The generosity of a LCS owner.

 On Saturday me and  my dad went to the local card shop to get a box for my baseball cards, because I have a decent amount of cards( e.g 1,000 +) that have no real place to go.However, my Dad forgot his wallet, and we couldn't go again till today.The card shop is a good one. It has pretty decent prices and nice people. The original owner was super nice, but sold the shop a couple years ago. However, the new owners are nice too, a fact which is illustrated in this post.


 Me and my Dad browsed a while, but it was finally time to go. However, as we were leaving, one of the people, who I'm pretty sure is a co-owner, told me to come over to where he was. And then he gave me a 1933 Goudey Dick Coffman card, a pitcher for 15 MLB seasons!

Pretty amazing. It really was pretty great, just giving me a '33 Goudey like that. I think we had been talking about '33 Goudey, if I remember correctly. Just extremely generous. That was my 5th card from 1933 Goudey, and my 7th Goudey. I'm very grateful, and this definitely makes me like the new owners more.
 
           Thanks for reading, folks! Have a nice night!

 

More Nickel Box Adventures.

The last time I went to a card show it was cold and rainy. My baseball team lost twice and I went hitless. Going to the card show saved my day. However, last Saturday when I went to the card show it was a beautiful day, and my team won, plus I pitched well. Going to a card show was really just a bonus. But what a bonus.

   At every card show  I go to I start out by  walking  through the card show, starting on the left. However, as I walked through I couldn't find any dime boxes. I found a quarter box, but those eat up a budget like mine in what seems to be the blink of the eye. I was starting to get pretty worried when I finally found the guy I got all the nickel cards from last time. He was right by the entrance, but he was just a little to the right so I missed him. And like last time, he had a high-quality nickel box. 

             His selection actually turned out to be better than last time, which is saying a lot. I had an immense amount of fun just looking through the cards. I could have gone to an amusement park, and I would have spent more, had less fun, and would have come back with nothing.

But going to a card show I came back with 400+ cards, including one's like this. 1995 Fleer is pretty surreal, and this insert set was no exception. 

This was another great card. I wasn't going to include it in this post until I noticed  the TV by his leg, which just sealed the deal.

I think it's pretty weird that all the cards I have from the current incarnation of TSC are from this guy's nickel box. I haven't been able to form much of an impression from my 4 cards, but the design is clean and the photography is apparently very good.

I'm always glad to pick up Altuve's cards for mere pocket change, plus I'm happy to get TSC cards for pocket change. Getting both at the same time is nothing short of great.

Another set I'm always glad to get cards of is Ted Williams Company. I was especially glad to get the Dotty Kamenshek card.  It was my first card of a AAGPL player. She apparently was a 2 time batting champion.The Going North cards are also very cool, featuring stuff like Bob Gibson as a minor leaguer.

I think UD Masterpieces is a flat-out beautiful set. The design is nice, and the look of the cards is nice, and the feel of the cards is nice too. There are barely any sets like that, excepting older sets that are generally out of my price range. 

I was also glad to see that there were a decent amount of Diamond Kings. The design isn't anything, and I'm not a big fan of the way the pictures look, with the arty look, but I always like the player selection. You don't get a lot of cards of Harry "The Cat" Breechen, nor do you get many cards of Harry " The Hat" Walker.   

Turns out, I got a pretty decent amount of these. I really like the old catchers gear like

in the Gabby Hartnett card.

Getting cards of Jim Thorpe and Grover Alexander is always a treat. That card of Jim Thorpe was my 1st of him, it turns out.

I got 2 2019 Topps cards in the nickel box. They were my 1st this year. Getting 12 cards for $2 didn't making sense any more, and when they hiked up the price it made even less sense. I mean, why should I pay about 20 cents a card, when I can get them for 5 cents by just waiting a little? Anyway, 2019 Topps looks nice and I hope to get more on the cheap. I'm glad that they're returning too full career statistics. It was really annoying when they only had 5 seasons.

These 2 were 10 cents combined, an amazing deal considering Aaron Nola's monster 2018 season, plus Alex Verdugo is doing well. This guy's nickel box surprises me every time. Where else would you find cards like this for pocket change?

This is a nice shiny card. There was another one from this set, but sadly I didn't get it. Now I regret that. These are just really cool.

This was my 1st card from this set. I think it's really cool how they show the per season averages on the back. I've never seen that on a baseball card before. 

At 1st when I picked this up I put it back again, but I decided to get it. It's a pretty interesting photo, Yunel pointing right at the photographer.

I think this is from the Ken Burns documentary set. Whatever it is, it's my 1st of it. It's pretty nice, and I generally love Upper Deck, this being no exception.

