It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you are trying to avoid accomplishing something else! What I should be doing is working on the 14 essays that I have due on Monday morning, but what I am doing instead is getting my collection super organized and making trading smoother and easier. First, I sorted through 100s of saved e-mails and pulled everyone’s address that I have to create a trader’s database. It is sorted by team and has nearly everyone that I have traded with over the past 6 months. What I also did was totally sort through all of my Carl Crawford cards, update the
web page and sort out all of my doubles and start putting the whole thing into its own separate binder organized by year. All of my other player pages are random, but I have about 6 times as many Crawford cards, so I wanna try and keep it organized. That said, the web page wasn’t too much work to put together and it has paid off HUGE! When I first posted it two weeks ago, I had 129 CC cards and now I am up, wait for it…
188! Yep, I know have 188 different CC cards ready to go in the new CC binder. By the way, thanks for the advice Adam and Owl… I always use the team set bags over screw downs, I hate when they get scratched up and it just seems classy. Anyway, readers and bloggers alike have been uber-generous and I truly appreciate it. When I first posted the
page I didn’t have any CC cards from 2001 at all and I just got my first!
It is a 2001 Bowman Chrome, card #231. I now have at least 1 card from every year and a total of 188. My goal was 200, but I might have to raise it. I am going to show some of the highlights of what readers have sent in during the last two weeks-I am still behind, of course, on my trading posts. I owe a couple of posts each to Mike from JDs Wild and Alfredo from My Past Time, I Love It! and I also got big packs from Cards on Cards and Bud from First Day Issue that I need to post. I have also been sorting through my older Topps cards and I have already filled some want lists, but I am totally ready to take on anything from 1974-1983, so bring it on! Oh, and yes, Tom Terrific is on the trade block…
I am done with my 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1991 and 1996 sets and am now focusing on finishing up all my undone Heritage sets, plus 1979, 2007-2009 Topps and 2008 Allen Ginter. There is less than 2 months left in the year and I am broke like a joke, but I really wanna put all these sets to bed before the year is up. After that I want to dive into my favorite set of all-time, 1965 Topps. Okay, onto the new and awesome Carl Crawford card highlights. I will start with a 2006 Topps Turkey Red, card #152.
A lot of people try and fill these sets, but I am pretty satisfied with plucking the Rays when I can. Next, from the 2005 Topps Cracker Jack-when I first saw this I thought it was a mini and I though that was pretty cool, but it’s a sticker!
That makes it awesome. This is one of the dullest looking refractors I have ever seen, I wouldn’t know it was a refractor if it didn’t say it below the number, from the 2008 Topps Chrome, card #86, serial numbered to 599.
Now, a refractor that looks like a refractor should! From 2009 Topps Finest, card #78, a Carl Crawford REFRACTOR!!!
I love refractors, it is somewhat of an obsession, I just love them and I think they really make every blog better. I had a few 2002 cards, but not many and not this one, from the Fleer Tradition Diamond Debuts, card U12.
I didn’t have any 2008 Bowman CC cards at all, but this week I got them all covered including the Chrome version, card #20
and the sweet blue parallel, card #21, serial numbered to 500.
Back to Finest for a four more gems and then I need to do some studying, or at least go to the Post Office before work… From 2003, the oldest Finest CC I own, card #33.
I have nothing against the #8, but I am really glad that CC switched over to #13-#8 suits JB better anyway. This is from 2006, Topps Finest card #127.
I always like reading the Finest Moment on the back and this one is pretty cool… On May 25, 2005 Crawford became the first player to hit a homerun and a triple in the 1st inning of a game. He led off the game with a triple and added a two-run homerun when they batted around. The Rays dropped 10 runs in that 1st inning and went on to beat Oakland 14-6. Okay, I think I will end this with a couple of refractors. These didn’t scan as well as I had hoped, but trust me, they are awesome!
First is a 2005 Finest, card #20, serial numbered 001 of 399.
The last card is the same shot, but it looks even better as a BLUE REFRACTOR, card #20, serial number 128/299.
