Custom Card: 1988-89 OPC Hockey Ramon Hernandez

Custom card of the new Rockies catcher, Ramon Hernandez. Ramon has been impressive handling the Rockies staff so far in camp and that is really the reason I see him getting more playing time than prospect Wilin Rosario early in the season. I might be wrong, but from what I can find Hernandez is the active leader for home runs by a catcher unless Ivan Rodriguez signs somewhere.

The design is from the 1988-89 OPC/Topps hockey set featuring rookie cards of Brett Hull, Bob Probert and Brendan Shanahan. The best know card from this year is probably the Wayne Gretzky Topps card showing him holding a L.A. Kings sweater at a press conference after being traded from Edmonton, O-Pee-Chee went with a less iconic standard hockey pose in the Kings gear.

Gary Carter and the Start of a New Project

This recently acquired Gary Carter bat card marks the first step in a new collecting goal, getting bat cards of the top home run hitting catchers of all time. Carter sits at 7th on the home runs by a catcher list with 298, he did have 324 career, but I am going by home runs hit while playing catcher, so my list doesn't include time spend at DH, pinch hitting or playing anywhere else. Of the 13 players with over 200 home runs as a catcher only Gabby Hartnett doesn't have a bat card and the other 12 are fairly easy to find, so this isn't a huge goal, but the tricky part is going to find the photo on the card showing them catching which is what I prefer. This Carter card fits all my criteria and is on what looks like a buyback 1987, and I love the '87 design and the Carter card is one of the nicer cards in the set. From what I can find in Beckett this should be a 2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Originals Relics #GC Gary Carter Bat Card numbered to 50, from what I can tell this is a "buyback" set in that Topps used old cards, die cut one and sandwiched them to create a mem card. Back of card after the jump.

Mailday: 2012 Topps Purple

Small mailday featuring my favorite of the 2012 Topps parallels, the Toys R Us Purple borders, these look amazingly good, being a Rockies fan what more could you ask for than purple borders. I haven't seen to many mentions of the new addition to the corporate border parallels joining the Target Red and Walmart Blue so I thought I would show them off. The 2012 Pomeranz rainbow is now closer to completion, along with two more for the Rockies catcher collection with Wilin Rosario and Jordan Pacheco. The one weird thing I noticed is that the card backs feature minor league stat totals even though all three appeared in games with the Rockies in 2011, strange. All three are "rookie cards" and I have high hopes for all three to contribute for the Rockies in 2012.

Making Fun of 2012 Heritage

(get it posed, Posey, there has to be
something there)

Disclaimer: I am not trying to bash Topps Heritage, I know people enjoy it and good on them, but I personally have no attachment to any set prior to 1971 so I care not for Heritage, this is just my personal option and an attempt (perhaps a poor one) at humor. Here are my reasons for making fun of Heritage.

Reason 1: Glamor shots, I hate posed head shots, it makes me think of Deb from Napoleon Dynamite, I imagine it going down like this, just replace Buster Posey for Uncle Rico.

Needed Nine (Want List Updated)

With my recent Sportlots.com orders my most wanted list has changed, I have updated the original post to reflect what I now have and have come up with a few more to add to the list

Acquired August 2012

Ed Bahr 1984 TCMA Playball 1946 #40
I know very little about this set, but it features the only card of Ed Bahr. I think the scan shows the mini version of the set. Bahr was born in Rouleau, Saskatchewan, home of the filming for the show "Corner Gas". He is one of six players to be born in Saskatchewan and make the major leagues, pitching in 46 games over the 1946 and 47 seasons. He did serve in the U.S. military so it doesn't look like his family stayed in Canada long after he was born.

Redskins trying to win Offseason again

I was away all weekend and missed all the Redskins trade stuff until this morning. I looks like the Colts will take Andrew Luck and the Redskins traded up to probably pick Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III. It looks like another stupid Redskins making a off season splash, but looking closer, it might not be that bad. They only lose 2 first round picks and a second and the 2014 first rounder is so far away it is only valued as a 3rd this year going by the draft value chart. My worry is that this reeks of Shanahan trying something desperate to keep his job and this buys him a few years to develop RG3. As a longtime Skins fan, I have become pretty pessimistic on the moves they make, but this might be the one that turns the franchise around, or he could just be another Heath Shuler or Desmond Howard any one one of a long line of busts and failures.

Different Kind of Mailday

A non card related post, but still baseball related. I live about 200 km or about 125 miles from the nearest city, so most things I buy come mail-order. Today the newest installment of MLB: The Show arrived, just in time for me to leave for the weekend and not be able to play it until next week. I love The Show and it should hold me over until real baseball in April. I noticed amazon.ca had the new Pink Floyd represses so I ordered The Dark Side of the Moon on vinyl. The top corner is already bent as amazon apparently has no idea how to pack vinyl, but the record looks ok, I will have to spin it tonight to be sure though, and make sure I never buy vinyl from amazon again. Baseball cards, video games and record collections, I am really letting my nerd flag fly, good thing this blog is not designed to pick up chicks, because it would be a miserable failure.

Custom Card: 1971 Topps Chris Iannetta

My first 1971 custom featured here, I saw that Iannetta hit a home run for the Angels on Monday, and while I am sad he is gone from the Rockies, it is good for him as he was in Jim Tracy's doghouse and designated to the the 8th spot in the lineup. I really hope he has a good season moving to the American League. This is my first attempt at washing out a photo to make it look old, didn't work out to bad. I find it really hard to make card backs have that vintage old cardstock look, but it's getting closer to what I want it to look like.

Mailday: Sportlots Part 2

My final package from Sportlots.com helping to widdle down the wantlist. A sweet Charlie O'Brien featuring his hockey style mask. I wish guys would get a little more imaginative with the artwork on these like they do in hockey. Most of the rest were Rockies including Bubba Carpenter and Garvin Alston from the most wanted list, a silver Topps Total Alfredo Amezaga, a Blue 2012 Pomeranz, a nice catcher card of Joe Girardi and a Zero year card of Tony Eusebio who never played a regular season game for Colorado. Finished up by a couple Redskins from the last Super Bowl years, before Dan Snyder ruined the organization and turned the team into a laughing stock. The Williams is from the oversized Gameday set.

Mailday: Sportlots Part 1

I have been seriously missing out, I just found out about www.sportlots.com so I thought I would try it out, way more cards than any other site I have found and the shipping costs are very reasonable, much more so than COMC. Just got in two small packages and am waiting on the larger one and these kicked the crap out of my want list. The package today knocked 4 cards off my ten most wanted. I am still not sure if the 1998 Manwaring has rain or snow but bad weather baseball cards are pretty cool. Also checked off the Craig Counsell rookie and a serial numbered Roberto Ramirez rookie.