Starting Lineup Sundays

Before I started this silly little blog a year ago I spent a fair amount of time deciding if I had enough topics to write about to keep my blog churning.  I didn’t want to write a handful of posts and then run out of things to talk about and fade away.   I knew I had a couple of safety nets to fall back on if I got desperate for material.  One was eTopps, and the other was my Starting Lineup Collection.  eTopps was a great material source because they had new card offerings almost every week.  I’ve also managed to find enough other things to talk about that I was able to keep my Starting Lineups on the bench.

    

However, with eTopps basically shutting down and becoming a non-source of material for me it might be time to call on my SLUs.  And why not?  These things are so cool.  I don’t understand why there isn’t a greater demand for them anymore.  That used to not be the case.  In fact, there used to be conventions centered on Starting Lineup figures.   

They’ve been out of production for years now, and replaced by the larger, more detailed McFarlane figures.  I find the SLUs a far superior collectible.  Maybe it’s because they are similar in size and function to the Star Wars figures that shaped my childhood.   Anyway, my SLUs are all in boxes at the moment.  I tried to get the lovely wife to let me “wallpaper” one of our bedroom walls with the ones I kept in the blister packs, but shockingly she didn’t go for it.  I guess pictures of our children and paintings are OK, but beautiful blister packs of toy baseball players don’t meet some arbitrary standard of taste.   Oh well, she can’t stop me from showing them off on my blog:

 Daarryyyllll...... Daaarrryyyllll..... Daaaaarryyyylllll...

This was the first figure I bought.  The first issue of Starting Lineups came out in 1988 and was mostly regionally distributed.  Some players had a national distribution, and luckily for me I was able to find all of the Mets that were made in 1988 (I can't find my the Howard Johnson, but I have it somewhere).  That was my team back then.    

I had no interest in keeping these in the blister pack, and wanted to display them out of the package in my room.  I had about 20 of these things lined up along my dresser.    I also had a huge cardboard stand up movie poster of “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3” in my room as well.  Man, I was a loser. 

Cleve’s Auction Night: March Begins With a Whimper

I don’t mean that the card I won at Cleve’s auction this week wasn’t good,  I just mean I ONLY have one good card to show you.  

I guess “technically” I bought the card shown below in February, since I won it at Cleve’s auction Tuesday.  But I paid for it in March and had already posted my February purchase tracker, so this counts toward March.   I’ll fight any man who says otherwise.   With my fists.

Sorry, didn’t mean to get snippy, I guess my research on Wynn is rubbing off on me.  Apparently he had a pretty nasty disposition.   The name “Early Wynn” doesn’t seem like it would belong to a guy with a temper does it?  Every article I found on him said he was as mean (on the mound at least) as he was talented, and many noted that he said he would knock down his own grandmother if she was at the plate.  

I’m sure I’m repeating myself, but this is the kind of stuff that makes me love this hobby.  I knew that Wynn was a HOF pitcher, so I bid spent a measly $3 on a card from 50+ years ago.   I was fortunate enough to win the card, so I wanted to learn more about him.  What I found was that he was a pretty interesting and accomplished player.  I’m not sure why I thought this was fascinating, but according to Baseball-reference.com, Wynn is the most “linked” player in baseball history?  Wikipedia can explain it better than I can:  " (This means that, if a value of 1 is assigned to any player Wynn played on the same team with, and a value of 2 assigned to any player who played on the same team with a player with a value of 1, and so on, and the mean value is found by considering each player in baseball history, Wynn's value is lower than any other player's.)"  There’s some good, solid bar trivia for you, courtesy of Napkin Doon.  

I actually* put write in bids on several items, and really thought I had a good chance at some 1950 Callahan cards of the Tinker-Evers-Chance trio (on separate cards).   I’m pretty disappointed I didn’t get them because they are pretty nifty, yet affordable.  This Early Wynn card was all I managed.   This is my first 1957 Topps card, so that year now has a page in the sampler album.

Grade: 

1957 Topps Early Wynn $3 A:  HOF card that’s in pretty great shape.  This is why I love Cleve’s auctions!

*Does it seem like I use the words “actually” too much?  It feels like I do.  I also think I use the words “just” and “really” too much.   Really, I guess I could just use an actual thesaurus.  See?  There I go again!

Is It Really My Blog Birthday? Let's Celebrate!

My blog's one year anniversary is today!  It kind of sneaked up on me, is what it did, that little rascal!  I had a feeling I was going to thoroughly enjoy this ride, but it's been even more fun than I expected.  I am astonished and humbled that I've managed to attract a nice turnout of readers over the past 12 months.  And I'm grateful and appreciative to the folks I've "met", traded cards with and altogether shared this wonderful hobby with along the way.  It's been equally fun writing this blog and reading your blogs too.

