A Small Trade With A Big Blogger

hey everybody,

i just don't know how the guy does it.  he writes an awesome blog that i faithfully read.  besides that, he writes yet even more blogs, which i'm quite sure are equally fascinating, but i confess, i don't read those as often.

keeping up with several blogs would be enough for any regular mortal, but that's not enough juggling for the Night Owl.  on top of all that, the guy has time for twitters, tweeters, listias and tumblers - and whatever the heck all those things entail. think he's done?  not even close...

then he squeezes in time to be a sportswriter, and a regular joe with a family and everything that comes along with those responsibilities.  whew!   he does all of that before finding time to maintain, catalog and love a huge card collection.  WTH - does this guy get an extra allotment of hours per diem that we don't?

you may ask yourself, "why should i care if some crazed blogger wants to eat, drink and sleep baseball cards?"  it's because the man still cares enough to use some of his carefully scheduled schedule to TRADE!  have we overused the term - 'he's passionate' yet?

which brings me to our latest trade.  Night Owl scored a couple of '65 topps Dodgers that he mentioned will be upgrades for his collection.  since i'm trying to collect that same year's Dodgers, i immediately requested, and was just as immediately given, those '65s.   if i was as busy as N.O., i would be forever crabby and have no time for others.  Good ol' N.O. shipped those right out to me, along with a fistful of other Dodgers.  coolness, indeed. 

here's the '65s that started this trade. i dig this set's design, colors and those pennants.

Howe's is a tragic story.  he was a truly good pitcher who never reached his full potential because drugs and alchohol kept taking control of his life.  this is a great photo because it seems Howe himself is wondering about what might have been. 

 here's a tragedy of a different sort.  Adrian Beltre came up with the Dodgers and played a solid third basewhile wielding a pretty good bat.  he left LA as a free agent, and while he suffered a few lean years, he is still around bashing multi-HR playoff games and still rocking the hot corner.  Beltre was recently awarded a gold glove for the 2012 season.  since Beltre's departure, LA has had about 500 third basemen.  among the 2012 Dodger third basemen, juan uribe.  a fricken tragedy indeed.

with a name like his, ol' Burleigh had 2 choices - play baseball or bootleg liquor in chicago.

my first Karros relic!

this Sheffield card is transparent awesomeness. 

i can never, ever have too many nomo cards. 

THANKS for a great trade, busy man.

Maybe Target will Start A "One Star Club"

hey everybody,

My Dodger buddy Night Owl wrote a great piece about topps' new super-elite, double exclusive club for "passionate" collectors.  in it, he referenced another great post from The Wax Fantastic. 

Being a sort of passionate blog reader, i followed the link, and was glad i did, because that was yet another great read.  as an aside, i'm glad to have discovered Andy's blog.  Since his is a perspective from "the other side of the atlantic", i get to expand my mind a bit further, and i get the quiet enjoyment of reading a blog with occasionally quaint spelling (i.e. programme).  ah, the simple pleasures.

suffice it to say, i am probably NEVER gonna be in topps' 5-star club, because i don't ever foresee meeting their requirements.  First of all, I don't have a minimum of $10,000 extra cash annually to spend on baseball cards.  heck, even if i hit the lotto and i had that much to burn on cards, i couldn't in good conscience sit down and write a required 500 word essay for topps declaring why i wanna be in that dopey club anyways. I wonder how the topps brain trust settled on 500 words being the right amount to establish passion?  i wonder if i could include citations in the 500?

as our friend Night Owl reminds us, we readers and bloggers are certainly passionate enough about our collections and collecting habits in our own ways, even without topps' blessing.  i may not have ten grand, but i can scratch together $3.99 to take a chance on this little package i spotted at my local target...

i'm passionate enough to spot that daryl strawberry card, and i know my fellow bloggers and readers are passionate enough to want (or need!) the assorted extras in the package.  as would be expected, there's plenty of set and team filler, and i'm happy to report, a few feature players and cards you all might want in trade.   let's see what i pulled...

young kirby !  and yet another addition for my mike schmidt collection!

there's 22 all-star cards in this set and i got about 10 of them.  the gloss and colors on these cards are shiny and gorgeous like they came out of a pack yesterday.  below are a few more...

