The hundred club

I'm not sure what it is with the number 100 today.

Earlier this afternoon, I added the hundredth blog to my blogroll on the sidebar. While I'm sure there are a ton of others out there that I haven't discovered yet, the fact that I've read posts from a hundred different blogs is amazing to me.

As I've said before, I first entered the blogging community when I discovered Night Owl's ever-popular blog, thanks to a quick Google search one lazy summer afternoon. I don't think I ever commented on his blog back when I was just a reader, but it was my first introduction into the blogosphere.

By the time I started this blog, I'd found a few others in addition to Night Owl's, but I wasn't reading a whole lot of different blogs. (Have I said the word "blog" enough yet so far?)

The biggest factor that led to me discovering so many great, new blogs was the famous blogroll. Without it, there's a good chance that I would've missed a ton of great things going on in the blogging community.

I just added another blog to the sidebar, so that makes 101. I'm already on the way to the next hundred, I guess.

Anyways, the number 100 got me thinking about a new mini-project I may take on.

Over the years, I've partaken in a few things of this sort. Boredom can usually play a factor in that. One day, I had nothing to do and decided to type up all my inserts and parallels onto a document on my computer. (I didn't have many newer cards yet, so it didn't take all that long.)

Oddly enough, I still keep up with that today, although that document is over 500 pages long as of a few days ago.

I've been itching for a new project for a while, just to have something to do in my spare time (besides the blog, of course). While I may love organizing, I will never re-organize my cards. I've had the same filing "system" ever since I started collecting baseball cards again about seven years ago. It would throw everything off.

The new "project" I thought of is something all of us could do, and perhaps a few have done already.

With the number 100 already in my mind, I wondered how many different players I owned a hundred or more cards of.

As I've mentioned before, a lot of the guys I collect are pretty obscure. I doubt a lot of them even had close to a hundred cards made of them. The fact that I've even found 22 different cards of a guy like Tanyon Sturtze is pretty remarkable. For them, the amount of cards might not fully represent how much I enjoy my collections of theirs.

However, bigger stars, such as Babe Ruth, are members of my personal "hundred club". I own 120 different cards of "The Great Bambino", including my personal favorite card of his at the top of the post. (Not "The Great...Bambi", that wimpy deer.)

I've found that 51 of those have come from the last five years (2008-present). So...maybe having a hundred cards of someone like Ruth, Jackie Robinson, or Mickey Mantle might not be that huge of an accomplishment. They're literally in every set nowadays, it seems, although a hundred cards is still a lot.

In this case, I guess the more obscure the player, the better. I'll have to see if someone like Morgan Ensberg is in my "100 Club".

Now that would be an accomplishment.

Dime Box Heroes: A century later

2010 Upper Deck #544 Fenway Park

This afternoon, I witnessed one of the most fascinating things to ever take place on a baseball field.

Today, of course, is the 100th anniversary of the opening of Fenway Park. On April 20, 1912, the Red Sox beat the New York Highlanders (later the Yankees) 7-6 in 11 innings. 

To honor the occasion, the Red Sox invited every player who ever donned the uniform to come back and participate in the immense celebration. Everyone from footnotes in Red Sox history, such as Dave Valle (who played a grand total of 30 games in Boston), to legends like "Yaz" showed up.

All in all, 230 former Red Sox all gathered at Fenway Park this afternoon, making for one of the greatest moments I've ever had the good fortune to watch.

Among those 230 players was Luis Tiant. Bill Buckner. Bernie Carbo. Nomar Garciaparra. Carlton Fisk. Dennis Eckersley. Bobby Doerr. Johnny Pesky. And my personal favorite attendee of the afternoon, Bill "Spaceman" Lee.

Those names were just the tip of the iceberg.

I can't say that I've ever been a huge Red Sox fan. I've always had a general indifference towards them, although I've always had a deep admiration for the history behind the franchise. A true lifelong Red Sox fan probably appreciated this afternoon's ceremonies about a hundred times more than I ever could.

But what I loved about it was the sheer amount of baseball history that Boston managed to pack into one afternoon. Two-hundred and thirty players. I'm still having trouble grasping that number.

Any true baseball fan had to have been in awe. (Even you, Yankee fans.)

