Tuesday, July 29, 2014

The Emeralds Use The Force


As you can tell from the post title, and my lead picture. On Saturday we went to the Eugene Emeralds, and it was Star Wars night. You could tell things would be cool starting with the Sasquatch logo, and the group all gathered at the concourse as you entered. Then if all that wasn't enough we got to witness Darth Vader throwing out the first pitch.


Adding to all the fun, and the thing that sealed the deal for me when the wife mentioned going to a game. The Rockies affiliate the Tri-City DustDevils were the visiting team. While I might have seriously considered going anyways, the DustDevils being in town was the clincher.

Eugene went all out on this night by having special uniform's that represented Boba Fett.


During the game there was a silent auction for the uniform's with the winner's taking the jersey home after the game. While I'd love to one day have a special game jersey from the Emeralds these were not the ones. Personally I enjoy the whole Star Wars thing on a certain level, but I'm not one of those fans that goes nuts over Star Wars. Having a jersey like these would have been just too much Star Wars in my life.

Another of the great things that I enjoyed despite being a fan of the team. Was the way they represented each player on the scoreboard.


This was a huge step up as the team usually has just the team logo, and no picture. Besides, being the visitors they could be considered the villains for the game.

The game itself was very interesting. We had some loudmouth sitting directly in front of us who would not shut up. So whenever the Devils did something I would go off, and try to be annoying myself. Even got a few laughs at some of my comments. Sadly though the force was with the Emeralds as they beat Tri-City 5-2.  The difference was Tri-City not taking advantage of a couple big scoring opportunities with no outs, and multiple runners on base. Overall it was a great time, and has us already talking about going to a game this Saturday again.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Staying Busy For The Weekend

Talk about a busy weekend here at the cathouse. One week ago I got my mojo back on wanting to finally get my hobby room started, and hopefully finished soon. As anyone who comes around here often enough knows I was hitting the home painting project hard. Then my desire came to a screeching halt, and has been slow going ever since. Just as it left it came back a week ago, and screamed lets get to work!

Getting all the daughters stuff out of the room was the first goal. Spending a few hours as she was actually ready to get it done herself. We had the room pretty close to striped down of all her stuff. Part of me believes her getting that same desire to get her stuff out that I had has really started to keep this train running. Then as I was starting to salivate at the thought of starting the painting process.

That is when a huge roadblock presented itself in the way of the wife. As we finished up she commented that I've had all this stuff set aside for a garage sale, and putting it all in the room, and getting it ready would be a great idea. The last few months me would have put all the stuff in the room, and sat back for a few weeks. The train rolling along me put everything in the room, and signed up on the back-up vacation calendar for Friday off. It seems that Friday has become the new Saturday for garage sale people. Not knowing if I was doing a Friday, Saturday sale or just a Saturday sale I got everything ready.


Friday came, and I made my way to work. Sitting there ready to go the boss looked at me, and said those magical words I wanted to badly to hear. "Would you like to go home?" SOLD!! Realizing we weren't completely ready as I came to the realization it was a Saturday only sale. I was forced to make my way to a certain big box store to purchase something so we could get change. Nobody had gotten change since we weren't doing this until Saturday.

Being a baseball card collector, and blogger the first thing that came to mind was a quick pack of cards. Sadly this retailer's card section has been growing ever so smaller as other collectible stuff is moving in on the baseball cards. Gone are the small ten or so packs of cards. All that there is to choose from are hanger packs, and boxes. I settled on a pack, and went to pay, and get change.


Needless to say the wife was right. Friday is the new Saturday when it comes to garage sales around here. We had a great Friday, and sold a bunch of things I thought were going to end up making a trip to Goodwill. Saturday not so much as we barely had anyone come by, and cleaned up earlier than planned. A quick nap followed, and then a game in Eugene which I will post about sometime this week. Hopefully that time will be Tuesday.

Sunday brought more life into me getting things done on the room. The day started by watching some NASCAR, and doing work on the room during commercials. If you watch NASCAR you know that there is tons of time to get things done as commercials seem to be mostly what they show during races. After the race a trip to the store for primer, and the first coat went up to cover the current color. A color that closely resembles this.


