He Wore #23 on the South Side of Chicago... My 750th Post!!!!

Going back in time to remember the good ole days before I became a blogger, when I was just a guy who ran out of money while still needing 30 more short prints to finish 2007 Topps Heritage. This was actually before I knew that there was such a thing as short prints. I just thought the collation was that bad. I didn’t understand why I had 24 copies of one card, but still needed others. Well, I turned to Google for answers and Google pointed me to a blog called the Cardboard Junkie. My life was changed forever. I won’t get into all of the angels singing and clouds separating on that magical day, but I discovered card blogs and I realized that these folks also tried to collect sets and were willing to trade. I sent an email to this Cardboard Junkie fellow and waited for his reply. Within my boxes of duplicates I had many cards he needed for his set AND he had a few that I needed, too. A week passed with no reply, so I wrote him again. This time his reply was immediate and so began a wonderful e-friendship.

As this friendship has progressed, Mr. Junkie has sent me some pretty awesome and amazing and surprise packages of goodies. A couple of weeks ago I got one of these surprise packages. Along with a card of my favorite Rays employee, Raymond, and some original artwork which was immediately thumb tacked to the wall, there was a stack of vintage cards. Beautiful aged slabs of cardboard with just enough wear around the edges to let you know that these had been handled, read, studied, flipped, traded, enjoyed, celebrated and cherished. These cards were beautiful AND they all just happened to be cards that I needed in my quest of completion regarding 1963 Topps Baseball cards.

Yeah, the super great thing about Senor Card Junk is he is not only one of the biggest names in card blogging and one of the most creative minds on the web, but is also one of the funniest people you will ever encounter. As a blogger he is a legend; as a collector, well, it is pretty darn easy to be jealous of him. Once again, as a blogger he is one of the best… I remember how excited I got the first time a comment appeared on my blog that was attributed to dayf13, the handle of Mr. Junkie. Yeah, as exciting as it is to know he is reading your dribble, it is even more awesome to get a package in the mail from the Junk Lair in Gawja… All this stated about his legendary status, the dude is really freaking thoughtful too! I had JUST decided to collect 1963 Topps and I had just made a list of my needs and BLAMMO there is a package from the Junkie with guess what? Yeah, a bunch of ’63 Topps in it…

From that package comes today’s CT Card O’ Da Day… From 1963 Topps Baseball, card #66 of White Sox pitcher Mike Joyce… I would be a horrible liar if I told you that I had any idea who this guy was. I didn’t. I wondered if he might be of some relation to the Matt Joyce, the Rays outfielder… I am still wondering, but I don’t think so. Basically if you want to know everything about Mike Joyce’s major league career, you could learn it from reading the back of this card. Joyce was a Michigan Wolverine and signed with Chicago as a 21 year old. In his first pro season he jumped from A to AAA to Chicago. He made his first and ONLY big league start on the road in New York against the Yankees. It was the second game of a July double header.

Joyce pitched 4-2/3 innings allowing 2 runs. He was also 2 for 2 at the plate. The White Sox would win that game, but Joyce was lifted one out away from getting the decision. He would never start again. He did pick up a couple of wins out of the bullpen and he finished 1962 with a 2-1 record.

In 1963 he started the year in Chicago’s bullpen but saw little work and returned to AAA where he was 13-11 in 24 starts. I am guessing at some point there was a pretty serious arm injury because in 1964 his effectiveness dropped off a cliff. He began the year in AAA, but dropped to AA and finished with an 0-13 record with a combined 7.09 ERA in 15 starts, spanning only 80 innings. He would return in 1965, but ended his career after only 5 innings.

