Artelopes- Three From The Texas League

In my writing to teams one of my favorite leagues has to be The Texas League. During a normal year I write three teams for schedules consistently. This year there were two changes which will be upping the number to five.

Already getting a return from the Tulsa Drillers I sent out these three. Which now leaves me at writing one final team for a business card.

The Rockhounds are one of the three teams from the Texas League I've been collecting schedules from since starting my collection. When starting the collection there were some team names, and logo's I just thought were cool, and have been collecting them. Something about the name Rockhounds just seemed cool so they made the list.

This next envelope is from a team that has been around in various forms for years.

The team has only been known as the Northwest Arkansas Naturals since 2008. Before this they were the Wichita Wranglers. Due to bad attendance, and poor ballpark the team relocated to Springdale to become the Naturals. Originally they were a team I was on the fence about collecting schedules from, but the team has been so generous in returns over the years I became a fan of the team. Northwest Arkansas goes to show how treating fans not in your area can bring in new fans. I've been known to contact a few teams for merchandise in the past so it can pay off. Not with just me, but I'd bet with others as well.

As for the drawing. If you remember the Sacramento RiverCats envelope recently. You can see that the two are very similar only instead of a cat claw this ball has the crown used by the Royals, and often times the Naturals recently.

Unlike past years, and the returns. This was a fairly weak one in the return envelope was only two of the above schedule. The Naturals have had the same card since day one so no request for a business card was included. It would have been nice to have nailed down another one or two for trading, but I'll take the one for my personal collection, and spare for trading.

Last on the list was the San Antonio Missions. This is another of those teams that has been good to me over the years. Why I have never been even slightly interested in becoming a fan of the team is beyond me. Some teams I've become fan of for doing less, but the Missions have just never caught my attention.

The drawing on the envelope is a part of the teams new logo for 2015. Personally I think the logo is a huge improvement over the old logo. It brings the team into 2015 rather than the older style from the old logo. 

With a new logo comes a new business card so that was the sole purpose for this request. I always put in the schedules in hopes that atleast something will head my direction.

As you can see the team didn't disappoint. Included was the one business card for the collection, and it has the new logo. Honestly this new logo did a ton for the team in my mind. Past business cards weren't anywhere near as cool as the one above, and as classy looking. Included with the card were three of the schedules below the card. Another great showing of the logo that in my mind has made for a good looking schedule. Very well done Missions!

I'm A Winner, And People Like Me.

While thinking up ideas for what to both use as a post title, and what to write. I toyed with the idea of 'Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!' The only problem was I was sort of lost at what to write about. Then while sitting here still at a loss it hit me. The post title I came up with suddenly hit me.

My one problem was I couldn't remember the name of the character from Saturday Night Live. A quick internet search ensued, and here we are.

By now I know you are thinking "Cat, what does all this matter?" If you were one of the people that participated in a recent contest by Brain over at Highly Subjective, and Completely Arbitrary. You already know what I am getting at.

Brian held a contest where all the participants had to do was pick a team. If the team you picked matched an autograph he got in a recent pack of Stadium Club. Coming along a little late in the game as many had guessed, and the teams were starting to run short. I gave a fast look, and noticed my favorite team the Rockies hadn't been guessed. Throwing out that guess I was surprised to get an e-mail the next day from Brian announcing the cat as a winner.

If you didn't see this beauty on Brian's blog, or even if you did. Here it is again in all it's glory.

Now that is a beautiful card if I don't say so myself.

As you would expect, a player like Blackmon doesn't travel without a entourage.

Some guys travel with teammates, or other stars. My man Blackmon likes to keep the kiddos happy by traveling with mascots. I might only be a kid at heart, but I'm thrilled with his choice of friends.

You had to know that he wouldn't travel with just two mascots. No he travels with five.

The greatest part about these last two. Other than the fact that the Pirate Parrot is my favorite MLB mascot. Brian didn't even wait for the cat to do a wantlist for 2015 mascots before going after the list. How can you not appreciate a blogger that doesn't wait for a list?

Thank you so much Brian not just for the Blackmon auto, but for his friends. I don't know for sure how many people like me, but what I do know is you made me a winner.

Artelopes- Paw Sox, and Bees

Keeping true to the theme that the cat has been following for most of the year. It is once again time for another artelopes. With so many being sent recently I am going with a Triple A theme, and doing the Pawtucket Red Sox, or better known as the Paw Sox. Keeping with theme is the Salt Lake Bees of the Angels affiliation ranks.

Not long before the start of MLB's spring training the Paw Sox announced a new logo for 2015. Needing the teams new business card which will hopefully contain said logo. I decided it would be cool to draw that logo, and see if it helped get a new business card.

What came in the return was two of the schedules above, and zero business cards. All this means is at some point during the season I'll make another attempt at a business card. The Paw Sox have always been pretty good to me so I will just assume they didn't have new cards yet.