To show my appreciation, I'd like to run another Big Fun Game!  I don't have any rules or requirements other than you need to sign up in the comments below.  I'll have 10 spots open on this game, and I think the prizes are pretty darn good.  No contest plugs on your blog are necessary either.  This is all about me thanking you, and not trying to promote my blog.

The only challenge with this Big Fun Game is that I'm going to be traveling on business from the 7th to the 12th and will not be in a good position to manage this game until I get back.   So signups go from now until the 13th at 1 p.m. CST.

Thanks again for reading, and I look forward to another year!


****UPDATE***** Signups are now closed and the participant list will be released shortly!

Checklist Chipaway: 2005 Topps Gallery Artists Proof and Turkey Red 2010 Inserts

Quick post today-

A got in a handful of cards from 2 of my favorite sets off sportlots.com yesterday.  Three 2005 Topps Gallery Artists Proof:

Seven 2010 Topps Turkey Red:

I'm now 65% done on Gallery Artist Proofs and 42 % done on Turkey Red, although I have a feeling Turkey Red is going to be easier (and cheaper) to complete.

February Purchase Analysis: “Thrifty” Is My Middle Name

I’m pretty pleased with my conservative (at least compared to January) purchase total this month:  $69 (snicker-snicker)  which is 62% less than I spent in January.    I suppose I should give some of the credit to being extremely busy at work coupled with not being that interested in 2012 Topps.  Not only did I drop my spending by 62%, my purchases were more aligned to my goals.  Here is a comparison of January and February of categories as a percentage of where my money went each month:

Category	January	February	% Change
Set Builder	19.6%	31.6%	61.2%
Vintage	20.3%	28.8%	41.8%
Wax	34.6%	28.8%	-16.8%
Relic/Auto	16.7%	10.8%	-35.3%
Complete Set	1.1%	0.0%	-100.0%
Football	1.6%	0.0%	-100.0%
Misc Lot	6.0%	0.0%	-100.0%
Grand Total	100.0%	100.0%

I’m glad to see wax get scaled back and set builders (anything aimed at my Master Checklist) and Vintage take on a higher percentage of purchases.  I expect there to be months where wax is gets the lion’s share  of my money, like when Gypsy Queen comes out, but I generally don’t have the ability to spend that much on wax and still purchase other aspects of the hobby that give me greater satisfaction.

My pace was a little better this month too, with longer periods of non-spending.

I may have similar results in March.  I’m going to be traveling a bit, which is going to force me to miss a few auctions at Cleve’s.  I’m planning on purchasing a sampling of Heritage, but if it doesn’t do much for me, I may coast cheaply through another month.  I’m guessing that no matter what happens in March, when baseball fever starts to hit me in early April, I’m going to go crazy with purchases.

T206 Tuesdays: "Sleepy" Bill Burns

"Sleepy" Bill Burns was a below average pitcher for about 5 years in the Major Leagues.  For all of you historians out there, or readers of the excellent book "Eight Men Out", (or watchers of the excellent movie "Eight Men Out,") you know Burns more for his role in the fixing of the 1919 World Series.  

I have to say, it's hard to reconcile this picture of Burns compared to Christopher Lloyd's portrayal of  him.

I have no idea how many liberties the movie took with the facts, but one of the court room scenes with Burns seems like it was pretty historically accurate.  I found a great site that documented all of Burns' actual court testimony.  Fans of the movie will remember the cross examination scene well.  Here is part the actual transcript:

Q:  The players double-crossed you, didn't they?
A:  Yes.
A:  Well, you double-crossed them.
A:  Not until they crossed me.
Q:  : Is that a reason for testifying?
A:  One of them.
Q:  Then it is not for the purity of baseball?
A:  Well, they double-crossed me and I would have been the fall guy for the whole outfit.
Q:  If the players had really been crooked, you would have been satisfied!  Do you think you are even with the boys now?
A:  I am liable to be before I leave here! [Laughter.]
Q:  You don't like me much, do you, Bill?
A:  Sure I think you're a smart fellow, and I wish we had someone like you at the head of this deal; we'd all be rich, now. . . .

Gypsy Queen Life Vest: Courtesy Reader Adam

I now have a passing C grade (70% complete) on my Gypsy Queen Green Border set thanks to a nice little trade with reader Adam:

That Tris Speaker card is a tiny work of art.  I wish Gypsy Queen had made large cabinet cards of these.  I would have been all over them.

