Sunday, May 31, 2009

Cards from... My Aunt!? (baseball edition)

Some time ago, my Aunt in Pittsburgh called and said, "Hey, I found a box of baseball cards. Your cousin doesn't want them and I am cleaning out the closet. Do you want them?" Do I want them!? Heck yeah!

A few days later, she told me that there were a lot more cards than she thought because she also found a bag of cards, and now there were football, hockey, and wrestling cards in there, too. Great!

It turns out that the 'box' she sent is a New Balance showbox that holds at least 2100 cards by my rough estimation. Holy Smokes! Well, after scanning in what amounts to a 'handful' of the cards, I decided the best thing to do was break this up into the respective sports. Baseball far and away makes up the bulk of the cards. These are in no order, but to give you an idea of how I decided which cards to scan, I took each stack that she had wrapped in rubber bands and divide the stacks in roughly half. Then from each half-stack, I selected some cards. At first, I was scanning a bunch. Eventually, I settled on about 9 cards per scan. As I said, these pics are in no order.

Most of the cards are from 1991-1993 or thereabouts. I don't remember anything too great or too vintage from the baseball cards. The hockey cards had a '78 and a '79, though, which was cool. For now, though, here are the selected "few" cards I scanned for the baseball portion of the 'box break:'

Here are a random assortment of Score trivia mini cards:



There were a bunch of Pirates cards that were separated out from the other baseball cards:



There was also a stack of Conlon Collection Sporting News cards with several Tribers in there!



I got BIPPED! I had to put him in the middle of the scanner:



I couldn't help but include some smiling faces and action shots for the girls at Dinged Corners:



I had never seen these "Cooperstown Collection" cards before (I dont think). They're from Score if memory serves:



Oh, I forgot about these Hills cards, and the '80 Topps, too:



I wonder if he realizes that's an apple he's holding... And, of course, I had to include Dave Henderson:



Mattingly and Yount on the same card... Nice!



Chipper Jones prospect card - great stuff!



Jim Rice Topps... Dykstra sticker... fun!



More smiles, and the Eck!



I was a huge Bob Horner fan as a kid...



I love cards that feature the American flag.... And how about that Brett card!?



Sorry, DAYF, I had to include Sandy Alomar... Just in case you forgot what his card looks like. :-)



There's a few commentators/analysts in here:



Ah, yes, flaming balls strike again.... That card shall forever haunt my trades:



You can't help but wonder what the middle guy in the top row is doing there.....



Tommy John! Bubble Gum! what could be better?



That is one of the wildest Eck cards I have ever seen...



Pitchers, catchers, and McGwire sliding on his rear end...



George (Brett) looks over his shoulder at George (Ruth)!



The Express! Cool Joe Carter card! What the heck is that pink stuff on some of the cards!?



I'm afraid the first guy has lost his head in the game! The one below that is a very weird angle!

Thank you to my AUNT!! And I hope you all enjoyed the peek at the cards!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Gone too long...

Sorry it's been a while since my last post, but family matters come before posting it seems...

I received a bunch of game-used/auto'd items I bought from theBay not long ago, and included was this little gem:


I had not seen one of these "ripped" game-used cards before, and I thought it looked kinda cool. And, it's Alomar, making it all the better. Look closely, and I am pretty sure that's him sporting an Indians uni there, too...

And then comes the back of the card:


"...a game-worn Cleveland Indians jersey, worn by ROBERTO ALOMAR...for the NY Mets." Well, if that doesn't just blow your mind... An Indians jersey worn by the 2nd baseman for the NY Mets. Now, if you are new to collecting, or new to baseball, this could seem a bit in left field. But, evidently, Fleer had already contracted to do the jersey card, then Alomar got sent over to the Mets. Rather than do a 'retro' card or create an Indians card with Alomar on it, Fleer opted to put everything Mets on the card to go with his then-current team and fix the whole thing with a little verbage. No mater how you rationalize it, "ripped" is the right word for this card....

Monday, May 25, 2009

Sacrifice


This is a poster that hangs on my wall just above the computer desk in my home office. I know the picture is not great, so I took a couple closer shots:



Remember all the men and women who bravely put their lives on the line for each and every one of us every single day. For me, that's not only the folks serving in the armed forces, but those serving in any and every way that helps keep us safe from those that would do us harm, and those that offer aid to those stricken down in line of duty.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Trying a different approach to layouts...

