Saturday, March 16, 2024

Package from Night Owl

On Thursday,  I came home from work, and there was a nice package of cards from Greg of Night Owl Cards waiting for me. It was filled with Topps cards from his favorite Topps set (1975), one I am slowly inching to finishing (1985), one I am now 1 card from completing (1989), and had some Tigers in it as well. 
I’m getting close to having all of the 4 player rookies in the ‘75 Topps set, as I have the Carter and Rice rookies. The only big one I need is the Keith Hernandez rookie. I have just a handful of 1975 Topps cards, so anybody I can get in a trade, even a common, is appreciated. Greg sent me 6 Dodgers from the 1985 Topps set. After making a trade a few weeks ago where I obtained some 1984 and 1985 Topps cards, I’m pretty close to completing the Dodgers ‘85 Topps set. Greg mentioned in his note that he hoped he read my TCDB wantlist and that he didn’t send me any doubles, and I’m happy to report that I try to update my paper list, TCDB, and my Google Docs list whenever I get new Topps cards and that I didn’t get any dupes. The 1989 Topps cards got me just 1 card away from finishing the ‘89 Topps set (#196 Denny Walling). I’m hoping I can find it when I go to Legends Sports & Games on Friday while I’m in Grand Rapids. Not sure exactly what I’ll come back to Florida with, but I’m sure I’ll cross some needs off of my list. 
The Tigers were a nice addition to the package. I have the 2023 complete set, but all of the rookies will go in my rookie binder, and now I can put the dual card with both players. After all of the packs of ‘23 Chrome Update that I got, I figured I would’ve already had the Tyler Alexander, but it is actually new to me. I almost want to fast forward a few weeks because then there is a decent chance that all of my cards will be uploaded to TCDB, and at that point I can start putting cards into binders, including all of the ones from this package from Night Owl. Thanks, Greg, for the nice package and for looking at my wantlist and crossing off some needs. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 
-Jeremy

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

2023 Heritage blaster

 A couple nights ago we were at Wally World and I ended up with a discount blaster of 2023 Heritage. It turned out to be a good purchase as it netted me some cards of guys I collect, teams I collect, and of some guys I might see in June. Karen got out of the hospital on Saturday and has been slowly getting back to normal and starting to breathe better. It will be nice to see her get some labs done and have the numbers be good, but seeing her be able to do well going to the store and not get winded was nice. 

I just took pictures of non-dupes. I got a total of 4 Chicago Cubs cards. The Rays play the Cubs at the Trop a day before my birthday in June, and Karen was telling me she might get some tickets, so the Cubs will come in handy for autograph chances. Logan Gilbert is a Stetson University product who I collect but I have one for the pc, so this one goes in the Mariners binder eventually. 
Scherzer is another guy I collect. I have his Rangers Heritage card, so this Mets one will go next to it. I pulled a bat card of Javy Baez. I doubt the bat is game used, because Baez couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, and the bat piece looks like it has been used. The rookies were nice as I got a Francisco Alvarez, the Cubs 4 player SP card, and Brayan Bello, the newest Red Sox player to sign a long term deal. 

The flashback card is kind of cool. At first it looked like maybe an indoor pool at a YMCA, but when I read the card, apparently it is an airport. The playoff card is an SP and will go in my highlights binder. I’ve pulled the SB leaders card before, so one will go with each team. The last card is a Corbin Burnes/Steve Carlton insert. I really hope Burnes can pitch like Steve Carlton for the Rat-Birds. Like Carlton in 1987 and 1988. Except without getting the championship ring like Carlton did in 1987. Rays up!!