Ours is a little more to the lime color, but you get the idea. Could be why these cards don't drive me nuts so much like it does others. Today's plan is a second coat which will hopefully set me up for my color choice. If it doesn't complete the change then I'll spend another day after work laying a third coat down. All this for what I am hoping will be the painting this coming up weekend. From there it's all running downhill as I get to start the process of moving things into the new room. Once that's done maybe I can finally cross of getting the hobbies in order. I doubt it, but I can always dream can't I?

((Note:: All five cards came from the hanger pack, and if you need any can be yours for the mere price of e-mailing me your address so I can send the one or more you'd like.))

Friday, July 25, 2014

Feeling A Little Clingy

Recently one of the guys I have been trading schedules with for years had some health issues. This isn't just one of the guys I trade schedules with though. Our trading has resembled the type of trading that goes on with bloggers all the time. In the past we have had times where one of us would get something in, and get a response saying I need two. Without giving it a second thought about when or if something was coming back the schedules would be sent out. Its been an awesome trading friendship that I have been glad to have.

With some things still going on, and him looking to attempt 2014 schedules. I had contacted him about getting an address reminder due to I'm terrible about keeping addresses. You'd think with all our trades I'd have it ingrained in my memory, but I don't. Sending him a small head start towards this year he replied back asking if I still collected RailCats stuff. Answering with a quick yes he told me he had a RailCats cling schedule, and to expect it this week. On Thursday it arrived, and here it is in all its glory.


For those that don't know about the RailCats here are some tidbits. The team is actually the Gary-Southshore RailCats. Currently they play in the independent American Association where according to the cling they are the reigning Champions. Starting out in the Northern League in 2002 the team won two titles before moving over to the American Association. Lastly the team is my favorite non-affiliated team.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Trucks On Dirt = AWESOME

Normally I don't do two posts in one day, but after watching the truck race tonight in Eldora how can I not. If you didn't watch what you missed was possibly the best NASCAR will offer all season long.

After doing this race last season, and getting a full on this needs to happen every year. NASCAR brought the trucks to Eldora again this season. In what is more like a local track race ran by NASCAR truck stars. This race's legend just grew to historic proportions with the way things ended.

With Darrell Wallace Jr. leading young gun Kyle Larson took his truck all the way to the limit trying to win this race. Then with just a couple laps left his truck went past its limits, and was left as nothing more than a pile of scrap metal. This was just simply put incredible racing that makes you realize that trucks on dirt = awesome.


Despite being your winner to this race, and running away with it. Kyle Larson was all the rage with how far he was willing to go in hopes of taking this victory home. More than anything I think the kid picked up tons of fans with his driving. We already count ourselves as fans of the kid, and were sad to see him end up finishing in the back after giving everything he did.

Doing The Garage Sale Errr Swap Meet Thing

On Saturday we had the three times a year world's largest garage sale thing for the summer happening. Being I missed the April one due to the wife's wreck a part of me wanted to hit this show. There was one problem that was preventing this from happening. My company picnic was on the same day, and the wife seemed pretty interested in going. Then Friday came around, and she had second thoughts about going. This gave me the opening I needed to mention the garage sale event.

While talking about it she could tell I really wanted to go, and hit me with a surprising twist. I wasn't going solo on this trip as she wanted to come along. Having a companion for the journey sounded cool as she is also so accepting of doing Goodwill stops on the way home too.

Getting up early we made our way to the show right as the gates opened. Still needing to park we found our spot, and headed in for the bargain hunting. Starting things off it didn't take me long to find a treasure to take home.


According to the back of the card this is number two in the series. How many of these there are I couldn't tell you. What I do know is while in Seattle watching the Mariners one of the guys told me about how much he missed these.

This was my first chance to break in my negotiating skills. The original price was five dollars, but I brought it home for a mere three dollars.

From there it took awhile before I came across another goodie that wanted to come home.


This I got for two dollars, and goes with my growing collection of these cars. It is one of the Cartoon Network cars that were raced long ago. I'm trying to get one of each car as I just think they look cool. The tricky part is I already have this car yet I don't. Not only is this a cheaper version of the one I already have. The better version has Velma on the side while this version has the mummy. If I can find room for this car it will have a home. If not it will disappear either now or later to make room for either another car from the series or something totally different.

