Lineage blaster #1

Picked up a couple of blasters of the Topps Lineage.  I really like these sets.  I like the new stars mixed with the old.  The replica 1975 mini’s (if I was a set collector, I would definitely go for that one),  Not sure if I like the jersey cards being on the 1975 mini’s because it almost ruins the look of the card.  I’m not big at reading all the odds of pulling this or that.  I assume, since the blasters come a jersey card to a box, that the checklist on those are pretty big.  But on to the pulls.

I’ll start with the vintage players.  As I stated before, I really like these.  I like pulling players from the past.  It’s been overdone on a few players (Mickey Mantle & Jackie Robinson) but even those guys I like to pull in packs.  I also got an Albert Belle (yeah, you read that right) but didn’t have the need to scan that one.

Josh Hamilton 3D, Robinson Cano sparkly (Diamond Anniversary), and Tsuyoshi Nishioka (Platinum Diamond.)

David Price (Venezuelan) and Zach Britton (Rookies).  Not a big fan of the Venezuelan set, I do like the Rookies set if only for the memories of the Commemorative set’s of the 80’s that I used to have.

Kevin Youkilis (‘75 mini) and a Ricky Romero (‘75 mini relic)

All the above are available for trade, the below are not.

And of course, the cards going into my collections.  I was pretty pumped to get both Seaver’s in one box.  I was looking at buying them both, I’m glad I didn’t.

Like I said above, I’m a fan of this set.  I’ve purchased another blaster that I’ll review tomorrow.

Trade with Dennis

Thanks again everybody for joining me on my mini-celebration of my 100th post.  I doubt I’ll do it every 100 posts but I may do some just for fun in the future.  I got so many comments on that post that I didn’t respond to any.  For all my new followers and commenters, feel free to comment elsewhere and I’ll do my best to respond.  It’s always great to get comments on my posts.  I’ve bookmarked a bunch more sites to add to my blogroll too, just something else for me to accomplish.

I downloaded the Google Reader app on my phone so hopefully I can read blogs elsewhere and leave me time to do other things when I get home to my laptop, like work on my have/for trade lists.  Or my photo gallery of my cards.

As mentioned in a previous post, I met Dennis of “Too Many Grandersons” in person at Fan Appreciate Day in Ann Arbor for a trade, we hung out a bit while waiting in lines and talked some Michigan football.  I felt bad after the trade, Dennis gave me a lot of cards and some great hits.  I definitely owe him more and will be on the lookout for some great cards to repay the trade.  I just scanned very few of what he gave me, a scan of each teams/players.  He gave me way more than represented here.

Again, a small representative.  It was tough to only scan 8 cards.  There was a whole bunch of Peyton Manning’s as well as other Colts stars.

I scanned the Paul Konerko’s that I didn’t have for the White Sox portion of the trade.  The majority of the cards I got from Dennis were White Sox.  Of course, the main reason we read each others blogs are for the following team.

The Maize and Blue.  This was the smallest portion of the trade but that’s because he collects them as well but he gave me a bunch of his dupes.    In the last week or so my Michigan collection went from 6 or 7 cards to closing in on a 100 or so.  I’ve hit a few small lots on ebay pretty cheap as well as what Dennis gave to me.

The 2 Peyton Mannings are pretty cool.  I had never seen the coins before (1998 Pinnacle mint collection) and I’m always up for a patch card.  But the Harold Baines autograph is awesome.  Love Harold!  And the Gordon Beckham razor letterman was the “hit” of the lot.  I really love this card.  I can’t thank Dennis enough for that one.  I will definitely be on the lookout for some cards to get to you.

Be sure to check out Dennis at “Too Many Grandersons”, you can’t go wrong checking out all his Wolverine hits.  I just try to ignore the Tigers cards.  GO BLUE!!!!!

100

Jim Thome had his milestone 600 HR last week. Congrats BTW!

Paul Konerko is coming up on 400 HR (393) and 2000 hits (1995) for his career. And 10 triples (8) and 10 stolen bases (9) in his career. Yeah, he’s that slow. When they bring in a 43 year old to pinch run for you, you’re not known for your speed. But back to topic.

And now I am at 100 posts. It’s been a short run (1st post was March 29, 2011) so about 4 1/2 months. I know when I started, I wasn’t sure I would have enough to talk about. But once I decided to start to collect again, it got off and running. That decision was helped along with Eric at “Manupatches and Chrome Scratches” (my wife has a bone to pick with you) so I blame him for bringing back this obsession. I’m loving collecting again and I really love trading. I’ve made 22 trade posts but I have another one to post yet, so 23 trades. They’ve all been great. The bloggers in our card community are amazing. I’ve gotten random cards in the mail from AJ at “the Lost Collector”, I’ve met a couple bloggers in person (Dustin from “No Relics Pulled”) and even worked a trade while together with Dennis from “Too Many Grandersons”. I thought I knew a lot about cards but there are some bloggers who just seem to know everything so reading other blogs has been educational and fun.

Another thing I learned was it takes more work than it looks to hold a contest. I spent hours last night getting all the entries ready to put in the random. Plus I had to figure out how to take screenshots because my cell phone is the only video camera I have and you can barely read the screen. But since I use google chrome, I had to download the extension to even do the screenshots. But with 99 entries and going from 30 to 46 followers, it was worth it. So after 5 randoms, the winners are…

Nathan (Canadian Cardboard), BA Benny, Play at the Plate & Hackenbush. So you 4, in order of 1-4, let me know which prize you want. Here they are again in case you forgot.

