564 Home Runs and 1 Signed Card...

Unless it is at an event specifically for fans to get autographs (like a fan fest) I will never ask a player for an autograph in person. As a journalist, it complicates things and it is not a good idea. I shouldn’t say never though. In the past I have made exceptions for Cal Ripken Jr., Bob Feller, Bert Blyleven, Dave Winfield, Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton, Duke Snider and Bill Mazeroski. I have never made an exception for a current player however. Until this spring when I bent my rules for a left handed hitting slugger who recently signed with the Minnesota Twins. He hit 23 homers last season and he will be turning 39 this summer. In the Twins lineup he will have good protection and should see a lot of pitches to hit. He is only 46 homers away from becoming the 7th player to reach the 600 homer club. He is 9 homers away from reaching the top ten of All Time. He is currently 12th All Time and 3rd among active players. He thinks he can still be a productive hitter in the big leagues. I believe him. I am speaking of Jim Thome, of course. He is a 5 time All Star and his .557 slugging percentage puts him 23rd All Time in that category. His 1619 walks are tops among active players and 10th All Time. His 564 homers is 5th best among left handed batters behind Aaron, Ruth, Griffey and just 5 homers behind Rafael Palmeiro. In my opinion he is a first ballot Hall of Famer. Even in the livest of live ball eras, he is among the most intimidating sluggers in the game and has been for nearly 20 years. That is why I bent my rule. That and I just happened to have this 2008 Topps Heritage card handy… This card might be available for trade, or maybe for a contest prize or maybe I will treasure it forever. Any opinions? Go Rays! Troll out.

Dinged Corners Autograph Assignment-Not Quite Following the Guidelines...

I was in the midst of writing a post (what would have been a brilliant post) but I took a time out to surf around and clear my head, and I came across a post by the fine ladies of the Dinged Corners blog. They called to the Blog-O-Sphere with an urgent plea, a plea to take action and rush to your scanners, a plea to post your favorite 3 (three) autographed cards. I didn’t want to disappoint or be left out of the fun, so I immediately abandoned my epic post and starting searching for my 3 favorite autographs of all time. As I scanned the 3rd card I decided that 3 is far too few of cards for a Troll to narrow it down to, so I went a little beyond the assignment and will go with 7 different autographs. I realize that I will run the risk of getting an F, but I think it is better to fail while going above and beyond rather than get an A without considering all options. Here we go:
1. 1963 Topps Jose Tartabull. I got this one in person at some point during the decade of the 80’s. I believe I said something like “Your son is my favorite player, would you sign this card?” He did.
1. 1986 Fleer Danny Tartabull. This one came right around the same time and I said about the same thing, just replace “you are” over “your son is”.
1. 2000 Royal Rookies Edward Rogers Signature Series #ed 666 of 4,950. There is a bunch of reasons why this is tied for my favorite. I took the picture. Eddie was a really good friend. The fact that it is the ever taboo number 666 makes me giggle. The Wife got this for me as a surprise present. I was with Edward when he signed these; it took a really long time.
2. 1999 Team Best Carlos Pena. I think this may be the first time I have posted this card. It came from Joe from New York, Joe from the Cobb and Halladay blog. It gets in here for a lot of reasons, too. One, Pena is one of the best sluggers in baseball and he plays for my favorite team. He has a really nice signature. He is a tough signature to get. This was the first (of many) trades that Joe and I did. Pena is shown playing for the nearby Port Charlotte Rangers and I love cards from the Florida State League. AND like the other 3 cards ahead of it, it is an on-card auto.
3. 2009 Allen and Ginter Cat Osterman. I just posted this card, it is from a set that I am trying to collect as an autographed set, and it depicts my cousin (by marriage) and was another gift from the Wifey. Herb Simpson, Frank Evans or Willie Williams could just as easily fit here in the #3 slot.
4. 1983 Topps Bert Blyleven. He loses points for spelling my name wrong, but he is cool enough that he can get away with it. The best issue of the 80’s AND of a player that belongs in the Hall of Fame.
5. 2006 UD Sweet Spot Signatures Jonny Gomes. It’s Gomes, its thick as hell and it looks and feels like it is signed on a baseball. I had a Gomes signed baseball, but the puppy destroyed it during her first week with us.
6. 2007 UD Exquisite Carl Crawford. Yep, it’s a sticker, but it still rocks. I got this in a trade from the Night Owl. He had it, I wanted it and all he asked for in return was a Clayton Kershaw auto. I travelled to damn near every card shop within 500 miles and finally found one to send him. By this time I think he had about 30 Kershaw autos, but he still completed the trade and it was worth it. I really like this card, sticker or no sticker.
Okay, I ended up listing 8 autos (actually 10) here; I probably could have shown more. I am just getting back into autograph collecting and rebuilding the collection. I have pulled 2 autos from packs and both were promptly traded away. Two of these cards here came from trades-trading rocks! Great assignment; sorry I couldn’t stick to the guidelines… For the record-if I had a Buck O’Neill autographed card, it would have been number 1, gonna show a signed baseball anyway. Once again, he spelled my name wrong, but he is Buck FREAKING O’Neill, so all is forgiven. Buck served the United States during World War 2; I wish I had a pic of him in uniform for a proper Veterans Day tribute. I don’t, but here is a picture of my grandfather, Colonel Harry W. Generous and his family (my Dad is the boy with no shirt on) circa WWII. Happy Veteran’s Day and THANK YOU!!! It isn't so much baseball related, but I can't resist adding this one to my list of favorite autographs... You would have to go way back to this post from May to understand it... troll out.

