Paul Hits A Home Run

As I said yesterday with my cards from Tom. Thursday was an incredible day when it came to getting cards. The second, and final piece of that was the return from Paul. This trade came from the online trading group we are both members of. Paul is a huge Yankees, and Pirates fan who is still missing cards from this years sets. Having some blue sparkles Yankees he was missing from 2013 Opening Day we worked out a trade. In return Paul hit me with some cards that were a home run in my book. Going with cards from four different sets.

Until I got this card from Paul I had no idea A-Rod was one of the cards missing for this subset. I guess if you are missing Yankees for sets the best place to get them is a Yankees collector. This card proves that to be true.

If it hasn't sunk in enough yet. I absolutely love this set of cards, and will complete it one day. How long that will take is yet to be determined, but it will happen.

A big hit to a subset that I had honestly thought was completed when I bought the pack of cards in July at the World's Largest Garage Sale event. Paul dropped the remaining cards to this in half with four cards now left to complete this subset. With the hits that I've been making to this hopefully it will be finished by the end of the year.

Completing the home run, Paul hit a set for the first time. At a recent card show I found a couple of the 2007 version of these cards. After a little research I found out there was a 2006 set as well. Thinking the 2007 version was cool I had to add the 2006 set into the wantlist. Paul hit the set for its first blow with these four cards. Looking at them I was right, these are pretty cool. Hopefully one of these days I'll be able to finish both sets as I really like these cards.

Finishing up I want to say one more time. Thank you so much for the cards Paul..

No Angels In This Order

Last month was an incredible month for me in trades. I'll go a step further, and say last week was an incredible week for me when it come to trades. Why not get to the point, and say last Thursday was an insane day for me when it came to getting cards in the mail. I got two batches of cards that were hits to some great sets.

 To give each mailer his due I'm starting today off with a surprise PWE that came from Tom who write the blog The Angels, In Order. The name of this great blog is how I came up with the name for this post. If you haven't noticed by the blog's name Tom is an Angels fan who I traded with in the past. So if you have any Angels cards needing a home I say go to his blog, and send him those cards. Wait until you see the great stuff he sent my way first though, please...

I have to admit something here. This isn't even the best card of the lot. While it is a Rockies card which adds to its greatness. The reason it's the first card is simple. When this post pops up on other blogs favorites list. This card will look way cooler than a grouping of cards. I see how my business card posts, and other posts that are wider than just a single card look. Personally it doesn't look near as good. So to get Tom his due, and get you here I had to get tricky.

Some of my favorite sets to collect are the minor league sets. While we all know these sets that came from the 90's have barely anyone we still recognize. I have always been a fan of the minor leagues, and so I collect these sets. With my closest form of baseball being three low level teams within an hour its a form of baseball I relate to. Throw in my top two teams the Rockies, and Mariners sometimes play like minor league teams. How can I not build these types of sets? Besides all that, where else are you going to find cards with such great names as Pork Chop Pough?

Keeping with the minor league theme. Tom dropped another card from a set that took some serious hits this summer. My 1993-1994 Fleer Excel set is down to just six cards from the various subsets that are part of this set. The biggest chunk is the League Leaders which is where this card will fall into. In all fairness though at 20 cards it is bigger than the other two combined.

Saving the best cards for last is how I roll today. The 1995 Collectors Choice Special Edition Silver Signatures is one of my all time favorite sets. I am a huge fan of the silver border around the cards. Throw in the signatures on the cards being silver as well, and I am hooked. This has been one of those sets I have been nickel-and-diming with a card here or there making its way into my hands. I am such a fan of these type of cards. Anytime I ever think about doing autographs in some form I consider buying a silver sharpie, and getting them with that pen. One of these days I will do some photographs for the hobby room, and want them signed. When that day comes so will the purchase of one silver sharpie. Until then I keep trying to add more of these cards into the set, and seeing what I am missing.

Now that the showing off is done once again go see Tom at The Angels, In Order. Get a hold of him, and send him ALL. I will repeat myself here ALL of your Angels cards.

Biz Cards The Collection- New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, & Toronto Blue Jays

Another busy day around the cathouse. Sunday consisted of getting the final school supplies for the daughter before school starts.Nothing too thrilling, but a spendy day at the stores.

New York Yankees

Another of your basic classic card designed business card. If anything atleast they put in the cursive font in the center to add a little flair. While I dislike the Yankees with a passion. It would have been a little cooler to have seen some mention of their World Series Championships on the back or an amount won across the bottom. They do so much at the stadium embracing their history, and accomplishments. Something along those lines would have been cool here.

