thanks to blogger generosity I need just 99 more cards... A HUGE THANKS goes to my blogger buddy Chris from the Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz blog who is sending me better than 60 cards from my list!!! Unbelievable!

What got the ball rolling was Chris had posted a really awesome video of Gary Carter's final at bat in Montreal... I commented, and next thing I know he is destroying my 2012 Topps needs list...

Of course, the list is up to date... Thanks again Chris and thanks to everyone else who has offered help!

Onto another list - I posted my Frankenset needs the other day and today I got 5 minis in the mail from Frank in Virginia... 2 of them were needs and 1 was an upgrade... The upgrade was awesome because it was card #293 and it took the ultra cheesy Royal Wedding mini out of my binder... The Frankenset is just 49 cards from being full. It will never be finished, because this monster will always be updated and upgraded... If you have unwanted Ginter minis, send them to me!!! If ya need any - I have some to spare!

I need to go to work and don't have time to properly eulogize the legendary Gary Carter, but I will end by saying that I have SOOOOO many memories of watching him play with the Mets and Expos. He was my Mom's favorite player and she took me to see him play dozens of times with both teams. When we weren't at the ball park, we were watching WWOR every night during the mid-80's. Gary Carter - GREAT catcher, CLASS ACT, LEGEND!!! Rip KID!!! And by the way, ya gotta love that Play at the Plate pic from the '86 Series...

Go Rays! RIP Gary Carter! troll out

I LOVE My Frankenset!

This winter, with nothing new to rip I decided to start putting all of my Allen and Ginter minis to good use. I got some cool pages and a binder and the Allen and Ginter Mini Frankenset was begun...

I have done quite a few trades and I now have 299 cards out of 350... I still have a lot of empty spaces and I have some numbers that I have 6 different cards fighting for the spot... Jesse from Minneapolis sent me 55 random minis for my quest - got 'em today!

I filled up some spots, but was left with quite a few dupes which are all shown above... Its hard choosing who gets that spot... If you are wondering how a black bordered Ken Griffey Jr. didn't make the cut-well, he is card #290 - the same as Cat Osterman, Carlos Pena and a score of others...

Anyhoo, everything in this pic is up for trade and my list is up to date. I need just one more card to hit 300! Help me out, please! The list is HERE.

Thanks for reading! Go Rays! Go minis! troll out...

29 Coins Away From a Willie Mays Auto!

Has anyone else redeemed codes on the 2012 Topps Golden site? I had 2 codes and tried a few times, but their website was unavailable... Last night Play at the Plate posted that it was live so I grabbed my 2 codes. What did I get? A player coin that I don't care about - A-Roid and a team coin I don't care about - the Indians... I thought the coin looked cool till I read that it was a digital image only and not a real coin... Not impressed. I had more fun unlocked 1986 Danny Heep cards in 2010... What do y'all think?

The Pirates impressive (not sarcastic this year) pitching staff has its first on-field workout this Sunday and I will be there... The NL Central Flag is theirs to loose... Go Bucs!

Oh, Tom from Angels in Order is the first to help me out on the 2012 Topps set, so the want list is up to date... Check it out here...

Go Rays! The best manager in the AL is locked up, as is the best rookie starter, the Rays are WS bound! troll out.

2012 Topps Want List is Up To Date...

Last night on the way home from work I made the 2 AM stop at Wal Mart and grabbed 3 hanger packs of 2012 Topps... I was hoping I might pull an SP that I could cash in and buy some vintage, but no such luck... The 3 packs yielded 108 cards - after taking away inserts and dupes I knocked 53 cards off of my list... Not great, but it was fun. I will probably not buy anymore for a bit, so I am gonna need some help... You can find my list here. Thanks for reading!

Go Rays! troll out.

My First Glance at 2012 Topps...

I gave in and bought some 2012 Topps… It started with 2 packs

on Thursday; it led to a cereal box on Friday and grew into 3 more packs on Saturday and 1 more this morning… I am waaaay past my budget, but I foresee another cereal box and a few more packs in the NEAR future… I have a small stack of cards sitting beside me – not many, but it’s enough to create a list, I think…
I rip on Topps about collation EVERY year, so I won’t much beyond the fact that after my purchases I have 85 cards towards the set. My packs and box yield a total of 144 cards. I did get a bunch of inserts (pretty standard) and a couple of parallels, but some of those were also dupes.

