Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Regardless of what you might have heard.........



I'm am still alive and well !!

This has been a very busy month for our family and some plans have changed several times.

God was looking down on us when our 4 1/2 month old Granddaughter had to have surgery.
A small hole had to be drilled to allow fluid to drain from her brain, but all went well and she is fine !

But our family Christmas has been moved to New Years.


Speaking of Christmas !!

With my new man cave, I now have a full size baseball tree.

 
 
 
 
 
I didn't get my Pacific Ornament cards on this year.
I'll have to do some rearranging !
 
I also received a card in the mail yesterday from The Diamond King.
Kevin sent me this great Lou Boudreau card.
 
 
# 16 of 25 !
 
Thanks !!!
 
I'm also part of a Secret Santa group over at Crackin' Wax.
 
I received a surprise package from one of the  sponsers, Ultra Pro.
 
 
Two packs of sleeves,
 
 
 
100 9-pocket pages and
 
 
an album to put them in !!
 
I always use Ultra-Pro products so these were much appreciated !!
 
 
I know I also owe packages to several bloggers out there.
I try to keep track, so you will be receiving them !!
 
Hopefully after the first of the year, things will get back to normal !!
 
I hope to not offend anyone, but....
 
 
 
Have a

 Merry Christmas

and a
 

Happy New Year !!

 
 
 
 
 


Thursday, November 28, 2013

A Day of Thanks.


Just a quick thanks to all my blogger friends !

I hope all who are celebrating have a great day and safe trips if you are traveling.
    (or even if you are not celebrating !!)


I'm not a big football fan so I won't be watching TV all day.  Maybe Christmas movies though.

I plan to get some trade packages together and start working on plans and ideas for next year.


 Thanks to all !!

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Totally Undepressed by Nolan's Dugout !


A couple posts back I spoke of being "depressed" by a PWE from Jeff at 2x3 Heroes.

Of course, I wasn't really, he sent a great Astro card and some great Indian cards too !

But the one 1994 Fleer Indian he sent, led me to discover I was missing 11 cards from that set !

But, Kyle at Nolan's Dugout , (check out his collection !)  was the first to comment, and had 10 of the 11 cards I needed. I still need #112 Candy Maldonado, but I just received a terrific package from Kyle.


 
 
 
Here are the 1994 Fleer Indians Kyle sent.
But that was just a start.
 
 
 
 
 
A very nice Luke Easter reprint.
 
 
 
 
A Gold Winner Steve Olin card I needed !
 
 
 
A very cool Denny's Albert Belle hologram.
 
 
 
Even some 1993 OPC !
 
 
Pinnacle in a can !!
These were favorite of mine back in 1997-98.
I'm still trying to complete the set.
 
 
I haven't checked to see if I have the mates to these,
but they were on my want list !
 
 
 
Plus more oddballs !!
Not sure if I need all of these,
but they are great anyway.
 
 
 
 
 
Did I say odd balls ?
Now here's one I didn't know existed !
Fantastic Sam's.
There is even a contest,
I could win tickets to a 1988 Championship game !!
 
 
 
But, the most important card of the entire package,
 a simple base card that has eluded me for nearly 20 years.
 
( actually, I never really pursued it too seriously,
just one I never picked up ! )
 
 
Knock one more off the Thome Indian collection !!
 
 
 
1996 Flair
These were very nice cards.
 
 
 
Well, thank you very much Kyle !
 
I hope I can something that will make you just as happy !!
 
 
 

Saturday, November 16, 2013

The Nationals ! It's Never Too Early to Start Thinking About it !!


The Nationals !!   In Cleveland !!

JULY 30-AUG 3 2014

INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION (I-X)CENTER
CLEVELAND OH

Right outside of Cleveland Hopkins Airport

Baseball is well represented with appearances confirmed by Hall of Famers including Roberto Alomar, Johnny Bench, Dennis Eckersley, Carlton Fisk, Bob Gibson, Tony Gwynn, Rickey Henderson, Reggie Jackson, Paul Molitor, Eddie Murray, Tony Perez, Jim Rice, Cal Ripken Jr and Ozzie Smith. Plus, special appearances will be made by Future Hall of Famers including Chipper Jones, Pedro Martinez and Chicago's own Frank Thomas. Recent retirees Jermaine Dye and David Justice will be signing as well.

And that's only a partial list.

You can get the full story right here.


If you think you might go, let me know.
I would like to make arrangements to meet a few more of our "family" members !

Hope to see you there !


Friday, November 15, 2013

G reat C ards R eceived, L oved trade !!


Sorry about the pun in the title, tried to bold, italicize or
 colorize the g, c, r and l, but blogger wouldn't let me !
 
 
What a stack of cards from gcrl !

 
No, I am not going to make you look at every card !
 
I picked out some of my favorites
for your viewing pleasure.
 
 
Cool ! Another Charboneau for my collection.
I believe I have one of every "Super Joe"
card ever made, except for the 1982 Topps blackless
and 1982 Team issued, 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" photo.
(not exactly a card) 
 
 
I have also, always been impressed by Jim Abbott.
I have a separate album for him.
I only have about 140 of approx. 500 known cards.
 
