Nananananananananananananana... BATMAN!

Batman Carroll that is:

The card says Ahmad Carroll, but in Razorback country he's known by his nickname- "Batman."  I don't know why he was called that though.  What I do remember is that when the U of A was recruiting him out of high school they had an actual Batmobile waiting for him on campus during his recruiting visit.  He was a big time recruit, and I am a total Razorback apologist, but even I remember at the time thinking that was a bit much.  I guess it worked though!

Anyway, Carroll had a pretty good career for the Razorbacks.  I remember he was an embarrassingly prolific trash talker, even when the Hogs were getting their brains beat in.  I actually kind of respect that in hindsight.  Hey, let 'em know you're there, right?

I'm always glad to get Razorback autos, and this one came courtesy of reader Brandon, who didn't ask for much in return, but just thought I might like it since I collect Razorbacks.  Brandon, you were right, thanks for the cool card!   

An Awesome 1-2 Punch In The Mail

How would you like to open a padded mailer and see this inside:

And then this:

Ok, so you sad non-Razorback fans might not appreciate this card as much as me, but I assure you it is ridiculously awesome!  The above cards come from Adam at the wonderful blog ARPSmith’s Sportscard Obsession. 

This is one of many trades I've done with Adam, and he always sends great stuff.  All I have to do is get rid of my stinky cards of that stinky team from San Francisco that ruined the World Series for me and the Rangers in stinky 2010.  Sorry, my son has been using "stinky" as his adjective du jour lately and it's rubbing off on me.

I was a bit surprised to see this is actually my first D-Mac relic card.  I could have sworn I had one.  Oh well, I have one now and it’s a hum-dinger!

The Griffey manupatch further convinces me to chase the Rookie Manupatch set from Topps this year.  I only have 3 right now, but it looks like the prices are getting more reasonable so I’m going to chase it.

Thanks for the great trade Adam!  

The Vealtones Touch My Hot Spots

I’ve traded with Dustin from the highly literate “Coot Veal and TheVealtones” several times now, and he always makes me moist….with perspiration!

He pretty much hit on all my hotsports:  Rangers, Razorbacks and Darryl Strawberry, with many other goodies thrown in.  

This was the main card of the deal on my end:

I have always been an  Al Leiter fan, and enjoy watching his commentary on the MLB Network, especially when he’s discussing the craft of pitching.  I’ve heard he is interested in going into politics, or maybe he used to be.  Sure, I could see it.

Dustin also sent an unexpected bonus:

I’ll always take MY cards….as long as he’s in a Ranger uni.  I don’t want any of him in Phillie uniforms.  I consider him retired.

Speaking of Ranger unis, Dustin sent several current Rangers:

AND a star Congressional witness:

AND cards of a big goober.  An awesome goober, but still a goober.

AND Darryllllll……Darrylllllll…….Darryllllllll

 AND some vintage (love the Jenkins):

AND a couple of awesome Razorbacks to top it off.

Thanks Dustin, and enjoy that new baby of yours.  You should know I intended to pepper this post with lots of parenting advice for you but the lovely wife said that if I actually did like you I would keep my tips to myself and save you from going down a horribly wrong path.

A Blue Yu From Hoo Hoo!

That hoo hoo is the hoot of an owl, The Night Owl that is.  I'm officially a real baseball card blogger now that I've completed a trade with the gazillion time winner of card blog of the year.  It only took me two years to complete a trade with the Night Owl, so I guess my tactic of playing hard to get paid off.

It wasn't the biggest trade of the year, but I think he liked what I sent, and I was definitely happy with my end, especially this Blue Yu:

If Darvish takes the next step this year and becomes the Ace we Rangers fans are hoping for, I'm going to go Darvish crazy.  I've got a nice little assortment of Darvish cards now, but I figure there will be a ton made in 2013 for me to hunt. 

