This is the only "under the glass" card I bought, everything else was out of the $1 bins. The guy ended up letting me have it for just $5. It's an Adrian Gonzalez auto, from his Padre days, and what really got my interest is it's a patch of the letter D. One of my dumb collecting goals is to spell out BASEBALL CARD BREAKDOWN in letter patch cards like this one, and then that'd eventually be used as my blog's header. That's the idea, anyway. It takes two Ds, so that knocks off one. Overall, that's 1 letter down and 20 to go.
Adrian's having a good season. I'm not really actively collecting him anymore since I hit the 100-card mark for that PC. But it was a great price and fit in well with a project of mine, so I went for it.
An old school Hall of Famer autograph for a buck is tough to pass up. It's not certified, but seems legit to me. The card is Lou Boudreau 1976 Shakey's Pizza #115.. Hmm, I didn't think it was that old. I would have guessed around 1982-1985. There was also a similar autographed card of an umpire which was one of the last cards I trimmed from my stack getting it down to 50 cards. Can't buy every cool card.
Back to Lou Boudreau for a moment, I hadn't realized that in 1948 he not only was AL MVP, but he also led the Indians to a World Series Championship.. as manager! I really miss the days of player/managers. I hope that comes back into vogue again someday. I've said it before, but I really think it'd improve the game if the entire uniformed coaching staff was legally able to enter the game at any time as extra guys off the bench. How fun would that be?! They're already suited up, why not?! PLEASE, Rob Manfred, make it happen! The minimum age limit for this player-coach clause should be set at like 35 or 40 to prevent ringers. I firmly believe this would save baseball. How great would it be to see an old grey-haired guy enter the game in left field as part of an extra-innings double switch? Paul Molitor could get a couple pinch-hits to up his career total. Pitching coaches could be an emergency arm out of the pen. Let's start a grassroots movement for this! Who's with me? LET THEM PLAY! LET THEM PLAY! #letthemplay
Anyways, here are a couple more cards...
Goldschmidt die cut. Probably overpaid for it, but it's nice enough.
I feel I'm close to adding Jim Thome as a PC guy, but haven't officially pulled the trigger. (Or have I? Sometimes I lose track of who-all is on my "guys I collect" lists.) I thought this bat relic was a fine looking card for the price.
That's all for today. More cards tomorrow.
I don't know the first thing about these letter patch cards but I assume there's a card for each letter in the player's name? If that's the case, are you sure it's a D because there's no D in Gonzalez?
ReplyDeleteOften the letters spell out the team name.
DeleteI think sometimes first names are part of it too (I seem to recall Dodger Penguin talking about how he needed 2 T's to spell MATT KEMP, though the serial numbering is the same, so that makes T's harder to find). I agree it's a bit blocky, but the bottom right corner gives it away as a D.
DeleteMakes sense. But to continue playing devil's advocate, aren't the O's a bit blocky too?
DeleteYou had me questioning it, but after looking at a bunch more letters from this set on eBay and the like, I still say it's a D. If it were O, there'd be a rounded bottom left corner similar to the bottom right.
DeleteOh man! You read my mind! That's what I was about to attempt to do. Just picked up Letterman for $1 lol
ReplyDeleteCool, man. The race is on! haha
DeleteI think you will beat me but both our names are pretty long.
DeleteWhat's your preference on letters? Baseball only?
ReplyDeleteAt this point, I'm down for anything. They don't necessarily need to be autos, but it's nice when they are. Perhaps in time I'll eventually "upgrade" letters to guys I collect. (In a perfect world, every letter would be a guy I PC.) But for now, anything goes if the price is right.
DeletePlayer managers could come back but considering how much work goes into being just a player or just a manager (let alone both combined), especially in today's age when there's so much information to absorb, it'd be one heck of a challenge.
ReplyDeleteBoudreau is the first guy to use the shift which everybody uses today. He used it against Ted Williams
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to think your approach on PCs is actually a saner approach than the "get everything" one is...
ReplyDeleteVery cool projected. I attempted it four or five years ago, but came up a little short. My goal was to have them spell out "San Jose Fuji" using autographs of different players from different teams I PC'd. I still need a "J". Maybe I should finally chase it down and cross this project off my list.
ReplyDeleteIf you do all sports you should be able to complete it. Several football sets would create those type of cards even for players who weren't drafted. Noel Devine is a former WVU running back and he had one that spelled out Mountaineers.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever bought an "under the glass" card. I barely look at them. I'm such a cheapskate sometimes.
ReplyDelete