Unfortunately this was the best I could do at this show. The wife didn't do too bad as she came away with two new pans including a sweet sauce pan that was in the box unopened. I did see two other items one a small Rockies banner, and the other a pack of 2003 Mariners cards from a giveaway. Neither person seemed interested in selling their stuff as they couldn't be bothered to get out of their chair and acknowledge my existence.

After leaving the show we went out to eat, and then started to make our way homeward.


On our last stop I snagged this mini catcher's mask. Sometime last year I got the Rockies mask so now having the Mariners means my collection is complete.

Not doing as good as I had hoped in finding things. I was still pretty pleased with what I did find. Something I found interesting at this show was the amount of overpriced junk wax cards. Last year I hit all three shows, and saw maybe two binders of cards in all three shows combined. This show had lots of cards everywhere, but nothing that really interested me. I did give a quick look at a football binder that if I collected football would have been well worth the time. Looking back it is something I should have possibly thrown an offer on, and found some people to send the cards to. The first page had what looked to be some late seventies or early eighties stuff. It's amazing how we will think about these type of things later, and when it's too late to change things. Just something to think about if this opportunity presents itself in the future.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Tony Gets A Late Thank You

Tony who runs the great blog Off Hiatus responded to a plea for help with my 2013 series 1 Topps set. He didn't just stop there though as Tony noticed quite a decent sized wantlist for the series 2 set as well. Seeing he could drop the two of those with one big fell swoop he contacted the cat to let him know the remaining cards for both sets were on their way. That is where things get ugly.

If you have been following this blog for awhile you know that I am so hit or miss when it comes to writing thank you's for cards that have been sent to me.

There are times I will step up to the plate with that look in my eyes that just says I am taking this thing deep.


Any time that I get that look a certain thrill comes across me. I know that I'm about to nail it, and show the sender how much I appreciate the cards. Sadly though there are those times that happen more often than I'd like them to.


The times when I stand in, and swing for the fences only to swing, and disrupt the air. Looking at the mound things still don't look very good.


So I think to myself in this situation there is only one thing I can do. That is what I did, and is why this post is long overdue.


I ran from doing this entire post. Hoping that the further I ran from this the easier it would get to write when the time came. Going on vacation I had dreams that maybe just maybe this thing would finally put itself together. Upon our return I wrote about our trip, but still hadn't gotten any ideas. It was driving me so crazy I just had to scream.


What am I going to do? I have to let the world know about how great of a guy Tony is for sending me all these cards. Maybe I can show a picture of the celebration going on when I got his mailer.


The problem with that is will it show just how thrilled I was or be to much? Hopefully it wasn't too much, and everyone including Tony knows how much I appreciate his help in completing these two sets.

Sorry that it has taken me so long to say thank you, Tony.You can't begin to imagine how thrilling it was to get such a great batch of cards, and complete two sets at once. I don't know how I can ever thank you enough, but I'm going to give it a try. It might take a few months but cards will be coming.

(This was just a small group of cards from the mailer Tony sent. I believe there were close to seventy cards when it was all done.)

Friday, July 18, 2014

Returning Home From Seattle

Being our entire schedule of our weekend in Seattle had changed. The Sunday plan had went from taking in a ballgame to waking up, and heading home whenever we felt the need.

Leaving around ten we made our way down to Portland where we stopped in at Hooters for some fried pickles. Before arriving at Hooters the wife had mentioned we could take a detour afterwards, and head to the card shop I should have went to at the last card show. Thinking this would be my last chance to get some six pocket pages for who knows how long I was all for this little stop.

Making our way to the shop I headed in, and got straight to the business of getting the pages. The good news is he had the pages, but the bad news is he only had ten. Hopefully once I spend the time to sit down, and put the Rockies police cards in them. There will be enough remaining sheets to put the schedules I've been needing to put away for quite some time.

As the owner started pulling the sheets I noticed a couple stacks of cards, and decided to start looking through them. As I got into the group it became obvious quickly that they were all auto, and patch cards. This is when I hit gold. Sitting almost at the bottom of the stack was this little beauty right here.


This is one of those cards I've been looking at on ebay for a few months now. For some reason there has been this voice in my head that said wait. One day you will see that card, and buy it then. I guess Sunday was that day.

