Trading Post: Beardy's Baseball Blog

After a weekend filled with Cartoons and Jedi, it is time to get back to some good ol' fashioned baseball blogging. We start off the week with a trade received from East Coast, Everything Baltimore guru Beardy from Beardy's Baseball Blog. The Bearded One answered my call to scratch my old timer itch and sent me several beauties from the T206 series.


I feel like the Honus Wagner and I are old friends since I have seen this image at Dinged Corners
throughout last year. It is easily one of my favorite of the batch. I have no particular plans or ideas for my old timers collection yet. I don't really know how I want to store them, or display them, or organize them...all I know is that I want them...ALL of them. Some people hoard rabbits, or cats, or copies of "Catcher in the Rye", I hoard old-timers.

The next two cards are courtesy of the upcoming Topps Chicle set. Pictured above is David Wright and Albert Pujols.

Beardy then kicked it up a notch by jettisoning an autograph of Jonathan Papelbon out of Oriole Land to Red Sox Nation Left Coast.

I am not one to bag on my team's closer...I would much rather have him on my side than have to go against him...and I think that many would agree. But I have to say that Papelbon is one STRANGE CAT, with some strange little quirks. That's why I love this card so much, as this autograph fits his personality to a tee. I have no idea what this signature says, and I am betting that neither does he.


The stunner of the package lay at the bottom of the stack:

Oh yeah...A Topps Finest Rookie Redemption Tommy Hanson! I have way too much of a fascination with the Tommy Gun, but I do love a great prospect and Tommy completely lived up to his hype last season. This card was courtesy of part of the Obama SP for Clayton Kershaw (Matt Damon) auto exchange last spring. I never thought Topps would get the redemptions in the mail, but they finally got their act together and Tommy found his way out to Oregon.

Topps finest is an excellent card. I had to remove the card from the protective sleeve and take a good, long look at it to admire the levels of 3D dimension that jump off of the card. The pose is nothing unique, in fact I would wager that 90% of all Tommy Hanson rookie cards look just like this, including the less-than-attractive T206 of Tommy blowing a bubble (as is the case in this card.

For those of you not already in the know, Beardy has a pretty excellent blog that you must check out. He bringin' it daily, and is the recent recipient of a Drewbie and a Gummy for blogging awards and I am fairly certain that he is next in line for the Noble Peace Prize as well. Thanks again Beardy!