Night Owl Sends a Brave...

.... Only the greatest Brave card ever produced.  I will hear no other arguments.  The hair and the stache were only in their infancy, but the greatness to come is obvious.

This was the first noticeable card in the package sent to me by long time trade partner Night Owl. It definitely got my attention. One of the few times a Brave card can jump ahead of a Bucco.

Also, a quick plug.  Go read Greg's countdown of the top 70's cards.  Look forward to seeing all Pirates in the top ten.

 I believe this was the card that probably started the package.  Greg opened some Chrome and was nice enough to hold the Bell for me. Bell quietly has had a nice rookie season.

 This card became 10 times more awesome when someone took it upon themselves to showcase Alley's positional flexibility.

 Throwback uniform for the win!

 Gold parallel of former Pirate reliever Jared Hughes.  Nice to see a fringe middle reliever get a little cardboard love.

Three great ones here. Love the Solomon the most although it looks like Don Robinson's picture was taken in my Grandmothers backyard. 

 I'm always a little disappointed when a Stadium Club card features a normal pose like the Polanco.  It is still a nice card, but I expect more from the best base set.  The Marte is awesome.

 Minis! I was at the game Cutch hit two dingers including his first Grand Slam the other night.

Round things out with a nice assortment of early/mid 90's Buccos. The Alex Cole expansion draft card is my favorite of the bunch.

Thanks for the cards Greg.  I'm way past due to hit you back.  Rest assured, I will!

Thanks for reading!

NOW Trolls the Dodgers

The beauty about baseball is that even when your chosen team is bad for most of the year, memorable moments still have a way of popping up during the season.  Such was the case August 23rd for the Pirates/Dodgers game.

Rich Hill was straight dealing the entire game. The Pirates could not touch him. The only tense moment was a liner to second base that was robbed by Chase Utley.  Hill would lose his perfect game in the 9th on a Logan Forsythe error but the no no bid was still alive.

To tell you the truth I was kind of rooting for the perfect game. It had been several years since one had been thrown so I'm all for witnessing a cool moment.  The big problem was the Dodgers offense could not muster a run either. After the error I went back to rooting for the Buccos to break up the no no.......extra innings!

When the Dodgers were blanked in the 10th Dave Roberts decided to bring Hill back out.  His pitch count was low, but it was an odd decision since Hill could only lose the game at that point. Obviously if you looked at the card above you know that Josh Harrison would ruin Hill's  no hitter, shutout and win all on one swing.

Yeah, I know the Dodgers are going to the playoffs and the Pirates are limping into the offseason, but for this one day the Pirates got their unique moment of the year. 

Thanks for reading!

The Choices That Define a Franchise

A common talking point with some of my baseball fan friends is the draft.  We always enjoy playing the "what if" game. Some years are easy with the likes of the the Trout's and Pujols, but every team passed on them. The years that hurt are the ones where you miss on your first round pick and one of the picks close to there turn into complete studs.  

In 2008 the Pirates had the second overall pick. They had been linked to Pedro Alvarez for quite some time leading up to the actual pick so it wasn't a big surprise when they took him. While some scouts were skeptical of his swing, the pick was by no means considered a reach.  

The Royals would go on to take Eric Hosmer with the third pick which in hindsight would have been pretty nice.  The big one was the 5th overall pick by the Giants when they took Buster Posey.  Oh how I would love the Pirates to have Posey. 

Pedro wasn't without some nice moments, but his career got derailed when he started to get the yips at third base.  At peak he could put up a 3 WAR season, but once the defense went he became replacement level.  

Still to this day I will try and search for some new Pedro cards. He only signed a few times during his Pirate tenure so with no autos to chase it was pretty much base and some patch cards.  Last week I finally snagged a center piece type of card for under $10

 2016 Museum Collection Quad Patch /5

Pretty fancy!!! 

2015 Panini Elite Pedro Alvarez Auto

This is pretty much it for him with autos. A pretty nondescript ugly card that I paid $2 for.  I think he may have signed a few things once he became an Oriole, but I'll stick to this lone auto. 

Do you ever play the what if game in regards to the draft?

Thanks for reading. 

Super Sized

Vintage master Mark Hoyle recently came into a whole bunch of Topps Super and Topps Foldouts. He has been busy spreading the non Red Sox all over the blogging community.  I was fortunate enough to be the recipient of the Buccos and will provide an assist getting the Blue Jays to The Card Papoy.  Thanks for thinking of me Mark!!!!!

Pretty cool, right? Even in the later years of his career Pops still had some great cardboard.  

Cobra is pondering life or just reminiscing gunning guys out who dared run on him.

Foldout time....

I totally need to get a throwback warmup jacket.  I would rock that bad boy all time time.

Obviously the gem of the bunch is cardboard God Kent Tekulve.   While he is not in his signature submarine pitching motion the man can do no wrong.  This card could just be a picture of him shopping for groceries or pumping gas and it would still be awesome.  Some players just have the gift and Tekulve is one of them.

