Trade with Nomo’s Sushi Platter and another song

First off, thanks for all of the kind comments on my last post. I have never pictured myself as someone with insignt, more as someone who to learn what not to do from, so that was very encouraging to hear people say that. More on the previous post later. 

I am still 3 trades behind in getting caught up after a huge package that Johnny's Trading Spot sent last week, but this post will get me a little closer to getting caught up. 

About 2 months ago, I emailed Michael from Nomo's Sushi Platter after seeing a blogger post about trading with him, and we got a trade started. I sent some cards of Hideo Nomo, Andre Ethier, Mike Piazza, Raul Mondesi, and Matt Kemp, and Micheal sent back a bunch of Tigers and Rays. 

The first pic starts off with a deckle edge Willie Horton and a sunset card of Bill Freehan. Many of the cards helped me get closer to finishing some Tigers sets off. I could've sworn I had the '88 Topps Nokes All-Star, but must've had it autographed and sold it, because it was listed as a need. 

My favorite cards from this page are probably the '92 Topps ones, since I've got both of those autographed and needed new copies for my binders, and the 1993 Stadium Club cards, as the photos for many of them were taken at Joker Marchant Stadium, which I have been to hundreds of times. 

This page has a number of sets that I missed out on in the '90's, like '94 Triple Play and '95 Fleer. The '94 Upper Deck Matt Brunson brings back memories, as I remember pulling his '94 Bowman card that year, and I had hoped to get it signed. I must've missed him playing in Lakeland in the minors, because I probably went to 1 game in '94 and he wasn't there. I didn't stay much after Spring Training games at that point either, so I probably missed getting him there before he retired. 

This page features a number of cards which I had signed at one point, but ended up selling, including the '98 Collector's Choice Catalanotto, the 99 Topps Robert Fick and Justin Thompson, and the '02 Fleer Matt Anderson. 

Some of my favorites on this page include the '02 Upper Deck Victory Wil Ledesma, the '07 Topps Mike Rabelo (one of 2 Tigers cards Mike got in that set), the Al Kaline '08 Donruss Thread parallel, the Ultimate Collection Fu Te Ni (the first card of Ultimate Collection I have ever owned), and the Cut to the Chase die-cut Fielder insert. 

This page finished off the Tigers and gets to the Rays portion. Does anyone remember when Upper Deck PowerDeck came out? I remember a few people thinking that CD's were the future of baseball cards. I think the set only lasted 2 years, and here we are now with online on-demand sets that Topps can just print out enough of to cover the orders, and all of the high-end stuff that doesn't do team players any favors, and did I mention the hundreds of parallels to everything? I think the CD's would've been a better way to go, don't you?

Most of the Rays were new-to-me. I have never been a Fleer guy, so just about any time someone sends me Fleer, I need it. Nothing bad about Fleer, I've just always been a Topps guy, and I just like their designs better. 

This one finished off the Rays, with just about all cards being ones that I needed. The Total Rob Bell brought back some good memories. I saw Rob at a Rays game one year before a game. I had the Silver version of that card, and Rob came over to sign, and he signed his '98 Bowman card for me, and I asked him if he had the silver Total card. He said no, so I gave it to him, and he proceeded to put it in his back pocket, and then sat down in the dugout. It made me cringe to see him sit on the card and probably bend it. I love the Tropicana Field photo, as I can imagine myself walking around the park. There is a little river that runs along about half of the park. I usually enter the park around the CF gate, and the river is just to the left of that. The parking lot is along the LF side of the park, with a railroad track running along the side of it. I hope we can get back to a game in 2021. 

Here are the cards for my Favorite Player Collection. I love the Upper Deck Vintage card of Carl Everett. I remember a guy on an autograph messageboard had got the Tigers version of that card signed by everyone except for Rich Becker (who was a pretty decent signer ttm, at least for me), and he was freaking out about sending to Becker, wanting to send him a certified letter first explaining that he would be sending the card to him to finish, and contemplating getting insurance and the whole 9 yards. I understand being worried, but it kind of seemed like he was going overboard. Never found out if he sent it or not. I love the '91 Stadium Club Fielder/Canseco. The Didi is a minor league issue. 

The Huff's are either new ones or ones that will fill in holes in my Rays binders. I appreciate the time Michael took to go through my Want List and how he hit many areas of my collection. The Mark Lowe and Brandon Morrow cards are both autographed. I'm stoked about the Lowe, because he only has 1 certified autograph card, and the lone copy on COMC is overpriced in my opinion. Not many people I've traded with have taken the time to send highlight cards, but Michael fond a few to add, and I'm excited to add them to my Highlights binder. He also found some Topps Gold cards for that project and a card of Jason Campbell, who was Auburn's QB shortly before I lived in Montgomery, Alabama and really started following them.
Thanks to Michael for the awesome trade.

