Like a Warm Blanket

After several excruciating hours at the library (Google Fact of the Day: Google experience 7% earnings for Q3 of 2009, according to the 10Q released October 15th), I decided to head on over to the hobby shop to take a look around. I had head some incredible reviews for Upper Deck SP Authentic and thought I would try to snag a pack or two.

I was feeling a bit sassy after cramming all morning and most of the afternoon, so I dug into the owner after he told me that they HAVE the product, but won't sell single packs of it because it is too easy for people to pack search. Went something like this:

"I thought you guys did not allow pack searching"
"We don't, thats why we keep them behind the counter"
"Well then why don't you sell single packs"
"Because when we hold out the box for people to pick packs, then people grab one, feel it, and throw it back in and don't want it".
"Why would you allow them to do that?"
"It just happens"
"OKAY, so how much is an entire box then?"
"$119.95"

At this point I decided to laugh out loud. He got defensive and said that it was MSRP, which is total lie considering the wholesalers out there. Besides, if those packs were so easy to seach, I absolutely believe that the owners will poach the good stuff anyways.

That madness aside, I decided to snag 12 packs of Topps Updates and Highlights for a couple of reasons. 1) they are a reasonable 2 bucks a pack, 2) the grouch gives 6 packs for 10 bucks, 3) these packs contain TURKEY REDS!.



I really don't care to collect this entire set. I actually don't really care too much about snagging the one relic or auto per box either. If it happens that is cool, but really, if I can snag some Red Sox, phenoms, Turkey Reds, and most importantly, the old-school SP's, then I will be a happy camper. Hey, the price is right.

So I ripped em all tonight and had a blast! Remember that this was my first product and I really fell in love with the unpredictability of the packs. A little bit of everything, and this rip did not disappoint. I can definitely see myself being content purchasing a few cheap packs from time to time. Most of these cards I am more than happy to send out to you guys, so keep an eye on your mailbox.

In the meantime, I will give a little teaser on some of the treasures I pulled tonight:

Coooooooooooool!

2009 Turkey Red Updates and Highlights Needs

TR, 102,103,108,111,112,114,121,126,128,130,132,139
,142,144,146,149,150.

Turkey Call out to the Blogosphere!

Well, my greatest fears have become a reality, and I have known that it was coming for quite some time but have been in denial. The Yankees are going to win the World Series....just kidding. Seriously, I found a blog to remain nameless where said Red Sox blogger is actually ROOTING for the Yankees. I tried to follow his logic as to why he would want the Yankees to win, but my head was spinning like a top.

So what is my greatest fear come true? Well, those who have followed my blog for awhile have known of my love for the Turkey Reds that came in my first set that I collected since starting...well...collecting. I worked long and hard to collect all 100 of this year's Turkey Reds, and have them displayed proudly in a binder...only to learn that there are now 50 more of them in the set. This makes me terribly sad because what once was whole is now once again just an unfinished set.

I humbly ask for your assistance.

I am going to peak around a bit for some blasters, but I would like to put out a call to you all to please consider me with your Turkey Reds that you may come upon during your pack rips. Of course I will do my best to return the favor in kind. I just love these cards more than any others that I have collected so far and really want to complete this set...again!

Thank you for your help, and let me know what I can do in return!

My Impulse Purchase

Last week I had a pretty lousy week at work. I decided that I wanted to stop by the card shop, spend more money than I really should, and get myself something nice with maybe a few nice hits. I am a big fan of Sweet Spot and its cool autos on baseballs etc, and was all set to spend 60 bucks to fulfill my "rule of three" on Sweet Spot. Unfortunately they were out. My eyes drifted over to the even more expensive Ballpark. I saw two boxes left and had visions of pulling a nice rookie auto that would look good in my new shiny hard case shoebox. It was not until later that I realized that this is one perplexing product that I swore to avoid because the relics made no sense. Well, I was a little late in that realization, so now I have two packs of strange relics to share. Was there an auto? Of course not. That would be too easy. Were there Yankees? Does a bear..you know..in the woods? Here is what we have...




Serial numbered base cards of Wright and Beckett. Why they are serial numbered who the heck knows, but at least a red sox showed up. On to the crazy relics.

Melvin Mora and Carlos Guillen #/390. Connection? Apparently third base, though I thought Inge took over that spot this season. Don't follow the Tigers much, so you tell me.

Magglio and Ramirez. /#350. Connection? You tell me.

Here is a quad swatch of up and comers. this card makes sense...kinda, since they are all pitchers and everybody minus carmona had a pretty decent year. Fits my collection needs.