A Jonny Gomes Twenty Card Salute!

If you are not a Jonny Gomes fan you may not care to read this. I am and its my blog, so, get ready for some pro-Gomes stuff. This is actually a tribute to one of my favorite players, ever. I have never met Jonny professionally, never got to interview him or even cover him as a player, I have only known him as a fan. In 2005 the Devil Rays were not a good team. Carl Crawford was emerging as a superstar, but Aubrey Huff was already on the decline and the rest of the team, although talented, just weren’t getting in done. I was a Crawford fan, I still am, but there weren’t a ton of bright spots on this team that would lose 95 games that year. The brightest spot for me was a young, gritty outfielder that swang for the fences every time. He was Jonny Gomes and he hit .282 that year, hitting 21 homers. He got a little love in the ROY voting and made the Topps All Rookie Team. He also became an instant favorite of mine, and the wife, too. We both had number 31 jerseys and chanted go Jonny go at the Trop. This was before the cowbell, before they started winning, when you couldn’t spit without hitting a Yankees fan at the ballpark. These weren’t good times for the Rays, but Gomes gave the fans something to cheer about. He became a fan favorite and loved the role. He signed autographs before and after every game, smiled at the media and generally brought a sense of hope to Tampa Bay. Before long he was joined with Aki, BJ, Carlos and later Evan and the rest is history. When the Rays made it to the World Series last year, Gomes didn’t make the roster, but he was on the top step of the dugout every inning working as a cheerleader. I loved to see that. What I didn’t love was that the Rays didn’t make any effort to resign him after that season. They sent him packing left him unemployed. He finally got an invite to spring training with the Reds and tore it up all spring long, but still started the year in AAA. Fortunatley he was able to hit his way out of AAA. He played 37 games in Louisville and hit 9 homers, wow! Gomes has 115 minor league homers over his career. Anyway, that earned him a call-up to the Reds. It didn’t get him a starting job, though. He played and when he did, he hit, but he didn’t play every day. He made the most of his chances though and hit 3 homers in one game in a Reds win a few months ago. This was his second 3 homer game, that is twice as many as Hank Aaron had. He concluded the season with the Reds having played in 98 games. With that chance he hit .267 and his slugging percentage was a healthy .541. He had 17 doubles, 51 RBI and 20 homeruns. I was hoping that he would hit #21 so I could give him a twenty-one card salute, but he didn’t, so we will leave it at 20. Readers have been super generous with their Gomes cards and this past month I have gotten a few as gifts. It really surprised me that people would wanna part with such awesome cards and get nothing in return, but when you don’t have a connection with a player, you just don’t care. I