This is a Cal to all my past Ripkens, aging

Kids these days still listen to the Foo Fighters, right?  Consider this video a hat tip to those of you that embiggen (it's a perfectly cromulent word) your noble blog posts with excellent music.  Also, it's the first thing that came to mind as I sought for a title.

It's been quite a while since I showed off some of my favorite Cal Ripken cards, other than a couple stray pickups of relics and autographs.  So long, in fact, that I can't easily find that post.  The point is, it's time for me to do it again, so here's nine more of my favorites from my Cal Collection:

1983 Topps:

This is definitely a good place to start:  Cal's second-year Topps card.  The Iron Man was fresh off his first full season, during which he won the AL Rookie of the Year.  He'd easily top that in 1983 by winning the AL MVP (one of two in his career) on the way to the Orioles' most recent World Series title.  Besides all that, I chose this card since it's the year in which I was born.  so basically, lots of reasons to like it!

Leaf Preferred Staremasters (#0876/2500):

Some of you remember I bought a decent amount of '96 Leaf Preferred because you'll recall my posting the complete Steel insert set.  Well this isn't a card I pulled from those packs (they were really, really hard to pull at the time, as you can see from the numbering) but I ended up with one all the same, which is great because it's such a cool card.  Fact:  If you stare at the card long enough, his eyes move.

 1996 Studio Stained Glass Stars:

I can't imagine anyone not liking this sweet die-cut card.  At least as far as I see it, my inner child sees it and goes "OOOH COLORS!" and I'm instantly entranced.  Just another great example of a creative (read: not Topps) insert from the 1990s in the years before things shifted to "HITS OR GTFO."

 1997 Donruss Franchise Features (with Scott Rolen) (#1572/3000):

This is another product I bought a lot of, and I might have actually pulled this from a pack, but I can't remember for certain.  1997 Donruss Rookie Update featured some awesomely entertaining inserts, including Diamond Kings, Press Proofs, and these two-player inserts featuring the oft-used conceit of pairing a star with an up-an-coming player.  Rolen never became Ripken, but he's been a very good player in his own right, so this pairing isn't the usual Topps insanity.  The design is very pleasing to the eye, making for an excellent total package.

 1997 Leaf Knothole Gang (#2375/5000):

Here's another fun, unique 90s insert, in which Leaf took a die-cut, faux wood piece and placed it over a great photo.  Baseball is the sport that probably does the most to emphasize its history, I'm sure because it's been around so long, and the "knothole gang" hearkens back to a more innocent time when you could sneak in a game for free.  I chose this one because of the great look and the fact that for whatever reason I love shots of Cal in the field.

 1999 Upper Deck Ovation Standing Ovation (#258/500):

Here's another one that I'm pretty sure I pulled from a pack even though I didn't buy a whole lot of the set.  I'm not 100% in love with the design, but it's a cool parallel (the scan makes it a stranger color than the copper or so it really is) that's serial numbered and it features a sweet shot of Cal's swing, so up it goes.

 2000 Black Diamond Rookie Edition Gold (#0192/1000):

And our second Upper Deck numbered parallel in a row.  I really liked the look of the 2000 Black Diamond and Rookie Edition sets, especially the red and black (my high school colors!) of the base set.  But this Gold insert is numbered and has a great look of its own, plus another good shot of Cal at the plate.

2001 Topps Chrome Golden Anniversary:

As I was grabbing cards to scan I knew I had to include this one since I just scanned the base version on Wednesday as part of the complete set. The Chrome look definitely enhances what's already a very nice looking card.

2002 Upper Deck Piece of History SP:

Our only non-insert today besides the '83 Topps, this one's special because it was a short print.  I'm very sure I pulled it from the one box I grabbed of the product, along with a Jason Giambi SP that's now in my trade bait.  This is kind of a busy card front but there's a lot I like:  the shot of him fielding, the excellent close-up, the two key moments mentioned and a perfect design to use on a horizontal card.  This was a great base set and I'm glad to have the short-printed Cal as part of my collection.

