2011 Summary

2011 was a very interesting one for me, both in the card collecting arena and outside it.  I think I was more excited about baseball card collecting in 2011 than ever before and I think I probably bought more 2011 cards than any other year.  I'll probably also continue pursuing 2011 cards even in the years to come, which is very unusual for me.

This, in large part, was because my first child was born this year and I wanted to have a nice binder of cards to give him from his birth year.  Well, I'm up to two binders and I've got a lot of cool stuff.  I decided to collect both Mets and Cubs cards this year since my wife's family are fans of the Cubs, but the nicest cards I got somehow ended up depicting the East coast version of the lovable losers: aka the Mets.

Here is what I think is the nicest overall card I grabbed this year.

I say it is the nicest because of the combination of the caliber of the player, the coolness of the card (my blog is called clear cut for a reason), and the print run.

Here is the shortest printed card I picked up this year.

A Mike Pelfrey Bowman International Cyan Printing Plate.  By the way if anyone out there has the card this plate helped make, let me know I'd be interested in trading for it.

And just to show people I did actually try to get some cool Cubs cards here is a dual relic/auto of Andrew Cashner.

Hey, it is not my fault they traded him.  It was an interesting trade, and I think it can work out for both teams. I think Cashner will succeed as a starter, despite what some people in the Cubs organization think about his ultimate destination as a reliever.

Oh, and thanks again go out to Tony and Ike over at Ike's Cards for this Starlin Castro relic.

As long as Castro is innocent of the recent accusations and Rizzo takes advantage of the differences between Petco and Wrigley the Cubs might actually have the beginings of a good infield.

Anyone Need Gypsy Queen Mets?

Anyone in the market for these let me know.  I also ended up with a couple duplicates of mini base cards and a duplicate of the Seaver Great Ones Insert.

I participated in a case break of Gypsy Queen over at A Cardboard Problem.  Of course, I grabbed the Mets.  I ended up with about five complete team sets.  Now Ike Davis was the short print, and while I did not get any of those in the group break, I did end up with one mini parallel of the card so that worked out.  Additionally, I ended up with about five Ike Davis Future Stars Inserts.  This means I have about five of these:

My big hit of the break was this Jon Niese stamp card numbered to 10.  I was happy with it, but I was also hoping for an auto.  There is still hope, though, since I might end up with one of the shorted autos from one of the boxes.

What do people think of the stamp cards?  I think it is interesting more for the design of the card (inserted plastic window) but do not quite get the relevance of the stamp.  

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?

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.

Happy Days Are Here Again

How sweet it is to sweep rather than be swept.

Well now that the Mets are at one of the peaks in their incredibly up and down season, all us Mets fans have to enjoy it and hope that the worst troughs of the season are behind us.

Tonight, to culminate the shutout sweep of the Phillies, Mike Pelfrey pitched. I have relatively few cards of Pelfrey (I'm in the market for more), but I do have a few nice ones like this one:


Jose Reyes, for the third consecutive game, made a difference offensively by scoring some runs. Here is an appropriately patriotic card of his in honor of Memorial Day this weekend.


Finally, Jason Bay is hitting and driving in runs which has finally gotten the Mets offense going.


It is hard to believe that the Mets have not shut out a team through an entire series sweep since 1969, and that they would do it both in 69 and 2010 against the Phillies.

It has been a very good six games for the Mets. Hopefully they can keep it up while in my current neck of the woods this weekend.

The Bright Side of a Bad Series

Now, don't get me wrong, like most Mets fans I was cursing pretty heavily when Santana walked Moyer, andI had a feeling the grand slam was going to follow. Also, do not mistake me for someone who thinks that the Citizen Bank Park is not a joke of a bandbox (though Santana cannot blame his performance on that fact alone).

At the same time, it is still early in the season and I cannot give up on the Mets even now, especially not after that streak they put together last week. I also am interested to see how they rebound in Cincinnati and how they play the Giants next weekend.

Additionally, it is hard for me to forget this man's performance on Friday night:


Similarly, this man's at bats are so encouraging that I am impressed even when he does not get a hit.



Lastly, though this man had a bad game, he did not pitch nearly as bad as his stat line from Saturday looked.