And now Sandy gets a chance.

It was bound to happen. Manny Acta is done as manager of the Cleveland Indians.

Sandy Alomar has been named interim manager.

Antonetti and Shapiro will stay on.

I think there should have been more changes a step higher.

The manager is always the first to go and we fans sometimes usually feel that was a mistake. But we don't anything about what went on behind the scenes. A manager isn't normally fired for removing a pitcher too early or too late, for not calling for a sacrifice bunt or not intentionally walking a power hitter.

Do you like your manager at work?
Does every one on your "team" like him (her)?
Does he (she) keep everyone motivated?
Does he (she) see and solve differences between team members before they become problems?

The list can go on and on and, I'm not saying any of these apply to Manny Acta, I'm saying we don't know. But there probably was more to it than just losing games.

When things are going badly, the fans want to see a change, and the manager always seems to be the scapegoat whether he really is the problem or not. Maybe the upper management figures the team manager is the easiest to replace. After enough new managers don't get the job done, then they start to look higher. I think it's time to look higher.

I realize when you make a trade or pick up a free agent you never know what's going to happen. Sometimes you look like a genius and sometimes you look like a fool. Just sayin'.

We are on a two game winning streak, let's see if Sandy and the team can keep it going !

Winnings from a hidden contest

Sometimes you have to do more than read between the lines.

Sometimes you have to sit back watch and listen.

That was the case in The Daily Dimwits contest.

Sam had some new products, TeenyMates, to show off and even had some to give away.

I was one of three lucky recipients and received my package in the mail yesterday.

 

You can read all the details about these little guys on Sam's post. He had a very good review of the product. I got three packages and two of them were exact duplicates. Same players and same puzzle pieces !

 

 

 

I'm not a real big football fan but I would like to have the Little Browns guy. I'd be more than happy to trade any of these  away.

 

When I first saw the package I wasn't sure what to think. It was from The Party Animal Store on Crocker Road in Westlake , Ohio !  That's only about 30 miles from where I live. In fact, my wife and I were just at Crocker Park a week ago.

 

I'll have to go back up that way and check it out !!

 

Thanks for the contest Sam !!





Loot from JABO - a mis cut like I've never seen before!

I recently participated in a break over at JABO'S and and got some great Tribe cards along  with a stack of Angels that came as my random team.

But before I get to those, I want to talk about mis-cut cards. We've all seen them before, in one form or another. I even have a small collection of them.

 

 

This '89 Donruss Junior Ortiz is interesting in that it has no square corners.

 

Some are only slightly off while some,'85 Topps Nolan Ryan, are way off.

High end cards don't always escape either. 1994 Bowman's Best Kevin Mitchell is is out of shape in both directions!

 

 



 

Even some of the best loved sets, 1975 Topps Greg Luzinski, slip through the inspectors.

And another Hi Tech Topps Finest. If only Neifi Perez was a refractor.

 

 

Vicente Palacios, 1988 Donruss, has square corners but the the whole image is on an angle.

 

That brings me to Jabo's cards.

I don't know if he noticed this or not....

 

 

 

 

...but Carlos is Juuuussst a bit short !

About 1/16 on top and 1/8 on the bottom.

This was perfect though ,as I already have that Baerga card !

 

 

OK, here's the rest of the cards !

 

One stack of Tribe cards, one stack of Angels. Angels seemed to have  had better representation.

 

 Shiny Bowman's Best, All cut pretty well.

The Leaf Metal Manny Ramirez had a protective film over it but I always remove them if the card is going to stay in my collection.

I love the Topp Embossed. One of those quirky things from the 1990's.

A future hopeful and a couple blasts from the past. We need a couple like those two for next year.

 

This was a sampling of the Tribe cards.

 

Next, a sample of Angels.

 

Brian and Chuck are the gold Embossed versions.

As you can see, the film is still intact on these Metal Angels.

 

 

A big thanks to JABO for hosting this break !



Yardsellr Tribe auto

I first became aware of  Yardsellr through Facebook. I checked it out and saw a lot of Indian cards I would like to have, so I signed up. I still don't know or understand all of the ins and outs of the whole system, but you can get a very sweet deal if you have enough points  and are patient in buying.

