Let's See Some Vintage From the Card Show

Aloha, everybody, 

I wanted to go to the card show today...but alas...things didn't work out. So let's do the next best thing and check out some cards that I got on my last trip there. 

Everybody knows, I love my Dodgers, but this here's the greatest catcher ever...

Here's a new addition for my World Series subsets. I have Games 4, 5, and 6 from this set...

Fleer is a bit of a junk product, but they put together some great combo cards...

Now let's get really vintage...

Maybe fear struck out, but my card searching on that day didn't. Every collection of baseball's legends has gotta have this guy...

You better have one of his cards too...

Did I find any Dodgers? You betcha. Slightly miscut, but I'll take it. A bargain for a quarter in the overpriced LA card market...

More heroes from the Windy City...(all of these are available for trade remember)...

How about some Curt Flood? The Hall of Fame won't let him in...but my collection sure will...

You probably already have about five of this one, right, Mark? 
I love those stadium archways in the background. 

We'll finish off with a cool LA Angels card from 1961 Topps. 

I LOVE vintage! Aloha! 

Big Fun Prizes Arrive in Big Fun Boxes

Aloha, everybody, 

Are you playing in the game currently running over at Johnny's Trading Spot? Well, this post isn't about that. 

That game is riffing off the Big Fun Game that my good buddy, Wes, recently hosted on his blog, Willinghammer Rising. I was lucky enough to win a big fun box chock fulla baseball stuff. What a haul! 

In all my blogging days I've never received so many goodies in one shot. Today I'm showing off a small sampling of what was in this big fun box. 

Oh, there's a whooooole lotta fun stuff in here. I'm showing just a bit because Wes and John have now inspired me to riff off them and put together my own humble version of the games they hosted. A few items from this box will become prizes in my game, so I'm going to keep some things secret. 

Leading off is a 1981 Topps Giant Photo Card. I haven't opened this yet, so who's inside is still a mystery to me...

Wes included a bunch packs in the box. I'm looking forward to opening this one and sharing the cards with you all in a later post...

Here's a 1987 young Wally Joyner. It's my scan that's blurry. The image is clean...

I got a few of these rack packs. This one is 1990 DonRuss. The Cal Ripken card on the front would have made this a must buy if you spotted it back then...

Finally today, something Big Fun and a bit creepy...

Not because it's a Yankee, it's the puffed out head. Guidry's face and body are embossed so they rise above the surface of the card. It's kinda weird, and I'm not sure I want to see this staring at me from the corner of a dark room. 

That's just one of the fun and funky oddballs contained in the box. Don't forget about those 300 and 400 count boxes that are FULL of cards. I haven't even scratched the surface of the big fun awaiting my explorations. Stay tuned to see more of what's awaiting inside.  

Wes, THANKS, brother, for this ultra-cool prize. 

Aloha! 

A Little Piece of Brooklyn Comes to my House

Aloha, everybody, 

The beauty of our hobby is there are always new folks to meet and new trades to make. That happened for me recently when I came across a card I just hadda have over at Paul's TTM Autograph Blog. 

Paul's blog was new to me, but I spotted something there from a Dodger that's very well known to any Dodgers fan. I contacted Paul, and after a couple of breif emails, the deal was done. 

Being the cool cat that Paul is, he also included a whole lotta other Dodger goodies in the trade. Check em out...

Young Trayce is tearing it up in the farms, and with the injury rate up in LA these days, Dodger fans are expecting to see him up with the big club very soon. 

I believe you all know this guy...

Here come some Dodgers from the past. Bonus: All new cards for my collection...

Milton Bradley's baseball story was brief and doomed. He had the talent, but he was a little bit, shall we say...emotionally unstable. He got a lot of fresh starts with teams that were willing to take a chance on the speedy and powerful kid, but he quickly wore out his welcome everywhere he was dumped off to, often with very public shows of anger issues. 

That said, I liked Bradley, and still occasionally wear his jersey to ball games. 

Paul dropped some Brooklyn goodness in the bunch (these aren't the big Brooklyn punch yet)...

I've now got enough of these Jackie Robinson Story cards to begin a chase to complete it...

This little extra was a great blast from the past. It's a CD baseball card. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to run, but it's still cool to have. 

Paul also included a buncha 1978 Dodgers, helping me to chip away at the team set...

