Surgery update, Caminiero cards, and completed sets

 It has been a stressful but nice time since I have posted last. Karen went in for one kind of surgery on Tuesday, but came out with a different one, and we just rolled with it. I guess I’ll get to that first, and then do the card update. 

The original plan with Karen was to go to Mayo Clinic on Tuesday, have them put a 3D printed custom shunt in her trachea, and kind of see how it held up. This was part of a series of 3 types of shunts that could’ve been tried in her lungs. Depending on which one worked, she would then possibly be cleared for another surgery where some mesh would be put in her lungs, the shunt would be removed, and her airway and breathing would be much improved. Right now her lungs are collapsing at 80% (Tracheomacia is the official diagnosis), and it’s hard for her to function everyday without being able to breathe normally. 

We got to Mayo, and were called into an office by the surgeon. He told us that the doctor that ordered the 3D printed shunt had indeed ordered it, but never was able to have the shunt delivered due to not being in the country due to visa issues  as. We still aren’t sure why nobody knew about it until that day, but it was frustrating. Karen, like she always does, remained positive and reminded me that things happen for a reason. The doctor told us that from looking at some of her scans and her past history of her body rejecting shunts that Karen probably wouldn’t be a good candidate for a shunt trial but that she would probably benefit by going straight to the mesh surgery. The doctor did say that he could give her a broncoscophy while she was there (basically cleaning out her lungs and looking for any infections), and we both agreed that it would be great to have that done. The bronch took a few hours, but they flushed her lungs with saline and I feel like she came out great. She wasn’t out of it like sometimes after surgery, she could talk fine, and she said her lungs haven’t felt that clean in a while. 

We had 2 options for the mesh surgery, either do it at Mayo with doctors who have done it a few hundred times, or fly to New Jersey, and do it with the doctor who had invented the surgery and had done it a few thousand times. The choice was easy, and Karen has a phone appointment with the doctor from NJ on January 7, and hopefully we can have the surgery done later that month. 

I ended up taking the 12th through the 21st off because that is how long Mayo told us we would need off for the original stent trial surgery. That meant Karen and I had a hotel and free them. I really wanted to stay in Jacksonville until at least Saturday, but we drove home Friday afternoon. It was soooooo great and I didn’t realize how much I needed some Karen time without having to worry about work or having to get up at 3 AM. Wednesday we went to about 6 different stores and got some Christmas presents, and I think I might have enough alcohol to help me deal with Karens Mom and holidays until the end of the year. 

I’ve been trying to complete some card sets, and I found some deals on eBay, and was able to finish the ‘06, ‘08, ‘12, and ‘13 Topps sets. I still need the Update sets, but some of those sets like ‘12 and ‘13 were ones I had little of, so I’m happy right now just finishing the base sets. I also added the 2005 Topps and Topps Update Verlander rookies, as well as an oversized ‘08 Update Kershaw rookie reprint that will serve as a waaay cheaper version of the card. I did the same thing with the ‘12 Harper card. The ‘13 complete set came with both the regular and SP versions of the Harper card, and the ‘08 one came with the regular and SP version of the Red Sox championship card. 

There was an auction for both the ‘14 and ‘15 Topps sets that was around 40 dollars with 25 bucks for shipping that I was watching. Both of those sets are going for close to 100 dollars on eBay. I think any of those sets should go for 40-50 dollars, so I tried to put a bid in for 50 with 5 seconds left, but got outbid at the end, and I’m still ticked off about it. I just need to be patient, or just get the missing cards from SportLots. 

I’ve also been on a tear with pulling Rays prospect Junior Caminiero from packs. Some people say he will be better than what Wander Franco would’ve been, but we’ll see. 

I’ve pulled his cards from 2024 Big League, Heritage, Stadium Club, and got his Topps cards from getting the complete sets of the main and Update set. On the way home from Jacksonville on Friday, we stopped at Walmart to get a few things, and the only cards they had were Update and a few hanging packs of Allen & Ginter. I was ready to take a gamble and maybe get some Tigers or Rays out of a hanging pack, so I got one. Let’s see how I did. 

A pretty good pack if I can say so myself. Ohtani was the first one, the Baines is an SP, and I pulled one of those silver foil parallels (whatever they are called) of Caminiero!!  The only crap card of the pack would be the one of the soccer player and the one of that tool Jason Aldean. All his songs are about ‘tan-legged pretty little thangs with cutoff jeans sittin in the passenger seat of his jacked up pickup truck’ and most have the same chord progressions behind them. Anybody want the card?  

That won’t be all the Caminiero’s coming in, as I ordered his Bowman and a Topps Chrome X-Fractor from SportLots, and Wave Refractors of his base and Update Chrome cards from eBay. While I won’t say I’m a super collector, I am definitely a Rays collector, and am on board with any promising rookie they have. While I am sad that the team will be playing in Bankee$ territory in 2025, I am a little hopeful that the stadium issue could push a bond vote for the new stadium to be vetoed. While it would stop the development for the new stadium in the parking lot, it could pave the way for a stadium in Tampa or Orlando. If I am looking big picture, I wouldn’t shed much of a tear if the team ends up moving. It would just make some other city have a team with an owner that doesn’t spend and that will never win a World Series. Eventually, Tampa or Orlando will get another shot, and hopefully the owner will spend to strengthen the team. 

I don’t go back to work until Friday, so I have the rest of the week almost to organize cards and get all my complete sets logged into TCDB. I am thrilled to be on vacation, and hopefully next year won’t have to wait so long to take it. Actually, I’ll probably have to take 2 weeks whenever the mesh surgery will happen, so I might be well rested for the next few months. Hopefully New Jersey in January won’t be that bad. 

I also added some stuff to my wantlist, but it’s not cards, just pictures of cards. 

