If I Had Million Dollars

If you're like me, then you like to spend those precious moments of free time to browse Ebay with nary the intent to place a bid. I admit, I like to look at cardboard, especially the higher end items. I'll never own them, but it's nice to dream. I can't walk on to a car lot or in a jewelry store to just peruse the merchandise without feeling pressure from a salesperson. I love the anonymity of Ebay.  No pressure to purchase. No hassle. No problems.

I was recently contacted by a representative from Invaluable.com, which is a premier auction site, and I took a look around.

Wow!  There is some serious window shopping to be done on that auction site!

The Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory has a bunch of auctions up and there is some really awesome stuff. I actually just killed two hours of my Veterans Day browsing the auctions with out the actual intent to buy anything.  So much cool stuff to look at and dream on.

My favorite was an autographed Ernie Banks ball with fourteen different career related stats.

And now, let's link this to the title of today's post . . .

If I had a million dollars I'd pay off the house, buy the ball, and then maybe get you guys a few things, too.

Cue the music!

For Matt, from Bob Walk the Plank, I found a nice chunk of the foul poll from Forbes Field.

Anyone know of a Dodger fan who is also a night owl?  Isn't this ticket stub almost too perfect?

Did you know Willie Stargell is one of the players Gavin, of Baseball Card Breakdown, is collecting.  I didn't know until recently when I was looking for some cards to send him.  Do you think he would like this bowling shirt?

What do you get the guy who has nearly every Griffey card ever manufactured?  Maybe the Junior Junkie would like a glove, ball, bat or cleats?

I haven't traded with Kerry in some time, but I bet he would have room for a ball, amongst his Cards on Cards.

I saw this platter and at first thought it should belong in the tableware section of the site, but then I realized it might be something a Brewers/Braves guy might want to use during dinner parties?  No?  Yeah, that was probably a stretch.

I've always wanted to own a stadium seat, but I really would like one with Peoria or Cubs ties. I bet The Lost Collector could find room in his abode for this beauty.

Sorry, Zippy Zappy.  The auction site didn't have any Yankee prospect memorabilia, just musty old vintage-type stuff that you wouldn't like.  Rest assured though, if I found a superfractor of your boy, LUUUUUUIIIISSS, I would spend the dough!

My friend Jeff could surprise his George Brett crazed wife with his hat and flip-down sunglasses.  That's pretty cool!

Lastly, I found something or my little sis!  "A League of Their Own" is one of her favorite movies and this is something I think she'd really like. 

Unfortunately, I don't have an extra million dollars just laying around.  But it is fun to look and dream about!
Thanks for stopping by and happy dreaming!

Oh, Bugger.

I received a package from John Arnold, who apparently resides across the pond in the United Kingdom.  Here's the thing: I don't remember setting up a trade.  Every couple of months I clean out my e-mail inbox and it's possible there was something in there from John, but it's long gone now.  John, if you're out there and still reading my blog, please send me an e-mail so I can properly tailor a return package to your interests!

Any of you fine bloggers trade with John before?  Does he like the Marlins, Athletics or Les Expos?  Man, I sure do have some cardboard I'd like to send out into the blogosphere!

There were two good-sized team bags in John's package and they were all Cubs!  Let's take a look:

 We start off with an intimidating pose from Big Z and a nice Fukudome for my player collection.  I really like the old school logos Upper Deck used on the cards.

 Jorger Soler!  Woo-Hoo!  Theo, I know you're getting some nice trade offers for Jorge, but trust me, you want this guy in your lineup!  DO. NOT. TRADE. JORGE!

 Miggy and The Bear.  Sounds like the name of an Indie Rock band if I ever heard of one.

 Here are a pair of young Cubs who might get traded this off season. My money is on AA; he needs a change of scenery.

Above, we have quite a nice collection of Cubs from a smattering of different sets.  I do love me some variety!

 Pedro and his crooked hat in red Target parallel form!  The Marlon Byrd blue relic will go into the relic box.  Very nice.

Stickers!

 I've never bought the sticker packs, but I think this may finish off my team set for 2011.

 It's my 421st unique Kerry Wood card in my collection, and a die-cut to boot!

Lastly, we'll finish off with a concept I wish the card companies would bring back: the 40 man roster.

 I don't know that I would ever try to complete a set like this again, as I just knocked out my 2001 Topps Total set this year.  But I definitely would chase down all of the Cubs for sure.