guess I have given away quite a few nice cards these past few months just trying to get them in the hands of folks who will appreciate them more than I do. That said, I wanna extend a huge thank you to all of the Gomes gifters out there and the traders, too. I would have liked to write up these trades all fancy, but I did make write-ups for the other cards in the trade anyway, but please understand that I really do appreciate every card that comes in to my collection via trade. When I started this blog I think I had 3 Gomes cards, now I can pick my twenty favorites. Nice. Okay:
These first three came from Jeff of Closet Full of Cardboard fan, he’s a Rays fan, too, and a super awesome collector and person. I LOVE the refractor!
2006 Topps Turkey Red Card #565 2005 Upper Deck SP Collection Card #65 2006 Bowman Chrome REFRACTOR Card #47 (serial #126/150) This card I have somehow ended up with 2 copies of, Paul, one is yours if you want it!
2008 Upper Deck Series 2-UD JERSEY Card #UDJ-GO Now, a bunch of signed Gomes cards-he is a GREAT signer…
2006 Fleer Card#116 2008 Topps #5592006 Fleer Traditions Card #63 2008 Upper Deck Card#90 2006 Topps All Rookie Card #23 These next four cards came from my buddy Kerry over at Cards on Cards…
2005 Upper Deck Card#412 2006 Upper Deck First Pitch Card #1872009 Upper Deck Series 1 Card #365 2004 Upper Deck Card #458 This card was my first Gomes Certified Auto, courtesy of Stale Gum dot com
2007 Upper Deck Star Signings AUTO Card#SS-JG Here is a random Gomes that I don’t recall where it came from, but I like…
2006 Fleer Ultra Gold Card #49 This card came from Wicked Ortega…
2008 Topps Chrome Card# 182 And my first Heritage Chrome Gomes, I really need to find a way to get these to scan better…
2008 Topps Heritage Chrome Card# C251 My first Allen and Ginter auto of Gomes…
2006 Topps Allen & Ginter Certified Auto Card # AGA-JG And now two of my favorites and we’re done…
For the record, I hate manufactured patch cards. I don’t like the idea at all, but since they make them, I love getting them! This is the only one I have, but I have already decided that I need to spell out Go Rays…
2006 SP Authentic By The Letter Auto Card# BL-JG (serial # 116/175) And the new winner for thickest card I own, this thing is well over a ¼ thick!
2006 UD Sweet Spot Signatures Card #136 (Serial number 201/275) This is a fancy looking card and I do really like it, but why isn’t the Trop in the background and what ballpark is that? Regardless, its cool. Thanks to all who have sent Gomes cards my way, this is my drawn out Jonny Gomes 20-Card-Salute!!!
Please check out the contest over at Carl Crawford Cards, he’s giving away a Jonny Gomes autograph and the blog rocks! Go Jonny Go! Wherever Jonny Gomes ends up next year, I will be rooting for him. One of these days he will get the chance at a 500 at bat season and look out! Photos at the top of the post are used without permission from the Associated Press. Troll out.

A Super Awesome Trade With Closet Full of Cardboard!!! Rays Fans Unite!