The next week or 2 are planned out for me. Work tomorrow, off Friday where I’ll probably bite the bullet and mow our lawn. Work Saturday, church Sunday, work 4 days, and fly to Michigan on Thursday. I hope to meet up with Stu (aka Poison75) at a card shop in Michigan, and I’ve been pulling some stuff for him and we’ll hopefully do an in person swap and I can pick up some Topps needs at the shop. We’ll spend a few days in Michigan and see family and go to a wedding and I’ll come back with some Tigers swag and Dutch chocolate sprinkles to eat on sandwich bread. I’ll have to take a picture when I get back. Bread, butter, and chocolate sprinkles. Lots of chocolate sprinkles. After we get back, it will be spring break the week before Easter, so it will be crazy at work, but I’ll get one day off at some point. What I do that day will depend on where Kyler will be. If he’s in his normal day care that he goes to in the summer, I might try to meet up with John from Johnny’s Trading Spot if he’s available, perhaps see if my friend Jim a few miles from me wants to go to a card shop or something, and I also have a guy I know in Daytona who wants to swap cards. The last option might be good as he has some Topps cards that could help me out with sets, and a box or 2 of junk wax stuff. I have a ton of doubles in boxes and we might just do a swap of my dupes for stuff I need from his boxes. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure, right?  It is going to be a whirlwind the next 2 weeks, but at least Ill be having some fun and getting some cards and trading with some cool people. I’ll probably finish logging the Mariners into TCDB at some point before leaving for Michigan leaving me with 3 more teams and a few binders left before my entire collection will be logged. The latest count is a little over 94,000 cards, and at some point, Ken Griffey, Jr. jumped into the #1 spot, and I still have cards from 1999 to the present to log, so that will be more Griffey cards to add to his total. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 
-Jeremy

Friday, March 8, 2024

End of a crazy week

 It has been a crazy week to say the least. Tuesday I was off from work and working on logging the Minnesota Twins into TCDB. I had planned to get my hair cut, then Wednesday we had band practice planned, and then have Karen's brother come over Friday night. All that changed while Kyler and I were getting our hair cut. I had mentioned that Karen has been fighting a cold for a few weeks in my last post and that the insurance hadn't approved her IVIG infusions for 2 months or so. Well, she always has a 'don't let them be able to tell that you aren't feeling well' attitude, so I was kind of surprised when she texted me that she was thinking about going to the emergency room while we were at the haircut place. Driving home, she calls me and decided to go, and let me know that her mom was going to take her. We met up with her in the waiting room once we were done, and stayed for about an hour. After making dinner, they admitted her and started getting some lab work. Right before bed, I don't believe we had gotten any news other than her white blood cells being high, but then I was kind of shocked when I got up for work Wednesday morning. Her lactic acid levels were very high, and they decided to put her in ICU. She had like 4 or 5 IVs hooked up to her, giving her antibiotics, insulin, and various other meds, as well as nebulizer treatments every few hours for the asthma and breathing problems. It was kind of scary knowing how bad off she was at that point, and she was kind of scared as well. It took a turn for the better Thursday, as they were able to get her some IVIG at the hospital, and her lactic acid levels started trending downward. Exhibit A for the insurance to approve it. That night, she got approved to leave the ICU and go to a normal room, and Kyler finally got to visit her, and they both were happy for that. I brought her a few things from home that she needed, and she looked and sounded better, although not completely back to normal. I guess the plan is for her to stay another day, and depending on lab results and how she is doing, she could go home tomorrow night. I just know her, and I know she is going to plan to rest at home, but won't. It's just been kind of crazy. Luck would have it that I started a 5 day stretch of working on Wednesday, so Karen's mom has been coming to the house around 4AM when I leave so she can watch Kyler and bring him to school. Work has been crazy as the a$$holes at corporate decided to put some cookies on sale buy one get one free, and also hit me with the other side of the hammer and put donuts on sale as well. I have never set up so many cookies in my life as I did today, and I didn't have a choice, I was mixing on Thursday, and the idiot who baked yesterday only had to set up 1/5 of what it called for today. Lucky bastard. I was just happy I somehow got it all done by 2 so I could get Kyler from school on time. I'm baking again tomorrow, but I don't care how much it asks for, I don't have to be out at a certain time, and I can take a lunch (which I skipped today to give myself extra time). The rest of the sale should be relatively easy, as Monday I will be off, Tuesday (when I have to be out at 2 again) I will be mixing, and Wednesday I'm hoping won't call for hardly any cookies and the sale won't be as brutal. I just always get nervous when I'm under pressure or a time crunch, and sometimes it doesn't turn out pretty. 
Well, needless to say, I didn't make band practice Wednesday. Karen's brother is coming over tomorrow, but he will be more visiting with Karen at the hospital and helping her mom out with Kyler. Y'all's prayers must've worked because Karen's Aunt and Uncle (who are buying Karen's late Grandmother's house which her mom is living at) let her know that they didn't mind if her mom lived in the house after they purchased it, and weren't too concerned with us getting the furniture out. Don't get me wrong, there is trash everywhere and it does need a good deep cleaning, but if it somehow keeps Karen's mom from moving in with us, I will go there on my off days to help clean it for them. I've lived with her before, and it just got old pretty quick, and that was before we had a kid and had to fight her when she is over about letting us discipline Kyler when he needs it and to not add her 2 cents when we are finished. He has such a tough time figuring out who to listen to when she is over, and she is constantly undermining us by letting him play on her phone, watch TV, and the aforementioned disciplining issue. If I can have our house be a place of solitude and somehow keep her at arms length (my mom as well), I can deal with everything else. Thanks for the prayers again, and just in case it was the prayers that did it, I need my bakery manager at work to be transferred to another store yesterday. 
After the day I had at work today and the stress and craziness of Karen being away at the hospital, I needed something to take my mind off of the bad stuff. Well, Rod of Padrographs came through with a nice package of Florida's 2 teams, the Rays and Marlins.

