Ripping Some Sunday Packs from the BFG

Aloha, everybody, 

As you may remember, good ol' Wes sent over a big ol' box of assorted goodies to me from his Big Fun Game. 

There was sooo much good stuff in there, I still haven't finished ripping all the packs that he sent me. I've been holding them on the side just for an occasion like this. 

Let's rip a couple, shall we...

Let's lead off with 1988 Score - because these cards are "photo quality"!

These will work. A nice Molitor with a dirtied up uniform and a member of the Big Red Machine with big red stirrups. 

Here's a 3-D card that is spposed to commemorate Yaz's role as a hero in the 1967 pennant race.  

It turns out this card's claim to fame is to be an error card. Note the sentence on the back that has the Tigers playing in two stadiums at the same time (it should read, "the Twins were at Fenway"). 

I always love to pull a World Series hero, Joe Carter card...

The blue overtones and shadows make this a very attractive card...

Now the DonRuss pack...

We get a sentimental favorite and a Dodgers cuppa coffee man...

Yount is always a good pull...

We close with this simple puzzle piece. There's not much here but a fragment, just a bat and the top of a cap...but it's the perfect design. It would make a great wall painting. Doncha think? 

Thanks Wes, this is a prize that is still giving! 

Aloha and happy Sunday! 

A JBF Tradeathon Leads to a Vintage-palooza

Aloha, everybody, 

Did you participate in JBF's recent Holiday Tradeathon? The creator of the Supertraders, the man who you never (but you really kinda do) wanna have a cardboard war with, is constantly finding new ways to spread his generosity around the blogosphere. 

This time it was a tradeathon. Wes offered up cards from different sports, autographs and well-loved vintage. The cards were offered to the first to call dibs, so one had to be vigilant to claim cards that were popular. 

I missed a couple of cards that I would have loved to claim, but there were plenty of others that caught my eye, and claim them, I did. 

Wes offered up a good amount of vintage and HOFers, both of which fit very well into my collecting wheelhouse, and here are the cards that I chose. 

A couple of posts ago, I decided to make a real go at collecting cards from defunct teams. Here's Frank Howard repping the Washington Senators from 1966 Topps...

 Howard, who broke into the bigs with the Dodgers, wasn't quite a HOFer, but he put up impressive enough stats: 
Rookie of the Year, 2-time AL home run leader, 4-time All Star, AL RBI leader, and a World Series champ. 
He'll slide into my collection just fine. 

Did I mention there was an offer of well-loved vintage? Who can resist 1954 Topps?
Bonus: Defunct team. 

Shantz was no slouch either: 3-time AS, AL MVP, 8 Gold Gloves, AL Wins leader, ML ERA leader, and WS champ! 
Bonus: Southpaw
Yeh, Mr. Shantz deserves a slot in my binder. 


In the three-hole, HOFer, Harmon Killebrew. I have a very modest PC of the Killer, and this card fit right in. 

This Killer card is an absolute beauty! Mirrory and refractory, it dazzles as it catches the light. 2014 Panini HOF Red Framed 08/50 

When I started collecting in the early 90's, Mickey Mantle cards were the bee's knees. I never lost my eye for Mantles. This one is an Upper Deck calling card commemorating the Mick's 500th homer. 
Bonus: Defunct Yankee Stadium 

The last of the cards I chose brings us back to 1966 Topps and another HOFer. This time it's one of the just 24 men to have pitched a perfect game... 

Bunning also pitched a no-hitter, was an 9-time AS, 3-time SO leader, and had his number retired by the Phillies, and he was a Dodger. Yup, I'll claim a Jim Bunning card. 

If those awesome picks weren't enough, good ol' Wes dropped in a bonus pack of 1995 Fleer. I pulled an abomination...

 And a second ex-Dodger, this time as a Met (I know, he's an ex-Giant, but we don't speak of such things in these parts), 

This card was the highlight of the pack. Gimme World Series Heroes every day of the week! 

Carter's WS heroic home run is forever implanted in my mind, so this was a great pull. 

Awesome cards from an awesome dude. THANKS, Wes! 

Aloha! 

Grand Salami Of Trade Bait: San Diego Padres

In a nail-biter, the Dodgers held on this afternoon to beat the Pads, 3-2 in San Diego's "Opening Day, For Reals This Time" game.  Sheesh, I haven't seen this many opening days since...well... since never.  Thanks yet again for improving the game, Bud Selig. 

As I was saying, since the Dodgers beat the Padres today, let's have some San Diego trade bait!

World Series Heroes The Big Boppers

hey everybody,

the world Series resets tonight in tiger town, and i'm ready !  if the tigers are gonna come back, they are sure gonna need a home run or two.  in that spirit, let's take a look at some hitters who certainly brought their bats to the Fall Classic...

"home run" baker

we begin with a guy who earned his nickname specifically by hitting home runs in the 1911 Fall Classic. he banged out 2 dingers, one each, in Games 2 and 3.  his Game 3 homer tied the game in the 9th, and he hit it off Christie Mathewson.  yeh, if you hit one off mathewson in the Classic, everybody SHOULD call you "home run".

 in the last postseason game ever played north of the border, joe carter came up BIG and smashed a home run off mitch 'wild thing' williams.  carter jumped like a little boy as he trucked around the bases.  it was only the second time in history that a WS was ended by a home run.  who else was on base when he hit it?  HOFers ricky henderson and paul molitor. not a bad cast.

 what a world series it was in 1991.  it went all 7, 4 games ended in the last at bats, and 3 went extra innings.  in game 6 kirby puckett came up in the 11th, and sent the twins faithful home with a game winning blast that sent the series to game 7, and an eventual minnesota championship.

fisk hit one of the most famous WS smashes, and i think we've all seen the video of him using autumn magic to wave that dang ball fair.  this homer epitomizes what it was like to suffer under the curse of the bambino, for as joyous as that moment was, as much hope it brought to fenway, it turned out fisk's mojo wasn't enough.  the reds won it all and boston fell into winter.

why wouldn't the Home Run King blast one in the Classic?

any Dodger WS home run that i have a card for makes it into the countdown. :)

“Partner, sure as I’m standing here breathing, you’re going to throw me that 3-2 backdoor slider, aren’t you?”

THIS is THE Dodgers WS home run for the ages.  the biggest WS home run EVER hit at Dodger stadium.  sure, cheater canseco hit a grand slam that dented a camera in center field earlier in the game, that most of America oohed and ahhed about - but Gibby's 9th inning blast erased all significance of that - forever.

let's check it, one more time, just for fun....

 Gibby's HR is certainly iconic, but that '88 series had another home run hero who is sometimes forgotten.  He was the guy who replaced Gibby...

mickey only hit one home run all season, but with the Fall Classic spotlight upon him, he came up big with a first inning 2-run shot in Game 1, and another first inning dinger to help close out the A's in the final, Game 6. 

 next up, the ONLY guy to EVER live that baseball dream that lots of us grew up dreaming about... Game 7,  bottom of the 9th, , against the yankees...BLAMMO !!!

HOME RUN and baseball immortality ! the only time it ever happened, and probably ever will.

THANKS for reading!