Tampa Bay Rays

Not a bad looking card for what at the time was a fairly new team. While it could use work they hadn't been in the league long. It is a card they could improve on as getting the on field stuff together was still moving forward.

It didn't take long for Tampa Bay to put out a better business card. While going crazy they did put out a decent looking card for their second edition. Looking at this card there is one noticeable missing element. Other than seeing it in little letters as the teams website. Nowhere on the card does it say in big letters the name of the team. As a baseball team your name is a very important element to the card.

After changing names from the Devil Ray to just the Rays. The third attempt at a design ended with the best look to date. It's a great simple design that uses the teams colors quite nicely. The yellow ray burst on the side is a great touch that looks better in person than it does in the scan.

Toronto Blue Jays

Ending the run of Major League Baseball is the Blue Jays. There might not be a better team to end with than the Blue Jays. The three cards in the collection from the Blue Jays are very cool looking cards. I would rate them as a top five in MLB for their business cards. They have that classy look without over doing it. While not having any color on the logo in the middle card. It is indented on the card, and looks very cool in person. This seems to be the theme of today's cards.

Hopefully you have enjoyed this look through my entire collection of business cards for the MLB teams. I have enjoyed showing them, and even got to appreciate a few of them more than I did before starting these posts. Until doing these it was more about getting the card, and putting it in the page it belonged. Going through all these, and writing about them gave me a new appreciation for this collection. It has reminded me on why I started collecting the business cards from sports teams.

Within the next week or two weeks I will start with minor league teams. How this will look is still in the thinking stages currently. Right now I am planning on going through the leagues starting at Triple A teams, and working down through the various levels, and leagues. I do know so far that they won't be in alphabetical order, but in order by the way they are in my pages. I will also list them by town not team name as sometime towns have the team change names quite often.

The question marks are how many teams will get done during each post? Currently my feeling is to go with anywhere from a single team to three teams. Teams in the minors change affiliations, logos, and names so often that cards can go through a ton of changes. Due to all this doing three teams per post like I did for the MLB is just not something worth doing. 

      My other idea is I'm thinking about trying to just give some sort of information about the team rather than breaking down the cards look. Whenever possible I'll do the research on the affiliation, logo use, and name changes. There might be some teams where I comment a little, but my plan is to just give information on the team so we can all learn about new teams. If there is a way you'd like to see these done let me know as I'd love any ideas to make these better.

Finishing up I have one thing left to say. If you have been reading these posts stick around, and don't miss any future posts for the minor league teams. Some of these cards are simply amazing, and put the cards done by MLB to shame.

Biz Cards The Collection- Minnesota Twins, Baltimore Orioles, & Boston Red Sox

Most posts I do for this blog are written the night before. For today or would it be last night? I am sitting here reflecting on the football games for our favorite teams here in the cathouse. My personal favorites are the Cincinnati Bearcats who laid a beating on Purdue 42-7 earlier. Then the Utah Utes who squeaked out a win over Utah State 30-26 on Thursday.  For the wife it's not a happy ending as her team the Oregon State Beavers took a crushing loss 49-46 by the hands of Eastern Washington. Losing one of those games they are supposed to win got her realizing this could be a long season for her team. Their defense was pathetic to say the least. If they want to have any chances for a win that needs to be shored up, and soon.

Moving on lets get to the real reason for this post shall we?

Minnesota Twins

The Twins have always been a tricky team to me. Something about them has always made them the forgotten team when I think Major League Baseball. I don't know if it's the logo doesn't appeal to me so I never think of them, or if the name Twins just skips my mind. Who knows what the reason is, but I always seem to forget about them. Will that ever change? I'm not really sure as I've gotten along this long forgetting them.

Baltimore Orioles

When I look at this card I see why so many fans long for the old Orioles logo. Sometimes when a team tries to update their logo it can end being a huge step backwards. This is one of those times where I have to agree that going back to the old logo would be best.

I can't condemn the new logo without showing it off in card form. Now don't get me wrong in thinking I hate this logo. I just think when you compare it to the old logo it's no contest.

Boston Red Sox

There isn't a whole lot I can say about this card. It's the classic business card design used for so many years. The Red Sox logo is the classic logo that has been used for as long as I can remember. What more would you expect from a franchise that embraces the past?

While I know this wasn't one of the most cards filled of posts. On Labor Day we will be going out with a bang. I have a pretty good collection of cards from the three remaining teams. Seven different cards to be exact. Hopefully the seven will make up for such a weak day today.