So, with my post office box back in bizness I feel MUCH more comfortable hanging out and spending money at the post office... I was finally able to ship out a few boxes that have long been waiting to travel to their new homes... If you reside at any of the following zip codes you MIGHT have a package on the way: 75201, 43028, 76063, 23666 and 23320... Although they didn't go out yesterday, there are hearty envelopes packed and ready to head off to Dime Boxes, Cards on Cards, Cardboard Junkie, Dawgbones, reader Tim, another one for My Cardboard Mistress and Thoughts and Sox... I am also working on another trade with Hand Collated and I just got a message from Matt F. -the mastermind behind Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius and a Pack to be Named Later... He has the final 7 cards I needed to finish off my Allen and Ginter Frankenset!!!! Woo hoo!!! So, pending delivery I will have 18 FULL pages of Ginter minis which showcase cards numbered 1 - 350 including a variety of cards ranging from 2006 till 2011. Once I have them all in my hot little hands I will start posting them, put up a complete list of what I have AND start the process of upgrading to create the PERFECT set. Expect plenty of Ginter posting in the near, near future.
Before I get into that, tomorrow I plan to show off an amazing 1/1 card of the legendary Satchell Paige. It is AWESOME! Stay tuned to check it out manana! Okay, I need to be at work in about 2 hours so I should probably be thinking about getting some sleep... Oh, the Buck O'Neil auto technically doesn't coincide with this post, but you can never go wrong with Buck! Go Rays! troll out.
Also born on this date are baseball players Brad Clontz, 
Jacque Jones, Travis Fryman, Darren Holmes and Tony Phillips. NBA stars past and present, including 
Tim Duncan, Walt Wesley and Mark Bryant. A couple of NFL stars share their birthday including All Pro safety Darren Woodson, 
Steve Tovar, Corwin Brown, Percell Gaskins, Eric England and Twan Russell.
I even found a couple of hockey players who share their birthday including Libor Prochazka and Alek Stojanov. 
Aside from athletes, they also share their birthday with a bunch of great actors. 
Former skateboarder and star of "My Name is Earl" and "Almost Famous" Jason Lee as well as Hank Azaria of the Simpsons. Actress Renee Zellweger was born today as was Scarface Al Pacino. 
One of my role models, Edward R. Murrow was also born on this date.
It was a pretty big day for musicians, too. 
Stu Cook, the bass player for Creedence Clearwater Revival was born today as was Elvis Presley's mom, Gladys Presley. Bluesman Albert King came into this world today as did LEGENDARY jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald. 
We are ALL lined up waiting to wish both of you a super happy birthday! Oh, I got a call from Ms. Shannon Stewart and she asked me to send some birthday love to both of you... 
You guys rock! Go Rays! troll out.
It is tri-fold card from 1993 Upper Deck. It is styled after the 1912 T 202 cards. I think these came from 1993 Baseball Heroes, but this is honestly the first one I have EVER seen. I really love this card. It is a pain to store yes, but it is the ideal size for a blog header and this one features 4 of my favorite players of All Time who also happen to be majorly historically significant. It shows Larry Doby and Minnie Minoso on the sides, but the center picture shows Minoso, Joe Black, Doby and Monte Irvin. It’s awesome. 
The T202 header card didn’t arrive alone. He sent a fairly well stuffed envelope of goodies. This arrived well I had the poll up for the next player I should select. Matt picked Larry Doby as many of you did. The poll ended in a tie between Doby, Bill Mazeroski and Bill Madlock. I have yet to think of a tie breaker, but I certainly don’t mind picking up cards of any of those guys and Matt hooked it up with some great Doby cards to add to the binder. 
These first two had post its attached to them asking if they count as Doby cards. 
The answer is Yes! It does seem a little bit selfish of Gene Mauch to be SO much bigger than everyone else, but managers can be glory hounds. The Expos were my original childhood favorite team and these cards are super special to me. 
My true favorite Doby card in the bunch (other than the T202) is this one. It is a 2002 Topps Archives version of Doby’s 1954 Topps card which I don’t have YET. 
Of course I would rather have the original, but this card is all shiny and chromed out and pretty darn awesome in its own right. Next up are a trio of cards of former Devil Rays, Rays and Swallows infielder Akinori Iwamura. Aki is currently holding down second base for the Pittsburgh Pirates who got off to a surprisingly good start this year. Reality is setting in for the Bucs who have dropped to 7-8 after a humiliating 20-0 loss to the Brew Crew last night. 
Aki is holding down the leadoff spot for the young Bucs and is still waiting for his bat to wake up this season. The first card to show is this GOLD version of his 2008 Topps card, #243. I am obsessively trying to replace my lost GOLD cards and also trying to fill the Rays team sets in gold. This card gives me 9 (a full page!) for 2008. 
