More Friday Fun Returns...

In case you are playing catch-up, go here...

So who is this guy?



Alex sez: Either of the Walton Boys



Yeeeeesssss! Very nice indeed. I would tend to lean towards Papa Bill on this one. Just slap a Dodger cap on him and there he is!

Funny story about Bill Walton. About 10 years back during the JailBlazer era the Blazers decided to host an ill-advised Bill Walton beanie baby night at the Rose Garden Arena. This was either a nationally televised contest, or Bill was a special guest announcer because he was present and adding his stuffy, proper commentary to the game.

So all the fans are loaded with beanie babies, and crabby enough because these were Jail Blazer days, and at some point in the 4th quarter, Scottie Pippen got called for an extremely controversial foul, causing a chorus of boos....then beanie babies to be thrown on to the court!

Walton was totally speechless, and totally offended that such precious gifts from his adoring fans could be hucked away so half-hazardly and without regret. In your face, Walton!

Friday Fun Early Returns

In case you are playing catch-up, go here...

So who the heck is Clayton Kershaw this year? Modine? Damon? Tossing it out to you to decide. Here are a couple early entries...
Clayton Kershaw resembles...

Sharpe since 92 sez: Gary Busse! Right on target straight down to the teeth.

Priceless Pursuit sez: Candice Cameron???????? DJ Tanner...Perhaps the rosey cheeks?

Friday Fun!

Friday's are just too precious to waste on the same ol' baseball collecting dribble. After a night where I lost my first Pigskin Pick Em' pick of the season, which is an almost Punxsutawny Phil-like predictor of how the season will go, and my number one fantasy pick Drew Brees was decidedly sub-par, and ALSO a night in which the comeback code at The Show reared it's ugly head ONCE AGAIN...after all of this, I think it's high time we had a little fun around here.

I have always been fascinated with Clayton Kershaw cards. I have been continually amazed at how Kershaw images always appear to be a spitting image of a celebrity. He is quite the chameleon!

Take, for example, potato chip-stained card below (by the way, this image was ripped from eBay, so I have no idea what the seller is thinking...grease stain 1/1?). Regardless, when you compare the 2010 Topps T206 mini Kershaw to... Cutthroat Island's Matthew Modine....

...then you (hopefully) see what I am talking about. No, I don't have an unhealthy fascination with Mr. Modine, although his speed-reading ability in Gross Anatomy and his able abilities to captain a World Cup sailboat in Wind are certainly enviable. BUT, if I did have a fascination with Matt Modine, then explain this...

2008 Topps Allen and Ginter Clayton Kershaw toilet paper mini. Perhaps a spitting image of...

Matt Damon???

Look again, and again, and again, until you agree with me. Something strange is going on here and it is not a fascination with guys named Matt.

Here is where you come in. I present the 2010 Topps Allen and Ginter Clayton Kershaw...

Now I KNOW that his appearance in this card is vastly different than the last two cards. He looks nothing like either Modine or Damon. So I throw out to you, my dedicated readers, this challenge...

WHO does Kershaw look like this year. Click on my email and send me a JPG and I will post them throughout the day. Go with accuracy, go with creativity...just go with it because you know you have Friday apathy and need something to burn a few minutes off the clock

Enjoy your Friday!

Proof Positive

When I charted a new course for my collection, a much smaller, compact variety of collection, I made a point that any and all minis (non-dups) would be welcomed into JD's mini collection binder. Here is proof of that.
Oh yeah! Check out my boatload of Yankees minis, courtesy of Joe at The Priceless Pursuit! Joe was very gracious to part with his handful of minis in his collection and donate to my quest...whatever it is. Of course, we are definitely going to need to be splitting these fellas up, as there is simply too much gag reflex factor if you keep them all together. I am thinking about scattering them among sharks and Ponce De Leon and Julio Lugo.

Also included in the package was Higby, you friendly neighborhood yo-yo-man.

This is without a doubt one of the cheesier of the Ginter mini cards out there (though the fire-man from this year's set is giving some serious competition to that claim). Thanks again Joe for helping me out!

Anybody want a Kinsler Cycle Mini?

Hi folks.

This image was pulled from Ebay because the original is at home, and this image by no means is representative of the type of parallel, but rest assured that over the weekend I snagged a second blaster of T206 and pulled a cycle mini of Ian Kinsler #/99.

I am perfectly content to stick this card in a binder sleeve with the rest of the mish-mash, but I know you Texas fans might prefer to have it in your collection instead.

SO I thought I would toss out the offer of my cycle for another cycle from the set. While it would be nice to have a cool player, it does not really matter to me. If you would like the Kinsler, and have a cycle card to trade straight across for it, let me know and we can do a tidy little one-stamp trade!

Grudgematch part 2: The Blaster

*ALL CARDS FOR TRADE, MINUS THE MINIS

During my Target run the other night I could not choose between retail Topps T206 and Blaster Topps T206, so I decided to try a bit of both and run a product comparison. My summary? The cards all look alike! Actually it should also be noted that you get the same odds out of Blasters as Retail boxes. I don't know if they have a wall-hanger product out or not...if so those might have tougher odds.

