Home Alone

I've been away all weekend with family at a place called Nemocolin Woodlands resort.  This is the second year in a row we've met up here and once again it was a good time.

The first picture is of the main hotel which we actually didn't stay at.  We rent townhouses as it is much cheaper than getting 6 hotel rooms for four nights.

The last picture is a stock photo of the 18th hole of the Mystic Rocks golf course.  I did get to play a round on Sunday and it went about as well as you expect for someone who golfs once a year now. Back when I had a job in banking I golfed once a week, but most of my old golfing buddies moved away and started families. Hard to find time and plus it is really expensive.

My wife and daughter are actually still at the resort as I had to come back early for a Dr's appointment in the morning.  You know what that means.

In reality it hasn't been that exciting of an evening.  I mowed my lawn and will be ordering takeout. 20 year old Matt would be really disappointed in 33 year old Matt.  Either way it will be nice to sit in relax for an evening.

Here is a card I have for quite sometime. I usually only show my new WVU stuff during football season, but this card is pretty cool.

2013 Topps Prime Geno Smith Auto/NFL patch /5

Geno has had a rough career so far in the NFL.  I hate that this is the only reason why I own this card, but I collect him because of his time in college, not the NFL.  

Hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day and taking a moment to reflect on those who gave their lives so we can enjoy the awesomeness of freedom. 

Thanks for reading. 

F is for Fancy...and French

Life is pretty busy for our favorite French dude Kevin of Card Papoy fame. He is currently putting the finishing touches on a book that will catapult him to fame and fortune. I will tell stories to my daughter someday that I traded baseball cards with Kevin. 

In all seriousness it is super cool that Kevin is writing a book. So many people talk about doing something like that, but Kevin did it! That is quite the accomplishment my friend. 

As always, Kevin still finds the time to hook me up with great Pirate cards. The first card I saw really caught my attention

Yesssssssss! Fancy set, fancy patch and fancy player. Museum Collection is something I never opened but love getting as many of the Pirate singles as possible. Thanks for hooking me up with the Cole Train Kevin.

 Barnes has been plagued by injury ever since he was drafted. If I recall correctly the Pirates left him unprotected in the Rule 5 draft but no one bothered claiming him. I'm guessing this is a make or break year for him.

 FANCY BASE CARDS! I don't try to hide my love affair with Gregory Polanco. I'm so happy he is really breaking out this year. He is a true 5 tool talent.

 Marte has been off to one of his better starts as well. I dream that one day all three outfielder make the same All Star team!

 More Museum Collection.

 Now you are just showing off Kevin.

 Many people were worried that Kang's bad leg injury was going to slow him up this year. He hit two homeruns his first game back. I really need to get more Kang cards in my collection.

 Some random Pirate goodness rounds out the trade package.

Why is this card in here Kevin?  Is it some kind of cryptic code? Is that Pirate players arm making a cameo. Does this card hold the worlds greatest secrets? Do you want me to start collecting Darren Daulton? 

The Biebs sings with passion.

Thanks Kevin.  You should be getting a package from me any day.

Thanks for reading!

Trade: Cardboard Clubhouse

As I'm writing this it is 12:45am. The Penguins are going to the Stanley Cup! What a crazy season for the Pens. Halfway through it looked like they were a fringe playoff team and then they suddenly turned into an unbeatable force. The combination of a coaching change, trades and bringing up a slew of minor leaguers propelled them into the Finals.

Speaking of hockey my pal Adam from Cardboard Clubhouse hooked me up with a ton of cards where the Pens were the dominant theme.

The early 90's Pens were my first taste of hockey as a young kid. My Grandfather took me to my first game and I was hooked. Helps to have a guy like Lemieux grab your attention.

 Doesn't matter the sport, Stadium Club is always awesome.

Here comes a ton of early 90's Pens...

 Bob Errey announces for the Pens these days.

 Tom Barrasso was borderline insane when he played. He had a mean streak like none other in goal.

 Wendell Young even looks like a backup goalie.

 The Pens had a ton of talent during this period. I think Mark Recchi played for about 63 years. The guy was a cup magnet at the end of his career.

 Some cool All Star and Stanley Cup cards.

 A very young Jagr! It is amazing how productive he still is. The guy is a freak of nature.

Now for a little baseball....

 Not many players fit their nickname better than Mike Spanky LaValliere.

