I went to a baseball game and a movie studio broke out

So yesterday we went to HoHoKam Park and saw the Oakland A's beat the Cleveland Indians 3-2.  My buddy is a big A's fan, so he was happy.

Today we got to Tempe Diablo Stadium to watch the Angels play the Cubs.  There was a headline this morning that Will Ferrell was scheduled to go to 5 Cactus League games and attempt to play all 9 positions.  Well, I know of at least 2 of the positions he played.

Ferrell showed up around the top of the third.  He made his way down the right field line and into the dugout.  He popped back out to give some coaching.

In the bottom of third he waited until the Angels took the field then ran out to center field.

He not only took Mike Trout's position, he took his glove.....

...and his hat.

There's the best player in baseball running off the field, replaced by the Anchorman.  He re-entered the game in the next inning.

And yes, there was a ball hit to Ferrell.  A single to center.

He's about to throw it back in here.  Somebody's head is in the way of the shot I tried to take of the actual throw.

But that was his only play.  He ran off the field and many of the fans assumed he was done for the day.  But the camera crews stayed.

And so did Ferrell.  He moved over the Cubs as third base coach.  He held up a number of large signs, some of which read "don't steal", "Remember, these games don't count", "Ignore that last card, play hard", "You're sooooo handsome", and "I'm not just saying that"

The Cubs scored 4 runs with Ferrell in the coach's box, including this homer.

Addison Russell received some extra special attention during an at-bat.

When it got to 2 outs, Ferrell stepped up to the plate.  He looked at strikes one and two, then whiffed on the third pitch.

He then began the top of the 5th at 1st base.  After one out, Mike Olt came out, and in a reversal took the glove from Ferrell.  Well, he tried to.  Ferrell threw it on the grass and stomped off.

Despite two homers from Kris Bryant, the Angels won 10-9.

That works out

I got a package in the mail about a week and a half ago from Kerry over at Cards on Cards.  I've kinda dragged my feet a little on posting about it for a couple of reasons.  First, the package was pretty big, there were 3 team bags full of cards.  Second, I've been working a bit, and last I've frankly been procrastinating.

But I think the timing has worked out pretty well.  By posting now, I can pimp a contest he just put up.  If you like college football and/or picking bowl games, head over and enter.

Also, my Cowboys had a huge win last night against a very strong team that quite possibly will turn out to be an elimination game for the two teams involved.  And it was against Kerry's Eagles.  These cards came from a time when I wasn't collecting football cards (and was almost out of baseball cards too), so these will get a happy home.  Is there ever a card of Tom Landry that isn't awesome?

There's some Cowboys from their Super Bowl teams, and some from the current incarnation.  I think the Cowboys showed last night some heart for the first time in years.  Can't say enough how excited I was with the win.

But even though Kerry and I are fans of rival teams, there is always common ground somewhere:

So that was just some of the first team bag.  The other two team bags were roughly themed too.

Oddballs.  I actually had all the box bottoms from 1986.  In full panels and cut.  I bought lots of boxes in 1986.  I don't know what happened to them all.  I'd never heard of the Hills Team MVPs set, so that's always a good add.  And another new Ryan for that PC.

Are the paint splotches supposed to line up like that on the 1990 Classic cards?  We had a Kay-Bee card in the last scan, and a Toys "R" Us card in this one.  And again, this is only part of the "oddball" themed team bag.

The third bag had more Angel goodness for me.

Can't go wrong with parallel Halos.  You've got your overpaid players parallels in the top row and your Chris parallels in the second.  I never buy Chrome, so the generosity of the blogosphere is my main means of acquisition.

I had to go figure out what that Vlad was.  Its a "Flapper Card" insert from 2008 Opening day.  You can kinda see the perforations in the scan, and it opens up.  I don't think I will open, but I don't know why.  And again, there were many more Angels in the bag.

If I was forced to choose a favorite card though..

A new Carew.  Awesome.