Adding to my joy was after paying for my sheets, and Rosario card. I looked to my right to see a box of cards that were separated by teams. Actually it was a stack of boxes, but the top box happened to contain none other than the Rockies as one of the teams inside. Intrigued, and feeling lucky after my autograph find in the stack. I couldn't help, but look through the Rockies before leaving the store. That is when I hit gold once more.


Surprisingly this is another card I have looked at numerous times on ebay. Now thanks to my wanting to look more it is now part of my Rosario collection.

After finding, and paying for the card we both had a nice conversation about the Mariners, and their needing to make a move before the trade deadline. I needed to take off, and it seemed like someone was trying to sneak in the open back door. That was my clue to leave, and finish the ride homeward.

Overall this trip was nothing but pure joy. Two incredible games, and two awesome card shop stops. Kind of makes me wish I could do it all again this weekend. At the same time not getting to is what makes trips like this so special.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Mariners Trip Saturday The 12th (game)

After the great time I had at the card shop we still had a baseball game that evening. Deciding that we needed to go early so we could both try to upgrade our seats, and get the giveaway for the night. We left the hotel just after two so we would arrive close to three. Once there we made our way around the stadium to the main ticket windows. Luckily we were able to upgrade into the section we had wanted to be in. The downside was we had to be in the row, and not on the aisle as we had hoped.

Getting the new tickets we wanted to go across the street, and do a late lunch at Pyramid Brewery. This is a stop we have done a few times when we thought it would be best to arrive extra early. Once finished we headed back across the street as the lines were building fast. This led to some good news though as because of the insanity going on they opened the gates half an hour earlier than usual. What this did is allowed us to take a picture with the wife for her to put on facebook.


From there I was off to my tour of the stadium once again. This one was much faster than the night before, but included something I've always meant to do but never have until then.


Finally getting back to my seat I hung with the wife for a few until it was game time. The wait was brutal as we were excited about getting to see Iwakuma pitch. In the years we have been going to Mariners games we have never gotten to see a player play on a giveaway for them. We have done bobbleheads, and t-shirts for players but every time they don't play in that game. This ended up being a first for us that we both were excited about.

Just before the game they announced that Fernando Rodney was going to the all-star game as a substitute. It was a cool moment as he came out of the dugout, and did the archer thing he does after getting a save. The crowd went nuts, and gave him a standing ovation during the announcement. Unfortunately I was like everyone else, and enjoying the moment too much to take any pictures. Afterwards it was time for Iwakuma to do his thing.


Before the game we were talking, and wondering how Iwakuma would do after watching Felix's masterpiece the night before. He answered our question by doing better, and going 8 2/3 inning before giving up a two run homer. After the runs Iwakuma was pulled to a standing ovation that was pure insanity.

During the game two things stuck out to me. The first is it was cool to see Cespedes play as he wasn't in the line-up on Friday against Felix.


The other was we got to experience instant replay.


It was on a play at home that personally even with a slow replay I wouldn't have wanted to make. In the end they upheld the play, and called the runner out. While the fans all booed we both agreed that we probably would have made the same call as the umpire made.

As with Friday the Mariners won the game only 6-2 this time.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Mariners Trip- Saturday The 12th (morning)

With the game not being until 7:10, and it being a bobblehead night. We had the plans of leaving the hotel for the stadium early. Before doing all this the wife wanted to head over to a big box store for some sunscreen. We had seats for the outfield section which was in full sun on Friday's game so she wanted to be prepared. This was in-case we couldn't upgrade our seats which I will get to in my game related post tomorrow.

As the wife started getting ready to head for the store I did what any baseball card  blogger would do. I cracked into the smartphone and did a quick search for any possible card shops in the area.
JACKPOT!!

Not only was there a card shop. The shop happened to be right across the street from the big box store. Then to top it all off this was less than two blocks away. Now all that was left is to convince the wife I needed to stop in, and see what they had to offer. My plan was in motion as I remembered that I still needed six card pages for storing schedules, and hopefully the Colorado Rockies police set I picked up at the coast. 

Much like most of us bloggers wife's or girlfriends she understood, and was willing to stop in. Heading in for pages, and a quick search for cards the wife stayed in the car with the air conditioner running as it was insanely hot. Not having any six card pages I started in at a huge box of cards. Full of nothing, but newer young players I thought why not add or start some secret player stuff.