Fernando pitched in this 1986 all-star game and he got 5 consecutive strike outs.  alas, no Fernando in this package.  however...

how's this?  one of my favorite yankees!  bernie williams RC!  nice.

any knoblauch fans out there?  this pacific card is sweet.  the photo is embedded and can be seen from front and back.

remember when jay buhner being traded away from the yankees was mentioned in seinfeld?

chromey goodness

gotta love this shot of gibby advancing to the plate. all business and getting zoned in.  i think gibby looked like this when he was seven, mustache and all.

CUBBIES !

i'm not a fan of this donruss set, so this schmidt is available...

this nomar card is a beauty. the shine is very refractory.

finally!  a Dodger.  and one i didn't have yet. :)

closing out with a pittsburgh legend. 

it just goes to show you don't have to spend $10,000 to enjoy your passion. 

THANKS for reading!

Posts on Trades on Cards

hey everybody,

it seems i'm no different than a lot of my blogger brethren who fall behind on putting up trade posts.  my hat's off to those of you who have the discipline to stay on top of it.

Kerry has been posting some great trade bait of past players over at the cool blog Cards on Cards.  go on over there and check his posts from october.  there might be some good stuff remaining.

(note: in the latest frustrating development with blogger, i can no longer use red for the color of the font in my links.  links now accept only the color blue. hence, the almost invisible font on links. *sheesh*)

i was able to pick up some great cards to fill out my player collections. first up, mike schmidt...

these 'legends' series cards look great.  this is a most excellent shot of the proper way to play the hot corner.

the proper way to watch a bomb sail over the fence

anybody know about that '100' patch on his arm?  is that 100 years for the phillie franchise?  maybe 100 years of philly cheese steak sandwiches?

MVP!

above is a great card of the hit king.  we recently had a good back-and-forth here in ATBATT about cheating players.  i wrote a post about mark mcgwire and mentioned pete rose.  a couple of folks weighed in with their opinions and i really appreciated that.

sure, it's fun to have a blog and opine on all things large and small, but it's even better when you, my readers and fellow bloggers drop in with your thoughts. we call it a community for a reason.

speaking of cheaters, here's LA's most famous member of that club.  i hear manny is still playing in some off-league somewhere.  if he can work his way back into baseball shape, i would be really interested in seeing how he does...with a different club.  

 THANKS for the great trade, Kerry ! 

Something About The Enemy? Here? WTH?

hey everybody,

whilst bouncing around the blogs, i came upon inspiration for this post from brother blogger arpsmith
over at Arpsmith's Sportscard Obsession.  he mentioned his memories of candlestick park, and although i never attended a game there, as a lifelong Dodger fan i have lots of baseball memories of the stick.

when i was a kid, ESPN didn't exist, and your team's every game on cable wasn't an option - heck, cable itself wasn't an option.  But good ol' channel 11 always broadcast games for us here in L.A. when the Dodgers played up in S.F.  i remember watching just about every game.  some of my favorite memories from my youth are watching the game on our black & white tv with my dad.

i remember Vin Scully always talked about the swirling bay winds turning the act of catching an innocent pop fly into a daring adventure. 

back in those days - the LA/SF rivalry was deeply felt from the players to the managers, to the fans.

the scene from above was before my time, but it epitomizes that rivalry.  juan marichal is shown here parting Dodger catcher Johnny Roseboro's hair with a bat.  Sandy Koufax is in there too.

they say candlestick was notorius for Dodgers/giants fan fights, but the new park is much more peaceful.  i've been to quite a few games up there, but never to a Dodgers game. what do you think. arpsmith?

the S.F. fans love to hate the Dodgers, and they really loved to hate Tommy Lasorda.  at the stick, Tommy would have to take a long walk along the stands from the clubhouse to the visitors dugout, and the frisco fans just loved to shower him every step of the way with a healthy portion of BOOOOOOOO !!

the Dodgers were the visitors again at the last baseball game ever played at the stick.  even though Tommy was no longer the Dodgers manager, he was invited to walk that gauntlet one last time.  (that's the picture shown above.)  which brings me to the memorabilia portion of this post.  at one of the games i attended in S.F.'s park with the giant soda bottle, i bought this...

this is a cool connection to old, personal baseball memories.  also cool because it says 'FINAL' game.  finally, extra cool because the Dodgers gave candlestick a great farewell present.  yup, the Dodgers won that game 9 - 4.  

THANKS for reading!

