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.

Archives Group Break

I participated in the Archives group break with Nachos Grande a long time ago.  Sorry it has taken quite awhile to get the scans up.  I am generally pleased with the results.

Up first were the random cards and Chris added one of those weird Upper Deck fan packs.  I had one or two of these before so there were some duplicates.  Here are the new ones:

The Legendary Cuts Joe Cronin has silver foil instead of the gold foil found on the pack cards and the Masterpieces David Ortiz is a glossy card.  The others are just on thinner stock and are not noticeably different right off the bat.

And now for the break:

I love the addition of Brock Holt in the set, especially since he was Boston's lone All Star this season.  Eckersley, Fisk, Williams, and Nomar all make appearances, along with rookie cards of Bryce Brentz and Matt Barnes,

Here we have the rest of the base cards.  After the seasons Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts had, we will be seeing a lot of cards of them in the future.

Here are the inserts and parallels.  I would have liked one of the rare short prints like Rick Ferrell, Bobby Doerr, or Rusney Castillo, but three silver parallels and four inserts are nothing to sneeze at.  Hopefully Pablo Sandoval has a better season next year.  I like him a lot but he was not good in 2015.  I am looking forward to the Rusney Castillo/Mookie Betts/Jackie Bradley Jr. outfield.  Teams will have to hit home runs to get a hit to the outfield.

Thanks for the break, Chris.  Sorry I was late in posting.

I'm Back After a Long Hiatus

I grew tired of blogging for a long time and so I took a break.  It took longer than I expected, but I am going to try to work back into things.

These cards were picked up in June with my birthday gift card.  My birthday was actually in May, but it took awhile to decide to get anything.

There is some decent stuff here.  A nice Rusney Castillo rookie card and a David Ortiz insert, but otherwise it is nothing terribly exciting.

I will be moving slowly to get caught up.  There are some pretty nice cards to show off in the days ahead.

Another Zippy Zapping

I love finding unexpected packages in the mail.  Kenny is one of the most generous people out there and I am always very excited to see a package from him. 

He definitely did not disappoint here:

One of the best things about his packages are the Sega Card Gen cards from Japan.  And this time, he included two, Kevin Youkilis and Victor Martinez, two players Boston could use right now.  The Michael Kopech autograph was completely surprising and extremely generous, especially since Kopech is a Top 10 prospect and only 19 years old.  Kenny also usually includes a bunch of Bowman stuff.  The Mookie Betts is definitely appreciated.  Finally, Kenny typically includes some vintage and this Dalton Jones card from the Impossible Dream season.

And here we have some more Bowman cards, including an Asian only card of Sean Coyle, and two nice inserts of Coyle and Rusney Castillo who appears to be here to stay.

The final three cards will not be making my Red Sox collection.  The Fisk cards are both duplicates but I felt like I had to show them off because of their condition.  I bet that 1978 has some stories.  Finally, the Hideki Okajima card is just interesting because it is my first Japanese card.  I really liked Hideki Okajima when he pitched for Boston.  I loved his pitching motion which would result in him not even looking after he threw a pitch.  It was amazing he had any control at all.

So another successful Zippy Zapping.  Thanks Kenny!

A Few Random Pack Pickups

I bought a couple of $10.00 hanger packs the other day from Wal Mart.  Bowman and Gypsy Queen still contain quite a few cards that I have not gotten for my Red Sox collection.  Unfortunately I did not make much of a dent here:

Of the three of these, the Devers card is the most interesting.  Devers is one of Boston's top prospects and has a ton of power for a minor leaguer.  The other two cards are just base cards of Napoli and Ortiz.  So there is still a long ways to go to get the team sets for these two sets.  In addition, I do not have any inserts or parallels from the sets.

2015 Topps Factory Set Red Sox Team Set

Mark Hoyle came through yet again and sent me the 2015 Topps Factory Team Set recently.  The set included 17 cards, many of which were of players that have yet to appear in a lot of sets for the Red Sox.  Here they are:

1.  Pablo Sandoval.  Sandoval was the acquisition I was most excited about.  He has had a nice season so far.

2.  Wade Miley.  After a few really rough starts, Miley has seemingly turned a corner.  What I like best about him is how fast he pitches, unlike Clay Buchholz who can be maddening.

3.  Christian Vazquez.  Unfortunately Vazquez is out for the season.  Blake Swihart has stepped in and has played okay, but his hitting has yet to come around.

4.  Rusney Castillo.  He was just called up over the weekend, and will likely be sticking around.

5.  Koji Uehara.  Koji has been Koji this year so far, which is great.

6.  Clay Buchholz.  After a terrific first game, Buchholz has been wildly inconsistent.

7.  David Ortiz.  The home runs are there so far this year, but his average is way down.

8.  Junichi Tazawa.  Tazawa does not appear in a lot of sets, so it is great to see him show up in this.  Hopefully he will also be in the regular set.  He has been showing up in some higher-end sets recently with autographs.

9.  Hanley Ramirez.  Ramirez has been the team leader in home runs this year.  He was doing great until he had a little bit of an injury.  Hopefully he will get back to knocking balls out of the park soon.

10.  Mookie Betts.  Betts has been kind of inconsistent this year as well.  He has hit for some power and stolen some bases, but the batting average is not there.

