Walgreens Magic

There is a Walgreens store that is a 5 minute walk from my house.  I have a bit of a love-hate relationship store.  The store is slow and disorganized.  I used to get my prescriptions filled there.  I dropped them when they started texting me to tell me that my prescriptions were ready, but I had to wait 20 minutes for them to fill the order when I actually went into the store.  They once lost a prescription for my daughter.  It was sent electronically.  I was speechless.  

On the plus side, it's convenient and some of the people who work there are entertaining.  There is an older women who works in the morning.  She has worked there for at least 10 years, but complains about working there every time I am in the store. Her latest complaint a few weeks back was something along these lines: "I am restocking the candy aisle this morning. I hate the candy aisle. It's all because people buy our candy and smuggle it into the theater. When the theater was shutdown during COVID, nobody bought candy." 

One women sings along to everything on the intercom and there is a college girl who dances to everything on the intercom.  If there was a lip-synching competition that revolved around only Haim songs, they would win.  

The store manager reminds people to fill out the customer surveys so he gets a bonus at the end of the year.  At least he is honest.  

In the 10-plus years I have owned my house down the street from Walgreens, I have never seen a current year pack of baseball cards in the store. I like those $5 repacks.  Always fun to see all the 1980s and 1990s junk wax in the packs.  Recently pulled a 1988 Topps Dodgers Leaders card out of one of those packs.  

Cardinal legends Pedro Guerrero and Fernando Valenzuela on the card.  

A few weeks back I went to Walgreens at 10 at night.  My wife and I sat outside on our patio while our daughter was playing in the sandbox and our son was hitting some wiffleballs.  She got bitten up by something and sent me down the street after the kids went to bed to buy some Caladryl.  I walked through the store to the back corner where all the First-Aid stuff is located, found what I came for and started walking to the checkout counter.  

I went through the toy aisle and was shocked to see a pack of 2021 Topps cards. 

A little Walgreens magic.  

I have bought single 2021 cards, but this was my first actual pack of Topps.  Pretty amazing to make it more than half a year without opening a single pack of these cards.  Even though it's August, I am going to post the first card I pull out of a pack along with the first Cardinals and former Durham Bulls player as well.  

Here we go.  First card out of a Topps pack in 2021 is.....

former Duke Blue Devil Marcus Stroman.  Long time fan.  I am old enough to remember when Marcus was a second baseman at Duke.  Almost positive I went to an NC State/Duke game at some point where the starting second basemen for the two teams were Marcus Stroman and Russell Wilson.  I like the action shot on this card.  I also like that he looks short here.  If you were not aware, Marcus is really short.  He has a whole line of merchandise he promotes based on the fact that he is short.  

Next.  

Jordan Hicks is my first Cardinal.  The yellow bordered cards are Walgreens exclusives.  Hicks is diabetic and did not play last year.  Nice to see Topps still include him in the set.  

Last one.  

Nick Solak played for the Durham Bulls in 2019, but was traded to the Rangers for Peter Fairbanks.  Solak is solid player.  Prototypical Rays guy who they ran out at 5 different positions.  The Rangers use him the same way.  He's got some pop in his bat too.  The best part of the card is the powder blue Rangers uniform.  So much better than the Cardinals.  

These aren't my favorite cards by any means, but I am happy that I finally got to open a pack of cards from this year.  

Yes, 2020 Cards.

I have not been posting many cards from current releases, mainly because I am not doing anything to collect them this year.  I have not bought many packs or boxes of cards, and I think I am not even really touching current single cards either.  I was actually going to buy a pack of Topps Series 2 at the store a few days back, but I found out that there are none because everyone has gone crazy about finding a Luis Robert rookie card.

I have been buying Luis Robert cards ever since the Cardinals went cheap on trying to sign him.  They had plenty of money for Dexter Fowler though. 

Back to baseball cards. 

I have collected so few single 2020 cards, really there were all sorts of different places I could have started.  I feel like one thing that is really dampening my enthusiasm for current year cards is the fact that there is not going to be any Minor League Baseball this summer.  No new Bulls players to collect with many of the players on last year's team stuck in limbo with either being a pool player, or many not even getting that far. 

So, I decided a few Minor Leaguers would be a good place to start. 

First up is a pair of autographs from Topps Pro Debut. 

