Catch This Contest !

hey everyone -

as for my recently ended contest:  packages to all the winners went to the post office today.

now the news:

a new contest has been spotted over at http://fantasticcatch.blogspot.com/

the awesome prizes are spots in the upcoming group break. how cool is that?  get over there and get in on it !

10,000 More Hits Than Uribe Contest Winners

hey everybody,

THANKS everyone for reading, following, and commenting here.   Thanks for participating in ATBATT's first contest. you certainly made it fun for me, and i really enjoyed reading your comments and entries.

here's how i determined the winners: i took the final point tallies and entered them into the randomizer over at RANDOM.ORG .   i ran it 3 times, and here are our winners:

First : BA Benny

Second: GCRL

 
Third: Nathan

 
Fourth: BA Benny

Fifth: Nick

it seems sporting initials in your name, or having the first letter 'B' or 'N' absolutely boosted your chances to win. 

Congrats Winners !  Send an email to me - address available on my profile - and give me your mailing address.
Benny, GCRL, and Nathan, you all get some extra bonus cards from your favorite team and/or player.
i'm presuming Benny wants mets, GCRL wants Dodgers and Nathan wants blue jays, right?  if there's a certain player or two you chase, let me know, and i'll see if i have something along those lines.

THANKS again, everyone who read and played along.

THUS endeth the 10,000 More Hits Than Juan Uribe Contest !  *whew*

A Dual Contest Answer

hey everybody,

happy friday and happy weekend !  the Dodgers battle for first place as we open a weekend series down by three games against the hated ones!  good thing i bought a pyramid sampler on the way home yesterday.

on to this dual contest post. Fuji san is running a contest at his place, so i'm responding to his question: when did i decide to collect sports cards, and what caused it?  i'll be simultaneously answering the question from my contest: if you had to focus your collection to one aspect, what would it be?

1955 Brooklyn Dodgers  WS HERO

 to be honest, fuji san, i can't pinpoint a moment when i decided to collect, but i know i woke up to it somewhere in the late 80's.  back then i was spending a lot of time browsing bookstores and their magazine racks, and i discovered beckett magazine.  evil to some, i know - but it was my door into the hobby.  i was immediately hooked, and it hadda be baseball cards.

i started going to weekend card shows and visiting the Local Card Shops around me (both of which were much more plentiful back then).  i was hooked !

 immediately i knew my primary focus - VINTAGE !!  gimme those old time baseball cards.  for me, a quad relic autograph can't hold a candle to cardboard masterpieces of long past baseball heroes...

Koufax is perhaps my most revered to collect

i noticed about 90% of the respondents to my contest question said they would focus on collecting their favorite teams.  i love my team as much as the next guy (or gal), and i certainly enjoy collecting cards of the best baseball team ever...

upon reflection, i collect vintage because it allows me to collect so much more...

i can collect rookie cards...

i can collect cards that are works of art

i can collect baseball heroes and legends

i can collect cards with multiples, AND original floating heads !

vintage allows me to collect HOF greats

i can collect baseball history and commemorative cards

what  else ??????????????????

i can collect oddball stuff

how about some baseball card history

i can collect miiiiiiinnniiiiiiiiissssssssssss !!!

i can collect tragic baseball stories

...and i can collect the greatest baseball stories of all.

Gimme baseball cards !  the more vintage, the better !

next post: contest winners !

10,000 More Hits Than Uribe ! Final Round !

hey everybody.

THANKS so much to those of you who stopped by ATBATT and checked out my contest. Double and triple THANKS to those of you who became new followers and especially to all of you who participated.

i hope it was fun for you all, but sheesh...it does require a bit more work than i thought !  a tip o' the cap to those of you who run contests often.  i have a newfound appreciation for how hard the group breakers work to get everything right.

here's the final round for the contest with the final 2 tiers of prizes...4th and 5th place. 

fourth place will feature football cards. here's some examples:

fifth place features some cool oddball:

 final opportunity for points:
 if you can play any position for any professional sport, for any team (contemporary, no playing with the '55 Dodgers or '27 yanks)  -  where and what would you play?

the hot corner for the phillies?
goalie for the LA Kings?
striker for manchester united?
head whacker (or whatever they're called) for your favorite cricket team?
driving for the tide team in nascar?

what's that ultimate sports dream?

final 1 point for a comment below.  that could be THE point that gets you first place loot ! 