11.  Mike Napoli.  After a slow start, Napoli has exploded recently, hitting four home runs over the weekend against the Angels, the team that never really gave him a chance.

12.  Joe Kelly.  Kelly seems to let a rough inning completely ruin each game he pitches.  He has been a little frustrating.

13.  Dustin Pedroia.  Pedroia has been having a fairly typical season for him, with quite a bit more power.

14.  Justin Masterson.  Like Ramirez, Masterson was a young player when he was originally traded away from Boston.  Unlike Ramirez, Masterson's homecoming has not been nearly as positive.

15.  Xander Bogaerts.  His hitting has come around and he is starting to look like the star he was supposed to be.

16.  Rick Porcello.  Porcello has been the best starter for the Red Sox so far this year, but that is not really saying all that much.

17.  Matt Barnes.  Other than a rough night Friday, Barnes has been pretty decent out of the pen.  I am not sure if his future is in the bullpen or the starting rotation, but it has been good to see the Red Sox develop a decent pitcher again.

Thanks for the set Mark!

Waiting 'Til Next Year

With the way Boston has been playing lately, that probably could stand for an indictment on their chances this season.  But no, this is actually a trade post.  Tom from Waiting 'til Next Year contacted me about setting up a trade.  It has been a little bit since I have gotten a trade worked out, so I quickly agreed.  A few days later, a large brick of cards descended upon my mailbox and some nice stuff came out of the brick.

1.  2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Defining Moments Curt Schilling.  I loved Hometown Heroes.  I wish Panini would have done it again, but I guess it is hard to do a team-centric set without an MLB License.  This is one of the inserts I still needed, and of course this card is referring to the "bloody sock" games in the 2004 postseason.

2.  2015 Bowman Anthony Ranaudo.  Ranaudo is already gone, traded to the Rangers for Robbie Ross.

3.  2015 Bowman Chrome Prospects Henry Owens.  Owens is Boston's top pitching prospect.  Hopefully he can step in at some point and stop some of the bleeding the pitching staff is experiencing.

4.  1987 Fleer Baseball's All Stars Roger Clemens.  One of the Fleer box set cards I still needed.  I had most of the cards from this set, the Clemens was the last I needed.

5.  2013 Panini Prizm Draft Picks Blue Mookie Betts.  Easily my favorite card from this package, this is a low-numbered card of one of my favorite current players.  Betts is struggling a little bit but is starting to show some signs of getting back on track.

6.  2013 Panini Prizm Draft Picks Ryan Boldt.  This card baffles me.  Boldt did not sign with Boston after being drafted.  He is in fact one of the best players on the Nebraska Cornhusker baseball team of which I am very familiar.  So it was very surprising to see this card. 

7.  2015 Bowman Top 100 Eduardo Rodriguez.  Rodriguez was acquired in the trade last year with the Orioles for Andrew Miller.  Rodriguez is another top pitching prospect that we may be seeing soon in Boston.  He could make the trade last year look very bad for Baltimore in light of Miller leaving as a free agent.

Thanks Tom.  I will get your package out next week some time.

Small Trade and Some New Bowman

It's been rather frustrating watching the Red Sox lately.  So I have not been really excited about adding cards of late.  Saturday I received a trade package in the mail as well as a couple of cards in some Bowman packs.  Here they are:

1.  2015 Donruss 1981 David Ortiz.  This is a nice way of getting around the lack of an MLB license.  The card actually looks pretty damn good.

2.  2015 Donruss All Time Diamond Kings Carl Yastrzemski.  Yaz had a Diamond King card in 1983 while he was still an active player.

3.  2015 Topps Opening Day Superstar Celebrations Mike Napoli.  I always like these inserts.  Not sure Napoli qualifies as a superstar, but whatever.

4.  2015 Bowman Prospects Trey Ball.  Ball has been a little slow to get going in his professional career, but he is young yet.  With the rate Bowman is releasing cards of him though, I will probably have about 50 before he makes the Majors.

5.  2015 Bowman Prospects Carlos Asuaje.  With the emergence of Brock Holt as a super-utility player, Boston has been seeking more versatile players.  Asuaje fits the bill.

So that's it for the weekend pickups.  Got plenty of Bowman to trade for Red Sox cards.

A Rare High-End Purchase

I don't usually buy much from the higher-end sets.  I don't have an LCS nearby so I am resigned to buying retail.  I also typically don't buy many singles from the set unless something really jumps out at me.  That something is typically due to a unique player option or combination.  I always check out the upcoming checklists to determine if something appeals to me.  Earlier this year, I looked at the Topps Museum checklist and found one card that really grabbed my attention.  I determined if I could find it, I would go for it.  Here it is:

This card represents my first game-used pieces of four current Red Sox.  Two of whom are expected to be stars.  We have a terrific-looking three colored piece of rising star Mookie Betts.  A red piece of role player Allen Craig.  A white piece of Cuban free agent Rusney Castillo.  And a white piece of valuable bench player Daniel Nava.  What a great-looking card.

Gypsy Queen Hanger Box

I bought one of the hanger boxes of Gypsy Queen today at Wal Mart.  Not much in the way of Red Sox cards, but I did get this one:

Nice retail-only parallel of Mike Napoli here.  I actually kind of like this action shot too.  Unfortunately that was it for Red Sox and there was not really anything super exciting elsewhere in the box.  Oh well.  Can't win them all.