When it comes to cards in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s, I have trouble remembering the base designs after 1956. I know ‘62-‘65, ‘68-‘69, and have trouble with ‘70 and ‘71. After that, I’m solid. The subsets sometimes don’t match the design either. 

I decided to make small pictures of cards and glue them to my list so I could easily identify card designs and sunsets when I get new cards. Hopefully they stay on and can help me out. I’ve also listed an ‘average’ price I’ve seen on TCDB for commons for most sets. Anything I can add to it to help out. 

That’s about it. Sorry it has been a while since I’ve posted. Maybe next time I’ll have sent for my SportLots order. That is going to be one long (and fun) post. 

Thanks for taking the time to check out my latest post. 

-Jeremy 

Happy Yankee Elimination Day 2024!!!

 I know it's a little late, but with responsibilities and all, I just haven't had time to make a template and card for my annual tradition of making a card celebrating the Yankee$ getting eliminated from either the playoffs or playoff contention. This year, they cut it waaaaay too close. There were only 2 possible games left!!!  I guess that’s what happens when you play weak AL Central teams in the playoffs. 

Fortunately, the Yankees lack of pitching caught up with them, and their hitters had to face decent pitching in the playoffs. I’m hoping that the Tigers can get a few nice arms for 2025 and the whole team can build on their surprising 2024. As for the Rays, even without the stadium issues, I would be surprised if they could contend. They just don’t have the hitting. Or owner willing to spend. 

I finished putting my loose Phillies cards into binders today, but that will probably be as far as I get before Karens surgery. I also worked on some 2001 Topps Rays customs today, and I’m sure I’ll make some more during our stay in Jacksonville. Maybe I’ll even get this blog back to a 75/25 split of real cards/customs again. 

Before I sign off, I have a SportLots question. For those of you that have ordered box shipping before, is there an exact formula to calculating the box shipping per 100 cards that are in the box? I have about 400 cards waiting in my box, and about 100 bucks in PayPal left. I want to purchase some more Topps cards to finish some sets, and I want to know how much I can spend on the cards, minus the shipping to get them to the box, and then the shipping from the box to me. The shipping to the box is calculates, so I just need to figure out if there is a way to calculate it per 100 cards or if that isn’t how it works. Thanks for any advice. 

Thanks for taking the time to check out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

Recent eBay purchases

 I’m sure by now anyone who follows baseball knows that Tropicana Field had parts of its roof damaged by Hurricane Milton. This one really hits close to me for a number of reasons. First, because I live about 2 1/2 hours away. Second, because I’ve been going to games there since the Rays first season all the way back in 1998. Third, just because of the sheer amount of games I’ve been to. I would venture to say it’s at least 25, perhaps closer to 50. 

You can say what you want to about the stadium, but for me, since I grew up going the Trop at about 90% of the MLB games I’ve attended, I just really don’t think it’s that bad of a stadium. The dome served a purpose that overrode how bad or “unbaseball” it made the stadium seem. It kept the rain out. Starting in April some years, you will get rainstorms pop up out of nowhere in Florida, and it can go on until early fall. Not everyday, but some years it has hit close to 60 or 70 percent of the days, more if you are along the coast, which St. Pete is. Without the dome, there would be a number of rainouts, and it would wreak havoc on the schedule. All of the minor league teams in FL just have open stadiums, because let’s face it, MLB doesn’t care if a minor league team has 20% of the games on its schedule either cancelled or made up as 2 7-inning double header games. 

I will say that the area around the Trop just didn’t welcome you or even let you know you were near a baseball stadium. Aside from a billboard for the Rays along Interstate 275, no Rays-branded signs are near the ballpark. The signage only starts once you enter the main parking lot, and that should be expected. I can only hope the Rays do better with marketing the club with the new stadium. I’ve been to games in Pittsburgh and Washington DC in 2023, and with both clubs out of contention, they still had vendors selling team merch blocks away from the park, team signs everywhere, and just a whole different atmosphere blocks before you get to the ballpark. Perhaps if $ternberg would sign a player to an extension, a player would be recognized as the face of the franchise, and people would want to risk selling some jerseys outside of the stadium. 

With all that said, there is a potential that the stadium that is hated by many baseball fans and loved by me will have seen its final game hosted there. Even if the roof is fixed, the field needs to be drained, as nothing is keeping even more rain and who knows what from entering the stadium. There aren’t drainage systems because with no rain and artificial turf, it just wasn’t needed. I’m sure there is a small drainage system, because they do have hoses that spray the infield dirt before the game, but it’s not enough to handle rain that flooded many areas nearby. Who knows just where the rainwater ended up and if there are mold and mildew problems starting to develop. It might just be a better idea to play home games at nearby Al Lang Field across the Howard Frankland Bridge in Tampa, at the Blue Jays’ Spring Training stadium in Dunedin about the same distance away, or give them the best solution, and let them play at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando?  Orlando would attract more fans from the booming Orlando area, it’s still close to Tampa, so you would still get a number of them, and you would get the tourists coming as well. Orlando doesn’t have nearly the amount of retired people as the Tampa area, so you wouldn’t get the fans coming that lived somewhere else until they were 60 and aren’t Rays fans, you would have a number of more true Rays fans who don’t have other allegiances. With each of these parks, I think there would have to be some kind of artificial roof made in order to keep the rainouts from occurring so frequently. At least in Orlando you are away from the coast. 

If the Trop has indeed hosted its final game, I really wanted to see if I could somehow get a piece of the roof, as I have seen a number of people on various Rays sites post pictures of getting some from around the park. I didn’t really have a decent chance ar leaving the house for 6+ hours to potentially find a piece of the roof, but there was one listed on eBay that was about these and price that I was looking for, so I pounced on it. It showed up in the mail today. Actually 2 pieces, and both are maybe the size of my hand. I have a box in my garage of baseball memorabilia, posters, and other things that I want to hang up in my man-cave if I can ever get one, and in it is a piece of artificial turf used at the Trop, so I took a picture of the roof pieces with the turf piece. 

