Awesome cards from a Jedi and a Commissioner

Jedi Jeff and Commishbob are united in their admiration of late, great Billy Pierce. They also both sent me cards this past week that packed quite the 1-2 punch. Let's check them out.

It was back on St. Patrick's Day that 2 x 3 Heroes ran a fun blogoversary contest. It wasn't a standard "comment to enter" contest, but rather one of those where you actually gotta work for it. Fueled by my Irish pride and the alcohol consumption that comes with it, I made it my mission to win the prize. First I had to decipher a coded message. Then that message sent me on a quest through the 2 x 3 archives and leave a comment on a specific post. After not immediately figuring it out, I just started commenting on every freakin' post, hoping to luck out on the right one. Have I mentioned I had a buzz going? Eventually, I conked out for the night before stumbling upon the right post. In the morning, I picked up where I left off, finally hitting goal with my rapid fire. Jeff was understandably a bit chagrined I went around the spirit of the contest. But I was able to retroactively figure out which post was the winner and identify it to Jeff through email, and was therefore declared winner with no asterisk needed.

The prize was this glorious Archives Signature 1/5 auto of Doc Gooden on a 1992 Bowman card. Love it!

But Jeff didn't stop there. I also received an unopened pack of 2016 Topps Tribute!

Jeff let me know he really wanted me to pull something big for my collection. Hey, me too, man!





drum roll...

Ouch! That would be classified as a bust.

On the plus side, Aroldis Chapman is one of the most dominant pitchers in the game. He holds the record for the fastest recorded pitch speed in MLB history at 105.1 mph. He was instrumental in helping the Cubs break the curse and win the World Series last year. He's back in the Bronx this year, still bringing the heat with only one earned run allowed so far this season.

Despite all those accolades, his collectability is in the toilet thanks to a domestic abuse incident. Nobody wants to collect a guy who threatens his woman with a loaded gun. Not cool.

So yeah, not a great pull. Nice looking card, though!

Looking up the authentication code, this is a swatch of Aroldis Chapman's game used jersey from 7/03/15 Milwaukee vs Cincinnati. And looking up that game, well, turns out the jersey was not exactly "game used" but rather "hanging-out-in-the-bullpen used" as Chapman didn't pitch in that game, a blowout by the Brewers, 12-1. Bummer.. it would have been cooler if this had been from a jersey he got a save in. Oh well.

The base cards in the pack were ok. deGrom is a good young pitcher. And Big Papi is a guy I collect. So that's cool.

Thanks a lot, Jeff! Again, I'll shoot you back a little thank-you soon.

- - - --o

Now here's what Commishbob from The Five Tool Collector surprised me with.

Bob had posted about this card he ended up with after buying some cheap "random decent cards" lots from an eBay seller. I offered to give this Mike Jacobs gold parallel a good home. He's a guy I collect because I went to community college with him.

I like this back. You get a cartoon with a baseball bouncing off a UFO and some nice gold foil serial numbering.

So Bob was not only nice enough to graciously send me that Jacobs I expressed interest in, but he also sent a couple vintage surprises along for the ride:

Nice! I believe this is the first 1957 card I've randomly gotten from the cardsphere. (I got a few from $30 Robert, but I was expecting those.) Now at 11% complete with this set.. slowly but surely creeping along!

Might as well show the back of this one, too.. from back in the days when Topps would sometimes have a negative cartoon, this one ribbing HOFer Robin Roberts.

But the biggest boom of the PWE was a HOFer for my '64 setbuild...

Eddie Mathews!

How great is that?!

Big thanks, Bob! I'll round up something to return the favor soon.

picking up local guys.. um, their cards, I mean

Nothing like collecting cards of guys who walked the same halls between classes as you. I personally like focusing on guys from my high school who went pro, but sometimes dabble with cards from guys who attended the same university and community college. Here's an update of some of my recent pickups.

After Tony Gwynn, no San Diego State alum had a more distinguished MLB career than Mark Grace (ok, maybe Graig Nettles). I've never really bothered to collect Grace before, but with so many Cubs fans in my trading circle these days, I keep an eye out for good Cubbie trading fodder, and that's how I came into these 2 hits. But now I'm thinking I'll hang onto them for representation in my SDSU minicollection (unless of course a Cubs fan wants to make me a crazy trade offer I'd be stupid to refuse [Looking at you, Twitch, and the Corey Seager /10 auto you recently pulled.. lol].) The Diamond King dual relic is /25 and the Tools of the Trade auto/relic is #'d 3/5. Like Gwynn, Grace is originally from the LA area, but came down to San Diego to get his learn on. Of course he'd go on to several standout seasons with the Cubs, collecting the most hits (1,754) of any player in the 1990s. He capped off his career with 3 years on the Diamondbacks, helping them win it all in 2001 over the Yankees.