I hate trying to call a particular trade my favorite. It’s similar to choosing between Jason Bartlett and Carl Crawford as my favorite Ray, or saying I like my dog more than my cat, it just doesn’t seem right. That said this trade that I made with Jeff from Closet Full of Cardboard is a damn great trade. Jeff is a Rays fan, just like me. He is a regular at the Trop and that makes him pretty damn cool in my eyes. The player he collects is Carl Crawford. This can make trading rough. I found this out trying to trade with Paul of Carl Crawford Cards. He and I chase the same cards and we have never hit a point where both of us have doubles that the other one needs. Jeff hasn’t been chasing Crawford for quite as long as Paul has, so I was able to find a few cards he needed, plus he collects another base stealing legend named Rickey Henderson. I had a Henderson relic and bam, we had ourselves a trade. I am going to make this one a two-parter as I am going to have a separate post for ALL of the Jonny Gomes cards that I have received this month. Jeff sent me some nice and shiny Gomes cardboard and so have many of you, so those will warrant their own post. I have mentioned before that I am starting a journey to collect an autograph of every single (Devil) Rays player ever, on-card, in a Rays uniform. Since Jeff has been a Rays fan just as long as I have-we’ve been down since ’98 baby! He had quite a few ballpark autos that he was willing to share. At the time he sent these, I only had 30 Rays autos, now I am over 50! I dedicated a site to my Rays auto quest; the link is on the side-bar. Anyway, Jeff sent me THIRTEEN autos as part of our trade. Every single one of these was brand new to me and suddenly my collection looks a whole lot better. Not every one is in a Rays uniform, but those are technicalities that can be fixed later…
Here we go!
We’ll start off with Aubrey Huff. This one was huge for me because Huff had some pretty big offensive years with the Devil Rays. I’ve heard that he is a pretty good TTM signer, but whenever I write to him, he gets traded, so…
Now we have another guy who got traded this year just weeks after I wrote to him. He will always be famous for striking out to end the 2008 World Series, but he was really a fav of mine. I need to upgrade this into a Rays uniform, but its pretty cool like this for now…
Randy Winn was an original Devil Ray and one of my favs back then. He was an All-Star and is one of the only, if not the only original D-Ray still in the big leagues.
Dewon Brazelton took a no-hitter further into a game than anyone in a D-Rays uniform. He’s still only 29 years old, and he’s still pitching in an Independent League.
Nick Bierbrodt has had an unusual baseball career to say the least. He spent parts of three seasons with the Devil Rays, he was shot in the arm (twice), played baseball in China and is now is also playing Independent League ball. He owns a career 6.66 ERA.
Robert Fick played one season with the Devil Rays in 2004, hitting .201 with 6 homeruns. Before that, he was an All Star in 2002 with the Tigers. He is also playing Independent League ball.
Danys Baez was an All Star for the Devil Rays in 2005 when he saved 30 games. Now he is on the Baltimore Orioles and must have an amazing agent because he makes 7 million a year to pitch middle relief and serve up home runs. This is another great auto, but needs to be upgraded to a D-Rays card.
Toby Hall spent 7 seasons with the Devil Rays and is still in the team’s career record books in a few categories. He was a tough catcher with a creepy moustache. I think he is semi-retired right now. I have a bunch of cool cards of Hall, but I couldn’t find a TTM address for him, now I don’t need to.
Chris Gomez has had an amazingly long MLB career that included a couple of years with the Rays. I remember seeing him at Orioles spring training camp this year, but that was long before I decided to start this quest. I think he got cut and I don’t know what he is up to right now. He signed this card in red sharpie, I think it is the only Rays card I have signed in red…
Tanyon Sturtze was the Devil Rays opening day starter in 2002 after he won 11 games for them in 2001. 2002 was not such a great year for Sturtze though. He was 4-18 for the Devil Rays and led the league in every thing a pitcher DOESN’T want to lead the league in-losses, walks and runs. He does have a very signature though… As an end note, as a sub-collection, I am seeking to get an autograph of every Devil Rays starting pitcher, too. Sadly, Joe Kennedy is no longer with us. I would really like to include him in this collection though. He was a great player and a fine person. If anyone has an auto of Joe that they would share, I would GREATLY appreciate it.
Brent Abernathy looks terrified in this picture. As a card photographer, I’ve had a few shots that look like this. The photographer has Brent cornered in the dugout with no way out! He manned second base for the Devil Rays for 3 years and his claim to fame is that he earned a walk to ruin Derek Lowe’s perfect game against the D-Rays in 2002! He earned Gold with the US Baseball Team in 2000 and is another guy hanging on in an indy league. I think he plays for the Long Island Ducks who have quite a few talented ex-big leaguers on their roster.
Next up is Jason Tyner. He is one of those guys that I thought would be huge. The guy could fly! He stole 31 bases for the D-Rays in 2001. He never did hit a homer for them; in fact he had only one home run in 8 big league seasons.
The final card out this amazing bunch of cards is of another former Devil Rays second baseman, this one being Damian Rolls. Rolls spent 5 years with the Devil Rays batting .248, hitting 9 home runs and driving in 73 runs. He is another one play indy league ball, he is a member of the Kansas City T-Bones.
Well, there ya have it folks. Thirteen new Rays autos and that doesn’t even cover everything Jeff sent. A huge thank you to you sir, I hope everyone checks out his blog, Closet Full of Cardboard, follows it and reads it. I have many more cards to scan if I am ever gonna catch up on trades. Thanks again! If anyone out there has any extra Devil Rays autos, certified, in-person or TTM that they can share, I promise to give them a good home! Go Rays! Troll out.

