Getting in under the gun

Ok. The whole plan was to get back to blogging a month ago. And the astute readers will notice that didn't happen. Not from a lack of trying, though a lack of desire definitely played a part.

So where have I been in the past......while. I don't even feel like doing the math to see when my posting really dropped to nothing. 7 months? Probably more. I've thought about how to address my time away, but in the end I determined the reasons don't matter much. It'd be a long chain of words that no one really wants to read. I'm not saying you whom have read to this point don't care, but my life is boring. Trust me - relating been going on in so unexciting a freshly painted bench want to go elsewhere.

Please sit on me.

I'll give you a one sentence rundown of where I was over this past time: no longer working from home, so 3+ hours of commute each day along with Uber driving burnout, daughter's wedding (401k loan thank goodness) and general malaise of life.

And we're done. Told you - boring. You were warned.

In all the free time I have mostly been playing video games because it's easy numbing of the brain after traffic to a shitty job and worse traffic home. Being creative was not on the agenda. But I wanted to get back because so much was received from so many and people we never given a proper due, and I have had ideas I should put in motion if only that I know I did said idea. Thankfully, mailings have stopped, and I cannot be more grateful that you all have lost my address. Reciprocation has recently started up again, and I owe many. Yes - OWE. Just deal with that word. Still a lot of mailing left, so if you were thinking of sending me something, please don't. Not at this time.

I don't want to drag on the start of this first post in forever, so I think that is all I want to say about my time away.....

Hey....remember me?

Oh yeah...... my future wife says hi. Anyhow, I have many cards I've received scanned and posts of them planned, but let's show a few recent pickups here. Nothing great or amazing, but stuff I like. All cards were ebay purchases sometime after my last real post.

Couple autographs of non White Sox, but technically, each one has a White Sox connection. Phil Humber won't be making the HOF ever, but he is one of 23 players to throw a perfect game. He fits into three binder pages where I plan to collects autographs of the perfect game pitchers. A few probably will never appear in there (Cy Young and Sandy Koufax come to mind), but who knows. Now Jamie Burke had a few cups of coffee in the bigs (191 total games in 8 years). He crossed the base paths for 64 total games on the South Side, with a single game in his last year with the Sox. That year, though, was 2005, which makes Mr. Burke a member of Project 2005. Best I can tell, this is the only certified autograph he has in the hobby, so he goes into the 9 pocket as a Mariner.

I am fairly certain these three player collection cards were a buck or less. Bowman had some crazy inserts in the early 2000's. Hard to tell from the scan, but the Petrick is the international edition of his card. 2009 Goodwin is the BEST year of Goodwin. Fight me.

Last is this relic card I snipped for under $10. First relic card of a Black Sox player, Lefty lost games 2, 5 and 8 (was a best of 9 back then), being one of only two pitchers in history to lose 3 games in a single World Series. I'd love to obtain cards from all 8 members of the Black Sox issued during their playing days. Maybe after I score that Cy Young autograph......

I've blabbed enough. Thanks for reading. I'll do my best to get a couple posts a week. At the very least Throwback Thursday should have continued, but I suck and failed to do that. With luck I will suck less in 2020.

Let's light this bottle rocket again!

.......................beep........beep......beep

Cards from Orland, OH

Hey - the titles to the posts can't all be winners, folks.

Nice try.

So if you read Dimebox Nick's blog, and if you don't maybe you need to visit a doctor, a recent post shared his card show spoils. I remember an earlier post about a couple card shows coming up he was attending, and I was hoping one was the Orland show, as I had carved out a little time to pay that show a visit on the same day. Sure enough, I guessed correctly and got to do some digging with Nick and his father. If you haven't, enjoy his spoils. I commented I would have my own recap of the show, and here it is.

Now, Nick had a hell of a haul mainly because he had a hell of a pull that paid for the card show. I had some bonus money that I could spend on myself, so while I didn't purchase anywhere near the amazing cardboard he did (if Nick turned his head I would have stolen a few of his cards), I still got some great paper rectangles.

I'm still working on the 2018 White Sox team set, as well as needing to get 2019 going. Technically, I still need some from 2017, but I got about a dozen for 2018 (leaving me 3 short) and all but 2 cards from 2019. Though, I REALLY need that Kopech SP. That sucker is goooooooooooooorgeous! I also picked up 75-80% of the Sox Heritage team set.

Really, I am working a lot of 2018 sets - it was a bad card year for me. And bad blog year. And bad work year. I'm digressing.... Picked up about 40 cards towards the '18 Stadium Club. Here's a few. Love those Indian throwbacks. Cleveland needs to wear them more often. One thing I noticed from the group I bought: the horizontal cards are much better images than the vertical. I hope Topps fixes that come 2019.

Nick talked about one vendors 50 cent and two dollar box. This particular vendor is there each show, and let me tell you - his cards are AMAZING! He has a box of 60's commons at a buck a card. You may think that's a bit high, until you look and the cards appear to have been pulled from packs a week ago. They are that good. And he's always willing to work out a deal. These above are a combo of 50 cents and 2 dollar cards. Peters and DeBusschere go into the Sox binder while Ruiz is an obvious bunt card. I pulled 20 cards from the 50 cent box and a dozen or so from the $2 box. I had to put back a good 20 cards cuz I just ran out of cash.

Here's some '64s for the build. All total, I knocked 14 cards off the 64 set, getting me to 77% completion. These, and the others I purchased, fit right into the quality I am satisfied with. I actually knocked 3 cards from series 7, and those cost me just two quarters each. But the highlights of my purchases come next.

Two bucks each. Some pen marks on the 64 Pizzaro stand up, but who's passing on that for $2? And one of the first really big cards for the set in the Robinson. $5-10 for that online, or more, so I am content with that one for $2. I needed the Fox/Kuenn for the Sox team set. And that ends the $2 box purchases I will show. But I have two more cards left.

Nick and I went back to do a little more digging at the table. It was this trip he scored the Bowman Kaline, McCovery rookie and the 66 Clemente (I found that) among others. And in that dig I picked up my two big purchases at $5 each.

We all know how hard it is to find Bowman color at a good price. I have needed this Lollar for his PC for quite some time. Regularly over $10 online, so I jumped at a really great copy with a creased corner. The creased '50 Bowman Luke Appling is the first of his playing days cards I have. Appling is a future PC, so finding this for a fin was a deal considering its condition. Easily twice that online.

Good show with a good time with good friends. We were all a little light in our wallets, but that happens in Orland. Oh.

Throwback Thursday - 02.21.2019

Every Thursday, I post a card showing a ballplayer wearing a throwback uniform from my collection. Hopefully, he will be wearing it well, with proper pants blousing. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.

Roy Halladay - 2013 Topps mini inserts - Philadelphia Phillies

What a run

For starters, a few commenters mentioned the images on my last post cannot be viewed. I snapped the pics from my phone and linked the images from my Google Photos account. Yeah - guess it's not working, so I downloaded the edited the post. If you wanna see the spoils, you should be able to now. But on to current business....

We have all heard the phrase "there's one in every group". It's extremely true here on the blogs as it is elsewhere in the world.

Or maybe a lot more here on the blogs

Many have sung the praise of the closing of JayBarkerFan/Area 40, run by the one and only Wes. This group of ours here in blog world is beyond generous. Wes' level of magnanimity is hard to follow. He has "bombed" a few of us (myself included), and I think we all recall the epic wars between Wes and Matt from Bob Walk The Plank. If you ever decide to come back to battle, Wes, I'm not sure who you could hit (cough cough) a cracked bat (cough cough cough)?

Wes is taking a leave, hopefully not permanently, and had his amazing blow out to close out his blog. I requested my White Sox and Blackhawks. So while there are other older packages I need to post, I hope you forgive me and move Wes to the front of the line.

Some serials and inserts. The Field of Visions has that DuFlex technology, I believe.

Minis, both numbered to /99. I don't have a lot of 205 minis, so never noticed they seem to be a bit smaller than current minis.

Relics. I still like the Sox vests and wish they didn't retire them.

My only Blackhawks hit was this auto of former captain Dirk Graham. A few failed prospects with the Broadway, Rogowski and Lopez, and a failed manager with Ventura. Still some great additions to the autograph binder. My big hit was this beauty...

Hard to scan a slabbed card, but you can easily make out what it is. A fantastic addition to the HOF autograph binder. I never thought I could have an autograph of this man in my possession, and here it is. Fun fact: did you know between 1949 and 1964 (16 years), only two teams not named the Yankees won the AL pennant? Both of those teams were coached by Al Lopez ('54 Indians and '59 White Sox).

Wes, thanks for the memories and thanks for the largesse of your heart. Don't be a stranger.

(sigh).......OK

Six months.

Take away my Christmas greeting, and it's been six months since I have spoken my mind and clicked the publish button. I lot has happened in those 180 days. Not amazing or discussion worthy, but situations none the less. And I have contemplated long about what to say of the recent past: how to phrase it, what to mention, what to avoid.

In the end, though, I'm just going to leave the time to myself. Activities, both positive and negative, took up my time. Emotions, equally positive and negative, affected my days and nights. I am 180 days older than the last post here; that is not up for dispute. But what is up for conversation is what happened and how it affected myself and my family. In the end, though, I am going to keep that to myself. I don't want to present it for discussion. I am not seeking support, shared joy, or words of affirmation. Instead, I am just going to move forward and find my place back into this wonderful group of people. I'm less worried about the blogsphere than anything else.

I have been trying to work through all the cardboard I have yet to give a proper, public thanks towards the sender. From DJ to Night Owl, HSCA, Scribbled Ink, Scott Crawford, Cracked Bat, Carboard Clubhouse, Penny Sleeves and even Wes' Area 40 blow out, I have much gratitude owed. And a few personal pickups that I can interject here and there. Let's not talk about all the cardboard I need to mail. So many of you I owe. You may not feel that, but it's where I am personally. In regard to this blog, and my collection, my failure to ship out is the highest level of embarrassment I have. I am grateful incoming mailing stopped a few months ago, partially for the fact that I am very unorganized, but mostly to avoid the reminder of my failure to others.

Things will change here. I will not say when, because I am famous for missed promises. But I am a man of my word, so in time what I say will become reality.

Anyway, where to start? My thought for this post is to show pickups I made at the White Sox garage sale. Sox hold it 3 times a year, and this is my 2nd trip. When I look at what I purchased with all money donated to charity, I can feel good scoring game used items at 10-15% original cost - retail wise anyway. Without further talking, let's have at it.

First off, for just two quarters each, is the Sox year book and a game program. You see the year book is $5, so a buck total for both is a deal. Would be nicer if I actually went to a game last year so I could score it, but I'll deal.

The running joke at home is how I tend to purchase dollar T shirts. It's a bit too true and I am always looking at the clearance racks for deals. But I did have to double the price for this one. Two bucks for a quality shirt with old school logos? No brainer.

For as long as the line was for the sale, I lucked out on this one. It was a giveaway for Raines making the HOF, and I have been watching a few on ebay for $10, hoping to have someone accept a lower offer. Got this for a buck. That is a low offer.

The first garage sale, I bought a game used ball, so I had to pick up another. As opposed to the first one, though, where I just grabbed a bagged ball, I stood with others and punched the authentication hologram into the MLB site to find a ball I can appreciate. I decided on this one, since I recently started an Adam Engel PC. Would have been nicer if it was a hit and not a foul, but I was getting tired typing on my phone. With luck, I can get it signed.

I have needed to replace my current Sox cap. It's fitted and the logo is too small. It's dirty and sweaty. I should have something nicer on my head. This was the only Sox cap that would fit on my head. However, I need to improve it.....

Looks SO much better without that damn New Era logo. About 30 minutes with a seam puller and you can't even tell it was ever there. The best part of the cap is under the brim....

If this cap was used in 2018, the wearer was either Jose Ruiz of Chris Volstad. Trying to determine whom it was has been a task. At first, considering the size of the cap, I was leaning towards Volstad, him being 6'8" and 235lbs to Ruiz at a teeny 6'1" and 190lbs. Yet, I found this image of Volstad, and that "4" written on his cap for Danny Farquhar does not match the "4" here. Also, a Google search of "Salmo 91" references Psalm 91 in Spanish. So I think it was Ruiz that owned this. And now it's my baby for a cost of a paper Lincoln.

My final pickup was a designated purchase. The last jersey I bought is just a little too small. I can wear it, but it is far more comfortable unbuttoned. It's an Anthony Reinzo jersey from 2014 per the laundry tag. This year I lucked out with the first jersey that met my needs as it fit perfectly.

It's a jersey from 2015 worn by Héctor Noesí. Curiously the number matches the size. But the key of the selection was the sleeve patches.

This would be a game used jersey after August 11th, which is the first game the pinstripes showed the Pierce memorial patch along with the one for Minoso. Glad this jersey has been bypassed is previous sales so I can have it in my collection.

So there you have it. The White Sox garage sale from December 2 of 2018. Pitchers and catchers have reported. Spring is just around the corner. And I'm about to hit publish. Amazing.