I did not get a single card from card 4 up till #28, yet I did manage to pull 4 copies of both card #110 of Mark Teixeira and card #298 of new Rays utilityman Jeff Keppinger. I also pulled 3 copies of #48 Wade Davis (not really complaining ‘bout this one) and #104, Brett Anderson, #2 Trevor Cahill AND #215 of Freddie Freeman. Aside from those, I have 16 additional duplicates. Not good Topps!

So anyway, I am 26% of the way there, I do intend on buying more packs, partially because I really wanna pull a Rally Squirrel card OR 1 of the other crazy short print variations that selling for big bucks on the ‘Bay.

I should also mention that my cards to chase (so far) in 2012 are the 2 different awesome cards of Rays leftfielder Desmond Jennings. So, colorful versions cards #ed 5 and 15 of DJ are my key wants for 2012 so far… If you have black, blue, red, gold, sparkly, silky or otherwise cards of Jennings – well, I want them!!!

I do think they I am going to try and chase the ’87 set… I don’t fully understand why they are sized like ’75 minis, but they are pretty sweet nonetheless.

As for the other insert sets and the reds and sparkles that I have pulled so far – I will post them ALL very soon and they are all up for grabs. For now, this is my want list. Get in touch if you can lend a hand. Please contact me before shipping so I can give youan alternate address.

Pitchers and catchers are reporting so very soon!!! I can’t wait!
Go Rays! Troll out.

Oh, not out just yet... Although I do have a ten dollar bill set aside to grab a few packs at Target, this is what I need so far... I should mention that I haven't pulled any of the crazy SPs, pies in the face or rodent cards. I do have a red parallel of Franklin Guitierez with John Lannan stats on the back...

1,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,11,13,14,16,18,20,21,22,23,25,26,27,28,31,35,36,38,40,46,47,49,52,

54,55,57,58,59,60,62,64,65,66,67,68,69,71,72,73,74,78,80,83,84,87,88,93,95,96,

100,102,103,105,106,108,111,112,117,118,119,120,123,125,127,129,135,137,138,

139,140,141,142,146,148,150,151,155,160,161,168,169,173,174,176,177,178,180,

182,183,185,186,187,192,193,194,195,197,198,199,201,203,204,208,210,211,

213,214,216,219,220,221,224,225,226,230,232,233,234,235,237,238,240,241,

242,244,248,249,251,252,255,259,262,263,264,266,267,268,271,274,275,277,

278,279,280,281,282,284,286,287,288,289,290,291,293,295,296,300,301,

303,304,305,310,311,314,315,316,319,320,327,328,330 and 331.

Okay, thats all I need, just another 250 cards or so... Ugh, Topps. I don't learn, though, I am gonna be buying more. It's a decent looking set. I don't like as much as 2011 and I will say that ripping '11 Updates was more exciting, had better photography and had more players on the right teams... Still, Topps is Topps and I love Topps Baseball cards, SO I will be chasing it...

As an endnote, we (the Bradentucky Bombers) opened our 2012 season with a bang - we beat (handily) the Miami Vice City Rollers. We had fun and left with no injuries, so win, win!

Troll out for real!

Rambling On... A Little Bit About a Lot of Stuff...

Greetings Trollites!

It seems I am slapping together a post once a month to claim that I am still alive and will be posting soon…

Well, its February, I am still alive and I will be posting soon, ha!

Things have been good in Trollville… The Legendary Esther Gin N Juice, AKA la espousa, started her new job last week and she loves it…

I have been a part of the day shift at my job for nearly six months now. Although I hate the alarm clock at 5 AM, things are going pretty well and I LOVE having my nights free. I am back in school again after taking a semester off. It’s Statistics for now and I got a high B on my first exam. I think I can pass this thing. Statistics is pretty much perfect for a baseball stat nerd like me…

I just finished reading “Odd Man Out”.

I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it as an enjoyable read. I was going to offer it up to Rod from Padrographs. Rod, if you are reading, I would be glad to send it your way. If you have already read it, well, who wants it???

