Morning Coffee and the Blog Roundup 10/21 – Working for the Weekend edition

So Bryce Harper is exclusively signed to Topps. Uhm…yay? I’m not sure what that even means in the era of exclusive monop…er…I mean licenses. I guess it means they get to milk him even sooner without having to abide by the rookie rules? If so, fantastic. Another feeding frenzy.

Preview shots of 2011 Heritage came out yesterday and all I can say is hell yes, me likey. This may be the first time I preorder a box of cards. I love the 62 design.

Giants won (yay), Yankees won (boo). It was nice to hear Pablo Sandoval come through at last (yeah, we ended up listening to the end last night). I didn’t think the Giants could make it through the Phillies, but I have a good feeling now.

That’s about all I have to say for today. let’s see what happened around the card-o-sphere yesterday…

• Sports Card Info’s card of the day was a 2001 Bowman Chrome Cody Ross.
• Sports Memorabilia News showed a dream garage sale find: a tornado palm glove.
• 1978, The Year It All Began revealed that he had a 1981 FBI disc.
• Sports Cards Uncensored re-opened the discussion on Beckett.
• e Rayhahn, rayhahn detailed a cool trade with Smed.
• The Great Sports Name Hall of Fame wrapped up the Bazooka contest. Good job Hackenbush!

Have a good one, y’all.

Morning Coffee and the Blog Roundup 10/20 – Ash Grey Wednesday Edition

Boy, it’s a miserable day out there today. First day this year I can remember seeing my breath. But I’m still not quite ready to surrender my jacket-free ways. I love Fall, but once the jacket comes out, the fun part of the program is over and it’s time to start settling in for winter, which is…well, third on my list of seasons. But why do I mention this? Because it also usually means that the baseball season is winding down for real, getting close to the World Series. And of course, so it is.

But it’s kind of good news; after all, the Rangers are spanking the Yankees, and the Giants have a slight edge on the Phillies. We could get that World Series that I was hoping for going into it.

Don’t eat a protein bar with a cup of coffee. Just don’t. The taste is…well, not good.

My 1990 Leaf set arrived in the mail last night. Just looking at the thing brought out a bit of glee from my inner child. In 1990, I wanted nothing more than to collect the set, and of course it was pretty much unattainable for a kid of limited means. I’ve almost finished getting it into the 1990 Project album (being very careful with the key cards, of course), and am excited to get them scanned and show them off. Once that pesky 1989 project is done, of course.

Mike Rizzo has been kept on with the Nationals. I’m glad. I think the guy rocks.

And that’s all for today. Let’s see what happened on other blogs…

• Night Owl continued the card back countdown with a particular favorite of mine, 1970 Topps.
• Wrigley Wax showed off the 1978 AL All-Stars from the All Star Gallery magazine.
• Bob Lemke reported on a 1952 Indians Picture pack.
• The Collective Troll detailed how he learned to stop worrying and love the Rangers.
• The Great Orioles Autograph Project reported on the 2010 Orioles autograph season (PS Ryan, your cards are going in the mail tomorrow).
• Capewood’s Collections discussed some 1995 Phillies. Great shots in there.
• 30-Year-Old Cardboard showed off a Broder NL All Star card.
• Drew’s Cards got a cool TTM Auto.
• Foul Bunt shared some hits from the card shop (rather than those other hits. You know the ones)!
• BA Benny’s got a trade with the Dimwit and received the Hot Tejada.
• Night Owl showed off a sick scoreboard card of Justin Verlander.

And that’s that. I hope your dog minds you today!

The 1988 Project Phase 2 Day 18 – Philadelphia Phillies

Okay, so today we have Phil Bradley, Danny Clay, Bob Dernier, Todd Frohwirth, Greg Harris, David Palmer, and Mike Young (not that one). These were the days when the Phillies weren’t very good all around, so this is kind of a set of rejects. Most of these players, namely Greg Harris, Phil Bradley, Mike Young, David Palmer, and Danny Clay (5 out of 7), 1988 would be their only season in a Phillies uniform.  Doesn’t say much about player acquisition in those days.

Phil Bradley would appear to be the offensive winner of this group, putting up a 110 OPS+ and a 2.0 WAR. Mike Young didn’t fare very well, only managing a 97 OPS+ (not very good for a right fielder) with a 0.2 WAR. No wonder he didn’t stick. Dernier was about the same.

