Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Don't Forget About My Other Blog

My single player collection is still going strong.  If anyone has any Sandy Alomar Jr. cards, send 'em this way.

Link

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Fired Up About Pedroia

One card today from a one-for-one trade.
1.  2014 Topps Opening Day Fired Up Dustin Pedroia.  Not the best insert from Opening Day, but hey, a Pedroia insert is a Pedroia insert.  I'm not complaining.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Some Random Cards from a Trade

I got a trade package in today.  It added some nice cards of mostly young rising players:
1.  2012 Topps Museum Collection Green Adrian Gonzalez.  I still like adding A-Gon cards even though his tenure with Boston was very brief.

2.  2013 Bowman Chrome Draft Top Prospects Green Refractor Matt Barnes.  One of Boston's top pitching prospects, and they have several.

3.  2013 Bowman Chrome Draft Refractor Drake Britton.  Britton was called up last year and had some decent moments.  We will probably see more of him later this year.

4.  2014 Topps Heritage New Age Performers Xander Bogaerts.  He has started a little slowly this year but will come around.

5.  2014 Topps Museum Collection Copper Felix Doubront.  His inconsistency has become a little maddening.  Last night was horrible.  But he will probably be great next time out.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Gypsy Queen Blaster

I'm having a rough year baseball-wise.  The Red Sox have been mediocre, my fantasy team is off to a crappy start, and I've generally been doing rather poorly with pulling Red Sox from packs.  It has also been strangely difficult to complete my team sets.  I still have a number of Topps and Heritage needs.  Now add Gypsy Queen to the list.  I bought a blaster and it resulted in just two cards:
1.  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Pedro Martinez.  He will be eligible for the Hall next year.  He should get in.

2.  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Jon Lester.  Horrible night last night against the Yankees.  They need to pull it together.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Peavy and Bogaerts

A two-card mailday of cards that came in with Alomar packages:
1.  2014 Topps Turkey Red.  These online-only releases bother me.  I just don't have much of a shot of trading for the Red Sox.  Plus they are often expensive.  This Peavy cost me $3.00.

2.  2013 Bowman Draft Top Prospects Silver Ice Xander Bogaerts.  He is hitting this year a little, but has yet to show off his true potential.  I am sure he will in time.

Friday, April 18, 2014

A Couple of Rockets

I traded an Astros Roger Clemens insert for two oddball Rockets with the Red Sox:
1.  1987 Star Promo Roger Clemens.  It's blank on the back.  I have one similar to this in my Alomar collection.  The title is "The Artful Roger".  

2.  1991 Stadium Club Charter Member Roger Clemens.  I am not sure how I missed out on this card for so many years.  I had the Ellis Burks and Jeff Reardon from the same set, and a Sandy Alomar Jr. as well.  I had no idea there was a Clemens.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

A Big Trade and Some Gypsy Queen (Finally)

I made a trade recently on the forums that actually helped me out quite a bit with my wantlists.  It netted me a nice Alomar for my collection and the next two scans:
1.  2009 Upper Deck Goudey Ted Williams SP.

2.  2009 Topps Legends of the Game Ted Williams.  Nice to see a different pic of Williams.  As long as his career was, there should be a ton of photos out there of him.

3.  2014 Topps Target Red Junichi Tazawa.  He is quietly becoming a very solid reliever.

4.  2012 Topps Gold Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

5.  2007 Topps Distinguished Service Ted Williams.  I always loved the Bobby Doerr card that I had from this set, now I have the Williams as well.

6.  2007 Topps Ted Williams Ted Williams.  Another card closer to this insert set.

7.  2012 Topps Gold Rush Adrian Gonzalez.  One of the big goals was just one of these cards that were available only online or via redemption, or something.  I don't know.

8.  2012 Topps Gold Rush Clay Buchholz.  This trade got me two.

9.  1986 Sportflics Jim Rice/Mike Schmidt/George Foster.
10.  2014 Topps Xander Bogaerts FS RC.

