Cards from Chipp 'n Dale and a 1958 All Star

A couple of packages, the top card came in in a small deal, the remaining four all came from one blogger:

1.  1958 Topps Jackie Jensen AS.  As I mentioned, this card came separately from the rest of the cards.  Jensen was one of Boston's best players in the 1950's, but he started his career with the Yankees, backing up Mickey Mantle.  Jensen was eventually traded to the Senators, then the Red Sox where he flourished.  He was great in 1957, but the best was yet to come as he won the MVP in 1958.  He retired early due to a crippling fear of flying.

The remaining cards all came from James of the Braves site Chipp 'n Dale.  My blog trades have been a little sparse lately but I saw the Lester jersey for trade and figured I'd jump in.  These were the cards that were new to my collection from the package:

2.  1996 Select Jose Canseco.  Canseco actually was having one of his best seasons in 1996 until he went down with an injury.  He was one of several stars who complained their way out of Boston after the season, along with Roger Clemens and Mike Greenwell.  Dan Duquette must have been a terrible GM.

3.  2013 Panini Cooperstown Bobby Doerr.  Strangely, this is the first card I have gotten from this set.  I am slipping.  Doerr is the oldest living Hall of Famer.

4.  2014 Topps Jonny Gomes.  Knock one off the wantlist.  I love this shot.  

5.  2009 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection JSY Jon Lester.  I don't really have a lot of game-used cards of Lester for some reason.  Hopefully he re-signs with Boston after the season.  He is their ace.  This was the card that started this deal.

Thanks James!  Your cards are on their way.

Tired of Mailday Posts...

...Yet I can't stop.  The influx of mail keeps coming, so I like to show it off.  There were two packages today, one which nailed down a number of desired Gypsy Queen cards, and a couple random cards from the turn of the millenium:

1.  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Koji Uehara.  How can you not like this guy?  Koji always looks like he is having a blast.  He has fun playing the game and his enthusiasm is infectious.  Great shot here.

2.  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini A.J. Pierzynski.  Yeah it's probably airbrushed, but a nice shot anyway of Boston's new #1 catcher.  He doesn't walk much, but he can hit.  A grand slam over the weekend put Boston in the driver's seat in Toronto.

3.  2014 Topps Gypsy Queen David Ross.  I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get a David Ross Red Sox card.  Thankfully Gypsy Queen came through.  Nice shot of "The Wolf", the nickname for his beard last year.

4.  1998 Donruss Silver Press Proof Dennis Eckersley.  There will be several new Eck cards coming soon.  Just one of those weird, random events.

5.  2000 Topps Tek Nomar Garciaparra Pattern 8.  I love the Tek cards but I just never got as into them as I thought that I would.  I guess who needs 90 different patterns of the same card?  But now that my Sandy Alomar Jr. player collection is going strong again, I have focused on the Tek cards as my #1 priority.  It's nice to add the occasional Red Sox card too.  And of course the rules were a little different by this point.  I think there were a couple of different pictures used.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Pretty Good Heritage Trade

I recently made a trade on the forums for a couple of nice Heritage short prints:

1.  2014 Topps Heritage Blue Dustin Pedroia SP.  Pedroia has more hair on his face than he does on his head by a significant margin.

2.  2014 Topps Heritage David Ortiz SP.  Ortiz's face after signing his new contract.  It's uneasy joy because he is now considering asking for security beyond 2017.

2014 Heritage Breaks

New stuff to show off.  I bought a couple of rack packs of Heritage just for fun.  Not bad results either:

1.  2014 Topps Heritage Mike Napoli.  Behold the beard!  In all its glory!

2.  2014 Topps Heritage Koji Uehara.  I am so glad he had such a great season last year.  I am cautiously optimistic this year.

3.  2014 Topps Heritage Shane Victorino.  Looking forward to him hitting leadoff this year.

4.  2014 Topps Heritage Clay Buchholz.  He is the fifth starter going into this season.  Man that rotation is deep.

