Thursday, May 30, 2013

And Then There Were Two

After a great batch of returns on the artelopes front Tuesday. Wednesday got even better as another of the great white whales found their way home. This return was probably the biggest surprise I will ever get when it comes to adding a card into the collection. The team is the Aberdeen IronBirds, and here was the bait.


My daughter couldn't believe I was even going to mail this out. I did a search on the internet, and this logo came up as an alternate look. Aberdeen just changed their logo this upcoming season with a much better look. The new logo in my opinion is way cooler than the old style, and should serve its purpose of increasing merchandise sales. While my art isn't as good as the real thing it did let them know I was serious.


The grey card on the left is the business card, and honestly was worth the wait. Now why would this card be so tough that it would be a card I actually never thought I'd add into the collection. It's the small logo on the back.


I have talked to another collector who was able to get one for his collection. He asked for a couple of the cards, and was told he was lucky to be getting the one card he got. I guess the team is worried that since the Ripken's own the team people want the cards just for that logo on the back. In this age of eBay the team is afraid people only want the card to sell, and having the Ripken logo makes it more valuable.

The interesting part of this story is the Ripken's own more teams than just Aberdeen, and business cards from those teams were quite easy to come by. Who cares what their reasoning is. All I know is that we can now cross another of the great white whales off the list, and as the post says.

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO

Currently those two are the Bluefield Blue Jays, and Princeton Rays. Both teams are from the Appalachian League which is a rookie level league. If anyone out there can come up with either one or both I'd be forever in your debt.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Another Whale Jumps In The Ship

I have commented a few times about missing a select few business cards from baseball teams. Recently the list of teams needing just any card was down to four teams. This didn't include new franchises for this season, and teams who changed affiliates. These were for teams that have been around years, but were holding out when it came to just one card. Getting a card a few weeks ago from the Nationals who were my final MLB team was huge, and something that had me thrilled beyond belief. Armed with this excitement I once again started mailing out artelopes with nine going out, and two of those being for teams on the list of four.

After eating dinner on Tuesday I headed out to the mailbox as we have been waiting for a package to do with the upcoming vacation. What was there got me thrilled again as the package came along with some of the returns.


This is one of the latest that I drew in hopes of a business card, and a couple schedules. The Bees have a logo that I wasn't too confident in attempting, and the daughter didn't feel like doing one so this is what I came up with. While I'd love a new card from the team as they changed affiliations to the Angels this season. It's not a team that was vital to the collection. Just a business card that I'm looking to update. What came is two schedules which aren't too bad looking, and reflect the new affiliation.


Second in the returns is another team from the Midwest League. The Beloit Snappers who recently changed to the A's affiliate for the league.


This is one the daughter wanted to do. While it was a simple one she did plan more, but didn't get the chance. She tested on another sheet of paper the head of the teams logo the turtle. Her plan was to draw the logo on the envelope, but while she was at school I wanted to get it mailed, and sent it incomplete. Despite not being finished it got the results I was looking for. The picture is what she drew, and planned on adding to the envelope.


Last, but definitely not least is the entire reason for this post. The artelope please.

The West Virginia Power

The Power is one of the four teams I have been trying to get a business card of. For ten long years they have been a thorn in my side that just kept hurting every time I thought about it. As I keep reading about in some of the great blogs out there, they were a white whale. I decided to go with the power coming from the baseball logo the team uses with a twist. When she saw it Tuesday the daughter gave me a quick should have asked me I would have had more fun with it. That doesn't matter as the results are what matter on this bad boy. Those results are another whale can now be checked off the list leaving me at three.






Sunday, May 26, 2013

May Has Been Just Brutal

Living up here in the Northwest is plain brutal this time of the year. While we have two top ranked college baseball teams in Oregon, and Oregon State. While they are running rough-shot over the PAC12. The choices to keep track of the team are listen to radio broadcasts, catch the very few games until this weekend on the PAC12 Network, or pay the inflated prices to watch them play in person. Being I'm not filthy rich, and we have a huge vacation coming up. The watching them play in person option has been a non option. Most games rival the cost of a MLB game in ticket prices. That is if you can even catch someone selling tickets as Craigslist is full of people looking for tickets.

