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Zippy Zappy!  I haven't done a Pack Wars in quite some time, mostly because of my recent self-imposed collecting hiatus.  Yet, there was a special little surprise in the mailbox yesterday from Cervin' Up Cards which means I've been Zippy Zapped!

Getting "zapped" sounds kind of painful, but for the uninitiated I can assure you it is an altogether delightful experience.

Let's introduce the competitors in this edition of Pack Wars!

First, we have the suspiciously thick pack of 2013 Topps Update which comes in a purported 8 cards.  Hmmm... I have my doubts about that.

In the other corner we have a tag team effort in the form of a 5 card pack of 2007 Fleer Ultra and a 10 card pack of 2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update.   These bad boys came from a repack that's been collecting dust underneath my desk.

Two versus one?  I don't think Zippy Zappy's pack is going to have any trouble fending off the twosome.  Let's get to the cards and see for ourselves!
 
Round 1:

The Vogelmonster against a nice action shot of Carlos trying to be a baserunner. Nice try, Carlos, but you aren't fooling anyone.  Zippy Zappy scores first with one of my two favorite minor league players!

Official Score:
Zippy Zappy Repack = 1
Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck = 0

 Round 2:

 Ooooooh...  Here's one I didn't see coming.  Something like my ninth '87 Briant Dayett versus a DLee card.  No contest here.  DLee jacks one and ties up the match.

Official Score:
Zippy Zappy Repack = 1
Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck = 1

 Round 3:

 ROCK SHOULDERS!  Against who?  It doesn't even matter.  It's flippin' ROCK SHOULDERS! (ROCK SHOULDERS represents the other half of my favorite players on the farm with the Vogelmonster.)

Official Score:
Zippy Zappy Repack = 2
Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck = 1

 Round 4:

 The Z-man and a Mariano Rivera card.  This is a tough call for sure. Rob Zastryzny was a pretty high draft pick from 2013 and this is my first card of his.  Rivera is the best closer of ALL-TIME.  Yet, I love my Cubs prospects, almost as much as Zippy Zappy loves his Yankee farmhands.

In a hypothetical battle, would the Zipster take a LUIS TORRENS card over a Ryne Sandberg?  I think he would, thus I have to qualms about choosing the Z-man in this one.  Yes, I'm a homer, but it's my first Zastryzny card!

Official Score:
Zippy Zappy Repack = 3
Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck = 1

 Round 5:

 Here's a case where I don't mind the lack of logos on the card.  Having a big A's logo on the helmet of Addison Russell would just ruin this card for me, but no license means no logo.  Which means I'm pretty happy adding a "Gold" Russell to my collection.  By the way, who is Kevin Cameron? 

Official Score:
Zippy Zappy Repack = 4
Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck = 1

 Round 6:

 A new Kerry Wood versus a nice shot of the "Greek God of Walks."  I'm sorry Youk, but I have a KW PC.  You may think you're #1 in that picture, but in this case you're going to be the first loser.  Ouch.

Official Score:
Zippy Zappy Repack = 5
Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck = 1

 Round 7:

 Wait, Jon Garland played for the Halos?  Craziness for sure.  I guess he did for an entire season.  Huh.  If you type in "Jim Vaughn" into baseballreference.com you aren't going to be rewarded for your efforts.  James Leslie Vaughn?  Does that ring a bell?  No?  How about Hippo Vaughn?  This dude led the league in wins, ERA, innings, shutouts, WHIP and K/9 (4.6).  4.6?  Man, baseball is so different now than what it was back in 1918.  The 1963 Fleer card wins in a landslide.

Official Score:
Zippy Zappy Repack = 6
Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck = 1

 Round 8:

 Moe Drabowsky!  Wow, this pack has been great!  My first Z-man, first Hippo, and my first Moe! A rookie card at that!  Pudge, you were a beast behind the plate and at the dish, but not even you can top a 1957 rookie of Moe Drabowsky!

Official Score:
Zippy Zappy Repack = 7
Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck = 1

 Round 9:

 A repeat of a Kerry Wood card against a pretty nifty horizontal fielding shot of Jorge Cantu.  We'll throw the Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck team a bone here and give them a pity point.