Stat kings Kinsler, Cabrera, Lee and Hermida /#500. Connection? Beats me.

Here is where it gets interesting. This is a two-sided swatch that comes with a seperate COA. Here we have a /#200 Lester, Manny, and Dice K...will there be more Red Sox studs on the back?



Uh....nope. How about Wang Chung, Joba the Hutt, and Robby Canooooooo. What an ODD ODD card this is. Oh...notice the sticker to the left. The same serial number is on the COA card. WHY place an additional sticker on the relic? Ask UD

This card actually DOES make sense and is by far my favorite of the bunch. Here you have current Marlins Ramirez, Johnson, Hermida, and Uggla...

Followed by World Champions AJ Burness, Josh Beckett, Mikey Lowell and Josh Willingham. this card is pretty rockin.

All in all though I F'd up buying these. They were impulse but in reality they are pretty nice relics. Really thick...like blocks...they just dont make a lot of sense, but then again neither do autographs of bareback horseriding champions either, so all in all not a bad lot of cards. The first four relics are on the market if interested, but I think The Sox/Yanks and Marlins are going to hang out with me for awhile.

Night Y'all

Larry Jansen Dies at 89

I don't claim to be a baseball historian and rarely write about players from years past, but part of my job each day is to read all of the newspapers searching for stories about our company. As luck would have it, one of those publications is the New York Times, so I get to read a pretty decent sports section, although it is often filled with Yankee dribble....by the way, great story yesterday on Theo Epstein and his off-season plans for the Red Sox. Lets just say, Theo ain't happy and he went as far as to even point out players that had DECENT seasons saying that they could have played better. And Dice-K, you have officially been put on notice.


But that has nothing to do with Larry Jansen. Who is Larry Jansen you may ask. WELL, Larry Jansen was a member of the famous 1951 New York Giants. You know that famous clip of video "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant"!, well Larry was the guy that pitched a 1-2-3 top of the 9th that then set up Bobby Thomson's 3-run "Home Run Heard Round the World".

Other notes about Jansen and the Giants...Jansen was a 23 game winner that season, which is a remarkable feat in itself. The Giants came back from 13 games back in the division in August to win the division and ultimately the pennant. Unfortunately Jansen went 0-2 in the World Series and lost to the Yankees (go figure) in 6 games. Nevertheless after winning 21 games his rookie season, then 18, 19, and 21 in his world series season, Jansen was clearly an ace for his time.

So Larry Jansen, this blogs for you!

Where I've been!

Hey everybody! This is going to be a very troll-like post with no photos or shiny cards to look at. I will tell you that I did make a total impulse purchase last Friday, but I am going to save that for the next post. Why wait? Oh my scanner is not loaded on the computer yet...wait, didn't I already have my scanner loaded on this computer? Hmm, interesting indeed.

So here's the story. So last week at work was probably one of the worst in the history of weeks. It just wore me out completely, balancing life and school on top of an full days work in a crazy environment.

Time to get out of town...my wife and I have had plans to go up to Seattle for the weekend to go watch the Seahawks play and to play around in Seattle without the kid for a couple days. Almost did not happen. For some reason Friday night I felt awful...most likely just complete weariness from the work week. I was laying in bed just shivering cold.

Then Jacoby woke up.

He was screaming at the top of his lungs and his nose was all red and he was snuffly. Wife took him out to the sofa and slept with him for a few hours...I lay in bed shivering.

Middle of the night rolled around and stacy made it to bed, by this time I was completely sweating, so whatever was wrong with me I burned it out of my system. We'll see how Jacoby feels in the morning.

Jacoby slept the rest of the night and felt better, so the trip was on! grab your seahawks blue (or green) and time to head up I-5.

First stop is a burger joint up in Seattle called Dicks Drive-In. It's an old-school 50's drive in where you order your food at the window and go eat in the car. We have been trying to go for three years and finally made it to Dicks. I ordered a couple cheeseburgers and fries. I think my wife built the place up WAY too much, but it's kinda the equivalent of an in-and-out burger. It also gave me plenty of opportunity to crack dirty jokes.

Off to the hotel. We got a great deal on a room with a beautiful view of Seattle, 18th floor (one from the top). First thing I did? Took a 2 hour nap. Did I mention how spread thin I feel getting through this Capstone? I am dying! I could have slept another 2 hours easy, but it was time to wander up the street to the largest Macy's on earth and make fun of clothing with the wife. Seriously, I don't think that there was one floor of Macy's that did not have cheetah print on it. Or 80's style...or cheetah 80's style. It was nuts.

