The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 9

"One of your favorite cards from the 1950s."

1955 Bowman Eddie Waitkus #4 - I was thrilled when I found a copy of this card at my LCS back in 2015.

The write up on the back of the card spells out Waitkus' comeback - after being shot by an apparent stalker.

The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 8

"A card that reminds you of a family member."

Baseball card collecting has been a self-absorbed hobby for me, where I don't know if any particular card reminds me of a family member - I'm not so sure about the details now, but 1990 Donruss reminds me of my mother and the first time, I got my first full box of cards.

I think my parents were in line at a Costco, before it was a Costco warehouse club store and I just came up to them, wailing and pleading for this random box of cards - I remember my mother being so mad at me that she wanted to slap the box out of my hands.

However, I caught her in a bad spot in public and she couldn't do anything to keep me from calming down - I think she was angry because she's the rational person to rein in the spending in my family and I'd challenged her authority, where now she had to go plunk an extra $10-$11 on a box of cards [I don't think she even had a concept of trading cards at the time] just to shut me up.

I ended up with the box of cards, all 36 packs of them to rip and to flip through - though the cards are long gone, to this day, I can still imagine the wrath of my mother.

TTM autographs received: Al Kaline

The 82-year old Kaline signed my cards in blue Sharpie in 10 days - he is a fairly consistent TTM signer, even though I've read he can be grumpy in person and at times signs a sloppier 'Angry Al' version of his autograph.

I've been holding off on sending to him, but he isn't getting any younger, so I finally scrounged up a TTM request - with the appropriate amount of cash money for Kaline to sign three of his Topps Allen and Ginter cards and a relic card I pulled out of a $50 pack of cards.

Because the card had a shiny, glossy surface, I wanted to prep the card with more effort - trying to make it so an autograph has less of a chance of getting smeared or streaked, especially when I'm trying to get the card signed randomly TTM as opposed to an organized signing.

Relic cards are usually thicker and I didn't want to take a chance that the card would get wrecked using a regular envelope - to help insulate the thicker card in the 6x9 manila SASE envelope I enclosed with my request, I cut up a piece of a bubble mailer used as a 'holder' when my cards were sent back to me.

The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 7

"A card you bought in person and the story behind it."

1977 Topps Tony Armas / Steve Kemp / Lopez / Woods RC #493 - a copy of this card may have been the first I've sought out to purchase at a card shop.

When I started getting interested in collecting baseball cards, I'd look up books in library - one book I stumbled upon mentioned something about collectors saying that the Armas rookie card had good potential.

At some point, I managed to get to a baseball card shop and said I wanted an Armas - I don't know if I was amazed, but I might have thought it was neat where the person I was talking to might have gone to the store's storage room and came back with the card I'd asked for.

I think he looked in a price guide and let me have the card for about a dollar - I didn't know what I did with the card after the fact, it was probably thrown away at some point, though I got another years later and sent it to Kemp for a through the mail autograph.

Looking back, the book I read was printed in 1983 and by the time I got the investment tip - the playing careers of the guys pictured had played out.

The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 6

"A card you spent more than $10 to get."

2015 Panini Elite Extra Edition Yadier Alvarez #/100 die-cut auto [$14.99 BIN plus $2.95 s/h] - I picked this certified autograph card up from eBay since the Los Angeles Dodgers pitching prospect is a flamethrower with ace potential, ranked No. 26 among Baseball America's Top 100 prospects and No. 43 among Major League Baseball's Top 100 prospects.

In a minor league game I saw this spring, he sent one guy’s bat flying over the visiting dugout on the third base side - that may not mean anything, but that’s kind of the stuff he has.

Once in a while I still want to impulsively grab first-year certified autograph cards of random prospects - frankly I'm just not going to get into the Bowman Chrome autos and corresponding parallels, but maybe a card from a lower-end prospect product catches my attention.

In 4 starts with Rancho Cucamonga Cucamonga Quakes, he's been battered around with an ERA of 6.43 - he hasn't shown much yet, but he's actually whittled his ERA down and once he figures things out in a hitter's league, who knows how well he'll end up doing.

