Card of the Week: John Maine Game Used + Autograph

2008 Ballpark Collection
John Main #SA-86

Construction: Cardstock, Game Used Jersey, Sticker Autograph

The Player:
As I mentioned at the bottom of an earlier post I have good reason to like John Maine. Actually, I forgot to write there that Maine also helped me win the first year of my current NL Only Fantasy League (2010 will be the league's fourth year). While I do not have him in this year's league, and he is on an opponent's roster, for the Mets' sake I hope he has another great year. This is no big news, but he an Ollie Perez will go a long way to determining how good the Mets are this year. I'll be rooting hard for both guys, but it is a bit easier to root for Maine who came up big down the stretch in 2007 by almost firing a no-hitter and has been inconsistent only because of injury problems rather than wildness. The nice thing about Maine is that his cards are inexpensive and yet he appears in some of the nicer sets, so it makes good looking cards like this one easy to add to my collection.

The Card: Now while I do believe that this is a sticker auto, it is way nicer than some of those silver foil ones from Topps. In fact, this sticker is barely noticeable unless one holds it up to the light at just the right angle. I think this type of sticker auto is not overly bad, especially since the card design has a specific spot for it. It just does not bother me and seems to fit well with the card design. While the jersey piece is a solid white, Maine's photo and the general layout of the card make up for the lack of a stripe. Needless to say I am a fan, though I bought it as a single rather than having this as my hit in an expensive purchase of UD Ballpark Collection, so maybe I am a bit biased.

Mail Day

So I ended up getting four packages in one day earlier this week, needless to say it was a fun day.

The largest pack was a trade with Madding over at Cards on Cards. I sent some Cardinals and got some nice Mets in return. Here are some highlights.

First, I found this card to be hilarious. I'd love to see posts of other "Words of Wisdom" cards. Now I thought Willie was a good manager in general, but still this is just funny.


I also got this 2010 Opening Day Carlos Delgado card which I can add to my growing collection of Topps 2010 Delgado cards.


Now Madding sent me a bunch of great stuff which I am not listing, but this next card is to make a point. Here is an Opening Day Topps Town David Wright.




Compare that with this Andrew McCutchen Topps Town card that was generously bestowed on me (I like Andrew McCutchen) by Matt over at Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius as part of his 2010 Topps Giveaway. This was in package number two along with a bunch of other great Topps base stuff I requested.


Even if you are adamantly against these Topps Town cards, you have to admit that this is one place where the Opening Day release has the advantage over the regular Topps set. The Opening Day version is so much nicer.

As for package number three that contained the results of my first group break conducted by the great Thorzul over at Thorzul Will Rule. It was a lot of fun, and I even got a hit: this nice red parallel numbered to 249. I appreciated the base too. I will be looking forward to future breaks with Thorzul if and when he chooses to have them.


Next on the list of packages contained this Keven Youkalis from the great guys over at Opening Day Cards. It was extra nice of them to give this one and the Prince Fielder up as Joe and Chris are Brewers and Red Sox fans respectively. Seriously, check out their site as they post some very cool videos of breaks and give away lots of free cards. Go initially for the cards and then keep going back for the videos. Thanks again guys for this nice looking card.


Last, I'd like to round out the post with this Daniel Murphy card in anticipation of Opening Day (which, incidentally, I consider to be Monday not Sunday). I hope that Murphy has a nice season this year and can fit into the Mets' plans next year as well. For some reason, I really like this particular card. It especially vivid, down to the unimaginative Inaugural Season at Citi Field patch on Muphy's sleeve (don't worry the patch on the cap was much nicer). Well thanks again to everyone who sent me some cards!

Trades

Thanks to Roy over at The Paper Chase for a great stack of my favorite Mets. It was a pleasure sending him some Blue Jays cards in return.

Here are some of the cards I netted in the deal:

First, on the heals of my last post, an Aurora John Olerud. Aurora was a weird set, but now I have Olerud, Alfonzo, and Piazza from this set.

Next an Ultimate Victory Edgardo Alfonzo which I like because he's got some shades on.

Here's a sweet Piazza SPx Radiance card. I enjoy the fact that the SPx medallion (or whatever you call their logo) is actually cut into the card. Plus, I think the rays emanating from the medallion are amusing.



Finally, a nice John Maine from Topps 206. I like the Topps 206 set because of the exposure effects on the sets, and I like Maine because I kept reminding everyone that the Mets got a young pitcher in return for Kris Benson and that he could turn out to be an interesting player even if Jorge Julio stunk. Then Maine went out and had a great year (better than anything Benson would do with the remainder of his career), and while he has never replicated that performance I am hoping he has a solid, injury free, high strikeout year.