Friday, July 31, 2009

...i'm a fan of the team... i'm a fan of the team...

As a TEAM-centered fan, I have to keep repeating the mantra above. With today's release (er, trade) of Victor Martinez to the Red Sox, I am reminded of the great fire sale during the time that Thome and his fellow players were given the boot. I hated to see Thome go.

I hate to see Lee go, and what makes things even harder is to see and hear how much VICTOR MARTINEZ hated to go. "This is my house," he said. That is not only heartbreaking, but shows just how much the Dolans and Shapiro do NOT give a rat's rear about the team they control.

I know baseball is bigger than any one player, than any given group of players. And I know that rooting for a specific team is bigger than the players on that team. But, part of having a favorite team (for me, anyway) is finding the players that help you WANT to root for the team. Luckily, we still have Pronk and Grady, but for how long? I know what the contracts say (not specifically, just generalizing here), but that is very little consolation.

The Indians, in just a couple short seasons, have been "MANAGED" into the team of the 70's and 80's, and that is VERY unfortunate and sad for those of us that back our team to the bitter end, through good times and stupidity (er, bad times).

I would give just about anything to have the means to walk up to the Dolans, write a check and put my name on the ownership list. Shapiro would be gone. The field would once again bear the name "Jacob's Field," (even if it had to share it with Progressive due to contracts or whatever) and measures would be taken to make sure this kind of crap does not happen if at all possible.

I am not naive. I understand the business better than I communicate, and I understand the logic (if you can call it that) used in getting young, cheap "talent" in order to head off payroll problems. I'm not sure the payroll problems are as dire as we are being let on to believe, though.

And, above all of that, I love the Tribe. What happens to them happens to me, in my heart, and while business decisions cannot always be handled by following one's heart, it sure goes a long way in the overall process.

If there is any chance of rain in Cleveland over the next few days, I hope Jacobs is up there with his zipper undone, and directs as much of it as he can on the boneheads behind the dismantling of his beloved team.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

I can hear it now... Phil-LEEs, Phil-LEEs...


I saw it on Motherscratcher's blog first. He's vexed. I'm ticked. And, I'm not surprised they traded Lee away, but am seriously befuddled by the whole deal. Lee and Francisco go to the horses, while the Tribe get four guys we will probably get rid of before the snow melts this winter.

For me, this is personal. I mean, Cliff Lee lived down the road less than 100 miles from my house, played for the Razorbacks, snagged a spot on my favorite team, and then won a Cy to boot. Come on, people!

Really, I'm thinking the Indians aren't worth anywhere near $300M anymore. Wonder if I could get a stimulus grant to buy them....

A care package from Tom

Tom O wrote me some time ago, letting me know that he had a Travis Hafner "Franchise History" serially-numbered card he wanted to send my way. I was for that! He then wrote to say that my "care package" was on its way and that it included a few extras... He was not kidding!

The first thing I remember seeing when I opened the box was the Hafner card, though it appeared to have been "Tiptoned..."


Of course, the writing was on the sleeve that held several cards. But, you know, it is not everyday you get a card of Pronk giving me a shout out! Not quite sure what's going on with "big Haf's" mouth though... Did he get hit with the bat? Ouch.

The next item to show off is an autographed Pedro Alvarez cap!


Alvarez was the #2 overall draft pick in 2008 for the Pittsburgh Pirates (my hometown, for those that may not know). This a is a great non-Triber addition to my collection!!

But, wait, there's more! Tom also included a 2009 Kinston Indians program, celebrating 60 years of the MiLB team. See, Tom lives in North Carolina and says he goes to many of the Indians games there. Now, how cool is that!?



Of course, he could not complete a care package without a bunch of cards, right!? Well, there are cards for sure!


As you can see, not just Indians, but also Cavaliers and Browns in the mix, too.




There are also those cool "black-background" Topps cards that ticked off a bunch of collectors. I like the blacked background cards a whole lot - very cool and kinda artsy or something. I don't have the words for it, but I like 'em!

