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The All-Star game is helping me get close to current with this series. We’re almost at 100 games for the season. Not too bad if I do say so myself. What was bad was the ten game stretch. We managed a whopping 4 wins. That’s the perfect way to follow the best stretch. Well, it makes my job easier at least.
 Bought at the NSCC for a quarter Win #42 – Baez – He went 3-4, with 2 doubles, a triple, a stolen base (his 13th), and an unassisted double play diving to the bag after catching a liner. Pretty solid.
 From my only GQ blaster Win #43 – Baez – Look who it is. For his next trick, El Mago went 4-5, with 5 RBI. He only had 1 double, but made up for it with 2 homers – one solo and one grand slam.
 Pulled from a pack in a Donruss box from NSCC, but with a small ding Win #44 – Rizzo – Anthony hasn’t had the best year, but this day he was 4-5, with 3RBI, and 2 doubles. Thankfully Kershaw was still rehabbing and left early. The Dodgers bullpen fell apart and gave us a 7-run inning (Rizzo’s 3-run double came in the 7th).
 From the same blaster – missing black plate version Win #45 – Heyward – Lastly for today, Jason hit 2-4, and drove in 2 on his 5th home run of the year. That got the scoring going after being down 3-0. Russell hit a grand slam as well, but screw that guy. I don’t honor alleged abusers with my picks.
Alright, the week of trade bait has been posted, please check it out if you haven’t already. It didn’t hit as hard as I would have liked, so plenty of stuff is up for grabs. I’m looking forward to doing more trades over the next couple months, and I might have to do a little more groundwork to get those deals flying. While those cards come in, I still have some bigger trades that still need some attention with my slow pace.
Like this one from Tom over at The Angels, In Order. He sent me a ton of John Lackey and Tony Gwynns. If you want to review the first part, you can do so here. Second part here. Those were all about Lackey, and I’ll go back to him in future parts, but today is all about Gwynn.
 That helmet is flying off I don’t think I ever noticed that Topps produced the K-Mart sets. What I do notice is the color bleed and the weird glossy finish.
 That font seems to change letter by letter Oh, and they did the Kay-Bee ones too. I miss these little sets. Take the production numbers down 10 notches and they could be good.
 Learn the stance, kids Damn monopoly in 1989 from Topps. All they do is change the color of the border and the picture. If only they had competition in Kay-Bee tiny box sets, this wouldn’t happen.
 I love that logo Wow, did you know that Topps produced the Fleer sets? Maybe if they had, the picture quality would have been a bit better.
 This is Score if you couldn’t tell I think we dodged a bullet with this year’s Dream Team subset where all we got was this odd filter instead of shirtless players.
 Second series, I believe Who owns the license to Classic these days? I wouldn’t mind seeing a fresh take of that as a one-off.
 Drawn for $5 on the boardwalk How did I notice that there are real people in the background? I think the reflection in the sunglasses might be real too….. Love these cards.
 Takes attention away from the helmet decal I know this reflection is real. Such a cool shot from early Stadium Club.
 Wrigley game Lastly, we have another Classic card that isn’t as fun or flashy as the other ones from past years. I think these came as part of a packaged game, but I could be wrong.
Thanks again to Tom for the great trade! It’s always great to fill in so many of these gaps from the early ’90s. I’m not done with Gywnns from this trade yet either, but that will have to wait for a future installment.
In my March post, I mentioned how that month has been historically difficult for me due to work concerns. That’s the big deadline we work toward each year, and it becomes an all-hands on deck, don’t plan anything during nights and weekends affair.
April, on the other hand, is a lot more free. For me personally, it was more so because I changed positions in the company and I’m no longer subject to the stuff that goes with that deadline. My day-to-day responsibilities dropped considerably but my income stayed the same, so that allowed me to celebrate by making a few bigger purchases. Also, getting a tax refund helped.
This was a big month, so let’s start slow and save the craziest for last.
 Still missing the non-LL vintage Slow for me is a vintage stock parallel /99. I think people that have followed the blog understand the pattern that I rarely buy stuff off ebay with higher numbering.
