Get in on the Troll's Big Wax Pack Break

If you're not already involved, you should go visit the Troll's blog and get in on the big wax pack break he's getting together. He's about ready to wrap one break up and this one should be just as fun. All you have to do to grab one of the 11 remaining teams is send him some cards from his want list! Easy. He's sitting on 118 packs needed to be ripped!

As of this posting, the available teams are:

California Angels
Chicago White Sox
Cincinnati Reds
Cleveland Indians
Colorado Rockies
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins
Montreal Expos
Oakland A's
Pittsburgh Pirates
San Francisco Giants

Grab a team while you can!

**This message paid for by the Collective Troll for Topps President campaign**

A Padrograph On-"Slaught"

I'm not sure about the origins of getting "Bipped". I'm not sure if I got "Bipped". What I know is that I got "Slaught"ered.

I know, two 1987 Fleer Don Slaughts are the equivalent of a paper cut.

Three 1988 Topps Don Slaughts and one 1987 Donruss Opening Day are just a flesh wound.

However, eight 1987 Topps Don Slaughts....well, that's a freakin' bloodbath.

Rod from Padrographs says he was just "clearing" out some cards, but I wonder if there wasn't a more sinister plan in the works. He did include some other Rangers to make the Slaught-er worthwhile.

This is a touching 1992 Upper Deck Nolan Ryan Rangers Checklist. I can almost here the conversation now, "Sure kid, you can throw like me (yea right) someday if you work hard. Just grip it like this. Now, show your elders some respect or I'll show you the grip I'm going to use on Robin Ventura next year."

This 1992 Leaf Ivan Rodriguez card is the way I remember Pudge. No, not the dirty butt shot, the action. Pudge used his rifle arm to gun down runners at every base. If you were a runner on first or third, you had better be paying attention, or Pudge would pick you off before you adjusted yourself.

I think this may be my first 2009 Topps Finest Card and my first Julio Borbon card. Julio is a speed demon and should be among the league leaders in steals this season. IF he doesn't lose his job as the Rangers centerfielder because he can't throw. The word is, David Ortiz could score from second on a single up the middle. That isn't good.

A little Rangers 1978 goodness. This Bert Blyleven card is in great shape. Do you think I'll be able to describe him as HOF'er Bert Blyleven next year.

The most interesting "card" Rod sent isn't going to be shown. It is a 1991 Statium Club Charter Member Commemorative Nolan Ryan Medallion. It's a bronze replica of the regular card which commemorates Nolan's 300th win. I was afraid to put this on my new scanner because it weighs about 8 ounces and is of course metallic. Thanks Rod for an out of the blue package! That's the best kind!

Throwing money around

Money is being thrown around in Arlington. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.

On January 12th, it was a lot. Vladimir Guerrero got a one year deal for a reporte $5.5 million with a $9 million option for 2011.

On January 15th, it probably wasn't a lot as Brandon McCarthy and Dustin Nippert got one year deals for unreported amounts.

On January 18th, C. J. Wilson got his one year deal for an unreported amount.

January 19th cost the Rangers a little bit of cash as Chris Ray signed a one year deal for $975,000, Josh Hamilton signed a one year deal for $3.25 million and the Rangers brought back Colby Lewis for two years at $1.75 million and $3.00 million with an option for a third year.

The Rangers spent a little "green" on January 21st signing Khalil Greene to a one year, $750,000 deal to replace Omar Vizquel as their utility infielder.

On the 22nd, the Rangers signed free-agent catcher, Toby Hall, to a minor league deal. Hall was out of baseball in 2009 after having surgery to repair a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder. He is a career .262 hitter after playing for the Rays from 2000-2006, the Dodgers in 2006 and the Cubs in 2007-08.

The big money was thrown around, at least symbolically, on January 23rd, when Rangers owner Tom Hicks agreed to a deal to sell the team to a group headed by Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Greenberg for just under $570 million. This deal includes the team, the lease on the Ballpark in Arlington and approximately 153 acres around the Ballpark and Hicks retains a small minority ownership position. The deal still needs approval of the Hicks Sports Group lenders and 75% of MLB owners. I think it's a done deal provided the lenders agree. MLB is ready to be rid of Hicks and get someone in place who doesn't need money from the MLB coffers to meet payroll. The best part of the deal, next to Hicks being relegated to minority partership, is Nolan Ryan stays on as President. My sources, the super highway interweb, say the deal may not be finalize until March or even as late as Opening Day due to the approval process.

