Sigh...

How many days until pitchers and catchers report?

I know, I know, I'll watch the playoffs and World Series, but still...

World Series Crack

I'm not above pimping a contest now and then.

Cynical Buddha over at Collector's Crack is holding his annual World Series contest.

Go get entered.

Now.

Every game matters

The Major League baseball season is 162 games.  That is NOT breaking news to most of you.

I'm here to tell you, every single game matters.  Every.  Single.  Game.

Ask the Rangers who somehow managed to win the last 7 games of the season to force a 163rd game. They must now play, and win, the play in with Tampa Bay to qualify for the Wild Card play in to play...someone.

The Rangers are now reminded that every single game matters.  Any one of their 19 one run losses going the other way could have prevented game 163.  Eleven shutouts didn't help them avoid one more with Tampa. Just one less 1-0 shutout (they suffered 4 of those) could have made the difference.   In September alone the Rangers suffered seven one run losses and two 1-0 shutouts.

Everyone always says "It's just one game, we'll get 'em tomorrow."  That BS.  Those 2 one run losses in April mattered.  Those 4 one run losses in May mattered.

Every single game matters.  If they didn't, the teams wouldn't play them.

My all-time favorite player isn't well liked by many apparently.  He may have been a shrill voiced prick.  He may have been a douchebag to a douchebag writer.  (Thanks to Night Owl for that link.)  Will Clark knew that every game was important.  He took losses in April personally.  He didn't take kindly to teammates half-assing it out on the field.  He screamed, he hollered, he cussed.  He was intense.

He knew that every game mattered.

That's why I miss Will Clark.

(Thankfully, the Rangers played the Angels and Astros so many times this year.  The 32-6 record against those teams was the difference.)

How much did I spend at the "candy" store?

I finally finished scanning cards from my trip to the former card shop owner's house.  I scanned way too many so this will be picture heavy.  Maybe that makes up for all those pic-less posts I've had in the past.

Here is that pic I showed the other day.

Let's just start with the binder. It had three pages.

These are 1999 Upper Deck Century Legends Memorable Shots.  They have a lot of silver foil on them and it gets in the way of some of the photos.  I've never seen any of these before.

The second page had the All Century Team from the same set.  The team is represented on the upper right, but not all the cards were in the binder.  It's missing Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt, Ernie Banks, Johnny Bench and Cy Young.

The last page in the binder had the Epic Milestones insert set.  A partial set at least.

Binder cost with cards:  $1.00

Not too shabby.

The next two cards don't fall into the parameters of my Rangers collection, but I couldn't pass them up.  The 1960 Topps Hank Aaron was in a binder with a bunch of other vintage Aarons.  I noticed it looked a little odd and then it hit me: someone trimmed the edges of this card.  The corners are very sharp and the card is just a bit smaller than it should be. 

Trimmed 1960 Topps Hank Aaron: $1.00

I didn't even really ask about this 2001 UD Legengds Willie Mays bat card, but he made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

2001 Willie Mays bat card: $1.00

I was happy to run across these 4 Rangers autos.  Even if it's Chris Howard, Mark Brandenburg, Warren Newson and Lou Frazier.

Lot of 4 1996 Leaf Rangers autos: $1.00

The rest of these cards didn't have individual prices.  He just gave me a price for the lot.  I'm not going to go into too much detail about what's here.  I just wanted to show off a few cards.

These came tins of Donruss Preferred.  I got one of the empty tins with Juan Gonzalez and Mark McGwire. The Pudge is #1217/1996.

Silver and Bronze Juandos.

These two have actual coins in the cards.

Got a whole bunch of these Hall Of Fame cards.

These Gold Label cards are some of the most beautiful (yea, I said beautiful) cards I've ever seen.

Oooooh, real metal.

Serial numbered Nolan goodness.

Lots of gold Rangers.

Shiny Rangers.

Knuckleballin' Rangers.

And a whole stack of these cards.

In addition to the cards above, I got 73 other Rangers and 86 from other teams.

The grand total was a whopping $12.50.  That's a pretty good haul for the price of a discounted blaster.

That means the winner of the contest was Need More Cardboard with his guess of $12.

Thanks for playing along and fear not dear readers, I plan on picking up plenty of tradebait as long as I can keep the shopping sprees going.

Mailing it in...last chance at the unpublicized contest

I hate mailing in a post, but I'm sick and I've been working so much overtime lately that I can barely see straight.

I didn't get a chance to scan the cards I picked up from a former shop owner, but I should get that done today so I can show some tomorrow.

That means you can still enter the contest here.

I still feel bad about that Tigers post too....

Tiger mania

Normally it's Dodger cards that I can't keep in stock for trading, but lately it's been Tigers.

Hot Corner Cards is the latest Detroit collector to send over a great package.

