A New Status

2008 Donruss Elite Extra Edition /75 Josh Harrison

Josh Harrison is one of those rare everyday players that doesn't have a ton of prospect oriented cards to chase. In today's collecting environment I find that refreshing. 2008 Donruss Elite was pretty much it for Harrison until his breakout 2014 season. I've accumulated several different versions over the years with this /75 being the most recent. 

It started to look like the deal the Pirates gave Harrison might go south, but he has rebounded nicely this season.  If the Buccos become sellers in the coming weeks it wouldn't surprise me if the Pirates look to shop Harrison to get out of a 10.5 million commitment next season.  The contract also has team options for 2019 and 2020 so it would give the acquiring team some flexibility. 

Hope everyone has a fun (almost) holiday weekend. 

Thanks for reading. 

Back to Back to Back

Here is a card that is right in my wheelhouse.  Two guys that haven't received much cardboard love lately in David Freese and Jordy Mercer and obscure rookie Jose Osuna all on the same card! If only John Jaso could have somehow got on the card it would have been perfect!

I'm glad the Pirate NOW pace has slowed down some.  They had a week in which 3 cards were produced which is a little pricey.  Since I'm hopelessly addicted to adding these cards I'm glad they are back to their middle of the road production pace like last year!

Thanks for reading!

Free Agent

Oscar recently ran the Lucky 13 contest on his blog ATBATT.  I had one of the last picks so as an experienced Big Fun Game player I knew whatever I picked was going to stay with me. 

My pick revealed a big lot of NBA cards.  Oscar was worried I wouldn't like the cards I received, but rest assured they were greatly appreciated.  

I'm a big college basketball fan and have been a season ticket holder to WVU ever since I got out of college in 2005. As far as the NBA goes I consider myself a free agent fan.  Until my Alma Mater produces a high end NBA player I just don't have a rooting interest. Like most people in my age bracket I grew up a huge fan of Jordan and Magic and a little later on, Shaq.  I just had trouble latching on to the stars of today's game.  

I enjoy collecting NBA cards, but rarely get to pick up as the guys I collect were NBA busts like Joe Alexander and Devin Ebanks.  Jerry West is the only WVU guy that continues to get new cards. 

With all that being said lets see the winnings! 

Vince Carter was sooooo fun to watch when he came into the league.  Back when Sportscenter was watchable, young Vince Carter pretty much had a permanent spot on top plays during the NBA season. That 2000 season Slam Dunk Contest was so awesome!

The big hit from my winnings was this relic from Carter's Nets days.

I had heard that Seattle was gaining some traction on getting a franchise back.  I need to find my Shawn Kemp jersey I had as a kid.

Round Mound of Rebounds!

Worm cards are so cool!

Oscar also threw in some extra Buccos!

Cervelli had a great first season with the Pirates, but has had trouble staying on the field ever since. He broke a bone in his hand last year and is dealing with concussion issues this year.

The Pops/Altuve card is my favorite with the Cutch coming in a close second.

I'm a sucker for team cards. I think Josh Harrison has been in the center of every Pirate one the last 3 years.

Finishing things off with a nice GQ rookie card of Pirate first baseman Josh Bell.

Thanks for hosting the Lucky 13 Oscar! It was a lot of fun.

Thanks for reading.

Baseball Every Night

A couple weeks back Peter of Baseball Every Night decided to hold a Series 2 break and was nice enough to reserve the Buccos for me.  It was a cool gesture because Peter is also a fan so he could have easily kept those for himself.  I'm guessing he just kept the 1/1 cut auto of Honus Wagner and gave me the rest.  Don't lie to me Peter, I know you have it.

If you look like an actual Pirate you get coveted number 1 picture slot. 

 Love the Sunday throwback uniforms. Gerrit Cole has had a really weird year.  Awesome the first handful of starts, then he pitched like butt for a while....now he is good again.

 It makes me so happy that he is playing well again.

 Peter pulled me a rookie!

 Jung Ho Kang is stuck in Korea because he is a dumb drunk.  At least this is another cool shot of the throwback uniforms.

I'm a big fan of team oriented cards. A couple years back I chased some of the parallels of the Pirates team card.  This year I'm happy with just this one.