10,000 More Hits than Uribe - Penultimate Post

hey everybody,

THANKS to everyone who participated in the first two rounds.  This is the second to the last round, in which i will post the prizes for third place.  the final round will feature the final two tiers of prizes.

todays question is based in our shared love of collecting cards.  if you were limited to focusing and collecting only one aspect of cards, what would it be?  for example, would you collect ONLY relics, only autographed cards?  only one player or one team?  only hall of famers, only vintage?  only guys in catchers gear? ..and so on.

this can be answered in the following ways for the following points:

1 point: name the aspect.
2 points: why
3 points: post a link here to a previous post on your blog along these same lines.
4 points: post about it on your blog and post the link in the comments below.

BTW: the black borders are very nice on this card. the spots and such are from the penny sleeve.

Next post: The Final Round ! 

Time Out My Contest - Playing In Another Contest

hey everybody,

time for me to take a quick break from the 10,000 More Hits contest so that i can participate in fuji's contest as well.  fuji asked about our best or worst autograph experience.

i'm not really an auto collector, so i dont have a lot of times that i dashed out to an event in order to get an auto of a player.  i did have good luck to pick up a few autos on baseballs over the years while roaming around Dodger stadium from Tommy, Ron Cey, Rick Monday and Dodgers WS hero, Sweet Lou Johnson. 

the best experience i had with sports autos was connected through and through with the blogoworlds.  first of all, i got the tip through roberto, vin scully's homeboy, that former Dodger catcher, Steve Yeager was gonna be signing for free at a local sports bar. BANG ! i was there. Yeager was super cool, posed for a pic - which my brother never sent me !! - and talked to me for a couple minutes.  i was even able to get an extra auto that i shipped off to my fellow Dodger fan buddy over on the least coast.  glad to help a fellow blogger who just doesn't get a chance to catch these auto opportunities. i sent that card off to ol' night owl, and this is the one i kept...

THANKS, Boomer !

but that wasn't my favorite experience.  my fave involved a book signing, an 8+ hours long wait in line, and an all around great experience.  it was none other than howard stern signing his first book 'private parts' at a local pasadena bookstore.

before stern made the jump to satellite radio, i was a HUGE fan.  i listened and laughed most every morning, and when he was coming to LA to sign, i absolutely hadda be there.  i dragged my old lady along with me, and we arrived early, like 6 or 7 a.m.   the line was already totally around the block and into the rear parking lots.  wow !

it was a long wait, but everyone in that line was a certified stern fan, so we all had that in common and everyone was cool and friendly.  stern was supposed to stop  signing around 1 pm or so, and as 1 pm neared, we were nowhere near the front of the door.  there was just no way i could see us making the cut off time.

i got larry miller, owner of 'sit and sleep' - a major stern sponsor at the time. his commercials always ended with him saying.."or it's freeeeeee". he was cool enough to sign that for me.

1 pm came and went, 2 pm came and went and they hadn't tossed us out of line. stern was still signing !  finally we got into the bookstore about 2:30, and it still took another hour to get to the the front.

this is stuttering john's auto.  click this link for a classic interview between stuttering john and Tommy Lasorda.

by this time EVERYONE is tired, including stern.  they were supposed to stop signing over 2 hours ago, and he's still going !  finally we get to the front.  by this point it's a mad assembly line with assistants taking everyone's books from them before they reach the front,  piling them on the table in front of howard, which he promptly scribbled on and shoved to the other side of the table.  everyone just kind of shuffled quietly in front of stern as he scribbled autos and kind of mumbled 'thanks'.

