2 Posts in 2 Days, WHAAATTT????????????

So, I am actually gonna deliver on the promise that I made yesterday, I AM actually gonna post some of the cool cards that Tim the Indians fan sent to my newly operational Post Office box…

First, I want to get a few links out of the way… At the end of my last post I encouraged everyone to check out the Bradentucky Bombers facebook page… Well, I posted the wrong link, so here is the correct one… Check it out and LIKE us please!

We did have a bout last night… It was fun and well attended which is awesome. We are raising money for Multiple Sclerosis research and our awesome fans helped us get towards our goal. Our league, the Bradentucky Bombers, has two separate teams, our A team – The Bomb Squad. Also, our B squad – The Nuclear Bombshells. Both teams had been perfect, each posting 2-0 records. Well, the Bombshells lost their first game to the Lakeland Derby Dames last night. LDD was just a better team, we were overmatched…

Okay, back to baseball cards… I had mentioned that I was gonna chase 2009 Topps and was basically starting from scratch and I was looking for a kind soul to help get me started. Well, Spankee from My Cardboard Mistress answered the call and is sending nearly 200 cards towards my goal. My lists are up to date and could be found here. Lend me a hand, okay?

Okay, now back to the first package in the PO box… Reader Tim send a pretty big envelope filled with the standard assortment of Rays cards… The first stack wasn’t terribly exciting, although appreciated, ha! The next stack was a complete set of 2008 or 2009 DAV Rays cards!!! The card back has contact info for the Disabled American Veterans... You can find them on the web here.

The cards look GREAT and it is a great foundation worthy of support... Along with the cards Tim included a note apologizing that Evan Longoria wasn’t included. Well, I have a pretty fair amount of Longo cards, but this DAV set absolutely RULED because of the guys it included who I don’t have cards of…

I seriously want to get back into the quest for hunting Rays autographs. I had gotten frustrated because there are so many people who spent a short amount of time in the Rays organization without ever getting a Rays uni-card. There are a lot of members of the Rays coaching staff who have been around forever, but never got a solo card in a Rays uniform… Yeah, that is why I LOVE this set! They are good looking cards too! I seriously never thought I would EVER see a card of longtime bullpen coach Bobby Ramos. Got that now! Also have Don Zimmer, Tom Foley, and George Hendrick… Well, just look at them!

The first 2 pages have at least 10 guys I previously did NOT have a Rays card of. I plan to have ALL of these signed before the season is up. There is one card that might be tough to get signed, the card featuring everyone’s favorite seadog Raymond. This is my 3rd Raymond card – I would LOVE to get six more and fill a page of him…The third page I am showing off has the bigger named players on it…

Nice cuz in every case I didn’t have any of these in any of my PCs. Oh, speaking of PCs – Ben Zobrist was included in this set and with this card I now have 2 full pages of Zorilla cards!

I know that seems like nothing to many of you, but I am psyched and happy with it… I trashed my old binder with my PCs of Crawford, Bartlett, Aki and Kaz (LONG story about that coming soon) and replaced it with a new binder that starts off with 13 pages of Evan Longoria!!!!

I had always said I didn't collect Longo because his cards were too pricey. Well, they still are, but I DO collect him. Keep sending them my way and I will keep collecting! Aside from Longo, the PC binder now includes Zorilla, Price, Wade Davis, Desmond Jennings, Jeremy Hellickson, Sean Rodriguez, Matt Moore, Alex Cobb, Jake McGee, Wilking Rodriguez, Raymond, Alex Colome, Shawn O’Malley, Stephen Vogt, Brandon Gomes, Alex Torres and Justin O’Conner.

Many of those guys don’t have many cards just yet and there are a few names on that list that I only have 1 or 2 cards of, but I hope to have full pages of each one of them someday soon. The binder is mostly current Rays, but there are 3 ex-Rays that I still collect… One is retired and coaching – Jared Sandberg and the other two are on the other coast, in the wasteland known as the Oakland A’s. I am referring to both Jonny Gomes! And Manny Ramirez. I only want Rays cards of Manny…

Adam from Thoughts and Sox sent me my second Manny card a few weeks back, so I just need 7 more to fill a page. Thanks for reading! Thanks so much to reader Tim for the sweet DAV cards which will be signed up soon… Oh, I just filled up my first page of last year’s Rookie of the Year. If ya don’t see it here, I don’t have it yet, so send it my way, ha!

Oh, I have been doing a bit of wheeling and dealing of late and most of my wantlists are up to date... I WILL be chasing 2012 Heritage, but doing so on a tight budget, so I NEED your dupes! Go Rays! Troll out.

A Number One Draft Picks Who Is Already Winning Games in the Big Leagues...