I promise I won't wait as long next time to put up some more of these for my fellow Ripken fans to enjoy!

Complete sets: 2001 Topps Golden Anniversary

I bought quite a bit of 2001 Topps back when it came out.  It was a big deal--Topps was turning 50 and they had some cool stuff going on for that "gold" anniversary, including the precursor to the recent Giveaways where they included actual original Topps cards in packs.  Of course, they were all from about 1985-1989, so pretty much not any different from today's version!

Still, it was an exciting product to break with lots of fun stuff, including Ichiro's RC and some pretty nice inserts.  Of the 1% of inserts Topps produced in the last 10-15 years that WASN'T a tired old reprint set (#occupytopps), one that I chose to collect was 2001's Golden Anniversary.

This was a 50 card set broken up into five groups of 10 players, each with a common theme related to gold.  The first 10 are "Golden Greats" and are all obvious baseball legends.  The next group is "Gold Nuggets," the big, valuable pieces teams have unearthed.  Next comes "Glistening Gold," 10 current stars whose careers appeared to be on the upswing.  Following that we have "Hidden Gold," the inevitable group of prospect throw-ins.  Finally, the last 10 cards are actually a pretty cool theme:  "Going for Gold," a group of MLBers who starred for Team USA.

These cards weren't all that hard to pull, plus I bought a ton of boxes/packs, as I mentioned, and I'm sure I bought/traded for the rest I needed, so this one's been complete for a while.  Since I was looking for something to post and remembered I hadn't scanned a complete set in a while, here for your enjoyment are all 50 cards from 2001 Topps Golden Anniversary:

A couple observations, should you care to continue reading:

• My favorite grouping is Ripken/Gwynn/Griffey/Maddux (I'll just pretend McGwire isn't there), which is just an outstanding combo of four of my all-time favorites.
• You definitely can't go wrong with the 10 "Golden Greats," though, not by a long shot.  It's not easy to narrow HOFers down to a group of 10, and really Topps shouldn't have included the crappy prospects at their expense, but such is life.
• Jeter/Garciaparra/A-Rod was another nice nod to an important trio at the time, three big, offensive SSs who changed the game (you know, after Ripken, Trammel and Larkin).
• Again, did Topps need to cut out good players for stupid reasons?  Even if it's 2001 I don't need two cards of McGwire and Garciaparra; if they fit into the "Going for Gold" subset, which I already said was a cool idea, then put someone else in their place elsewhere!
• My other big gripe is the rookies, because you always try to project who'll be good, and the risk outweighs the reward.  Burrell and Zito have had solid careers while Sabathia, Hamilton and Gonzalez have turned into great players, but when the rest inevitably failed to pan out, their presence cheapened the set.
• Ok, those complaints aside, I do like the player selection in general, even in hindsight.  A set with all those HOFers, the quartet of my favorites, Barry Larkin PLUS quite a few other stars (Bagwell, Frank Thomas, Chipper, et al) on this design is a fun one.  The Chrome versions actually looked quite nice too, but would have been too difficult/costly for me at the time.  So I'm happy I put this one together, and I hope you all enjoyed it too!  Let me know what you think in the comments, if you collected this set yourself, or whatever.

Fantasy baseball poll

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The 2012 season is drawing near and since a decent number of people check this blog sometimes, I thought I'd take a poll to see how interested people would be in a fantasy baseball league.  I'm sure some of you are already running one yourself, or participating in at least one other one, but if you have any interest in one run be me, please drop me a comment below. 

I'm thinking of a standard ESPN league with a good mix of useful stats and some reasonable rules, especially pertaining to total moves allowed.  I'm hoping to fill out something like a 10-12 team league, hold a live draft, the whole shebang.  While prizes are a possibility, I'm leaning more towards a bragging rights-only setup, but that can be determined later.  So if you think you'd like to do a blogger/reader fantasy league, please drop me a comment below, and if enough people express interest, I'll get something going!

