Underestimating PK

So I've brought over all of my cousin's common cards and am in the process of putting them all into team order so I can make team bags for the kids at the shows we do. Specifically the Plymouth show as there are a ton of kids there. The problem is, when I was a kid, I collected one of everything and now that I'm going through all these cards, I want to keep one of everything. I'm probably going through more than 50,000 cards and I'm not exaggerating. I know there is 3 5,000 count boxes and 5 3,200 count boxes and then 6 milk crate boxes which I estimate at probably around 6,000 to 7,000 cards each (maybe more). It's a huge task but I do love to sort so it's a labor of love, but man do I want to keep 1 of everything. My collection would be huge but I can't start down that path. We've all been there and know what will happen. Other than my wife would kill me. 

Today's post is one I love to add too as he is my favorite player. It takes more than just being a good player for me to really like you. He turned down extra money to play in his hometown to stay in Chicago and he was here for almost his whole career but once he was here, he didn't want to leave. He was a good guy off the field and what I really liked is people underestimated how good he was. He was a quiet leader that would beat you more times than not. I can't tell you how many times I was saying you better walk him to get to the next batter and almost every time, they would pitch to him. More times than not, he made them pay for that underestimation.

See, I told you he didn't always play for the Sox.

The Topps portion of the White Sox cards. The 2002 Topps is a limited editon and the t206 is an Old Mill back.

The Upper Deck portion. The 2004 on the top right is a high glossy set, I didn't even know that existed. The green one on the bottom is a Holiday Inn set and finally a 1989 UD look-a-like Authentics.

Last but not least, I lumped all the shiny cards in one scan. The 2 Prizms are both color parallels and a Finest at the bottom.

The above 18 cards came from the last shipment from Sportlots and bumps the Konerko collection to 735 cards, that's according to TCDB where I'm in 1st place by over 300 cards.

I also picked up this pocket schedule with PK on it at the Stanton Man Cave when Sluggo and I went up there to check it out. We were buying for him but I looked through some oddball stuff and found a few Sox pocket schedules for a quarter a piece. This one is the year after our last World Series victory.

Completed Team Sets–2010 Bowman Platinum

Sorry I haven’t posted much in this new year.  My wife has had some issues with her MS (read about that here) and between work and helping her move around and taking care of things, I haven’t had a lot of time.

These are a little hard to see with the scan.  I’ve had the Gordon Beckham and Manny Ramirez for awhile.  I didn’t realize that there was only 1 other card in the team set until I received it.  Don’t ask me where I got it because I don’t remember.

Trade with Tim

A reader named Tim contacted me about a trade.  It was awhile ago so I don’t remember what I sent him but I received his package awhile ago as well.  Not sure why I didn’t get around to posting this earlier.  Sorry about that Tim.  But I am doing it now.

All 4 of these go to my Konerko collection.  You know I love the Goudey.

A Peyton Manning for the player collection.  With the Colts. *sniff *sniff

And a 2008 Topps Mike Hart rookie card.  Also for the player collection.

Thanks Tim for all the cards.  All positives for the player collections.  He also sent some for the team collection that I didn’t scan.

Box Break from the Dimwit

Don’t the name fool you, Sam knows what he’s doing over at the “the Daily Dimwit”,  He held a box break of some nice sets.  You got 2 teams, you picked one and one was randomed.  My randomed team was the A’s.

A Frank Thomas card, too bad it’s with the A’s.  The Manny Ramirez/Matt Holiday card on the bottom right is numbered.  I assume the cards that weren’t with a specific team got randomed, that’s where the Michael Beasley comes in.  As well as these 2 cards.

I would have posted that MLK card on Monday had I realized I had it.  All the above are available if you are interested.

I haven’t checked to see which of these cards I have yet but I only recognized a few.  The Thome SP Authentic is numbered so it’ll go to the Sox collection whether I already have it or not.

I like thse cards and it was one of the reasons I joined this break.  I really like the Konerko card at the bottom.  I love the design, and it’s numbered.

So a great box break, thanks Sam, for hosting and running it.  I enjoyed it and I look forward to others.  Be sure to check him out at “the Daily Dimwit”.

Trade Bait

As mentioned in a previous post, I picked up some trade bait at my LCS.  If this post goes well, maybe I’ll spring one of these posts every so often to get rid of cards I have already.  For the most part, I grabbed oddball stuff that maybe other collector’s wouldn’t have.   So here goes.

1981 Donruss Mike Schmidt and a 1982 Granny Goose Foods Rickey Henderson.

The 1st card says 1996 Upper Deck on it, but I had never seen it before so I grabbed it anyways.  The 2nd Jackie Robinson card says 1994 Upper Deck on the back but it says “Baseball – the American Epic” on the back so I assume this set corresponds with the movie.  And a 1993 Donruss Mike Piazza rookie.  Let’s face it, there’s a crap load of Dodger Bloggers out there, they probably all have it already but it was only $.25.  Speaking of Dodgers.

It’s poorly cut and has a stain on the left, but it’s yours if you want it.  There’s no year on the back due to the poor cut but the last stat year has 1976 so I’m guessing this is a 1977.  I want to say Hostess, but not positive without the info on the back.

1998 Fleer Double Trouble (Hideo Nomo & Mike Piazza) and a 2008 Upper Deck X Xponential Russell Martin. 

1965 Topps Cincinnati Reds rookie stars and a 1974 Topps All-stars with Rod Carew and Joe Morgan.  It’s a little worn around the edges.  I grabbed this Ted Kluszewski because I hadn’t seen these cards either.  It says 2003 Topps Flashbacks.

Manny Ramirez gold 2003 Topps.  1978 Topps Fergie Jenkins and a Ted Williams from 1989.  It has JJ Nissen Super Stars at the top, never seen these either but there it is.

