Oh No! Not another one.

Sorry!  I haven’t been around too much lately.  The blog is been kind of on autopilot.  It’s been a busy week.

I bought a value pack of 2011 Update and was planning on opening with my kids. They had never opened any baseball cards with me, but they have obviously seen me mess with them being as I do it all the time. So before I opened it, I talked to both and asked if they would even be interested in it.  I made sure that they understood that it was ok if they didn't and that I would rather know before I go buying them packs. My 9 year old daughter said from the start that she didn't think she would be interested but my son said he thought he would. So we all opened them up, 2 packs a piece. My daughter kind of skimmed through them and was done. My son on the other hand, opened his pack and as soon as he looked at one, he would set it down, then look at the next one, then set it beside the other one. He started to put the sparkly and the gold one in the same pile.  Once he got all the cards laid out and I gave him mine and he grabbed the ones my daughter opened. He started to sort them by team.

I got excited watching him sort them out.  I’m trying not to be, because it may not be anything he sticks with, but it’s tough.  Of course, the worst part is my daughter is a White Sox fan, but my son is a Cubs fan.  He’s a momma’s boy, and now you understand why we divorced.  I couldn’t live with a Cubs fan anymore.  Just kidding, of course.  But I do make fun of my son because he claims to be a Cubs fan.

When he finished sorting them, he asked for a box like I use, so I grabbed a 250 count box and gave it to him.  He grabbed them team by team and put them away.  If he sticks with it, I’ll have to show him pages and albums.  And buy lots of packs, and teach him about inserts, and parallels, and seriel numbered, relics and autographs!!!!!

But I’m trying not to be excited. 

Trying being the key word.

I sent the above picture to my mom, her response “Oh no, not another one.”

And for the record, he didn’t get any White Sox cards, but he did the Cubs.  Even got an insert.  At least his luck is better than mine.

Today’s 9–Jason Bere

I keep my White Sox collection by players last name. When that player reaches 9 cards (a page), they get a post in the Today’s 9 series. I just recently moved all my cards into alphabetical order so most of these posts are just catching up and making sure everybody get’s their due.

JASON  BERE

Cards (L-R) – (top row) 1992 Classic Best, 1993 Upper Deck (inside the numbers), 1994 Fleer Ultra

(middle row) 1994 Score, 1994 Topps, 1994 Upper Deck (the future is now)

(bottom row) 1994 Upper Deck, 1994 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice, 1995 Bazooka

Played with the Sox from 1993-1998

Was 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting in 1993.

Made the All-Star game in 1994.

Card back info –

“When Jason Bere was a senior at Wilmington High School, he was 165 pounds and a non-prospect.   The White Sox took a chance on him, and Chicago thinkis it may have a future ace in the 21-year-old.  Bere has a live fastball that has been clocked in the 90’s, a slider, and what GM Ron Schueler thinks may be his best pitch, a changeup that gives his fastball an extra yard or two.  Last year, Bere started in Sarasota, blew through Class-AA and ended up in Vancouver.  It won’t be surprising if his Hollywood ascent takes him to Comiskey Park this season.” – 1993 Upper Deck (inside the numbers)

“It came as no surprise to most ovservers that Jason was the top rookie pitcher in the major leagues in ‘93 and a second-place finisher in the AL Rookie of the Year voting.  After all, he was the No. 1 White Sox prospect at the start of the season and was considered one of the game’s best righthanded pitching prospects.  After being recalled from Nashville in late May, Jason split his first 10 decisions, then really took off to end the year with seen victories in a row.  He throws an explosive 90-plus fastball, which he mixes with a nasty slider and a strong changeup.” – 1994 Score

“When pitching 8 scoreless, 2-hit innings, Jason broke an 83-year-old team rookie record when he K’d 13 Red Sox, 9-8-93.” – 1994 Topps

“When the White Sox summoned Jason Bere from Class-AAA Nashville on May 25, he joined a staff that included the 1993 Cy Young Award winner (Jack McDowell), the pitcher with the leagues fifth-best ERA (Alex Fernandez), and the pitcher with the league’s seventh-best opposition average (Wilson Alvarez).  Bere made his mark on the AL West champs as well.  He won his final seven decisions of the season, tying the franchise mark for strikeouts by a rookie (13) in one of those triumphs.  The 22-year-old also led Major League rookies in wins and paced AL rookies in strikeouts.” – 1994 Upper Deck (the future is now)

