Into the New Year...

I picked up this card yesterday at the local shop, and it had me thinking about the Phillies and Braves making significant improvements and how the Mets have not.

This might not be a bad thing, because it seems to me that most of the joy that comes from the Mets next year will involve the success of young players.  In fact, the two players I will be rooting hardest for to have true breakout seasons next year are Ike Davis and Jon Niese.

Of course, I will also be excited to see how some older and younger players do.  Mike Pelfrey's continued development will be exciting as well as seeing how Jenrry Mejia fares as a starter in the big leagues.

Happily, I have autographs of both of all three young pitchers!  (Here is my Niese auto from an earlier post.)


Having three homegrown young pitchers that are successful, even if they are not all superstars, is fun to watch so that is what I'll be hoping for this season along with good performances from young hitters.

How about you other bloggers which young players on your team are you excited about seeing this season?

Contest over at Community Gum

Hey, if you are a fan of the Moments and Milestones set, check out this contest! It is easy to enter and fun to pick an entry.

Awesome Spirt of the Season Contest over at Enough Already!

The holidays are upon us, and I have not had time to post in a long while, but over at Enough Already there is a contest right in line with the holiday spirit!  I am participating and I encourage you to as well.


Check it out!

http://www.toysfortots.org/

Card of the Week: Fractal Materials Part III - Leather

1998 Fractal Materials #94
Edgardo Alfonzo
Materials: Leather and Cardstock

The Player:  For those of you that have followed my blog or my collecting interests, you probably already know Alfonzo is my all-time favorite player (that is why I have all these cards).  So what is there to say about him that I haven't already said?  Well since this is a leather card I thought it would make sense to talk about Fonzie's prowess with the glove.  Alfonzo played four positions during his 12 years in the big leagues.  He spent 889 games at second base, 549 at third base, 34 at shortstop, and 2 at first base.  Fielding is notoriously difficult to capture in a statistic, so I'll talk about his statistics in relation to the league averages.  His fielding percentage was incredibly consistent: while playing several positions he always kept his fielding percentage above the league average.  This shows how well he made the plays on balls he was able to get to.  His range seems to have been less stellar and slightly below average with the exceptions of 1996, 1997, and 2002 (his last year with the Mets) when his range was above the league average.  It seems, then, that he was a consistency-over-range player who had several years of very good defensive play over his career.

However, it was good enough to earn him a spot on one of my favorite Sports Illustrated covers ever (which is also depicted as a mural on one of the walls in Citi Field's new Mets Hall of Fame).

The Card:  The leather cards from the Fractal Materials parallel set were numbered to 1000 and again have the image printed on a textured leather card front with a normal cardstock back.  It is a bit thinner than the wood or nylon cards and I have to admit that it is not obviously leather.  The front could easily be confused with a 2007 Turkey Red Card front because of the similar textures.

The Material: Leather is sort of a sibling to the previously discussed suede. Leather is made from an animal "[h]ide or skin with its original fibrous structure more or less intact, tanned to be imputrescible. The hair or wool may, or may not, have been removed. It is also made from a hide or skin that has been split into layers or segmented either before or after tanning."  Now, I have no idea whether this card is made from real leather or some sort of imitation leather.  I do know that this card contains no hair or wool.  If you are interested in learning more about leather and the differences between real and imitation leather check out this site, from which I got the above quotation.

Group Break Over at the Sandbox!

Hey check it out.  2 boxes of 2009 Topps Unique and one box of 2010 Topps Chrome!  There are LOTS of teams left.

New Multi-Sport Card Blog on the Block

So if you enjoy collecting multiple different sports cards (including baseball), I suggest you check out the Sports Cards Pack Rat's new blog here.  Enjoy!

Card of the Week: Fractal Materials Part II

1998 Leaf Fractal Materials #50
Moises Alou
Materials: Nylon and Cardstock

The Player:
Moises Alou, son of Felipe who both played and managed, batted .303 with an on-base percentage of .369 and an OPS of .885 in 17 years in the majors, about 15 of which he played in most of the games.  Alou had probably his best year in 1998 by batting .312 and hitting 38 HRs driving in 124 and scoring 104 runs himself.  He even stole 11 bases that year, only getting caught 3 times!  He got MVP votes in seven different seasons.