There will be more Michael Young cards in 2013 too, but I won't want most of them.  I have no interest in seeing him in a Phillies uni.  This pic of him in an throwback uniform is fitting and a nice last Rangers base card of him, but I wish the picture was of him hitting.  I can't say I'm going to miss his fielding too much.

Speaking of throwback unis- here are those same unis, except they weren't throwback unis when these cards were made.  These have already filled some gaps in my sampler album.

He also sent a handful of Piazza and Beltre cards.  I wonder how Dodger fans are feeling about Piazza these days after he called out Vin Scully?

Thanks for the trade Night Owl!  I look forward to doing it again in two years!

Trade With Six-4-Three DP

I recently completed a first time trade with Michael from Six-4-Three DP ( a fantastic blog by the way), and was really happy with the results.  He was showing some of the 2013 Topps he had busted recently and had a Target-Red parallel of the Adrian Beltre base card.  I was interested in it and a trade was born.  Here is my loot:

This was the card that started the trade.  I much prefer these Target red cards to the Walmart Blue.

Mike also added a nice handful of Cliff Lee cards, my favorite being the 1972 mini.

He also added a whole bunch of current and former Rangers.  I'm very sad to include Michael Young in the "former" pile.

I'm always happy to get cards of Darryl.  The 1991 base card already has a home in the Sampler Album.

Michael also sent me several Torii Hunters, but this one was so cool I decided to single it out.  I've never seen these 2003 Fleer Avant cards (he sent a Rafael Palmeiro too-see above), but they are really sharp cards.  The border has a canvas like texture and the image is unique as well.  Very nice cards!

Thanks for the great trade Michael- I hope you enjoyed what I sent at least half as much as I enjoyed what you sent!

My Sea Monkeys Have Hatched! Take a Look!

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had won an Allen & Ginter "Sea Monkey" card at one of Cleve's auctions.  I didn't really know what I was going to do with it, but thought it would be a neat card to have.  I received a note from Hall of Fame Blogger Ryan from "This Card Is Cool"  saying that if would send the the card to him in Japan, he would hatch the little critters for me and send them back once they were grown.  I thought that made sense.  With my busy schedule, I don't have the time or energy it takes to dedicate the focus and skill necessary to hatch sea monkeys.   So I shipped off the card and asked him to send me pictures of babies as they grew.

It didn't take long to see the little critters sprout once Ryan put them in water:

Aren't they cute?  At this point in their development, you need a magnifying glass to get a good look at them, but Ryan assured me they were healthy babies.

A few days later he sent me an update:

Now you can really start see these little fellas grow!  You can almost get a sense of what they will look like at maturity, but they're still a little small.

Two days later, Ryan sent me another pic, and this time I could totally see their cute little faces.

This batch of eggs must have all come from the same mother because they all look alike.  Did I say that?

Finally, Ryan sent me the final pic and said he was taking the babies out of the tank because they were running out of room.  I'll say:

This Friday, a package from Japan arrived and I knew it was from Ryan.  I hurriedly opened it to see my babies in person for the first time.  Just I suspected, I'm the proud daddy of a bunch of Darvishes!

I don't know where else I would find Japanese cards of Yu Darvish, so I was really excited to get these. I especially like this card:

 I like it not so much of the front, but the back:

I have no idea what these charts are telling me, but they are wicked cool.  I would love to see a US set that featured graphs like this.

I love all of my new Yu babies, but noticed that a few other stowaways came in the package.   I guess one of the eggs split like in that movie "Twins" and I got a couple of Danny DeVito's:

 I don't know who this tool is, but I want that faded jean jacket.

 This poor little bastard is obviously some kind of heartthrob in Japan.  I guess you're supposed to fill out the back of the card and give it to your significant other:

We should all know our significant other's blood types and hobbies.  Can't argue that.

Anyway, thanks for the awesome Darvishes, Ryan!  I look forward to sending you more novelty pets to grow in Japan! 

Ade-tray Ost-pay- Who Loves Pig Latin?