I don't know if I'll get the cave in this house or not. We've talked about adopting, and if that happens, I'm sure the guest room will serve as another kid bedroom, but at some point, if we are in this house long enough, I think the guest room will eventually become mine. If this blog is around in 10 or so years, you might just see pics. 

I've kind of been on a Rays-heavy quest when I've been looking on eBay ever since the Trop got hit with the hurricane. I've been wanting a few team photos. Number one, of the inaugural 1998 team, number two, of the 2008 AL Championship team, and number three, of the 2020 AL Championship team. There is a photo of the '08 team on eBay, but at 25 bucks, I feel it's a little steep. I'm willing to go about 10 plus shipping for a photo. The '20 team, surprisingly, has no photos except of the team celebrating, and I just want one of the entire team posed and sitting like on the '50's through '70's Topps sets. The '98 team has one that I would like, but it has autographs on it of 4 guys (Dennis Springer, Bobby Smith, Rolando Arrojo, and one other guy). Nobody even remotely memorable, even to a Rays fan, and the guy is asking 50 bucks for it. Sorry. 

I did find a way around it, and was able to find one item, which I'm not even sure of what it is. The front has the team photo, and the back just says its a raffle ticket for a MD charity. I have a feeling it is maybe smaller than a baseball card, so not quite what I am looking for, but it was 8 bucks, and I got it. I also found an old Rays magazine from 1998 that had a team picture in it that I am pretty sure I will be able to take out of the magazine, so I got that as well, and maybe that will be able to go up in the future man cave. 

Other than that, I got the 2024 Topps Update set. That gives me runs of Topps complete sets (with my yet to be shipped SportLot box) from 1980-2001 (with Traded), 2004 Topps, 2006 Topps .  Traded, 2016 Topps Update, and 2019-2024 Topps (with Update). I think I might focus on the missing ones in between the runs I have going so I can get a run from 1980 to now. I’m missing some of the key cards from a few of the sets, but do have some of the key ones like Betts (base), deGrom (base and Rookie Debut), Scherzer, Ohtani, Soto, and Acuna (all base), and some other guys like Verlander and Kershaw that I have an equivalent rookie from  another brand that I could probably use to trade for the Topps version. Maybe I can accomplish that in a few years. 

Hopefully the Trop can get a few more games in before it closes in a few years. If not, at least my last few eBay purchases

 helped me feel close to it and relive some memories. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my latest post. 

-Jeremy 

More Sportlots, updates, and some customs

 The last time I had made a post, I made my first Sportlots purchase. It finished my 1981-1985 Topps sets, as well as getting me close to the 1983 Traded set being finished. I searched high and low, and finally found a 1983 Topps Traded Darryl Strawberry card that didn't cost and arm and a leg, and I should finally have that in hand by tomorrow. 

Since then, I have kind of figured out that the 'box shipment' is the way to go with Sportlots, and went to work last night trying to finish the 1980 Topps and 1981 Topps Traded sets to give me complete runs of Topps sets for the '80's and '90's. Well, I got that, and a lot more. 

So it turns out, some of these rookie cards from early '80s Traded sets can get a little costly. I don't know if it was the same way before COVID hit, but dang, I really wasn't expecting to get hung up on the '81 Traded set by not wanting to pay more than 10 bucks for a Fernando Valenzuela Traded card (especially when he had a Topps card issued previously in the regular set. Well, as with the Strawberry card, I found one closer to my desired price range on eBay, so that one is en route as well. 

I was wondering the other day on what a 2000 Topps Traded set would run me, especially since the Miguel Cabrera rookie will only go up in value, so I was looking, and I found one on eBay (without Miggy) for a decent price. I figured if I could find an off-conditioned copy that I could come out cheaper than the price of a complete set, so I bit the bullet on it. Then, yesterday, I submitted an offer on Cabrera's rookie that was more what I wanted to pay, and I won. That would give me a run of sets from 1980-2000, but I wasn't done yet. 

I had maybe 20 cards I needed from the 2001 Topps main set, and knew I already had the 2 main guys from the Traded set (Ichiro and Pujols, plus the combo card of them), so I added those to the Sportlots box. I also had just a few cards left in 2016 Topps Update, and with no big name rookies, Sportlots put that one to bed as well. I threw in a few Junior Caminero cards, some copies of Rays and Tigers from recent issues like Topps Chrome and Pro Debut, added the 2 cards of Raymond (the Rays mascot) from the past 2 years of Big League, paid for my order, and went to bed.

Without the big custom project I finished, I wouldn't have had nearly the amount of cash to spend on cards that I have, so I was really thankful for that. I will reveal the entirety of that project in due time (no clue when, but that might even be something special enough to get it's own post). Recent things in life haven't been that great, though.

