Another Year of Wakefield

The Red Sox just signed Tim Wakefield for another year. This is no surprise to me. He is a great innings eater and except for in the playoffs he is pretty effective. I'm also glad we have Cash who doesn't seem to have any problems catching his knuckle ball. Tim may be around for more than just next year. The Sox have a endless 4M per year option on him and knucklers seem to have very long careers.

I think the 09 roster is going to shape up really quickly. We already have 4 guys in the rotation, a full pen, 1st, 2nd, SS, 3rd, and the entire outfield set. Our real only question is a catcher. Personally I think we should keep Varitek for another year and make him only hit from the right side. Rumors are also flying about picking up Teixeira but there is really nowhere to fit him in unless Lowell or Youuuuukkkkk go.

2008 SP Authentic

This is going to be my last pack break for a little while.




A card of the defending world champion Phillies. To me that just doesn't sound quite right. It just doesn't quite have that magical ring to it as when you say the defending World Champion Boston Red Sox. See what I mean. Odds are this gets fixed next year.

Authentic Achievements Ken Griffy Jr. - The White Sox declined their option on Griffey yesterday so he is a free agent right now with no real suitors so far. Wouldn't it be nice if he went back to Seattle to finish his career?

This really is a championship pack. Here is the MVP of the series and as Dinged Corners reported the reader of last night Top 10 List.

Miguel Tejada is another guy that is involved with a bunch of hot stove rumors. Some even think he may be playing in Boston next year.

This has to either be considered a championship or a hot stove pack. Matt is rumored to be dealt by the Rockies. His numbers look great but I have to wonder what they would look like if he didn't play so many games in the thin air of Colorado. I think I would rather have and Drew on the outfield corners than Holliday. But then again Theo tends to make good decisions (with the help of Bill James).

2008 SP doesn't really impress me. I'm not to fond of the white backgrounds with a little bit of color in the middle. And I hate the players numbers in white on a white background. They don't show on the scan at all (except for on top of Hamel's foot) and don't show up much better in person either. I give them a 4 out of 10 on design. I won't be buying anymore of them, that's for sure.

Trick or Treat From Indians Baseball Cards. Always

Today my Trick or Treat gift arrived from Indians Baseball Cards. Always. I was nervous opening it. I just knew it was going to be full of Yankees and Buckners.





But I was more than pleasantly surprised. Inside were 143 different Red Sox cards!! Talk about a treat!! He filled it with an amazing array of things to numerous to mention. I can only show a tiny portion of what was inside.

A Few Hall of Famers...

Some Oh So Close to the Hall of Famers...

A Few Gators...

Some Metal...

Cards of Someone Sitting in a Foreign Prison...

Some Shiny Pinnacle...




Some Moderately Old Sox...

Some Moderately New Sox...

Some Oil...



Someone Who Got the Rules Changed...



And the Sox Win the Series on the Bat of...
(Sorry Baseball Withdrawals are Causing Flashbacks)



Some Big Papi...




Some Mini Deweys...






Some Sticky Deweys...

A New Ace...

Some Dirt Dogs...

And a Closer...

Thanks so much for the cards!! This was extremely fun to open. On top of that I didn't have 90% of them. What a Treat!! I'm going to have to find a bunch of Tribe cards to send to David.

2008 Masterpieces

Masterpieces gets props from me right away since Upper Deck put a Red Sox right on the cover of the pack. I hope I find more of the same inside.

#20 Carlos Zambrano - This is really an ugly card. Couldn't the artist have put some ivy, some sky, or just about anything else in the background rather than a great big brown blur?

#17 Manny Ramirez - This just officially became a good pack. He might be gone now but I will always have great memories of the time he played in Boston. Oh God how I don't want to see him in pinstripes next year. Dodgers - PLEASE SIGN MANNY!!!!!