So the last post that I made featured a video of an original song that I wrote, along with the lyrics and a chord sheet. I still am not sure if the video worked for everyone, so I tried going the YouTube route. I had made a video on how I make customs and put it on YouTube, so I took the 2 song videos I made and posted them to YouTube, so if you can't view them on my blog, you can perhaps view them there.

The first song was called 'Plan B', and here are the videos and lyrics/chord sheet.

Here is the link to the YouTube video if it doesn't work.

The other song I recorded was an original song I wrote called "I am your Peace". In around 2002, I had written a bunch of what I now think are just crappy songs. I didn't really know much about chord progressions and music theory back then, but I did write the majority of this song back then. Sometime during that period, I was talking with my friend Jason, who is an excellent piano player and drummer. I told him (naively) that I thought I had run out of topics to write songs about. He asked me if I had ever written one about peace. I thought about it, and then had a topic for my next song. Jason and I were in a band with some people in our youth group. We mostly just did the worship songs for the services, but we got together when we could, and had tried to perform some original songs. Our friend Joe, who played guitar and sang lead vocals in the band had written some music for a song on guitar with a D, A/C#, Bm, G main progression, and a Em, G, D, A secondary progression. Nothing really came of Joe's song, but while playing the progressions a few times with him, I came up with a sweet piano part to it. I never told Joe, but I took the piano riff I came up with to the progression he had, and used it in 'I am your Peace'. While living in Montgomery, Alabama, I came up with the main melody of the solo part on a guitar, actually. I have performed the song a few times over the years, once in 2004 or so at a youth worship service at our church, once while getting to open for a band called Thalon in 2007, once at a talent show for our church's college group, and a few times at a church that a co-worker went to for their Friday night music service in 2010. 

The song lyrically is about all of the struggles we go through and how the person saying 'I am you peace' in the song will always be there. That person can be different things to different people, whether it be God, a significant other/spouse, a good friend, or a close relative. I hope, like in the last song I posted, that it is a message that can be held on to during these crazy times in the world. 

Here is (hopefully) the video of that one, as well as the Lyrics/chorcds.

Here is a link to the YouTube video if the one posted here doesn't work.

I wanted to mention that I have a few more 'Christian' songs that I have written that I could record and post if anyone is interested. If nobody is, I don't really see the point in wasting anyone's time, so if I get enough interest, I'll do it. If you would enjoy hearing any of these other songs, please comment, and if I could also get a few people to comment if these videos are actually working. I'm still not sure if the one I posted previously ever did.

I am still working on the Sunset Card post, and have the 1951 to 1978 Topps sets finished. There is a lot of research involved (identifying who to list for each year, seeing if Topps gave them a true sunset card and if so, identifying the card number, and finally, if they don't have a true sunset card, seeing if a custom card has been made of them (thanks to When Topps had Balls, 90% of guys in the '70's do), but I think all of the research will be worth it in the end, and it could end up being a valuable list for collectors.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

An original song...