Stockton, Thy Sweater is Argyle (Tigers edition)

NOTE:  As this post applies to both my blogs, you'll find it on the other one as well.  Just pointing that out to avoid any potential confusion.

Pictured:  Greg

Score another one for the awesomeness of the blogging community.  On Monday, Greg shot me a quick email pointing out that an auction that might interest me was ending soon.  His eBay diligence paid off today as this arrived in my mailbox:

This right here is Bill Freehan's 2005 Topps Fan Favorites Cyan Printing Plate.  Uh, yeah, Greg, I was kinda sorta interested in that.  If Beckett is accurate at all (stop laughing--I'm not referring to pricing here) in terms of his complete catalog, Freehan has exactly 20 total printing plates--four each of five cards.  That means I have 5% of Freehan's plates.  I just thought that was notable since I've put more effort into collecting him.  Hell, it doesn't surprise me he doesn't have many since he's not an extremely popular player, didn't play during the heyday of baseball card production and wasn't featured in many sets that resulted in plates.  So to say this was a rarity is an understatement, and I definitely owe Greg a huge thanks for pointing out an auction that I'd have otherwise been oblivious to.
Since this is already a relatively short post, I thought it would be fitting to repost a card already in my PC that ties in well with the above, Freehan's autograph from the same set:

The plate is my first of Freehan, of course, and my first of any Tiger, though I do at least have one other 1/1 (Verlander) in my Tigers PC.  He also fits my Wolverines baseball PC (which is why you're seeing this card on both blogs if you happen to read each of them) but thanks to Rich Hill, he's far from my only Michigan baseball plate.  Will I collect more of them?  If I find them, it would be fun to add more, especially considering the awesomeness of some of the sets:  this one, Topps Retired Signature, and more!

While I'm discussing the outstanding 2005 Topps Fan Favorites set, this seems like a great time to mention that I'm still working on that very set, and maybe some of you can help me chip away at it before I throw virtual wads of Paypal at Sportlots to finish it?

Anyway, thanks for the assist, Greg, and in my occasional eBay wanderings I'll make sure to return the favor so you can spend your hard-earned money on YOUR favorite guys!

A spring training Tigers trade package from Jeff

Hi everybody--sorry for taking almost two weeks to post something new over here.  Between being busy, sick and having a lack of interesting content, it wasn't exactly an ideal fortnight, but the good news is that I'm back with a new trade post thanks to Jeff.  

Besides sending me some excellent Michigan-related loot to complete our most recent deal, I also received some excellent Tigers stuff just in time for spring training!

The bulk of the package was what appears to be a team set of the Tigers in 2012 Topps I, not to mention some inserts.  Since I'm avoiding Topps boxes like the plague they are, I'm happy to have picked these up in a trade.  Jeff also went a smart route and participated in a group break instead of wasting money on a box.

The base cards are as good as Topps' designs usually are, and I especially like the Avila play at the plate action shot.  I've been wanting more of his cards and I have a feeling they'll be much more available now that he's been in the league long enough.

The inserts, on the other hand, are about as goofy as Topps' usually are, but Jeff sent me a great group of players--two new Ty Cobbs, a couple Cabreras, another Verlander (still not enough--I'm not changing the title!) and a Magglio that commemorates a classic moment in Tigers history--an insert featuring a great theme for a set and a head-scratcher of a design.

But that's not all Jeff threw in Tigers-wise, because I also got these beauties:

Refractors are always tough to scan just right, so take my word for it, this is one of the Tigers ace from 2011.  I love Refractors, I love Justin Verlander, therefore this card is a winner!

