Off Hiatus Bowman Draft Set Help

Tony, the proprietor of Off Hiatus Baseball Cards and the recipient of mass quantities of binders from his in-laws, sent me a complimentary note and some cards for my 2015 Bowman Draft Chrome set build.

 I'm always a sucker for a good note.  "You've got a great collection"  Aww, shucks.  Thanks, Tony!

If you have some chromey 2016 Bowman Draft that could possibly fill some holes in my set, then please don't hesitate about contacting me!  

Thanks for the cards, Tony!

Happy Valemtine's Day

I'm not sure why my wife and I purposely mispronounce this Hallmark Holiday as Valemtine's Day, but this year was a really romantic one.


I gave the Peoria Chiefs a call and booked a private suite for the 13th. We had a nice quiet meal. 

It was truly a delight to get out of the house and spend a distraction free evening with the one I love.

Laura was given roses when we checked in and we had a couple of drinks while we waited for our suite to become available. Once in the suite we were served an appetizer of ricotta and roasted tomato crostini, followed by a pair of house salads and bread. I had pre-ordered from the menu and we wound up sharing the entrées of chicken roulade and carved strip loin. For dessert we had devoured six tasty chocolate covered strawberries.

We may have had a view of the ballpark, but it certainly wasn't your typical ballpark food!

This morning Laura gave me wonderful card, which plays off one of the inside jokes that tend to develop over the course of a marriage. (She really enjoys butter!)

Happy Valemtine's Day!

Random, In So Many Ways

I've sent cards to David in Alaska on a couple of separate occasions. He doesn't have blog, but he's solid trader and always sends some really nice cardboard in return. So nice in fact that I always feel indebted to him and must keep an eye out for new cards. This time was no different, although it was certainly a bit more random.

How so?  Well, for starters this yellow padded envelope came unannounced and without a note. I had no idea it was coming, yet here it is with all of it's glorious contents. So, let's dig in.

 BOOM! My Karl Olson collection is almost complete! The 1952 Topps, red back version, will be the last to fall.

 The next best thing to actual vintage are cards with an old-timey feel to them.  The playing cards of Johnny Evers and Frank Chance are from the 2013 Panini Golden Age set. Joe Tinker does in fact have a card in the set and I'll find it before long.

The 2013 Panini Cooperstown Lumberjacks insert set is pretty class.  The front of the card has a faux wood texture to it. Very high class!

More actual vintage!  (The Fleer team sticker isn't vintage, but it'll be stored in the first page of one of my binders with other Cubs team stickers.)  The Ron Santo is certainly a sharp looking card on the front.

The back? Well, that's a different story. The Kessinger and Altman also have paper loss/addition on the backs. These cards were once proudly stored in someone's collection and now they'll be stored just as proudly in mine!

RANDOMNESS ALERT!  A magnet? 

I have the Sandberg magnet from the same Collect the STARS set.  Pretty cool!  I really want to get a mini refrigerator for the man room so I can stick this bad boy to something metal. (And having adult beverages within reach would be cool, too.)

Back to cards . . .

 Two Cubs #1 draft picks separated by twenty-one years.  I have a PC of one of these gentleman (left), yet I somehow have almost as many cards of the non-PC guy (right). I don't mind though!

And here's a random Bipping times two!

 I've been Javied and Solered! The Soler in the middle is a 2015 Diamond Kings photo variation card.

An Addison relic!  I must admit that my favorite Addison Russell cards are with him wearing the USA uniform.

And now we've seen all the young mashers.  I really like how the Schwarber photographed. Shiny and colorful. That's a win-win!

RANDOMNESS ALERT!

 Did you know Maria Sharapova is 6'2"?  Good gracious that's one tall tennis player! This is the first tennis card in my collection and it just so happens to be a relic and serial numbered to 500. Nice!

Another shiny and colorful card, but this time it's a sweet Matt Szczur autograph from last year's Donruss set. I already miss Starlin, but the addition of this deep blue Gypsy Queen relic helps a little.

I haven't seen one of these before.

 I have probably a dozen of these Randy Wells cards, because I participated in a cardsphere group break when 2012 Topps came out. None of mine are missing the name on the front though. This seems like a very random thing to have missing on a card.

Speaking of random . . . RANDOMNESS ALERT!

 Yeah. That's right people.  Just soak it in . . .

How glorious is that card? There's actually a 110 card set that was put out in 1992 and there are some sets, a wax box, and singles on Ebay. I have mine though and it is tremendous!
What a great way to cap a package full of Cubs and randomness.

David, thank you for the cards! Let me know if there's anything special I can hunt down for you!

Cubs Convention Calendar

One of the items in my Cubs Convention goody bag was a calendar. It sports a simple design but it has some nice facts in the bottom margin and each Cubs game is noted.

One big change from past calendars is that every player featured in the calendar is STILL with the team! Because of how early printing dates are set this is a pretty rare occurrence. From what I can tell, some of the most recent pictures are from this October. 

Let's take a look.

 I'm laughing on the inside, because Jorge Soler has been matched up with January. If there is one player that is known for not liking the cold, it is Jorge.  Why else would he dress like a ninja?