I have posted a few other Brock Deatherage cards last year, and I am really surprised that he made it back into a set this year.  The Tigers drafted him out of NC State.  I get the feeling he might be on baseball cards because of his name.  He's not on any Tigers prospect list, and he hit in the .220s last season with almost 150 strikeouts and not a lot of power. 

Still like him since he went to NC State. 

Next. 

I have been working on Elehuris Montero cards the last several years too.  Last year was a lost year with injuries for him, but he hit for average and power the prior year while he was in A Ball.  The Cardinals included him in their group of pool players.  Maybe a summer with Jose Oquendo, who is running the Minor League camp for the Cardinals, will help him bounce back next year.  The scan is not crooked, the sticker autograph is though.  

Last card that I actually bought in this post.  

Will Wilson is another NC State player, but definitely a prospect worth watching.  The Angels traded him to the Giants last year, and he is in their group of pool players.  He's a shortstop who can hit.  In college, he hit a fair number of home runs, but I could see him being more of a doubles and triples hitter in the Majors.  Trea Turner without the speed.  

Which brings me to the last two cards I received in this package.  I bought all three cards from the same buyer.  Love that combined shipping.  I also love free cards.  My feedback involved the acronym "GDTBATH", which stands for "Great Day To Be A Tar Heel", so it figures that this was one of my free cards....

I fully support Andrew Miller having a good year.  The Cardinals excel at spending money on relievers who are washed up.  Andrew Miller seems washed up.  I actually saw him pitch while he was at UNC, very good in college.  

Second freebie, which I don't get coming from a UNC person.  

Stroman is a better pitcher than Andrew Miller, and a far more interesting person.  I certain he grates on UNC fans nerves at times too, so added bonus.  I actually wish I could find a card of Stroman as an infielder, which is actually where he started when he first got to Duke. 

Anyway, happy with the three new cards, and the two freebie cards in the package.  

Friday Five - Top 5 MLB Players From Duke

Last week I did a post on the Top 5 MLB players from NC State.  This week I am taking a 30 minute drive west on I-40 to do a post with the top former Blue Devils who have hit the field for a Major League baseball team.  Before I get to the top five, I have to give a tip of the cap to two former Major League players who were connected to the Duke Baseball program as coaches.

Probably more important to the program than almost every player on my Top 5 list....



Ace Parker 

Ace was a multi-sport star at Duke during the mid 1930s.  He was on the Philadelphia A's for 38 games in 1937 and 56 games in 1938.  That was the end of his baseball career.  One could argue that 90 some games is not really much to go on in terms of evaluating the quality of play.  However, when Ace walked away from baseball it was to play football in the NFL.  He won the 1940 NFL MVP and managed to put together a good enough career on the gridiron that he was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame in 1972.  Probably a good decision on his part.

Parker returned to Durham after his football career and initially worked as the manager of the Durham Bulls.  He also had a side job during the fall as an assistant coach on Duke's football team.  Eventually, Parker took over the coaching duties of the Duke baseball team in 1953.  He retired from coaching baseball in 1966.  Interestingly, he remained on the football coaching staff the entire time that he was also the head baseball coach.  During his time at Duke, Parker coached the Blue Devils to three ACC Championships, a Southern Conference Championship (Pre-ACC), and two appearances in the College World Series.

I am not sure how many people outside of central North Carolina know the name Ace Parker, I didn't before I moved here, but he is a tremendously important sports figure from the 1930, 40s, and 50s who had a huge impact on the school.  The numbers on his baseball card are not as good as the rest of the people on this list, but he's one of the most important figures in the history of Duke's athletic program.  


Jack Coombs 

Coombs actually went to college at a small school in Maine before he spent 14 years playing in the Majors with A's, Dodgers, and Tigers.  His best years were during the first half of his career with the A's.  The team was loaded with Hall of Famers including Chief Bender, Frank "Home Run" Baker, Eddie Plank, and Eddie Collins.  The team won back to back World Series in 1910 and 1911.  Coombs led the American League in wins during both seasons.  He won 3 of the 4 games needed to win the 1910 World Series against the Cubs, and added another victory during the following season's Series against the Giants.