Normally I'd do a witty (in my own mind) write up for these cards.  You'd all be chuckling softly as you read and then I'd hit you with some blogger gold to finish up.  It appears Mr. Young up there is dubious of my ability to elicit chuckles from the reader.  He's probably right.

With that, I'll just tell Jeff how much I appreciate these great Rangers.  Thanks Hot Corner Cards!

Like a kid in a candy store

A few months ago I mentioned that I ran into a guy who used to own one of the two card shops I frequented years ago.  He and I had a good chat and he told me he had closed his shop and had all his inventory at his home.  He said I could come by anytime and rummage through boxes to try to find Rangers to fill my want lists.

Fast forward to last Saturday and guess what?  I ran into him again and we made plans to meet at his house on Tuesday.  That was yesterday.

Imagine walking into a small warehouse stuffed with 5000 count boxes, binders full of sets, binders full of autographs, binders full of...well, full of everything.  Imagine walking into a house that has three rooms that look like an unorganized, messy card shop.

Sounds fun, doesn't it?

Well, it was.  I only had an hour or so to peruse stuff and he spent a good portion of that showing me his favorites before we sat down to work our way through a couple of boxes.  He was pulling cards of other teams for some customers so I helped him pull cards for those teams.  We both pulled Rangers for me.

I didn't get a chance to scan cards yet, but I got a pic of the haul.

It might not look like much, but look closely.  The pile spread out in the middle are the cards I got for myself. I also picked out one of those 1998 Donruss Preferred tins and one binder.  The binder has three pages in it there are cards I've never seen before.  I'll scan a couple for you to see.

The stack on the right is for you guys.  I picked out some stuff for my fellow bloggers while I was digging through those two boxes.  They'll be distributed in future trade packages.

I'll give you a cost breakdown when I show off some of the individual cards.

Anyone care to guess my total cost?  The person who gets closest to my cost will win a prize.  I'm going back next week for another shopping spree and I'll get a stack of the winner's favorite team to send out.

More to come...

Great Cards I Really Love (GCRL)

9 out of 10 dentists prefer vintage cards 2 to 1.

Or something like that.

I prefer vintage over slick, shiny stock.  Every once in while I'll get a card package with a random Senators card or a great old catcher card.  People are always looking out for me that way.

No one has fed the vintage machine around here quite like Jim over at GCRL.


Here's your proof.

1969 Deckle Edge originality.  You try cropping that card nicely.

Have I told you how much I love vintage cards?  I don't care that some kid actually watched TV with this 1955 Bowman TV Set card stuck in the couch cushions.  I can appreciate how well loved Smoky Burgess truly was and now he'll never have to be abused again.

1961 Topps Harry Bright is so happy to be outside playing ball, he doesn't even care that he has a palm tree growing out of his backside.

Look how the color pops on that authentic, vintage cardboard.

Here's a challenge for you.   Take a vintage card, say a 1963 Chuck Cottier, in one hand and a 2013 Joe Blow nobody in the other hand.  Close your eyes and see what happens.  I'll tell you what happens.  The hand with the 2013 card will reflexively open, drop the slick, fake cardboard and attempt to wrest the genuine cardboard from the other.  Vintage cards just feel that good.

Creepy?  Maybe a little.

I don't think Dave appreciated my challenge.  He's looking at me like I'm just a bit freaky.

Keep lookin' up vintage catcher Merritt Ranew, because that's where it all is.  A little ode to local DJ Kidd Kraddick who passed away recently.

Say hello to the professor!

Is there a Doctor in the house?  That's Doc Medich for you young fellas (and ladies).

I guess even the Yankees had to have catchers and as such, I can appreciate them when they are pictured in the tools of ignorance.

I'm starting to feel like this post is turning into a staged bunt with strange men in suits in the background.  Or maybe it's just this card with the SWEET Senators batting helmet.

The 1973 Topps team card...looks like a bunch of Little League players.   I love it!

I always liked being born in 1970 because it was easy to keep up with my age.  Unfortunately 1970 Topps are sort of ugly, with that gray border.  Still, the set holds some sentimental value to me and I really should try to put it together some day. The Senators look sharp at least.

Bats!  Lots and lots of bats!  I want one of those Senators batting helmets.

Is it just me or does Mike Brumley look like an train engineer's hat?  It's sitting so high on his head.  He looks like a strong farmhand who could beat a man down.

Jim collects double play cards.  He knows I collect play at the plate cards.  He sent play at the plate cards.

And wild pitch cards.

I have my Clark.  His name is Will and Upper Deck made a silver parallel.

I love Masterpieces.  I wish it would come back somehow.

That looks like a violent collision.

I love vintage cards and I love shiny Chrome cards too.  I'm a tale of two collectors all wrapped up into an enigma.  Or something like that.

Jim, as always, your generosity and thoughtfulness is greatly appreciated!