Thank You All!!

It wasn’t until the other day that I made the connection.  I was talking to the Lovely Wife about my father passing away 3 years ago.  The anniversary of his passing is in late February. He died from brain cancer. 

It was an extremely painful time for me and my family.  I won’t get into it, but I will tell you I wouldn’t wish his suffering and what cancer... that…that….”evil” is the only word I can think of…what that evil did to him and my family on my worst enemy.

Anyway, the Lovely Wife and I were talking about him and I said as an aside that I couldn’t believe it had been 3 years since he died.  I had a moment of déjà vu when I said those words, but I wasn’t sure why.  Then later in the day I was taking some pictures of cards for a blog post and realized I’d recently said something about not believing it had been 3 years since I started The Adventures of Napkin Doon early in March 2011.

It didn’t make sense to me that something as painful as my Dad’s passing and something as light and fun as starting a blog about baseball cards could have happened exactly a week apart.  I figured I had it wrong- one of the two events must have started a year earlier or a year later than the other, and they couldn’t have happened essentially at the same time because I don't remember being in any sort of mood for fun and games for several months after his passing.  For long time followers of this blog, a mistake in calculations like that would come as no surprise (for example, I said that I would wrap this up today, March 4^th since it was the three year mark of when I started.  I looked the other day and saw that I actually started on March 2^nd . Oops!)

But both events did happen close together.  Now I’m not going to play pop psychologist, and I hope no one else does either on this, but I have to think the timing is not a total coincidence. 

Please don’t make the mistake of concluding that perhaps I’m letting go of the blog because I’m somehow now finally able to let go of my Dad’s death.  I’ll never fully let go of that event, although I can handle it better these days, which I guess is what happens with time and life moving on.    I’m simply shutting down because it feels like the right time to do it.  Nothing more, nothing less. 

But hey, I don’t mean to take this to a dark, sad place.  This blog has been a source of great joy, and it's been a pleasure writing it!  Mostly, that joy stems from getting to know you folks and I’m so appreciative to those who have followed, read, commented, played “words with friends”, traded  and laughed with me these three years.  

It’s the end of the blog, but it's not remotely close to goodbye because I’ll still be around, hopefully chiming in on your blogs more often now and tweeting pics of cards I think people would want to see. 

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Let’s see if this thing goes anywhere.” 

That was the first sentence of my first post that I think about 4 people read.  I wrote about why I collected and showed my first real card of significance as the first picture of my first post:

 

Look at that.  These are fantastic things, these baseball cards.

This will also be the last picture of my last post, which somehow helps close the door for me.

Where “this thing” went was much different and much more fun than I ever could have guessed, and I one hundred times thank you readers/friends for that.  See you soon and Happy Collecting!

My Best Card That I Didn't Show Until The End

I suppose "best" is a subjective term.  Still,  I would wager that if collectors were to line up all of my cards and were asked to pick one as the centerpiece of my collection it would be this T-206 Ty Cobb:

I bought this a long time ago, in my single days, when I didn't have get to spend my discretionary income on the Lovely Wife.  I probably had no business buying this back then when my income was only modest at best, but I sure wasn't spending my money on girls, clothes to impress girls, apartment decor to impress girls, or anything that would have remotely made me more attractive to girls.  Good lord it's a miracle the Lovely Wife found something salvageable in me, because man, I was a big dork.  Not the awesome, cool cat you know now.

Now that I have this Cobb card, I'm glad I spent the money I did (for those curious, I got it for around $300+ on eBay back in the late 90's if I remember correctly).  And I'm going to say this right now- if one of you experts sees this and thinks or knows it's a fake DO NOT tell me!  I'm going to my grave believing this is real.  I am somewhat tempted to send this in for authentication and then turn around and sell it for a profit and buy a card of a person more palatable to my sensibilities, like Christy Mathewson or someone else that wasn't a bigoted murderer.

But, I acknowledge that this is the crown jewel of my collection.  I'll also re-show a card that I bought to kind of "go" with this Cobb card:

 

I love the story of Cobb and Lajoie battling it out for the batting title in 1910.  This link is a good recap for those interested. 


