The Greatest Bip of All Time

Every team has one.  It may not be spectacular and unbelievable like the Rangers', but every team has one.  I'm talking about the biggest Free Agent bust in team history.  You may want to say it was Alex Rodriguez and his 10 year, $250 million contract, but at least he produced numbers.  Sure, they were steroid induced numbers, but they were numbers.

Chan Ho Park on the other hand...well, lotsa dough, little production.  Chan Ho Park played 4 seasons for the the Rangers.  He went 22-23 and made $48,648,770.  That's exactly $2,211,307.73 per win. Nice work if you can get it.

I said all that to say this: being a team collector means you have to suck it up and collect a guy you'd rather forget.  That's why I say thank you to the great Fuji of The Chronicles of Fuji, for this Chan Ho Park tablecloth relic piece.

Fuji also sent me this not yet Ranger, but now former Ranger Alex Rios Diamond King dual bat relic card.  I'm betting he thought this was a Rangers card, because I've made the same mistake with that Toronto T.   I've also received a fair number of Toronto cards from this era in trade packages and I can only assume it's for the same reason.  It is a low numbered beauty, #49/50.

Not to leave out the real Rangers, Fuji threw in this Hank Blalock jersey/bat Diamond King.  One might think this was also numbered to 100, but one would be wrong.  This one is #75/100.

That leads us to the best Bip Roberts card in the history of Bip Roberts cards.

This is a wonderful, amazing, stupendous, out of sight, off the charts, PLAY AT THE PLATE 1993 Stadium Club Bip "F"ing Roberts!!!!!!  I'm in cardboard love my friends and it's all because of our little cupid friend, Fuji!

Thanks for the great package my friend!!

You crack me up

Back on Valentine's Day, Julie from A Cracked Bat offered up some beautiful Kelloggs' cards.  I am almost ashamed to admit that I own very few of these wonderful cards.  I vaguely remember them from my youth, but at that age, my two older brothers, devils that they were, would have taken any cereal box prize before I had a chance at it.

I jumped at the chance to get some of these for my collection, but like many a generous blogger, Julie didn't just send the Kellogg's cards.  She threw in a few diamonds and green...wait, wrong brand.

Julie's package was chock full of goodies, but I just pulled out a couple to show off.  Take this 1974 Bill Sudakis for example.  It's awesome vintage showing off the Rangers equally awesome powder blue uniforms and a big Topps Original 2015 Stamp.  This one came from a pack of 2015 Series One cards and although I'm not a big fan of the stamp, if it's a Ranger, I need it.

Next up is a Sweet Swatch from Hank Blalock, better known as "What the hell ever happened to that guy that played third for the Rangers" Blalock.  He doesn't look like he could explain it either.

Last up today is the friendly foursome of Kellogg's cards Julie sent over.  The first and smaller three cards are from 1980 and feature Johhny Bench, Buddy Bell and Fergie Jenkins.  Two HOFers out of three ain't bad.  The big brother on the right is the 1981 Buddy Bell.  He is amazing.  That's a yellow border I can get behind.

Julie, I have a package just sitting here waiting for a trip to the post office.  I'll get that out soon.

Throwing in the towel

I'm not quitting the blog, if that's what you were thinking.  I just got this stuffed package from the Junior Junkie and had to show off the contents.  Starting with this towel card.

It's not often you see a card where a guy has a towel over his shoulder, but this 1988 Fleer gem of Charlie Hough features just such a picture.  The Junkie included the entire Texas Rangers 1988 Fleer team set.  If you didn't see his post about going to the post office and spending nearly $180 on shipping, just go here.

Like last night's post, I picked up another of those 2015 Topps Original Stamp cards.  This one is a Doyle Alexander, one of my favorite 1970's Rangers.  I always thought he looked like he would fit in with the gunfight at the OK Corral.

Here's a horrible picture of a Rafael Palmeiro Piece of the Action Bat Card.  I do like his uniform number cut into the bat sliver.  Or table leg, whichever it might be.

There was a big stack of cards to choose from, but my favorite of the bunch was this 2004 Topps Finest Michael Young refractor. So shiny and fun.

Thanks for the cards Junkie.

A Sticker Contest Winner

It took 30 packs to finally finish the first team in the 2015 Topps Sticker Album.

John Miller picked the Pirates and is the winner.  John, please email me your address!

Thanks for playing everyone.

I still have 10 packs to open, but in case you were wondering, here is the order and pack number in which the next 9 teams finished.

Pack 34 - Colorado

Pack 35 - Houston and Milwaukee

Pack 36 - Tampa, Minnesota AND St. Louis

Pack 37 - Cleveland and Atlanta

Pack 38 - Detroit

Until next time...

I've been Fergied!

You may have heard of Bipping.  I've been Bipped before, with real, honest to goodness Bip Roberts cards.  Well, I was also recently Fergied.

See what I mean!  Fergied!!  Hey, nothing against being Bipped, but I'll take a Hall of Fame Fergie-ing any day of the week.

The Fergies and a whole bunch of other quality Ranger and non-sport goodness came my way from the generous giveaway conducted by Drew of Drews Cards.  Somehow, Drew still has teams left to be claimed even though he posted that over a month ago.

I picked out the Treaty of Versailles card because I've been there and the Abraham Lincoln is one of my favorite historical figures.

Winner, Winner, 1992 Topps for Dinner!  I would have been so excited to pull those back in 1992.

I'm going to leave you with this.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Thanks Drew!

My second TTM returns...and it's my best ever!

Ok, I realize as I read the title that only having two TTM returns and describing one as the best ever doesn't mean it had much competition.  Well, regardless of how many I might have, this will always rank right up there at the top for baseball returns.

I sent two cards to the Texas Rangers campus on February 27th.

They were returned today.

(Sent 2/27/15 returned 3/23/15 total = 24 days)

I was very happy to open the envelope and find not one, but two Adrian Beltre autographed cards. He has a unique signature and I'm happy to have these two in my growing (3 now...) collection of TTM cards.

Another Sticker Contest Update - 5 more packs opened

Five packs = forty stickers.  That's a little over 1 per team, but it didn't work out that way.  Three teams picked up four more stickers, while eight teams added zero stickers.  Here is the breakdown:

Baltimore: 4/9

Boston: 1/9

New York: 4/9   5/9

Tamp Bay: 2/9   3/9

Toronto: 3/9       5/9

Chicago: 4/9       5/9

Cleveland: 4/9

Detroit: 4/9         6/9

Kansas City: 4/9

Minnesota: 3/9       5/9

LAA:  1/9              3/9

Houston: 4/9

Oakland: 4/9      5/9

Seattle: 3/9         5/9

Texas: 2/9           6/9

AL and NL pages...who cares...HA!

Atlanta: 2/9        4/9

Miami: 2/9          3/9

New York: 4/9   5/9

Philly: 4/9            6/9

Washington: 1/9

Chicago: 4/9       5/9

Cincy: 6/9

Milwaukee: 3/9  7/9

Pittsburgh: 4/9  7/9

St. Louis: 2/9

Arizona: 3/9        4/9

Colorado: 6/9     7/9

LAD: 2/9               5/9

San Diego: 3/9   4/9

San Fran: 4/9      5/9         

Three teams are only two stickers away from winning, while I'm hoping there is a Boston and Washington hot pack in the box somewhere.  I was happy to see Texas pick up four of the forty stickers that round.  

More to come...