Kenny and Albert reunited ?! Halloween trick?

Kenny: Hey Albert! Good to see ya' man,how ya' been?

Albert: Hi ya, Kenny.Long time no see! I've been out in the Ozarks stayin' with some crazy kat who thinks he's Micheal J reincarnated! I tell you it was scary. I was never so glad to enter that mailer going to Ohio.I was hoping I'd run into some old friends.

Kenny: I know what you mean! I was stuck in some *&#$@ flea market for what seemed liked forever.All these people coming through gawkin' at me, acting like they were Cleveland Indian fans.They were all complaining about the team this year.They only wanna' admit being fans when the team is winning,like when we were playing together.

Albert: Yeah, that David guy out in Ak., he was a true Tribe fan, and it was a real nice place to stay.That lady there, now she could cook! But I had to get outta' there.I was afraid next,he was gonna' dress up like my dead Gran Maw,rest her soul!

Kenny:Well Albert,you've got a good home with me here in Ohio. There are a lot of friends and memories around here! Oh, and I think David was just preparing for Halloween!

Albert: Yeah, you're probably right.I Do miss those kids.You know I love kids.Speaking of which,it is Halloween night.I gotta' go keep an eye on the front yard. See ya' later.

Yep,here they are,together again!

A while back,David,over at Tribe Cards had a post on some of these little guys.They came out in 1995 but I didn't remember them at all.Then, a couple weeks later, I was at a flea market with my oldest son Josh and found a table full of them. Kenny was the only Tribe player they had though.

I had to work 1/2 a day today and came home to find a mailer on the counter.It said trick-or-treat from Tribecards! I wasn't sure what to expect, so I cautiously opened it up, and there inside was Albert!!! No trick just treat.

But it didn't stop there.

David had also posted about the Jack Clark auto above.

I mentioned that I had the base card to go with it, if he wanted it.

So what do he do? Sends me the auto!

So this was a real treat for Halloween this year. Without any sugar to send my A1C back up again! (finally got it stable at 6.3)



Well David,hope you have a Happy Halloween !!

Thank you very much for the treats!!

The Tribe Came Trolling Along

After all this time,I finally got hooked up with "The Troll". He sent me a very nice introductory package of Tribe cards! Below are just a few samples of what he sent.

From 2008 Topps Heritage we have Fausto and Kenny.

Fausto Carmona,a young power pitcher,we all hope will regain his form from 2007.That would be a big boost for next year.

Kenny Lofton,who originally signed with Houston,came to Cleveland in 1992 and became one the premier center fielders in all of baseball.After one year in Atlanta,in 1997, he returned to Cleveland until 2002. In 2007,five years and 8 teams later, he made a final comeback to the Wigwam and gave the fans something to talk and reminisce about for a while.

I love this shot. Ryan Garko is a pretty big man to be stretched out that far!
He couldn't seem to find his form from 2007 either,and of course,is now gone.

Joe Borowski. It seems like the whole team from 2007 collapsed in 2008.

A nice Infield Power insert of Garko.

And the "Destruction Crew" has almost all "self destructed".
"VM"is gone, "Pronk" can't seem to get his power stroke back but hopefully Sizemore can return from his surgeries and give us some more exciting seasons.



But here was the big piece to this package !


Yep, a C.C. gold refractor ! Troll said he wanted to find a good home for this and he certainly did!! Thank you very much for all the great cards!

I may burn ALL my Tribe cards!!!!

I may make a big bonfire tonight,starting with 10,000 Indian baseball cards.
Why ? http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/10/25/acta.indians/index.html

Trade with Joe

A couple weeks ago I received an email from Joe M. over in Poughkeepsie, New York. He collects Mets and Mike Piazza cards but doesn't have his own blog yet.He enjoys reading the many of them out there,and like all of us, is always discovering new ones! Joe said he had some Tribe cards and would be interested in trading.It didn't take long for me to answer that email.I love to trade! Right in the middle of my illness I received a yellow mailer with a big stack of Indian cards inside, which helped perk me up a lot.Now that I'm feeling better and seem to be over my bug, I'm trying to catch up on several trades,so here's what I received from Joe!

There was a good sized stack of cards with a very wide variety of years and brands.

There was old school color with a 1984 Fleer Bert Blyleven, another one of the big stars the Tribe always seems to acquire at the end of their careers!

Plus a newer B/W version of Omar Vizquel's 2005 Diamond King.Omar falls into the Tribe catagory of : "he can't play any more so we'll trade him" as he goes on to win another gold glove!!

Turkey Reds

2006 Grady Sizemore and 2007 Travis Hafner

There had to be some shiny!

1997 Finest Orel Hershiser,38 years old by the end of '96 season,but he WAS still compettitve!

Jeremy Sowers and Jhonny Peralta

2006 Bowman Heritage Chrome,based on 1949 Bowman

I love the old Pacific cards!

1996 Albert Belle Pacific Crown Collection Memorable Moments Milestones.Brilliant blue background behind his white uniform makes this a very sharp card. The card celebrates Belle as the first player to hit 50 HR's and 50 doubles in the same season.

