Late Night with.....

well, with me. And my buddy Night Owl. While we don't always see eye to eye on things, (I'm a lot taller) we do agree that the night time is the right time.

And that smoothly leads to a surprise envelope that landed in my mailbox this past week. From the previously mentioned owl.

In it were half a dozen needs from my 2015 Topps want list, (thanks to owl for actually looking at my list!) and a couple of other throw ins...

first up, we have the Pig. It's good to have owl looking at your lists when it's Dodgers you need.

case in point. Yimi? Really? I suppose Youppie was already taken. (props if you know who the heck I'm talking about.)

and being the secret Giant fan that we all know he is, he had extra Bumgarners too....

along with being a closet Rockie super collector...

and for this one I got nuthin'... just glad to have received it.

Here we have a card that I set my sights on as soon as I knew it was coming out, but not a single card shop in town brought in any Donruss baseball (can you blame them?) So no pack busting for me...
but like any good friend, he knew I'd give it a good home.

and the final card I'll show is this Chipper Jones mini from 2012 A&G.

it's an A&G back, but has no number on it. Did all the A&G backs have no number? I thought only the regular backs got the "no number whoops we accidentally goofed on purpose" treatment.
Am I wrong? What am I looking at here?
I suppose I could google, but that'll take something close to effort.

Thanks owl!

Now if only someone had the last four cards I need for my 2015 Topps set... #33, 113, 152, 312

Bueller?

My first PWE! and a few overdue thanks...

Living in the North has it's advantages. I personally like it. However, it has it's disadvantages as well. Particularly within our little hobby.

 

Trying to buy one card on ebay and having to pay between $13.50 and $33 shipping. For ONE CARD! Needless to say, I haven't bought off of ebay for almost a year now.

 

Mail delivery. Due to the problems with potential Polar Bear extinction, all package delivery has been moved to the sled dogs who used to do just lettermail. The extra weight has slowed them down considerably.

 

However, I just received my first PWE from the "Lower 48 PWE Explosion."

 

It came from Steve at The Card Chop. He managed to stuff five vintage Braves in the envelope.

 

1956 Topps Bob Buhl. I tried to recreate that throwing motion in my bonus room the other day. I knocked over a lamp and popped out my knee. Kids. Don't try this at home.

 

Sticking with Mr Buhl, we find his 1961 Topps card. What the hell is he looking at? Couldn't the photographer at least try to get his attention?

a 1967 Denis Menke -  I think Steve's Chihuahua got a hold of one of the corners on this baby...

there were also two 1955 Topps, but blogger ate the scans... who knows what blog they popped out on. Keep an eye out for them, would you?

A couple of other bloggers also braves the Northern Polar Express mail route...

Night Owl needed some light reading, so he took a peek at my wantlists and found two cards that I needed.

Of course, one of them HAD to be a mini......

and the other one came with a wee note.

Hall of Famers? Where? This is a fantastic Tony Cloninger card...

I have no idea what Owl is talking about....

And all the way from Texas, Mr Play at the Plate sent me a Brave on TV.

and a very shiny Chipper... (along with a couple of others not seen here)

and a really cool metal John Smoltz! This thing is very thin, very heavy, and very sharp.

I could shave with this thing.

This PWE thing might catch on around here.... at least, I hope so.

Thanks guys!

a little '89 Bowman and some Cereal. Post cereal.

Oh boy. I bet the view counters are spinning overtime. 1989 Bowman. Nothing like showing off the latest and greatest in an attempt to gain viewers.

 

But it's true. Someone sent me '89 Bowman. Night Owl in fact. But it's fine. Don't hate the bird. I asked for them.

 

No. Really.

 

Owl made some rambling mention of having old Bowman and not knowing what to do with it. I made a passing comment about wanting some of the Braves.

 

Well before I could get N.O. my wantlist, he flew, FLEW to the post office (see what I did there?) and mailed me a package before I could change my mind.

 

Okay. Survey says I need four more to complete my Braves team set. I received three from Owl. How did he do?

 

Dion James. Even Braves fans have a tough time remembering Dion James. Maybe because we try so hard to forget.

 Need it! 1 for 1.