The Foldouts are two sided and check out one of the "other guys."

Scoop! While the Pirate uniform is always preferred, being featured as an Expos is a close second.

Thanks for the cards Mark.  I'll be sure to get Kevin his portion of the package. If you don't follow Mark on Twitter please take the time to do so now.  He is always posting pieces from his awesome collection.  Click here.

Thanks for reading!

Hook Line and Sinker

For better or worse I've committed myself to everything Pirate related to the Topps NOW program. As a Pirate collector I've been pretty happy over the course of the two years.  The Pirates have been middle of the road in terms cards produced so the investment has been minimal.  In terms of the actual cards themselves their have been ups and downs, but the overall body of work has still been positive.  My biggest complaints have been some boring photos and the fact they've gotten a little walkoff happy.

Last month the NOW program went all in on the Players Weekend.  They produced a set for every team featuring five players chosen nickname.  It was a guaranteed purchase for me.

 I was kind of hoping to see a Felipe "Nightmare" Rivero, but overall it was a nice selection of players. The Bell makes for a unique rookie card so that was pretty cool.  Cards like these is what I like about the NOW program. 

Thanks for reading!

Round 2

Last night I featured a crazy nice triple auto that Kevin sent directly to me via an eBay auction win.  Today I want to showoff the rest of the cards sent to me from the #1 ranked French citizen.  Seriously, Google it if you must.  Kevin is the worlds greatest Frenchman. 

Let's start off with some Ginter relics

 I love that Topps got their hands on some of the alternate Pirates jersey.  The bright yellow is likely from the throwback 1979 jerseys they wear on Sundays.  Definitely makes a single color relic pop more.

 Cool combo of players here.

 Tony Plush

 I always talk about cataloging my Jason Bay collection.....Probably a close second would be Giles.  I have a pretty extensive collection of Giles. He has so many unique cards being that he played for the Bucs in the late 90s, early 2000's

 This was a pleasant surprise for sure.  Kevin has been sneaking some Steelers an WVU guys lately.  This booklet card features a nice auto and a huge jersey swatch.  It also has kind of a shadowbox feel to it.

 Hard to find nice on card autos than Tribute. 

 I'm always pumped to receive Bell cards.  He has really jumped in price the last couple of months. 

 Mini!

 Some parallels of current Buccos. The top left Bell is /150.  Beautiful card!

 WVU's most famous sports alum. What a cool looking insert.

 A cool Burnett parallel.  Wish Opening Day still numbered these.

Thanks so much Kevin for this awesome package.  So many great cards.  You really know my collection.

Thanks for reading!

Triple Threat

I've been away from home most of the weekend, but I wanted to showoff this bad boy. It is one of the nicest cards I've added in a long time. 

2016 Triple Threads Marte/Polanco/Harrison Auto /27

You don't often see triple autos that feature three every day players, but such is the case with this awesome Triple Threads card sent to me by my good pal Kevin of Card Papoy fame. He had told me to expect a high end direct delivery from eBay, but you don't really prepare for an awesome triple auto. 

I have a bunch of cards from Kevin to showoff soon, but obviously you can see why this one needs a post all to its self.  Wow Kevin!!!!!!!!

So Much Variety

I'm in the midst of quite the mail week.  It is a cool feeling when people just send you cards out of the blue. My scanner is working overtime this week which is a beautiful thing.  

A couple weeks back Julie hit me up on Twitter to ask me if I would like this card.....

Yes Please!!!!! This jersey from Ginter even has a nice stripe.  Nice change of pace from this set as many of the relics are very boring.  

Of course Julie didn't stop at just the Ginter relic. 

I'm a sucker for any portrait/canvas cards out there.  Topps Gallery has long been a favorite of mine.  It kind of looks like a little league field in the background.

I had to actually go look this set up to jog my memory.  2003 Fleer Splendid Splinters is one of about 9 billion short lived sets in this era.  Love receiving cards like this.

Upper Deck channeling its inner Studio.

Bazooka was kind of fun for a short period of time.  I think UD Collectors Choice or Topps Total will be forever my favorite budget sets, but Bazooka provided a nice change of pace.

Julie really hit me with a bunch of short lived sets.  Here is cardboard God Jason Kendall.

A very young Aramis Ramirez.  Private Stock would have been so much better if they didn't distort the backgrounds.

Some current Buccos.......for now.

Julie sent what I think was the full team set of Chrome.  The Marte and Cole were my favorites this year. Throwback Bucco uniforms always make good cardboard.

I haven't done a whole lot with the Bowman sets the last couple of years.  Nice to receive some Platinum in trade.

COBRA!

Love the Jackie Robinson day card.

One of these years I need to catalog my Bay collection.

A little vintage...Carl Taylor looks like he is about to throw up.

I think this Neil Walker might be my favorite of the whole bunch.  The team name on this card is way too big but it is such a great shot.

Thanks for thinking of me when you pulled the Cutch Julie.  I'm working on a return shot soon.

Thanks for reading.