Tradin' With Wicked Ortega!

Okay, I am back to posting trades, I am still behind by about 10 trades and I have a whole bunch of new goodies to show off, plus I know that more trades are on their way. Anyway, for those concerned, I did get my car running. I am not the world’s best mechanic, but I am way to cheap to pay someone else to fix my car, plus I have owned this Jeep for 15 years and everything under the hood is totally rigged and a real mechanic would likely have a heart attack if they saw it. It was dark before I declared the job complete, but it seemed to run fine with no leaks. The true test will be tomorrow driving in morning traffic… I had thought that game 163 was tonight and I was pretty excited because I had the night off. It wasn’t, Monday night football instead, which I did actually watch and it was a really good game. I didn’t care who won, but it kept this novice football fan interested, so I enjoyed it. The trade today is from my buddy in South Florida, Mr. Wicked Ortega-the author of the “My Past Time, I Love It!” blog. He now has two blogs, both with the same name. One is on word press for his player collections and trades and the other is on BlogSpot for his autograph memorabilia collections. Do yourself a favor and follow and read both of them. This trade with Wicked is actually 3 trades and from what I understand he has a fourth package on its way to me, so I better get caught up. The history between Wicked and me goes something like this. I had posted a Dontrelle Willis relic card as trade bait a while back and got zero takers. I had been a big fan of the D-Train back when he was on the Marlins and I figured that if no one wanted it, I would add Dontrelle to my player collection list. He has a ton of cool cards out there and given his current status, they are pretty damn sweet, so I figured why not. I put together a post to declare myself a D-Train collector and Wicked read it and got in touch. He basically said Dontrelle was his guy and the blog-o-sphere wasn’t big enough for the both of us. He was kidding obviously, but I considered his statement. I could ignore him and try and grow my collection beyond the 5 cards that I had or I could give in. I checked out his blog and realized that he already several hundred Willis cards and I decided that he had me beat in the dedication department. I sent him my 5 five Dontrelle cards and a few other players from his list. He collects Will Clark, Luis Tiant, Big Papi, Manny Ramirez, Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla and all of the Marlins, too. He completed his end of the first trade and I was pretty happy with what I got. Then he posted a few cards as trade bait that I wanted badly. I had already sent him all the cards that I wanted to give up. The only thing left that I had that he needed was my Josh Johnson collection. Once again, I gave in and sent those to him, too. He now owns every single Marlins (my second favorite team) card that I had. That’s okay, because as you will see I got some pretty damn nice cards in return and I feel better being more focused on the Rays and the few other players that I collect. On a different topic, I am pretty bummed that no Florida teams are in the playoffs. I do think that the Fish surprised a lot of folks this year. They got off to a pretty bad start and no one thought they would contend and they did. With their pitching staff, their infield solidified with Nick Johnson and if Chris Coghlan can build on his rookie year, they will be a team to watch in 2010. I would love a Citrus Series next October that would be awesome! Okay, so back to the trading. I don’t recall which cards came in which packages, but these are the highlights from all three of them.
He sent a bunch of black bordered O-Pee-Chee. He must have ripped a lot of this. I opened up two blasters before I decided that I just didn’t like this set. I love the player inclusion on it, though. The fact they included players like Gabe Gross, Willy Aybar, Dan Wheeler, Gabe Kapler and Jason Isrinhausen. That is awesome. I love the non-glossy fronts and the complete stats on the back, but the photography is really awful. Bad photos, boring poses, just blah. That said, of course I wanted all the Rays. Wicked completed my team set and he did it mainly with black-bordered cards which is pretty darn cool. He also sent a few regular ones, too, including my favorite Jason Bartlett. There will be more JB cards at the end of the post, just a warning.
I had decide a while back that I wanted to chase all the Gold Rays cards from this years Topps set, I really love that set, especially series 2. I had kind of forgotten about that goal, but Wicked sent me two cards towards it. From series one, a posed spring training shot of Longo and Price and from series 2 a nice action shot of Matt Garza. This year I haven’t cared two much for any products not made by Topps, but that wasn’t the case last year. I loved the 2007 and 2008 UD Masterpieces. He sent along the Longoria from 2008, along with the sweet Carl Crawford that is totally new to me.
Another 2008 card that I needed was this A&G mini of “Big Game James” Shields. He looks all tough in this shot, I love it! It’s a Ginter back, too, bonus! As soon as I finish up the 2009 (4 cards left, now) I plan on jumping into the 2008 set. I have a hobby box on its way and I can’t wait!
A while back I posted my player collection want lists on the side bar of this blog. A few folks have responded and started off my Pat Neshek and Brian Roberts collections, quite a few people have sent me Jonny Gomes cards, but Wicked was the first to send me a Larry Doby. Over the years I have owned many Doby cards-Topps from the early 50s, etc. These are long gone, I miss them and I hope to replace them someday. I was really psyched to finally have a card in my Doby collection, thanks so much for this Wicked! I wish it was a 1952, but I am just glad to have a card of this Legend. This one is from the 2001 Fleer Traditions set. It is card #8 of 25ST. It has a short bio on the back and the Newark Eagles logo on the back, SWEET!