Thanks for the Cubs, John!  Please get in touch with me so I can send some cards back your way!

All My Karl Olson Cards

Is there anything better than searching for vintage at a card show?  Personally, I love the hunt and don't mind asking if a dealer would come down a couple of dollars.  Especially, if the subject on the cards is an obscure outfielder from the 1950's.

1952 Topps, #72

Karl Olson and I share the same last name, and thus my interest. There's no relation that I know of, but it's still pretty cool to chase a guy from a handful of decades ago and see your name on some cool vintage cardboard.


My dad introduced me to Karl when I was a young collector. He must have found one of the cards below at a card show while passing the time as his soon meandered aimlessly up and down the aisles.

Thanks to Gavin for the trade! 1955 Topps, #72

I remember being pretty jealous of his Karl Olson card at the time. As I mentioned early on this very blog, adolescent me didn't have money to spend on vintage, just junk wax.

1956 Topps, #322

Karl spent parts of six season in Major League Baseball playing for the Red Sox, Nationals ad Tigers.  He was once a top prospect for the Red Sox, but Olson's career was put on pause while he served his country in the Korean War.  When he returned to the Red Sox after the All-Star break in 1953 he actually rejoined the team with another outfielder on the same day: Ted Williams.

1957 Topps, #153

He was able to hang around professional baseball until 1957, but he never really regained the promise showed before serving in the war.  He retired from baseball at the age of twenty-six and went into the hamburger business.  Later he took up carpentry and was a contractor for a couple of decades.  He passed away on Christmas Day of 2010 at the age of eighty. If you'd like to read more about Karl Olson then check out the very detailed biography on SABR's website.

You can check out my cataloged collection and needs here.  I'm missing three of Karl's original vintage cards and if I track them down, then I'll probably start searching for the three reprints. Fun-fun!

Thanks for reading!

My 2015 Season Recap

I attended seventeen professional baseball games in 2015 after witnessing twenty-two last year and nineteen in 2013.  In terms of attendance this was a down year for me, but last year's numbers were bolstered by five spring training games in Arizona.

In all I made it two eight MLB games and nine MiLB games.  Here's the tale of the tape:

 Here's a brief breakdown:
* The home teams were at a severe disadvantage if I had walked through the turnstile, because I seemed to bring the visiting club luck on eleven of the seventeen contests.  Yikes!
* I saw games in two different minor league stadiums (Peoria and Stockton, CA) and seven different major league stadiums: WrigleyField, Miller Park, Kauffman Stadium, Oakland Coliseum, AT&T Park, Minute Maid Park, and Busch Stadium. 
*My minor MiLB team of the choice, the South Bend Cubs of the Midwest League, split the two games I saw.
*My local MiLB team, the Peoria Chiefs, went two and five in the seven games I attended.
*The Cubs? I saw them play live only four times.  I witnessed Kris Bryant's debut, a loss, in my only trip to Wrigley this year. I later saw the Cubs play two games in Milwaukee, which were both losses, but I did see Kris Bryant's first career home run! 

The fourth game was my favorite of the whole year. I traveled with my sister and two of my good friends to St. Louis to watch the Cubs beat the Cardinals in Busch Stadium to tie up the NLDS at one game apiece.

I had not been to Cubs playoff game since 2003 in Wrigley versus the Atlanta Braves. St. Louis was all decked out in red, including the city's fountains. It was a beautiful evening, and even better because the bases always seemed to be full with Cubs!

I haven't had that much fun at a ballpark in a long, long time.

My sister and I at Busch after a Cubs' Game 2 victory!

I've been thinking about setting some goals for 2016 and I've decided I would like to cross off two more ballparks from my list.  I'm undecided on where I would like to go, but everything I need is on either the west or east coasts, which means it'll cost a pretty penny in travel expenses. I've toyed with the idea of flying to Atlanta, watching a game, and flying back in the same day, but only at the right price. I only need seven more ballparks until I've seen them all, so there's no rush. If things don't lineup just so, then I'll probably put my quest on hold for a summer.

I plan on attending the Cubs Convention for the first time and although it isn't a game I'm pretty excited about it. Hopefully I'll be a able to get a couple of in-person autographs (*cough*cough*David*cough*Ross*cough).

