June Contest Winner Announcement

Thanks to everyone for entering the contest. We had a lot of guesses. Only one person got all seven and two people got the mystery Blug sig at the top of the program.

The signatures were (from left to right, top to bottom):

George (W.) Bush--I got this before a game when I saw him standing by the rail near home plate. No one was around and I spoke to him for about 15 minutes about the team and my college plans. He was really nice and wanted to know all about my impressions of the new ballpark. I'm sure eveyone knows this, but he was a part of the Rangers ownership group at the time. This was before he became the governor of Texas.

Rick Helling
Claude Osteen-pitching coach if I remember correctly.
Rick Honeycutt
Matt Whiteside
Kevin Kennedy--manager
Kenny Rogers--a really nice sig, it is better than the scan shows.



The correct guesses were as follows:

Captain Canuck--6
Laurens--6
Spastikmooss-6
Casey--6
dayf--5 (One of the two people who guessed Bush)
Cam--4
Night Owl--3
Matt--5
Madding--6
Dusto--4
Peterson--3
BA Benny--4
Big D--6
Rhubarb_Runner--4
dpuccio--7 (the other person to correctly guess Bush and the only person to get all 7 )
Jeremy--4 (He had my favorite incorrect guess with Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett)
dogfacedgremlin--5

Quite a few people guessed the Bush auto was Gary Redus.

A note to all you fine readers. If there is a link for a name above, it's because those people have some fine blogs. Go check them out if you don't already follow them. You won't be disappointed. If there isn't a link, it's because they don't have blogs or I don't know about them!

I listed everyone in the List Randomizer at Random.org and randomized that list 7 times (once for each auto on the program).

The final list looked like this:

I hope you can read it...the winner was Madding (Kerry) from Cards on Cards. Ironically, or is it coincidentally, I just mailed Kerry a package O' Cardinals yesterday, so I'll be rounding up some more from my ever dwindling supply of Cards cards for him.

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest!!

June Contest Reminder

Last chance to enter the June Contest. Go here to see what you need to do.

I'll be cutting off entries sometime around 11:30 PM.

Get your entries in before it's too late!

A "Perfect" class act

I'm not a Detroit fan or an umpire apologist.

Jim Joyce made a mistake. Umpires are human, they make mistakes sometimes. Unfortunately, it was at the worst possible time. It didn't cost the Tigers a shot at the playoffs or a World Series title, but it still hurts.

Joyce apologized directly to Armando Galarraga, as he should have. Many people will only remember one thing when they hear Joyce's name: He's the guy who screwed over Galarraga.

The most amazing part of the whole thing was Galarraga's handling of the situation. I heard him being interviewed by Karl Ravitch on Baseball Tonight. He said Joyce approached him after the game to apologize. If I heard Galarraga right, he said he hugged Joyce and said it was ok, nobody's perfect. How ironic is that? And utterly classy. Galaragga also said that even though it wasn't official and in the record books, he knew he had a perfect game and had the "CD" to show his kids.

Maybe in a day or two, it will set in what was taken from him. Maybe not. Armando Galarraga has a new fan in me. That doesn't mean I want all his cards, just that I can appreciate his attitude and approach. I think he provided a glimpse of what it means to be grateful to be paid well to play a game. He's a class act all the way.

Play at the Plate Special: 20 Years Ago Today

There isn't anything overly special about the card itself, other than it happened 20 years ago. And it happened on a hit by Will Clark. That's special.

1991 Score Rick Parker

June 2, 1990 Houston Astros vs. San Francisco Giants

The Astros are up 3-0 in the bottom of the 9th. Bill Gullickson is on the mound for the Astros.

Terry Kennedy singles to left. Duane Smith comes in to replace Gullickson. Robby Thompson flies out to right. Juan Uribe comes up and slaps a single to left. Mike Kingery follows with an RBI single to right, scoring Kennedy. The great Brett Butler singles to center, scoring Uribe and making it a 3-2 game. Rick Parker grounds into a fielder's choice, catching Butler at second. Parker beats the throw and Kingery ends up at third. Will "The Thrill" Clark steps to the plate and this is what happens next:

Clark hits a double to right field. Kingery scores to tie the game. Rick Parker tries to score for the win and he is....OUT! Glenn Wilson's throw in to Alex Trevino is in time and Parker can't avoid the tag.

The Astros would score one in the top of the 10th to take a 4-3 lead, only to see the Giants rally for two in the bottom of the 10th to win 5-4.