At first glance, nothing looks too different, right? But, scroll down just a bit, and what you find is a split-level approach to displaying the various gadgets/content housed here on Tribecards.

I think I am going to play with font sizes a little to help keep the focus on the main posts, but this is much more along the lines I was originally thinking.

Oh, I know, most of you could care less what I'm doing with the layout of my blog. I appreciate you putting up with my shenanigans anyway.

In order to come up with this, I looked at various layouts available online, and then hand-coded (and in some cases borrowed the skeleton code) a secondary site I created for the specific purpose of playing with layouts. The biggest advantage to having a 'development' site is that you can paste the code for your 'main' blog into the dev site, and though you lose the content, you retain all the 'pointers' to the real content. In English, that means once you have the layout like you want, you simply copy from the dev site and paste back into your live site and everything just 'works!'

For my next endeavor, I'm going to be playing with graphics and color schemes. But, that's for another day....

A serious lapse of judgment

So, if you were among the few that surfed in to Tribecards and saw the hideousness that was three-column hell, I want to thank you for sharing your thoughts.

As it turns out, the three-column layout was an awful, horrible mess. The image I had in my head did not translate to the little screen very well. And as the votes came in and the more I looked at it, I turned the screen to my wife to show her my new experiment. Without a word, I knew instantly my guts and the general reaction of my readers was dead-on: Three columns no-worky for Tribecards.

But, what I discovered in the process was how to make the whole thing semi-transparent, letting the Wahoo in the back show through the header and posts. I always hated that you couldn't really see the background image.

Again, thanks to the few folks that came by in time to witness the awful mess and let me know what an awful mess it really was - I agree completely! That's why it is OUTTA HERE!! :-)

Saturday, May 23, 2009

It's all in the name...


Perhaps if I had chosen "Tribecards Tyrants" or "Tribecards Terrifics" or even "Tribecards Toppers," perhaps the Indians would not be where they are now. Perhaps I should have put clothes on them.

See, I chose "Tribecards Trundles" for PunkRockPaint's Yahoo! fantasy baseball league as a joke. I suck at fantasy sports but like to play anyway. So, when the invite came to join up, I decided I would keep my fantasy team as close to an all-tribe team as possible. Yeah, it's a risk putting all of one's fantasy eggs in one basket, but I was pretty sure I would do okay going that route. Much like the boys in blue, I was wrong.

The Trundles are currently 11th out of 12, barely hovering above Heartbreaking Cards. Oh, sure, I could start dropping players. In fact, I did drop a couple that are basically DL for much of the season. I suppose I could pick up some free agents from other teams and hope that turns my Trundles around. But, in the end, I decided that, like the Indians, these are my guys and I'll back them as much as I can.

In retrospect, however, I probably should have given more wide-reaching thoughts to the name I gave them. Call it self-fulfilling prophecy. Call it living down to expectations. Whatever you call it, it's fantasy imitating reality and/or vice versa. And it's not pretty.

It's Tribe Time Now... unfortunately, the clock seems to be a wee bit broken...

Friday, May 22, 2009

Stacks of wax in a trade with Max

A while ago, I participated in my first group break, as some of you may remember. As a result of that break, Max got in touch with me regarding the Niese auto/patch card (refresh your memory here, if you need/want to). In exchange for the Niese, Max would send me a smattering of Tribe cards. In his words, "a quantity for quality" trade. Well, I threw in a few 'extras' for good measure, and I am afraid I fell a wee bit short. The cards Max sent me cover decades, brands and types.



How about a 2009 Goudey 4-in-1 featuring TWO Indians (Lee and Sizemore)!! There are a myriad of players and cards that came in three dime bags. In his own words, "The package with the 4-in-1 is from your wantlist." That would be the cards shown above and the cards below:




His note continues: "The package with the Albert Belle are cards I think you'd want and/or were not on your list." Boy, howdy, I'll say! There are some VERY cool cards, including true vintage Fleer! Plus, throw in some inserts and oddballs and we've got quite a mix here:




And finally, he lets me know that, "the third one is stuff in top loaders from the wantlist:"


Holy freakin cow! Not only are there some very cool cards throughout this package, but I will have a lot of fun doing the research to determine the year/brand of some of the oddball items to boot.

Thank you VERY much, Max, for a GREAT selection of Indians cards! I hope you're happy with the auto-patch card (plus the extras) and feel you got a good deal in the trade!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Congratulations! You're the proud owner of a card store!


