A Plethora of Paninis

I recently bought a whole bunch of Panini Red Sox singles from a guy on one of the forums.  A lot of the cards were ones that were listed on my want list, which made me feel pretty good.  I would still prefer Panini to have an MLB license, but these cards look pretty nice.

All base cards from Prizm and Diamond Kings in that scan.  I like the assortment of players in Diamond Kings especially.  Edwin Escobar and Matt Barnes make appearances, as does Hall of Famer Ted Williams.

This scan mixes things up a little bit.  The Brock Holt cards are the major reason I pulled the trigger on this deal, but I love the die-cut parallel of that Rusney Castillo card as well.

And here we have a bunch of Panini's versions of the refractors.  The Bogaerts is a particularly rare one, serial-numbered to just 99.  Edwin Escobar is getting pretty large in my collection for a player who has just two Major League games under his belt.

The Ortiz in the top row of this scan is a Jackie Robinson tribute parallel, hence all the blue 42s.  It is also serial-numbered to 42.  The Pedro and Bogaerts at the bottom are retail parallels.  All very nice-looking cards.

And we come to the end with more parallels.  And another Escobar.  There are more Escobar cards in these scans than innings he has pitched in the Majors.

I really liked this lot.  There were a ton of great cards here and a decent player selection too.

Bowman Draft Jumbo Pack

I was in my hometown last weekend and had a chance to stop by the card shop that I used to frequent when I lived there.  There was not a lot of selection of Red Sox singles there at the time, so I decided to pick up a Bowman Draft jumbo pack.  I was not expecting much because another customer bought a pack while I was there, opened it and pulled the Andrew Benintendi autograph card, so I knew there was not a great chance of getting a Red Sox auto.  I don't typically go for Bowman Draft because I prefer cards of players who are already playing with Boston.  But I get some stuff anyway.  I was pretty lucky, I got these two cards of Austin Rei and the Chrome card of Andrew Benintendi.  I would have preferred the autograph, but this is fine.  Rei was Boston's third-round pick and is largely known for his defense as a catcher, though he did hit a little in 2015.  Benintendi was the 7th overall pick and is already high on Boston's top prospects list.  Let's hope he does better than their last 7th overall pick, Trey Ball.

I'm Falling Behind Again

These cards have been sitting on my desk for a little while.  They consist of two small trades, bookending a Beckett Marketplace order.  I have a couple of packages after that as well that I will get to.  There are also a number of other matters I would like to write about, including the Hall of Fame.

But, let's start here, shall we?

The first two cards in that scan make up a small trade, but both players made impacts at the Major League level last year.  Eduardo Rodriguez likely enters the 2016 season as a starter in the rotation after his impressive season last year.  Travis Shaw could be a Brian Daubach-like player, good for 20 or so home runs as a platoon player.

The rest of the cards in the scan cross off cards from my wantlist.  I love the Petrocelli card.  He, like Luis Tiant, is a player I really wish I could have seen.  The Mike Stenhouse is notable because this O-Pee-Chee card is the only Red Sox card available of him.  He played very briefly for Boston in 1986.

This scan features more cards from my wantlist.  Nothing really exciting until you get to the John Olerud card, which was the reason for buying the singles from the Beckett Marketplace.  I was supposed to get this gold card with an earlier package but they were out.  I wanted to add another Olerud card to my Red Sox collection, so I found this seller and then proceeded to go through and knock off other cards from my wantlist.

And finally, more from the same seller until you get to these last two cards, which came in another trade.  The 1959 Dick Gernert is notable.  Gernert had a few nice seasons with the Red Sox and had some home run power.  He was a bright spot in the 1950's.  I am still working on the 1959 Topps team set.  Rafael Devers is one of the more exciting prospects for the Red Sox right now, though Yoan Moncada is the biggest name.

That's it for this mailday.  I will try to catch the rest up soon.

