Going Green: Team USA

As I wrote a few weeks back, I'm combining my writing here and at Returned to Sender to one blog.  What does that mean?  Practically nothing, aside from a few more non-Pirate posts per week.  I wrote 37 posts at RTS, and there are some I'm pretty fond of.  I'm reposting a few of them here.  Most of you won't know the difference, but for the two followers RTS had, sorry for the deja vu.

One of my friends in grad school once told me, "There's nothing I love more than a good USA chant."

The Olympics may have canned baseball, but Team USA has produced some of the top players of the past few decades.  The card front, for me at least, has been less appealing.  I've always sort of viewed them as a ship with no port.  I'm a team collector first, and my player collections are more often than not just extensions of those collections.  I collect some guys who have played on Team USA (Warren Morris, Andrew McCutchen, Charles Johnson), but I've never actively chased their Team USA cards.

But when Upper Deck acquired the Team USA license in the early 00's, the excitement of some big name autos con(vinced) me to pick up a couple of the USA boxed sets.  My hits were pathetic, and the base sets sat in a box for the next decade.

But I recently came across them, and realized that though the boxes themselves yielded some less than exciting autos, the set offered some great cards of some reliable signers.

 Better yet, the cards are perfect for autographs.  With a large space to the left of the player photo and nice, big headshots (in some awesomely bad trucker hats), the card offers enough space for the player to sign without really interfering with the photo.

There are a lot of bigger names (and some flamed out prospects) in the set that I'll never be able to get signed.  But I have about a dozen or so cards queued up to be sent with my next round of mailings.  They're some fun cards, and a nice unique side collection for what had been a sunk cost for the past decade.

The Morning After

I think I need a little break from my black and gold posting routine.  The last two games were tough losses to take.  But what better time to start showing off some other cards.

All these cards came from my recent flea market trip, and with the exception of the Elite Murray, which set me back a whopping $1, all these were dime box finds.  Sure, most of the cards would have looked a lot more impressive in 1998.  But I do love me some 90's goodness.

This Randy Johnson Clear Vision insert from the recently released Pinnacle set was a pleasant surprise.  I don't know how I feel about the tail end of his career Big Unit photo, and I have never been a fan of the Dbacks new color scheme.  But the red does look nice with the card background.

Panini seems to have mixed reviews on most of their recent products, but I flat out love them.  I may try to snag a box of Pinnacle at some point for an X-Mas break once this wedding craziness calms down.

This play at the plate card (though the scanner did a terrible job of cropping it) is just flat out awesome.  And I somehow completely missed the memo that Gary Carter ended up back with the Expos in the 90's,

Moving to the football side of things, I scored a couple of sweet 90's RC's.  Since I've become exclusively a baseball collector (around 2000-2001), it has been easy to forget how awesome it is to have simple, straightforward logic with RC designations.  Don't give me this crap about a rookie logo - if it's a guy's first card then it's the one I want.  But I do like the excitement of pulling a hot rookie from a pack, rather than pulling an airbrushed photo of an 18 or 21 year old in a pack full of similarly airbrushed 18-21 year olds, the rest of which will probably be out of baseball in two years.  End rant.


Speaking of awesome, check out this Mike Alstott rookie.  I'm not sure if he thinks he's posing for Esquire or a bike magazine.  Either way, it just screams 90's.  And I will forever love the Bucs creamsickle uniforms, even if it's just the pants in this photo.

I loved the Marlins uniforms during the team's early years that featured teal heavily.  And the quirks of Joe Robbie Stadium made for a fun park, at least in terms of field layout.  The team is pretty much dead to me once they changed the colors, name, swindled taxpayers out of millions, and decided to revive art deco.  And most of my friends from Florida agree.

Topps Tek was an insane set, and I still need the vast majority of the patterns from the Bucs.  *hinthint if you have any Aramis Ramirez or Jason Kendall Tek cards, email me* 
Speaking of things that are no more, this card is one of the most visually appealing cards I've seen in a while.  The scan doesn't do it justice, but one word: etching.  The card is etched to hell and back, including the stars and text.  Take note Topps.  Just having a card that's kind of silvery and curls to much that it almost folds in on itself is not the same, no matter what those jackasses willing to shell out $40 for a Harper base card may think.

I hope I don't get my Pittsburgh card revoked for this one, but this Tim Couch insert is just flat out awesome, with some kind of weird mesh netting in the card.  Tim Couch's career?  Less awesome.

But this guy's career worked out a little better.  Before becoming the Steelers permanent backup QB, Charlie Batch was the latest, greatest hope in Detroit before Barry Sanders finally took the ball and went home.  Again, the Chrome scan didn't take so well, but this International parallel looks awesome, and highlights his Pittsburgh roots.  All around super pickup for just a dime.