Rod has always been kind with other collectors. For a while, he has been taking any teams that aren't Padres, and sending them to guys who collect them. While I try to send cards of non-Rays/Tigers to guys who collect them, I don't send every single card I get. That could get really expensive really quick. I don't know how he does it, but the cards that Rod sent made my day 100 times better. Many sets that I don't really get packs of (Allen & Ginter, Holiday, and Bowman) made it in the groups of cards, as did ones I haven't even seen packs of since the rebranding (Big League). I'll talk about Big League later. Rod got me a number of cards of Taj Bradley, and my collection of him is starting to get nice. As is my Jonathan Aranda collection. The Xavier Isaac card is nice, as well, because I hear people on this Rays FB group rave about how good he is going to be in a few years. 
Another Bradley and Aranda, and a cool 2024 Topps '89 tribute of Randy Arozarena. I hope he goes 40 HR's and 40 Stolen Bases this year. The Marlins were filled with nice parallels, SP's, and cards of Nick Fortes, a DeLand native who I collect. I was kind of hoping to run into him around town this offseason, but didn't. The Chisholm Allen & Ginter is an SP, and the Khalil Watson is an Ice parallel. I kind of treat Khalil Watson cards extra special like he is going to be a star since his Bowman rookie was on the sell sheets of whatever year Bowman that was. He hasn't done anything yet, but there's still time. 

I also got a few Luis Arraez cards. I've been getting a few parallels of him lately. I don't collect him, but I really respect him because he is the guy who kept Aaron Judge from winning a Triple Crown. The Chisholm Big League card is a parallel, while the Meyer card is one of those unnesseccary SP's. 
I am really excited about the Fortes Rabbit (?) parallel. Don't think I'll ever complete a rainbow, but I'll take all that I can get. Thanks, Rod, for the great cards and for your generosity with non-Padres cards. I'll be looking through my Padres stuff and getting you a package in the coming weeks. 