My First Pedro Auto

After a Red Sox player makes it to the Hall of Fame, I find myself wanting to splurge a little bit to get a decent card.  It happened with Wade Boggs.  It happened with Jim Rice.  This time, it was Pedro Martinez who has the distinction of being the first Red Sox Hall of Famer whose entire career I got to witness.  Well this is the card, and I saved a little bit of money because it is a Leaf card with no MLB license.  Most of Pedro's autos have been prohibitively expensive, but this was a nice, cheaper one.  And I finally got to add a Pedro Martinez autograph.

El Tiante and Some Random Cards

Coming back from Christmas, I found a couple of packages in my mail box.  I bought both of these items on Ebay a week or so before, but for some reason completely forgot about them.  I know, weird that I would forget that I had cards coming in.

I love this jersey card of Luis Tiant.  I never got to see him pitch as I was not born yet, but he is still one of my favorite players to get cards of him.  I want to see him in the Hall of Fame someday.  These jersey cards were actually quite rare.

These cards I bought from one seller on Ebay.  I wanted the Olerud and figured I would add some other stuff as well.  I like the Cespedes because there are so few cards of him with the Red Sox.  Same with the Craig.  Jackie Bradley Jr. is just a ton of fun to watch on defense.  I always liked Pacific cards because they made a lot more lesser players, hence we have Butch Huskey, Paxton Crawford, and Sang-Hoon Lee sightings.  And of course I have always loved food issue oddballs.  I didn't even know this card existed.

Romine Proof

This one is weird.  I got this in a lot with a handful of other cards.  I likely would not have picked it up but for the fact that one of the cards was Sandy Alomar Jr.  This Romine made the decision a little easier.  This card has the full color back, only without the hologram, unlike the Alomar which is a blank back.  I have no idea what these are, but they are interesting curiosities to add to my collections.  It is certainly the most interesting Kevin Romine card in my collection, other than maybe the 1989 Fleer card that shows Randy Kutcher instead of Romine.

Christmas Package from Jeff Wilk

Jeff Wilk of 2x3 Heroes recently sent me a package containing a bunch of my wantlist hits.  Here is the package:

I did not open any Stadium Club this year, so I am working on catching things up.  The Topps Update cards are very well-appreciated.  This is my first Josh Rutledge card and likely to be the only one released.  I am really enjoying picking up Eduardo Rodriguez and Brock Holt lately.

And here we have the rest.  Some more great cards.  Rusney Castillo is one of the players I am most excited about heading into 2016, along with the new starter and closer Boston got.

Thanks Jeff!

2015 In Review

I almost forgot to do one of these.  2015 was not a great year to be a Red Sox fan, but some good stuff happened.  They finished in last place but saw the emergence of a number of good, young players.  Players like Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Blake Swihart look like solid players for years to come.  David Ortiz hit his 500th home run and announced that 2016 would be his final season.  Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez disappointed in their first season in Boston, but should be able to bounce back and are still on the team for 2016.  We also saw a number of acquisitions that should start to pay dividends in 2016 with the free agent acquisition of David Price, the trade for Craig Kimbrel, and the international free agent signing of Yoan Moncada.

As for cards, I was not quite as active as I usually am.  I was very busy with work all year, but that did not stop me for picking up some stuff.

I made a few hobby goals, which were as follows:

1.  Knock a couple of cards off of my Top 10 List. 

As of today, that list is:

• 1. 2006 Flair Showcase Hot Gloves #14 J.T. Snow
• 2. 2013 Topps Archives 1989 All Stars Retail #WM Will Middlebrooks
• 3. 2005 Diamond Kings #325 Edgar Renteria
• 4. 2013 Topps Turkey Red #52 Dustin Pedroia
• 5. 2011 Topps Heritage #500 Peter Bourjos/Ryan Kalish/Daniel Nava/Chris Heisey/Logan Morrison SP
• 6. 1996 Donruss Diamond Kings #2 Mo Vaughn
• 7. 2009 Topps Heritage #445b John Smoltz
• 8. 2014 Donruss Signatures #36 Daniel Nava
• 9. 2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Nicknames #16 Shane Victorino 
• 10. 2010 Topps Tribute #89 Babe Ruth T205

Some of those should be easy.  Some of them will be pretty difficult.  I would love to add the #1 card, if I can ever find it.

