Julie Sends the Old and the New

I actually had this post ready yesterday, but my brother and I opened a few too many heavy stouts while watching the WVU game.  Friends don't let friends blog while inebriated. Glad WVU pulled out the win! 

Julie is a frequent trade partner who always seems to find something unique for me.  The first thing I saw when opening the envelope had me super pumped. 

The Senior Professional League! I've seen these several times over the years on the blogs and always wanted some for myself.  Thanks to Julie she hit me up with a ton of former Buccos.  A lot of the late 70's Pirates played in this league. 

Part of me loves this idea, but its not hard to see why the league folded after just 2 seasons. The novelty of seeing some of your old favorites wears off after a few games.  At least it was immortalized through cardboard! 

 Rennie Stennett still looks like he could play today.

 I kind of want an Orlando Juice uniform!

 I bet Oliver could still hit the hell out of the ball.

 My favorite of the bunch!

 Pagan is probably best know for knocking in Stargell in game 7 of the 71 World Series that proved to be the series winning run.

 Ted works out!

 How about a 49 Bowman of Bob Chesnes!

Julie also decided to drop the Heritage Pirates on me which is greatly appreciated. I liked this years set, but it seems like the Pirate checklists are going to be really small in the Topps releases this year. Doesn't really warrant going to pick up a box.

 Nice to see a Cervelli card.  Hopefully he can stay healthy this year.

 Pumped to see a few more Felipe Rivero cards.  Flies under the radar, but he quickly turned into one of the more dominating relievers out there.  Looks like the Pirates made out like bandits in the Mark Melancon trade.

Also included is two SP's! David Freese doesn't have a ton of Pirate cards out there so this is a nice get. Thanks Julie!

As usual you hit a homerun Julie.  Thanks for thinking of me. I'll continue to scope out some unique cards for your collection.

Thanks for reading!

The Alphie and Wink Show

When I was a kid I would get overly excited about cards  Adding Score Dream Team cards or a Pirates Denny's card was cause for celebration.  Bragging, Showing off and fighting with my brother were all common reactions throughout my youth.

As an adult I've become much more subdued.  I still get plenty of enjoyment out of cards, but I'm not one of these guys that have insane reactions over getting a "sick hit" that causes them to lose their mind. I still get tunnel vision when I see a card I want , but my excitement is more of a sense of accomplishment that manifests itself into a blog post.

One reaction that I rarely have with cards is laughter.  Julie to the rescue. 

 I mean come on....This is perfection.  Alphie Perdue!!!!!  I love the black and white look too.  Makes it look like it is a card from the early 1900's.  Doesn't old Alphie look like the love child of John Candelaria.

 It is the minor leagues so you better be good at multitasking. Alphie was the Bat Boy and Clubhouse Boy!

Holy crap that is a great card.  Maybe I should rename my blog after Alphie Perdue for a month to fully celebrate this.

Some more comedy to come....but here are a few "regular cards."

 Nothing too special about the Honus cards design wise, but I love the checklists.  Topps only focuses on Gerrit Cole (tear), Marte and Polanco.  I crave variety!

 Not everyday I get a 54 in a trade.  Pretty nice condition too!

 I shit you not this guys name is Wink Cole.  Thank you Carolina League.  I bet Randy Brandt has used the phrase "mustache ride."

Troy Polamalu is a favorite of mine.  Talk about an exciting guy to watch.  His cards are actually pretty expensive so getting them in trades is a nice bonus!

 Parallel and base rookies from Gold Label.

 Tekulve cards are so cool it really doesn't matter what team he is on.

 Ugh, Cutch (tear).

Julie has long been my main source of high end base. Over the last couple of years she has loaded me up with Buccos from sets I would never open like Triple Threads, Five Star etc.  High end base is underrated trade bait!

Thanks for giving me laugh with old Alphie and Wink (sounds like a bad radio morning show). I'll hit you back soon Julie.

Thanks for reading!

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.

Direct Orders

Hey, its an actual post about cards. I feel like in the summer this blog turns into a travel/beer blog, but I guess it helps keep things fresh. Hard to drum up a lot of excitement for a new Jason Bay addition. Guess it proves I'm an actual person that doesn't sit at home thumbing through junk wax cards 8 hours a day. By the way that is not a bad thing, I just like to get out of the house. If my wife would let me I would happily thumb through junk wax 18 hours a day!

A couple weeks back Julie from A Cracked Bat sent me a huge box of cards with specific instructions on the pattern to open.  The first team bag labeled #1 was the jumbo Extra Bases cards I showcased last week.  The rest of the cards are in order of how they appeared in team bags labeled #2-7.  Tons of cool stuff here. 

When I was actively collecting Steelers my two favorite players to collect were Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu.  Always cool to receive cards of one of the better defensive players in team history which is saying something considering the teams history.

I liked watching Wallace as a Steeler because he seemed to only run go routes.  He was pretty much the "down and B" play on Tecmo Bowl.

The Platinum Roethlisberger is one of the more shiny cards I've seen. 

One of the team bags was stuffed to the gills with Topps Mini cards.

Love this card!

It seems like I talk about Topps Total a lot on my blog.  I still think the set would have a place as a retail only option.  That way Topps wouldn't have to worry about the case busters not getting an Aaron Judge auto.

Julie just throws around cards worth $5000 like a boss.

Not exactly murderers row, but I do like this card. The sun looks to be in Aramis Ramirez's eyes.

I know Pirate fans get sick of their stomach when they think of the Jose Bautista trade.  While it was completely unnecessary who knows if he would have actually broken out.  Hindsight is 20/20 I guess.

License or not, DK will always be a favorite of mine.

Triple Play was a staple of my childhood.

Jim Leyland smoking in the dugout was also a staple of my childhood.  I'm such a sucker for manager cards.

Vintage stock featuring Cutch and real life Pirate John Jaso.

Optic cards are more attractive than the normal Donruss base so that is saying something.

Young Cutch!

Kind of hard to see but this is numbered out of /10.  Holdzkom kind of pulled the Natural with the Bucs as he came out of nowhere to help us make a big playoff push and then disappeared.

This is a super cool Little Poison bat card! Panini has created a ton of cool new cards of the Waner brothers recently.  Love that they focus on a lot of  pre war players.

Former Black Bear Will Craig! He has had a much better season this year so I'm hoping he may get a late move to AA this year.

This card says Adam LaRoche, but that is most definitely his brother Andy.

I joked at the beginning of this post about always showing Jason Bay cards....

This is a super cool patch featuring the rare red jersey worn by the Pirates in the mid 2000's.

Some high end base of Cutch!

Pretty much a perfect card.

I'm a fan of the crazy looking Inception base cards.

Andrew Lambo kind of pulled the Henry Owens by being in every set for a while without really deserving to be. Man, I wish Finest was just a little cheaper. I really love that set.

It looks like Nick Kingham was practicing writing his name in Japanese.

Steve Blass cereal card!

Thanks for all the great cards Julie.  These were a blast to sort through.

Thanks for reading!