Yes the Red Sox Collection is Still My Primary Focus

It is true that I have resurrected my player collection, but the Red Sox remain my primary collection.  It's nice to have something on the side once in awhile.  But it is much easier to add to my Red Sox collection.  Just look here:

1.  2013 Select Mike Napoli.  I bought this along with a bunch of Alomars recently from one seller.  I liked the design of the new Select set, though I would like it better if they had an MLB license.

The next trade knocked off four cards from my wantlist, including one from my Top 10.
2.  2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Calling the Shots Terry Francona.  Nice to see managers getting a little love.  Francona goes down as one of the best managers in Red Sox history.

3.  2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Wade Boggs.  Anyone have any more of these?  I need a bunch still for the team set.

4.  1987 Donruss Bob Stanley.  Yes, the Steamer.  I am still missing a few cards from 1987 Donruss.

5.  1975 Topps Luis Tiant.  This is the big one of the day.  A rare action shot for 1975 Topps, which did not have many for the Red Sox.  That's why I wanted it.

My New Blog

I announced earlier I wanted to bring back my Sandy Alomar Jr. collection.  I decided to make that official by starting a new blog devoted entirely to that collection.

Collecting Sandy Alomar Jr.

Go check it out.  Thanks.

Napoli Auto and a Rocket

A couple of quick pickups to show off:

1.  2014 Donruss Signatures Mike Napoli.  My first Napoli auto.  The weirdest thing about this is that it lists Napoli as a catcher.  Napoli did not play a single inning at catcher last year and is not likely to play a single inning there this year.

2.  2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Nicknames Roger Clemens.  The cartoon character that is bigger than the picture of the player is a bit off-putting.  Still, a nice card of The Rocket.

The New Pickups with Some Heritage Breaks

I have been very busy lately.  I have a two-day custody trial next week.  Believe me, I do not look forward to that.  I would much rather handle a jury trial on a murder case than a custody trial.  Anyway, here are the latest pickups.  No central themes here, just a whole bunch of Red Sox cards:

For the first pickup, we have a forum trade.  I traded a 2014 Topps short printed Yadier Molina for these:

 1.  2011 Topps Gold Mike Cameron.  I was disappointed with Cameron's performance in Boston.  He was supposed to come in and provide veteran leadership and steady defense in center field.  This was when Jacoby Ellsbury was considered a liability.  Unfortunately, Cameron was injured a whole lot.

2.  2014 Topps Red Hot Foil Shane Victorino.  Victorino on the other hand was so much more than he was expected to be last year.  He will likely be the leadoff man and right fielder this year.

3.  2014 Topps Target Red Jon Lester.  Lester is 23 wins from becoming the winningest lefty in Red Sox history.  They just have to lock him up beyond this season because unless he has an exceptional year, it won't happen this year.

4.  1971 Topps Ken Brett.  This is why I made this trade.  Can't go wrong with vintage.  Ken is George's older brother.  He had the raw talent but never really put it all together though he was once the youngest pitcher to ever pitch in a World Series (1967, 19 years old) despite only pitching one game in the regular season.  Brett could also hit a little and had 10 career home runs, despite being a pitcher.

5.  2014 Topps Target Red Matt Thornton.  I have been getting a number of Thornton cards lately, despite no longer being with the team.

6.  2014 Topps Wal Mart Blue Mike Napoli WS.  Napoli is the only player who has not completely shed his beard from last year.  He still looks like a lumberjack.

Up next, I bought four packs of Heritage one day because they did not have any blasters available:

7.  2014 Topps Heritage John Farrell.  My first manager card of Farrell.  I was a little disappointed Boston did not have a manager card last year for Bobby Valentine.  For completion's sake of course.

8.  2014 Topps Heritage Felix Doubront.  Early Spring Training results look favorable for the southpaw.  Hopefully he can finally put it all together this year.

9.  2014 Topps Heritage Xander Bogaerts w/ Jonathan Schoop (Orioles).  The next big star for the Red Sox.

Then I had another forum trade which cost me just a couple of Wal Mart parallels: 

10.  2013 Topps Tribute Dustin Pedroia.  Nice action shot of the follow-through here.  It should be another big year for the second-baseman.