2 time MVP, batting champion, and Hall of Famer Dale Murphy! We all love Dale Murphy!

 Need it! 2 for 2!

Holy fresh face Batman! Is that Tom Glavine?!?
Why yes, yes it is.

 NEED IT!!! N.O. went 3 for 3! Without even waiting or looking at my list. Now all I need is #266 John Smoltz.
I'm sure I have it somewhere.... but who knows? Someone send me one, k?

Owl took the opportunity to stuff in a few more cards as well to make it look like he just wasn't unloading old Bowman on me.

There's my boy! The best reliever in baseball. Craig Kimbrel.

 I now have Kimbrel, Uggla, Heyward, Medlen, Minor, Beachy, and Matthews from this year's Archives. Is there more?
Am I missing any??

A quick google check (seriously, does anyone anywhere use bing???) tells me nothing.

Opening up Zistle and I find that I'm still missing Hudson, McCann, Freeman, Darrell Evans and Otis Nixon.

Otis Nixon?

Nice to see the old leadoff dog getting some hobby love.

But crap. Still five to go.

Next, a really super shiny Panini Prizm Chipper Jones. Damn it is hard watching the Braves and no Chipper.

 Another Zistle check and I see that I'm down to needing three more Prizm cards.
#19 Michael Bourn
#164 Tyler Pastornicky
#182 Andrelton Simmons

Anybody got these kicking around? I got an extra Deon Sanders to trade!!!

*crickets*

Okay, enough begging. Time for some serious cereal.

Owl was playing with scissors again....

Beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful.

Thanks for the Bowman bud!!!

finally, a solution to the puzzle.

I hate blogger. Just wanted to put that out there. Since last Thursday I haven't been able to post anything because their image uploader hasn't been working for most people who use Explorer. I see a lot of blogs have been having the same issues.

After a week of troubleshooting the genius tech crew at Blogger come up with a solution!!!!!

They tell me to temporarily try using Google Chrome.

Seriously.

I sense shenanigans.

At least I don't have to make a deal with the devil they call Firefox. I'd quit blogging before doing that.

Onto some more pleasant things, like baseball cards. I've received a couple of packages in the new year, and I need to show them off. Now that I can upload pictures, I will do just that.

First, from night owl. A smallish, but power packed package. How so? Let me explain.

First card out of the package, a 2006 UD Oscar Villarreal. Oscar was the top card, and so was volunteered to be the brave warrior against the dreaded painters tape during the voyage here. He ended up victorious, but shows the scars of battle near both top corners.

from the same set, a Kevin Barry rookie card. You can tell UD was serious about baseball back then. Kevin is card #1014.  That's insane.

from this year's Bowman. Or is it last year's? Who can figure this stuff out? Anyways... a nice shot of BMac before injuries killed his season.

same set, Martin Prado about to gun someone down at 2nd base.

and, according to me, and every baseball stat site on the internet, the best right fielder in all of baseball, Mr Jason Heyward. 6.6 war ladies and gentlemen.

I'm guessing these are 2012 Topps Update cards? My first card of Jack Wilson as a Brave. Jack sure plays hard. Too bad he can't hit.

Ditto my first Brave card of Paul Maholm. By the way, when did Baseball Reference become so expensive? $270 to sponser Maholm??? $1500 for Chipper? I used to sponser starters on the Braves for under $25. WTH?

The most dominant reliever in baseball, Craig Kimbrel. Averaging 2 strike outs per inning. Nasty.

No wonder Dan forgot how to hit.... he's using waaaaay too many gloves.

getting back to this being power packed... I got to this card of former Brave and current free agent Michael bourn and realized that this was the first card I've seen before. Therefor the first duplicate! Woot! I needed all of those other ones! It's like owl took a look at my wantlists or something! (although to be truthful he didn't as I don't have public lists for any of those sets yet.... but still...)

not a great shot of Freddie...

but finally, the last card. Another one I didn't have. And even though it's one of the most over used pics in all of baseball card land, I love it. An auto of everyone's favourite knuckler, Phil Niekro.
Thanks owl!!!

Cardboard swapping - Vintage style.