My T206 collection isn't huge, but I'm proud of it and I'm glad I was able to share some one last time!

My Loyal Assistant

I owe a great deal of thanks to a great deal of folks when it comes to this blog, but I have one partner in particular that I would be absolutely lost without:

What, you were expecting a shout out to the Lovely Wife?  What if I told you THIS was the Lovely Wife?  How jacked up would you think I was then?  Like if I was that dude in "Her" that falls in love with an operating system?  I bet there would be a whole new perspective on your old pal Napkin wouldn't there?

Rest assured, The Lovely Wife is very real, (and very hot- hubba hubba!).

And my reliance on this little jump drive is very real too.  It has all my scans, my checklist, my sampler album data and blog post ideas (don't need that anymore do I?!)

If I'm looking and can't find this little beauty I go into a full panic.  I remember one time a couldn't find it for like 3 days and I was totally discombobulated.

If I were smart I'd take a few seconds and back it up periodically, but as you know, I am a total wild man and live on the edge constantly.

What To Do With Cool Cards That Just Don't Fit In

Every few months I do what I imagine a lot of you do, and that is organize the piles of cards that have accumulated in whatever area one has that holds accumulated and unsorted cards. 

It's generally a pretty easy process for me once I get going on it.  I bring my stacks of cards downstairs, pile them on the dining room table, assure the lovely wife that the mess will be gone soon, and I go to work sorting.  Most cards go into one of the following places:

• Favorite/Star Player Albums 
• Razorback Alum Album
• Northwest Arkansas Naturals Alum Album
• Rangers Album/Commons box
• Sets I'm Building Albums
• Base/Common 5,000 count boxes by brand
• Semi Star Boxes

And so on and so on.  I've got a box of misc/oddball stuff I can't find a good place for and don't need, and the intent is to send that stuff away in trades, or maybe build up a "goodie box" and put it up for auction for a few bucks at Cleve's.

But sometimes I find a card that I can't seem to find a satisfying place for, like this one:

I don't have enough Hank Greenberg cards to start pages in my Retired/HOF players album.  I could put it in my Topps base box, but I think this is a pretty nice SP and I don't want to stick it in a box and forget about it.  I also don't want to go to the effort of putting it up on eBay because it might only get a buck or two and that's not worth the trouble.  Plus I really like the looks of it, and probably want to keep it. 

So right now, it's sitting in a top-loader on top of my scanner waiting for a place to go.  First world problems, I know.  I'm not asking for a solution, just sharing my woes.

52 (Bowman) Pickup: Richie Ashburn

I am having so much fun building a 1952 Bowman set.  Each week I take my gift certificate to Cleve's (courtesy the Lovely Wife) and each week he pulls out a box with '52 Bowman, and each week I pick a couple more out.  I'm still barely 10% into the set, but it feels like I've got great momentum. 

I think that's because I've been getting stars rather than commons mostly.  This week's card is one I'm really excited about, Richie Ashburn:

Other than a little, slightly perceptible smudging in the upper right corner, this card is in great shape.  

1952 Bowman Project: Casey Stengel

Not only did the Lovely Wife give me a supremely nice couple of cards to kick off my 1952 Bowman project for Christmas, she also gave me a sizeable gift card to Cleve's.  What a woman!

I decided to start whittling away at the gift card, and my 1952 set this week and bought another great card:

This Casey Stengel card is magnificent! In fact,  I might take this card out of the holder and make a hi res scan of it that I can print out 8x10 size and frame.  I might do the same with the Bob Feller  & Duke Snider cards my wife bought.  Those would look awesome in a frame on the wall wouldn't they?

So my 1952 Bowman project is off to a very strong start.  If I can find a nice lot of commons that are in good shape (so far all of my cards have been what I think are EX+ condition so I'll stay on that path), then I'm set!

Three Cheers For The Lovely Wife!

I assume you guys don't want to listen to me carry on about how much I love my wife, so I won't go on and on, other to say: I definitely got a good one with her.

