Show time again

 **Reminder that if you haven't got a guess in yet, go here to try and score some serial numbered cards....

Here's a quick little recap from my last card show.  Let's start with my traditional 9 card scan and comments....

Row 1 - Old Timers.  Always glad to grab early 70s cards when they are cheap enough.  And that's my first Frank Howard relic, I like it!

Row 2 - the regular season offensive MVPs in shiny form, along with an unnecessarily crazied up Winfield.  At least it's serial numbered.

Row 3 - Cool mini die-cut of Ryan.  For some reason I hadn't seen these before, even though it is from back in 2021.  The Canseco is as unnecessarily crazied up as the Winfield, but I like them both anyway.  And the Betts looks quite nice in hand.

Next up, 2 very different Art Shell cards.  Time does a number on us all.

The one on the left is Shell's RC, even though it was his 4th year in the league.

The back of the card is pretty strange.  Shell was a Tackle (duh), but his RC has Punt Return stats.  And he didn't even return a punt in the year the card was made.

Goofy, Topps!

On another track, I have accumulated some Paul Skenes cards:

I have 5 of the regular Bowman, and 4 of the Chrome.  I wouldn't mind trading some of these away, if there is interest.  For example, I would happily send 3 of the Bowman out for a single Skenes Topps RC.  I'd also be willing to trade them for other stuff, just make me an offer!

That's it for today, thanks for reading.

Serial stack contest - part 2

I had a lot of fun with my previous mini-contest to give away a stack of serial numbered cards.  So much so that I have been accumulating another stack for another go, and today is the day!

So up for grabs today is a stack of exactly 100 serial numbered cards.  This stack probably wouldn't be interesting to team collectors or player collectors.  I am betting that most of the teams in MLB are in here somewhere.  But if you are an omnivore collector like me, or want a quick way to accumulate trade bait, or just like serial numbered cards, this may be for you!

If you want the cards, what you need to do is guess the total sum of the serial numbers, without going over, Price is Right style. (That is a change from last time...)  So for example, if there were three cards in the lot, one #/100, one #/ 1999 and one #/125, the sum would be 100+1999+25 = 2124.  Obviously, with 100 cards, the number you will be guessing will be much higher!

Here is a pic to help you with your guessing...

There are 18 Hall of Famers in this lot, but many of the cards are also of relative nobodies.  The COMC.com value of this lot would be very high.... the real resale value is much lower of course.

The highest serial number in the lot is #/9000 and the lowest is #/8.  I would not take the results from the last contest to be a perfect guide for your guesses, but do what makes you happy!

OK, that's all the hints, feel free to make your guess in the comments!  And I am going to go old school, so if you pimp the contest on your blog, you can have an extra guess, just put the link to the post in the comments with your second guess.

Guessing will close on Thursday, November 7th at 5PM Pacific time!

Quick congrats to the Dodgers

 I won't go crazy writing about the series, since I am not one of the several very good Dodgers oriented bloggers out there that will do a great job of it, but I did want to congratulate the former Brooklyn squad on its 8th championship.

I was happy to see a couple of Dodgers I really like play pivotal roles in the win, Walker Buehler and the MVP, Freddie Freeman.

Buehler has had a tough run with LA, with health issues all over the place.  I thought highly of him early in his career, but he just hasn't been able to stay on the field.  Maybe this is a turning point?  Even if it is, I think it might be doubtful that he stays a Dodger next year.  We'll see.

Conversely, I didn't think much of Freeman when he was young.  I don't really know why, but he didn't click for me.  But over the years, I've definitely grown to root for him.  I like doubles guys, and Freeman is the current active leader.

Here are a card of each of them that I picked up recently.  The Buehler is /99 and the Freeman /199.  Not exactly "Dodger Blue", but I definitely like them both.

Randomness catch up

 This post consists of a few scans that were in my drafts from card shows over the last few months.  I had some trouble posting for a while, but seem to be getting back in the swing of things, so let's take a look!

I've been picking up Stadium Club singles lately whenever I see them in the cheap boxes.  Pictures of all time greats or just funky photos are what I grab.

I believe these were all dimes or quarters.  Not sure why they decided to make the Carter card black and white, but I like it that way.