Dennis Martinez and Manny Ramirez in another insert set from 1996 Pacific Crown,Latin Players.

And yet another beautiful insert!!

1997 Topps Sweet Strokes. This is one of the rare cases where the photo shows the effect better than looking at the actual card.

Next we have a 2005 Topps Jody Gerut black refractor #155/225. Nice!

1994 Finest HOF 'er Eddie Murray.

The good old days!

2005 Upper Deck Classics Early Wynn. Another HOF 'er.

2006 Upper Deck Ryan Garko.Hmmm...very slim and trim looking in his rookie season.And when did they have a dome on "The Jake" ?!?

Finally, a couple of the many Thome cards Joe sent.

2001 Donruss Signature Series

1997 Metal Universe

Like both very much!

Thanks Joe for all the Tribe cards !

Your Mets will be in the mail tomorrow,I promise!!

I'll Be Bach !

The bug got me. Not H1N1, just flu. $90.00 for 10 capsules ! Even with prescription plan,$30.00.Received cards From Joe M. in New York. Great.Thanks !!!! Have cards to go to Matt F. and Hey That's Mine!

Cards from the Night

OWL that is!

Our nocturnal friend sent me a whole stack of Tribe card goodness

including the ones above and below.
Well, they were mostly Tribe cards. This is the second time Night Owl has found me a new Christmas ornament to add to my collection. Before long I will be getting out my Baseball Christmas Tree again.

Next up are a couple of parallels I need.

A black-bordered OPC Scott Lewis and

Jake Westbrook 2006 Topps Gold

I love this Stadium Club Omar!

Just look at the determination on his face !

Sorry Harold,I think you're going back to the dugout!!

I always liked the SportsFlix.

I was going to try and collect all of them at one time, but then we had a yard sale.

Some little kid came along and got real excited when he saw some.

I sold him some at 10 cents a piece,and as he walked away,he exclaimed to his Mother " I like these, they're holographic !"

Here we have a 2006 Franklin Gutierrez Gold,Upper Deck rookie #'d 80/99

and a 1999 Upper Deck Roberto Alomar All-Star card.

From the earlier days of Fleer, he sent a 1987 Limited Edition Joe Carter

and some Fleer Action Series Stickers w/ a Tribe logo.

I should have redone these but I didn't realize how bad they were until it was too late.

We know Night Owl likes shiny.

He gave up two Topps Chromes with C.C. and Kerry Wood.

I know there is a lot of consternation among the bloggers about this set !

I know this set has some issues and rightfully so.

I remember the Fleer issues and yes, the ticket stub cards SHOULD match players with the proper games.

But I still like the design.

It's clean,the photos stand out and there is some nice trivia on the backs.

So, Thank you very much Night Owl, for all the great cards!!

If I build it,will you come?

Can you get something good for $1.49?

All the big box stores seem to have discounts on sports cards these days. Mostly blasters.Everyone has been talking about them.On my way home work I pass them all.Target,Walmart,Toys 'R Us, K-Mart and one other called Miejers (pronounced Meyers).I don't know just how widespread this chain is, but we have several in my area. I decided to stop there last night because my wife likes their bagels.Of course, I had to check out the card aisle! They had a lot of different baseball, football , basketball, American Heritage and Wrestling blasters on sale. But there was more.2007 Bowman Heritage bubble packs on sale 50% off. Today was payday, so I didn't have much cash, but I had to try at least one. Was it worth the buck and a half ? You be the judge!

They had at least 30-40 of these hanging on the rack.

I simply took the first one.

First card, checklist #2 of 3.

All right !! A Triber prospect along with a National.

Next up, an ex Triber, Willy Taveras.

Ok Yankee fans, Kei Igawa rookie card.

Roy Oswalt, pretty good Astro numbers.

J.J. Hardy, highly respected prospect was coming around in 2007 after a couple of injury plagued years.

Ryan Zimmerman,another highly touted rookie, got stuck in a bad situation!

The last card made the pack.

Batting champion Joe Mauer!

I like the game-used bat in the cutout design of the Heritage logo.

This was probably the only hit in the whole rack of packs so I don't know if I will buy anymore,but I may check out the blasters again. I have to work 1/2 a day tomorrow (every other Saturday) so I'll be right there again anyway!

I also had an ebay package waiting for me when I got home tonight. It turns, out the seller is only about 10 miles away from me, and right on my way to work! Of course,he didn't tell me that! I could have saved $3.00 shipping.

Anyway, this is what I received.

Yeah, I Actually bought a Yankee card! But it was only 99 cents!

It's a 2003 Fleer Splendid Splinters, "Splendid Splinters" insert # 1 of 10. Not serial #'d, just 10 different players in the set.As you can see from the next photo, this is actually a wooden veneer card attached to a card stock back.

Now, the Tribe Cards !!!

1997 Leaf Fractal Matrix David Justice.

I really liked these cards, but there were a lot of variations!