i was totally bummed that after all that waiting, this is it ?  i passed in fornt of howard, he mumbled thanks, and i was handed a signed book by an assistant.  jeez, it wasnt even mine, there was just a pile and the assistants grabbed whichever one and handed it to you.  on one hand i could understand, he was there 2 1/2 hours past the scheduled time and probably barely stopped for a quick lunch or some water.   i should have been really appreciative, but it all felt anticlimactic.

howard must have sensed it...as i was handed my - someone else's autographed book -  he stopped and looked up at me.  he looked me right in the eyes...yeh, i could see he was tired.  he looked me right in the eyes and extended his hand.  in an absolute sincere voice, he said to me "thanks alot for coming and waiting so long. i really appreciate it."  i couldn't believe it !  i thanked him for staying so long for us too...and then i was hustled along by assistants.  that moment of sincerity and true gratitude has stuck with me to this day.  THANKS, Howard !  you're the best !

10,000 More Hits Than Uribe Contest Round 2

hey everybody,

every now and then we see a card where the guy has a perfect baseball player's name.  coco has the kinda name that rocks in ANY sport. except maybe hockey.

 contest notes: every time a new post goes up...points are closed for the previous round - with one exception.  any new follower can pick up a point.  just leave a comment that you're a new follower and i'll be glad to kick it in. 
the cards in this post are the prizes for second place, and
top 3 spots get a fistful of cards from their favorite team - and player if i have that availability)

THANKS to everyone who participated in Round 1.  I got turned on to a couple of new blogs that i'm now following, and i hope you new followers will enjoy the future posts here.

trivia about one of the round 1 prizes: Josh D. made a joking comment about the philip rivers card.  truth be told, i'm not a big football fan and i rarely collect football cards - except for the heroes of my youth (purple people eaters, butkis, deacon jones) - but i was absolutely shocked to see that card being offered for sale from $10 - $15 on the nets.  that's how a football card ended up being in the tier of first prizes.

i don't care what the record books show. homeboy here had a perfect game.

Round 2.
PLEASE ANSWER ONE QUESTION FOR ONE POINT.  YOU MAY ANSWER BOTH FOR TWO POINTS:
 (you may not choose a currently active player for your answer. dead players are ok)

1. you're the manager. it's game 7 of the world series.  choose one pitcher (living or dead, but not active) to send to the mound for all the marbles.  who? one bonus point for why.

2. you're the manager.  it's Game 7, bottom of the 9th, and  down by one run.  one man on first and two out.  you can send anyone to the plate.  who?  one bonus point for why.

where's that quarry dude? i thought he might like this.  a little something for the NL west

THANKS for playing. 

Here's The "10,000 More Hits Than Uribe Contest"

hey everybody,

as i mentioned in my last post, in honor and appreciation of  ATBATT hitting the 10,000 hits mark, i'm officially launching my first ever contest, the...

               "10,000 MORE HITS THAN JUAN URIBE CONTEST"

can the blogoworlds handle yet another contest?  you all know tom over at The Angels In Order is already running a contest, and Fuji san over at The Chronicles of Fuji  is running one as well, and those are the ones i'm aware of.  is this contest overkill?  nahhhhh....

the 10,000 hits contest will be points based.  there will be several rounds, with each round exposing a prize tier.  for example, round one features the prizes for first place and offers the chance to earn several points.  round two will feature the prizes for second place, and so on.

 at the end of the contest, i'll put all the entry points into a randomizer, randomize it 3 times, and that will be the list of the final 5 winners.  in addition to winning the prizes for that tier, each of the top 3 winners will receive a fistful of cards from their favorite team.

for this round i'm gonna use the ever popular  format of:

one point for following ATBATT.  if you already follow, or you're new, just say so in the comments below.
one point for plugging my contest on your blog, and
one point for placing the link in my comments below.
That's a total of 3 points possible for round one.  not all rounds will offer as many points, but they won't all be as 'labor intensive' either.  

the cards that have been sprinkled throughout this post are the 4 cards that are the first place prizes. 

so, become a follower, pimp dis shite, link it in the comments, and you're on your way to these cool first place cards.

one last note - each person who wrote a congratulations comment on my '10,000 hits thank you' post (as of this writing) will receive one extra bonus entry point.  thats greg zawkin, dutch card guy, nick, Dodgerbobble, ba benny, chunter and play at the plate.  you guys took the time to send congrats, and as appreciation, you all get the first points.

