Accidental Bobble Head Collection

It happens to each of us at one point or another in our collecting: someone sends you something that is related to the team/player you collect but isn't a card. I have lots of things that are Indians related yet have nothing to do with my Tribecards collection. I considered fighting it at first, but then realized that was just a waste of time and generally led to inadvertently hurting someone's feelings. So, I have a slew of non-card Indians items. Bobble heads are such things.

I don't really remember how I came about my first Indians bobbler. I can only assume it was sent to me by one of my friends, most likely in the hobby world. I know that Jack (Baseball Dad) has managed to wrangle at least a couple of these from giveaways at Tribe games. 

The funny thing about collecting is that once you start down a path, whether you meant to or not, it's often hard to quit. You see, this small collection of Indians bobble heads (is it one word or two? I never know) has led to a MUCH larger collection of bobbles in general. I will show those off at some point, but today I am focusing on just the Indians:

From left to right:

Gaylord Perry in celebration of Progressive's 75th year.
Grady Sizemore gold glove
Asdrubal Cabrera
C.C. Sabathia celebrating Cy Young Award
Asdrubal Cabrera celebrating his amazing sidearm sweep (I added the card for effect - haha!)
Retro Baseball Kid Bobble - bought when the family saw the Indians in Cleveland
Bob Feller commemorative statue - Okay, not really a bobble, but belongs here anyway.

These little guys watch over me from the top shelf above my computer desk where I do most of my blogging, gaming, writing, editing, collecting... You get the idea.

I've never had a desire to complete the set of Indians bobble heads, though I suppose that little itch (you know, the one that makes you buy packs to feed your addiction) will come to me one day. And in those moments, I will tear out to sites like eBay in search of nodding little fellas waiting to join their friends here.

Dimwit Does (w)Right

Okay, so between my scanner and my own inability to read filenames, the pictures in this post are actually in something of a random order.  Go figure, and welcome to my world.  You know, the world in which I am supposedly some kind of "tech geek" yet can't quite figure out the technology I use almost every single day?  Yeah, that's me.

Alas, I digress, as I often do.  Sam, over at TheDailyDimwit held a group break recently in which participants got to pick a team (three guesses as to which one I picked) and then were assigned a team at random.  My random team was the Mets.  And, I have to say that if I were a Mets fan, I would have done pretty well by this break.  As it is, I am an Indians fan, and I did VERY well (as you will see later, since the Tribe cards actually ended up at the end of the post - see above regarding technical aptitude).

So, what's up with the post title?  How about more David Wright cards than you can shake a stick at.  Well, okay, maybe not.  I suppose it would depend on just how large the stick was, and if, in fact, you were holding it in order to shake it.  But, it appeared that every other card was a Wright (in retrospect, there are four. Maybe I need some more caffeine).

The first cards here are 2009 Upper Deck Piece of History.  We've got Santana, Parnell, and Wright.  I like the design of these in that they appear to have marble borders. Classy with a touch of gold-ish trim around the player.  I miss Upper Deck baseball.

Next up, Niese, Niese, and a "Cut from the Same Cloth #02/25) Martinez and Santana.  Okay, so one of you gets to tell me why the second Niese card is more tan than grey.  I assume it is a parallel of some kind and I am too lazy to look it up.  Well, I did look at a list from UD, but still didn't see anything that explains what it is. 

The next cards from the 2007 Upper Deck "MLB Artifacts" set.  These feature Reyes, Beltran, and Wright.  I know these are supposed to look like they have some kind of dark marble or something on the border, but to me they look like Cocoa Pebbles or Archway Holiday Cookies.  Then again, maybe I'm just hungry.

Phil Humber rounds out the last of the Mets Artifacts cards.  Now we switch to  2009 UD SP Authentic Baseball.  Here you see Reyes and Delgado.  The cards are crisp white with colorful accents.  I think they could have trimmed the borders a bit and made the photos bigger.

More SP Authentic include Santana, Wright, and Beltran.

Sheffield finishes out the regular Authentic cards, which leads us to the final David Wright card in the pot:  SP Authentic Faces of the Game.  Now, THAT'S a card!  I love close up shots of the players.  What a great idea for a subset!  The last card in this trio is a UD 20th Anniversary Retrospective of... the Wilkins Ice Shelf.  More to the point: "Global Warming" and the ice shelf.

Ah, and now that the Mets are out of the way, we can get to the real reason you came: MOJO!  The "hit" of the break for Indians comes in the form of a 2009 UD SP Authentic "By The Letter" manufactured patch card of Trevor Crowe.  It's autographed to boot!  And, it is the letter "H."  H?  Let's see, and it is yellow.  A yellow H?  I dunno man, I just collect 'em.  The next two are from "A Piece of History" and feature Victor Martinez and Scott Lewis.  For whatever reason, when I saw this, I thought of Mark Lewis from Tribe days gone by.  I don't know why that should be.

Next up, a couple of Grady's - "A Piece of History" and a "MLB Artifacts."  Add to that a V-Mart to round out the triplet.

In the SP Authentic break, I received Choo and Sizemore.  I love the Sizemore card.  It seems as though the ball is just off the card and he is determined to snag that puppy at any moment!

The final card in the break is neither a Mets nor an Indians card.  Rather, it is the "Disasta Named NAFTA:"*

I have to say a big THANK YOU to Sam for hosting this break! 

*For the record, I don't know if NAFTA is a disaster or not. It rhymed. It sounded funny to say. Save all the political arguments and justifications for your local tavern.

Crying FOUL!

Announced today, the Indians have decided NOT to exercise Grady Sizemore's option, while choosing to keep Fausto Carmona.  What seems to be the bane of Tribe fans who are voicing their opinion overwhelming supports the Sizemore decision.  What many fans are crying FOUL over is the decision to keep Carmona.  Why bother keep Carmona?

Well, with his 7-15 record and abysmal 5.15 ERA, that is the multimillion dollar question.  My take on this?  They kept him, hoping for a just-above-par performance next season in order to facilitate a trade.  Basically, I think the Indians are hoping he can improve enough before the 2012 trade deadline and work out a deal with some sucker.  Of course, once Carmona does get traded off, he will become the darling of the MLB, as how things seem to turn out for many of the Indians players lately.

Okay, maybe "darling" is stretching it a bit.

What of Sizemore?  I think he should retire from the MLB.  Seriously. Take the injuries and head off to a career as a semi-pro player using his "what I used to be" history and help some club boost their numbers. 

Of course, I may be in the minority here, but I see Hafner doing the same thing.  The Indians cannot simply go one coddling players that used to be killer and who are now just injury-prone has-beens.

What of Thome?  Well, evidently he has filed for free agency (along with several other Tribers).  While I would love for Thome to get a World Series ring, I think his incredible (though mostly ignored) career should go out on top with this 600+ home runs.

Getting back to the original topic: What do you think?  Was keeping Carmona and ditching Sizemore the right thing to do?

Night Owl strikes again!

When I got from work the other day, I found a bubbleope on the island in the kitchen.  Inside were cool cards from Night Owl himself!

First up, we have 2011 Topps Opening Day Carlos Santana.  I love the vibrant green against the dirt here. Photography classes will tell you to "never" take a picture such that the image is divided in half (vertically or horizontally).  Of course, one can really say "never" - especially when one wants the effect intentionally:

He also included a couple Sizemore cards: a 2011 Opening Day and a 2011 Bowman.  Each card features one of his characteristics - hitting and fielding, respectively - that is, when he isn't sidelined by injury:

Next up a 2011 Topps Heritage "Rookie Parade" featuring two tribers: Josh Tomlin and Jeanmar Gomez.  He also sent a 2011 Allen and Ginter Shin-Soo Choo!  I actually like these A&G's a lot this year.  i like the team logo in the lower corner. Nice effect:

Lou Mason comes to us on another 2011 Topps Heritage, plus we have a 1983 Fleer "Big Chiefs" card with Toby Harrah and Andre Thornon! I loved these 'inserts' as a kid. Well, I suppose by '83, I was a bit bigger than a kid.  The next card is a 1990 Topps Traded Carlos Baerga:

The Indians card fun doesn't stop there, either!  How about a 2009 UD O-Pee-Chee Scott Lewis, a 1989 Classic Greg Swindell, and a 2008 Topps Heritage Kelly Shoppach.  The Shoppach card is the same I used a couple years ago for a "custom" version I made (see below):

And now, for the team-collector's conundrum. Do you, as a team collector, add cards to your collection where the player is in a team uni but listed with another team (or in which the player is in another uni but listed with the team you collect)?  I am adding this to my collection if I don't already have it: 2009 UD Spectrum CC Sabathia.  Night owl threw in a "Sarge" Connally from the Conlon Collection, too:

The last two cards feature a 1994 Fleer Charles Nagy and a 2009 Topps Historical Commemorative Patch card of Duke Snider with the 1954 All-Star game patch:

A **HUGE** thank you goes out to Night Owl for these cool cards, and a trip down custom card memory lane to boot!  That is a bonus in my book. Thanks again!

*The custom Shoppach card was posted in 2009: http://www.tribecards.net/2009/02/ultimate-utility-player-for-madding.html