Greg Harris is hands-down the best pitcher in the group. He had a 152 ERA+, which only means a little bit for a reliever, but he also managed to lead the team in WHIP with a 1.234 WHIP, which isn’t great but hey, team leader and all.

Todd Frohwirth led the team in K/9 with 8.3, but small sample size caveat applies, as he only pitched in 15 games that year. David Palmer was David Palmer (and no not THAT David Palmer), and Danny Clay…well, let’s just say there’s a reason he never made it back.

So that’s it for the Phils. Almost there now…

The 1988 Project Day 24 – Ricky Jordan

1988 Fleer Update

The cards I’m going to show you today were incredibly hot property in late 1988/early 1989. Ricky Jordan was a budding superstar. No kidding. Today he’s little more than a baseball footnote, but we were all convinced he was the second coming, and we weren’t the only ones. What’s even funnier, however, is that a lot of people had the other top Phillies prospect, Ron Jones, ranked even higher than Jordan, and Jones barely even scratched the Majors. I guess that’s why Upper Deck chose Jones as a Star Rookie over Jordan? I never got that back in the day. But we’re not here to talk about Jones.

Ricky was a first-rounder for Philadelphia in the 1983 draft and started at Helena in the Pioneer League. Finding exact stats for that era is tricky for some reason, but it looks like he consistently hit .274 or above, but his SLG was a bit paltry for a first baseman: he never topped a .491 SLG. So why exactly was he a vaunted prospect? In fact, looking at his numbers, he would be considered an underperformer these days.

1988 Score Rookie & Traded

He made his major league debut on July 17, 1988, against Houston. He started at first and went 2-for-2 with a home run and two walks. Can’t get much better than that. He went on to put up a .308/.324/.491 line with a 1.5 WAR in 1988, which may have contributed to his super prospect status. Given a full-time job in 1989, he dipped from an .815 ops in 1988 to a .724 ops in 1989. That meant he went from 131 OPS+ to 107 OPS+, slightly below average for a first baseman, but his glove really killed him in 89, dropping him to a 1.0 WAR. He was injured in 90 and thus mustered only a 73 OPS+ with a -0.5 WAR. He recovered, but was never the same batter. What little power he had had was sapped, which is just not a good thing for a first baseman with a weak glove. In fact, in four seasons he had the following injuries: a sore left wrist, an injury to his left hand and a fractured jaw. Two surgeries on his right shoulder (in 1995 and 1997) eventually ended his career.

Slim pickings here, but I’m definitely going with the Score card. The photo is better, and his position isn’t all squashed near his hands. Plus, it was a holy grail card for us way back when.

• Day 1- Mark Grace (Cubs)
• Day 2- Al Leiter (Yankees)
• Day 3- Chris Sabo (Reds)
• Day 4- Walt Weiss (Athletics)
• Day 5- Baseballs’ Best Catch-Up
• Day 6- Craig Biggio (Astros)
• Day 7-Roberto Alomar (Padres)
• Day 8-Kirk Gibson (Dodgers)
• Day 9-Jay Buhner (Yankees/Mariners)
• Day 10-Jose Rijo (Reds)
• Day 11-Brady Anderson & Mike Boddicker (Red Sox/Orioles)
• Day 12-Pete Smith & Kevin Coffman (Braves)
• Day 13-David Wells (Blue Jays)
• Day 14-Shawn Abner (Padres)
• Day 15 – Tom Brunansky (Cardinals)
• Day 16 – Bryan Harvey (Angels)
• Day 17 – Joey Meyer (Brewers)
• Day 18 – John Dopson (Expos)
• Day 19 – Brett Butler (Giants)
• Day 20 – Randy Milligan and Tommy Gregg (Pirates)
• Day 21 – Mackey Sasser (Mets)
• Day 22 – Cecil Espy (Rangers)
• Day 23 – Willie Upshaw (Indians)
• Day 24 – Ricky Jordan (Phillies)

Box Break: 2002 UD Authentics

I haven’t disguised my love for this set, that’s for sure, and yet I’ve always found the boxes tantalizingly out of reach, either too expensive or difficult to find, so when I found a box going for an obscenely cheap amount on Ebay, I bid and sat on that auction. Yesterday the box finally arrived.

Stated odds, as you can see, are 1 in every 16 packs. The box is obviously meant to echo the 1989 box design, as everything in this set is a loving homage to that original set. Including the setup when you open the box:

As you can see, they’ve used that same paper material that UD used in their 1989 issue:

The whole thing gave me nostalgia goosebumps, down to the authentic (heh) feel of opening the first pack.

