Writers Journey

I sent some Reds cards to The Writers Journey and he sent me Red Sox in return. One of the cards he sent me was this cool oddball Sunco team card. The only problem is I don't know what it is. Is it a subset of somehting, a set put out by Sunco, or what. No matter what it is I like it; the late 70s outfield was so awesome. I'm not posting anywhere near all of hte cards he sent. Just the cool Sunco and this Youkilis card that I needed for my Topps team set.

Thanks again Jason.

What do you call a group of Turkeys?

Weather has gripped the Midwest and cancelled soccer games. I know people in the north can’t figure out why a measly 6 inches has all of southern Missouri shut down, it sounds like so little compared to places getting 20+ inches. What we got wasn’t snow however. See, first we got a base coating of almost an inch of freezing rain, then 4 inches of sleet, and finally an inch of snow. There are so many trees down my neighborhood looks like a winter tornado came through. I’m pretty sure at some point in the last day every home in the city was without power for a little bit. I am one of those crazy people that like to drive in the snow, so I drove around town looking at all of the broken trees houses with no lights on.

Since I am pretty sure nobody is here for a tale of winter, on to some cards. I received these from Kerry at Cards on Cards. I am really late getting his cards to him but they are going in the mail today.

First are some Masterpieces. I love these cards. I hope Upper Deck find some way to bring them back, even if they have to be a subset of something else.

David Ortiz - Looks Like a home run swing to me.

Babe Ruth - Before the curse.

Dice-K - What a horrible pose. Someone shot the artist.

What is a group or Turkeys called? answer (nobody be a smart @$$ and say Red Sox either)

These are the first Turkey Red Red Sox I have owned. He sent me almost the entire team set. Only short one card, Hideki Okajima, which is now on the way thanks to a purchase from SportsLot.

Curt Schilling - Still contemplating a mid season comeback.

Dice-K - The wind-up and...

Josh Beckett - The number 2 pitcher on the staff. At least he should be. Francona tends to like veterans so I bet he gets the opening start nod rather than Lester.

Manny Ramirez - if the "Sultan or Swat" wasn't already taken...

David Ortiz - Is the Dominican flag red, white, and blue?

Thank You for the Rafters Kerry.

12 Days

It has been awhile. You know what they say about excuses and how everybody has one? Well here is mine... I have been really busy. See I am the president of our local soccer association, which has almost 300 kids in it. The president doesn't necessarily have to be there every night but I have a few other duties as well; I am the field commissioner and the most senior referee. January and February are indoor soccer season that means 4 games every night throughout the week and no life for me, other than soccer, right now. My schedule is basically get off work at 4:00-4:30, stop home and eat, say hi/bye to the wife and kids, then report to the civic center at 5:20. Last game starts at 9:30, which puts me home at around 11:00 after running all of the people out and getting things cleaned up. So when I have had a weekend night off I didn’t feel like spending it in front of the computer.

Now enough with the excuses and on to the cards. I got these from Tribecards in his 12 Days of Christmas giveaway. They came a loooong time ago and I am just now getting them posted. (These are not the only cards I have received that are not posted yet, hopefully more posts to follow). Since there are so many cards I am going to only post my favorite of each player I got and why they are my favorite. Here goes…

In the 12th day of Christmas Tribecards gave to me…

12 Ellis Burks – No it isn’t miss-cut I cut him off with the scanner because I scanned a mini first. This card just looks old school to me. Ellis was way under appreciated as a Sox. I am so glad he was there for a farewell tour in 04 so he could get that ring…

11 Roger Clemens – It is a mini, enough said. I wonder if this card ever got used? I would try it but it long ago…

10 Mo Vaughn - While I don’t remember Mo for his fielding abilities it is a shiny card and I like shiny…

9 Mike Greenwell –The Gator making a leaping grab with dirt flying at Fenway. What more could you want in a card?

8 Marty Barrett – I don’t know why because this was the kind of set that I used to hate but I love these 01 Archives. I may try to get the whole set. I am watching a partial set of them on ebay right now so please nobody else bid…

7 Jeff Suppan – It is shiny and remember what I said about shiny…

6 Scott Cooper – I like sets that put the year right on the card. It is a pain sorting a bunch of cards and trying to figure out what year they are by the tiny little copyright date in the corner, which is wrong half of the time because it was printed one year and the set was actually a different year. Man I hate that. The best thing that Upper Deck ever did was start putting the actual year and set on the back of each card.

5 Tony Pena - He has his catching outfit on that is why I like it. He could catch but not hit. Sounds like another Sox catcher. Is he going to take that offer or not?

4 Turn back Yaz – Every Yastrzemski card is a good one. This one is even better because I didn’t have it for my ‘77 team set.