I guess 2024 Topps Big League will be coming out in about 2 weeks. They started out one of the first sentences on one of the articles I read online by saying it was a product geared towards kids, but then also noted that the friggin SP's are back. What a kick in the 'nads. Opening Day is gone, so the only way to get mascot cards geared towards kids is to get them from Big League packs, but they aren't going to be available in the wild, since flipper brah's are going to be hoarding them for the SP's, and it really doesn't matter anyways, because you aren't going to complete the team sets you want to anyways with the 10 card SSSSSSSSSSP portion of the set. What I find odd about the release isn't the 2 week notice, it's more that NOTHING has been mentioned or said about 2024 Heritage. How do we even know it's a thing. This lack of communication with Fanatics is absolutely unexcusable. Topps at least let collectors know in 2021 that they were pulling back the '21 sticker set (even after making sell sheets, talk about eating humble pie). Fanatics says that '23 Opening Day isn't a thing because they are getting used to the whole making cards thing, but it will be back. No word about it, and it's been a year. Now we get 2 weeks notice with the first drop of the design/sell sheet and the release of a product. There are guys that have been looking forward to '24 Heritage for over a decade, and you can do better that that. A least let collectors know it will be a thing by putting up a sell sheet without a release date. I feel like I won't be getting too many packs of cards this year because I'm just going to get the 2024 complete set, so other than a pack or 2 of Series 2 and Update, it's a waste. Heritage may or may not come out, but it might not be till June, who knows. I've never really been a Stadium Club or Allen & Ginter guy, so unless Panini puts anything out, Target and Wal-Mart shelves will be stocked with stale packs of 2024 Topps Series 1 for the time being  (unless you are a flipper and can beat all of the other ones to packs of Big League). Maybe this will bring an end to the junk era we are in now and put Fanatics out of business and some other company can buy them out. I'd be up for it. 

I have been able to get the Twins into TCDB, and might be able to finish the Athletics tonight. If I really pushed it, I could almost get done with a few more teams, but my next off days, I'll probably pull some stuff for future meetups/trades, probably start figuring out and packing stuff for our vacation (13 days away!!!), and probably do some stuff around the house. Hopefully Karen will get better and ready to go by then and we'll have a nice little vacation I can post about.

Lastly, before I forget, one of the pineapples in our front yard looks like it may be starting to flower and grow a fruit. It's about time!!  I've been waiting a few years. Maybe I can get some of the other ones to follow suit. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Some surprise 2024s

 I’ve probably mentioned that my Mother-in-Law isn’t my favorite person. Her personality just drains me and it’s probably going to get worse as it looks like she might be moving into our guest room in May. I’m dreading it, but hopefully it will be for less than 6 months and put everyone in a better situation financially. Pray for me, people. 

She does have things that make her a good person, a better person tban myself, if I am honest. She always wants to give and do things for other people. I know where Karen gets it from. 

About 2 weeks ago, Karen started getting sick. She has been getting iv infusions of immunoglobulin every week for  the past 3-4 years, and it has helped keep her from getting the horrible colds she normally would get. Unfortunately, 4 weeks ago, the insurance decided they can’t cover it anymore, and with it being between 10-15 thousand bucks a dose, we sure as hell can’t afford it. We’re trying to call the insurance company and file appeals, but the past 4 weeks she hasn’t got the infusions and got a bad cold 2 weeks ago. Pneumonia on both lungs, infections in both ears, lots of trouble breathing, and tons of coughing. That means I’m kind of doing everything at home and trying to get her to sit and rest, which is like teaching a dog how to floss. Fortunately, Karens mom has tried to step up and help with things. Sometimes it can be a little much, but many times it’s a help. 

