COMC Black Friday Parade: NW Arkansas Naturals

Last weekend, the Naturals release their upcoming promotional calendar.  There was some great stuff (Wil Myers Bobblehead!) and it started getting my juices going for the upcoming season.  I also picked up a few cool cards of former Naturals on COMC.com's Black Friday sale that I will now show you:

I really, really hope Christian Colon gets a shot with the Royals this year.  He, at least in my limited dealings with him, was a super nice guy and was awesome to my 8 year old.

I think this may be the year Hosmer turns into the beast many thought he could be.

Wil Myer's Shrinking Signature

Let's go ahead and get this out of the way: I WAS ON THE FIELD WITH WIL MYERS A FEW YEARS AGO.  I also got his signature on a few things during a pre-season meet and greet with the Naturals.

So I have a desire to collect his cards, especially his official rookie cards from 2013.  I got my first ones in the mail a month or so ago- a pair of 2013 Topps Chrome:

But I also sort of feel like I need a super duper version of his rookie card.  You know, like a crazy-fractor or a pink camo or whatever it is the kids are getting these days.  Or better yet, an on card auto!  Yeah, that would be awesome!

I've been idly hunting a cheap on-card auto with the gen-u-wine RC symbol, but haven't been willing to pay what I need to get it.   Here is one I'd really like:

Well, I like the Chrome and I like the Sepia.  But man, what a cruddy signature.  Looks like something my 4 year old would scribble.  It made me re-look at the autographs I already had of Myers:

 

Sorry for the close up of his butt, unless that's what your into, which in that case, you're welcome!  But look- it's still not legible, but you can tell he put a little more effort into it.

The above was a program I won on Twitter from the Naturals.

I also got an autograph from Myers during a meet and greet several years ago while he was in Arkansas, and it was more like the program than the Topps card above:

I'm actually not hating here.  I get it- Myers probably signed a kajillion cards for Topps and got to the point where he just didn't give a crap.

So maybe, I don't need an autographed card after all.  I got the good Myers signatures while he was toiling away here in Arkansas!

The Beneficiacio Of A New Auto

Added a new autograph of a Royals prospect I was able to watch play this summer:

I honestly don't know much about Bonifacio, but I saw him play a few games when he was called up to NW Arkansas, and then found this auto for sale cheap online, so here we are.

I do like the looks of these Bowman Inception cards.  I wish they would make these for MLB players and not just prospects though.  

Pie Face Funded: Arkansas Connection Cards

Between the Razorbacks and the NWA Naturals playing in my area, I'm not at a loss for good quality baseball, even if it's not quite MLB level.  I picked up a few cards using my Pie Face Funds that celebrate the local dudes I've been able to see, including the Orlando Calixte autograph above.  Don't know who he is?  He's a guy I can go watch play here right now in AA ball, is who he is.

You know who Wil Myers is though, don't you?  I've actually been on the field with Myers once, although he probably doesn't remember me.  Or perhaps he does?  I mean I didn't actually talk to him, or even stand in his line of sight, but still, I COULD have made it into his subconscious mind. 

And I picked up a trio of awesome Cliff Lee cards.  Seriously, these Topps Golden Moment die cuts are underrated.  Pretty sharp cards, and sort of over the top in design.  Which I love.

Ballpark Terror!

“Daddy, I’m scared of that meatball.”

It’s a sentence I’ve heard numerous times from my 3 year old daughter over the past year.  It’s so ridiculous but said with such sincerity. When she utters it, I just want to laugh but I also want to hold her and tell her everything will be ok.

Let me explain.  You know how baseball teams have mascot races at some point during a game between innings?  The Brewers have sausages; the Nationals have ex-Presidents, etc.   The Northwest Arkansas Naturals do it too, and last year they had some misc. food items racing around:  a pizza, something else I can’t figure out, and a meatball.  Here’s a terrible pic:

A round, cute, terrifying meatball.  At least it’s terrifying to my 3 year old.  She got a load of the meatball last year when she was 2, and I guess it left quite an impression on her because now when I mention going to a Naturals game, the first thing she says is, “I’m scared of that meatball.”

We haven’t had a lot of opportunities to go to Naturals games this season, but Saturday night opened up on our schedule,  the weather was perfect, and we had a coupon for 4 tickets.  3 of the 4 of us in my family were excited to go.  The 4^th was not.  “Daddy, I’m scared of that meatball.” 

