Juicing

I had something weird happen yesterday while at home.  While talking with my wife I had a sudden asthma attack.  As a child I had bad asthma, but grew out of it my early teen years. It threw me off guard.  Well, after a trip to the doctor he diagnosed me with some weird form of seasonal asthma and give me steroid shot right in the buttock and a breathing treatment.

I don't know if it is global warming, Donald Trump or something of that sort, but I've been all out whack this year.

With all that being said I'm now on a big steroid cycle so I should have super human strength.  Maybe I should try to push big rocks and challenge people to impromptu arm wrestling matches.

Since we are on the topic of performance enhancing drugs lets tie it in with some cards.  The Pirates really haven't had many issues with steroids.  Obviously Bonds is the cover boy for performance enhancers, but by all accounts he started using as a Giant.

Current Buccos Francisco Cervelli and Antonio Bastardo were named as part of the Biogenesis scandal and each sat out 50 games back in 2013.

The only notable Pirate to be accused of steroid use during his actual Pirate tenure was Kevin Young. He was named on the Mitchell Report, but he was retired when the report came out.  

I'm proud to note that I didn't have roid rage in the office today.  I'll keep you updated if I decide to punch a hole in my office tomorrow.  

Thanks for reading.  

Cracker Jack Research

For most people starting a blog was a way to connect to other collectors, at least that was the case for me.  I needed a change of pace from my normal routine of buying a card and sticking it in a box. I figured their were other people like me and thus Bob Walk the Plank was born.

The trading and camaraderie has been fantastic, but I really underestimated how much I would learn from blogs. Individually we may all have deficiencies in our cardboard knowledge, but as a whole we are probably as good a resource as you can find on the Internet.

For every type of card question I could imagine I'm fairly certain I could think of another blogger that I would consider capable of answering with a high amount of expertise. Several times a week I'll read something about a certain type of card I knew nothing about.  Many times this leads to a purchase.

  1982 Cracker Jack Ralph Kiner

One thing I noticed not long after starting my blog is that I really underestimated the amount of oddball releases.  I was born in 1982 and started collecting during the junk wax era. The oddballs that I was familiar with consisted of store specific sets like Toys R Us, Ames and Kay Bee Toys, cereal sets and Sports Illustrated for Kids. The Cracker Cards of my childhood were of the mini variety. Thanks to blogs opening my eyes on oddball releases I knew I needed to dig deeper.

Now my collection is full of just about every type of oddball you can imagine. From local releases to vintage Kellogs sets I've found a little of everything.  The great thing is I've only scratched the surface, but thanks the blogging I at least know these cards exist.  

You may think a post showing off a random purchase is worthless, but people pay attention. 

Slap Shot by Doug

Anytime I see an old hockey card for whatever reason my mind goes to the movie Slap Shot. I still laugh my ass off even after seeing the movie dozens of times. I remember reading an article about Paul Newman in which he said it was one of his favorite movies to make. It is the perfect combination of crude and endearing. I think that is what makes Major League so popular as well.  

My good pal Doug of Sportscards From the Dollar Store recently hooked me up with the Slap Shot reminder Pens card along with a ton of other great items. 

Beau Bennett was such a tease for the Penguins.  He would flash some great skill, but the guy was made out of glass. The Pens traded him for a third round pick not long after the Stanley Cup. 

I think Doug has sent half the Stedman autos in my collection.  Strata autos are super thick and very appealing.  

The Pens have one of those good problems with Marc-Andre Fleury.  He had one of his best seasons before getting hurt right before the playoffs. Matt Murray stepped in and promptly helped the Pens when the Stanley Cup.  I'm sure the Pens will at least have to explore trading Fleury, but for now having two good goalies is not a bad thing.  Plus Murray has little to no experience in the regular season. 

The piece of jersey looks to be from one of the alternate jerseys the Pens wear. Cool card! 

I still add dozens of Slaton cards every year. He was a third round pick, but received cards in just about every set during his rookie season.