He also did well well for the Mets when healthy, but injuries prevented him from contributing as much as he or Mets fans would have liked.


The Card: As mentioned in my previous post on this subset nylon was one of four alternate materials used by leaf in their Fractal Materials parallel of their anniversary set.  Nylon was the second least common material with cards being numbered to 500 rather than 250 as with the wood one.  Again, the image on the front is printed directly on the nylon which is glued to a traditional cardstock back.


The Material: "Nylon is a polymer obtained by the condensation of diamines with bicarboxylic organic acids, or from omega-amino acids. In more specific terms, it is a polyamide, i.e. one of a class of polymers whose molecular chains are formed by regularly spaced -CONH- amide groups.

The story of the birth of nylon is inevitably intermingled with the duPont de Nemours family and the E. I. DuPont de Nemours Company and its inventor, Wallace Hume Carothers. "



The story starts during the Reign of Terror portion of the French revolution and involves an inventor who would commit suicide in Philadelphia in 1937 before the patents for nylon were granted.  There are actually two stories about nylon's development, and if you are interested I would suggest you visit: http://www.caimateriali.org/index.php?id=32 which is where I got the quote above.

Wait Until The Year 2020?

Now that the World Series is over, most of us get to thinking about next year.  Clearly I'd be happy if the Mets turned it around next season and became serious playoff contenders, and I do think it is possible.  However, realistically I realize it might take more than next season for the Mets to get things straightened out, especially if Santana is not able to pitch like himself for almost the entire season.

So, courtesy of a card I got in a recent trade with reader Jimmy Le, I am going to make my expectations a bit more modest and hope the Mets win at least one more World Championship by 2020!

Jimmy does have a relatively new blog so check it out! He is a great trader with broad collecting goals, so there is a good chance you have some cards he'd like and can work out a deal with him.  He sent me a bunch of other David Wright and Jose Reyes cards that I needed for my player collections in addition to the above beauty.

Congratulations to the World Series Champions!

For the first time in a while I can say I am genuinely happy about the World Series Champs!  I love good pitching, and that epitomizes the Giants these last few years.  I also was lucky enough to pick up Aubrey Huff during my fantasy season this year and benefited from his resurgence.  So here is my little tribute to the team based on cards I own.

The Resurgent Veteran

The Ace

The Second Ace

The Newest Ace

Contest over at GA Mindset

Hey, interested in winning a free hobby box of Topps Chrome?  Head over to GA Mindset and enter!

Shelliebee Rocks... Pun Intended

For those of you who don't know Shelliebee is a Rockies fan with a great card blog.  Check it out if you have not already.  So she and I completed a trade about a month ago in which I sent her a Dexter Fowler auto and a bunch of Rockies for a bunch of Mets that I collect.  It worked out for both of us. 

Then, she broke a box of Topps Chrome and pulled an Ike Davis refractor.

I have been looking for any Ike Davis cards I can get my hands
on, so I was very grateful when she sent it my way.

However, the generosity did not end there, she also sent me a bunch of other Mets that she pulled including a David Wright Xfractor. I did not even know there was a difference but the Xfractor has the checkerboard look and the Ike Davis does not and looks like a normal Chrome to me other than the word refractor next to the number on the back of the card.

When she told me she was sending me this jewel I was overjoyed.

 

Not just a David Wright relic card, of which I had none, but my favorite brand of relic card (A&G) and a blue piece of jersey (Met blue being my favorite color).  Seriously, I could have hardly asked for a better card!

So thank you Shelliebee, and I will be sending some cards your way though nothing as cool as these gems unfortunately.

Congratulations Giants

Well, after a depressing first round of the playoffs, the second round went as well as this Met fan could have hoped.

Since I congratulated the Rangers with a game used card I got from the local card shop, here is a game used card from the same shop that I picked up last year.