Official Score:
Zippy Zappy Repack = 7
Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck = 2

 Round 10:

 Ooooooh!  A gold parallel Kerry Wood card from 2004 Topps.  This is my 340th unique KW card.  Very nice.  Eric Chavez was a dynamo is his early A's days, but he's no match for an addition to a player collection.

Official Score:
Zippy Zappy Repack = 8
Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck = 2

 Round 11:

I drafted Scott Kazmir early in the spring of 2002 for my fantasy baseball keeper league.  In this particular league we had a minor league system and I thought Kazmir was the goods when he was coming out of high school (think Billy Wagner 2.0).  I once thought Nick Struck was the goods, too.  But, no longer.  Scott Kazmir scores another point for Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck in an attempt at a late rally.

Official Score:
Zippy Zappy Repack = 8
Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck = 3

 Round 12:

 In my mind Matt Szczur is the Cub on the current roster who has replaced Jeff Samardzija.  Yep, you read that correctly.  Look at the spellings of those two last names if you're not sure what I'm talking about.  Board Game?  One of my least favorite all-time Cubs.  He wore out his welcome in Chicago in a hurry.  Somebody please show Milton Bradley the door.

Official Score:
Zippy Zappy Repack = 9
Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck = 3

 Round 13:

 Baez!  The free-swingin' Javy Baez!  I really like the look of this card.  So much so that I have about two dozen of these in my collection.  Yes, I love my prospects! Chien-ming Wang?  A boring camera shot of a Yankee I don't care much about.  This contest is quickly getting out of hand!

Official Score:
Zippy Zappy Repack = 10
Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck = 3

 Round 14:

 Whoa!  A die-cut of Javy Baez!  I like the Endy Chavez shot, but it's a die-cut AND shiny!  Case closed.

Official Score:
Zippy Zappy Repack = 11
Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck = 3

 Round 15:

A dinged up (on two corners) Baez, which is a repeat for me, against a Tulo StarQuest card.  Tulo carried my fantasy league team during the first two-thirds of this season and I'm debating if I want to protect him for next year.  Tulo is a great fantasy bat, but he always gets hurt.   First world problems for sure.  Too little, too late for the tag team of Fleer Ultra and Upper Deck.

Official Score:
Zippy Zappy Repack = 11
Fleer Ultra/Upper Deck = 4

Wow, fifteen rounds in a Pack Wars.  This has definitely been a marathon, but a fun one at that.

Zippy Zappy, that pack carried some serious mojo!  Vintage, Szczur, Z-man, Kid K, Vogelmonster and ROCK SHOULDERS.  It's as though you can read me like an open book.  Thanks so much for zapping me, yet again.  When I rise up from my self-imposed baseball card hiatus I will be sure to repay the favor!  Thanks again!

Ebay's Bargain Bins

I follow quite a few members of the baseball card collecting faction of the blogosphere.  And let me tell you something... you sure do know how to make a guy envious.  Not only do you have amazing organizational skills, millions of cards, and pull sweet hits, but you're finding sweet deals all over the place.  I'm not going to even bother linking an example, because it seems like everybody and their uncle are finding deals they're more than happy with.

Well, I had a little down time one evening recently, and I had just finished my most recent book, so I paid "The Bay" a visit.  I typed in a couple of Cubs who I've been following closely as of late and sorted by "Price + Shipping: Lowest First."

I then placed a bunch of small time bids and watched the hands of the clock slowly tick by.  When it was all said and done I was outbid on a plethora of auctions, but I won three, one of which I was completely shocked by.

Let's start with the worst bargain of the bunch:

 I don't have any Kyle Hendricks cards where he's wearing an actual Cubs jersey, but the I-Cubs are pretty close.  This card is from the 2014 Pacific Coast League All-Star Game set.  I paid just a hair under two bucks for this one, but it's only my second Hendricks card and it's the first one of him playing for his current organization.  All-in-all, not the best deal, because I'm sure the entire PCL All-Star set runs around ten dollars, but I'm not regretting this one.

Next up, a 2014 Jake Arrieta sparkly ruby red parallel from Topps.

