Sweeeeeep!

This post actually doesn't have to do with the Dodgers three game sweep of the hated Giants of the North.  Nor does this post have to do with the Dodgers five game winning streak.  I just wanted to obnoxiously use "sweeeeeep" in the title because as a Dodger fan, I had to wait until the end of June to puff my chest out with pride based on the team's performance.  It has been a rough start for the Dodgers so far this season and getting a sweep against the team's biggest rival is the really high quality icing on the cake that melts in your mouth.

Now onto the purpose of this post after I got some brief gloating out of the way.  The time has come to churn out some trade posts.  I have noticed that I don't get around to posting about the cards that the kindhearted blog world sends me until bubble mailers become a scattered mess on my desk.  Once the clutter overtakes a portion of my bedroom, then I know it is time to give thanks to the trade partners that send me the goods.

Dime Box Nick is a Platter All-Star because he sends me some great cardboard and writes a kick ass blog.  Nick is able to find gems like this flashy Satchell Paige to send my way.  This may be my first card of Paige as a St.Louis Brown.  The few other cards I have of the pitching legend show him as a Cleveland Indian.  The spelling of his first name confuses me on this card.  I thought his first name only had one "L" and not two.  Since, I don't know anybody else nicknamed Satchel or Satchell, I have no point of comparison for the proper spelling.

This card motivated me to look up some of Paige's major league numbers.  It turns out that Paige started a game for the KC Athletics as a 58 year old.  This start came in the 1965 season and was his only appearance in the majors that year.  His previous stint in the big leagues came as a St.Louis Brown in 1953.  Paige had a 12 year gap between major league outings.  That is a huge span of years between pitching performances.  Oh yeah, I will mention this once more, he made a start as a 58 year old dude.

I will also like to mention how he did in his 1965 start.  Paige pitched 3 innings without giving up a run and only allowed one base runner.  He dominated for 3 innings as a 58 year old.  Just plain unbelievable.  Paige is a legend.

 
The bubble mailer sent to me by Nick was littered with hall of fame sweetness.  Most of the cards he sent me were new additions to my hall of fame collection.  I may need to start another binder for my American League side of my collection.  This Rod Carew may set the AL binder over the edge and a new binder will be needed.

I love the crystal clear images of the Upper Deck Past Time Pennants sets.  Why do some photographs on baseball cards seem crystal clear and next level while others don't take you into the setting of the shot?  Why don't card companies only use the best photo available?  What is the process to make and older image like this Carew look like it was taken by the best digital camera of 2013?  Any photography experts out there?

The early Fleer sets were notorious with their poor standards of photography and quality control.  Blurry and dark images somehow made it into some of the early-80s Fleer offerings.  Even with the sub standards, Fleer was able to churn out some cardboard gold.

Steve Yeager cards get featured at the Platter fairly regularly.  A baseball card blog named for Yeager would probably be a good idea.  Yeager has some cool looking cards and his image seems to represent what men looked like in the late seventies and early eighties.

Dime Box Nick has also claimed this week to be PWE Appreciation Week and is encouraging bloggers to send each other a couple cards in a plain white envelope.  This is a fantastic idea and I am sure many of his readers will follow suit and mail out something nice to their blogger pals.  I have already sent one out earlier today and will get some more out later this week.

Spread the kindness around the blog world.

Thanks for the nice cards, Nick.

Top Ten Best From The Fun Box Part 1

I got off work earlier this morning and was received by a warm and cheery summer day.  That put me in a good mood.  Clocking out of work always puts a smile on my face anyway, but added perfect weather adds to the glee.  This post should put my faithful readers in a grand mood as well.

I have concluded my dig through the 4,000 count mystery box of baseball cards.  This has been an ongoing thrilling extravaganza since last weekend.  You may want to check out my post from when the journey began if you were one of the few that had missed out on it.  I had around 200 cards that I am going to keep for my personal collection.  The rest of the cards will be used in trades and the others will be placed in 3200 count boxes to be sold the next time I do a card show this fall.  I plan on having a massive table of dime boxes to be sold by October.

I flipped through the keepers from this fun box once more to compile my 10 favorites.  This was tough to do because there were so many great set designs and photographs.  Another aspect that made this situation difficult was that the box contained very few Dodgers.  This would have been a bigger disappointment but, the box had an abundance of other cards that will fit into my binders nicely.

Let us get this first part of the countdown underway!