Ready...Steady...GO ! 

10,000 HITS !! and a Contest Tease

hey everybody -

i open today's post with a quote from the greatest sports broadcaster ever (radio or TV), for the greatest baseball team ever (the Dodgers),

 "In a year of the improbable, the impossible has happened !"

i can't believe it, but my humble little blog has actually hit a milestone - 10,000 hits. WOW !

10,000 THANKS to all of you for visiting my blog, following and reading regularly, occasionally commenting, and for becoming friendly trading partners.

i really had no idea when i began how much fun it would be to become a part of the card blogging community and to meet as many of you as i have.  certainly all of you have helped increase my enjoyment of this hobby of ours.

as a show of thanks, i've decided to extend my thanks in a bigger way by offering ATBATT's first ever contest.  as i write this, i still don't have all the details worked out, but i do know it will it will be simple, and i hope, fun.  it will stretch out over a few posts and i'll probably ask you to make some type of small comment or answer a simple question or two.

so let's get to the prizes.  as i'm fond of saying, ATBATT is a humble little blog, so it follows the contest prizes will be humble as well.  let's check out some teasers...

prizes will include:

vintage with HOFers

jersey relics

football

oddball

...and a fistfull of cards from your favorite team.  sound good ?   once again, THANKS to all of you who visit and read ATBATT. 

Next post: The Contest Begins

An Awkward Situation And A Question

ummmmm.....

hey everybody,

i've talked before about my blog falling behind in regular posts, but i only hinted around the edges about why.

from the time i launched this blog (in sept. '11), i was posting an average of every other day.  then, last month, reality bit me on the rear end - hard - and the economy pushed me right out of my job and into the unemployment lines.  suddenly, the blogosphere seemed very small, and real world issues took me away from posting.

i didn't lose my love of blogging, i simply couldn't do it as much as i would like.  a lot of you know exactly how that is.  i'm not talking about this because i'm fishing for sympathy - although if any of you out there know of a gig for an out of work teacher/department head, i could sure use it. 

the reason i write about all that leads me up to the reason behind this post.  suddenly having my income cut off caused me to rethink priorities about my collection, and i decided to put my cards to work and make a few bucks in the world of ebay.   it might not pay the rent, but i hoped to make enough to justify a night out once in a while, or to at least carry my share of buying a round for the boys.  thus, the aforementioned awkward situation...

a while back a fellow blogger mentioned to me that he was interested in a card i posted for trade.  when i was sorting through which cards to put up for sale, i came across that card the blogger wanted.  i thought..."hmmmm...a month has passed, and nothing since our last communication.  he must have changed his mind." up on ebay it went.

well, of course the card sold.  YAY !

then a few days later, of course, the blogger sent me an email saying he's ready for the trade.  DOH !

cue awkward email explaining the card is gone.

i felt really bad because i felt a little bit like i burned a blogger on a card he wanted.  which leads me to this question:

when someone inquires about a card/cards for trade, how long do you wait before you decide the person doesn't want it?   do you make it a policy to write back and ask if they still want it?  how do you handle that situation?

postscript: that's also the reason i dropped the ball on my proposed 'Dodger Blogger Night'.  suddenly, the only Dodger games i can afford are the ones that my Man Inside Dodger Stadium passes free tickets along to me.  i don't wanna seem like a flake for proposing and then not following through. it just might have to wait till next season.  >.<