Not only is she my best friend, she is the heart and soul of our family, the smartest person I know, and most importantly, she is scorching hot. 

She also got me two of the most awesome 1952 Bowman cards in the set from Cleve's for Christmas:

When I opened this Christmas morning and sat there stunned and slack jawed, she said, "I hope I got the right ones.  Cleve showed me the 1952 Bowman cards he had and I remembered you mentioning Bob Feller.  Is that one ok?"

Is that one ok?  Um, yes just a bit.

Under the Feller was this:

My eyes bugged out of my head and she continued, "Cleve said you could exchange these if you want something else."

Yeah, no I am not returning Bob Feller and/or Duke Snider.  Even IF I weren't building this set and needed all the cards, there is NO WAY I would trade these two for something else.

What I also enjoy about these cards is picturing her visit to Cleve's to make these purchases.  I would love to have been a fly on the wall for that visit.  

Setting a 2014 Resolution Early

Me:  Hon, I need to talk to you about something... It's important.

Lovely Wife (with a concerned look):  What's wrong?  You ok?

Me:  Sure everything is great, I've just been thinking about making a New Year's resolution and I'm ready to commit to it.  I just want to get your buy-in and support.

Lovely Wife (Takes My Hand):  Of course!  I'll always support you!  What do you want to do?

Me:  Well, I've given this some thought, and, really, it's more of like a 10 year thing I'll work on.  It will take some time...

Lovely Wife:  Sure, it's great to have a long term goal...

Me:  Yeah, so here it is:  I want to build a 1952 Bowman Set.

Lovely Wife:  (Blank Stare)

Me:  I know it sounds like a big deal, but if I stretch it out over 10 years I can do it.  The Mantle card will be tough, but I know we can do it if we work as a family.

Lovely Wife:  (Blank Stare)


I think it was a lot to process, and she may just be overwhelmed with excitement and not sure what to say yet.  But here in the Doon household, 2014 will be the year of 1952 Bowman.  It's a relatively small set at 252 cards, no crazy short prints that I know of, and it has some big time cards that will be awesome to own.  I see these often at Cleve's and they seem readily available online at decent prices.

I have a couple already (Mickey Grasso and George Kell) and just picked up a couple more.  Now I have 4 of the 252!

They are really gorgeous cards too:

 Stan Musial said Raffensberger was the toughest left hander he ever faced.

Auburn (booo!!!!) baseball's Hitchcock Field is named after Billy and his brother.  I don't like Auburn.

I'm excited about this project and I hope it helps me stay disciplined with retail wax purchases in 2014.  It will be fun to share my progress!

Cleve's Auction Night- $11 HOFers

I did something Tuesday I hadn't done in a while: spend a leisurely 30 minutes shooting the bull with Cleve at Cleve's Collectibles, my LCS.  By the sheer volume of mentions of Cleve's I've had over the course of this blog, that might sound a little surprising.  But typically, I'm darting in during a lunch hour, checking the weekly auction fodder, saying hello to Cleve and some of the regulars, and then getting on my way. 

But the Lovely Wife is in wine country right now, my kids were both in school today, and I had taken the day off from work.   I understand 30 minutes really isn't that long, but it was a mountain of time compared to what I've had lately for this hobby.

I had put in a few write in bids last week, but had 0 expectations that I had won anything.  I didn't even ask about my results when I came in and started looking over this week's stuff.

So when Cleve said, "By the way, you won the '61 Banks and the '62 Robinson," I was stunned and surprisingly overjoyed.

These are great adds to my Sampler Album:

I have to make yet another disclaimer- these are not nearly as mis-cut as my scanner says they are.  Both cards are in outstanding shape.  There are no creases and the corners and surfaces are quite good.  It felt great to win a couple of superstar vintage cards.  I know they aren't super expensive in book value, but I love em anyway.

