2015 Topps Pro Debut

I ordered a box of these from Blowout Cards over the weekend and they arrived today.

Aside from the 2015 Topps hanger box that I bought a few months ago, this was the first box of cards that I have bought in nearly 20 years. I think my last box was most likely a 1996 Fleer Excel.

I was eagerly awaiting the delivery of this box and couldn't wait to open all those packs.

The first pack gave me the poster child of the product, Seattle Mariners prospect, Alex Jackson.

The second pack gave me my first New York Met, Noah Syndergaard.

Here's my third pack. All 2 cards. I call this my Sox pack. A Boston Red Sox relic and a Chicago White Sox base card.

I know people seem to like relic cards, but if I bought a single pack of cards, I'd expect the number of cards stated on the pack, and would be disappointed to open a pack of cards with only 2 inside it.
The box promises 2 relics, so I know what to expect now.

Autographs are promised, too. Here's the first of 2 that I got, Washington Nationals prospect, Stephen Perez.

How exciting! Stephen signed a sticker which someone else affixed to this card.

My first non-promised insert was this card of Los Angeles Dodgers prospect, Grant Holmes.

I was confused at first with the heading of the card, which reads, "Topps Instant Winner." I thought I won something, but it turns out it's just a headline for this card about Grant's debut.

This pack was interesting. Out of the 8 cards in the pack, 3 of the players were ones I already have autographs of. 

This guy's name sounds awfully familiar.

My second promised autographed card sticker is Cincinnati Reds prospect, Tanner Rahier.

Tanner hasn't played this season because he has been suspended. In March, he was intoxicated and arguing with a woman outside of a pizza restaurant. He ended up throwing a rock at her, knocking her unconscious.
I'm guessing the decision to include his autograph in this set was made before the arrest.

Finally, an insert I can be excited about. New York Mets prospect, Michael Conforto.

The lone parallel in this box was a gold one, numbered 41 of 50 of Boston Red Sox prospect, Trey Ball.

Some more inserts that I pulled were of Nick Gordon, Kyle Freeland, Alex Verdugo, and Tim Anderson.

Here's a nice string of base cards that I pulled in consecutive packs. Kris Bryant, Michael Conforto, and Joey Gallo.

The penultimate pack revealed my second promised relic. Just like the first relic pack which seemed to have a theme, this one did as well. My Dodgers pack.

At least this relic is a little better, numbered 10 of 50.

Sadness is looming as I've reached the end.

Overall, I'm very pleased with these cards. Out of this whole box, I don't think there were any duplicates. I found that to be very impressive.

I Bought a Box of Cards...Kind of

I went to Target and made my usual visit to the card aisle. I was planning on buying a jumbo pack of 2015 Bowman, but there were none to be found. Instead, I bought a box of 2015 Topps.

Well, not exactly. Actually, the box had 1 pack of 2015 Topps inside it, on sale for $1.39, and I added 3 additional packs of 2015 Bowman.














I opened the Topps pack first. I was off to a great start when the very first card was a New York Met. The insert was a Nolan Ryan Arche-types. So, a Met and a former Met. These were the only highlights of the pack.

Now, onto the Bowman's. The first pack had another Met. Ironically, it was Zack Wheeler.

The second pack gave me my first ever card of Kris Bryant.

Also in that pack was an anti-theft card. I wonder what the odds are of pulling these?

Finishing off the packs, I got another Met. This one is Champ Stuart, who currently plays for the Mets A-ball team in the Florida State League. I saw him play a couple of weeks ago, but didn't have a card of him to get signed. I'll be seeing them play again later this month, so if he's still with the team, hopefully I can get him to sign this for me.

Got a card of Joe Jackson in one of these packs. Can you imagine being a baseball player with that name?

Constantly having people yelling "Steppin' Out" lyrics at you.

                                        

Oh, yeah, being compared to that shoeless guy, too.

Photo courtesy of  http://www.realclearsports.com/

The lone insert in these 3 Bowman packs was this Bowman Scouts' Top 100 card of Milwaukee Brewers prospect, Tyrone Taylor.