You don't see the P-Coach designation much, so this was nice. Did you know that excepting his last 3 years Whitey Ford was 216-84? This has no connection, but a lot of times when I look at Whitey's 1954 Bowman card,  I call him Eddie Ford, because it lists him as Edward Ford, and I know that's not quite right but I forget his name.

I ended up getting a ton of cards at that card show, so I think I'll split this up into a couple of posts.

Thanks for reading, especially because I don't post much.

The Yankees are still alive ( and well)!

Right now the Yankees are currently in the lead in the AL East, which is what you probably expected for this year, even if you didn't like the fact. However, the Yankees are probably a very different team from what you imagined. They currently have 15 players on the DL (Ok, it's the "IL", but whatever). And it's not like the injured Yankees are dispensable players. Aaron Judge isn't expected back until June. Miguel Andujar will probably not play again this year. Didi Greogorius probably will not return until the middle of June. Giancarlo Stanton has no date for return. They also have such players as Dellin Betances, James Paxton, C.C Sabathia, Luis Severino, and Troy Tulowitzki. So how have they done it?

 They've been helped by playing 12 games against the Orioles, which helps, but still doesn't explain the Yankees 34-18 record. The fact is that the Yankees just have a very deep lineup. D.J LeMahieu, who the Yankees signed as a free agent to replace Didi, has hit .317 so far this year. Gio Urshela, who was purchased form the Blue Jays in 2018, had never hit above .233 before this year, but is currently hitting .336! They have also gotten help from call-ups from the minors, like Thairo Estrada, a utility, who since being called up has hit .318 with 3 Homeruns. Clint Frazier has hit .275 with 9 Homeruns after missing a decent amount of 2018 from a concussion.Domingo German after 2 years of struggling is the Yankee's ace.

Somewhere I have an article from 2017 or 2018 talking about how the  Yankees are aren't as much of an Evil Empire now. It had an example of a guy who was actually finding it hard to root against the Yankees ( except when they were playing his team). I'm not sure how y'all agree with that though. I bet  what Y'all probably are thinking is "Man! the Yankees have all these injuries and are still winning?! Ugh."

 But I'm a Yankees fan and so I'm happy.

Finding a new LCS.

On Monday, I was on the way home when I noticed a card shop. I saw it just in time to ask my Mom if we could stop by. She said yes, and so we went in. At first it wasn't a very encouraging sight. There was a wall with a lot of boxes that said " 25 cents for commons, 50 cents for Chrome". "Commons" referred to base cards, not average players, which was good, but it still wasn't very interesting. I picked one card from 1993 Ted Williams, just because I thought I'd at least get one card. I was nearing the cash register when I noticed a box of vintage. It was mostly fairly priced, but  not really what I wanted to pay. At least until I started noticing some quite affordable low grade stuff. The card on the top of the page was just 40 cents! Granted, the back wasn't very good, but that's still a great deal in my book. I ended up getting 6 1959 Topps cards, and 12 various 70's cards.

This was the most expensive card I got at 80 cents. In 1961 Stu was blown off the mound at Candlestick Park in the All-Star Game, which was reason enough for getting this card.

Really, I just love getting low grade vintage. I mean, for example, a better centered copy of the Stu Miller card above was available for $3.20, or 4 times what I paid for my copy. The better centered copy probably wasn't priced as well anyway, but you get the idea. It's a lot more budget friendly for a kid ( me) to get off conditioned cards. And the dark spot in the top right corner isn't a shadow. It's a stain, the reason why I got the this for 40 cents.

I thought that this was a pretty nice pickup for 60 cents.He was  a Yankee, and he was also what "

the sportscasters like to refer to as a fireballing right-hander, a real flamethrower, an aspareen chucker." ( points if you know what that was from). He also had some nice glasses.

Narleski's card was also 60 cents, and he was also mentioned in the same book. "Narleski with his sly little-boy grin and the darting, fishy eyes of the small time criminal handles the customer relations," 1959 turned out to be his last year in the majors, as his ERA soared to the upper 5.00s.

 This very card was in fact featured in the book.

Most of y'all should probably know which book I'm talking by now. This card was also the 1st card I've gotten where the player had amassed 700 or more at bats in a minor league season.

There were also some late 70's cards that were mostly about 10 cents. I'm a fan of 1976, and so I was glad to pick up these for such a price. The John Hiller was actually a quarter, but it was worth it.

My visit to the card shop was also notable in that I got my 1st 1975 Topps Mini for 60 cents.

