Let's draft!

GTT is on the clock!  I am deleting the "pre-draft" comments to try and keep this clean.  Try and keep up!!

Please make your pick using the text below the card you want.  Examples: #1 - Arod, #29 Suzuki.

A few have notes in the title if I noticed they were serial numbered, or the person who submitted the card had a note they wanted posted.  I decided to go with photos of the cards instead of scans.  On the whole I think they look OK.  Some of the shinier cards photographed very brightly.  They may not all sparkle quite as much in hand as they do in the photos!  For an example of this, see #14 - Jeter.  Also, in some of the shinier cards, you can see a reflection of my hands holding the phone to take the pic.  Sorry!  

Draft order:  The draft will 'snake' each round, and here is the draft list we will be working from.  I will be adding the picks to this as they are made:

Round 1 1. GTT - 68-Fishie 2. Elliptical Man - 24 - Brock 3. defgav - 40 - Maxwell 4. Nachos Grande - 21-Bellinger 5. bbcardz -  60-WS 6. Night Owl - 77-Kershaw #/2021 7. Matt - 83 - Ortiz 8. The Diamond King - 88 - Brock	Round 2 1. The Diamond King - 63 - Saverine 2. Matt - 73 - Sierra 3. Night Owl - 55 - Campanella (/2499) 4. bbcardz - 72 - Betts 5. Nachos Grande - 14-Jeter 6. defgav - 53 - Devers (Soto) 7. Elliptical Man - 90 - Cook 8. GTT - 87 - Guerrero	Round 3 1. GTT - 71 - Goltz 2. Elliptical Man - 48 - Suzuki 3. defgav - 62 - Buehler 4. Nachos Grande - 84-Mccormick 5. bbcardz - 30-Herrera #/76 6. Night Owl - 18-Jackson 7. Matt - 13 - Puckett 8. The Diamond King - 12 - Canseco
Round 4 1. The Diamond King - 35 - Brown (/199) 2. Matt - 67 - O'Neill 3. Night Owl - 81-Jackson 4. bbcardz - 15 - Happ (variation) 5. Nachos Grande - 22 - Weaver 6. defgav - 38 - Whitaker+ 7. Elliptical Man - 75 Mahler 8. GTT - 29 - Suzuki	Round 5 1. GTT - 51 - Gwynn 2. Elliptical Man - 32 - Jeter 3. defgav - 70 - Newcomb (variation) 4. Nachos Grande - 56-Ohtani 5. bbcardz - 5 - Robinson 6. Night Owl - 78-Guerrero 7. Matt - 57 - Conger 8. The Diamond King - 89 - Molina	Round 6 1. The Diamond King - 8 - Mixon 2. Matt - 6 - Sale 3. Night Owl - 39-Schwarber 4. bbcardz - 59-Millan 5. Nachos Grande - 34-Vallot 6. defgav - 80 - Clark (broder) 7. Elliptical Man - 49 - Martinez 8. GTT - 46 White
Round 7 1. GTT - 43 Blue 2. Elliptical Man - 69 Riley 3. defgav - 16 - Jackson 4. Nachos Grande - 27 Hoffmann 5. bbcardz - 28 - Adams 6. Night Owl - 31-Roberts 7. Matt - 66 - Sanders 8. The Diamond King - 2 - Peterson	Round 8 1. The Diamond King - 9 - Koufax 2. Matt - 79 - Hornsby 3. Night Owl - 3-Baez 4. bbcardz - 65 - Sandberg 5. Nachos Grande - 36-Griffey 6. defgav - 64 - Harper 7. Elliptical Man - 50 - Cole 8. GTT - 37 DiMaggio	Round 9 1. GTT - 10 Choo 2. Elliptical Man - 45 - Bagwell 3. defgav - 86 - Bench 4. Nachos Grande - 41 Scherzer 5. bbcardz - 74 - Mantle 6. Night Owl - 23-Chicago Clubbers 7. Matt - 26 - Devers 8. The Diamond King - 1 - Arod

The available cards:

1 - Arod	2 - Peterson	3 - Baez	4 - Henderson
5 - Robinson	6 - Sale	7 - Bell	8 - Mixon
9 - Koufax	10 - Choo	11 - Gurriel	12 - Canseco
13 - Puckett	14 - Jeter	15 - Happ (variation)	16 - Jackson
17 - Blankenhorn	18 - Jackson	19 - Martinez	20 - Stanton Mini
21 - Bellinger	22 - Weaver	23 - Chicago	24 - Brock
25 - Brinson	26 - Devers	27 - Hoffman	28 - Adams
29 - Suzuki	30 - Herrera #/76	31 - Roberts	32 - Jeter
33 - Denorfia	34 - Vallot	35 - Brown (/199)	36 - Griffey
37 - Dimaggio	38 - Whitaker+	39 - Schwarber refractor	40 - Maxwell
41 - Scherzer	42 - Hoskins	43 - Blue	44 - Machado
45 - Bagwell	46 - White (/790)	47 - Miller	48 - Suzuki
49 - Martinez	50 - Cole	51 - Gwynn	52 - Balazovic
53 - Devers	54 - Terry	55 - Campanella (/2499)	56 - Ohtani
57 - Conger	58 - Renteria	59 - Millan	60 - WS
61 - Pujols	62 - Buehler	63 - Saverine	64 - Harper
65 - Sandberg	66 - Sanders	67 - O'neill	68 - Fishie
69 - Riley	70 - Newcomb (variation)	71 - Goltz	72 - Betts
73 - Sierra	74 - Mantle	75 - Mahler	76 - Bell
77 - Kershaw #d/2021	78 - Guerrero	79 - Hornsby	80 - Clark (broder)
81 - Jackson	82 - Murray	83 - Ortiz	84 - Mccormick
85 - Barkley	86 - Bench	87 - Guerrero	88 - Brock
89 - Molina	90 - Cook

Thank you post and draft update

 ***I'm still anxiously awaiting one last PWE to get the card draft going.  Since Monday is a no-mail holiday, it will be Tuesday at the earliest before the cards will be up and ready to view.  I will get them up asap.  I'm assuming that will be on Tuesday, and I want to give you a day before the actual draft to prepare lists, so I am guessing tentatively Wednesday.  I will send out an email to all the participants to give details.***

Three great packages arrived in my mailbox recently.

Jon over at Penny Sleeves recently reached out to me about a couple of cards he had that I didn't.  Specifically, cards I had been blogging about needing.  The Carlton/Ryan completes my run of Ryan Strikeout leaders cards!!!

Always appreciated Jon!

Elliptical Man held a Super Easy Super Bowl prediction contest.  And of course I won due to my incredible excess of skills.  Here are my winnings.  Plenty of star power here, hard to argue with a Prizm of a likely HOF TE (Olsen), but my favorites are the older Chrome on the bottom row.  Love old Chrome!

And the last one, you have been seeing these pop up all over the blogs, was from Nick at Dime Boxes!  He knows how to celebrate 10 years of blogging, that's for sure!!

I picked too many, and now I feel like a greedy, no good, selfish so and so.  But I have also given away a lot of cards recently, hopefully I can get back to feeling good about myself.  The cards I claimed sure check a lot of my collecting boxes!

Sets I like (chrome, metal)

Oddballs

Rookies

Shiny

Low numbered cards

Unique photos

Favorites from my youth (Carew, Gooden, Strawberry)

Nick was also kind enough to throw in these 2 extras, a great Jonothan India RC and a DJ Lemaheiu RC from my want lists!  Thanks a ton Nick, and congrats on 10 years.

Gotta love card bloggers!! Thanks guys!

Football switch up

***Draft update - due to some post office issues we will need to wait a bit longer on starting the draft.  I will let you know as soon as I have more concrete info! 

Over the last few months, I have accumulated some football cards that are pretty cool, but that I don't have a spot for in my collection.  Anyone interested in trading for any of these??  

There are probably a lot of football cards I would like to add to my collection (Barry Sanders Score RC!), and if you are interested in any of these cards, feel free to offer me football cards in return.  But I am also always interested in Baseball and Basketball.  So don't limit the offers!

First up, I know I said these were football cards, but here are some US Presidents.  At least they are from a football card set, 2005 Turkey Red, the last 4 cards in the set.

And a few more from the same set, these are all SPs, according to TCDB.com.

258 Leto Sheppard

247 Dwight Freeney

271 Trent Dilfer

269 Alge Crumpler

262 Amani Toomer

283 Dennis Northcutt

279 Rex Grossman

271 Trent Dilfer
259 Jimmy Smith

Now on to the shiny and colorful!

