A huge thanks goes to reader Claudia for this autographed Mad Dog postcard. I certainly don’t mind collecting any of these players, but I am not SUPER collecting just yet.Anyway, I have been sorting my thousands of Rays cards into team sets. I am pretty darn close to finishing off all of the Topps team sets for the past 13 years (more on that later). I have started binders of a few specific players doubles and got them all their own binder, calling it my Elite Eight Favorite Ex-Devil Rays.
That list includes Jared Sandberg, Jonny Gomes, Joe Kennedy, Ben Grieve, Quinton McCracken, Dewon Brazelton and now, the newest addition, Dave Martinez. 
I posted this card a few weeks back and was a little bummed that it didn’t get a reaction, so I will post it again. I got to talk with Dave at length during spring training this year. I was writing a feature on the 1998 Devil Rays Inaugural Season and since Martinez posted the organizations first ever hit, he factored prominently in the story. 
At the end of our talk I brought up card blogs and he confided that reading them was a guilty pleasure of his. He also mentioned one of favorite haunts and I pulled this card out of my bag for him to sign for the Troll. This is officially the 4th “To Troll” card in the collection. I may post the others someday. I have begun sorting out my Dave Martinez Rays cards and he now fills a few pages in the binder. If you are curious I have zero interest in cards of him on the Cubs, Reds or White Sox or any team other than the Rays. If you are further curious, he has been known to swing the bat in BP every now and then and I believe I would much rather have him in the lineup than Pat the Bat. Anyway… This is all just a prelude to a pair of actual posts which are coming. One is a trade that nearly wiped out my team set needs and the other is the unveiling of my new player collection… Oh, speaking of player collections... Here are 2 gems that Madding from Cards on Cards sent me about 6 months ago. He had come into a big lot of basecards and sent me about 500 Rays cards. He also sent this SP '05 (numbered 108 of 199) Carl Crawford jersey relic 
and this '06 SP Gomes. These got completely buried and never got posted. 
I hope to sort through and binderize the Carl Crawford collection soon. I can't decide what to do with autos and relics. The thin ones fit in pages fine, but thicker cards don't. I have some super special CC cards in the display case, but I really want to have ALL of my CC cards together. Any suggestions? Stay tuned! Oh, thanks to everyone (all 4 of you) who entered my shopping spree contest. Roof God was half right and Play at the Plate was correct. I don't have any Rangers or Tigers relics or '65s, but I do have a few to pick from. Send me an email please... Go Rays! Troll out.
I have posted several editions of Blogger Kindness and I have MANY more to show off, but getting a package from a complete stranger sent IMMEDIATELY after reading of my experience really blew me away. Damn work for taking up all my time and keeping me from posting this! That said, I do need to get ready to go back, so let’s get back to the business of showing off some of the highlights of this package that included Negro Leaguers, HOFers, autographs, relics, Clementes and a whole ton of Pirates and Rays. He included quite a few David Price cards that I needed, but I am going to show this one because this is the only one I have ever seen like this. It comes from 2009 Topps, but isn’t the standard pose from the set. 
The card is number JCP2. 
If Google is correct, the JCP stands for either the Journal of Computational Physics or JC Penney. Anyone know anything about these? Moving on to a serial numbered rookie card of my favorite shortstop Jason Bartlett. 
This is card #62 from 2004 Fleer Draft Edition, serial numbered 0514/1000. He sent me a few Topps Chrome refractors which are always welcome here, including a 2008 BJ Upton and a 2009 Matt Garza. 
He also sent the most amazing refractor I have ever seen… From 2008 Bowman, card #171 of 2009 Home Run King Carlos Pena. 
As much as I love refractors I am not too knowledgeable about the different varieties. I thought this was an X Fractor, but since then I have gathered quite a few of those and none compare to this one. Is this a SUPER FRACTOR? It is serial numbered 216/250 and shiny as all hell! The pile of Rays he sent was never ending and it seemed that I needed all of them, but I won’t every card. I have trimmed it down to just 3 more beginning with an old school Wade Boggs from 1999 Topps Stadium Club. 
I picked this one because as many cards as I have of Boggs as a D-Ray (100+) this might be the only card that shows him running. Next up is a SWEET new RED Turkey Red that I have been coveting for a while. 
This is from 2005 (I think, my eyes are failing me), card #152 of All Star Carl Crawford. AWESOME! The last card to show off comes 2008 Topps Series 2, card #TR-SK, a jersey relic of the Rays former Ace Scott Kazmir. 
I am pretty sure with this one I have every Rays card from this subset. I love being an obsessive team collector!
It celebrates Clemente’s second WS win in 1971 where he batted .414 and took home WS MVP honors.
