September 9th was my ex-wife's birthday. I had intended to wish her a happy birthday, but I don't think I posted that day. I know it is typical to be mortal enemies with your ex, but as we have a wonderful child together, we have managed to stay good friends. In fact one day soon my lovely Wife, my ex-wife and our amazing son have a very exciting announcement to make... Stay tuned for that. Anyway, I didn't post on September 9th, but everyone's favorite nocturnal blue birdy blogger did. You can read it here. You probably read it already, he has a pretty popular blog and with Miss Marisa Miller helping him out that day I know he had a ton of views. I for one was a bit surprised to see Miss Miller, a known Chicago Cubs fan on a Dodgers blog.
While now you can see her on a Rays blog, too... Okay, back on track. For those who remember seeing Marisa on the Night Owl, but don't remember why -It was, in fact, page views (and not swimsuit models) that were the topic of his post that day. 
He mentioned that those of us who us who use Blogger to host our pages can now get stats on our blogs. I was unaware of this little feature and being a stat lover myself, I was immediately fascinated. I do pay attention to how many visitors I get to my blog each day, week, etc., but I didn't know I could see what pages people were looking at. 
The Night Owl (as he generally does) got us all thinking. Being a stat guy, as well as somewhat of an ego maniac, as soon as I finished reading his post that day (which incited 15 comments by the way) I checked my own stats. At the time last year that I was actually posting daily, sometimes 2 and 3 times daily on as many as 4 different blogs, I got a lot of traffic. Nowadays my visitors are few and far between. I get it. Why visit a blog that isn't updated, thats silly. ANYWAY... the blogger stats revealed some interesting and surprising things. I have made some posts that I am pretty proud of. Some posts took me hours or days to research. Some posts took hours to scan and upload all of the images. 
It seems that those posts got a few clicks when they were fresh, but I was quite surprised to learn what my most popular post ever was. It came on September 4, 2009. A little over a year ago and yes it has all been downhill since... Now, in the Night Owl post he mentioned some things that attract visitors, namely pictures of hot girls and rare cards. Regular readers of mine know that from time to time I post pics of models who share names with baseball players... Yes, I have about a dozen pics ( I actually have more, but not all of them are appropriate for this all ages blog) of Shannon Stewart mixed in with my card scans and from time to time I bust them out (like right now) BUT Ms. Stewart is the not the lure that brings new folks to my blog. 
My best post ever? Like I said, it was on 9-04-2009. It had just 2 pictures on it and they were both REALLY small and hard to see. Yes, it took me over a year of blogging to realize that you could change the size of the images you upload. Anyhoo... THIS is the post that reels them in. If you don't feel like clicking, this was the primary image in that post. 
The subject was Bronson Arroyo and a TTM request that I sent him. Like I said, I am stat obsessed. I used to keep a log book of how many "hits" my blogs got on a daily basis. According to my log book the Troll family of blogs took in over 400 clicks that day. Pretty cool, but Bronson KEEPS ON BRINGING you to me... This post had 11 comments, which is among the most I have gotten without giving something away. I guess that is a mark of a good post. I remember when I put it up. I didn't plan on that as my topic that day, but I was short on time and wanted to put something up. Little did I know that would be my top post ever. 
That Arroyo post has had 76 views this week, 215 views this month and over a thousand views over the last 12 months. Wow. I don't get it at all. My next best post is this one... It was listed on 12-26-2009. It was a pack rip of 1997 Pinnacle X Press that my Father ripped on Christmas Day. Another quick post. No rare cards, no hot girls. It didn't even have a pic of my Dad in it. Weird. Third best is this one. It was a contest. Bloggers vote for the Hall of Fame on 8-31-2009. It had a ton of hits back then. I was giving stuff away, but its weird that this month over 100 people have checked it out LONG after all of the prizes were given away. I don't get it.
Anyway, thanks for reading this ego driven post. 
I can't make any sense of it. None of my most popular posts have pictures of pretty ladies or rare cards. Heck, they aren't even good. I clicked on them to find the link, but I couldn't bring myself to re-read any of them... One last thing on this topic before I sign off... The stats page also tells you the main referrers of visitors to my blog. 
That said I owe a huge thanks to The Sports Card Blog Roll, My Past Time...I Love It! and the Cardboard Junkie. Thanks of course to the Night Owl for inspiring this post and thanks to everyone who has stumbled in here for whatever reason. Stats are fun, knowing that people read this dribble is cool, but knowing that the most people who visit this blog are here because they want to know if Bronson Arroyo signed my cards. Weirdness. What is even weirder is that anyone actually read this far considering the first line of this post mentions my ex-wifes birthday... 
Not really a line that hooks the reader. I should really just stick with Shannon Stewart... Oh, if you are wondering about the pics on this post. I went with hot girls and vintage cards cuz I want the hits! This blog is 6000 visitors away from hitting 100K... There WILL be a contest whether it takes a month or a year to get there. Also, still waiting for someone who wants my Million Card Giveawy cards. Anyone? Also, still need some addresses for the group break. Get in touch if your name is in yellow... Go Rays! Troll out.
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.
He has the second longest home run in Tropicana Field history at 474 feet. He has hit the catwalk more times than anyone and he still holds the club record for most home runs by a right handed hitter, although Evan Longoria will be breaking that soon. He still holds team records in getting hit by a pitch. He was beaned three times in one game in 2005 against the Yankees. That’s a team record and it ties the AL record. He also holds the team record getting hit by a pitch 28 times in his tenure with Tampa Bay. He also shares (with Longo) the Rays mark for most total bases in a game with 12, courtesy of his 3 homer day against the Royals in ’05. He was a vocal clubhouse leader throughout the stretch run in 2008 with the Rays and despite being left off the playoff roster; he was always the first out of the dugout to congratulate his teammates after scoring. After the 2008 season, he was non-tendered by the Rays and out of work. The Cincinnati Reds were the only takers; they signed him to a minor league contract with a spring invite. Despite a strong showing in the spring, he was sent to AAA to open the year. He was finally called up on May 21st and has been on a tear ever since. 
Having spent much of his time with the Rays playing designated hitter, the Reds were concerned with his defense, but it has been solid, he has made just 1 error in 63 chances with 2 outfield assists and 1 double play. So far this year, he has hit .271 with 14 homers and 33 RBI in just 166 at bats and a .566 SLG %. Project those home runs per at bats over a 500 at bat year and you have a 42 homer year. Compare him to the guy that replaced him, Pat Burrell, who is batting .220 with 10 homers in 275 at bats. Plus Gomes is making millions less in salary this year. I think the Rays made a pretty choice there. That said, I am writing about Gomes performance last night when he homered in his first three at bats against the Washington Nationals. These weren’t barely over the wall dingers either. His longest measured out at 439 feet to left, he added a 385 footer to left and finished with a 410 foot blast to straight away center. He had the chance to hit number 4 when he came up against Mike MacDougal in his final at bat. MM promptly buzzed a fast ball up in his face. Gomes ended up striking out. MacDougal was pitching for the Royals in 2005 and had served up Gomes’ third homer that night, he wasn’t about to give up his fourth tonight. As it turns out, one homer would have been enough. Reds starter Bronson Arroyo 
threw a gem, needing only 103 pitches to defeat the Nats in a two-hit shutout, his second of the year. His record improved to 11-11 with a 4.74 ERA and 3 complete games. Some fun facts about Gomes and other guys to have multiple three-home run games…