This one, I probably overpaid for, $1 I think, but I quite like the pic.  The X-Fractorness doesn't obscure it quite as much in hand.

No theme here, total randomness:

The beat up Aaron was only a couple of bucks, a steal.  The Betts is an Image Variation.  Before this card, I was not aware that there were Image Variations in the Chrome Anniversary sets.

Football???  For a buck, this card, numbered out of 75, was an interesting pickup.  I have more nice Justin Herbert cards than I need.

Basketball???   The Starting Lineup cards are cool, and the oddball Blazers autos were a nice cheap find too.  Vandeweghe and Bates were quite popular around here back in the day.

Back to Baseball.

From worthless (Showalter, but I like the image) to expensive (the Alonso is a tough pull and goes for a few bucks) to the vintage-ish (the bottom row is actually from 1983, The Starliner Stickers set, whatever that is).

Last one!

Another hodgepodge with no theme here.  Numbered Refractors of Kershaw are nice.  The Johnson card is one of those super thick hunks of cardboard.  Moments and Milestones is a ridiculous set, but and Ichiro numbered /10 is welcome here.  And the Acuna is my first "Super Rare Red Foil" card.  Super rare might be pushing it, but it's cool.

My weird 2024 MLB stats recap

 So the regular season is over.  I love statistics, so I was perusing the final season stats for MLB, as I often do.  A few things popped out at me, so I thought I would post about them.  These are only things that interest me, not anything that has wide appeal, so don't get excited.  But I've broken it down into 4 sections, 2 about specific statistics, and 2 about specific players.  Hope there is something interesting in there for you!

Batting average

After a slight rebound in 2023 to a MLB wide batting average of .248, 2024 saw a decline to .243, tied for the worst league wide average since the infamous Year of the Pitcher in 1968.  This is a bummer for a guy like me who likes to see the ball in play!

Only 7 players in MLB had a batting average of .300 or higher in 2024.  That's the fewest in any year for at least the last 20 years (that's as far as I had patience to look).  

The highest number of players at .300 or higher in the last 20 years was in 2009, with 42 players.  Wow.  

Of the 7 that made it this year (2024), all but one also had 30 home runs or more.  In that 2009 season, of the 42 above .300, only 6 of them had 30 bombs.  Kind of interesting.

Elly De La Cruz

Elly is one of the most fascinating young players in the bigs.  He's HUGE, especially for a SS.  He's FAST too.  Understandably, a lot of collectors are interested in him.  I too am intrigued by him, but at this point, I am more intrigued by his flaws.  Of course, if he can shore up the flaws, he could be one of the all time greats.

First, the good.  Elly led the majors in Stolen Bases with 67.  I think we are all aware of that, as for a while, he was on quite a pace.  Interestingly, Elly also led the majors in another stat, Errors, with 29. That seemed like an unusual combo, so I did a super quick scan, and found another player who led the league in both SB and E.   The one I found was Luis Aparicio in his rookie year of 1956.  I imagine there are others... if anyone knows of any others, leave them in the chat.  

But Elly didn't stop there.  He also led the majors in a third stat, Strikeouts with 218!   I haven't found anyone else who had that triple crown, SB, E and K for a season!  Has it happened?

So Elly struck out the most total times, but was only the 24th worst from a Strikeouts per Plate Appearances perspective.   He struck out once every 3.15 Plate Appearances.  The worst in the bigs was Elly's teammate Will Benson who struck out once every 2.19 Plate Appearances, or 154 Ks in 383 PA.  So it could be worse!

Shohei Ohtani

First off, I think Ohtani's offensive year was jaw-dropping.  Most stats will show Aaron Judge with the better offensive year, and I can't really disagree.  However, Shohei shouldn't be overshadowed in any way by Judge.  So let's talk about the aspect of Ohtani's game that Judge can't compete in, stolen bases.  Ohtani had an incredible jump in all aspects of his stolen base game this year.  **quick disclaimer - I am one of those pedantic people who think that current stolen base numbers aren't as impressive as 'the old days'.  It's flat out easier now with the rule changes!!**  OK, back to the awesome.... First off Shohei swiped 59 bags this year, 33 more than any other season in his career.  That's just a massive jump for a 30 year old player!  He also was successful at a crazy clip.  He was only caught 4 times, for a stealing percentage of 93.6%.  In his career before this season he was only at a 72.2% success rate.  Another huge jump!

