Free Comic Book Day

Dinged Corners reminded me about Free Comic Book Day tomorrow. Unfortunately I have to work. Even more unfortunate is the fact that the three closest ones to my work are all about a half hour away, making a lunch break trip to one difficult. Truly unfortunate is the fact that my work schedule almost exactly coincides with most comic shop's business hours. Downright heartbreaking is the fact that Fantagraphics is giving away a Jim Woodring comic.

I could go all sour grapey and mutter about how the comic shops near me never have free Fantagraphics comics on FBCD, but I had already planned a trip to Atlanta Sports cards to pick a few things off some lists tomorrow. If you like comics or just free schtuff, go find a shop near you and cash in.

More Heritage League Prizes

Ike's Cards is in with these cards pledged:

2008 David Ortiz A&G Jersey Relic

2008 Matt Cain Topps Co-Signers #’d 179/200

2008 Upper Deck X Evan Longoria Die Cut

2009 Topps Heritage Vladimir Guerrero Chrome #’d 944/1960

2009 Topps Target Throwback Greg Maddux

You can get a good eyeful of them Here. 

I also got Play at the Plate's Contribution to the pool. Like many others he went overboard. That will only lead to better swag for the winners though! Here's what we've got from Brian:

2001 Fleer Platinum Greg Maddux jersey

2002 Upper Deck Craig Biggio jersey

1998 Leaf Fractal Matrix Tony Gwynn something or other

A couple a shinyfractors

Three Nomahs of great shinytude

I'd be more specific but the PC is acting woogity and it's late and I don't want to deal with it anymore. I'll update the main page sooner or later.

Pack of Gum

You see, because it's a pack of National Chicle, right? And chicle is gum? Get it? Eh? Uh. *ahem* On a lighter note, I just learned that I've been pronouncing chicle incorrectly for decades. It's supposed to be pronounced chick-ul like tickle and I've been pronouncing it chick-lee like a dumbass. Pretty sure that's how my 9th grade social studies teacher pronounced it though. I'VE BEEN FAILED BY THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. Jesus, I shoulda just stayed in bed today.

I got eight packs of this stuff because it was SUPPOSED to go live in two weeks and I didn't have enough saved up for a full box. So I overpaid for packs instead of just going to the ATM and taking out another twenty which I have plenty of because I got my tax refund but I was too lazy. Now I'm not even going to bother because honestly I can get real National Chicle cards for the price of a box. AND WHY CAN'T THE BRAVES GET A FREAKING HIT ANYMORE SERIOUSLY WHAT THE F-

Sorry. Having a sub-optimal week here. Let's get to my first pack of Natl. CHICK-LEE. Let's see how many more artists I can piss off with my first review of this set.

NO. 257 Madison Bumgarner

Artist: Monty Sheldon

My first National Chicle card is a rookie card of the infamous Madison Bumgarner. This is a pretty nice looking card to start off my set. Madison is in the middle of his throwing motion with a big orange and brown swoosh in the background. Very Gianty. Madison was very effective in his cup of coffee with the Giants last year but couldn't crack the rotation out of spring training. He looks like a good pitcher and will probably be back up to be bigs before the year is out.

I feel compelled to show off the back on this card. I think I'm going to do a seperate post comparing the old and new Diamond Stars backs in excruciating detail. But that's for later. Check out the bio text on top. Topps went for a formula which mixes a line about the actual player on the front of the card along with a nebulous baseball 'tip'. This matches the original Diamond Stars text very closely. Madison's text mentioning negative body language reminds me too much of a Wax Heaven post that annoyed a family member. I will never be able to look at a card of Madison Bumgarner again without wonder if he and his father might one day plan an ambush at Dolphin Stadium to rape Mario Alajandro.

No. 12 Raul Ibanez

Artist: Chris Henderson

MAN this is a sweet looking card. Raul is rounding the bases after hitting a monster home run against the Braves to give the Phillies an insurmountable 1-0 lead. A slightly messed up flag of Romania is in the background. This card here is a perfect example of why this set rocks.

