The Polls Are Closed OR A 3 Way Tie For a Fifth

The poll is finished. It was up for a week and I couldn’t believe how many people got involved and voted. Thanks so much to all 68 of you who voted. I really couldn’t believe how many of y’all voted and I REALLY appreciate it. Thank you all! Thank yous aside, even with 68 people voting, I am still right back where I started. Somehow the vote ended in a 3 way tie! 16% of you think I should collect Hall of Fame outfielder and former star of the Newark Eagles, Larry Doby. 16% of you think I should collect Pittsburgh Pirates hero, defensive standout and Hall of Fame member Bill Mazeroski and 16% of you think I should collect 4-time batting champion Bill “Mad Dog” Madlock. Like I said, even with the help of 68 of my friends and readers, I am still where I started and I still can’t choose. I have about 12 cards of Maz with no autos or relics, but there are plenty available. I have 5 cards of Doby with no autos or relics. There are some of those available, but the autos get pricy. I have 5 cards of Mad Dog, one relic and an autographed 8X10. Since he played for 15 years and up until 1987 I think Mad Dog has the MOST cards, but since he is not a Hall of Famer and he is still alive and well, his autographs are much more affordable than Doby’s. Ugh. I hate decisions. That was why I left it up to you guys. I enjoyed checking on the poll, though. It looked as though some people changed their votes as time went on. Roy Face had a pretty big lead early on and Oscar Gamble was off to a great start, but they lost votes as time went on. With Doby, Maz and Mad Dog tied for 1st, Roy Face finished 4th with 7 votes. Gamble was in 5th with 5 votes and Don Newcombe and Bert Blyleven were tied for 6th place with 4 votes each. Tony Oliva finished 8th with 3 votes and Ray Durham and Monte Irvin each received 2 votes. 2 of you also thought that I should stick with current players. The problem with that is that current players can get traded to the Yankees. It happened to Danny Tartabull and I am terrified it is going to happen to Carl Crawford... The contest and poll over at the Nitty Gritty are still up for another 13 hours. Comment on that post with your name and have a shot at winning a Steve Garvey game used bat relic. Easy huh? I had promised to start the big contest here at the Troll tonight, but I am going to hold off until tomorrow. Two of the prizes were things that I ordered online and since I haven’t checked my post office box all week, I wanna wait till I have them in hand first. I am riding my bike (bicycle not motorcycle) over there after work so I can post the contest manana afternoon. Thanks again to everyone who voted. Any ideas for a tie breaker? 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.

Another Auto From the Wicked Vault

Here is 1 more card from the Wicked Vault. It is of my favorite Rays player, shortstop Jason Bartlett. JB hasn’t had too many autographed issues since joining the Rays, but when he was a future star with the Twinkies he had a ton. I think this is the 4th or 5th JB Twins auto that My Past Time…I Love It! has sent my way. The back of the card on this 2004 Playoff Honors autographed (and #ed to 800) offering touts Bartlett’s quick hands, bat control and ability as a table setter. I just wanted to use my break between shifts to it’s fullest to get a post up. I will be back later tonight. There is just a little bit of time left to vote for the next player I collect, it is a tight race between a couple of Hall of Famers right now. Thanks for the great autographed card Wicked! I still have a few more autos in the vault just dying to be shown off! Go Rays! Troll out.

A Blogger Kindness Carl Crawford Showoff...

Busy day, but I wanted to get something new up… The 300 card package of Blogger Kindness that I received from Stale Gum is going to be providing me with content for a LONG time to come. Here are a pair of Carl Crawford cards. The first one is a super shiny version of Bill Purdom’s take on CC for 2003 Topps Gallery. Is this considered a refractor? The other CC to showoff is a red numbered card from 2009 Topps Unique. I love the goofy fielding face that CC is making. The card is #ed 0769/1199. I like the Unique MLB Moments on these cards. This one says that: “Crawford is the only player of the last 24 years to record at least 40 hits and 20 stolen bases in a calendar month. He did it (43 and 21 respectively) in May 2009-a first since Rickey Henderson’s 47 and 22 in June 1985”. Good company for CC to be in. Thanks again to Stale Gum for the gift that keeps on giving! Oh, stay tuned, the best of the Crawford's from Stale Gum have yet to be shown... Go Rays! Troll out.

