My best damaged card

Maybe the answer to me blogging again was to get a nasty illness.  This bronchitis is kicking my butt. My ribs are sore from all the coughing and as much as I want to sleep, well, let's just say the getting up part is unpleasant when the coughing kicks in again.  I digress...

We've all pulled damaged cards from packs before.  It could just be one card or every card in the pack might be damaged.  I was looking through a box of cards this morning and ran across the best card I've ever pulled that was "factory" damaged.  Here's a pic of the damage.

The damage is almost dead center running along the top edge for an inch or so.  It doesn't look like your standard crimping that happens when the packs are sealed.  It's much less uniform than that.  It almost looks like it was crushed or dropped.  The odd thing is the damage doesn't show from the back.

I'll admit, when I first pulled this card out of the pack and saw the damage, it didn't really bother me much because it was a prospect card and being the experienced collector that I am, I know most of those guys don't pan out.  I pulled this card back in the day when I was the hit man.  You know the type.  I'd bust a box of cards only looking for the hits.  Unlike a lot of those guys, I did NOT leave the commons or non-hits behind for the store owner.  I just left the cards in the packs, the packs in the boxes, and the boxes in a big storage tub.

It was a couple of years after I pulled this card from a 2001 UD SP Game Used Edition pack that I was going through those already opened packs and I ran across this guy who was bashing the ball.

You might have heard of him.  One Albert Pujols.  You can clearly see the damage up there just to the right of his cap.

This Super Prospects card is #388/500.  I never looked up the "value" of this card because I didn't want to be disappointed that the damage would forever ruin that.  As it is, I have a fairly limited rookie card of a player from a team I don't like, but who should go in the Hall of Fame. I guess that's something.

Bunting will drive you crazy

* I'm at home with bronchitis.  This post has been a work in progress over the last 8 hours.  I scanned, went to bed, cropped, went to bed, uploaded, took a nap, and now I'm hoping to write something semi-coherent. Here goes nothing.

I spent a grand total of 10 minutes looking for cards of Rangers bunting.  I thought it would be easy, but after going through quite a few cards, I only managed to find four.  Let's take a look and find out if a Bunt is worthwhile or not. (If you're not interested in these Bunting cards, you still might want to read to the bottom).

First up is this lovely 1993 Pinnacle David Hulse.  I really cropped it too close for you to get the true effect of chipping on the black border.  David played parts of 5 seasons in the majors from 1992-1996.  The first three years were with my Texas Rangers and the last three were with some Milwaukee club.

David had 14 sac bunts and 19 bunt singles in his time with Texas.  He also had 69 career steals including a high of 29 in 114 games in 1993.  He was pretty quick.

Darryl Hamilton played 13 seasons in big leagues, but only one with Texas.  It was 1996, the year of the Rangers first ever playoff appearance.  Darryl had 7 sacrifice bunts and 6 bunt singles in 1996.  

Our final bunt card is this nifty Mark McLemore.  Mark was one of my favorites when he was a Ranger and he still works for the team doing post game and sometimes in game TV work.  Mark played for 19 years, 5 with Texas.  He had 39 sacrifice bunts and 16 bunt singles for the Rangers.  He also stole 83 bases in Texas and 292 for his career. Not too shabby.

The thing about the Bunting cards above, even given the stats, is that there is no way to tell if any of these was a bunt single OR a sacrifice.  They could just has easily, and honestly, more likely have been foul balls or run of the mill outs.  Not knowing makes me a little crazy since I love to be able to figure out the game.  

However, I wrote all of that, not to talk about bunting cards, but to talk about BUNT cards.  You know, the Topps app where you get digital cards.  I jumped in head first last year, even though it's the most inane thing really.   I spent a little money early on, spent a little more in the playoffs ended up winning one of the REAL LIVE ACTUAL PRIZES!  The top 100 Bunt players in the Playoffs won a real prize to cover the sorrow of having all those digital cards you could never get your hands on.  My prize for 24th place was this:

It's a beautiful hand painted bat from the Mitchell bat company.  The kind that sell for $245 on their website.  I got my choice of bats and picked the one that was most patriotic.  It says it's #2, but I don't know what that means.  Anyway, playing Bunt is a beatdown if you've every tried to do it competitively.  The problem is you don't just set a lineup.  You can move players in and out of the lineups ALL DAY AND NIGHT depending on their game.  You basically have to watch every game on the computer and move hitters in when they homer or steal or triple or blah blah blah.  It's mind numbingly hard to do it and be competitive.  