Strikeouts and Walks

OK, first a quick reminder:  MLB Strikeouts are way, way way up and seem to go up even higher every year.  Again, I find myself in the old fuddy duddy camp, where we dream of a past where striking out 100 times meant you weren't much of a hitter.  So here's some interesting strikeout stuff from 2024.

(These stats include players with at least 20 walks)

Only 4 players in MLB had more walks than strikeouts:  

Juan Soto - 129 walks to 119 strikeouts, 1.08 BB/K

Mookie Betts - 61 walks  to 57 strikeouts, 1.07 BB/K

Steven Kwan - 53 walks  to 51 strikeouts, 1.04 BB/K

Kyle Tucker - 56 walks  to 53 strikeouts, 1.04 BB/K

Every other player in MLB had more strikeouts than walks including the player who is indisputably the best at not striking out....

Luis Arraez!  He only struck out 29 times in  661 Plate Appearances.  That's once every 22.79 Plate Appearances.  He beat the next best player, Steven Kwan by more than double.  Kwan struck out once every 10.45 Plate Appearances.  Arraez doesn't walk much either, only 24 times on the season!

So that's my random stat musings for 2024.  If you made it this far, you must be a stathead too!

Goodbye Charlie Hustle

Back to back passing posts.  Not fun times.  This one will be a little longer than yesterday's, because Pete Rose had a larger impact on my life than Dikembe did.  That is not to say that I think Pete was better in many ways than Mutombo was.  For instance, I think that I would enjoy hanging out with Mutombo far more than I would have with Rose.  The drive, focus, maybe even obsession that defined Rose probably wouldn't have made him the easiest friend.  In the few shows I have seen where Rose got to talk and show his personality, he seemed intense, almost to the point of being abrasive.  But he would have been fun to talk baseball with, as it's almost all he seemed interested in.

The impact Rose had on me was due partly to my obsession with numbers.  Heck, that's a part of why baseball and cards are so attractive to me.  Baseball is the most statistics oriented of the major sports.  And as a kid, one of the first real big numbers that was challenged was 4191.  And Pete did the challenging.

He wasn't the best player in the league, though he led the league in several stats several times.  But he wanted it as much as anyone, and never let up.  He is the all time leader in not only hits, but games played and plate appearances.

I have 71 Pete Rose cards in my keeper collection.  Here are 18 of them that popped out at me today when I was looking through them:

Pete in an Expos uniform always tickles me.  And cards of Pete with other players have often jumped out at me as well.

A little more vintagey with the second scan.

 Like most all of the vintage that I have been able to accumulate over the years, the is all a little beat up.  But with Pete Rose, a little beat up is almost appropriate.  I love all of these, but that 64 Topps is one of the jewels of my collection.  I don't imagine I will ever have a Pete Rose rookie, but the 64 is a much better looking card anyway.  However, if anyone has one, I would like to get a copy of one of the 1998 Topps Pete Rose Jr. cards.  Topps Chrome, Flagship or even Opening Day.

Deke was cool

** I wrote this post earlier today, when I heard about Dikembe....  Now I hear that Pete Rose has passed too.  That'll have to be another post.  Quite a day.** 

Dikembe Mutombo died at only 58 of brain cancer.  That's a sad one.  I had a co-worker die of brain cancer at 58 a few years ago too.  Seems far too young...

Mutombo was never the best player in the league, but he was the best shot blocker at times, and an asset to his teams.  He was a lot of fun too, I always laughed at those commercials where he made appearances like this one.  I know this is usually a baseball card blog, but here are a few of the Mutombo's I own.

OverVladdy'd

  So my card show habits should be well known to readers of this blog.  I head straight for the cheap boxes and rarely come up for breath.  This has a big effect on how my collection develops.  Here are a few examples:

1. Certain players, I end up with a lot of.  This is because these players, while good players, do not have a high $$ value among the greater collecting public.  Because of that, I end up finding cool cards of theirs (serial numbered, cool inserts etc.) all over the cheap boxes.  Some examples are Joey Votto, Juan Gonzalez, Zack Greinke...  My collections of these kinds of guys are pretty cool.