70 down, 30 to go!  Thanks  for the trade Adam!

Piddly Card Show Post

Almost once a month there is a "card show" in Northwest Arkansas, either in Fayetteville or Rogers.  It's almost always pretty weak, with 3-5 dealers at the most.   One dealer sells mostly DVDs so I shouldn't count him.  These shows are usually so uninteresting, I skip going altogether much less posting about them.   Today's show was nothing less than ho-hum, but I did find a few things from one dealer.  He had a chunk of Gypsy Queen base cards in a dime box.  I went to the show unprepared with my checklist so I wasn't sure what I needed.  Since they were only a dime each, I just bought them all and hopefully will be able to make some headway on my Gypsy Queen set.  There were also a few Gypsy Queen minis that I thought I should grab at $.10 each:

 
 The same seller had a $.25 box for vintage stuff, and I found a few things that I liked:

These will either go to my sampler album, or hopefully to Cardboard Catastrophes.  I know he is collecting the 1976 set, so maybe I can help out now.

I also got a couple of 1975 Topps Minis and  a Kelloggs all star card of Larry Bowa.  Again, the minis will be part of the sampler album unless the Night Owl can use them.  The reason I picked up the Bowa escapes me at the moment.  Surely I had a reason....

Sweet Razorback Card and a PSA Mystery

I bought a pretty slick Eric Hinske graded relic card off eBay the other day.  Hinske is a former Razorback and American League Rookie of the Year.  He's had a solid career and does pretty well when given playing time.   I remember him being the sh*t while he was at the U of A.   I got this for about $3 shipped:

I thought this looked a little different than other PSA cards I've purchased before, but this thing is huge.  Look at it compared to a typical PSA card:

It also has some sort of ridge on the back which sort of gives it a lift off of whatever it is sitting on.  Here is the back, although it's hard to see what I'm talking about:

Since the card is raised up a bit due to the ridge around the card, the scan of the back is blurry.  I'm certainly no graded card expert, but I've never seen this kind of PSA slab before.  Is it because it's a relic card?  Or is it because PSA wants to give former Razorbacks extra special slabs?

Frittering The Day Away

In my professional life, I wear many hats.  Multi-tasking and being able to “kill two birds with one stone” are critical to my success.   I tell you this because this morning I really wanted an apple fritter.  But I was in the office and had tons of work to do.  But once I had it in my mind that I needed an apple fritter, I couldn’t concentrate on much else, even looking at baseball card blogs or my beautiful checklist.  So I went and got an apple fritter.  I justified it by deciding that I wasn’t just buying an apple fritter for myself, I was grabbing the first contestant in my next food tournament.  Still not a good excuse to duck out of work, but I went with it.

Some of you may be wondering what apple fritters have to do with baseball cards, or baseball at all.  A quick Google search will show you:  nothing.  But I’ll tell you what I told the lovely wife when she asked why I would choose apple fritters over other foods that may be more baseball related:  “It’s my blog and I’ll do what I want.”  Surprisingly, I was able to think of 8 places locally that sell apple fritters, so here we go!

Our first match up will be between Apple Fritters from Olde Tyme Donuts and Krispy Kreme.  This is a true heavy weight match up.

First Krispy Kreme:

To the degree that I love Krispy Kreme’s standard glazed donust, especially when they are hot off the press, I have that same level of disinterest in their other donuts.  They just don’t do much for me.  But the glazed….oh baby.  Did you know I can shove a whole glazed donut in my mouth at once?    My six year old boy thinks it’s a riot when I do it.  The lovely wife does not.    Maybe because the six year old then tries to do it himself and makes a huge mess.

But the tournament is about Apple Fritters, not donuts, so here is the Krispy Kreme apple fritter:

 The fritter is the one without a hole.  The other donuts were for the lovely wife and kids.  And me.

 It was certainly lovely to look at.  And the outer crust was very good.  But the dough was way too dense for me.  And it had too much cinnamon flavor.    So while I doubt I would refuse one if it was given to me, I certainly won’t be replacing the glazed with this when I venture into Krispy Kreme.

Next, a local place- Olde Tyme Donuts:

 I forgot to take a picture of the building, so this logo will have to do.

This was the real deal though.

I would marry this if it would be socially acceptable.    You can totally tell this bad boy was deep fried with authority.  I love the almost crunchy texture of it.    The glaze was solid, and there was no hint of any sugar liquification at all.  ( I don’t have a lot of pet peeves, but when donuts sit out and the glaze starts to melt and the donut gets “wet” I get completely disgusted and enraged.)

