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!

Trade With BEARDY!

Finally got to checking the mail after a late hockey practice. Traded a couple Ginter creatures to BEARDY and was only expecting a Ginter sketch, one base card I needed and some assorted Tigers cards in return. What he through in as extra is below. Amazing. Thanks!! Only my second trade since starting up the blog and I'm loving it. Makes me feel like a kid again and the generosity of the online card community is crazy. Every day there is a new post from someone about extras sent to them that were unexpected. Thanks again Beardy. I'll be stashing some Markakis/Jones/O's cards for you for a surprise package someday!

MIGUEL!

Maggs is shiny; miss the hair.

West Coast Swing and Mom/Tiger Things.

The Tigers are in Anaheim tonight and I guess I'm just glad to be out of Oakland. That was a horrible series for the offense. Too many strikeouts. No clutch hitting or execution and a few bad baserunning mistakes, not to mention some shaky defense.

So far so good tonight though. Cabrera doubles to bring home Polanco for the 1-0 lead (although again we can't get the runner on third with less than two outs home) and Verlander makes it out of the first without giving up a run.

Enjoy a few pictures from my parents trip to Boston last week!

Coolio Cards Contest = Aliteration.

http://cooliocards.blogspot.com/2009/08/you-know-what-i-think-im-going-to-give.html

Go there. Pick a number. Email the number. Win. It's just that easy.

Sunday Card Show!

Checked out the monthly card show at the Tysons Corner Crowne Plaza Hotel today. It's a pretty small gathering, only two tables sell boxes and only one sells loose packs (at VERY inflated prices). The people are nice though and always some interesting conversation to be had. I was able to knock out almost all of my need list for Ginter short prints for a few dollars and picked up one (lame) pack of Bowman Jumbo.



Drop me a line if you have any of the following Ginter cards:

National Pride:
31, 33, 63, 64, 65

Baseball Highlights:
1-7, 10, 11, 16, 23, 24, 25

Base Set (16 Needed!)
16, 20, 39, 51, 58, 62, 101, 116, 137, 152, 160, 201, 217, 238, 253, 291,

SP Base (2 Needed!):
332, 344

Back At It with Allen and Ginter

First, thanks to Topher over at Crackin' Wax for completing my first online blogger trade! I miss the days of swapping cards on the front porch over peanut butter sandwiches and kool-aid, but I suppose this will do.

I still need 32 cards to complete the base set and assorted National Pride and Baseball Highlights cards to complete the set I want. Everything else I'm willing to trade. Just leave a comment or send me an email and keep the trades coming!!

Allen & Ginter 2009

NEED:

National Pride:

25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 53, 58, 59, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70

Baseball Highlights:

1-11, 16, 23, 24, 25

Base Set (32 Needed!)

16, 20, 39, 40, 47, 51, 58, 62, 101, 116, 137, 152, 160, 201, 217, 238, 253, 263, 291, 309, 310, 317, 320, 321, 322, 326, 329, 331, 332, 337, 341, 344

Cards Up For Trade

DOUBLES:

National Pride:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 19, 23, 44, 49, 52, 56

Baseball Highlights:

19

Base Set:

2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 18, 23, 24, 24, 30, 31, 33, 34, 36, 43, 43, 43, 44, 46, 50, 53, 53, 54, 55, 55, 64, 70, 73, 74, 76, 78, 82, 84, 88, 90, 95, 99, 100, 104, 111, 111, 112, 113, 115, 117, 120, 121, 122, 127, 138, 144, 145, 146, 150, 150, 154, 156, 157, 158, 168, 170, 172, 174, 175, 177, 179, 185, 188, 190, 193, 194, 197, 199, 200, 202, 205, 207, 208, 211, 212, 215, 218, 219, 221, 225, 226, 233, 235, 237, 239, 240, 244, 246, 247, 250, 251, 252, 255, 257, 264, 265, 267, 270, 271, 272, 276, 277, 283, 284, 288, 289, 294, 297, 299, 299, 306, 311, 313, 324, 336, 342

MINIS (*denotes A & G back)

2*, 20*, 26*, 33, 36*, 40, 44, 49, 51*, 52*, 75, 77*, 81, 88, 88*, 96, 104*, 107*, 108, 108, 117, 119, 126, 128, 128, 133, 135*, 137, 149, 155, 156, 173, 174*, 178, 185*, 186, 188*, 197, 224, 244, 250*, 252, 266, 271*, 283, 291, 294, 310, 311, 313*, 326, 336, 338, 342

Black Border:

Ryan Theriot 9, Manny Ramirez 17, Derrek Lee 45, Alex Rios 55, David Wright 75, Art Pennington 97, Brett Myers 187, Grady Sizemore 250, Nick Swisher 333

Bamboozles:

The Turk, San Seriffe, George Parker, The Runaway Bride, Wisconsin State Capital Collapses, Cold Fusion

Creatures:

Werewolf, Minotaur

National Heroes:

8, 14, 15, 16, 30, 34, 35

ALSO UP FOR TRADE

Framed Autos:

Denard Span

Cameron Maybin

Framed Relics:

Kosuke Fukudome – white with blue stripe

Brock Yates – red relic

Ryan Doumit – solid white

Carlos Quentin – white with black stripe

Vernon Wells – Solid Black

Jered Weaver – Solid Grey

Other:

-N43 Box Toppers: Ryan Howard, Tim Lincecum, Roy Halladay

-Elvis Andrus Bazooka back 06/25

-Brandon Phillips No Number 25/50

-Corey Hart No Number 35/50

Opening Day Highlights and Predictions

So it's only 7:45 PM on Opening Day 2009 and already a number of things have happened that are worthy of mention, in no particular order:

-The Braves stomped the Phils last night. I like what I saw of Derek Lowe. Ryan Howard looked like he did not eat during the offseason.

-The Yankees are about to lose unless they score five in the 9th. This is always noteworthy and coincidentally puts a smile on my face. CC had no strikeouts, but I bet he crushed the postgame buffet.

-The Tigers are already losing 4-0 and Verlander looks HORRIBLE. Oh, yes, and even though Josh Anderson is in Left Field, Granderson is batting lead-off. This makes no sense. Leyland wants Anderson in the lineup for speed, but if he is on base and Granderson strikes out, what is the point of sending Anderson. Why not let Anderson lead off steal a base and let Polanco, a contact hitter move him to third. This also lets Granderson drive some runs in and strikeout in the middle of the lineuup instead of leading off the game. They will be lucky to finish .500 this season for three reasons: Brandon Inge, Jim Leyland's mismanagement of the lineup and their inability to win one run games (read crappy bullpen).

And now on to the predictions:

American League
AL East: Red Sox - have to respect the pitching. Smoltz FTW.

AL Central: Indians - Kerry Wood leads AL in saves, Cliff Lee is human but still good, Hafner rakes.

AL West: Angels - this is a no brainer, Mike Scioscia is the best manager in the game.

Wild Card: Rays - pitching and defense again and Carl Crawford has a monster year.

ROY: Travis Snider
Cy Young: Roy Halladay
MVP: Vladimir Guerrero (and definitely NOT Mark Texeira)

National League
NL East: Mets - this is the year, until they lose in the first round again when Putz and KRod implode

NL Central: Cardinals - though I'm tempted to pick Milwaukee I think Ankiel may be NL MVP

NL West: Dodgers - but man would I like someone, ANYONE else to win it

Wild Card: Braves - a versatile, non-power lineup and a much improved pitching staff

ROY: Cameron Maybin (unless the Brewers ditch JJ Hardy and play Alcides Escobar)
Cy Young: Johan Santana
MVP: Chipper Jones