Our major league choice if you want to even call it that is the Seattle Mariners. While we did go watch them play last month they recently are a mess, and confusing at the same time. I understand the sending Jesus Montero down, but did they need to destroy the guy while they were at it? The Mariners webpage showed nothing but pictures of his screwing up. Nice way to keep it classy Seattle! Maybe a shot of him at in his gear, and saying he had some stuff to work on, but pretty much blaming him for this current losing streak was Seattle's method. Then they wonder why no superstar wants to sign a contract, and play up in Seattle. Well I'm going to go the route that should have been taken, and drop a good looking Montero card on you.



While I could do an entire post on the recent Mariners stuff, and probably should. I'm going to head back in the direction planned. Something they might want to try at some point.


The worst part about May is other than those two options we have no baseball. While the other parts of the country bask in baseball glory watching their minor leaguers. Here in the Northwest we live in baseball poverty. In just ten days everything will change as baseball is back, and in a big way. It all starts with the Corvallis Knights who start on June 4th.


Corvallis is a member of the West Coast League. They are a college wood bat league that play their games at Oregon State Beavers baseball field. For those that don't know here is how it works. The players are all still in college, and get paid very little so they can keep their college eligibility. More than anything they still get to play baseball, and show MLB teams what they can do when playing with wood bats instead of aluminum. There are leagues all around the country, and something you should check out. It's very affordable, and sometimes top notch college guys can be found on local teams. We can see games here for five bucks, and watch a good game in great seats.

June gets even better mid month as finally the single A teams start up. With the Yakima teams moving to Hillsboro we now have three options all within a couple hours at most. The plan is to maybe catch a Sunday game or two in Hillsboro, but most the watching is the Eugene Emeralds. How many games we see for them is still unknown, but we usually drop in for atleast one. I'm interested in going down south to see them as they have a new logo this season. What other changes are going with this has got me wanting to see them more sooner than later. The last option which is the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes odds are won't happen. This team is probably the most un-fan friendly team I have ever seen. The only reason we ever go is for their great nachos, and those haven't been enough to draw us in the last couple years.


While I won't get to see opening for any of these teams due to vacation. I'm getting some excitement going as baseball is about to be back. Until then I guess it's suffer for a few more weeks waiting for some baseball fun.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Riding The Rails

After a busy Wednesday it was great to come home, and find some trade goodies in the mailbox. Until I opened the manilla envelope I had forgotten about this trade being on its way. These goodies came from fellow pocket schedule collector Dan. Not only was it a schedule, it was a magnet schedule.


Since the creation of this team I have been a fan. Not because of the cat name, but for another reason altogether. I had only been collecting pocket schedules for two years, and had started the baseball teams business cards at the same time. The RailCats were a new team on the independent league circuit. My first time writing the team was for a pocket schedule, and some business cards. What was sent back was a stack of pocket schedules, business cards for everyone on the teams staff, and their group outings brochure. While it was a simple return for the team it meant a ton to this fairly new collector. These brochures made their way into the collection until the team stopped doing them a few years ago.

All this treatment has made the RailCats one of a very few teams I collect anything I can get for the team. This is where Dan has come to the rescue. Dan lives close to Gary where the RailCats call home, and has been hooking me up for a few years now. Our trading relationship is the best of anyone I trade with in any hobby.

Like shortprint baseball cards, some schedules seem to be shortprinted. If either of us come across these our first thought is to either contact the other, or set some aside for when we next e-mail each other. Often other things make it into our trade packages. This package was no different as Gary added to my RailCats items with another interesting treat.


Now the mystery of what I should do with this coaster is my new dilemma. Part of me says it should go in the binder with all my other RailCats items. Another says put it on a shelf or something. The last says it needs to go into a frame with other fun stuff for constant showing off for anyone who walks into the hobby room. No matter what happens its an item I'm glad to add into the baseball goodies.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

A Garage Cleaning History Machine

My usual Monday run into town was a quicker trip this week as we have been trying to do some cleaning. The plan is for a hopeful garage sale this upcoming Memorial Day weekend. To make this happen we have been working extra hard to try, and see if there are items we don't use. While I've had some bins full of item for a couple years as we planned to do one last year, but never got around to it. This is the perfect time to see what other goodies we can live without. Monday it was me tackling the garage while the wife was at work, and the daughter at school. Going through the bins of things I've collected over the years I came across this little treasure.