I have not yet purchased any 2012 Topps. I actually went to Target today to get some puppy food and they didn’t have it on the shelves yet. They DO have 2011 Allen and Ginter marked down 20%. I didn’t buy any, but I was excited to see it marked down. I didn’t buy it mainly because I am broke, but also because I only need 3 more cards to finish off the set… I know I am not the Night Owl, but if you wanna send me cards numbered 119,120 and

130, I won’t try to stop you…

If you want to ship them to me, you might run into a roadblock, though… You see, I pay for my Post Office box every 6 months. Well, I am supposed to… The Box fees seem to go up as often as the price of stamps. In July, when I renewed last, it was $38. This January, the renewal was $47. The wifey and I got this Box while we were still dating (and we celebrate 6 years of wedded bliss next month) and it was $18.Yeah, it has nearly tripled in cost in less than a decade. Either way, I am kicking myself for not paying it on time. Now, not only do I have to cough up the 47 bucks, but they are getting me for a $25. Late fee… Blurgh. Not happy about this, but I gotta have my PO Box. I hope to havethe $$$ to get this current before the end of the month. Stay tuned and I will keep y’all up to date. If you are desperately eager to send me a package – shoot me an e-mail and I can give you my home address.

Okay, so several of you have e-mailed me to ask about my pending Trade Me Anything extravaganza. This WILL still happen. Basically the delay is solely because of the PO Box issue. As soon as I have that current again, TMA will happen! I promise…

The original reason we got the PO Box was for our record label – Bacon Towne Records. Some of you may not be aware, but aside from being a totally obsessed baseball card nerd, I am also a record collector geek.

The Wifey and I have been running Bacon Towne Rex for seven years. We release exclusively on vinyl and have had 9 releases (eight 7 inches and one 12”LP) since 2005. We have sold records to people in each one of the fifty states and over 20 different countries. It is a labor of love and is also tons of fun for us. We LOVE hardcore, thrash and punk rock music, we love our bands, we love going to shows, being on tour and we love doing mail-order. I don’t discuss the label (often at least) here on Troll Might Rule, but every now and then the paths do cross. I bring it up now because earlier this week I finalized a trade with my new friend Jesse from

Minneapolis. He wanted 3 of our releases and offered up some sweet Allen and

Ginter minis as trade bait.

Long story short, we worked out a deal that both sides are happy with and I now have 294 of the 350 minis needed for my Frankenset!!! That is 84% completion! I am thrilled and a little surprised. When I decided to chase this a few months ago I thought it would be a season long (at least) quest. The season hasn’t even started and I am down to 56 cards!! You can find my list HERE. Let’s make a deal!!!

Okay, so that covers it, I guess… Trade Me Anything will happen when I get my Post Office Box unlocked. My PO Box is temporarily unavailable. If you NEED to send me cards, shoot me an email and I will send you an alternative address.

I AM still alive. I do still lurk around the blog-o-sphere… I still read the Night Owl on a nightly basis. I still check Play at the Plate while I sip on my morning coffee and I had a beer (or seven) to celebrate The Cardboard Don’s 3rd Blog Birthday. I still have cards all over the house. There are binders on the coffee table, the dining room table and next to the bed. I still plan on ripping and chasing Topps as well as Allen and Ginter in 2012. I still plan on taking my “Little Brothers” to spring training. Now that I don’t work the night shift anymore, I plan on being a fixture at Tropicana Field in 2012. The Misses and I have been spending a lot of time on our monthly budget and we have determined that we can def fit 2 games a month (at least) into the budget.

Oh… Una Cosa Mas…

Before I sign off, I need to mention that Side of Bacon lives and I will remain the voice of the Bradentucky Bombers roller derby league. Still recovering from her knee reconstruction – Esther Gin N Juice is starting the season on the injured reserve, but I haven’t lost my voice yet and I will be there for Opening Night. We kick the season off THIS SUNDAY night at Astro Skate in Bradenton, Florida. It will be: The Bradentucky Bombers Present the Nuclear Bombshells VS, The Miami Vice City Dolls.

For more info, check out our website… If you don’t live in Florida, do yourself a favor and look up and check out your town’s own roller derby leagues…

As always, thanks for reading! I truly appreciate all of you! For everyone that has been patient with me declaring that I am back each month right before I disappear for another 29 days, I thank you!