After Coombs retired from baseball, he ended up at Duke as the baseball coach.  In all, he coached the Blue Devils for 24 years and retired with a .636 winning percentage.  Coombs helped the Blue Devils win the Southern Conference, the ACC had not been formed at that point, six times and advance to the College World Series twice.

Again, not a Duke baseball player, but a very important person to the program.  The modern Blue Devils split their games between the Durham Bulls Athletic Park and their on-campus baseball stadium, which bears the name of Jack Coombs.  There is a statue of the long time coach outside the stadium.

5. Chris Capuano 

Capuano is a native of Springfield, Massachusetts native who pitched at Duke in the late 1990s.  He earned an Economics degree while he was in Durham.  Originally drafted by the Diamondbacks, he was traded to the Brewers for Richie Sexson.  In all, Capuano spent 12 years in the Major Leagues between 2003 and 2016, half of that time was spent in Milwaukee.  His two best seasons were in 2005 and 2006.  In 2005, he won 18 games, pitched more than 200 innings, and set a career high with 176 strikeouts.  In 2006, Capuano was named to the National League All-Star team, and duplicated his innings pitched and strikeout numbers.

Capuano did not appear in a Major League game in 2008 or 2009 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.  The Brewers released him and then resigned him to a Minor League contract allowing him to work his way back up to the Majors through their system.  He returned in the middle of the 2010 season.   At the end of the season, Capuano signed with the Mets as a free agent.  He also spent time during the second half of his career with the Dodgers, Red Sox, and Yankees before returning to the Brewers for 16 games in 2016.


4. Marcus Stroman 

I think the first two or three times I saw Marcus Stroman play for Duke he was a second baseman.  He starred for Duke for three years between 2010 and 2012, obviously he ended up becoming a star pitcher for the Blue Devils.  I first saw his pitching skills on display at USA Baseball's College National Team.  The Blue Jays made him the 22nd overall pick during the 2012 MLB Draft.  Obviously, he is not very far into his career, but I would guess he should be 2nd on the list if I revisited it in a few years.

Stroman has only played three full seasons with the Jays and has already won 37 games, had a pair of 200 inning seasons, and two seasons with more than 150 strikeouts.  He pitched a few games during the 2015 season, had a knee injury that shut him down for the year, but he just went back to Duke and finished the final year of his degree program.

Last season Stroman was a real bright spot for the Blue Jays.  He ended the seasons at 13-9 with a 3.09 ERA, and 164 strikeouts in 201 innings.  Stroman also won the Gold Glove Award for American League pitchers flashing some of those glove skills that I got to watch back when he was at Duke...

Again, early in his career, but Stroman has the potential to be one of the top two players on this list in the long run.  Someone might argue that Dick Groat has a bunch of World Series rings, that was anticlimactic to give away the top player on the list, but Marcus Stroman led the Majors last year in most appearances in rap videos.  

3. Ron Northey 

Ron Northey played for several different teams during the 1940s and 50s.  He played baseball at Duke in the late 1930s and was actually hard of hearing in one ear because of a bean ball incident from his time in Durham.  Northey started his journey through the Minor Leagues in the early 1940s, reaching the Majors with the Phillies during the 1942 season.  The Navy found him unfit for duty twice due to his hearing loss.  Eventually the Army drafted him in 1945 and he was stationed out of Fort Lewis, Washington.  

Before his time with the Army Northey had improved drastically each of his three seasons with the Phillies.  In 1942, he hit only 5 home runs with a .250/.300/.331 slash line.  His 1943 season was a little better, but 1944 showed that he had the talent to be an All-Star caliber player.  That season he hit 22 home runs, 104 RBIs, 9 triples, 35 doubles, and posted a .288/.367/.496 slash line.  He finished in the top 10 in dozens of offensive categories that season.  

The post-war version of Northey was not able to match his production from his 1944 season.  In 1946 he only managed 16 home runs with a .249 average playing full time with the Phillies.  The Phillies eventually traded him to the Cardinals where he found a niche as a part-time player with pop off of the bench.  

In 1947, the Cardinals gave him 361 plate appearances and he put up 15 home runs and 19 doubles with a .321 average.  He followed with similar lines for the Cardinals the following season before falling off with the home run totals and average during the 1949 season.  Northey spent the later years of his career bouncing around between the Reds, Cubs, White Sox, and made his way back to the Phillies before retiring as a player in 1957. 

