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.

Welcome Home Carlos!!!

Okay, as always I am a little on the draw, but I felt like I needed to acknowledge this signing... Last week or month, or whenever it was, I wrote a long, long post about the Luke Scott signing... Disgruntled fan type stuff. I was seriously pissed off that the Rays weren't bringing back Damon and I felt that Scott was a huge downgrade from Kotchman offensively and defensively... I put together a list of 20 different free agents that I would rather the Rays went after who would be more productive, more beneficial to the team, more versatile and likely cheaper than Luke Scott. One of the name's on the list was Carlos Pena.Yes, he who barely lives atop the Mendoza line and strikes out more often than (insert clever zing here)...

I do acknowledge his shortcomings and know that Pena doesn't mean a World Championship, BUT he is a solid first baseman, a good lefthanded bat, a solid team leader, clubhouse guy and fan favorite and a guy who can provide real protection for Zobrist and Longoria. It allows Matt Joyce to stay in rightfield and Zobrist to live in the infield with Sean Rodriguez. Of course Tampa Bay still really needs a catcher, but now the brass can concentrate on filling that hole. I can live with DH by committee, but would be much happier if they did the right thing and brought Johnny Damon back...

Time will tell, but I am damn excited about the 2012 season. Pitchers and catchers will be rolling into town very soon and I will be there to greet them... Posts are sitting in the folder in wait... I keep saying I am back, but I keep on disappearing, so I will stop making false claims... I will just say that I love this hobby, I love this forum and I damn sure LOVE this wonderful game of baseball and this season is gonna be super special for me.

Why you ask? Well, I will tell you... My super awesome wife is starting a new (and much more lucrative) job this Monday. She will be working the same schedule as me and we will both be home at nights and just in time for the standard 7:05 start time... Aside from that my awesome Mother-in-law got us a sweet HD TV for Christmas and today my Wifey surprised me by getting cable installed INCLUDING the MLB Season Pass in HD!!!!!!! Did I mention that I love my Wife?

As an endnote - many of my wantlists have been cleaned up and updated AND I have introduced a NEW list... I am now chasing (and documenting said chase) 1979 Topps.

I had sort of forgotten about this quest until Scott from Smed's Cards hit me up with a surprise package of over 100 cards from that glorious set. A HUGE thanks to Senor Smed's for the awesomeness!!! I will, someday, post up some of the super sweet cardboard that Mr. Smed has shared with me...

Also, big ups to my homie the Cardboard Don who supplied the C. Pena illustration at the top of this post... I am very excited about Pena coming home, for real! I fully expect him to deposit 40 blasts into the rightfield seats at the Trop in 2012... It wasn't too long ago that as a member of the Rays Carlos Pena has been a Silver Slugger, Gold Glove, All Star, Comeback Player of the Year and homerun champion... Lets do it all again Los! Cheers to all! I love it! Go Rays!!! troll out.

Out of the Loop...

So, my wife had her surgery on Thursday... All went well, she has a fully rebuilt knee and should be better than new in 2 months...

Since we live on the third floor we decided that we would stay at her Mom's house for a week. It has been a nice vacation, but there is one problem - she doesn't have an internet connection and and none of her neighbors do either... I stopped at home to check the mail and figured I would sneak on for a second... My 2011 Ginter want list is up to date. I have been lucky to do several trades and the binder is getting more and more full...


I hope to be home by the weekend. I have a TON to post... If you have posted a trade from me, I probably haven't seen it and I apologize... Please email me the link as I will be behind 2 weeks in checking everyone's blogs. I am totally up for trading - just be patient if you send me a message... I am going to go after 2006 and 2007 Allen and Ginter as my next set quests. I have about 20 cards from each year so far, so if anyone has a starter lot - I would gladly take em off of your hands...


Oh, I recieved my winnings from the Play at the Plate 1,000,000th post contest - a box of Lineage. Ripping it was pretty awesome, I will leave y'all with a taste of shiny Roy Campanella. If you are chasing Lineage, drop me a line, I might be able to help ya out.

Oh, one last thing... I have trade packages ready to go for RGB Cards and Pirates Treasure Room. They have a little dust on them and I would REALLY like to get them out, SO if you are from one of those blogs OR if you know their addy, please let me know... Also, I have shipped a number of packages this past month, but I haven't heard from many of you. I like to know when y'all recieve stuff, so lemme know please... Okay, I'm done for real.


Cheers! GO RAYS!!!!!!!!!! troll out.