NO. 130 Elvis Andrus

Artist: Jeff Zachowski

Elvis has left the building. Thanks for the Tex trade John. One of the coolest things about this set is the fact that the different artists each bring a slightly different but recognizable style to the set, but they are all tied together with the art deco backgrounds cribbed from the '30s originals. Three cards in and I'm diggin' it.

NO. 50 David Ortiz

Artist: Brett Farr

Big Papi! This is a slick looking card. I especially like how the color fades out into the white border.

NO.96 Derrek Lee

Artist: ???

Leave it to a Cub to provide the first disappointment of the set. Not the front, the front looks great. I'm talking about this:

The stupid thing is, I bought a bunch of Football National Chicle so I should have been prepared to see Bazooka Joe's dorky grin on the back of these cards. But I wasn't. Yes, this is the bane of all set builders - the completely unnecessary parallel. Topps left out the mini cards, but gave us logo backs. This one is 1:8 packs. There is also a 1:4 National Chicle back which I assume is that NC logo, and there are two flavors of serial numbered Umbrella backs. As far as I'm concerned this is a base card with a printing smudge on the back and it's going straight into the set until I can get an upgrade with words on it.

NO. 79 Russell Branyan

Artist: Paul Lempa

The first anachronistic card I've pulled, as Russell moved on back to Cleveland too late for a uniform change. I don't mind as I like the way this card looks with the blue background and the Seattle uniform. That's a very focused look on Branyan's face.

NO. 154 Derek Lowe

Artist: Chris Henderson

dear god please i promise i will never call derek lowe a lucky bastige ever again and make fun of the run support he gets just please oh please OH PLEASE let the braves please score some freaking runs this is getting ridiculous why cant they score any runs why oh god WHY

NO. 249 Nolan Ryan

Artist: Paul Lempa

The Express as a Met. He wasn't the express back then, more like the 7 line to Flushing. This is a pretty legend-heavy set with players in their original and also new wave ChippeRuth type uniforms. This one is one of the originals. I looked over the checklist

(yep, got one of them too) and Nolan doesn't even have a Retired Stars Revisited card. Sorry Rangers, Angels and Astros fans. Don't blame Topps though, MLB properties now mandates that all sets consist of at least 20% New York teams.

Now wasn't that a nice pack? Aren't you glad you listened to me and didn't panic when those first poorly-chosen sell sheet images came out? Oh wait, everyone did panic. And I was blamed as the ringleader. And everything went all higglety pigglety. Oh bother. Well it's out now and it's nice. JUST LIKE I SAID. And I don't have a box because Topps can't maintain a consistent release schedule even though they are the only game in town. FML

Still Lazy

You ever have so much stuff that you absolutely have to do right now that you freeze up and just don't do anything? Yeah, me too.

Enjoy this cabinet of Rajah in the meantime while I sit back and watch my life spiral into oblivion.

2010 National Chicle is Live

And I've got proof.

While I'm putting together a first pack post, you can get a Chicle fix over at A Pack To Be Named Later.

Interesting things for an afternoon

Quickly now...


Chicle is Live. Apparently there is a Babe Ruth jersey relic in the set. I shall be contacing my suppliers to inquire about obtaining some arty goodness today.

Tribe Cards is giving away Strat-O-Matic games. I'm a Statis-Pro fan meself, but I will be entering the contest regardless.

The Worst autograph tourney is ready to launch - I'll post more details when there are more details to post, um. yeah.

GET WELL SOON UECK!

Final Heritage Blaster League Roster

Here's the final roster for the Heritage Blaster League.  If you created a team and it's no on here, let me know. 

If you want to jump into the Prize League, the deadline for pledging your prizes will be June 1st. I can't have people waiting until August and jumping in when it looks like they have a good chance to win. Fair's fair. Just e-mail me your pledge and you'll be bumped up to the serious league. 