That's why I won't be doing it again.  But I'll always have this beauty to remind me how it feels to beat your head against the proverbial wall and win a real prize.  

"Time" for a rebuttal

Have you ever seen a speaker, read an article or heard a sermon where you thought the speaker or writer was talking directly to you?  It happens to me from time to time.  I've been mulling over the idea for this post since December 17th. That's when I read a post entitled "Time" by the one and only Night Owl.   As with almost all Night Owl posts, it was on point and well written.

As I usually do with his posts, I read through it a few times.  I read this one even more because at the conclusion of my first time through, I thought "he's talking about me".  I really felt the weight of his words on me.  The more I read it, the more I felt that way, but understood he was probably referring to a number of people.

I also thought he didn't know what he was talking about. I am busy.  I don't have time to blog.  I DO want to blog.  Then I really started thinking about it.  Maybe I am busy, but I could find 10 minutes in the day to write a post.  Maybe I just don't have the same desire to blog that I use to have.  Maybe the time thing really is just an excuse.

I'm going to make a concerted effort to post more often in 2016.  Well, not so much for the first three weeks of 2016, but you know, all the other weeks.

Speaking of the Owl, he sent over some goodies so let's see some of them.

I've never seen anything like this before so it's a really cool oddball of Gabe Kapler.  This is a Leaf Corporate Exhibitor badge from the 2012 National Convention.  I put the sparkly Delino Jr. next to it so you could see the size difference.

I love minis and historical minis are the best.  This is a 2010 Topps 206 First Short Flight card.  Such a nice plane on such a small card.

There is nothing small about Nolan Ryan and this 2015 Stadium Club Legends die cut card is awesome.  The pic has been used repeatedly, but I'm down for anything with Nolan on it.

How about some True Colors Stadium Club?  I have opened maybe two of these packs and didn't see anything as nice as this Joe Mauer.  Is it possible to collect a "rainbow" all in one card?

So this must be the best 2015 card right?  I'm sure someone has done a comparison already and I may have actually read one or two of those posts, but I love this pic.

Not much of a rebuttal post, mostly because I agree with what Greg said.  So with 9 days left in the month, let's see how many posts I can write.

And maybe, a February contest for old-time's sake?  We'll see if anyone reads this post first.

An unwanted threesome

I kid you not, it took me 10 minutes to come up with that post title.

I am rusty.

I recently bought a trio of 2015 Topps Triple Threads cards because I needed wanted one of them that was numbered 8/18.  I'll eventually get around to posting that one, but I thought someone out there in blogger land might be interested in the two that I don't want.

That's Alex Wood #33/36 and Chris Sale #21/27.  Just let me know.

I would like to thank the people who follow me on Twitter for the prayers and thoughts for our family.  My step-father suffered a massive stroke on December 30th and I was with him when he passed away just after midnight on January 8th. Seeing him breathe his last was one of the worst moments of my life.  Just know that I am thankful my mother and his son didn't have to be there to see it.  Thanks again to those of you who DM'd me.  I am forever grateful.  

This post is 111 days late

Today is my birthday.  My birthday was 111 days ago.  Some time back, I discovered that some Triple Threads cards are serial numbered 8/18 (my birthday).  I actually posted some of them on my birthday last year.  The rest of 2014 and throughout this year, I slowly added to the 8/18 collection so I could write this big post to celebrate my birthday again.  Those of you that still read my very spotty posts know that all this life stuff got in the way.  I decided it was time to finish this post and get it off the "to do" list.

Before we get started, I do want more of these so if you have any 8/18 cards, let me know.

I'll take any 8/18 card for the collection.  Football too.  That's how I ended up with this 2011 Champ Bailey.  It's a bland white swatch, but when it's the numbering you're after, you can't be choosy.

I like these next few football Triple Threads cards better.  This 2013 Torrey Smith has a nice strip of gold stitching in the WR.

This 2013 Stepfan Taylor was really cheap.   That's about all I have to say about that.

This is by far the best of the football 8/18 cards I have.  I like the different pieces in the BIG TIME from Roddy White.

Now we move on to the baseball cards.  First up is a bat piece, or more likely a piece of a bar stool that never saw the light of day in the same room as a major leaguer.  The card is Kendrys Morales from 2011.

The only way I'd ever, ever and I mean EVER, have a David Freese card in my collection is this 2012 Triple Threads card.  I feel dirty just typing that.  

Here's a little 2012 J-Roll action for you.  I do like that you can really see the 8/18 on these.  Some of the designs make reading the numbering difficult.  I actually bought a Mike Napoli that was listed as 8/18, but was actually 9/18.  I know, that's a real First World Problem.  