These three autos are from my latest COMC order. Even if I don't go full-on player collector on these guys, I figured I'd at least score an auto from each of them.

Sean O'Sullivan went to Valhalla High School, which is the arch rival of my high school, so maybe it's no surprise I haven't started collecting his cards before this one. But hey, he did also go to Grossmont College just a few years after me, so I suppose that earns him a small place in my collection (Plus, this Just Minors auto was only $1.37). He's spent his career bouncing between AAA and the majors for several teams, including a stint with our hometown Padres in 2013, and most recently with the Red Sox last year. Looks like he'll pitch in Korea in 2017, signing a one-year deal with the Nexen Heroes of the KBO League.

Joe Kennedy is a guy I mentioned in a previous post when I got a Christmas Eve Card of him, and discovering he was a local guy is what helped jumpstart my Guys From Grossmont minicollection. He went to El Cajon Valley High School, which is where my best friend graduated from, so it's ok in my book. He was at Grossmont during the same time as me.. Hmm, wonder if I had any classes with him. He went on to pitch in 222 major league games between 2001 and 2007 before dying suddenly from heart disease.

Quintin Berry completes this auto trio. Like the previous two guys, he's never made a huge impact in the game, but was good enough to bounce around on a few major league rosters. He went to Morse High School, which also boasts Adam Jones (his classmate and friend), Sam Horn, and Mark McLemore as alumni. Berry played one season at Grossmont before transferring to SDSU where he got to play under Tony Gwynn. In 2012, he played 94 games for the Tigers as a rookie, but hasn't had anywhere near that much playing time since, though he did get a ring with Boston the next year. Looks like he'll begin the 2017 season with the Twins' AAA club.

Here's a page worth of Mike Jacobs cards from my latest Just Commons order. Mike graduated from Hilltop High School in Chula Vista and spent one year at Grossmont College before being drafted by the Mets in 1999. I shared a story on the blog before about how I'm pretty sure I had a class with him at Grossmont. He had some solid major league seasons in the late '00s, and played in Mexico these past couple years. He retired after the 2016 season and took a job managing in the Marlins organization, the team with which he hit the majority of his 100 career home runs. Anyways, I already had 2 or 3 autos of the guy, but wanted to round out the PC with a few more base cards, and these were just about a buck all total.

Ok, now we're getting closer to home for me. Casey Craig was drafted by the Mariners in 2003 out of good ol' Granite Hills High School. He put up solid numbers in A-ball, but sputtered out in AA and was done after 6 years in the minors. Bowman included him in 2006, though he had no autograph card produced, whether with Bowman or anybody else, as far as I can tell. So I had to settle for uncertified to add his signature to my collection. Well, actually it did come with a Letter of Authenticity...

..but I don't think this really adds any value or anything so I'll just throw it away rather than try to store it in my collection somewhere.

This is the Marcus Giles 2008 UD Spectrum "Retrospectrum Swatches" yellow printing plate. Normally, unless I'm rainbowing a card, I don't go after printing plates that much.. especially yellow, since they're typically faint and don't look great. But I couldn't resist adding another 1/1 of my former classmate for under $8 shipped. Plus it's my first plate of a relic, which is kinda weird and something you don't see often.

We close today with the grandfather of Guys From Granite, Mike Reinbach, the first grad from my high school to play in the majors thanks to a brief stint with Baltimore in 1974. The vast majority of his cards come from his time in Japan. The recent pickup here is the card on the right. When it popped up on eBay, it looked very familiar so I assumed I already had it. But before dismissing the auction as one I didn't need to bother with, I double-checked my PC, and sure enough, there was the familiar photo... but wait! White text on the bottom? Tighter crop? Yep, it's actually a different card. Different number on the back and everything. So I went after it and was able to score it at a decent price (the dinged corner probably helped keep the top bid down, but doesn't bother me much.)

So there's an update to my minicollection(s) of local dudes who went to at least one of the same schools as me. Thanks for reading!

Loading up on local guys

This post is to show off some recent additions to my PCs of guys who went to the same schools I did. Most of these were included in my most recent COMC order, and a few were in eBay bulk purchases for free combined shipping.