 Digital waterslide This is probably the most unconventional single card purchase. Here’s the more common SP. There’s an “SSP” as well. These photo variations are so common this year, that I got it for a 99 cent bid and relatively cheap shipping.
 The black version of the Beam Team #/99 This card came shipped with the next one from a foreign seller. I think that’s why I was able to win them.
 And the Black Power Zone I have a bit more confidence in the foreign sellers and understand that they’ll be taking a while to arrive. I’m still mindful of their feedback scores and make sure they have enough transactions as a seller, and so far there have been no issues.
 Much better than the negative parallels Contreras cards are tough to come by. I pretty much only bid the minimum, and he’s popular enough that people bid on his stuff…most of the time. That didn’t happen at all with this GQ B&W #/50 for some reason.
 The GQ is also better than this My Bunt quest continues. I may finish off all of the parallels and inserts before too long.
 The black parallel is better than this by far Even the orange parallels have been pretty easy to come by. I’m probably one of only a few that look for them.
 I pulled an Altuve Galazy in my box I think this is the first time I had seen the Galaxy insert offered as an auction. This is the normal version and the back has a scratch off code for the app (still intact). There’s also an orange version of this that I’ll need at some point, but it’s a cool card with the blue.
 How festive Speaking of Arrieta, I added this green refractor. It’s easier to pick up green parallels across all products for some reason.
 Don’t need a green border of this I’m a little surprised at how many of these blue bordered Heritage cards I’ve acquired. These are pretty nice, and it’s great that I can easily identify them as opposed to the color swaps or weird errors.
 #/500 This is not one of the bigger purchases, but the next three are. This is just a cool die cut Gold Press Proof.
 Still missing the non-sketch Maddux from 2017 Normally this would be the biggest card of the month. Not this time. Anyway, Transcendent is back with a higher print run, but lower printed autographs. That’s good because it allowed me to pick up this sketch card of lesser quality than 2016’s sketch, and also because I don’t have to worry about the autographs.
 2013 – #/125 Speaking of autographs…This was a big one for me. I have been monitoring these Cooperstown autos for a while. Even though they don’t have logos, they seem to be pretty highly valued and sought after. Maybe there are some auto set collectors, or just the on-card Hall of Fame aspect. Anyway, they’ve always been a little pricey, and they’ve dried up considerably over the past 5-6 years, which is understandable. When this came around, I took a chance and I think you know how it worked out.
 I don’t have the base card, but I do have this But I’m not done. I surprisingly also found a 2012 autograph as well, which is lower in number. Which one do you like better? I think I like this portrait. What’s great is that I can compare them in person. I didn’t think I would have either of these two for a long time, let alone both in the same month.
Okay, now I’m done! Those were fun presents to myself! On to May, which will certainly be easier on the wallet.
At the show, I expanded my budget a little bit. I put a little cash aside each month just for this show, which was thankfully easier due to paying off my car and credit cards a while back. That allowed me to spend more time in boxes that weren’t $1 or less, and expand my reach into more game used things. I actively sought those bins that had relics in them, when I couldn’t two years prior.
I know that some collectors aren’t into this stuff, or think they’re completely played out, but I still enjoy them if they’re designed well. I’m also kind of liking the over saturation of game/event-used/player worn/probably all fake jersey and bat cards, because it means the prices are lower for a lot of them. Stuff that was a case hit back in the day is given the same consideration as a 3-hit per box type card. My wallet likes that, and I took full advantage. Here’s just a very small sampling.
 Not numbered – looks like it could use a third piece For Kerry Wood, I found 5 relics I needed, including 1 that’s also autographed. For this set, I still need a Prime Cuts and an autographed version of the Dress for Success, plus some other stuff.
 #/500 That horizontal stripe clashes with the vertical design. I don’t know when the jersey became more of a mainstream, every box thing, but this is 2003 Leaf and I think the only relic type in the product. This is #/500 which means it was still rare overall for those boxes. I think.
 This is the unnumbered version For Greg Maddux I upped my game to 17 relics. Not too shabby. That also led to finding some relic parallels.
 Authentic, it says For instance, here’s the bronze version of the above, which is out of 150. There are also other rarer versions, and also a home jersey picture of all of them to chase. Hope I remember that, because I tend to remember the look of cards when hunting but not these details.
