Another Chippa for the collection!

I just realized how terrible I am at attaching labels to stuff. Trying to reverse that trend-a lot of bloggers have labels serve as little punchlines to a post-I like that.

Recently Cory from Rectangle Men had a contest for a very shiny Willie Mays card. I was lucky enough to snag the card and Cory even threw in a little bonus:

Now, I realize it's really weird to win a contest and be almost more excited with the bonus card than with the prize, but hey, that's how we do it in Dixie.

I don't like grits, though. Sorry to burst your bubble.

"Medlen" with the Rotation

So we're stuck in an 8-game skid. Fire the manager! No, just kidding. Skids and streaks are part of the game. However, Mike Minor is in deep trouble right now. So the Braves are set to send this guy:

down the road to AAA Gwinnett to become...gasp!...a STARTER! All kidding aside, I think Medlen will do fine. I'm getting increasingly worried about Minor though. It's funny. When Minor and Beachy were rookies, I liked Minor as opposed to Beachy as a starter. Changes this year. I still hope Minor'll bounce back-maybe the next R. A. Dickey?
Good luck, Kris!

Low End Rip- Look out, Dollar Tree!

I still haven't bought any 2012 product from the Topps company-I almost bought some Heritage, but something about Evan Longoria's half-smiling mug on the front of the pack threw me off. Maybe I'll just go with a blaster sometime. Or Archives. Hmm.
  To satisfy the urge to rip some wax, I went to what is probably the lowest-end spot you could go. I am referring of course to the Dollar Tree, that exquisite establishment that, besides baseball cards, hawks 1/2 rolls of duct tape and would-be bestselling books from 2007.

  All for a dollar, or so the sign says.

The purchases: One 2011 S2 pack (of 5 cards)
3 Presstine card packs (20 cards per pack)

  Some don't like Presstine-I kind of do. It has junk wax, but also some cool sets like T205 etc, and at least a few good players in a pack. Let's see what's in these suckers. I used that last word on purpose. (That's called foreshadowing, kids, write it down.)

Pack 1:
1995 UD Collector's Choice Dennis Martinez (Wahoo?)
1990 Fleer Dale Murphy (There it is!)

blah x3...Sabo, Jeff Nelson, Bill Dawley...
2004 Fleer Tradition Stand outs Mark Texeira...Wasn't expecting that!

blah x3...Brad Havens, Keith Miller, Alex Trevino (who???)
1991 Upper Deck Greg Vaughn
1990 Upper Deck Alejandro Pena
2000 Upper Deck Legends Juan Gonzalez (Not expecting that either! Shiny...)
1990 Donruss George Bell
blah x3...Rod Nichols Rey Quinones Carlos Quintana...
2001 Fleer Greats Luis Aparicio (Cool)
2003 Topps T205 Ismael Castro (A Mariner. Fitting to close out the pack)

Pack 2:
2001 Fleer Chart Toppers Steve Sparks (Sounds like a certain Rescue Hero)
2000 Bowman Rookie Card...of Kurt Ainsworth. Huh.

blah x3...Righetti, Greenwell, Erik Hanson...
2009 Allen and Ginter Rich Harden. Nice! Definitely not expecting to pull an A&G card, much less one that was a blogger profile pic for Nathan of Canadian Cardboard!

2003 Victory Solid Hits Vladimir Guerrero
blah x4: Phil Bradley, Jeff Huson, Byrn Smith, Larry Owen
1991 Fisher Price/Donruss Jack McDowell
blah x3: Gullickson, Clay Parker, Lou Whitaker
2000 Topps Finest (Woo!) Vladimir Guerrero (Quite the Vlady pack)

1991 Score 1st Round Draft Pick Expos-Shane Andrews (Nooo...Wrong '91 draft pick!)
1990 Score Pat Combs (This is the weirdest card border/design I have ever seen I think. Wow.)

2003 Topps T205 Bryan P. Bullington (The P stands for Pirate. As in, the Pirates got Pirated by taking Brian Bullington over ***whatever great player was drafted in 2002/3***)

Pack 3:
1991 Score Melido Perez
1994 Ultra Dave Weathers
1991 Score Dave Lapoint
1995 Fleer Carl Everett
2004 Fleer Tradition Robb Quinlan
1991 Fleer Rick Cerone
1991 Fisher Price/Donruss Jack McDowell-Wow, in two packs I get two of the exact same card. Well.

1990 Upper Deck Scott Fletcher
1991 Donruss Rickey Henderson (Free us from the torment of this junk wax, Rickey!)
1993 Topps Draft Pick Jim Rosenbohm
1990 Fleer Gene Larkin
1991 Fleer Jesse Barfield (Blecchh...I threw up.)
1991 Donruss Francisco Oliveras
2004 Fleer Tradition Chipper Jones (At long last! A Chipper! Success!)