 
 
Thanks to Jim, I have added four more !
(I had the 1996 Topps)
 
 
 
There was a nearly complete set of 1994 Topps.
I did need these.
 
 
gcrl had a lot of areas covered in this trade.
 
 
There was OPC and players taking a break.
 
 
Defensive action plays.
 
 
Newer players.
 
 
Trick base running!
 
 
Base stealing. 
 
 
 
Steve Olin pitching with his elbow !
 
What a terrible loss this was to the Tribe family.
 
 
Shades !
 
 
1st Day Issues  and shiny !
 
 
Fake vintage, love these cards !!
 
 
 
 
 
 
And Real Vintage !
Love these too !
 
 
Rainbow candidates.
 
 
Minis !
 
 
Shiny logos !
 
One gold and one silver.
 
 
 
During our trade discussions,
Jim threw out this question :
 
" Do you like Kenny Lofton ? "
 
Really !? Is that a trick question ?
 
I feel a bipping on it's way !
 
I told him I was afraid to say,
but, Yes, I like Kenny.
 
When the package arrived, all I could think about
was what will I do with 10 0r 20 Lofton cards all the same !?
 
 
 
 
 
 
But then....
 
they were all different !
 
What a great box of cards !
 
 
Thank you very much gcrl !
 
 

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Three Star Mailday - Sandlot - GCRL - Facebook


Tonight I'm going to check out the cards from Joe over at The Sandlot

Here are a few of what was in Joe's package.

First a couple minor league cards :

 
 
When you see "Indianapolis Indians"
 you just kind of automatically think of Cleveland.
 
Indianapolis was associated with Cleveland
 from 1952-1956.
They lost $500,000.00 and Cleveland sold them !
 
The Columbus RedStixx were associated with Cleveland from 1991-2002.
However, this team was located in Columbus, Ga., not Columbus ,Ohio !
 
Minor League baseball is just so confusing !
 
 
 
 
Mark Lewis from 1991 Score Traded.
Dion James from 1991 Donruss
 
 
2001 Topps Opening Day
 
Change the color, change the name
 and you have a another set for us to buy !
 
 
Here we go !
Jack Morris and his "stash" did make a stop in Cleveland.
 
 
This is a sharp card !
2001 Donruss Signature Series.
Kenny Lofton
 
 
2013 Pinnacle Trevor Bauer.
Hopefully he will get righted around in the off season.
We definitely need him next year !
 
 
 
Retro Vintage !!
 
2005,1973 Topps Buddy Bell.
 
 
 
 
REAL Vintage !!
 
Very cool, one of four 1960 Topps Indians I need !
 
Now I need to find :
 
#279 Chuck Tanner
#324 Jim Perry
# 441 Gary Bell
 
 
 
I love logo cards, so we'll end tonight's post with this one!
 
 
Thank you Joe, for the great cards.
Especially the Score !
 
 
 
 


Sunday, November 10, 2013

A Depressing PWE from 2x3 Heroes


Let's face it, we all love to see mail from other bloggers.

Anything from a PWE to big box !

You just know there is going to be something good in there somewhere.

One man's junk is another man's treasure. That's what they say.
And it couldn't be any truer than in the world of sports cards.

Carefully poening the letter, this is what I found :

( I purposely did not correct "opening" so you young guys
 and gals will know what you may be heading for someday
 when you approach my age !!)


 
Four nice 2K Tribe cards.
 
I like Victor's pose, signifying two outs.
 
Upper Deck "First Edition" Ryan Garko.
Upper Deck : "Let's slap some gold trim on and call it
"First Edition".
The collectors will never notice the photos !"
What ever !!!
In all fairness, I believe there were some different players.
 
Same with 2008 Topps Opening Day.
Different color makes it a whole different set.
I guess it's not really any different than all the parallels we have to chase now.
(We'll get to that in a minute !)
 
 
So was that the depressing part ?
No, not there yet.
 
 
 
 
Not sure if this card was an accident
 or thrown in for my son who collects Astros !!
 
 
Here is the prize of the PWE !
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ah, yes !
One of those d darn parallels !
This is a great orange parallel that I didn't have !
 
Thank you, thank you ! I have very few oranges.
 
 
 
Now the depressing part.
 
 
 
 
Good old Alvaro Espinoza.
1994 Fleer.
This card did not look familiar so I turned, grabbed my 1994 album and flipped to the Fleer section. Sure enough, I needed this card !!  Yea !!  But wait, I also grabbed  my sports card bible, the SCD Standard Catalog. This Fleer set has the team players all listed together in numerical order. The Indians go from card # 98 to # 123, or something like that.
 
I got to checking and I still need 11 cards to complete this set !!
How can I need that many for a simple '90's base set !!??
 
Well here's a list, if anyone has any of these , LMK !
 
98 Alomar, 102 Dipoto, 104 Fermin, 105 Hernandez, 107 Kirby, 108 Kramer,
 110 Lilliquist, 111 Lofton, 112 Maldanado, 116 Ojeda and 118 Plunk.
 
 
Thanks Jeff for the great cards !!
It really wasn't that depressing !
I know I still need a lot of Tribe cards.
 
That fact, my wife, family and new granddaughter, all get me through each day !