I usually try to avoid buying lately, what with a new car and house and everything, but for $13.00 I got the following 27 cards:

11.  2006 Upper Deck Epic Epic Events.  I liked these inserts.  I don't really understand the purpose of showing him in his then-current Dodgers uniform in the little picture in the bottom.  Nomar was a favorite player for a long time.

12.  2010 Topps Chrome Refractor Marco Scutaro.  Scutaro was a nice, steady player for a few years.  Solid defense and a good bat.

13.  2012 Topps Gold Sparkle Ryan Sweeney.  A bust in Boston, and he even busted his hand punching a water cooler which lead to him not being traded at the trading deadline.  He has found new life with the Cubs.  All he cost was Josh Reddick.  Ouch,

14.  1982 Topps/Coca Cola Jerry Remy.  The Rem Dawg will be returning to the booth this year after a tough year last year.

15.  1982 Topps/Coca Cola Chuck Rainey.  Rainey had a nice rookie year in 1979 but it was downhill after that.

16.  1997 Leaf Fractal Matrix Bronze X-Axis Rudy Pemberton.  Pemberton was a big splash in 1996, hitting .512 with 10 RBIs in 13 games.  He was so impressive that he was handed the starting right field job in 1997, which he promptly lost by hitting .238.

17.  2009 Topps Update Propaganda Posters Dustin Pedroia.  I had not seen any of these before this one.  I really like this idea.

18.  2013 Topps Update Gold Jake Peavy.  Peavy recovered from an injury when he cut himself fishing with his son.  Smart.

19.  2013 Topps Chrome Purple Refractor Mike Napoli.  I'm hoping for a big year in his second year with Boston.

20.  2011 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Mini Ryan Lavarnway.  I suspect Lavarnway will be traded.  Boston has a lot of young catchers and Lavarnway has been unable to distinguish himself.  

21.  1997 Circa Rave Reggie Jefferson.  This is a nice card, an early low-numbered parallel.  There were only 150 of each.  At the time, they were massively valuable because of their scarcity.  Now 150 is just not a big deal.

22.  2012 Topps Mound Dominance Jon Lester.  I have no idea why it took so long to track down this card.  This commemorates his no hitter against the Royals in 2008.  One year after winning the final game of the 2007 World Series which was the year he returned from a battle with cancer.

23.  2008 Topps Co-Signers Silver Bronze Mike Lowell.  Another cancer survivor.  Lowell had a monster year in 2007, culminating with winning the World Series MVP.

24.  2008 Upper Deck Timeline Jed Lowrie.  Modelled after the 2004 Upper Deck Timeless Teams set.  I still do not understand why Boston traded both Lowrie and Scutaro before the 2012 season. 

25.  1994 Upper Deck BAT Jimmie Foxx.  A nice card of the Beast.  That action shot gets used a ton.

26.  1987 Donruss Roger Clemens.  The year after he won the All Star MVP, AL Cy Young, and AL MVP.  1986 was a good year for the Rocket.

27.  2006 Topps '52 Debut Flashback.  Interesting premise.  This is basically the same picture from Rocket's 1985 rookie card but on a 1952 Topps design.  Pretty cool.

28.  1996 Pinnacle Starburst Jose Canseco.  Canseco was actually having one of his best seasons ever in 1996 before he missed a lot of time at the end of the season.  Before going on the DL late in July, he was hitting .308/.420/.637 with 28 home runs and 77 RBIs.  He did not come back until the last half of September.   

29.  2008 Upper Deck Timeline David Ortiz.  The base card for Big Papi. 

30.  2008 Topps Co-Signers Silver Blue David Ortiz/Manny Ramirez.  I love these dual-player cards for Co-Signers, especially from 2008.

31.  2012 Topps Wal Mart Blue Mike Aviles.  Aviles had a decent year in 2012 as the starting shortstop, good defensively and had some power.  Not good at getting on base though.