Grades:

1961 Ernie Banks:  $6  A+  I'll take this deal every day

1962 Brooks Robinson $5  A+  I'll take this deal every day

"Once Upon A Time" I Didn't Get Anything At Cleve's Auctions

Nothing doing for me this week at Cleve's auctions.  It's not the first time I've been shut out, but I'm a little more surprised this time simply because I put in a lot of write in bids.  Like 10 or so.  Usually that nets me at least one or two wins.

But the week wasn't a total loss from a baseball purchase standpoint.  The Lovely Wife recently discovered a used bookstore nearby that is really impressive.  It's called "Once Upon a Time Books," and now you understand the witty play on words in the title of this post.

We went in Saturday and I found some great baseball books that I thought were worth showing:

This is one of the huge price guides that lists every card.  True it only goes up to 2006 but most of the sets I'm interested in researching are pre-2006 anyway.  Plus it was only $5.  I never see these cheaper than that, even used.  And no, I don't care about the prices listed.  I'm just interested in having the comprehensive checklists.  Plus it was edited by Bob Lemke, who writes one of my favorite blogs.

Another reference tool I was thrilled to get was this MLB official rule book.  For 50 cents, I couldn't pass it up.

This hardcover book of baseball quotes was only a buck, and may wind up being my favorite purchase when all is said and done.  I've already spent a lot of time flipping through it.  Maybe I should use it to make a "Quote of the Day" gadget on the side of my blog.  Here, I'll give you one for today:

"If I tie is like kissing your sister, losing is like kissing your grandmother with her teeth out."- George Brett

And last but certainly not least is this incredible hardcover coffee table book with all sorts of goodies in it.  It's sort of like a pop up book, but instead of pop up pages, the book includes reproductions of miscellaneous documents, tickets, famous letters and even some baseball cards.  I'll have to give this book it's own post at some point because it's got a ton of cool things in it.  I've seen it before at Barnes and Noble and always wanted it.  I was able to get it at Once Upon a Time for $5, and everything looks to be intact inside.

I'd encourage everyone to take a look at Once Upon a Time's website.  They ship everywhere, and in fact are more of an online business than an actual bookstore.  I know I'll be back!

Dutch Oven Auto

Why is that my children choose moments when disaster is striking the Rangers to misbehave?  They'll be playing nicely together and if I'm watching the Rangers on TV,  usually everything is going smoothly at the ballpark as well.  But then one kid will do something the other doesn't like and tensions start to mount.     Sure enough, the Rangers will give up a huge home run, or commit an error, or someone will get hurt.  And then the kids decide that is the moment they need to show their asses.  At that point I'm ready to yell at them and the TV.  It's uncanny timing on their part, and the combination of my kids acting up and the Rangers acting up is enough to make me mental.

(I would outline how before our children came along, it was the lovely wife who had the uncanny ability to wait until the Rangers were falling apart in a game before she decided to plop down on the couch beside me either gabbing on the phone, or asking me a gazillion questions about god knows what.  I would outline this, but the lovely wife reads this blog and I don't at all want to give her the impression that I don't listen to her yammering when the Rangers are on TV.)

I wish I had been home for Thursdays game against the Yankees.  The kids must have been on their best behavior, because there were no disasters in that game.  Derek Holland (Dutch Oven) was brilliant, tossing a complete game shutout, and giving a worn out bullpen a break.  More importantly, it gave me a good excuse to show this Holland auto I picked up for next to nothing on eBay recently:

I've got somewhat mixed feelings about Panini Prizm.  Mostly, I hate the lack of logos and that pretty well ruins the whole set for me.  But to be fair there are things I kind of like too. 

Logo, or no logo, I'm happy to have a Dutch Oven auto in my collection. 

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!

Cleve's Auction Night: Wrapping Up My Gift Certificate With a Bang

It occurs to me that I may have not mentioned that my main Christmas present from the lovely wife was a huge gift certificate to Cleve's.  I have utilized it almost weekly from January until this week, and am claiming the gift as the best present ever from the lovely wife.  Well, of course my two kids are the best gifts she ever gave me.  Of course.  Of course.  And her hand in marriage was right up there in the rankings.  And her friendship, love and companionship lo these many years, sure, it goes without saying those are great too. 