Turning my attention away from my newest acquisitions for a moment. Before I started typing this post up, I felt that I finally made it in the blogging world. Today, I noticed that not only on this blog, but also on my Daily Autograph site, I had a new follower.

Everyone's favorite baseball card blogger, Night Owl, of Night Owl Cards is following me. I suddenly feel like I have to step up and make myself and this blog be much more entertaining. I hope I live up to his expectations.

For now, like Joe Jackson says (I'll let you figure out which one I'm referring to), I'm steppin' out.

Another Pack of 2015 Bowman

Tonight I went to Walmart and took a visit to the card aisle. I don't know if this is the norm for Walmart, but my local store does not carry individual packs. It's either jumbo packs, hanger boxes, or 8 pack boxes.

After trying a single pack at Target earlier in the week, I decided on a jumbo pack this time.

I chose this particular pack because I could clearly see a New York Met was the top card in the pack. That's the extent of my pack searching, just look closely enough to see what team is on top, not caring who the player is.

I opened the top half of the pack first, which I discovered would be mostly established Major League players.

The exception to this half would be the Bowman Scouts' Top 100 card of Chicago Cubs prospect, Albert Amora, who's currently in his second season at AA.

The bottom half of the pack was all prospects.

Nothing really stands out with this pack, but Bowman is really a 'time will tell' product.

My First Pack Rip for the Blog (Bowman 2015)

I've seen many bloggers post their pack results, so I decided to do my own.

I went to Target today and saw 3 different 2015 Bowman packs. A 10 card pack for $2.99, a jumbo pack for $5.99, and 3 bundled 10 card packs for $9.99. The 3 pack seemed high, but it promises 3 yellow parallel cards. Inserts never appealed to me, so if I wanted 3 packs, I'd just buy them individually.

Anyhow, I decided on just a single 10 card pack.

Crazy seeing the odds for pulling inserts on the back of the pack.

I know I at least pulled one. There's a couple cards in this pack that are a bit thicker and shinier, but that may be normal.

Here's what I got:

Six of the players are new to my collection (Mark Trumbo, Mike Zunino, Josh Harrison, Victor Alcantara, Kevin Plawecki, and Greg Bird). Those cards will be headed to my big alphabetical box of players that I don't have any autographs of.

It was nice getting a Mets card in this pack. I've enjoyed what I've seen from Kevin Plawecki these last couple of weeks. According to Bowman's odds, that particular insert (Bowman Scouts' Top 100) are 1:8. Fairly common, but it's a Met, so I can be excited about any Mets insert.

The only card I'm willing to trade from this pack is Pittsburgh Pirates prospect, Austin Meadows. He's currently playing for the Bradenton Marauders of the Florida State League. I haven't seen them play yet this season, and I felt that I had a better looking card to hopefully get signed by him. This card, while nice looking, just seems a little dark for an autograph.

Well, there's my pack. I don't buy enough packs, I'm more of a single card buyer on sites like eBay, COMC, Sportlots, and Go Sports Cards. If/when I buy more, I will open and share them on here.

I Got My Credit

Just under a month ago I made a post about a local Minor League team using an image from my website and not giving me or my site any credit. If you're unfamiliar with this story, you can read it here.

I sent an e-mail to the team letting them know that I was a little disappointed that I wasn't given any credit. A day passed and I had not gotten a response, so I made it public and took to Twitter. Suddenly, I'm getting a direct message from them via Twitter and a followup e-mail.

I ended up speaking to the editor of the magazine in person a few days later. He apologized, but also claimed that the team felt they had the rights to the image since it was their baseball card, but actually it was Fleer's.

The whole thing seemed like it was much more of a bigger deal than it should have been. I was never looking to profit off of this. All I wanted was that credit.

Well, today I got it. I went to the Clearwater Threshers game this afternoon and picked up the May issue of their monthly program.

At the bottom of the table of contents was my site being credited.

Here it is blown up to make it easier to read.