Clear Cut Blogger Kindness

Keeping up with the Blogger Kindness posts, here is the latest edition. This bunch of cards came to me from the Brooklyn Met from the Clear Cut Cards blog. He sent me a generous pile of Tampa Bay Rays cards. Here are some of the highlights. First up, from 2006 Topps Turkey Red, a RED Jonny Gomes, card #565. Gomes has 4 homers and 10 RBI through 10 spring training games to lead the Reds in both categories. Speaking of Reds... This card looks GREAT in red! He included a few more Gomes cards, but time is limited, so I am gonna limit this post to just 4 cards. Next up is a 2004 Donruss card of former Devil Rays pitcher Joe Kennedy. Joe was a huge favorite of mine and he is missed every day. I do plan on starting a Joe Kennedy player collection one of these days. For now I will never be disappointed getting one of his cards. Next up is an oldie but goodie, from 1998 Fleer Metal, card #107 of top expansion draft pick Tony Saunders. TS is still shown in his Marlins gear. Saunders was 9-18 in 2 seasons in Tampa Bay before throwing out his arm. The final card that I am going to show off is from 2008 UD Masterpieces, a dark green framed Masterpiece of Akinori Iwamura. I LOVE this card. I am a little worried though-if Iwamura is the key to the Rays future, where are they without him?Thanks so much for the note and thoughtful gift. I Hope to trade with you soon! For now, go check out the Brooklyn Mets great new blog, Clear Cut Cards. Also, be sure to check out my other blog, the Nitty Gritty, there is a little contest going on. Tomorrow night the player collection poll will be done and replaced with a CONTEST! Thanks to the Brooklyn Met. Go Rays! Troll out.

Wade Boggs Makes History and More...

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.

Blogger Kindness and Matt Diaz

Matt Diaz was a local kid that the Devil Rays picked up in the 17th round of the 1999 draft out of Florida State University. He grew up in the Tampa Bay area and had attended Santé Fe Catholic High in Lakeland, Florida. He tore it up in the minors batting .383 at AA Orlando in 2003 and earning a shot with the major league club. He didn’t stick around, nor did he produce like he did in the minors and after parts of 2 seasons in Tampa Bay he never even approached the Mendoza Line owning a career average with the D-Rays of .167. Very surprising for a guy with a career average in the minors of .313 and a 7-year major league average of .310. I guess he blossomed when he went to Atlanta and took off as a pinch hitter. He batted .313 in 125 games for the Braves last year. Even though he never grew into his talent in Tampa Bay, he was one of my favorites to follow on the farm and I always knew he could be a big league hitter. It sucks that he couldn’t do it in Tampa Bay, but I am glad that the Braves recognize his ability. In 4 seasons with Atlanta he has batted .316, including a .338 mark in 2007. I think he has a shot to be their starting left fielder this year. Anyway, as much as I have always liked him, I never owned a single card of him in a Rays uniform. This is the perfect segue for me to show off my latest package of Blogger Kindness. This box of goodies came to me from Chris Harris from Stale Gum Dot Gum. Apparently even he reads my blog from time to time and had heard what happened to me. Well he sent a really nice sympathy card my way, which made me feel a ton better. He also sent about 300 cards, too. Obviously there were dupes in there, but it amazed me how many cards I needed or in many cases had never seen before. I wanted to post the Matt Diaz cards first, as I had never seen one of him in a D-Rays uniform before. My favorite of the bunch is this 2003 Bowman Heritage-card #185 which shows someone, presumably Diaz, in a catchers mask. This strikes me as really odd because Diaz is an outfielder. That is what the card list him as and aside from a little first base, outfield is the only position he ever played as a professional. Bizarre. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Stale Gum for this amazing box of blogger kindness and I look forward to posting many of them in the very near future. Thanks so much Chris! Go Rays! Troll out.

The Nightmare is Over, The Monkey is Off My Back, I Can Now Sleep at Night Once Again...AKA The Bip is Back!