After his playing career Northey worked as a scout and coach, including a stint with the Pirates in the early 1960s.  

2. Bill Werber 

Werber was a two sport star during his time at Duke and was actually the first All-American basketball player at Duke.  He led the Blue Devils basketball team to the Southern Conference Basektball Championship game twice.  They lost both games, but it was a pretty remarkable feat to even get that far considering the team had exactly five players.  

The losses came against Alabama and NC State who, according to local legend, decided that having five starting players and a few substitute players was a better way to win stuff with your basketball team.  

Werber played three season on Duke's baseball team under the aforementioned Jack Coombs.  He hit .400 each of his three seasons on the baseball team.  After graduation he joined the Yankees, whom he had toured with as an amateur player in 1927 before attending college.  Werber played a total of 7 games with the team between two stints with the team in 1930 and 1933.  During his first at-bat he drew a walk, but quickly scored his first Major League run when Babe Ruth hit a home run as the next batter.  

Werber lived to be 100 and was the last living teammate of Ruth's at the time of his death in 2009.  

As for the rest of his Major League career, Werber went on to spent time with the Red Sox, Reds, A's, and Giants.  He led the American League in stolen bases three different times during the 1930s, twice with Boston and another time with Philadelphia.  Probably the best accomplishment of Werber's Major League career was his appearance in back to back World Series with the Reds.  The 1939 squad lost to the Yankees in four straight games.  The 1940 squad did better, beating the Tigers in a seven game series.  Werber hit .370 and scored 5 runs for the Reds.  

1. Dick Groat 

Werber was the first All-American at Duke, but Dick Groat was the first Duke basketball player to have his jersey in the rafters of Cameron Indoor.  He was an All-American basketball player twice and played one year of basketball in the NBA with the Pistons.  All of this time Groat also was playing baseball.  His first season with the Pirates was in 1952.  Groat played 95 games that summer before missing the 1953 and 1954 seasons due to military service during the Korean War.  

He returned to the Pirates for the 1955 season and his career took off over the next few seasons.  In 1957, Groat finished in the top 5 in batting in the National League behind some other decent players: Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Frank Robinson.  He made his first All-Star team in 1959 and in 1960 won the National League MVP while helping the Pirates win the World Series.  

Groat made three more All-Star teams in the early 1960s and finished second in MVP voting in 1963 while playing for the Cardinals.  The following season, in 1964, he helped the Cardinals win the World Series against the Yankees.  He ended his Major League career by playing a few years with the Phillies, and a final season with the Giants in 1967.  

He's also had a fairly successful career post-baseball too.  in 1979, Groat was hired as a radio broadcaster for the Pitt Panthers basketball games.  In recent years, he has stopped working most of their road games, but still can be heard when Pitt plays home games.  

Missing the Stro Show

Have you been watching the Blue Jays since the trade deadline?  They have been red hot and winning everything.  Well, until they starting playing the Yankees this past weekend.  I have never really minded the Blue Jays and like some of the players that they have added to their team.  Tulo and David Price are both cool players.  As a former Durham Bulls player, I am a huge fan of David Price and still enjoy collecting his cards.

When Price was traded a week and a half ago, I went out and spent a little bit of time searching out his cards to see if I could find any Tigers fans dumping some cards cheaply.  I did not find that, but I did a really cheap Marcus Stroman card.  I miss Stro.  He's still busy and Twitter, but it's not as entertaining as watching him pitch.  Well, except for when they traded for Price and he was in class....

Pardon my rudeness for being on my phone Professor. We just picked up @DAVIDprice14 and it's kind of a big deal. Lol @DukeU @BlueJays

— Marcus Stroman (@MStrooo6) July 30, 2015

 

It's been awhile since I have added a new Stroman card to the collection.  His autograph has always been pretty simple, but I love the look of the blue ink with the blue from the Blue Jays uni and his glove.  They look nice on the dark black and gold background.  The card is numbered to 399 copies, which is quite a few, but still a great looking card.

Six Pack of Stadium Club Part 1

I am focusing on Stadium Club this week.  The Topps brand was successfully relaunched last year which made the product a highly regarded release on this year's card calendar.  There are autographs and die cuts in the set, but my favorite part of this product is the base cards.  How many products can you say that about during a calendar year?  Not many.  As a long time collector a great base set harkens me back to my early days as a collector when there was little more to a baseball card product outside of the base set.