2. The hot rookies generally don't make it into my collection.  Actually, this 'problem' seems to have diminished lately.  With the card companies pumping out soooo many cards due to the resurgence of the hobby, base RCs and even some nicer RCs are starting to end up in the affordable areas of the show.  As long as they are not graded.

3. Another effect of soo many cards being pumped out is that I am finding just a ton of the recent cards in the cheap bins.  Nice ones too, so they keep my attention even as I wish for more older stuff.  In fact, I've noticed that the ratio of 2020-2023 cards in the stacks I bring home has skyrocketed.  Used to be, maybe 60% of my stack was from at least 10 years ago, but now it might be more like 15%.  Lots and lots of new stuff.

Which brings me to the point of the post.  I have my keeper cards in alphabetical order, so Vladimir Guerrerro's cards are right next to his son, Vladdy Jrs cards.  As I was going through them the other day, I realized that even though I have been collecting Vlad Sr for a loong time, I actually have MORE Vlad Jr cards than his dads.  That isn't because I want baby Vlad more, its just that they are very plentiful in the cheap bins!!  That just felt weird.  Its not that I don't like junior, but I really like senior.

The end result of THAT, was that I went through the Vlad Jr cards I had in my keepers, and pulled a bunch.  They aren't bad cards, but I think I will focus my Vlad Jr collection a little tighter, at least for now.  So I have a bunch of Vlad Jrs below (they weren't all keepers) that I am willing to trade if anyone needs to bulk up their collections of him.  I'd strongly prefer to send a bunch out in bulk, rather than one or two at a time, but will entertain offers!

Young Vladimir started slowly this year, but really came on and should get some down ballot MVP votes.

Anyone else have players that they accumulate too many of?

Anyone want to trade for BabyVlads??  Shoot me an offer in email if you don't mind (find my email in my profile), I'd rather keep offers private at this point.  I like most players, modern and vintage, so many kinds of offers would make me happy.

Here's what I have available.....there are a few nicer base cards, but most are inserts or parallels of some kind.

Recent pickups

 I've missed posting a bunch of shows worth of cards lately, but should have a bigger post with several shows worth of stuff to show soon.  But I wanted to pop up a single scan of the most recent show first.  Just 9 cards that I enjoyed...

In all, I added 33 cards to my keeper collection this show, but only 3 older that 2000.  Lots of newer stuff, as you can see in the scan.

First, I had to have the Votto on the Blue Jays.  I know he never played for them, and the pic is nothing special.  But I have always liked Votto, and he may not get too many on the Jays.  Hopefully I can upgrade this to a refractor somewhere down the road.

The rest are just fun stuff that show off my "I collect everyone" style.

I'll try and get back to posting soon!

The Blogger National 2024

 Sometimes it takes a Blogger Bat Around to get me to post!!  Unfortunately, I don't have much that is "National" worthy, but I did just get back from a pretty fun card show with what are, to me, some pretty great finds.  So I will use those for my National entry....

First up are these serial numbered cards of injured young stars.

The Julio is /2022 and the Acuna is /250.  These were $1 each, which I think is pretty great.

Next up is some football (sorry baseball fans) that was just too cheap to pass up.

These averaged less than $2 each, I got them in a stack so I can't say exact prices for each.

The Rodgers is probably the least expensive card here, but I like it a lot.  The Burrow RC seems to be one of his better ones, at least going by prices on COMC.  But the high price on COMC goes to the Herbert Immaculate, #/50.  It's up for $152.  Fat chance crazy seller!  But I was happy to get it for less than 2 bucks.

I would consider trading any of these football cards if the right offer came along....

Another nice find, this Kobe RC for under $2.  Not his best RC, but I couldn't pass it up.

And the scan that I am most excited about.

Each of these cards were $1.  The details:

I don't have many decent looking Trout parallels, so this was a no brainer

The Judge Neon is something I have never seen before.  I have been looking around to see how rare it is, but the only info I can find is that it is 'Ultra Rare'.  Anyone know much about them?  Best $1 of the day as far as I am concerned.