 Jay Bell might be the leader in the pondering life pose for baseball cards.

Even though Adam sent this card to me because of Midre Cummings, the Matt Mieske photo is the true treasure. That is one smooth looking dude.

I've been kind of a sucker for the Pirate team cards the last few years. They all have Cutch cameos! Also, how about Gregory Polanco?!! He really is coming into his own.

Thanks for all the great cards Adam. Sorry your first attempt got lost in the mail. I'm still holding out hope that it will show up at some point.

Thanks for reading and have a nice holiday weekend!

Trade: Stealing Home

Fellow craft beer enthusiast and all around nice guy Oscar of All Trade Bait, All the Time recently hooked me up with an envelope of Pirate goodness. One of these days Oscar we will need to figure out beer trading! For now lets look at some cards.

Getting a Clemente card in the mail is always a good day. This is one of the commemorative cards from 97 Topps.

2007 Topps is interesting.... I'm not one to get too caught up on aesthetics. At least it is different, right?

The 2007 season for the Bucs actually started with some excitement. Lots of young talent and by Pirate standards a blockbuster trade when the acquired Adam Laroche. Obviously it was a smoke screen as the Pirates would go on to be terrible.

 Melancon has been his own special kind of dominant ever since becoming a Pirate. He only throws in the low 90's, but the cutter is so hard to square up. Helps when Mariano Rivera is the guy that taught you!

Nice look at the camo jersey on Marte.

 If I were to do a least favorite Pirate list Jeff Locke would be near the top. The guy truly has 9 lives. Every year through some weird chain of events he manages to stay in the rotation. I'm not sure if his evil magic will survive the Glasnow/Taillon call ups.

 Some new Topps including newly signed Francisco Cervelli. Happy the Pirates secured him for 3 more years.  While the Pirates have 2 nice catching prospects, it is such a hard position to get stability in that it warranted the deal.

 Always loved this McKenry card.

Always end with a bang. No better way than 21!

Thanks for all the great cards Oscar. I'll be hitting you back in the near future.

Thanks for reading!

Late Night Tribute

I'm getting a little behind on trade packages, but I hope to remedy that beginning tomorrow. So if you have sent me something rest assured a post will be coming soon. I've also started to send out a few packages with three heading out the door so far this week and bunch more planned on Monday.

Tribute Time

2003 Topps Tribute World Series Edition Team Tribute Stargell/Parker/Madlock Triple Relic /275

This card is almost perfect for a Pirates collector. In the 2000's this combo was used a lot for relics, but the Tribute version is one of my favorites. It just has a cool look. Late 70's Pirate uniforms are awesome! 

On a side note the seller I purchased this from left a comment on my eBay feedback thanking me for the purchase and that he follows my blog. Always cool when someone comes out of the woodwork and says he reads my cardboard ramblings and my dislike for John Lackey. 

Thanks for reading! 

My Least Favorite Players

You can check out my favorite players here....

It was much harder to come up with a list of players I don't like. If you google search most hated MLB players most lists have guys like Arod and Puig.  The steroid stuff and bad clubhouse guys just don't effect me much. I try to keep my love and hate to actual play on the field.

Here is my list of  7 guys.  The numbers don't represent a degree of hate, I just kept adding guys until it got hard to think of somebody.

1. John Lackey - He is the kind of guy that bitches and moans about strike zones and will make note if you spend too much time admiring your homerun. AJ Burnett was like this to a certain extent with the Pirates, but at least he seemed like he had fun every once in a while. Lackey seems to have the proverbial stick up the ass.

2. Brandon Phillips - I'm sure most Pirate fans would have him on the list. By all accounts Phillips is a pretty good dude in the community. He will show up to random community events unannounced and is for the most part is fan friendly. Where things get bad is when he was quoted that his 72 million dollar contract was a slap in the face compared to the deal Joey Votto got. He also ridiculed a reporter for calling out his OBP by calling him a "fat mother Fu*ker. I found both of those events kind of funny.

The event that really sealed the deal for me was when Phillips accused Pirates reliever Jared Hughes of saying a racial slur after hitting him with a pitch. Obviously those are some serious allegations but all the umpires and other players said they heard nothing.  Also their was review of the tape and Hughes was swearing at him, but no racial slurs.