The Threshers have the highest average attendance in the Florida State League. I'd like to believe that all their fans will see the link to my site and visit it, post comments, and end up discovering this blog and following me on Twitter. However, I am a realist, and realize that small print will be overlooked by most readers. It doesn't bother me a bit, I'm just happy that my site was acknowledged.

My Latest Project

I've showcased this box in a previous blog post.

It contains one single baseball card of every player that I have never gotten an autograph from.

Every time I buy a pack of cards, I'm constantly adding to this box. Either adding a new player or replacing a card with a better looking one.

When I go to baseball games, I look up the rosters and then head to this box to see if I have cards to bring.

This week I made things much easier for me. I now have a digital list of my collection.

It took me a few days, but now instead of looking through the box, I can check my list from my computer, phone, tablet, etc... Making things much quicker when searching.

While going through all those cards and typing each name individually, I'd occasionally stop to Google a player and see what they're up to now or even if they were still living.

Sadly, I ended up pulling a decent sized stack of cards of players no longer with us.

I'm sure there are several more that I've missed.

Also in that box were two cards of players that I doubt I will ever get autographed, nor would I want to.

 

Fabio Gomez and Jim Hvizda are former Minor League players, both serving time for separate murders.

In 1999, Fabio raped and murdered his female neighbor, then dumped her body in his apartment complex dumpster. He is currently in an Arizona prison.

In 2012, Jim stabbed his wife to death in a Wawa parking lot, where she worked. He is in a Pennsylvania prison.

Pretty ironic that Star produced cards of both of these players for their 1989 Minor League set.

Hey, Star! You're supposed to make cards of prospects, not suspects.

42

Today is the 68th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball.

Photo courtesy of
JackieRobinson.com

In celebration, which has become a tradition since 2008, all Major League players and coaches wear #42, Jackie Robinson's jersey number.

In 1997, Major League Baseball retired #42 from every team. Only players who wore the number prior to that season were allowed to continue wearing it.

I decided to go through my autograph collection to see how many players I could find where the #42 was prominently shown.

Mike Mussina

Mike Jackson

Rick Mahler

Don Carman

Happy Jackie Robinson Day, baseball fans!

Do I Have a Legg to Stand On?

Saturday night I attended the Clearwater Threshers (Philadelphia Phillies Advanced-A team in the Florida State League) game against the Dunedin Blue Jays.
When you enter Bright House Field, ushers greet you and hand you a free program called Threshers Times.

It's a monthly magazine, issued throughout the season.
When I saw page 12, a brief bio on the new Threshers manager, Greg Legg, I immediately recognized one of the images.

As soon as I saw that autographed baseball card on that page, I said to my brother, "that's my card!" I then quickly skimmed the article, hoping I or my website was given credit. Unfortunately, it wasn't.

I'm sure Greg Legg has signed hundreds of those baseball cards, but I am 100% convinced that that particular card was taken from my website.

I'm not mad at the Threshers. I mean, there's no way I can prove that they used my image, but I'm sure anyone reading this would agree that it's mine.
I'm actually flattered by it, I just wish I was given credit for it.

The End of Spring

Today is the official last day of spring training in the Tampa Bay area, as the Pittsburgh Pirates wrap up their camp in Bradenton, Florida. Bradenton is a bit of a drive from where I live in St. Petersburg, so I primarily visit the Philadelphia Phillies in Clearwater and the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin.
Yesterday, the Blue Jays held their final camp, so I went down to watch. I was surprised to see that Aaron Sanchez, the Blue Jays 5th starter, would be pitching in a Minor League intrasquad game. Also in attendance was Marcus Stroman, in a full leg brace after tearing his ACL 3 weeks ago.

I ended up finishing the spring with 6 more autographs to add to my collection.

Prior to this spring, the last time I collected autographs at spring training games was 16 years ago.

I only got back into collecting last summer when I attended some Florida State League Minor League games as well as a few Tampa Bay Rays games. That summer I accumulated 21 signatures. This spring I added 73 more.

Here they all are in the order that I acquired them.

Not too bad for someone who's been away from the hobby for so long.