Father's Day

Been a whirlwind weekend here at BWTP headquarters.  My wife and I had a little party for some friends and coworkers Friday. Yesterday I spent the whole day in Pittsburgh seeing the Little Mermaid with my daughter and then meeting a friend to watch the Buccos game.  The Pirates decided not to blow this game and pulled out a close win!

Here area few pics from when I was walking across the Clemente bridge.

 Pretty good seats down the third base line.

 Nice picture of a guy taking a picture.

Celebrating the win!

Today was a nice day filled with way too much food in celebration of Father's Day.  Tomorrow I will be heading out to opening day of the Black Bears as my Father's Day gift from my wife and daughter. Word on the street is that the Black Bears may be starting top pitching prospect Mitch Keller who is on a rehab assignment.  This is kind of a theme as the Black Bears two years ago started Tyler Glasnow in a similar situation.

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there.

Thanks for reading.

"The Whole World is Three Drinks Behind"

2002 Topps American Pie Suit Handkerchief Relic

Growing up I would watch a lot of old movies with my Mom. For the longest time I didn't think she had ever seen a movie that was made past 1965.  I remember watching cheesy movies like Bedtime for Bonzo starring Ronald Reagan and classics like the Maltese Falcon starring Humphrey Bogart.

I think those early experiences led me to this card. 

The Topps American Pie set was quite the unique set.  You could get a piece of the Berlin Wall, a swatch of George Burns coat or this awesome suit handkerchief of Bogey. I remember seeing a friend pull this card not long after this set came out and I knew I had to have it.  Hard to believe that was almost 15 years back. 

The actor relics don't pop up a ton on eBay as I think a lot of people tried to complete the set. Overall prices are not super expensive as this Bogart was odd wise the hardest to pull.  This card sold recently for around $30.  A couple other relic subsets featured the likes of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe and usually sell in the $75 to $100 range. 

I don't have a ton of non sports memorabilia, but this is one I'm really happy to own. 

Thanks for reading. 

Pride of Pierce

1951 Topps Red Back Andy Seminick

I consider myself to have a good memory when it comes to my cards and how I obtained them. 1990's and early 2000's consisted of K'mart boxes and cards shows/shops. Anything after has been eBay and blog trading. Every so often a card pops up that stumps me. Such was the case of this Andy Seminick card.

While I have no idea where I got this card it does have a fun connection to the area. Andy Seminick was born in West Virginia. He is from a small unincorporated town called Pierce which is tucked away in the mountains. 

As is tradition I ended up spending way too much time researching Seminick.  Here is a couple cool things of note.  

- He hit two homeruns in the same inning 

- Broke his ankle late in the season, but played on it until the Phillies lost to the Yankees in the World Series

- He was traded for Smokey Burgess twice. (Burgess was a former Pirate, so now this is officially a Pirate post)

- He was a long time coach in the minors. Some notable guys he coached were Mike Schmidt and Ferguson Jenkins. 

So whomever gave me this Seminick card thank you.  You are forever immortalized on a baseball card blog. 

Thanks for reading! 

Afternoon Beer

The Pirates are off today and I've been too busy to catch up on some scanning.  Let's have some beer. 

I did not have any Sam Jackson.....

These beers were consumed over the last two/three months mainly with my beer tasting group. 

Stone Xocoveza is a milk stout brewed with coffee and spices and has been one of my favorite winter releases since they started distributing a few years back.  The "Extra Anejo" version is taking the base beer and aging it in Bordeaux and tequilla barrels.  This was a pretty wild beer with lots of flavors coming at you from different directions.  The tequilla taste is noticeable, but it is mellowed by the sweetness.  Overall I liked the beer, but found the base beer to be a little more enjoyable.  

 This wasn't a Troegs beer, I just happened to use my Troegs glass.

The beer in the glass is actually General Braddock's ipa from Brew Gentlemen Brewery out of Braddock PA. My brother was nice enough to bring me back some growlers to share with some of my friends tomorrow, but gave a little taste out of a growler he opened when he got home. It was easily one of the best ipa's I have ever had.  As you can see the beer is super hazy and had a subtle tropical flavor.

 Courtesy of my pal Rob in New Jersey.  Stouts are always my preferred style and this was a very good example of how good a non imperial stout can taste. Carton Brewing makes damn good beer.

 Another beer courtesy of my pal Rob that blew me away.  If you are a beer nerd Hill Farmstead is one of the more desirable breweries in the US. Earl was a coffee oatmeal stout that overwhelmed all of us with flavor without being a huge alcohol bomb.

Magnify is another hyped brewery out of New Jersey.  Big thanks to my pal Keith who shared these with me. My favorite of the bunch was the Double Dry Hopped Rock Me Dr. Saic.

 Fellow blogger and beer lover Oscar (All Trade Bait All the Time) hooked me up with another huge can from his local brewery called Progress Brewing.  The beer was a double ipa called Ernesto that came in at a hefty 9.3%.  Oscar told me that it hid the alcohol well, and boy was he right.  The damn thing drank like a session ipa.  DANGEROUS.

