Monday, October 22, 2012

Dameyune Craig Fan Contest

Just kidding-it's actually a Jay Barker Fan's contest that's going on right now-check it out! Plenty of baseball card-like prizes going over there!

You could win!

So get out there and do it!
http://jaybarkerfan.blogspot.ca/2012/10/free-card-friday_19.html

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Hey, Look: I Made A Trade This Big!

Pretty sweet, no?
Weston of Fantastic Catch and I completed a trade not-so-recently. This was partly some Group Break stuff, and partly some trade stuff from Weston. He's a great trader, and his blog Fantastic Catch is definitely worth a read.
These were some 2006 Upper Deck Ovation cards from the break. It's been said that these cards are very heavily embossed. They are.
But I hadn't seen the backs before, so now you can! I've always appreciated cards with different front and back photos.
This was a pretty cool card off Weston's Trade Bait page, and I will certainly give it a nice spot in the Braves binder!
This was one of several TTM doubles that Weston graciously sent me. This Jaso'll help fill my PC out too...
This is an Upper Deck First Edition Update (breath) David Eckstein.
A cool Chipper Jones card. I always thought it was so different how for the Spring Training shots, instead of bleachers and hot dog vendors, you have the omnipresent pine/palm trees in the background.
 Die-Cut Crime Dog...
 Followed by a Mad Dog.
Javier Lopez tagging out one Dante Powell on a 1998 Upper Deck card. Dante, interestingly enough, is listed on Baseball Reference as an outfielder and pinch runner. He only played a handful of games in his career spanning 5 years.
 Some Chippa!
 And some shiny Prado!
Topped off with some nice Topps inserts of ol' Hank. Thanks so much for the trade, Weston-looking forward to the next one!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

"Hey, Take My Cards!" Results

Woohoo!!!

Tim of Home of the Toddfather and great reader Brian were the two claimers of the cards I put up on the block. Trusty Random.org is here to choose a winner. We'll go three times. Winner needs to send me their address-my contact information is in my Blogger profile. Good luck and here we go:

Randomized once...Tim
Randomized twice...Brian
Randomized thrice, for the win...Tim!!!




Congrats Tim, and I will try to get your package out to you ASAP after you send me your address. Thanks to all for commenting, and hey, this means I'm one stack of cards closer to the ever-elusive pinnacle of organization!

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Hey, Take My Cards! ***NOW CLOSED***



So, all four divisional series are still running as of 10/11, but is that any reason not to talk about free agency?
No disrespect to any of the fans of the teams still in, but wouldn't you say free agents don't get enough discussion time on, say, Sportscenter, BleacherReport, et al? You do???

The Braves will be needing a third baseman to replace Jones. The um, list of free agent third basemen (excluding those with options-looking at you, Mr. Wright) is not too rich:  

-Geoff Blum (Blum will be a ripe 40 years old next spring.)
-Miguel Cairo (He of the sparkling .187 BA this past year)
-Eric Chavez
-Mark DeRosa (Mark, a former Brave, hasn't been an everyday player since 2009 and hit one point better than Miguel Cairo this year as a bench player for the Nats)
-Scott Rolen

-Kevin Kouzmanoff (The second paragraph of Kouzmanoff's Wiki entry begins with, "Kouzmanoff had trouble with various sports in high school..." Kouzmanoff has toiled in the minors this year)
-Placido Polanco (When googling Polanco, the second google search option from the top, after "placido polanco stats," is "placido polanco head".)


Placido wonders: Why the commotion about my head, anyway?


So...Martin Prado will, likely, come over from left to replace Chipper in the coming year. Prado has been one of the players for the Braves that has been consistently good-even if not All-Star quality every year. I'm no stat-head, but it's worth something in my book that Prado has hit .300 three out of the four years he's been a Braves regular, whatever position he plays.

