2012 Panini Triple Play Wantlist

I've made some updates to my 2012 Triple Play Wantlist, and some changes to the formatting as well. Because of this, Blogger isn't letting me post this to a sticky page, so I'm posting this up and linking to it instead. If you have any doubles or extras of this set, drop me a line! I've still got aways to go on completing this sucker! 

Base Set Wantlist 

1 Ian Kennedy, 6 Dan Uggla, 8 Brian Matusz, 9 Matt Wieters, 13 Alfonso Soriano, 15-16, 18 Paul Konerko, 19 Brandon Phillips, 20 Joey Votto, 21 Mat Latos, 24 Grady Sizemore, 26 Todd Helton, 32 Brett Wallace, 34 Alex Gordon, 37 Albert Pujols, 40 Clayton Kershaw, 46 Rickie Weeks, 49 Francisco Liriano, 50 Joe Mauer, 52 David Wright, 53 Ike Davis, 56 Curtis Granderson, 57 Derek Jeter, 58 Jemile Weeks, 60 Yoennis Cespedes, 61 Chase Utley, 64 Andrew McCutchen, 67 Carlos Quentin, 68 Chase Headley, 71 Buster Posey, 72 Tim Lincecum, 73 Dustin Ackley, 74 Felix Hernandez, 76 Carlos Beltran, 81 Evan Longoria, 82 Ian Kinsler

Puzzle Cards Checklist

91-99 Justin Upton

100, 102-108 Starlin Castro

109-110, 112-117 Carlos Lee

118-121, 123-126 Albert Pujols

127-135 Jose Reyes

136-142, 144 Alex Rodriguez

145-146, 148-153 Yoennis Cespedes

154-162 Roy Halladay

163-164, 166-171 Andrew McCutchen

172-180 Orlando Hudson

181-182, 184-188 Buster Posey

190-198 Ichiro

199-207 Matt Holliday

210, 212-216 Evan Longoria

217-225 Josh Hamilton

226-234 Jose Bautista

Focus Checklist

235 Ian Kennedy, 236 Brian McCann, 237 Adam Jones, 238 Dustin Pedroia, 239 Matt Garza, 240 John Danks, 241 Joey Votto, 242 Asdrubal Cabrera, 245 Brett Wallace, 246 Eric Hosmer, 247 Jered Waver, 248 Matt Kemp, 249 Giancarlo Stanton, 251 Justin Morneau, 252 Johan Santana, 253 Derek Jeter, 255 Ryan Howard, 256 Joel Hanrahan, 257 Chase Headley, 258 Tim Lincecum, 259 Felix Hernandez, 261 B.J. Upton, 262 Yu Darvish, 263 Ricky Romero, 264 Steven Strasburg

Baseball 101 Checklist

265 Batters Box, 266 Diamond, 267 Double Play, 268 Home Run, 270 Scoring Runs, 271 Stealing, 272 Tag Play

Hall of Fame Checklist

           

273 Cal Ripken Jr., 274 George Brett, 275 Nolan Ryan, 276 Wade Boggs, 277 Willie Stargell, 278 Bob Feller, 279 Tony Gwynn, 280 Reggie Jackson, 281 Al Kaline, 282 Willie McCovey,

283 Paul Molitor, 284 Joe Morgan

When I Was A Kid Checklist

           

285 Albert Pujols, 286 Derek Jeter, 287 Tim Lincecum, 289 Matt Kemp, 290 Roy Halladay, 291 Justin Verlander, 292 Jacoby Ellsbury, 293 Ichiro

Stickers Checklist

3 Happy Baseball, 4 Catchers Mask, 5 Line Drive, 6 Diving Catch, 8 Manager Arguing, 9 Crash Through Brick Wall, 10 Beanball, 11 Slugger, 14 Albert Pujols, 18 Brian Matusz, 19 Adrian Gonzalez, 20 Paul Konerko, 21 Brandon Phillips, 23 Troy Tulowitzki, 24 Justin Verlander, 25 Alex Gordon, 26 Clayton Kershaw, 28 Joe Mauer, 29 David Wright, 30 Ryan Zimmerman

Real Feel Checklist

295 Real Feel Base, 296 Real Feel Bat, 297 Real Feel Pants, 298 Real Feel Glove, 299 Real Feel Batting Glove, 300 Real Feel Jersey

#CollegeLife

I've mentioned before that I'm in the labyrinthine process of applying and being accepted to (six different) colleges. One thing about this stage is that I get a lot of mail. Today, I received no less than 10 pieces of mail, one of which was a Listia win, and the other 9 of which were various college propaganda. This was a recent mail item that I couldn't resist a blog about, trade post backlog be darned. Here we go.*

DIVE IN 

COLLEGE FOR A WEEKEND (CFAW FOR SHORT, OBVS)

LIBERTY UNIVERSITY NOV 7-10

CLASSES? PSH. WHO SAID THAT WAS PART OF #COLLEGELIFEATLIBERTY? BY THE WAY EVERYBODY, TWEET AT US WITH #COLLEGELIFEATLIBERTY AT LEAST ONCE PER HOUR DURING YOUR VISIT! LET'S GET THIS TRENDING ON TWITTER PEOPLE!