Does anybody out there remember Bipping? It was all the rage for a while. If ya don't remember, please hop in my blogger time machine with me and flash back to January of 2010. Bipping was a craze that took off like the Macarena and then disappeared just as quickly. When Bippings first began surfacing I felt left out that I hadn’t been bipped and then BAM! I was attacked 3 times within the course of a week. I ended up issuing a couple of Bips myself (in self defense) and then, like I said, it was gone as quickly as it came. The thing is I never posted the first and worst Bipping I ever endured. It happened to me back in December. I was suffering through all kinds of car troubles and was knee deep in the group pack break that wouldn’t go away. I had packages coming in daily and wasn’t able to keep up with opening my mail. I received an oversized envelope from the West Coast, but had to let it sit in my dining room for nearly two weeks before I finally ripped it open. It should have a label that read “perishable fad enclosed”. Even if it had, I would have still waited till long after the joke stopped being funny to tell it. That is just my luck that is how I roll… I am always a day late and a dollar short, it defines who I am. That said, please bear with me while I roll out a blast from the past. I should have titled this post “remember January 2010” because that is how far we are rolling back. When bloggers assaulted other bloggers in the name of the great(?) infielder Leon “Bip” Roberts. I have a tough time remembering what I did yesterday. I certainly can’t remember to bring both a flash drive and my computer to work. I did misplace the memory card with these photos on it for nearly two months, but I can still remember when Bippings were the rage. Even though the fellow blogger who sent this package to me did so with malicious intent, I still feel badly that it has taken so long for me to finally post it. I wasn’t trying to make myself feel like less of a victim waiting for the fad to pass, in fact the issuer of this Bip accomplished their goal because a day has not gone by where I didn’t lay awake in bed wondering how and when I would post this Bipping, what I did with the memory card and why this blogger chose me as a target. Yeah, he is totally in my head. Worse still, as with all other Bippings, on top of the Bip cards, there were a ton of other really awesome cards included in the package. Of course, I can’t post or even acknowledge those cards until this parent post is taken care of. Again, this blogger is in my head. He owns me, I am powerless. He controls what I can and cannot post. He is a cruel master. So often I have begun a post, grabbed for a card to use and realized that card came from THAT PACKAGE. The unposted one, the BIPPING. Well, I will be a slave to you no longer cruel master! I am breaking the chains and reclaiming my freedom. I am posting a Bip package in (late) March and I don’t give a duck. I am a brave man. This is the envelope and this is the card case that was inside of it. It was a gigantic oversized mailer with a large sized hard plastic case in it. There was a tiny card showing through the clear Lucite. I had no suspicions when I opened the envelope. I never expect the worst in people. I opened it innocently and I remember thinking to myself as I noticed the tiny card, “Wow, I have never seen a Rays mini that small”. Little did I know, it was NOT a mini of a Rays player. Oh no. It was an inch high card of the most heinous infielder to play major league baseball. The harbinger of doom, the bearer of bad news, Bip Roberts. This image has haunted me for 2 months. Ever since that evil blogger shipped that package to me and I finally opened it, I have not been able to shake the image. Later that week I was bipped by an Owl. I dealt with that quickly, I posted that attack from that nocturnal bird, I made peace and forgot about it (kind of), but this Bipping has been a monkey on my back since the beginning of this year. I have posted it in my head, I have gotten imaginary closure, but it still returned to haunt me at the very point each night when I was ready to relax and forget the day. That miniature Bip reappeared and hovered over me, taunting, saying mean things about my Mother. I tried to lash back at it, but it was too quick (he was quite a speedy base stealer), but today is the day that I prevail, that I expose this package that has haunted me, the day that I make peace with Bip. Tonight is the night that I take back the night. The night that I expose this evil Bipping blogger and bring everything to light so I will once again feel safe in the dark. Tonight I show you all what I saw that January night. The sender of this awful package was a Bip Roberts fan himself. It came from Rod AKA the self proclaimed King of Leon, the author of the Padrographs blog. Rod had contacted me prior telling me to be on the lookout for a package coming my way. He revealed nothing of the contents in the message. It seemed like a pleasant note and I actually looked forward to receiving the package. Like I said when I saw that tiny card I had assumed that it was a micro mini of Carl Crawford. I never expect the worst in people. I was wrong obviously, it was Bip Roberts taunting me from under a hard plastic shell and when I cracked that shell (opened the box) this is what it held. BIPS!!!! A lot of them. There was a different Bip card for every year I have spent on this earth. I wondered if he calculated that or if it was just a coincidence. Anyway, I am here tonight to finally expose your evil plot to take down me and my blog, to kill me with Bipness, to haunt me with these cards. I plan on sleeping well tonight. I hope you, the fine folks reading and viewing these awful pictures can do the same. Ya got me Rod and I have suffered under your spell for too long. Now I am free! Free at last, free at last! Now I can freely post the amazing, gem mint, razor sharp vintage Hall of Famer cards that I found hidden in between those OTHER cards at included at my leisure. I can also post, one by one, all 93 of the amazing 1986 Larry Fritsch Negro League Cards that you sent and I can free them from being stored with all those OTHER cards. I will start with this shot of Cool Papa Bell screaming back at you, telling you that the monkey is off of my back and you should watch yours! Okay, this flashback to January of 2010 is now over, I feel better, I hope y'all do as well. You can look forward to me showing off the rest of the great stuff he sent, WITHOUT the Bips… Goodbye and goodnight Mr. Roberts, in a weird way I will miss you. Oh, now that this is all out in the open, I feel better and I can finally thank you for the awesome cards...Thanks Padrographs! You rock out loud. Troll out.

