Where You Gonna Be On Friday Night????

OPENING DAY, Opening Week, whatever it is, they're playing ball games that count and I LOVE it!!!!! Today and tonight I spent the day parked in front of the TV watching the Tigers beat the Red Sox in an awesome game and later watching the Dodgers beat the Padres... That was tonight. Tomorrow I will be hanging out with my friends James,

Raymond,

Ben

and Desmond...

Yeah, thanks to a last minute surprise from my awesome wife, I will be hanging out at Tropicana Field tomorrow afternoon and evening. For some reason the game starts at 3 PM. I work till 4 and live a few towns away. I will miss the first pitch, hell I might miss the first 5 or 6 innings, but I don't care - the baseball season is here and when the Rays close the door in the 9th inning tomorrow night, beat the Yankees and take their place at the top of the American League East - I WILL be there!

HUGE thanks to Brian from the Play at the Plate blog for hooking me up for real with a few of my MOST WANTED cards! I LOVE parallels! I am determined to fill a 9-up page full of variations of the DJ and Zobrist cards... I think I have 4 or 5 of each now which is AWESOME!!! The other awesome thing is that I now have both the 2011 and 2012 Opening Day mascot cards of RAYMOND!!!

Thanks Brian and thanks to your son for giving up his mascot card for me! I love this hobby, I LOVE THIS GAME!!! Big Game James and the Rays are ready to roll in 2012!!!!!!!!!! So, what are you doing Friday night????

Go Rays! troll out.

The Magic Number is Still 2...

Well I didn't get to see James Shields pitch a perfect game to clinch a playoff berth... That became evident quickly when he allowed a leadoff single to Ichiro. I also didn't see Carl Crawford hit for the cycle. I didn't even see him play. Joe Maddon gave a number of regulars the day off including Crawford, Longoria, Ben Zobrist and John Jaso. It was actually pretty cool seeing Rocco Baldeli and Desmond Jennings get the start. Zobrist and Jaso entered the game as pinch hitters, but the most exciting thing of the day for me was seeing Desmond Jennings hit his first big league triple. That dude can fly!!! I am terrified that this will be Carl Crawford's last year in Tampa Bay. He has been my favorite player for many years now and I don't want to think about the Rays without him. That said, I REALLY want to see Desmond Jennings on the opening day roster somewhere in 2011. Congrats on the first of many triples Desmond! By the way, I do not own this Obak Jennings card, but I would like to! Go Rays! troll out.

Community Kindness!

I am running late as always, but I wanted to throw up a quick post and wish all of you a safe and Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!!! I also wanted to post up some more Blogger Kindness cards. These came from the guys who bring ya Community Gum, a great blog that serves up sports cards and sarcasm like no other. I posted a bunch of sweet 2010 Heritage cards from The Sewing Machine Guy earlier this week. Well, Community Gum filled in the rest of the blanks for me. Not much time, so here we go… First up is card #314 featuring two of the best infielders in the great state of Florida. Next up is card #303 of probable opening day starter James Shields. From 2010 back to 2008, this one is super special… I hate hunted for this base card for a while for my team set and it kept on eluding me. The Night Owl hooked me up with the base and then I picked up about 5 more of them, now I have the CHROME version, numbered 1405/1689. Next up is a 2010 Topps Gold card of the aforementioned potential opening day starter, its card #195 of Big Game James Shields. The final card in this quick post from the great guys of Community Gum dot com is from 2010 Heritage. I saved the best for last as always. This one is super special because it is the FIRST Evan Longoria REFRACTOR I have ever had in my collection. Yep, I said REFRACTOR. This baby is number C98 in the set and is serial numbered 448/561. Freaking awesome! Thanks so much guys! I really appreciate your note, well wishes and of course these great cards! Keep up the great work and keep on bringing the sarcasm! Thanks to everyone who is helping me select the next player I will be SUPER COLLECTING! I can’t believe that 31 people have voted already! This vote will stay up till Tuesday night and the poll will close then. Coincidentally, that is the exact same time that the CONTEST will go up, so stay tuned. When voting, don’t forget the guidelines. Whomever you pick must have all of their cards attainable by a normal collector. No crazy one of ones, no 500 dollar autographs or 600 different parallels number to 5. They must have a relic card of some sort and a certified autograph that I can afford. This is why Roberto Clemente isn’t on the list… Anyway, thanks to all for voting, keep on helping a Troll out! Don’t forget to check out the Nitty Gritty Card of the Day. Gotta go to work. Go Rays! Thanks Community Gum! Thanks Blog-O-Sphere! Troll out.