One of the greatest things about it was that each player wore the Red Sox uniform that was appropriate for their time in Boston. Bobby Doerr wore the old flannel jerseys that defined the '40s and '50s. Newer Sox greats such as Jason Varitek wore the more modern version of the uniform (with the captain's "C" that always made Varitek distinguishable from everyone else on the field).

When the time comes, I can only hope that Wrigley Field will put on as great of a ceremony as Boston did today. I don't know that it could have been any more well-executed on the part of the Boston faithful.

It's certainly an afternoon that I'll remember for a long, long time.

I love organizing

Returning from a successful card show is one of the greatest feelings ever.

Of course, there's the initial joy of actually unearthing the cards at the show. Then coming home and re-examining all the day's finds is almost like reliving the entire afternoon all over again. Sometimes, I'll come across a card that I forgot I even bought in the first place.

Then it hits you.

"I'm going to have to sort and organize all these cards at some point."

Now, I'm sure I take it to the extreme when it comes to the sheer amount of pickups at card shows. I remember counting something like 770 total finds at last November's show, and I bought over 530 cards at last month's card extravaganza, including a quarter box find with the above Dave Winfield card. (It's interesting how the elegance of Wrigley Field in the background contrasts with the horrible 80's Padres uniforms.)

But I bet all of us come home with a healthy stack of new cards, at the least, all of which need to be organized in our own ways. (I never really understood how people could go to a show and come back with only two or three cards. But that's just me.)

As a result of my immense number of finds, it usually takes me about a week to fully organize everything and put all the cards in their rightful spots in my binders.

At first, I always react with both denial and a bit of anger. "Do I really have to put all these away? It's going to take forever! I hate organizing."

Lately, I've come to the realization that actually sorting and putting away my new cards can actually be fun and relaxing, in moderation. (Putting away a ton of cards at once can get a bit tedious.)

It allows me to soak up my collection a little more each time I do it. Sometimes, I'll be in front of the TV while I organize. Other times, I'll just be sitting alone on the bed in my room. It's simply a great way to relax and clear the mind.

It doesn't even require you to have new cards that need to be put away. Perhaps you could just sift through a doubles box you have handy and enjoy those. Sometimes, I'll even pull a random bin full of overproduction era cards from under my bed and start looking through those for no other reason that I love the hobby.

While it may not seem like it at first, I think most of us do appreciate the process of organizing our cards, whether we want to admit it or not.

Without it, the hobby might just fly right past us.

Zero-Year Cards, Part 29

1993 Stadium Club Rockies Team Issue #30 Brad Ausmus (Rockies)

One of my favorite themes in my collection are these "zero-year" cards.

Unfortunately, they're a fairly rare thing in the hobby, especially in recent years. I only have record of one "zero-year" card issued last year, although I might've missed a couple others.

Out of the four running themes on this blog, I'd say these are the most personal to me. For most posts, I try to write about something that I enjoy, but at the same time trying to make it so others can relate to it. Plus, I always love reading comments from my fellow bloggers. 

These "zero-year" cards represent one of my favorite things about blogging in general. You get to write about what you want to. You write for yourself, first and foremost.

After all, I'm not sure how many other bloggers take much of an interest to this theme. But that's fine. It's therapeutic to write a post solely for your own purposes every so often. Any comments I get on these are purely a bonus.

As I mentioned earlier, my "zero-year" ideas have been running thin lately. I've got a few others left, but then that might be it. However, this particular card was one I've been thinking about posting for a while. (I've already got an idea for another "personal" theme I may debut, but that probably won't be for a while.)

Brad Ausmus joins Jose Canseco as the only players in my collection that have multiple "zero-year" cards. (Here's his other one.)

I like Ausmus a hundred times more than Canseco, so we'll dub Ausmus as the unofficial "King of the Zero-Year Cards".

Ausmus jumped around quite a bit before enjoying a long and successful career. He was drafted by the Yankees in the 48th round of the '87 draft. After kicking around in New York's minor league system for a while, the Rockies made him one of their expansion picks in November of '92.

He'd never play for either team. Ausmus was dealt to the Padres after spending a couple months with the Rockies' AAA affiliate. He'd make his big-league debut with San Diego in July of '93.