First off, I have 2 trades I haven't done posts for, and I apologize for letting them get pushed back so far.
I really hope this post doesn't get to political and doesn't get to preachy, and I apologize if it does.
I guess I have to start it off from the very early part of my life. I come from a family of 6. I have 3 younger sisters who are now 35, and 33 (twins), while I just turned 37 a few days ago. We all grew up pretty sheltered and kind of raised in church, which there is nothing wrong with, I think it just kind of hid me from a lot of stuff going on in the world. I was home-schooled by my mom from kindergarden to 2nd grade, was in a pretty strict private school from 3rd through 5th, home-schooled again from 6th through 10th, and put in public school in 11th and 12. My mom tried, but with 4 of us to teach, much of the schooling was either put on us to keep up with the reading or worksheets (which we did 75% of the time), and some of the subjects got pushed to the back burner. She listened to Rush Limbaugh every afternoon, which I don't think is wrong, but perhaps it just gave us only one side of the equation much of the time.
I got pretty involved in youth group during middle school. There was a girl in the group who seemed different than the rest. She read her Bible consistantly, and had been on a few mission trips, and just seemed like she had something that me and many kids in the group wanted. I decided to start reading my Bible, and over the next few years, I came to realize that God loved me enough to send His Son down to earth to live a life without sinning and falling short of the mark, and pay the penalty for all of the wrong things I had ever done, and offer me the gift of eternal life. You may or may not believe in any of this or may not care, and that's ok. It's just part of my story. I accepted God's gift, and continued to get in the Bible and do what I thought was right. This is kind of where everything gets confusing. Growing up in the southern baptist church I was in, I think many of the things they taught seemed right in themselves, but when you actually get down to it, they didn't actually line up with what the Bible taught. Many people in the church were judgemental of many different groups of people. We were kind of taught that us people in the church were in the right and everyone else was wrong and needed to be shown that.
I went to college a few years later, and I just kept acting the way the church taught me to, and probably alienating a bunch of people. One of our suitemates was a little strange, and rumor had it he was a satanist. Instead of trying to make him feel welcome, I just judged him and didn't try to accept him. One day he was talking about an Andy Warhol painting, and I just lit into him, telling him how stupid Andy was and how lame his painting was. When I walked back to my room, my roommate JD just commented 'You'll never reach him that way'. It kind of hit me that I lost my perspective of what was right.
I hate to admit it, but in spite of what I claimed I believed, I have been racist to many different groups. I just never took the time to give other people a chance and try to relate to them and give them a chance or get to know their story of why they are like they are. While my upbringing and the church I went to kind of molded me, I was ultimately the person responsible for the choices I made.
Over the years, a few things have made me see that I was wrong for how I acted. I have always opposed illegal immigrants coming to the US. I reasoned that all they do is steal money and resources from people who are born here and work for a living. While some do, not all people do, and they shouldn't be judged for the actions of a small group.
My wife Karen is the most loving and accepting person I know. She accepted and loved me for crying out loud. She has been on me for the way I have acted, but has always been loving about it, and has made me question why I believe what I do. In the process of dating her, she was living in the house of a family, the Hoffmans. Fred & Mary Hoffman had 5 or 6 rooms in their house, and alwasy rented them out to young people at their church. They have been on many mission trips to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Nicaragua. While on one of the trips, they met a fellow named Rodolfo. Where Rodolfo is from, the political tensions are very high, and the lines are pretty set. Rodolfo is a doctor, and while offering medical help to a member of a different party that his family was affiliated with, he got in trouble with the political officials, and his life became in danger. He fled to the US, and Fred & Mary helped him out, trying to get himi political assylum, paying for his legal fees, and lettting him live with them. I feel sorry for Rodolfo. He is one of the good people who can't come to the US legally because the country he is fleeing won't let him. If he comes illegally, the establishment in the US will ship him back. Kind of a catch 22 that makes me think that maybe its the system that needs to be changed and it's ok if people try to come to the US if where they live now aren't safe.
I am ashamed to admit, but I have been racist in the past. I just haven't given African American people the benefit of the doubt, whether it be a story about a person getting arrested, or shot by the police, or killed. That was wrong. Why shouldn't I give anyone the benefit of the doubt. Many of these stories that have came out about African Americans being harassed by the police are unthinkable. The fact that parents have to give their children 'the talk' about how police are going to pull them over for no reason at all and that there isn't much that they can do about it is just alarming and sad. What can I do to change things? Do I try to talk to my African American co-workers and friends and ask them for advice? Do I post things online? Do I just try to be more accepting and teach my child that as well? I wish I knew the answer.
While trying to be a good 'Christian' in college, I wrote a original song with my brother-in-law that I called 'Plan B'. The song basically questioned why people came to church and left unchanged. I was judging other people in that song, as well as others that I've written, and the more I grow older, the more I find that I'm just writing the songs about myself.
I think the basic idea of the song has merit, and I've changed a number of the lyrics recently in order to kind of reflect what is going on in the world now. Here is where I'm going to try to post a video of me performing it, and below it will be the lyrics and hopefully a chord sheet. I have no idea of how the quality of this video will be, I took it with my phone and uploaded it to blogger from my phone, and it's just my tired voice and piano with no click track or anything.

PLAN B
Words by: Jeremy DeJong & JT Bush
Music by: Jeremy DeJong

VERSE 1
He goes there every Sunday as if to make an appearance.
He listend to the message, but rarely does he hear it.
He leaves the church as if his obligation is done.
Now it's back to whatever, whatever he calls 'fun'.

VERSE 2
We say we are different, but we lock our minds in a jar.
Instead of reaching out to the world, we stay right where we are.
We judge too many people, instead of looking at ourselves.
We scare away the broken, and don't care if they ever get well.

PRE-CHORUS
The truth is preached, but seldom does it get through
and all of the Christians wonder what to do.

