Stay Tuned

If you participated in Gint-A-Cuffs 2, you'll want to check back around 8:00 AM CDT tomorrow morning.


I'm just trying to help you out.


By the way, yesterday I head Lady GaGa was honored by the Guinness Book of World Records for being the most searched person in the history of the internet. I'm just sayin'.

Best Custom. Ever. Hey, I mean it!

Chances are, if you've been around the blogosphere for more than a few days, you've seen some of the amazing custom cards that Big D of Hey, That's Mine puts out. If you're not familiar with his work, go check out his blog. He has some truly wonderful designs.

I've been fortunate to receive a couple in the past.

This one is a Spring Training Texas Rangers card. Do you think I could get all six guys to sign this?

Big D also made one of my favorite all time player, Will Clark. I've been tempted to send this one TTM, but I don't want to lose it. Will might see it and decide to keep it!

Recently, Big D sent me a couple more amazing customs. The first one was designed by one of his home grown card gurus, Nobie.

Nobie put together a very nice Ian Kinsler. I think Big D should start his own company and let Nobie design the inserts.

If you've seen Big D customs before, you've seen the hand signed backs. This is the back of the Nobie card...but no auto! Maybe I'll send it back to get Nobie to sign his handiwork.

Now, for the best custom card you will ever see. Well, I'm sure the Troll thinks the one Big D did for him is better, but that one ranks second on my list! Big D made this for a proud dad and it instantly became one of my favorite cards.



That's my son in one of his first Little League games. I can't say enough good things about this card. It is the best example of why Big D Customs are some of the best around.

Thanks Big D for creating something I'll treasure forever.

Joy of an Incomplete Page: The Final Page

This is the moment you've been waiting for...the final page from my original binder. It's not the last page in the binder by a long shot, but it's the last page that isn't full of 1981 or newer cards.

Every card on both sides of this page would have been one I received in a trade with my best friend. Let's see what I got.




Starting in the upper left corner, there is a slightly dinged 1974 Topps Jose Cruz. If he looks unhappy, it's because he's stuck next to a Yankee, although it is a nice vintage 1959 John Blanchard. The second row has a logo free 1965 Rusty Staub and a much newer Astro in the form of a 1978 J.R. Richard. Row three has a 1964 Al Weis with his large All-Star Rookie Trophy. The upper right corner looks like a dog chewed on it. Next to Al is a 1973 Tug McGraw--I never really noticed before, but it says "HAMMER" on his glove. Last, but not least is a 1967 Jim Maloney. It looks like the guy over Jim's left shoulder is carrying a bag of groceries into the stadium.

Let's get right to the last page. The first card in the top row is a 1974 A.L. Playoffs Card featuring Reggie Jackson of the Oakland A's. Next to future Yankee Reggie is a 1976 Topps Traded Willie Randolph. The Yankees got Randolph, Ken Brett and Dock Ellis for George Medich. Row two starts off with another 1964 All-Star Rookie, Jimmie Hall. He is joined by a 1972 Bill Russell and a 1968 Ken Boyer. The bottom row starts off with a terribly miscut 1960 Bill White and a 1980 Dave Parker. The Dave Parker is a bit of a downer to finish with, but only because it was the newest card of the bunch.

I suppose I'll remove these cards from the binder pages at some point so I can try to gather all my vintage cards in one place, but for now, this page is going back in the binder with the others. It's been there for nearly 30 years, so what's a few more weeks.

Starting Over...What would you do differently?

Imagine you had all the knowledge about the hobby that you have right now, but you were just starting to collect cards.

What, if anything, would you do differently? Would you collect the way you do now?

I like busting wax too much not to buy new stuff. I think if I was just starting, I would spend a portion of my card budget on new product, but I would really concentrate on my main focus, which is team collecting. I know I could make more progress on the team collection if I spent some money on it instead of only relying on trades. I would probably limit my non-Ranger player collection to one or two players at a time. That would allow me to complete those collections a little quicker too.

Now, back to reality.

Would it be out of the realm of possibility to stop collecting the way I've been doing it for all these years and start over? No, but I'm not someone who does well with change. I just don't like it. I'm a creature of habit. I am trying to get the team collection organized so I can get up a complete wantlist, but my biggest obstacle is that I'm an unorganized person by nature.

That's something I would really like to change.

Everything is NOT bigger in Texas

The Rangers have the smallest magic number in all of baseball at 12.

The Reds are next with 13, followed closely by the Twins (14), the Phils (17) and the Rays and Padres at 19.