#10

2004 Upper Deck Kenny Lofton #400

The 2004 Upper Deck set had a very strong showing as I rummaged through the mixture of cardboard.  The design is superb and the photography is golden.  The lucky collector that peruses my dime boxes in the fall will have a really cool time finding many of the '04 Upper Deck cards that weren't needed for my collection.

This card depicts an action shot that a story can be told by the viewer.  Lofton and the Yankees third base coach appear to both be looking in the same direction as Lofton is rounding third.  A close play may be going on towards second base or Lofton is peering over at a cutoff man about to throw him out.

But, that throw never did through the jet quick Lofton out at home plate.  Lofton was a speedster that only got thrown out at the plate once and that was because he inexplicably answered his ringing cell phone halfway between third and home.

Also, does anyone have any idea why there is a hoard of gigantic cameras leering out in the background?  That seems to be a lot of big cameras that must have been operated by tiny cameraman because they seem invisible. 

#9

2004 Topps Total Jerry Hairston Jr. #482

Hairston is one of the current Dodgers several scrappy utility type players that do everything adequately but not spectacularly.  Hairston was a youngster back in '04 and wore cool shades.  The shades and the amount of focus that Hairston has on catching that baseball.  He is totally mesmerized by the spinning seams.

I hope Hairston was quick enough to notice the likely oncoming base runner.  This photo was probably taken in '03.  Any number of body building juicers could have been steamrolling down the base path.  Luckily, Hairston did survive this possible calamity in order to live long enough to play for the dismal 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers.

      

#8

2009 Topps Update Josh Reddick #27

I try to add a couple points to my cool card grading scale when it involves an awesome looking photo.  A pro ballplayer getting a rookie card that which will have a long lasting appeal in the blog world, which isn't about the money, is quite an accomplishment.  

This is a cleaner cut Josh Reddick.  He still looks like a bad ass as a rookie and looks like he can crush a skull and a home run.  

Reddick's rookie card stood out to me from the thousands of cards that I glanced at.  This is one of the better rookie cards that I have seen in awhile.  This is also my first viewing of this card as I do not normally collect Red Sox or was I ripping packs of '09 Update back in the day.

I wonder how well this rookie card would have done during Nick's Dime Box Tourney on his blog.  The Reddick may have lasted a couple rounds.

#7

2010 Topps Update Carlos Santana #330

Even though I was just gushing over the Josh Reddick rookie card, I have to say that this Carlos Santana is one slight step better.  This photo is of a rookie catcher diving headfirst into a base and claiming it like a man possessed.  Santana is clutching the base with a huge paw and won't let an opponent take it from him.  

The 2010 Topps sets have an old school feel to me.  I had just gotten back into collecting and these were some of the first packs I was tearing apart in 2010.  The set already has a retro vibe to me and I enjoy skimming through 2010 Topps and Topps Update cards.  Some great photography and good rookies are in this set.

#6

2004 Topps Roger Cedeno #490

This Roger Cedeno card was written about at the Platter a couple days ago.  I couldn't just leave it off my Top Ten keepers list because I had already displayed it once before on my blog.  That would be unfair.  This card is great.  

It has Roger Cedeno.  Awesome.

It is a play at the plate.  Super awesome.

The graphic design comic book version of Cedeno mimicking his slide into home.  Extra super awesome.

The rest of the Top Ten will have some more spectacular cardboard for your viewing pleasure.  This was a fun way to spend this summer morning.  Maybe I will spend the summer evening doing this typing thing as well. 

The Excess

The box of cardboard fun that has given me hours of joy is crawling to an end.  The cards are almost all most finished getting looked at and sorted.  This was a fun filled purchase and I will look to buy another random 4,000 count box once again.

The set variety and the different teams included gave the box an easy skim.  It was kept interesting by seeing some fresh looking sets like Upper Deck and Fleer.  I even didn't mind looking at some of the newer cards in the box from 2011 and 2012.  For some reason 2010 Topps looks already dated.  The cards appear to be from a distant time when I bought packs of that set at a local CVS and rode home on my bike.  Instead those 2010 Topps cards were purchased at an even more lifeless chain store like a Wal-Mart.

This is all the fun that I have left to dig through.  It is kind of sad for me.  I also wanted to run a contest to give out some of the cards that don't fit into my collection.  This will be a simple contest and only will have one winner.

The first person to leave a comment mentioning the name of any current minor league baseball team will win about 100 2011 Topps Pro Debut cards.  Since this set is from 2011, some of these players have already made their major league debuts.  I also have only taken out a couple Dodgers from here and didn't pick through the rest.

Once again, be the first person to name a current minor league team will be the only winner to claim these 2011 Topps Pro Debut cards.