2.  Get up to 500 David Ortiz cards.  I have 487 so this should not be hard.

3.  Get up to 900 Jason Varitek cards.  I have 875 so this will be a little tougher, especially since there are not a ton still out there.

So, how did I do?

1.  I picked up the following: 3, 8, 9, and 10.  None of them were terribly difficult to find, but the key is that I got them.

2.  I now have 522 David Ortiz cards.

3.  I did not make this one.  I only made it to 884.

I will probably not make any goals for my Red Sox collection other than to continue to get cards from my wantlists and more Varitek cards.

My favorite card from a pack this year was this one:



That's it for now.  Enjoy your New Year's.

Special FX Box Break and Two High-End Cards

I had the ill-fated idea to buy a cheap box of 2006 Upper Deck Special FX in a hope to acquire one of the missing color parallels I needed for Sandy Alomar Jr.  It was not successful, but it did give me a couple of Red Sox cards.  I also bought a couple of pitchers who are not well-represented on cardboard.

The Schilling is an insert and the Crisp is a purple parallel.  I suppose I am happy with those two cards, even though I wanted a red or purple Sandy Alomar Jr.  This is now my third Junichi Tazawa autograph.  He needs more cards.  But the real star here is this Herb Pennock jersey.  This is the first time Pennock has gotten a relic card with the Red Sox, as far as I know.  Pennock is wearing a Red Sox cap on his Hall of Fame plaque, so it is great to add a relic to my collection.  I don't have many Pennock cards, so this is immediately my favorite.

Huge COMC Order

Oh wow.  I did it again.  I picked up a lot of cards off of COMC recently.  Mostly, my intention was to fill in some holes for autos and relics, but I ended up doing a lot more than that.

I like the Greenwell because of the head-warmer.  The Koji Uehara is one of my favorite cards of this entire purchase.  Koji autos are not real easy to come by and I love the fact that he adds his uniform number to the autograph.  Andre Dawson and Rickey Henderson both appear a lot in this order.  As does Mookie Betts.  This is my first Daniel Nava autograph.  Even though he is no longer with Boston, he will always be a favorite because of his inspiring rise to the Major Leagues.

Here we have a Mookie Betts jersey, my first Yoenis Cespedes relic, a Hanley Ramirez jersey, and a Mookie Betts dual relic.  We also have a neat die cut Victorino, a Scott Cooper insert that eluded me for a long time, one of the Babe Ruth Story cards, my first Red Sox one, and some more stuff.

Here we have the first autographs in my collection of Joe Kelly and Junichi Tazawa, though not my last for either player.  Tazawa is one of those players that simply does not get enough cards.  He has been a huge part of the Red Sox bullpen for years now.  The Babe Ruth card came from a boxed set of collectibles that I used to see a lot as a kid, but for some reason never picked up.

Another Junichi Tazawa here.  Eduardo Rodriguez is poised to break out next season.  And a couple more Rickey Henderson cards make their appearance.

Here we have a jersey card of Shane Victorino, an autograph of Bill Buckner, and my first Rick Porcello autograph.  I really like these throwback uniform photo variations like this Hanley Ramirez.  A number of these sneak into this purchase.

My first autograph card of Eduardo Rodriguez was very affordable.  Three new Babe Ruth cards make an appearance, as well as a Dustin Pedroia jersey card and a nice shot of Hanley Ramirez at the Green Monster.

Here we have more autographs of Ellis Burks, Joe Kelly, and Dustin Pedroia as well as more Rickey Hendersons and another Babe Ruth.  The Greenwell is very interesting because the black background is heat-activated, and it shows a variety of colors as well as the Green Monster.

And finally we have the 2014 Archives Fan Favorite autograph of Mike Greenwell, the second year in a row he was in that set.  I love the Mo Vaughn Hall or Nother due to the acetate stock.  And we have more Andre Dawsons and Rickey Hendersons.

So that is one big purchase.  A ton of nice, new cards were added to the collection.

Some Random Ebay Purchases

I had some Ebay Bucks to spend, so I went a bit wild picking up random single cards that I really liked.