Then we found a nice little bar up the street and got a couple drinks. The fun part about being on blood thinners for the rest of my life? Lightweight! One double Sapphire and tonic and I was rollin!

We went out to a nice dinner on elliot bay. I had chowder, salad, and a pound of clams. Then a nice dark cherry and chocolate cake. Came back to the hotel, hit the hot tub (another highlight, I LOVE hottubs), and then hit the hay for another 10 hours. Seriously. I could have slept for three more.

But time to go watch some NFL! Believe it or not, this was the only negative of the trip. Seahawks won 41-0, which was good. The problem is that since the game was a blowout, fans were drinkin...a lot....a ton. Result. At halftime my wife and I saw one dude with a big bloody lip, and then third quarter the real fireworks began. There was another fight - RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. Literally the next row forward, a dude was headed for the aisle and apparently brushed the girlfriend of another dude. He took acception to this and shoved the first dude in the back. The stare down began. The words were exchanged. More staring and the WHAMMO, the two go spilling into the aisle. One problem though. The girl in question got thrown in between them during the skirmish. Guess who got punched? Yep, the girl. Two bloody nostrils, my guess is the broke her nose.

Security came and hauled all the hoodlums away and while the mood was incredibly tense, the seahawks broke the tension with a 72 yard fumble recovery for a touchdown. Crowd goes nuts.

So now the seahawks are just running the ball every down...and they really suck at running, so we decide to get a jump on 70,000 people to head to our cars. We say the fighters on the way down the ramp, surrounded by alcohol police. What a shocker!

So ultimately when leaving a sporting event, you get in a jam of people and are herded like cattle for a few blocks before the crowds break up. Just our luck we get stuck right in front of ANOTHER bunch of drunk dudes. I turn around and every one of them looks like the washed up college flunkee with bulging eyes and heads and alcohol coming out of every pore. So these guys are just giving it to anybody who will listen. Drop F bombs (amongst other derogatory terms). They spot an older couple wearing Washington Husky gear and are JUST RELENTLESS. We are talking about a couple in there 50's...really classy guy. I mean for gods sake, we are in Seattle after all...home of the Washington Huskies. Get a life. The funny part though? Turns out these dudes were students at WSU. Cougar country baby! Yeah...I wouldn't be making too much fun of the Huskies when you support a program that is arguably THE WORST IN THE NATION.

Anyways, the whole point of the rant was that NFL games (at least this one) just seem to be getting out of control. From the Obama interuption, to Kanye West jumping on stage, to this, it just seems that people do whatever the hell they want, whenever they want, and ignore any rules of politeness. I don't think my wife will ever want to go to another football game ever again. And to think we were thinking of taking Jacoby some day.

Soooooooo. I come home, and have exactly 4 hours to complete my section of my paper and submit it online? Guess what? Computer crashed! No online, no nothing. After 5 reboots I am allowed to access Word and work on my paper, but any of my online references were inaccessible and I could not turn in the paper before midnight anyways. It was a crap effort to say the least.

Today roles around and I decide to bag work because I still don't feel great, and I REALLY dont feel great about the computer. I call Geeks a Knockin and within an hour I have a geek at my door, ready to fix my computer. After two hours of working on it, the prognosis is bad, and I get the unfortunate news that I need to fresh boot the entire system...meaning EVERYTHING MUST GO! Goes back to factory restart.

My wife has a ton of photos of jacoby on the computer. Death to me if those ever vanish, so I rush out to Office Max and purchase a 16GB flash drive and load it up with everything that I can think of. A lifeboat of sorts. Oh, for the record, I spent 99 bucks for the guy to tell me to reset the computer and another 40 bucks for the 16GB flashdrive (which was actually a good deal).

The paper? Oh yeah, so I bolt into a library and try THREE computers before the darn computer recognized my thumb drive. Paper submitted. Phew! Wrote apology to professor, hope I don't get marked down.

SO....All things seem to be back up and running. I need to reinstall the scanner and will do so tomorrow so I can share my ridiculous impulse purchase with you.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, for those of you that wondered about my little surgery last week...doctor called today and turns out the polup is benign, so all clear there!

Well, in the middle of comedy Monday (I refuse to watch Accidentally on Purpose but need to jump back in for Two and a Half Men soon). I leave you with this little nugget from "How I Met Your Mother" which was ridiculously funny tonight.

click here