At some point I will post an autograph, or two, that I have picked up from the set.  However, for this week I am going to pick out the base cards that I love from the set.  Some of the cards are going to have a simple explanation, such as, the card features a cool or unique picture.  Other cards will have other reasons for making my list.  Six per night all week long.  Here are six for tonight:

#64 Brett Gardner - New York Yankees

Brett Gardner has been know to make some nice defensive plays.  I like that this card has a cool picture of Gardner scaling the wall to make a catch.  I like the faces on the people in the crowd even better.  There is a wide range of emotions in that front row.  I also like that the ball is in the picture, but we do not know if Gardner actually makes the catch.  Or do we?  

#57 Marcus Stroman - Blue Jays 

I first saw Stroman while he was pitching at Duke.  I was a big fan then and I am a big fan now.  He's pretty fun, and interactive, follow on Twitter too.  He's a positive, energetic, and emotional player.  I collect Stroman cards and have plenty of the Blue Jays pitcher in games, but I feel like this card does a great job of capturing his personality.  Great card and a little something different for my stack of Stroman cards.  

#24 Dale Murphy - Braves 

The first year I collected cards was 1983.  It was the height of Dale Murphy's career.  I am not of the opinion that Murphy belongs in the Hall, but the peak of his career was spectacular.  The picture on this card looks like the great version of Dale Murphy who won back to back MVP awards.  I am not sure what's going on with all of the bats and balls on the floor.  Maybe one of those pictures someone took on photo day during spring training.  Anyways, really cool card of The Murph.  

#22 Ivan Rodriguez - Rangers 

Do you remember when stadiums used to have foul ground?  There are still a few, but I feel like most stadiums have a really limited amount of foul ground.  Plenty of cool plays happened because of foul territory.  I can think of dozens of times I watched Ozzie Smith chase down long foul balls behind third base, near the visitors bullpen, in old Busch Stadium.  While I grew up watching Ozzie, this card shows another great defensive player tracking down a foul ball near the railing of the dugout in Arlington.  It looks like the ball is in Rodriguez's glove, so I am going to go ahead and say that he made this play.  Really like that Rodriguez has a card showing him as playing defense.  

#34 Mariano Rivera - Yankees 

I watch the World Series without fail every fall.  There are some that are anti-climactic, but still turn out to be memorable.  I watched the Giants and Tigers a few years back.  The Giants swept the series, but not too memorable.  I also remember when the Yankees battled the Padres in the 1998 Series.  I was happy to see Tony Gwynn make the World Series and I was hoping to see him get a ring.  Honestly though, the Yankees were in complete control of the series.  They were a great team and you knew, watching them in the playoffs, they were going to win it all.  As much as people complain about the Yankees "buying" a team to win the World Series, those late 90s teams were heavy on the word "team".  I think the 1998 Yankees might have been one of the best teams of my lifetime.  Love this picture of Rivera.  

#36 Frank Robinson - Reds 

Rain delay or was this the pre-game routine?  No videos, no video games, no Beats by Dre.  Just a Hall of Fame player wearing his uniform reading a newspaper.  Something really different and really cool from Topps on this card.  

2014 International League Top Prospects

I went to a Durham Bulls game last week and was happy to see that the team was selling off some of their old baseball cards cheap.  I could not pass that buy, so I loaded up on a few things from their team store.  Really, I love looking at minor league sets and probably need to post a few of these sets on here.  There is always some star power in these sets, but there are some fun players too.  Here's a look at last season's International League Top Prospects set.....

First couple of cards and there are a few favorites in here:

 Jesus Aguilar because he was in the Triple A All-Star game last year and seemed pretty impressive.  He also recently pulled off the hidden ball trick against the Indianapolis Indians.

Christian Bethancourt because nobody should run on him, ever.  

Hak Ju Lee because if he ever learned to hit consistently he would be awesome.  Until then his slugging percentage is .250.  (Sigh)

Kevin Kiermaier because this is fun to watch.  The Cardinals win this game?  

Steven Souza because the guy can hit......

Marcus Stroman because he is one my favorite ACC baseball players I have seen in person

Allen Webster and Mike Wright?  I have got nothing here.  I listened to this great Pixies show while I was typing this post.  Give it a listen. 