I didn’t even realize that Upper Deck put out A Piece of History this year. I haven’t seen any wax anywhere, but I haven’t really been looking either. Wicked included a couple of these, but this is my very first Mitch Talbot card. Mitch won 13 games in the minors in 2007 and 2008. This year he spent a lot of time rehabbing and not too much time pitching, but he did earn a September call up to the big club. I really wanted to get this out to him for a TTM attempt, but I was late on the draw, there is always next year.
Sticking with 2009 Upper Deck he sent along a handful of cards from this years X series. I didn’t really care for this and didn’t rip any, I don’t think Alfredo liked it either, but he got a blaster and shared his wealth. I think I have all of the Rays covered now, I was missing the Longoria and now I have die-cuts of both Crawford and Upton. He included a penny sleeve with a couple of 2009 Ginter minis in it. They weren’t Rays, but minis are cool regardless. I don’t actually remember who the first 4 cards were of, but sandwiched in the middle was this Inventions of the Future card. AWESOME! I think that this was one of the secret insert sets that weren’t on the checklist; it is definitely the first one that I have seen anywhere. This is the clock defier, card #F12. The back has a checklist of the other 4 cards in the set. I kind of wish that it had some info on this clock defier because I am intrigued. Of course I would love the other 4 cards in the set, but I don't wanna set my sights too high...
Okay, there are two more cards that I will post out of the three packages that I received from Mr. Ortega and as I generally do, I saved the best for last. He had picked these two cards up at his local card with me in mind, but he posted them under the title trade bait. Perhaps checking to see if I read his blog or maybe just to make me drool. Well, either way, I read his blog every day and I drooled quite a bit when I saw these cards. We were able to work out a deal pretty quickly, this was the deal that discontinued my collection of Josh Johnson, but that is okay, it was totally worth it…Anyone who reads this blog knows that my number one favorite player is the Tampa Bay Rays shortstop, Jason Bartlett. Carl Crawford, Jonny Gomes, Scott Kazmir and Carlos Pena are close 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, but Bartlett is the man. One of the original main focuses of this blog (of course I got sidetracked) was for me to grow my Bartlett collection. I have probably pulled off more than 50 or 60 trades and I still have less than 20 JB cards. I guess there just aren’t that many cards of him out there. Prior to this trade I owned 1 relic of Bartlett, it’s a triple relic and he shares space with Luis Aparicio and Rafael Furcal, I also had one autograph that came from Roll out the Barrel last month. The last category grew by 2 with this trade. Wicked Ortega found (and sent) me not one, but TWO Jason Bartlett rookie autographs. These are seriously sweet and shiny cards, both with very nice black ink sigs. The scans really don’t these justice at all. Trust me, they are awesome! The first is a 2004 Upper Deck Etchings Rookie Autograph of JB. It has a serial number on front, 578/700, right below a portrait shot, which is above the sig. The card’s design is pretty nice with the bronzy/gold color and the baseballs framing the corners.
The next is from 2004, too. This one is a Leaf Certified Cuts Rookie Auto. I don’t really like the design of this one too much, but it is a freaking Bartlett auto, so its still one of my favorite cards. It has a fairly low serial number (on the back) of 071/100 with a short bio and his AA stats. The part of the design that I dislike is that the auto sticker cuts right through the full length posed shot of the player in the corner, that’s just a bad design. It’s still a super sweet card and now I own 3 Bartlett autos, woo hoo! My goal is now to pick some relics and autos of him in a Tampa Bay Rays uniform. I think 2010 might be the year that the card companies begin to notice guys like Bartlett, Aaron Hill, Pablo Sandoval, Adam Jones and… Well, I can’t think of anyone else right now, but there are a bunch of quality players that are consistently overlooked. Anyway, HUGE thanks go out to my buddy Wicked Ortega for hooking me up. It's hard to believe that a Dontrelle Willis card started our friendship, but I am so glad it did! He just posted the last package that I sent his way (more Willis cards included), which means I have a new one coming soon. The Rays are my team and this is my hobby and I LOVE IT!!! Thanks so much Wicked, Go Rays! Go Twins! Oh, I nearly forgot… I have stooped work tomorrow night, so I will be limited to watching the highlights of the game after work, which really stinks. I am pretty confident that the Twins will take care of business, but if not, the Tigers ain’t so bad either. I do have a contest challenge for the Tigers fans out there, if they actually read this post all the way through. Post a comment with your prediction of the score. I think the Twins are gonna win myself, but if I am wrong, I will reward the Tigers fan who can come closest to the final score with a Tigers relic card, how’s that for a challenge? Comment here. Sorry Twins fans, don’t mean to leave you out, but if you make the playoffs that is a prize in itself, plus there will be a contest prize for whatever team knocks off the Yankees. Okay, bedtime, school tomorrow. I really hope the car doesn’t explode. 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…