Witt is leading the league in batting average and having a great season.  I'm happy to have a nice prizm RC of his.

The Gold Tatis is also quite a find in a dollar box, as it is numbered /10!

Funky Guerrero #/99.  I have teased this before, but I am hopefully going to be offering a stack of baby Vlad for trade on the blog soon.  Let me know if you are interested!

And last, the Home Field Advantage card.  I like these a lot, and they are moderately rare.  At least I don't see them around much.  Mountcastle isn't amazing, but if he has a long career, this could be worth something.  

Thanks for reading and to Matt for starting this Bat Around!

Mays to the rescue

 If anything was ever going to get me out of my funk and do an actual post, the passing of Willie Mays is probably it.  All the good stuff about Mays will be written in other places, everyone should go find someplace to read about Willie today.

Willie and Hank are the most special baseball players of all time to me personally.  Losing them both kind of feels like losing grandpas, not that I had any relationship with them.  Just special ballplayers and men.

So as a quickie, here are all the Willie Mays cards in my collection.

2020 Topps Stadium Club Black Foil
2022 Topps Series 2 All-Star Alumni Commemorative Relics
2023 Topps Stadium Club Red Foil
2019 Topps Gallery Masterpiece
2020 Topps Stadium Club Chrome X-Fractor
2020 Topps Stadium Club Chrome Refractor

2016 Topps Update Series 3000 Hit Club
2016 Topps Stadium Club
2014 Topps Framed Rookie Reprints Black /199
2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Masters of the Game
2005 Donruss Diamond Kings HOF Heroes Red Framed
2005 Donruss Studio Portraits Diamond Kings Sepia Black & White/35

2005 Donruss Leather & Lumber Great Gloves /2000
1992 Ziploc
1984 ASA The Willie Mays Story
1974 Topps
1973 Topps
1972 Topps

Now we are to the point where I will keep pretty much any Mays, regardless of condition.  And the condition on some of these is horrendous!

1972 Topps
1971 Topps
1969 Globe Imports Playing Cards Gas Station Issue
1969 Topps
1968 Topps
1967 Topps checklist

1967 Topps
1966 Topps
1965 Topps
1964 Topps
1962 Post
1961 Topps

1960 Topps
1959 Topps
1959 Topps

And the crown jewel of my Mays collection, courtesy of a trade with Gavin at Baseball Card Breakdown...

We'll miss you Willie!

Oversized cards and big numbers

 **I have noted that all of my posts that feature Mark McGwire receive significantly fewer views and comments.   Lol!!  And yet I persist....  some people never learn.

I have been slowly building a stack of McGwires to check against my Haves List over the last couple of months.  For some reason, I never seem to take the time to go through and do the work.  But a couple of nice freebies from Rod (Padrographs) spurred me to get it done!

First, what Rod gave me....

BIG Big Macs!  I threw in the random Metal normal sized card for comparison.

And Rod gave me these at a card show, no less. I have been enjoying seeing a few bloggers in person lately.  Hopefully that keeps up!  Very generous of you Rod, thanks!!!

Now the updated McGwire collection stats...

From the stack on my desk, I found 14 new McGwires!!  My grand total is now 1403 (1394 'actual' cards, and 9 great customs from various bloggers).

A *rare, and I missed it

Super quick post tonight...

If you caught one of my recent posts, you might remember that there was a decent table with most cards priced at 50 cents or lower.  I picked up a bunch of Stadium Club parallels and some other nice cards.  I left out of my post that I grabbed a number of Corbin Carroll RC's from Topps Holiday form that same table.  They were all just sitting together, marked at 25 cents each and I grabbed them all without much thought.

 Well as I was putting them away today, I noticed that one was different....  a variation!

Turns out this is the 'Rare' variation for Carroll, these were seeded one in 20 packs.  Not bad for a quarter!

I can't say I am amazed with the effort Topps went to with these.  The added graphics (in this case, lights around his neck) are a little hokey.  But what do I expect from a Holiday set, I guess.