3 Man-Ram – Look at the concentration. Concentration and balance is where Manny’s hitting ability. Watching Manny for so many years on TV I could tell when he was going to get hot, by his balance at the plate…

2 Kevin Youkilis – Heck YEA, mini Youkilis. This is my favorite card of them all. I didn’t even know Fleer had a mini card subset ever. One more thing to chase…

1 eTopps Nomar – This is my first eTopps card. It is shiny and has a dual picture on the front. I like it.

There was also a little something extra thrown in the package.

A pin of the newest HOFer.



Thank You Tribecards. I really appreciated it. I know this had to be a huge undertaking for you. I hope you liked the cards I sent you as much as I like these.

What is your favorite card of 2008?

Dinged Corners asked what everyone's favorite Stadium Club card was this year. So I thought I would post an even bigger question. What is you favorite card of 2008? Night Owl picked his. Here is mine. best cards three through one for 2008.

#3 Topps Heritage 392 Infield Power - I guess I'm old school because throwbacks are always the best cards. I love the way this matches the original infield power card from 1959.

#2 Masterpieces 78 Lack Lambert - I don't even own this card and I love it. Since he turned down my offer to trade it to me I had to steal the image from Cardboard Junkie. What a great painting of a throwback legend. The black border really makes it look good. I saw one that wasn't bordered and it wasn't half as nice.

#1 Upper Deck 229 Manny Ramirez - It pains me to say but this card wins by a landslide. I don't like Upper Deck. I said before that I am an old school card lover. To me cards are supposed to have a border, that is just the way it is supposed to be and the 08 set is clearly a early 90s Stadium Club rip off. The other thing that drives me nuts about Upper Deck is those ridicules YSL cards. I hate when the insert in my pack is a YSL card I fell ripped of and violated every time I pull one. But in this case Upper Deck did great, this card is just awesome. It was even a good thing there was no border. It is so crystal clear (just like a Stadium Club). You can see all of the people in the stands going nuts and the players spilling out of the dugout on the way to celebrate. Like Ali standing over Liston this is a perfectly caught moment.

Now everyone else weigh in. What is your favorite card of 08? Leave a comment or post scans of them on your blog.

Additions

Finally a spark in the cold furnace that is the 08-09 Hot Stove. The Red Sox didn't need Boras' New York loving client and we took a pass. The media doesn't seem to realize that we already have a better first baseman in Kevin Youkilis, who puts up the same kind of offensive numbers is a record setting gold glover and is even younger than moneybags $$MT$$. Instead Red Sox Nation just got two new members, one has a bright future and one is a lock for the Hall of Fame. The only downside is that both have some medical issues to worry about. If you want my take on them, you must cause you are still reading, here goes.

Rocco is a 5 tool player but here is just some uncertainty to his medical condition. Being a 4th outfielder however hopefully will keep him rested enough to contribute. The real concern here isn't his health but the health of the glass limbed JD Drew, not to mention his often ailing back. If Drew loses much playing time I can see a move for another outfielder during the season.

As happy as I am to see Rocco join the team I am even more ecstatic to see Smoltz. There is nothing but upside to this signing, assuming he comes back from arm woes.You can never have to many arms in baseball and Smoltz has shown over the last um-teen years that he has one of the best arms in baseball; not just of his time but the Hall of Fame will tell us one of the best all time arms. It will be strange to see him in anything but an Atlanta jersey and it will also be strange to see him as a number 4 or even possibly number 5 pitcher. With a rotation already consisting of Lester Beckett Dice-K and Penny he has to move down to 4th or 5th. (notice I listed Lester first. That is right, he is the ace now, sorry Josh) This is just the projected rotation if Smoltz is a starter because I think he will probably be coming out of the pen. If he doesn't pitch out of the pen that means we have to put Penny or Wake in there but that wouldn't make much sense.

Now Boston only has two holes in the lineup, catcher and utility infielder. I'm sure Theo has a plan. Personally I think once Varitek's price plummets like the stock market we will sign him to an incentive laded contract.

Sadly I have no cards to post of either new player. (Please don't send me any of them in another uniform, 09 cards will be here shortly) because all mine ended up going to a Junkie on a Fielder's Choice. I know bad pun.

Only 36 more days till pitchers and catchers report, I can't wait.

Vintage Cards to Trade

I went to a card show one time without a checklist and tried to just use my memory. Needless to say the checklist works better than my brain and I get an extra copy of these. I would like to turn these into some Red Sox cards I don't already have. You can check out my want list by clicking here. I will trade these for any other vintage Sox I don't have yet. Please comment or e-mail me.

All of these cards actually look better than the scan does.