2008 Bowman Chrome Edgerrin James Gold Refractor /50

2014 Panini Crown Royale James Wright Retail Red Holofoil /25

2019 Panini Playoff - Air Command Aaron Rodgers

2020 Panini Absolute - Red Zone Aaron Rodgers

2020 Mosaic Aaron Donald Green Prizm

2009 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Tom Brady

2014 Prizm AJ Green Purple Prizms

2020 Donruss Ezekiel Elliott Press Proof Blue

2020 Donruss Aaron Rodgers Press Proof Blue

2014 Panini Prestige Jadaveon Clowney RC

2021 Panini Prizm Draft Picks Odell Beckham Silver Prizm

2021 Panini Prizm Draft Picks Stefon Diggs Gold Ice Prizm

2020 Panini Chronicles - Classics Justin Herbert RC

2009 SAGE Hit 'Make Ready' Yellow  Patrick Turner /50  Very weird, kind of like a printing plate, I guess?

2015 Panini Gridiron Kings - Royal Performances Odell Beckham

2020 Panini Chronicles - Panini Justin Herbert RC

2016 Panini National Treasures Jamaal Charles /49

2019 Panini Illusions Nick Bosa RC

This card may not look like much, but as far as I can tell, it is the only Nick Saban RC produced.  I actually haven't seen any other NFL cards of Saban, though I am sure some have to be out there somewhere.

It's a decent card, value wise too.  But it doesn't really have a place in my collection.

And the last three

2013 Topps Jamaal Charles BCA Border /399

2015 Topps Chrome Odell Beckham - an iconic card if you like Beckham!

2011 Panini Threads Carson Palmer Century Proof Platinum /25

Recent pickups

***Card draft news - I have received 5 of the 7 expected PWEs so far.  So we are getting close!  There have been a couple of weather related issues getting some of the cards here, so we are not quite ready, but hopefully soon.  Drafters - I will be sending out an email soon to try and coordinate the draft! 

On to today's post...

I wanted to show some cards that have come my way from various sources recently.  Most are keepers, but for a few of them, I will mention that they would be available for trade.

First, some basketball before the baseball.

On the top row, we have interesting cards of a couple of guys who are having really good years.  This was my first Devin Booker card, and like most players, I wish I had a RC of his.  But by the time I start wanting his RC, they are far out of my price range.  Oh well.

The second row Features a couple of cards of one of my favorites, despite his atrocious off the court behavior, Shawn Kemp!  The Board Members card looks better in hand than in the scan.  The Fleer RC is my 32nd copy of that card.  Keep em coming!!

Next up, the first card I am willing to trade.

Zion Williamson 2019-20 Panini Prizm Draft Picks Pink Pulsar Prizm.  One guy on COMC has this up for $581, but there are 17 other copies for much more reasonable amounts, starting at $17.  I know Williamson isn't as hot as he once was, but if interested in a trade, hit me up!

On to baseball!

These guys are all up as fun cards, but really more as trade conversation starters. Either they don't quite fit my collection, or they are dupes. Nothing big here, but little PWE trades are pretty fun!  Bigger trades could easily be built around these too.

The Gwynn and Verlander are photo variations.

More!  Mostly keepers...

The Smoltz is a refractor.  I want any refractor of a star player from 2010 on back.

The middle row is super busy, visually!  The Piazza insert is dufexed and very cool.  The Trout is a prizm.

The bottom row is the 'cool photo' row.  6'10" Randy Jonson laying out is awesome.  Gehrig 'hovering' a baseball.  And the Mookie gettin sloshed is a semi-rare Photo Variation.  Also the Betts is the one card from this scan that is up for trade!  I'd love to turn that into some older refractors of stars, or a decent RC of someone.  Or whatever!

More...

1. Bogaerts RC!  Another example of a guy I didn't get a RC of until the prices went up.  At least he's not in the stratosphere yet, so I got it pretty cheap.

2. The Aaron is a SP from 2018 Gallery.  Love Henry!

3. Crazy looking Prizm of Soto.  Checks my boxes.

4. Jeter stackin Oreos.  What have baseball cards come to??  What a card, glad to have it!!

5. The infamous Jeter with Bush and Mantle photoshopped in.  Back to back weirdo Jeter cards.

6. My 2nd copy of the Gwynn photo variation.  This one I am keeping.

#s 7, 8 and 9.  Got me some Papis!!  I don't have many, but these were cool additions for me.  An old Finest Twins card, a wonderful quad patch (with a Griffey pinstripe) and a solid looking recent refractor.  Congrats on the Hall, Papi.

Well, that's it.  Hope there was something interesting in here for you, and if interested in any of the tradeable cards, hit me up! 

Flash trivia

***Quick note  ***The first PWE showed up today for the upcoming draft!!

Flash trivia question!! The first person to give the correct answer to the question below in the comments will get PWE'd a serial numbered card featuring the player that is the correct answer.

What MLB player has the highest average number of RBI's per year played?  (Career RBI/Number of years played)  Minimum of 10 years played in MLB.

Finishing what you started

***Before the post:  I'm happily shocked at the level of interest in the upcoming PWE Card Draft.  Thanks to all who are participating and unless things go poorly (I doubt it!) it looks like we will definitely be doing it again!  The cards should start rolling in to me soon and we will get the actual draft set up.  Thanks!!