Let's start with the hurricanes. I'm not going to be all doom and gloom with the next few paragraphs, just lay it out, but try to put a positive spin on everything. Hurricane Helene hit, and we got a little rain and wind, but nothing. A few weeks later, Milton hit, and it was definitely stronger. We were slammed at work, but fortunately for me, I was working Monday, off Tuesday, we got Wednesday off for the storm, and just had a half a day on Thursday before going back full days starting Friday. I have never got sand bags for a hurricane, but with the last big one (maybe Ian 2 years ago?) sending a little water flooding into our kitchen, I went looking for some on Tuesday when I was off. At a fire station not 5 minutes away, they had free bags and you just needed to fill them. I went, and filled 10 for our house (which was probably about half as many as we needed. I'll know for next time). I met a nice guy named Carl, and we tooked turns holding sandbags open for eachother while the other one filled them. Had I known about the station a little earlier and arranged for someone else to pick up Kyler from school, I would've stayed and helped the rest of the day. It was just nice to see strangers in the community coming together and not just out for themselves in the grocery store. Karen, Kyler, and I went to Karen's work and stayed there for the storm. Since she is the building manager at an assisted living facility, she is required to stay there until the storm passes, and her mom stayed here, so there was NO WAY I was staying with her. We drove up Wednesday morning, and after dinner I had 1 Angry Orchard and we started playing cornhole in an empty room. I had another, and was getting a nice buzz, and by the time it was over, a buzzed me and 2nd grade Kyler had beat 2 sober teams in 3 3-on-3 games. That won't ever happen again. We slept on an air mattress, and I kept tossing and turning, hearing updates on the storm as I was half awake. Our house in DeLand was basically fine. Power stayed on, 3 or 4 medium sized branches came down, and there was a little flooding in the kitchen and garage, but not like the last time. Karen's work is close to Daytona on the coast, and with the rain and low water table, there were areas of her facility that looked like lakes. 3 trees came down, 1 hitting the building and leaving an opening in a room. When I woke up, we had a few hours before I needed to be back in DeLand for work, so I helped their maintenance guy get the front of the building looking clean again, and he let me use a leaf blower for the first time in my life, and I tried to clear some of the leaves and smaller branches away while he got to work on one of the downed trees with a chainsaw. It's crazy because when the flooding came the last time, most of the roads had the ponding gone after a day, but this time, it had rained with Helene and we got some for like 3 days before Milton came, and there are 2 places I pass through on the way to work where it still hasn't subsided, and part of the road that is just past my work actually caved in and is shut down indefinitely. I'm sure you all have seen the damage to Tropicana Field. I don't know if the team will try to get it repaired, but if not, why not just send them to Orlando and have them play at the Wide World of Sports complex? It is a Major League grade facility where the Braves played during Spring Training for years. It has parking, a berm area that you could easily add seats to, and is really only missing a retractable roof. If you can host a minor league team there (which they did in the early '00's), you can host a Major League team without losing that many home games to rain. The showers usually hit in the afternoons, so put the tarp up after every game, or schedule 7 or 8 PM games, and you should get 80% of the games in. You won't get the Yankee fans that live in abundance near Tampa, and with it being in CENTRAL Florida, you will get the few TRUE Rays fans from Tampa to show up (it's maybe an hour away), PLUS the Orlando fans, guys like me from further North, PLUS tourists!!!  Maybe it will prove to Manfraud that Orlando should get a team. This might be my only chance for a team near me to win a World Series, as we all know that $ternberg won't spend the money to keep decent players or supplement a good team with top tier free agents. 

With all that being said, we got really lucky with the storm. Many people at my work took a while to get their power back, and there are people I know from south of me that still don't have it. This was still probably the fiercest hurricane I have seen in my 30 or so years of living in Florida. 

For loyal readers, you've known that Karen has been hospitalized like 4 times in the last year or so just being unable to breathe for long periods of time. Well, she was having trouble breathing this past week, and her pulmonologist had her in every day for IV steroids and antibiotics, and said on Saturday if she wasn't doing better that they were recommending her go to the hospital. That came and went, and she ended up going in on Saturday night and getting admitted. They are giving her more medicine and there is a chance she could be out tomorrow, but she is just having issues with her blood sugar levels bottoming out that are really scaring me (a Type 1 diabetic for 30 years). She had the same issues a few months back, and they kind of resolved themselves, but I would LOVE to know a reason, because I am scared for her to sleep or drive without knowing what they will do. Mayo Clinic has took her case a while ago, and they have her scheduled for a round of surgeries from November 12-21 (can't remember if I posted about that or not). 

Karen has always had 2 problems with her lungs. Trachial Malaysia (lungs collapsing) and asthma. We don't know which is the biggest problem of the 2. She takes steriods for the asthma, but they have their own fun complications. The lung collapsing is kind of tricky. She had a stent placed in her lungs before I met her which helped hold them open, but it was one covered with plastic, and her body didn't like it, so they had to take it out. She had an uncovered one made of metal placed in, and it lasted a while longer, but again her body didn't like it, and she had coughing fits for a while. At some point, she noticed she was coughing out metal, and turns out it was the stent, and the doctors had to operate and get the pieces removed.  She hasn't had one since (probably 15 years). Mayo wants to place a new stent in her lungs to see how much of her overall breathing problems are the lungs collapsing. Perhaps if it is the lungs collapsing and a stent works, they can reduce the steriods. The first part of the plan is to place a covered silicone stent in her lungs. It is 3D printed, so they think it might have a chance. They are going to observe her, and if  it looks like it's working, send her home, and do a bronchoscophy to make sure it is still working in a week or so after. If it doesn't show signs of her body accepting it, they will take it out and try a stent with a different type of material (another kind of plastic). If that one doesn't work, final option would be another metal one. I am hoping to God that the first one will work the first time and allow her to go off of such high dose steriods. This would do wonders for her and I. When we first started dating, she could do theme parks with no problem. Heck, she walked across the entire state of Florida going from West to East in 5 days with no problems. It would just allow her the freedom that she used to have. We could plan a date night (even just going out for an evening of dinner and the grocery store) without her feeling bad for cancelling cause she can't breathe. It would just allow me to not have to cook every damn day or feel like all of the housework depends on me. I wouldn't have to not get my hopes up when we want to go on a date or something fun is going to happen or feel bad because I know we won't be able to stay for the entirety of the day for something. There are days when she will push herself and do multiple things like drive to have lunch with me on a Saturday when I work and then go to a few stores afterwards, and even that will just be too much, and she won't be able to get off of the couch on Sunday or Monday sometimes because it was just too much for her lungs. If this surgery works, my life is just going to change so much for the better, and I'm trying to believe like it will, because I just don't know how much more of this I can take, and I know she's over it too.