The Rangers record stands at 80-63 with Oakland 8 games back at 72-71. Texas has two games against Detroit and the remaining games are all against division rivals. They have 7 games each against Seattle and Los Angeles and 3 against Oakland.

The good news is the Rangers only have to go 10-9 the rest of the way to get to 90 wins. That would mean the A's would have to go 18-1 to tie for the division lead. That does not mean I want them limping to the finish. I would prefer something along the lines of 12-6 or maybe 19-0.

Seriously though, it's been a long time since the Rangers have been in the playoffs. I'm not going to start celebrating until the magic number is zero. When.....please let it be when....when that happens, I'll celebrate.

Who Needs Hot Girls When You've Got Hot Vintage?

That's my attempt at a little "tongue-in-cheek" fun. If you read Night Owl's "Image is Everything" post, you know what I mean. I can't wait to see what his hit count is for that post.

This post has nothing to do with Hot Girls. I know that may be disappointing to some of you, but I'll try to make it up to you sometime. Maybe a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader post. I'd be less embarrassed about them than the way the Cowboys played yesterday.

The focus of this post is my latest Topps Million Card Giveaway trade. I've been trying to trade away all the cards I don't want to pay to have delivered. Other than Washington Senators, I've been trying to acquire some 1956 cards because there are a lot of nice play at the plate cards in that set.

I shipped off 14 semi-unwanted cards (including one 1961 Dodger and one 1961 Senator that I already had) for this card.

It is a nice 1956 Frank House card. Unfortunately, the Athletic in the picture was safe, but it's still a great play at the plate card. Frank House played 10 years in the majors. He played more than 100 games only 3 times and played 23 or less games 4 times.

House's best year is shown on the back of his 1956 card. In 1955, he hit 15 home runs and had 53 RBIs while hitting .259.

I like the cartoon on the far right. It says "Big Frank is a tough man to move at the plate."

Wikipedia has some good stuff on Frank. "A native of Bessemer, Alabama, House signed out of high school with the Tigers in 1948 for one of the biggest bonuses of the time – $75,000 and two automobiles, according to news reports. House made his debut in 1950 at 20 years of age. He earned his nickname as a baby, when his family used to say he was "big as a house" and he twisted "big" into "pig"."

Frank House died on March 13, 2005 at the age of 75.

How Sweep It Is!!

I know it is only three regular season games.

I know it doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things so long as the Rangers make the playoffs.

It is still so sweet to sweep the Yankees. When your team doesn't have any playoff history to speak of, you celebrate when you can. Make no mistake about it, I was celebrating with each win of this weekend's series.

Let's take a brief look back, shall we?

Friday, 9/10/10

The Yankees and Rangers combined to use an A.L. record 19 pitchers. The Yankees were leading 5-4 in the 8th inning, when the one and only Joba Chamberlain came into the game. Nelson Cruz deposited Joba's first pitch into the left centerfield bleachers to tie the game. Fast forward to the bottom of the 13th. The game was still tied 5-5, when Nelson Cruz led off the inning with another first pitch bomb, this time depositing the walk-0ff home run into the Rangers bullpen in right center. I woke my wife up yelling about that one! Game 1 to the Rangers 6-5.

Saturday, 9/11/10

The Rangers were leading 5-3 in the 8th inning when the dreaded Arod hit a three-run double to put the Yankees on top 6-5. The Rangers came to bat in the bottom of the 9th against Mariano Rivera. Just a month earlier, the Rangers beat Rivera in the bottom of the 9th in this same setting. Rivera walked Vlad Guerrero and his pinch runner eventually scored on an Ian Kinsler double to tie the game. After loading the bases, Rivera hit Jeff Francouer with a pitch to drive in the winning run. Way to go Rivera! Game 2 to the Rangers 7-6.

Sunday, 9/12/10

Cliff Lee came back from his back injury and pitched like the Lee the Rangers traded for earlier this season. He no hit the Yankees for 5 1/3 innings and pitched brilliantly. Neftali Feliz did the mop up work in the 9th and the Rangers won 4-1. The highlight of the game was Julio Borbon laying down a beautiful bunt to first. Kinsler scored from 3rd and Borbon slid head first to get the infield single. Game 3 to the Rangers 4-1 and the SWEEP was COMPLETE!

The number one thing I think the Rangers get out of this is a real confidence boost. They know they can beat the Yankees and more importantly, they proved for the 2nd time that they CAN beat Mariano Rivera.