The F Word

I went to the second half of the doubleheader on Tuesday against the Cubs with one of my bosses. Our original plan was to see about half the first game, but work obligations kept us in Morgantown too long. Either way it was a perfect day for a game.

I was able to get really nice tickets for the game so the pictures are a better than usual. My favorite part of the evening was watching David Ross. Ross doesn't play too much for the Cubs. He is to the point where he catches Jon Lester and is a defensive replacement. Boy does he love dropping the F bomb. At one point in the game he was trying to get to third base on a sac bunt attempt by Lester. It was a close play but he beat the throw to third. He would score soon after and upon returning to the dugout he screamed to his teammates "how bout that fucking slide bitches." It was hilarious and he had his teammates cracking up. A few parents in the front rows were not pleased, but they are idiots for not expecting that stuff from a major league dugout. Personally I thought it was a nice fucking slide too.....

Nice picture of Cutch at the plate.

 I didn't realize I took some hipster black and white shot. Maybe I should do weddings.

 I was digging the Kang-Ho shirt. Little did I know that Kang's season would end with a devastating leg injury thanks to Chris Coghlan two days later. I'm not that mad at Coghlan as baseball allows the runners to do that for some odd reason. Just upset that the Pirates have lost arguably their second best hitter this year for the playoff run. I'm glad the Pirates didn't start some kind of bean ball war. Unwritten baseball rules are stupid.

 Nice view of the outfield. Like I said above, it was a perfect night.

 Javier Baez and Addison Russel coming out of the dugout.

Jon Lester on deck.

The Pirates would lose the game, but it was a great night. I was hoping the Pirates could get into the weak Cubs bullpen, but Lester was very efficient. It pays to have big time starting pitching and the Cubs have two really good ones on top of their rotation.

Thanks for reading!

Trade: HSCA Delivers Some Wow

This post was meant for yesterday, but the Pirates/Cubs extra inning game got the best of me. Oh Boy, Brian of HSCA fame sure outdid himself on this one. The bubble mailer had only 6 cards, but they packed a punch. Our blind trading has forgone quantity and went straight to the big guns.

A high end Cutch to start things off. I've done pretty well adding cards from NT the last year, but strike out when it comes to Cutch. Very thankful to receive his cards via trade.

I hear this Clemente guy was good. Here I am thinking that Cutch can't be topped and this card pops out. A 69 Topps Deckle is a nice trade piece for sure!

 Now the big guns are out. The photographer of this card probably had to shoe off thousands of women waiting to meet the legend. Little does he know the greatness that is in store for him.

One of my prized Cutch autos is the eTopps variation that are almost impossible to find. With that being said I did not own the base which is /999. These rarely pop up anymore and seem to be having a little resurgence on the secondary market. 

Old school sticker!

I smiled pretty big when I saw this card. This  is one of my white whales and has been one of the more illusive cards for me to secure. Over the years I've lost a handful of auctions for this card. Thanks to Brian I can retire this from the list. 

Thanks so much for the great cards Brian. I have a blast swapping back and forth with you. I'll continue my hunt for unique Twins! 

Thanks for reading. 

Remember the Alamo

I'm a notoriously bad photographer. I've been fortunate enough in my life to visit some unique places, but if not for my wife they would be just memories . Thankfully when I travel by myself she will send texts to remind me to document the trip. My recent trip to San Antonio is a little light on pictures because I had been there before and my free time was limited.

Here are the few that I have.

The funny thing about the River Walk is that their is no shortage of food choices, but well reviewed restaurants are hard to find. So after asking around and searching on Yelp and Trip Advisor, a consensus favorite was a place called Bella on the River. It was great! This was the view from that dinner.

Seafood paella was the main attraction at this place and it didn't disappoint. 

Nothing says San Antonio more than a drink with Jameson in it! I'm more of an IPA guy, but I felt something stronger was needed after long airport delays. This drink was called the Bloody Irish and had muddled jalapeno in it. Normally chain hotel bars are the worst, but this bar had a little bit of everything.

Sometimes the good restaurants are the ones that can take something so basic like chips and salsa and make them unique. These were awesome! I didn't like the white sauce, but the verde was fantastic.

The Alamo! I did a quick lap my last day just to snag a couple pictures. Some crazy guy was preaching that we were all going to hell and that we don't love God enough so I kept it quick.

Kind of cool shot with the Texas flag.

My biggest regret on the trip is not making time to visit a big card shop that is in the San Antonio area. I would have had to take a cab, but from the website this place would have been worth it. Terrible weather and work issues kept me past the stores closing time.

I'm heading to the Pirates/Cubs game tonight. Today is actually a doubleheader. A few weeks back I went to the game that got rained out so my tickets were good for the 1:35 start, but I exchanged them for the 7pm. This is a big series that will go a long way to determine who the home field team will be for the wild card and whether the Pirates or Cubs will make a final push for the division. Man, it would be nice to win the division. Wild Card games are nerve racking.

Thanks for reading!

Adventures in ebay Packaging

Right before I left town last week I was opening some cards I had got in the mail to sort and scan. One of these cards was my newest addition to the Andrew McCutchen collection. I purposely left out discussing the packaging of this card because I thought it was good enough to warrant its own post. Check this out....

So the actual card was sandwiched between a thick piece of cardboard and an empty top loader. The card itself was also in a top loader. Oh the tape......so much freaking tape. 

 I mean seriously....I think the seller wrapped tape around about two thousand times.