“Bere played a huge role in Chicago’s drive to the American League west title, compiling a perfect 7-0 mark in his last seven decisions of the year.  His 12 victories led all Major League rookies, helping him finish second to the Angels’ Tim Salmon in AL Rookie of the Year balloting.  Bere allowed only 270 hits in his 370 minor league innings prior to 1993, and he remained stingy in the majors, posting a .210 opponent batting average.” – 1994 Upper Deck

“Bere capped his outstanding rookie season by winning his final seven decisions as the White Sox drove to the AL west title.  Included in that stretch was a September 8 outing in which he matched the franchise rookie record with 13 K’s in eight shutout innings.” – 1994 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice

Cards in Sox uniform that I own currently – 13

Autos/Relics from player above that I currently own - 0

Bere was a great starter for a few years, then became average for awhile.  What stood out most about looking at his stats was he played until 2003.  I was not aware of that, now granted I quit watching baseball from 1994-1999, but still, I was oblivious to it.

Ebay pick-ups

If you follow me over at “Too Many Manninghams” then you know I made a couple of big purchases from ebay.  Here is where you get to see the non-Michigan cards I won.  First off, some free cards.

Picked up both of these for my player collections of each for free using what little of ebay bucks I had.  I don’t remember the total amount I had but it was under $2.

All the following cards were purchased from the same seller.

Since I was already taking advantage of shipping from the seller, these were just throw in’s that he had listed in his ebay store.  I paid $1.50 each for these which is higher than I would normally pay for X-fractor’s but the more cards I got from the seller, the more I could justify spending the money because of the cheap shipping.

Not sure exactly what this is but it’s stamped “Special Olympics, Nevada, 1 of 1”.  It’s a copy of the 1995 Classic 5 sport card except the gold foil stamp in the middle.  If this is truly a 1 of 1, then it’s my first.  And I only got it for $1.25.

Another 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter bat card (I already have one of Konerko) but I won it for only $3.04 so I went ahead and got another one.  You can never have too many relic cards.  Also got this Grant Hansen auto from Donruss Elite Extra Edition Aspriations #’d /50 for $1.93.  Don’t know anything about him but he’s a Sox and it’s an auto and it’s numbered to 50.  Pretty good price in my book.

Last but not least is this Brandon McCarthy dual jersey and auto card #’d /225.  I got this Triple Threads card for $3.33.  I liked McCarthy when he played for us and if I remember correctly, I was pissed when they traded him but I haven’t heard too much since he left.  I believe he missed a bunch of last season with injury.

Along with the cards above, I also got a couple of cards to send to Dennis to complete a trade.  One, I know he’ll really enjoy.  And also a Steve Breaston auto in a Michigan uniform that I posted over on “Too Many Manninghams” for myself.  The beauty of all 9 cards that I received from that seller is that I only paid $3 to have them all shipped to me.  Which equals to just over $.33/each to ship.

I have some more stuff coming that you’ll get to see whenever I get them in so look for that, hopefully in a day or 2.

Trade with Thoughts and Sox

Adam of “Thoughts and Sox” had requested some trade bait that I had posted.  For the life of me I don’t remember what.  But I sent it to him along with some Red Sox cards I had lying around.  Here’s some highlights of his return package.

Just a small sample of the Sox cards he sent.  There were a lot of Mark Buehrle and Frank Thomas as well as some other cards.  Yes, that is a Bowman rookie of Buehrle up there on the left.  On the bottom right is a Donruss Originals.  Not sure what exactly these are but there was a number of these in the package.  I assume it’s more or less a heritage set with Donruss cards.

He also included a crap load (that’s an official measurement) of Konerko’s.  The one’s pictured above are just the ones that go to the Konerko collection.  Plus there were a few that I already had there that got to go to the White Sox collection.  Adam went above and beyond with all of these.  But he didn’t stop there.  He also threw in these.

2 1960’s White Sox cards.  These are awesome.  They are 2 different card stocks but I believe I read somewhere that certain sets had done that.  I don’t recall why though.

Awesome trade Adam, be sure to check out his blog “Thoughts and Sox”  I don’t believe he’s posting much now-a-days but he’s still around.

Player Collection Spotlight–Tom Seaver

In this series, I randomly select a card from my player collections and show it off here. Being that it’s random, it could be a base, insert, parallel, auto, relic or any other kind of card I have. It could be from Paul Konerko, Tom Seaver, Billy Williams, Dave Dravecky and even Mike Hart or Peyton Manning. I will put a mark next to it on my PC list so it doesn’t get repeated.

1986 Topps – Tom Seaver