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.

Weird Player Combos

Some baseball card blogs that I have been reading express a frustration with new cards and want to cut back purchasing new products in 2013.  The card collectors that are going to buy less packs or boxes, may impact trading in a way.

I enjoy getting some random Dodgers base cards from new sets that I wasn't going to buy anyways.  Products like Bowman or many Chrome products probably won't be purchased by me in 2013 or beyond.  Other bloggers do buy these packs though and some even send me the Dodgers from those sets.  If the blog community as a whole, spend less in 2013, will there be less trading?

If I bought less packs of new cards, then my trade bait will go down.  I will become less likely to pull that Josh Willingham auto that some blogger may want.

It is just a thought. I am just curious to see if less baseball card purchasing will impact the trade aspect of collecting.

The blog community will always have some free giveaways.  I think the contest or just plain old fashion, "here are some cards, please take them," is ingrained in our blogging hearts.

Too Many Verlanders ran a giveaway the old fashioned way and I swooped in to claim a bunch of cards.  The grouping of cards that the blog runner, Dennis, sent me, were an abundance of multi-player cards.  The trickiness of having cards with multiple players on them, is that over time the card may turn out to be downright comical.

Maybe back in 2001, Jose Ortiz was thought of to be a stud like Rod Carew or Roberto Alomar.  This is a really nice looking card with shooting stars and your eyes do follow the progression that Topps chose to showcase.

Ortiz had a short big league career and crushed a whopping 14 homers in 3 seasons.  To his credit, Ortiz did play 17 professional seasons in the minors, Japan and Mexico.  He hit 203 home runs in those seasons.  He was a pretty good ball player but, just not major league caliber.  Certainly not at the level of greatness that was Carew and Alomar.

Should this card go in my Rod Carew section, Roberto Alomar section or a solo page for Jose Ortiz?

Here is a Bowman product that I can enjoy.  This is a '99 Bowman's Best insert featuring Nomar.  The set is called Mirror Image and you can see a lurking player behind Nomar throwing.  See that dude?

Yes, that dude is career scrub, Pablo Ozuna.  The last year that Ozuna spent in the big leagues was with the Dodgers in 2008.  He had 32 awful at-bats where he racked up a .242 on-base percentage.

The only reason that I remember him playing as a Dodger is because I remember questioning, why is he a Dodger.

This is such a nice looking card though, that I will place this in the random Red Sox section of a binder.  Nomar deserves that for being a good baseball player, played decent as a Doyer and for not being Pablo Ozuna.

I still have several more team bags to scope through that Dennis sent me.  I will pull out a bundle of these cards randomly and show off the cardboard fun.