$1.80

1997 Pinnacle Certified Mirror Red Brian Giles

$2.09

But this is the one I was really after!

Jim Thome 1997 Pinnacle Certified Mirror Red.

$2.92

I need this to go with my other Pinnacle Thome cards.

Well, that's about enough for tonight!

If I build it, will you come?

A Brand of Cards I've never Seen Before!

Phungo'd !

Obviously, these are some rare specimens.

I wasn't able to identify these in any catalog !

These are really cool and at least one will be added to my Sample Card Collection.

I also received a couple Masterpieces to add to my sets.

Then he threw in a nice sampling of Tribe cards

including a very nice 1960 Topps Ed Fitzgerald.

Along with some old, newer and shiny!!

Plus a great mixture of years, brands and players.

Thank you very much for the cool cards!!

On another note, it seems that all my posts of late have been concerning trades.

Now, trades ARE a good thing, especially for building up my collection at a minimal expense and hopefully helping others do the same.

But that is not the only intention I had when I started this blog.

In the next 30 days or so I'm planning some major changes which ,hopefully, will allow me to get some other points across while still continuing to make lots of trades.

Stay tuned and watch for the rebirth of Baseball Dad and All Tribe Baseball !!

If I build it, will you come ?

Christmas in October !

It may be a little early, but one blogger is trying to jump start the Christmas spirit.If you're interested in a little fun check out the Secret Santa!

Triple trades Matt F.,Big D and Fan of Reds

What a week this has been! I've been sick, my wife has been sick and our youngest son Andy came home from BGSU this week-end, for fall break and to celebrate his birthday ,which was 10/2/09.Having Andy home made us both feel better, but receiving three packages in the mail helped me a lot too!

A couple weeks ago, Matt F. at Heart Breaking Cards was showing some 2009 Goodwin Champions.One card that caught my eye was a poker player. My sons are always playing and I thought Josh, our oldest, would like it. Matt said he would send it to me along with a few Tribe cards. Great, now I just wait for the mail to arrive!

One day this past week when I came home from work,I saw a package from Matt. I thought it was a little overkill on the packaging, but better too much protection than not enough. This was a pretty good sized box for one card and few Indians so I tore off the brown paper wrapping.

This is the card I was expecting....

but I found a 2009 Upper Deck blaster!! Matt, did you get me mixed up with someone else?
I'm not going to complain about a blaster, but I really wanted the poker card!

Oh, I see !!! A little bait 'n switch!

The bait worked and the switch was just awesome!

The Ng card was there along with way more than a FEW Indians.

Brad Snyder.

This was one of my favorites .

Brad was born in Sandusky where I work.

Well , not at the Chrysler dealer where I work, but at the hospital (I guess!)
He grew up in Bellvue,Ohio which is about 30 miles west of my home.My wife's sister and her husband also live there.I'm going to have to look Brad up sometime and see if I can get this card signed! I have one other Bowman rookie card of him. Does anyone out there have anymore of his cards? I would be very interested in them.Even duplicates of the ones I have.

Also included were these M&M's of Manny and C.C.

Plus some shiny!!

I know, some people would call me "Joe the Collector" ( no offence Jeff !! ) for getting so excited over these shiny ,chromium cards , but the C.C. IS AWESOME . The photo does not do it justice!

Some more nice Tribers. I like the little square Sportflics hologram thingy.

Also, the Joe Borowski mini is an A&G back.

Bad Boy Belle on top.

Manny being Manny on the bottom,and this might be my first card of Nic Weglarz.

Could this be the next Tribe manager?

John says no,but sometimes that means maybe ,but I don't want to admit it yet.

There were many, many more cards in the box.Some old some new but all great Indians !!

Thank you very much Matt !! I working on a return package!

Next up is a package from Big D over at "Hey That's Mine"

He had some of the first Topps "Tickets to Stardom" cards I'd had seen.

He wanted to trade them so I asked for a couple for my sample collection and a wrapper.

Luckily,for me, the pack was a hobby version which I don't get a chance to pick up very often.

Then he threw in a couple more wrappers for good measure!

He also found a cople 2007 Masterpieces I needed.

I know, more Yankees !! But there just going into my sample card box where it's always dark (but at least there are no bugs!)

I had also asked for the Kerry Wood,but he through in some other Indians as well!

Thank you Big D for the great cards !!

I'm also working on a package for you three guys!

Last, but certainly not least, is the package from Fan of Reds over at "Nachos Grande"

He, like a lot of you out there, was overwhelmed with Allen & Ginter cards and wanted to share with others.

While I was not interested in collecting the whole set, there were a few cards that were interesting to me for noe reason or another. You don't see female ball players on cards too often so I wanted the Cat Osterman. Mickey Mantle was one of childhood heroes and. of course, I had to have the Martinez card!
The other three are just interesting to me for one reason or another.

Of course, he had a few extra Tribe cards too, which he included.

Thank you too!! You should have a return package by now !

Thanks to all the bloggers for their generosity!