Also from ’08 Topps is this WBC card, #WBC4 of Aki representing Japan. The last Aki card comes from 2009 Goodwins and has a little swatch o’ jersey in the shape of an M at the base. 
From one former D-Rays leadoff hitter to another, this is a 1998 Pacific Paramount card #98 of Quinton McCracken. 
The D-Rays grabbed McCracken from the Rockies and he was the sparkplug of their Inaugural squad. I have been organizing my PC in my spare time this week and I have my Longoria binder straightened out and free of dupes. The dupes that are sorted out aren’t very fancy, but are up for trade if you are interested. 
Anyway, this one has a spot in the binder waiting for it. It is a 1st Issue stamped version of card #108 from 2008 Stadium Club. In person Longo is a super signer and I like the kids in background. I do feel bad for the beheaded girl in the back. The last card I will show from this awesome surprise package is from 2007 Fleer Ultra. 
Matt seems to be a magnet for Jonny Gomes cards. I think this is the 3rd auto or relic he has pulled and sent me. It is from the Dual Materials series and is serial numbered 136/160 and shows two bits of white jersey. I don’t know if you can tell from the scan, but there is dirt on the swatches. Awesome! Thanks so much 
It is quite shiny and although the auto looks to be on-card, it is actually a clear sticker. The card is #147 in the set and is serial numbered 556/999. This one came from Matt F. of the 
Matt has been mercilessly bipping the entire blogosphere the past few weeks and I was honestly a little nervous when I got a package from him. I was a pretty fat envelope and I was sure that I was his next victim. As it turns out it was just this one (awesome) card wrapped up in bubble wrap. No Bip, just a great autographed card! Cobb spent all of 2009 playing for the Port Charlotte Stone Crabs in the Florida State League (High A). Port Charlotte is less than an hour away from the bridge I live below and I go there as often as I can. 
I saw Alex Cobb pitch in person 3 times. He has a fairly accurate high-80’s to 91 MPH fastball and a strong curve. He works quickly and gets a lot of ground ball outs. The Rays 2006 4th round pick was 8-5 with a 3.03 ERA in 23 starts for the Crabs. The Crabs had a really great starting rotation in 2009 and Cobb was a big part of it. Darrin Downs was the Ace until he was promoted-after him, Cobb, Jeremy Hall and David Newman all showed solid potential to be top starters. The teams overall ERA was 3.68 with Downs leading the way at 2.00. This could be something to look forward to in Tampa Bay! The Rays have no real shortage of talented young starting pitchers; it’s the bullpen that has been their demise. Either way, Alex Cobb and Darin Downs could be joining Wade Davis, Jeremy Hellicksen and Andy Sonnanstine in a few years to battle for the Rays 5th starter job. 
Thanks for the great card Matt! Oh, and thanks for NOT BIPPING ME!!!
It is card #157 from the 2008 Razor Signature Series and features a nice on-card autograph from minor league infielder Jeremy Beckham. The card is serial numbered 0266/1499. A flip of the card reveals this: “You have received an autographed… (normal stuff here)… Not only does Razor bring you authentic signatures, we bring you EXCLUSIVE signatures. Look for the exclusive tag and Happy prospecting!” I am probably gonna get deep into that last line in another post sometime down the road; I won’t touch it for now. Jeremy Beckham was drafted by the Rays in 2008, in the 17th round. 
In that same draft the Rays selected Jeremy’s younger brother Tim with the FIRST OVERALL pick. I think they grabbed Jeremy as a favor to Tim and to help get him signed. They also used 6.5 million to HELP get him signed. The Beckham brothers were teammates last year with the Bowling Green Hot Rods. The younger Beckham, Tim, played shortstop and hit .275 with 5 homers and 63 RBI. He also had 13 steals and showed amazing range at short. The bad thing is he stuck out 116 times-NOT good for a top of the order guy. The organization isn’t too concerned. Bartlett has short covered for now and Tim is still a teenager and they are taking his development slowly. The elder Beckham, Jeremy played alongside his brother, logging time at both second and third base. He was very error prone at third, but was a serviceable second baseman. At 23 years old he was a bit old for low A and was not at all dominate like he should have been playing against teens. He hit .226 with a homer and 9 RBI, but he did steal 9 bases. 
Were his last name not Beckham I doubt he would have neither a job nor an EXCLUSIVE contract with Razor. He does have a shot at being a system guy and someday hitting the big leagues as a utility guy, but he is mainly there to ease the transition to pro ball for his very talented baby brother. He is a really nice guy and I love the image of him sitting down and signing 1500 of these damn cards. Thanks for this one Joe, and a HUGE THANK YOU for all of the other great stuff you sent.
Now onto the third card of this 3 from 3 post. This is the oldest of the group (23) and the only one to log any MLB playing time. He was the Rays first rounder in 2006, the third pick overall. The Royals had the top pick and went with pitching and got Luke Hochevar, the Rockies had the second choice and they picked pitching as well, a TALL righty from Stanford named Greg Reynolds. He has been hampered by shoulder injuries and hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since going 2-8 in 2008. How hard are they kicking themselves over that pick? 