And finally, this badass slice of cardboard, the one that started the trade. The one I hadda have...

Hall of Famer? Check.
Boys of Summer? Check.
Game used? Check. 

Awesome trade with a new blogosphere friend? Checkerooni.
THANKS for the great cards, Paul. I'm looking forward to our next trade. 

Aloha! 

Sometimes Perfect Isn't Perfect, Making it More Perfect

Aloha, everybody, 

Summer is creepin' up on us here in LA, as the temperature rises and boils away the memories of our wettest rainy season in years. 

For many of us in the blogosphere, our hobby is all about memory and perfection. The cardboard we chase is akin to our attempts at holding on to scraps of our past, and we are always trying to fill in the blanks, chasing perfection in our personal collections. 

Perhaps that's why I love baseball so much. Baseball is wrapped in memory and the pursuit of perfection. Thus, my pursuit of the Perfect Games Project. It's my attempt to collect the cards (in the respective year) of every battery of pitcher and catcher for the 23 perfect games in baseball's history.

Tim, one of my readers, sent me a batch of cards that brought my  pursuit closer to perfection. As if that wasn't enough, he included something that I didn't even know existed. 

Leading off is El Presidente, in photos produced with two different exposures, making it look as though he wore two different colored unis...

Nevertheless, both are great shots of his pitch coming right at ya. Here's a third shot of Martinez in '91, his year of perfection. This time at Wrigley...

This tribute card reminds me that Martinez threw his perfect game against my Dodgers...

Catcher Ron Hassey was Martinez's battery mate, but I don't have a card for him yet. 

However, that was Hassey's SECOND complete game. He caught his first as a Cleveland Indian, ten years earlier. Tim took care of that battery - along with that something extra I mentioned earlier. 

Memory is a strange thing, often bringing us comfort and nostalgia. Partly because we don't always remember the events as they actually occurred. Memory is tricky like that. Different people will remember the same event differently. 

This 1982 Fleer card erroneously credits Bo Diaz as Barker's catcher that day. I wonder how many people think it was Diaz who caught that game because of this card?

I wonder if Diaz sometimes remembers himself as the perfect game catcher? 

Memory is a strange thing, but I'll always remember it was reader Tim who brought me a few steps closer to perfection with these cards. THANKS, Tim! 

Aloha! 

I Went Shopping for a Mother's Day Gift and Came Home With This (am I a bad person?)

Aloha, everybody, 

Happy Mother's Day to all of your mothers and your wives out there. May it be the best Mother's Day ever. 

As for the title of the post, don't worry folks, I also brought home the Mother's Day gift that I went out shopping for. I just happened to pick up a little something for myself as well. 

That's why we're all here, right? So let's get to it so we can all get back to the Mother's Day festivities at hand. Here's what I grabbed for myself...

In the past, the bonus I was getting in these was one of those tiny-mites (or whatever they're called) which really didn't float my boat. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box to find a new bonus inside. 

These are Topps Chips from 2015. Not bad. They look, and surprisingly feel, like poker chips. I was glad to find a Dodger...

The Dodgers part of the checklist has Ryu, Kershaw, Greinke, Puig and Adrian Gonzalez. I may have to grab another one of these boxes and see if I can snag another Dodger or two. 

The checklist includes mascots...

 Is anybody out there who collects mascots interested in ol' Gapper? All of these chips are up for grabs (as with anything you see on ATBATT), so just let me know, and I'll be glad to send it to you. 

These black bordered chips are a bit "rarer". They're seeded 1:10

I also got four packs in the box. Two of these...

And one each of these...

 Here are the cards that caught my eye...

Anybody still chasing this subset? 

 I kind of hate these Berger's Best cards because they make me think I caught the real deal, only to deflate my hopes when I flip them over. Player collectors may want these variations. 

One more insert for a player collector...

That was it for the packs. I also got 50 assorted older cards. There were a whole bunch of 2014 and 15 Topps flagship commons and these below. Speaking of something for a player collector...

I've been chasing this Hy-Grade set and it was good to get a pristine upgrade Jackie card...

Not a great box, but it was fun to open and I was able to grab some trade bait. 

Besides, I was really out shopping for something else. I got that special gift and if you'll excuse me, I'm off to reveal the surprise to the special mom in our house. 

Aloha!