And last but not least the big haul.  No, not Daunte Culpepper.  These Elite Series cards were an insane pull in the early 90's, and still bring a decent chunk of change.  I snagged this one for a mere $1.  I would have been 1000 times happier if it were Van Slyke or Doug Drabek, but I'll take it.  This one may become trade bait (are there even any Mets bloggers?) or hit ebay at some point.  But it's not exactly going to set my bank account on fire, so it may just stay in the collection for a little while.  Or at least until I'm able to get one of the Bucs from the set.  But geeze...I love the 90's.  And thankfully quite a few card dealers do not share that opinion.

The black and gold goodies will be back in a couple days, now that the offseason is officially underway for the Bucs.  I have a couple cool features in mind, as well as getting back to the Topps team set countdown.  But until then, I hope you guys enjoy my menagerie of oddball pickups.

Waiting for Spring

Well then.  I wasn't optimistic about the Pirates chances if the series went beyond 4 games.  It was a tough loss only because games 4 and 5 were a lot more winnable than expected.  But at the end of the day good pitching beats good hitting in the playoffs.  And the Pirates were a long way from good hitting these last two games. 

Still, 2013 was an amazing series.  I can only hope it's something to build on in the coming years, and with the amount of top tier talent in the minors right now, I'm very optimistic about what the future can hold. 

There were some really great memories in the last couple weeks, as well as my first in person playoff experience.  Here's to next year

The Most Important Pirate Game in Three Decades

Say what you will about hyperbole, but it is undeniably the thing that makes the sports world tick.

Pittsburgh sports talk has been arguing the A.J. Burnett/Gerrit Cole decision for game 5 since the end of game 1.  And how here we are a half hour away from the first pitch of a game that could determine the direction of the Pirates franchise.

So yes, my title is perhaps a little hyperbolic.  But it's also more than a little truthful.

Obviously one can argue that the fate of the Pirates franchise shifted on Barry Bonds weak throw in Atlanta.  But the thing is that the cogs had already been well in motion that put the Pirates down the path of two decades of losing.

Bobby Bonilla had left a year earlier.  Barry Bonds was gone.  Maybe things could have changed for Doug Drabek, but his career was washed up within a couple seasons.  And it wouldn't have stopped Andy Van Slyke from getting injured.

But today?  The Pirates season has unequivocally been a success.  It has been for weeks.  But what happens tonight could change the winds of where this team moves from here out.  Right now very little about the coming seasons appears pre-determined.  And with a pipeline of young talent on its way, the augmentation of veteran acquisitions could keep the Pirates in the playoff race for years to come.

If the season ends today, I don't know what happens with critical pieces like Marlon Byrd and to a lesser extent Justin Morneau.  And maybe one games doesn't change those possible outcomes.  But I do think that another round of playoff baseball in Pittsburgh - on a national scale with prime time games rather than being relegated to the awkward mid afternoon slots - will make the baseball world see the Pirates in ways that haven't yet fully developed.

Playing the what if game only gets you so far - win or lose tonight, we will never fully realize what the other side of the coin could or would have yielded.  But I will say that I would feel a little more confident about the Pirates, hell a little happier at all, if we pull out a win tonight.

Lets go Bucs!

Can It: 1997 Pinnacle Inside Pack Break

In preparation for the wedding, I've become an expert in canning.  For favors, we're doing 4 oz jars of jam and apple butter for our undoubtedly under-appreciative guests.  Canning is fun, and the taste is a lot better than anything you'll pick up in a store.  But it's a lot of work.

And this relates to cards how?  A few weeks back I hit up a sports-filled garage sale.  Lots of junk, but there were enough finds to make it worth the trip.  Among them was a can of 1997 Pinnacle Inside.

Yes, a can.  For those of you newer to the hobby, Pinnacle decided to package the set inside a metal can with various player photos on the outside.  There were three at the garage sale at a mere $1 each.

I've written quite a few times about my long stretch of abstaining from the cardboard crack.  But I figured it was worth falling off the wagon for a buck.

The can I grabbed was A-Rod.  Though I don't like him now, in 97 he was one of my favorite players.  It was also the only can that didn't have any rust damage.

After gently opening the can with a can opener, it was on to the pack.

Oh.  Ok.  Um...that's an interesting start.  Steve Gibralter.  I can honestly say he is one guy from a 90's pack that I can't tell you a single thing about.

With good reason.

A quick baseball-reference search showed that he accumulated a whopping 5 at bats in the majors across two seasons.  It has to get better from here, right?

Alright, now that's what I call better.  Chan Ho Park was a guy I really enjoyed watching, and actually ended his career in Pittsburgh a couple seasons ago.  But what's up with that hair?  

Kevin Brown!  Oh, wait...that Kevin Brown.  Yes folks, there were two.  And that is one too many.

Alright, now things are getting better with Bobby Bo.  Love the Orioles BP cap here.  

An unspectacular pull, but this Todd Greene will be heading out to the mail to get signed.

