Detroit Tigers: 1985 World Series Champs!?

According to ESPN. WTF. Screenshot of tonight's game:

Tommy Hanson Signs; Mike Gonzalez Shaves (his arms).

This past weekend was a good one. I spent both Saturday and Sunday afternoon down at Nationals Park to see Chipper and the Braves. We got soaked Saturday sitting in the rain but it was worth it. Hanson pitched great and the Nats Presidential mascots were apparently unloading whatever they had in storage for random fan giveaways. I was able to score a John Halama game worn jersey from the 2005 season thanks to President Washington who apparently did not care that I was wearing a Braves jersey! Pretty cool pickup. Halama was part of the Randy Johnson to Houston trade as the player to be named later by Houston. Current Tiger Carlos Guillen and former Tiger Freddy Garcia also part of that trade. Braves won, I was happy, let's do it all again on Sunday.


Lowe pitched on Sunday and was not his best. It rained again and the Braves offense rained down as well, scoring a solid 10th inning win to get within 2.5 games of the wild card leading Rockies. Even better, though there was no batting practice (ironic since it was sunny and warm before Sunday's game) a number of players were out and signed for the Braves fans. Among them who I was able to get were Mike Gonzalez, Ken Kawakami and Mr. Hanson, who was kind enough to sign the sweet spot for anyone that asked. The ball looks fantastic right next to my Chipper sweet spot I picked up in Milwaukee a few years ago. Enjoy the pictures and hopefully the Braves continue (and the Tigers once again begin) their winning ways.





Also, Mike Gonzalez apparently shaves his arms and hands. Strange.

Pittsburgh Pirates Getting Attention at the G20 Summit!

Had to post this. A guy I went to high school with lives in Pittsburgh took this picture.

As a native Detroiter I know what it's like to suffer through years and years of losing seasons with the Wings and Tigers, but really Pittsburgh is out of excuses. They have in my opinion one of, if not the best ballparks in the league, ownership that can spend money (but doesn't) and a fan base that would support their team if they were even close to .500.

There's always next year!

Flash Forward, to a New Comerica Park?

Anyone else catch Flash Forward on ABC tonight (8pm)? Solid premiere for the show in my opinion, however, slightly confused about the Detroit aspect at the end of the show. I'll try not to ruin the ending of the first show, but they showed "video footage of a stadium in Detroit," a large stadium where baseball was being played, and at first glance it did look like Comerica until they showed left field. While yes, they did add some bleacher sections underneath the scoreboard this year, it did not at all look like what Comerica's left field. Maybe it was the 27" standard def TV in my hotel room, or the fact I haven't been in Detroit since opening day or that it was a short clip, but I'm pretty sure that it was in fact not Comerica Park. I'll post a screen shot from the show when they post the show online but until then, anyone else see this? Thoughts on the show, or the baseball clip?

Goodwin Champions, All For Trade.

10 hobby packs of the Champs and I am uninspired. The base cards are NICE, I think I may even like them more than Ginter or at least it's a close call. But as many have already written it's hard to pinpoint exactly what is missing here from this set. It's probably a combination of price point, number of cards per pack, the clouds (seriously, too many clouds), how hard it will be to complete this set with the short prints and super short prints, and insert sets that just don't do it for me. Further, the oddball autos in this set (as compared to Ginter) leave something to be desired.

Anyway here is what I got, all is up for trade (including the auto) except the Nolan:


20th Anniversary
2297, 2307, 2317, 2332, 2342

Citizens of the Century
CC-9

Autograph
A-MA (Mark Allen – Triathlete)


Citizens of the Day
CD-4

Black Border Mini
53 (Silva)

Mini Foil
111 (Kevin Garnett)


Regular Mini
10, 38, 82, 106, 132, 136, 139, 143, 225, 241

Base
2, 22, 24, 28, 30, 38, 43, 51, 52, 55, 56, 66, 67, 71, 82, 86, 98, 99, 101, 125, 133, 141, 167, 169, 173, 181, 185 106, 114

Why Sports Illustrated, WHY?! The Tigers Will Officially NOT make the Playoffs.

Had to post this. From the Detroit News Online site, Detroit, specifically Comerica Park will be featured on the cover of the Sports Illustrated hitting shelves tomorrow.

Here is the article:

Here is some info about the SI cover jinx: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/cover/2002/jinx/main/

And I guess not surprisingly, there is a wikipedia article on this as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_Illustrated_Cover_Jinx

Surely they will lose 8 of their final 13 games and STILL only miss the division title by 1 game to the Twins (at least they are now beating the Indians 1-0 off a Raburn homer despite Jackson's awful start, again). I know this not only because of the SI jinx, but also because I already bought Tigers playoff tickets (but no flight to Detroit yet so there's the measure of confidence). I guess I can still hope for the Braves to go on another big win streak and steal the wild card, with 9 games left against the Nats and Mets anything can happen.

Goodwin Champioins, LIVE?!

So I thought this went live on the 15th, but as is always the case, cards are already on the bay in advance of that. So far I don't see a reason to buy a box of this. The case hits are interesting, see here (there's your bug BEARDY), but even that is anticlimactic as it's a redemption card. So far my favorites are this Justin Verlander jersey and this Nolan Ryan mini.

Don't get me wrong, the cards are nice looking, but collecting the Ginter set was taxing enough. I am however I am away for work for a few weeks so I'm sure I'll at least pick up a few packs to keep me occupied until I get back home. Looking forward to some blogo-pics of sweet pulls tomorrow, maybe even something that will convince me I need to buy a hobby box instead of waiting for blasters!

Achiever Card Blog Delivers the Goods!

So I came back from a relaxing weekend at the beach to find this in my mailbox from the Achiever Card Blog:

Boo end of Summer, hooray wax packs!

I sent over a Denard Spann framed auto and a few Indian randoms in exchange for the Brock Auto. I pulled the Brock Relic in my second and almost traded it to Beardy. It was my first non-sport relic of any time and so my sentimentality kicked in and decided to keep it and work on the set of Brock's for my Ginter binder.

Thanks to Achiever for the trade and the excellent bonus packs! Below are a few of the sweet cards from the random packs:

Mail from Nachos GRANDE.

Heading to the beach for the long weekend but wanted to display the latest goodness before I head out, plus the Braves just gave up six runs in the bottom of the 6th so I'm having a hard time watching that game anymore.

Many thanks to Chris from Nachos Grande for the trade. He really helped cross off a good amount of what's left for 2009 Ginter and hopefully I did the same for his Ginter minis. In addition to the Ginter cards, he sent over these gems along with a nice lot of Tigers and Braves cards:

Tiger pitching greats past and present.

Chipper and Andruw back together again!

Have a great weekend everyone. College football is back, but don't forget about pennant races, BBQ's and not going to work on Monday!