A Longoria Reload

I have started and stopped writing this post about 20 times since it came to me 2 weeks ago. I finally scrapped the drafts and I am starting over. This is a Blogger Kindness package from Justin G. of the Tampa Bay Sports Wasteland Blog, Evan Longoria edition. I lost a lot of Longo cards a few weeks back. Nothing too fancy, just a bunch of random cards from 2008-2010. Well, Justin G. came to the rescue and replaced some and hooked me up with some new ones, too. I won’t repost the inserts from 2010 Topps that I have already shown to death, I will stick to cards that I haven’t shown before on here. In no particular order, here is the Longoria Train. No, not THAT one... Starting with 2008 Stadium Club, card #108 with the silver 1st foil stamp on it. I really like this picture. Cocky and classy all at once. Fitting for a young superstar. Next up is an Upper Deck 20th Anniversary insert from 2008 UD. It is card #UDC20-UD77 and it is gold foil gone wild up the side of the card. It is a little gaudy with all the gold, but the up close batting shot and the fact that I hadn’t seen this card before make it a winner for me. From great Upper Deck photography to goofy UD photography, here is a 20th Anniversary Baseball Heroes card, #BHA-3 of Longo. The profile shot carefully avoids his helmet logo and the action shot is small and just blurry enough to not show too much jersey. Even though I have shown it 3 or 4 times before, I like seeing the regular and gold versions of 2010 Topps Town side by side and he sent them both, so why not. My favorite of the bunch was the smallest card in the package. It is a 2008 Allen and Ginter BLACK bordered mini and it is awesome! I don’t plan on chasing the black border parallel of this set, but I don’t mind having a few in my collection, especially this one. Thanks again to Justin G. and the Wasteland for hooking it up! Thanks to all the kind and generous bloggers out there who have done the same. Perhaps I will remember to bring my flash drive with me next time I work a double outside. Go Rays! Troll out.