Pitchers and catchers will be invading my town VERY soon. I can’t wait! Thanks to all! I love this game, I love this hobby and I love this forum! Baseball IQ starts in a few minutes and that is MY SHOW, so I gotta go. All of my want lists are up to date, so check em out… GO RAYS!!! We are going all the way in 2012 and I will be there to cheer y’all on in person!

Oh, before I sign off - The ever elusive black bordered 2011 Ben Zobrist card is now in my collection and at the top of this post. I have the base, the blue and the black, but still need the gold, puke, sparkle, hope, red... Help a Zorilla fan out, okay? Once again, Go Rays! To my wife, I love you! You are beautiful, thanks for decorating my blog! Go Bombers! Troll out.

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.

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.

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.

A Great Day to be a Troll...

One year ago today a baby boy named Atlas Ray was born and your friend The Troll became a Grandpa... Yeah, this time last year the wife and I were in Oklahoma City visiting with my son Zadeh and his awesome other half Holly... Y'all might remember there was a contest involved. I wanted to celebrate getting my 100,000th hit AND the birth of my grandchild. This time last year I was a much better blogger.

I wrote often and had a ton of friends and followers and I wanted to say thanks. We gave away a trio of Hall of Fame cards from 1956 Topps including this card of Al Kaline. I think there were around 150 entries - it was pretty awesome. There will probably be another contest here in Trollville very soon. You see, I have this 1887 Allen and Ginter mini that I am itching to giveaway. I just haven't decided how just yet, but I am open to suggestions... So, happy birthday to you Atlas Ray! You and your Daddy make me SOOO happy!!! Oh... By the way - I am still looking for the 2010 Allen and Ginter Lords of Olympus mini of Atlas... Anybody got a spare???

Today being Atlas' B-Day is more than enough to make today a GREAT day to be a Troll... Today could have been better - the wife and I are on opposite schedules today and I miss her a bit, BUT I did get to see my Father (shown here on Graduation Day with my tall Wife and my short Mom) which is always a treat. It didn't end there either... I decided to stop at the Post Office and I had a surprise package from the Legendary Cardboard Don himself, Senor Wicked Ortega... Wicked and I have both slowed down our collections a bit and we have gone far too long between trades... I have a stack of cards with his name on it that has been growing for months, but I have been SO LAZY with my trading of late... Anyway - A package from the Cardboard Don will make anyone's day and he certainly made my day greater!!! Thanks sooo much Wicked! I will post this trade up soon, I have updated my wantlists - he punished my insert needs for 2010 Topps and 2011 Topps and hooked it up for my Allen and Ginter Frankenset (which I have thankfully been recieving quite a few minis of late...). There were a ton of GREAT cards included, but the one I am gonna show right now is the FINAL Kimball Champion card I needed to finish off 2011 Topps Series 1. I have been begging for card #25 of Vlad Guerrero for months and it is finally safe in the binder. I do seriously plan on posting this trade, but I know my history so I can't resist posting a couple right now... I LOVE the Vintage Legends Cards from 2010 Topps. Ty Cobb styled like 1956 Topps - how cool is that??? I need MANY, but I crossed off a few today... One series that I didn't rip any of, but kinda wish I did is Gypsy Queen. I LOVE the design on every card I have seen so far including my very first mini card of my FAVORITE Rays pitcher, the pride of Lake Wales, Florida - Wade Davis... Thanks again to the Cardboard Don, you rule my friend! Thanks for reading. Much more to come - stay tuned! Oh, I couldn't resist going old school with a photo of my boy Zadeh from Christmas 1996... Speaking of old school... Check out this young Troll trailing Patriots back-up QB Doug Flutie... And then stealing his shoulder pads, ha! Go Rays! Happy Holidays to All!!! troll out.

Plagiarizing Thorzul, Fanning Manny, Making Me Sing, Sparkling Cards, A LENGTHY Ramble Troll Style...