 Not numbered You know what would have made this stand out is if the pin stripe were just a little lower and matched the horizon line. You know what makes this stand out is the mostly missing leg.
 Also not numbered and not his signature I wasn’t as lucky with Frank Thomas. His cards tend to be more expensive. I found 9 relics I needed of him, including this one which looks better in person with the red foil.
 not #’d What a weird picture scaling choice. He looks so tiny. That pinstripe is SO CLOSE to matching the card, too….
 These swatches look fake Lastly, Tony Gwynn netted 16 new relics. Maybe I shouldn’t say lastly, because I got a good amount of the 2016 Cubs players, too. They’re just not featured today.
Anyway, it’s tough to tell from the scan, but this is the blue frame version of the 206 relic. I have to make that distinction, because…
 I could yank that thing out …this is the pink frame. They’re much more obvious in person. I’m not too familiar, but I believe there were three different series of 206 that year, and all three had a different Gwynn relic. I still need the yellow frame one. Maybe at the next National, I’ll find it.
By the way, the expanded budget meant I also bought a few autographs, but that’s for another post.
I’m not great at thinking of titles, and I foolishly didn’t think of a good title to throw a “Part 1” after, like I’ve tried to do with others recently. So, now I’m sitting here brainstorming new titles for each set of cards from Kerry/Madding at Cards on Cards. To make matters worse, I didn’t really organize my cards from him well enough, as outlined on my previous post of stuff from him.
All I know is that I have a bunch of stuff from him still not featured on the blog, and he’s already threatening to send me more!
I do need a lot of cards, but I have to catch up on trades here. I especially need cards of formerly current, bench/reliever type players, and Kerry helped with that. These are guys that probably were still current Cubs at the time of the deal, but are no longer with the team. They still count for me!
 Local law ad in the background For a short time, this was worth a little bit more than the bare minimum, but I’ve already talked about Coghlan and his place in the hobby before.
 Precursor to 2018 Big League That white rookie cup logo is off-putting. I’m sure it’s supposed to be silver, but regardless, it looks like a sticker, and not a trophy, and un-integrated.
 Add foil to the trophy instead The Opening Day version didn’t help the rookie cup. Also proves my earlier point that OD got too boring. It needs a border change or something.
 Piedmont back Receiving minis in trades are always appreciated, because I understand how deceptively rare they can be (in terms of getting a specific player or variation), and I rarely actively seek them out myself.
 Pre-Miami Marlins – bring these colors back I like the paper Bowman parallel tints. This gold isn’t as shiny as what we see normally, but that slightly muted look works here.
 Why are we yelling!? 2011 Topps is growing on me as a design. I never hated it, but when surrounded by 2010 and ’12 and ’13, it’s easy to appreciate it more.
 Only with the Reds for two years Here’s another quick look at 2011 Topps thanks to sometimes starter Travis Wood.
 Will Attax come back one day? I don’t remember what rarity this diamond color is on the lower right, but I do know that it indicates rarity. Doesn’t matter now, it’s mine.
 A lot of fly ball pictures The subtle color border is okay, but 2011 still looks a lot better.
 Five years with Chicago Lastly for today is another Travis Wood card. It looks like he may be out of baseball now after being released by the Tigers without playing a game for them. I didn’t notice that.
So, that means here’s two more guys that are out of the game that I am still happily collecting. Thanks a lot to Kerry for sending these over! I’ll have another awkwardly titled post coming up soon.
Last night was the All-Star Game in case you didn’t know. Of course you knew. I don’t always watch the game, and I didn’t watch all of it last night either. My wife went to yoga and so I caught a few innings. The game moves a bit too slow with all the circus activities and extended television breaks and pitching changes, etc. It’s nice for some fans, but not my thing. Mostly it’s there to give a baseball fix when there is none otherwise.
 How many All-Stars? It’s a crowded roster and not everyone gets to play that’s selected. That was disappointing as a kid, but now it doesn’t matter to me. Sort of like how these cards don’t get to be seen individually. I spent some of my tax return money at COMC and this is a tiny portion of what I got. These are from a specially marked factory set, I believe.