In the meantime of such hot stove talk, however...
 This is some retail wax I bought a while back. 2006 Upper Deck series 2.
I've had a number of these UD cards taking up space in my collecting area too long. If anyone is interested, the cards posted here can be yours.
Just leave a comment below-if you take one, you must take them all.
If no one claims, these go into trade packages like I've been trying to sneak them in up to now.
Say what you will about the design; the photos aren't bad. Oh, for the days of 900+ card sets, right?
They're waiting for you! Like some other blogs do, if more than one commenter responds before the end of the week, I'll random off the cards to those who have commented for them. You might want to know the card numbers, too: #'s 531, 547, 651, 659, 683, 696, 709, 733, 765, 789, 839, 847, 857, 879, 912,  ATL-23, ATL-30.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Well, That Was Quick...


Well, Chipper Jones is officially retired. Wasn't sure what to do for this post. I mean, I could have posted all of Chipper's Rookie cards I own, and reminisce, or post all the Chipper cards I have received and not scanned in trade packages recently, and thus kill two birds with one rock.

But that wouldn't be right. Partly because the Cardboard Junkie already did this, and partly because I'm afraid my anylasis would come off as incomplete and weird. So, obviously, I'm going to write about Barry Jones. (Duh!)
I promised earlier to poke a little bit at my more humorous 1987 Topps cards. Where better to start than with this Barry Jones? Pretty sure this Jones and Chipper got confused for each other a lot in like, the minors or something.

This is probably how that went down:

Chipper: Barry, come on, we have a game in, like, five minutes.
Barry: Geez, Chip, I'm 'graphing for the fans!
Chipper: 'Graphing?
Barry: Yeah. (Ends signature with flourish)
Chipper: Is this like major league slang or something? Like when you talk about getting steaks every night?
Barry: Uh, sure. Whatever. (Glances into the crowd for any more fans wanting his autograph)
Chipper: I'm pretty sure we need to head in now. Unless you need to further validate your existence by doing this.
Barry: But I do.
Chipper: Come again?
Barry: Must...sign...more...
Chipper: Barry...
Barry: (Begins drooling)
Chipper: (To self) This is officially a problem.
Barry: (Stares into space)
Chipper: Hey, batboy, go buy a program or something-quick!
Batboy: Will you pay me back?
Chipper: Barry'll get you back.

Batboy leaves, returns with program

Chipper: (Stuffs program into Barry's hands) Pen, pen, where is a pen?! We need to start!!!
Barry: Uhhhhh.....

Barry signs program 3 times, the third time spelling his name "Barrett Claudius, Esq."



Chipper: Barry, speak to me!
Barry: What, WHAT???
Chipper: Pretty sure you just came out of a signing coma. You had all the signs: low blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, rapid breathing, delirium...
Barry: I was just dehydrated.
Chipper: Whatever.
Barry: Why did I sign my name "Barrett Claudius?"
Chipper: I don't know, why did you sign your name "Barrett Claudius?"
Barry: You know, let's just start the game.

Game commences. Barry pitches 1 inning, leaves game after falling off mound five times in a row.
Chipper Jones replaces him in lineup. Gets team's only 4 hits for first time since Billy Williams in 1969. Becomes superstar, future Hall of Famer. Has blogs started about him, but not about him, just cardboard pictures of him. The end.



That felt good. Baseball cards hold a untold wealth of knowledge, folks.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

End Of Regulation Play

From CBS News:

PITTSBURGH -- "The storybook ending for Chipper Jones would have been putting a fastball into the Allegheny River.
At age 40, however, Jones doesn't try to mash the baseball so much as massage it. Instead, the Atlanta Braves third baseman had to settle for bookending his 19-year career with pinch-hit singles.
Jones rapped an A.J. Burnett pitch to right field in his final regular-season at-bat and the Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-0 on Wednesday.
"I'd like to thank A.J. for coming right at me," Jones said with a laugh after collecting the 2,726th and final regular-season hit of his 19-year career.
Jones entered as a pinch hitter in the sixth. Batting left-handed, he took the first pitch he saw from Burnett and laced it to the outfield, proving a nice bit of symmetry. Jones singled in the first at-bat of his career against Cincinnati on Sept. 14, 1993. "I got to go out the same way I came in," Jones said."

So much for the last regular-season game. Let's hear it for the play...in-game to the playoffs!?!