11.  1959 Topps Vic Wertz.  The next two were huge pickups as well.  And they are almost mint.  Incredible.

12.  1959 Topps Mike Fornieles.  Somewhat forgotten impressive reliever in the 1960's.

13.  1985 Donruss Wade Boggs.

And finally, I picked up some Gypsy Queen packs:
14.  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen A.J. Pierzynski.

15.  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Jonny Gomes.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Some Hits from the Wantlist

I have not been doing too well with knocking stuff off of my wantlist lately.  Coupled with the fact that I have added a bunch of cards from recent releases to the wantlist means that it is actually growing rather than shrinking.  Not the way I prefer things to go.  So I picked up a few things with a couple of trades and a couple of buys off of Ebay.  
1.  2014 Donruss Elite Dominator Curt Schilling.  Excellent looking card that actually manages to hide the lack of MLB license rather well.  Schilling should be in the Hall of Fame.  

2.  2014 Donruss press Proof Jon Lester.  Lester has pitched well this season despite losing both games.  Damn lack of offense.

3.  2014 Donruss David Ortiz DK.  Diamond Kings are back!  I just wish they were still illustrated by Dick Perez.  

4.  2014 Donruss Xander Bogaerts RR.  So are Rated Rookies!  With the classic logo!

5.  2014 Topps Opening Day Game Used Material Koji Uehara.  I saw this and I had to have it.  Koji was such a terrific player last season.  I love the celebration shot.

6.  2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Sportdiscs Jason Varitek.  Nice disc card that calls to mind some of the Sportflics and disc cards from the early 1990's.  Plus it's my favorite player.

7.  1993 Upper Deck Season Highlights Jeff Reardon.  I have always liked closers.  Reardon was the first Red Sox closer I was aware of when I started watching baseball.  I remember him breaking Rollie Fingers's saves record in 1992.  He was traded not long after that and Lee Smith pretty much immediately broke his record.

8.  2014 Topps Opening Day Jonny Gomes.  I love this shot.  Gomes may be out of a job soon though with the emergence of Jackie Bradley Jr., the impressive hitting of Grady Sizemore, and Shane Victorino's return from the DL.

9.  2014 Topps 1989 Mini Ted Williams.  

10.  2014 Topps Opening Day Mascots Wally the Green Monster.  I am not a big fan of mascot cards and do not go out of my way to get them.  If I get them in a trade or pack, that is fine.

11.  2014 Topps Opening Day Dustin Pedroia.  Must have been an exciting play.

12.  2012 Topps Chrome Blue Refractor Jon Lester.

13.  2014 Topps Opening Day Stars David Ortiz.  I love these 3D cards.

14.  2011 Finest Refractor Clay Buchholz.  

15.  2010 Topps Chrome Xfractor John Lackey.  He looks as good as he did last year.  Good, because he's on my fantasy team.

Finally, I picked up another blaster of Heritage, trying to pick up the last several Red Sox I needed.  Not much got accomplished.  If anyone has any Red Sox heritage they want to get rid of, let me know.
16.  2014 Topps Heritage Will Middlebrooks.

17.  2014 Topps Heritage Will Middlebrooks/Allen Craig WS.  Not the World Series card I wanted the most.  Not even sure you can really call it a Red Sox card, but Middlebrooks is just as important in the shot as Craig, so I will give it a pass.

18.  2014 Topps Heritage Jonny Gomes.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Lots of Stuff to Show Off With Lots of Blogger Contributions

I have gotten a lot of stuff the last few days but have been too busy to show anything off.  Well here we go:
Up first is a package from Weston of Fantastic Catch in exchange for some Cardinals.
1.  2013 Topps The Elite Ted Williams.  Nice thick card of the Splendid Splinter.

2.  2013 Topps 1971 Mini Dustin Pedroia.

3.  2013 Topps 1972 Mini Fred Lynn.

4.  2010 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Jon Lester.

5.  2010 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Jonathan Papelbon.