NOT SURE WHAT CLASS TO SIT IN ON? OR JUST TOO BORING? COME AND CHILL IN INNER TUBES ON THE GRASS! THIS IS A COMPLETELY NORMAL AND FORMATIVE PART OF YOUR COLLEGE YEARS

DIDN'T BRING AN INNER TUBE? GEEZ SOMEBODY DIDN'T READ THEIR CFAW INFO PACKET WE MAILED YOU, LIKE TWO WEEKS AGO. STILL WANT AN INNER TUBE? I DON'T KNOW, GO SNEAK UP AND STEAL THAT OTHER GUY'S

HE'S NOT EVEN EXPECTING IT GO STEAL THAT TUBE LIKE A NINJA

SEE YOU'RE ALREADY BEING PREPARED FOR THE REAL WORLD, IT'S ALL "GO STEAL THE OTHER GUY'S INNER TUBE BEFORE SHE DOES." #COMPETITIONATCFAW #FREEMARKET #CAPITALISM

TOLD YOU COLLEGE TEACHES YOU LIFE SKILLS

SO THERE'S ONLY ONE QUESTION LEFT

...

...

...

ARE YOU READY TO DIVE IN?

CFAW 2013

*Bit of a disclaimer: This is in no way a slam on Liberty University or CFAW themselves, which I'm sure are both terrific programs. Consider this post a venting of sorts of the stress borne by a student who has to complete a bogged-down Common Application in less than two weeks.

What do Ozzie Smith, Hank Aaron, and Oscar Gamble have in common?

Yeah, I didn't know either. Until I picked up this book, that is.

Okay, so that's not completely true. Let me explain. I've been reading this book for some writing ideas and terms. Why else would you read I baseball book right? I really didn't know that the three had anything in common until I did some research prompted by author Dave Martinez, who showed me the answer, which formulated the trivia question in the title. 

The answer? All three are members of the "Major League Baseballers from Alabama" club, and Ozzie and Hank (both HOFers) of Martinez' "All-Alabama Team."

I had asked Martinez on a whim if he had any good baseball stories come out of Alabama. He replied, saying this via email, used with permission: 

"To answer your question, I'm sorry I can't really share any stories about Alabama baseball. I'm from California and have never visited the region."

"I will say, however, that I've recently been doing research on the greatest baseball players from every state. While New York, Texas, and California all have great squads, I was most impressed by the All-Alabama Team, which would include: CF Willie Mays (Westfield), RF Hank Aaron (Mobile), 1B Willie McCovey (Mobile), 1B Mule Suttles ([West] Blocton), LF Monte Irvin (Haleburg), LF Billy Williams (LF), SS Ozzie Smith (Mobile), and SS/3B Joe Sewell (Titus). And that’s just among position players. On the mound, you have RHP Satchel Paige (Mobile), RHP Don Sutton (Clio), and RHP Early Wynn (Hartford). Those are all Hall of Famers."

I couldn't resist adding Ozzie Smith, Oscar Gamble (of my Blogger pic props), Virgil Trucks, Jimmy Key, and now-free-agented Timmy Hudson. Also, besides Mule Suttles, the town of West Blocton (near Tuscaloosa) was also the old stomping grounds for Mel Allen, the Yankees broadcaster, and Sammie Lee Hill, a football player from Stillman College (which I wrote an article on last summer)

As an aside, Martinez is also a SABR member, and maintains a website on top of that, which is worth a look. It can be found here: http://www.homerunweb.com/

Thanks to Dave for his help! You learn something every day, and this was definitely mine!

NLDS Post-Game thoughts/Trade with ToppsGuy

Did the Braves really just lose in the first round again?

From Annistonstar.com

Maybe I shouldn't be too shocked about the Braves' loss to the Dodgers Monday night. After all, they're still a very young team that was hit by a lot of injuries...you could say it was just a matter of time before they ran out of gas. Even Chipper Jones harbored no illusions about the Braves before the NLDS; he correctly predicted a series loss in 4 games, and got a team boycott for his first-pitch appearance in return.

One of the teams I'll be mildly rooting for the rest of the way is the Detroit Tigers, due to family-from-Michigan influences. One Tigers fan, ToppsGuy of the blog Baseball Cards and Life, and I made a trade a while back. Here are some of the results on my end:

Minor was the lone winning pitcher of the Dodgers series, and the former Vanderbilt Commodore twirled 6+ innings of 1-run ball. Mike has lowered his ERA each year since debuting in 2010; I think he'll be pretty solid next year.

Thanks to a recent Listia win, I can now play with Wes Helms on the Baseball Advance game (GameBoy Advance, y'all). He tends to strike out more than not, however.

Poorly-scanned Maddux parallel from 1993 Topps. Greg's brother Mike has expressed interest in the Cubs' managerial job. Considering their last two managers are Mike Quade and Dale Sveum, I suppose they could do worse.

 

Back of a Brian Jordan card, on which we learn a piece of obscure sports/teevee trivia; who knew Jordan was a "Young and the Restless" fan? Well, Wikipedia, obviously.

I have literally 7 doubles of this one card. It's getting ripe for a Bipping...

Nice insert card of B-Mac/Bench, albeit a bit grid-looking. Hm.

Ahh! Original and Archived Bob Watson cards! This was not the only Archives card ToppsGuy sent my way.

Yeah, the rest of these are Archives. Do you like how they handled this design? For dual rookie cards, Topps chopped off the other (or two or three other players) to get the one they wanted. 'cause no one really wanted to look at Kevin Pasley anymore.

 You know your facial hair is serious when cutting it off makes news. Could have also been a slow news day, though, too. I'll give you that.

I seriously have way too many Eddie Mathews reprint cards. I'd love it if Topps picked another vintage-card-era player to overproduce. Anytime!

Thanks to ToppsGuy for the card and the trade!