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

You've Got Mail, Some Patriotic Lumber & a Lawyer From Puerto Rico Named Laura

Spent a few moments with the USPS kiosk this morning.   Trade packages of cardboard goodness are headed out to the following zip codes:

• 34270
• 13601
• 60706
• 07446
• 33065

Thanks for your patience, guys!   How about a quick cardboard stream-of-consciousness?

This card is interesting to me.   It's a relic card for Yankee great, Jorge Posada - so yeah, I know, of course I love it.   But it's a bit different from your every day relic card.   Upper Deck mixed things up a bit in 2001 with this SP Milestone bat card by paying tribute to Jorge's Puerto Rican heritage by branding that Commonwealth's flag into the wood.   I think it turned out pretty cool:

My iPhone picture probably doesn't do it justice, but considering the size of the bat chip and remembering my woodworking disasters as a Boy Scout - I think Upper Deck did a great job.   Not only is this something different (variety is the spice of life) for the collection but it encouraged me to do a little extra Internet reading about one of my favorite Yankees.   A few quick factoids:

- Jorge's father fled to Puerto Rico from Cuba in order to escape Castro's communist rule

- Posada Sr. worked in the Rockies' organization as a scout while his Uncle Leo (Yes!  Seinfeld reference!) played for the Kansas City Athletics back in the day.   Leo was traded to the Braves in August of 1962 but never played int he majors again.

Posada finished his career with four World Series rings, five All-Star selections and five silver slugger awards.   He is always a fan favorite for how hard he played on the diamond but some of his best work might be his charitable efforts to fund cure research and care for families affected by the disease, craniosynostosis.   His own son Jorge Luis was diagnosed with the disease shortly after birth and has followed his daddy's lead in fighting hard against this foe ever since.   His fight continues.

As a Dad myself, that's pretty good stuff.

Jorge is also well known to be a close, personal friend with the Captain, Derek Jeter.   So much so that Derek was best man to Jorge in 2000 when he married lawyer, actress and supermodel, Laura Mendez.   Gratuitous blog post picture, please:   

By all accounts, a smart and beautiful woman.   I guess we share a similar taste in women with one glaring difference:  my wife is NOT from Puerto Rico.

So there you go!   Who knew my first little Jorge Posada bat card could lead us here?   I kind of went all over the place with that one.   I love this hobby.

Thanks for reading!

Plugs, Samples & Ink-less Kiosks

Let's start with the good stuff - it IS Friday, after all.

There's a great contest going on over at Cards Beyond Oceans.   Different perspectives are always a good thing and CBO's contributors, Martyn and Tony Mc, seamlessly deliver interesting tidbits on their hobby adventures from across the pond.   Go check 'em out!

Now, on to story #2, which had me doing one of these when the 'news' broke yesterday:

That's right - the Ryan Braun debacle.   The whole series of events was bizarre from the get-go, with the story of Braun's failed test being leaked prior to any outcome (a violation of the process).   That wasn't fair to Braun and shows a lack of integrity in the MLB drug-testing process.

But it didn't stop there.

No, upon further review, the sample had been taken over a weekend and the sample collector couldn't figure out a way to pass the tubes on to the next person in the chain of custody.   So, he/she did what I guess seemed to be the next logical thing - they kept Braun's "Career In a Bottle" cool  and secure by sticking it behind the pan of lasagna left-overs in their home's refrigerator.

Oh yes......and you know what?   I think THAT move deserves one of these:

So there you go.   And with his career, reputation, good name and OODLES of potential future money on the line, Team Braun focused on this alleged breach of proper custody when making their appeal.   It worked.   Braun made history off the field by being the FIRST player to win his appeal of a failed drug test.

My two cents?   This is an unfortunate situation because nobody comes out completely clean.   Braun's appeal effort did not clearly dispute the positive results of his sample.  Instead, it zeroed in on the violation of the process for sample chain of custody directed by the Drug Testing Program's guidelines.   I believe in the rule of law, so I can't fault their strategy and I can see where the arbitrator's logic is based - reasonable doubt.   But the fact that we still have a positive test that wasn't directly rebuked is troubling.   We may never know for sure and that just stinks.

Plus, we now have baseball's problem with PEDs back in somewhat of a limelight.   Their process for handling these tests appears to be a bit too grey in some areas (the sample-collector thought they were doing the right thing) so it will have to be re-evaluated and revised.   Is it Selig's fault?   Well, the responsibility lies with the Captain of the ship but we all know that MLB pays good money for some top firm out there to develop this program and, perhaps, implement it.   And then you have the strong language in MLB's official reaction to the decision.   The words "vehemently disagrees" was used.   How often do you and I use "vehemently"?   I guess not often enough but it shows an indisputable level of passion in the League's disagreement with the outcome.   Fighting in the family.......never good, but it can lead to some solid "lessons learned" and improvements for moving forward.

I'm glad it's done.   I am hopeful the process will change accordingly so that this type of goof-up doesn't happen again.   I am happy for Braun and for baseball but at the same time I can't look at either the same way.   Not for a little while at least.   Time usually heals all wounds but what would some players say who have been placed under suspicion of PEDs in the past with much less physical evidence?

Okay, I'm done - thanks for enduring!

One more bit of frustration - the kiosk at my local US Post Office told me it was OUT OF INK this morning.   Grrrrr!   This is the same kiosk that absolutely had no power a couple of weeks ago.   What the heck?   Should I expect a "PC LOADLETTER" error message next time?

"I celebrate the guy's entire collection!"

That being said, I have four trade packaged all sealed up and ready to go whenever they dump some more ink into that machine.   I'll have packages headed out to the following zip codes:

• 17349
• 92688
• 08551
• 75201

Sorry for the delay, fellas!   I have a few trade updates coming soon as well.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!