3 From 3 - Big Game James Edition

Taking a quick break from the spring training coverage, here is a long overdue Three From Three of James Shields aka Big Game James. Shields was the Tampa Bay Rays opening day starter in 2009 and there is no reason to think he won’t get the same job in 2010. Last year he got off to a good start, but got frustrated with the lack of run support and defense behind him and finished with a 11-12 record, a drop off from his 14 win season in 2008. He has the stuff to be a consistent 15 game winner in the big leagues and with a little bit of run support, he can be an All Star. He hits the low-90s with his 4-seam fastball, has a great changeup and can be a legitimate ace. Beyond all that, he is the ONLY Rays pitcher that can say he won a World Series game. He brought a shutout into the 6th inning against the Phillies in Game 2 of the 2008 World Series. The first card I am showing off came from Cobb and Halladay and shows James Shields from the Goodwin’s Champions set WITH a jersey relic. The second comes from Closet Full of Cardboard. This baby came along with 13 new Carl Crawford cards and a vintage Clemente. Its an Upper Deck Game Jersey card. The 3rd card in this 3 from 3 is my first and only Shields autograph. It is also from the Goodwin’s set and has an ON-CARD auto of Shields signed in blue sharpie. This one came from Mike of JDs Wild Cardz about 6 months ago. It was a total surprise and I almost crashed my car when I opened the envelope and saw it. The Rays Fan Fest is this Saturday! I can’t wait! Thanks to everyone for the great cards! It reminds ya how great Upper Deck was... I love this hobby, I love this game! Go Rays! Troll out.

The REAL Collective Troll Card of the Day

Today started off with an Orioles card as the Card of the Day. I really like that card, but I don’t feel right about a current card of a team other than the Rays being the card of the day, so here is the new Card of the Day for February 15th. This is a SlangKo Original and it is AWESOME! I use that adjective a lot, but here it is very appropriate. I love his vintage cards, but this full color, glossy 2010 model is just as bad-ass. The card is titled 2010 Ray Guns and features 4 of the Rays young guns who will be fighting for a spot in the rotation. I was a little bit surprised that he picked Andy Sonnanstine over Jeff Niemann and Wade Davis, but I am a Sonny fan, so I have no complaints. The Rays have given away two All Star starters within a year’s time and STILL have an amazing core of young starting pitchers, these 4 included. I love it! I can’t WAIT for spring training to commence! You can look forward to more SlangKo Originals to be featured as Card of the Day in the months ahead-ideally they will be autographed. Go Rays! Troll out.

Trading with the Waxaholic, Part 2

Okay, I am a day late, but as promised, here is part two of the trade I received from Captain Canuck from the awesome Waxaholic blog! If you haven’t read the adventure these cards faced while attempting to cross the border in the States, please go back and read it.
Here are the Rays cards he sent…
A big stack of 2007 Fleers including card #50 of right-hander James Shields who is 6-5 with a 3.41 ERA in 16 starts this year for the Rays.
Another big pile of Fleers are the 2006’s like this card, #120 of lefty Scott Kazmir who is pitching as I type against the Marlins. Kaz is 4-4 this year, but hasn’t made a start in the Major Leagues since May 20 when he went on the DL. He has looked fantastic in his two rehab starts, but he’s been pitching against minor leaguers. This is going to be a telling start for him.
I’ve been lucky with 2006 Topps Devil Rays cards lately. I now have 2 full team sets. The Captain sent a bunch of these, including card #5 of (Devil) Rays All Star leftfielder Carl Crawford. Craw is batting .314 with 38 steals so far this year.
He sent me some 2009 Topps Finest, too. This is the first I’ve seen of this premium product. I like the design with the shiny silver background, which makes the photo pop out in a 3-D kinda way. They have multiple choice Finestrivia on the back. I got 2 cards, #92 of the aforementioned Scott Kazmir and #3 of Rays All Star third baseman Evan Longoria who is in the middle of another great season (.312/16/62).
He rounded the Rays cards out with a bunch of cool Topps black cards and I am so glad these didn’t suffer the knife of Homeland Security. I had never actually seen any of these cards before, but I did a little research because I would love to be pulling some of these myself. The “black” cards are available at Wal Mart stores exclusively in Topps Series 1 retail blaster packs. There is a nine digit code on the top of the box which is Code: 1-825-50-13-9. I think that all the base cards in boxes with that code will be black. I know that next 20 bucks I have, I will be buying one of these boxes because these cards look really sharp.
I am now the proud owner of 5 of these cards including card #22, Classic Combos featuring Longoria and David Price.He sent cards of those two by themselves also. The other 2 black cards are #174 of James Shields and card #177 of current Pirates infielder Eric Hinske. He was one of our favorites last year when he hit 20 home runs for the AL Champs.
Well, that sums up part two. Thanks again for the trade Waxaholic! And thanks for sending a package so suspicious looking that the border patrol had to tear it apart, therefore leaving me with a funny story. The Rays are down 1-0 in the 2nd inning, I gotta go! Go Rays!!! Troll out.
P.S. Only 2 people have claimed one of the free team sets I offered two posts ago. Doesn't anyone like free cards anymore?