Playing for prizes:

Thorzul - Rip and Team post. Ante

Mmosley - Rip and Team post. Ante

Ernest of Canada - Rip and Team post. Ante

Don - Rip post (images) - Team post. Ante

AdamE - Rip and Team post. - Ante pledged (Set of 2007 Donruss Elite Extra)

Ike's Cards - Rip post - Team post. - Ante

McCann Can Triple - Rip post - Team post. - Ante

Madding - Rip Post - Team post. - Ante

HamRamMobTown - Rip post - Team post. - Ante

Play at the Plate - Rip and Team post. - Ante

Punk Rock Paint - Rip and Team post. - Ante pledged

DogFacedGremlin - Rip and Team post. - Ante pledged

Cardsplitter - Rip post - Team post. - Ante pledged

Zpop - Rip post - Team post. - Ante pledged

Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius - Rip post -Team post. - Ante Pledged
Me - Rip post - Team post - Ante pledged.

.Playing for fun:

Jeffrey Wolfe - Rip post - Team Post.

CynicalBuddha - Rip and Team post.

Lake Effect Cards - Rip and Team post. 

Chris Mays - Rip post - Team post.

ZMan - Rip post - Team post.

Jay - Rip post - Team Post.

Wax Wombat - Rip and Team post.

DavidJ - Rip Post - Team post.

Tunguska - Rip post  - Team post.

Chris L. - Rip and Team post. 

Phungo - Rip post - Team post.

If I missed anyone of if you want to get in on the prize league, comment or e-mail. 

An Important Message

From Andy at Baseball-Reference.com:

The Baseball-Reference.com Blog has a new weekly feature covering baseball cards:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/category/card-of-the-week

Click on that link to call up the relevant posts.

We would like to feature some of the excellent card blogs out there. If you would like to participate, please email me at 88topps at Gmail dot com to direct me to one or two posts on your blog that you would like to have highlighted. It doesn't matter if they are recent or old, but they must contain scans of the front and back of a card that can be used on our blog (minimum size 400 pixels by 285 pixels.) If I choose to use your scans as the basis of a post, I will credit your blog by name and also include a writeup about (plus link to) your original source post. In return, I ask that on your blog you include either a link or a post for the Baseball-Reference.com blog located at baseball-reference.com/blog (not a link for just the main Baseball-Reference.com site.)

We currently get about 40,000 page views per week and would love to send some traffic your way. Please pick out a couple of your favorite posts and send them my way!

Thanks,

Andy

I checked it out, 's good. As good as this card what I pulled from my draft folder to attract attention to this post for people who clink on links in their RSS feed based on the thumbnail image. 

No really, 's good. Check it out.

Yo Momma Trade of the Month

I had another post lined up for this morning, but my PC had it's daily "Dayf's in a rush, let's lock up hard" moment, so you get this trade I pulled off instead for today's reading pleasure. I guess Steve12 is just a big Larry Walker fan. I don't particularly care about any of the guys I got in return but I couldn't refuse three for one. The Topps Transmogrifier? That's another story...

This is affectionaltely known in the industry as taking a dump. This happened about three times before I finally got the trade to go through. That was a lotta work for cards I didn't care much about. They are all up for trade for just one 1989 Mark Lemke. Or 1995? I'll take 1997. Please?

Transmogrifier Unstuck

Previously, I stated that I was not entering another code into the Topps Yo Momma Transmogrifier until the Recently Unlocked Cards section showed no Hall of Famers from 1986-1989. As a result, I didn't enter in a single code for over a month despite checking the site daily. However, a little over a week ago I saw a breakthrough...