Blog Bat-around, quirky edition

In my opinion, Blogger Bat Arounds are great.  I always hope to participate when they come around, so thanks to Diamond Jesters for proposing one.... However, this one is going to be hard for me.  I'm supposed to list my 5 best pack pulled hits??  But I don't buy packs!  OK, it's not like I have never opened packs, I have been in the hobby for a loooong time.  But in the last 20 years, all of the packs I have busted have been given to me or won in contests.

So my top 5 might be a little different from what you see on other blogs, but without further ado, here is what I came up with:

#5

1993 Finest Refractor.  This isn't the one I pulled, but that specific card has long since been lost to me.  I assume I will never see it again.  If I remember correctly, mine was an Ozzie Guillen.  Man, I wish I still had that...

#4

Akeem RC - OK, I know this is supposed to be about HITS, and this is a base card.  But what a card!!  I loved it when I pulled it out of a 25 cent pack of 1986/87 Fleer waaay back in my childhood.  And I would love it still today, if it hadn't been stolen from me as a teenager.  This is one the pack I wish I could open again today.  I probably pulled a Jordan RC or two as well, since I opened maybe 30 packs of the stuff.  But I don't remember for sure.  I do remember the Akeem though!

#3

OK, #3 is also a base card.  I don't follow the rules!!  This one is special more because of the story than the card itself.  It was 1991, and Skybox basketball was the new thing.  All gold borders, oooohhh.  Looks kind of pedestrian now.  Anyway, My brother and I were in a card shop when I opened a pack of Skybox.  It had a Shawn Kemp rookie in it.  Nice card, I now collect these, actually.  But back then, I just wanted more Skybox.  The owner said he would trade me another pack for the Kemp, and I said yes!  The next pack had...... another Kemp RC!!  My brother and I laughed, and kept shopping for a while.  Then I decided to ask the owner if he'd make the same trade, and he agreed.  Sucker!  And by now, you probably guessed, I got another Kemp.  The owner and I made one last swap for another pack, and I failed miserably in my attempt for a 4th Kemp in a row.  But boy, was it a fun day!

#2

Kevin Love auto - This card is not so big now, but at the time, it was looking like it could be huge.  Love was turning into a perennial All-Star, and looked like he could blow up.  But he didn't, I shoulda sold it!  I got this out of a box that a blogger gave away.  Oh, and it is numbered /10.  I keep it around because nobody will give me much for it.

And #1.....

#1. Rickey Henderson Elite - #1!!  At a card show in a middle school gym, I was deranged enough to open a pack of 1991 Donruss.  At this time, there had never been anything like these, and my friends and I didn't even know what it was.  We hadn't even heard of these things, and it sure seemed out of place in a pack of Donruss.  We went to a nice dealer and he explained the concept of a serial numbered insert.  I don't even know if we knew what a regular insert was!  It was a weird feeling, holding that beautiful card for a few minutes.  I ended up trading it to that same dealer...  for a Julius Erving RC.  Man, I wish I still had that!

Cheap box returns

 Lately the cheap boxes have been disappointing for me.  I have still been able to find some stuff, but I have had to dig a lot harder lately.  This last show was a lot of the same until I was about ready to leave, and stumbled across a father/son table with a 'priced as marked' box.  Most of that kind of boxes at my local show are extremely overpriced, so I usually skip them.  Luckily, this one turned out to be worth my time.

I won't say they were really amazing deals, but I do like Stadium Club a lot, and there were a lot of them in there.

All foil variations here, Red, Black and Orange.  Some nice shots, and a lot of fun.

More of the same, I have seen that Berra on another blog somewhere, that's a photo for the ages!  Makes me wish regular Stadium Club had refractors, I would like a refractor of that.

There was some non-Club stuff too...

The Rutschman Candy Cane variation, serial numbered Acuna, #'d Reggie and #'d Munson all feel like steals to me.  The Bo Jackson is a ceramic card, and cost me a dollar.  The Deion in a Chicago hat is from Heritage Minors, and is kind of cool.  I got 2 of those, for a dime each.  Anyone want the other copy?

And my 'big' purchase of the day cost $3.

What a thick, heavy card this is, and serialed /736 to boot.  Fun addition.

Here it is from the side to show the thickness...

Thanks for reading!