#59 Jay Bruce - This in now a really good pack. One of the brightest rookies in the majors this year. Isn't this card beautiful? Beats that Zambrano all to heck. Every card in the set should be this colorful. It has great detal too; you can even see the Nike symbols on his gloves and logo on his bat. Great card!

#6 Mark Teixeira - Not a bad looking card but I have to wonder why the artist would paint a picture of a strike? Seriously, either the ball is already in the catchers mitt or he is about 2 feet in front of the it. Mark is really going to warm up the hot stove this offseason with his glove, ability to hit for average, and power. Nowhere is his power more evident than right here. He is swinging so hard he bent the bat. Evidently he isn't using a maple bat or it would be broke just from the swing alone.

No# Anti theft device - Does this count as an insert???

All in all I have to say this was a great pack. A Red Sox card and a promising RC. Plus from the looks of one pack the artwork is really good (minus that Zambrano). I am defiantly going to have to get a few more packs of these.

Trade with Heartbreaking Cards

I made a trade with Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius. You can see his post about it here. Matt was so generous that I am almost embarrassed to post this. I sent him a stack of Royal cards, 14 '08 A&G he needed, and some Upper Deck X off his checklist. I was completely blown away by what I got back from him. This is some of what I got back:

A Wakefield Game Used. I didn't have any Game Used Wakefield's till now.

Chrome Refractor

Another Chrome Refractor

Also got two other Chrome Refractors from Matt: Varitek and Ellsbury.

Autograph of Ryan Kalish.

Finally a Game Used Schilling.

I also got a bunch more than this. This was a great trade. I'm going to send out some more cards to him this week. Hopefully what I send him will get him a good start on a 2004 Bowman Heritage set.

Thank You Matt!!

Bait and Switch

I stopped by my local Wal-Mart and picked up a pack of Updates and Highlights.

55 Cesar Izturis
13 Jeff Blum
223 Jeff Ridgway
131 Manny Ramirez
289 Chris Gomez
304 Brad Lidge
229 Adrian Gonzalez
102 Matt Murton
251 Mark Redman
48 Grant Balfour (Gold 1310/2008)
288 Evan Longoria
WMDP28 Lance Berkman


Not bad; a Longoria, a Perez, a gold, and

The free agent in his Red Sox uni.

I took the bait and bought a whole box of Topps Series 2.

In the series 2 I only got one Red Sox, just one!!

What a rip off. A whole box with only one of the defending world champs (at least for another night they are, thank you rain).

It did come with a guaranteed game used at least.

Here is a breakdown of the rest of box.

71/205 base cards NO DOUBLES!!
1 Mantle MM59
2 Year in Review YR86 YR90
2 Campaign Cards 1796 & 1888
2 50th Anniversary All-Stars AR86 Khalil Greene & AR105 Miguel Cairo
2 Topps Stars TS1 A-Rod & TS14 Jake (Hot Stove rumor) Peavy 8 RCs

A whole bunch of these are going to be going out in the mail as soon as I acquire enough to make the shipping worthwhile.


4 Braves for the Cardboard Junkie
1 Heartbreaking Royal
4 Rays for Fielder's Choice
4 Indians for Saints of the Cheap Seats

If anyone needs some Series 2 to fill a set let me know. Maybe I can help.

How I feel about my scanner

I feel the same way about my scanner as this guy feels about his printer.

Stupid Microsoft Vista patches that don't work!!!! It is slowing up progress. I have a couple trades that I have completed that I would like to post. I'm about to revert to using a camera till I get this thing going.

Vintage Want List

I need Red Sox cards from most years not listed also, I just don't have enough cards to bother making a list of what I don't have yet. The only vintage sets I have a complete team of are 1955 Topps and 1959 Topps. If you have some to trade that are not on this list just let me know. I'm going to concentrate on the 1956 set first but will take any of the others as well.