Frankly, this stunned me. After weeks of junk wax HOFers, I finally hit the conditions needed for me to risk one of my three remaining codes. Now, this mix sure wasn't ideal by any means. Three of ten are crap from the past ten years. There was a Hall of Famer that just barely missed my self imposed ban range. Ther was a junk wax '87 Topps card,but Fred Lynn is only getting in the Hall if he buys a ticket. The two cards from the '50s clinched it. After weeks of waiting it was time to redeem a code. This was the result.

Oy Gevalt.

Is Mark Prior completely out of baseball or is he working on another comeback? Wherever he is, this code was a waste of pixels. This combined with my utter failure to trade for a 1989 Mark Lemke gave me Yo Momma Malaise. Every time I checked during the past week I saw bad junkwax and 21st century cards everywhere. Bleargh. Then this morning I got a comment from Play at the Plate informing me that Eisner threw the Late '60s/Early '70s switch on the ol' Mogger. I checked, figuring that this was a 2AM tease that will ultimately go nowhere and I'd see more junk. Instead I saw it spititng out vintage as advertised. I threw caution to the wind and was rewarded.

COOKIE!!! 

OMNOMNOMNOMNOM

My faith in the Transmogrifier has been restored. Actually it hasn't. Now I know for certain that if I wait long enough I'll hit a '50s streak and cash in. But I now have faith that I can cash in if I wait long enough. This is especially important because I only have one code left to tide me over until series two comes out. The '60s run is still in effect as of this posting if you want to go for it.  I had never actually stuck around long enough to see a card I received show up on the recent cards list so I refreshed until I saw this:

Interesting. If I had seen that comment just a little bit later than I did, I might have a '93 Smoltz right now. Nothing wrong with that. A little later still and I could have had a '63 rookie card of Ray Culp. Still, you can't go wrong with Cookie. Especially that one with Cookie leaping to pull off the double play with the scoreboard in the background. The Royals were getting spanked, it appears. Nope, can't complain about this one. Well, other than now I want to get more codes. Dangit, Topps. You win again.

Lazy

Taking the weekend off to regroup. See ya on Monday.

Joy of a completed page - mixed feelings edition

Yeah, I know. You just don't understand how long I've been looking for checklist #3. 

By Jove, there appears to be a draft on the telly tonight

The American Handegg Confederation moved their drafting festivities to Prime Time on Thursday in an insidious attempt to ensure absolutely no one is productive at work tomorrow. I personally don't care because I've been listening to the Braves get mangled once again by the Phillies. However, I cannot pass up this opportunity to post what may very well be the most utterly fantastic football card from the 1960's. Did Charlie Finley own the Raiders too?

Random Current Brave #9

It's the 22nd! You know what that is! No, not Earth Day. Screw that hippie stuff, it's...

J-Hey Day

The Earth celebrates Jason Heyward don't ya know. Every 22nd day of the month is now J-Hey Day. FOR EVAR. 

So, raise of hands. Who is completely freaking sick and tired of Jason Heyward mania? Go ahead, raise 'em up high. My, that's a lot. I don't blame you, there's been a whole lot of unproven rookies in the past few years that have been the ol' suckarooni. Joba's sure counting those Cy Young Awards. Kosuke is leading the Cubbies to the promised land for sure. Was anyone overhyped to hell last year? Not Chris Coughlan and Andrew Bailey, that's for sure. The players that make the cover of irrelevant monthly price guide publications are not necessarily the best players in the league.

However... sometimes the overhypers get it right. They got it right with Heyward.

One of the better things I'll write this year just got published on a Phillies blog. Phungo asked me about Jason and I basically said he's the best prospect since Pujols. I truly believe this. Mainly because I got a first hand look at Jason at a Triple-A game in Gwinnett late last year. The dude has skills, he not only has five tools, but he used all of them in that game. The speed and the arm and the power are easy, hell Francoeur had that. Jason has something more, he's got patience. he'll take a walk. He's got smarts, he'll get struck out on a pitch, then make an adjustment and hit a homer on the exact same pitch later that game. He's got humility, he goes out does the best he can and doesn't showboat. And the kid is friggin twenty. He can't legally order a beer yet.