Non-Cards on Cards from Cards on Cards....Cards, I think

Kerry over at Cards on Cards posted a while back about his experience with the Topps Million Card Giveaway (he unlocked a Luis Aparicio auto'd card, so I'd say his experience was pretty good). He had opened a few of those Topps Cereal boxes and was looking to move his Cy Young shiny cards. I took that as an invitation to send him an email and low and behold, the next thing I know, I'm looking at a package from Kerry. I feel bad because I haven't mailed his yet, but I'll be fixing that problem real soon (I promise!).

I'm not going to show the Cy cards...I'd rather show off a few of the extras he threw in the package. One thing I can't show is a little Will Clark figure. I guess it's from Starting Lineup, but it's loose and was wrapped in a layer of bubble wrap so I didn't know for sure. I do know my son ran off with it and the last time I saw it, he was clubbing stormtrooper action figures over the head with it.

Here are a few of the latest additions to the Rangers collection.

These first two Pudge cards are from the 2002 Donruss Super Estrellas set. Kerry recently busted a box of these so I assume these were from that box.

This is something I've never seen before. It looks like it's from the 1995 Topps set and is a IIID card of Ivan Rodriguez. I guess this was an insert from that years set, but I didn't buy anything that year so I'm not sure. I would like to know if that is Omar Vizquel in the picture.

I know what you're thinking. Will Clark sure can look goofy on some cards. I don't care. He was one intense player and he's still my favorite. EVER. You hear that Night Owl...(just kidding)!

2000 Team Best Josh Hamilton. This is the pre-tat version. It's almost weird to see him without the ink.

Here is the first of two colors from the 2008 UD Baseball Heroes set. Ian Kinsler #189/299.

Here is the second card of the rainbow. Kinsler #126/249. I suppose I should work on this rainbow. I need to see if I have any others.

Thanks again Kerry! I'll get your package out asap...just as soon as I figured out what I did with those 10 Turkey Reds I had for you.

June Contest: Auto Edition

I'm sure we all have a sports related, non-card piece that is very special to us. It could be an old glove, a magazine, a ball, the possibilities are endless. One of my most prized pieces that isn't a card is this:

A program from the very first opening day at the Ballpark in Arlington, April 11, 1994. The Rangers opened that season with a series against the then A.L. Milwaukee Brewers. Over the course of that first season, I went to about 25 games. I managed to get 7 signatures on the program.

Hopefully, you can click on the photo to see a bigger image of it, because for this contest, you have to tell me who autographed the program. You don't have to get them all, but you get one entry for each of the seven you get correct. Your first guess is your only guess, so make them count. I'm only leaving this contest up until Thursday night because I'm on vacation next week and need to get a winner. I'll turn on comment moderation to keep you honest so good luck with the contest. No "contest pimping" required, but it is always appreciated.

Something interesting about the program is the seating/prices page inside. I paid $16 for my seats back in 1994 because I typically went by myself or with one friend and we always sat in the good seats. All the lower bowl seats were $16, no matter where you sat. Now the lower bowl tickets are ridiculous. For seats in the lower bowl, from dugout to dugout, you pay anywhere from $65 to $215 (more for "Premium" games). Crazy, and that explains why I don't go to more games. The tickets I had a few weeks ago were in the lower home run porch in right field and cost $30 each.

I know you weren't, but in case you were wondering how I display the program, here is the plaque it goes with. The ticket is my actual ticket for the first game. I had an 8 game ticket package to start 1994 and it included a couple of exhibition games against Houston, the opening game, the first night game and several others. I sat in section 5 in left field and paid $8 per ticket for those 8 tickets. Not a bad deal for $64.





I'd like to see some of you post some of your favorite non-card sports items.

Good luck!

We have a contest winner...oh and a 10 Game Winner too!

Ubaldo Jimenez is the first 10 Game Winner in the Majors in 2010.

That means we have another winner. You'll recall (or you won't) that I had an opening day contest to predict the first ten game winner in the majors this year. Dan from The Other World and Bud from First Day Issue were the only two people to correctly choose Jimenez. Dan is on vacation and Bud just made a really nice pull so check out their blogs.

I entered Dan and Bud in the famous random.org randomizer and hit "again" three times and the winner was:

DAN!

Congrats Dan, I'll be sending you some Phils and a pack or three to open.

Just a note to ZMAN...I'll be hitting the card shop on Wednesday so I should have some packs to put in your prize pack and I'll get that out to you Thursday morning.