Both George Brett.  1987 M&M’s Star Lineup and a 1991 Post Cereal Collector Series.

And the final 2 are both Cal Ripken Jr.  A 1992 Post Cereal Collector Series and a 1990 Topps Kmart Superstars.

All are for trade, but a couple people have first dibs because I’m already working on trades.  So if Stealing Home of “All Trade Bait” wants any of the Dodgers, let me know.  And if Dennis at “Too Many Grandersons” wants the Ripkens then let me know as well.  Let me know if you see anything you want.  If we make a trade, I’ll try to hit your want lists as well but be forewarned, I don’t have much left in my trade box so you may only get the cards you ask for.  I tell you this because I know a lot of you send extra cards, and that’s great, I try to do so as well.  I just don’t want you to be disappointed if there aren’t any extra goodies.  Hit me up with a comment or email if you want any of these.

A good post about Manny Ramirez

I named the title that way just because I didn’t want anybody to skim this post thinking it was about his newest press.  I’m sure by now, you’ve heard about Manny and his domestic dispute last week.  Last I heard, he shoved his wife and she hit her head.  Doesn’t really matter, doesn’t really surprise anyone I’m guessing.   I’m not a Manny fan by any means.  Didn’t like him when he played for the White Sox.  I didn’t mind signing him for those few months because whatever you want to say about Manny, he can hit.  Well, except when wearing a White Sox uniform apparently.  But I have a personal story that involves Manny and I figured it would be a good time to share.

Awhile back, when Manny was still with the Red Sox.  My now, ex-wife and I took my then father-in-law to his first MLB game.  He was a Yankees fan and since I couldn’t get any decent tickets for the Yankees game against the Sox, I got White Sox/Red Sox tickets figuring a Yankee fan would root for my Sox.  Between innings my ex would hold a sign that said “This is my dad’s 1st MLB game” trying to get on TV.  We were sitting in the front row on the left field line.  After a half inning where the outfielders were throwing the ball around, Manny looked over to us, held up the ball and nodded.  I nodded back and he tossed it to us.  He threw it to 1 hop us because he was out in his position.  He threw it to my father-in-law.  While he sat back and waited for it, a kid reached in front of him and grabbed it and took off.  Manny looked at us and shrugged.  My ex wanted me to go after the kid.  I told her that her dad should have gone after it, I can’t take the ball from the kid.  She was pissed but she got over it.

I just wanted to give Manny a little good press since he can’t produce any on his own.  He impressed me that day, even though he probably didn’t think nothing of it, it made our day.  I did get my father-in-law to his first Yankees game that next year.  And what was going to become an annual trip to US Cellular Field stopped after his 1st Yankee game due to his passing in a car accident.  But I am glad we got him to his first MLB game and his first Yankees game.

Thank you Manny Ramirez and just because you don’t hit baseballs anymore, doesn’t mean you can hit other things, just saying.

Card Show #2

At the before mentioned Card show, I also stacked up on a bunch of Frank Thomas.  I actually put some Thomas cards back because there were stacks and stacks of them in the cheap boxes.  Here are the ones I did pick up though.

Some new, some old.  the 1992 topps is the insert of 60 years of Topps.  A few of these I haven’t had before but most I had.  Here’s some more Thomas cards.

“The Big Hurt” used to be one of my favorite Sox players until the latter of his career when he started wanting more money and he was spending half his seasons on the DL, then trashed talked after he left.  He has since apologized and is working with the Sox here and there.  I have no ill feelings towards him for the most part but when your idol leaves like that, you don’t ever forget.

I also picked up whatever oddball cards I could just because I figured they would be harder to come by.  Not to mention one is a Tom Seaver to add to that collection as well.

One more post to come.  Vintage and player collections left.

Trade with Nomo’s Sushi Platter

And yet another trade last week.  I love getting trade’s in the mail, you get to build your collection and all it costs me is cards I had no use for anyways.  You get to give those cards to someone who loves them in return for cards you love.  And that leads me to my most recent trade with Spiegel at “Nomo’s Sushi Platter.”  I sent him some cards, he sent me some.  And some great cards did he send.  Here’s the highlights.

First off, some Bowman with some gold.  As a set, I’m not a big fan of Bowman because I like getting cards of players I know.  But I do like the base set of the pro players.  I like the looks of most of the Bowman sets.  Don’t get me wrong, I like the draft pick players too, but I much prefer players I know.

I know some people out there aren’t big fans of the Toppstown but I like them.  I don’t play any of the games on the site, but I like the looks of them.

I also like the look of the Upper Deck Signature Stars and of course you should know by now, I like the sets that have the vintage look to them.  And who can complain about 3 different Luis Aparicio’s.

And Spiegel hooked me up with a slew of Paul Konerko’s for my collection that seems to be getting bigger and bigger with each trade.

  

And look at all that sparkle.  Mark Buehrle Refractor and an AJ Pierzynski diamond anniversary card.  I love the shine on that card.

And Spiegel must have been reading my blog and noticed how much I like to post Jordan pictures from his days in basketball.  I know, some of you didn’t realize he played basketball before he did baseball, but that’s why I’m here, to educate.  It just so happened that my favorite basketball player of all time, played his baseball with my favorite baseball team’s organization.  That worked out nicely and thanks to Spiegel, I now have my first Jordan baseball card.  And it’s a nice one at that.

And to top it off, he threw me a little relic love with this Pierzynski jersey card.  And these were just the highlights, he sent me a whole bunch of cards.  A great trade with him, make sure you check his blog out at “Nomo’s Sushi Platter.”  And if you need a good trade partner, look him up as well.  Thanks again, Spiegel