Only 24 days until Pitchers and Catchers can report! Bring on Spring Training!!!!

***Blog Note***

I know how much Beardy dislikes it when there are no pics, so I'll remind him that I left my flash drive with pics at home. I'm still angry about that too!

Otherwise, I could have had nice pics of all the players mentioned above. Instead you get...

Ok, no more baby pics for awhile. Maybe.

Cry Baby

I forgot my flash drive at home. It has all my scanned cards on it. I can't post my latest trade package...or anything else I wanted to post tonight. I'm just a bit upset about that.

I still can't find any 2010 Topps packs at any local stores. Big D over at Hey, That's Mine posted the address of a Target that has packs in Dallas, but that store is WAY out of my way.

I'm having trouble coming up with the goods for several trade offers.

This week is NOT starting out the way I planned. But, you know what? I'll get the flash drive tomorrow. It won't be long before I'm SICK of 2010 Topps and have a stack of dupes 2 feet tall. And I'll find stuff for those trade packages...or I won't and it won't kill me at this point if I miss out on a deal or two. Not to mention....

There's NO CRYING IN BASEBALL!!

Play at the Plate: Mike Piazza vs. Chipper Jones

This is the first in what I hope will be a long series of posts highlighting Play at the Plate cards.

June 23, 2001: Atlanta Braves @ New York Mets, 1:26 PM

It's the top of the 2nd inning and Chipper Jones hits a leadoff double off Glendon Rusch. Brian Jordan steps to the plate and hits a line drive single to left field. Benny Agbayani fires home and this is what happens:

Jones is safe and Brian Jordan takes 2nd on the throw home. The Braves would win the game 9-3. Chipper Jones went 3-5, scoring 3 runs and driving in 3 while hitting his 20th homerun.

Winner of this battle at the plate: Chipper Jones

**There was one other game in 2001 where Jones and Piazza met at the plate. It was 9/21/01, at night. This looks like a day game shot to me.

Cards from the Old Man: Part 2

The next card in the "cards from the old man" series, is this one:

I picked this card to trade for because it had two guys I'd heard of on it. At the time, 1982, I actually knew more about Steve Carlton than Nolan Ryan. Carlton had been the best player I pulled out of my first pack of cards, 1981 Fleer. This 1973 Topps Strikeout Leaders card was and is my oldest Nolan Ryan or Steve Carlton card. These two mound magicians topped 300 strikeouts and far outdistanced the field in their respective leagues.






The 310 k's for Carlton would be his career high. He had 286 k's a couple of times, but would never top 300 again. He would go on to win 4 Cy Young awards as well as one Gold Glove.

Ryan's 329 k's in 1972 ranks as only his 4th best season total. He would follow up this 329 with the modern day record of 383 k's.

I remember Ryan and Carlton having such close strikout totals for a time. After the 1984 season, Carlton had 3872 and Ryan had 3874. That was the last time they would be close. From 1985 to 1988 (his last 4 seasons) Carlton had only 264 strikouts. That put his career totals at 4,136 K's. From 1985 to 1992 ( his last 9 seasons), Ryan had 1,840 strikouts. That put Ryan's career totals at 5,714 K's.

The fact that Nolan Ryan later pitched for the Rangers is just a bonus when it comes to owning this card.

Players on cards doing things they don't normally do: Ken Griffey Jr. Edition

Ken Griffey Jr.

Future Hall of Famer.

21 seasons, 9700 games, 630 HR, 15 Grand Slams. You don't expect to see a guy with 630 career homeruns doing this:

The stats show Griffey has 8 sacrifice hits in his career. Only 3 of those have come since 1991. One was in 1996 and could be pictured on this 1997 Bowman card. Of course, this could have been a foul ball or a bunt single. Either way, you don't expect to see Ken Griffey Jr. bunting. I'm guessing the third baseman was a little bit suprised. I know I was when I saw this card.