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!

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.