Nice to see a Pirate card of Felipe Rivero.  He is well on his way to earning an All Star nod. If you haven't watched him pitch he has been one of the best relievers in baseball.

Adam Frazier is declaring himself number 1. I would agree that a game 7 walkoff is memorable.

Thanks for the break Peter!

Highly Subjective Trading

My good pal Brian always throws in tons of cool extra cards my way when he ships the contents of our box breaks.  Always nice when fellow blogger is looking out for your collection.  This time around Brian hit the Buccos, WVU, Pens and Steelers.

 This was my favorite card of the bunch.  A great looking 52 Bowman of Pirate great Vern Law.

 Another old Bowman card!  This time a 50 Bowman of Cliff Chambers.  Looks like the photo was taken in the middle of the forest.

 54 Topps had some lively colors.  What a great looking card!

 Now these are super cool.  The Pittsburgh Condors were part of the ABA in the late 60's, early 70's. Interesting timing that Brian sent me these cards as I was just in a debate with one of my friends on whether the Pittsburgh area could support an NBA franchise.  He thinks they could, I'm not so sure.  While Pittsburgh is a great sports town both the hockey and baseball teams have had hard times in the past 10 years or so. For it to work I think the franchise would have to get lucky and get a franchise type of player very early on.

 Nyjer Morgan before he went insane and turned into Tony Plush.

 I bet the Mariners kick themselves for taking Jeff Clement with the 3rd overall pick in the 2005 draft. That draft has been one of the deepest in recent history producing a ton of active major leaguers.  Guys like Justin Upton, Ryan Braun, Andrew McCutchen and Troy Tulowitzki were all taken in that draft. Only two of the first 12 picks didn't see significant major league time.

The Pirates got Clement in 2010 when they traded Jack Wilson.  That did not work out well.

 Sage was perhaps a little over zealous with brand placement on their stickers.

 It has been so fun watching Jedd Gyorko play well with the Cardinals.  The one time WVU great has been one of the more consistent players for the Redbirds ever since he was traded from the Padres.

Every old timey vintage football card seems to make the players look 60 years old.

Dennys cards were a big part of my childhood.  I remember always begging my grandparents to stop at one so we could get cards after our meal.  The love for these cards still exist....the love for bad diner food, not so much.

Two guys who may get traded. Love the Gold Label card.

That actually might be a new Bay card for my collection.  That is hard to do these days.

That Honus is super cool!

Recent Mountaineer greats!

Stanley Cup Champs!!!!!  Always happy to receive cards of the Pens captain.

Thanks for all the great cards Brian!

Celebrating Our Heritage (Walk, Papoy, HSCA Collaboration #22)

Brian's choice for our collaboration box break this time around was 2006 Heritage  I was excited for this one as the Pirates had a lot of obscure players in this set. Some big hits were also possible, but we struck out in terms of high end cards.  That was ok though, as plenty cool cards were still had.

 Do you remember Jody Gerut as a Pirate?  He played 4 games!

Humberto Cota served as a backup catcher for the Bucco's in the mid 2000's.  I remember actually seeing one of his career 12 homeruns in person.

This was my favorite card of the bunch.

 Mark Redman had a 10 year career, but played on 8 teams. Another fun fact is that he was once an All Star when he played for the Royals.  I didn't remember that.  Those mid 2000's Royals teams were just as bad as the Pirates.

 Sean Casey is from the Pittsburgh area.  He only played half a season for the Buccos as he was dealt to the Tigers.

 Brad Eldred had Aaron Judge power, but the plate discipline of my toddler.

 Here are three numbered cards that Brian pulled from me. Brian Roberts is probably the most well known of the bunch as he played at an All Star level in the mid 2000's.

Hello, Do you know us? We are a Major League baseball team.

Thanks for the break Brian. While it was tough to watch this team back in 2006 as a collector you grow fond of the obscure and short stay players.  Seeing a Jody Gerut and Sean Casey Pirates card always brings a smile to my face.

The trade portion of this break was amazing.  I'll be showing those in the coming days.

Thanks for reading!

Classic Cole

I got six trade packages out today! I've been struggling lately finding time to get some cards in the mail. The good thing is by sending these cards out it forced me to organize my work space which in turn helped me locate some more cards to send! Hopefully I get get back to my early spring trading habits when I was getting double digit packages out at the same time.

