Saturday, December 31, 2016

Holiday Pack

I caved and bought a Holiday pack when I was at Walmart this week.. 

I'm amazed they had them here, so I had to buy one.. 



I went through Series 1 and Series 2 and Update without getting a Bautista.. The first pack from the Holiday box and I get this one.. 


The Wade Davis is a sparkly parallel.. 



The Top three are the glitter art projects.. 



The Stro Show in the Snow! 






This is a glitter art project as well.. 

Each box has an autograph, relic, or auto relic in them.. Let's see what I got..

















Yep.. Mr Chapman.. 

So that's it for 2016.. I'll be back in 2017.. :) 

Friday, December 30, 2016

Repack Goodness??

I bought another one of those repacks with an autograph and relic card in them. It also had three packs, including a "fat pack" 

So let's see what I got..


2008 Topps Chrome. There are four cards in the pack. These are the four I got. 


More of the Leaf Babe Ruth set. These are interesting, but really something I don't think I'd collect.


These have been covered quite a bit elsewhere so I won't say much about the style of the card or the fact that some of these guys really don't come close to representing the player depicted. 

The Adrian Gonzalez looks odd to me.. Almost Sumo-Wrestler like.. 


Here we have some disembodied torsos to go along with glamour photos and some baseball poses. 

In a way, some of these look like they would be at home in some of the cartoons on the Cartoon Network.


Cano looks like a reject from Archer here.. 



More interesting ones.. 

 
Does Mr Castro look like Mr Castro in this card?
Starlin looks really odd.. I don't know. 




Finally, we reach the end of the Triple Play cards.. Including... A Triple Play Card.. 
We also have RA Dickey and an Alex Gordon that's possibly trying to steal my soul.. 


Look at that... Just... Staring... Staring a hole through the holder of the card... 


Those dead eyes looking deep into your soul... 
I.... I can't look away......


Ok... Now we're past the Alex Gordon card... This was the autograph I received.. 
Since Bowman doesn't seem to like first names, I had to look at the back to find out Sanchez's name is Victor. 


And apparently this Danny Espinosa relic is also a Rookie Card.. 

In general, not the best of packs. But at the same time, I enjoyed opening different product I don't normally get a chance to open.. 

If anyone sees anything they want/need, let me know.. We can work something out.. 

And just remember... 


Alex Gordon is watching... 






Thursday, December 29, 2016

Trade Bait: Collect A Books Football

I've written about the existence of these in the pile of stuff I bought a couple months ago but until now have been more interested in trying to figure out just what I have.. 

I referenced the Football ones when I wrote about the baseball Collect a Books sets I have. Today, I'm putting the Football ones up for trade, as I really have no use for them. 


The first three of the next photo were included in Series 1. Series 1 I have two copies of each except the Bernie Kosar.



The last 6 of the second photo and the third photo I have one copy of, and were from Series 2. 

As a person who really wasn't into football and really only semi-started watching this year I have to say there are quite a few names I recognize here: William Perry, John Elway, Troy Aikman, Dan Marino, Lawrence Taylor, Barry Sanders and Jerry Rice. 



Sunday, December 25, 2016

The Obligatory Christmas Post

Well, it's December 25th.. 

I'll add in the obligatory Merry Christmas. 

This time of year has never really been my favourite as I start thinking about the passage of time and get depressed. That's been just made worse the last two years with the divorce and being alone on Christmas. 

No cards to show or anything today. I haven't been in the mood to look at anything other than the inside of my eyelids.

(My friend did get me a bunch of 2016 Update from Dollar Tree so I DID get cards...)

Sorry for being a downer on this day, but I hope you all had a great one.. 


Friday, December 23, 2016

1990 Topps Debut 89

In one of the more odd sets put out Topps made a set of players who made their Major League Debuts in 1989 for 1990. 

There are some decent players featured in this set: Ken Griffey Jr, Kevin Appier, Steve Finley, Larry Walker, and Jim Abbott to name a few. 

Of course, my interest is in the guys who didn't quite stick around.. 