Don't call him Joey.

Another card that will probably be getting signed in the future.  Gimme some star power!

Alright, now we're talking.  A cool early career card of Carlos Delgado.  But is that an American flag pin on his hat?

The light tower power continues.  I assume this is probably one of the last cards picturing Williams as a Giant, as he moved on to an unmemorable stint with the Indians in '97.

There we go.  End on a high note.  And you can't do much better than Mr. McGwire.  His stay in Oakland would be wrapping up in '97.  But don't feel too bad for him.  He didn't have too bad of a year in 1998.

And there you go.  It was a fun break, even if it didn't yield anything too exciting.  These are better looking cards than I remember, and most of them will probably be migrating to my team binders based on nostalgia factor alone.  I do love the 90's.

Flea Market Fun, Part 3

For part 3, our flea market adventure moves indoors.  The flea market is in a movie theater that is relatively new, but crashed and burned after being open only a couple years.  The new owners have turned the various lobbies and theaters into vendor space, and there are a few card vendors set up on permanent display.

But it mostly looked like guys selling off their 90's commons at inflated prices.  Still, with some time to kill before the Pirate/Cards game, I decided to give it another look.  I'm glad I did.

A bin of cards market $.10 caught my eye.  I usually hate fishing through large bins of cards, since it's almost impossible to keep track of what you have or haven't looked at.

But it looked like a worthwhile dig, with some 83 Donruss sitting on top.

It looked like a graveyard for players who had left Pittsburgh.  Recently released James McDonald.  Jordan Staal.  James Harrison.  Even some Topps commons of current players like Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker.  

While there was most certainly quite a bit of junk, it seemed pretty clear this wasn't your ordinary dime box.  There were some nice finds to be had, and it seemed pretty safe to say sports cards weren't the main draw at this flea market.

The box yielded some nice parallels, and a hefty stack of rookie cards of 2012 draft pick Chris Rainey.  And of course I love any card capturing the Steelers in all their Super Bowl glory.

All told, I picked up about 120 new cards for the various Pittsburgh collections, including some cool Pens cards.  Right now the hockey collection is looking pretty weak, at only about 300 different cards while my Steelers and Pirates collections are at about 1500 and 11,000 respectively.  So no, I am not a very proportionate collector.

These additions definitely make up for the lack of card shows since moving back to Pittsburgh.  Weekends are nuts as the wedding approaches, but I'm hoping I can make it up there again before the end of flea market season to dig a little big more.

Flea Market Fun, Part 2

When I last left off, the first box of Steelers cards had yielded some unexpected finds.  It wasn't my first rodeo, so I knew not to have similar expectations for the Pirate box.  I am convinced one of the scientific laws of the universe is that exceptional box digs shall not yield Pirate finds equal to or greater than the quality of other teams' cards in said box.

Sadly the law held true.  But I saw still able to come away with a nice pile of Pirate cards that filled some holes.  As an added bonus, all the cards were in what looked to be relatively new toploaders.  Those things cost more than $.10 a piece themselves nowadays, don't they?

On to the finds!

Todays post was brought to you by Chromium technology.

The box yielded an impressive number of Chrome cards, including almost complete sets of 2001 and 2002 Topps Chrome.  I think I had a total of 3 cards from those two sets, so it was a nice find.  Better yet, the cards all appeared to be in almost flawless shape without any surface scratches or major wear.  Anybody who has handled Chrome cards knows how sensitive they are to surface scratches, and I've noticed very few Chrome dimebox cards come with the courtesy of a penny sleeve.

And while the fun insert finds were scaled back quite a bit in the Pirate box (the law, dammit), I did manage to pick up a card off my Most Wanted list.

2000 Vanguard was one of those sets that just felt like they were reserved for the hobby heavyweights, and these High Voltage cards took the cake.  Just look at it - it's electric (boogie woogie woogie).  I'll gladly excuse the horrid spring training uni on Giles and just appreciate the sheer design insanity.  Amusingly enough I have a few numbered parallel versions of this card, but up until now the base version had escaped me.

Speaking of cool Pacific designs, they sure did have a way of making cards look unique.

It's been nice to see acetate making a small comeback in the hobby.  On a base card?  Pure gold.

And of course the day wouldn't be done without finishing off a few set holes.

 It's always amazing that after probably half a dozen large Pirate lot purchases of at least 1,000 cards each that I still don't have what might seem like the most simple of base cards.  See my almost entirely barren binder pages of '83 Donruss for example.  But that only proves another hobby law: the easiest to find cards are the hardest to come across.

Speaking of which, after my dime box work and a total of $2 in purchases I headed back to the indoors part of the flea market and presumably to my car to head down to Game 4 of the NLDS.  But I made a detour to one of the card dealers set up inside whose booth had looked incredibly unimpressive on my last trip.

And this time, the hobby law was wrong.  But we'll save that for part 3.