Being the sensitive father that I am, I did the only thing I could do:  I lied.   I assured her that the meatball was not going to be at the game.    I said there were some new characters that would be racing this year, and they were very silly and nice and funny to look at.  She was a little skeptical, but she agreed to give it a shot and come to the game. 

We arrived at the ballpark and I took the kids to the playground behind centerfield before the game started.    I’m glad I did.  Apparently, it was Star Wars night at the ballpark, and several characters from the movie came out to throw the first pitch.  I’m not sure if my daughter would have freaked out over the Stormtoopers, and I’m glad I didn’t find out as she was busy with the swings and slides and didn’t notice the Empire taking the field.
 

We got back to our seats as the first inning got underway.  Things were going pretty well.  I guess it was about the 2^nd or 3^rd inning when it came time for the mascot races.  Turns out I was right:  there wasn't a meatball this time. 

Nope.  Instead we were treated to this:

3 Eyeballs.  3 GIANT Eyeballs with painful looking red veins, as if they were on drugs or terrified of something themselves.   And they began crazily sprinting from the right field bullpen to the finish line that was near our seats on the 3^rd base side.  They appeared to be coming right at us. 

If you think those eyeballs are big, you should have seen how wide my daughter’s eyes grew when she saw this grotesque display on the field.    Coming right at her. 

I’ll spare you the details, but it took some consoling and bribing (ice cream, chips and popcorn) to get my daughter to agree to stay.  But she was fine after a while and we managed to stick around almost 7 full innings.    That's really good for us.

Now let’s see if I can get her to come back again this season.   Maybe they'll have some severed heads racing on the field next time.

I Want Cards On Cards In Charge Of Me

I always get the "Charles In Charge" theme song in my head when I read the blog "Cards on Cards."  I wish my blog name could easily be interchanged with a classic '80's sitcom, but alas, it cannot.  You whipersnappers don't know what I'm talking about??? Charles in Charge????  Oh, you want to know the lyrics to this great TV theme?


I've fixed them a bit to help show you the cards I picked up from Kerry from "Cards on Cards:"

Cardinal blog in the neighborhood

 Lives somewhere and it is understood.

He’s there just to make trades with me,
Like he’s one of the family.

Cards on Cards
Of our Rangers in Heritage
Cards on Cards
Of our Rangers in other Topps

And I sing, I want,
I want Cards on Cards of Kinsler.

Cards on Cards
Of our days and our nights
Cards on Cards
Of our wrongs and our sampler album 1995 page and former Naturals and Razorbacks

And I sing, I want,
I want Cards on Cards of Torii.

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/charlesinchargelyrics.html

Salvador Dolly

This past Saturday was one of those beautiful days of total baseball/baseball card immersion.  For starters, there was a good card show this weekend, with about a dozen dealers (great for around here).  I spent about two hours at the show, which is a loooonnnngggg time for me since I start missing the kids after about an hour.  Ok, ok-  I start feeling guilty that the lovely wife is having to watch the kids by herself after watching them all week while I'm at work.

But there was a dealer with several 5,000 count dime boxes that captured my attention and were a blast to dig through.  I was able to make headway on many of the mid '90s pages in my sampler album that are so light.  I've got about 5 posts worth of other stuff to show as well, and will subject anyone who cares to these posts in the next day or so.

After the cardshow, I had to run by Walmart for a few things and found retail packs of Panini Prizm that I had to have.  I haven't seen much of anything on this set on other blog posts, but I'm pretty fired up about the set, despite the lack of  MLB logos.  I'll do show and tell with those cards this week also.

Finally, my baseball overload day ended with a few innings at a Naturals game.  I say a few innings because it was freaking cold.   It's been stupid cold here all week.  In fact, we had snow here this week people.  Snow.  In May.  In Northwest Arkansas.  So why did I bother going to the game if it was so cold?  For this, suckas:

Speaking of suckas, I'm a total sucker for Stadium Giveaways, as I've mentioned in the past.  This is the first Bobblehead I've snagged though, and it's a cool one.  Perez is a budding star with the Royals, and I was fortunate enough to watch him play several times while he was with the Naturals. The Bobblehead made well, too.  It's heavy and has nice detail on it. 

Since I'm talking about Perez, I guess I should show the two cards I picked up of him at the show earlier that morning:

These weren't in the dime boxes, but they were pretty reasonable considering Perez is somewhat popular around here.  I haven't talked much about Perez on this blog, but if anyone has some cool cards of him, I'm interested!

Fried Oreos. Oh And A Baseball Game Too.

