They Might Be Minor League, But They Are Big League To Me

Monday ended up being a great day at the cat house. Not only did I finally get to scratch my itch when it comes to 2014 Topps. When the mailman finally made his stop on our block. There was a PWE all the way from Ohio left behind. Inside the envelope was four cards from fellow TradingBases member Jimi. Not only was it four cards, but four cards that were awesome additions. Three of the cards were from a subset that has long been neglected. That subset is the League Leaders from 1993-1994 Fleer Excel minor leagues.

 (Ryan Karp)

Originally drafted by the New York Yankees in 1992. Ryan started his minor league career in 1993 playing for Greensboro. Moving up the teams rank fairly quickly before being traded in 1994 to the Philadelphia Phillies. Making his debut in 1995 Karp would only pitch in one game before being sent back down. Spending the rest of 1995, and all of 1996 Karp would reach the majors again in 1997. Playing in 15 games it would be the last time Karp would play in the MLB. For his career Karp went 1-1 with a 5.29 ERA, and 20 strikeouts.

(Rich Krivda)

Drafted by the Baltimore Orioles, and starting his career in 1991. Krivda would fly through the minor leagues before making it into the Orioles rotation in July of 1995. Starting decent, and going 2-2 the wheels suddenly fell off. Losing his next five games he would end the season at 2-7. Returning back to Triple A for the start of 1996 he'd get called up again. Faring just slightly better at 3-5 in 22 games before seasons end. Another return to Triple A for 1997 where Krivda was brilliant. Baltimore came calling again for ten games. Going 4-2 his stats were beginning to decline as his ERA climbed to a huge 6.20. 1998 would come, and a new team the Cleveland Indians would claim Krivda off waivers. By June Krivda was traded to the Reds where his decline was more obvious than ever. At seasons end he would be signed by the Royals, but never make the roster. More years in the minors would follow as well as a gold medal in the 2000 Olympics. Krivda would never make it to the MLB again.

(Jose Silva)

Originally drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays. By 1996 Silva would be pitching for the team. His time in Toronto would be short-lived as in 1997 he would move on to Pittsburgh, and the Pirates. Playing there through 2001, Silva would spend 2002 in Cincinnati with the Reds. 2003 would be spent in the minors along with the remaining part of his career. Moving on too baseball in Mexico before retiring.

Closing out all this minor league madness Jimi decided to go pro. While these aren't the coolest looking cards they just appeal to me for some strange reason. Cutting the list of remaining needs down to three before I can cross these off the wantlist.

Jimi thank you so much for going minor league in your PWE.

My First 2014 Topps Lottery Tickets

I can't remember which blogger it was that I read buying packs referred to as buying a lottery ticket. In honor of that blogger I thought why not refer to my first packs as lottery tickets. Why I'm thinking about this now who knows? If I can remember long enough maybe I'll use that as my titling for all pack purchases for 2014. Maybe it'll stick, and be how all my pack purchases are labeled from this day forward.

Since the 2014 Topps posts started I've been itching to get my hands on some of these cards. Until Monday all my attempts have been met with no results. After a busy long weekend at the coast I wanted to keep it simple. No trips to any Goodwill stores to look for treasures. The days plan was to hang with the dog, and head to the store. Hoping that there would be some jumbo rack packs, and loose packs. While there weren't any of the smaller loose packs. I did manage to buy two of the jumbo's.

Currently my plan is to buy packs for the single players I collect. There are around 15 cards for my main players, and secondary players. This doesn't include any of the color parallels of the base set cards. Even with this being the plan, things could be subject to change into building the full set later. Until then though it'll be strictly players.

(1st card of 2014 Topps)

Not the worst start in the world of cards to have as a first card.  There are a group of guys who could be better. Looking at it the same way there are a ton of guys who could have been worse. So you could say I'm pretty pleased with having Buehrle be the guy. Comparing him to last years first card of Didi Gregorius he is a vast improvement. For card looks I'd give Didi the advantage, but career wide its Buehrle hands down.

I've seen some of the other blogs showing off their first Future Stars card. Being I not only got the regular, but a blue parallel as well. I thought why not show both cards? If there are any Braves fans out there the blue card is up for grabs. Just comment, and drop me an e-mail so I can send it your way.