Still, this Cleve's gift certificate was tha shiz-nit, and as all good things must end, I finally reached that end today.   But I'm happy to report I made the most out of the final 8 bucks and change. 

Let's start with this:

A wax box of 1990 Topps.  I'll have more on this box later, but I basically got this for 90% off sticker price.  I know 1990 Topps is nothing special, but it will serve two purposes for me:

1. My kids have taken to opening packs lately, and this is a cheap wait to satisfy them and not worry about what they do with the contents.
2. As some of you who have recently traded with me know, I've taken to adding packs to trade packets.  Seems like a fun bonus to send out.

I was pleasantly surprised to see I had also won a miscellaneous lot of cards for $5.  It had some great stuff:

I've wanted a Clemens Topps rookie for my sampler album, and can now check that off.

Not one, but two Fernando Valenzuela/ Mike Scioscia rookies.  One's going in my sampler album, the other is on it's way to my man Spiegel (good thing I procrastinated on getting your trade package out, huh Mike?).

I don't know what this is about, but these Bump Wills were in the lot. 

Three more solid sampler album additions. 

Two 1981 Fleer Rickey Hendersons. 

Finally, a trio of Kellogg's 3-D cards.  I have a soft spot for this kind of stuff, although the Garvey is also on it's way to Spiegel-land.

Grades:

1990 Topps Wax Box $2  A  : The box is a bit nasty (more on that later), but we're still talking $.06 a pack here.

Misc Card Lot $5 :  A+   The Clemens rookie is almost worth it alone, but add in all the others- all strong cards- and this is one of my best gets yet!

Cleve's Auction Night: Anniversary Talk, Dodger Blue and Yu

As the lovely wife will tell you, remembering anniversaries is not one of my stronger skills.  I'll give you an example. For our wedding anniversary a couple of years ago, I thought I was being a great husband by looking up what the traditional anniversary gift was for a couple reaching their 8th anniversary.  Turns out the traditional gifts are either bronze or pottery.   We don't have any bronze in our house and I thought pottery would be the best bet.   Well, where else would I find good pottery but at Pottery Barn?  So I went to Pottery Barn.

I took my time looking and found a couple of nice pots and had them wrapped up.  I thought they were good looking pots, and knew that the lovely wife be gracious about them even if they weren't exactly what she would pick.  I mean, they came from Pottery Barn, and she seems to like that place pretty well.   Besides, I knew what was important was that she would realize I made the effort on my own to shop for traditional 8th year anniversary gifts.  I also knew that display of consideration and sweetness would get me a lot of action in the sack later when I told her the trouble I went to.

Our anniversary date came (it's somewhere like in the middle of May, like the 14th or 15th or abouts) and I gave my wife her gift.  I proudly handed over the box and she eagerly opened it.  As I hoped, she thought the pots were beautiful.    She asked how I came to choose them.  I told her I had done some research and found these were the traditional gifts for this year of our marriage.  Her eyes welled up a little and I knew I had done well.  I also knew that later that night it. was. on.

But.... I kept talking and didn't quit while I was ahead. Big mistake.  "Yeah, for the 8th anniversary they say  traditional gift is either pottery or bronze, and I didn't think you liked bronze that much."

She stopped and kind of stared off across the room for a moment.  "8th anniversary?" she asked.  Uh oh.

"Yeah, I um...."

"Sweet heart.... we've been married 6 years.  Not 8."

"Oh.  Hmm."  I chose my next words carefully.  "I guess it just seems like 8."

Now in my defense I realized what a dumb thing that was to say the moment the words came out of my mouth, which in my opinion, shows great progress on my part.

I won't go into any more detail, but I suppose you can imagine how the rest of that conversation and evening went.

I bring this up only because I just realized that I passed my 2 year blog anniversary last week.  I don't really care that much, but I suppose I should acknowledge it for posterity's sake. 