2000 Topps Terry Steinbach (He played for Minnesota? Coulda fooled me)
1987 Topps Candy Maldonado
1991 Upper Deck Steve Buechele
2008 Documentary Minnesota Twins Game 49 (Wow.)
1985 Topps Danny Ozark Manager/Giants Team Card

I listed the whole entire pack to give an idea of how crash-and-burn it was. Aside from the Chipper, it was pretty gruesome, unless you happen to be a 1991 junk-wax-aholic, or perhaps a Giants fan. Oh well; two out of three wasn't bad. For three bucks and change, it was less than a gallon of gas. The Chipper made it all worth it, I think. Oh yeah-I also got a 2011 Topps pack with nothing worth mentioning of the 5 cards in the pack. (Read: Mets)

That's that-I'll try to get another low-rip post again; I think I may avoid the $1 Tree next time.

A Minor Concern

Ah, a team post. I've been pushing back doing a Braves post, because, well, when the Orioles and Rays are tied for first in the AL East, you know the season's still finding its footing. Anyhoo, Mike Minor.

Looks sad, doesn't he? You would be pensive too if you had a 7.09 ERA.

Article:
http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-braves-blog/2012/05/17/braves-practicing-patience-with-minor/

Tonight Mike Minor, former Vandy student-athlete vs. Mike Leake, Cincinnati Red whose first pro start was for the Big League ballclub.

Article:

http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/43876/minor-leake-look-to-reverse-fortunes

Here's the beef: Mike Minor is one of many of the Braves young arms. There is certainly no shame for the Braves to send Minor down and call up a Julio Teheran or bring Kris Medlen out of the bullpen. The question for Atlanta, though, is: Is Minor losing his stuff, or does he just need to adjust? Jair Jurrjens, Atlanta's former ace last season, has fallen off the face of the map after getting rocked in AAA for 11 runs. One doesn't have to look back far to see the last Braves starter who was highly-touted, then flamed out: Kenshin Kawakami is back in Japan.

I think personally that Minor will rebound, but perhaps be moved to the BP. I hope he can at least recover, because a young arm in the pen is not something you forego, especially if the alternative is having an inconsistent starter.

Here's to hoping Mike can get things going tonight, and make none of the above a possibility!

Trade with Jack from All Tribe Baseball!

After seeing Jack from All Tribe Baseball's   Trading Box post back in January, I asked Jack if I could do the same kind of thing with a Braves batch of cards. It was very simple. Jack filled the box with Braves cards, and I am now almost done filling it with Indians to send back to him. Ta-da!

Of the 3 team bags full he sent, here was the stuff I liked enought to scan (a laborious and almost physically painful process) Check it out!

The alltime Cardinals pinch-hit leader (Thanks Wikipedia) is enshrined on an 89 Topps mini. Excellent.

Crooked Scan. Drat. Wait-a clean-shaven Smoltz? Huh?

I can definitely see why bloggers are collecting this set. It's very, in a word, pretty.

Just an innocent 2012 Topps card, moving right along...Hey! Get outta my binder! Oh, wait, it's a Chipper...never mind.

Fancy, techy (?) Chipper.

Largest numeral I've seen in a design, on the Maddux...

And an unopened pack of 2003 Donruss Estrellas! (Estrellas sounds like a Sesame Street Spanish word of the day)

-Javier Vasques

-Larry Walker

-Jose Contreras Chromie thing

Pedro Martinez mini poster

A Pujols,

And a Rickey. He is crying because the Red Sox will release him at the end of the 2002 season, forcing him to play for the Newark Bears, then the Dodgers. So much for playing for the Sox in 2004.

So there you have 't. A lotta Braves, and some Spanish words as well! This post has been sponsored by the Letter I,

and the Number 4!

And of course, Jack from All Tribe. Thanks again, Jack, and I will get those cards out to you in the near future.

The Mailman Cometh II- Trade with Marcus from Backstop Cards

Marcus from Backstop cards recently had a "claim 'em" post for the NL teams he had extra cards he was looking to unload in exchange for some Padres. I jumped at it, and Marcus was generous enough to throw in not just his original 50 listed Braves, but also some newly-busted wax as well.The returns for mine (now Marcus') Padres:

Buncha 2012 Heritage:
-Bourn

beachy
Jurrjens
huddy
hanson
o'flaherty
pride of nl freeman & chipper

Buncha 2012 Bowman:
huddy
hanson
beachy

minor
freeman

And a buncha wax from the '90s  to 2011, a bunch more good stuff. 



Youtube videos of Clontz throwing.





I like this design-the Greenville Braves logo is so cool!

