#PackADailyCircus - Drafting Good Eyes, Not So Good Eyes, and a Surprise!

I have finally run the August 3rd draft! Whew, what a doozie! I have to give the "Good Eye! Good Eye!" award tonight to Bo Rosny who tried to draft Mickey Tettleton. Tettleton is a free agent, but I forgot to list him, so he should appear in the next draft.

I also have to give Bo the "Swing and a miss" award for trying to draft several players already taken! Actually, in a weird way, the picks were all from the last draft and appeared to have been part of some cut/paste error.

Okay, first order of business: Get everyone in, er, order - randomly:

After everyone was put in order, I conducted the draft:

How on earth I ended up with Jake Taylor is truly bizarre. Just about everyone had that card listed first! We did manage to have a shut-out, though: the BCs. :-( Man, I hate shut-outs.  As you can see, there are a LOT of names to be assigned to players in ootp. Seeing as how it is 10:49pm CST as I write this, it isn't going to happen. RRGGHH. Well, I will still run the game (or try to) and post the current standings WITHOUT the players above. In the meantime, I have to sort through things and get the next draft ready.

PLUS....

That's right! We have a box of 2014 Allen and Ginter Hobby to bust open along with a 2013 MLB Chipz pack! I received several donations to help buy the hobby box and will use the box in my attempt at this year's Gint-A-Cuffs.  I've got to make some quick decisions about these cards in terms of the OOTP game.

The Chipz are as follows:

Ryan J Braun - Brewers - Thorzuls (Wahoo!!)
Matt Kemp - Dodgers - Night Owls (Wahoo!!)
Mets Logo Vinyl - Mets - Dawgbones (Wahoo!!)
Johan Santana - Mets - Quarrys (Wahoo!!)
Pedro Alvarez (gold?) - Pirates - BCs (Wahoo!!)

Well, the BCs may have been shut out of the draft, but certainly cashed in on Chipz! Nice one. We managed a Perfect Pack to boot!! That is awesome! Congrats, everyone!

#PackADailyCircus - Delay of Draft Penalty

Well, as you can tell, I did *NOT* run the draft last night. I ran out of gas earlier than expected, so my head was in the bed. Here is a pack for yesterday, and the draft will be run today. I need to get the draft going so I can catch up on our OOTP game! Oh, and there will be a surprise later tonight, if all goes as expected.

2014 Heritage:

Mike Minor - Braves - CaptainCanucks (Wahoo!!)
Juan Uribe - Dodgers - Night Owls (Wahoo!!)
Jon Jay - Cardinals - Superduperman99s (Wahoo!!)
Billy Hamilton/Nick Castellanos 2014 Rookie Stars - Reds/Tigers - NachosGrandes (Wahoo!!)/RJBreezes (Wahoo!!)
Gerrit Cole - Pirates - Free Agent
Buster Posey Blue Border - Giants - Arpsmiths (Wahoo!!)
Yoenis Cespedes Purple Refractor - A's - EG9460s (Wahoo!!)
Ivan Nova - Yankees - BoRosnys (Wahoo!!)
Matt Kemp - Dodgers (Night Owls Wahoo!! x2)

I am surprised to see Cole in as a free agent. Well, he'll go in the next draft (er, after the one I am going to run today). Meanwhile, congrats to Night Owls for scoring two hits and to the other folks who pulled cards from the pack. Those purple refractors are things of beauty. Well, cardboardally-speaking, of course. And, yes, I am pretty sure I just made up a word, too. Thanks for noticing.

#PackADailyCircus - Thome or not, here I come

Hey, everyone! I will be running through the draft later tonight. I was going to do it on Sunday, but after our shopping weekend, my wife and I spent the evening in her classroom getting it ready for the upcoming school year. She is truly one of the most creative and organized people I know. Her students are in for a treat, as usual!

Tonight, I will bust open yesterday's pack and then later tonight, I will bust open today's pack. Try to keep up and watch me for the changes...

Wow, small pack... 2013 Topps Series 2 with 5 whole cards. Let's see how we do:

Brian Duensing - Twins - Free Agent
Paul Maholm - Braves - Free Agent
Devin Mesoraco - Reds - NachosGrandes (Wahoo!!)
Wilin Rosario - Rockies - ProwlingCats (Wahoo!!)
Domonic Brown - Phillies - Dawgbones (Wahoo!!)

Hey! We started off slow, but finished out the pack with three hits in a row! Congrats, managers!

Before I go, I know I haven't said anything about Jim Thome and the statue unveiling in Cleveland. Part of that comes from being away without a real keyboard in hand (I only took my iPhone on our mini-vaca). Part of it is just letting the whole thing soak in. Thome is one of my all-time favorite players. When I was in Cleveland a few years ago, we got to see the place where the statue was scheduled to stand. I do not know if it is actually standing in the same spot or not. I knew then it would be something special. There are plenty of people who have said positive and negative things about Thome, his leaving, his return, his leaving again, and his final return. I was so glad the Indians let him retire as a Triber. When he goes into the Hall of Fame, I hope he is wearing an Indians uniform. It's weird to look back to the very early 90's and remember seeing him first come on the field. I remember the first card I got of his - Upper Deck rookie card, two bats on his shoulder and a ball tossed in the air. Even then, I knew there something about him that I had hoped: He would be great - on and off the field. And, he was, is. It's been fun watching Thome go from a young kid to a solid player and then maturing (in age) through end of his career. I don't know what he has in store for the next phase of his life, but I tip my Wahoo Cap to Mr. Thome. You were a what all ballplayers should aspire to be.

Below, a card I received from Kimaloo (blogger, artist) in 2008. It is truly one of my most prized cards:

#PackADailyCircus - Target Practice

The family and I are in Little Rock doing some back-to-school shopping. Since that involved a stop by Target, I bought a $1.59 pack of 2007 UD Series One. 

Conor Jackson - Diamondbacks - Free Agent

Mark DeRosa - Cubs - Free Agent

Juan Rincon - Twins - Free Agent

Shane Costa - Royals - Thorzuls (Wahoo!!)

Julio Lugo - Red Sox - BCs (Wahoo!!)

Greg Norton - Rays - Free Agent

Keith Foulke - Red Sox pic, Indians listed - FDNYs (Wahoo!!)

David Ortiz Team Checklist - Red Sox - FDNYs (Wahoo!! Back-to-Back!)

Well, I was presently surprised there. Several of you got hits, including a pair for the FDNYs! Congrats, everyone.

FTC - My Collection Has Some Balls

Some of you know that I generally do not collect things other than baseball cards. By "generally," I mean I used to ONLY collect baseball cards and now that has been growing into a "general" collection of baseball (or Steelers) items. One such example is featured here: my balls.  Oh, I know what you're thinking... Yes, my balls are not to be played with. I keep them safely nestled in their protective coverings.

Okay, okay, enough entendre. Let's get serious about the balls I have in my collection. Yeah, sorry, no matter how hard one tries, it all goes back to sounding like a 12-year old.

The upper-left auto is clearly spelled out: Cory Snyder. Snyder is certainly one of Cleveland's "Fan Favorites." He played for the Indians longer than any other team during his career (5 seasons). If I ever finish my "Top Indians by Uniform Number" project started many moons ago, Snyder would certainly be in the top running for uni # 28. I have no idea how Snyder's signed ball made its way to my collection. I will assume it was a gift.

Next, we have Mickey Mouse, obtained by taking the family to Disney World back in 2009. My plan was to have The Jake surrounding him so that it looked like he was at the stadium. But, when I wrapped the printout facing inward (so you could see it behind him), you couldn't see it behind him. So, I wrapped it facing outward. Still not a fan of the look, so I will eventually come up with something.

On the lower-left, we have Ken Howell. He played for the Dodgers then Phillies from 1984 through 1990. He was still on the Phillies roster through 1992 but did not play due to injury. In 1985, he pitched 2 innings with 2 strikeouts in the NLCS. The ball was given to me by a co-worker (as was the far-right, which we will discuss in a moment) who had it at her house and no longer wanted it. I gladly accepted it to add to my collection.

The middle-bottom is signed by Michael Aubrey. Aubrey played with the Indians as a first baseman in 2008. The ball was busted out of a Tristar Hidden Treasures autograph baseball pack circa 2006 or so. If memory serves, it was the first (and so far only) "baseball in a pack" item I ever opened. I would guess that the COA is somewhere, but it is not with the ball itself. Knowing my penchant for tossing anything that "certifies" an object as being real, I probably threw it away. Back in 2008, I wrote a post about setting a couple graded cards "free" from their captivity (linked below).

The last signed baseball I own also comes from my co-worker. It is autographed by Pat Combs. Combs played his entire ML career with the Phillies. In fact, the whole idea for this post came when I read a post on Capewood's Collections in which Night Owl sent a Pat Combs card in the trade. According to my co-worker, both of the autographed balls she gave me were signed in person and had belonged to her son at one point, but he no longer collects.

As you can see, I've got some balls. But, not too much. Thanks for stopping by!

Setting them free: 

http://www.tribecards.net/2008/05/setting-cards-free.html