I'm an old man.  Really, I'm not that old, but I seem to have gotten old enough to have some 'old man' attitudes.  One of those attitudes is the perception that today's players are not as tough as the guys from my youth.

Now I know that's not really, really true.  Sure there are some of today's players that would be considered pansies back then, but the human machine hasn't really changed, and there are plenty of tough guys nowadays.  Really, most of what I see is that the game changed.  I wish it hadn't, but it has!

Here's one example:

Phil Niekro threw 303 complete games in his career

Steve Carlton threw 254 complete games in his career

That's a total of 557 complete games between two pretty good hall of fame pitchers.  So now we look at today's pitchers for comparison.  How many of the top active pitchers do you think it would take to throw as many combined Complete Games as Carlton and Niekro?

Starting from the active leaders in complete games, how about if we add up all the complete games from the top 6 pitchers: Wainwright + Verlander + Kershaw  + Santana + Kluber + Cueto?

Not yet...

Add the next five to the pitchers above: + Grienke + Price + Bumgarner + Sale + Keuchel?

Still not there.  How far do we have to go?

Adding Scherzer + Carrasco + Holland + Bailey + Arrieta +Bauer + Cole + Gray + Hendricks + Corbin + Eflin + Giolito + Miller + Teheran + Tomlin?

Yeah, still not there.  I will spare you the further lists.  Here is the answer.

Take ALL active pitchers, every single one, from Verlander down to some scrub that has only 1 complete game in his career.  Add them all up and you only get 555 Complete games (160 different pitchers).  Yes, between Carlton and Niekro, they pitched more complete games than every currently active pitcher in Major League Baseball!

The. Game. Has. Changed.

OK, enough dramatics, we all know the game has changed.  It's not even all bad, though I wish the game was still what it once was (old man!).

So that was fun for me, because I am a bit of a stat nerd.  But this isn't a baseball stat blog, it's a baseball card blog.  So here you go, a few extremely random cards for your viewing pleasure:

PWE Card Draft - Official Sign Up Post

 

Full up!  All spots have been filled!! 

Well, the response on my card draft proposal was very high.  Surprised me!  Thanks for all the feedback.

So this post will be the official sign up post.  Please read the plan and rules below carefully and if interested, sign up in the comments!

The Plan:

I will be letting a total of 8 drafters in this first draft.  If it goes well, then I will do another, hopefully if you don't make it in this one, there will be more!  So, 8 total drafters, including me, of course.  And that means I am looking for 7 more.

In order to make this as simple and easy as possible, I want to ask drafters to send cards in for the draft that YOU think would be interesting to other collectors in some way.  That does not mean that they need to be "valuable"!  Also, the newer the card, the better condition they should be in.  If you send a recent card, it should be more or less NM/MT, older cards could be in worse shape the older they are.

The idea here is to have fun.  Expectations that you are going to come out of this with a treasure trove are unrealistic.  That said, send the kinds of cards you would be glad to receive and that are appropriate for a PWE.  Nobody should send Jeter RCs or 1/1 cards.  Conversely, nobody should send a bunch of commons of lesser known players.  As Baseball was requested several times, I would like to ask that at least 7 of the 9 cards you will send be baseball.

I am planning on adding ~15-20 of my own cards (baseball only for these extras!) to the draft pool (including the 9 I put in as a drafter).  This is basically insurance that if a drafter shorts the rest of the group (like someone sending in all 87 Topps commons), that there are still enough draftable cards.  Honestly, I don't think that will be a problem, but I still plan on that to make everyone comfortable.  Remember, all you are "risking" is 9 cards you aren't emotionally tied to and a stamp.

**note:  Nobody will know which submissions came from which participant.  

The Rules:

1. Sign up in the comments below.  I will need a way to contact you, so if your email is not in your blogger profile, or we have not corresponded before, please email me after commenting.  The first 7 to sign up in the comments will be contacted.  You are not in until I contact you!!!

2. When I contact you, I will send you my mailing address, and at that point, you can send me your 9 card submission. This should be done in a PWE to keep costs down. I will be sending out everyone's selected cards in PWEs as well.

3. If I don't receive your cards within 2 weeks of my email contact to you, you will be dropped and we will draft with fewer players.  Please try to be prompt and get the cards to me fairly quickly, I would love to get this started as soon as we can.

4. Once I have all the cards, I will make a post with the randomized draft order.  This will be a snake order draft, meaning the last picker of a round will be the first picker of the next round.

If interested, go for it!!!!!

Accepted drafters (final):

1. The Diamond King

2. bbcardz

3. Matt

4. GTT

5. Night Owl

6. defgav

7. Elliptical Man

8. Nachos Grande