2014 Panini Classics Gerrit Cole 1/1 Patch Auto

Not one of my favorite cards in my Cole collection, but it was a good enough deal to add a premium card.  Panini Classics was set that I actually liked, but mainly for the pre war player checklist.  The Pirates were well represented with the likes of Honus Wagner and the Waner brothers to go along with current Buccos like Cole. 

I was disappointed when Panini cut the cord after one year of Classics.  One of the main issues is that it was priced like a premium set and nobody bit. I ended up opening a few boxes when the prices dropped over 50% last year. It seems like Panini should stick to mid tier sets as they seem to struggle with high $ baseball boxes. Off the top of my head only National Treasures has seemed to work over the years. Not too many people want to spend $100+ on no license and stickers.  

I'm hoping that some of these discount boxes show up again as they made a nice bust for my box break with Brian and Kevin. 

Thanks for reading! 

Bobblechair Greatness

On Twitter today I posted this picture.

This was a giveaway several weeks back on a weekend where I couldn't make it up to Pittsburgh.  I was super bummed.  Well, eBay to the rescue!

In case you don't remember here is the moment the bobblechair captures.

Let's take a close look at the greatest stadium giveaway in the history of mankind.

 I applaud the marketing folks for the Pirates with the taking a unique/funny moment and running with it.  My only complaint is that this doesn't look much like Walk, but beggars can't be choosers.

Thanks for reading.

Owl Trade

Couple nice trade packages have arrived in the last week!

Greg from Night Owl Cards took time away from celebrating Cody Bellinger homeruns to sneak a few Buccos in my mailbox. He apologized for not having any Bob Walk's but he still sent some very nice cards.  I'll let it slide this one time....  I'll go ahead and apologize in advance for not sending any Bellinger autos your way. The way he is going if I ever have one of those I'll send my kid to Harvard when I sell it.

 A nice shiny Opening Day Glasnow rookie to start things off.  I haven't opened any OD in a few years because I just got tired of it. With that being said I cherry picked a Josh Bell rookie online a while back and this Glasnow goes well with that pickup since they are the two big Bucco rookies.

Glasnow was recently just sent down. The guy just can't seem to master any resemblance of command of the strike zone. Hopefully he can figure things out because the Pirates really need him to be a front line starter.

 Shiny Heritage! This is a refractor /999 that features a very happy Cutch. Thank the good lord he is playing like his old self the last month.  Watching Cutch struggle for the better part of a whole season made me a sad Pirates fan.

 I'm very familiar with Bob Robertson as he lives in Lavale Maryland which is only about an hour from Morgantown. He would sign at a lot of local events back when I was in high school and college.

 While I like a good celebration card this Ralph Kiner is the winner of the Bunt bunch.

The Pirates predictably have had a hard time feeling Starling Marte's shoes while he serves his suspension. The use of fringe rookies and infielders playing out of position has cost the Pirates several games already. The weird thing is the Central has been a dumpster fire and the Pirates are only 4 games out.  Marte is due back in a month so if they can keep their heads above water until the All Star break maybe they will have an outside chance.  I'm not holding my breath...

I hope the Pirates hold off on trading Cole this year....


Thanks for the surprise mail day Greg!

Beers Beets Battlestar Galactica

My wife and daughter surprised me with tickets to the home opener of the Black Bears season. The weather didn't cooperate, but after a lengthy rain delay the good guys won the game. Big bonus of the evening was that the starting pitcher was Pirates top pitching prospect Mitch Keller who was on a minor league rehab assignment. He pitched two dominating innings as he was on a strict pitch count.

Here are a few pictures from the game.

Black Bears card time

Will Craig 2017 Topps Pro Debut Red Auto /10

This was the big one I was looking for! Only one other version of this card had been on eBay at the time I purchased this copy and it had a ridiculous BIN.  This seller put on a good price and I immediately pulled the trigger only a few hours after it was listed.

All that remains is the /99 and /25 base parallels and I consider my quest complete.  I've yet to see any of the plates or the true 1/1's hit eBay but those would just be icing on the cake.

Thanks for reading!