 Stamps = different Here are a few more. These were all pretty cheap and easily under $1 each, so I loaded up. But enough about these loose tie-ins. How did the three Cubs representatives do during the actual game?
 He’s been dominant at times This was Jon Lester’s fifth selection to the All-Star game, his second as a member of the Cubs. He didn’t pitch this year, because he started the Sunday before the game. Here’s how he fared the other times:
2010 – He pitched the 5th inning, faced 3, got all out with no strikeouts or walks. – NL won 3-1
2011 – didn’t pitch – NL won 5-1
2014 – He pitched the 2nd inning, gave up 3 hits, 2 earned runs, no strikeouts. – AL still won 5-3
2016 – His first selection as a Cub, he pitched to start the 7th, faced 4 batters, got 2 outs and then turned it over to Melancon. He allowed no hits, 1 walk, and still has not struck out a batter in an All-Star game. – NL lost – 4-2
So, before this year, the team he played for was 1-3.
 Strange that Future of the Franchise isn’t that crazy now Javier Baez led-off the batting for the NL squad, and he managed a base hit on the first pitch (a single – normally he goes for extra base hits). After that, Javy ground out on his second AB in the third inning and hit a fly out in the 5th. 1-3 isn’t bad at all.
 SP pulled from a blaster, but with a dinged corner Willson Contreras was batting 9th in the order. He also swung at the first pitch, but he one-upped Baez and hit a solo home run to start the 3rd inning. His only other AB was a ground out in the 5th.
Overall, the NL lost to the AL for the sixth consecutive year 8-6 in the 10th inning. It sounds like it was an exciting game, but I didn’t see most of it as usual. Time will tell if I end up regretting that decision, but probably not. I am ready for a few exciting games that affect the standings, though!
Well, that was a fun derby!
I know there will be detractors for any and all formats of the event, but I personally like the timed format they’ve adopted over the 10 out structure. I do wish they would have equal AL and NL participants, but that’s more of a preference than anything. As long as people are mashing taters, then we’re good.
This year was unusual for Chicago fans because we had two members of the Cubs take part: Javier Baez and Kyle Schwarber.
In an ideal world, I would have liked to see both of them eliminated in the first round. If I saw evidence or did research, then maybe my thoughts would be different, but I think that players could burn out a bit more in the second half, or lose their pop a bit. I’d rather see them save their energy for games that make a difference, even though it would be fun to see them win.
Frank Thomas didn’t have that problem in 1995 when he won the Home Run Derby. That year, he hit 40 total for the regular season and it looks like it was an even split. To commemorate that win, here are some random Moments & Milestones cards that don’t correlate with that season that I got at the 2015 NSCC. Gotta post them sometime!
 A few years away from 1995 Career Home Run #2
August 31, 1990 – White Sox at California Angels
Frank’s second home run of his MLB career was hit off of Mark Langston in the top of the 7th inning with 2 on (the first of 6 he would hit off of Langston). That doubled the score and extended the lead 6-2.
 Oh! Here’s one! Career Home Run #167
July 20, 1995 – White Sox vs. Boston Red Sox
Thomas tied the game in the bottom of the fifth with this solo blast he hit on the 9th pitch of the AB against Erik Hanson.
 It’s hard to find M&M cards for FT Career Home Run #269
June 18, 1998 – White Sox vs. Minnesota Twins
The twelfth homer of the season came off of Bob Tewksbury. The White Sox were behind 0-4 in the bottom of the 4th. This didn’t do much to sway the game, but it did get them on the board with 1 run.
 I have a lot for Maddux and plan to get more soon Career Home Run #290
May 7, 1999 – White Sox vs. Oakland Athletics
It was already the makings of the blowout when Frank hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the second against Tom Candiotti. That brought the score to 6-0 in the early part of the game.
 I only found 1 more at the 2017 NSCC Career Home Run #309
May 24, 2000 – White Sox vs. New York Yankees
His eighth home run of the 2000 season came against admitted steroid user Andy Pettitte in the bottom of the first. That solo shot was the first run of the game.