Of the thirteen players in the calendar I figure Javier Baez was one of the last ones chosen. He gets the nod over Chris Coghlan, Travis Wood, Justin Grimm, Kyle Hendricks or Joe Maddon.

 Local boy, Ben Zobrist, and general manager, Jed Hoyer, make an appearance. Zobrist may not be the player he once was, but he'll bring a solid clubhouse presence, position flexibility, and another patient bat to the lineup.  In other words, he's a great fit.

 I think it's appropriate to have the Opening Day starter be the poster boy for April.  Good choice.

 Addison Russell is the one guy I'm worried about this year. I don't want him to be an all-field no-hit shortstop and I think 2016 will be a big year in his development.

 This is my second favorite picture in the calendar. Rizzo doesn't look quite sure if he got all of it, but Starlin, in the background, sure does look confident!

 I would love to see a set of baseball cards where everything is black and white in the background and the player POPS out at you like this. I could live without the blue tinting at the top and fading color at the bottom, but it's a solid design overall.  Oh, and yes, that Kris Bryant character makes and appearance.

 Kerry Wood will always be #34 to me.  But, Jon Lester isn't a bad guy to carry on Kid K's uniform number.

 Miggy Mont!  I'm hoping for a healthy offensive season from Miguel. His thumb injury took its toll last year and his production suffered a bit.

 I believe this shot is from the nearly epic homerun Kyle Schwarber belted on top of the Wrigley Field scoreboard during the playoff series against the Cardinals. What a great picture. The bat is just about to come to rest, Schwarber is fixated on the baseball, the fans are beginning to erupt, and the bat boys are having the time of their lives. Great picture!  This picture is my favorite in the calendar and it's not even close.

 Jed, J-Hey, and Theo!  We paid Jason Heyward a boat load of money when Chris Coghlan could have provided similar offensive production for a fraction of the cost. Heyward can play centerfield and he is on the correct side of 30, but I'm still not completely on board with this signing.  It smells a lot like the Alfonso Soriano signing back in 2006. I hope I'm wrong.

 Pedro! Pedro Strop is my favorite bullpen guy and I'm excited that he made the cut for the calendar.

Thirteen months!  Nice!  Hector Rondon is pretty filthy when he's zeroed in.  I suppose it's only fitting the closer gets to close out the calendar. 

This calendar is being hung in the office on the main level of our home. I can count the number of baseball related items that exist on the main level on one hand. In 2017 it will find it's way to the man cave downstairs, but until then it will get plenty of use!

Thanks for reading and Go Cubs!

No Flagship for Me

I've already got my fill of 2016 Topps Series 1, and I don't even have one card in my possession yet. I made a realization back in 2011, when I was last collecting Topps flagship product, that even though I like to build sets that Topps flagship products are a poor choice for me.

I like to trade within our little community, and I can usually put together a team set of Series 1, Series 2 and Update through swapping cardboard. Since then I have decided to build other sets and be patient as my Topps flagship Cubs team sets are completed through trades.

In fact, last year I didn't buy any packs of Series 1, only one pack of Series 2 (which I still haven't opened), and one jumbo pack of Update. I've been saving that Series 2 pack (on the right) for a rainy day, but it's been too stinking cold as of late.

I'm not sure what I'm going to set build this year, but the early leaders are Stadium Club or Wacky Packages. Depends on the design of SC and if players are included in the newest incarnation of Wacky Packages.

In the meantime I've decided to activate a 30-day free trial of Netflix and binge watch some television series. I'm finally finishing off the last season of HIMYM and I hope to get started on either Arrow, The Flash, or The Clone Wars.

My sister gave me a Roku stick for Christmas which plugs into the HDMI port on my flatscreen. I had the first issue of the Roku and the newest version certainly does not disappoint.

While binge watching television I've been working on a new project.  You knows, multi-tasking . . . My sister also gave me this nice Topps album from her collection and now I'm trying to fill it with one card of every player who has been enshrined in baseball's Hall of Fame.

 It's a slow, but fun process. I've got all the players from the initial class covered, but there are MANY gaps after that. I've decided to order the players in pages by the year they were inducted, rather than alphabetically, because it'll be easier to keep things in order when new players are enshrined.

 Many of the cards are reprints from the "Cards Your Mother Threw Out" insert set or from Topps Archives. I would eventually like to replace all of them with vintage when fiscally possible. I've spent many a winter night sifting through cards and it's been fun!

Lastly, I was honored to be asked to participate in JBF's Super Traders group. PATP is putting together a list of the members in the group and I think this will be a fun and easy way to maintain my interest within the hobby. It should also help motivate me to pare down my collection. No more selling team lots on eBay or reaching out to make trades. Now I can just find a flat rate mailer, reference the address list and mail away without worries. And of course those non-Super Traders, who I frequently send packages to (like ZZ), won't be forgotten.

It's been a slow start to 2016 as far as new cardboard goes, but that was to be expected as there hasn't been a card show within 125 miles of me. I've been tempted on two occasions to hit the road to attend a show, but whole the sitting in a car for more than four hours is quite a deterrent. Things will pick up sooner or later, but probably not until baseball season is among us. By then I'll be coaching and have less time, but I'll have been bitten buy the collecting bug.  It really is hard to avoid come Opening Day!

As always, thanks for reading!