The Giveaway Giveaway

Here we go, the moment you've been waiting for all weekend.  More likely, most of you forgot about it the second you entered the contest, but I digress.

These are the cards I got in my final shipment from the Diamond Giveaway.  I could go on and on about how I'll miss the Giveaway and how much the Golden Giveaway sucks, but I guess the fun couldn't go on forever.  If you've been dealing with the Giveaway at all in the last few months, you know trading got to be a huge ordeal as most people tried to consolidate many of their newer cards into vintage.  I tried it as well, but got very few takers.  I don't think I did one trade the last 2 months. Even though it's all over, I won't complain too much since I did get one of the 60 rings.  That's all behind us now so let's just move along.

As we go along, I'll mention anything that's contest related, but for starters, there were 23 of you that got bonus entries for answering all three parts of the contest.

1995 Rusty Greer.  Normally I wouldn't have gotten this shipped, but my son wanted it and I didn't have to leave any vintage cards in my portfolio to get it.  On the plus side, it's one of my favorite Rangers and a pretty cool shot.  Senators/Rangers count: 1.  The cardhobbyist guessed Greer as one of the players I received so he gets an entry in the contest.

1978 Johnny Oates.  I traded for this Oates card in an effort to acquire all of his cards as a player.  I met Oates just prior to his first season as a Rangers manager and got a ball signed by him.  He was very nice and led the Rangers to their only post season appearances prior to 2010.  He was a catcher too so that doesn't hurt.

1977 Johnny Oates.  Mark another one off the non-existent want list.  I'm moderately confused by this photo.  The odd post and fence placement down the right field line is giving me a headache.

1976 Tom Grieve.  This is the second '76 Grieve I've gotten from the Giveaway.  It'll go in the binder (right...) and the other one will be going off for a TTM request.  Senators/Rangers count: 2.  Richard Nebe Jr. and Night Owl both selected Grieve as one of the players I got so they get an entry in the contest.

1976 Walt Williams.  I traded for this card.  I've told the story before, but as a kid, my best friend and I traded this card back and forth at least 20 times.  Eventually, he had it and somehow found out that Williams was playing in a softball game near our town and got it autographed.  I never got it again.  Not that one anyway.  This is the 2nd one I've gotten from the Diamond Giveaway.

1976 Johnny Oates.   You should be sensing a theme at this point.

1973 Bill Parsons.  I've been toying with the idea of collecting the '73 set for awhile now.  I'm bored with modern stuff right now so it only makes sense to go after something vintage.  I love this photo and quirky photos are a '73 Topps staple.  This shipment contained 12 1973 cards.

1973 Tom McCraw.   I like these action photos, even if the designer got a little crazy with the cropping.

1973 Billy Champion.  That is some awful airbrushing.  I think a Topps executive brought his 6 year old son to work one day and he got loose in the art department.

1973 Chris Speier.  '73 Topps has some great play at the plate cards and this is one of the best.  I ended up getting one of these with each shipment this year even though it was almost impossible to get anyone to trade this card.

1973 Fred Gladding.  This photo is all kinds of busy.  People in the background, maybe waiting for an autograph, a cop/security guard protecting the rail and Gladding pretending to pitch in that awful warm up jacket.  He looks awkward, but I like the logo on the cap.

1973 Jim Breazeale.  Night Owl got one of these in his Giveaway package too.  Like his, mine is not in very good shape.  It has a bad crease all the way across the bottom, just above his name and cutting the shadowman in half.  Most of my cards were in remarkably good shape, with this one be the most notable exception.

1973 Fred Norman.  The complete absence of fans makes this an awesome card.

1973 Johnny Oates.  Ah, back to the theme.  I traded for this one and I think I gave up 30 cards, not one of them older than 1988.  Winner!

1973 Larry Gura.  I unlocked this one myself.  Even Gura isn't impressed.

1973 Paul Splittorff.  I think I got one of these in my first shipment too.  I like how his photo almost matches the silhouette exactly.

1973 Pete Richert.  I don't know if that cap is airbrushed, but it almost looks like they photoshopped the entire cap onto his head.

1973 Ted Abernathy.  Whoa, Ted is about to slide off the ball field.  I thought only 1975 Topps had slanting that noticeable.

1970 Buddy Bradford.  I know you were getting tired of all those '73s anyway, so here's a nice, bland 1970 card.  Sometimes I get mad at Topps for making such a boring design for my birth year, but it could be worse, I could have been born in 1990.

1964 John Roseboro.  Now we're talking.  I made a bazillion trade offers on the Giveaway site.  I usually looked for old Senators or catchers to make offers for and one of the few successful trades garnered me this nice Roseboro.  The corners are a little dinged, but it's a great card.

1963 Lee Walls.  How about those glasses?

1961 Bennie Daniels.  Traded for it.  Senators/Rangers count: 3.

1960 Steve Korcheck.  Traded for it.  I know it's not the right Senators team, but it still counts.  He's a catcher too so there's that.  Senators/Rangers count: 4.

1959 Dutch Dotterer.  Catcher...check.  Vintage greatness...check.  What else do you need?

1959 Tex Clevenger.  The final card, which means that The Lost Collector, CommishBob, Richard Nebe Jr. and arpsmith get an entry for guessing the year of my oldest card.  I unlocked this one myself.  I tried repeatedly to trade for a 1956 play at the plate card I didn't already have, but no one was buying.  Senators/Rangers final count: 5.   That means Simons44 gets an entry in the contest for guessing the right number of Senators/Rangers.

Taking into account the 4 people who got the oldest card, the 1 person who got the number of Senators/Rangers, the 3 people who guessed one of the players I got AND the 23 people who entered all three parts of the contest, I randomize 31 names.

Congrats to Chunter who runs the Chipp 'n' Dale blog.  Many thanks to everyone for playing along for July.  Chunter, send me your address and I'll get you a prize out as soon as I get some Ginter!