Regular readers of this blog are familiar with my Guys From Granite minicollection, made up of guys who went to the same highschool as me and went on to become professional athletes. I admit it's a bit weird that I'm so gung-ho about this avenue of my collection, yet am pretty indifferent to collecting guys from the university I went to, SDSU. I also feel nothing for the Oregon Ducks, making me stick out among most other sports fans in my current home state. I just don't really care about college sports very much. Still, though, I like to show some school spirit from time to time and add cards of former Aztecs and other notable hometown guys.

I think this is my first Tony Gwynn Aztec card. I doubt it'll be the last-- I'll definitely try hunting down a few more different ones. Upper Deck has been putting out a few such cards in recent years, including some featuring Tony from his days starring on the basketball team, including autos. (That set came out right after he died, so they went fast and expensive.)

Pete Coscarart was the first San Diego State University alum to play major league baseball. He also played minor league ball in my current home of Portland, Oregon for a few years. Then after a decent MLB career with Brooklyn and Pittsburgh, he rounded out his playing days on the PCL Padres (1946-1949). I've now got 4 of his (according to Beckett) 15 cards in existence.

My Aztec Alumni minicollection isn't really a thing. Just attending SDSU isn't enough to make me want to collect a guy. Notable names there are Mark Grace, Harold Reynolds, Al Newman, Aaron Harang, Dave Smith, Addison Reed, Travis Lee, Tony Clark, Bud Black. Yeah, they don't do anything for me. Maybe someday. An exception to this is Stephen Strasburg who I've kinda started a passive PC for earlier this year. There's also Graig Nettles, who I sort of collect but mainly because of his time on the Padres. Gwynn family members Tony Jr and Chris Gwynn are also former Aztecs; maybe I'll collect them at some point.

Now let's turn to Guys From Granite...

My ol' classmate Marcus Giles; The guy who allows me to brag I've shared a locker room with an all-star. I don't typically go out of my way for Giles cards anymore (pretty sure he's already in my Hundred Card Club), but these 2 autos were like $3 combined via COMC, so I couldn't pass them up.

Another notable GHHS Eagle, Shane Spencer. Here we've got an early minor league card from '94, plus a numbered gold parallel from 2003 Topps.

And here are Bowman cards of a couple Guys From Granite who weren't able to crack the big leagues. The Scott Shoemaker gold refractor is #'d /50. Casey Craig is represented with a blue refractor (I think #'d /150) and a gold (brown) parallel.

Travis Taijeron is the active Guy From Granite I only found out about recently. This 2012 Topps Pro Debut was the last mainstream base card I needed of his (ok, his only other card is 2012 Heritage Minors). He had a very nice 2015 season for the Mets' AAA team, batting .274 with 25 home runs. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to get a September call-up, but hopefully he's able to progress next year and gets a chance to prove himself on the big league level.

Now here's a tricky one: Mike Jacobs is neither a Guy From Granite nor an Aztec Alum. But he's a Guy From Grossmont. I spent more years than I care to admit at Grossmont College before transferring to San Diego State. Not only did Jacobs attend the same community college as me, but during the same timeframe. I shared an anecdote a while back about how I think I may have even had a class with him. So I was happy to add my first couple of certified autos of his (each ran me a buck-something). I probably won't work too hard expanding my Guys From Grossmont collection, but who knows. Other notable names from the junior college include Quintin Berry, Mike Hartley, Sean O'Sullivan, Jesse Orosco Jr (cool, I didn't realize he had a son playing professionally), and Carlos Torres. There's also overlap with several Guys From Granite.

But back to Mike Jacobs, he had some solid seasons with the Marlins a few years back, with a career home run total of an even 100, but hasn't seen major league action since 2012. He's been playing in Mexico with decent success, spending 2015 in Oaxaca (pronounced wa-hah-kah) batting .276 with 14 home runs in 111 games.

OK, that wraps up this post updating recent pick-ups of local guys. Thanks for reading!

A couple lots from Sportlots [HT throughout]

[This post is a submersive, interactive experience. It can be read as-is or you can go synergistically deeper by activating additional text using your electronic device.]

Wanna see some cards from a couple Sportlots orders that arrived yesterday?
(No? Screw you, here they are anyways!)
Let's do it, bitch.

Rod Beck! Embossed. Electric. Rainbow. Red. Cubs. Baby. Remember that season of Eastbound & Down where Kenny Powers has to take care of a baby? I'm pretty sure it was based on that baseball card at the end there. I should mention that each card featured in this post was the 18¢ Sportlots minimum, plus shipping from 2 sellers.

Giancarlo "The Man" Stanton! How's your vision, buddy? Hoping for a strong 2015. How many fingers am I holding up? Giancarlo? Hey, over here!