In the main players category I nailed down three of the fifteen cards. Looking at all the Trout cards I'd bet Trout is around one-third of the cards I'm looking for in series 1. Getting two wasn't a bad start for the collection. Hopefully the cards will keep coming to fill in the collection.

Overall I'd say I didn't do too bad for my first purchase. As for the cards design this year. In 2013 I fell into the category of a returning collector, and loved the look of those cards. Looking at them now they have lost some of their luster in my eyes. With the silver running through the card I like this design better. Now will it keep that luster in my eyes only time will tell. I'm still getting my feet wet in my return to cards if you ask me. Due to this I'm not one to break down all the subsets, and everything. What I do know is I wasn't even considering building any of the sets this year. Now I am considering the Opening Day once again, but as I've said. This might all change by the time those cards hit the shelves.

Prowling The Coast

Since early on Thursday the cat was roaming the coast until Sunday morning. Part of this roaming was hitting the two antique malls I enjoy visiting. The good news is the first mall which happens to be my favorite produced the following.

Not a huge pick up, but to me it's going to be a great addition to the hobby room. Something about the logo just called out to me. So I had to listen, and bring it home. While looking through the mall a few other things caught my attention. The first was a booth had four different Mariners bobbleheads. Two were 2012 with them being Felix, and Dustin Ackley. The remaining two were a 2008 Franklin Gutierrez, and 2009 Yuniesky Betancourt. Already thinking I have Felix he was definitely not an option. As for the remaining three I wasn't willing to ante up fifteen dollars each. None of them were worth even close to that even if I am missing the 2008, and 2009 two for my collection.

One of the things I love most about this antique mall is the baseball cards. Usually there is an area where the guy is selling cards for either a quarter each or five for a dollar. The last two trips this area has been a disappointment. Things weren't a total loss as one card did make it into my possession. I'd love to show you said card, but it was bought for a fellow blogger who will be the one showing off the card. I'd get into the second antique mall, but simply put. The place was 1/3 or more empty. Thus nothing even came close to remotely coming home with me.

On Saturday we decided to travel a little north, and visit the beach. Another reason is they put out glass globes on the beach. We've never had any luck finding any, but the beach is cool there too. Heading back south I had mentioned to the wife an antique store I wanted to go into. At the cat-house during Christmas we have an m&m collection we display on a five shelf bookcase. Putting everything out this past Christmas the wife got to wondering if we had all the Christmas village tins. Doing a search via e-bay we came up with six tins missing. Creating a list the search was on. Before then I had seen this store had a collection of the tins, but didn't know what they had exactly. This store was well worth the stop as we came away with five of the six tins.

Not baseball cards or sports related even, but to me still cool.

Later that night I had to make a trip to Walmart for a couple items. Being in a town different than where we live I didn't know what to expect. What I got is another place that I left without any cards. As of this writing no 2014 cards have made it into the collection. Hopefully I can remedy this soon as I'm itching to see them in person.

Noticing A Trend Here

On Tuesday night I went to the mailbox, and noticed a trend. The trend was that for the third time this year fellow TradingBases member Cliff has dropped a PWE on me. While the first two contained Nolan Ryan cards for the personal collection. This PWE went in a totally new direction, and completed a set. Not only did Cliff complete what is my fourth set in what is a fairly new year. He picked a set that is very near, and dear to my heart. Thanks to some great cards from Cliff for the second time this week we get to see plays at the plate.

How ironic is it that after my Thursday post I'd start with the colliding play at the plate? Two of the three cards Cliff sent have runners sliding instead of crashing the catcher. I wanted to start off with the lesser known catcher, and work my way to the big name.

Talk about ironic cards. Posey being injured, and missing most of a season is what has started the entire thought into changing the rules. Losing what is a major player for the MLB is something they don't want to see repeated too many more times in the future.

Finishing up the set is the great Gary Carter. Having some great all time catchers like Carter is what makes this a fantastic subset. The way Topps used current great catchers with past greats was a brilliant idea. This is why when I first saw a few of these cards at a card show last year I had to get the set. Now thanks to Cliff's generosity I can say the set is finished.