Next up I found some new additions to the main players collections.


While looking at the cards to figure out cost the guy commented on Nicasio's card. Never thinking about it until he mentioned the card. It does have one of those looks that makes you laugh a little. His comment was to the effect that if Nicasio ever saw his card he'd probably wonder why they used that picture with his face all weird. If he hadn't mentioned it I odds are I would have never noticed. I was more into that it was a gold card, and the blue slate (think that is what it's called). Two cards I honestly never thought would make their way into my collection.

About this time the wife called, and said it had been around half an hour. Mentioning she was burning gas by running the car. She followed up with why not take me to the hotel, and come back. Quickly I mentioned to the guy in the shop helping me my plan, and I headed out. Arriving in the car the wife let me know this is what we should have done the second she noticed the store. I say this because it wasn't a regular type of card store. This place had baseball cards, baseball memorabilia, and gaming type cards.


Upon returning I went straight back to the boxes, and hit a few cards for sets I've been working on. The Spot The Error cards now leaves me missing only #10 to finishing that subset.  The 2004 Studio Stars card is something I need to make a wantlist for once I get the new hobby room completed.

Closing out the goodies was three cards I found in the final box I had time to search.


This could have been an all day adventure if I had more time. That wasn't meant to be though as we were heading out to the game a little early due to the craziness that surrounds bobblehead giveaways.

Preparing to leave I stopped in my tracks when I looked over, and spotted a 2008 J.J. Putz bobblehead. Giving it a few minutes of thought as I'm used ot buying my bobbleheads from Goodwill on the cheap. In the end I decided at only ten dollars I could give in, and add it to the collection.


We both seemed to enjoy the area the hotel we stayed at is in so staying here might be a possibility for next year. Everything depends on what our usual hotels charge for a stay. If we do odds are I will be able to hit this shop again when we do. Until then I can just be excited about the finds I made this time.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Mariners Trip- Friday The 11th

During our nights at the coast the wife, and myself would watch Mariners games. This was a form of preparation for the upcoming weekend we had planned for catching two games. Why do I mention this you ask? Our viewership for Mariners games has been a hit or miss affair, with it being mostly miss. Watching these games ended up paying off in a big way that changed our entire weekend in Seattle.

With a plan of arriving on Friday, and getting tickets for Saturday, and Sunday's games. We would then go out for lunch before heading to the hotel, and relaxing for the evening. As I said, that was the plan.

Before heading to the coast I had done the research on who I guessed would be the starters for our days in Seattle. Doing the math I had Felix on Thursday which meant we miss baseball's King Felix. It was a small bummer as we've seen Felix a few times over the years, and wouldn't mind seeing him again. The Friday's started would be Iwakuma which was another bummer being Saturday was his day. What this would leave us is Chris Young, and I believe Tijuan Walker. Both have been doing decent, but they weren't Felix or Iwakuma.

During the week everything changed as McClendon announced he was pushing Felix, and Iwakuma back to Friday, and Saturday. The idea being his best two pitchers would face the division leading A's. What this meant for us is our plans changed to Friday, and Saturday being game days now. Sunday we would just relax, and take our time on the four to five hour drive homeward.

Rather than bore you with all the details on driving up, and tickets stuff. Once in Seattle we headed for tickets before going out for the originally planned lunch stop at Rainforest Cafe. Once finished there was still time to make the short drive south, and check-in at the hotel. A short refresher nap followed, and then off to Safeco Field.


The first thing I had to do was take a picture from our seats with my close range lens. These were the best seats we have ever had in all our years of going to Mariners games. We were a few feet to the inside of first base, and in row 35. We could have sat closer, but we prefer the aisle seats, and in the shade. Actually the wife wants shade, I could sit in full sun, but gotta have the aisle. From there I did what has become a tradition with me, and ran around the stadium gathering up brochures, schedules, and other goodies.


Sometimes I look back, and am kind of bummed that I didn't start picking up the brochures when we first started going to games. These have become some of my favorite things the team puts out. Wish I was able to do a collection of these for the Rockies. Until then I'm building a pretty cool looking Mariners collection of these.