The Doon Clan partook in our first Naturals game last night, an event I've been looking forward to for months.  I was excited for many reasons- a) it's pro baseball of course, b) it was my first chance to see Brett Eibner since his Razorback days, and c) it was cap night.

It's still a tad on the chilly side around here for baseball, but overall,  it was a perfect night for a game.  Brett Eibner was the DH and leadoff batter for the Naturals, but didn't do much of note.  I was disappointed that he wasn't in the field, because that guy can cover some ground in center.  The tickets we bought enabled us to sit at the picnic tables behind home plate, which is ideal when bringing along 2 little ones.  We can spread our food out on the table and the 3 year old can color or play with toys.

This was the bounty of the evening.  I'm pretty stoked about this cap, both in terms of looks and quality, especially for a stadium giveaway.  The sponsor logo is understated on the side and doesn't detract from the cap.  It was worth the price of admission on it's own.


And as great as the hat was, and the fact I was at a baseball game, neither of those was the highlight of the night.  There is a new concession stand at the park this season called "The Sweet Spot."  The menu, as you can imagine, is geared towards desserts.   Lots of desserts.  After reading the menu and composing myself, I picked this:

These are fried Oreos.  Fried Oreos.  That just sounds awesome.  And eating one.... well.... I'm sure I shouldn't rank it up there with the birth of my children, in terms of something bringing me pure joy, so I won't.  But it did.  There were four Oreos in the order, but my boy and I already put one away each before I had the presence of mind to take a picture of them.   I won't be able to do these justice with my puny words other than to say it was the single greatest culinary experience of my entire life, and I've had cheese curds in Wisconsin, Tacos Carbon in Mexico City, and pork ribs on my Big Green Egg.   I wonder if an order of these would work as a prize in the upcoming Big Fun Game?

 

Signed Wil Myers Program.. Courtesy The NWA Naturals

I got an early Christmas present last week when I received this in the mail from the NWA Naturals:

I won this Wil Myers autographed program by responding to a tweet from the Naturals on 12/12/12 asking who the folks out there thought was the greatest #12 ever.  My response was picked, winning me the progam.  (I said Tom Brady was the greatest, but if the question was "who is your favorite #12" I would have picked Myers for sure.)

As many of you know, Myers was part of a blockbuster trade this month that sent him to Tampa Bay.  Here's hoping he thrives in Tampa and becomes the star that so many believe he can be.  While in NW Arkansas he was a hitting machine, and was recently awarded the Topps Spink Award as the Minor League Player of the Year.   He's a bad mofo.

This gives me a chance to once again show the picture of Myers laughing as my boy ran off the field this past summer when his little league team got to take the field with the Naturals for the national anthem before a game:

This also gives me an opportunity to give kudos to the Naturals, who just this month won the Bob Freitas award as the best minor league organization at the AA level.  The award recognizes excellence in community involvement and business and operational success.  For what it's worth, it's our family's favorite activity in the summer, so any awards the organization receives are warranted in my humble opinion. 

In short, I won an autographed program of the minor league player of the year from the minor league organization of the year.  Merry Christmas indeed!

Interestingly, I heard the Naturals might have a "blogger night" and let local baseball card bloggers blog live from the press box during a game.   I heard this when I came up with the idea and told the lovely wife I thought they should do it.  But now my idea is on the internet and will go viral at any moment.

If anyone from the Naturals Organization actually does read this, thank you for the program, and keep up the great work!  See you this Spring!

A Minor Addition To My Collection

Not much interesting to say about this card.  Feel free to skim past my post as you breeze through Google  Reader for those of you who use that tool.

Giavotella played here locally for the Royals AA team.  He's now the everyday 2nd baseman for the Royals with Chris Getz out.  We didn't hang out or anything while he was here, but it’s still cool getting cards of the guys I saw play, especially autographed ones. And this is even better since he’s pictured in his Naturals uni.

Potential Greatness Up Close

I suppose at some point I will realize how fortunate I have been to see so many big time MLB prospects play in person over the past couple of years that have gone on to success in the bigs:  Mike Trout, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas etc.  I’ve also seen a few who by all indications have a chance at stardom : Jonathan Singleton, Nolan Arenando, Wil Myers to name a few.  I realize the talent pool that plays through the AA venue around here will not always be so deep.

I recently was able to add one more player to add to the list this: Jurickson Profar.   And I can tell you that even if I didn’t know he was a big time prospect, I would have sensed something special about him after watching him play in person.

Actually, this is not the first time I've seen him play in person.  He was in the Futures Game in KC last month and hit a home run in the first inning.

