baseball card set night at the ballpark

I caught my first live baseball game of the year yesterday. The Portland Pickles are a collegiate woodbat team. It's always a fun time at the ballpark, with atmosphere similar to a minor league game. It was a hot one, in the upper 90s, but there was plenty of shade.

What made me want to go to this particular game was the fact they were giving away a team set of baseball cards. The team has been around for 4 years, but this is apparently the first time they've had official baseball cards produced. The website said first 700 fans get the set, but a tweet from them said first 500 fans. So I'm not exactly sure what the print run was on these, but I guess around 500-700. Didn't seem like there were much more than 500 fans in the stadium for the game, but I was just a little too late and they weren't giving them out when I arrived. But I asked a guy working the gate about it, and he graciously pulled a set out of his pocket for me and told me it was my lucky day, so crisis averted!

I met up with my wife at the gate (she ran a bit late getting out of the house, while I went straight from work) and found a nice spot near a friend of hers also at the game. Well, it was nice for an inning or so until a talkative group of women (including one who looked very much like Drew Carey in drag) sat on one side of us, and then a group with like 5 or 6 small children sat on the other side of us. Could have done without all the extra noise and distraction, but hey, that's live baseball for ya. I took a walk around the stadium mid-game to escape and stretch my legs-- and also to see if I could find an unwanted extra card set somewhere (hey, we bought two tickets, only fair). I did witness a heartwarming exchange where an older guy gave 4 sets to a younger father for him to give to the kids he was supervising. The dude and the kids were very appreciative; it was sweet. Then I made my way over to a table by the gate to grab a pocket schedule and roster sheet, and noticed they had a couple card sets on the table, so I happily grabbed one.

The game was fine, though the good guys couldn't really get it going. The hometown Pickles lost to the Ridgefield Raptors 3-1. We ended up leaving a little early to catch the Max back home.

Turns out the second set I grabbed included a card autographed by Dillon the mascot.. cool! Apparently before the game, 4 players and Dillon were signing. Turns out this 2nd set was missing card #23 (Gabe Skoro), but oh well.

Here's a look at some of the cards, a mix of action shots and posed headshots. As you can see, the design is closely based on 1965 Topps. Hey, that's among my all-time favorite designs, so I'm a fan of that choice.

Most of the cards are current Pickles, though there are also 3 "Pick of the Past" fan favorites included.

An oddity about the 31-card set is there is no card #16, yet there are two of the same #18 (Brendan Power). Both my sets were like this, and Padrographs Rod confirmed his set was like that too. Must have been a blunder at the printshop. I wonder if #16 is out there in limited quantities.. a modern day Honus Wagner. LOL.

Here's a look at the backs. Players have vital stats while the coaching staff each get a write-up.

Here's the full roster, though by the size of it, I'm sure they're not all active for every game. I'll have to take a look in a few years to see if any of these guys make a name for themselves in the game. Would be cool if one of these guys went on to become a Major League star someday, though the odds must be tough.

It's always funny/awkward for people who aren't really baseball fans when there's "KKK" on the outfield fence signifying there have been 3 strikeouts. No, the Klan is not a sponsor, lol. There were 3 strikeouts for an uncomfortable length of time, but thankfully more came eventually. The Pickles struck out 5+ guys so everybody got a coupon for free fries at a local restaurant. We've been there several times (used to live very close to it) and they've got tasty food, so we will likely put these to good use.

Wrapping up, it was a fun evening at the ballpark. I hope to catch another Pickles game or two before the season's over.. maybe even get some of these cards autographed (I intended to get 2 sets so I could try getting one signed, and keep the other set as-is). And if they make another card set next year, I'll definitely do my best to catch that game as well.
Thanks for reading.

Over the hump with 1957 Topps

After sorting out my incoming COMC order, the tallest stack was '57s. I've been hitting the set hard this year and was hoping this haul could help me hit the halfway-complete milestone.

The biggest name in the lot was should-be HOFer Minnie Minoso. It's in nice enough shape to where I won't likely worry about trying to upgrade it (but you never know; I wouldn't mind a dupe for the PC). Got it during the recent sales event for just $1.90, which I thought was a pretty solid deal.

Sweet back, too.

Some other familiar names included baseball family patriarchs Tito Francona and Ray Boone.

Happy to say I'm now at 51.32% complete with the set. Above are some more new additions via COMC worthy of taking a closer look at, including a blurry Foster Castleman (I picked up many cheap off-condition commons that I may try to upgrade down the line). Nice flag shot in the middle there.

Speaking of the flag, I had a nice 4th of July. Caught my first ballgame of 2018, attending the early game of a Portland Pickles twinbill. There're a wooden bat collegiate summer league team. I think we've seen them 3 times before, and they were undefeated in those 3 games, but sadly our perfect winning streak was stopped this time, with the home team losing 3-2. Still a good game with some exciting plays and a couple dingers (both Pickle runs were via solo shots).

We met up with some friends and had a good time, but it was hot and even though there was some cloud cover (making a ring around the sun), I got a little sunburned. Still upset with myself about that. Should have been better about sunscreen.

Anyways, July 5th is Rich Gossage's birthday. I planned ahead and made an animated card of him the night before.

I've picked up like 60+ new Twitter followers in the past week thanks to the attention my Mark Fidrych gif got, so now I kinda feel pressure to keep delivering quality content. I'm hoping to hit 1k followers one of these days. (Honestly, I just want to get to the point to where I'll get at least one like on any tweet, no matter how dumb and pointless it may be. lol)

Thanks for reading!