I will mail them out your way by next week.  Thanks!

The Exes

I am about halfway through digging through the 4,000 card purchase that I made.  The seller told me that the box had around 4,000 cards in it.  As I sift through the cardboard heaven, I am noticing that he may have underestimated the true number count.  I have already filled up a 3,200 count box and still have thousands of card to sort out.  Getting more cards than expected from a seller is always a good thing.  Especially since most of the sets included are from the early to mid 2000s.  Those years were a dead zone as far as my personal card collecting experience goes.

As you can see, a major dent has been placed in this box.  You can check out the first post that I made about this mystery box to see how fully stocked it once was.  I am going to be very sad when this box is empty and I need to go back to purchasing hobby packs with 8 cards per a pack.

This experience has been similar to flipping through a dime box and exploring the randomness that is contained.  I have found many good cards for my collection as well as some gems for my fellow bloggers.

I collect some ex-Doyers if I enjoyed the way they played in LA.  I also like to collect ex-Doyer cards if the cards feature a funny photo or cool action shot.

I know Tony Gwynn Jr. is technically not an ex-Doyer.  Gwynn is languishing in Triple-A right now and is not on the 40 man roster.  The chances of him making it back to LA are pretty slim.  The 2013 Dodgers have dealt with a slew of injuries and Gwynn doesn't even get his name mentioned as an option to be called up.

In my mind, Gwynn is not only an ex-Doyer but, probably a player formerly known as a big league ballplayer.  Anyway, this is still a great play at the plate shot of Gwynn diving head first into home plate.  This card will slide in nicely into a binder page and will be admired during that rare chance when I am flipping through my San Diego Padre pages.

I have never seen the 2004 Upper Deck Diamond Collection set before.  This is a very classy looking set that contains some solid photography.  I also enjoy collecting cards of ex-Doyer, Milton Bradley.  Bradley had a lot of potential to be a great ballplayer but, never lived up to that promise due to his anger problems, injuries and off the field trouble.  His career will be known as just decent.

Bradley's off the field issues didn't stop after he left baseball.  Just last month he was convicted of abusing his wife and could face up to seven and a half years in prison.  The case brought out this bit of information that could be filed under Michael Lohan parenting.  Bradley's wife had told her husband, Milton, to stop smoking marijuana in front of their children.  Bradley disagreed and began choking his wife.  This whole story is somewhat sad that Bradley still doesn't have his life in order.

Another fun action shot of an ex-Doyer features speedster, Roger Cedeno.  Cedeno came up through the Dodger minor league system before bouncing around the league from team to team.  He enjoyed a decent career and was able to amass over 200 steals.  Cedeno also had a pretty good postseason with the New York Mets in 1999.

The part of this card that I enjoy the most is that is a play at the plate with the pitcher covering the plate.  The pitcher must have thrown a wild pitch that got by the catcher and now the catcher is scrambling to the backstop to try and throw Cedeno out.  We can assume that Cedeno is safe because he has already started his slide and the ball has not made its way into the photograph yet.

The Platter calls Cedeno safe and that is the final word.

Back to a little bit more digging through the mystery bow before the first game of the Dodgers doubleheader with the New York Yankees.

Ned Colletti's Greatest Hits

A game that was introduced in a previous post that entails Dodger fans to pick a broken down, past his prime veteran ballplayer that GM Ned Colletti had signed and look up that player's floundering stats.  It is a really horrific game for Dodger fans to play and it must only be played during the day when the sun is shining.  A darker and cloudier environment is more likely to rouse the evil baseball gods from their slumber.

In a previous post I brought up Garrett Anderson and I hope that some of you were able to check his stats at baseball reference.  He was a really good Angel, a mediocre Brave and an awful Dodger.  Anderson almost made it through an entire baseball season while not being able to hit, field or throw.  Only a Ned Colletti run team will let that happen.

Colletti made the smart move by trading for George Sherrill in 2009 for the Dodgers stretch run to the playoffs.  The deadline acquisition had a sparkling 0.65 ERA and a respectable K/9 of 7.2.  Sherrill was a solid lefty arm for the Dodgers down the stretch in '09.

Then the playoffs came and Sherrill imploded.  The Phillies offense knocked Sherrill around in the '09 NLCS.  Bullpen meltdowns are magnified time 1,000 when it comes to playoff baseball.  The fans will always remember a reliever screwing up a big game at a key moment.  Every fan base has a list of players that have crumbled under the bright lights.  Most of LA probably wanted Sherrill out of the city and off on his merry way to any other club.