The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 5

"A certified autograph card of one of your favorite players."

It's not a pack pulled autograph, but it is certified and slabbed by PSA/DNA, so after scratching my head to come up with a card to post - I've settled on this 1996 Score Zenith Kirby Puckett #149 signed through the mail just about 20 years ago.

Puckett was one of the larger than life baseball stars from the mid 1980s through the mid 1990s - his cards came out through the height of the junk wax era, so it was easy enough to end up with his cards, even if they were your typical Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Score, Fleer Ultra, Leaf, Pinnacle, Pinnacle Select, Upper Deck, etc.

I think the fact that I occasionally ended up with his cards, in addition to helping the Minnesota Twins win a World Series championship in 1991 - made Puckett a pretty familiar national star, even if he didn't star for my hometown team.

He had a well earned reputation of a guy who did so much on the field to help his teams win and help the community off it - unfortunately his playing career ended when he was still surging strong in his 30s and post-career, his sterling reputation took a drastic hit.

2017 Bowman value pack recap

The basic cards maybe an afterthough, but they are nice - it may not be a thing Topps is actually going for, but I like the idea that Bowman looks a little different, with a focus towards the future, rather than being conservative and boring.

The basic cards have full bleed, almost Stadium Club lite images - even if the action is focused strictly on the field as opposed to the unique shots found in TSC.

Exclusive yellow parallel bonus pack
#BP19 Eric Jenkins
#BP149 Cody Bellinger
#BP51 Francisco Mejia

Pack one

#92 Joe Musgrove
#40 Manny Machado
#91 Chris Sale
#96 Jake Arrieta

#BCP37 Francisco Rios - Bowman Chrome Prospects
#92B-GM Greg Maddux - Bowman Reproductions insert
#BP79 Yu-Cheng Chang
#BCP17 Luiz Gohara
#BP121 Blake Rutherford
#BP95 Daz Cameron

Pack two

#50 Corey Seager
#17 Yoenis Cespedes
#8 Matt Carpenter
#5 Trevor Story
#BCP28 Kyle Tucker - Bowman Chrome Prospects

#BTP-40 Francisco Mejia - Bowman Scouts’ Top 100 insert
#BP132 Justus Sheffield
#BCP115 Franklin Barreto - Bowman Chrome Prospects
#BP129 Isael Soto

#BP1 Nick Senzel

Pack three
#53 Odubel Herrera
#28 Miguel Cabrera
#66 Gavin Cecchini 
#62 Jake Thompson
#42 Jose De Leon
#BP31 Chance Adams

#BCP109 Kyle Freeland - Bowman Chrome Prospects
#BCP91 D.J. Stewart - Bowman Chrome Prospects
#BP70 Kevin Newman
#BP8 Luis Almanzar

The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 4

"A rookie card of one of your favorite players."

1991 Bowman Tim Salmon #203

The story behind my fondness for the card is here.

TTM autographs received: Jim Rice

I sent $20 and a couple of Topps Allen and Ginter cards to Rice and got them back signed in about 10 days - his average certified autographs don't go for much, but it's more surprising that he's been responding to recent TTM requests.

Cash money always helps, but Rice has been a notorious grouch in-person and he just seems like a guy who'd probably 'more' than is reasonable - to scribble on your personal items sent.

As is, as long as the 'consensus' is that whatever things he's signed are good - then it's kind of nice that he may have loosened up.

The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 3

"A card from the first set you tried to complete."

My memory is fuzzy as to whether I set out to complete a set of cards - my peak collecting years was around the early 1990s, but my focus was on star cards and rookies [regardless of what I actually found since my budget to purchase any cards was limited to whatever I could scrounge up].

I might have had a 'bunch' of cards for a number of sets from the day, but there were too many cards - to really focus on one particular set in a given year.

Over the past 20 years, I may have tried collecting an entire set or two, but the enthusiasm wanes off fast - with eBay, there are always big case breakers doing the work so a collector can go out and get a base set of cards without poring so much money into securing cards.

Buying a hand collated set online may defeat the purpose of building sets - but why even bother in the first place, when it's not like a set I may want to try to collect is particularly unique of hard to find.