6.  2013 Bowman Draft Jackie Bradley Jr.  Finally, a new JBJ.

Thanks Weston!

Next is a big trade with Johnny from Cards from the Quarry, a big Rockies fan.
7.  1977 O-Pee-Chee Jim Rice.

8.  1994 Topps Gold Scott Fletcher.  A 5-WAR player in 1993, believe it or not.

9.  1994 Topps Gold Ken Ryan.

10.  1995 Topps Otis Nixon.  

11.  1995 Topps Frank Rodriguez.

12.  1995 Topps Aaron Sele.

13.  1995 Topps Roger Clemens.  Just filling in some gaps.

14.  2009 Topps Toppstown Kevin Youkilis.

15.  2009 Upper Deck Icons Jonathan Papelbon.

And the first card in this scan is from Johnny too:
16.  2009 O-Pee-Chee Walk-Off Winners J.D. Drew.  Celebrating the win in Game 5 of the ALCS in 2008 in which Boston mounted a huge comeback.

Thanks Johnny!

17.  2012 Topps Chrome Blue Refractor Mike Aviles.  Acquired in a trade with some Alomar stuff from the other blog.

Up next is a new vintage package from one of my favorite trading partners, Mark Hoyle:
18.  1970 Fleer Laughlin World Series Babe Ruth.  Most of these cards did not feature any recognizable players, but boy this one did.  Just an awesome card celebrating Ruth's pitching dominance in the World Series.

19.  1975 Topps Mini Rogelio Moret.  Mark always throws a bunch of these in.  Not that I mind, I did not have any prior to his packages.

20.  1975 Topps Mini Rick Miller.

21.  1975 Topps Mini Mario Guerrero.  One of the pieces Boston acquired in the ill-fated Sparky Lyle trade.

22.  1975 Topps Mini Rick Burleson.  The Rooster was a very underrated player.

23.  1975 Topps Mini Bernie Carbo.

24.  1975 Topps Mini Juan Beniquez.

25.  1968 Topps George Scott.  Boomer!

26.  1969 Topps Dick Williams.  Hall of Fame manager.

More from Mark:
27.  1970 Topps Dick Schofield.  

28.  1970 Topps Mike Nagy.  Nice trophy.

29.  1973 Topps Ben Oglivie.  Yes, another young player Boston let get away before he became a star,

30.  1973 Topps Ken Tatum.

31.  1973 Topps Luis Tiant/Steve Carlton LL.

32.  1976 Isaly's Disc Luis Tiant.  This is certainly interesting.

Thanks Mark!  I will send some stuff asap.

Next is another trade from Kenny, aka Zippy Zappy:
33.  2013 Bowman Chrome Mini Prospects Deven Marrero.  Marrero impressed in Spring Training.

34.  1961 Fleer George Pipgras.  Awesome vintage card of a longtime Yankee star who spent a short stint in Boston.

35.  2009 Fusion Press Pass Jason Varitek.  Probably not going in the Red Sox collection, but a great card of one of my favorites all the same.

Thanks Kenny!

Next is an Ebay win for a couple of buybacks:
36.  2014 Topps 75th Anniversary Nelson Chittum.

37.  2014 Topps 75th Anniversary Ben Oglivie.  Look familiar?

Next is some stuff Jack from Baseball Dad sent along with a bunch of Alomars you can see on the other blog.
38.  2009 Stand-Up Josh Beckett.  This one is unusual.  

39.  2014 Topps Opening Day David Ortiz.

40.  2014 Topps Opening Day Jon Lester.  He was great on Opening Day, though he took a tough loss.

41.  2014 Topps Opening Day Xander Bogaerts.  

42.  2014 Topps Opening Day Shane Victorino.

Thanks Jack!  I will send stuff soon.

Finally, a quick trade:
43.  2005 Zenith Z-Silver Tim Wakefield.

44.  2008 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Coco Crisp.

45.  2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini David Ortiz.

46.  2013 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Jim Rice.

47.  2004 Diamond Kings Sepia Roger Clemens.