 One day I’ll come across a good batch for cheap Career Home Run #399
July 22, 2003 – White Sox vs. Cleveland Indians
This next card is another one from the bottom of the first. This time there was one man on. Jason Davis gave Thomas something to hit on the fourth pitch of the AB, giving the Sox an early 2-0 lead.
 After all, I still need 500+ of these things Career Home Run #500
June 28, 2007 – Toronto Blue Jays at Minnesota Twins
Carlos Silva is the answer to the trivia question asking which pitcher gave up the milestone 500th career home run. This was the 13th homer with Toronto. This one came at the top of the first with two men on, and the team already up one. Not a great day for Silva, but probably a memorable one for both sides.
 SP Version from 2015 DK I almost got my wish for the tournament. Baez hit first in his round and managed 16 home runs, and earned bonus time for hitting two homers of 440 ft. However, he lost to Max Muncy anyway. One down.
 A bit optimistic Schwarber also hit 16 in his first round. He also earned bonus time, which he needed. Alex Bregman almost beat him (and probably should have). Alex hit a lot of close ones at the last minute, which made for a thrilling round.
Rhys Hoskins started the 2nd round with 20 homers, which seemed insurmountable. However, Schwarber crushed #21 on the last pitch of the original time limit. He had also earned the bonus time again, but didn’t have to spend it.
That meant he ended up facing Bryce Harper in the finals (who cruised there easily) – Kyle went first and hit 18 after his third earned bonus time. Harper was struggling big time for a while and was far behind most of the round. However, after his second time out, he went on a huge, impressive run at the end and tied it at the end of regulation. Of course Bryce also earned bonus time and got the winner in those final 30 seconds to win the trophy in front of the home town crowd.
This was a great group of players for the derby and all of the rounds were fun to watch and many came down to the wire. You couldn’t have planned it much better, and I look forward to seeing it again next year (hopefully with fewer Cubs).
Back in late September, I posted the first part of a significant trade I made with Bill, then in April I got back on track and showed off part 2. May saw part 3, and June gave us part 4. A month later and we have part 5. As a quick refresher, he responded to some of my Gypsy Queen trade bait posts and we worked out a nice, large exchange – mostly for my budding 2016 WS champ players. Far too many cards for one, or even a few posts. I think there will be two more after this, but don’t hold me to that. As mentioned before, he doesn’t have a blog of his own, but he’s known as minibbcards on the Trading Card Database and his want lists are fantastic (and found here).
This time around, we’ll be looking at Opening Day and a couple other random cards to pad things out.
 Can’t hide your chin forever We’re a long way from Opening Day now. I used to really like these cards, but things have changed over the past couple years.
 A rare Hector Rondon sighting! In the past, Opening Day would play around with the design a bit and give us a different color scheme or foil color.
 Stray hair is my addition, not Topps’ They would also generally be foil-less in some cases. They still are, but regular Topps has become foil-less as well, so it’s not a differentiation anymore.
 The uncommon Rookie Cup and RC logo combo Now, it’s just a stamp on the regular card. That takes a lot of the wind out of it’s sails.
 The common RC logo only They could have done something with the smoke effect – make it a unique color. Or added foil or texture or something.
 Skip to my lou I’m generally a fan of budget releases. I haven’t seen any Big League in person yet, but I like what I’ve seen online so far. I liked Bunt as well.
 Bringing back the Future Stars label Now, it would be better to see Opening Day replaced with another budget product if it’s just going to be a simple logo.
 He finished with 446 regular season starts in his career See, the insert isn’t bad. The picture isn’t great and it would look better with shine, but it’s still unique to the set and I like the colors.
 No, Thanos! Not Bryzzo! This is not an Opening Day card. It’s also a strange photo choice. Nevermind the digital garbage. Rizzo should be on the right and Bryant on the left so they could actually be, you know, back to back.
 Heyward’s in the Animus Lastly is another insert or a card shop giveaway thing that I didn’t follow very closely. That’s why trades are so great. Others fill in the collecting gaps by getting stuff you would never think to get yourself.
[The twenty-ninth in a series: I’m picking one player that I associate with a team (whether they spent the majority of their career there or not) that I would strongly consider adding to my official want lists. They may not always be superstars, or the most popular, and honestly they may not always be my favorite player from the team, but that’s what will make this fun, no?]