After those two the best position player on the board was a third baseman out of Long Beach. That draft year was full of great pitchers though. Clayton Kershaw went 7th, Max Scherzer was 9th and Tim Lincecum was 10th. I think the Rays made the right choice though. He made his MLB debut on April 12, 2008 and he is now ready to start his third full year with the Rays. He has done pretty well in his first two. He was an All Star in his rookie season and took the AL Rookie of the Year honors and made his postseason debut. In 2009 he took home the Trifecta for third baseman, being an All Star and winning both the Silver Slugger and Gold Glove at his position. I am speaking of Evan Longoria, of course. This card came to me from 
This one is from 2009 Topps Series 2. It is a Career Best insert, card # CBA-EL. 
The card's back shows Evan’s best single game performances. He has had a 3-homer game, a 4-hit game and he has scored 4 runs and driven in 6 in a single game. Since he already has a ROY Trophy, 2 All Star Appearances, a Gold Glove, Silver Slugger and a 3-homer game on his resume-I would imagine the most important personal goal for Longo is getting that World Series ring. The Rays are tied for first in 2010 and they aint looking back! A HUGE thank you to 
Go Rays! Troll out.
The dude won 20 or more games 13 different times in his career. At 42 years of age in his 20th season he led the league with 22 complete games and had a 23-7 record with a 2.60 ERA. The fact that Warren Spahn wasn’t good enough to be a first ballot Hall of Famer seemed more ridiculous than David Segui getting a vote in 2009. I looked into things a little deeper and found this to be untrue, well sort of… There were a few complications with Spahn. He retired from the Giants after the 1965 season, but played the following 2 seasons in the minor leagues which delayed his eligibility, making the January 1973 ballot his first year eligible. He was voted in on the first ballot he legitimately appeared on. It was technically not his first ballot though. After Spahn’s (and the Braves) amazing run in 1957 when they won the World Series and Spahn was 21-11 with a 2.69 ERA and won the NL Cy Young Award, Spahn actually received a vote on the 1958 ballot. He was 36 years of age then, he would continue to pitch for another 8 seasons and win about 150 more ball games, but somehow he received a vote. 
I don’t know if the Hall ballot had write-ins or what in ’58, but he received a vote. It was that one single vote that he received while he was an active player that made him appear “2 Years on Ballot” for that election. I am glad to clear that little matter up… In the post I mentioned from Heartbreaking Cards… he references 
Thanks for the blog fodder guys! A lengthy post about the ’73 ballot is on its way… I couldn’t find my Spahn plaque, so I borrowed this image from 
I dug through the collection and found everything; stuffed them into an envelope and (about 2 weeks later) shipped them off to Kansas. I had completely forgotten about those cards-they were intended as a gift, I had wanted to trade them, but when I realized their “white elephant” status, I was just pleased to find someone willing to take them. What 
but got far beyond that. One of the Devil Rays cards he had included got me one step closer to my team set goals, if you think that you can help, please check out my 
You can see a shot of the old binder in this
He is a Kansas City Royals player collector, aside from being a political card collector, and he actually had Tartabull dupes of the odd ball variety and they weren’t just cards of him on the Royals. He chipped in some Bull rookies, so newer cards of him on the dreaded Yankees, but the coolest ones are the oddball Royals cards. 
The Ames All Stars (produced by Topps) may be the coolest, but the stickers are pretty awesome, too, 
and so is the RevCo card (I didn’t realize the Revolting Cocks made cards…). 
Either way, these Tartabull’s were an awesome and unexpected surprise, thanks Matt!!! The 1990 Upper Deck isn’t brand new, but the cocky pose and the silly diamond number 4 around his neck deserved a scan! 
Of course Matt didn’t stop with all of the amazing Tartabull cards either. The last card, the one floating around in a top loader in the package, with a sticker on it that read “thanks for the trade troll” was this card from the 2006 Upper Deck set. It is an Auto-Facts Signatures insert, a subset that I had never even seen before. The card is serial numbered 212/700 and bears the autograph of my favorite ex-Ray, Jonny Gomes. 
The back of the card Auto-Facts moment is July 30, 2005 when Jonny Gomes hit 3 home runs against the Royals (sorry Matt!) to become the first Rays player to accomplish that show of power. Since then Evan Longoria has had a 3-homer game, but this past season Gomes did it a second time, this time in a Reds uniform. I love getting cards of my favorite players regardless, but I love any card that focuses on one moment in time, one specific day in a player’s career. 
Thanks so much for the awesome cards Matt! The rumor is that your hiatus is set to conclude this month; I can’t wait to read your blog on a regular basis! If you have any spare Royals cards or cards featuring politicians, or just want to read a really funny blog, check out 
