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!

The Burbs

Tony Burbs of Wrigley Roster Jenga and I finally broke the trading ice.  Whenever I hear Burbs my mind goes straight to this...

I have a soft spot for Tom Hangs movies like Big and The Burbs.

Let's get back on track.  Tony contacted me saying he had been accumulating some Buccos and asked if I was interested. Of course I am! We are always commenting on each others posts so it makes sense that we start sending cards. I trade with a decent amount of Cubbie collectors, but the way they are populating checklists these days I shouldn't have a hard time finding enough for everyone.

These cards came via two PWE's. One was categorized oddballs and the other traditional. I mixed and matched the scans.

I think this playing card of former Bucco Tim Wakefield was my favorite.  The knuckler burst onto the scene the last year of the early 90's playoff run. King Knuckler!

Showdown cards were pretty common in the early 2000's, but now they are a little harder to come by. Seeing the Mike Benjamin variation made me laugh. Benjamin was the ultimate defense first type of bench player that was common in the 90's. He was a terrible hitter throughout his career, but did enough with the glove to stay in the league for parts of 13 seasons!

You really don't see players like this much anymore. More times in not guys with similar profiles of Benjamin are more of the AAAA type of players that teams use in case of injury. Rarely do they stick with a club all year. This is probably the most anyone has wrote about Mike Benjamin since 2002.....

Panini with a license! Bonilla is a guy I always hoped would get some love in more recent card sets, but I assume he is sitting on a tropical island collecting that deferred Mets money.

Conlon cards are always fun and one of the few oddballs I remember accumulating as a kid.

This marks the second time in a week that I'm got a Vince DiMaggio reprint. I've tried on several occasions to win the real deal, but it sells well on the secondary market. What a cool reprint!

Thanks to my blog friends I haven't had to work too hard to get the 2016 Topps Buccos. I like the Cervelli card, but it feels like the shot could have been closer for the Harrison.

The Pirates have had some of the more cardboard friendly players over the years. Guys like Teke, Parker, Clemente, Pop and BOB WALK come to mind right away. Cutch is the active player who has the best cards. He just exudes coolness.

Man I love this card!

A bunch of minor league Buccos to go along with a Tony Plush.  Ronny Paulino was quite a tease.  He had a very nice rookie season and then for some reason forgot how to catch. The Pirates really struggled to fill the gap between Kendall and Russell Martin.

What is the story behind the Clemente on the top left? 

It never gets old watching the Maz homerun in the 60 World Series. Most have probably heard the story of the lost tapes found in Bing Crosby's home, but if you haven't please take a minute and read the short report from ESPN.

We finish with a beautiful 58 Topps Vern Law.  Thanks so much for including this one Tony.

This was a fun bunch of cards to go through Tony. I'll be hitting you back soon.  Thanks a ton!

Thanks for reading!