I think I might have tried to complete the 1999 Upper Deck HoloGrFx set with the Alex Rodriguez card [#54] pictured - I vaguely remember saying in a trade e-mail [probably in 2000] that it was going to be my first set of cards I'm putting together.

I might have bought packs and a blaster when the product and I liked how the cards have a reflective finish to them - it's only a 60-card set, but I think I was still short 10-15 cards before the I basically abandoned the set-building project.

It might be interesting to see if I can knock out missing cards - though a check on eBay shows that I can get the set of cards for $10 and s/h, so I'll just let things be.

The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 2

"A card with more than one player on it."

2001 Upper Deck Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle #90 - The Hall of Records subset.

I picked this card up because I like the idea of this trio of baseball icons on one card - Mantle actually looks kind of odd [if still dapper in 'street clothes'] out of a baseball uniform, but he's sandwiched between Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, likely doing some sort of pregame interview with the NBC microphone in-hand.

Who was the greatest player out of the three [?] - Mantle and Mays were neck-and-neck as far as being a 5-tool player with God-given ability, but maybe Mantle didn't take care of himself and his injuries ultimately allowed Mays to be the bigger standout with 660 home runs.

It has to be said however, that besides strictly the counting numbers - Mantle represented much more to all the baby boomer generation because he was the face of the New York Yankees from the early 1950s through the 1960s.

Hank Aaron seems to have flown under the radar at times - but he hit 756 home runs and seemed to produce monster numbers year after year.

The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 1

I saw this 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge floating around on other card blogs' feeds - I figure I'd do the challenge to see if I can allow myself focus as far as what I have invested into collecting cards after all these years.

My main tweak to the challenge is probably posting 'when I choose to do so' as opposed to trying to post every single day until I've gone through the list - I don't want to take three months to finish the challenge, but I'm not in a hurry and there might be some meandering going on.

Also, it maybe something I need to do beforehand, but I've scratched out a rough draft of the cards are going to be featured - so I guess I can formulate my thoughts and kind of just add to it, as needed.

Day 1: "A card from the current year with a photo you like."

I figure I could go into my mini-collection additions for the year and find a card fitting the description - Mookie Betts' 2017 Topps card [#161] was probably the first to come to mind, though at first, I kind of thought it was a 'meh' card with Betts' body facing away, where his face is kind of obscured.

What makes the card great is that it literally captures the moment - modern professional photographers may have all sorts of gimmicks at their disposal, but it still takes experience to anticipate when a great play is being made.

Considering the situation, I wonder if this card qualifies to make another blogger's favorites list - if this was the Betts card he'd actually pulled first.

TTM autographs received: Marty Cordova

I've seen TTM successes posted from Cordova, the 1995 American League Rookie of the Year and he turned into 'a scratch the itch guy' for me - while I've gotten his autograph in-person, I remember when Cordova just wasn't into really signing and he'd 'deface' your card with a real lazy scribble of an autograph.

I found some cards for Cordova and sent them c/o his mailing address in Las Vegas - the request only took 5 days to get back to me with my cards signed in blue Sharpie.

1975 Topps Herb Washington #407

I put this card on my eBay watch list and I finally decided to pick it up for my Topps sampler run [1952-1980] - besides the notable stars, legends and Hall of Famers I may pick up for the collection, I also want to push the narrative of featuring lesser known guys who had their 15 minutes of fame in pro baseball.

Washington probably had as much big league success as any random person who wasn't an actual baseball player can have in Major League Baseball - but as a world class sprinter, he was given a chance to do his thing for a little bit, even if stumbled in the biggest stage one can find themselves in.

Some TTM autograph requests sent out

I was heavily into TTM 15-20 years ago, but now the hobby is a ‘once in awhile’ thing for me where I don’t want to sink so much $$$ over resources like stamps - while slaving away to put together requests [it's not that hard, but it's kind of tedious], feeling like my only option to get stuff signed is to send things out as opposed to getting things inked up regularly in-person.

I think I'd like to be a machine where I consistently send out requests - but I usually hold off until I get an impulsive tick that needs to be scratched.