1970 Topps #215 Reggie Smith

1958 Topps 473 Bill Renna

(small crease on bottom right corner you can barely see it on the scan in the little black box)


1961 Topps #373 Red Sox Team

1960Topps #310 Frank Malzone

(this is the sharpest card in the bunch and the best player to boot)

1960 Topps #71 Maty Keough

1955 Topp #140 Mel Parnell

(A little faded but better looking than the scan)

How Cool Would This Be

How cool would it be to find the first card ever produced like this lady. <Link>

Potential Goose Joak Cards

A Little Youkilis

I received a comment on my A&G begging post from Houston Astros Blog offering up a Youkilis mini for a Berkman. Something that I thought was kinda cool is he only lives 2 hours from me. I even drove through his town last week coming home from vacation. I quickly got his card in the mail and my Youkilis came today.

Something that Aron failed to mention, which came as a nice surprise is that it was actually a A&G backed mini.

Thank you Aron.

I've made a few blind trades now with Dave from Fielder's Choice. He never disappoints either. This year Dave's Rays got the best of my Sox and every time I see a Ray's card I think of Dave, I bet I'm not the only one. Hopefully this year will not prove the same. Here is my latest haul from Dave.

A bunch of Goudey cards highlighted by this Yaz SP.


The others were:
22 Ortiz
23 Ramirez
27 Bucholz
29 Papelbon
30 Youkilis
205 Fisk

Every time I see a new Masterpiece card i like them more and more. Dave sent me this Papi and a Yaz.
A few 07 SP authentic. Papelbon, Ortiz, and Schilling

I have been threatening to make a checklist of the 08 Stadium Club Red Sox and I am still threatening... But I'm sure I'm close to a complete set (there is only 100 cards in the base set, how many can be Red Sox) I may even be close to a complete 1st day issue set. I'm probably going to try for the 1st day issues rather than the normal versions. I have 3 now and another one promised. Dave also sent me regular issues of Ortiz and Pedroia

And finally, Dave sent me a handful of refractors. Man I love refractors. They are a pain to scan though. The scans never do them justice. The X-refractors come out fairly well in scans though, at least you can tell they are not just normal cards. Anybody have any tips on scanning refractors?

I also got some Upper Deck X Red Sox I won't go so far as to say I'm boycotting them but I'm not scanning them because the set is to ugly. Hopefully Upper Deck gets the hint and does better next year. (sorry this year, almost forgot the calender changed)

Thanks again Dave.

Toys for cards

I recently got in on Thorzul Will Rule's Trade me Anything. I didn't want any of the stuff he was offering though I wanted the card he had said he pulled earlier in his post, this Youkilis Game Used.

So I made him an offer that he liked. I sent him some comic figurines that I was clearing out. Not only did I get the Youkilis I get these babies.

I'm not sure what Upper Deck calls this inserts but to me this thing is a refractor. There is allot of hate in Red Sox Nation for Varitek right now. I'm hoping that Tek comes back (for a smaller salary) and proves everyone wrong.

Thorzul sent me some Chrome cards. I have to get all of my Chrome cards via trade since I can't stand to buy packs of 3 cards that are just parallels of other cards.

I also got these 2 beauties. I hadn't seen any of these mini cards. Can anyone tell me what they are exactly. I'm guessing they are a Heritage insert card. Does anyone out there have a checklist, I love mini cards. While I'm asking questions does anyone out there have any more of these that are Red Sox?

Thanks Thorzul

I have a couple more Marvel figurines to trade if anyone is interested...

A card from Heaven

I sent a Canseco to Mario at Wax Heaven and he sent me a Sox auto in return. It was waiting for me in my mailbox after Christmas.

I like this guy. Evidently Tito and Theo are not to high on him but I think he is a pretty good long reliever.

Thanks Mario and congratulations on the new gig.

Mailbox Stuffing

I came home from Christmas vacation to a mailbox full of cards. What a great Christmas surprise. I got a few packages and it will probably take a few days to get them all posted. This is the first one.

I got an e-mail from Justin the "Holy Hitter" in response to one of my begging posts offering me the last 3 08 A&G regular cards I needed while I was in Arizona. I said awesome send em. Not only did he send them but they beat me to the house. So here is a thanks to Justin and I'll be getting you some Vikings in the mail shortly.

This is one guy I hope to not see in 2009 unless it is him pitching for some other team because we traded him.

The 2008 MVP. No sophomore slump for Pedroia. Hopefully the third time is still the charm when the first two were already.

Curt says we may see him again in mid-season but I doubt it will be with the Sox. Thanks for the memories Curt.

So at the end of the year I finished my first 08 Team Set. hopefully more will follow in 2009.