CHORUS
It's about time to put our words into action and show love instead of hate.
It will change their reaction if we could only relate.
Talk is cheap, let's back it up. There's a world that needs some love (2X)

VERSE 3
Today nobody is equal. Cheap talk won't be enough.
Forget about appearance, and start showing everyone love.

PRE-CHORUS
CHORUS
SOLO
PRE-CHORUS
CHORUS

Here is the chord sheet. I hope you can read it. Basically B minor, A, G 3 times, then a D and A for the verses, Bm, G, D, A for the pre-chorus, chorus, and intro/outro with an F# thrown in the solo part.


I hope that this song can be one that you relate to, whether from being tired of being a Christian that isn't loving everyone, or whether you don't even believe in anything but still hope for a world where everyone is loved and accepted. Please let me know if the song affected you in any positive way.

I truly hope that the relationship with all types of people can improve in the future, and I hope to be part of that change and that I can start showing more love to people. Thanks for putting up with my singing and playing. I play alot better when I am not singing, and when I'm in a band setting. Maybe I'll get a recording of that up sometime.

In my next post, I hope to highlight one of the trades I have yet to post, and I also might put a video of another orignial song, one of my oldest and probably one of my best ones, one which I have performed about a dozen times over the years.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

Trade with Wax Pack Wonder

A few weeks ago, I completed a trade with Jeff from Wax Pack Wonders. I sent him some Ryne Sandberg's, Kerry Wood's, Mark Grace's, and Cubs & Twins cards. While not a Twins fan, Jeff donates a binder of Twins for an auction at his church every year, which is usually scooped up pretty quick since he is located in Minnesota. Good to know, as I am running low on good Cub cards and I still have some good Twins to spare. 

Jeff hooked me up with a ton of Tigers and Rays. 

The first page helps me with some older Topps Tigers sets, mainly 1979 and 1980.

I love the first row of cards on this page, as I can recognize on the Cowens, Hebner, and Petry Fleer card that the pictures were taken at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida, where the Tigers train every spring. I've been to over 100 games at the ballpark, and if not for the task of taking so many cards out of Tigers sets I am close to completing, I might just have a Marchant Stadium binder. 

This page gets me closer to finishing the '84 Topps set, and also shows some harder-to-find sets, such as 1986 Leaf. 

Somehow, I was missing Lance Parrish's 1987 Topps All-Star. One of the few 1987 Topps card I have never seen in my life. I once had the '88 Topps Tigers leaders card signed by both Trammell and Gibson, but it was sold, and now I have it back. The '90 Donruss Best cards are cool, as I've rarely seen those cards show up in trades. I've been collecting since 1988, and although I've never actively browesed COMC or eBay for them, the only time I've ever seen Donruss Best cards in person were when my LCS in Lakeland had a few '89 packs, and when I seen a few packs at a Winn Dixie in the early '90's. The last card on the page is a highlight for me, a card of Dennis McNamara, a Lakeland Tiger. I may have seen him play that year, and I have another Lakeland card of him, I believe from the previous year. 

The next page has a few sets that I don't have many cards from, 1992 Topps Kids, and 1993 Flair. I am now close to having the Tigers set for '93 Flair thanks to some trades. The '93 Topps Trammell and Whitaker cards are ones I've drooled over since 1993 when they came out, and I've never pulled them from packs or got them in trades. Now I can cross them off of my lists.

The final page features a few cards I have got signed but sold ('94 Topps Skeeter Barnes, 1996 Topps Brandon Reed, 2001 Topps Wendell Magee, and 2001 Heritage Higginson), a few cards I have always wanted a card the set they were in ('95 Donruss Diamond Kingsand  '97 Elite), and some newer cards I don't have (basically the whole bottom row). 

The final photo are the last of the Tigers, the Rays, and the guys in my Favorite Player binder. All of the Rays were new to me, and I am digging the Fielders, especially the 1990 Donruss Best, the '91 Upper Deck 51st HR one, and the Fleer insert. 

Thanks, Jeff, for the awesome trade!

That gets me 1 trade closer to finishing posting all of my recent trades and getting caught up. Only 2 more to go.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

Cards from Cards on Cards and a little update

Recently, Kerry from Cards on Cards offered to bust a ton of packs of a Topps of the Class set and to let readers sign up for a team, and offered to mail any card(s) of that team that he pulled. Well, I signed up for the Rays. Although Kerry didn't pull any of the Blake Snell card in the set, he graciously sent some cards for me that fit my collection. (Apologies if I didn't include all of them, I accidentally put them in my Rays/Tigers/Favorite Player boxes before taking pictures, and I had to take them out again, and I may have missed 1 or 2). 