Lemieux saved hockey in Pittsburgh and Crosby took it to another level. It is cool to receive a Metal Universe card.  I purchased a ton of the Metal baseball releases back in the late 90's.

Phil Kessel looks like the most nonathletic person in the NHL.  He's got the balding hair and short/stout frame. He kind of looks like the stereotypical beer softball league player.  With all that being said he can flat out fly on the ice and is a gifted goal scorer.  I'm sure winning the cup was extra special for him as he was basically ran out of Toronto by the media.

I really like the SP Authentic cards.

Round out the Pens portion of the trade package with some more active Penguins.

Ralph Kiner lived a very interesting life. If you ever get a chance you should read about his interactions with Branch Rickey, relationship with Hank Greenberg and dating movie stars.

1994 was the last year for major release Bob Walk cards.  The industry has never been the same since.

This is an all time great Walk card. The hair and stache game was running on all cylinders.

I wish I could go tell 10 year old Matt that 1992 would be the last winning season of the Pirates until 2013.

The early Ultra sets were awesome. Very Stadium club esque. By the mid 90's everyone from Fleer started to do acid and you got cards like this.....

Tony L showed this off the other day and it made me laugh.

Thanks for all the cards Doug.  I hope things with the Canadian post office has blown over. I'll be hitting you back soon.

Thanks for reading.

The Burb is the Word

Mr. Burb's of Wrigley Roster Jenga and I are putting together a nice little continuous blind trade. These are the easiest and best type of trades in my opinion. This time around Tony hit me with two team bags full of Pirates and Penguins.

This card along with the Kevin Kramer has become somewhat of an obsession for me.  I've been adding as many as possible including all the parallels. I've had pretty good success so far as I've found two printing plates of Newman and the true 1/1 of Kramer.

 Russell Martin was soooooo good as a Pirate.  It would have been cool to see him stay but Toronto gave him a truckload of money to head back to his homeland.

 Cool shot of Polanco getting ready to make contact.

Finest seemed so classy when I was young. It is one early 90's set that has really held its value.

 I'm glad Taillon has lost the creepy stache.

The West Virginia Power play their home games in Charleston WV.  I haven't been to one as Charleston is about 2 1/2 hours away from me. I did however attend a few Charleston Alley Cats games which predated the Power and had a Blue Jays affiliation.

 Van Slyke was a favorite of mine during the early 90's.

John Wehner announces the road games for the Pirates. I really can't stand him. He is super negative and rarely gives the opposing team credit for good plays.

 Legend Buccos. The top left Honus Wagner is a favorite of mine. I'm disappointed Tony didn't send me a cut auto version.  What a loser.

 Cutch has had a pretty bad year by Cutch standards. I'm hoping he can have a nice run at the end of the year to help push the Bucs in the wildcard game. It makes me sad to see him struggle.  You can really tell it is getting to him as he hasn't faced this much adversity.

 Some randomness from sets I really enjoy.  UD Masterpiece is one of the best sets made in the 2000's.

Toys R Us via Stadium Club!!!!  The Wakefield is great. The Pirates really dropped the ball with him.

 Hard to pick a favorite out of this bunch. I'll probably go with big head Van Slyke just because those Score releases always remind me of my childhood.

 I don't know anyone who actually played MLB Showdown.  I guess MLB thought they better try and capture the Pokemon crowd.

Tony was nice enough to send a bag full of Penguins.

 I'm so happy the Pens got their second cup in the Crosby era.  Some were beginning to talk that the Pens should trade Malkin, but the issue was the supporting cast.  Thankfully a great core of young players and a few great trades put them over the top again.

Ulf Samuelsson was about as nasty as they come. You really don't see the enforcer type of defenseman as much these days.

What a great mix of cards Tony.  Thanks a ton! I'll be hitting you back soon.

Thanks for reading!