 Poor Cutch is suffocating from all the tape......

This is a great case of over protection. I left the seller positive feedback because the card arrived in great shape, but his methods seem to be without much thought. For one that looked to be a rather cumbersome process to ship one card. Also, the biggest risk to the card was unpacking. That should never be the case. 

I probably should tell the guy a simple top loader and team bag would suffice. If he wants to go the extra mile some blue painters tape would be great for the extra security. This card could have probably survived a bucket of water, but it was 50/50 that the scissors or razor blade could have clipped the card. Tape residue could have been an issue as well. 

When its all said in done I would much rather have a card packed like this than some crappy scotch tape on top of the case and a top loader that is too big. It just made me laugh when I took it out of the bubble mailer. 

Thanks for reading!

Optical Illusion

2009 Ballpark Collection Jason Bay Laundry Tag /5

Sometimes I can suffer from eBay tunnel vision. I get fixated on a card and do whatever I can to win it. So was the case for this Bay laundry tag card.....

I really liked this card except for the fact that it says Boston Red Sox in huge font right in front. When I initially put the bid on the card my eyes saw a nice low numbered Bay card that I didn't have. I placed my bid and moved on. When I got a notification that I won the card I was happy, but noticed my error right away. 

Normally I stay away from non Pirate issue cards after a guy moves on. This is more for monetary reasons than bitterness as I have better ways to allocate my money. 

Either way I'm still happy to own this card as it is getting harder and harder for me to add Bay cards to my collection. I think I still count it as a Pirate.....

College Football Mini Rant

Been a whirlwind (but fun) 24 hours for me. I got home around 1am this morning from San Antonio. The bad thing was I pumped myself full of caffeine to make the drive home from the airport that I had trouble winding down. After a nice early wake up call from my daughter I prepared for the WVU football game at 3pm against Liberty. After the WVU game I went immediately home so I could watch the Pirates/Brewers on TV. Since the Cardinals have decided to go on their worst stretch of the year it has allowed the Pirates and Cubs to make a run at the division. A fun day for sure that was only made better by a WVU and Buccos win.

Minor rant....

I find myself getting more and more tired of the in game experience at college football games. There is nothing worse than having some drunk idiot screaming his lungs out about play calling and screaming "Tackle" at the top of his lungs on every defensive play. The crazy thing about it is this game was never really in question and our quarterback only threw a handful of incomplete passes. My favorite moment was at the end of the game when we were running the ball to eat clock and "drunk coach" wanted us to throw the ball. We ended up running again and scored a touchdown. He almost acted dejected that we scored. No reasoning with drunk idiots.

2009 Exquisite Collection Pat White Quad Patch /35

Last week I had another drunk idiot behind me who couldn't let go of the fact that Pat White is no longer our quarterback. WVU is running a good bit of read option this year with our new quarterback to a decent amount of success so far. Obviously drunk idiot wasn't impressed as he would say "Pat White could do it better" after every run. Ugh.... 

What better way to introduce my newest Pat White card! This card is very colorful. One thing about the Dolphins is that their jerseys can make some sweet relics. I don't quite recall the price of this card, but I think it was around $10-15. White was a bust in the NFL, but his cards still sell well on the secondary market because of his college success. 

Thanks for reading. I'm sure Pat White could have wrote a better post......

Trade: The Card Papoy

Since Kevin and I had a significant gap in between our box breaks he decided to hook me up with some Pirates he had accumulated.  Kevin always finds great stuff for my collection and this latest package was no different. It was almost all hits! 

Cue tons of pictures....

A motto to live by brought to you by the Biebs.

Immaculate has featured a ton of Pirates the last couple of years.  Pimentel was part of the Melancon/Hanrahan trade a few years back. While his numbers weren't terrible he was dfa'd during spring training as the Pirates bullpen was deep.

I remember seeing a meme with Gorzelanny and Sloth side by side. The internet is mean.

Gerrit Cole is getting a little extra rest before the end of the season. Right now it is looking like we are on a collision course with the Cubs in the wildcard. 

Frame relics always look nice.

I don't have many parallels from Archives so getting these from Kevin was very appreciated. The Kiner is numbered to 199 and Marte to 50.

Freddy was always one of my favorites. The standing ovation he received in the 2006 All Star game was one of my favorite sports moments. You could tell he was overwhelmed. 

Kendall is still in baseball helping out the Royals instructing catchers. It was cool to see him in the Fan Favorites set this year. Have to wonder how good his career would have been had he not destroyed his ankle.

Some black parallels of Cervelli and Hart. Cervelli has been great this year while Hart has been hurt all season. Have to think that Hart's career might be over.

Nice on card Heritage auto of Brian Giles. Even if he was an asshole he was awesome for the Buccos. 

More Cole goodness!

I wonder if the Pirates gave Rick Rhoden a world series ring since he pitched in 1 game in 1979.

I like the Ovation autos. Kevin and I opened a box of this stuff and we both enjoyed it.

Stadium Club Cutch always steals the show!

The Pirates uniforms are one of the easiest to get around the license issue. Marte signs a good bit, but his cards still demand a good bit on the secondary market. When I saw this in the bundle I was pretty pumped. A great addition to my Marte collection!

Kevin knows how to finish off a trade strong with the legend himself. While clean shaven Walk might not strike as much fear as the full mustache version, he still has the mullet.

As always Kevin you outdid yourself.

Thanks for reading.