Will Clark c/o San Francisco Giants - everyone seems to get at least one from him TTM but the only time I got him was in-person last year.
Christian Arroyo c/o Sacramento River Cats - I hope to get at least one cards signed from the third base prospect since I've never had an opportunity to get him otherwise.
Paulo Orlando c/o Kansas City Royals - scrappy outfielder who has established himself as a viable big leaguer after only getting to the major leagues at 29.
Chuck Seelbach - he was the Detroit Tigers relief ace back in 1972; I pulled a 1974 Topps buyback card from a pack at least a couple of years ago and want to see if I can get it signed.
Mickey Stanley - he was a 4-time Gold Glove winner and spent 15-years with Detroit Tigers from the 1960s through nearly the end of the 1970s; I pulled a 1976 Topps buyback card from a pack at least a couple of years ago and want to see if I can get it signed.
Koji Uehara c/o Chicago Cubs - everyone seems to get at least one from him TTM.

TTM autograph received: Steve Blass

Blass signed and returned my card in about a week or so - the former big league pitcher from the 1960s through early 1970s still has some notoriety attached to his career, usually mentioned whenever a pitcher [or even a position player] has apparently their ability to throw the ball.

Featured autograph - Danny Espinosa

Espinosa isn't exactly Chase Utley in his prime, but he has already helped the Angels win a game with a clutch 3-run home run - hopefully he hits quite a bit more home runs over the course of the year, even with a flawed low batting average / high strike out, all-or-nothing approach.

2017 Topps Gypsy Queen value pack

I like how Topps has used different color schemes to make the Gypsy Queen name plate on the front pop a little bit more - at first glance, I thought the fronts were a little too cluttered but these cards look so much better than last year’s version.

Exclusive green parallel pack
#116 Robbie Ray
#218 Ken Giles
#76 Scott Kazmir

Pack one
#9 Matt Harvey
#289 Max Scherzer
#146 Ricky Nolasco
#GQAR-BH2 Bryce Harper - Portrait Art Reproduction insert
#23 Blake Snell

#130 Chris Tillman

There is also a Gypsy Queen nameplate on the back which seems a little redundant - but sort of makes the card backs kind of fancy looking besides something merely being run of the mill drab.

Pack two
#250 Yoan Moncada
#219 Lorenzo Cain
#70 Leonys Martin

#217 Josh Harrison - Green retail exclusive value pack parallel
#279 Ryan Braun
#213 Elvis Andrus

Pack three
#265 Eugenio Suarez
#64 Khris Davis
#109 Dan Strailly

#FT-YM Yoan Moncada - Fortune Tellers minis
#107 Tim Anderson
#33 Tom Murphy
Security card

The Angels, In Order odds and ends

No matter how big or small, it's fun getting a random group of cards in the mail from a fellow collector - especially when the cards are focused towards my mini-collections.

These were sort of, kind of new
1992 Upper Deck Billy Ripken #250
1992 Upper Deck Howard Johnson #256
1992 Upper Deck Ryan Bowen #354

1992 Upper Deck Mark Gubicza #459 - he has been the color guy for Angels TV broadcasts and I'm pretty sure this is the card partner Victor Rojas has made fun of him over, for the hockey hair / Jaromir Jagr mullet.
1992 Upper Deck Tom Gordon #476

1992 Upper Deck Roger McDowell #484
1992 Upper Deck Paul Gibson #489
1992 Upper Deck Marvin Freeman #491 - double check to see if I have this one.
1992 Upper Deck Matt Young #505
1992 Upper Deck Kevin Gross #515 - pitchers hitting on the reverse
1992 Upper Deck Anthony Young #535
1992 Upper Deck Chris Bosio #615 - I thought I had this card somewhere.
1992 Upper Deck Bill Swift #620
1993 Topps Tim Costo #577

1993 Topps Al Martin #623
1994 Topps Doc Gooden #150

1994 Topps Devon White #511 - I like how he presumably going through his fan mail, though I wonder if he ever answered any of them.
1996 Topps Doug Drabek #105 