I'll be going to the hospital with her, so I already have the 12th-21st requested off of work. I figure that will be a good time to devote to making more customs, since there's not much I can do with cards in a hospital room. My plans are to finish the missing player checklist from 2023 and 2024, and try to get as many missing Rays done as I can. I have been through 3 different laptops in the past decade. The first one had an older version of MS Paint, GIMP, and I could pull up templates from my blog just fine. The middle one could pull up the templates fine, but has a newer version of Paint. This latest one just doesn't do it for me. It has the latest version of Paint (which I guess I could get used to), and if I try to pull up any of the templates I've saved on my blog, they come out way too small, no matter how I do it (saving, copying and pasting, whatever). I found a way to install an older version of Paint, but same problem. I've been having to remake each and every template, which can be a horrible task. Despite all of that, I've been wanting to make more customs. Karen has been able to print for free at her work, so she can print out cards, and I have been wanting to get a complete Topps Rays master set for every year (Topps/Topps Traded regular cards, and Topps/Topps Traded customs). I've made and printed out the 1998 set, and have recently finished the 1999 set. 2000 is next. I made some last night, and I'll do some more tonight, and maybe tomorrow morning/afternoon (unless Karen gets discharged). Here are some of the latest customs.

Still haven't figured out how to do the curved lettering with GIMP, but a decent looking card. 

You would think with all of the history buffs, baseball photos, and archival projects that a suitable image would exist for not only Wade Boggs hitting the 1st Rays HR, but also Dave Martinez getting the first hit, Wilson Alvarez throwing the 1st pitch, as well as the 1998 team photo. I had to get this off of a YouTube video.

This was from the back of a raffle ticket. I might just purchase the ticket from eBay so I can have a pic of that first team. 

I was a Rays fan before 'The Rookie' movie came out. I've been to many game at the Trop. I have seen Jim Morris pitch at the Trop. I always thought his call-up was more of a gimmick to sell tickets. He never pitched well, and I feel like there were other younger options like Eddie Gaillard, John LeRoy, and Matt Ruebel who could've got more chances instead of Morris. I also thought the movie was just average. I thought some of the kids on the college team he coached were annoying, I felt like his son tagging along to everything was just something Disney wrote in so they could pitch the film as a 'family movie', and they even had him in the wrong era jersey, as they had him in the 2002-era Rays jersey that has the black/blue/green colors instead of the one on this card (and the Bobby Witt below) that have more purple and yellow along with a different font. With all that being said, I would've probably spent 1-5 bucks to get this card back in 1999/2000. 

Jr.'s Dad pitching for Tampa. 

One of the many teams Julio Franco has suited up for. 

Probably the best looking 2000 card I have made so far, fellow Type 1 diabetic Jason Johnson. 

We'll see how many I get through tonight. 

So that's about all I have as far as new cards coming in, sets completed, life updates, and customs. I'll probably order the 2024 Topps Update set in the coming weeks. Now I just need to decide to I try to get my run of sets to go up through the present (I really only need to get it up through 2018), or go for the '70's sets. And does anybody have any extra binders and pages? 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

SportLots, sets, and sorry music

So I made my first venture into the world of SportLots yesterday. I have been close to completing a number of early ‘80’s Topps sets, and with the SportLots purchase and 1 or 2 eBay winnings, I finished the 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1985 Topps sets, along with the 1982 and 1984 Topps Traded sets.  My Topps complete set run now goes from 1984-1999. I am just 113 1980 Topps cards, 126 1981 Topps Traded cards, and 1 1983 Topps Traded card away from having an ‘80’s and ‘90’s run of Topps sets. I could probably finish the ‘80 and ‘81 Traded sets with another SportLots purchase or some TCDB trades, but the big one keeping me from that run is a 1983 Topps Traded Darryl Strawberry rookie card. I don’t get it. Cheapest copies I can find are 25-30 bucks plus shipping. I feel like it should be closer to the 10 dollar range. Somewhere around the Mattingly or Gooden rookie would be. Straw was good, but Mattingly should be in the Hall of Fame, and his Topps rookie is cheaper. Is it a perfect storm where Strawberry was popular because he was a Met and Yankee and the 1983 Topps set was hard to find?  Are they priced better at shows, or do I at least have a chance to get it down to the 10-15 dollar range if I haggle?  

I selected the multiple packages option with SportLots, and I realize next time I need to stay with sellers that ship to the site and just request shipment when I get a huge box. Overall, I think I am getting familiar with the site and can use it to my advantage next time. I guess I’ll be getting a ton of mail in the coming weeks. 

I also picked up the 2024 Topps complete set. Nothing unusual, except for the fact that when I opened the 5 card rookie image variation pack, it had 6 cards, with an extra Jasson Dominguez. I might hold on to it and if he becomes something special, it could be good trade bait. 

Today on the way home from work, I stopped at Target, hoping for some 2024 Topps Chrome or 2024 Donruss packs, but the only baseball they had was 1 blaster of Series 2 Topps, and a few of 2024 Panini Stars and Stripes. With a guarantee of 2 autographs or jersey cards in a blaster, I figured I would give it a shot.  

I hadn’t heard of any of the players, but that’s just the nature of the game with a product like this. The first 2 cards are all obviously Green parallels, and the next 5 are Opening Day parallels. 