More Trade Bait!!!

More trade bait… I do have a lot more, but this will be my last trade bait post until after the baseball season is over. I do have more stuff, a lot of jersey cards from early 2000s. Jeff Bagwell, Roberto Alomar, Tom Glavine, Andruw Jones, Edgar Martinez… I also have a few Topps Updates Star Relics-Brian McCann, David Ortiz, George Sherrill...Just don’t have time to post them right now and I want to keep the blog free for breaking news and a lot of you know what I have and I got a few offers already for cards I have not yet posted, so I will keep this brief for now. I probably will keep these trade bait posts up through Friday. A few trades have been made and noted and a few are in talks, but the cards are still out there. Here is some more. I will be at work till midnight, so don’t get worried if I don’t reply right away. I do sneak time on the net while at work, though…
Enjoy!
2001 Pacific Authentic Game Used Bat-Rickey Henderson *TAKEN* (Mariners!)-Card#158 2009 Upper Deck SPx Game Jersey Autograph-Fausto Carmona *TAKEN* -Card#GJA-FC 2006 Bowman Signs of the Future-Rickey Romero-Card#SOF-RR *TAKEN* (one of my favorites) 2009 Allen and Ginter Code Cards- *ALL TAKEN* #118 Scott Olsen, #129 Brian Giles, #134 Jered Weaver, #150 Prince Fielder, #182 Jose Reyes, #207 Jack Cust, #223 Scott Rolen and #267 Melvin Mora 2006 Bowman Heritage Game Used Bat Relic-Vladimir Guerrero-Card#PG-VG 2008 Upper Deck Spectrum Retrospectrum Swatches-Albert Pujols- *TAKEN* Card#RS-AP 2009 Upper Deck Series 1 UD Game Jersey-Joakim Soria-Card#GJ-SO(60/75)2007 Topps-Ted Williams .406 in 1941-Card #sTW6, TW12,TW18 2007 Upper Deck SPx Winning Materials Patch Card-Huston Street-Card#WM-HS (33/50) 2009 Topps Career Best Game Worn-Curtis Granderson-Card#CBR-CG 2009 Allen and Ginter Baseball Highlights Sketch Cards-Card#s AGHS6 Beckett *TAKEN* , AGHS7 Manny *TAKEN* , AGHS11 K-Rod, AGHS13 David Wright, AGHS14 Ichiro (2), AGHS18 Jeter and AGHS24 Marianno Rivera 2008 Upper Deck Spectrum Dual Swatches-Prince Fielder/Ryan Braun-Card *TAKEN* #SDS-FB Okay, make sure you read the post below this one for more cards and rules and stuff. Thanks for looking and make me an offer! Go Rays! Troll out.