Had these already
1979 Topps Luis Tiant #575
1992 Upper Deck Ben McDonald #163

1992 Upper Deck Melido Perez #190 - go figured, I just picked this card up from my LCS; I love how some kid [check the wallet] has a dollar 'thrown out' for Perez to sign.
1992 Upper Deck Darren Lewis #565
1992 Upper Deck Mike Remlinger #585 
1992 Upper Deck Mike Hartley #613
1996 Topps Alex Fernandez #194

TTM autographs received: Burke Waldron

The 93-year old WWII veteran who threw out the first pitch before a Seattle Mariners game in 2016 signed my two cards in blue ink [one personalized] in about a couple of weeks - Waldron also sent a two-page note and sent a small info card for the Latter-day Saints, with the inscription 'And I'm a 'Mormon' written.

Maybe it's the least that can be done for someone who served his country and who has lived as long as he has - but it's nice for Waldron to get his 15-minutes of fame and be immortalized on a baseball card insert of his own.

I made it a point to send to an autograph request to Waldron with two First Pitch insert I found - after it became a thing where TTM collectors reported successes from him.

Featured autographs - Manny Margot and Hunter Renfroe

I wanted to see how a dual player 2017 Topps Heritage Rookie Stars subset card would look autographed - it's not really a thing where I always seek multiplayer cards out to be inked up because I worry about completion, but I got Margot first [sacrificing my chance to get a set card signed, since he signs one per person], then managed to finish the card up by getting Renfroe.

Featured autograph - Brooks Robinson

With a donation, I was able to get the Hall of Famer's autograph on a couple of his cards - I saw that he started signing TTM again and wanted to see if I could get a response.

I remember 15-20 years ago when Robinson would sign through the mail for a small fee - I also remember when he basically stopped answering TTM requests because he had some sort of agreement with a card shop for paid signings.

Robinson's autograph may not pop as much with the matte card surface and the darker, painted image used on the 2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces card - but the auto is nearly centered perfectly to go with the horizontal picture.

Featured autograph - David Dahl

I've wanted an autograph of the Colorado Rockies outfielder for at least the past few years but I've never gotten to see him in-person - I ended up picking up a 2017 Donruss certified autograph for $5 and change and while it's not like actually getting Dahl to sign something in-person, it's good enough just to say I have his scribble in my collection.

Despite being a blue chip prospect who had a fine MLB debut season in 2016 - Dahl has had to deal with some physical ailments, so who knows if he ends up being sort of fragile otherwise, where his ascent as a big league star maybe slowed down a bit.

Dahl had his spleen removed after an outfield collision in 2015 and while he seemed to get over that over the next year - he has been shut down for much of spring training after a stress reaction in his ribcage and isn't likely to start the year on the Rockies' Opening Day roster.

2017 Topps Heritage Mike Trout pick-up

I picked up this Action variation parallel for my Trout PC - because he's gotten to be so prominent with his premium cards going for big money, I’m merely collecting Trout’s cards ‘as is’ as opposed to really caring about whether I pick up any specific card.

I'll keep any miscellaneous cards I'll pull or find and when the mood strikes - look for at least one nice looking, current year non-auto insert / parallel that isn’t going to cost an arm and a leg.

2017 Topps Opening Day pack breaks

It looks like a fresh box was open on the counter and while I really turn my nose at this more cutesy, 'flagship-lite' alternative - I wanted to bust some packs and for a dollar each, was there anything to lose?

Pack one

#189 Todd Frazier

#98 Lorenzo Cain

#8 Victor Martinez

#M-25 Brewers Mascot - Mascots Checklist

#70 Jay Bruce

#39 Aledmys Diaz

#95 Kyle Seager

Pack two

#106 Xander Bogaerts

#96 Anthony Rizzo

#116 Chris Sale

#ODB-1 Opening Day in Pittsburgh - Opening Day insert

#134 Miguel Sano

#186 Julio Urias

#32 Aaron Nola

Pack three

#161 Brian McCann

#73 Joe Mauer

#SC-14 Troy Tulowitzki - Superstar Celebrations insert

#MA-O Orbit - Mascot Autographs; it’s a friggin autograph of a mascot but I’ll comfort myself in seeing it’s supposedly seeded at a rate of 1:747 packs.