Seeing this little whatever you want to call it got the memories flowing. I lived south of where the show was located by approximately 25 miles. Small towns is what you had with Provo not exactly being that big at the time. Far as I knew this was the first ever card show for the area. I do know that this was the first ever card show I'd been to until we moved north to Oregon. Adding to the coolness was this show was right before my birthday, and added to why I got to do this show.

Being almost seventeen, and not knowing a ton about baseball. Only what I had self taught by watching games on television. Having two former baseball players signing autographs was just the coolest. I remember showing up at the opening time so I wouldn't risk missing out on seeing these two players, and getting their signatures.

While it's obviously a simple book that was done on a copier I was thrilled to get it, and read the interesting information on both players.


Another fun tidbit was the history of cards pages where it gave you two pages worth of history on where the baseball card was, and how it came to its current point.


Finishing up is something that if you think about it is kind of strange. 'So You Want To Collect Trading Cards?' Seems pretty irrelevant if you ask me. I am at a card show, and you want to ask me if I'm interested in collecting cards? Looking closer though reveals that it gets into the different approaches you can take towards collecting. The article breaks down the idea of set collecting, player collecting, or team collecting. It also breaks down where you could find cards at the time to build your collection. Still seems strange to me as you are at a card show so odds are you already knew all these tidbits.

The lower article for a naive me was interesting, and very informational to the collecting at the time. Living in the area we did the idea of keeping your cards in the best shape possible wasn't something we thought about. We were still going through them all the time, and just throwing them back into the box. The only cards that we were willing to spend the money on pages for were the cards we loved the most. Not even those cards were treated with the respect  you would think our favorite cards would be treated with. Who didn't mistreat our favorite cards as a kid though?


It was a blast finding this thing. Brought back some great memories of my very first card show as a kid. If history is any indicator it'll end up misplaced again, and found in another year while I'm cleaning my hobby room, or the garage again. Then just like this time I'll give it a look over, and read it again. Its amazing how something so simple still entertains me every time I find it.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Some Fast, and Some Not So Fast Cards

Just got back from a run to the store. While I've been making some trips recently, this was the first I was able to check out the card section. On Saturday we made a couple trips for cleaning supplies, but cleaning was top priority so cards didn't happen. This trip though was for some cinnamon rolls for breakfast. While there I took a stroll down the card aisle, and picked up two packs. First the fast cards.


I have no idea why I even bought this pack of cards. I'm going to go with two different reasons, neither of which is very good. One is that the All-Star race last night was still fresh in my mind, and said you need to buy a pack of these cards. The second is I just wanted to see what they looked like, and hopefully get a Kyle Busch card. I told you neither was a good reason. Looking through the cards you can tell there is no Kyle. So all five cards are up for trade if you need any.

The second set had a little more reasoning behind it.


For some reason I like the look of these cards. I don't like them enough that I'm going to go out, and buy a bunch of packs to build a set. I will buy some every so often in hopes of turning them into cards of the players I do collect. How often will remain a mystery even to myself. With that in mind all except for the chrome De Leon card is up for trade. Another collector threw out his wants for this set, and De Leon was one of those cards. Not shown is a Carlos Beltran card that was in the pack as well. 

Thursday, May 16, 2013

The Cat Reels In The Big One

If you have been following the blog for awhile you know about my other hobbies. The main hobby happens to be collecting business cards. While I have been collecting off, and on for years it was twelve years ago I got serious. This seriousness led me to my current goal of a business card from every baseball team in the MLB, minors, and independent leagues. The goal has been tough going the last few years as it's been holding around five teams with no business card in the collection. Its a tricky goal though as I keep up with affiliate changes. So the amount of teams needed during any season fluctuates between the main five, and the changes.

Monday everything changed in the collection as one of the five missing finally sent a business card. I have been trying for years, and after the bad luck that I've had this season getting this card is a game changer. I started late last year with the artelopes project, hoping that the artwork would help finally bag a big one. While the initial results were great things slowed down lately, and had me feeling down about all the poor results. Now I'm pumped more than ever to start drawing, and get more sent out.


