Coincidence?

So I went in to Big Blue to grab a couple of things......

I think all of us in one way or another end up shopping for cards at the big box stores.  You ever take notice of where the card aisle is situated in the box stores?

The Big Blue I will typically go into to buy groceries has its card aisle on a register aisle that is never in use except for the busiest Christmas shopping days.  But its cards aisle is pretty sad.  I don't think they even have 2015 base yet.  And they never have marked down past years' product.

The Big Blue I was in today has its cad aisle on a register that is typically in use.  So you can't sit there and shop the aisle.  There's somebody standing there having their groceries rang up.  Its a decent card aisle, but I don't like the store itself.  Its busier, and I like the shoppers there even less the shoppers in other Big Blues.

There's a Bullseye store on the way home from work.  Their card aisle is away from any register, although well in view of the registers, I assume so the aisle can be watched.  And its a nice wide aisle.  Its pretty well stocked, but again, no marked down past years' products.

Anyway, I got rung up on the card aisle today and threw a box of cards in the order (the 72 card box, whatever you call that one).

I got 7 dupes.  I know I seem to harp on dupe-age, but I don't remember this much from when I was a kid.  Then again, maybe it was there and I just don't remember it.

I noticed something interesting

Hey, which blogger is doing the Horizontal Frankenset?

Small world

So I have a very casual relationship with Listia.  I usually have a couple of credits floating around, so I bid them all on random auctions, get outbid, and repeat.

A couple of weeks ago I did a quick survey and got a bunch of credits.  Then i did another one and got a bunch more.  I managed to win some 1975 Topps and some Dallas Cowboys.

This auction in particular was interesting.  As a Cowboy fan, I've always been a huge Emmitt fan.  When he was playing he was overshadowed personality-wise by Michael Irvin and Troy Aikman, but that was something I could relate to.  So Smith is my only real football player collection.

But that wasn't what made it interesting.  When I went to transfer credits to the seller, I recognized the avatar in an instant.

I had just won an auction from Tom over at The Angels, In Order.  Half the time, reading Tom's blog is like looking at my want list.  He gets all the best Angels cards.

But in true blogosphere fashion, he sent more than just the card I won.

Aikman might have been much less showy than Irvin also, but I don't think there was any doubt on any player's mind who the team leader was.  Aikman wasn't expected to be Dan Marino or Peyton Manning, but he led the team and was maybe the most accurate thrower of all time.

But he didn't stop there.

Nope, I haven't gotten sick of these things yet.  Love 'em.

Thanks Tom.

Random Thoughts

I just bought my first 2015 Topps base.  So I guess that means its my turn to weigh in with my opinions.

But I'm just going to go over some thoughts I had while opening and sorting my cards.

First, they came in 36 card packs, but they weren't the long rack packs with 18 in each pocket.  36 in one pocket.  I like it.

Did Topps double print this card?  Seems like everyone is pulling it (not a scientific study).  Granted, it's a fitting tribute to the retiring star.   But I've never much of a Jeter fan.  I'm the one who has been saying he's over-rated for 20 years.  Then again, I guess I'm the one he's been proving wrong for 20 years.

I got 2 dupes.  But this isn't exactly a gripe.  Last year if I saw a dupe, the next 6-7 cards were also dupes.  The fact I only got 2, and they weren't consecutive, gives me hope that the collation will be better this year.  (C'mon Topps, you can do this)

Give me more of this

and this

and less of this.  I love looking at the backs of cards and seeing rows and rows of minor league stats.  I know absolutely nothing about Barnes' career, but I know all about Greene's.

Really Topps?  Gattis is a "Future Star"?  He exhausted his rookie status in 2013.  I don't know about anybody else, but he doesn't qualify for this subset.

The good - I pulled an Angels team card.  The bad - Topps picked Hamilton and Pujols to represent the team.  No and no.  Calhoun is great for the team card.  The whiff and the gimp are just wasting payroll at this point.

And finally, look at the team logo.  I know there's supposed to be circles around it.  But that's not what I see there when I'm shuffling through the cards.  Maybe I'm the only one who sees this, but those look like fingerprints to me.  I'm calling 2015 the Fingerprint Set.

Awesome

This is starting out as a pretty good week.

I just got done booking a trip to Spring Training for a couple of days for me and a buddy of mine.  We're going to take in a couple of Angels' games for me and an A's game for him.  I'm pretty excited and can't wait for March to get here now.  I did however buy tickets to a game on the wrong day, so I'll have to try to sell them on eBay or something.  Oops

I also received all of these awesome cards from Jeff over at 2x3 Heroes.

I was trying to find a way to tie them together, but not we're not going to see any games against Jeff's White Sox, so .....ummm.......Baseball!

You win some, you lose some

Jeez, its been 2 1/2 weeks since I posted.  Eh, life.

Not a whole lot has been happening on the card front really.  Nothing going out, little coming in.

I have been trolling eBay though, looking for deals.  I decided to pop on a 50 card lot my favorite parallels.  The auction didn't list the numbers, and I didn't ask.  I thought, "I'm sure I'll need a bunch of the 50".  Welp, there were only 49 in the box (shrug), and I only needed 3 of them.  3.  Caveat emptor.  So I have another stack of extra red foils if anybody wants any specific ones.


I also look for deals on my Angels from the 60's.

I got this one for a pretty good deal.  It goes right into my Angels Topps base binder.  But the buyer decided to throw in another card.

Presumably to protect during shipping?  Either way, I'm calling this a win.

I actually find all the marking interesting.  Why are some checked, some are crossed out, and some are circled?

It's Gameday!!

That's all I can say.  Too excited!

My ballot

I write this about a half an hour 10 minutes before the Hall of Fame class of 2015 is announced.

I don't have a vote (duh), and I never will.  But if I did, this is my thinking about the ballot.  Pretty soon we'll know how far off I am.

First, let me show two players who I think should be in, but I don't know if I vote for.

Trammell gets lost I think because of the era he played.  His numbers don't look as big, but what a hell of a player.  Interestingly (if only to me), I have a player collection of his double play partner, but not him.

Best hitting catcher of all time, but is that enough?

Now let me show my no doubters.  I believe these guys belong in the Hall, no questions asked.

Come on.  I think his problem is simply a question of being overshadowed.  I think he was quite possibly the second best leadoff hitter of all time.  But played at the exact same time as the greatest, so he looks like a second tier guy.  He wasn't.

Don't keep this guy out just because he played at the same time as all the PED users.  Biggio 3060 hits, 669 doubles, and 414 steals.  Hall of Famer.

Early on, Johnson was a mechanical mess.  100 mph, but he didn't know where it was going, and neither did anybody else.  But he put it together, he was effective well into his 40's and got 303 wins.  He won 293 games after turning 26.

Let the debates begin.  Look, the guy was an asshole.  He was a user.  And a liar.  But he was a Hall of Famer before he used.  He was the best pitcher in the game in the late 80's into the 90's.  If he doesn't use, he gets in the Hall and for me, that's the criteria  I have to use.  He was a great of the game.

And let the howling begin.  Same comments as Clemens.  Maybe a bigger asshole.  Maybe a bigger user.  Bigger liar.  But he was probably the best player in the game, before he used.  Hell, if you cut all the "PED years" off his career, the remaining years have a Hall of Fame debate.  I can't ignore that.

If you want to put Pedro Martinez, Mike Mussina, or Curt Schilling in, I don't think they lower the standards of the Hall.  But I wouldn't lose any sleep over them being left out.
But that's just my thinking.