TRADIN' TIME

Marie , over at " A Cardboard Problem " , and some others, are quickly making me see that trading cards with other bloggers may be one of the best ways to add to your collection. For a handful of Pujols ( and a couple Yankees , not many Indian fans want many Yankee cards !) , who is a great player , but has no real "special" place in my collection I received a terrific package of cards that I do collect !! Mostly Cleveland Indians with a few Thome cards too.

I'm pretty sure I need almost all of these cards !!

Thank you again very, very much !!!

CLASS ACT

Through these doors you'll find stories of some of the greatest sports legends and heroes of all time ! All bonded together , after years of refinement , by possibly two of the most common things on earth . A stick and a stone . There are many thoughts , stories and ideas about the real origin of the game , but I don't think anyone really knows for sure. It's gone through many changes , some good some not so good , but the game still goes on. The likelihood of anyone reading this blog and not knowing what this great cathedral is , is minimal , but just in case , it's the...

Right !!

This post is about only one of the many men and women with stories to be told and he can still tell them.

The fireballing farmboy from Iowa , Bob Feller.



This is one of my favorite pieces. Stouffer's created this set of 5 " Legends of Baseball " to promote their french bread pizza in 1995 . Feller was the only Tribesman but was in good company with Yogi Berra (who also has an autographed version ) , Gary Carter , Don Drysdale and Willie Stargell.


The following items were all graciously signed in person by Mr.Feller , at no charge , during several appearances around the area.

I found this book in a small antique store for only $10.00. It's my next item to get autographed.

The 1949 Indians sketchbook with advertising as " The World's Champions ". I hope to see that in my lifetime.

Most of the regular players have a page of their own and Bob signed his for me.

The following is the remainder of my Bob Feller collection. Unfortunately I don't have any original cards but there are plenty of others available.

He even had his turn on a membership card.

I had to through in this final photo for David @ Indians cards and then some...

The Cooperstown chief of police and her Dodge Charger squad car.

YEAH !! IT'S GOT A HEMI !!!!

A NEW SEASON

It's still very cold here in north central Ohio but I'm starting to get excited about the new baseball season . We made some decent acquisitions and if Pronk and Martinez can get back to form , we should have a contending team. There are some question marks , but with all the players going to spring training , they hopefully will be settled. A lot will depend on Travis Hafner. We need a bat in the line-up that tends to worry the opposition when he on deck. Pronk did just that a couple years ago. Not so much lately. If he is as healthy as he says and can get his swing back he should take care of one question mark. Jhonny Peralta can hit the heck out out of the ball but he's so inconsistent . He seems to hit the long ball a lot more often when he's not trying to. Of course , that's a basic fundamental , but I'm sure it's not that easy when your job depends on it and you're facing a 100 MPH fastball ! I guess that's the difference between the better than average players and the long lasting superstars. Pitching. You have to have some bats but most baseball people will agree that pitching and defense win in the long run. Back-to-back -to- back Cy Young winners . Has any team ever done that ? Yes !! Toronto in the AL , '96-'97-'98.In the NL , Randy Johnson won 4 straight with Arizona and Greg Maddux , Cubs '92 and Atlanta '93-'94-'95. The Dodgers nearly did it 5 times in the 60's . So can Cliff Lee make it 3 for the Tribe ? If he can perform like he did last year , and get some more run support , I think so ! But for now we'll have to wait for spring training and see what happens.

Dinged !!

Winter has finally hit us , in North Central Ohio , and it came with vengeance ! Zero degrees when I left for work and snowed all day. After snowing all week-end too , I 'm ready to hibernate 'till spring. But then I walked in the front door tonight , smelled my wife's chili and cornbread and spotted a package in the day's mail and suddenly I was all warm inside ! My first blogger trade package , from Dinged Corners ! They were really fast with this. It was supposed to be the '07 Topps Jeter / Bush / Mantle card they posted a few days ago but the package was very thick ! Upon opening I discovered many treasures :

First the nice thank-you card with a terrific picture by Lucy. Thank you very much Lucy , you will be rewarded !!

Next , the card I was expecting ,with no "dinged corners ".

Then a very small pack of 1989 Topps American Baseball. I hadn't seen any of these for a while ! Produced for 2 years and sold primarily in the United Kindom ,these packs of 5 cards sold for 12 pence.

Walt Weiss -- 1988 R.O.Y.

H.O.F. 'er George Brett !! Nice pack.

Also a traditional 1989 Topps pack.

Cool , a tribe card ! And another H.O.F. 'er - Cal Ripken.

Sparky Anderson has a special spot too. When our sons were about 5 and 8 we got them a kitten. They were allowed to pick a name . They decided on Sparky because they liked Sparky Anderson !! When we told them the kitten was a girl we decided on Sparkle (technically ) but 17 years later we still call her "Sparky" , yes she's still with us ! Also in the pack were Don Baylor , Kirk Gibson -All-Star , Mike Scioscia and others .