Actually the only reason I thought about it was that last week I was in Chicago for the International Housewares Show, which I go to every year.  I started my blog just before the show 2 years ago and so now when I'm at the show, I remember this is about the time my blog got started. 

And I only mention going to Chicago last week because it kept me from yet another Cleve Auction,and I once again had to rely on write in bids.  I did ok with them though:

This 1964 Don Drysdale is in exceptional condition and is a great addition to my sampler album. 

I think I'm going to have Yu-fever this year.  I probably didn't get a price steal on this lot of 4, but I needed his A&G rookie and now I have 4.

Finally, as I was in picking these wins up Saturday, Cleve told me he found a card I might like and gave me this:

Wow!  Cleve continues to amaze me- I'm looking to get my hands on any and all Profar cards I can, and this was one I definitely wanted.  What a guy! (Cleve, not Jurickson)


Grades:

1964 Don Drysdale $4   A   Very sharp card and much needed for my 1964 page

Yu Darvish Allen and Ginter Lot  $4:  B+  I probably didn't save a whole lot, but getting 4 of these in one shot is great.

Jurickson Profar Spring Fever Card  $0:  A++++++++   It's ridiculous how awesome Cleve is.

On a final note regarding the blog anniversary-  thank you to all of you who follow, comment, trade, play words with friends, and have become friends with me over this past two years.  This goofy project I started two years ago is more fun that I ever imagined and I owe it all to you good folks!

Thanks for hanging out with me!

Cleve's Auction Night: Shabby, Yet Not Too Shabby

I had every intention of blogging last week while I was away at my company sales meeting.  However, that sales meeting was in Las Vegas and, well, I don't really know what happened but time (and my money) got away from me, and I haven't posted in a week.  As for my trip to Las Vegas (we stayed at the Palazzo BTW, and holy crap was it nice), I fully expected to come back with a fat wad of cash.  I put together what I considered a fool proof method for the roulette table.  I taught it to a 4 of my co-workers and they decided to try it too.  The good news is that my method works- for 4 out of 5 people.  The bad news is that I was that 5th person. 

The night before we came back home, I was actually up pretty big overall.  I was imagining the satisfaction of handing over a roll of twenties to the lovely wife upon my return, and then taking the rest to Cleve's for a spending spree.  My roulette system was on fire.  And then..... I hit a losing streak that should be considered statistically impossible.  I crashed so hard and my profit disappeared so quickly, I didn't know what hit me. 

Now before anyone gets the idea that I lost my kid's college funds, let me put this all in perspective- I lost about $60.   If you count the amount I was up at my highest peak, it was a lot more than that, but that wasn't a true loss I guess.    And I suppose if you total the amount of jack and cokes I was given while I was playing, I came out ahead.  Way ahead, in fact. 

I came home to a couple of wins though- of the Cleve's auctions variety:

I picked up these two 1959s for my sampler album.  They actually look a lot worse in the scan than in the album.  They're not in the greatest shape, but really not all that bad.    They will do until I can get back on the horse in Las Vegas again and make enough dough to get mint versions.

Here is a Dodger relic of a Seattle Mariner card of Adrian Beltre who plays for the Rangers.   Whatever, it's a sharp little card.



Grades:

1959 Frank Robinson $5  A:  Not a mint card, but no major, major problems with it.  Great add to the sampler album.

1959 Ernie Banks $4   A:  Ditto to the Robinson comments

Adrian Beltre Relic  $2    A:  My Beltre collection is getting good people!

T206 Fred Merkle

My latest T206 addition comes as a Christmas present, courtesy the Lovely Wife:

I am so excited to get this card!  I've wanted a T206 or Merkle for a long time now.  I assume many of you know the story of Fred Merkle, and how he became known as "Bonehead?"  If not, here's Sept 23, 1908 write up from the NY Times:

NEW YORK-Censurable stupidity on the part of player Merkle in today's game at the Polo Grounds between the Giants and Chicagos placed the New York team's chances of winning the pennant in jeopardy. His unusual conduct in the final inning of a great game perhaps deprived New York of a victory that would have been unquestionable had he not committed a breach in baseball play that resulted in Umpire O'Day declaring the game a tie.