Colletti made the move to bring Sherrill back for the 2010 season.  Sherrill was useless coming out of the pen yet Joe Torre kept throwing him out there to embarrass the entire sport of baseball.

Once again, I won't show any numbers about Sherrill's 2010 Dodger season.  Any Dodger fans wanna take a gander at this atrocity?

Here is another one of Ned Colletti's Greatest Hits:

George Sherrill

Long Break

The Dodgers can be blamed for the length of nap that I ended up taking after they lost to the Pirates 6-3.  The Dodgers put on another lackluster performance which saw them have few chances on offense to do some damage.  This was just another dismal loss and the games are getting pretty boring in general.  The Dodgers could be a little more courteous to their viewers and add some excitement into each game by getting involved in bean ball wars.

Since my midday sleep is over, I thought that I should continue on sorting through a box of around 4,000 baseball cards.  The box is going to take a lot longer to go through than I had originally thought.  Each handful of cardboard goodness that I pull leaves me a joyous card for my personal collection.

The box has yielded me some cards for my hall of fame collection.  I love the photograph on this card of Roberto Alomar peering at the baseball he had just struck.  Did Alomar just lay down a bunt?  Or did Alomar just "slam" a slow dribbler down the line?

I also believe this photo must have been taken during a playoff game or an opening day.  I think this to be true because of the red, white and blue banner in the background.  Those banners of our country's colors only seem to pop up during big event games.

Not only does this card fit into my hall of fame collection, but this cardboard gem is also from a Fleer Ultra set that is brand new to me.  I do not recall seeing 2003 Fleer Ultra before.  I have been categorizing the cards that I have been skimming through.  One of the types of cards that I have been setting aside are of cards from sets that were once thought to not exist in my head.  2003 Fleer Ultra was once one of those mysterious sets for me.

I have also been placing cards of ex-Dodgers in different uniforms aside.  I have been placing these types of cards in two separate stacks.  The two stacks are for the Dodger players that I enjoyed watching play in LA like Casey Blake and the other stack is reserved for the Dodgers I loved to mock as they frustrated me with their shabby on-field performance in LA.

This Blake card intrigued me because he is photographed as clean shaven and is listed as a third baseman while he is depicted catching a pop-up while playing first base.  That little quirk makes this search through a mystery box more fun.  The fact that I can go through the box at a leisurely pace while studying the photographs and set designs.

 
Casey Blake was once the Dodgers beard champion in 2008 through 2011.  Blake sadly has nothing on this dude, Burke Kenny.  Kenny won the full beard, styled mustache category at the 2007 World Beard and Mustache Championship in England according to the back of this Allen and Ginter card.  Blake can't compete with being a world champion at beard growing.

I will probably continue to dig up some gems from my latest purchase throughout the evening.  More posts should follow and I may even run another contest that will favor all the folks that like to stay up late on Sundays.

Digging Through Variety

The Dodger game is in a rain delay.  This is a shame on a personal level.  I work an overnight shift at a retail store.  My shift ends at around eight in the morning.  I start to get drowsy in the late afternoon.  I wasn't planning on napping before the Dodger game because I thought that I could plow through most of it and head to bed afterwards.  The game is going to start in about a half an hour.  It should be over around three.  I should be able to make it without passing out.

The mixture of sets that I am glancing at as I scope out the contents of my purchased jumbo box has kept the search interesting.  I am finding some cards that fit into my collections and I am finding some cards that will fit into other blogger's collections.  Buying a bulk lot is a fun way to see sets that are fresh and new to your eyes.

The Fleer EX set made it out of the 90s.  I had no idea that Fleer EX survived and was churning out sets in 2002.  The set still has the credit card feel that some collectors loved back in the 90s.  The 2002 Fleer EX set just has a thinner credit card feel to it like a community college school ID level of thickness.  The ones from the 90s that I remember were actual credit card thickness and those cards can be used to pry open locked doors.  I am not condoning or suggesting that action by the way.  Just trying to relate to my thieving demographic.

2002 Topps Gold Label is another set that I am unfamiliar with.  This set seems flashy and has good photography.  This set is the love child of Bowman Platinum and Topps Stadium Club.

Too bad this card is of a guy named Toby Hall that was a bum on the Dodgers.  This card had binder potential until I remembered that Hall helped the Dodgers lose baseball games.  To the stack of the unwanted, 2002 Topps Gold Label Toby Hall.