I was really disappointed with much of the photo cropping Topps did with their 2014 flagship product, but this one is pretty nice.  I love the contrast of the red sparkles with the blue border and uniform.  The horizontal nature of the card is plus as well.  I don't have many cards of Jake in a Cubs uniform and hopefully his name will litter the 2015 checklists.  This one makes me smile.

Off topic side note:  No Shave November is right around the corner and my wife approved an Arrieta-esque beard.  Should be a fun experiment!

Lastly, the auction I was most shocked to win.  And it was only for $3.62 shipped: a 2011 Bowman Chrome orange parallel of the Vogelmonster!

It is pretty darned close to being a Christmas Card, but I'm glad it wasn't because I didn't want to get in a bidding war with Gavin.  I've seen orange Bowman Chrome parallels go for big bucks, but I think this one flew under the radar because it's three years old and is of a Cubs prospect who gets lost in the shuffle.

Dan Vogelbach is one of my favorites in the Cubs' pipeline at the moment and he will be playing in the Arizona Fall League before too long.  With this guy manning first base in Chicago I'm hoping Vogelbach impresses other scouts and he can become a big trade chip.  I'll still follow him if he's sent to another team via trade, but he doesn't have much of a future in Cubs and I'd like to see him make it to The Show.

I have another round of bargains from Ebay to post, but they're still in transit. 
Thanks for stopping by today!

Book Review: One-Handed Catch

Title: One-Handed Catch  

Author: MJ Auch 
Genre: Fictional, Short Story

Ease of Reading: Another quick read, this one took me just a few sittings to knock out.  In all, it totals two hundred forty-six pages twelve-point font.
Synapse: Norm, the twelve year old son of a butcher, loses his hand in a meat grinder.  He struggles with how others will perceive him and he doesn't want attention drawn to himself and his disability.  He feels his mother is out to make things difficult for him, although she is just asking his teacher and coach to not give him a free pass.  His best friend thinks he should give up baseball and his dad, who is dealing with post-accident guilt, won't spend time him.  Norm, who wasn't the best baseball talent to begin with, listens to the radio and reads the newspaper in attempt to glean as many baseball related tips as possible to help improve his game.  As Norm begins to learn how to cope with the loss of his hand he finds he has a solid support network of people who are pushing him to succeed in different ways.  Before long he has learned to tie his own shoes again and is walloping the ball into the gap.
Comments: If I can't find a taker for this book I think I may donate it to one of the middle schools in my school district.  It's a good story about perseverance and relationships through the eyes of a pre-teen boy.  At the end of the book there's a brief segment about the author and I learned the storyline is based loosely upon the author's husband, who lost his hand in meat market.
On a side note, the cover and title are a bit misleading.  I figured the book would climax at the end with Norm making a fantastic one-handed catch.  Wrong.  His friend, Carl, accidentally makes a nice catch in centerfield and Norm pitches the game of his life.  Okay, I didn't see that one coming.
 Grade: Overall, I felt the book was a fairly quick read and it kept my interest.  It was a nice little tale, but I felt I was a bit older than the intended audience.  The twelve year old me gives it an 'A'.  Good subject matter, solid plot, nice life lessons to be learned. If you have a young baseball nut at home this one would probably be right up their alley.

Cubs Convention Calendar: September

"With darkness setting in over Wrigley Field on September 28, 1938, the umpires were set to call the game a tie following one last at-bat.  That's when Gabby Hartnett smacked his famous "Homer in the Gloamin'," an 0-2 fastball deep into the dusk-lit sky off of Pittsburgh's Mace Brown to virtually clinch the 1938 NL Pennant for Chicago. Shown here, Hartnett was mobbed by fans, reporters, and teammates as he circle the bases for home."

What a great shot of Wrigley Field being overtaken by fans!  Ahhhh... post season baseball... it's been some time now!  I'd love to live long enough to see something like this again for my Cubs.

Side note #1: A short video which has the radio call of the homerun can be found here.

Side note #2: Gabby Hartnett, a hall of fame member, had one of the strangest nicknames I've heard of: Old Tomato Face.  Just plain odd.

Side note #3: For those of you who don't use gloamin' or gloaming on a regular basis because you're not familiar with the term...

Work gloamin'  into your everyday vernacular and impress your friends!