1988 Fleer Baseball Superstars, 1988 Fleer Award Winners, 2011 Topps Lineage (rack pack) and 2011 Allen & Ginter’s (rack pack)

Pick your prizes and let me know your addresses at jccsst1022 at gmail dot com and I will get them shipped as soon as I can. BA Benny, I have your address unless it’s changed.

Thank you everybody for staying with me through my first 100 and hopefully there are many more to come.

Nathan, your up.

• Nathan - Allen & Ginter
• BA Benny - Lineage
• Play at the Plate - Fleer Superstars
• Hackenbush - Fleer Award Winners

Regular posts to resume. Thanks everyone for joining in on my 1st contest.

Slacking and Prize Package

I haven’t been doing a very good job at keeping up my Zistle.  Everyday I get a mental checklist in my head.  Update my Zistle, work on the Google documents lists of cards, read other blogs, sort cards, scan cards.  Then I get home, get online, get sidetracked with Facebook, email, fantasy sports.  And get very little done, I usually read other blogs, but that takes awhile.  A little faster now that I use Google reader.  But I need to make a bookmark list of card blogs on Wordpress so I don’t forget those.  Great, now I have something else to add to my mental checklist.  I always think I’ll get caught up on the weekends, but then I end up working on Saturday and sleep in on Sunday and next thing I know, I’m heading back to work on Monday and got very little done again.  I’m hoping to get some things done tonight, but you know how that goes.

Before I list the prizes, I just wanted to say, thanks!  To my readers, to my fellow bloggers, and to the friends I’ve made in this endeavor.  I never thought I would have as much fun as I have doing this.  I realize that most of my posts don’t really concern most of you because they are about my collections, but for some reason or other, you keep coming back.  I’ve been trying to think of “regular” posts that aren’t necessarily about my collections, if I ever think of something, I’ll let you know.  I do the Photo Cleansing and hopefully some of you enjoy those but I’d like to do a little something else.  We’ll see.  I do have a couple of blaster openings coming up, maybe I should do those more often.  I don’t buy too many anymore but it’s something.

Well, here it is, the highly anticipated prize post.  I like to think everybody has been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for this post and possibly the next.  I know, I may be delusional, but I do live next to Notre Dame so maybe their delusions are rubbing off on me.  Anyways, I went to my LCS and Walmart and picked up the prizes.  Drum Roll………………..

The top 4 people will get to choose from these.  Although it may end up only being the wrappers because it’s really hard for me to have packs and not open them.  Especially the Lineage, as you’ll find out, post contest on this blog.  Both the Fleer boxes are from 1988 and the rack packs are 2011.  Whoever wins the first spot, get’s first pick, ect.

I work till 3 tomorrow and by the time I get home and cleaned up, ect.  I’m going to say you have to 5 pm EST to put your comment in, pimp and follow.  To add your name, head on over here.  I’ll random sometime after 5.  We’ll see you tomorrow evening.  Now, let’s see if I can get anything card wise done tonight.  Oh look, facebook….

Some Things are Bigger than Baseball

Most of you don’t know this but my father died of cancer when I was 8 yrs old.  Back in 1981.  So when the following story was happening, I followed it closely.  And was a big fan of his.  After going through this post, and remember his story, I’m thinking about adding him to my personal collections.

I borrowed this article from - http://chitwoodandhobbs.com/ – If you have a tumblr account, you can reblog this so I assume it was ok to post it here with a link to their site.

Dave Dravecky began his major league career in 1982 with the San Diego Padres. Five years later he was traded to the San Fransisco Giants while they were embroiled in a heated pennant race. Dravecky proved to be a valuable pickup by pitching a shutout in Game 2 of the NLCS, however, they team would eventually lose to the Cardinals.

The following season disaster struck and a cancerous tumor was found in Dravecky’s left arm, his pitching arm. He underwent surgery to remove the tumor and as a result much of surrounding muscle needed to be removed as well. There was doubt as to if Dravecky would ever pitch again. Dave Dravecky refused to give up and his athletic drive pushed him through rehab to a highly anticipated comeback. On August 10, 1989 Dravecky pitched eight strong innings to earn a win against the Cincinnati Reds. Dravecky survived cancer and proved that he was strong enough to once again pitch in the majors. Or so it was thought.

Five days later Dravecky was called on to make a start in Montreal against the Expos. He got things off to a strong start by pitching three innings of no-hit baseball. Things took a turn for the worse and in the sixth inning he found himself in trouble. Dravecky gave up a lead off home run and hit the next batter. The following batter was Tim Raines. Dravecky wound up to fire a fastball but upon releasing the ball from his grip he heard an explosion in his left ear and Dravecky collapsed in pain. He had snapped his pitching arm in half. It’s extremely hard to watch. It makes my stomach turn. It’s like LT and Theisman except there’s nobody in the way of the injury.

The injured Dave Dravecky stayed with the Giants team that later went on to win the National League Pennant. In the midst of the NLCS win Dravecky ran unto the mound and broke his arm a second time while celebrating. During the ensuing surgery it was discovered that cancer had returned to his arm. The cancer and surgeries ravaged his arm to the point where both his arm and shoulder were amputated.

Saying it’s a sad story is a tremendous understatement. Yet Dave Dravecky soldiers on. Soldiers on isn’t an accurate description. Dave Dravecky flourishes and has turned his story of heartache into a motivational speaking career.