I started the envelope out by just doing the W, and the N thinking it looked like a cool idea. That is when I decided to show the daughter what she was missing by not doing this artelope herself. This is when her creative juices got flowing, and she came up with the idea of the baseball flying, and the tail as flag stripes. Personally I think it turned out great, and the results show the same.

Before I show off the crowing jewel, how about the other goodies that were included. This is by far the best results ever from the Nationals. While I've gotten postcards, and small player cards I have never gotten anything near what was sent this time. Starting off was this cool picture of Jason Werth.


Following Werth was a sticker, and the schedule that was part of the main request.


This is where things got interesting.


While I'm not a Nationals fan I am actually looking forward to reading this magazine. We usually buy these each time we go into Seattle. They are always full of great information about the team, so it should be a great read.

Ending the large envelope was the great white whale that this whole thing was about. The business card that I've been trying to get since the team became the Washington Nationals. My reason for all this excitement is this card finishes off the major leagues for me. Unless another team pulls of the whole Florida Marlins becoming the Miami Marlins. I am set for business cards from the bigs, and can work on those last couple teams in the minors.


Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Junior's Junk Is My Treasure

Not very long ago I went to a thing called 'The World's Largest Garage Sale'. At the time I mentioned that it was more of a flea market than a garage sale. Either way the thing was awesome, and something I look forward to doing again either in July when it travels north by about half an hour or next time it happens in Portland again. While at the sale I came across a Ken Griffey Jr. 'Starting Lineup' figure, and thought a certain Junior collector would be interested in said item. Living under the umbrella of 'Mariner Territory' seeing Junior stuff happens quite often. Being able to put them into a collection of a passionate Junior collector doesn't happen often. After getting home I contacted T.J, and let him know I had picked something for him but what would remain a mystery

Scrambling for something to send in return. I told T.J. about the schedule hobby, and that some local schedules would be more than enough. T.J. got the message, and hit me with a batch of New Orleans Zephyrs schedules.


While the schedules are cool, they weren't even the best part of this package. The best parts were both a Mark Martin 1996 calling card, and the envelope itself.


Doing the whole artwork thing on envelopes I am mailing to teams for schedules myself. I appreciate it when a trader spends the time to throw some artwork on a trade envelope. Basking in the glory of T.J.'s goodies I almost forgot. Go check out his blog 'The Junior Junkie'. The man is a passionate Ken Griffey Jr. collector who loves showing off any Junior stuff you can think of.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

The ToddFather Orders A Hit

With all the trades flowing in lately the biggest in awhile came Saturday when Tim over at one of my all time favorite blogs Home of the Toddfather dropped a bubble mailer on me. As a Rockies fan I have to be watching Tim's blog for his favorite player Todd Helton. Why it wasn't on the list of my favorite blogs was an oversight which was fixed last night.
          
Keeping with the theme I attempt whenever I can. It's time for a thank you with a different feel to it.


--The Toddfather Attempts Revenge--

It was a hot Saturday night when the gang decided pizza sounded great. We headed to the usual pizza place hoping for a nice calm evening of food, and fun. As we sat eating, and watching NASCAR an uneasiness started to fill the air. Unable to put our finger on what was creating the feeling we continued on our way as if nothing was going on.  An hour passed then another as the feeling started to get farther from our minds. 

That is when it happened. A text from the Toddfather hit my phone warning me that it was coming. Wondering what I had done to cross him the fear hit me like an anvil. Thinking everything was good, but obviously it wasn't. As the fear set in three men wearing Rockies jerseys entered the restaurant. Before anyone could move the man started flinging baseball cards like crazy. 

Not wanting to get hit, or possibly grazed I dove under a table. The dive came to late as I was hit by a series of 2013 Topps flagship cards.


As I looked it was obvious that the damage was serious. Cards were still flying as I crumpled up waiting for the madness to end. I could see other under tables of their own, all trying to avoid getting hit. Suddenly it stopped for a few seconds before beginning again only with 2013 Opening Day cards.