Roger Clemens had a lot of nice-looking cards released this year, including these two die-cuts.  He has also publicly stated that if he were to get into the Hall of Fame, he would want a Red Sox cap on his plaque which is different than some previous statements when he preferred to wear a Yankees cap.  Pedro Martinez is showing up a bit more often now that he is a Hall of Famer.  I went a little Brock Holt crazy recently.

Here is another relic of Bogaerts, two more inserts of Clemens, and a Brock Holt.  There is going to be an avalanche of Eduardo Rodriguez cards coming next year.  He is a very good, young pitcher.  Ryan Hanigan makes his first appearance in my collection and he apparently owns the 2014 Westminster dog show winner, which impressed my wife immensely.  I love this last Clemens insert, a big heavy, metal card.

R.I.P. Frank Malzone

It has been a rough week.  First Dave Henderson dies, now Frank Malzone.  I did a post some time ago about Malzone being a somewhat forgotten star.  He was one of the better players on the Red Sox teams of the 1950's.  He won three Gold Glove Awards in the first three years the award was given.  He was also a six-time All Star.  He should have won the Rookie of the Year in 1957 as his numbers were significantly better than Tom Tresh's, and he played in more games.  He likely would have had even better career numbers had he started his career at a younger age.  Malzone will be missed.

Triple Threads Lot

I found a reasonably inexpensive Triple Threads lot on Ebay that included a number of relics and autographs, so I had to pick it up.

There are a couple of base/parallels that are not as exciting of David Ortiz and Ted Williams, but I would not expect to add high-end cards of them and keep it cheap.  The real exciting cards are the bat/auto of Christian Vazquez, my first high-end card of him, and the auto/jersey of Rusney Castillo, my first autograph of him.  Rounding things out are relics of Xander Bogaerts, Dustin Pedroia, and Pablo Sandoval, 75% of the starting infield.  I don't have many relics of Bogaerts or Sandoval yet.  I do expect the number of Bogaerts relics to rise after the great season he had.

R.I.P. Hendu

Dave Henderson passed away yesterday just weeks after receiving a kidney transplant.  I remember him mostly for his time with the Oakland Athletics as I was too young to remember his brief time in Boston, but he made a big impact.  He was acquired in a midseason trade with the Mariners in 1986 along with Spike Owen for a collection of players including Rey Quinones, none of whom did much for Seattle.  Henderson hit poorly during the regular season but he came up big in the postseason.  IN Game 5 of the ALCS with the Red Sox down 5-4 in the 9th, he came off the bench to pinch-hit for the aging Tony Armas and delivered a two-run home run.  He eventually drove in the winning run in the 11th inning with a sacrifice fly.  Boston went on to the World Series and Henderson hit two more home runs there.  In 1987 with an emerging Ellis Burks and Mike Greenwell, Henderson was expendable and was traded to the Giants for Randy Kutcher.  He then went on to his greatest career success with the Athletics.

More Autos and Relics

Here are a few more random autograph and relic cards that I had to add:

The two Blake Swihart cards came together and were shockingly cheap given that Swihart is a highly-regarded young player on a popular team.  But no complaints, I now have my first Swihart auto.  I can not believe I never had this Jason Varitek jersey card.  Sure it came out at a time when my focus on him was waning, but still.  I was definitely aware of it, I just never went to get it.  Finally, we have an All Star relic of Brock Holt.  I expect this to be his only All Star appearance.  It is not too often a utility player gets to go to the All Star game.  So I am picking up as much stuff as I can find of him.

More Pack Breaks

Okay, I had to do it again.  I wanted to try out some more Update and then also realized that I was missing a bunch of Topps Series 2.  So I got some more stuff.

The Update blaster was a pretty big success.  It gave me a nice Ted Williams insert and the photo variation of Mookie Betts.  Betts is becoming a common player for me to pull in packs.  It also got me Jean Machi and Carlos Peguero, two players I do not expect to see again in sets.  Peguero in particular only played in about four games.  I have no idea why he merited inclusion in this set, but no complaints.  I love seeing random players like that.  Machi was being groomed to be a future closer after Koji Uehara went down with an injury, but he was not very consistent and was non-tendered after the season.  The Series 2 blaster gave me another Mookie, another Williams insert, and Joe Kelly.