The Scherzer will go with his cards in my Favorite Player binder, while the Cabrera will go in my Tigers binder, and the Longo and Snell cards will go in the Rays one.

Thanks, Kerry, for sending me some cards and for doing the cool break. I'll be keeping my eye out for some Cardinals for you.

I am currently 2-3 posts behind in catching up on some trades I've made. I think the main reason behind that is that I was trying to update both my Rays and Tigers Want List pages. The good news is that they are both completely up to date. I am working on updating pages of my Favorite Players, and after that, just do a few minor changes to the Want List page, and I should have all of my cards catalogued and have made it easier to find what I have and need.

I also am working on a post listing every Sunset card (both in Topps sets, and ones that would be customs). So far, I have listed every one of major players/fan favorites from every set from 1951 to 1964. That will be my next project after the Favorite Player pages are updated.

My birthday is on Sunday, and my wife and I are going to go to St. Augustine on Saturday night and get a hotel and eat dinner with my youngest sister and her husband and leave them and see where the night takes us. Sunday morning, I plan on sleeping in until 11 and then coming back home. 11 doesn't sound all that late, but I get up at 4:15 AM every morning, and I could really use a day to sleep in without my son waking my up at 6 or 7, lol.

My work is having a bogo cookie sale, and it started today. Not looking forward to that, number one, because it is a ton of extra work, and two, because I fear at least 3 of the remaning days of the sale I am going to have to be up at 2AM and at work at 3 because one of our associates is going to be at a new store opening. What I wouldn't give for a time machine to make it be Saturday night.

Now that the Want List and Player Pages are almost finished, I might try something new. I have talked before about how I have written some songs, and I've tossed the idea around of recording myself singing and playing one. One of these days, I think I'll video it from my phone, and post the lyrics, and perhaps a chord sheet, along with the video. Don't expect anything studio-quality or anything that sounds like Steve Perry, but I feel the song I am thinking of doing would be well recieved for the lyrics, especially with things the way they are in the world right now.

I don't know how many of you are paying attention to the MLB Draft, but I was happy to see the Tigers select Spencer Torkelson with the #1 overall pick. I think it's time the Tigers added a decent hitter to their crop of young arms. It gives me hope that in the next 5 years, they can maybe have a rotation featuring Casey Mize, Matt Manning, and maybe Joey Wentz or another youngster, and have a lineup featuring Jeimer Candelario, Christin Stewart, Parker Meadows, Riley Greene, Jake Rogers/Grayson Greiner, and Torkelson, along with hopefully a few big-name free agent signings. What I wouldn't give to see a Tigers (and Rays) championship in my lifetime. Before I go, here is a 2020 Topps custom of Torkelson I made today.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

Trade with Card Hemorrhage/Pick Pockets

I recently got a package in the mail from Jay of Card Hemorrhage. We had emailed some about getting a little trade going. I sent him some guys from his PC, and he sent me back some nice Rays and Tigers for mine. 

The Tigers hit a bunch of needs for me. As I have been working on my Tigers Want List, I have discovered that I am in need of cards for 95% of junk wax sets, as well as vintage/newer ones. Thankfully, Jay helped out with all 3. With vintage, we have a '79 Topps Ron LeFlore League Leader, a 2nd year Topps Gibby, and an '84 Topps Tigers Leaders card. I really wish Topps would make something like that in current sets. The next 6 cards represent junk-wax era, and although they might be deemed 'junk' to someone else, I was happy to get them, as they each crossed a name off of a want list for me. The Gibson comes from the Fleer 1986 Baseball's Best Sluggers vs. Pitchers boxed set. The Ownie Carroll card is from a TSN (Conlon?) set which I remember seeing in stores as an elementary schooler. Then we have 4 from the '91 Topps Archives 1954 Topps reprint set. Each card marks the first of each player for me besides Fred Hatfield. I at one point had an early '50's Topps card signed by Fred (1953 maybe?), which got sold with my autographed cards a few years ago. The rest of the page is newer stuff, a '12 Topps V-Mart, a Harold Castro autographed 1st year Bowman, 4 cards from the 2016 Topps Tigers team set, a 2017 Heritage K-Rod, '19 Big League Niko Goodrum, a 2020 Heritage Dario Agrazal, and a '92 Upper Deck Cecil Fielder for my Favorite Player Collection binder. 