Here we are. The second to last entry in the series. All that remains after this is the Cubs, which I purposefully saved for last and have not yet created. Enough about them, except to mention that they’re finishing up a series against today’s featured team.
This was a pretty tough decision, at least for the current runner up. I’m just not familiar with the team and there’s a lot of turn around. Then finding a card that would work took a little bit of time to search that I didn’t have until recently. But here we are. Penultimate post!
 Anyone need Moments & Milestones cards? Trevor Hoffman fits into my affinity for closers. I know he’s a controversial hall of famer, but I think he was still a decent pitcher. Maybe I would be better off picking the San Diego Chicken, although he wasn’t officially sanctioned by the team. Realistically, I’m already collecting the one Padre I would care about, and Hoffman just seemed like the next best option for this exercise.
 Insert joke about missing L Current player runner-up: Wil Myers
I was originally considering Andrew Cashner, but he’s since been traded and you don’t hear much about him these days (or I don’t). I don’t hear much about Myers either, but I’m pretty sure he’s pretty good and would be a bigger name if he didn’t play for the Rays and now Padres.
 Can’t hate that uniform Retired player runner-up: Dave Winfield
Dave almost made the cut, but I have a soft spot for closers, as I mentioned and the combination of his Yankee days and the slipping into vintage territory makes this a tougher sell for me.
The Series So Far
Angels – (tie) Jim Abbott & Vladimir Guerrero
Astros – J.R. Richard
Athletics – Rickey Henderson
Blue Jays – Carlos Delgado
Braves – Steve Avery
Brewers – Bob Eucker
Cardinals – Jim Edmonds
Cubs
Diamondbacks – Randy Johnson
Dodgers – Jackie Robinson
Giants – Kevin Mitchell
Indians – Jim Thome
Mariners – Felix Hernandez
Marlins – Giancarlo Stanton
Mets – (tie) Darryl Strawberry & Dwight Gooden
Nationals/Expos – (tie) Marquis Grissom & Delino DeShields
Orioles – Adam Jones
Padres – Trevor Hoffman
Phillies – Mike Schmidt
Pirates – Andrew McCutchen
Rangers – Nolan Ryan
Rays/Devil Rays – Evan Longoria
Red Sox – Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd
Reds – Eric Davis
Rockies – Carlos Gonzalez
Royals – Bo Jackson
Tigers – Alan Trammell
Twins – Tony Oliva
White Sox – Paul Konerko
Yankees – Mariano Rivera
After giving us the best ten game stretch of the season, the team regressed a bit and went 5-5 in the next ten games. I’m pretty sure that at this point, we relinquished the division lead to the Brewers by the end of this and have not been able to take it back as of 7/11 when I’m writing this. We’re about 90 games into the season and I’m already watching the standings and getting more excited about this race. Should be fun!
 Not exactly “The Thinker” Win #37 – Lester – It seems like every start, he gets my pick for player of the game. The 2018 All-Star pitched 7 innings, allowed 1 hit, 2 walks, recorded 5Ks and 0 ER, and reduced his ERA even further to 2.22.
 From the Mini set Win #38 – Heyward – On the day, he and Albert Almora both went 3-6. Jason would hit a key single in the 8th to tie the score at 2. Then, the Cubs scored 5 in the 11th inning to win. 3 RBI in that game were Jason’s.
 Variations needed Win #39 – Bryant – Kris snapped a homer-less streak of about a month in this game (this was prior to going on the DL as well). Overall, he was 2-4, with 4 RBI in a 13-5 win over the Cardinals.
 Same here Win #40 – Schwarber – Nothing really stood out this game. Kyle was 1-3, with only 1 RBI, but that run tied the game in the 5th. He also recorded 2 walks, which is good for this impatient team.
 4th All-Star in my opinion Win #41 – In the second game of a doubleheader, the Cubs got another solid start from Mike Montgomery, but Albert Almora was 2-5, with a double and a game winning single in the 10th after Bryant’s triple. That put him at a .325 average on the year at that point, vying for the NL batting crown early.
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