(In the event that you don't feel like wasting your time reading the next 4000 or so words - ALL of the non-Rays cards in this post are for trade) So, it has been OVER a month since my last post and that wasn’t a REAL TROLL post. Time HAD been very limited, so I had that as an excuse, but the past 2 nights the wife has been away at work and I have had nothing but time. Last night I stared at a blank screen for a while. I made excuses in my head and put the pressure on myself. As a blogger I have been known to write lengthy posts on a daily basis and every time I go a week without posting I feel like I need to write a LONG post explaining why I haven’t. I have written that post several times (without actually posting it). I have written lengthy drafts thanking all the people who have sent me cards this past month, I have drafts explaining what I plan on posting in the near future, I have drafts of trade bait which try to ignore my absence and I have a draft from last night explaining that I have writers block in over 3000 words. None of these are really blog worthy just yet, but be warned that they may see the light of day.

Truth is this long absence has brought out a degree of writer’s block in me. More a lack of confidence than a block, more of an “I have more sh%t going on in my head than I have time to post it”, but it resonates in a block of sorts when I DO have the time. One thing I have learned about “blogger’s block” is that the best way to cure it is to steal someone else’s ideas, BUT don’t make it too obvious. My lack of time has limited my blog reading, so some days I ONLY get to read the Night Owl and Play at the Plate and since you now know that I can’t steal their ideas. No, I should dig deeper… I scanned my blog roll (which has been reduced from 411 blogs, down to 290) and checked out a couple of my old faves and before too long I picked a blog to snatch content and ideas from. The winner (not really a winner, but…) is Thorzul Will Rule.

I traded with TWR a LONG time ago, but otherwise I don’t know the dude, he isn’t really someone I consider a “blogger buddy”, but I still have been a long time reader of his so I don’t mind plagiarizing him, ha!
The first thing that struck me was his side bar “most wanted” list. I remembered that he was a fan of the Brew Crew (as I am to a far lesser degree) and a few years back when Milwaukee rented CC Sabbathia for the stretch run the Mighty Thorzul set on a mission to collect EVERY card of CC in a Brewers uniform. I have (many times) thought about doing this. I suppose that I was on my way to collecting every card of another CC (Carl Crawford) in a Rays uniform. This was a little harder for two reasons. One, this CC spent 11 seasons in the Rays organization and two, when he abandoned the team chasing the almighty dollar – I did the same thing and listed all of my autographs and printing plates on eBay. I can’t go back and buy all of those back in addition to the thousands of cards I don’t have. I would do better by continuing to wait for someone to step up and buy my CC collection. I do still have over 500 CC cards, at least 50 relics and a few autographs still. Okay, he is out.
I have a few ex-Rays that I collect to a certain extent – Joe Kennedy, Jared Sandberg, Dave Martinez, Dewon Brazelton and Quinton McCracken, but those guys aren’t on the CC Sabbathia level. I need a big name if I am gonna steal that idea. The Rays normally don’t rent players and they don’t sign many big names either. Pat Burrell doesn’t count and even though he did a great job as the Rays closer, I didn’t really like Rafael Soriano that much. I wasn’t glad to see him go, BUT I wasn’t sad to see him leave either. As I was thinking about this I was flipping through cards that I needed to scan (and I have a TON of these) and I came across the most recent stack that the ultra-generous Rod from Padrographs had sent me and this shiny card caught my eye. This might fit the bill perfectly. A BIG NAME player who barely had a cup of coffee in Tampa Bay. A dude who ate female hormones and shot the juice, BUT was still one of the best sluggers to EVER swing the bat.

I liked Manny when he was a member of the powerhouse Cleveland Indians teams of the mid-to-late 1990’s. Their line-ups would make any pitcher shake. Think about facing Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel, Manny, Jim Thome, Eddie Murray, Sandy Alomar, Carlos Baerga and Albert Belle…

Damn, that team could hit, but the thing about baseball is great pitching tends to thwart great hitting and the Braves stopped that great hitting in 1995 and in 1997 my team (the Florida Marlins!) stopped them again and the team dismantled. Of course Manny came away okay and he slugged his way back to the World Series with Boston in 2004 and again in 2007.