This barrage was much shorter before The three men all fled the building. When it was all over the damage was done to my sets. A text followed letting me know that you should never cross the Toddfather. Still reeling from the visit I texted back to let him know next time it would be 'The Prowling Cat' striking.
 ===========================
Assessing the damage the 2013 flagship set took 38 cards worth of damage. Topps Opening Day took another 11 cards worth of hits.
            Thank you so much for the cards Tim, and hopefully everyone enjoyed the post. I've always enjoyed reading about the mafia back in the day, and Tim's blog reminds me of that. In high school my best reports were the two I got to do about the mobsters. Now if I could get better at doing these type of posts for other blogs.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Oops

Saturday morning around the at house here we needed to set off bug bombs. In the area we live it seems the fleas have been extra brutal due to a soft winter. All these fleas have not only been driving the dog nuts, but us as well. So it was time to clean the house, and set out the bug bombs.

One of the things I needed to clean off was the five shelf bookcase sitting next to the computer. Sadly this year I haven't put back out any of the nic nacs that go on each shelf. This has led to some empty looking shelves. Unfortunately this leaves the shelves available for me to stack with baseball cards. The cards that I need to do posts about, and take off the wantlists. While I've been doing real great in posting on time, and taking them off the wantlists. The problem has come in putting them in with their respectable sets.

Despite doing what I think is a great job there were four cards on the shelf that somehow slipped through the cracks.


 For some reason I feel that these weren't on the shelf for long. Yet, at the same time I feel that they were up there for a few weeks. Which is the right answer is something I won't know unless its sender tells me. The best thing about this batch of cards was it still had the cardboard, and note attached. Lucky for me it was still there to let me know they were sent by fellow TradingBases member Ron.

Adding to fun was a surprise from the same Ron hit me when the mail was delivered that same day.


It seems Ron was doing some cleaning out of cards, and saw that these were on the wantlist. What this means is that instead of thanking Ron once for a great trade. I get to thank Ron for a surprise PWE, and some more help with the sets.

Thank You Ron for hooking me up!!


Friday, May 10, 2013

Drilled In Tulsa

I'm not sure how many times I've said this in this blog, but the Rockies are my team. While I enjoy the Mariners, and at times seem like a bigger Mariners fan. When it all comes down to picking one team the Rockies are it. On the surface you might think otherwise, but a deeper look would make it obvious. With that in mind I was filled with excitement when a co-worker mentioned he was going to visit family in Oklahoma. Specifically he was going to Tulsa, home of the Rockies double A affiliate the Tulsa Drillers. Every few years he makes this trip, and brought me back some sweet items last visit. One of those was a newspaper feature about the new stadium.


This time things were different as he mentioned going to see the Drillers play before the trip. Knowing about the game gave me a chance to put in a request ahead of time. The meat of this request was for a t-shirt to show off my Rockies fandom.


Besides the awesome shirt he nailed it again with other goodies he got from the game.Starting things off were my usual requested schedules. Each season the Drillers have two different covers, with multiple sponsors for each schedule. These are a new cover and sponsors, unknown until I got them Wednesday.


He's also has heard me talk about schedules before, and how sometimes magnetic schedules can be like gold. Knowing this he managed to get a magnet for my collection, and one for me to trade.


Finishing off this bag of treasures he brought two copies of the Drillers Gameday Magazine.


Personally I always enjoy going through these magazines. It's a great way to get a little feel on what is currently going on with the team. I've gotten them in Eugene before games a few times, and realize they are mostly sponsor stuff. If you read farther though these magazines can contain some interesting nuggets. One of the facts contained was something I hadn't even realized until my co-worker mentioned it. Tulsa has a player from just up north in Salem who played for the Oregon State Beavers, Joey Wong. I knew he played for Oregon State, but missed that he was in the Rockies organization so this was a cool surprise. Now I just need to take the time, and read it myself.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

The Second Card Show

A month ago I talked to the wife, and mentioned an interest in going to the monthly card show again. Still excited about some of what I discovered last show. This time I was planning on actually taking a printed wantlist so any cards I came across that were needed for sets wouldn't be missed this time. Nothing drove me crazier than knowing not only did I most the cards I bought for sets were doubles. I had probably missed lots of cards that were needed for those same sets. With that in mind I wasn't going to let it happen again.