I would love to know a little more about his career, what happened. How he went from a 21 year old big leaguer starting at Yankee Stadium to being winless in the minors 2 years later. Either way, as a big leaguer he won twice as many games as he lost AND in 7 at bats he had a career .429 batting average! Not too shabby. Plus he will always have a place on the 8th page of my 1963 Topps binder with a pretty cool looking card…

Thanks again to the blogging legend known as dayf for the hook-up and the blog fodder and thanks to y’all for reading. Thanks to Mike Joyce for throwing a baseball so many years ago... I love this hobby! Oh, this card o' the day happens to be from a set that I am chasing. I don't need this card, but I do need a bunch... Find my list HERE! Roller derby is back! Tomorrow night, June 5th: Bradentucky Bombers vs. Gainesville Roller Rebels. Be there!!! Go Rays! Troll out.

Anybody Have any Spare 1963 Topps Cards They Don't Need???

So, I have been a list making fool! I am even getting a little bit organized... Instead of piles and stacks of cards all over the floor, I now have 27 binders on the floor and stacks of boxes of random cards up on shelves. I have started working on 1979, 2007, 2008 and 2009 Topps. I am still trying to chase ALL of the inserts from 2010 Topps and someday I would like to finish off 2009 and 2010 Heritage.

1965 Topps is still my #1 obsession and I am now 70% done with that set!!! I am thrilled with that, but I still have Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Pete Rose, Sandy Koufax, Ernie Banks, Yogi Berra, Carl Yaz,Harmon Killebrew and a whole mess of short prints standing in my way. Basically, its gonna be a while before I make much progress...

I need a new (cheaper) vintage fix and have decided on 1963 Topps. This set has grown on me a ton and even though I have NO Hall of Fame cards from the set and I know Mantle, Mays, Aaron and Pete Rose are gonna set me back a ton, but I want to try anyway... I got a binder for them, got enough pages to finish the set and I have the 20 different cards I currently own in the binder - Its pretty laughable really... I have around 3% of the set and have page after page completely empty, BUT ya gotta start somewhere.

I know I have tapped the blog-o-sphere out for '65s, so I now I can start begging for '63s. Anybody got any??? I do have a little trade bait... I have about 5 cards each from '56-'59, around 20 from 1960, 30 from '61 and 20 from '62. I have a couple '64s and about 50 dupes from 1965. I have a few from '66 and '67 and no '68 or '69. I have a few 1973s and 1978s, but otherwise I am tapped out. But, if you wanna trade vintage for vintage, I have some, so lets make a deal!!!

You can find my needs list for 1963 Topps right HERE, please check it out. Chances are if you have a card from this series, I need it. I updated my '65 needs list too, you can find that HERE. Oh, shifting back to the present, thanks to all of my generous blogging buddies, I have a bunch of 2011 Topps on their way to me and pending arrival I need only ONE MORE CARD!!!!


So if anyone has card #18 of Kevin Millwood from 2011 Topps, PLEASE send it my way... I am getting mega close on the minis, too. You can find the whole list for 2011 HERE.


I still need to go through the 2010 Topps binder to figure out what I need to finish the base. According to my needs page I only need a handful of cards, but I think there are at least 30 empty slots. I will update that SOON. My list for Yo Mama cards AND Turkey Reds are up to date. If anyone else is still working on those, I bought a few lots from both those sets. I haven't received them yet, but I will have some dupes for trading... Okay, thanks for checking this out.


I will actually post something else beyond begging soon, but til then, SEND ME YOUR 1963 TOPPS!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks again to EVERYONE who has hooked me up with 2011 Topps!!! I LOVE the blog-o-sphere, y'all rawk!!!!!!!!
Go Rays! troll out.

2011 Topps Haves and Wants...

So, after my last post of my super rad 1/1 Albert Pujols cards which will hopefully bring in enough dinero to get a hobby box or 2 of 2011 Heritage several of you e-mailed me asking if I had a want list for 2011 Topps. Well, I have exactly 100 cards so far. This means that I still need 230 to finish off ye olde set. I did put together a list, finished it just a few minutes ago actually. My 100 cards are now in a binder along with the 5 minis I have, plus all of my dupes and the various inserts that I will NOT be collecting. You can click RIGHT HERE to see what I got... Thanks so much for checking out my list. Hopefully I have something that someone needs... By the way, I am WAY over tired and I think this entire post links to my wants/trade list... troll out.