After making the tour it was game-time, and time for King Felix.


Not only was Felix ready to go, but the Kings Court was in full force.


According to the radio this was the largest Kings Court ever. There were eleven sections of the stadium that were turned in the Kings Court. Four of them were below, and are in the picture. The remaining sections were in the upper level of the stadium.

For those that don't know about this Kings Court thing. What the team does is sell seats for the farthest section along the third baseline. The seats come with a Kings Court t-shirt, and K card.


As for the game things didn't start well as the A's took a quick 2-0 lead in the first. From there Seattle took over by scoring one in the second, and another in the third to tie the score at 2-2. Going strong after the weak start Felix got more help in the sixth as James Jones doubled, and was then hit in by Cano with another double. Despite taking the loss Samardzija pitched just as strong as Felix, and only giving up five hits.

Another of the cool things we got to see was Fernando Rodney getting to come out, and close the game. Seattle has always done a great job of getting the crowd pumped when the teams closer comes into the game.


The music blaring, and the screens all flashing just get your blood flowing as a fan. I can't even begin to imagine what this all does for Rodney who is actually pitching.

Above everything the atmosphere during the game was amazing. The crowd was at almost 33,000, and were really into the game. Having such a strong crowd, and game really showed on television. I'll write more about that in my next post.


After the game we decided to hit the team store at the stadium. While in there the wife picked up two Disney hat pins. She plans on wearing both on a lanyard when we go to Disneyland later this year. As for me I managed to snag


I always like the hats that not everyone is wearing. This fit that bill, and is the one out of the two all-star game related hats that I liked the best. Not my first choice as I wanted the 4th of July cap, but they were all out. Looking at it now I think I prefer this cap anyways so it's all good.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Coasting on Vacation

Got back last night from what has been an almost two week vacation. If you've been reading the few posts that were done while on vacation. You already realize that I started things off with a bang by going to the Eugene Emeralds followed by the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. From there things started to get real busy as Saturday morning was the official start of all the fun.

Heading out fairly early as all we needed to do was load everything into the car. We arrived at the coast by noon, and unloaded everything before making a trip to the store for our five days worth of food supplies. After finishing up this small stop I was off to the antique store that has become a staple of my coast trips.

Sadly I have some doubts on how many more of these I will be getting to make in the future. While starting to do my wandering I noticed that there were a fair amount of empty booths. To be exact an area usually full of merchandise was nothing more than a big empty hole. The makeshift half walls were even gone, so when I say a big empty hole I mean a big empty hole. Adding to my fear that this place isn't doing well was one of the stores biggest dealers were cleaning out their merchandise. Since I didn't go back in before we left town to see the new hole. I can't say what things look like, but the dealers section was bigger than the section already empty. Hopefully I'm just being paranoid as this has been a wonderful stop for me that has helped me add something new into the collection every trip I make.

With that out of the way lets get to the goodies as I didn't do too bad. Starting off the treasure hunt I walked around a corner, and found this thing staring back at me.


I've seen this helmet there many a time, but the three dollar price tag has always scared me off. This time the tag was a much more willing to pay price of one dollar. Thinking maybe the seller had seen the error of his ways I had to bring it home. Another few rows later I would realize that the dealer still hasn't seen the error of his ways. The helmet I had was a different helmet as the three dollar version was still sitting on a shelf.

Making my way to the lower level of the store the search was coming up empty until spotting these near the end of my journey.


I'd seen these on a past visit, but never pulled the trigger them. A few times I'd even kicked myself, and wondered why I didn't bring them home. Now I no longer have to ask myself that as here they are.

They do leave me wondering one question that hopefully someone out there can answer for me. Where are they from, and what is their deal?

After gathering up my treasures, and finding nothing else of interest I made my way to the cashier, and headed back to the house. The remaining days at the coast would bring nothing like these as no other shops were in my path. The weather was beautiful, and spending time on the beach became more of a priority than heading to shops.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Low Level Rockies

Going to be kind of a short post tonight as I prepare for spending the weekend in Seattle watching the Mariners. Just before leaving to the coast two returns came in with both being related to the Rockies lower level affiliates. First on the list from the Northwest League came in a request from the Tri-City Dust Devils. While I have been doing the whole artelope thing I just wanted to get this request out, and sent a good old fashioned envelope with a SASE inside. In return the Dust Devils sent two schedules with one already being placed into the collection.