For the longest time, I couldn't figure out what exactly these Stadium Club cards were. They're nowhere to be found in my gigantic Beckett book. It turns out that they're part of team sets that have a completely different design than the regular Stadium Club cards that year.

I actually like this design better.

It looks like I'm going to have to do some digging and come up with some more cards that fit with this theme. Former expansion teams such as the Rockies or Marlins are a good place to start, I've found.

In the meantime, let's hail Brad Ausmus, a.k.a. "King of the Zero-Year Cards".

Flying under the radar

I've read dozens of baseball books throughout the course of my life.

From fantasy baseball to baseball cards, they've all been fantastic. I think that's because...well, is there even such a thing as a bad book about baseball?

While it's hard to definitely say what my single favorite book is, I'd have to say Ball Four is one of the strongest candidates. To think that I hadn't read it until about a year ago is absurd.

I couldn't help but wonder what exactly Jim Bouton had to go through after Ball Four came out. I knew that there was some type of backlash, but I wanted to know specifics.

A couple weeks ago, my dad told me he'd seen the above book at a couple places online. It was the answer to all my questions. I bought it last week.

I'm Glad You Didn't Take It Personally primarily deals with the very thing I wanted to know, what happened to Bouton once Ball Four hit the shelves.

I'm a little ways into it, and I can already say that it's almost as good has Ball Four. I just can't believe it flew under my radar this whole time.

In a way, this got me thinking about my collection. (Of course.)

I can guarantee you that 99 percent of all the baseball card blogs out there have had their vintage moments. After all, everyone likes vintage, right?

While all of us gush over some of the fantastic Topps designs of the '60s and '70s (and for good reason), we sometimes forget about some of the smaller, primitive "inserts" that not many people probably knew about at the time.

For instance, we have these 1965 Topps Embossed cards.

According to my Beckett, these were "distributed as inserts in packages of the regular 1965 Topps baseball series". One of the earliest insert sets, I'd bet.

While they're not all that flashy, I always wanted to pick one up for my collection, just to say I owned a copy.

I'd struck out...until last month. (Another joyous quarter box find.)

Then we have these, simply titled "1968 Topps Game".

There were quite a few of these game-centered cards in early Topps sets (as you'll soon see).

Back in 1968, you could buy the complete 33-card set of these for 15 cents. A set which included the likes of Mickey Mantle, Roberto Clemente, and Hank Aaron.

How I wish I could go back in time.

I'm a huge fan of the 1969 Topps Deckle Edge set.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like the days of photo albums and/or scrapbooks is coming to an end. Every time I see one of these cards, it makes me feel like I'm looking through one of those old-time photo albums.

Even though this particular shot of Mr. Wilhelm scares me a bit.

Before Strat-o-Matic became popular, this was the kind of "tabletop" baseball game kids played in 1970.

They'd scratch off individual black boxes on the fold-out portion of the card, revealing the result of that particular "play".

If they went in order from left to right, it looks like this "game" featured a leadoff homer.

I only have the front of the Allen card. The original owner must have torn off the "scorecard" and kept it as a keepsake.

I'd really like to find one of these with the scoreboard filled in and everything. It would almost be like going back in time, recreating the actual game that two kids played with these.

I'll have to keep searching.

Lastly, we've got the ever-popular 1975 Topps Minis.

I've talked about these with my dad a couple times (his first big collecting year as a kid was '75), and he said he'd never seen or heard of them until I picked up a few for my collection.

Which leads me to ask, did anyone who collected in 1975 actually have any of these then? Or did you only find out about them later?

I thought it would be cool one night to see if I could pick up a mini-version of the famous Herb Washington card seen above, arguably the most iconic card of the '70s.

I found this battered copy on Sportlots for about 80 cents. It might be the best eighty cents I've ever spent.

In this day in age, I don't know that very much can go "under the radar". I've already pulled or at least seen a picture of about every 2012 Topps base card and insert, and those have only been out for about a couple months now.

I guess that can be a good or bad thing, depending on how you look at it.

Cardboard Masterpieces, Pt. 5

2008 Upper Deck #395 Mark Buehrle SH

In my lifetime of experiencing Chicago baseball, I don't know that I've enjoyed watching any pitcher more than Mark Buehrle.