If the words above were uttered in your general direction, what would your thoughts be? If you could outfit your own card shop/hobby store, what would you want in it? This should probably be a bat-around.. LOL! Oh well, I am posing the question for all to answer, anyway!

What products would you want to see, what ones would you NOT want to see? Would you make it a 'hobby' shop, or sports-only? In addition to cards, what would you sell? How big of a store would you prefer (small mom-n-pop, standard retail size (think HobbyTown USA), or some kind of megastore (think HobbyLobby but only collectibles))?

Would you make an online counterpart (eBay, standard eCommerce, etc)?

If you would say, "Really? No thanks." I want to hear that, too - and the reasons why you would say it...

Have fun with it! And thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

My Card...

This is for the folks that have asked me about the photo that's featured in "My Card" on the right these days. Contrary to how things appear, my wife and I were NOT at a game (and I have never been to Progressive) at the time the photo was taken. Instead, the pre-PunkRockPainted photo appears below:
From Indians-Rangers Game

When we in the card-collecting blog world say PRP's got skillz, we know what we're talkin' 'bout...

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

I'm not askin' ya who's on second


I received a very cool package in the mail the other day from BaseballDad! In it, I found a CD with classic baseball-themed songs and bits (including the one featuring the title of this post!!). In addition to the CD, I found all sorts of Indians goodies! A "Batter Up" official program guide, several cards including a JustMinors Grady-freakin Sizemore!, and a Sportflics mini team jersey card! Also in there, CC Sabathia, Mike Hargrove, Jose Mesa and a '96 Fleer logo card from the Indians 20-card subset. Inside the "Batter Up!" I found a 1/2-off coupon for upper deck box seats to certain Indians games (oh, how I wish!!) and also a 2009 season schedule.

I popped the CD into my HEMIs CD player this morning as I drove my son to work, and we listened to Abbott and Costello discussing the players on their team. My son had never heard it before, and he was laughing hard by the end of it. He wasn't as appreciative of some of the other items on the CD as I was, however. Though, I have to admit, there is something innately wrong with Mel Allen saying "that ain't no jive..." And, the reading of "Casey at the Bat" was borderline scary...

What a great surprise!! I know my son will grow weary of the CD before long, but I plan to haul that puppy around in my truck for some time to come. Thanks to BaseballDad for creating new memories and bringing back old ones!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

I hate words problems - Anyone offer help?

This is way off topic and is something I would normally post on my personal blog. Frankly, more people read this one, so I am asking for help. I do not want to know the answer, but rather how to work the following problem (actually, I've edited it so that it is not the actual problem):

A cargo plane flew to a destination and back. It took one hour less time to get there than it did to get back. The average speed on the trip there was 350 mph. The average speed on the way back was 325 mph. How many hours did the trip take to get there?

As I said, I don't want to actual answer, but rather the "how do I solve this?" I am generally pretty good with the math homework my son brings my way, but word problems (or whatever they call them these days) drive me up the freakin wall.

I have no idea what I can offer in the way of a prize for helping, but I will come up with a game-used, auto, something or other....

Of course, I have to know by Monday night. Figgers. And THANKS to anyone that can explain this in English!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Blog Bat Around: Why I Blog (a day or two late)

I suppose it is rather appropriate that I start working on my "Why I Blog" Bat-around post a day or two AFTER the deadline. It seems many of my posts appear in that fashion - a day or two later than I had hoped. As for me, that's not only par for the course, but also keeps me blogging in the first place. Perhaps I will eventually get back to that, but for now, follow along on a rather bizarre journey into the 'why' I blog (not only on here, but on the myriad of other sites, too).

I started 'blogging' back before there was even such a term or even the formalized concept. Back in 1993 or 1994, I had one of those static web pages that my ISP provided for me. I started out with several pages of information that never really seemed to change much. And then I had a thought: Why not update my page as often as possible, preferably daily? That lasted about two days. Frankly, no one was reading my personal page and updating it was an exercise in notepad, FTP, and holding my tongue juuuuust right.

Skip ahead a couple years. I was changing ISPs but still wanted some of the content to be saved. I created one of those Tripod pages. The content consisted of Indians-related baseball card information and some random thoughts from the space between my ears. I hated Tripod. That was a pain. And then came Blogger.