If you think I'm a crazed homer who is blinded because my favorite team has the new hotness rookie, that's fine. I understand. I've got a half a dozen rookie cards of Andres Thomas filed away as testament of how bad I am at prospecting. If you truly think that Heyward will end up a bum, then just trade me his cards. I have a pretty huge inventory, I can probably find something you want. Have an auto? I've got autos of Hall of Famers like Aparicio and Robinson and Killebrew and Mazeroski. I'll trade you one of 'em  for a J-Hey auto and throw some other stuff on top of it just because. Pull one of the Heyward relics from Topps Pro Debut? I got tons of relics, tell me what player you like. Got some base cards? I'll take them too, name the player you want in return, I'll find one. I'll send first. If you really think this guy is the next coming of Joe Charboneau then rip me off. I'll be happy to do so.

I've already got about 10 or so Heyward cards with some dupes mixed in. The first Redemption from Topps Finest is a Heyward card so obviously the presses are going to start to run on Heyward cards real soon. It's time to start the collection for reals. I'm basically going to try to collect every J-Hey card I can get my hands on. Not going to be quite as obsessive as Thorzul and his CC collection, but I'm certainly going to do my best to fill up a monster box one day like I've done with My Chipper collection. Here's the first Heyward card I have specifically bought. All the rest I've pulled out of packs or got in trades. I overpaid.

This is a 2009 Obak card of Heyward. This wasn't from the main set, but was an isert in one of TriStar's later releases. I've wanted it since it came out but I haven't seen it anywhere before this week. Not buying online anymore has put a crimp in my collecting, but I'll make up for it with perseverance. This one was sitting in a case at Atlanta Sports Cards for ten bucks. Now this probably isn't a ten dollar card and in a year or two when the hype has calmed down and there are plenty of cards of Heyward out on the market I'd probably be able to pick this one up for a couple bucks. You know what? Heck with that. I like Heyward, I believe in Heyward, I'mma gonna collect Heyward. If it means passing up 40 cards at the quarter box, so be it. I like this card enough to overpay.

The card has Jason in the same red Gwinnett home uni that he wore in the game I went to. I took some pictures on a crummy camera, I really need to figure out what I did with them. The background has a nice pic of the Gwinnett stadium stands if I'm not mistaken. It's a pretty nice little ballpark if you're even in North Georgia and want to see a cheap game. They also had a variation card that had some trees in the background instead of the stadium. I'll probably go back and pick that one up eventually assuming one of you vultures doesn't get there first. The back says this is a limited edition of 425. I'm not sure if that is a total printing number or what. Not sure that it matters. It's a nice card of my future favorite player that reminds me of a nice day I had at the ballpark last fall. And that's what this hobby is all about, isn't it?

More Blaster League Prizes

Here's some prize pledges from a couple of contestants. I'll get up a final list of everybody in the league this weekend probably. I have lots of stuff on my plate today and this evening I'll probably get mesmerized by the contrived pomposity that is NFL DRAFT PRIME TIME.

Prize pledge from Ernest of Canada

Ernest goes traditional Pack Poker rules by pledging some of the inserts out of his packs.

Lance Berkman Clubhouse Collection jersey
Shane Victorino Chrome
Ichiro Chrome

Don pledges two shinies and a Tipton.

2010 Topps DBacks Gold card

Chrome Stephen Drew


and the piece de resistance...

1954 Topps Jim Delsing in Gem Mint 11 condition

Chew on that all you lazy people who didn't rip a blaster...

Happy Birthday Mr. Osterberg

Random Current Brave #8

Dude hit a walk-off against our #1 rival in the division last night. I figure it's time to give some love to Mr. Slump. Here's his Heritage High Numbers card from 2009, AKA his first Heritage card  in a Braves uniform.