Blogger Kindness and Vintage Greatness

I have been promising to post the vintage cards that I got from Project 1962 all week. I have already shown off the Roy Face and Larry Doby cards, the Donkey Kong stuff, Rays cards and this amazing Wade Davis autograph, which I am showing off again… Here are some highlights of the rest of the great vintage Project 1962 shared with me. Since the Rays didn’t start out until 1998, they don’t exactly qualify for vintage, so Chris figured out that my pre-Rays favorite team in the Pittsburgh Pirates with the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles tying for second. I have already decided that most of these cards will become cards of the day on my other blog, so these are gonna be quick mentions. I will start with the White Sox cards, represented by their All Star lefty Billy Pierce. This card comes from the ’59 set, a Baseball Thrills card of Billy Pierce. Pierce has 4 cards (I think) in the ’59 set, which is funny because that was an off year for him. Still Pierce was a 7-time All Star, starting the game 3 times. In 10 All Star innings he struck out 12 of the NL’s top batters. Speaking of All Star pitchers, next up is a 1974 Topps card of Orioles lefty Mike Cuellar. Aside from being an All Star, winning the Cy Young Award, a World Series and posting four 20+game win seasons, in the 1970 ALCS Cuellar batted .500 with a homer and 4 RBI. Nothing like an All Star pitcher smacking a grandslam in the playoffs! That’s a complete player! There are a lot of folks who collect Cuellar, including my buddy Wicked Ortega and I hate to step on toes, so he isn't on the poll, but I don’t mind gathering up a few of his cards… The next few cards are gonna be all Pirates starting with the oldest. I think I have mentioned this before, but I LOVE original Bowman cards. As a kid the Bowman cards of the 50’s were cheaper than their Topps counterparts, plus when my Dad was a kid, that was what he collected. Anyway, I don’t have many 1954 color Bowmans, at least not till now. I will start with card #43 of Pirates righty Robert Bartmess Friend. I like any player with a cool nickname and R.B. Friend was known as the Warrior. Although he ended his career with a losing record, he was a Warrior on the mound and battled it out win or lose. He was a 4-time All Star, starting the game twice. He ranks in the top 65 of all time in games started, shutouts and innings pitched. Over his career he led the NL in wins, ERA, shutouts and starts. He was also a part of the Pirates World Championship team of 1960. Whoever owned this card previously obviously didn’t like what the Warrior had to say and tried to silence him, but even without a mouth, his right arm did the talking! Perhaps the most interesting card in the lot is this next one, also from ’54 Bowman, card #203 of Vic Janowicz, also known as Crash (again with the nicknames!). Janowicz was a legendary football player at Ohio State, he won the Heisman Trophy in 1950 and the Buckeyes retired his number 31. Instead of continuing on as football player, Janowicz signed with the Pirates out of Ohio State as one of the original bonus babies. He jumped right to the Pirates and was part of the group of 8 guys who shared the catching duties for the last place Pirates. Baseball didn’t exactly work out for Crash and he returned to the gridiron with the Redskins, giving up baseball after two years. During the 50’s the catcher’s position was always a question mark in Pittsburgh, until they made a trade to bring Smokey Burgess there from Cincinnati. The same trade that also brought them Don Hoak and Harvey Haddix. With an All Star behind the plate and Haddix in the rotation, the Bucs were a more complete team and obviously went on to win it all in 1960. Speaking of 1960 and back to Topps, this is card #20 of reliever Roy Face. I’ve already posted this one, but I wanted to put it up again. The pink background behind his portrait was an odd color choice, but it makes the card look like a refractor, which makes me like it even more. I am gonna end this post with two more key ingredients to the Pirates Worlds Championship teams. Chris sent a bunch of cards of Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski, but I am gonna show off this 1962 Topps card since that is the set that Chris’ blog (Project 1962) focuses on. Of course Maz hit the homer that beat the Yankees and provided the defense that kept the Pirates at the top. Maz is another guy who in the poll for the next player I collect. Like Larry Doby he is a Hall of Famer with some pricey cards, but if you guys pick him, I will chase him... The last card(s) of this post will be of a guy who wasn’t around for the Series in 1960, but led the Bucs to glory in 1971 and again in 1979. Gotta love Pops! As usual, I need to get back to work. Too many great cards and too little time. A huge thanks to Project 1962 for all of these great cards! Thanks to everyone who has sent me packages of blogger kindness. I will get everything posted. More to come tonight, stay tuned! Check out full front and back postings of these and other great vintage cards on the Troll's brother blog, the Nitty Gritty! I know I sound like a broken record, but if you add it to your blogrolls, there will be posts daily and a contest featuring giveaways you won't wanna miss! Go Rays! Troll out.