I don't buy to many minor league only sets.  Actually please let me rephrase that by saying that I never buy minor league only sets.  I am still glad though that this mystery box of fun has brought me a hundred or so cards from 2011 Topps Pro Debut.  So far the stack has yielded me zero Dodgers.  The box is pretty well mixed with cards and I am not even a quarter of the way done digging through its contents.  The box may hold some Dodgers Pro Debut cards.

Delino DeShields may be a solid prospect in the Houston Astros minor league system.  DeShields was a first round draft pick in 2010 according to the back of the baseball card.  I will not do a Google search to find out more information on the younger DeShields.  If I Google search "Delino DeShields", I may stumble upon the older Delino DeShields and have to see a photo of him flailing at a low breaking ball while wearing a Dodger uniform.  The younger DeShields has a dad who helped the Dodgers lose baseball games.

Happy Fathers Day!

First Contest Winner

To kick off this mornings live blogging extravaganza, I led off with a preview of the box of baseball cards that I purchased and a little contest.  The Diamond King was the first person to chime in and picked the St. Louis Cardinals as his team of choice.  I will start to pull any nice looking Cardinal cards that I see as I slowly dig through a large flat rate box.

I will also set aside any cards that may interest me throughout the day.  I have already found some that made me laugh or cringe.  The cards that make me cringe will probably be the funner ones to show.  It gives my head some insulting remarks to state and then the battle rises as to what is the most appropriate of the inappropriate comments that I should actually share publicly.  That is hard to do sometimes.  Sometimes that leaves me with nothing to say at all.

  
Here is a game face that will make my fellow Dodger fans cringe.  Some Dodger fans may actually vomit if they start having memories of Garret Anderson's 2010 season in Dodger Blue.  Anderson was just plain awful and was considered to be even worse than expected being that he was aging and was signed by  Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti.

On the way home from a Single-A game in Bakersfield, California, Dodgerbobble and I were playing a game called Ned Colletti's Greatest Hits.  The object of this game is to name a past his prime, old veteran ballplayer that Colletti had signed or traded for and look up that player's stats as a Dodger.

As a fan, I remember that garbage Dodgers just as much as I remember the star Dodgers.  I just adore and place the stars on pedestals.  The garbage players are the ones I will loathe for a lifetime.

Anyway, this game was both a good laugh at Colletti awfulness and some shock as to why he still has a job as a GM in the majors.  Anderson may not even be the worst player on Colletti's resume.  Dodger fans can look up and remember scrubs like Andruw Jones and Mark Sweeney.

So, Dodger fans, it is my honor to include a link to Garret Anderson's baseball reference page and then you too can play Ned Colletti's Greatest Hits.

This is a nice looking card of some Royal named Mitch Maier.  This thrilling action shot makes me forget Garret Anderson as a Dodger for a minute.

I am also sure that Royals fans have some stories of general manager follies and stupidity.

Sunday Special

It has been awhile since I last typed some words and formulated sentences.  After school wrapped up for the semester at the end of  May, typing words was something that I wanted to avoid for a bit.  I needed a little bit of a hiatus from trying to come up with something interesting to write.  It is summertime and going a little mindless for the some of June was part of the plan.

Now, the other part of my summer plan is to blog more and keep my card collection organized.  This summer will entail working more to earn some cash.  This summer will also have those lazy summer days with nothing to do but watch episodes of Archer on Netflix or sorting through stacks of baseball cards.  Some of those lackadaisical days will have me choose sorting through stacks of cardboard.  Organizing the mess I have going on will be a benefit to my collection and my bedroom cleanliness.  Blogging more will be beneficial to my tens of readers who have been yearning for more Platter posts.

 
I thought today will be a good Sunday to sift through this mega box of baseball cards that I purchased on the Sports Card Forum.  This box contains protective padding as well as cards from the 2000s.  I believe this box will contain mostly base cards.  I have not dug into this box o' fun yet.  The contents are a semi-mystery to me as I only know the years of which the cards were made.

I also thought that I would spend all day today watching sports and live blogging about the contents found in my latest purchase.  I may mix in some trade posts or some posts about some other random buys that I have made.  Today will be a fun, relaxing day full of Platter goodness.

This first post is a set-up to the festivities that I have planned out.  This post right here is also the start of the first contest of the day at the Platter.  Contests may dribble in throughout today and into the evening.  Be on the lookout for your chance to read enjoyable blog posts and to maybe win some free cards.

The first contest will be a simple one.  To win, just be the first person to comment and type in their favorite baseball team.  The first person that does this will win a stack of 30 cards of their favorite team that happens to pop out from this box.

Thank you and join me on this journey to see what's in the box.