The Joy of a (Colorful) Completed Page

I am off to the rink to MC tonight's bout and watch the Bradentucky Bombers’ Nuclear Bombshells destroy the Sarasota Roller Girls. I wanted to post something, so here is my most vibrantly colorful completed page ever. All of these are SlangKo Sportscards and I love ‘em all and want more! Thanks so much Sean! I want to get this signed, but I am scared to send them away cuz they are SO cool. Go Rays! Go Bombshells! Troll out.

Magical, Majestic and Miniature

They are majestic, magical and miniature. I am talking about mini-cards. I really like the minis. When I was collecting previously they were not that common at all and the few that I had seen were kind of annoying because of the storage issues. Since I have got back into collecting this year I have become mildly obsessed with these little things. 2009 Allen and Ginter was my introduction to them and that opened up other years of Ginter, from 1887 on up as well as Topps T206 reissues from 2002 and 2009 both. Of course Goodwin’s Champions and looking back Pacific Private Stock was making them in the late 90’s. I have never owned an actual Topps T206 original, but I have possessed several 1887 Allen and Ginter cards. I actually still have 2 of them. I don’t really know what the attraction is. Maybe they are cute because they are small, maybe it is still the newness which has yet to rub off. I don’t know what it is, but I can’t seem to shake my obsession with these little bitty cards. Since I have gotten pages to hold them efficiently I have been obsessively filling them. I finished off the 2009 Allen and Ginter World’s Greatest Hoaxes set and still have those. I was working on the World Leaders and Creatures of Myth Legend and Terror, but almost all of them are long gone. I wasn’t very close to finishing either set off, so I am not crushed over it. When my infamous card theft occurred I had a fair amount of minis in the box. I have mentioned that were several 1887 originals and there were also a number of cards from my various collections. I lost 3 different 1 of 1 cards and a number of cards that were not nearly that limited, but were pretty darn neat. I didn’t lose everything though. I had about ¾ of my minis safe at home. In the last 2 months my readers and all of my friends in the Blog-o-Sphere have come through big-time to share their collections with me. This last week I have been doing a lot of sorting and cleaning up regarding my card collection. I have filled some want lists, pulled off some trades and sent out some random blogger kindness packages of my own. By no means am I done either. I still have far more cards than I need hanging around in my house. I am slowly buying more binders and more Ultra Pro pages. If it doesn’t fit into a binder or in the Rays or vintage showcases, it must go! I really hate posting “trade bait” but I may have to eventually to fully liquidate. For now I have been having good luck sending cards to the many folks who I have traded with in the past, many of the same peeps who have blessed me with their kindness. Back to the minis and their magical majesty. Prior to today I had my mini cards that were part of sets or were planning on growing into sets in a binder, but my single minis-the Rays cards and such were relegated to a box that had the word MINI scrawled on it in crayon. This was not a fitting showcase for such awesome cards so I liberated them all from their boring box and randomly stuffed them into 15-card pages. The result is 60 cards in a binder. 60 glorious minis! Rays and Roberts and Robinson to Cat and Pat and Mr. Shoppach. I am pretty psyched to see all of these minis spread out in all of their glory. I didn’t scan the backs, but those are pretty darn cool, too. I have the Tampa Bay team set filled for 2008 and 2009 Allen and Ginter. It’s nearly done for ’09 Goodwin’s. My current mission is to fill both 2002 and 2009 T206. Chris Harris from Stale Gum hooked me up with a few from both years and lit the fire under me. I think I like the 2002 set even more and it includes Grieve and Gomes as well as Upton and Dewon. Anyway, I am really happy to be able to flip through my binder and admire my minis. I hope to fill a 5th page VERY soon. Thanks for looking. I hope you can actually what is what in the scans. If you have any minis that you want to get rid of, I would be glad to offer them good homes. Also, with all of the organizing this week I have filled up a number of pages. Pages of sets, team sets, insert sets, player collection pages and theme pages. I do plan on showing them all off. You have been warned! Go Rays! Troll out.