The Rays were well represented as well, with an '04 Playoff Honors Rocco Baldelli, Gypsy Queens of Matt Moore and Kevin Kiermaier, 2 '17 Topps cards of Corey Dickerson and Steven Souza, an '17 Heritage of Longo, a sweet Archives Purple parallel of Brandon Lowe, and 6 2020 Heritage Rays, Willy Adames, Ji-Man Choi, Travis d'Arnaud, Nate Lowe, Brendan McKay/Mike Brosseau, and Trevor Richards.

A great trade from a great new blog. Thanks, Jay.

As for the pick pockets mentioned in the title, Julie from A Cracked Bat has a page on her blog called 'Pick Pockets', where you basically can pick from a number of cards she has listed that she will send you. I found a few that fit my collection, so I 'picked' them, and they arrived in my mailbox yesterday. 

I had only picked 2, (a 2016 Heritage Pat Venditte and a 1999 Topps Stars Chipper Jones), but Julie sent a full binder page of cards. An unexpected kind gesture, and I definitely wasn't expecting to find what I did. I got a sweet looking 1998 SPx Finite Wade Boggs for my Rays binder, a Pacific Ty Cobb, a 2011 Bowman Platinum Avisail Garcia rookie card (one card of which I had got signed at one point and then sold), and then comes the wow card, a 1960 Topps Paul Foytack. 1960 Topps cards don't just pop into your lap, and when they do, not for free. I about fell out of my chair when I saw it. The last 2 cards besides the aforementioned PC guys are 2 1993 Cardtoons cards of Alan Trammell and Cecil Fielder.  

Thank you, Julie for the nice surprise cards in addition to the ones I picked.

That should wrap it up. I have 1 more trade to post about (hopefuly by the end of the weekend, and a few more that should be one the way, so the posts and updates to the Want Lists should keep coming for a while.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

Trade with Brad's Phillies Blog/PWE from Night Owl

I recently recieved 2 card packages, and I thought I would show them off, and also post what's been going on with my garden. 

A few weeks ago, I reached out to Brad from Brad's Phillies Blog, and we got a trade going. I sent him some Phillies cards I had in my collection that I thought he would like, and he sent me back a nice assortment of Rays. The McGriff is from  the '99 Pacific Revolution set, and it looks amazing. The Shawn Riggans dual autograph from '07 Topps Co-Signers is the 2nd autographed card from Riggans I have from that set, and the '07 Turkey Red relic is my first Delmon Young relic. Same for the '08 UD Timeline Kazmir jersey. The Ticket to stardom cards got me 2 or 3 cards away from completing that set, and the '12 Bowmans got me close as well. I'll tell you, after working up updating my Rays Want List, all of these Bowman sets have me confused. In '02, Bowman released their Draft Picks & Prospects set, which wasn't really confusing, and if I recall correctly, they had a separate Chrome set for it and the regular Bowman set. Things started to get confusing in 2006, when each Bowman set had a regular set of 'established veteran players', then another set of 'prospects'. The Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects sets had another dual set kind of thing, with 'Draft Picks' and 'Prospects'. I don't recall when, but the original Bowman set started inserting Chrome cards in their packs, so you had a Bowman Chrome Prospects set in regular Bowman, and then I believe Bowman Chrome was issued separately so you had 2 different Bowman Chrome Prospects sets in 2 different sets, and it just got confusing to me. I think it's just down to the 'Bowman' and 'Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects' sets with the Chrome cards inserted instead of a separate Bowman Chrome set now, so I think it will be a little easier to figure out what is what from newer Bowman sets. With that being said, I am appreciative of getting some Bowman cards from 8 years ago from guys like Brad. 

The next photo has some '12 Archives guys, some '12 Topps Chrome Refractors and X-Fractors, and some neat 2015 Topps Toys R Us Purple cards. The last 4 cards are guys from my Favorite Player Collection. The McCracken is another one from '99 Pacific Revolution, and the Zobrists are from '12 Archives, '12 Chrome, and '13 Topps Wal-Mart Blue. 

The highlight of the package, for me, was this 2004 Elite Extra Edition Aspirations Die-Cut autograph of Joey Gathright. Gathright is in my Favorite Player binder because he had some torrid speed. I was going to Rays games when he was in the minors, and I remember fans and analysts talking about him and how he was going to be even faster than Carl Crawford. He didn't get too much of a shot with the Rays, but ended up playing for a few years in the Majors. 

Thanks to Brad for all of the cool cards.