THANK YOU very, very much, Tom! This was a GREAT "care package!" While I don't have auto'd caps to send your way, I do have a few surprises headed your direction.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Address APB, because, well, I'm kind of an idiot...

Hey all! I am something of an "absent-minded professor" and seem to have deleted, erased, misplaced, you-name-it a couple of addresses for random packs:

Big D (Mets pack)
Tim (Random Pack)
Paul (Indians pack)

Now, in my defense, I have at least three "Paul's" in my address book. I know Paul responded, saying he was sending me his state-side address, but I can't find a message from you. Please resend your state-side address, and if you want to use big, capital letters in the subject of your message as either a way to get my attention or as a way to yell at me for being so dense, please feel free.

In the meantime, I am putting together Brewers and Rangers packs this week and those will go out by Friday!

Thanks for reading!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

The Randomly Random list of packs for 7/26/2009

Here is the list of pack recipients for this wave of giveaways. Sure, I could have just reached in picked packs, but where's the fun in that?

Now, I am going be able to check off names as I just reach in and pick packs. You se the subtle difference, right? Right? Yeah, I'm a bit... eccentric.. let's go with that. The list includes the requested packs and the 'bonus' packs determined by the roll of the die. If you do not see your name listed, leave a comment here and I'll get ya some packin' action! Wait, I should reword that...


Source: Random.org

List Randomizer
There were 121 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1.tim
2.erin
3.diamondking
4.baseballdad
5.gcrl
6.motherscratcher
7.baseballdad
8.metsmaniacinnh
9.diamondking
10.bo
11.bo
12.brian
13.capt canuck
14.thejaw
15.metsmaniacinnh
16.lonestarr
17.thejaw
18.erin
19.thejaw
20.capt canuck
21.dayf
22.motherscratcher
23.thejaw
24.baseballdad
25.jacobmarley
26.brian
27.lonestarr
28.dayf
29.rod
30.thejaw
31.nightowl
32.beardy
33.motherscratcher
34.brian
35.nightowl
36.diamondking
37.lonestarr
38.tim
39.gcrl
40.nightowl
41.gcrl
42.dayf
43.jacobmarley
44.dayf
45.baseballdad
46.rod
47.joe-s
48.joe-s
49.gcrl
50.motherscratcher
51.diamondking
52.joe-s
53.nightowl
54.capt canuck
55.nightowl
56.thejaw
57.thejaw
58.jacobmarley
59.thejaw
60.don
61.diamondking
62.gcrl
63.bo
64.diamondking
65.joe-s
66.dayf
67.rod
68.don
69.lonestarr
70.lonestarr
71.thejaw
72.baseballdad
73.joe-s
74.dayf
75.tim
76.nightowl
77.motherscratcher
78.diamondking
79.nightowl
80.diamondking
81.metsmaniacinnh
82.jacobmarley
83.nightowl
84.gcrl
85.joe-s
86.erin
87.erin
88.beardy
89.bo
90.rod
91.jacobmarley
92.bo
93.dayf
94.baseballdad
95.erin
96.gcrl
97.diamondking
98.dayf
99.beardy
100.dayf
101.metsmaniacinnh
102.lonestarr
103.nightowl
104.lonestarr
105.rod
106.lonestarr
107.thejaw
108.metsmaniacinnh
109.tim
110.metsmaniacinnh
111.gcrl
112.erin
113.bo
114.dayf
115.jacobmarley
116.gcrl
117.joe-s
118.don
119.bo
120.capt canuck
121.diamondking
Timestamp: 2009-07-26 21:49:57 UTC

Saturday, July 25, 2009

A Randomly Random Update

Whew! I gotta tell ya, putting these randomly random packs of random kindness together has been a blast so far! So far? Well, yes, you see, I am taking a break from the assembly line to give everyone an update on how things are going, and I wanted to fill you in on the process of creating packs of cards that are filled with all kinds of weird (er, interesting) stuff!