Wow ! More Tribe members. " Red " Kress , a coach in the 50's after a playing career with several teams in the 20's and 30's. Chief Wahoo and good old Omar ! We really miss him .

It looks like Grady and Victor will match -up against C.C. in New York on opening day in the new Yankee Stadium. I hate to spoil their opening , but I have to root for my tribe !!

And last but not least , an Opening Day Victor and a nice Elite Extra Edition Beau mills.

Thank you " Dinged Corners " for the very nice package !!!

THE NAME GAME

One great thing about sports cards is that there are so many choices as far as what to collect. Actually , it's only limited by your imagination . Sometimes I like to have a little fun . Who am I trying to kid ! I always like to have fun . My wife tells everyone she has three children , two she gave birth to and one she married !! So here's a little fun with names. No offense to anyone here , remember , I'm just a kid !

I never followed football much , but I would've sworn Terry Bradshaw was a quarterback.

And who knew Pedro was a switch pitcher ! He really looks like a different person when he pitches lefty.

This guy has to be really old. My Dad , rest his soul , told me he used to listen to stories about him on the radio during the big depression. Some sort of space traveling super hero or something...

Sometimes after a storm you need an oil can to keep the hinges and joints free.

Whatever happened to Wonderful Terrific Monds ??

The manager's dream . A player that's always Ready !

And how about a couple of geese .

Some players are a little strange and some are born with a name just made to be a pitcher.

Some guys just have to share their names , like :

Johnny Ray Searage

Dan Wilson Alvarez and their cousins .....

Trevor and ...

Roberto Clemente Alvarez

I have some other subjects to follow !!

GENUINE FANS

I had to make short post this morning after reading today's paper. On thing that aggravates more than anything in sports is the " wanna be a winner fans ". Sure , I would like to see the Tribe win a world series in my lifetime. I was born late in 1950 and missed the last win. I don't like or understand some of the moves they make but sometimes they turn out better than expected ( Colon trade for example) . When I spend the time and money to to go to the stadium I like to see my team win , but win or lose , I am still an Indians fan and will still follow the team every day and not be afraid or ashamed to let people know it. Paul Hoynes is an Indians beat writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. You can email him a question and he will pick several to place in his column , "Hey Hoynsie ", on Sunday morning.The following is the question he picked today :

"Hey Hoynsie: I'm sure you would agree that pitching , defense and speed win championships . Given the Indians' lack of pitching and team speed , why should Indians fans even bother showing up to games this season knowing that we can't compete with the likes of Boston , New York , Anaheim , Detroit and Minnesota ? "

WHY SHOULD FANS BOTHER SHOWING UP ? Because some of us are true fans !!! Considering our payroll I think we've been pretty competitive . Even though it's more business than a game today , I love baseball and I love the Cleveland Indians. I don't know the guy who wrote this question and don't know his real thoughts and feelings , but the way it was worded it sounds like he is one of those "fans" who jumps on the bandwagon when times are good and it's " cool " to be seen in Tribe gear.I wish those kind of fans wouldn't show up when times are really good , so lifetime fans like myself could get tickets to play off or World's Series games .

WE'RE A WHOLE FAMILY OF COLLECTORS

I've spent the last week or so reading a lot of baseball blogs , thanks to dayf 's blog roll . That made it easy to read many different perspectives concerning our hobby and in most cases I came to one basic conclusion. Most of us really ARE a lot alike !! We love sports ,mostly baseball. We love collecting sportscards for what they are and not just because someone says " Joe Smith's " rookie card is worth $ 6,000,000.00 !! We have our own favorite teams , players , collecting habits and styles , yet we all come from different parts of the country and world with different lifestyles , age groups , incomes and family situations. Then as I read some of the comments , it's like we're all one big family ! It's just awesome ! We trade cards without worrying about how much the book value is although , obviously , we're not going to trade a Babe Ruth auto. for a 1996 Topps common base card. ( but if anybody does , I have a lot of '96 Topps ! ) We sometimes send cards to others just because we know that person is looking for something in particular , not expecting anything in return but knowing we may get something back , but not caring if we don't. We spend time looking at our cards , really looking at them , not just at the name and numbers but at the backgrounds , the poses , the props and wondering what was going through the player's mind and what was going on in the game. I just made arrangements with " Dinged Corners " this afternoon for my first legitimate blog trade and that made me feel a little more like an actual part of this whole family and I hope to stay in contact and even meet some of you somewhere. I've actually discussed that with a couple of people about the nationals in Cleveland . When I started my blog a couple months ago I really didn't know what to expect but I have been very pleased with what I have found ! I also had my wonderful wife take a photo of me and changed the picture so you can see who you are reading and writing to ! ( hope that doesn't scare anyone away ! ) Well , enough for now . I have to check on what the Tribe is up to and prepare for the next post. Thanks , BASEBALLDAD - ALL TRIBE BASEBALL