Now, as to the actual content of the box. Well, first, I should note that I was supposed to get two reverse-negatives card in this box, but I only got one, this Jason Johnson:

And that’s A-okay by me. The reverse negative gimmick is easily the crappiest, most annoying thing about this set, as I’d have preferred to get the base Johnson, which I still don’t have. Sigh. Oh, I’m also okay with it because I not only beat the odds for relics on this box, I pulverized them. 1 in 16 packs, right? 18 packs in the box, so maybe, tops, I could have gotten two if I was extremely lucky. Yeah, I got four, including a reverse-negative game-used card and a gold reverse-negative game-used card. I didn’t even know the latter existed. My first ever hot box!

Very, very cool stuff. I love it. Oh, I also got two inserts: their version of the Baseball Heroes, numbered to 1989

And a 1989 Flashback Mark Grace, numbered to 4225 (though that Cubs picture is more recent than 1989, he didn’t have that facial hair until the 90s).

I also got a mess of base cards that I needed; only two doubles in the whole box, and a small stack of cards that I already had. Look for those cards to wind up in some trades in the near future.

I’m still quite a bit short of the set, so I may pick up another box when I have some money. Overall, I give the box an A for the presentation, the hits, and the collation. Totally worth the money and exceeded my expectations. Oh, and all these cards save the base cards/reverse negative are available.

Finds From The National Part 6: Addendum to Non-Nats

So I was digging through my cards last night, working on getting them more organized, and realized I was nowhere near the end of my National finds. Let us continue…

2009 Goodwin Preview

2009 Goodwin Preview

Everything in this entry is from the 2009 Upper Deck box, which wasn’t as devoid of quality cards as I first thought. Sure, I would have liked an auto, but for 29 bucks, I’m pretty happy with what I got. The Goodwin previews are excellent, and actually holding them and seeing them rather than seeing them on a blog makes me want to try to go back and get some.

I thought this was just a standard StarQuest card until I moved it a certain way in the light and realized it was a black Ultra-Rare. Pleasant surprise, I have to say, and though I generally don’t care for the StarQuest cards, I like the way this one works with the colors and shiny material.

2009 Upper Deck Gold

Finally, I got an Upper Deck Gold. I really don’t know anything about these, but they’re okay, I guess.

All in all, it was a worthy box. I have two more non-Nats entries coming, one dedicated to throwback cards I found, and one to my Jim Palmers. So we’re almost there…

Finds From The National Part 5: Non-Nationals/Expos

There’s at least one more post coming detailing my 00-10 Expos/Nationals find, but I wanted to take a break in all that to look at what else I managed to get.

1987 Topps

I found this in a stack of graded cards for $2.00 not far inside the door. I’ve said before that I’m generally not a fan of the whole graded card phenomenon, but I have to admit seeing this absolutely perfect specimen of a card from my childhood (and it is damn fine, I’ve never seen one like this) was enough to get me to plunk down a couple of dollars. Palmeiro’s career is one of the greatest disappointments of my baseball fandom; I think in a different world, one where he didn’t juice, something like this would be more treasured. As it is, it’s just a nice “get” for me.

1970 Topps (the sticker is on the sleeve)

This is a classic. An absolute classic. Remember when I talked about the 1970 set and its role in my childhood? Well this card was iconic, as it would be accompanied with a “LOOK AT ME. HOW DARE YOU DOUBT ME. MY NAME IS CESAR. CESAR TOVAR. I AM A LEGEND.” and so on. It might be one of those things you had to be there to appreciate, but the expression just killed us, and I had to have it.

2009 StarQuest Emerald

I had promised myself I wouldn’t break any wax because it always ends up being a money sink that doesn’t result in many interesting cards, but when I saw Dave and Adam’s setup, I ended up splurging after all. Just…sigh. I bought a box of 2009 Upper Deck Series 2 because it was damned cheap. I broke it and got two Super Rare Emerald StarQuests and a Jake Westbrook GU that is marked for TribeCards. The StarQuests are available by trade.

At least I got a lot of Nationals in the box.

I also got a set of 2004 Just Minors for 5 bucks at Dave and Adam’s. I got it because a. I’m a sucker for minor league cards, b. there had to be some Expos in there I didn’t have, c. it came with two autographs. Little did I know they meant two of the exact same autographs! That’s right, I got two of these:

Oh, I also got two hobby packs of MLS soccer as a prize from that purchase, but I know nothing about the cards I pulled.