First of all, once I started gathering the cards together to make packs, I quickly realized that I had grossly underestimated the number of cards I had for some teams. The idea came to me that I should set some of those aside and do some more team-based random packs, but then I thought, "nah, let's just roll with it!" The downside to having many more cards of certain teams than I realized is that 'random' was becoming too heavily biased toward one team or another. So, I devised a plan.

I found a large plastic storage bin and randomly tossed cards into it, selecting cards from a 5000-count box and about half a dozen or so 800 count boxes. There was no rhyme or reason to my grabbing handfuls of cards and one-by-one (though very quickly) dropping them into the box. Cards scattered everywhere, especially those that managed to find a draft in the room and miss the box completely. When I was at about the halfway point of getting the cards into the 'randomizer' (as I had dubbed it), my wife came in. She displayed a look of shock, wonder, disbelief, and puzzlement. I explained the method to my madness, and she basically said, "madness is right." Ah, the things I do in the name of spreading the good word about card collecting!

After the cards were in the Randomizer, I set out four 10-count sorting boxes and began picking up handfuls of cards and randomly (of course!) putting cards into the bins. Once all the bins were filled to the top (or close enough), I grabbed one bin at a time and broke each bin into random packs of about 30 cards each. There is no exact number of cards per pack. I grabbed a stack and shuffled through, counting each pass from one hand to the other, counting as I went along.

If you're having trouble picturing that, think of a stack of cards in your left hand. You want to count them, so you quickly shuffle them to your right hand, counting each card as you go. Only, I wasn't counting EACH card. I was counting each PASS/SHUFFLE. If you've been collecting for any amount of time, you know how cards tend to stick together during the counting process. Well, if 3, 4, or 5 cards happened to be stuck together (not like glued or anything, just not willing to be counted separately), those were counted as ONE pass. What I'm getting at is that each random pack has at least 30 cards, and most of them have far more than that. Why 30? Because 30 cards (or thereabouts) fit nicely into a 4x6 bubblope. Not all gift packs will be sent in 4x6's, I know. But, I went with the lowest common denominator (and I thought I wasn't going to need any of that 'math stuff' from school - HA!).

Once I had my stack of 'about 30' cards, I rolled a die. If the number came up ODD, I randomly selected a card from the "hit" pile (some have been known to call it 'mojo'). What, exactly, is a 'hit' card? Hit cards are serially-numbered, autographed, material-infused, or some combination thereof. "Hits" also include some types of oversized items (5x7 cards, DuoTang folders, buttons, etc). Other oversized items (or odd-sized, I should say) were just randomly inserted into gift packs.

Now, for clarity sake, a LOT of oddball items (non-sport, minis, micros, stickers, etc) were just dropped into the Randomizer and included in the general sort. If I were to guess, I'd say every single pack has at least SOME kind of oddball and/or non-sport item in it.

All the names of requestors will be put into an online randomizer (like what is often used for group breaks), with each name being entered as many times as packs requested. Of course, that's not "good enough" for me, so everyone also gets a random number of "bonus packs!!" That's right, in addition to the number you specified in your comment, you also receive a number of packs based on the roll of the die. I told you, this is the randomly random edition!

These will go out during the week (July 27-31), plus the Rangers, Brewers, and other team packs will also go out this week. This is not the "end" of the giveaway, but rather just this part of the mailout phase. All packs will be given out eventually, and then I will "close" the giveaways that get filled up with requests.

If you've made it ths far through the post, THANK YOU! I know this was a long one, and unfortunately did not include any photos. I really hhave to remember to take pictures as I go along in these things...

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Bob-bob-bobbin along


It's been a little slow in the posting department around here as of late, so I thought I would introduce you to Team Bobblehead! As you can see, I've got a team of three players and a manager. The manager can be a bit strict sometimes, but he has a way of keeping the players in line when he needs to! He may be a little short for a storm, er Clone trooper, but he works closely with Sizemore, Cabrera and Sabathia. It's hard to get the all to agree, though. Usually, a couple will be just nodding along while the others shake their heads in disagreement. Fortunately, the manager hasn't had to bring out the big guns too often. The blaster works wonders...