...which is a fecking short print. Ha! Topps tried to keep me from getting McLouthy goodness last year but I foiled your evil schemes Topps! Buy buying a lot of packs... and lucking into one... and I still don't have the Hanson short print....dammit. Topps wins again.

Ernest of Canada's Blaster League Team

Since Ernest lives in communist atheist socialist methodist absurdist ultramodernist gynecologist humanist devolutionist leftist incrementalist assist trancendentalist (did I say socialist?) repressionist Canadia, he was unable to find a blaster so he used a handful of hobby packs to build his team. He sent me his team the other day and I'm posting it here because I need the content. The pictures are all screwed up because Blogger is absolutely useless when running on Google Chrome and I want to shame Google into fixing their shit.

THE TEAM:

Jorge Posada C New York Yankees

A.J. Pierzynski C Chicago White Sox

Mark Teixeira 1B New York Yankees

Jose Lopez 2B Seattle Mariners

Asdrubal Cabrera SS Cleveland Indians

Alex Rodriguez 3B New York Yankees

Matt Holliday Outfield St. Louis Cardinals

Grady Sizemore Outfield Cleveland Indians

Ichiro Suzuki Outfield Seattle Mariners

Derek Lee Corner Infielder Chicago Cubs

Felipe Lopez Middle Infielder St. Louis Cardinals

Adam Lind Outfield Toronto Blue Jays

Joey Votto Utility Cincinnati Reds



Felix Hernandez P Seattle Mariners

Cole Hamels P Philadelphia Phillies

CC Sabathia P New York Yankees

Josh Johnson P Florida Marlins

Ricky Nolasco P Florida Marlins

Chad Billingsley P Los Angeles Dodgers

John Lackey P Boston Red Sox



San Francisco Giants Team

Mide Scioscia Manager Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

The Packs:

pack one:
299 Derek Lee 1B
81 Dustin Richardson LHP
248 Kevin Millwood RHP
401 Babe Ruth Hits 60th Homer
498 Johan Santana (SP) LHP
88 Alsonso Soriano outfield
190 Chad Billingsley RHP
269 Edgar Renteria SS

pack two:

183 Felipe Lopez 2B
141 Kosuke Fukudome outfield
432 Jermaine Dye outfield
104 Jorge Posada C
391 Melvin Mora 3B
274 Stephen Drew SS
313 The Winners Celebrate
124 Daniel Hudson RHP

pack three:
259 Jose Reyes SS
198 Chris Iannetta C
60 Asdrubal Cabrera SS
Grady Sizemore Dice Game Card outfield
369 Josh Johnson RHP
366 C.C. Sabathia LHP
167 San Francisco Giants
203 Juan Rivera outfield

pack four:
258 Derek Holland LHP
169 Ted Lilly LHP
407 Cobb Ends Career With 4,189 Hits
172 Michael Brantley outfield
NAP8 New Age Performers Derek Jeter SS
277 Coco Crisp outfield
27 Mike Fontenot 2B
44 AL Home Run Leaders

pack five:
115 Kerry Wood RHP
71 Robert Andino 2B, SS
47 NL Wins Leauge Leaders
61 Ryan Church outfield
61BR7 Ruth Chase '61
293 Felix Hernandez RHP
92 Mark Teixeira 1B
98 2nd Series Checklist

pack six:
79 A.J. Pierzynski C
367 Yuniesky Betancourt SS
50 AL Strikeout League Leaders
19 Afraud 3B
CCRLB Lance Berkman Game-Used Jersey 1B
194 Joey Votto 1B
254 Chris Davis 1B

pack seven:
359 Jose Lopez 2B
375 Ricky Nolasco RHP
491 Jason Bay outfield LF
C42 Shane Victorino 0894/1961 outfield
243 Adam Lind oufield
61BR2 Ruth Chase '61
76 Jay Bruce outfield
225 Mike Scioscia manager Angels

pack eight:
318 Aubrey Huff 1B
20 Cole Hamels LHP
BF5 Whitey Ford Cy Young Award Winner
244 Ichiro outfield
178 Matt Holliday outfield
232 Max Scherzer RHP
121 John Lackey RHP
61BR12 Ruth Chase '61


This is pretty much the last entry into the league unless I hear from someone instantly.  I have pledges of prizes from many people and will post those as well once I tally everything up. 