32.  1988 Broder's Classic Superstars Wade Boggs.  If anyone has any information on these Broder's issues, I would like to know about them.  I know I read that they did not have an MLB license at one point so they were illegal.  It's tough to find any information about them.

33.  1988 Broder's Blue Border Series 2 Wade Boggs.

34.  1988 Broder's Big League All Stars Series 1 Wade Boggs.

35.  1988 Broder's Big League All Stars Series 2 Wade Boggs.

36.  2006 Upper Deck Epic Epic Events Johnny Damon.  Oddly this card shows Johnny in his Yankees uniform at the bottom and highlights his two homer night against the Yankees in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS.  A fond memory for me, even though Damon later defected to the Yankees.

37.  2009 Topps Heritage Chrome Jon Lester.  I always liked these Chrome Heritage parallels, though I don't usually go out of my way to get them.

Next is a card I have been trying to find for a decent price for several months:

38.  2012 Bowman Bowman's Best Die Cut Jackie Bradley Jr.  My first JBJ in awhile.  It is looking less and less likely that he will start the season as the center fielder.  I am not thrilled with that, unless Grady Sizemore has a terrific season, then I might get over it.   But I want JBJ to play.

Finally, yesterday I bought a few more Heritage packs:

39.  2014 Topps Heritage Daniel Nava.  We might see a few more Nava cards this year after his terrific season last year in which he hit .303/.385/.445.

40.  2014 Topps Heritage A.J. Pierzynski.  And my second A.J. card with the Red Sox.

My New (Old) Collection Idea

I'm looking for something new and exciting so I decided to resurrect my old single player collection.  I have kind of kept it going a little bit at a time over the last couple of years but now I thought I would really bring it out.  Anyway, when I was a kid and just getting into baseball, I started a single player collection of Sandy Alomar Jr.  Sure he's retired and he was never really a huge star, at least other than 1990 and 1997.  But that's part of the charm.  So here I am, resurrecting my Sandy Alomar Jr. collection.  If anyone has any, please feel free to email me.

Thanks.

P.S.  Don't worry, the Red Sox are still my major focus.  I just wanted to branch out a bit.

My Fantasy Team

I started doing the fantasy baseball team last year in a league with 18 other attorneys.  Yeah, it's a lot of people.  So anyway, here is my team:

C - Matt Wieters (6th Round)

1B - Nick Swisher (12th Round)

2B - Brian Dozier (10th Round)

SS - Asdrubal Cabrera (15th Round)

3B - Miguel Cabrera (1st Round)

OF - Justin Upton (2nd Round)

OF - Wil Myers (4th Round)

OF - Michael Bourn (11th Round)

U - Xander Bogaerts (8th Round)

P - Madison Bumgarner (3rd Round)

P- Homer Bailey (5th Round)

P - Mike Minor (7th Round)

P - R.A. Dickey (9th Round)

P - John Lackey (14th Round)

RP - Steve Cishek (13th Round)

RP - Casey Janssen (17th Round)

Reserve:

C - Alex Avila (18th Round)

1B/OF - Chris Carter (16th Round)

2B - Marco Scutaro (21st Round)

2B - Nick Franklin (23rd Round)

OF - Jackie Bradley Jr. (22nd Round)

OF - Mike Carp (25th Round)

P - Mike Leake (20th Round)

RP - Edward Mujica (19th Round)

RP - Brad Ziegler (24th Round)

A Thorn(ton) in My Side

Just one card to show off today.  Last night I had to go to Wal-Mart to pick up some random items and decided to pick up a rack pack of Topps.  I have not been thrilled with my pack breaks much this year.  Not a lot of Red Sox to show for them, and even fewer inserts/parallels.  I figured at five bucks it would not be a total loss if I didn't get anything.  Toward the bottom of my new stack though, I pulled this:

1.  2014 Topps Green Matt Thornton.  Now that's what I like to see.  These parallels come one per rack pack, so they are not exactly rare, but it's nice to finally pull something for the Red Sox.  Thornton of course did not make the World Series roster last year and will be with the Yankees this year, but it's nice to see Topps putting in some middle relievers in the flagship set.