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Loooooooooong overdue THANKS!

I am WAY behind on sending out major THANK YOUs to everyone that has sent me great Tribe cards over the month or so. Many of these came in while we were in NYC, and some have come in since we've returned. I hadn't taken the time to sit down and give proper thanks for the wonderful gifts I have received as of late, and I thought I would take some time to share the cards I've received lately.

I do have a small disclaimer in that some of these did not have a return address, so I'm not sure who sent them. And, it is possible that I attribute the wrong cards to the wrong person. Please feel free to correct me if you see your cards posted under someone's name! I also believe that I have at least one package that got filed before I was able to post about it. So, my apologies to you, if you've sent cards and I have not thanked you for them.

Without further adieu, let's get crackin!! Y'all are in for a treat!


Starting things off, Max sent me two GREAT cards from '68! The cards feature drawn depictions of World Series events. In this case, one from Coveleski's three 5-hitters and one from the "War of tribes" in 1948. These are very cool additions to the collection! Thanks, Max!!



The next group of cards come from Don, who lives 'down the road apiece' from me. Seriously. In fact, I used to work at SAU in Magnolia, AR, many moons ago. There are a lot of interesting items in here: Collector's Choice UD GOLD signature Thome, Stadium Club 'gold foil' Thome and Belle, Bowman Heritage mini Carmona, silver and gold versions of Electric Diamond Lofton, various Gold Rush cards, super-cool "credit card" types, teams cards, and more! I am looking forward to adding many of these to my collection. Thanks, Don, for some GREAT cards!



The next set of cards comes from Steve over at White Sox Cards, I believe. My apologies if I'm wrong. These cards include '09 O-Pee-chee, UD series 2, goudey, zenith, and a very cool Career Best Tris Speaker! Thanks a bunch!!



Let's check out these next cards from Slette! I have to say the Career Best Garko jersey card is fantastic! On top of that, we've got pronk, lee, vizquel, vmart, and many others including Bill Clinton. I love all the '09s he sent! It amazes me that Wood was chosen as the face of the checklist, given he just joined the team this year. Excellent stuff!! Thanks to Slette for a sweet selection of Tribers.



The next package is from Worley (I believe that's Paul). The Topps Stars Progression card featuring Carew and Alomar is awesome! Of course, the Roberto Alomar Ring Masters is card is spectacular. I have never seen either of those that I can recall. Add to those a cool mix of Heritage, Finest, and more. Thank you VERY much for these wonderful additions to my Indians collection.



The next package of cards came the other day from the great girls over at Dinged Corners. Their note says that Lucy won a drawing at a local shop and she said: "We have to send David some cards for that great David Wright!" So, she picked out a sealed pack of the 2008 Indians Team Set. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that she thought of me when she could have had her pick of packs! As if that isn't enough to more than "pay back" for the Wright auto card, they also included a bunch of other cards! They also sent a Zach Jackson autographed card, several gold/serial cards, and a whole slew of Tribers from the 80's to 2009! Thank you so much!!



The last package comes from an unmarked sender. All I know is that the ZIP code on the printed postage is from Portland, Oregon. The package included a TON of 2009 Topps Tribers....

It also included a hefty selection of Heritage and SPx!

And, the most puzzling inclusion were these Diamondback cards...

No matter how you cut it, this was a very nice package of cards!! Thank you so much!


I just want to send out a HUGE, MASSIVE **THANK YOU** to all of you from the bottom of my heart!!

Friday, July 17, 2009

Random Packs of Kindness (Randomly Random edition)


Okay, here's the deal. I have basically exhausted the teams for which I have more than 800 cards. Those were broken down into the team packs listed on the right.

The rest of my cards are not particularly organized into teams at this point, so I thought it would be fun to create "Randomly Random" Random Packs of Kindness!

So, how do these work compared to the other packs? The same way as the others with one catch - you can ask for more than one randomly random pack! Ask for 1 pack, ask for 5 packs, whatever. You decide how much "kindness" you'd like to receive.