The last 2 cards on the previous pic and first 5 on this one are Star parallels. I pulled not only 2 autographs, but got a bonus jersey card. The jersey card was a cool pull, because Pablo Torres is a student at Bethune-Cookman University, which is located in Daytona, about a 45 minute drive from me. I actually know a science professor who teaches there. I’ll have to try to attend a game next season and see if I can get Pablo to sign it. 

Yesterday was also a kind of big day for me in the music area, as my first CD was released on iTunes and all of the usual platforms. My brother-in-law JT and I have been making music of all sorts since I first met him in 2001. We’ve done Christian music under the name ‘Resiliency from Obscurity’, and we’ve done comedy-type music under the moniker ‘The Younger Griffin’. In the past month, JT has taken a few songs he’s written lyrics for, a few songs I’ve done lyrics for and some ideas we’ve had, put some AI music to it, and cobbled everything together for an 11-song Younger Griffin collection entitled ‘We might be Artificially Intelligent’.  I wish we could’ve done the music, but that would’ve taken a few months and lots of patience. Maybe a Resiliency CD will have some of my original music. 

I am proud to have written all of the lyrics to ‘Liberate the Penguins’, most of the lyrics to ‘ Credit Misery’, and  some of the lyrics to ‘Soccer is Death’. 

If you want to take a look at the album and maybe get a listen, check is out at our website. We have a news song about pumpkin spice coming out in a few weeks. So, yeah. Send us money. 

That’s about all I have. Thanks for checking out my latest post, and if you find a spare Strawberry rookie or know of a decently priced one, let me know. 

-Jeremy 

Random things I’ve found on cards Part 2

 Since I got a lot of good feedback on the first post, I thought I would do a continuation. This post will feature mainly stuff I’ve found on the backs of cards, as well as a number of selections from 1995 Topps, but I hope it will still be fun. 

CIGAR- 2005 Topps #278 Jack McKeon

Jack was notoriously famous for having a victory cigar after a big win, and after winning the 2004 World Series, Topps decided to use a photo of him with a cigar for his 2005 issue. I also want to note that while Jeff Torborg got fired in the beginning of the 2004 season, he might have been able to turn the Marlins around like McKeon did, so I think he still deserves a little credit (and a ring, if he didn’t get one). Makes you wonder how many teams have fired a coach or manager and won a title in the same season. 

PIECE OF A HUMAN BONE- 1996 Stadium Club #406 John Hudek

I have been a Hudek fan since his rookie season in 1994. He made big news for becoming an All-Star even though he was winless. It was even bigger news as he started the season in the minors. He kind of fizzled out after that, but I’ll always remember him being a flash in the pan closer and his cards being hot in 1994 for a few months. 

As big of a Hudek fan that I am, I had never seen his ‘96 Stadium Club card or heard the story that it mentions. Apparently he had rib surgery and decided to have part of the rib that they took out made into a necklace, which you can really see on the front. I believe a few of his cards in 1996 have the necklace shown on it as well. 

This card is one of just 2 that I know of (1991 Score #65 Jim Leyritz) that mention the photo on the front of the card. 

Now I will show you some interesting stuff I’ve found on backs of cards. Prepare to start digging your 1995 Topps cards out of boxes. 

STABBING- 1990 Donruss #538 Joey Cora

Let’s just get this one out of the way…Joey was stabbed by a fan after a game in 1986 and it is mentioned on his 1990 Donruss card in one of the final sentences.

SOAP OPERAS- 1995 Topps #81 Charlie Hayes

This card just mentions soap operas and not a specific one. I’m sure there was little time for soap operas in 3 years as the Hayes family would have their hands full with little Ke’Bryan. 

SPECIFIC SOAP OPERA (THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS)- 2001 Topps #16 Brian Jordan

My wife got me hooked on this show about 12 years ago, and I wish I would’ve caught Brian’s episode. At least he has good (or bad) tastes in shows. 

RATTLE- 1998 Topps #462 Quinton McCracken

The card mentions how McCracken was given a large rattle as an infant and accidentally knocked himself out with it. ‘90’s Topps card backs are really fun as you will soon learn. 

SHAVING CREAM- 1995 Topps #181 Jeff Reed

The back of this one mentions that Jeff would oil his gloves with shaving cream. I knew a guy who met Jeff and got season passes to Elizabethton Twins games from Jeff when he was coaching them. I should’ve tried to tag along to a game with him so I could ask Mr. Reed about his shaving cream theory. 

SNAKE OIL- 1995 Topps #529 Jose Rijo

I’ve already posted about Rijo’s amazing card photos, but if you think the fun stops there, look at the backs. His ‘95 Topps gem mentions that he puts 5 drops of snake oil on anything that hurts. 

DONKEYS- 1994 Topps #85 Tony Pena

There could be an earlier mention, but Tony Peña’s 1994 Topps issue mentions Tony being taken to childhood games by 4 donkeys. 

SLEEPING- 2020 Topps Heritage #112 Nick Ahmed

The newest of these fun cards, Nick’s 2020 Heritage card mentions how he often gets 11 hours of sleep each night. If I were truthful, that’s about how much I need to be running at 100%.  Now I usually get 5-6 per night, but on days off, I get more, and a few times a year I get the magical 11 like Nick does. 

SQUASH (THE SPORT)- 1995 Topps #130 Jeff Conine

Jeff played raquetball (his ‘96 Stadium club shows him holding a raquet), and the back of his ‘95 Topps issue mentions he played squash as well. I assume he still plays, but when I came across a page of current squash players, he wasn’t listed, so I assume he is sticking with his baseball front office/coaching job rather than joining the pro squash circuit. 

FOOSBALL- 1995 Topps #140 Dante Bichette

This one just casually mentions Dante winning the Tucson Arizona Foosball championship in 1994. I wonder if the event is still going on?  I actually got to meet Dante in 1999, and he signed this card for me, and I’m kicking myself for not asking him about the event. 