And finally, this Jeremy Bonderman 2006 Upper Deck Ovation Ovation Apparel jersey.  This is my first hit of any kind of the the erstwhile Tiger, and it happens to be a solid (a.k.a. non-white) jersey swatch.  It's definitely a welcome addition, plus a new player, for my Tigers PC.

Thanks again to Jeff for another great trade!

I don't always do things by the book...

...but sometimes I do them by the letter.

The other day on TMM I talked about a rare trade I made with a Blowout member.  Generally that's been my fault because sometimes it's just easier to try to buy something from a guy than to see if I have an extremely specific Bryce Harper autograph.  But occasionally things DO work out because lightning struck a second time, as you'll see shortly.  

A particular member listed some nice stuff for sale or for trade.  I really took a liking to one of his cards and sent him a link to my trade bait.  Though it hasn't garnered me a ton of trades yet (despite including a lot of useful stuff!) it proved effective here--he decided he wanted a dual autograph (which I picked up on the cheap in a Blowout lot, incidentally) and one of my Bryce Harper base RCs, which I certainly won't miss (overrated until proven not a punk-ass).  

You would have thought this guy was a blogger/trader just like you guys because just for fun, I figured out the Beckett "value" and noted that I came out ahead.  You know what that means?  We both got exactly what we wanted, and to hell with "book value."  In short, it was an outstanding trade.

Ok, enough excitement over making a trade on a board that primarily involves selling--what did I get that I'm so excited about?  Have a look at THIS:

Rick Porcello 2009 SP Authentic By the Letter auto (#69/85)

It certainly seems like I've been amassing a lot of letter manupatch autos lately, and I hope that trend continues.  This is a very cool card of a guy I hope follows Justin Verlander's career path, because if he can even be 75% of what Verlander offers, Detroit would have a nightmare of a rotation, especially with the potential emergence of Jacob Turner.

Anyway, that explains the reason I went hard after a Porcello card, but there's a lot to like about more than just the player.  Although it's not a team color, the "E" boldly stands out with a nice signature down the largest portion of it, a natural spot for the autograph of just about anyone short of Bo Hart and Mike Olt.  My only real knock on the card is that the nameplate doesn't spell the player's last name or even the team name, but instead "Rookie," which is pretty lame.  That's fine with me, though, because I really don't need ANOTHER nameplate project right now.

For those of you who are interested, this is my fifth Porcello in the Tigers PC, and third autograph overall.  To see all of them, please head right on over here.

So once again, here's to trading!

A new Lions card just in time for football season...to end

Over at TMM you'll notice that I just completed a rare trade with another Blowout member.  While five of the six cards I received were Wolverines and therefore not relevant to this blog, I did manage to snag one other card that may actually be of interest to some of you, though it happened to arrive during its sport's offseason:

This here is a Jahvid Best 2010 Absolute Memorabilia RPM jersey-ball-jersey RC (#d 22/99).  I know I've mentioned before that I really like the look of these cards (plus their relatively low prices, which makes them reasonably easy to get) and this one is no exception.  I didn't exactly NEED another card in the deal, but I wanted this one enough to work a bit harder to find stuff for the trade to get it.  It's not like I have much of a Lions PC, and I haven't decided if I'd like to pursue one, but as far as what I got back in the trade went, it seemed like a good idea and I'm happy with the result.

Best has an unfortunately uncertain future due to a history of concussions, which is a very, very serious situation for any athlete, much less the rest of us.  While I hope he's eventually able to get back on the field, my primary concern is to see him be able to live a normal, healthy life, so if retirement becomes his only option, I'll understand.  But in his limited playing time so far, he's shown some flashes of exciting playmaking ability out of the backfield, and I can speak for all Lions fans when I say that having all our RBs healthy to start next season is at the top of our wishlist.

I hope some of you pigskin fanatics found this card interesting.  If I don't decide to pursue some sort of Lions PC, I'm sure I'll eventually put it up for trade, so if you just have to have it, shoot me a comment/email and we'll work something out!