Before Karen got sick, we committed to having Kyler go to a friends birthday party. Karen usually will come have lunch with me at work on Saturdays and she was planning on getting the gift for the party, but ended up staying home this Saturday. Her mom ended up taking Kyler to Target to pick out a gift, and while they were there, they got me 2 hanging packs of 2024 Topps. I honestly hadn’t planned on getting any, so it was a nice surprise. 
I only took pictures of the good cards. 2 guys I collect who are Rangers, Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer. The Rays were coming in bunches in the 2 packs, and I pulled 3 former Rays who I wish they would’ve kept in Bethancourt, Glasnow, and Raley, 1 current Ray in Civale, and a team card which is a dupe. I also did well with Tigers and pulled Jake Rogers, a Spencer Torkelson that was a double, and a base version of Brendan White after pulling his Holiday version a few weeks ago. 
I’ve heard of some of the rookies, but looking from the stats on the back of most of them, I think they were some solid ones. I also pulled a Blue Holofoil of Michael Massey. With packs that I wasn’t expecting, I would’ve been happy with a few base cards that weren’t doubles, but getting 5 Rays, 3 Tigers, 2 guys I collect, a number of nice rookies, and a parallel numbered to 999, I must have the cardboard gods smiling on me. I guess I’ll keep the Mother-in-Law for a while. 

I might try to upload some cards tomorrow. I’m not really planning on getting too much done card-wise this week. Just too much to do around the house and pesky things like a haircut appointment on Tuesday, band practice on Wednesday, and Karens brother coming up on Friday, so I can tell you already my free time will be at a minimum this week. I did get the Angels done last week, and my Trout count wasn’t nearly as high as I thought it would be (around 100). I did find out that I had a 2012 Heritage card of him that is a nice valuable card, so that was fun. The Twins are up next, and I can smell the finish line as I only have 6 teams and a few random binders left to upload to TCDB. Perhaps by mid summer I’ll have it all in the system and I’ll be available to work on uploading others collections to the site. John gets first dibs. 

I guess I’ll consider myself lucky if I can keep up the pace of uploading cards in spite of all of the craziness going on in my life right now. And maybe I’m lucky to have a Mother-in-Law who in spite of being a little needy, is nice enough to get me some random u expected packs of cards. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 
-Jeremj 

Friday, February 23, 2024

2024 Topps Blaster

I probably had the biggest grocery store trip of my life yesterday. We just had the perfect storm of being out of just about everything, wanting to stock up and kind of plan meals for the next 2-3 weeks, and had some of the bigger ticket items on the list. 
If I weren’t off today, I would’ve probably been Mr. Grumpypants, as we started shopping close to 7 and got home close to 10. We kind of took our time going down every aisle, looking at stuff we normally wouldn’t since our tax refund came back. It was a fun night in spite of all of the work of putting it away, and any time I get a chance to spend extended time with Karen and Kyler, there is bound to be some fun had. 

I lucked out and there were blasters of 2024 Topps, and I couldn’t help myself and got some and added to the huge receipt total. I know I’ll probably get the complete set in July, but these inserts aren’t going to get themselves into collectors hands, and it’s nice to have a stack of extras and inserts to trade to other collectors. 
Even after 1 jumbo pack, I only landed 3 dupes. Not too bad, but I don’t know what my reaction would be after another blaster. If it’s anything like 2023 Heritage High Number, that could stop me from pulling the trigger again. 

I like the Stars of MLB insert design, just as I did last year, but the Griffey inserts didn’t do it for me with the weird fonts. They could’ve done it many different ways. Perhaps writing Jr.’s name at the top like the Future Stars design and have the team name like normal. They could’ve just put the insert name on a stamp or something. I’m also confused with the backs. No bio and just career stats. Are they all like that? What’s the point of getting a card with no write up that is part of a player themed insert?  