You receive points when you sign up, sometimes other members just give you points and there are other venues for obtaining even more points. The trouble is, your point total is constantly decreasing, so you have to use them quickly or lose them all.The points give you discounts on the items that the members are selling. Many items are sold with free shipping.

This is what I bought :

 

2010 Topps Finest Michael Brantley rookie auto letter patch.

 

 

 

The seller was asking $15.00 with free shipping. I had a humongous amount of points at the time so I clicked on the "Buy it now" button, which doesn't commit you to buy, but it shows the price you have to pay, and it said I owed $3.19 !!

 

I thought what ? You have to be kidding. This was my first attempt at buying so I really didn't know exactly what I was doing and I thought I had made some kind of mistake. I looked over the whole transaction and everything seemed to be in order so I hit the second "buy" button and it sent me to a transaction page where I sent the payment via Paypal.

 

Then I thought again, I sure hope it comes ! But I figured I'd only be out three bucks if it was a scam of some sort, and would consider a lesson learned. A week later it showed up in the mail !

 

I discovered you have to have a LOT of points to get a good deal. Most of the time I have around 2-300,000 points, which are worth about $3.00 and I can't even buy inexpensive items and get a good deal. It ends up costing more than what the seller was asking to begin with when Yardsellr adds in their fee. So I just "x" out of that item and forget it.

 

I did pick this item up a couple days later for another $3.00.

 

 

 

 

A 1993 Topps Stadium Club Series III  Member's Only boxed set.

 

There must be a lot of people who are too anxious to buy or don't understand the system at all, or Yardsellr wouldn't be making any money !

 

Check it out yourself but,

 

Caveat emptor !!

 



It's Like Trading With a Card Shop !

Daniel, over at It's Like Having My Own Card Shop, has been posting some very nice trade bait lately. I was lucky enough to be the first to make offers on his Cleveland Indian post and acquired  a few new cards for my Tribe collection. ( not that too many people are interested in Tribe cards right now !)  Maybe now's the time to buy .

 

First some inserts.

 

2005 Donruss Team Heroes Showdown Fausto Carmona Hernandez 046/100

 

2009 Upper Deck Stars of the Game  Grady Sizemore

 

1996 Collector's Choice YCTG Albert Belle

 

 

Then it steps up a little

 

 

 

I love OBAK !!

 

2009 OBAK Lonnie Chisenhall auto.

 

2000 Fleer Gamers Roberto Alomar bat card.

 

 

 

Thanks Daniel for the great cards, hope you like the D-backs I sent !

 

 



Wrappers from Tribe Cards

David, over at Tribe Cards, has been opening a pack of cards almost every day since baseball season began. Did you ever wonder where all the wrappers went ?

They all show up in my mailbox !
Well, maybe not all of them, but quite a few. But that's alright because some of them are needed in my wrapper collection. I know I keep talking about this Wrapper Collection and promise to post about it. Well, I just found some new binders for storing the wrappers and I'm pretty pleased with the way it's turning out so maybe soon......

Meanwhile, here are some wrappers from David that I needed.

 

 

First an A&G N43 box topper, I believe.

2012 Topps Series I hobby version.

 

 

 

2008 Topps Series I with yellow Dick Perez exclusive painted cards ad.

2005 Topps Updates and Highlights six-card pack marked 99 cents.

 

 

1996 Leaf hobby pack wrapper.

 

 

Finally, two more hobby version wrappers.

1997 New Pinacle

1997 " Old" Pinacle.

 

 

 

David is opening up packs of all different types of cards.

 

I only actively collect baseball wrappers, but I did find these rather interesting.

 

I guess you can find trading cards on almost any topic you can imagine !

 

 

 

Well, thanks David, for the new wrappers and I hope your pack busting is a big success!!

 

 

 

1992 Topps Blackless Back - have you seen one of these before ?

My oldest son Josh found this in a box of misc cards he purchased at a flea market a few years ago.

Has anyone ever seen one before or know anything about it?

I know there have been many variations over the years concerning missing ink, but we have never seen one quite like this!

 

 



Simple contest, terrific prizes !

No, not  here.

Here !!

 

ARPSmith is holding a great contest so if you want some free stuff, get over there.

 

NOW !!