The same day I got Brad's package, I got a PWE in the mail from Greg of Night Owl Cards. Greg sent me a '79 Topps Rusty Staub, 3 Topps Holiday Rays, a Stadium Club Matt Duffy, a Gallery Jose De Leon, 3 guys from this year's Opening Day, a sweet Blue parallel from the same set, and a '93 Topps Brook Jacoby sunset card. I hate to admit it, but ever since I saw the post Greg did that I hoped he would send the Meadows Blue Opening Day to me in a trade.

Thanks, Greg, for the nice surprise PWE. I'll get a stack of cards going for you soon. 

In addition to all of the trading, I have been doing some work on my aforementioned Want Lists. I am almost done with the Rays, just need to update the '18, '19, and '20 sets. I hope to get it done by Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. Next up will be my Tigers Want List, and then the Player Collection pages. The Tigers ones will probably take a month or so, and the favorite players shouldn't be that long since I'm just adding a few new cards to the list of most players. 

I've been doing a little bit of tending to my flower boxes outside. Basically I have 2 6x6 boxes, one in the front yard, and one in the back. The one in the front doesn't have that much space due to the tree stump that I built it around, but I'm making the most of it. The front also has a little area by our front sidewalk. That has a few things already there when we moved in the house, and I added an aloe plant about 3 years ago, a mini rose plant around the same time, and 2 new plants a few weeks ago, a pineapple top, and a few orchid seeds that a coworker gave me. So far, the orchids haven't came up, and I think it's too early to tell with the pineapple. 

Switching to the back yard, the 6x6 box has a few things, 3 pineapples that are around 1 1/2 years old, a milkweed bush that is a year old, and a few random seeds that I've planted over the last 2 months that I'm still kind of waiting on. I have 4 gladiola bulbs that I planted which are doing very well, and I'm sure I'll see flowers on. I planted a few old potatoes that had sprouted, and I'm going to wait until the branches are good and dead before I dig them up. If they are anything like the last time I've done potatoes, I'm not expecting much.  I believe there was a wildflower mix and some sunflowers. There are a few things growing which may or may not be weeds, so I'm just going to wait and see if they flower before pulling them out. There are 1 or 2 sunflowers that might blossom, so that is good. 

On to the front yard box, I have a milkweed bush doing very well. It was growing seed pods all through the winter, and some new ones popped up on it about a week ago. I planted 2 gladiola bulbs, which have sprouted up and I think they will bloom. Last year, I planted a wildflower mix that must've had a bunch of zinnias it, because they just took over the box. It looked nice, but then the plants got a white fungus on them, and basically forced me to get rid of all of them. Some of them must've dropped seeds before I could yank them out, because I see 1 or 2 zinnias in the box now. There are a few snapdragons that I planted, and they are doing well and blossoming. Along with the pineapple top and orchid seeds that I planted by the front walkway, I also planted them in the box. The orchid seeds have had one pop up. Here it is. 

I also planted a few sunflowers, and one is doing really well, and I'm going to see a flower any day. You can kind of see the snapdragons to the left of it, and right by one of the bigger leaves on the right is a morning glory. I have a few of those growing, and I could get a ton of seeds from them if I want. 

If anyone is into planting stuff, maybe I can send you some seeds I harvested during a future trade. I have a ton of milkweed seeds, and I'm sure I can get a number of ones from the sunflowers and morning glory's. Not sure what will come from the gladiolas, snapdragons, and orchids, but I'm holding out hope that I will get a few seeds from each.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

Trade with Cards on Cards and Diamond Nine pickup

I recently made a trade with Kerry from Cards on Cards. I sent him a box of Cardinals from his wantlist, and he sent a similar box back with a ton of Rays and Tigers from just about every set imaginable. 

We start off hot, with a cool '98 Score Fred McGriff parallel. One of my favorite cards from the box was the '06 Bowman Heritage Evan Longoria rookie. This is the first Longo rookie to make it to my collection. This card was hot in '08, and I would've given a ton to have had it in '06 and '07 when I lived in Montgomery, Alabama, because I could've got it signed by Longo at a Biscuits game. I have a lineup card and baseball signed by Evan, but no cards. There are some other cool cards of Longoria on this page, including a '09 Vintage parallel, '10 Cards Your Mom threw Out insert, and a sportflix-type insert from '11 Ticket To Stardom. Next to that one is an X-Fractor of Jeremy Hellickson. 

More Longoria cards, including a Green '13 parallel. The Price Orange Refractor is sweet, and it will look nice next to the Purple copy I have of the same card. The Escobar Opening Day is a Blue parallel. 

