Night Owl Made A Pass At My Woman!

Nah.

Night Owl is a righteous dude with tremendous cardboard and Dodger knowledge surpassed only by his own incredible talent for writing. I just couldn't resist the gratuitous post title inspired by The Lost Collector's recent interview of [99.9%] retired blogger, Napkin Doon. It had me laughing out loud and wishing once more for a "Cleve's" of South Carolina....but alas, no such luck. The interview can be enjoyed here.

NO, it was I that was seduced by this glorious plethora of cardboard from our community's winged friend of the night. Completely unexpected but surely treasured, I must now hatch plans for a counterstrike.

Thank you very much, Night Owl!

Here we go - 

Yankees and Braves dominated this well-crafted package. I had never seen these tri-fold Upper Deck "BAT" cards before.....but I LOVE them. How do I store them?

We sure miss Robbie in New York but it's always a pleasure to see him knock one out of Safeco from time to time. I think I caught an update recently that he left a game with some pain...I hope he's okay. This "blue-sparkle" parallel from 2013 is a beautiful card and I have quickly become a fan of the Opening Day logo. Man, that follow-through.......one of the finest swings in baseball right now, folks.

What Mo can I say? Rivera cards will always be accepted around here. A simple baseball card with a winning smile from baseball's greatest closer is fantastic!

PC alert!!!!! A Donnie-Braves sandwich served up with my first look at the A&G insert set, "Across the Years". I can dig. The Braves colors and that OD logo (again) look great on the Freddie and Kimbrel cards. Great additions to my collections!

Here's a look at the back of the BAT card. See what I mean? They are REALLY nice and offer up some great baseball knowledge in an attractive, unique design. How were these cards distributed?

A giant Donruss Righetti!!!!! How giant?

THIS giant! Thank you for the perspective, Chippah (also included).

I'm a bit unsure as to how I'm going to store/display this bad boy....but I'll find a way to let Rags breathe safely in the Card Cave. In the end, a wonderful problem to have, right?

Thanks again, Night Owl and thanks for reading -

Ryan

A Red Rizzo from The Lost Collector!

My friend AJ (who runs the great blog The  Lost Collector) sent over a splendid card for my Anthony Rizzo Collection! 

Check it out.....

I love Heritage and am still slowly trying to BUILD this year's base set! Honest, I checked for a pulse and it's still there.....barely. I hope I can stick to it. Set-Building is something I do enjoy but view as a challenge for both modern sets and vintage. Vintage is tough because I lack a local shop for access to reasonable selections of commons....modern releases suffer the same handicap but I also don't find the math for packs/boxes of new releases to be very favorable for dinosaurs like me.

Maybe I'm just being a wimp? Sorry. Tangent.....

This Rizzo parallel won't be needed for the set-chase, but it is a WELCOME addition to my Rizzo PC! It's a simple head-shot of my favorite Chicago Cub. The red even works pretty well with the Cubbies uniform and logo. Love it!

I also appreciate The Lost Collector's use of the painter's tape. I try to do the same as much as possible. It gets the job done without leaving a sticky residue on the top-loaders. A win-win. Let's get that tape out of the way for a better view:

Fantastic - and how about those great Heritage backs:

NICE!

A great description of a "Rizzo Moonshot" is very apropos in light of his power surge this season. I also appreciate the reminder about just how young Anthony really is.

A great card. Thanks, AJ! Now where did I put that spare PWE.......

The Lost Collector - PWE SpecOp Extraordinaire

AJ over at The Lost Collector has a penchant for dropping sweet little PWE's in the mail when you think he's getting ready to welcome a new Little Lost Collector into the world.

Sure enough, my good friend managed a few weeks ago to pass along two Anthony Rizzo's that I needed for my Paisan Collection.   The blue Wally-World parallel is a really sharp looking card with an attractive color scheme and the ever-tantalizing rookie cup.   Ahhhhhhhhh......

The Prizm card is a tough-looking metallic Panini special with a raised image of Anthony that's pretty darn cool, too.

Two great cards from a great fellow collector - THANKS, AJ!   And more importantly, congratulations on the new addition to your clan.   So very glad to hear that all are well.

Cigars all around, fellow collectors - thanks for reading!

A Treasure From The Lost Collector!

It's always a great day when a package arrives from my friend, AJ.   He was one of my first trading partners when I joined the blogosphere (as a reader) back in early 2011.   He gave a lot of great encouragement as I mulled over the idea of Ryan's Pitch and he inspires me to always strive to be a better Yankees fan.   He runs one of the finest blogs in our community and maintains a TTM success rate that exceeds the hobby average by about 1,000%!

Off the collecting field, we also compare notes from time to time as fellow dads and I'm always on the lookout for new HOF cards I can send to him for his son's collection.   A little while ago, I sent over an old beat up Red Schoendienst that I thought might plug a hole in a page.   I was happy to assist!

Well, that rascal went and returned the favor with a Don Mattingly card that I've been wanting since......well, since the lovely thing was created - HELLO, gorgeous:

Rainbow! Mustache! Pinstripes! Stars! Foil! Eye Black! DONNIE!

I mean....LOOK AT IT!

Amazing to go from a single '93 Topps Finest in my childhood collection ( a Jeff Bagwell that I ought to share on here pretty soon....) to a full hat trick in a matter of weeks!   I fawned over the early 90's wholesomeness of Nolan Ryan's Finest card in a previous post - but this Mattingly, my favorite player of all time, take the cake.   It MUST be the finest Finest card I will ever own!

Here's the back:

Drafted a couple of months after another epic event.....my arrival on earth.

AJ - thank you!   Thank you very much!   This card will be treasured always.

Thanks for reading!