My original blog (poppedinmyhead) was started because I wanted a place to post all the things I had been storing on Tripod. Mainly, that consisted of a baseball card-related item or two, a list of things college students should know about the Pre-Raphealite Brotherhood, a list of keywords from an old Commodore 64 'game' called "Little Computer People" and whatever else popped in my head (hence the name of the blog).

Because I collect Indians cards, I found it hard to find places that just listed Tribe cards. Mainly, I was interested in checklists of the cards I needed, but did not KNOW that I needed. I spent a lot of time searching and searching. I started "Indians Baseball Cards" because I wanted to provide a place for fellow Indians collectors to get information about the little cardboard rectangles of their favorite team. The very first posts I did were checklists compiled from various sources. And then I strayed.

I started blogging anything about the Indians, and then anything about the hobby, and then whatever randomness seemed to fit into my card-collecting habit.

So, now that you have a history, let's talk about the meat of it - WHY do I blog about pictures of people on little bits of cardboard?

I turned 40 this year. Not a big deal, a lot of people turn 40 (and have already done so many moons ago). Though I am now 40, my brain still sees me as being somewhere between 13 and 25. And because my passion for collecting Indians cards never died (though it has waxed and waned throughout the years), I wanted a place that I could write out my thoughts about the hobby I've held on to since I was 5 or 6 years old.

I am a writer at heart. I've only had two things 'published' - one in a college literary magazine and the other on a card-collecting online magazine. Nonetheless, I love writing. Blogging about Indians baseball cards (or anything related... or not related) gives me a way to take all the thought I have in my head and let them out. And, if I am going to let them out, why not share them with anyone that happens to come along, right? In addition to poppedinmyhead and tribecards, I am a contributing member on "A Pack A Day" and "A Pack To Be Named Later." I love blogging on those sites because they allow me to write about cards I would not normally write about on here.

Here's the best part of blogging, though: Friends and fellow collectors. I have made some great friends through posting my random thoughts about Indians cards on here. I live in a very rural area on a farm. Let's just say there are very few collectors out here. Through blogging, I have traded cards with folks 35 miles down the road and folks in England and Canada and across the United States. Some of those trades were actual trades, while others were cards I sent off as part of giveaways.

I love giving away the cards that don't fit into my collecting criteria. And, since my criteria is basically "Indians cards or items I don't already have," well, as you can imagine, I have a LOT of things that I end up with that don't fit. My children have only a glancing interest in baseball cards. So, what better way to share than to give the cards away? And what better way to give them away than by blogging?

It's not always easy to come with a topic (which is why sometimes it's a day or three of five between posts), but in the back of my mind, I know there are things I still have yet to finish. I can always post a new checklist, a new scan of cards from my collection, or a new giveaway. When I started blogging, I told myself that I would post whatever I wanted to (on here), and that I would do it for my own enjoyment. If no one comes by to read it, I would be bummed out, but I wouldn't let that stop me from blogging. And so, I blog.

Did I even answer the question? I got a little sidetracked, I think.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Get in on a deal for CardCollector!

I've had a couple folks ask me about the software I use, and I have written about it before. But, today, I am posting to direct you to a deal on the CardCollector software. Over at "All-Tribe Baseball," there is a deal going on! Click here for the details. The great news is that you can get the software, and the most recent version at that, at a discount by joining in on the 'group buy.'

So, if you want some great software for keeping up with your collection, head over there and let BaseballDad know!!

100 Years of Indians on little round coins

The Indians organization began it's life prior to the 1901 season. But, 1901 signified the first 'official' season in the American League (though they were Naps then). And so, a hundred years after the Indians played the White Sox on opening day in 1901 (the Tribe lost, 8-2), Cleveland celebrated by holding all kinds of century-mark gala events and minting coins. I am now the proud owner of two of those coins:

The picture above represents a coin offered up by Dodge. The coin is shrink-wrapped or vacuum-sealed to the card it's on. And, for being still protected in plastic, I have to say the face is heavily worn on this jobbie. But, none of that matters to me! The card itself features a look at Indians history starting with "present day" and working back to 1901. The card does not indicate how many of these were made, unlike the Brisk Tea version:


The Brisk Tea version also has historical facts, but it starts with 1901 and works forward. The coin is labeled "2nd of 3 Commemorative Coins." I don't know if the two coins were part of the same set, or if Brisk made 3 different versions. I like the fact that this coin shows the "SOX" and "INDIANS" logos, specifying the game played on July 25, 2001.

I wonder if the guys who played in 1901 ever thought there would be another game between the two teams 100 years later...

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Some of that Indians magnetism!

I recently bought a random assortment of Indians items, and these were among the finds:


These are "Jacobs Field Era Champs" magnets. They are not-quite baseball card sized, but they're close enough to put in 9-pocket pages!

Above, we see Omar Vizquel, Kenny Lofton, and Jaret Wright. They feature very colorful photos! I don't know who actually produced them, but they were distributed by Pepsi and its brands. I received the Mountain Dew ones above, and the Pepsi One magnets below:


There, we see Manny (before he was "Being Manny" and all that now may stand for) Ramirez, Roberto Alomar, and Charles Nagy.

As many of you know, I loves me some oddballs! And, this magnetically-charged six-pack fits the bill quite nicely!

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Who ever said cleaning up was bad for you?

A few days ago, I received an email from The Fleer Sticker Project, letting me know that he had been cleaning up and found a package on the floor that he thought he had already mailed off to me long ago. He said it would be on its way and when I got home this afternoon (Saturday), the package had arrived!

I had no idea what to expect, and I was blown away by what I found inside:

The scan above shows lots of goodies! First, a couple of Topps Coins featuring Ray Fosse and Steve Hargan! And then, a Topps Indians Stamp ALBUM! I have never seen the album before, though I have many of the stamps. And, the album is nearly full of stamps, too! I am going to hunt down the missing ones and stick them in there so the album will be complete. Not for any reason, mind you, just to do it. Also in there, we see Al Smith and Joe Azcue on 1964 Topps! Add to that a whole slew of 1969 Topps cards! Mike Paul, Richie Scheinblum, Max Alvis, Russ Snyder, Vicente Romo, Vern Fuller, Jack Hamilton, and Chuck Hinton cards that are great to look at and wonderful to hold in my hands. But that's not all!


The package also included 1970 Tribers Duke Sims and Larry Browne! Those were followed up by 1971 Topps Steve Dunning, Steve Hargan and Buddy Bradford. And just when I thought my head would explode, there's Kurt Bevacqua, Milt Wilcox, and Phil Hennigan on 1972 Topps cards to finish things out.

THANK YOU very much to The Fleer Sticker Project for these wonderful vintage Indians cards! I can't wait to find out which ones will fill voids in my collection!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Packs to be named later...

I am now a contributing member of the latest pack-busting blog, "A Pack To Be Named Later!" (see it here)

When I first read about the blog's launch, I thought it was something done to compete (though that may be too strong a word) with "A Pack A Day." As it turns out, though, the site is actually trying to accomplish something rather monumental: Open at least one pack of EVERY kind of card ever made. "A Pack A Day" is focused more on sport-related packs, and I believe that is the right direction for that site. "Things Done to Cards" is mainly sports related, but with an eye for the weird things that are either done to sportscards or are done in the name of being passed off as sportscards.

"A pack to be named later," however, blew the blinders off the horses and is letting them run free. No pack is off topic. Though, I would venture to say 'adult'-related packs are probably not appropriate, but that's not my call nor my place to act as any kind of censor whatsoever. In fact, I was told, "The weirder, the better!"

Now, THAT'S my kind of bustin' wax! I've got my first post up and two others are already scheduled to launch for Friday and Saturday, by which time I hope to have some of my eBay oddball/non-sport packs ready and waiting.

It's really too bad I'm not doing this for a living. I could get used to it....

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Sunset at Arlington


I meant to post this 'custom' card back when I was posting cards of the night game I went to in April for my birthday. Since I am eagerly awaiting cards in the mail, and since I will be out of town Thursday evening, I thought I'd throw this up there to take my mind off all the rain we've been having here in Arkansas lately!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Juuuuussst a bit outside

In recent posts, I have discussed two card sets which have sparked interest among several of my readers: CyberAction Digital Trading Cards and 1989 Major League Movie Cards.


After doing some research, I actually located the email addresses of the original founding members of the Digibles/CyberAction card company. I wrote to all three, asking if they would participate in an interview regarding the cards, the company, and the hobby itself. I heard back from one of the individuals and through a series of emails, came -this- close to scoring an interview. As life would have it, however, things fell apart before they could come together.



The quest for the 1989 "Major League" movie card set led me down a road of enlisting multiple 'card finding' companies for help. In addition, Chris Olds at Beckett (who started the quest in the first place, if you remember) has not been able to uncover specimens of the cards, either. For my part in the hunt for the cards, I contacted Paramount Pictures marketing, those card-finders, several friends in the card-collecting world, and even Dr. Beckett's contact himself. So far, the only thing I seem to have help create is a bigger demand for cards that are even more elusive than that 1952 pack of cards in a Tri-Star chase blaster!

As you may have surmised, I do not go quietly into the night when it comes to cards I'm trying to find. I have not quite given up on either of these pet projects, but like many things, I have decided to set these on the back burner for a bit. Perhaps if left alone to stew in their juices, something will come along to take both of these to the next level.

Some of you may be wondering why anyone would post such setbacks in the first place. Frankly, I'm not sure myself. I think in some way, I'm hoping that sticking this out here, someone will stumble along and be able to help out with either project, or by some bizarre alignment of the planets, both projects.

So, while I am not ready too call these 'strike-outs' just yet, I will say that things are "juuuust a bit outside...."

Monday, May 4, 2009

I am Joe Collector, All Wright

I've seen other folks that participated in IamJoeCollector's recent Topps Finest break posting their winnings, so when I got to my mailbox this afternoon, I was very excited to see a bubblelope with the words "I am Joe" on the back! (Are other people using 'bubbleope, or is that just me?)

Of course, the main thing I wanted to see is David Wright's Auto Finest Moments. What I did not expect was the other David Wright card! I think DingedCorners is going to be very happy:




Being this was my first break party, I didn't know what to expect other than the "hits" I won. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I also got more than a handful of other cards! Given there were 30 participants, I'd say that's a pretty good take. Here are the cards (including other the other hits from the break):


Xavier Nady (Yankees) - He's by himself because of the way I had laid the cards on the scanner. Each card has a trivia question on the back. His is "Who was the youngest player elected to the HOF?" Hint? He was 36 years old when elected. Another hint? He would never be confused with a spacesuit-wearing squirrel. Ready? Sandy Koufax.



Wow, these scans came out really small... Well, that's Nick Markakis (Orioles), Chase Utley (Phillies), and Josh Whitesell (Diamondbacks). One of the trivia questions: "Who hit a home run in the first game he ever managed?" Hint? He's a former Triber. Another hint? He might have been caught singing a Simon and Garfunkel song to his wife from time to time. Ready? Frank Robinson.



Ah, the Jonathon Niese (Mets) Auto Patch card. I have to admit, this is much cooler than I pictured. It's a "unique manufactured patch." Seriously? "Unique?" I'm not sure how 'unique' it is if they used the same "S" for other players, too... Ah, well. Next is the Justin Morneau (Twins) Refractor. To be honest, if it didn't say "Refractor" on the back, I'm not sure I would have easily noticed the difference between the regular issues and the refractors. Ryan Dempster (Cubs) is next followed by the Gary Sheffield (Tigers) Refractor. The refractors do some cool things in the light for sure. I also just noticed that the refractors have a silver border instead of the white one, so if I were rifling through a stack of them now, I'd be able to spot the refracs pretty easily. Feel better? I do. Trivia question this time: Who was the first Japanese-born player to catch in the Majors?" Each trivia question is actually multiple choice. For the sake of being my usual goofy self, however, I'm going for the straight-guess route. Hint? His name doesn't sound very Japanese. Another hint? His first name is not Ronald. Ready? Keith McDonald.



Aaron Cunningham (A's), Kosuke Fukudome (Cubs), and Ken Griffey Jr (labeled as White Sox, but appearing in Mariners uniform) round out this trio. There was a discussion about cards like the Griffey over on All-Tribe Baseball. The general consensus is that card collectors hate these. Why not just go ahead and put "Mariners" at the top? Stupid. Trivia question: "Who is the only every-day player to be managed by his father in the Major Leagues?" Hint? It's not Griffey Jr. Another hint? Every-day pretty much should give this away. One more hint? He *is* a Junior. Ready? Cal Ripken, Jr.



The final three cards are Adrian Gonzalez (Padres), Jose Reyes (Mets), and Joe Saunders (Angels). Wow, I ended up with several Mets cards out of the deal. They'll go nicely in my to-be-given-away box! To be fair, remember, I give nearly every non-Tribe card away and then give away duplicate Indians, so very few cards are ever "safe" in my house!

I have to say, I am glad I took part in this break. It was well worth the last-minute decision to jump in there, especially because I have a couple Wright cards that will find a very loving home! So, to address my own question regarding breaks: I say this was definitely in the FUN category.