Tri-City has had this thing of putting the mascot on their schedules for the past few years. As you can see this year keeps the trend going.

My next return I actually spent the time to do an artelope. The reason is Grand Junction has been ding home schedules on their business cards. Hoping a little artwork would help I sent out this request.


The concept was to make a large version of the teams uniform with white, and the purple stripes. Personally I think it turned out pretty good, and while it didn't get me a new business card it did get a return of four very patriotic looking schedules.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

It Still Hurts To Watch 7

During the last card show in Portland I managed to pick up some new cards for future 'It Still Hurts To Watch' posts. Being we are currently on vacation, and any posts I write during vacation won't contain cards. I thought why not write a few posts with cards before we leave. Then it hit me I could do another of my favorite series, and show off some of the cards I picked just for this series.


While this card doesn't look like it has a ton going on. Something in it seemed to tell me a story, and so I had to have it. The look on Manwaring's face lets you know that a runner is bearing down on him.


This might be the least amount of collision I could possibly show. Russell still seems to have that look on his face like he's being run over by a truck. Despite this not being much of a collision it was another cards that called to me for some unknown reason.


Looking at this card there is no doubt on why it made it home with me. There is just something about a card that has all that damage, and dust flying still. How could you not enjoy a card with all that going on? From the look on Jeff's face he is looking to see what the other runners are doing as that looks like a throwing position to me. Given all that I'm going to say we end this post with the runner being thrown out at the plate.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Salem-Keizer Volcanoes 4th of July Game

It has been no secret lately that I am not a fan of the way this team is run. Today though all those feelings will be kept at bay. While I am still not a fan of the way things are there I have to admit one thing. When it comes to celebrating Independence Day the Volcanoes are top notch. They are the bar that all other teams should be striving to reach for. Hopefully in other parts of the country teams do things like the Volcanoes do, and if not they need to get on board. This includes all the other teams in the Northwest League..

Arriving into the stadium we headed straight to our seats where you could see sitting on the field the following sight.


This is a metal statue made by a man out of Bend that was done in honor of the soldiers missing in action. Sitting to the right, and something I thought I'd gotten in the picture, but obviously didn't was the missing in action table. Added later, but directly behind home plate so I was unable to get a picture of was the killed in action stand. The statue was an incredible piece that really hits you hard when you sit down, and think about all the soldiers who haven't come home from Vietnam, and other wars.

From there they loaded up the foul area with mostly Vietnam Vets, and a few current soldiers. The night was dedicated to Vietnam veterans with Saturday, and Sunday being for other veterans.


There was some impressive guys that came out for the game. One which was the final first pitch had jumped on a grenade to save the lives of all the men around him. His Grandson threw out the pitch, and did an excellent job. After finishing up, and doing the Star Spangled Banner a drone was brought out to deliver the game ball from the umpire to the pitcher..


After taking down Hillsboro one, two, three to end the top of the first. Salem came out swinging, and scored three runs in the bottom half to go up 3-0. Starting off the second Hillsboro looked like they came to play as well, but in the end only ended up getting one run in the inning to go down 3-1. Things slowed down scoring wise from there until the seventh when another Salem barrage ended up producing only one run to go up 4-1. In the eighth it looked like Salem was about to leave no doubts on who was going to win the team only scored one more, but left lots of runners. This made the score 5-1 which ended up being the games final score.


It was possibly one of the fastest games I have ever seen which was wild given all the base-runners. Afterwards the fans in general admission were moved to the first base foul territory for the fireworks display. Given I had seen the very impressive show in Eugene on Thursday, this wasn't a bad show for what it was. I'm forgiving though as this night was all about the veterans, and what they have done for this country.

Another of the cool things the team does that I seem to have not mentioned, but is obvious from the pictures. They wear special uniforms for the day which I kind of like.


While some teams do hats, the Volcanoes go all out by doing the uniform, but going with the regular hats. I'd love to see the visiting teams for these games get into it one day if possible. Maybe get all teams in the league to have home, and away jerseys for Independence Day games. Until then I guess we have the cool looking ones worn by the Volcanoes.