a quickie (trade) and an end of an era.

due to a lot of things, money, interest, cost of postage, lack of posting, etc.. etc... trading has been way down around these parts. i mean, waaaaaaaaaay down.

i remember when i first started blogging, almost seven years ago, the trading was glorious. i would send 100 cards out to someone, and they would send 80 back. someone would send me 120 cards, and i'd send them a brick of 90 back.

those days are gone.

and i don't see them ever coming back. thank you canada post and u.s.p.s.

so a little over a month ago, i made a concerted effort to update my zistle inventory. (it's still a work in progress, but it's getting there quite nicely)
the reason to do so was to up my trade game via the pwe. the glorious pwe. under 9 cards for only a .85 cent stamp. or $1.20 if we're headed south.

the results have been promising. 10 successful swaps in 6 weeks. and I'm looking to up the game.

here's the latest to arrive, and my smallest swap yet. only 5 cards.

my very first 2015 adam laroche card. i'm not sure how many people know that i try to be a laroche super collector. most of the people that knew don't hang out in bloggo land anymore. if you have laroche, send them to me. in a pwe.
this is one of those bronze paper parallel somethingorother that all the kids are agog about. #263/499 if you're keeping track at home.

there was a couple of cards to help towards my completion of the 2013 gypsy queen set.

some dodger

 and adam eaton's rookie.

 only 50 more cards to go.... (wantlist link here)

and two awesome cards from one of my favourite sets, the 1991 score set.

both black bordered coincidently.

i'm down to only needing five more to complete this bad boy. #'s 457, 577, 631,

anyone got minty pack fresh copies of those they could share?

such a great swap. each card goes into a slot in a page in a binder. in some cases, that slot has been empty for years.
but not anymore.



speaking of empty, we lost another blogger awhile back. jim form gcrl packed it in and closed up shop. he's still around, reading and (hopefully) trading.
i loved reading jim's blogs. he had three at various times if I remember correctly. he wrote about what he liked, what he loved. and he wrote it for himself. not for readers or comments or free stuff. it takes a lot to be that concentrated on one subject (the dodgers and garvey, cey, russell and lopes) and to make it interesting for others to read. he did it. and he did it a lot. i have no idea how that man could post so much so consistently. but there it was.

but not anymore.

Have you hit 433 home runs? Well he has.....

I can still remember watching a new call up for Atlanta in 2003. A tall skinny kid named Mike Hessman. 6'5" and only 215 lbs.

I saw his first hit as a big leaguer. A pinch hit homer.

 

 

He'd play 19 games that year, and 29 the next. Blocked by a pretty good team with lots of depth, he moved on. He played another 61 big league games over the next 6 years for the Tigers and the Mets.

 

But that's not the story. Hundreds, if not thousands of players can lay claim to that story. What sets apart Mike Hessman from all of those others is what he's done elsewhere.

 

Places like Oklahoma City; Louisville, Ky.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Greenville, S.C.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Macon, Ga.; Richmond and Danville, Va. to Aragua, Venezuela; Culiacan, Mexico; Osaka, Japan; and Beijing. Oh, and Toledo.

Toledo is where Mike, playing for the Mud Hens, hit his 433rd homer of his minor league career, breaking the record held by Buzz Arlett. Buzz held the record for over 80 years.

 

So maybe some would say that the Braves 15th round pick in 1996 didn't turn out.
Others, like me,  would say he did pretty damn good.

Congrats Mike.