Overall, it was a nice haul. I'll probably be going back pretty soon, if my Mom allows it ( imagine your son having 10,000 baseball cards and not always putting them back after looking at them).

A quick note on posting: I often don't post because I haven't really got anything interesting. On the other hand, sometimes it's just negligence.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it.

A Spectacular TTM Success!- Carl Erskine

A couple of weeks ago it hit me how I liked the 1950s-1970s period, and the players from that era were going to die in not too long. I wasn't there for back then, but I've read about, heard about it from my Dad and Grandpa, and even watched a little of it. I decided to make my own baseball card for it ( I did this for Bobby Doerr in 2017). I decided to send my 1st one to Carl Erskine. I sent it 2 weeks ago and it came back today!

Not only did he sign my card, he also sent me another card, which he even inscribed "To John"!

I asked him what his favorite moment in baseball was, and he took the time to answer my question, and even signed that. Overall, he went way above what I asked for. It was a really encouraging start to my project. Every time I've done something like this ( 2 times in total), I've always been impressed with how nice they were.

The Baseball Card Box: Part 3-The Random

Well folks, I've really done it this time. Part 2 of this short series was nearly 5 weeks ago,  and only now am I posting the 3rd part.The thing is that I generally have at least one rather ambitious project going, and I've  had about 2 over the past 2 weeks. Still, that's only a partial excuse. I'm hoping to be more of a consistent blogger in the future. Anyway, I know you came here to read about the cards, not me making excuses for not posting more often ( at least it would be pretty weird if you came for that).

I think this is a pretty nice pitcher at the plate card. Al looks like he's about to bunt, and it's pretty cool how you can see the ball in transit to the plate.  It's also a angle you don't see much.

I think it's cool how this set has the outlines of the picture itself, not just one for each position. You can especially tell with cards like this.

Tony Gwynn looks really cool on his motorcycle. It's nice how the score board bears the touching message: "Anks Ton!"

I think that these are gold parallels. They're pretty thick.

This Pacific is pretty cool. The design is pretty 90s and the see-through part is rather unusual.

This is a nice card of Luis Gonzalez with his son. I'll still always remember him for this card though:

Speaking of creepy cards, here's one I got in the box

:

This isn't creepy, it's actually pretty nice. It has a lot of nice,shiny, colors, which is always a good thing. Plus I found something I thought odd on the back:

I think it's strange how it says " Statistical comparison". There isn't really any kind of comparison on the card. If it compared Roger to the average player in 2001, I'd understand. If it compared Roger to his average season, I'd understand. But there's nothing like that. I guess it's just a mystery.

The concept for this set is fine,but sometimes it gets a little odd. For example, how does 5'6'' 160 pound Ichiro have the same legs as 6'2'' 210 pound Hideo Nomo? You can kind of see, if you look hard enough, a discrepancy with the top of Ichiro's legs and Hideo Nomo's underneath.

Tatooine card!By the way, why is Carlos covering 2nd? When he played in the field at all in 1996, he was at 1st base.My best guess is that there was an error and he had to cover 2nd.

I could have included Fred Lynn in the older players section, but I think more of him as a 80s player. 

Now those are some nice names. Boomer is definitely a nickname that I do not want to get. It conjures up the image of exactly what he was, which is not what I particularly what I want to be, though I definitely wouldn't mind being a star pitcher for the Yankees.

Now here's something that confuses me: Why was the 1958 Hires root beer design used in a product called Bowman Heritage? Did they not do they're homework? Did they mistakenly assign an intern to pick out a good design? It's pretty strange.

I semi-collect Chris Sale because he's really good,and has a pretty funky delivery. Too bad he's a Red Sock( that doesn't sound right), but these things happen.Unfortunately he's had a really bad start in 2019. 

I ended up getting 7 Randy Johnson cards, because most of the cards were around 2000, and Randy Johnson was pretty much the #1 pitcher back then, at least in strikeouts. 

I had't gotten a new Mariano Rivera card in a long, long time because they never pop up in dime boxes, which is where I get most of my cards,and I don't want to go too out of the way to get cards of just about anybody. Too bad.

I also got the 2012 Red Sox team set. If you missed the 1st post of this little series, the person who gave me these cards lives in Massachusetts.

I thought it was pretty cool that because 2012 was Fenway Park's 100th anniversary, they had 3 cards depicting Fenway in 1912, when it 1st opened, 1967, and 2012.

    And if  you were wondering if I got a relic card or something, I did. It's nice how he barely had time to settle into the hall of fame before I got a relic card of him numbered to 200.

Anyway, that's all. Thanks for reading and have a happy easter!