Some Random Autos and Refractors, With My First Mookie Auto

I have not been buying a ton of relics and autographs lately, but decided to go on a bit of a binge.  I generally like to have one auto or relic of each player available.  I had a couple of Mookie Betts relics but I had yet to add an autograph.  Mookie is probably one of my current favorite players so I had to change this.  I also found a cheap lot of 2015 Chrome cards which had a couple of autographs as well.

Mookie is definitely the highlight here.  I am concerned that his autos are going to become too expensive to be able to pick up occasionally, since he is a very good young player and very popular.  I love the Swihart card, which is numbered to just 99.  Barnes has a chance to get a full-time job in the bullpen.  Finally, we have autographs of Bryce Brentz and Edwin Escobar, neither of whom is likely to make much of an impact at the Major League level.  Brentz has some power and could be a fourth outfielder.  Escobar was acquired from the Giants for Jake Peavy and could be bullpen depth.  Neither will be stars, but I have autographs of them both now.

Update and High Numbers Pack Breaks

I have not been buying a ton of packs these days.  It's kind of expensive and I rarely get what I really want that way.  Nevertheless, occasionally I get the urge to break some wax. 

I bought two blasters of the Heritage and flagship update sets.  I am always excited about Update sets because they tend to include some completely random players, and I love getting cards of lesser-known players.

Heritage did not have a ton of Red Sox in the set and I am confused by Victorino's inclusion since he was traded to the Angels for Josh Rutledge before the trading deadline.  I do like this Triad card which is actually an insert, though a very low-end one.  Blake Swihart is one of my favorite young players and I am looking forward to seeing him develop.  I also love the Update sets for the All Star cards.  Brock Holt was Boston's only All Star and he had a nice moment when he stole a base in the game.  Alexi Ogando is one of those lesser-known players that I was most excited to see in Update.  And then we have another trio card of the same three sluggers.

Some COMC Buys

Every once in awhile, a Sandy Alomar Jr. card pops up on COMC that I need.  Since it is kind of pointless to pay $3.00 to ship one card, I like to throw in a few Red Sox.  I don't remember which Alomar card I bought when I went a little Rusney/Mookie crazy, but here are the cards:

I really like that Rated Rookie card because it is a die-cut.  I am thrilled that Diamond Kings made a comeback, but I wish Panini would get an MLB license again.  Obviously Rusney Castillo was a pretty big target with this buy.  He has not really fulfilled his promise yet, but he should get regular playing time in 2016.

Three more Mookies show up here, including a nice Gypsy Queen insert showcasing his impressive defensive work.  There are also a couple of cards of The Panda, who was pretty disappointing in 2015.  Hopefully he will be back to hitting well in 2016.

That Mark Hoyle is Very Generous

The most recent stack of vintage cards came from Mark several months ago but it was right around the time I took a bit of a hiatus.  I am sorry, I should have posted about it sooner.  Here it is:

These are Milton Bradley cards and they were released from 1969-1972.  Unfortunately there is no copyright date on any of them so Harry sent me all the ones from players that played for the Red Sox during that time period.  All of the logos are air-brushed away so you cannot tell which teams these guys were with at the time of these pictures.  Some of them are pretty obviously not Red Sox caps, such as the one on Tommy Harper.  But with no team designations, no copyright dates, and no logos, they could represent any team.  So here they are.

There are some interesting players here.  Harper had the Red Sox record for stolen bases in a season when he stole 54 in 1973.  He kept that record until Jacoby Ellsbury stole 70 in 2009.  Danny Cater was acquired in a trade with the Yankees for Sparky Lyle.  That one came back to bite Boston.  Ray Culp was the best pitcher Boston had for a few years.  Luis Aparicio is a Hall of Famer, though not for his time with Boston.  And Rico Petrocelli held the AL record for home runs as a shortstop for a few decades when he hit 40 in 1970.

Thanks Mark!  Sorry about the delay in the post.