Dontrelle, It Was a Good Day...

I am now a former collector of Tigers inactive pitcher Dontrelle Willis. It was a good run for me and the D-Train… I decided to collect him after a horrible rain soaked night at work on Tuesday night. On Wednesday afternoon (in the midst of a horrible day) I sorted through all of cards and dug out 3 Willis cards. While on my tour of the card shops of the West Coast of Florida (in search of Kershaw auto or a black bordered mini of that guy with the beard) I picked up a pretty sweet Fleer mini of D-Money in a Marlins uni. I carefully put all 5 of the cards in my collection into penny sleeves and top-loaders and made it official by throwing up a post saying that Willis would be part of my player collection. I did some research on him and on anxiety disorders. I learned that his mother, like me, was a welder and I found some video of his days of dominance with the Fish. Then, later on in that miserable night (full story to come) I got a comment from Wicked Ortega that he was the official super collector of young Mr. Willis and that the blog-o-sphere wasn’t big enough for two of us. I was put off a little bit at first, but after I read some of the old posts on his blog I realized that he was a serious Dontrelle Willis fan. He had followed the guy through thick and thin, his collection was over 400 cards already and he planned to have 3000 cards in his collection by the end of the year. This dude seriously had me beat commitment wise. I had planned to have a jersey card of him as a Marlin and a Tiger and get an autograph. I have decided to concede my entire 5 card collection of Mr. Willis to Mr. Wicked Ortega and officially withdraw my claim to any Willis cards at present or in the future. I would like to thank my wife, Esther Gin N Juice for her support through this day of player collecting and most of all I would like to thank all of you in the blog-o-sphere who graciously offered me your D-Train cards. I will however have to decline those offers as I am officially no longer a collector of Dontrelle Willis cards. Mr. Ortega, please send me your address and these 5 beauties are all yours! Best of luck in your collecting and best of luck to you Dontrelle Willis, I am still in your corner!!! Readers of this blog: This will be the final appearance for any and all of these fine cardboard examples of this fine young pitcher. Go Rays! Troll out.

Presidents Out, Dontrelle In!