This is pre-Blue Jay Tulo.  

OMG!  An actual pinstripe!!!  But the numbering is right.  

Here's a little MOTOWN KID action, courtesy of Gio Gonzalez.  This is also a 2012 card.

Jason Kubel is boring, but I do like the colorful swatch of the couch cover jersey.

You'll notice that most of these guys aren't superstars.  There are a lot of 8/18 cards available that I just can't afford.  These were generally the cheaper ones. Sorry Rickie, I didn't mean to imply that you're cheap.  Just less expensive.

I'm not even sure who Austin Jackson plays for now.  

Not all of my 8/18 cards are scrubs.  We have some HOF quality right here.  

I don't really like the design of these 2014 Triple Threads cards.  I think its the paisley tie affect from the swirlies.  

I think this guy might have been a big deal in the playoffs.  

Now we get to the Rangers portion of the post.  I love this 2009 card because it has my favorite Ranger on it.  Oh, and Hamilton and Kinsler.

Three Two former Rangers.  I do like that the card has three different pieces in it.  I always wonder if they actually use pieces from three different players.  This is from 2011 by the way.

Adrian Beltre is going COMMANDO!

2013 Ian Kinsler.  Does BOOTSY refer to his errors?

Elvis Andrus.  Might be a former Ranger before long.

My favorite current Ranger.  With the 'stache.  Love the blue swatch.

Will Yu Darvish ever be the same?  We need him and Derek to come back strong in 2016.

I saved the one auto'd version of an 8/18 card for the end.  Andrew from Tomahawk Chop pulled this and agreed to trade it to me for a similar card. I obliged and we were both happy.

So there you have it.  I know the writing wasn't great, but at this point, I'm happy to have a post up for you to read.  In case I'm not back before the end of the year, have a blessed Christmas and a very safe and happy New Year!

Bloggers Need Cards Too

Baseball cards are great.  Bloggers are great.  Cards of bloggers...well, they are fantastic.

Like many of you, I've received actual cards of bloggers in trade packages.  It's possible that I have a few more somewhere, but hey, I'm writing a blog post, so I'll just enjoy that while I can.

First up on the list is a guy everyone knows and loves to read, the Great Fuji, writer of The Chronicles of Fuji.  I've received at least two (there may be another hiding somewhere) cards of Fuji, both signed in red.  Fuji's cards are great.  The card stock is Chrome like.  The 2008 design and colors are great and although I never watched more than a couple Southpark episodes, I do get the reference.

The first Fuji card was signed with a fine point Sharpie.

The second was signed with the regular tip I think.  I do think the red auto goes well with the colors.

As you can see from the back of the card, Fuji has a wide a varied interest in cards.  Some of my favorite Fuji posts include his many and varied finds at the flea market.

Next up is a very generous blogger, JayBarkerFan.  He hasn't posted in about a month (I'm not criticizing...look at my number of recent posts),  but when Jaybarkerfan's Junk gets a post, it often times leads to a crazy generous mailing of cards across the blogosphere.

Love the auto on the front and the hand numbering, 45/98.  I don't know if this is the Hambugler variation, but I love the whole design.

JBF was a pretty damn good hitter and with power too!  He is generous, obviously eccentric and yes, he does give a lot of stuff away.  In case you were wondering, 26.4 stones is 369.6 pounds.  I can relate.


Last, but not least is the one and only Topher, of Crackin' Wax fame.  Topher has a side gig called Varsity Trading Cards.  It's pretty cool.

Topher is a wax breaker of the highest order.  He has some pretty cool case breaks, many of which lead to healthy donations to charity.  So far he's donated over $5000 to charities.  That is very cool. I love the card.  I like to think he's staring off into the distance and thinking "Man, I should really pull some cool Rangers for Brian".  Hey, you never know.

The back of the card is also very cool.  I know you could easily bribe him with some Dark Chocolate M&Ms.

Rumor has it there is a Literal Quirk autographed card (that's his wife).  That's the one I really need to make the collection top notch.

Well, there you have it.  Some pretty cool blogger cards.  If any other blogger has one, I need to make a deal to get one.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Veteran's Day

To all of you who have, or are, serving our country, I salute you and say thank you from the bottom of my heart.  I count my service in the Navy among the highlights of my life.

Your sacrifice and duty to all of us does not go unnoticed and I know I share the thoughts of many that recognizing you should not be relegated to one day.

God bless you, whether your standing watch on a wall, in the air, in the sea or back home.