All I can say is that each pack will have a randomly random assortment of players, teams, oddball stuff, serial/auto/patch, etc. The contents of each pack are not limited to baseball, either. I will be including whatever I have around here: non-sport, basketball, football, whatever!

Oh, I know, you're asking yourself, "why on earth?" Because, despite my previous efforts to get a handle on the cards floating around the house, I still have massive amounts. Yeah, there's the whole selling on eBay thing, but honestly, I enjoy this much better!

So, step right up and feel free to ask for 'randomly random' Random Packs of Kindness!

NOTE: All teams listed on the right still have whatever available packs according to their individual posts.

Remember, if I don't have your address, please email it to me!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Random Packs of Kindness (Brewers Edition)


Okay, folks, here we go with the Brew Crew! It is time to give away Brewers cards! I've got TEN random packs to give away to the first ten folks that jump in for some of that blue and gold baseball goodness.

Remember, only one request per person per team, and make sure you only respond to this post for Brewers cards. And, as always, if I don't have your address, please send it to me. Thanks for reading!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Random Packs of Kindness (Rangers Edition)


It's been waaaaaaaaay too long since I posted a team for Random Packs, so here we go! These guys are just down the Interstate from where I live (if you count about 4 hours as being 'just down'), and I have been fortunate enough to see a few of their games in person!

Come one, come all - er, well, up to TEN of you anyway - for FREE Texas Rangers cards/goodies!

Remember, these are randomly packed and distributed, so you never know what you're gonna get! The first TEN requesters get a free pack, though, so respond to this post for your cards. If I do not have your address, please send it to me (davidinark@yahoo.com) and I'll put it in my database for future gift packs.

Thanks for reading!!

Monday, July 6, 2009

FlyingPigFlu-0, ViralInfection-1

Ah, so the doctor said he wasn't even going to go down the 'swine flu' route since it's not flu season anymore. Nevermind that I have every symptom and was armed with various news reports indicating this flu did not have a 'season.'

But, I also have the doctor that was pretty sure I'd be short a toe because of the spider bite I received a few years ago. My doctor is one of those "worst-case scenario" type guys. Except this time.

The good news is that I am on medicine that should help me get better. The meds to combat dizziness also create blurred vision and drowsiness, so I'm not sure which is actually worse. Guess we'll see....

The bad news is that my fantasy baseball team (Tribecards Trundles) took a 10-0 loss this week. My poor guys have had a very bad season. I suppose after the all-star break, I may have to diversify. Then again, these are my guys...

Sunday, July 5, 2009

The thanks I get...

It's been a while since I've posted, and the reason is that sometime Wednesday night, I contracted something which eventually manifested itself into a rather nasty 'here is what you get for rooting for the yankees' virus/flu/something.

I go to the doctor on Monday morning to see what he says, but according to everything my wife looked up, it's looking very much like the flying pig flu.

For those who enjoy reading the ramblings of a swimming head, I recalled as best I could the events of the past couple days: here.

For those who stopped by just to check in and say, "hi," I want to thank you for your continued readership on a blog that has yet to find any sort of regularity. You guys and gals are great friends and comrades!

Hopefully, there will be an update soon!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

A-Rod, Jeter, Rivera, Junior, Ichiro - Oh My!

The Yankees game started off with a rain delay, but the wait was well worth it! Not only did we see a great game packed with some of the greatest names of present-day baseball, but we had a great time and the Yankees won! Our record is unblemished - 4-0 for home teams winning when we go to see them. And, in my case, even thought I went to Chicago to see the Tribe, the Cubs won their home game, so there is quite a connection, I think. Perhaps the Indians will send me home-game season tickets and airfare to go with it next season? :-) A boy can dream...

In the meantime, I posted a slide show of "only" 64 of the pictures I took:
On my personal blog...

If you are a glutton for punishment and want to see all the pictures I took, they are here:
NYC - Yankees Game