CONTACT LENSES/HOT CHILI PEPPERS- 1995 Topps #44 Bret Barberie

So many questions about this story. Bret eats some chili peppers. They cause his eyes to water. He rubs them. The chili juice gets in his contacts and he can’t wear them and misses a game.  While I stay away from hot foods and don’t know what pepper juice can do to a contact lens, this just seems fishy. Couldn’t he just spray them with solution to get the juice out?  Didn’t he have another pair?  Was his vision really that bad that he couldn’t have just played without them?  I think the peppers really just messed with his tummy and he was on the porcelain throne all night and the contacts were fine. 

ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE- 1994 Topps #343 Mo Sanford

While it is rare that you will hear me talk about a former Aleebammer Criminal Tide athlete on this Auburn Tiger-supporting blog, I had to mention this one just because it reminds me how most of their athletes are over-hyped, appear on national magazines, and then fizzle out. I mean, really.  If you weren’t a Rockies fan who is older than 40 or hadn’t went through your 1994 Topps binder card-by-card yesterday, would you even know who Mo Sanford is? And if you somehow did, would you even know he was a former Bammer?  Exactly. Just like how no current Yankee fan can tell you who Shane Spencer or Kevin Maas is. 

CEMETERY-1996 Topps #197 Roger Clemens

I kind of wonder the story behind this one. Was it at Arlington National Cemetery and Topps just forgot the ‘National’ part, or was it a random one in Arlington, TX?  Was Clemens just sightseeing on an off day, or visiting the burial site of a loved one?  What was Slick Willie doing there?  Was Lewinsky with him? Who were the other 2 presidents Roger has met?  Why does Topps put these stories on the back of cards without giving us all of the information?!!

ANSWERING MACHINE- 1995 Topps #200 Tim Salmon

For all of you millennials, an answering machine is the same as voicemail. When people had phones with a cord in their house, they didn’t have voicemail. Eventually someone invented a box that had a tape recorder that could be attached to the phone, and you could leave a voicemail on the answering machine. Google it sometime. I don’t really see the thrill of being related to Holly Hunter. I’ve heard of her maybe once or twice in the ‘90’s, and that had to have been during the prime of her career. I’m sure she came out on the better end of the deal being able to tell people she was related to Tim Salmon. I still think it’s a crime that he was never elected to an All-Star team. Who from the Angels was getting picked to represent the team instead of Tim?  Chili Davis? Jim Edmonds? Chad Curtis? Troy Percival? 

And the final random thing I’ve found on a card:

AMBULANCE/TOLL/PARALYSIS- 1995 Topps #183 Jim Edmonds

Speaking of Edmonds, another gem of a story uncovered by the guys that make the backs for the 1995 Topps set. Jim was hit by a pitch, paralyzed, taken to a hospital by ambulance, the driver didn’t have 3 bucks for a toll, got to the hospital late, Jim recovers, makes one of the best catches ever in 1998, and wins a World Series title in 2006. Does that mean the ambulance took a highway with a toll road?  Do they really bother making ambulance drivers pay tolls?  Why wouldn’t you let a vehicle with flashing lights and sirens go through?  All for 3 bucks that the toll collector won’t be seeing anyways. If people were payed by volume sold or number of customers served, you would see productivity go up.  Or just hire guys like the toll collector who wouldn’t let an ambulance go through a toll lane because they didn’t have 3 bucks and almost paralyzed borderline Hall of Famer Jimmy Edmonds. 

I’m sure there are some I’ve missed. I know there’s one of Robert Fick that mentions a stray cat, a 2016 Topps First Pitch insert that mentions a pageant Queen throwing a pitch in heels and a tiara, and a Daryl Boston one that mentions him doing a Stevie Wonder impression (another 1995 Topps, I believe). Check those backs, people. You’ll find some interesting stories. Especially on those ‘95 Topps cards. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

Catching up the past 2 months

 It’s been probably close to 2 months since my last post if I were to guess. It seems like one thing after another has just come upon my plate. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing card things.

A few months ago, I finished uploading all of my cards to TCDB.  I was hoping to make some trades after that, but the process of putting cards on my trade list was a little daunting.  After all, how do I input my whole collection on it, but take away any Topps card, any Rays card, and Tigers card, as well as 50+ guys that I collect? Shortly before all of the uploading was finished, I made a post about Heritage SPs that I had and was willing to trade, and it had been widely ignored for a month or two.  About a month ago, someone messaged me about trading for some of the SPs, I figured out how to put my Heritage cards only on my trade list, and that has opened the floodgates.  I’ve made about 12 trades and have 3 or 4 pending approval, and another 5 or so in the in between stages. Every other day or so I get an offer for something. It is kind of overwhelming, but I have been able to pull it off, and have been able to add missing Topps cards to my lists. The 1981 (13), 1982 (29), 1983 (32), 1984 (79), and 1985 (28) Topps sets are all within striking distance of completing soon, with 1980 (201) lagging a tad behind but totally doable. 1982 (23) and 1984 Traded (Gooden RC) are also close to getting finished. One set I did complete was 1996 Topps, and that gives me a complete run of Topps sets (including Traded) from 1986-1999.  The ‘85 set would give me a run from ‘85 since I have that Traded set complete. Traded sets like 2000, 2001, and 2002 will give me some problems, as I don’t have many from ‘00 including the Cabrera, the ‘01 cards have some rookies I am missing (I do have the 2 Pujols cards though), and 2002 has the veterans all are SPs. 

Besides the trading, I have been doing a ton of creating. The biggest thing has been a HUGE custom project that I have been trying to find the right time to work on. It is over halfway done now, almost 75% of the way done, actually. Just a few more batches of cards to make, and it should be finished, I’m hoping 2-3 weeks, but you know how life gets. Once it is finished, I’m going to let the recipient give me word, but I’ll have a cool announcement to make regarding the set, as well as something to go with it that you might want to pick up. It is definitely very cool and something I will be proud to add to my resume. 