Thanks again Kerry.

I'll be your excuse too..

The mailman has been good to the house of Junk Wax recently.  I've had a couple of packages come in from generous bloggers and my collection is all the better for it.

Last month Tom over at Waiting 'til Next Year picked up a huge lot of 1984 Topps.  And he was left with 60% of a set.  I knew I had to send some cards to help towards completion.  It's always good to see a post where I can think "I can help!"

Tom decided to send me a bunch of cards from 2013 and 2014 Topps base.  I doubt anybody is as excited to see those cards as I was to get them into my growing set.  He didn't stop there.  He also sent me some needs from 1991 and 1992 Topps.

But he didn't stop there.  He sent off some extra Cubs for me to move towards set completion.  Ike Hampton up top there is in a Tidewater Tides uniform, but he was traded to the Angels in March of 75.

Rod Carew is my oldest PC, but I still have plenty of cards I need.  Here's one of the last from his playing days.  And a Fleer sticker of Gary Pettis?  I'm in.

A minor league Angel.  Nice.  The Angels drafted Herndon in 2006, but lost him to the Phillies in the minor league draft in December of 2009.  He spent 2010, 2011, and April of 2012 in the Phillies bullpen.  He must have been hurt, because he didn't play the rest of 2012 at all, and never returned to the majors.

I like Allen & Ginter.  A lot.  But I just can't bring myself to buy it.  I like a little more bang for my buck.  So I rely mainly on the generosity of bloggers to obtain these things.

Opening Day is another product I don't buy.  I bought a bunch of it last year, but I just can't justify buying a repeat of base.  One or the other Topps, one or the other.

Pitcher Yency Almonte made it out of Rookie ball in 2014.  But he's only 20, so he still has time.  Oh and his brother has apparently also played in the minor leagues for 8 seasons as an outfielder.

I had already received a Rainbow foil parallel of this card from a group break (although it looks black to me), and now I have the base card to go with it.

With the exception of Ryan, Panini is getting my cartoon fix all taken care of.  Have I mentioned lately that it would be a good thing to give Panini a license?  Competition is a good thing MLB.

I should say thanks to Tom.  And I truly am grateful.  But the reality is that Tom was just using me as an excuse to head down to his LCS. 

I feel so taken advantage of.

N.O.

I assume all bloggers and blog readers have a routine to reading blogs.  Gotta start somewhere.  I always start with Night Owl Cards.  Read N.O. first, then use the card blogs list down the side of his blog to read everyone else's.

vintage

When I first found blogs devoted to baseball cards, N.O. was one of the first I started reading.  And for good reason, its a perennial "blog of the year" candidate.

I think everyone knows my love of 82 Fleer

N.O. was also (I think) the first blog I reached out to contact.  I sent off some cards, as I'm sure I saw something I wanted to trade for.

Is that a box bottom card?  Outstanding

The reason I say all this is that all the cards I'm showing here came from the esteemed N.O. blogger.

Every card should be on this cardstock

I have received cards from Greg before.  There was even a box of 1979 Topps that he sent without even a trade expected in return. (and if anybody needs some 79's, let me know).  But I asked for those cards. 

Someone explain the need for Opening Day.  OD or base, Topps, pick one and go with it.

But this particular package was sent out of the blue.  He had some Angels cards and he thought of me.  Me.  Me and my infrequently updated blog.  And that is pretty damn cool.

Color parallels are like meth.  I love them so, but they are bad to me.

Thanks a bunch Greg.

A new favorite set?

It seems I'm having a small run of luck lately.  Not long after winning a contest over at Junior Junkie's blog, I won another contest.   All I had to do was root for the Cubs against the Phillies.  Easy enough.  And the Cubs won.  So I won. 

What did I win?  Lots.  I'll break this into 3 parts.

 Part the 1st

First I got 4 Complete team sets from some box breaks Tom was having.  I of course picked the Angels.