This one card post is brought to you by Adam E from the Thoughts and Sox blog. Adam had posted this on his blog a few months back and I expressed interest because I didn’t have any cards of David Price in his Vanderbilt uniform and I thought it looked pretty cool. This was during spring training and I don’t think anyone thought that Price would jump out like he has, but he is acting like the Ace that the Rays hoped he would be when they used the first overall pick to select him in the 2007 draft. The card is from the 2007 Donruss Elite Extra Edition set, card #5, and Adam didn’t just send the Price card, he sent me the ENTIRE set!!! As soon as I get it sleeved up I will start posting pages, but for now here is David Price when he was dominating the NCAA. He failed in his bid for his 8th win the other night, but at 7-2 with a 2.57 ERA in 10 starts he is looking damn good. He has one shutout to his credit and 50 strikeouts in 66 innings this season. I do have a question about this card that maybe someone can answer for me. Why does it say (NL) after Drafted by Tampa Bayon the cards front? Thanks so much Adam for this great addition to my growing David Price collection. Look for more posts from the Thoughts and Sox vault in the near future. Go Rays! Troll out.

An EJ from Adam E

I root for Elliot Johnson to make the Rays out of spring training every year… He batted .400+ in 2008 during the spring, .300+ last year. This year he is batting .250 in 18 games which tells me he is ready for the big leagues! I don’t like posting cards that I can’t hold and look at while I post them, but I opted to bicycle to work today and I couldn’t bring both cards and my computer, so the cards stayed at home… This EJ autograph came to my collection from Adam E of Thoughts and Sox. Yes, it is a cut sig of a current player, but it looks good here. It gives the card an added dimensionality to it. EJ just celebrated his 26th birthday. He probably is still shy of being a superstar in the big leagues, but I think he is ready to begin his career as a major league, role playing, utility guy who has the ability to get the big late inning hit and play the role of hero. A huge thanks to Adam E. for this gem. I am gonna keep on writing short posts to show off one card at a time… On a different topic, there is less than an hour to vote for the next player I collect. There is currently 3 players tied. We need to break that tie! Go Rays! troll out.

Long Overdue Appreciation and Awesomeness in my Mailbox!!!

Greetings and good morning Trollites! To make up for taking the weekend off I have been treated to 5 straight 18 shifts at work. I am almost halfway through day 2. I am dying. It makes it worse that I am missing spring training baseball. I am an optimist though and I am really just happy to have a job and I am thankful for a great weekend and this is well worth it. The Bombers (Bombshells actually) dropped the home opener, (photo by Keith Wolfe) but we drew a record crowd and the new gals skated great, so we are on the right track. Esther Gin N Juice took home the Star Trophy as best jammer, it was her 3rd. Yep, I am a proud hubby! I also got invited to host a Saturday afternoon radio show. You think I write alot... The BOMBERS have their official home opener on March 7th.
I emptied the post office box yesterday and got more great stuff, THANKS TO ALL!!! I am literally about 60 packages behind in my trade posts. Some might not make it, which stinks, but I will do my best to get them all their proper thanks. I actually have 7 more bippings to post and I due intend on giving them their proper due. One of them came in December I think and he got me GOOD, but he also sent some amazing cards. I need to get that one up. I hope the powers that be will excuse the BIP postings based on my laziness… Anyway, speaking of packages that I got in December, this one came to me from Adam E of the Thoughts and Sox Blog in early December, soon after the first group break went underway. He has since delivered the goods three more times and I think we have another trade happening soon. I recently ran into some Sox related relics from 2010 Topps that I think he will like. ANYWAY… This post is months overdue. I wish I had taken a picture of the box, it was huge. I think it was a box for an electrical motor, but the package was really light weight. I was very thrown off. When I opened it, the motor box contained about 100 bubble mailers. AWESOME!!! I have already run out of them, but they did take care of the first group break and a few other trades. I just bought some more (at $.69 a pop) so I can finish paying my debts. Along with all of the envelopes, there were some cards in the giant motor box. Let’s start with a refractor. This one came from 2009 Heritage. It was coincidentally the first card out of the first pack of 2009 Heritage that I bought this year. I still contend that Vladdy looks just like Rick James on this card.
From the set that ’09 Heritage borrowed its design he also sent 3 gems from 1960 Topps including 2 Senators and a Philadelphia Athletic. I won’t show too much of these now cuz I hope to post them as Cards of the Day sometime down the road. He also hooked it up with a 2009 Allen and Ginter Scott Kazmir that helped me get closer to finishing the team set (I still need a Navi SP to finish) and some ’09 Rays O-Pee-Chee cards as well. There was a smattering of random Rays cards that I needed, but haven’t had time to catalog yet including this Chad Gaudin Ticket to Stardom, uh, I mean Fleer Authentix. Did I mention this package also included like 70 dollars worth of mailers, plus vintage, plus needs list cards? Adam E hooked it up! I haven’t shown the true gem of the package though-actually I did at the top of the post, but I haven't mentioned it til now... It comes from Upper Deck Masterpieces, a groovy relic of Akinori Iwamura, Captured on Canvas. Thanks so much for all of this great stuff Adam! I will have a package for you before the first pitch of 2010, I promise!!! By the by, the 1939 Buddy Hassett at the top of this post is a flashback to the previous awesome trade I did with T and S. If you have any Red Sox or boxing cards you want to deal, or you just wanna drool over his, check out Thoughts and Sox immediately! Cuz (yep, she is back) Shannon Stewart said so! Go Rays! Troll out.