Sadly this adventure almost didn't happen as the wife kept trying to persuade me to skip the show, and do a list of other ideas she was interested in. One of those was a trip to the coast which normally would have sucked me in without a second thought. The reason I wasn't biting though, is the upcoming vacation just over a month away. Deciding to make the best of the entire situation the wife came up with the idea of taking the daughter shopping for clothes, and shoes for vacation.

The night before I printed up the wantlist, and got a couple 100 count plastic boxes ready for me to grab in the morning. Waking up early as it's an hour and a half to two hour drive up to where the show is. I took my time so it was two hours as two stops sucked me in. The first stop was at a Chevron with a quick market, or whatever you want to call it. As I roamed the store the desire to have some chewing gum started, but their price was higher than my liking. That is when it hit me to stop at a certain discount retail store, and buy gum and some baseball cards.

Entering the store I headed straight for the baseball cards hoping to buy multiple packs of 2013 Opening Day. Disappointment hit as the only Opening Day were jumbo packs. Buying just the one I went to checkout, and get my pack of gum. As I exited the store hoping the pack would have cards for my set. The busting began with a group of cards full of useful cards.


Excited about what I believed was a great pack for the set, and hopefully signaled a great card day. Later this proved to be true as only the Verlander ended up being a double. This is when I began to realize that this short stop was longer than planned, and had me running later than I had hoped to be. Still excited about the pack I started making great time before arriving at the mall at nine o'clock. Arriving at the time planned I headed for the doors ready to start the day buying cards. That is when it hit me the usual signage for the show wasn't out to direct everyone in. Looking at the door for the mall entrance I was bummed to see that the mall didn't open until ten.

 Killing time for 45 minutes the sight of people wandering in drew me in as well. The first thing I noticed were half the amount of tables that were at the February show. Not only were there less tables, but some of the tables were still empty as well. As I began to wander the show the lack of tables didn't matter anyway as I spent most of the show at one dealers area. The purchasing began almost instantly as I found this card for fifty cents.

From there I hit another table with some dime card gold. These cards will all be featured later in the ever continuing 'It Hurts To Watch' series of posts, so until then they will stay a mystery. Then the table where ninety percent of my card show time was spent drew me in. Starting off the treasure hunt I went through his boxes of three for a dollar baseball.


From there it was time for the nickel boxes. Going through box after box, there was so much at times skimming was the only way to go. Despite this I was able to land 85 cards with twelve being for sets I walked in hoping to work on. Another batch was for sets that drew me in as something to create a wantlist for in the future. Then the final cards were for the player collections, possible player collections, future blog posts, and possible traders.


Overall I was pleased with the results from this card show. There is one thing that will change next time I decide to go. They have another monthly show in the area, but farther away. This will be the next show I'd like to hit. See what it has to offer in the way of needs.    

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Artelopes- Altoona Curve

Just over one week ago I sent out two new artelopes in hopes of getting business cards for the collection. On Monday one of the two made it back home.

ALTOONA CURVE

As you can see my artwork has suffered a bit from lack of practice. While it was decent I have to admit it wasn't my best work. Currently I have three more envelopes in need of artwork before being sent off. Maybe I should get to work on these, and prepare more for mailing in the next few weeks. With all but the short season teams with schedules out already I am way behind. In return I got back pocket schedules, but no business card which was the reason for this mailing.


I have to admit it is a decent looking schedule in appearance. As I said earlier the reason I wrote the team was for a business card, so this is a disappointment. I was hoping to update the collection as the Curve became an affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates this season. The lack of a business card wasn't a surprise as the Curve were one of the tougher cards to get originally. Throw in the new affiliation, as Pirates affiliates have always been tough for me.

Another part of this that is bumming me out. So far this year I have been shut out when it comes to updating the business card collection. Guess I'll have to try some other ideas, and see if it help turn things around.




Sunday, May 5, 2013

Talladega

While my wife isn't the biggest of fans for today's race. She never has enjoyed the whole pack racing thing. Something about a race that isn't won by the guy who has the best car, or maybe even the best skills. Talladega is more of a race about luck than anything else. All it takes is one driver in the middle of the pack to flinch wrong, and your day is done.