1965 Topps Trade Bait Volume 2, Come and Get 'Em!

Okay, if you are just stopping by, please read the post below. I am trying to finish off a set, 1965 Topps Baseball to be specific. My needs list is HERE. Below you will find 9 cards from that very set that are duplicates and I no longer have a use for them. My idea is that perhaps someone does need them and might have something that I need and be willing to make a deal. It sounds solid in theory. Here we go!
Cards #ed
70 Moose Skowron - White Sox
86 Les Narum - Senators
87 Nelson Mathews KC Athletics
109 Walt Bond - Colt 45s (a bit off-center) - CLAIMED Daily Dimwit
117 Wes Stock -KC Athletics
128 Vic Davalillo - Indians
142 Bill Monboquette - Red Sox
146 Ron Hansen - White Sox
148 Willie Kirkland - Senators (yes, he has a toothpick in his mouth, does anyone collect those?)

Okay, that does it for round 2. I have one more page to post today. I really hope that someone needs something here. If you do, claim in the comments and send me an email por favor. Go Rays! RE-SIGN CARL CRAWFORD! troll out.

1965 Topps - Begging and Offering...The First in a 3 Part Series of '65 Topps Trade Bait! Come and Get It!

Okay, my needs list is updated for 1965 Topps. It now includes my needs for the first 314 cards - it is a long list... I also included my dupes and most wanted cards. I REALLY want to get card #3. It is the last League Leader card that I need and if I get it I will have the first 3 pages filled. Anyway, here are 27 cards I have 2 of. In most cases I took the better condition card for my binder, but not in all. If you are really interested I can send you single card scans of a card shown. Anyway, here they are in all their glory... The first page includes cards #ed:
13 Pedro Ramos - Yankees - Claimed BA Benny
23 Bob Tiefenauer - Braves
27 Dick Bertell - Cubbies
51 Billy Bryan (really rough shape) Athletics
56 Ron Kline - Senators (has a pen mark below pennant)
57 St. Louis Cardinals (duh) - Claimed BA Benny
60 Jim O'Toole ( a little creased) Reds
66 Bill Rigney - Angels Manager

68 Del Crandall - Giants

Okay, there you have the first 9. There are 18 more cards coming, probably in about an hour or two. The rules are - claim the card on the comments here and send me an email with your offer.

My goal is to pick up as many 1965 Topps cards for my set.

I do have other want list needs that I will consider. I will probably not trade a '65 Topps card for a 2008 Topps Willy Aybar. Just saying.

One thing I can guarantee I would consider is Topps Gold, Black or Platinum Rays parallels. If I don't have it I could def consider trading vintage for those Topps parallels. A Rays uniform auto of any of the players listed on the side bar would be pretty nice too...

I hope there is something here that somebody wants.

I bought a couple of lots on the 'bay on Veterans Day (my day off from work!) and although they were both good deals, I ended up not scratching too many numbers off of my want list AND getting a whole bunch of dupes. I bought a 20 card lot and a 27 card lot and I have now 27 doubles left. Not too good Troll. Anyway, thanks for looking, lot 2 will be up shortly.

A few quick notes... Cash is limited around here, so unless you object the chosen card will be put in a penny sleeve, top loader and team bag and shipped in a plain white envelope with a single stamp.

Also, unless I note it otherwise, EVERY card I post will be available to trade for cards on my needs list, especially card #3! Go Rays! troll out.

2010 Updates and Highlights Needs List is Up...

My local Target finally got 2010 U and H and I picked up 8 packs this afternoon... A few of you have asked for a needs list and I just added them to the 2010 Topps Needs list. Thanks for looking... Go Rays! troll out.