It comes from the 2002 SPx Winning Materials Combo Jersey set and features Kendall and Brian Giles, each with a different color jersey swatch. It is AWESOME! I dug out some old Kendall cards I had and filled 2 pages in my PC binder. Ah, memories! From the past to the present, here is a pair of Ticket to Topps Town cards of future star Andrew McCutchen. 
I REALLY like the photo on the GOLD version, great angle, bad crop, but still great. I am starting to think about chasing TTT Gold now, too. I have 6 cards so far… We went from the past to the present, now here is a great relic of the future. From the 2008 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection, here is a black jersey swatch of outfielder slash first baseman Steve Pearce. 
The Pirates have a lot of weak spots on their roster, but they have a ton of depth at first base and right field and Garrett Jones IS the real deal. That leaves Pearce behind for now, but I think this guy has a shot… Shifting back to the past, these 2 were my favorites from the package. These cards wowed me so much that I thought about chasing both of these guys and YES I got these before the poll where you guys voted for Bill Madlock (in a tie) as the next play I collect… This is my first relic of Mad Dog and my only one so far… It comes from 2006 Fleer, the Decade Greats set, card # DEC-BI. 
I really like the design of this card, the batting pose from the former batting champion and little piece of his bat in the corner. I still haven’t decided how to break the 3-way tie between Madlock, Larry Doby and Bill Mazeroski. I don’t see a problem in collecting all of them a little bit-they are 3 of my All Time favs… I thought it was awesome that Cameron was so clairvoyant with this one. I have been typing for over 2 hours and I really need to go to work, so I am going to close up this super post of a super package from a super kind blogger… This is a great Pirates card to close it on, it comes from a set that I didn’t even know about until recently, but have recently become obsessed. I love Hall of Fame autographs, but I get tired of seeing the same players in every set. That makes these sets super awesome because of the variety. This is a chrome version of a 2004 style Topps card of one of the best relievers the National League has ever seen. 
I am rushing and not too great with words right now, so just enjoy this super great, uncirculated awesome certified, on card auto of Elroy Face!!! 
I LOVE this card. I like vintage players on modern designs; it’s like a reverse Heritage type thing. Anyway, this card is easily one of my favorites. This was my first Face card (a KING!) and later that week Chris from Project '62 sent me a few vintage Topps cards of him. Those are two great reasons to start collecting a guy that I was already a huge fan of. More cards that he included from a set that I didn’t know existed are these amazing 2001 Fleer Greats of the Game cards. 
He sent a stack of former stars from the Negro Leagues. Among the group were this card of one of my favorite people in the world, former Kansas City Monarchs player and manager Buck O’Neil. 
This last card inspired me too, stay tuned for some Buck O’Neil obsessiveness!!! In the awesome letter that Cameron sent with these awesome cards he suggested that we could talk some smack during the season, Reds vs. the Pirates. It’s hard for me to talk bad about the Reds since my favorite player Jonny Gomes plays for them, but… 
This one really sucks because the frame of the card is really nice and classy, but the extra words kill it for me. Check out
You can 
I hate to give this auction site free advertising, but if any of my readers are dumb enough to buy these cut autograph disasters, well… They’re not! This ain’t eBay love, these are eBay atrocities… It sucks that you can take a nice in-person auto which might sell for 5 bucks, take a scissor to it and slap a serial number on it and the value goes up 10 times... I was glad that I didn't find any atrocicuts of Bill Madlock, but I am sure they exist. Oh, there is less than an hour to get in on the Steve Garvey bat relic contest. Enter 
16% of you think I should collect Pittsburgh Pirates hero, defensive standout and Hall of Fame member 
and 16% of you think I should collect 4-time batting champion 
Like I said, even with the help of 68 of my friends and readers, I am still where I started and I still can’t choose. I have about 12 cards of Maz with no autos or relics, but there are plenty available. I have 5 cards of Doby with no autos or relics. There are some of those available, but the autos get pricy. I have 5 cards of Mad Dog, one relic and an autographed 8X10. Since he played for 15 years and up until 1987 I think 
Gamble was in 5th with 5 votes and Don Newcombe and Bert Blyleven were tied for 6th place with 4 votes each. Tony Oliva finished 8th with 3 votes and Ray Durham and Monte Irvin each received 2 votes. 2 of you also thought that I should stick with current players. The problem with that is that current players can get traded to the Yankees. 
It happened to Danny Tartabull and I am terrified it is going to happen to Carl Crawford... The 
Easy huh? I had promised to start the big contest here at the Troll tonight, but I am going to hold off until tomorrow. Two of the prizes were things that I ordered online and since I haven’t checked my post office box all week, I wanna wait till I have them in hand first. I am riding my bike (bicycle not motorcycle) over there after work so I can post the contest manana afternoon. Thanks again to everyone who voted. Any ideas for a tie breaker? Go Rays! troll out.
