Rain Out Theater: Clear Cut Card of the Week

2007 Topps Sterling #68 Framed White Suede

David Wright

Materials: Suede + Foil + Cardstock

The Card: I always find one thing especially difficult when buying cards from COMC.com, figuring out from the picture and description exactly what I am going to get. I took a bit of a chance on this one. Clearly from the card label as "Framed White Suede" I thought this would be an ideal addition to my collection of cards made of alternate materials. At the same time I have been fooled before by nice looking pictures and misleading labels. I took the risk since the print run was low and the 1/1 cherrywood cards from Sterling (which I am sure I will never get my hands on) were clearly made of cherrywood. Fortunately for me, this purchase had a happy ending as the card really is made of suede and so looks and feels great! The only think I enjoy more than cards of alternate materials are cards of players I collect made from alternate materials.

The Suede: So this is white suede with foil on the front of the card mounted on very thick card stock. The suede layer itself is no more than a few millimeters thick, about the thickness of a normal base card, but the card itself is a couple centimeters thick. The back is a matte finish cardstock.

Suede itself is sort of the opposite of normal leather, made from the inside of the animal hide rather than the exterior side and as a result relatively delicate rather than tough like traditional leather. Whereas leather is tanned with the addition of a chemical and/or heat, suede is produced by manually raising, or napping, fibers from the surface of the animal hide to give suede its characteristic napped appearance. While I am not sure of the natural color of suede, which I am sure does vary, I am reasonably sure that one must bleach the animal hide to get it to be this white.*

All in all, it is a nice card of Wright who I still think will end up having a great 2010.

Anyone know if 2008 Sterling "base" cards are actually made of black suede as well? If so, if anyone has any Mets for trade from that set let me know.

*Got my background information on Suede here

When the Mets Win I Win

Alright, finally the Mets take 3 of 4 to make their first series win extra meaningful! All thanks to this man who deservingly got the win:


I was worried because Gorzelanny looked better than Santana in the early innings, but the offense finally came through with a big enough spurt to win the game (with the help of some shoddy Cub defense).

Hopefully the Mets can build on this effort.

I decided to celebrate the Mets' win by opening my second place winnings from the NCAA bracket contest over at Cards on Cards. I am just thankful that I spent a summer several years ago in North Carolina working with a student from Duke. While I did not see any college sports while I was there, I did catch minor league games at about seven different ballparks and drive down to Atlanta to see a game at Turner Field. All in all, it was a productive summer during which I bought lots of baseball cards and has now helped me win some more.

First, I have to say that the package was incredibly generous. I can only imagine what I would have gotten had I come in first! In fact, all the cards in the post were part of the package which also included a bunch of packs and cards to add to my player collections. I plan on posting two of the packs over at A Pack to Be Named Later, so check there in the coming days. The great thing was that even the packs contained a bunch more Mets than I am used to finding in the packs I break. Nice work selecting them Madding.


Included in the pack were the Mets from the 2002 Donruss Super Estrellas that I had set my sights on after seeing the packs detailed here, including the above Mike Piazza poster.

However, my eyes lit up the brightest when I saw this card:
Thank you, thank you, thank you! In addition to adding the card to my collection, I was able to find out from the back that Mr. Met is one of only three MLB mascots to be inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame. Well deserved in my view. The Fanatic has nothing on you Mr. Met, and it is nice to know that the Mets have a clear historical advantage over the Yankees in at least this one respect.

Hopefully, the good Karma Mr. Met brings can help the team continue the positivity over the last four games for the entire homestand. Let's Go Mets!

Jackie Robinson Day at Citi Field

In honor of Jackie Robinson Day being celebrated in the stadium where the entire entrance is dedicated to him, here is a 2009 Topps 206 Mini Piedmont that I pulled from the one rack pack I purchased of 206 several months ago.

In case any of you have not seen the inside of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda here are some pictures I took there during the 2009 Jackie Robinson Day (humorously enough I also attended Jackie Robinson Day at the Nationals Ballpark in 2009: both games were Nationals Mets games).



Also, congrats on a nice Met win today. Days like this make the future hopeful for Mets fans. I am hoping for a sweep of the Cubs to get the Mets back on track. No offense Cubs fans, but I consider the Cubs perhaps the only high payroll team in the NL that gets less out of the money its spends on players than the Mets right now.

Carlos and the Killer B

Many thanks to MMosley over at Stats on the Back for two piles of great cards and some old school Mets stuff. I sent him several cards he needed to build the sets he is working on and got some great cards in return. I claimed the Beltran and Biggio cards. The two played together briefly during Beltran's big playoff series in Huston. Here is one of the Biggio cards. I'll give you one guess why I chose to show this one.


