Trade with the Card Raven and Listia Winnings!

Did you buy a lottery ticket this week? I didn't, but next time I might be able to if my state lawmakers get their way. Honestly, I've viewed lotteries as a sort of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-style Golden Ticket chase, for grown-ups. Anyway, rather than buying candy bars, I've spent the early holidays applying for college scholarships, and bidding for cards on Listia. Merry Christmas to you. Here are some of my recent wins.

To begin, here's a nice Dale Murphy relic. Bobby Cox was enshrined in the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee a couple of weeks ago; that's the only chance for Murphy to get in now, and it's an outside shot too. If it weren't for those darn knee injuries, it might have been different.

Speaking of injuries, CBS Sports is now plugging for sketch cards of bizzaro injuries. I think my favorite was Glenallen Hill, who I will now always imagine crashing into a glass table while dreaming about being covered with spiders.

I snagged a card of a young Chipper Jones (in his Bolles Bulldogs high school jersey) and Rondell White, apparently on a spring training field with a makeshift Green Monster (?) in the back.

A couple more Chipper Jones cards in a lot I won...it seems like SI for Kids used to do more baseball card tie-ins a few years ago than they do now. Also, it would be an interesting blog contest idea for someone to collect that Funny Photos set and re-caption all the cards. Just a thought.

And a couple of Panini Triple Play wantlist needs. I still need a ton of cards from this set, if you would like to help me out there.

We're now to the Card Raven's package. For my part, these 2012 Topps minis were gold. Braves cards plus 1987 Topps = gold, in my opinion.

May not be gold, but they do glitter. And (at most) two years after these cards were made, none of these players sit on the Braves roster.

This was one of those 2011 Topps Lineage cloth cards. My guess is Chipper was either batting in some Spring Training game here, judging by the absent seats. 

A Tommy Hanson black border from 2011 Ginter. The bearded redhead was nontendered by the Angels after posting an ERA over 5, making the Hanson-for-Jordan Walden trade last year look pretty decent in retrospect.

Let's play a little, Where are they now? with these guys. Sammons, at last check had had knee problems (like Dale Murphy) and was a catching prospect (like Dale Murphy), so he became a catching coordinator for the Marlins farm system (unlike Dale Murphy). Lillibridge just got picked up, along with Kevin Kouzmanoff (remember him?) off the scrap bin by the Rangers  a week ago.

I'll take numbered cards, especially from sets I don't have any cards from.

This was a 2010 Topps Turkey Red insert. I really don't think Nate McLouth could be called a "Prominent Ballplayer" anymore, as he is on the back of this card. Also, I've never heard any player called a "Prominent Ballplayer" by anything but baseball cards.

Blue and Gold parallels are great too. As a military brat, I'll say these are in honor of the Navy Midshipman, who beat the Army Black Knights Saturday for an unprecedented 12th straight rivalry win. To put the streak in a little perspective, the 12-year span of victories over Army is more than half of all the Navy players' lives.

I'll close out with one of the finest closers the Braves have had in recent history. I've been playing a copy of an old MLB Playstation game the past few weeks, rosters current as of 2001, and I had Smoltz come out to relieve the other day, and I believe he won it. I really hope to see Smoltz in the Hall in 2015.

Thanks to Card Raven and my Listia friends for the cards!

What I learned at Harvard, pt. 2: Tour of Fenway

Don't look now, but the Braves are leading the NL East, with the Nationals 13 games out at the time of this posting. Can they hold the lead? Poor Chipper Jones quit Twitter a couple of weeks ago-what a fine last season this might have been for him!

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Let me start with a P.S. of sorts to my last post. There were a lot of talented writers at the Harvard Journalism Academy; the vast majority were from the greater Boston area. One other writer was not, however, and wrote three articles, one on the front page of our print product. I've added her blog to my blogroll. Give it a look sometime!

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While at Cambridge, I had the chance to visit the park of another first-place Eastern Division team: Fenway Park of the Red Sox. Previously, the closest I had gotten to Fenway was those little bags of outfield dirt they send in their team fan packs. And that dirt's of dubious authenticity too. So what better way to spend a Saturday morning than trying to catch a glimpse of the actual park? Not to mention I hadn't been to an MLB stadium before then....

Rather than taking shots of the stadium facade, I contented myself during the wait for the tour to start by photographing the t-shirt jerseys for sale. At the time I was in town, Peavy was the new pick-up. He'll be starting for the fourth time as a Red Sock tonight, with a 1-1, 5.00 line since the trade.

 I eyed these for a second. But $10 for 17 cards? Meh.

This was amusing. A wall of green monsters!

Most baseball followers have probably seen the Boston bombing memorial jersey on the road with the Sox this season. It's twin is the first display you see walking down into the stadium. As the tour guide we had said, though, it's the kind of memorial you never wanted to see. I thought it was great to see the Red Sox find what I consider a classy way to pay tribute to the lives lost in April.

This was what I saw after walking through the tunnel into the seating section. The field, as you can see, was being prepared for a Justin Timberlake concert later that evening. (Okay, you probably can't tell it was Justin Timberlake specifically...you know what I mean.)

The decades-old grandstand seats were pretty cool, and seemed to be in pretty good condition notwithstanding. That said, the view was a bit worse off than in the other seats.

Okay, the view wasn't that bad.

The next stop? Top of the left-field wall.

The view from there...

And the Green Monster seats! It was a fantastic section, but a bit sour to learn that waiting lists and prices for these are ridiculous.

This was in the Red Sox mini-hall of fame. I overheard more than one person ask if this was the real one, as we walked by plaques of Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and company.

And the press box! This was the assigned seating chart. I found it interesting that the Japanese media in particular had several assigned reporters, but I guess it takes a team to cover the life and career of Koji Uehara. If I were a Japanese sportswriter, I know I'd enjoy hanging out at Fenway, though.

Random chairs above the left field-level seats (?). I thought the little ladder was a nice touch.

Speaking of which, here's a shot of the only MLB ladder in fair territory. If a ball hits it, it's still in play.

And a final photo of the field, as seen from the press box.

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All in all, it was a great trip-I enjoyed Cambridge/Boston, and I know I'll jump at the next chance I get to come back!