A Gift from Beantown!

You might or might not remember a blog entry several months back about the 2004 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox Masterpiece card that I mailed in to the Red Sox, care of Theo Epstein. I had this wacky idea that it would look pretty cool to get the auto of the guy who engineered that team.

Unfortunately, as anybody new to the hobby eventually learns, most TTM's never come back. And unfortunately I really liked that card!

One day I was trolling around Redsox.com and I came upon a "contact us" link. I am a firm believer of "what's the worst that could happen" and decided to contact the Red Sox to see if they knew what became of this card.

I sent the email and moved on with everyday life. Never thought about it again, and actually forgot I had sent it at all when suddenly one afternoon last spring, a representative from the team named Jackie sent me an email out of the blue with a response to my email.

She and several others actually LOOKED for the card, but unfortunately it was not to be found. She asked if there was anything they could do, to which I responded that just the fact that she took the time to contact me back about a CARD was good enough.

Nevertheless, we got talking more about being west-coast fans and going to Seattle when we could to catch our team, and the story about naming our son after Jacoby and Dustin.

Then a couple months later I got ANOTHER email from Jackie that there was a surprise on the way from the team. I could not believe it! A few days later this came...

WOW! A signed 8.5 x 11 photo of my two favorite Sox (plus Manny's arm). Jackie told me that she circulated the photo herself and that both players were pretty inquisitive about little JD and were happy to sign a gift for him. Jackie was extremely generous with her follow through and showed amazing customer service by going above and beyond. What an awesome job that must be!

THANK YOU BOSTON RED SOX!

Just for summer fun, please participate!

This idea is completely stolen from the latest Entertainment Weekly but as I read the piece, I had one of those "moments of clarity" where events of your childhood come flooding back to you.

Remember when you were a kid, how exciting everything would be. How you would totally look forward to even the stupidest things?

The Entertainment Weekly was talking about Summer popcorn flicks. Blockbusters. Unforgettable experiences. These days movies can tend to be long, expensive, and for the most part, forgettable. But what came flooding back to me, was the memories of seeing summer movies at matinees, riding my bike in the scorching heat across the city to catch a double-feature. Watching the same movie 5-10 times before it left town! Thinking back to when I was a kid, I watched A LOT of movies MANY times each. This day and age I am lucky to get out of the house once every few months, or even have enough time to watch a movie on-demand.

So I thought it would be kind of fun to take a blast to the past and list my top-5 all-time summer blockbuster flicks. Feel free to pop up your list, I would be interested to see which movies I omitted!

1. Jurassic Park. I am talking about the original! Firstly, I love the book, and can read it over and over again, but the move, OMG. Check your history books folks, this was THE FIRST digital sound picture. I still remember the preview at the beginning of a giant CD that zooms on the screen, then writing scrolls its way onto the disc "The Digital Experience" and then BAM, the disc explodes all around you! Then you are rewarded with LOUD awesome dinosaurs for the next two hours. Absolutely unforgettable movie-going experience and that flick still holds up today.

2. Die Hard with a Vengeance. YEAH! My best memory of this movie was that was the first movie shown at Bend's (Oregon, look it up) first, stadium-seating, all-digital movie theatre. I love this movie because I thought it was a pretty original idea, lot's of smart twists, and great chemistry with Willis and Sam. I do NOT like the second movie, but this one I probably saw at least 10 times at the theatre and about 25 times overall! The bomb explosion at the very beginning rocked that place.

3. Pulp Fiction. Eh, I am actually unsure if this was a summer pic or not, most admittedly these were hazy days for me, but regardless, this movie sets a new standard, started my love of Quentin Tarantino movies (I later saw Reservoir Dogs, which some argue is better, but I think "Pulp" is the pinnacle). So because I saw this at least seven times (one of which my Dad actually made us walk out!), this is a classic and makes the list.

4. Back to the Future. I was about 7 or so when this came out, so hands down this movie was THE BOMB and I cannot wait until little Jacoby is able to watch these with me for the first time. All three are actually decent, but this one, plus blasting "Power of Love" all summer long, makes it the most memorable for me.