Now Manny never really impressed me in the World Series. The Marlins had his number in ’97 (he hit .154) and even in ’07 when the Sox ROLLED over the Rockies – Colorado held Manny homerless and kept him to a .250 average. His World Series numbers aren’t too impressive – in 21 games he has a .247 mark with 4 homers and 14 RBI. Yawn. Manny fans could make the argument that he was SO GREAT in the division series and championship series that his teams would have never made the WS, but I am losing perspective here… I will end the Manny postseason discussion by mentioning his 29 postseason homers and his batting average (over .500!) with the Dodgers in 2008.

Yeah, I definitely lost track there… What I was getting at was this – this shiny and awesome Mannywood card that Rod from Padrographs sent me is pretty freaking awesome and it really got me thinking…

Manny is one the greatest sluggers of all time. He drove in 1831 runs over his 17 year career – that puts him in the top-20 of all time and oh yeah, 1 of those runs was driven in for the Rays!!! Yeah, the dude with a .312 career batting average, 548 doubles and 555 career homers was a MESS in Tampa Bay. Even though he only made it into 5 games as a Ray, I must say he let us all down. His 162 game average has him hitting .312 with 39 homers and 128 RBI. For Tampa Bay he had 1 hit and 1 RBI in 17 at-bats. Not pretty. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that his .059 batting average was courtesy of performance enhancing drugs. PATHETIC!!!

He failed a drug test, retired and so ended the Man Ram in Tampa Bay experiment. As a fan I wasn’t thrilled when he signed on with the Rays, but since my love for my team is unconditional I supported their signing of Manny and was totally optimistic about having him in the lineup. Before the season started I started thinking about all the history Manny could have made in a Rays uniform. He was 4 RBIs away from passing Dave Winfield on the All Time list, 6 away from passing Rafael Palmeiro, 7 away from Kid Griffey and just 10 RBI away from passing Ted Williams and moving into #13 on the All Time List!

I started imagining the headlines and envisioning the cards. I started thinking about the Rays facing the Red Sox in the playoffs and Manny dropping a 3-homer game in Boston. Like I said, I wasn’t happy about the signing, but the Rays got him cheap and there was PLENTY of upside. I HATED the steroid era of baseball. Everyone hitting 50 homers totally cheapened the long ball. Barry Bonds and his stupid dangling cross earring made the sport I LOVE into a joke. The record books were re-written, but the numbers had lost their luster. Manny was a part of all that, but I thought of him as a steroid era survivor. I THOUGHT that the juice was behind him and what was left was an aging, but still intimidating slugger who was padding his career numbers and might help Tampa Bay into playing some October baseball in the process. I had really imagined that he would stick around for more than 5 games. I mean did he think that he, of all people, could take PEDs and get away with it?

He did apply for reinstatement last week. I HOPE that he has a better game plan for 2012. I hope he makes it back. I would probably root for him. There aren’t many players still out there that are older than me, so I pretty much root for ALL of the old men out there. So yeah, I would root for Man Ram in 2012, BUT I would prefer for him to NOT return to Tampa Bay. I WOULD like to have some cardboard memories of him as a member of the Rays. Thanks to everyone who has actually read this far – if you did, you know that I am finally at the point where I tie in something I am stealing from the Mighty Thorzul. He became a SUPER COLLECTOR of CC Sabbathia from his time in Milwaukee. I intend to become a SUPER COLLECTOR of Mannywood – a super collector of ALL cards celebrating his 5 games in Tampa Bay. Thanks to Rod of Padrographs I have a head start. I don’t really know how many Rays cards he has, but I know that I must have ALL of them. EXHALE. Finally.
This was meant to be a quick, “I’m back blog-o-sphere” kind of post, but I have managed to ramble out more words than Manny has RBIs AND I’m not even done (yet)!!! On Manny – if he can lay off the juice and come back healthy and be close to half the player he was – he does have a shot to really climb the career lists. At 1831 career RBI he is just 69 ribs away from the 1900 club, a club that has only 10 members, of course if he could manage 169 more ribs he could be a member of the 2000 club. This exclusive fraternity includes just Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Cap Anson. I THINK that if Manny could clean his act up for 2 more semi-productive seasons he could reach 2000 and do it legitimately AND would end his career as a slugging boy scout and could work his way back into the good graces of the BBWA and give himself a shot at Cooperstown. It could happen…
So yeah, I am back… I am back and I am chasing Manny Ramirez cards (of all things). I am still trying to finish a number of sets (want lists are linked on sidebar) and I am still a Rays mega fan. Like many other bloggers I am addicted to the sparkly cards found in 2011 Topps. Basically if you have a Rays card from 2011 that is put out by Topps and it is diamond sparkly OR the color of shiny puke OR good old fashioned gold – I WANT it! I also want blue cards, red cards, sepia cards, canary cards, hope cards and refractors of all kinds… I would really like to finish off the entire team set in each and every variety. I know I won’t be able to, but I am gonna have a blast trying…