To everyone who has hooked me up with Crawfords these past few weeks it is really appreciated! I love this hobby and I love chasing cards of my favorite players. If you have any Craw cards laying around, please check my
list and let's make a deal! If there are any other CC or Rays collectors out there, get in touch, I have a growing pile of doubles! bacontowne at yahoo dot yadda yadda yadda... Oh, the card at the top corner of the post is a 2003 Upper Deck Ovation-UD got miles of use out of this photo, I have about 10 cards with it from 3 different years...Thanks to all, happy collecting, Go Rays! Troll out.
So yesterday the Bradentucky Bombers and I made the LONG road trip to Orange Park (Jacksonville), Florida. Five hours of driving time each way in the rain. Not fun. It was a great game. We played the Tri County Rolling Militia. That team included some friends of mine who skated for the Greater Jax Heart Attacks last year and it was great to see them. Fellow derby announcer Showtime from Tallahassee made the trip, too. He and I shared emcee duties and put on the halftime show. I had a good time working with him, he is a true pro. It was a nice tight bout. We held an early lead, but they broke the lead right before the halftime buzzer and took a 64-60 edge into halftime. They held on and stretched their advantage to 20 points and we took a tough loss. It was a sad ride home. Playing a game 5 hours away the day before you have to open at your job is difficult. I didn’t have to, but I did have an 8 AM class. Most of the girls on the team did. That is rough. Anyway, that is why I wasn’t around to post yesterday; I was in the back of a minivan for 10 hours or so. Blerg. Anyway, I am going to continue posting the gems that I received from Stale Gum. On this post I am going to start by showing off a few cards of Wade Boggs. To me Boggs is a Red Sox first, a Yankee second and a Devil Ray third. That is the order that he played for those teams and that is the level of his game. He was the BEST in Boston; he won a World Championship in New York. In Tampa Bay he helped usher in an expansion team with a little bit of credibility. He also racked up some personal career milestones. I don’t go out of my way to track down his cards, but here are 3 cards from Stale Gum’s uber-generous Blogger Kindness package that I really liked. Starting with an unnumbered die-cut card from 2000 Fleer. The card is cut like the number 3000 and celebrates August 7, 1999 when Wade Boggs hit a homerun for his 3,000th career hit. 
He was the 23rd player to join the 3000 club, but the FIRST to do it by hitting a homerun and the FIRST to reach the milestone in a Devil Rays jersey. Celebrating that same event is this insert from 2000 Topps Finest. 
The card is number FM4; it is a REFRACTOR and shows Boggs without a helmet getting his high fives. Did I mention it’s a refractor? I LOVE refractors! Normally Wade Boggs is a man who should not remove his hat when cameras are present, but this card works. The last card I am going to show off is number 1141 from the hated 2009 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary collection. 
This card celebrates a different event that took place in Tampa Bay. On 3/31/1998 the D-Rays played their first game. Wade Boggs was there, as was I. They lost to the Tigers behind Wilson Alvarez, but gained a lifelong fan. Thanks so much to Stale Gum! The hits will be coming soon! Go Rays! Troll out.
I haven’t ripped a pack of Finest since 1995, but I love getting these in the mail! Next up is another Finest card from 2008, this one is a Finest Moments insert, card #FM-CP. 
The moment celebrated on the front is 09-16-07 when Pena hit his 40th homerun to become the first Tampa Bay Rays player to amass 40 homers in a single season. Of course Pena went on to hit 46 homers and finish second in the AL to A-Roid. The final card in this package is a 2008 Bowman Chrome REFRACTOR card #171. 
I do love refractors-these never get old for me… Time for Troll to get some sleep… Thanks to Frank for the cards! I always know its something good when I get mail from you…Oh, I did get the Crawfords, too, but they will get a seperate post, stay tuned! Oh, I think I will end this post with a question... After six months of gathering Rays cards, I am finally starting to organize them. I had all of my Carl Crawford cards in top loaders, except for relics and autos which I keep in screw downs. I am taking the base cards out of the top loaders and putting them into a binder because they are easier to view and keep track of. My question is, what do you do with your relics, refractors and autographs? Do they go in the binder with the rest of the PC? Or do they stay seperate, in a screw down or top loader? Thanks! Go Rays! Troll out.