The second, and in my eyes most important out of the two requests. Growing up as a kid I lived in Utah, and thus my sport allegiances are still with most the teams. While the Bees didn't exist as for a short time the team in Utah at the time was the Gulls. I have adopted them as one of the minor league teams I collect items from. In honor of this I send out a request to the team every season.

There was no business card request included as I have quite a stack of the teams business cards already. What the team did send is six copies of the schedule above.

Take The Junior Junkie Test

We've all seen those tests you take that determine your knowledge on a certain subject. If not you haven't trolled the internet much as they pop up on a large scale every so often. In honor of those I have created.

Sorry about the sad little logo, but its the best I could dream up as I'm choosing to spend more time on research for the post instead of logo work.

We've all heard, and seen posts throughout the internet about the recent mass mailing of bubble mailers sent out by TJ of 'The Junior Junkie'. In honor of TJ's awesome feat I have created 'The Junior Junkie Test'. If you have a bad memory you might want to grab a pen, or pencil, and a small sheet of paper. A post it note would be just fine for your answers.

Now that you are ready to go lets get this test started..

1- What is Mike Trout doing on this card?
      A- Preparing to steal either second or third base.
      B- Getting ready to do a squat as it's exercise time.
      C- Preparing to run home to see if he was one of the lucky people on TJ's mailing list.

 2- Mike Trout is looking at?
     A- Noticing where his home run went
     B- The guy in the crowd who is dressed like he's got a role in 'Saturday Night Fever'.
     C- Thinks he sees a fan holding up a banner advertising 'The Junior Junkie'

3- Mike Trout is diving because?
    A- He's a great centerfielder, and all centerfielder's dive for balls when needed.
    B- Sometimes he likes to pretend he's a fish, and the ball is fish food.
    C- He got told that TJ put a surprise for him inside the ball. Only problem is if he dropped it he wouldn't get the prize.

4- Miggy is smiling in the picture because?
    A- He's thrilled that he was the AL batting leader over Trout, and Beltre.
    B- Someone just told him a really good knock, knock joke.
    C- He got one of the packages sent out by TJ, and can't stop smiling. (Notice that Beltre isn't smiling. A sign that he didn't get anything from TJ.)

5- The look on Mike Trout's face can be explained as?
    A- He can't believe that he just stole third base.
    B- He went to an aquarium before the game, and is showing the expression of all the fish.
    C- He's looking into the crowd as one of them is opening a bubble mailer from TJ, and can't believe what he is seeing.

6- After hitting the ball Mike Trout's first thought was?
    A- Is it going to have enough to make it out?
    B- RUN!!!
    C- All those awards, and somehow TJ is still more famous. How did this happen?

7- Upon seeing this card the cat?
     A- Did a quick internet search, and looked up Dizzy Trout.
     B- After the search was left wondering why Topps put Dizzy in a Red Sox uniform being his best years were with the Tigers?
     C- Got a little bit of baseball knowledge that he wouldn't have gotten without TJ putting this card in the mailer.

8- Mike Trout is yelling?
    A- He's excited about a play he was just in.
    B- No one knows this but he's playing Marco Polo, and is yelling Polo.
    C- He's mad at his agent for not telling him sooner about 'The Junior Junkie', and realizes he's missed out on a ton of great posts by TJ. Now he's going to be spending all sorts of time catching up with those missed posts.

9- Mike Trout is thinking?
    A- WOW, that went far! I wonder how many feet that blast was?
    B- What was Yogi thinking when he said "If you come to a fork in the road. Take it!"?
    C- Did TJ really send out all those mailers or has everyone imagined it all?

10- This is photograph of?
       A- The Zephyrs after a big win of a walk off home run.
       B- My New Years Eve party from this year.
       C- DUH! It's a group picture of all the bloggers who got cards from TJ Recently celebrating their amazing treasures.

ANSWERS-- I will keep it simple, and say the correct answer to all ten questions is C

Now add up the total of all correct answers, and this will tell you your Junior Junkie knowledge.

RESULTS
     0-4 ~~ If you scored this low I'm going to say odds are you have never visited the blog 'The Junior Junkie', and need to follow the link to TJ's great blog right now. No need to even read any farther as you should have already gone to his blog. GO! What are you still doing here??

     5-8 ~~ Odds are you know about TJ, and have maybe done a swap with him once possibly even twice. My recommendation is that you go back to 'The Junior Junkie', and work on another trade.

    9-10 ~~ Obviously you were one of the lucky recipients of TJ's awesome mailing. My guess is you were much faster than the cat was at thanking TJ for what he sent. Don't hold it against me TJ as I've got something that needs to be sent your way that will make everything better.

Everything shown above was from the fantastic package sent by TJ. I can't say thank you enough TJ for the cards, and schedules.