Oh, this leads me to another idea I can steal. I am sure a number of blogger’s have set out on this mission, but I think of the Night Owl… He has pledged to seek out EVERY variety that Topps has puked out of this sweet Dee Gordon card.

I intend on doing that same thing with this awesome image (from top of post) of Ben Zobrist… I have his Topps base so far, so I have a long road ahead. Since I haven’t made a real blog post in months, y’all probably don’t realize that after the playoffs this year I have a new favorite Ray. The Rays lost the game and the series against Texas, but Sean Rodriguez established himself as a truly Nitty Gritty player after his home plate collision with Mike Napoli. He WAS safe at the plate. If you don’t remember the play I am talking about, do yourself a favor and click on this link and watch this video, it is AWESOME!!!
Its plays like this that make me want to collect cards of a dude who hit .223 last year… I would LOVE to see a higher average, a few more steals and extra base hits, but this dude has played EVERY position other than pitcher and catcher and totally EARNED that run in the POSTSEASON. THAT is amazing. Period.

I THOUGHT it would spark a rally and a Rays resurgence. I was wrong obviously, but it was still an awesome moment and I became a Sean Rodriguez fan for life. That said, his 2011 Topps card, which shows him erasing former Twin and Ray Delmon Young, is all over my want list. Like Zobrist, I only have the base version of this card, SO ALL PARALLELS ARE WELCOME HERE!!!! I should mention that while I was typing this post I remembered that I had $1.33 in my PayPal account.

I now have 16 cents in it, but I have a 2011 Topps Chrome Refractor (#78) of Sean Rodriguez heading my way. My immediate goal is to fill a page full of parallels (of regular Topps as well as Chrome) for Rodriguez, Zobrist and a mystery third player to be teased in the next paragraph. I would LOVE to add full pages of Desmond Jennings, David Price (who is immortalized in my blog header), Wade Davis (the Pride of Lake Wales, Florida!), Evan Longoria, BJ Upton and everyone else (for that matter) but I want to set realistic and achievable goals. That said, as bad as I want all the Zobs and S-Rods out there, I will gladly take ANY Rays!

There is another player I am gonna super-collector-parallel-obsessively-chase. I have 2 cards of him. The regular base AND the HOPE DIAMOND version. The #ed to 60 variety came from Scott of Smed’s Cards, but y’all are gonna have to wait to see who it is… Don’t let the suspense kill you! Ha!

I do have a few sparkle cards to offer up as trade bait right now. I have 10 liquor (puke) fractors, 5 regular diamonds and a couple of gold parallels. The non-Rays cards splattered through this post are all up for trade. The idea is to get Rays for non-Rays. I figure that by the end of the night I will have all of these cards packed up and ready to go and I will have 15 Rays parallels heading my way… It COULD happen. I stacked 9 out of my 10 puke-fractors on one page. I left one by itself to segue into a bitch about Topps session. I haven’t commented on Topps this year and I am sure it has all been said and said to death, but I will throw in a quick 2 cents…
I think that 2011 Topps Update is the product of the year. The value, the photography, the player selection – it is all top notch. Topps also totally nailed it with the sparkle parallels. Adding shiny cards from series 1 and 2 into the Updates is what makes me pick U and H as product of the year over Series 1 and 2. For 2 bucks a pack and good odds on catching a sparkle parallel, I gobbled up a lot of these packs. Although I haven’t been reading the blogs as much as I used to, I think just about everyone is collecting these things. I have always chased the Topps Gold parallels of my team and favorite players. I have always sought out the black parallels as well, but now there are SO many parallels to collect.