#90 Matt Strahm

#158 Carlos Carrasco

#176 Teoscar Hernandez

2017 Topps Heritage blaster recap oddity

I purchased a blaster box the day I picked up my random card shop packs a few weeks ago - I remember listing out what I pulled from my hobby pack breaks first, then feeling like maybe I should go on with the blaster box.

It looks like there were actually nine packs [instead of eight totals packs] in my blaster for a total of 81 cards - I didn't pull a Target exclusive 1968 game rookie insert, so I think I might have been somehow skunked with this retail box, but ended up pulling six short prints [usually pulled 1:3 odds].

Pack one
#220 Joe Mauer
#275 2017 Philadelphia Phillies Rookie Stars - feat. Jake Thompson/Roman Quinn
#61 Marco Estrada
#109 Chris Iannetta
#462 Jackie Bradley Jr. - SP
#227 Steven Souza Jr.
#7 2016 ERA Leaders - feat. Hendricks/Lester/Syndergaard
#180 Stephen Piscotty
#190 Tommy Joseph

Pack two
#55 Josh Phegley
#88 Kyle Seager
#101 Jose Iglesias
#267 2017 Milwaukee Brewers Rookie Stars - feat. Orlando Arcia/Brent Suter
#486 Ji-Man Choi - SP
#493 Sam Dyson - SP
#73 Nick Hundley
#47 Collin McHugh
#82 Leonys Martin
#96 Gerardo Parra

Pack three
#316 Kendrys Morales
#384 2017 Arizona Diamondbacks Rookie Stars - feat. Braden Shipley/Matt Koch
#97 Javier Baez
#93 Aaron Nola
#229 1988 Topps Jeff Musselman - Rediscover Topps
#26 Howie Kendrick
#352 Kevin Kiermeier
#12 2016 American League Strikeout Leaders - feat. Verlander/Archer/Sale
#16 2017 San Diego Padres Rookie Stars - feat. Manny Margot/Hunter Renfroe
#33 Jhonny Peralta

Pack four
#102 Richie Shaffer
#11 2016 National League Strikeout Leaders - feat. Scherzer/Bumgarner/Ray
#259 Ken Giles
#121 Jeff Samardzija
#482 Albert Almora - SP
#85 Brett Gardner
#279 Washington Nationals team card
#297 Ezequiel Carrera
#278 Jeurys Familia

Pack five
#348 Julio Teheran
#320 Jayson Werth
#310 Tyler Saladino
#266 Los Angeles Angels team card
#BF-BR Brooks Robinson - Baseball Flashbacks insert
#64 Russell Martin
#256 Matt Harvey
#184 Jeanmar Gomez
#178 James Shields

Pack six
#271 Jason Castro
#196 Brandon Crawford
#118 Travis Shaw
#156 2016 World Series - Game #5 - feat. Aroldis Chapman
#461 Mark Trumbo - SP
#137 Adeiny Hechavarria
#129 Colorado Rockies team card
#388 Yonder Alonso
#181 Corey Kluber

Pack seven
#59 Jose Peraza
#156 2016 World Series - Game #6 - feat. Addison Russell
#43 Arodys Vizcaino
#325 Chris Davis
#302 Khris Davis
#274 Nelson Cruz
#15 Logan Morrison
#9 2016 National League Pitching Leaders - feat. Scherzer/Lester/Arrieta
#92 R.A. Dickey

Pack eight
#233 Scott Schebler
#369 Robinson Cano
#175 Michael Saunders
#48 Seth Smith
#467 Gregory Polanco - SP
#291 Wily Peralta
#191 Alexi Amarista
#191 Zack Cozart
#158 Cubs Fly The W

Pack nine 
#86 Danny Valencia
#292 Carlos Ruiz
#176 Brandon Phillips
#157 2016 World Series - Game #7 - feat. Ben Zobrist
#12 Jake Arrieta - 1968 Topps Game insert
#44 Eduardo Nunez
#91 Chicago Aces - feat. Lester/Arrieta
#343 Marcus Semien
#104 Carlos Santana