So Ted Kennedy has passed away. I was looking for a card of him to post up as a tribute, much like dayf had done earlier (I steal all of my ideas from him!), but I couldn’t find a card or even a picture. What I did find was a whole bunch of random cards of politicians amidst my doubles and trade bait cards. I really don’t like the politician card thing. I didn’t like when Topps put George Bush in the stands at Yankee Stadium and I hate pulling cards of Presidents or hopefuls or First Ladies or First Dogs or whatever. Is Topps the only company that does this? Anyway, it’s high time these Washingtonians disappear from my box o cards. I am sure that someone needs these to finish up a set. Please give these cardboard presidents a good home! I have, from the 2008 Topps First Couple series, card FC-10 of the Tylers and FC-30 of the Roosevelt’s. From the ’08 Topps Campaign 2008: CO8-BR Bill Richardson, CO8-FT Fred Thompson and CO8-RP Ron Paul. From the 2008 Goudey I have card no. 247 of Rutherford B. Hayes. Also, from the 2007 Topps Distinguished Service I have President Harry Truman, card #DS9. There are a few non-presidents that are in that set, too, if anyone wants them. They are DS10, 17, 27 and 30. I would prefer to send them all out in one great big politician package, but if you need just one, let me know. You can e-mail me through bacontowne at yahooooo dot com.
Okay, well, assuming that I will find a home for those guys, I am offering a home for someone else. I guess you could say “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”, but it’s more like “if you can’t trade him, collect him!” I have been trying to pawn my Dontrelle Willis Allen & Ginter relic off to someone for a while now with no takers. I’ve decided that I feel bad for the guy. I’ve never offered a card up and not got at least one e-mail of interest. I am going to make a bold statement, but I don’t think its too far off-Dontrelle is officially the most unwanted player to be pulled in 2009 packs! Am I wrong? If no one else wants Dontrelle, well I give up. I do. I am officially declaring myself a Dontrelle Willis player collector! I don’t care that he’s 1-6 over the past two years in Detroit. I don’t care that his anxiety disorder may not allow him to pitch again. I don’t care that his cards are worthless. I want them! I am officially opening up a privately funded shelter for cards of the D-Train. Send me your tired, your unwanted, your whatever Dontrelle cards. It wasn’t too long ago that this guy was awesome. Does anyone remember him hitting 3 freaking triples in 2007 with the Fish? That was great! So was winning 22 games for them in 2005. He won the Rookie of the Year Award and a World Series Ring in 2003. He deserves to have someone collect his cards. If Andy Ashby can get a vote for the Hall of Fame, I can collect a washed up pitcher from Detroit! I will actually be adding a total of five non-Rays players to my player collector list. Dontrelle will be first, his team mate and former Rays hurler Edwin Jackson will be 2nd. Another former Ray and all around awesome athlete and current Reds outfielder Jonny Gomes will be the third. The last two slots are open and I am open for suggestion. Some of the considered nominees are Ryan Zimmerman, Brian Roberts, Rick Porcello, Justin Upton and Brandon Inge. I'm pretty sure of them are already heavily pursued around here. I don't want any more cyber fist fights over cards! Happy Wednesday everyone! Go Rays! RIP Teddy K! If you haven't voted for the Hall of Fame contest, PLEASE do so soon. troll out.

Who Wants Dontrelle's Pants????

I finally gave in and reluctantly joined the Allen & Ginter party, well sort of… A pay day visit to the card shop ended up with me leaving with 10 packs of A & G… For the same cost, I could have left with a nicely centered (with one dull corner) 1965 Roberto Clemente, but I had to see what all the fuss was about. I am hooked. They are awesome! My packs didn’t yield any big hits. One jersey, one sketch card, two black-bordered minis and 4 Rays cards. The sketch was of David Price and it is instantly one of my favorites. I also pulled a Burrell with a huge crease in it, Matt Garza (he isn’t spitting and I barely recognize him) and a National Pride Evan Longoria. The relic card is Dontrelle Willis’ pants. I wasn’t too happy with it. The guy was a Rookie of the Year, a World Champion, 2 time All Star and a 20-game winner, but the season he is having this year, battling anxiety and all-just wasn’t as thrilled as I would have been if I pulled this card in 2005 when he won 22 games… Oh well, it is on the block if anyone wants it. The Rays lost a tough one in 11 innings against the Mariners in Seattle. Langerhans hit a two-strike, two-out, two-run home run for a walk-off win after Jason Bartlett had hit a solo shot in the top of the inning. Pitching Coach Jim Hickey had gone to the mound right before Langerhans stepped in, but he forgot to sniff JP’s butt, otherwise he would have known that his closer was out of gas…
I am going to watch the Port Charlotte Stone Crabs take on the Palm Beach Cardinals tonight; they are in the midst of a pennant race, too.
Go Crabs! Go Rays! Troll out.