Okay, this isn’t a Brian Roberts card, but it is Baltimore Orioles related and very awesome, so I thought I would post it up on the
Brian Roberts Leading Off blog, but I decided to make it a Troll post instead. As new as the BR blog is, I want to keep it just Roberts for at least its first week. I know this doesn’t fit into the standard selection of cards that I post here, but it is a pretty special card and yes, it has a story… Last month I entered a contest on the
Cobb and Halladay blog. It involved guessing the final score of a postseason football. The prizes were great and you can guess a number without knowing anything about football, SO I gave it a try and made my guess. I ended up winning 3rd place in the contest, BUT the two people who finished ahead of me never claimed their prize, so I was the grand prize winner by default. I ended up with two sweet cards. A Bob Gibson jersey relic which I have already posted
HERE and this 2009 Topps T206 framed autograph of Orioles pitcher David Hernandez. He was a 16th round pick out of high school in 2005 and spent almost the entire 2009 season with the Orioles, starting 19 games for them. His record wasn’t good at 4-10 with a 5.42 ERA, but at 24 years of age, the upside is still there for the young righhander. In 2008 he was 10-4 with a 2.68 ERA in 27 starts for the AA Bowie BaySox.
He had a 3.30 ERA in 11 starts in AAA in ’09 prior to his call-up to the Orioles. Some believe that he was rushed along and wasn’t quite ready for the big leagues. He features a 93-MPH fastball with a slider and a changeup. In 101 innings last year he struck out 68 batters. In the minors he showed serious promise as a strikeout pitcher whiffing 166 in 141 innings at Bowie in 2008. Over 534 innings in the minors he struck out 601 batters. I think that Chris Tillman is the most exciting young starter on the Orioles, but I am excited to see how Hernandez does in 2010 over a full big league season with a little experience under his belt. For those curious, Hernandez’ major league stats can be viewed
here and his
minor league stats can be found
here. Speaking of curious… I wouldn’t recommend typing his name into a Google image search. Just saying. Thanks so much to Joe L from the
Cobb and Halladay blog for this great card! I guess I should also thank the other winners for not claiming their prizes... For more exciting Orioles related posting, check out my other blog,
Leading Off. If 1965 Topps Traded is more your style, check out the
Nitty Gritty Card of the Day. Go Rays! Troll out.
I didn’t like this set when I first saw pictures pop up and the first Rays cards I got I didn’t really care for, but its one of those sets that has REALLY grown on me. I do admit that I am a neo-vintage obsessed collector so this does fall right into my tastes I guess. 
This Carlos Pena is one of my favorite cards of him. I haven’t purchased any myself yet, but I am strongly considering it. I wouldn’t mind starting with 2003 first. My introduction to this set was a card of Justin Schuda (who?) but since then cards have trickled in of all my favorites-Gomes, Brazleton, Grieve and a young and toothpick looking BJ Upton. 
Since I don’t have either year full on the team set I have a page mixed up of both and they all look pretty good together. I know that some people put together Allen and Ginter mini sets of mixed years showing the best card for each number they have. I think I am going to buy a box of 2003 and of 2009 and put together a mixed set. Oh, there are minis too, awesome! I love this hobby! Go Rays! Troll out.
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.
