Early Santa visit? Nope, but close....

I received an envelope in the post the other day. It's that time of year. Xmas cards from folks you haven't seen or talked to in way too long.
Only the card in this envelope wasn't the Xmas kind. Although it was from a friend I haven't talked to in the previously mentioned way too long.

Jim, from gcrl fame, and with a newish blog to give us his thoughts, ( click here  cards as i see them ) sent over this extremely shiny monstrosity.

Some sapphire parallel that is supposedly /250 but Topps was too lazy to number it.
It's nice when people remember you when they pull certain cards. This will go very nicely into my Adam binder.

Adam is retired now, so his card count in future year's offerings should fall slightly. Probably down to 0.

Thanks for the thought pal. I've got a little something for you once the holiday mail rush dies down. No way I'm going anywhere near a post office right now. Yikes.

The benefit of an experienced rotation..

So for the past two seasons, the Braves have, and have publically admitted to, shall we say, not tried to hard to win a lot of ballgames.

Yeah.

They tanked.

Anybody young with promise? Traded away.

Anybody hitting really well? Traded.

Able to pitch a ball over the plate? Gone.

All gone, except Freddie. He's the face. Gotta keep him. And god love him for staying positive and having a damn good year despite management's best Major League efforts.

It's been a lean two years. TV doesn't show them anymore. As a result, I have no idea who most of the lineup is.

Why would anyone do this?

Money.

What? Get rich by losing? Huh?

It's all a big master plan to start to win in 2017. The year they move out of antiquated Turner Field (what?) and move into their brand new shiny digs, SunTrust Park in Cobb County.

All I can say is, this better be worth it. These last two years have been hell.

Now in preparation of winning it all, the Barves have started to assemble their new Cy Young winning rotation.

On Thursday, they announced the first signing.

42 year old R.A. Dickey. Atlanta will be R.A.'s sixth team in fifteen years.

On Friday they announced the signing of 43 year old Bartolo Colon. Atlanta is Bartolo's ninth team in twenty one years.

 and yes, Colon did pitch for the Expos. Remember them? Not as a rookie.... but in his sixth season.
Yeah.............................


Today, the final piece was added with the surprise re-signing of former Brave, 77 year old Phil Niekro.

General Manager John Coppolella was heard saying about Niekro that they needed to add some veteran leadership for the youngsters. It will be nice for Phil to mentor young Dickey. Help him develop and perfect his curveball that he has spent the last fifteen years using.


Looking forward to a great year! (maybe it should be Cialis Park?)

Captain Canuck All Request Radio...

Well.. maybe not radio exactly, but I felt like the Wolfman* there for awhile. I received an email from a reader. Just to reach out and say, "Hey. How's it going."  You know, that kind of thing. It kind of surprised me. But it was nice to know someone just wanted to see how things were going. In the end, they said it would be nice if I got back to posting more.
The next day in the mail, I received a small package from gcrl. The contents, or most of it, I'll reveal here. In amongst the cards was a note. It said words to the effect "i hope you like these... maybe they'll even be worth a post."

Not one, but two requests for more posts.

From me.

That's scary as hell.

But who am I to refuse my public? (even if it has taken me a couple of weeks to scan the cards and actually post. I never promise timely posts. Just the posts ma'am, just the posts.)

gcrl managed to hit upon a few off of the ole want lists....

Freddie Freeman, the one man team himself, from 2015 Gypsy Queen.

1985 Fleer Donnie Moore. If you don't know Donnie's tragic story, do some googling. And please, if you need help, talk to someone. Anyone.

A slender 1992 Ron gant. You can tell it's a package from gcrl because one of the cards has a memorial patch on the sleeve.
I'll save you the google. It's for John W. Mullen 1924-1991. He was with the Braves in various front office capacities from Boston until his death in '91.

Better times. 2015 Heritage. 2nd place bitches. Only Freddie remains from that pic....

jim likes to rub salt in the wounds. Here's a Gold Alex Wood. I hated that trade then, I despise it now.

These are so cool. But I can't get them here. A Craig Kimbrel CHIPZ. I wish I had more of them. I only have Kimbrel and Uggla, so I thought this was a dupe. Until I came into my office at night in the dark and saw it sitting there on my desk glowing like Homer. IT"S A GLOW IN THE DARK VARIANT KIMBREL!!!!!

 awesome.

Mr Jeff Blauser from 1992 Stadium Club fame represents a few of the inevitable dupes in any surprise gift package.

 not shown are
1987 Topps Paul Assenmacher
2014 Topps Gerald Laird
2014 Topps Emilio Bonifacio
2015 Topps Nick Markakis
2015 Topps Andrelton Simmons
2016 Topps Julio Teheran
2016 Bowman Hector Olivera (salt, meet open wound)

and this.....


I couldn't believe this....


I only have 8 from the team set...


I still need 10.....


and somehow, it's a double.


but what a wonderful duplicate it is.

look at that gloriousness.

thanks big guy. hope everyone likes the post.


(* kudos to you if you know who the Wolfman is...)

Surprise Freebies...

I love using Zistle for trading. I don't use it nearly enough. However, I've been able to add a few friends where it becomes a routine trade every six weeks or so. Especially if we can keep it to under a dozen cards and go the ever popular PWE route.
A dozen new cards for me for just an 0.85 cent stamp? Yes please.

One of these frequent swappers is buckstorecards who of course writes Sportscards from the Dollar Store. We both like the shallow end of the pool collecting wise, so when the opportunity strikes to swap base cards with someone who likes them as much as I do, it's a no brainer.

We fashioned a swap on Zistle, and off the packages went. Or that was the plan anyways.... I got a notice from him saying that he was not only sending our trade, but also adding a Toronto Blue Jays team set from 2016 Gypsy Queen.