Personally I enjoy it on a certain level. While it isn't my favorite track it is one of those I would love to visit in my lifetime. While I enjoy watching the short track bumping, and pushing the most. The whole concept of pack racing doesn't bother me like it does most. I just hope my driver isn't caught up in whatever wreck takes out the field.

Despite all our feeling on the track the wife, and myself do agree on one thing. There is one Talladega we both love.


Our dog Talladega, or as we call him Dega. As with some sports fans and their pets. We decided that it would be cool to name him after a racetrack. Going through various racetracks we agreed that Talladega sounded the best. Keeping with his name there are times he goes into a wild running mood. He just goes wild running down the hall, and around the furniture in the house. Once finished he sits right down with whichever one of us he thinks will be the most comfortable.

While it can be tough Dega is my baseball card buddy. Any time I go into the hobby room he isn't far behind. More often than not he will be found either sitting on my lap while I try to sort cards, or sitting right in front of me making it even harder. Sometimes I wonder if I could have everything organized if he wasn't there hanging out. When he isn't there its just not the same so despite being in the way I enjoy it. Now I just need to get him a Mariners, Rockies, or Kyle Busch collar, and we'd be set. Until then I guess he suffers through the Oregon State Beavers collar as his only sports team collar. We can both dream though can't we?

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Gaylord Perry and His 300th Win

They just had a short segment on Mariners All Access Wednesday night. WEhile the segment was about Julio Cruz who does the Spanish broadcasting for the Mariners. He started by talking about his time with the Mariners.


Cruz was the player who made the play on the last out of Perry's 300th win. He talked about how before the pitch he kept thinking to himself 'please don't hit the ball to me'. While I'm not sure if he was the only one who knew or not. He said that he knew before the pitch the ball would have so much Vaseline on it that it would be nearly impossible to throw. Then as the ball was hit to him it only took one bounce which made the play extra tough. Showing the highlight of the play he talked about how if you watch closely he studder stepped three time before making the slow toss. That he claims was trying to find a spot on the ball that was dry enough to grip it.

After the game he talked about celebrating with the team before catching Perry off to the side. At that time he showed Perry his hand covered in Vaseline to which Perry hit him upside the head with his glove, and said 'you don't tell anyone'.

Personally I found this whole story quite interesting as it has been claimed that Perry threw the spitball. I believe I heard once he was never caught, but another story I saw once showed his hall-of-fame jersey from that exact game. That story showed the jersey, and a small stain just above one of the letters on it. While it's been many years, and stains can be many things. It is quite interesting the placement of it.

I just thought this was an interesting story that I had to share. One of these days I should learn more about Perry as everytime I watch shows with stories like this the man fascinates me.


Wednesday, May 1, 2013

When I think Of Dairy Queen I Think Of Cards?

For the last month I have been exercising, and trying to lose weight. I think I'd be doing better if I fully committed, and not just partially committed. Part of this entire thing is cutting out my night-time ice cream which is the brutal part. I have started to eat other things that have alot less calories, and on some nights after my working out don't feel the desire for anything. I've been so good that the wife had bought me a thing of ice cream which sat around for so long I let the daughter, and her friend eat it.

This is what is leading to this post. I thought if I am not eating ice cream I can atleast show some cards that are related to one of my favorite snacks.


While I am finding other vices that taste just as good such as yogurt, and those low calorie pudding snacks. Every so often I find the ice cream calling. I've been good, and only had two small helpings instead of the usual large. That's pretty good for a month though I would think.


Helping me in this quest now is that the wife has gotten the idea, and has stopped buying ice cream for me. She has really started to bear down, and limited how much she buys altogether. When she does buy it's at a real good price, and she only buys one for the daughter. Give me a few months, and hopefully the craving for ice cream will be gone. Until then I guess its do everything possible to limit the damage.


Oh Yeah! About the baseball cards. Dairy Queen put out team USA baseball cards in 1992. I believe you got a three card pack with each purchase of a peanut buster parfait. Once completed the set was 33 cards consisting of players who played on the team from various years. I only got a small sampling of these packs as I'm not a huge fan of the parfait you had to buy in order to get them. Lucky for me I had a girlfriend at the time so she ate them when I did which limited the damage.