Derek Lowe is not the only Lucky Bastige out there

The day after declaring his intention to collect every single Ken Griffey Jr. card from his second go-around with the Mariners (something I had planned to do with Ken when he was seemingly going to sign with the Braves), He ends up getting one of the scarcest Griffey releases in Thorzul's A Piece of History group break. What are the odds?

I do know the odds of getting this:

If you're keeping track, that's three lucky bastiges, Derek, Matt and me. I pulled this Babe Ruth Chase '61 Variation out of a retail pack last week. I was killing time on my lunch break and went to Wally world for a couple packs of Heritage and some popcorn shrimp when the Babe made his appearance. When I saw what I had pulled I nearly pyew- wait, no. I was very excited by my good fortune. I'm not inspiring Thorzul any more.

I consider this card to be a variation and not a gimmick. Basically because Topps put the odds on the pack. the stupid stealth color variation cards that no one would ever be able to pick out in a million years without having a doctorate in advanced cardology, those mickeyfickeys are gimmicks. I love variations, gimmicks not so much. This is a pretty sweet looking card even though the design is as boring as a box of rocks. The Babe tends to bring up everything around him to his level. The only complaint I have about the card is the fact that the stats on the back are near microscopic. That's pretty nitpicky though, I'll just have to get the Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass out when I look at the card and be happy about it. So what's the chance of pulling this beast?.

There are three of the Chase '61 variations that fall at 1:435 retail packs. I got extra lucky and got Ruth over Maris and the overdone Mantle versions. Sure this card is tough, but how tough is it compared to any of the other cards in the set? there's a lot of short prints out there, and there's only three of these suckers. Let's check out the approximate odds for pulling any single card from the set.

Base cards: You get about 7 in a pack and there are 425 of them. 425 divided by 7 gives you a ratio of about 1:60 packs to pull any single base card.
Short prints: these are one in every three packs. Since there are 75 of them, you're looking at 1:225 packs to snag that one short print you need to complete your set.
Dice back variations: I kinda want to collect this set, but I'm so far behind in trading that I don't dare go begging for them. Seriously, I suck right now. Sorry to anyone waiting on cards from me. There are 18 of those cards and at 1:72 packs you're looking at odds of 1:1296 to pull that Pujols for your collection.
Chase '61 variation: Three cards, 1:435 odds. are these the hardest to pull? Do the path. 3x435 = 1:1305 packs. So really, these are about as tough as the dice backs. Even so, pulling the Ruth out of retail makes me the king lucky bastige for the week.

Two more lucky bastiges tonight:
Tommy Hanson for getting taken off the hook for a loss by two-out homers from Troy Glaus and the J-Hey kid with two outs in the ninth.
Billy Wagner for getting the win courtesy an improbable walk-off homer by Mr Slump Nate McLouth.

Actually all Braves fans are lucky bastiges tonight!

A totally inappropriate card for today

For some reason I just felt like posting a Garbage Pail Kid. Not sure why I chose this one.

Remember kiddos - DO CARDS, NOT DRUGS.

And send me a scan of the wrapper with that slogan on the back because I've been looking for it for over five years and I still haven't found it.

Random Current Braves #7

BRAVES vs. PHILLIES!

BATTLE FOR FIRST PLACE!

TOMMY HANSON ON THE MOUND! WOOOOOOO!

YOU KNOW WHAT THE ONLY THING MORE SCARY THAN FACING TOMMY HANSON IN A DIVISION GAME IS?

HANSON DOING A RADIOHEAD COVER:


AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH I KINDA LIKE IT NOOOOOOOOOOOO