Lastly, I think it might be fun to see all of the Midwest League ballparks.  Outside of gas and maybe a couple of cheap hotel rooms it would be relatively inexpensive. It's a task I possibly manage in one summer. Plus, if I schedule it right I could follow the South Bend Cubs for a spell. Nice!

2015 was a fun year to be a Cub fan.  Here's to hoping it's more of the same in 2016!

Annual P-town Card Show

The show gets smaller and smaller with each passing year. We were missing two of the usual dealers which knocked the number down to fifteen in all.  If I remember correctly I bought cardboard from six of the dealers today, ranging from a purchase of one dollar up to twenty-five dollars.

I've sorted through everything and I'm happy to say that I've added cards to the stacks of six of my more frequent trading partners. Plus, I found #5 from my my "Top 5 Most Wanted" cards list in the right margin. Now, I just have to remember who I promised to hunt this McKirahan card down for!

 For a buck a piece, the three Sandberg cards go right into the player collection.  The top left card is from Post, but it's all in French. It has a tab at the top to pull and batting Ryno "stand-ups" on the other side.  Oh lala!
The Kerry Wood card is a Pacific Card-supial, which I've talked about before, but can always use more of!

The bottom left is from the 2004 Playoff set, one of the card companies that came around during the fifteen years I was away from the hobby. The card on the top right is from a 1994 Upper Deck set and it's a scratch-off game!  Here's the inside:

 And here are the rules on the back:

Pretty cool, no?  Speaking of cool, I decided to splurge and buy some Cubs.  The Panini Lester is very X-fractor-ish, but it's numbered and would look sweet with an autograph.  #2016CubConvention

The Rizzo is my second "badge" card, but it's the only one in my collection now as I sent a McCutchen to West Virginia some time ago.

I remember when Chris Archer was acquired from the Indians and then pitched for the Peoria Chiefs.  Now he's a stud starter for Tampa, but a card of his in Cubs blue is most welcome.

I didn't know this card of Hector Rondon existed until today.  Maybe it was an overpay at a dollar, but I'm still happy to have it.

I found a Billy Williams card I didn't own and a nice card of a smiling Derrek Lee. You know when you spend like ten minutes at one table looking through the dealer's wares and you don't really find anything that speaks to you, but feel like you should purchase something anyway?  Yeah, these two cards are an example of that. Four for a buck.  The other two from this purchase are earmarked for a bro in Portland.

 I still think Jorger Soler is the real deal.  I know he performed at replacement level this year, but he had one of the wider strike zone the first two months of the season and then he battle some injuries.  Tough luck.

A healthy Soler could hit 0.290 with 25+ homers next year.  That's nothing to sneeze at.

These two were part of my largest monetary purchase of the day.  Each was five bucks and I'm very, very pleased to add them to my collection.

Carson Sands is part of that stellar 2014 Cubs draft class and Paul Blackburn still has a chance to make the majors.  A Blackburn autographed AND serial numbered (#/10) for five bucks?  Yes, please!  May I have another?

The last dealer I purchased from had three jumbo boxes at 75% off.  Heaven!  I picked out some trade bait and then found nine different Donruss puzzles.  The cost?  A cool $5 for the nine.

I'm thinking about putting the puzzles together, framing them, and decorating the walls outside the man room with them.  We'll see if that ever happens, but it does sound like a nice idea!

Everything else from here goes into the trade boxes.  I didn't really have anyone in mind for these cards, but they caught my eye for one reason or another and the price was right in each case.

 I believe that's a Brooks Robinson card, but no where (front or back) does it ever mention a name.

 The Juan Gone card is really beat up, but it's a pizza card for a dime!  How could I pass that up?

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I LOVE Houston's orange alternate jersey tops.  They are fantastic.

 A snow camo of a Cardinal?  If there's no takers for this one, then I'll probably trade it in for some David Ross cards from 2015 Update at my LCS.  Can you believe not one of the fifteen dealers had any Topps Update singles?  And only one had packs that I could buy?  Ouch.  So much for me finding Pete Gray card or David Ross' throwback variation.

 These two will stay in my collection.  I have a Moose bobblehead that will now be flanked by this card.  And, how cool of a shot of that is Lorenzo Cain.  If you want to read a cool story about Cain and how he broke into baseball, then you should read the article featuring him in Sports Illustrated last year.

Leave me a note if you see anything you're interested in.  I'm always up for a trade.

Now, I just have to wait another 366 days until I have a show within 75 miles of my house.  2016 is a leap year after all. Sigh.