His Major League career lasted 29 games between 1989-1990. 
He played in the minors until 1992 when he went to work with his father in law at a pipe fabrication business. 
The Brewers invited him to be a replacement player during the strike, and when the strike ended, he retired back to his job in Houston. 


Blaine pitched in 7 games between 1989-1991 for the Mets. 
After retiring in 1997, he went into coaching, acting as the pitching coach for Bowie since 2013. 


Brian Brady played 2 games for the Angels in 1989. 
He was out of baseball after the 1990 season. 


Dick Scott played in 3 games for Oakland in 1989. 
He finished his career in 1990 with Tacoma and went into coaching. 
He was a minor league manager, a scout, Director of Player Development, and in 2015, Bench Coach for the Mets. 


Jeff Datz played in 7 games for the Tigers in 1989. 
Datz finished his playing career in 1990 with Columbus before going into coaching and is scouting for the Yankees.


Jeff Wetherby played 52 games for the Braves in 1989.
His playing career ended in 1992 with the Calgary Cannons and at last count, was scouting. 


Joe Skalski pitched  in 2 games for the Indians in 1989.
He finished his playing career in 1990 with Colorado Springs. 



Kevin Batiste played in 6 games for the Blue Jays in 1989. 
He finished his career with the Greenville Braves in 1990. 


Larry Arndt played in 2 games for the Athletics in 1989. 
His playing career ended in 1990 with Tacoma. 
Sadly, Arndt passed away in 2014. 


LaVel Freeman played in 2 games for the Brewers in 1989. 
His playing career ended in 1990 with the Toledo Mud Hens. 
A quick look did not bring up anything for his post baseball career.


Marcus Lawton played in 10 games for the Yankees in 1989. 
He finished his career with Memphis in 1992. 
There really isn't much information for his post career, though there is a fair bit for his younger brother Matt.. 


Mickey Weston played in 23 games from 1989-1993 for the Orioles, Jays, Mets, and Phillies. 
He finished his career with the Charlotte Knights in 1996. 
He currently ministers to youth through baseball and serves as the chaplain for the White Sox. 



Pete Dalena played in 5 games for the Indians in 1989. 
His playing career ended in 1990, split between Vancouver and Portland.
Post career, he taught physical education. 


Randy Nosek played in 5 games between 1989-1990 for the Tigers.
His playing career ended in 1991 with the Toledo Mud Hens. 



Tom Magrann played in 9 games for the Indians in 1989.
His playing career ended in 1991, split between New Britain, Carolina, Pawtucket, and Buffalo.
Post playing, he had done some coaching at the collegiate level. 


Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Jays Every Night

A while ago I made a comment on Baseball Every Night that he had some Jays for trade that I needed. 

I got them in the mail today and it's nice to strike some of these off the need lists. 



Marco Estrada had one of those years that caught many by surprise. He ended up second in WHIP for the 2015 season. He ended up 6th in WHIP this season just passed. 


A trio here. Kevin Pillar, who is the latest that falls in the line of "2/3 of the world is covered by water.. The other third is covered by..." Now, part of that may be bias from watching him every night but there should be a Gold Glove on his mantle. 
Michael Saunders had a breakout half season before falling to Earth the second half of the season. He's currently a Free Agent and, while I hope the Jays bring him back for relatively cheap, I also don't know if he fits in their plans. 
John Axford is here because he's Canadian. 


The Elephant in the room... Until Now... I did not have this card.. I finally own a copy!


A Domonic Brown parallel. Really what this card does is make me want Honeycomb cereal. 
The scan of this one isn't the best, as you can't read his name and barely can see the team logo.. 


Finally Joe Biagini.. The Rule 5 draft pickup by the Jays last year that turned into a revelation in the bullpen. He's also rather entertaining off the field. 

Over the course of the season, Biagini and Barry Davis, one of the Sportsnet Jays reporters, had developed an odd relationship. 



This was in Spring Training when he was trying to make the team.. 



Various things including his consideration of being on Twitter.. 

And finally: 



Barry Davis' tribute song to Joe Biagini..