I think it is pretty exciting and pretty awesome and it has me excited and I think that all player and team collectors are into it. I know there are even some ambitious folks trying to build the entire set in puke or diamond. They are crazy, but Topps is selling a lot of packs as a result. With their current monopoly Topps doesn’t have to go all out, but they did and that is a good thing. We can bitch about a lack of products and a lack of options out there, but I for one loved the quality of the available options. Topps, Allen and Ginter, Gypsy Queen, Topps Chrome, Bowman, Bowman Platinum… Yeah, they are ALL Topps products, BUT they are all AWESOME products. Good job Topps. Of course I am gonna follow a compliment with a rip.

I have this same complaint every year it seems, but COLLATION, COLLATION, COLLATION – it SUCKS!!!! I didn’t have the cash to go out and buy a box (which I really wanted to) I just bought a TON of loose packs. Enough loose packs to yield about 600 cards. With a 330 card set, you would imagine I would be pretty close to having a full set. Not even close. At 600 cards I had 450 dupes. Not good. Fortunately there were many generous bloggers who helped me whittle my list down considerably. Still, I ended with too many blocks of dupes like this…

Nothing against Brandon League, but do I really need to fill up a page with him? On top of that I pulled 2 of his puke-fractors and one gold parallel of him… For collation to be my ONLY complaint about their flagship product, well that speaks well of Topps, BUT when you are trying to build a set by buying packs of cards, collation is pretty darn important. Topps HAS me hooked. I bought a 2 dollar pack today and if I had 5 bucks I would have bought a hanger, BUT I am saying this in print for all the world (my 2 loyal readers) to read – IF I pull another card of Brandon League (again, no offense) I am DONE WITH TOPPS for 2011. Done, for serious. I know that to Topps the idea of potentially losing the 20 dollars I MIGHT spend purchasing retail packs of cards over the rest of this year isn’t much of a threat, but…
Oh, back to my plagiarizing of the Mighty Thorzul Will Rule… Last year or sometime a while back he played a game called “Trade Me Anything”. I don’t recall exactly how it worked, but I am stealing that name/title. I have some cards that I will be posting of the trade bait variety. Some new, some old, some complete sets, some action figures, movies, anything baseball related… Basically I need to clear some space out from under the bridge AND I want to add up some new stuff to the collection. I will be posting these items (slowly) and will expect at least 1 card from my want list AND 1 surprise/mystery card of your choice. I think that if people can send me 2 cards that I want or need in exchange for something more bulky will allow me to clear space, but more importantly will give posting fodder that isn’t too overwhelming. I think we have all received mind-blowing trade packages over the years that totally made our day, BUT had sooo much great stuff in them that we just couldn’t post them. That happens way too often and makes me feel really bad, but I THINK I can handle a two-card trade post. I think…

So, stay tuned for this and be ready to “Trade Me Anything”. In the mean time I will attempt to post up the recent awesome and overwhelming packages I have received from Smed’s Cards, Night Owl, Padrographs, $30 A Week Habit, Dawgbones, gosh it is overwhelming just typing their names, ha! Anyway, just stay tuned and get ready to help me get back in the trading game…

Okay, I have officially stolen 2 ideas from Thorzul Will Rule, 1 idea from the Night Owl and I have managed to make a total fan post on Manny Ramirez. Wow, I am exhausted! The typing out 3800+ words wasn’t too bad, but realizing that deep down I am a Manny Ramirez fan, well, that is just tiring…

I don’t know how many times I have said this so far in 2011 (before disappearing off the face of the earth for a month) but I am BACK blog-o-sphere!!!

Oh, another reason for my sparse presence ‘round here… My lovely wife GRADUATED from the University of South Florida (The Bulls baby!) last Saturday! Oh, and she did so with honors, yep she is Summa Cum Laude for real! Congrats wifey!

Una cosa mas… And this is the LAST one of these… You may have noticed an original 1887 Allen and Ginter card on the side bar. It WILL be a contest prize someday soon; I just don’t know what the contest will be. I do know that trading me Rays sparkle parallels won’t hurt yer chances, ha!

Thanks, as always, for reading! Let us do some trading! I will keep on posting 4000 word ramble-fests if someone (anyone) keeps on reading… Okay? Tell yer friends that the Troll is back!

Go Rays! It’s our season in 2012!!!! Troll out.