The Return of Donruss

When I was first getting into baseball cards, Donruss was my favorite brand.  I do not really know why that was at this time.  I am sure I had my reasons.  The 1989 set was my personal favorite.  Again, don't ask for reasons.  I was little.  Donruss has had kind of a shaky history in the hobby.  During the 1980's through the mid 1990's it was very active, but disappeared in 1999.  Then it returned in 2001, kept going until 2005 and was gone again.  Panini has resurrected the brand recently and this is the first season we have an actual Donruss set since 2005.  It also marks the return of Diamond Kings.  Of course being a Panini brand, Donruss does not have an MLB license, which is unfortunate.

Anyway, I got a trade worked out recently where I got a bunch of the 2014 Donruss singles.  Behold:

1.  2014 Donruss Nomar Garciaparra.  Panini has been putting a bunch of retired players in their sets, so it is no surprise that Nomar gets a card here.  He will first become eligible for the Hall of Fame next year and has a borderline case.

2.  2014 Donruss David Ortiz.  Hurry up and extend him already.

3.  2014 Donruss Team MVPs Dustin Pedroia.  I love this one.  They used a variation of the 1989 design for this card.  Great-looking card.

4.  2014 Donruss A.J. Pierzynski.  My first A.J. card even though this is a Texas uniform that the logo was air-brushed out of.  I am a little wary of A.J. as catcher this year, though it is just for one season so it can't be too bad.

5.  2014 Donruss Shane Victorino.  Likely going to be the leadoff hitter this year.

6.  2014 Donruss Jon Lester.  Hurry up and extend him already.

7.  2014 Donruss Dustin Pedroia.  One player with no contract concerns thanks to his deal last year.

8.  2014 Donruss Mike Napoli.  I am looking forward to seeing what Napoli will do this year.  He was arguably the best defensive first baseman in the league last year and had a decent year with the stick too.

Just a note:  I know I owe some people some packages.  Things have been hectic trying to get some civil trials out of the way recently.  I will get stuff out soon.

Cards from a (Snowed In) Baseball Dad

Jack warned me it may be a little bit before he could get these out because he was dealing with blizzard conditions.  I totally understand that.  I figured I would know if he survived by if I got the cards.  Luckily Jack appears to be okay.

1.  2014 Topps Gold Will Middlebrooks FS.  My first gold parallel of the new year.  Do you realize I do not have a single team set of gold cards ever?  Weird.

2.  2014 Topps Clay Buchholz.

3.  2014 Topps Joel Hanrahan.  This is one of my favorite pictures on a Red Sox card this year so far, along with Shane Victorino and Jonny Gomes (which incidentally I still don't have).

4.  2014 Topps Jon Lester WS.  Lester is one of the best postseason pitchers of all time.  Look it up.

5.  2014 Topps Jon Lester.

6.  2014 Topps Shane Victorino.  I now have three versions of this one.  Never get tired of the shot.

Thanks Jack!

Update Post With Some $30.00/Week Stuff

One of these days I will get back to posting a little more regularly, and possibly even to posting about other things than my maildays.  Things have been busy at work.  I'm preparing for a trial right now which could settle on Monday.  Maybe.  There have been a few trades trickling in, mostly through the forum, but now and then through other means.

Here are the recent pickups:

The gold cards all came in one trade:

1.  2011 Topps Gold Jed Lowrie.  Boston has had a bad track record with trading for closers lately.  Jed Lowrie is the first such mistake as they traded him to the Astros for Mark Melancon.  Melancon struggled in Boston before being traded while Lowrie finally broke through as an every day player.  He still has trouble staying healthy, but he is a solid player when he is.

2.  2012 Topps Gold Daniel Bard.  Bard will be attempting to resurrect his career with the Rangers next season.  It's been a rocky road since Boston tried to stretch him out into a starter.  Such a shame.

3.  2012 Topps Gold Erik Bedard.  I was underwhelmed by this trade when it occurred.  Boston gave up four minor leaguers to get him.  Stephen Fife and Tim Federowicz have been the only ones to make the Majors and they have not been real impressive, yet.