He had entered a case break and came away with an extra base set or two. I casually remarked I'd love to swap for one....

then I promptly forgot about it. Um... yeah.

But he didn't, and they arrived here safe and sound.

It left me scrambling to find a surprise or two to throw in for him.... I hope he likes what I sent.

I still love the generosity of the people we meet in this hobby. Thanks J.D.!

Yeah, so I'm a few days late to the party.... as usual.

so the immortal jim (aka gcrl ) is back. most of you probably knew that, but I've never been one for breaking news....

check out his new blog, frankendodger here -----> LINK  to see if this card made his list.

you may be wondering why I chose mr crawford here. well, he was the only dodger card sitting on my desk so I didn't have to get up and go look for one.

yeah, we don't overthink things too much around here.

welcome back pal.

Ever Closer... 2010 World Cup Edition...

If you've never seen these cards in person, you're missing out. By far one of the greatest sets to be put out in the last 30 years. 2010 Panini World Cup.
These cards, IF you can ever find them, aren't cheap. Thankfully I don't need too many more, having tackled it back in 2010 until the pack supply dried up. I was soooooooo hoping for another go for the 2014 World Cup, but Panini crapped the bed by putting out Prizm instead. Prizm is probably Panini's ugliest set across all sports. And the feetsball was no exception.

These country cards are so shiny. You could signal aircraft with these things.

 Cameroon

 North Korea

and Paraguay. My crappy scans don't show it well, but the country name is ghosted on the left side going from bottom to top.

 These next two are clear acetate cards. Two of the bigger stars I was missing. Thankfully Rooney, Ronaldo, and Messi are already tucked safely into my binder...

 I always wanted a son named Yaya.

 Wrapping up with two more base cards...

I was grateful to find a single seller with eight cards I needed. And even more grateful that he was having a sale. These set me back just under $9. His normal price was around $27. Yay sales!

I now need #'s 15, 27, 32, 34, 35, 46, 56, 88, 119, 153,

When I finish it, I'm scanning every page for posterity.

Ever Closer.... 1956 Edition...

Okay, so it's ONLY one card. I'm not really getting any closer to my set. But one card IS one card. And it's a beauty.

Big Bill set me back $1.13 shipped. It's been a looooong time since I found a good deal like that.

This particular version is a grey back, if you're into that kind of thing. It doesn't much matter to me.

This addition leaves me wanting #'s 10, 31, 95, 107, 172, 219, 254, 257, 278

Six relatively easy ones and three not so much. Some dudes named Aaron, Matthews and Spahn.

Pfffft. For now, I'm happy with Mr. Bruton.

Even closer..... 1972 edition.

Another two cards closer. Today we're talking about 1972 Topps. Unlike yesterday's post about 1976 Topps, today it's all about a team set.
If you think I'm going to try and make a '72 set without access to American card shows you are nuts.

I was able to pick up a couple of high numbers in nice shape for .75 cents each. Now these aren't the insane Series 6 high numbers.... these are the are you crazy Series 5 high numbers.

#591 Paul Casanova

 and #601 George Stone.

I now need one Series 3 card, one Series 5 card and five, yes, five Series 6 cards.

#348 Sal Bando
#540 Felix Milan
#675 Pat Jarvis
#740 Rico Carty
#758 Gil Garrido
#764 Dusty Baker
#787 Ron Reed

closer and closer....

Ever closer.... 1976 edition.

It's a hobby, not a race, right? Good thing. Some of these sets have been wanting for quite sometime.  Case in point, my 1976 Topps set.
Recently, I was able to acquire two new pieces of the puzzle.

#19, George Brett. His second year card. (Remember when second year cards were a big deal?)

and #194, The American League Home Run Leaders.

The back of this card is epic, listing the season leader and his team going back to 1901. Bring your magnifying glass.
(I did scan it, but who knows where it is now, and I'm waaaay too lazy to re-scan.)

These certainly look a lot better than the 2016 incarnation. But that's not a discussion for right now.

I'm now..... 10 cards away from completion. (including the Traded set)

If you can help.... #'s 1, 98, 100, 160, 230, 300, 346, 550, 592, 599

10! !0 bottles of beer on the wall, 10 bottles of beer............

Constructive. Constructive. B. E. Constructive.

Growing up my parents tried to instill values in me. You know, morals, the difference between right and wrong, kindness, compassion, etc....
One of the things my mother always said was; "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."
I miss my mom. But I can still see the expression on her face after I've said something I perhaps should've thought more about... and then there it was...
"If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

I was a quiet child.

Moving on.

As you all know, the new 2016 Topps baseball product hit the streets this past week. I've read a LOT of reviews on the product. From Night Owl on down.... everyone seems to have their opinion on it. I have yet to find anyone who actually likes it though. This may go down with '87 Topps and '91 Donruss as one of the worst sets of all time if believe what you read.

But in the interest of fairness, I say No. I will not just believe what I read on the internet. I will make my own decisions, have my own opinions, and NOT be influenced by others. (thanks mom.)

So here it is, my first pack of 2016 Topps.

Kevin Pillar as my first card. I think I had him in PATP's contest. I wonder if this gets me a consolation prize or something.

The gas seems to have overwhelmed Sanchez....

My first Brave! Matt went 8-8 last year.... I think we got him from the Padres...

look at the damage on that Greinke!!! That's not from Topps, that's from a card shop owner who happens to be a Dodgers fan.

A local boy! (According to MLB, Toronto is my "local" team here in Calgary.)

Who the hell is the Prince?????

ugh.

Okay. So I've ripped open my pack and now, keeping in mind my mom's instructions, I will give you my review on 2016 Topps baseball.


....



Welp. There's always next year.