Seeing Red Again

Obscure parallels! I plan on taking it easy with card purchases over the next few weeks since I've had a lot of unexpected expenses lately. This has allowed me to focus on sorting some cards at home and cherry picking some cheaper issues off of eBay.  

You had to take the good with the bad if you were a Pirates collector in the early 2000's.  They were so bad and had such a small talent pool that card companies didn't give them a ton of love.  It got old chasing guys like Jason Kendall, Kris Benson and Brian Giles at the time, but now it is kind of refreshing.  When it comes to autos, relics and parallels these guys were pretty much it with the exception of maybe a young Aramis Ramirez. Now as I go back and fill holes from this time period it really doesn't take a whole lot of work since the player pool is small. 

I really didn't remember much about 2000 SP Authentic nor did I recall the parallels. Recently a seller listed a bunch of parallels from these early SP sets and I pounced on the Pirates. Kind of an odd design, but still subtle for the time period. 

I'm always a sucker for these type of cards.  It makes it really nice when the same seller lists a bunch at a time. Combined shipping is key for these type of auctions.

Hope everyone is staying out of the heat.  My wife and I were dumbasses and decided to work outside today.  SO HOT.  Stay inside.

Thanks for reading.

A Better Now

The first ten or so Pirate Topps NOW releases were a little on the boring side. Nothing more than a pitcher in a windup or a hitter in a stance.  Thankfully Topps has really picked up the photo game lately.  Here are two great Pirate releases.

This was probably the coolest moment of the season. The Pirates were in the midst of a winning streak right before the All Star break and they decided to bring up an extra position player to lengthen the bench. Josh Bell delivered in a big way.

The best part of the card is Cutch just taking it all in on the right side.

Walk offs make great Topps Now cards. I like how Polanco can just carry Josh Harrison like a little baby.

I'm sure people that are completing the entire Topps NOW set are happy to see Topps giving bundle deals each day.  This doesn't really help the team collector, but at least Topps is trying.

Thanks for reading

One Crazy Week

I had one of my busier weeks in recent memory.  Most of it was fun, but it required a good bit of road time.  The only downfall to the entire week was about $1800 in car maintenance.  Ouch!

Black Bears game!

I've never quite understood minor league rehab assignments for guys already in the minor leagues. Nevertheless this has played in my favor a few times.  Last year for the Black Bears first ever game in Morgantown top prospect Tyler Glasnow got the start.  He was recovering from a minor injury in which he was building up his stamina again.

Last week I got to see Pirates #2 prospect Austin Meadows. Here are a couple pictures of him in the batters box.  The entire time I was at the game he didn't swing at a pitch.  He drew a walk and struck out looking.  You could tell he was pissed at the umpire but kept calm since he was playing in a rookie level game.  To his defense every single pitch looked low.

Every year my work has a retreat.  We usually gather at a state resort within WV.  This year was Canaan Valley Resort which is tucked away in the mountains and known for good skiing. If you want to get in touch with nature this is the place to be as it is in the middle of nowhere. 

A view of the resort tucked away on the hillside. 

 This is the view from my room.

Being the beer evangelist that I am, we held a large beer tasting.


The last part of my week was another trip to DC.  This time I was flying solo to meet up with a lifelong friend for a guys weekend. It did not disappoint.

 Irish whiskey flight! This place was called Jack Rose and supposedly has the largest collection of whiskey in the western hemisphere. You name it they have it. I saw some stuff cost $6 a pour and others $600.  If you watch the show Best Bars in America on Esquire it was featured on the DC episode.

When my buddy mentioned he wanted to try a German beer garden called Dacha I was a little hesitant.  For those who have been to DC in the summer know about the stifling humidity.  Thankfully they have industrial sized fans all around the area.  You can see them at the top left of the picture.

The selection of beer was outstanding! This was a hefeweizen that tasted very refreshing. They had glassware for each type of beer you purchased.  

So there you have it.  I'm actually looking forward to being home the next few weekends. I need to get caught up on some trade packages and do some major sorting of recent purchases.  

Thanks for reading.