It is Your Civic Duty

... to VOTE! There is a poll, which can be found right HERE for the top sportscard blog in the WORLD. Many members of our card blogging family are up for the Award and over 500 folks have voted already. It sounds prestigious and whomever wins will appreciate the award that much more if a whole bunch of folks vote, so go do it! Here is the link to VOTE again, check it out and give some love to Mojo and Beardy, Drew's Cards, Cardboard Junkie or whomever your favorite blog is. I hate posts without pictures, so I added one to this. This is a 2010 SlangKo Original of Hall of Famer Al Kaline. I love me some SlangKo and this a great looking card of a great player. Thanks for the card Sean! Oh, speaking of Al Kaline... I would consider Mr. Tiger to be one of the best right fielders ever. According to the vote on the poll for top right fielder, he ain't THE best. That distinction is shared between Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth with Roberto Clemente hot on their tails. I am going to keep putting up best ever polls on this blog as well as the Nitty Gritty and Leading Off. Please check 'em out and VOTE on those, too. I will cover every position and then get into pitchers and eventually determine the All Troll (Reader selected) All Time Super Mega Greatest Baseball Team Ever. So far Ted Williams and Ruth and Aaron are in! A new poll will go up on each blog later tonight. Also later tonight I will post info on my new player collection and oh, I will also post the results from that contest we had over here last week. Go Rays! troll out.

My First Derby Card aka My New Favorite Card

I have been running this blog for close to a year now (please hold your applause) and shortly after it started, I began listing my collecting preferences on the side bar. It lists the players that I follow and collect like Carl Crawford, Jason Bartlett, Brian Roberts and Carlos Pena from the present day as well as players from the 90s like Danny Tartabull and Quinton McCracken, on to legends like Roberto Clemente, Buck O’Neill and Larry Doby from the past. I am also a huge fan of baseball history, Negro League Baseball and Woman’s Baseball, too. I like cards and pictures of players wearing sombreros. These are funny, but as a Mexican American, I enjoy players having fun with a symbol of my heritage. The last line on my list of “Legends of the Troll” has always been “anything roller derby related”. Those of you who read this blog know I am a roller derby announcer, a huge fan of the sport and husband to a phenomenal skater. Up till now I have been able to collect a handful of old derby programs from the 30s and 40s and 60s and 70s along with some 8X10s. Most of these have come directly from former skaters that I have interviewed for a roller derby magazine. I collect a lot of things beyond baseball-mainly record albums, vintage and hardcore punk rock, early aviation memorabilia, vintage tattoo flash and piggy banks. Aside from that I collect, love and live roller derby. I have always assumed that there were derby cards made at some point and time. It was a massively popular sport. With all the different subjects for cards that I have seen, I figured roller derby must have got its due at some point and time, but the cards have always eluded me. Now I can say I finally own a roller derby card. Thanks to Sean, owner and operator of SlangKo Sportscards and author of the Condition Poor blog, I have a roller derby card in my collection. This comes from the 2010 SlangKo Sports Stars set; it is card #50 of 240 of Gerry Murray, who began skating in New York in the mid-40s. She was one of the early standouts of the sport and is a member of the Roller Derby Hall of Fame. Her son, Mike Gammon was one of the most famous male skaters of the 50s and on up till the 80s. This card is amazing! It has a colorized photo of Murray on the front-at the time this photo was taken teams did not have nicknames as they do today, her team was New York City and her battles against the squad from Brooklyn were legendary. I have never had the pleasure of meeting Gerry Murray, but in any interview I have ever done her name comes up within the first two minutes. She is one of the most important figures in the sport. I would love to find more cards of her and other derby legends, but for now I am thrilled that SlangKo Sportscards has immortalized her on cardboard. Thanks so much for this amazing card Sean! Even with just one of 240, I do plan on chasing this set. I also plan on nominating SlangKo as best card company of the year. Topps is doing well, but SlangKo is AMAZING! I love my low serial number Carl Crawford and Jonny Gomes cards, but this might be my new favorite card. Go Rays! Go Derby! Go Bombers! Troll out.