I am a big Beltran fan. I feel that he is underrated and has been one of the best producing free agent acquisitions the Mets have made in recent history despite his injuries. There are not many better all around center fielders in the game today (he is a much better hitter than Torii Hunter in my opinion).


I like this card despite all the negative space on the left (reserved for the game used hits I guess).

I also got a good number of pre-Met Beltran cards which was great, because I did not have that many of those already. I particularly liked this one:


Thanks again to MMosley and to Beltran, get healthy soon, your bat will help the Mets' offense.

Trade With Big D

Now, I have gone on record as not being a huge fan of this year's heritage set generally. At the same time I like some of the Mets cards from that set like this Daniel Murphy. Therefore, when BigD posted this over at Hey, That's Mine! along with a F-Mart Heritage card as being available for trade I jumped at the offer.


I sent him some Rangers cards from his want list along with some catchers in full gear. In return he sent me several of the Heritage cards he was uninterested in that I will enjoy. However, he also sent along some 2010 Mets Upper Deck Cards, including what is perhaps Upper Deck's attempt to laugh with its last gasp in baseball, this card:


Though this fact has been documented elsewhere, I still find it extremely amusing that this card depicts Castillo attempting to field a pop up after the dropped pop up he had last year against A-rod and the Yankees that ended up costing the Mets the game (and any hope that the 2009 season would be a success).

The Mets Exchange: Second Trade with Mike of BA Benny's Buffet

So Mike and I are both Mets fans, fortunately for me he is also a Yankee fan. That works out because I send him my Yankee cards and any Mets doubles I may get and he generously returns some of his own Mets doubles like this Reyes Topps Unique (It is kind of hard to tell from the scan, but "Reyes" is in glossy black on a black mat running vertically down the left side of the card).


However, this time around I was captured by the design of some Topps Pristine cards he had posted. He pulled some non-Mets players that he did not collect, but that I do. This particular Kerry Wood really stood out to me.


For some reason I really like how the geometric line behind Wood plays against his picture in the foreground. Not sure why, but I guess I just like the design of that set. Therefore, I was able to get a Brian Giles, Prior (yep I still collect both the Cubs busts), and Jeff Kent along with this Kerry Wood card.

Tommy Hanson's Second Start of the Season Today

Thanks to Joe and Chris over at Opening Day Cards, yet again. This time for the very nice Tommy Hanson rookie card depicted below. He helped me take the championship in my fantasy league last year and, seeing as I kept him, if I win this year he will likely be a part of that again.


His first start of the season it seemed as if the umpire had a small strike zone, so I will be interested to see what he does against the Padres tonight.

Also a question, is it bad to just pull some of the images off COMC.com rather than scanning my version of the card if there is no ostensible difference?

It's Too Early to Get Crazy Rant: Depicted In Baseball Cards

Unfortunately for the Mets, the rest of the week after opening day was not so great. Their record now stands at 2-4 and they occupy the cellar of the NL East. Yet, the doom and gloom I've been reading is just crazy.



It is the first six games of the season! I am actually encouraged to some extent that the starting pitching has not gotten bombed, it has been good enough to keep them in games. Additionally, the bullpen has been relatively solid. This lineup is too good not to hit well eventually, and Reyes is already back. Mike Jacobs might not cut it, but first base is not a difficult position to fill. There are two other candidates in the Mets' organization itself: Ike Davis and the current DL resident Daniel Murphy.




Also, Francoeur is on fire with the bat right now and his approach at the plate is great. I think he is going to have a big year, and can make the Mets lineup incredible if and when Beltran returns. No one gives Omar credit when he makes a good trade, they only bash him for the bad moves. Now, Omar has made some insanely bad moves (that Castillo deal is mind boggling), but he has made some really good ones too.



Finally, not to bash the Braves, but they have only one more win than the Mets and have looked much worse. They already had their bullpen blow a couple games, Troy Glaus looks horrible when hitting, Jurrjens got lit up today worse than any Mets pitcher so far, and Lowe does not look like he will rebound this season (in my opinion he is a worse signing than Oliver Perez right now, yet I have heard few criticisms of the Braves' GM who also traded away Vasquez for a song named Melky). While the Nationals are pretty bad, they have at least three legitimate proven hitters, the Padres have ONE. Yet I don't see articles on ESPN about how much Tim Hudson must wish he had signed with a different team or how Bobby Cox might not have the hitting OR the pitching to lead the team to the playoffs in his last year managing.



Again, I think the Braves will be better this season too, but I am making a point about how quick both Mets fans and non-Mets fans are to get down on the Mets and how unreasonably non-Braves fans are willing to over look that team's flaws.

If after a month the Mets are 5-15, then we can start sounding the warning signals, but right now let's give this team just the slightest bit of leeway. For now I am distributing some propaganda to get the Mets fans out there back in a better frame of mind.


PS: Cole Hamels has been no better than the Mets' non-Santana starters either.

PPS: If anyone has any Ike Davis cards for trade, send me an email.

First Game of the Season and Opening Day Retail 2008 UD Masterpieces Break Results

Thanks in large part to this guy the Mets were able to come away with the win in their 2010 Season Opener (which was also their Home Opener).


I celebrated by opening a pack of 2010 Opening Day and a retail box of 2008 UD Masterpieces as well as cooking some baseball themed food.


The cake is perhaps not my best work, but close enough. The pizza was more on target.



The celebration of Opening Week Continues tomorrow as I travel to the Brewers game to see this man in action (this was the better of my two hits from the Masterpieces box, the other was a GU Jersey of Johjima that is up for trade).


Here are the final statistics from the box break:

Set Completion (non-short print)
84/90 = 93%

Short Prints
4/30 = 13%

Hits
1 x Brown Frame (# to 100) Prince Fielder
1 x Johjima Captured on Canvas (up for trade)

Doubles
4
Yankee Stadium Legacy (up for trade)
6

Needs
17 - Manny
45 - Hunter Pence
59 - Jay Bruce
87 - Michael Young
105 - Tom Seaver

Opening Day 2010 Pack of Topps Opening Day 2010

I like opening a pack of Opening Day on Opening Day. I also have a box of UD 2008 Masterpieces to break today, but I will get to that later. I just opened my pack of Opening Day 2010, my first pack of the product and the results were pretty nice.

Here they are:

The Mets (Yes, I pulled two Mets that I did not have from this one pack!)


The Ace



The well paid Veterans


The up-and-comers



Happy Opening Day everyone!!!

Let's go Mets!

Happy Easter & David Wright Thank You

First off, Happy Easter everyone. As I am a big NL fan, my celebration of Opening Day starts tomorrow, and there will be a big celebration as I am hosting a party of sorts on Monday. For now though I wanted to send out a thank you to William over at Foul Bunt. I sent him some Brady Anderson cards I had accumulated over the years and the package he sent me back almost doubled my David Wright collection in addition to providing me with some other great stuff. Here is just a sampling of the cards he sent:


The texture on this UD Ovations card is great.



I fell in love with this Propaganda Posters insert set from Topps Update 2009. In fact, I am trying to put together the whole set. If you have any you would be willing to part with check my want list for my needs and shoot me an email. I could see how some people might not have liked this insert set, but it immediately stuck me. I would be interested to know what others think about it.


Here's a Sweet Spot, and here's to hoping Wright finds the sweet spot of his bat connecting with more baseballs causing more HRs this year. I personally did not think Wright had a terrible year last year, but I still hope he has a better one this year. We will begin to see tomorrow!


Turkey Red: textured and a painted effect means I was a fan. This is kind of a funny looking pose for Wright, but the colors in the background are cool.


Last, but certainly not least, I got this 2010 Topps Town David Wright from the great guys over at Opening Day Cards along with a Topps Million Card Giveaway redemption card (I ended up with a 2006 Matt Treanor whose wife, Misty May, has a better professional sports career than he does at the moment). Anyway, I strongly encourage you to check out Opening Day Cards. They are in the running for Upper Deck's best blog contest, so at least check out their site so you can make an educated decision on who to vote for.

2002 Topps Gallery: Final Statistics and Want List

So today I opened the last four packs of my first ever box: 2002 Topps Gallery. I was not expecting too much besides fill ins for the set; however, I got another hit and a bunch of Mets (both present Mets of the time and what were, at the time, future Mets).

First the statistics:

Hits
1 x Gallery Original Bat Relic - Tony Gwynn
2 x Gallery Heritage
Ken Griffey Jr.
Carl Yastrzemski

I'd be willing to part with the Yaz for another 2002 Topps Gallery Heritage Insert

at least 1 x Veteran Variation - Ivan Rodriguez
(also up for grabs for the right 2002 Topps Gallery price)

Set Completion
143/200 = 71.5%

This is a bit higher than it would have been as I had several singles of players I liked that I bought circa 2002 that I did not get in this box.

Doubles (not all from the box)
None! At least not from the box, I had these three singles which are up for trade: 19, 26, 118

Overall Thoughts
I think this was a really nice box for under $30, and I am glad I made the purchase. I hope I can complete the set, but I also like the inserts I got both the general quantity and particular players. I would recommend it.

Needs (also listed in my want list)
4, 5, 31, 34, 38, 43, 45, 47, 50, 53, 59, 60, 64, 65, 75, 80, 85, 87, 88, 95, 97, 108, 112, 113, 115, 116, 121, 130, 133, 137, 148, 152, 154, 157-162, 165-167, 171-173, 177, 178, 183, 185, 187-189, 193, 194, 197, 198, 199