4.  2012 Topps Gold Clay Buchholz.  Hopefully he can stay healthy next season.  The rotation needs him.  Especially if he pitches as well as he did in the early part of 2013.

5.  2013 Topps Update Gold Stephen Drew.  He still does not have a job.  I would not mind seeing him back in Boston, but not at the expense of Xander Bogaerts and Will Middlebrooks.

6.  2010 Topps Gold John Lackey.  What a great comeback season he had last year.  Hopefully it continues.

The two blues were acquired in another trade.
7.  2014 Topps Wal Mart Blue Will Middlebrooks FS.  Middlebrooks had a rough 2013 but he seems ready to go for 2014.  If he fails, Garin Cecchini is ready for a shot.

8.  2014 Topps Wal Mart Blue Jonny Gomes WS.  Gomes had a number of great moments in 2014, from hitting two walkoff home runs to his three run home run that eventually won Game 4 of the World Series.  He's a great teammate too.

The following four red cards came from Jimmy who contacted me about a trade recently on the blog.  He sent these:

9.  2013 Topps Target Red David Ortiz.  Just give him his contract extension already.  He deserves it.  He is the Red Sox.

10.  2013 Topps Target Red Ryan Dempster.  Dempster shockingly retired earlier this year.

11.  2013 Topps Target Red Jonny Gomes.  Nice to add a couple Gomes cards recently.

12.  2013 Topps Target Red Joel Hanrahan.  Yet another failed closer trade.  Boston gave up on Melancon too early and he really broke through for the Pirates.  They also lost Stolmy Pimentel in the trade.  Hanrahan save three games and then broke down.  Ouch.

Thanks Jimmy!

Two more packages to go:

The next two cards were picked up from Robert from $30/week Habit.  Robert, I will have something in the mail for you soon.
13.  2014 Topps Before They Were Great Jim Rice.  Nice thick card stock here.  This is a neat card.

14.  2014 Topps Upper Class Dustin Pedroia.  His wrist should be healed so he should have a little more power this year.

Thanks Robert!  After my trial, I will get something together.

The next seven are from another forum trade.
15.  2008 Topps Wal Mart Dick Perez Josh Beckett.  Beckett had some great seasons for Boston, but his salary was too high to keep him around.  I have some fond memories of him, but it was time to move on.

16.  2014 Topps 1989 Mini David Ortiz.  Another Big Papi.

17.  2014 Topps Upper Class Jim Rice.  Couldn't they find another picture here?

18.  2014 Topps All Rookie Cup Team Jim Rice.  See?  Here's another picture.

19.  2014 Topps Wal Mart Blue Junichi Tazawa.  He is finally getting some cards.

20.  2014 Topps Wal Mart Blue Clay Buchholz.  Another Buchholz.  I now have over 100 different cards of Clay.

21.  2013 Topps Emerald Ryan Sweeney.  Sweeney was acquired in yet another bad deal for a closer.  He and Andrew Bailey were picked up for Josh Reddick, who has become a good player, and Miles Head.  Sweeney did very little in his time in Boston.

A Few Trades and a 63 Fleer Tito Francona to Trade

A few trade items have come in that have gradually made me feel a little bit better about 2014 Topps, now that I am getting a few more cards here and there:

1.  2014 Topps Upper Class Wade Boggs.  I have said it several times, Wade Boggs was my first favorite player.  I was heartbroken when he signed with the Yankees.  It was one of the first things that made me hate the Yankees.  I know now that Boston did not really make an effort to retain him, but I was 11 at the time.  I did not really understand that.

2.  2014 Topps 1989 Mini Fred Lynn.  If Lynn had stayed with the Red Sox, would he be in the Hall of Fame now?  I think there is a chance that would have happened.

3.  1995 Leaf Gold Stars Jose Canseco.  I still like getting Canseco cards with the Red Sox.  Canseco was my older brother's first favorite player and he stopped watching baseball shortly after Canseco was traded to the Rangers.