My favorite thing about him is that he works fast. When Buehrle is on the mound, you can't look away. You might miss a pitch or two. Plus, he's very Jamie Moyer-like in that he outsmarts the opposing hitters. He doesn't have an overpowering fastball, yet he retires batter after batter. 

He does it all. He even throws no-hitters. (And perfect games as well, but that's for a different post.) 

The basis for his '08 UD Highlights card was his no-no against the Rangers on April 18, 2007. (Wow, today is April 18th, the five-year anniversary of that game. What a coincidence. I swear I didn't plan that, I had the idea for this post a few days ago without even knowing.)

I'm not sure why, but I completely missed that game. I caught the highlights later on that night. One thing I do remember is that Buehrle faced the minimum 27 hitters that night, walking just one batter and then promptly picking him off first base.

That hitter was Sammy Sosa.

The design for 2008 Upper Deck wasn't the greatest, although this card is easily one of the highlights of the set. I can only imagine the looks of joy on Paul Konerko's and A.J. Pierzynski's faces when this shot was taken, but they're obscured. (Notice that Pierzynski's hand is perfectly in front of Konerko's face.)

I think Buehrle's smile says it all, though.

Eventually, I'll get used to Albert Pujols in an Angels jersey. I'll get used to Prince Fielder in a Tigers jersey.

However, I don't think I'll ever fully grasp the fact that Mark Buehrle now plays for the Miami Marlins. It felt odd just typing that sentence.

He'll always be part of the White Sox to me.

Collecting is in our DNA

This post isn't just about the subject of us card collectors.

It's about everyone.

Often times, I've wondered if everyone collects something or another, or at least have a desire to collect. As baseball card collectors, most of us have a pretty good idea of what we want and what drives us in the hobby.

But I've come to believe that everyone out there is some sort of "collector", even in the most primitive forms.

Granted, sports card collectors take it to a whole other level. Case in point, I collect a few backup catchers, like Brian Schneider.

If I could show someone just how deep my collection goes, this would be one of the first cards I'd pull out. It screams "obscurity". Schneider doesn't even have his catching gear on, which is one of the first signs that he's not exactly a "star" player.

But that's why I love this card. It reminds me just how far I've delved into this hobby.

There's a countless amount of people my age who probably consider themselves "too cool" for collecting anything. But I bet the first thing you'd see at their house is a big stack of video games. While it doesn't offer up a lot of excitement (at least in my view), stockpiling video games is a form of collecting something, whether they know it or not.

We're not so different.

Lately, I've come to think that card-based hobbies just might make a comeback with my generation.

While I've never met anyone else my age who collects baseball cards, I've come to reconsider my previous thoughts that card-based hobbies are in the doom-and-gloom phase for young adults.

As I was hanging out at my friend's house last weekend, I learned something new. Apparently, a bunch of my friends still play Yu-gi-oh. It took me by surprise.

For one thing, I didn't even know they still made those cards. I had my Yu-gi-oh period in about fifth or sixth grade. While I don't plan on partaking in any of their Yu-gi-oh "battles" anytime soon, it's still refreshing that people my age still get a kick out of a card-based game.

Heck, I still love MLB Showdown, and they stopped making those seven years ago. I'm all for card games.

It got me thinking.

In between my classes at college, I'll sometimes take the short walk to the McDonald's across the street to grab a quick bite. A couple of the times I've gone, I've seen a few different groups of students playing the "Magic: The Gathering" card game in their free time. I personally never indulged in "Magic", so I really didn't think anything of it at the time.

While I've only been in the cafeteria of the college I attend on a couple occasions, I've seen people huddled around tables, playing "Magic" or "Yu-gi-oh" each time. Again, I pretty much glanced over and didn't think twice about it.

I guess it never really hit me until I saw my friends doing the same thing.

People my age actually still collect cards. Okay, so they're not baseball cards. But they're a definite step in the right direction. Any card-based hobby is a whole lot more tangible than any video game could ever be.

It just might extend over into the realm of sports cards.

My hope is that there's kids in other high school or college cafeterias trading and discussing baseball cards. Maybe that's a stretch. Maybe I'm wrong about the comeback of card hobbies. But I do know one thing.

Deep down inside, we're all collectors.