Twin Brothers from Different Mothers, Princess Bride Edition

Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

Generations - Florida Marlins Edition

Meet the new Florida Marlins manager:



Here is an interesting note: The oldest player on the 2011 Florida Marlins is Randy Choate, who was born on September 5, 1975. Jack McKeon had been fired from his first MLB managerial stint 44 days earlier, after 2 and 2/3 seasons at the helm of the Kansas City Royals.

Fact.

Mid-June Miscellany

Another week out of town for work ended Friday. On Saturday, I stopped at the card shop to work on my 1977 set. I had pretty much pulled all the decent commons from his inventory, so I went through the star box and managed to get 22 cards knocked off the want list. Arriving home, I had two packages in the mail. One was the last card I needed to complete my 1974 set and the other was the four series (180 cards) of the Renata Galasso set I needed to complete that set. Later that evening, I went to see the OKC Redhawks lose to the NOLA Zephyr's 4-3.

There were a few linkages between my various highlights of the day. To wit: One of the 1977 cards I picked up, which links up with the following tribute to one OKC's favorite sons:




One of the Galasso cards, which ties to a statue outside the Bricktown Ballpark of that Oklahoma favorite:





Though Spahn was born in Buffalo, NY (not far from my birthplace of Rochester), he retired to a ranch near McAlester and died in Broken Arrow (a suburb of Tulsa). And in a semi-related note, the Spahns were friends of the Prichard family, who owned Pete's Place restaurant in Krebs. You can read about the restaurant, and it's bootlegging history (the 21st Amendment didn't make it to Indian Territory until 1959), at the link. Long story short, the family eventually opened a craft brewery and one of there recent offerings is the Spahnie 363 Beer, honoring the great pitcher.

The final card I needed for my 1974 set:


And finally, a few shots from the ball game:

Mail Call - Trade with Nachos Grande

I am a bit behind on this post. I had a simple trade with Nachos Grande where we swapped 2011 Heritage from our respective want lists. These cards have really helped me fill out some pages in the binder. I am down to needing 5 regular prints and 40 short prints to complete the set. Check out my want list and see if you can help me. I will make it worth your while. I have intended to have a Heritage trade list up for some time now, but real life has kept me busy lately. Perhaps now that the temperatures are climbing up towards triple digits, I will have time during a weekend afternoon to get it updated when it is too hot to be doing chores.








I just want to say that I think Russell Martin has been a solid addition to the Yankees line up. Sure, his batting average is fairly low at .236, but his OBP of .342 and slugging average of .441 makes up for it. He is certainly contributing more to the Yankees offense than his backstop predecessor, Jorge Posada, is at the moment.

June Card Show Pickups

There was a card show this weekend that I had been looking forward to for a while. My main goal was to make a dent in the remaining 1977 cards I needed. I have pretty much gone through all the 1977 common boxes at my LCS and was still 200-220 cards away from completing the set. These shows usually have at least one guy with boxes of vintage commons. Roger Nuefeldt, of Sports Memories of Oklahoma is there sometimes. Roger deals in real high end stuff and normally only does shows in MLB cities, but does the local show a few times a year.

Unfortunately for me, Roger was at a show in San Francisco and the other fellow, a young kid from Wichita, wasn't there either. So, basically, my plan for the day was shot to heck right out of the gates. So, I decided to spend an hour or two pawing through the dollar boxes. More disappointingly, there was alot of football dollar boxes, but only one guy that had any significant amount of baseball. So, I spent most of the time at his table. In the end, I bought 9 cards for a total of $10. Slim pickings, but I did manage to find 3 1977s I needed and some other cards that I like real well. So, it wasn't a total loss.



2004 Fleer Greats of the Game Roberto Clemente.

I have posted about this set before. I really like it and have most of the first series (out of two total series). However, I have been completely unable to find a box of the second series. I actually thought that I had located a box twice, but both times the vendor cancelled the order and refunded my money because they were out of stock. I still am looking around half-heartedly, but am mostly resigned to having to finish the set by buying singles. If any of you see a box of 2004 Fleer Greats of the Game Signature Cuts Edition at you local LCS, let me know. I'll pay a finders fee in cash or cards.....



2004 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Jackie Robinson (114 of 1947)

I like this design and might try and put the set together. Might. After my travails with Fleer GOTG, I am a little gun shy regarding this type of set.



Upper Deck SP Etched in Time Satchel Paige

I like the design of this card, although the wood detail seems a bit superfluous given that it is just a random piece of wood and not a game relic. But, I am strangely drawn to Satchel Paige. I've come across two of his cards (including this one) and have bought both. I am going to have to read more about him and, at some point, look for an original 1953 Topps card of his, although they appear to be fairly expensive.

Now here are the real jewels of the show for me:





1977 Renata Galasso TCMA cards

You can read about the cards here. And be sure to visit the Wikipedia page about Renata Galasso to read her story. I really, really like the non-nonsense feel to these cards. I basically decided to definitely put the set together. They are a cool part of sports card history and quite affordable. I have already bought one of the six 45 card series on EBay and am keeping my eyes on auctions for two others. Now, don't any of you scamps go bidding them up on me.

Trip to the Card Shop Ballpark

Friday night was another Redhawks game, this one against the Round Rock Express. It was something of a homecoming as the Redhawks and Express swapped major league affiliates at the end of last year. The Round Rock field staff and many of the players played in OKC last year.

This one was a bit unusual in that the starting pitchers were both journeyman major leaguers. Starting for OKC was 37 year old Nelson Figueroa, who has played for 6 different major league teams over 9 seasons. 38 year old Brett Tomko started for Round Rock. He has played for 10 major league teams over 14 seasons. Tomko won the duel, pitching 5 scoreless innings while giving up only 5 hits and striking out 5. Figueroa, in contrast, was tagged for 8 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings and earned the loss. I thought he actually pitched better than that, with the Redhawks playing sloppy defense, including 3 errors. I am not sure how all those runs were earned, given the abysmal backing Figueroa got. But, I am not a scorer, so what do I know?








While I was there, I stopped by the team store and picked up packs of the 2008 and 2010 Redhawk cards. I had previously bought 2008, but got skunked out of a Nelson Cruz card, so I bought another and got it this time.


I also picked up a 36 card set of the top Pacific Coast League prospects, including these guys.

1993 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball

Unnumbered Inserts

T202 Reprints #2 Hugh Jennings/Ty Cobb

T202 Reprints #6 George Moriarty/Ty Cobb