I’ve been writing music with my Brother-in-Law JT since 2005, and while we haven’t recorded too much, we’ve formed a comedy band called ‘The Younger Griffin’, and a serious more Christian-themed band called ‘Resiliency from Obscurity.  I am more of the music writer, and JT does more of the lyric writing and singing. With the recent AI craze, JT has taken some lyrics that the both of us have written for the Younger Griffin and put it to AI music, and cobbled an album together. While I am a little disappointed to not have recorded my own chord progressions or melodies and riffs to the lyrics, the AI music is definitely more polished than anything I could ever record by myself. We should have some Younger Griffin social media pages up soon, as well as an 11 song first album that is 20 years in the making. Songs that I’ve written majority of the lyrics for include ones called ‘Liberate the Penguins’, ‘Soccer is Death’, and ‘Credit Misery’. They are different than what I have envisioned musically, but again, AI got us a legit album that probably wouldn’t have came together organically for another 5-15 years. Stay tuned to get some links to our pages and bring money. 

I’m just treading water right now at the house. Living with Karens mom is an enduring struggle, and Karen is just cold or colder health wise with more of the barely going a few feet and getting out of breath. In 8 days she finally gets to go to Mayo for an appointment with pulmonary, and hopefully they will decide to do a broncoscophy and clear her out, as well as try a new type of stent to try to keep her lungs from collapsing so much. Those things could help her just kind of get back to normal, maybe even better like living like a normal person who can just breathe. Then maybe we can fry bigger fish like the shunt stuff. 

I had totally forgot requesting some cards from David of Tribe Cards when he did his 12 Days of Christmas giveaway.  I got an email from him a few weeks ago and yesterday got a huge box full of cards. Probably 500-700 cards worth. 

Just a ton of cards. The usual Tigers and Rays from all kinds of different eras and sets. 

The favorites out of the batch included a ‘24 Bowman Curtis Mead rookie. I had totally forgot about the 2022 Topps 3D set, and I scored almost the whole Rays team set. 2 rookies of (I’m sad to say) former Ray Randy Arozarena and current Ray Junior Caminiero were nice additions to the package that David could have easily kept for himself and hoped for the values to go up, but he sent them to DeLand. There were some cool 2020 Donruss Hilo Red parallels, including a Hunter Renfroe, and a 2024 Topps series 2 card of Jose Siri.  I spent 3 or 4 seasons getting autographs at Lakeland Tigers games in the early 2000’s, and Joe Coleman was the teams pitching coach. I don’t believe that card is his photo, but I never had it back then, so I couldn’t show it to him and ask. He was a generally quiet guy, but I asked him about golf one time and if he hit a hole in one. He said he did, and I asked him what it felt like, and he replied ‘exhilarating’. Maybe I can pick up golf when I retire and go to enough par 3 courses that I’ll get that exhilarating feeling. The Torkelson is a ‘24 Big League SP, and the Verlander is a blue refractor from ‘12 Topps Chrome. While most people wouldn’t consider a mascot autograph a ‘hit’, I’m thrilled to add this Paws autograph to my collection. Kyler and I are trying to get mascot autographs at different stadiums, and sometimes it’s even more difficult than getting actual players. We struck out on Paws at Comerica, and Raymond is the only one we’ve gotten in fact, out of the 6 parks we’ve see in person. The ‘19 Verlander relic made me do a double take as I was seeing Verlander Astro cards in 2018, so I’m glad they still made Tiger cards of him even after he left them. The 1960 Topps Ray Semproch was easily the oldest card of the batch, and I cut off a 1976 Topps record breaker of Mickey Lolich. In the last week I found out Lolich had almost 3,000 Ks from an article online as well as this card. With guys like Kaat, Jack Morris, and others getting in the Hall, Mickey Lolich needs to get a good, hard look. The ‘68 postseason and career numbers are worth double checking. 

I got this ‘23 Jason Adam card from the Rays team set in 2023, and got it signed in June when I went and saw the Rays play the Cubs. A few weeks ago, I got an email on TCDB from a Rays employee who wanted to know where I got the card.  I told them the team set and that there might be one at the team store. Apparently the set is nowhere to be found online and is sold out at the Trop. I offered to just send them the card since they seemed like they would enjoy it more than me, and I sent it out a few weeks ago. It turns out they work in the scouting department analyzing video and sorting it by pitch type and then sending a report with tendencies directly to manager Kevin Cash. As much as I don’t care for Cash’s overanalyzing and the love of spin rate, it is definitely interesting. In return for the Adam card, they offered me tickets to a Rays game next year, which I plan to pick out when they release the 2025 schedule. 

One last note and I’ll put you out of your misery. My pineapple plant started turning yellow 2 days ago, and I decided to try and twist it off the plant today. 

It came off, but didn’t come off too easy, and I was expecting it to be sweet like the one I had 3 or 4 years ago. Unfortunately, I should’ve probably let it go a few more days, because it had very little sweet flavor to it. On the bright side, there are 6 or 7 more pineapple plants around the house, and one of them is bound to bloom next spring. 

That was the one I picked 4 or 5 years ago, and you can see it was probably a few days more ripe. 

I think that was about all of the important things worth noting since my last post. I picked up a blaster of ‘24 Donruss, was impressed with the foil and thought it was funny how each pack had cards in order numerically (like 20-30 or 42-52). Haven’t found Topps Chrome in the wild, but the complete set will be out in about 2 weeks, so that will have to do. 

Stay tuned for custom project news as well as shameless Younger Griffin plugs and more trading. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy