Are these the wrong plastic pages to use?

For my decade stars / binder collections, I’ve been gathering just enough cards for individual players to see if I can display them in a page - maybe my decade stars collections is meant to be more of a passive project, but it's fun to churn out new pages to see loose cards come together by player.

During a card show pit stop last weekend, I wanted to buy some random supplies and there was an opened box of BCW plastic sheets for a quarter each - my go-to pages are usually Ultra Pro, but I'd used up my last box of 100 and to bide my time a little bit, maybe I'll try the BCW pages in case I end up liking it more.

To see if I can get something done through the afternoon this past Friday, I wanted to see if I can finally start displaying some loose cards for a number of subjects - my loose Tom Seaver cards were probably next in line to be displayed in pages since he was at the top of my current list of 'legends' with 12 cards.

I started to pull the loose cards out of penny sleeves to fit them into the pages one-by-one - though it feels like the BCW pockets are a little stiffer and tighter where they just barely cover the cards.

I still remember getting a box of Ultra Pro plastic sheets on eBay back in 2016 with a bad batch of pages - where the middle 4,5,6 pockets seemed ‘short’ and didn’t have a lip where there is a little gap ‘up top’ to cover the cards in their entirety.

For the most part however, the Ultra Pro pages give my binder cards a heftier, snugger fit most of the time - I don't know if I can leave these Seaver cards 'as is' in a BCW page without worrying the cards being subject to the conditions.

I might have wasted $5.00 on a 20 count of BCW nine-pocket pages that doesn’t give me peace of mind - the problem maybe obvious for the cards that have colored borders, but they seem to be spilling out of the page and I guess that is the risk I took in trying these BCW pages out.

A common sense solution for some peace of mind was using penny sleeves for each card, to add a little bit of ‘lip’ that might be missing up top - I just had enough 'still in package' penny sleeves to see if I can rejigger the page with an extra layer of protection of each card.

Maybe the cards end up being a little more secure, but after taking some pictures, the top portions of the cards really spill out a little bit - where these sheets look a little sloppy.

Where these BCW designed for sports cards or gaming cards where the dimensions might be a little smaller [?] - I might be able to use these BCW pages for smaller, odd-sized cards but the plan wasn’t to pick up loose sheets and prioritize all those itty-bitty stragglers unless there was a pressing need to put them away somewhere in the first place.

I might keep trying to play around with these BCW pages - but these are no good for me.

Awesome mail day - I can't win them all

I picked up a 1969 Topps Tom Murphy card for a TTM request and pictured is what I received - admittedly, I don't know what the seller could have done shipping a $2 card, but for the times a plain white envelope has been used safely, there is always a chance that something like this will happen.

Maybe I can try to flatten the card and send out as intended - but besides trashing everything outright, I don't want to look at this junk any more than I have to.

As is, the card and the envelope may end up as a conversation piece - a cautionary tale in my collection for years to come.

Autograph card fails - Willie Bloomquist

I probably didn't take the moment I needed to make sure the autograph on the card had dried before closing my book - so I end up with this beauty of a signed card.

Autograph requests sent - up in smoke

I stopped at the post office Saturday [after hours] to mail out five ‘long shot’ mail requests and one request to Clint Frazier - I find out Tuesday that 100,000 letters had been burned when a USPS mail truck caught on fire on the 57 freeway in Brea, California.

I’m thinking there is a chance the seven letters put in was included among the 100,000 - though considering the following players I sent to, I might not have been realistically counting on getting any responses back.

Javier Baez
Xander Bogaerts
Byron Buxton
Robinson Cano
Carlos Correa
Frazier
Masahiro Tanaka

Autograph card fails - Evan Scribner

The autograph didn't come out at all on the 2013 Sacramento team set card - I bought the set, thinking I'd have some extra cards to signed in-person, but the cards were too glossy and I didn't think to prep them well.

Featured autograph - my misadventure with Mark Trumbo

This isn't another in-person autograph failure like what happened with Dodgers' ace pitcher Clayton Kershaw - but probably a story about getting a couple of autographs at a public appearance that turned out not to be one of my better in-person autograph experiences.

Rising Angel star Mark Trumbo did a signing at a Dave and Buster's restaurant in Orange, California a couple of weeks ago - I think I waited about five hours to get through the line from when I got there and since there were a couple of signings going on, it wasn't too congested.

I think groups of about 15 people were led inside the restaurant and to the banquet hall - where Trumbo was sitting by himself at a table with an Angels handler standing at the 'stage area.'

I was really hoping I'd get a nicer autograph as Trumbo has done a bunch of signings in 2011 - perhaps he has had some opportunity to 'refine' his penmanship.

I finally was able to approach him on stage to get my 8x10 print signed and perhaps his autograph would have been fine - if I'd just let him sign the white border that I still needed to cut off the print, but I tried telling him to sign it "big" and across the image.

He ends up signing my 8x10 print to the side and the autograph is literally 'MT 44' and it wasn't like I expected a 'letter for letter' autograph - but I felt like he didn't want to deal with me and gave me a chicken scratch autograph on purpose.

More awkwardness ensues when I get back in line for a second autograph - I overhead a conversation Trumbo and the Angels handler were having about rubbing down the 2011 Bowman cards people having them signed because they were too glossy.

The handler then grabs my 2011 Bowman gold parallel, rubs it against his shirt furtively and accidently drops it - as Trumbo grabs for my card, he says something like, "back again, two for today huh..."

The Angels handler mumbles something towards me, but Trumbo does sign another 'MT' autograph on my card - as I thank him and walk away he responds, "yeah, I'll see that on eBay."

As he said that, I wanted to go crawl under a rock somewhere - I kept thinking I probably should have started up at one of the other Angels signings that morning.

Clayton Kershaw in-person autograph failure - not so close and even further away

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw is one of the best young pitchers in Major League Baseball and he made an appearance at a furniture store in La Mirada California Saturday - I see nothing wrong with wanting his autograph, because he's a future stud who has enjoyed at least a couple of strong seasons as a big league pitcher.

However, as a *gasp* Angels fan, I found myself in a sea of Dodgers fans at 8:15 a.m. - it felt a little suffocating, especially when the guy who was behind me ended up cutting [like it really mattered] in with guys a little bit infront of me [he just kept yapping, blabbering and blending in].

Despite knowing most local So. Cal Dodger signings are usually balls deep with fans wanting to get their stuff inked up - I still decided to go just because I thought I could really get Kershaw to sign something at a public appearance, when he has sort of cut down on signing for adult fans [he prefers kids] for the most part.

Die-hards types had lined up at 7 p.m. the night before - once Kershaw arrived at around 10 a.m., the lines for Saturday's appearance moved once an hour and he left about 200 fans hanging when he stopped signing by noon.

As an autograph collector in general, I expected not really getting him, but pissed since it looked like people were coming out with two or three things signed - when it was supposed to be a 'one per autograph' event.

It looks like the wristbands that were handed out a few hours before I got to the signing - were being 'recycled' by people who were getting Kershaw multiple times and just wasting everyone else's time.

One guy was even trying to sell his wristband, after getting an autograph - after no one bit, he went back in line to get another.

Just to finish up, it was sort of a frustrating morning - but something where the outcome wasn't too hard to predict, considering I probably should have gotten to the signing earlier than I did.

It is what it is

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are down 2-0 in the American League Division Series against the Boston Red Sox and while I hold out hope - I'm already counting the reasons why they've lost the series and the opportunity to move on.

The Angels' pitchers have just been good enough - but not great enough really overcome uneven hitting by the Angels' lineup. You see guys like Garret Anderson, Mark Teixeira, Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter string along hits. You see Chone Figgins finally be able to do a little of his thing here-and-there.

Then you have a guy like Howie Kendrick, who maybe the best hitter the Angels' have as far as being able to make contact - he's not going good right now, so he is not putting the bat to the ball. He seems to be swinging at the junk he otherwise make good contact with, if he isn't in this slump. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem the plate discipline to lay-off pitches, so he has to swing for his life.

The best at-bat in the Angels' past two games against the Red Sox - maybe catcher Mike Napoli's bases loaded walk in the seventh inning in the Angels' 7-5 Game 2 defeat. It allowed the Angels to get within one run of the Red Sox [5-4] and ultimately allowed the Angels to tie the game in the eighth inning.

I wish the Angels had more hitters like Napoli [and Teixeira] who have an idea of what their doing at the plate - instead of guys who are 'hack-first' guys, who despite their successes, are prone to give away at-bats [GA, Vladimir Guerrero] from time-to-time.

Maicer Izturis - with his season-ending injury, there has been no viable options to give Kendrick and/or shortstop Erick Aybar a breather.

Francisco Rodriguez - he's always 'the man,' in my book, but he imploded in Game 2 and doesn't end on a particularly high note [if Friday night was his last appearance as a Halo]. Couldn't the Angels have ridden Scot Shields a few more innings during Game 2? It seemed like Angels' manager Mike Scioscia pulled too quickly, just to find a reason to get K-Rod in the game.

Jason Bay - how was this guy ever going to replace Manny? This guy has starred for a second division team and now he is supposed to be a key part of a championship contender? I think that was one of the complaints I either read or heard. I wasn't particularly impressed or enamored by the guy, but except for his atrocious 2007 season, he does two very important things right [get on-base and hit for a lot of power].

J.D. Drew - for me, he is a easy guy to hate and pile on, but he is kind of this silent assassin these days. He seems to be a guy that will beg out of the lineup for time-to-time and is merely a Major League Baseball player because he is very good at it. On the other hand, between last year's postseason, this year's all-star game and now with his game winning home run in Game 2 - Drew has really put together an impressive resume within the last year.

Jonathan Papelbon - he's an ass in the biggest way, but he is probably branded as confident and also a character. You come up with some positive code words to describe a cocky prima donna with an ego like Papelbon because he seems like he comes from Anytown, USA.

Not to take away anything from Papelbon - it is disheartening for opposing batters and opposing team's fans, but it seems like when he comes into a game, it is pretty much 'lights out.'