Pickles and Eagles

I'm finally pretty much caught up with card blog reading. I do the majority of this activity during downtime at w0rk, so when I had to go out of town for a few days, I fell behind, then the following week I was busy making up for that lost time, without much downtime. Then the week after that I had jury duty a couple days, so yeah, it took me a while to get caught up.

Anyways, before my trip, my wife and I caught a Portland Pickles game. Pickles are all the rage right now. Apparently Pickle Rick is a big hit in a recent Rick & Morty episode I haven't watched yet. But the Pickles I'm talking about are a collegiate woodbat baseball team who play in a stadium that's just a convenient Max train ride down the line.

It's a nice little stadium and tickets are cheap, so it's a good way for us to catch some live baseball. The team consists of college kids keeping busy during the college baseball offseason, as is my understanding. So nobody I've heard of, though I should really keep track of the roster at games I attend so maybe one day down the line I can be like "hey, I saw so-and-so back before he was drafted and became a star!" As far as other baseball options in Portland, there's also the Hillsboro Hops (Diamondbacks A-ball affiliate), but that's further away from us and more expensive.

It was Craft Beer Night, so we had a couple reasonably-priced quality brews and got a little tipsy, took a few selfies.

Small world; we were sitting close to a former co-worker of my wife's and they caught up for a bit on our way out.

I wasn't able get a great photo of the scoreboard, but the home team was getting spanked, trailing 12-4 in the fifth inning. With all the scoring, the game wasn't moving too fast, inning-wise. Since I had to wake up at 4:45 am for my morning flight, we cut out early. Miraculously, after we left, the team mounted an incredible comeback and won the game in the 9th, 14-13. Bummer we missed the excitement, but nice that they pulled out the win. They're now 3-0 in games we've attended, so that's cool.

The Pickles eventually made the playoffs, and play a must-win game tonight to keep the season alive. Too bad it's such a short season, as I'd love to catch another game, but looks like we'll have to wait till next year.

Switching gears here, but I wanted to work some cards into the post somehow. 

It's not a Pickle, but it's green and features an amateur player. Sean Ross was drafted by the Blue Jays out of Granite Hills High School in the 40th round this past June, but decided to stick with his commitment to attend San Diego State University instead. I'll be rooting for him to perform well with the Aztecs and move up the draft board.

I wasn't expecting him to have any cards out there, but took a look on eBay and discovered he was included in 2016 Leaf Perfect Game. I kept an eye out for a good deal on one of his cards, and ended up landing this green auto #'d 4/10. (Kicking myself for just missing out on the 1/1 parallel that ended days before I started looking.)

(Ug, I need to retake this photo)

The other Granite Hills Eagle to be drafted this year is Jayson Rose. The Brewers took him in the 8th round out of the University of Utah. Looks like he's starting tonight for the rookie league Helena Brewers. So far this season, he's got 35 strikeouts and just 8 walks in 27.2 innings, though he's given up 28 hits. I'll be hoping he's able to move up the system and make it to Milwaukee before long.

I took a look for any cards from him, and again Leaf Perfect Game came through. This one is from way back in 2013 when Jayson was still in high school. Was only able to pick up the base auto, but I'll keep an eye out for a nice parallel. Sure looks like the signature says "Jason" not "Jayson"... hmm. (Funny enough, I went to school with a kid named Jason Rose, but I don't think there's any relation.) I've got a pending TTM request out to him; really hoping that comes back successfully one of these days. I'll be interested in comparing the signatures. Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll be included in Bowman Draft or something.

Anyways, thanks to Sean and Jayson for doing my high school proud, and best of luck with your careers.

catching a ballgame + 1997 Bowman hobby box

The Portland Pickles are a new collegiate woodbat baseball team, doing their best to fill the void in town since the AAA Portland Beavers moved away a few years ago. My wife and I hopped on the train yesterday afternoon and caught our first game of theirs.

We found a decent spot on the grass down the left field line. The home team got off to a rough start with the visiting Lodi Crushers scoring 3 in the 1st thanks to some sloppy defense, but the Pickles came back to tie it up, eventually taking the lead.

It was a pretty big turnout. In fact, I think it was a sellout and set their attendance record. A great day for baseball.

Selfie time!

Guy warming up in the bullpen.

It was my first live baseball game since catching a Hillsboro Hops game last year.

We ended up taking off in the 8th inning because we wanted to catch the train home (and it was that or wait a long time for the next one), plus neither of us brought a jacket and it was getting a little chilly by that point. The Pickles held on to win (link to recap), so that's nice.

I had printed up a few generic cards for autographs, but we didn't arrive early enough or stay late enough to score any signatures. Maybe next time.

So yeah, that was a fun evening at the ballpark. Would definitely go back again.


Switching gears... Here's another box I picked up cheap a couple months ago to have something around to rip on days I otherwise didn't get any new cards. Took me a while, but I finally got through it. Time for the highlights..

My Frank Thomas PC saw some additions thanks to the box. The American flags here help me meet the minimum requirements for a proper 4th of July blogpost. Happy Birthday, USA!

Some more inserts, with a Konerko and a couple Astros. These are available for trade, if anyone's interested.

Some base veteran cards of dudes I collect. Canseco looks kinda strange in his A's double-dip.

Here's a nice selection of "First Bowman Card" prospects. Forgot to include Halladay and Sean Casey in the photo. I think that's my first pack-pulled card of Guy From Granite John Barnes.. kinda cool, even if I did already pick it up from Just Commons a while back.

And a couple other prospect cards of guys I collect, Derrek Lee (from his brief Padres tenure) and Vladimir Guerrero. There were slight odds at pulling a Vlad auto from the box, though I wasn't so lucky. That guy was a beast in his prime.

Thanks for reading and hope you have/had an awesome 4th!