5. Ghostbusters. Why such a small pic? Anyways, THIS movie scared the crap out of me the first time I saw it (I was 6 or 7). I remember the library ghost seen absolutely freaked me out, so much in fact that I would LEAVE THE THEATRE for a few minutes as that scene was played and then go back in. I loved this movie though and probably saw it about 20 times or so...I actually remember seeing it with a double feature of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, as well as View to a Kill, and I believe Back to the Future, once.

If I was to add a modern summer blockbuster to this list I would have to say "Pirates of the Caribbean". This movie came out of left field and blew everybody away. I did not include it because I was in my mid-20's when I saw it, and only twice in the theatre...but I betcha some little kid rode his bike to the theatre and saw it tons!

So what are your top summer blockerbuster flick memories?

Ellsbury Additions

As discretionary income decreases and disapproval continues with the big Topps machine, I have narrowed my collection needs dramatically in the last several months. Yeah, I snagged a bunch of dino cards and greek gods, but that's just cuz mini cards are cool and they look good in a binder.

By the way (also increasing mal feeling towards Topps), did you see how they hid the Ginter Code this year? Ri-di-cul-ous! A code that totally favored the desperate and paranoid..."OMG, I need to mail Topps to make sure that nobody has cracked it yet!" Whatever, total cop out and I feel really sorry for those people that were misled on "code cards" online and paid a pretty penny for nothing. I can grouse about it more if you would like but would rather talk about Jacoby....Ellsbury that is, not the other guy, and not my kid, who is NOT named after the other guy, but rather after Ellsbury....got all that?

Latest Ellsbury's to hit the binder after the rip card got away...

Happy 4th of July....late. This is the one commemorative patch that I wantded from the set. I really like the patches from Series One much better, but you can't beat Boston, Ellsbury, and some crazy CHP's glasses going on.

Topps Finest Green Jacoby Refractor. I received this in trade. Finest is most shiny!

Still the centerpiece of my Jacoby collection, but sorely missing his 2010 counterpart is an unripped Jacoby 2008 Ginter Rip Card. To remain unripped so long as I am the owner and until I hand it to my son for his collection some day.

Ah! I discovered this subset in my one and only box of 2008 Ginter, still my favorite set of the several years of Ginter fun.

Got any random Jacoby's (Ellsbury's) clogging up your collection? Let me know!

Better Late Than Never: My Ginter Results

Various what-have-you's have kept me too busy to do my write-up on Allen and Ginter 2010, so I finally have some free time to do some scans and get caught up.

So I purchased two. boxes this year, thus far. Well, check that. I purchased the master set of cards 1-350, and THEN two boxes (cuz you gotta have them minis and a shot at something really special, right)?

I won't linger on the base, nor will I show any of them. I have already decreed that the base set looks rather bland and boring and seems to be a step back from previous sets. The pea-green just created a bleek atmosphere for the images and drags down the entire set. Just imagine a box of chicle and how awesome that set looked because of the explosion of variety and colors! Not to be found here.

But really, it's all about the mini-sets and the hidden subsets, and the case-hit sets...oh my.

Starting off with the dinos! Love them, though of the four of these I have only heard of the Spinosauras, and I still really have no idea what I am looking at with the dilophosaurus. These are pretty cool though. I am pretty sure the ginter code is hidden in the rocks!
World animal set! hmmm.....animals are cool and all, but I am not sure that I am digging these as a concept. Animal mug shots. I am pretty sure that the Kangaroo is hiding a Ginter Code clue...

These Sailors of the Seven Seas are ROCKIN! Very cool cards. I definitely am in to collecting these and the much more hidden Saltiest Sailors collection. I think the dragon might know a thing or two about the code...

Wordsmiths are pretty cool cards, though not exceptionally exciting. It's cool to snag a Bill Shakespeare though...and I can even understand the writing on the back!

And six glorious red hits. Right on target per average. I heard a lot of stories of shortage, and it looks like Beardy got all the "overs" so mine works out even-steven. Feel free to throw out some offers if something grabs your fancy!