2015 Topps Heritage Part 2

I am on to the base set for the second half of my Topps Heritage post.  The 425 non-short-printed base cards are usually not too hard to find, but those 75 short prints and different variations always seem to take most of the summer to put together.  However, I am going to need a little bit of work to put together the 425 base cards.  I have not quite finished putting sorting the cards I pulled out of my two boxes and retail packs, but I am guessing I am going to need more than 50 base cards and 50 short prints.  

In going through the stacks of base cards and sorting them into a set I have narrowed my favorite cards down to three based on my baseball rooting and viewing interests....

First card that I love in the base set is Jason Heyward.  I know this is somehow airbrushed, but I am hoping this is a great year for Heyward and the Cardinals.  Pujols is gone, Holliday and Wainwright are getting older, it's time for a new star to take over for the Cardinals.  I have started to dabble in Heyward cards, but have not gone all in quite yet.  Still slightly nervous that he won't live up to expectations or he won't sign with the team at the end of the year.  Anyway, this is the first Heyward card in a Cardinals uniform that I have added to my collection and I am hoping there are many more to come.  Great card and easy favorite out of the Cardinals cards.  

Second card favorite card goes to former Duke Blue Devil Marcus Stroman.  I enjoyed watching The Stro Show during his time in Durham and also at USA Baseball.  I have followed him through the Minors and into the Majors last season.  This will be Stroman's first full season in Toronto and he should have a good year for a good Blue Jays team.  If you are on Twitter be sure to give Stroman a follow.  He is easily one of my favorite players to follow and you will appreciate how hard he works at his craft.  

Last card goes for a former Durham Bulls player B.J. Upton.  I am guessing we are probably down to our last card of the Braves outfielder with B.J. on the card instead of Melvin.  Upton was the star player of the Durham Bulls when I first moved to North Carolina a decade ago.  The first opening day I went to at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park was ended on an Upton walk off Grand Slam.  B.J. has had a rough couple of years with the Braves, and while I am guessing a turn around will likely not happen for B.J., but I hope he at least puts up respectable numbers.  

A Trip to Big D's Card Shop

My computer is throwing a temper tantrum over the new OS Mavericks update so for tonight, or until I get all the kinks ironed out, I have pictures more than scans.  I stopped in at my favorite local card, Big D's, in Raleigh for a little down time on Sunday afternoon.  I had completed a trade with Jimmy, the shop's owner, earlier in the week and wanted to take him in his half of the trade as well as collect my half of the trade too.  You know you cannot just go into the shop and just finish a trade.  I bought a few other things while I was there too.  So, here's the run down.

I actually picked up a few vintage cards.  Vintage like 70s.  A nice Templeton, Hernandez, two early Bob Forsch cards and also a few old Hostess cards from the early 1980s.  

Garry Templeton is looking snarky in that card.  It's clearly a Spring Training card, but he looks mad enough to double bird a Mother's Day crowd at Busch Stadium.  The best vintage card I landed yesterday though was a sweet 1972 Topps Tony LaRussa card with the Hall of Fame manager pictured as a utility infielder for the Braves.  

Pretty sweet.  I also picked up my usual assortment of more recent cards, such as....

A B.J. Upton jersey card from the 2009 Upper Deck set.  Always really liked the card design on this set.  Really cool.  I miss you Upper Deck.  

A Wil Myers green parallel from the 2014 Bowman set.  Former Durham Bull, current Ray, always the 2013 American League Rookie of the Year.  

A Marcus Stroman mini.  No serial numbered, but still a cool looking card of the former Duke star, turned Blue Jays prospect.  

Randal Grichuk autograph from the 2011 ITG set.  Really cool set with some good autographs.  Good inexpensive set to track down if you are looking for some good prospect autographs.  

This beautiful Stanton jumbo jersey numbered out of 25.  Jimmy has had this in the shop for awhile and it has been calling my name..(buy me) it whispered.  For something different.......

An autographed mini helmet of 2002 ACC Rookie of the Year TA McLendon.  He's a bit of a legend around here and had a great year for the 2002 NC State team which was one of their better football teams.  So, what constitutes a good football team at NC State?  They had Phillip Rivers.  They beat the doors off of Notre Dame in a bowl game.  