This page has a bunch of refractors to start out. I can almost start an Evan Longoria '16 Topps Chrome Rainbow with the sepia and fish-fractor. I also have a sepia refractor of Odorizzi, so I am close to having a good portion of his rainbow. One of my favorite cards from the box was also the Gold Refractor of Brent Honeywell from '18 Bowman Chrome. I love how he has the true screwball, and I really think he is going to do well. 

The Heritage cards get me closer to finishing the set. I know I have said that alot, but after doing nothing but looking up cards on TCDB, I think I have enough to finish a number of sets. The Allen & Ginter Black cards are my first ones from that set. 

The Garcia Big League parallels give me the complete rainbow of that card, I believe, unless there are a few 1/1s. I know I have the base, Gold, Blue, and Rainbow foil copies of the card. More Heritage needs, including some cool rookie cards. I wish Topps did that with all of the rookies in new sets. 

There are some new Gypsy Queen and Heritage cards which will help those sets out. I plan on putting one of the Morgan League Leaders in my Rays binder and putting the other one in my Astros binder under 'Verlander'. I lost all respect for Cole when he became a Yankee. 

The last page is chock full of '20 Opening Day, which I believe is complete now. 

Kerry also sent me some Tigers. I got a number of needs from early '90's sets. I love the '94 Bowman Thompson and the '06 Bowman Heritage cards. I've seen a number of the rookies in the minors, and haven't heard of some of those guys in years. 

This page has a bunch of cards from some of the years where I really didn't buy many packs. I had just got married and money was tight, so I just didn't buy cards that much from around '12-'14. It's always nice getting new cards from that period to fill in the gaps. 

Kerry sent a ton of Heritage cards, and they make an appearance on this page. I think the Sam Crawford card at the end is my first card of him.

Crawford makes another appearance, this time on a red parallel. I've really wanted some cards of new Tiger prospects, and Kerry didn't disappoint, hooking me up with a '20 Travis Demeritte, Tyler Alexander, and Jake Rogers. 

The last page has 2 guys for my Favorite Player binder, '06 Bowman Heritage cards of Nate Robertson and superutilityman Brandon Inge.

Thanks, Kerry, for the awesome package!! I look forward to putting all of these cards in binders and seeing how close I am to finishing some of these team sets.

I also recieved this '12 Bowman Chrome Refractor of James Shields this week. It was part of a Diamond Nine giveaway post that Kevin from The Diamond King did. 

                                           

Thanks to Kevin and all of the rest of the bloggers who have done giveaways. 

I am trying to update my wantlists, and the process is fun, but very slow. I have been going through my Rays binders and all of my loose Rays and have been checking them off of lists on TCDB, and adding the card numbers of the needed guys to my Rays Wantlist. I have finished the '96-'07 sets, and am in the midst of Bowman sets in 2008. I hope to get a number of sets done on my day off on Tuesday, and who knows, if I get a good jump, perhaps the Rays will be done by the end of the week. After the Rays are done, I'll do the same thing with my Tigers Wantlist, and finally, I will go through my Favorite Player binder, and just maker sure all of the pages for each player is up-to-date. This shouldn't be nearly as difficult as updating checklists. I hope this makes it easier for anyone who wants to trade with me.

Speaking of trading, I am in the midst of making a few trades. I hope to go through some of my binders on Tuesday as well and at least get a small stack going for each one I am working on. 

In reference to a post I made around a week ago, it looks like MLB is going to start up again, maybe in July. 80 games, 3 divisions, DH in both leagues (YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and a 20-man taxi squad.
I don't like the idea of expanded playoffs, but perhaps this give some weaker teams that got hot a chance to get weeded out. Maybe there is another reason (besides more money) to do this. I get the reason for the 3 divisions staying in the same 'zones'. I think there are enough good and bad teams in each division for the cream to rise to the top. The DH in both leagues is great in my opinion. I have dreamed that my son will grow up in a world without having to watch pitchers swing and miss at 3 pitches.
What really worries me is the no minor leagues thing. Not only will it take away so many jobs, but it really jeopardizes the chance of some players to ever get to the Bigs. One such player is Brody Koerner, who I am related to through marriage. Brody has had a taste of AAA ball the past 2 seasons, pitching mostly in AAA last year. He got hit hard, though. I figured if he did well this year, that he could join the Yankees in September. Now with no minors, I don't think he will get a shot this year. I don't think he would be on the taxi squad, he is (presumably) at the end of his contract, and without getting a chance to pitch in 2020, who would sign him? He could be useful to a team like Detroit, Baltimore, or Florida, who won't be winning for another 3 years or so. It's just a bad situation for everyone in the minors. Hopefully someone smarter than I will come up with a better plan.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy