Baseball Cards

Filed under: Card of the Day

Today is Brooks Robinson's 76th birthday, but everything else about this day made me feel like baseball is a cruel, pointless, stupid game. Yes, I was at Camden Yards for Jim Johnson and Darren O'Day's six-run ninth-inning meltdown; why do you ask?

Had a fun day at Yankee Stadium today. The Yankees made fairly easy work of the overhyped Blue Jays, 7-2. Robinson Cano was the big hero with two home runs.It was interesting to see a lot of unfamiliar players on the Yankees. Instead of Teixiera, Jeter and A-Rod, they Yankees now have Overbay, Nix, and David Adams. They're playing pretty well though. And another new guy, Travis Hafner, found himself facing a unique shift - the Blue Jays would send their third baseman to right field to overload that side of the field. In the eighth inning Hafner figured out how to beat that shift, hitting the ball into the seats for a two-run homer.

Features on each member of the 1990 Billings Mustangs, as included in that year's team setBillings MustangsPC3211 - Kevin Berry, New Opportunity, 5/4/13PC3212 - Sean Doty, Steady Pitching, 5/17/13PC3213 - Scott Duff, Losing Battle, 5/5/13PC3214 - Mike Ferry, Right Now, 5/14/13PC3215 - Brian Fry, Those Numbers, 5/13/13PC3216 - Chris Keim, Could Do, 5/16/13PC3217 - Larry Luebbers, So Happy, 5/6/13PC3218 - Greg Margheim, Purely Personal, 5/15/13PC3219 - Ernie Nieves, Started Strong, 5/6/13PC3220 - Scott Robinson, Exhibition Outing, 5/9/13 PC3221 - Carl Stewart, Fine Start, 5/7/13PC3222 - Kevin Tatar, Couldn't Go, 5/7/13PC3223 - Ryan Edwards, Decent Year, 5/12/13PC3224 - Brian Nichols, Tied Up, 5/4/13PC3225 - Roy Hammargren, High Level, 5/13/13PC3226 - Dave Wheeler, Baseball Clinic, 5/9/13 PC3227 - Bobby Filotei, Fist Pump, 5/8/13PC3228 - Keith Gordon, Something New, 5/15/13PC3229 - Kevin Jones, Bloop Single, 5/8/13PC3230 - Bobby Perna, Far Apart, 5/11/13PC3231 - Kevin Riggs, Not Work, 5/14/13PC3232 - Todd Wilson, Billings Native, 5/12/13PC3233 - Eric Burroughs, Took Off, 5/18/13PC3234 - Elliott Quinones, Came Through, 5/11/13PC3235 - Chris Vasquez, Accepted It, 5/10/13 PC3236 - Victor Perez, An Example, 5/5/13PC3237 - K.C. Gillum, Tied Up, 5/16/13 PC3238 - Gerry Groninger, Always Wanted, 5/10/13PC3239 - Mack Jenkins, Tedious Guy, 5/17/13

Hank Aaron 2000 Topps Commemorative Set – Card #4 – 1957 Topps Design This is the third card that I have obtained for this set since officially declaring that I wanted to build the full set as one of my 2013 collecting goals. This is the 4th card in the set, a re-print of Aaron’s 1957 Topps baseball card: Hank Aaron’s greatest individual season came in 1957.  He captured the league MVP Award in 1957 as well as his lone World Series championship. Some of Aaron’s amazing numbers from that 1957 baseball season include: 198 hits, 27 doubles, 44 home runs, 118 runs scored, 132 RBI, 369 total bases and just 58 strikeouts in 675 plate appearances. And he did all of this at the age of just 23 – WOW!!!

It has been too long since my last post. Today we have a retail blaster pack of 2013 Bowman.Key rookies in this set include Manny Machado and Jurickson Profar. That's quite a handle... Jurickson Profar. Sounds like a power tool or piece of heavy machinery.Anyhow, onto the pack.Iwakuma, Escobar, Frazier, Scutaro. Marco has aged very gracefully, particularly for an infielder. Still very productive.Ben Rowen, Brian Goodwin, and Yovani Gallardo. The gold parallels fall about 1/pack. Fun fact...Yovani, in his first 7 seasons, has 11 home runs and 28 RBIs, and he's a pitcher. For comparison, Omar Vizquel had 13 home runs in his first 7 seasons. Here is the chrome version of Brian Goodwin and Fu-Lin Kuo. I don't have any dirt on either of these guys.Woohoo! Retail auto hit. This is an orange parallel auto (1/230 packs) numbered to 250. Not much dirt on him either...he's only 21. He does have a .930 fielding percentage in the minors thus far.Thanks for looking!

Before I get to what makes me sad, let me say something that makes me happy: My youngest brother is graduating college this year - in fact, today was his graduation ceremony. I have to admit, it makes me feel super old knowing that he's graduated - but I'm proud of him. In fact, he's heading to Nebraska next fall in order to start working on his Ph.D in biology. Good for him I say! Now, on to the post at hand: This makes me sad. You are looking at my Trade Counter on the side of my blog. In 2010, I sent out 122 trade packages (an average of just over 10 per month). In 2011, I upped the total to 166 trade packages (an average of almost 14 per month). In 2012, my trade totals dropped but still crept over 100 (average of almost 9 per month). What about 2013? To date, I've mailed out 40 trade packages which is an average of only 8 per month so far this year. I'm a bit off the pace of 2012 which was a down year for trading...and I'm way off both 2010 and 2011. What's the cause? I believe the biggest culprit is my budget. I haven't bought a single 2013 product to date. Last year, I didn't buy anything other than Topps Archives and Allen & Ginter. This year is shaping up to be the same, though I may not even go all-in on Archives since I'm hosting a group break which will (hopefully) net me the full Reds set. Am I out of stuff to trade away? In a word, no. I have plenty of lists up on my blog (you can find them all at the top of the blog). However, maybe people just don't have any interest in tracking down more 2008 Topps Heritage or 2010 Topps Allen & Ginter. Am I too difficult to trade with? I certainly hope not, though I realize a lot of the stuff remaining on my want list is of the short print or insert variety. I've tried to make it a bit easier by adding a few new sets to the want list plus I'm now trading for just about any LEGO set I can get my hands on (and also LEGO minifigures that come in the little sealed packages for about $3.00 a piece). So what do you say? Want to trade? Let me know by shooting me an email, I'd love to continue to unload some of my extras (and hopefully continue to acquire stuff that I actually want)! I'm still optimistic that I can top 100 trades for the year, but I can't do it without you!