 And so there you go. Thanks to Marcus for the trade and looking forward to the next one!

How am I really any better than a pimp?

Courtesy USA Today

Gee, I guess I'm not. Sorry Saban-I may not be an agent, but I am an Auburn fan...

Courtesy Cbssports.com

More to the point of all this, Adam from ARPSmith's Sportscards Obsession is having a contest. I am trying to win said contest by means of pimpage, thus drawing the wrath (albeit imaginary, I hope) of the Nick-tator. Check it out! http://arpsmith44.blogspot.com/2012/05/contest-time-win-some-hof-vintage.html 

Courtesy al.com

Hey, you'd be constantly frustrated too if you suddenly realized coaching in the SEC was making you lose your hair faster than an octogenarian!

Contest from Andrew and New Baseball Have Lists Up!

Alrighty, first things first:

New Have Lists up. A Chipper and Dale Murphy collector, those are my collecting focus, though I will never turn down Braves cards or Bo Jacksons' that I do not have. So. That's that.

Also, check out Andrew's contest!
http://andrewsbaseballcards.blogspot.com/2012/05/contest-contest-contest.html
He needs followers, as do I, but check his blog out first if you're interested in his free contest loot!

That's all for now!

White Sox...Baseball Cards?!?

Signed the little brother up for the (free) Chicago White Sox Kids Club for this year. I think I sent in the request in February or sometime then. Just yestiddy, though, we received a packet in the mail from the Sox. When asked if he wanted the swag, my brother gave a conclusive "no." It had some interesting things, actually, like this Paul Konerko "Fathead" sticker thing. The Sox logo and kids club logo are also stickers.

A membership certificate "signed" by Southpaw, the White Sox mascot...

Some ticket vouchers for nosebleed seats at a White Sox home game, and a "Take a stand against Bullying" postcard....

Oh yeah, and some eyeblack stickers. Don't wear those for NCAA Football, though, kids!

A flyer for the White Sox and Bulls Summer Camps, aka "Jerry Reinsdorf Little League pro day."

But here's the real goody. A White Sox sticker page! Think 2012 Topps stickers, but a team issued set of players! (They're small in comparison to cards, too.) And check out the design!



VS.

1987 Donruss, anyone?! The design used for the stickers is actually a nice spin-off, I think. Sharp team colors, and a conspicuous absence of that 1980's look of red, white, and...navy? Cool stuff.

So that's that. Wouldn't find this in a fan pack! Definitely some cool stuff, and hey, who would've known there's a throwback team set that's not from a Topps year design?

Pimpin' ain't Easy...

But someone's gotta do it!

http://bapple2286.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/giveaway-time-thanks-for-the-hits-10-winners-will-be-chosen/

AWESOME Contest from Brian over at the site! Check it owt!

The Mailman Cometh: Trade, Part One, with Nachos Grande!

Chris from Nachos Grande volunteered to help me out with my quickly shrinking 1987 Topps Wantlist. If you want to help out, I'm missing one rookie card of a certain Pittsburgh Pirate...hint, hint...

I owe you one, though, Chris-I'm working on a return package!

Some of the cards:

 How have I never heard of Bryan Clutterbuck?!? That is Awesome. Capital A.

 Kirby!!!

 Who wears those ugly shirts except for little 80s kids and...oh wait, sorry Mr. Fregosi!

Obligatory Brave: Andres Thomas

Wantlist Update coming soon! Thanks again Chris!

Mail Time! Free Cards from Topher!

Topher over at Crackin' Wax has had a free card offer running for his 2012 Topps cards. Nothing to sneeze at, either, and for just 2 stamps, I received these in the mail!

2012 Gypsy Queen
Future Stars Freddie Freeman

Base Freddie Freeman
Brian McCann
Chipper Jones (Walk-off wins never hurt one's legacy, even if they are May games!)
Shin-soo Choo
Carlos Santana (Because the Braves are not the only Native American-named team I collect! I kid-Indians are for a pending trade.)

2012 Topps Freddie Freeman (I am not collecting this set, I am not collecting this set, I am not collecting this set...)

2012 Heritage
Jhonny Peralta (If he ever changes his name to Pheralta, I will hate him so much. As if Jhonny wasn't enough. Someday, Jhonny Peralta, Giancarlo Stanton, and Coco Crisp will all play together as pseudo-punishment for giving official game scorers habitual fits of rage)

Chase Headley (I do have a healthy liking for the Padres...)

Varsity Trading Cards bonus (Ooo!) card: Cole O'Heron Caledonia Warriors (Are high school players allowed chewing tobacco? Or worse, is O'Heron mimicking a certain Dan Uggla, or even Ian Kennedy? Ay!)

Cool cards! Thanks Topher for letting me snag some wax!