Vintage League Leaders Trade Bait

hey everybody,

here comes some 1976 topps league leaders.  there are a total of 15 if you want to collect all of the '76 leader cards.   among those not included here are cards featuring the top firemen, ERA and victory leaders.   that said, check out this line up of yesterday's heroes...

i love vintage cards with vintage stadiums in the background.  those levels behind dave kingman look like they go straight up!

rivers looks like he still can't believe they actually pay him to play ball.

names that just ring 'old timer'.  how about those cartoon graphics!

i love the way these cards give you their '75 numbers at a glance.  i don't know who george scott is, but i wanna party with any dude sporting those superfly chops.  

after Lopes, everybody else's numbers fall off the map.  nice.

Luzinski with a classic '70's baseball face.  where's the spitoon?

THANKS for reading!

Saturday Batters Up !

Hey everybody,

Here comes an easy saturday post of some players who let thier bats do the talking back in the day...

Donruss was my favorite card maker in the 90's.  They had the best batting action shots and I thought they designed the best inserts. 

Even if you're not a yankees fan, you gotta have one Donnie Baseball in the PC.

Speaking of well -designed cards, '94 Flair here is one of my favorite sets.  This was one of the first 'premium sets', and I think one of the best.  Almost 20 years have passed and these cards still hold up through the test of time. 

Here's great vintage with 2 batting legends who I was lucky enough to see play. 

Here's Carew again with a young Reggie Smith on my nomination for the dullest Topps set ever.

Finishing up with another one of the great set designs.  Furillo was an iron man out in right field and was a clutch WS batter, winning titles with both Brooklyn and L.A. 

  
 THANKS for reading!

Post Election Vintage Pitchers Trade Bait

hey everybody,

Whichever political side of the fence you were on 24 hours ago - whether you held up a flag with a big 'D', or an 'R', or 'Third Party' yesterday - if you voted - bravo !  If you live in one of those states where it was an endurance test to vote, triple bravo!!!

That political stuff aside...there is the very real world of baseball card collecting and trading to get back to.  here we go with some quickie trade bait...

1975 Topps #150   Bob Gibson

Cubbie legend Lee Smith RC 1982 Topps  #452

Tom Terrific 1982 Topps #31

1984 Tom Seaver #595 

Next Post:  Batters Trade Bait

Plashke, Thy Trade Packages Are Awesome

hey everybody,

a wise blogger once said, "hootie hoot, nobody trades like a fellow Dodger trader".  once again, those words are proven right.  Greg, from the hipster celebrity blog, Plashke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle,  and myself put together our first trade last week.

Why would i call his blog 'celebrity hipster'?  perhaps you out-of-towners know that his blog is named after a sports reporter for the LA times - and his blog's namesake actually had a mini-tweet conversation with Greg, which he later shared on his blog.  go over there and check it out.

it was a 99% Dodgers for Dodgers trade that was actually spawned by an autograph card i had from angel pitcher jered weaver.  jered, by the way, is brother to former Dodgers pitcher, Jeff Weaver.  that card (along with a couple others) went off, and i got lots of Dodgers goodness in return...

 these action packed cards are very cool.  they have an embossed feel. the outline of the player is raised, as are the borders and text.  anytime Brooklyn Dodgers are included, it's a good trade.

i need more cards of Dodger Stadium's first ever speedster, Maury Wills.

unfortunately for Mr. Branca, his main claim to fame was serving up the pitch that bobby thompson hit for "the shot heard round the world".   rest easy, Ralph.  it's since been discovered the other team was stealing your signs. 

now, the jewel of the trade. beautiful blue tint and high gloss.  serial numbered, and a low number at that.  Sutton was the ace Dodger pitcher of my youth.  i saw him pitch a one-hitter at Dodger Stadium.  this card is extra cool for me because it features a bat - for a pitcher. this is old school N.L. all the way. 

here's a nice assortment of Dodgers whom i totally forgot existed. 

Trevino was a so-so slap single hitter (not too often), and Stubbs was a so-so power hitting threat (also not too often).

if the game is on the line, and you need one clutch hit to win - hand the bat to Manny.  game over.

i also got some new Kemps 

just when i thought i had every Dodger card from this year's topps, along comes a new one!  the extra bonus is i was at that game, so this one is a cool memory card for me.

THANKS for a great trade, Greg!