The other day I mentioned this post would be Dodger style, now I say it's vintage style. Which is it? Glad you asked. It's vintage style, featuring cards from two different Dodger bloggers. I know there's like 47 different Dodger bloggers out there now... but today we'll focus on just two.
First we have cards from g.c.r.l. He sent me a large stack of cards off of my Topps Braves wantlists from 1994-99, as well as a smattering of current faves. As a nice surprise, he also included two cards from long ago. I won't subject you to scans of 1995 Terrell Wade rookies. But I will show you these:
1975 colourful goodness

and look! Not a mark on it. How does a card like this ever survive? Someone must  have just pack pulled it a week ago or something.....

gcrl also included this beauty.

From 1957. This is technically a Team Card, not a Team Checklist as there is no checklist on the back.
Thanks for hitting up the wantlists Jim! I'll have a return volley your way soon....

Those of you who read night owl's blog, may have seen a post he did upon the completion of his 1971 Topps set. I was able to help him out and send him the last card he needed, #630 Roberto Clemente.

In return, owl sent me some random Braves, including a perfectly round Chipper Jones, as well as some older cardboard.

1962 Mack Jones.

Mack was coming off his rookie year, so I guess that's why he got the painted/airbrush/photoshop treatment. But Mack was damn happy to be there!
Then a few '71's to cap things off.
#306 Jim Nash

#359 Ron Reed, rocking the warm up jacket under the jersey look as he casually winds up to pitch while surrounded by chain link fence on all sides.

#374 Clete Boyer. Clete looks like he's batting while standing on the backstretch at Talledega in front of the catch fence.

#494 Braves rookies Garr and Kester. Ralph Garr played 13 seasons in the bigs including 8 with Atlanta. Rick Kester pitched 40 2/3 innings over parts of 3 seasons with a 0-0 record and a 5.98 ERA.

#587 Sonny Jackson. Sonny rocks the eyewear on the front, but plays it cool and casual on the back. You'll have to take my word for it.

#605 Orlando Cepeda. Orlando is winding down his career here. Next year he begins a four team, four year road to retirement. The Braves trade him to Oakland for Denny McLain.

#668 Gary Neibauer. I think this is a High Number!!! (not needed capital letters, but I don't care) Gary pitched in 75 games with a 4-8 record and a 4.78 ERA over his 5 year career. Nowadays, that line is of your least used pitcher during the season.

Thank you gentlemen! These are much appreciated and wanted.

The Night Time is the Right Time

A little while ago the infamous Night Owl put up some cards on his blog from teh 2009 OPC baseball set. I love this set and have been trying to complete it for sometime now. I casually inquired (read: BEGGED) for any help with completion that he may be able to offer.

Well wouldn't you know, N.O. had the last card I needed to complete the set.

 Awesome. Owl also sent over one of the inserts I need as well. (I'm trying to complete all the insert sets also)

 32 Yankees in the picture but somehow it's Jeter that is saluting the crowd. This just in... there are other Yankees on the ballclub... and more talented ones too.....  over rated has been...

Of course Owl felt guilty sending over a Phillie and a Yankee. Who wouldn't??? So he softened the blow by including a bunch of Braves and a few random hockey cards. (I'm Canadian, you know, eh?)

Mr Murphy from that new fangled Gypsy set all the kids are talking about....

 and his friend JHey.

 Tommy Hanson about to unleash a fastball that is so fast it will strike you out. Last week. Before you even came to town.

 An old Chipper!!! You know this sucker is gettting peeled.

 A shiny of the best catcher in baseball. Odd how finally the sports "journalists" are now calling him that. I've been doing it for years.

 And a gold Frenchie! I miss Jeff. I'm glad he's playing really well for the Chiefs. I mean Royals.

 I now have the black, blue, and gold Frenchie's from that set. I only need the orange.

Among the random hockey cards was one of one of my all-time favourite players. Lyle Odelein.

I had the privilege of meeting Lyle a number of years ago. And it was a privilege. Lyle is one of those golly gee shucks kind of guys who is humbled and honoured that someone would even recognize him, let alone be a fan. Thanks for the beers Lyle.

And thanks to Night Owl for all of the cards, including those that I was waaay too lazy to scan. A return package is on the way to you.