1953 Bowman Color
66 Mel Parnell
1953 Bowman B & W
2 Willard Nixon
24 Del Wilber
36 Jim Piersall
1951 Topps BLUE Back
37 Bobby Doerr
1951 Topps RED Back
4 Vern Stephes
10 Mel Parnell
20 Dom DiMaggio
42 Ray Scarborough
43 Maurice McDermott
46 Billy Goodman
1955 Topps
Complete
1956 Topps
26 Grady Hatton
93 George Susce Jr.
111 Red Sox Team
115 Jackie Jensen
122 Willard Nixon
143 Jim Piersall
168 Sammy White
245 Billy Goodman
248 Bob Porterfield
284 Ike DeLock
298 Johnny Schmitz
304 Frank Malzone
313 Gene Stephens
315 Milt Bolling
1959 Topps
Complete
1960 Topps
474 Haywood Sullivan
520 Don Buddin
537 RED SOX Checklist
544 Bill Monbouquette
1961 Topps
33 Gary Geiger
42 AL Bat Leaders-Runnels
53 Russ Nixon
69 Earl Wilson
81 Tracy Stallard
128 Rip Repulski
210 Pete Runnels
221 Mike Higgins
236 Don Gile
257 Carroll Hardy
268 Ike DeLock
287 Carl Yastrzemski
301 Chet Nichols
326 Dave Hillman
340 Vic Wertz
354 Billy Harrell
419 Tom Borland
476 Jackie Jensen MVP
519 Jim Pagliaroni
540 Jackie Jensen
548 Ted Wills
562 Bill Monbouquette
1974 Toppps
33 Don Newhauser
83 Orlando Cepeda
84 Rick Wise
113 Dick Drago
118 Bill Lee
192 Mario Guerrero
204 Brock/Herper LL-SB
219 Doug Griffin
247 Rick Miller
301 Bob Montgomery
325 Tommy Harper
331 Fisk/Bench AS C
373 John Curtis
403 Red Sox Mgr/Coaches
427 Bobby Bowlin
495 Dick McAuliffe
523 Cecil Cooper
543 Danny Cater
590 Rogelio Moret
596 RC Pitchers: Dick Pole
609 Rico Petrocelli
621 Bernie Carbo
647 Jaun Beniquez
1975 Topps
103 Rick Miller
128 Bill Lee
152 Mario Guerrero
232 Diego Segui
356 Rico Petrocelli
379 Bernie Carbo
454 Doug Griffin
489 Cecil Cooper
513 Dick Pole
645 Danny Cater
1976 Topps
102 Jim Willoughby
118 Darrell Johnson
130 Luis Tiant
326 Dick Pole
396 Bill Lee
419 Reggie Cleveland
445 Rico Petrocelli
461 NL & AL Champs
462 1975 World Series
597 Don Aase
632 Rogelio Moret
654 Doug Griffin

Pictures

I plan to start scanning cards an putting them on here but I just got a new computer and my scanner isn't working with Vista yet. Stay tuned...

ALCS

It was a disappointing ALCS for my team this year. After coming back from a seven point deficit I was certain that it was meant to be. It is hard to believe that after years of cheering for the team that always lost I expect them to win every time now. So it is on to next year. We look to be pretty well set for next year. We are returning with virtually the exact same team that was only one win away from the World Series. With a healthy Lowell batting 5th we may have been able to pull it off this year. All we have to do is straighten out the catching situation (or teach Tek to hit again) and figure out who is going to be the 5th starter.



Hopefully, Upton and the Rays have some magic left so I can at least say we lost to the World Series champs.

First Post

For the last month or so I have been checking out blogs trying to find people to trade with. I decided that I spent enough time online I might as well spend it blogging and let people come to me for trades. I collect Red Sox and boxing cards and I plan to have my want list on here real soon. Over the years I have collected baseball, football, and basketball so I hopefully I have some things that people want. I'm willing to trade anything that I have for more Red Sox or boxing cards I don't have. Hopefully my thoughts are interesting enough to make you want to come back again and again.