I-ay ot-gay is-they Ian-ay Insler-Kay ard-cay om-fray Adam-ay Ith-Smay of-ay e-they og-blay, ARPSmith-ay's Ortscard-spay Obsession-ey.  It-ay is-ay awesome-ay!  E-hey anted-way y-may Ark-may Anchez-Say ard-cay om-fray Eve-Clay's.  It-ay as-way an-ay easy-ay ade-tray.

Anks-thay Adam-ay!

Trading With The King

A few weeks ago, I won a Rod Carew Archives relic card off Listia.  Kevin from the splendid blog, The Diamond King, made me send it to him.  How did he do this?  By sending me a bunch of awesome:

Yes, the Michael Young relic is the big prize for me, but these shiny add-ins are what really made the deal a no brainer:

Thanks for the nice trade Kevin!

That Old Coot

It's been a while since I've traded, but after I received my part of a trade with Dustin From the highly literate and entertaining Coot Veal and the Vealtones, I remembered how much fun trading could be.

Dustin has a great feel for what I like and sent some great stuff:

These relics of Michael Young and Ian Kinsler were the main attraction to the deal.

 He also added a nice lot of other Michael Young cards,

and other favorite Rangers.  I especially like the Andrus mini.

Finally, here are some misc players I collect.  I think the Hinske on the 86 Donruss style card is one of my favorites ever, and something I hadn't seen yet.

If you haven't been on Dustin's blog yet, you're missing out.  It should be fun to follow his participation in Nachos Grande's blog contest.  Vegas has Dustin listed as one of the favorites despite rumors of PEDs.

Jaybarker Fan's Junk Has Jinxed The Texas Rangers.

It has probably dawned on some of you who deal with me or follow my blog that I can be forgetful or downright absent minded at times.  The lovely wife would give a big "amen" to that notion.  I say this because I finally realized that the big box o' Rangers I received yesterday came from Wes at Jaybarker Fan's Junk.  

Wes is a god among men, and yes I'm still giddy about all the cards he sent.  I've looked through them a few times now and keep discovering gems.

We actually did complete a trade a few months ago, but the return address and initials on the box yesterday just didn't jog my memory.  I'm telling you my mind is pretty fried from work right now.  I'm also taking it upon myself to be stressed about what's going on with the Rangers, since you know, it's my problem to solve.   Which brings me to the explanation for the title of this post:

I see no other reasonable conclusion than to blame the Rangers recent woes (losing 3 of 4 to the A's? come on!) on Wes for sending that big box of Ranger cards.

I received the cards yesterday.  The Rangers lost yesterday.  The Rangers lost again today.   I also assume the cards were in transit for about 3 days before I got them.  The Rangers lost 2 of 3 of the games on the days those cards were in transit.

Those of you who don't understand this kind of stuff would probably think the easy solution would be to get rid of the cards or send them back.  Well that's absurd and makes no logical sense in terms of breaking jinxes.  And besides, I like the cards and don't want to give them up.

The best solution will be to make some jinx breaking posts over the next few days and expose these cards to the world and therefore take away their jinx inducing powers.

Since it's too late to do anything about today's game (yikes Yu Darvish), I'll show the really nice hits that Wes sent that feature players from other teams and a non-current Ranger.

Let's start with this awesome Torii Hunter card:

 The pinstripe is fantastic!

A relic of Tony Gwynn!

Wes also added this auto of Chris Howard, but the best part of this card was the write up on the back:

"Chris worked for the White Sox and the Red Sox before joining the Rangers last August."

"Worked?"  Was he an accountant or something? I've never heard of playing baseball referred to as "work" other than as the title of George Will's baseball book "Men at Work." It doesn't make it sound like his time with the Red and White Sox was enjoyable.

Anyway Wes, while it's unfortunate that your generous shipment has put the Rangers in a tailspin, I'm still very excited about the cards.  Let's see if we can't turn things around in the next few days.