3. Ryan Braun - I don't really care about the steroids, but throwing the tester under the bus and getting off on a technicality was bullshit. Karma caught up with him a few months down the road when he was named in the Biogenesis scandal.

4. Jonathan Papelbon - He just seems like a huge douche. Perhaps the biggest douche in MLB.

5. Brian Mccann - He has actually been pretty quiet as a Yankee, but for the longest time he was president of the MLB no fun police.

6. Adam Wainwright - As a Pirate fan I'm obligated to have one Cardinal on here. Probably the most annoying thing he did was telling the media he let Derek Jeter get a hit off of him during his last All Star game. Way to make the moment about you Adam.

7. Chris Coghlan - In case you forget he is the one who destroyed Jung Ho Kang's leg last September in a slide. Coghlan was just playing the game the way he always played, but as a Pirate fan I'm allowed to be bitter that we lost a key component right before the playoffs.  I'm glad they changed that rule because it was getting old seeing shortstops getting their legs broke. Maybe I should have put Chase Utley.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some good ones, but these were off the top of my head. I know I'm probably one of the few that won't have Arod on the list.  I just don't care about him enough to dislike him.

Feel free to share you own list of love/hate players.

Thanks for reading.

PS...This was supposed to go live last night but I started watching Total Recall. I think that might be my favorite Arnold movie.

2006 All Star Game

The 2006 All Star game was played in Pittsburgh and to this day is still in my top 5 sporting events that I've ever attended.  My brother and I went all out and purchased tickets for the entire weekend. That year the Pirates had two representatives.

At the time Bay was well established and deserved to make the team.  The big surprise was Freddy Sanchez who wasn't even on the ballot. With a strong write in campaign by the Pirates, Sanchez would be voted in as one of the more unlikely players to ever make the team. Sanchez's dream season would continue all the way until the last day of the season season when he secured the NL batting crown.

The above cards feature pieces of warm up jerseys from the All Star game in Pittsburgh. I purchased these in the same lot at the multi-sport cards I featured yesterday. Always fun when you a card triggers a cool memory.

Thanks for reading.

Dirt and Ice

These UD Superstars cards are not that hard to find, but I just never pulled the trigger on them over the years. Well thanks to a big purchase from an eBay seller I now have two.

Obviously the big name is Lemiuex, but I think the triple card is my favorite. I was a huge fan of Kovalev during his Penguin years.  Back during my Freshman year of college my friends and I would participate in the Penguins student rush in order to get cheap tickets. Sometimes you would get lucky and get some nice seats, other times you were stuck with obstructed view.

I haven't seen too many cards like this recently. The stupid licensing stuff screws up all the fun. I need a Cutch, Crosby and Big Ben card!

Thanks for reading!

My Top 10 Favorite Non Pirates

I started to think about this last night as I was watching the Pirates/Braves game on TV.  This is not very scientific other than the fact that I find myself kind of rooting for these guys when they are not playing the Pirates.

1. Giancarlo Stanton - He is off to a little bit of a slow start this year, but any guy that can do this is ok in my book...

2.  Adrian Beltre

3. Bryce Harper -  The guy is a stud and he is only going to get better. Make baseball fun again!

4. Ben Zobrist - I have had a weird obsession with him for a long time. Must have something to do with fantasy baseball and my love for sabermetrics. Plus his wife seems nice... I deducted a few points because he is Cub now. 

5. Max Scherzer - When he is on his A game he is one of the funnest pitchers to watch.  When he is doing his strut around the mound after each strikeout always gets me.  It is awesome. Plus he has crazy eyes. 

6. Hunter Pence - He may be the most unorthodox player in the game today. Plus he has a good time with the fans. 

7. Troy Tulowitzki -  When healthy he was sooooo good. He just couldn't stay healthy.  Even though his days of an elite talent are likely over I still root for the guy.

8. Mike Trout - The best player in the game that probably still doesn't get enough credit for what he has accomplished at such a young age.  I think the only other player that can be mentioned in the same breath as Trout is Kershaw. Harper has just as much skill as Trout, but not quite the consistency yet.

9, Jose Altuve - It took a while, but people are actually seeing how good he actually is.  In years past people couldn't talk about him without mentioning his height.  Check out the WAR leader board so far....

10, Clayton Kershaw - The best pitcher in baseball.  His numbers are so good every year it is like having two aces. 

Maybe I'll do my least favorite players next week.....

Have a good weekend.