So here are the highlights of my blaster. Remember that my five packs of retail pulled an Ellsbury NNO and a Strasburg Caramel mini, so that might be a bit tough to match.

Pack #1


Colby Rasmus
Tim Lincecum (with hat!!!)
Gil Meche Polar Bear Mini
Ryan Dempster Bronze
Chris Volstad
Andrew McCutchen


Pack #2


Frank Robinson
Yogi Berra
Hanley Ramirez Caramel Mini
Andy Pettitte Bronze
Curtis Granderson
Alex Rios




Pack #3


Jayson Werth
Brandon Inge
Jason Heyward Piedmont Mini
Lou Gehrig
David Price Bronze
Justin Upton





Pack #4


Ken Griffey Jr
Orlando Cabrera Caramel Mini
Jason Heyward Bronze
Ty Cobb
Adam Jones
Chris Coghlan



Pack #5


Jason Bartlett
Willie Keeler
Geovany Soto
Miguel Montero Piedmont mini
Travis Hafner Bronze
Kurt Suzuki





Pack #6


Jorge Posada
Adam Lind
Raul Ibanez
First Jet Engine plane mini
Dexter Fowler Bronze
Vernon Wells





Pack #7


Rafael Furcal
Matt Cain Piedmont mini
Melky Cabrera Bronze
John Danks
Kevin Millwood
Babe Ruth NNO





Alcides Escobar
Placido Polanco
Yunel Escobar
Troy Glaus Bronze
Nolan Ryan
Some Mini Card Currently On The Lamb (last seen hitching a ride down I-5)


Summary: I am a big fan of what Heyward is doing this season, so it is nice to pull a mini, and the Ruth NNO is pretty cool, albeit not necessarily unique. Some of these cards are reasonably nice, and some need to be put out to pasture. I guess that is probably about the same story with any product though. Nolan Ryan sure has pretty teeth, don't he?

Winner? I am going to have to go with the loose, retail box. Pulling a Strasberg Caramel, while no doubt not nearly as exciting as it would have been two months ago, is a nice little historic piece to add to JD's collection. "This is the guy that everybody emptied their pocketbooks to get a card of and made eBay very happy".

This will be a fun product to buy some occasional packs. The mini parallels and reasonably interesting card subjects, should make pack rips pretty exciting. I am uncertain why a continuation product is so vastly different than its predecessor, but I will give Topps this much, at least the set seems free of recycled images, at least from what I have seen in these packs.

Remember, all cards for trade, except for the minis! Speaking of mini's, here they are, except for the one that has gone mysterious missing. I wonder if JD knows anything about that.

Topps T206- Retail vs Blaster Grudgmatch!

Last night I made a trip to Target. I wanted to get my hands on a few packs of Topps T206 and see if I could score myself a few new minis for the collection. I was also curious to see if Topps was loading up retail packs with unique cards like Ginter was this year.

When I got to Target I was presented with two options. T206 retail at $2.99 a pack, or a Blaster at $19.99. Firstly, I think that $2.99 is crazy-steep for a retail pack, but since these were all nicely organized and don't look like they had been ruffled through by pack searchers, I decided the right course of action here was to grab a Blaster and five packs of retail. Mathematically I guess I could have grabbed one more retail, but my grubby little paws only snagged five. Either way I thought it would be cool to compare the two products and see if either has the advantage over the other.

Today, lets take a look at the offering from the five retail packs


Pack #1



Bryan Anderson
Jacoby Ellsbury*NNO back
Brian Roberts Piedmont Mini
Cristian Guzman Bronze
Glen Perkins
Victor Martinez


Pack #2



Kick Strass!

Ben Zobrist

Gil Meche

Stephen Strasburg Mini Caramel

James Shields

Koji Uehara Bronze

Daniel McCutchen

Pack#3

Carlos Ruiz

BJ Upton
First pro (minor league) game played under lights mini

Ricky Nolasco Bronze

Miguel Montero

Tom Seaver

Pack#4

Johnny Bench

Worlds first female cop mini

Jackie Robinson Bronze

Travis Snider

Chad Billingsley

Hideki Matsui

Pack #5

Ryan Zimmerman

Ryan Howard

Ryan Dempster

Jon Danks Polar Bear mini

Todd Helton Bronze

Edinson Volquez

And here are the new minis for my collection.

So that was the retail break. I now understand people's comments on the "hat's off" cards. It is literally ALL the cards. Whether this is accurately representative of the 1910 counterpart I do not know, maybe I should jump in my son's matchbox DeLorean time machine and find out. When you look at the cards as a whole, it kind of reminds you of a bad high school yearbook.

I do like the looks of a few star players cards and a few of the legends cards, but overall nothing really jumps out at me about this set. It was cool to pull a SP Ellsbury out of the first pack and although the Strasberg hype has died down, I am happy to add his RC mini to the collection.

No hits out of the retail...not a huge surprise but I am sure they are out there to be had. White frames though?

Next post I will give the results of the Topps T206 BLASTER. Does it hold enough punch to challenge the retail Stras/Ellsbury pulls?

Also, I plan on only keeping the minis and the Ellsbury from this break, so feel free to stake claim on anything else you may like.