Finally the card I traded for.....

Longoria rookie, autographed, numbered out of 50.  Not too shabby.  Overall, another great trip into my favorite local card store.  

Repeat Cards

Somedays I see really cool cards that I already have in my collection.  I often pass them by and go on with my day and do not give them a second thought.  This past week I ran into a collector who was shopping around a few nice cards.  Amongst the cards in his photo album was a nice looking Stan Musial seat card from the 2011 Topps Heritage set.  It looked nice, but I picked up a copy of this card a few years back.

So what to do?  My first inclination was to pass and move on, but how often do you run into a sweet Stan Musial card.  I asked about the price and settled on a few nice Rockies autographs.  So, for the second time I added this great looking card to my collection.

2011 Topps Heritage Stan Musial Seat Relic 

My trading partner found a small Larry Walker jersey at the last moment and offered a few Cardinals cards, but again ran into a bunch of cards that are already in my collection.  I will go double on Stan, but there are limits on Daniel Descalso and Jon Jay.  We were switched over to looking at some Rays and USA Baseball cards when he offered a sweet card I could not pass up.  It's also a double.

2011 Topps USA Baseball Marcus Stroman Triple Jersey/Autograph 

I picked up a copy of this card almost a year and a half ago in another trade.  Stroman starred locally at Duke and also appeared for the USA College Team which is also here locally in Cary.  I love the look of these cards, so it obviously was an attractive option when it popped up in the discussion.  However, I have also been really impressed by Stroman's performance in the Blue Jays system and do not mind having a few extra cards of his hanging out.  Stroman pitched for Toronto's Double-A team in New Hampshire posting a winning record of 9-5 with an ERA of 3.30, more than a strikeout per inning, and a WHIP of 1.12.  Really impressive.  

So, while I do not like to take on doubles in trades and am not going to make a habit of it, I guess that some cards are nice enough to be an exception to the rule.  A nice Stan Musial card is worth a little rule bending and so is the awesome Marcus Stroman card.  

Facebook Goodness

The world of Facebook trading has slowing turned into some sort of raffle frenzy which has left me trading other places.  I do not chance on possibly getting a good card, I would much rather just go out and buy or trade for the pieces I want to add to my collection.  Luckily, I ran into one of my favorite Facebook card people a few days back in the way of Ryan Marcus King Dee.  He's one of the best card collectors on Facebook and always has plenty of cool cards for sale or trade.

This week I picked up four cards from Ryan which helped out my collection in several ways.  Let's take a look at the cards that I added:

2008 Topps Triple Threads Justin Ruggiano Autograph/Jersey

I have collected Justin Ruggiano cards for several years.  While Ruggiano is currently playing for the Marlins he spent quite a few years hanging out in the outfield for the Durham Bulls.  Ruggiano was always a pretty good player for the Bulls, but he always seemed to be blocked for one reason or another at the big league level.  Ruggiano left the Rays organization as a minor league free agent at the end of the 2011 season, played briefly in the Astros system, before landing some playing time with the Marlins.  Ruggiano leads the Marlins in almost every major offensive category this season.   While he has moved on to the Marlins, I still spend time searching out his cards and was happy to add another Triple Threads color variation to my collection.

2011 Bowman Platinum USA Baseball Autographs 

Stroman is one of my favorite all-time college players from the ACC.  He was a pitcher for the Duke Blue Devils and also played for the USA Baseball College Team.  Last year he was drafted by the Bue Jays and is currently playing for their AA team in New Hampshire.  Stroman should be a pretty quick riser to the majors and has tons of good, affordable autographed cards.  

2012 Leaf Valiant James Ramsey Autograph 

Ramsey is both a Cardinals draft pick and former ACC player at Florida State.  He was a nice player at FSU, but I think the first round was a bit of a stretch for the outfielder.  Ramsey has done a lot of signing since the draft and is a frequent user of inscriptions which are usually bible verses.  Interestingly, he rarely uses the same one very often.  I already had Romans 8:38, so this is a different (though slight) than the other version of this card that I own.  

20112 Leaf Pete Rose Autograph 

I have already given my two cents on Pete in this space before.  Cool that he signs so much stuff, but he signs so much stuff.  Might have to package a few of these together and see if I can get a non-licensed card of Pete in an Expos uniform.