With the score tied in the ninth inning at 1 to 1 and the New Yorks having a runner, McCormick, on third base waiting for an opportunity to score and Merkle on first base, Bridwell hit into center field. It was a fair hit ball and would have been sufficient to win the game had Merkle gone on his way down the base path while McCormick was scoring the winning run. But instead of Merkle going to second base to make sure that McCormick had reached home with the run necessary to a victory, Merkle ran toward the clubhouse, evidently thinking that his share in the game was ended when Bridwell hit the ball into safe territory.

Manager Chance of the Chicago Club quickly grasped the situation and directed that the ball be thrown to second base, which would force out Merkle, who had not reached that corner. Chance, who plays first base for the Chicago club, ran to second base and the ball was thrown there, but immediately Pitcher McGinnity interfered in the play and a scramble of players ensued, in which, it is said, McGinnity obtained the ball and threw it into the crowd before Manager Chance could complete a force play on Merkle, who was far away from the baseline. Merkle said that he had touched second base, and the Chicago players were equally positive that he had not done so.

Manager Chance then appealed to Umpire O'Day, who was head umpire of the game, for a decision in the matter. The crowd, thinking that the Giants had won the game, swarmed upon the playing field in such confusion that none of the "fans" seemed able to grasp the situation, but finally their attitude toward Umpire O'Day became so offensive that the police ran into the crowd and protected the umpire, while arguments were being hurled pro and con on the point in question by Manager Chance and McGraw and the umpire.

Umpire O'Day finally decided that the run did not count, and that inasmuch as the spectators had gained such large numbers on the field that the game could not be resumed. O'Day declared the game a tie, but the management of the Giants has recorded it as a 2 to 1 victory.

A few things jump out at me about all of this. 

• I don't know about you, but to open the write up with the words "censurable stupidity" is, well, downright mean.   "Censurable Stupidity?"  Pretty harsh.  It feels like a moment where the reaction to the mistake outweighs the mistake itself.  It's like one of those rare occasions where I'm irritated at the lovely wife about something petty, but instead of simply expressing my feelings, I let it build up and then speak more harshly than I should about it.  Then, the source of my irritation becomes irrelevant, and the way I expressed my irritation is now the sore spot.  Not that I have many reasons to get irritated at the lovely wife!
• Speaking of the lovely wife, when I first received this card, I took a few minutes to tell the her the story of Merkle, at least as it pertains to his infamous "mistake."  Her smile waned as I went through the story, his lasting humiliation and resulting bitterness and she finally said, "Well that just makes me sad."  Actually, it does me too a little.
• On a lighter note, I found it interesting that there was a write up of the game printed the same day it was played.    I guess we've always had a thirst for fresh information.  Today, it's Twitter and 24 hour news channels.  Back then, that thirst was quenched with morning and evening editions of the local newspapers.

There is a lot of great stuff written about the Merkle error, and I won't try to add to it.  I have added a couple of links below for anyone interested:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3604289

http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/372b4391

Stained Glass Rangers- And A Lovely Birthday Wish

I picked these up off eBay the other day:

They look like stained glass, and I feel very spiritual when I look at them.

Or maybe I feel this way because today is a great day?  You know why?  It’s the lovely wife’s birthday!  We’ve been married for… not really sure how long, but it’s been a long, long, long time.  At least it seems that way, er, I mean it has gone by so fast!  It seems like just yesterday that I met her.  I’ll never forget it either.