The Thomas insert was lackluster in my opinion as well. Looks like something Fleer would do. I also wish the names on the ‘89 Topps tribute were more centered or to the right. I don’t remember them being that centered to the left in the ‘80 set. 
I think I’ve pulled the Trout Stars of MLB card for the past 3 years. I’ll be doing my Angels binders when I finish logging the Royals into TCDB (I’ll be starting on the ‘98 sets the next time I have a chance to work on them), and I’m interested in how many Trouts I have and if the values are crazy. I have a few in the rookie binder and parallel binder, but the final number won’t be more than 10 cards off. 
I had some nice ‘keeper cards’ from the blaster. Nick Fortes is from DeLand, and we saw him play in Washington and got an autograph from him last June. I was hoping the Rays would trade for him since we need a decent catcher. Kenley Jansen is the other guy I collect who got pulled. Josh Lowe represents the Rays, and I got 2 Tigers, including an Easter Egg parallel of Brendan White. Not a fan of the Holdiay parallels, but what can you do?  I got the De La Cruz rookie, so with the Henry David and Jasson Dominguez cards I got from the Jumbo pack, I believe I’ve pulled most of the big name rookies. Another option for the Rays to trade for at Catcher would be either Taylor Soderstrom or Shea Langliers. Both of them can’t be Oakland’s starter, and if we trade them a minor leaguer with upside we could get Shea, or maybe as much as I would hate to trade Harold Ramirez, trade him for Shea and a reliever. 
I got a Purple Shimmer parallel of Edwin Diaz, a Rainbow of former Florida Gator Brady Singer. The Soto is a Royal Blue parallel. How many Rays with that get me?  The last 3 are ‘Holiday’ parallels. Not sure what the design is supposed to be. Looks like it could be a flower or a moth or something. They are shiny, though. A coworker of mine knows Austin Hays through his mother, so I might bring that one to work for him. I wonder if he would take any other Rat-Bird cards off of my hands?  I still haven’t pulled the Yandy Diaz Batting Average leaders card, but I got a few of the other leader cards. I appreciate them putting stats on the front. I wish that on the back of the team cards they would put the stats along with team leaders name and the category instead of just putting that Zach Eflin led the Rays in Wins and not telling me how many. Just something I think would be useful. 

I made good progress on TCDB today, finishing Cleveland and getting up to 1998 with KC. That leaves me with the Angels, Twins, A’s, Mariners, Rangers, Jays, Yankee$, rookies, relics, and parallel/special card binders left. It’s slowly coming along, and I would say I’m between 35 and 40 binders to go before it’s done. Bonds and Miguel Cabrera are tied right now for most cards with 230, I believe. Bonds should pass him as I have 2 jerseys of him and only 1 of Cabrera. When I’m finished, I’ll do a post with all of my stats. 

I hope you enjoyed the 2024 Topps blaster. Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Trade and question about ‘80’s players

 Sometime last week, I was able to find a collector on one of my Facebook groups who wanted to finish his 1993 Fleer set. The group is called ‘Junk Era - All Sports - Keep It Real - 1980-1998’, and a good amount of the time, it’s just flipper d-bags trying to sell ungraded player lots with a ton of doubles,  graded 1988 Donruss commons, or just really high priced crap. Every once in a while, a true collector comes on and needs some set help or has something with a realistic price. I have made a few transactions on the page, and for the most part, the guys were stand up people. I purchased a few Traded sets at a good price from 1 or 2 guys, and they were reasonably priced and delivered quickly. There was the idiot who wanted to trade me some common ‘80’s Topps cards I needed, and a Randy Arozarena 2020 Topps Gold Cardinals rookie and a Brandon Lowe Topps Chrome Autographed rookie refractor for my 2018 Topps Update Acuna rookie. That was one of the bad ones. I felt like Acuna is better than Arozarena and Lowe and would’ve had more long term value than the Randy rookie (even though it was a gold version) and the autograph of a streaky and injury prone local fan favorite (no matter how low the serial number). It would’ve taken a number of commons to make the trade even for me (like 1,000+), and we just decided to not do the trade, and I’m happy with the decision. 

This latest trade worked out well for both parties, and I hope we can do another one. I gave up 230 or so 1993 Fleer cards and was able to get him 10 cards away from finishing Series 2. I got 260 or so Topps needs, most from 1984 and 1985. He also threw in a few 1986  and 2002 Topps cards for good measure. 
The stack took a while to go through, but I was able to log it into TCDB, take them off of my Google Docs wantlist, and physically mark them off of my physical paper wantlist. 
Most of the cards were commons or semi stars, but there were some cool cards in as well. Some stars, a few All-Stars, a Joe Morgan ‘85 record breaker, some checklists, 3 guys I collect, a few League Leader cards, and 6 from the ‘85 Father Son sunset. 
I think at one point, I had the Schofield, Stenhouse, and Law versions of those cards signed by both. I’ll have fun adding the whole stack to my boxes and eventually into binders. 

Looking at some of the cards, I wondered how baseball in the ‘80’s was. From hearing stories from people and stuff I’ve seen on MLB network, I get the understanding that speed was king and with infielders, defense was the main focus, and they weren’t expected to hit. Pitchers were expected to go 7-8 innings and relied more on junk than 100 MPH fastballs. 

Some of the stats on the back made me wonder how some of these guys stuck around so long. Had position players put up the offensive numbers or pitchers put up the stats on some of the cards I’ve seen, I think even in the ‘90’s without the SABRMetric stats that they wouldn’t have had the long leash like these cards make it appear. 

Mike Ramsey hit around .250, had zero power (and from the looks of it, not much speed), yet he gets into over 100 games for the ‘82 Cardinals World Championship team. Maybe he was a slick fielding defensive replacement?  Maybe he was the best they had in AAA?

Doug Gwosdz played 4 years for the Padres despite hitting in the .100’s in the Majors and around .260 in the minors. He had a little pop, but with those batting averages, he had better have a little defense to back that up. The Padres had Terry Kennedy and Bruce Bochy. How did Gwosdz keep getting called up?  I am glad that he got to the Majors, as we would’ve probably never have heard his nickname. Teammates called him ‘Eye Chart’ because of the combination of letters in his last name. 


Randy Lerch had a few decent W-L records in his first few seasons, but most of his ERAs started with 4s and 5s. I guess lefties have always been at a premium. 

For most of his career, Steve Nicosia hit in the low .200’s. I’m guessing he was a good defensive catcher. 


I’ve always wondered not only how Flynn got playing time, but how he got into so many card sets. He consistently hit below .250, had no power, and no speed. He must’ve been Robbie Alomar when it came to the glove work. Still, I don’t recall him winning any gold gloves. 

One last one. Derrel Thomas kept hitting around .250 with little power, and it looks like he may have had speed as his saving grace. It just makes me wonder how these players kept getting playing time with the stats they put up. Any guys who watched ball in the ‘80’s have any answers?

Aside from yesterday, I really haven’t had much time in the last week to upload cards into TCDB. Just a product of trying to keep up with housework, having to go grocery shopping, and having other things come up that are more important. 

I was able to get finished with the 1996 sets in my Indians/Guardians binders. If I don’t get dragged into mowing the lawn on Friday (my next off day), I’ll try to finish off that team. 

Things are going to be steady the next few weeks, and some of that is bad, some is good. St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, which means some extra volume at work. On the 21st of March, we will be flying to Grand Rapids, MI and be spending a few days there while seeing one of my younger cousins get married. I have like 30 cousins, but aren’t that close with many of them, because 90% lived in Michigan growing up, and I moved to Florida when I was 8. There are 7 or 8 who we hung out with before we moved, but a number of them weren’t born yet, and there have to be 1 or 2 that I have never met. The one who is getting married falls into the wasn’t born before I moved category, but I have met him a few times. I hope to find some Tigers gear, and more than that, there might be a chance to go to a card shop and meet up with reader Stu, also known as Poison75. All I want is just a few hours at the shop, and hopefully between whatever we plan I will be able to make it out there. It’s going to be a nice little mini vacation and a nice break from work. I just hope this Florida boy doesn’t freeze. 

Hopefully I can make some more trades like this one and get closer to finishing off some Topps sets. Maybe I can also answer the question of why ‘80’s guys with average stats stuck around so long. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my latest post. 
-Jeremy 


Wednesday, February 14, 2024

2024 Topps

 I was able to get my hands on some 2024 Topps today, and it is totally different in hand. Parts of it impressed me, and other parts frustrated me. Let's take a look. 
Fitting as my first card of the 2024, I got card #1, Ronald Acuna, Jr. 
The back of it. I guess I'll start with the negative stuff first so I can end on a positive. I feel like the back has too much white. Maybe a picture could've made it better. Feels like the back of a '97 or '98 Score card. the fonts are way too small in some areas. I can read his name, barely read the team name, the position is about at my breaking point, and the Height/Weight/etc. is unreadable unless I bring it close to my eyes or take my contacts out. The stats are at that unreadable font size, but it's not the case with all players. The bio underneath the stats is perfect. If they would've left that font size for everything, it would've been perfect. The last issue I have is the color bar that has the stats on it. For many teams with a lighter color, the color bar makes the stats unreadable. For teams with a dark color, you can easily see the white color of the stats. With a few changes, this could be a great back, like some of the Big League backs in recent years. 
Theres a comparison of a light colored stat bar with a darker one. See the difference?
I purchased a jumbo pack. Nothing earth-shattering, but it helped scratch the itch and get me a sampling of the inserts. Unfortunately for me, I got one of that over-rated Yankee Jeter. Pete Alonso was in a 2023 highlight-ish insert, and I pulled an '89 redux of Luis Robert. Kudos to Topps for sticking with the White Sox colors from the original 1989 set. I got a decent selection of the 30 teams, missing a few, but getting most of them. 
I was hoping to pull the Rays League Leader cards, especially the one comemmorating Yandy Diaz's batting title. 
The last insert I pulled must've been a rainbow foil card of Pirates rookie Carmen Mlodzinski. TCDB doesn't have the main checklist or parallel ones up yet, so I wasn't able to log anything in. I was hoping they would have picture of some of the rainbow parallels up, because I really thought the card was a gold parallel because of the border color. It doesn't have a serial number, so I would have to assume it is a rainbow. I got 2 Tigers, Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene, 2 guys I hope play 162 games and rake in 2024. I'm happy with pulling the Rays team card, as it features an awesome shot of Randy Arozarena and the team. The no-hit Valdez card was a nice surprise, and will go in my highlight binder. I pulled some of the key rookies with Henry Davis and Jasson Dominguez. As much as I can't stand Yankee$, at least if Dominguez is as good as they hype him up to be, this card might be worth a little. I believe DeLuca was one of the guys the Rays got in the Glasnow fleecing. Hopefully him and Pepiot make the trade worth it. At least they got rid of no-hit/decent field Manuel Margot. 

Not a knock your socks off pack, but I think I got some decent cards. What impressed me was the printing technology. Pictures from their sell sheets as well as the ones I've taken and posted don't do the fronts justice. There is some kind of unique, almost foilboard technology running along the neon parts of the card. You can really see it if you hold it up to the light, and it is also very visible on Future Star cards. If your fingers aren't too rough, you can almost feel a raised area where it is, especially along the team names. Just a nice touch and really makes those areas of the card almost glow. Definitely give it a look when you get your hands on a pack. 

I'm in the process of making a trade of some 1993 Fleer cards for some random Topps needs. I might get some cards from a cheap common site to finish off a few sets as well, so hopefully that will happen in a few weeks. I finished the White Sox and am working on putting the Indians/Guardians into TCDB.  Didn't get as far as I had hoped last week, but I spent some time cleaning and was digging 200+ Fleer cards out of binders/boxes, so that took some time. No more off days this week, so I'll be happy with getting to the mid '00's in my Cleveland binders done. 

I hope you enjoyed your first look at 2024 Topps. Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy