Things Are Heating Up...

...with my pursuit of the 2003 Topps set! Thanks to Bert of blog Swing And A Pop-Up and Johnny of the eponymous Johnny's Trading Spot, I've gotten a bunch of cards closer to finishing the decade-old set. I've since freshened up my wantlist to reflect that. For real, this set is so old most of the players are retired, and the Oakland A's sported the above logo on their caps!

Art Howe, of Moneyball fame, was one such Athletic. If you zoom in very closely, you might make out the blazing elephant logo. Perhaps the only major league manager to be played by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in a movie, Howe did not manage the A's in '03, leaving instead to skipper the Mets for two years and work as a bench coach for the Phillies and Rangers until 2008.

Justice was also on the Moneyball team recounted in Michael Lewis' book. Incidentally, the guy who played him in the movie was in the Braves' system along with Justice back in the '90s.

 2003 would be the only year from 1990 to 2008 that Maddux did not win a Gold Glove.

Another example of fun headgear! The Padres have worn some sort of camo uniforms since 2000. The full 2003 camo uniform looks like this.

I would love to meet a self-described Taggert Bozied supercollector one day. A Xavier Nady SC would be fun to meet too.

 Loving this.

I'll be as happy as Vladdy when I finally finish off this set!

Thanks again to John and Bert! If you want to help me out with this set, check out my wantlist  (and perhaps my for-trade list) and shoot me an email about a trade!

Cards from Baseball Dad!

 

Awhile back I claimed a card in Jack of All Tribe Baseball's card giveaway. In addition to my claimed card (an Astros Toy's-R-Us parallel) Jack generously threw in a bunch of set needs. And here they be:

 First, a bunch of cards off my 2012 Panini Triple Play set. I'm still working on this-find my wantlist here.

Also some cards for my 2003 Topps set. Here's an Aaron Boone Reds card. Do any bloggers collect autograph signing cards like these?

Nice submarine delivery, Chad. Nice turtleneck too, by the way.

Here we get into some overlap with my David Eckstein PC. If anyone has a copy of this card, I'd take one for the PC and keep this one in the set.

You don't see this pose very often on a card...if this shot was taken at Coors field though, It couldn't have been a rare occurrence.

 Jerry looks too young to be a manager-kids these days...

 

And a trio of Braves to finish it off. I don't know how I could not like that throwback uniform Smoltzie is wearing. Interestingly, it doesn't look like Bobby Cox has had any cards since 2010, according to the venerable Trading Card Database. Just wait till Bobby's eligible for the Hall of Fame next year; Panini will be churning out unlicensed cards of him like there's no tomorrow.

So there you have it. Thanks so much to Jack, and I look forward to sending you many Indian cards in the future!