Oh my goodness, my knees are weak.   I don’t want to exaggerate, but this is the best thing to eat in all of Northwest Arkansas, nay, the world!

Tournament is over, we have a winner!

Cleve's Auction Night: The Hobby Is Thriving In Northwest Arkansas...

...and it sucks for me.  There were about 30 people at Cleve's auction tonight, which is the most I've seen not including the Holiday auction.   What was most concerning was that there were several people in attendance I've never seen before, and they all were aggressive bidders.  If they get a Cleve auction in their veins, they'll be back.  Of course I'm happy to see Cleve get a good turnout, and I want the hobby to be healthy.  But these dudes are making it harder for me to sneak home some cheap pickups.  These new guys weren't married either, which is not a good sign.  They don't have to answer to anyone on how they spend their money like us married folk.  Single dudes with jobs are the toughest competitors at auctions for guys like me.

There were a few kids there too, and they're also tough to deal with.  A 1983 Fleer Tony Gwynn came up for bid that I wanted.  I bid $3 and some kid bid $4.  No one else bid, and I probably could have got it for $5, or at least made the kid pay $6.   I can't drive up the price on a kid without looking like a jerk now can I?   So kids are the second toughest competitors at these things.    Actually, the toughest competitor is this doctor that sits in the back and lays down a few grand every time he comes in.  Tonight he picked up an unreal complete 1966 Topps set in a binder (every card was pristine), with the Mantle card PSA graded separately.   I think he spent $950 on it.  He also picked up a few American Caramel cards that were ridiculously cool.  Maybe I should just start posting his wins each week.  They would be much more interesting than mine.

Speaking of competitors, my nemesis has not been to an auction in a while.  I would like to believe I scared him off, but something tells me he's out there, lurking, up to no good.

Even though the place was packed tonight, and I didn't get everything I wanted, I did manage a few wins.  They were modest, but decent:

I found this card of Robin Roberts interesting just for the fact that it lists the Yankees as his team.  Roberts started all of 0 games for the Yankees in his career.  They acquired him at the end of the 61 season when it looked like he was at the end of his rope.  He pitched for them during Spring Training, and they released him in May.  He then signed with the Orioles, sort of got a second wind and went on to have a few more good years. 

I didn't have any Rocky Colavito cards, so I decided to make a grab of this pair for $4.  Colavito is not in the Hall of Fame like Roberts, but he was very good, with almost 400 home runs and 6 all star game appearances.  Both cards are in great shape, and the 1960 on top is really superb.  Again, these will be great adds to my sampler album.

Not so superb was this lot of 1960 Fleer cards.  There are some good names here, but they are not in great shape.   I blew it on this one even though I only spent $2.

I also picked up 3 1961 Fleers for $4.  I bought these because for some reason I had it in my head that Jeff from Cardboard Catastrophes was collecting this set and I was going to help him out.  I've been trying to find something good to send him because he has always been so generous with me.   After looking back over his blog I think I was wrong about him collecting these.  Who was I thinking of?  Eh, I'm glad to get the Hubbell at least.

Grades:

1962 Topps Robin Roberts $2:  A  Good HOF pickup for my sampler album.
2 Rocky Colavitos $4:   A   Not a HOFer, but these cards are purdy.
1960 Fleer Lot $2:  D    If I'd spent a dollar more, I'd give myself an F.  Didn't need them, and they're not in good shape.
1961 Fleer Lot  $4:  B-   My target trade recipeint was off on this one, but I don't have any of these and they're in good shape.

Wooooo Pig Sooie!!! Razorback Baseball Is Here!

Today the Razorbacks kick off the start of their college baseball season.  This should be a fun year for the Hogs who are ranked in the top 10 in most college baseball polls.  The pitching should be steller, led by Team USA member DJ Baxendale:

This is not my card, but I would like one.  If anyone has one of these, please let me know if you are willing to trade it.

The offense is good, and could be very good if some of the hitters progress as the coaches think they will.  This guy is very good:

 

This is my card, and it’s my second nice Ficociello card.  It’s cool to be able to get cards of these guys while they are still in college.  

If the weather is decent today or tomorrow, we’re going to venture out for a few innings.  When I come back I’ll bring pictures and we can all "Call the Hogs".  For those not in the know, you call the hogs by saying and doing the following:

Raise your hands in the air and wiggle your hands as you slowly say “Woooooooooooo” then bring your elbows  down as you emphatically say “Pig!” and then pump your right fist in the air as you say “Sooie!”

Do that 3 times.   On the third “Woooooo… PIG! Soooie!”  you keep continue to pump your fist in the air and say “Razorbacks!”    Practice it a few times and you’ll get the hang of it.