4.  2005 Reflections Blue Edgar Renteria.  I was so disappointed when Renteria turned out to be a bust in Boston.  I liked Renteria from the time he came up with the Marlins and liked watching him with the Cardinals.  I do wonder if he would have done better the next season if he had not been traded.

5.  2014 Topps Wal Mart Blue Shane Victorino.  I love this action shot of The Flyin' Hawaiian.  Looking forward to seeing what he can do this year.

6.  2014 Topps David Ortiz WS.  A shot from the World Series celebration.  Love it.

7.  2014 Topps Power Players Clay Buchholz.  I had some luck in last year's interactive program so I will try again this year.  I would love to get a nice online-only Red Sox piece.

8.  1963 Fleer Bill Monbouquette.  One of the few bright spots in the 1960's for the Red Sox, Monbo was a pretty good pitcher.  I got this as well as the below card and the previous three for a George Brett commemorative patch.  A pretty good trade if you ask me.

Does anyone want this?  Does anyone possibly have the Lou Clinton?  This is Terry's father.  I picked this because there was a big discrepancy between my Brett card and the Monbo earlier and I did not want to pass up a chance to get it.  So I took a card I did not have a lot of interest in that I figured I could flip for something I do want.  I would love to trade it for the 1963 Fleer Lou Clinton first, but then anything from Topps of the same general period.

2014 Topps is Frustrating Me

For some reason I have not been doing very well with packs.  I have opened up quite a bit of 2014 Topps with very little to show for it Red Sox-wise.  And so I have been trying to do as much as I can with trading, which has also been slow.  So here I am, a long way away from the team set in base and very little to show in the way of parallels and inserts so far.  

1.  2014 Topps Red Hot Foil Mike Napoli WS.  What a beard.  Amazing.  Napoli appeared at Spring Training still sporting that thing.  This one I got in a pack just as I was waiting to receive it in a trade.  <Facepalm>.

2.  2014 Topps Matt Thornton.  Thornton did not make the World Series roster and will be suiting up with the Yankees in 2014.  I am glad to see him make this set though.  This one was pulled in a pack too.

3.  2014 Topps Silk Shane Victorino.  I bought this on Ebay.  What a great picture of Shane going into the stands for a catch.  Great card.

4.  2012 Topps Gold Sparkle John Lackey.  And this is the other card I got in the trade that gave me the Napoli double.  I will be interested to see if Lackey pitches well again in 2014.

5.  2014 Topps Wal Mart Blue Joel Hanrahan.  Unfortunately the Hanrahan trade did not work out, but I really like this picture.  This is my first Wal Mart blue from a pack.

6.  2014 Topps Mike Carp.  Carp was a terrific bench player last year.  He is likely trade bait now.

7.  2014 Topps Yellow Jon Lester.  A one for one trade landed me this nice card of Boston's ace.  They need to lock him up to an extension soon.

8.  2014 Topps Mike Napoli WS.  A pack pull, along with the next two.

9.  2014 Topps Jake Peavy.  We need a card of Jake with his new duckboat that he bought after the World Series parade.

10.  2014 Topps Dustin Pedroia.  And no set of Red Sox cards would be complete without a Laser Show.

"O" No: A Trade with an Orioles Collector and some 2x3 Heroes

Blah blah, not posting nearly often enough blah blah blah.

Okay, so I worked out a trade with Ryan from "O" No: Another Orioles Blog.  He expressed some interest in some Orioles cards from 2014 Topps that I had pulled and said he could throw together a nice package.  He certainly did.  From his package, I got eight new cards, and some great ones too:

1.  2007 Upper Deck 1989 Carlton Fisk.  A terrific-looking insert of Pudge holding his Rookie of the Year award.

2.  2001 Topps Golden Greats Ted Williams.  Nice Splendid Splinter here.  I love getting cards of Williams.

3.  1998 Sports Illustrated Carlton Fisk Magnificent Moments.  Yet another card commemorating his game-winning home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series.  A great moment that I was not yet alive to see.

4.  2011 Topps Heritage Black Adrian Beltre.  Beltre is one of my favorite One Season Wonders for the Red Sox.  He was signed as a free agent, had a great year, Boston decided to trade for Adrian Gonzalez, and Beltre was gone.  It kind of sucks that he only had one year, but what a year it was: All Star and Silver Slugger.

5.  1996 Fleer Mike Greenwell.  Greenwell was one of my first favorite players.

6.  2001 Bowman Carl Everett.  Holy crap, a Jurassic Carl sighting!

7.  2011 Bowman Josh Beckett.  The last card I needed to finish this team set.

8.  2012 Bowman Draft Picks Prospects Brian Johnson.  Johnson is a decent pitching prospect for the Red Sox right now.

Thanks Ryan!


And next, I received a ton of stuff from Jeff over at 2x3 Heroes as part of his 'Tis the Season giveaway.  I snagged the Red Sox, Indians, and Astros, and got a bunch of doubles from Panini as well.  Here are the new Red Sox cards, my favorites obviously:

9.  2007 Ultra Retail Curt Schilling.  Schill was recently diagnosed with cancer.  Here's hoping to a speedy and complete recovery and to his eventual selection to Cooperstown.

10.  2012 Panini Prizm David Ortiz.  The big man has yet to slow down.  Let's keep him in Boston for the rest of his career.

11.  1996 Leaf Mike Greenwell.  Another Gator sighting.

12.  2007 Tristar Prospects Plus Will Middlebrooks.  A very early card of Jenny Dell's boyfriend.

13.  2005 Topps Opening Day Pedro Martinez.  One of the last cards depicting Pedro with the Red Sox while active.

14.  2006 Upper Deck Craig Breslow RC.  Many probably don't remember that Breslow pitched for Boston in 2006 before establishing himself as a reliable reliever.  This is his second tour of duty with the Red Sox.

15.  1971 Topps Bob Montgomery/Doug Griffin.  Monty was a backup catcher for Pudge for a long time while Griffin was a Gold Glove-winning second baseman.  Great vintage card.

16.  2010 Topps Allen & Ginter This Day in History Kevin Youkilis.  I love cards that show Youk's unique batting stance.

17.  2000 Fleer Tradition Carl Everett.  Another Jurassic Carl!  

18.  2007 Upper Deck David Ortiz.  A nice celebration shot.

19.  2005 UD All Star Classics Curt Schilling.  Schill had one All Star season with Boston.

20.  2010 Upper Deck Spectrum Kevin Youkilis.  Unfortunately this scan did not come out well.  The card is bright green and really cool.

And now the cards from the doubles:
21.  2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Roger Clemens.  The Rocket was another early favorite player of mine.

22.  2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Carlton Fisk.  Another nice Pudge card...

23.  2013 Panini Golden Age Carlton Fisk.  ...And another one.  This one finished up my team set from this set.

Thanks Jeff!

A Fantastic Catch Plus Some Random Stuff

I know, I know.  Very slow to post lately.

I worked out a trade with Weston from Fantastic Catch.  He contacted me to tell me that he had one of my Top Ten Most Wanted cards and wanted to work out a deal.  The cards he sent are the first four in this scan:

1.  2010 Upper Deck Season Biography Jacoby Ellsbury.  Commemorating his straight steal of home against the Yankees, this was one of my favorite Yankees-Red Sox moments.  Some day I should do a post about that.

2.  2004 Upper Deck Famous Quotes Carl Yastzemski.

3.  2013 Topps David Ortiz SP VAR.  This was THE card I wanted from last year.  Just a terrific looking card, with the American flag background.  I remember watching this moment on TV.  A terrific game too.

4.  2010 Upper Deck Season Biography Jon Lester.  I hope Boston extends Lester.  Especially after his postseason performance last year.

5.  2014 Topps Jarrod Saltalamacchia.  I bought a rack pack, this was my only Red Sox pull.

6.  2013 Topps Blue Sparkle Jackie Bradley Jr. RC.  My newest JBJ addition.

And now for the tradebait: