My First Play At The Plate

Brian from over at Play At The Plate noticed a couple of months back that I had stumbled upon some blue Ranger parallels from Topps' Walmart offering this year.   As you all probably know by now, parallels for my Yanks or Braves have slowly grown on me but as far as the rest of 'em - it makes me happy to send them home!

SO....I procrastinated way too much and had the Rangers set off to the side for a wee bit.   I managed to find a couple more Texans for Brian and eventually sent them on their way.    Sorry it took so long, Brian!   He was certainly generous with what he sent in return - he was able to help me out with my NEEDS lists for 2012 Topps base and the few insert sets that I'm chasing.......I was worried I might never get off the ground with some of these but our blogging community has, as usual, graciously turned that frown upside-down.

Here's a little look at what Brian sent over:



I've said it before and I will undoubtedly say it again - I love these '87 minis!   They're simple, yes, but the wood-grained '87 release marked my first year in collecting.   I'm tempted to make a comparison of the special feeling towards my first set to the first girl I kissed but I think that would require me to also attend a support group.   Anyways, I'm making some decent progress with these inserts now.   Thanks for the help, Brian - and those guys are no slouches!

Some more of the Goldens from this year - Standards and Moments.   I think there's a TV radio station called Singers and Standards, yes?

Some help with the Series 1 base set.   It would be remarkable to wrap up this one before Series 2 hits the shelves.   Considering I just completed Series 1 and 2 from 2011 last month, this progress is already a shining example of the benefits to having a blog - communication is key!   I would encourage any of the readers out there to make the leap.  

Oh, gee....did I leave that Mantle on top for all of you to enjoy?   The Mick - always epic!   Nice touch, Brian.   Here are two of my favorite cards from the stack:

This guy is a beast of a ball player.   I'm playing fantasy baseball for the first time this season and Yadier fills my catcher slot for both of my teams.   Turns out, he's been one of the most productive players out there, so far in 2012.   Yes, Pujols - your former fellow Card is trampling all over your HR total through week 1.   Not hard to do when your sitting on a goose egg, Albert!   Way to go, Yadier.

 JERED MAD!

Thanks for the great trade, Brian!

Thanks for reading, guys.

"O" YES, Don't You Know!

I recently had a great trade with my fellow AL East collector, Ryan over at "O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog .   It's always a beautiful thing when two collectors of different teams can swap some great cards from each team and pull off a very honorable 'prisoner exchange' that works very well for both sides.

This is exactly what happened for us two Ryan's.

I had some Baltimore ink and threads that Ryan could use for his Orioles collection while he had some Bronx lumber for me.   A win-win!   Here he is in all his glory, my first 'hit' for 2012, Mr. Robbie Cano:

Glorious.   I got to thinking - wouldn't it be cool if Topps had gone and obtained relics from THE game described on these Golden Moment cards and inserted a piece of THAT into these inserts?   I know - that would have caused each one to become, as Bay of E sellers like to say, "Ultra Rare!" and probably make them utterly unobtainable.

Be that as it may - I love this Robbie card and am glad to have a little piece of SOMETHING Yankee from the 2012 releases.   I hope there's more to come!

Ryan also went through my NEEDS lists and was able to help me out with some 87 minis, my '91 Fleer pursuit (getting close, you guys), and some other 2012 insert chases.   Check 'em out!

I love these mini's!

"The Honeycomb Set" -Ryan..............is almost done!

Great Ones

Yes.   Yankee legends.   One thing I appreciate this year is the slight bump in face-time for Maris that Topps seemed to afford 'ol Roger this year.   Here's a few examples that I'm ecstatic to have in my collection now:

Pettitte.....Timless....hopefully.

 

And here are some more inserts to help along mission to complete the sets:

True, with every glance of these Golden Moment/Standard inserts, I am reminded that there was a lot of space int he design for some ink or material that simply is not there.   BUT, I will say that there are some great baseball tidbits and factoids on each one as well.....which my inner baseball-nerd embraces as a totally satisfactory consolation prize.


Thanks for the GREAT trade, Ryan!


Thanks for reading.