Here's the complete Angel team set from 1989 Swell

Here's the complete Angel team set from 1990 Swell

Yup.  That's all the Angels in the set <sigh>


 Here's the complete Angel team set from 1991 Swell:

And here's the complete Angel team set from 1990 Pacific Legends

Bobby there can go into my Grich PC.  Lucky I got two.

 Part the 2nd

While I was already getting the Angels as the prize for my win, I decided to go ahead and buy a 2nd team from the break.  I went ahead and selected the Red Sox.  What's that?  No, I'm not secretly a Red Sox fan.  I've already detailed the nightmares the Red Sox have caused me over the years.  Nope.  I wanted:

those.  I considered getting the Twins so I could add some Rod Carew cards to my Carew PC.  But somebody already claimed them.  So I went with my other favorite and claimed the Boston Splendid Splinters.  I already have a destination for a set of the other Sox.

*mini-rant time.  I got 68 Red Sox from the four sets, including doubles.  I got 9 Angels.  What the ??  Seriously no love for the Angels.  C'mon man!  end rant.*

Part the 3rd

Now, that was pretty much what I was expecting and was really very happy with that.  But there was an added bonus.  And by bonus, I mean B O N U S !

 I LOVE SSPC!!  Seriously.  I remember seeing this set in a Baseball Card Guide as a kid and thinking it was a novelty.  It looked odd to me.  It was a one-off set.  Now that I have some, I want more, more, more.

That's a coach card.  That is outstanding. Donruss dabbled in coaches in 1982 (and maybe 1983?), but SSPC did it 6 years before that.

Between Bowman in 1955 and Fleer and Donruss in 1981, SSPC is the only real challenge Topps faced.  These cards are fantastic.  The design is so simple and clean, that it's timeless. 

I can't say too many times how great these cards are.

Here's a look at the back.  There's a lot to notice here. 

First, full names.  Another thing Donruss ripped off. 

There's uniform numbers.  Nobody did that until Score in 1988. 

These are 1976 SSPC, but notice the 1975 copyright date.  And to top that, notice the teams listed for these players.  The two on the left are in Angel unis on the fronts, and the two on the right are in Red Sox unis.  All four were traded between November 4 and December 12 of 1975.  But there's a 1975 copyright date.

Did I mention I love SSPC?

Thanks Tom.

Group break results (Quick post)

I have seen many blog posts about 2014 Donruss.  I must say that I kinda liked the design.  I've thought that the border is a bit wide, but otherwise it was pretty decent.  But I really had no desire to buy packs of the stuff.  As I've said, I'm pretty much limiting myself to one set a year.  So when I saw that Cardboard Collections was hosting a group break, I thought "Hey, perfect.  I can get Angels."  And really, outside of my set building, I just want Angels.  So I signed up (I was assigned the Padres randomly).

There's my haul.  Two Trouts for my PC.  The Pujols is a "Press Proof" and is number to /99.  I've seen comments on the glossy fronts, pro and con.  I like it.  These aren't meant to be old Donruss throwbacks.  But they are meant to be reminiscent of an old design, just a nod to the past really. 

I think Panini had to reach to do write ups on the back for Pujols and Hamilton.  They trotted out Hamilton's last 30 games (conveniently forgetting his horrible first 121 games).  And they cherry-picked Pujols' 3 interleague games against the Cubs (conveniently fogetting his other 96 games).

But there was more.

I've been asked a couple of times by bloggers about my use of the Cowboys star as my avatar.  The simple answer is that while baseball is my favorite sport, the Dallas Cowboys are my favorite sports team.  Colbey must have been paying attention.

Unexpected Cowboy bonus!  That Dutton comes from my favorite football set, 1982 Topps.  That was first year Topps had the NFL license, so Topps made sure to put the logos front and center.  Staubach is of course an all time great.  Miles Austin might just be on his way out the door, thanks in part to the emergence of Terrance Williams there.  And Dez is possibly the most gifted receiver in the game.