And the Winners of JD's World Cup Tournament are...

Well folks, sorry for the one-day delay on the results of the competition. I was still mourning the loss of the Ellsbury rip card that I could not muster the energy to run the 470 entrants through random.org....and then when I did finally run them the first time...Internet Explorer crashed! I just stared dumbfounded at the screen hoping there was a loophole. And sure enough there was...type them again! That god for Excel.

And as it appears, parody has once-again seized the day and all three winners turned sub-par performances by their World Cup team into JD's Wildcardz contest GOLD! Let's meet the winners.






Representing Mexico, and first place in the contest is.....GRAND CARDS!

Representing Nigeria and taking second place is.....Night Owl!

And wrapping up the top-three and bringing a little justice to a decidedly sub-par powerhouse of Italy......DarkShip!

I have held off finalizing prizes since it will give me a chance to customize them a little for you...Grand Cards and Night Owl, I know your collection interests just fine, but DarkShip, I need to hear from you with some ideas on who you collect please.

Congrats, and thanks to everybody for taking part in the contest!

A Heartbreaking Waste of a Card.

As I have gotten further into this hobby, and the prices of hobby boxes continue to rise thanks to Michael Eisner returning this hobby to the kids, I have been forced to continually modify my collection quest. While I feel really comfortable with my "To the Nines" (TM, all rights reserved), I have also pretty much decided that I am going to target mainly Jacoby Ellsbury cards since I have already amassed quite a stack of them and it also limits my needs to one or two cards per set, which is great for a man on a budget.

So to my joy, last week on Ebay, a Jacoby Ellsbury rip card /25 surfaced! Actually two of them did. This is a great looking card! The reason I so desperately wanted this card was that, just like my 2008 Jacoby rip card received through a trade, I intended to keep this card fully intact with mini safely encased inside for all of eternity, or pretty darn close. My philosophy is that if you receive a Rip of a regular ol Joe that you don't really care about...rip away! Or sell high. But if you collect em, keep it together, man!

Sadly, however, this card (and it's friend) quickly slipped away as this card rapidly escalated in price and sold for nearly $160 bones. The other card was a BIN for over two bills and it vanished quickly.

Even more sad...................this image......................(sniff)................this image that you see above.............(sniff sniff)........is currently posted on Ebay..............as a RIPPED Jacoby card!

Utterly disrespectful!

I equate this travesty to the equally devastating hunting of elephants to cut off their tusks, hunting buffalo for their hides, throwing away the outside of an Oreo cookie just because you want to get to the cream, and letting your Bowman prospect cards pile up unnoticed as you search in vain for a Strasburg auto.

And look up at that card again. Jacoby don't look happy about it either.

RIP, rip.

Viva Espana! JD's World Cup Tourney Has Come To A Close!

Well, you can't say I didn't warn ya.



Yesterday's 3rd place game between Germany and Uruguay was full of excitement and back-an-forth action that came down to the absolute last shot of the match. It was a match that would be a perfect ending to the World Cup...except it was the consolation final.



Today we had Spain and Netherlands, in what was absolutely guaranteed to be a defensive battle. Spain had only allowed one goal the entire cup...and had scored only eight. As the TV analysts were going around the table giving scoring predictions, I nearly choked on my coffee when one of them pronounced "3-2". Apparently he had not been watching these two teams much over the last month.



So as predicted by Swami earlier in the week, Spain walks outta here with a 1-0 overtime (late overtime) win over Netherlands and wins its first World Cup title in its first appearance.



I gotta have a little more time to wrap my brain around the last month that I basically dedicated completely to the beautiful game. I am definitely ready to get back into some baseball, but am going to miss those repetitive world cup commercials, the World Cup jingle at the beginning of each match, and of course the gentle hum of the vuvuzela! More tomorrow on final thoughts though.



This is also to announce that the JD's Wildcardz World Cup Tournament has officially come to a close and all the entries have been tallied! The is still a chance for some major parody, and tomorrow I will announce the winners of the competition! Check in tomorrow for the results!