Game Three Winner of the NLCS: Matt Cain.  I think he is a bit underrated, but he is quite good.  As an NL fan from NY I'll be rooting for the Giants whose logo while in New York clearly influenced my favorite team's current logo.  However, I won't be to upset if the Rangers win, which is good because I think that is the more likely scenario.

Regardless, good luck Matt Cain!

Incidentally, I thought this was a relatively nice card back for a game used card.

Congratulations Rangers

Thanks in large part to this man, who was involved in four of the six Rangers runs in the clinching game, I will now definitely have a rooting interest and reason to watch the World Series.  If the Giants can beat the Phillies, it should be really fun.

I actually just picked up this card the other day at my local card shop.  I have always liked the way Ginter does relics: a combination of plastic, card stock (I think), and the game used material which is wood in this case.

Thanks again Vlad!  With the way you rebounded this year, you could actually make it to 500 HR with over 2500 hits, and I think those are Hall of Fame numbers.

Return of Card of the Week

1998 Leaf Fractal Materials #13
Jose Cruz Jr.
Materials: Wood and Cardstock

 
The Player:

Jose Cruz Jr. had a solid career.  He put up one stellar season in 2001 when he was with Toronto.  He posted an OPS of .857, stole 32 bases and got caught only 5 times, and hit 34 HRs and 38 doubles.  He also had one outstanding defense year winning a Gold Glove in 2003 with the Giants as a result of 18 assists and stellar play in Right Field.



The Card:

In 1998 Leaf created several parallels to their normal set, the most notable were Fractal Foundations, which was a refractor, and Fractal Materials.  Now each of the Fractal Materials parallels could be die cut to add another level of paralleling, but what interested me more than the cut was the four different materials used in this set: Nylon, Leather, Plastic, and Wood.  This particular card is one of the wood parallels.  Basically, the image is printed on wood and then the piece of wood is glued to cardstock so the back of the card appears normal besides the stamp indicating the run of the card.  Of the non-cut cards, I believe the wood cards had the shortest run.  It was a set definitely up my alley.  In the coming weeks I'll post cards with the other three materials from this set.  If anyone has any other wood cards from this set that they are willing to trade let me know!

Interesting Group Break

Hey, check it out.  Cardboard Collections is running a very reasonably priced group break with a couple of interesting boxes.  Check it out, there are still a bunch of cool teams left!

The Hatless Horsemen aka Topps 206 Mets

So I stopped at a mini card show this past weekend.  Many of the dealers were packing up, but I found one that had a bunch of 2010 stuff unsorted in large boxes and was happy to wait around as I poked through them.  One of the benefits to being a Met fan in the Chicagoland area is that Mets are pretty much thrown in with the commons.  This guy had a whole bunch of Mets mixed in with his 2010 Topps 206, so I picked up a bunch.

First, I found a Jackie Robinson.  Not a Met I know, but he still fits in with this theme since the Citi Field entrance is a fitting ode to him.

Look ma, no hat!

Next came a trio of pitchers.

The Ace

The Up-and-comer

The Kid

And a trio of hitters, now more question marks than exclamation points unfortunately.

This card perfectly summed up Beltran's season, nice work Topps!

The one Met hitter who had a very good year.

 His smile can still light up a field.

And finally, one I picked up in a trade rather than at the card show.  A Tom Seaver mini piedmont!

Hats off to madding over at Cards on Cards for this terrific, puns intended, throw in.  I will probably get around to posting the central card in the trade another day.

I'd be interested to hear what other Mets fans think of these.  I don't mind these hatless cards, but maybe the Mets just have interesting looking heads even without the caps.

Muesum Quality John Olerud

I have been steadily adding to my John Olerud collection which is now at 118 cards!

The last four were contributed by Shelliebee over at The Middle Child.  Fortunately I had some cool Rockie cards to send and got the below museum themed Olerud cards in return as well as a bunch of other cool stuff.

First, a nice museum quality frame:

Next, a Museum Collection Pinnacle card and its base counterpart:

Thanks a bunch Shelliebee, I'll continue saving my Rockie cards for our next trade!