It was a perfect fall evening, just like tonight, and I was dining at Red Lobster with a friend of mine.  At the time Red Lobster was running an “All You Can Eat” Crab Legs special.  My friend and I had a few plates and were stuffed.  We were about to leave when I noticed a beautiful girl sitting across the restaurant.  She was partaking in the crab leg special and just would not stop eating them.  She kept shoveling them in, plate after plate.  Good thing she was wearing a bib, because she was getting food everywhere.  You would have thought she was in a speed eating contest with those things.  She wouldn’t let the waiter take the shells away either, and had them stacked in a huge mound on her table.  I heard her say something about sending a message to her enemies or something.   Anyway, she must have had at least 15 plates of crab legs and didn’t appear to be slowing down.  Finally, the manager came out and tried to tell her enough was enough.   I could see the rage in her eyes.  With cat-like reflexes, she broke her beer bottle on the table edge and swiftly moved behind the manager and put the broken bottle to his neck.  “You better check my record.  'All you can eat' means 'all you can eat', bub” she whispered in his ear.  “Are we clear?”

The manager nodded and she let him go.  She probably had another 10 plates or so before she finally let out a blood curdling howl and stood up from her table.  She sort of stumbled, but steadied herself and prissed out of the restaurant.  I was smitten.   I chased her out of the restaurant and asked her for her number.  She vomited on my shoes and looked me in the eyes.   She was about to say something, but didn't.  I didn't say anything either.  Finally, ignoring the vomit remnants on her chin and the inexplicable pieces of crab meat in her hair, I grabbed her and kissed her.  We fell in love right there in the Red Lobster parking lot and it’s been bliss ever since.

Ok, so maybe some of the above isn’t true (she does like to tell people to  “check her record”), but in fact I did fall in love with her quickly, and it has been bliss ever since.

 Happy birthday my darling!

Spooky Halloween Story Rerun

My wife found it amusing that I got lots of comments about baseball card shipping logistics ("big nerds" is what she called us all), but I put up a semi dirty post about Yu Darvish and get crickets.

Wishing everyone a happy and safe Halloween tonight!  I've got two little ones that are bouncing off the walls and ready to haul in as much candy as possible, and am looking forward to it.  Then I'm ready to watch some American Horror Story after they're down for bed.

I've got my own spooky story, which I posted last year.  I'll rehash it here:

http://www.napkindoon.blogspot.com/2011/10/spooky-story-for-halloween.html

Building A Yu-rection

I realize this title is offensive on many levels (it’s dirty and it makes fun of asian pronunciations).   As my readers know, this is typically a PG rated blog.  But when I thought of the term “Yu-rection”, I couldn’t  NOT use it.

Darvish cards are hard to come by unless you are willing to spend some coin.  But I found a few cheapies on sportlots.com and they arrived this week:

I'm especially "excited" about this 87 Topps Mini.  Wow, that is a freaking awesome card!!!

What I REALLY want though is this McFarlane figure that is coming out in November.  Hint hint, lovely wife, hint hint.

Just Kidding On That Not Wanting Anymore Bowman Chrome Thing I Said

“It seems my hypocrisy knows no bounds.”  Doc Holliday-  Well, not really Doc Holliday, but Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in Tombstone.  I don’t know if the real Doc Holliday ever actually said this, but the quote is apropos to my post.

I think I may have recently implied that 2012 Bowman Chrome was a rip off.  At least the blaster I got kind of was, even though it had an autograph and the base cards in each pack were 100% refractors.  Even with that, it was still a measly 24 cards for $20 and I wasn’t thrilled with it.

I vowed to not buy anymore.  However, later that night I watched Chris Olds open some rack packs online that contained the green retail parallels and thought, “you know, those green refractors are pretty cool.”

You know what?  The green parallels are pretty cool, and I have some to prove it as I completely flip flopped and bought a couple of rack packs:

I also got an auto:

Again, someone I am completely unfamiliar with, but I’ll take it.

In my defense, I won a $50 gift card at work last week and used that to pay for the cards.  AND I might add I gave the remainder of the card to the lovely wife.   When I gave it to her,  I was hoping she would say something like “No, my sweet handsome husband.  You keep it.  I want you to have it.  You can go back to Walmart and spend the rest right after our steak dinner with mushrooms and roasted asparagus and fresh chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  I’ll put the kids down by myself while you shop for cards, and when you get back we can watch the MLB network and then I’ll show you what I bought at Victoria’s Secret today.”

But that didn’t happen and she still has the gift card.