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! 

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!