At the rate I've been picking up Goldschmidt cards lately, he'll be inducted into my 50 Card Club pretty soon.. and 100 Card Club by the end of the year.

Story time!!! So the other day I found out Mike Jacobs here attended Grossmont Community College in El Cajon in the late 90s just like me. You might know I collect players who went to my high school, and while Jacobs didn't attend my high school, going to the same JC as me-- at the same time, no less-- is probably grounds for PCing, too.

So I figured I'd pick up a few of his cards in this Sportlots order, even though I never gave him a second thought before. He looks really familiar in that Bowman card. In fact, I've got a suspicion that I had a class with him. It was an "Introduction to Baseball" class, taught by the manager of the school's baseball team.. obviously an "easy A" elective specifically created to boost the GPAs of athletes, and as you can imagine, much of the baseball team was in that class. I was a baseball nut, so I took the class, too, along with a few other non-athletes who just liked baseball and wanted an easy A. I may have ended up with a B, but that's because the class was early in the morning ("early" for me at the time, anyways) and I only showed up about half the time. (The following semester I tried to try out for the team, but it didn't go my way, and my dreams of being a ballplayer fell on their sword. Still bums me out to think about. I coulda been a star.) Anyways, the class dealt with the rules of baseball and history and stuff like that. Well, one of the questions on a quiz was about cities with a ballclub, and one of the choices was Tampa Bay, and one of the jocks scoffed, "Haha, Tampa Bay?!" And one of the smarter jocks had to explain to him that, yes, Tampa Bay did recently get an expansion team. I thought that was hilarious, and was my first realization that just because a guy is good at playing baseball doesn't mean that he knows shit about the big picture of the game. Anyways, I'm not saying that I'm 100% positive that the clueless jock from the story was Mike Jacobs... but it might've been. Definitely might've been. I'd put a couple bucks on it being him.

A couple Gavin Floyd cards. Hey, I just now while drafting this, just this very second found out he recently signed with the Cleveland Indians for 2015. Woot! (or should I say, "Woo woo woo woo [places hand intermittently over mouth while making these noises in a racially insensitive manner, but I don't mean it in a racist way. I love Native Americans. Seriously, I'd rather not celebrate Columbus Day.]) Good luck for a successful 2015 season, Gavin! Coincidentally, that minor league card on the left looks like it could easily be an Indians card with some quick logo photoshopping.

Should I pick up a few more Wilhelm cards?
Eh, couldn't Hoyt! Pun credit: Stealing Home of Some Trait Bait, Some of the Time. Seriously man, when was the last time you posted any trade bait? Your blog title is false advertising! :P

Bip in Blue! Love those blue "baseball's best (or whatever they're called)" '90 Donruss cards. It makes me wonder.. If the flagship set of '90 Donruss was blue, and a less-common sideset was red.. would I be as enchanted by the red (and conversely as blahed by the blue)?
Probably, yeah. Definitely!
And if a fire at Topps in early 1988 resulted in 95% of the printrun of '88 Topps being destroyed, causing the set to be much more scarce, I'd probably love that set. But as it stands, I think it's shit.

The Felix Fermin and '06 Bowman checklist weren't part of either order, but were thrown in as bonus front-and-back protective cards. Definitely appreciate when sellers/traders do this, and try to do the same myself whenever I can. (If you get a trade package from me, there will likely be junk wax bookending the cards.) Sometimes people think these are the "real cards" from me and I feel distraught about it when they show them in their "trade recap" posts. I mean, if by some miracle you need them, GREAT!, but hell, I pretty much expect you to throw them away.

Someday I may try to scrape together 1991 Stadium Club, so I guess it's a cool bonus card to get. (It's a bittersweet set for me thanks to buying it on eBay a couple years back, noticing much of the key cards were damaged, and returning it for a refund, eating the return shipping cost.) As for the checklist, well, Tom at Angels In Order has been on a checklist collecting kick lately (!!! somebody wants checklists!!!), so maybe I can get a trade going with him to unload a few checklists, including this one.

As for other cards not pictured.. well, there were a couple each for 2 upcoming "Guys From Granite" posts, so you'll have to stay tuned for those.
Also, the 2 Sportlots sellers responsible for all the cards in this post have something in common: they were the only sellers left on Sportlots that had 10+ copies available of Marquis Grissom 1990 Upper Deck #9. I cleaned them both out. I'll need to do a Marquis Mania post one of these days to update that project. I've got a fat stack of that card waiting to be paged.

That's it for today. Keep it real, yo. Does anybody bother reading the hidden text? I hope so!