This was a picture I shared when I went to the Pens playoff game last month.  Fat Heads brewery has long been a personal favorite that I get to partake in quite a bit since they have a satellite bar in Pittsburgh.  The beer pictured is a hefeweizen called Goggle Fogger.  Very refreshing.

 Surly is a well known Twin Cities brewery that was sent to be by fellow blogger GCRL.  Bender was a perfect example of a brown ale. Very sweet and malty.

 Last but not least is a small sampling of beers sent to me by Peter from Baseball Every Night. Peter lives in the Boston area which is in close proximity to so many great breweries.  One such brewery is Trillium.  Peter has sent me quite a few of these bad boys and I've loved every single one.  They are known for super hazy/juice bomb ipas.  They are soooooooooo good.

If you ever are interested in trading beer drop me a line.

Cheers!

Adversity

In a Pirates season filled with PED's, visa issues and injuries it was nice to see a positive story about Jameson Taillon. 5 weeks back Jameson Taillon went on the DL as what was described as groin discomfort.  After a few tests it was determined that the discomfort was likely testicular cancer.  Surgery would later confirm the initial diagnosis.

Fast forward to yesterday and Taillon was already back on big league mound. He would pitch 5 shutout innings. That is a quick turnaround! Taillon is an easy guy to root for because he has already had to overcome Tommy John, a sports hernia and a wicked line drive to the head. Let's hope all the bad stuff is in the rear view mirror and he can just focus on baseball.

2017 Topps Tribute James Taillon Auto /99

This is actually my second most recent addition to my collection as Topps NOW released a card commemorating Taillon's return today.  

Topps Tribute is always a nice set to pick up on card autos. I was able to grab this one for the bargain price of around $5. 

Thanks for reading.  

This Trade Had the Kitchen Sink Too

Buckle in folks this is going to be wild ride.  My pal Dennis went overboard with his most recent installment of our ongoing blind trade.  This trade has long ago taken a life of its own, but Dennis takes it to another level. 

Fan Favorites is one of my all time favorite auto subsets, but it has been a little rocky with checklists in recent memory.  Vern obviously is a great choice, Skip Bayless not so much. 

Just a Ralph Kiner printing plate!!!!!!!

Getting all parts of Gorzelanny would be quite a feat.

This Kiner cut auto is enough to be a centerpiece in any big trade, but Dennis saved the big one for last. I'm already spilled the beans on the main even, but I'll show it again at the bottom of the post.

What makes our trades fun is that Dennis hits all aspects of my collection. The Jerry West cards are extremely nice and a welcome addition. I don't buy much basketball so anytime I can accumulate via trade it is a good day.

Two really cool Hostetler's. He still lives in Morgantown.

It took a while for Marc Bulger to get his chance in the NFL, but when he did he took advantage and picked up right where Kurt Warner left off.

Lots of new to me Mountaineers. The Triple Threads Bulger is my favorite.

When I was actively adding Steelers to my collection, the Bus was one of my favorites to collect.

Stanley Cup Champions!!!! Nice SP of proud mullet owner Jaromir Jagr.  Fleury likely played his last game with the Pens as rumor has it the new Las Vegas franchise is interested in the soon to be free agent.

Now for the Pirate section.

New cards of an old legend.  I love Topps Gallery but Maz looks like he was scared in that picture. Greats of the Game is an all time great set.

Impossible to choose a favorite of this bunch, but gun to my head I would choose the vibrant looking Pops Greats of the Game.

A nice look back at all the cool Honus Wagner cards in recent memory. The Diamond Kings has a great look.  Easy to get around the licensing issue for the pre war players.

The Candyman and Teke are two cardboard legends.

Flying Buccos!

Leaf Certified holds a soft spot in my heart because that set had autos of Craig Wilson and Jose Castillo.  Big bummer for people who actually pulled those out of packs, but super fun for me to chase all these years.

Back when DK had a license. The canvas cards were a nice change of pace.

One of the 10000 different Fleer sets during the late 90's early 2000s.  I loved all of them!

JR House was from WV and a great two sport star.  When I was a sophomore in high school he destroyed by alma mater and broke just about every state record for quarterbacks. 

Main event time.....

What a cut auto!!!! It is a 1/1 and features two all time great Buccos.  You truly wowed me with this one Dennis.

I don't know how I'm going to top this trade, but I'm drawing up a plan of attack.....

Thanks for reading.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Josh Bell Topps Opening Day 1/1

I was hoping to show Dennis's of Too Many Verlanders trade package today, but the weather was way too nice to spend indoors.  I'll have to finish scanning tomorrow.  Sorry about that Dennis.  

Along with a couple great trade packages, I recently scored a couple high end Buccos that arrived over the weekend.  This Josh Bell kind fell into my lap via eBay auction.  I put a low bid on it and for whatever reason it ended up holding up.  The final tally was around $40 which seems pretty reasonable since this is an actual rookie card. Was I wanting to spend that much....no, but the price seemed more than fair so I'll just not buy as much the next month to justify to higher end grab. 

Bell has been super streaky this year and is showing all stages of rookie development. The biggest issue was his defense and that has been than average. His offense has shown more power than expected, but his plate discipline has faltered from last year.  If that improves over the second half of the season the Pirates will have to be thrilled with the overall development. 

Thanks for reading!