Padre Piazza

In 2006 Mike Piazza played for the San Diego Padres. He actually had a productive season there posting an OPS of .843 and hitting 22 HRs while playing 99 games as catcher and getting into almost 30 more as a pinch hitter or DH. He even had fairly even home and away splits and helped the Padres get to the playoffs that year. He only had one double in 10 post season at bats, but his numbers seem to indicate that he tired a lot in August after a torrid July.

Well, I mention all this because Joe from The Sandlot sent these two Padre Piazza cards my way in a much larger trade. That brought my total number of Piazza cards in which he appears in a Padre uni up to 4. So thanks Joe, because before I looked up the numbers I did not realize what a solid year he posted for the Padres and thanks for the trade!

Contest

Do you like Tristar OBAK? If so, check out this contest over at Drewscards.

Road Trip Ending and Epilogue

It was fitting that my road trip with Q ended at Wrigley, the same stadium that had been our entire reason for making a similar baseball road trip several years earlier. The big difference is that now Wrigley is the closest MLB stadium to where I live, rather than the furthest (in terms of other stadiums we visited on our original trip).

So here is a pic from the game that ended our 2010 road trip:

It was a very good game against Milwaukee, though as so many Cubs games this year it ended in a 3-4 loss for the Cubs. We did get to see Thomas Diamond pitch 5 and 2/3 while striking out 10, which was pretty exciting.

Now the funny thing is, I've been back to Wrigley twice since that game. In fact, I was back at Wrigley that Sunday for a Cubs Reds game thanks to some free tickets my wife and I scored.

This one was interesting because it rained before the game, but the day turned out to be beautiful. Though the Cubs got blown out 11-4, I did get to see Votto and the Reds, the potential MVP and potential Central Division Champs, for a second time. Here's a pic of the field crew taking the tarp off the field before that game.


We also got to see Carlos Zambrano pinch hit, which is always fun.



Then, on Monday another friend who had never been to Wrigley was in from out of town. This time the Cubs were off, but my wife suggested a tour of Wrigley. I was a bit skeptical at first, but after reading the description which said that those on the tour would get to be in the press box, in the Cubs locker room, and ON THE FIELD I was intrigued. I must say, it was really fun!

View from the Press Box:


The Cubs locker room:


View from the Field:


So, if you are ever out in Chicago I highly recommend giving Wrigley a visit whether or not the Cubs are home.

PS: There was some sort of non-professional game going on at the field while I was there.

2010 Allen & Ginter for Trade

I actually got these from the July group break held over at I Am Joe Collector and am just getting around to posting them. All these 2010 Allen & Ginter are up for trade, preferably for Mets Allen & Ginter, but that is negotiable. I also just posted a rack pack of 2010 Allen & Ginter that I broke over at A Pack To Be Named Later and all those cards are up for trade too.

So here we go.

First, a mini National Animals: Belgium #NA20


Second, a mini Todd Helton #218

Third, Ivory Crockett #59 (Normal size card)

Fourth, Drew Brees #287 (Normal sized card)


Finally, I thought I would post my favorite card from that break: This Jhoulys Chacin. He's been great this year and really helped my fantasy team. This one is not up for trade, but the rest are.

Baseball Trip 2010: Day 5 - St. Louis

Out of the corn and into St. Louis. Q and I got to see Adam Wainwright, a Cy Young contender, face off against the Pirates and Zach Duke.


Duke put up a good fight through the first few innings and was hurt a bit by a misplayed flyball by rookie outfielder Jose Tabata, but eventually the Cards and Pujols got to him. Pujols hit a HR and the Cardinals piled on the relief pitchers including a Holliday HR.



In the end, the Cards came out on top 9-1.


Q and I enjoyed the new Busch Stadium, which neither of us had been to before. Though it was hot and we spent most of the game standing in the shade watching the game rather than seeing it from our bleacher seats.

One of the cooler features of the stadium was the scoreboard from the last incarnation of Busch Stadium, preserved as it was on the final pitch at that stadium.


Next up, sweet home Chicago!