Stay tuned for one more entry of non-Nats/Expos!

Finds and Sales III

Welcome to the third installment of Finds and Sales. Unfortunately, I was again not able to go out to the thrift stores this past week, so we’re going to continue to feature some of the past finds. I expect to hit the stores again this Sunday, so we should have some new material in the coming week. That said, let’s delve into my finds.

Chris Ray played for Aberdeen in 2003, but this was part of a three-statue set released in 2007 to commemorate that 2003 team. The other players featured were Adam Loewen and Nick Markakis; I have already found the Loewen and it’s in my collection, so I’ll be adding the Ray to my collection as well and hoping to track down the Markakis. Funny thing, though, Ray was only in Aberdeen for nine games in 2003, so I’m not sure why they celebrate him as an Ironbird, other than perhaps that he made the majors. But there were other plays on that team, like Erik Bedard, Jerry Hairston, and Eli Whiteside. Why these three I don’t know.

Do these things give anyone else the creeps? I don’t know, there’s something about the duck bill on a human face that disturbs me deeply, but I know people collect them. This was issued in 2002, sold, and haunts my nightmares, along with the Jaromir Jagr one that I also bought:

*shudder*

I managed to score this sweet card of King Felix on eBay for something like 50 cents and sold it for a couple of dollars, but I would happily have held on to it. I like Masterpiece cards in general, so it was well worth it.

This was the first original Bowman card I’d ever owned, another discount purchase on eBay that I flipped for a profit.

Found this in a thrift store in Prince Georges County, Maryland. These were given out July 21, 2008. And she has no discernible connection to Bowie, but it seems to be their “thing”. For those who are curious about what Lindsay really looks like, here she is with her bobblehead:

And finally, we have a Wayne Gretzky New York Rangers McFarlane figure. It came like this, without the base, but I’m curious to see if anyone would want it, considering the price was right.

That’s all for this week. Hopefully next week we’ll have some more exciting finds to document.

Find and Sales II: The Sellening

Welcome to the second weekly installment of Finds and Sales. This was a pretty big week for finding sports-related items at thrift stores, which is a good thing since I’ll be taking a two-week hiatus to move my girlfriend in. This week we’ll take a look at some of the things that I found both this week and in the past.

A Giant Charlie Brown Mariners Pez

I found this Saturday at a thrift store on New Hampshire Avenue, DC, in amongst the kids toys. I have no idea what the genesis of this thing was, but it was worth picking up for a laugh, if nothing else. These sell for 20 dollars new (if you can find them), so four bucks seemed like a bargain. I’m selling it on Amazon Marketplace under the Boston Red Sox, as it’s the only team listed for this particular item. No idea if I’ll get any bites, but worth a shot.

Wrigley Field Plaque

Mary found this one at a thrift store in McClean, Virginia. After our success with the Crosley Field plaque, we were on the lookout for other quality memorabilia, which, sadly, often does not include baseball cards if they’ve made it to the thrift store, with some rare exceptions. This ended up selling for close to 20 bucks, and we paid something like 3 dollars. Worthwhile find.

Veterans Stadium Pin

A store in Maryland had a basket full of these, but I only picked up one. Even at 60 cents, I just wasn’t sure if anyone would want it – I get the impression the Vet was not exactly the most beloved stadium. It sold for 2.00, which is a damn decent profit.

A Grady Sizemore Bobblehead. Yes, it is.

Found this last week at the same store that had the giant Pez Dispenser. I was just too amused not to buy it. I had no idea they’d even made these, but they were apparently given out July 18th, 2009 in Cleveland. Funny that I found it almost exactly one year later. By the way, I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with this yet, so if you’re interested in a trade for it, I’m open.

Ironbirds Bobblehead

Found this right next to Grady. Ferrous is the Ironbirds mascot. No idea when this was given out, as it looks different than the other Ferrous bobblehead out there on the net. Again, this one is available if anyone at all is interested.

Capitals Pucks

Okay, so they’re not all Capitals pucks, but I found these all bagged together for four bucks. I figured they were worth a shot, not knowing much about hockey. Haven’t listed these yet, so they’re also available for trade or sale.

I had some other finds, but I’m going to hang on to those for now, given the gaps in thrifting.