From what I hear, he is a good bet to get called up this September, so this past weekend’s series against the Naturals was my last chance to see him play in person unless I goto an MLB game.  Or more precisely, the last chance I have to see him play without driving 4 hours and spending a lot of money.

I mentioned that my intention was to use my son to go get his autograph.  Truth be told, I would only want to get his autograph if my boy was interested in getting it.  He wasn’t, so we just watched from our seats and ate peanuts.

In summary, I have no autograph successes or good photos to share.  But Jurickson Profar is awesome.

Checklist Chipaway: 2012 Bowman Platinum Prospects

I picked up a lot of 38 Bowman Platinum prospects on eBay  a few weeks ago, and I think I only paid around $6 or $7 shipped.  With rack packs of this stuff at $10, and only including a handful of prospect cards in each, this was a great value.

Better yet, many of the prospects I'm especially interested in were included.

I'm now at about 50% done with the set. 

Wil The Thril

I picked up a few Wil Myers cards last week, before I went on my August-erity mission.  This was a 3 card lot that I bought mostly for the Futures Game relic card.  I already have the other two.

Myers is still biding his time in AAA, but is a good bet to get the call on Sept. 1.  

I like that he spells his name with only one L.  Now any cliche play on words I use with his name will seem more clever.

Sterling Naturals

 I've finally collected enough cards of current/former NWA Naturals that they get their own binder.  It's becoming one of my favorite binders to flip through, which makes me want to keep adding to it.  I picked up a couple of very nice Bowman Sterling cards to add this week:

Christian Colon is a guy I've written about a few times, and is a personal favorite of our family.  This auto was only a few bucks with shipping.

Wil Myers is a name most of you are probably familiar with.  One of the hottest prospects in baseball, Myers is a good bet to join the Royals this September.  My boy got a few autographs from him in person, which is good because his certified auto cards are expensive.  This also gives me a good excuse to show the picture of him laughing as my son and his teammates were running off the field before a game a few months ago.

How Suite It Was..

Thursday night I kicked off perhaps the greatest baseball extended weekend of my life.  I’ll get to the rest of the weekend later, but I’ll give you a hint:  MLB FanFest and XM Futures game.

Thursday night started with a simple NW Arkansas Naturals Minor League game, but my family was fortunate enough to watch from a luxury suite!  And now it will be very difficult for me to ever go back to sitting with the riff raff in the bleachers now that I have tasted the opulence of a luxury suite.  There were 5 families sharing the box, all friends of ours, and after divvying up the total here’s the damage per head:  $31 per person.

That included parking, tickets, hot dogs,  7 layer dip, chips and salsa, veggie tray, huge chocolate chip cookies, fired cheese sticks, a bottle of vodka and unlimited bottles of water, soda and boxes of popcorn.   Add to that, we were in an air-conditioned room on a 97 degree night and if this were one of my Cleve auctions, I’d give myself an A+++++ for this purchase.

Here are some pics-

 First priority- the food

 The ladies turned the TV to HGTV and watched Househunters halfway through the game.  Disgusting.  

 What a spectacular view!  None of these people are me so don't get excited.

And speaking of getting excited....

 Yes, we had plenty of food, but these BBQ nachos are the shiz-nit so I went downstairs and stood in line with the general admission peasants and ordered some.    I scoffed when the concession laborers tried to give me a plastic fork for my nachos.  I patiently explained I didn’t need their pitiful plastic forks since I had superior metal ones at my disposal in my suite.    

The game was not much to speak of.  There aren’t many great prospects on the Naturals roster at the moment.  They played the Corpus Christi Hooks, who I’ve already seen this year, but have a couple of good Astros prospects in Jonathan Villar and Jonathan Singleton.  Villar crushed a home run and looked very good in the field,so I understand why he is considered MLB material.  

The Hooks won handily 9-2 or something like that.  I lost focus around the 8^th inning because the kids started getting restless and I had to watch them because the lovely wife and her degenerate friends killed off the vodka towards the end of the game and were getting raucous.  They settled down just enough to avoid getting us thrown out, and we stayed for a very impressive fireworks show after the game.

You can’t really get a good sense of the show from this crappy picture, but the Naturals put on fantastic fireworks shows.  The view from the suite was absolutely perfect.  It was also amusing watching the firemen put out the dozens of small fires that broke out in the adjacent fields due to the lack of rain over the past two months.

All in all, it was one of the most fun nights of my life, and we have vowed to make a habit of it.