This Is It...

...your last opportunity to vote in the Cracked Bat Ballot Box giveaway. 

This has been a year for much needed 'pick-me-ups.'  While it's been a bit of work for me, I've had good fun presenting your candidates!   I have a few more little giveaways to share with my regular readers in future posts. If you were around before the Ballot Box contest began, you will have the opportunity to win GOOD books, crappy autographed baseballs and odd - read 'unwanted' - collectibles. LOL! If you found this blog during the Ballot contest, stay involved with your comments and make yourself eligible to participate in future giveaways. 

It's the Final Round, # 9! Before revealing your last candidates, we need to review Round 8 voting. I predicted 1987 Rookies for the win. The Maddux RC alone was worth your vote.  1992 Triple Play was a great opportunity for pack rippers. It's also fun to tuck packs like these into trade packages. I've been know to pad a mailer with 89 Topps wax. So, was I right?  Improved voter turnout created a last minute rally for The Rookies with 11 votes but 1992 Triple Play took 16. Thanks to the 27 who voted in Round 8!

ROUND 8 WINNER

Round Eight candidates are perhaps my favorites for the Cracked Bat Ballot Box. I love both choices offered here and saved them for last. For some of you, the choice may be difficult. If so, describe your painful decisions in the comments. 

CANDIDATE A: 1986 SPORTFLICS Decade Greats

There are some phenomenal cards in this 126 card set; 75 player and 51 trivia. It holds a respectable value when broken down by card. Ruth, Gehrig, Williams, Mantle, Robinson, Banks - the list of players is grand with six decades represented. This candidate would have you believe that the best years are behind us.  You can relive those moments again and again by voting for Decade Greats. 

CANDIDATE B: 1961 Fleer Greats 

This is a selection of 13 cards from my collection. I've replaced these in my set with upgrades. Please review the scans for their varying conditions. None are terrible and some are more than acceptable - they're darn nice! I'm attempting to build a better set.

This candidate is old school with nearly 60 years of experience. Fleer doesn't ask you to believe the best years are found in the old days, these Greats want your appreciation. If quantity is important, Sportflics is your set. If the great names are your thing, so is Sportflics. If vintage matters, it's Fleer. There are HOFers in this lot too. If you aren't familiar with this release, read up here.

One final review of the rules:

This round will close Thursday evening at the 48 hour mark. I'll need time to tally voter totals and prepare a list for the Randomizer. My next post will announce the winner of this round, review the box contents and confirm each voter's registration and vote totals. Voters will have their names entered into the randomizer equivalent to the number of their votes, including mail-in ballots.

Thank you, and please vote November 3rd. 

Rounding the Corner!

We are rapidly approaching the finish line! I announced the Ballot Box contest on July 4th. We've had seven rounds of voting to date. I was hoping to go ten rounds but I feel a knockout coming! That's ok! We still have time for two more!  The Box is filling nicely. I'd planned to have a blaster for the winner but we all know the sad state of retail product. Who'd have thought???

Round Seven was a slaughter. Challengers Purina/Sunoco and Quaker/Whitehall didn't gather the attention  previous contenders garnered. I left voting open for several days but only 16 took time to cast a ballot. Perhaps more interest would've rescued Candidate A?  The Whitehall Legends set was the focus of attention with 11 winning votes.  I misunderestimated the power of holograms.

Round 8 Voting is here. No booing from the audience. You must hold your applause or obnoxious commentary until the Ballot Box is awarded.

CANDIDATE A:  1987 DONRUSS The Rookies

The box is open but contains a sealed set of 56 cards. There is no Clemente puzzle included. Notable rookies in this set are Mark McGwire, Greg Maddux, Bo Jackson, Matt Williams and Rafael Palmeiro. Of all Greg's rookies, this is may be favorite. I have one in my collection. Do you?

CANDIDATE B: 1992 TRIPLE PLAY

One sealed box of 36 packs, 15 cards each plus a rub-off game card! Though marketed with the kiddies in mind, adults still love to rip these packs. Oh yes you do! You might pull a Gallery of Stars Bobby Bo, Griffey, Ripken or perhaps some Awesome Action! Who wouldn't like that?

This round is overwhelming. I know I'm exhausted! Take a moment to catch your breath, review the rules and vote!

A Nacho Break!

During this year without baseball, one thing I missed were the concessions. I always have a hot dog of course but on occasion, share nachos with my game pal. I'm pretty basic. Give me lots of hot cheese and jalapenos. So when it comes to a nachos grande, you can count me out. Unless you are Nacho man Chris, whose blog is Grande! In this case, I'll have seconds!

Chris keeps a trade stack, adding a card at a time. The whole stack is up for grabs in return for one singular piece of cardboard from his want list. In all the years I've watched stacks come and go, I've yet to claim one. What card finally caught my eye?

You should know it was not the Jeter. I saw the Kendall and lost my mind. What a shiny, colorful, in-your-face card! I dug til I found a card for him, and dug quickly. Though the stack was only two cards deep, I knew it would go fast. Why no one claimed the Jeter, I can't say. This was a perfect little trade.

If you follow the Nachos Grande blog, you know about his affordable group breaks. I've enjoyed a couple myself recently with three box breaks of Stadium Club and one box of Diamond Kings.  My DK spot netted one of the two 'hits' in the box:

Willi's only 23. The shortstop had 129 MLB at bats this year. His season stats: .349 with 6 homers and 24 rbi. He appears promising but he's a Tiger so I have zero expectations, therefore avoiding certain disappointment. 

Chris threw in a random team with each one claimed. One of my freebies were the Pirates:

Chris  knew I was building 2011 Lineage so he filled my 'break' package with 85 cards from my want list!!!  I'd received another 43 cards this summer from a young man named JQ Spooner. He has no blog or accounts that I'm aware of which would allow me to tag him. Between these two generous lots, my list is down to eight cards!  I still need: 

42,  49,  72,  84,  93, 100,  107,  149.

85 CARDS from CHRIS!

JQ SPOONER: a sampling of his 43 cards:

If you're interested in a box break, Chris is having fun with product as far back as the 90s! His Facebook page can be found here and blog here.  Check out the blog link for his current trade stack.

Chris, thanks for the fun break offerings - and for the Lineage assist!  It was a wonderful surprise!

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Time for a round six ballot wrap! Your candidates were A: 1987 Sportlics Factory set and B: 1989 Bowman factory set.  Twenty-two voters cast their ballots.  Sportflics took the win with 12 votes!

Going into the ballot box:

Welcome to Round 7 voting! Your candidates are small set lots: food, odd and holographic. Each has a running mate. 

CANDIDATE A:  

A complete 33 card set of 1984 Topps Ralston Purina baseball featuring many stars in all their dog chow glory! Checklist here. Full disclosure: when pulling this set for the contest, I found a slight  wrinkle on Nolan's hat. His card still presents well. There is no color loss. You should know your candidate's flaws. 

Ralston Purina's running-mate is the 2001 Sunoco Dream Team, a complete 12 card set !  When I discovered this set just a few years ago, I'd never seen it anywhere. Now these cards seem to turn up in dime boxes everywhere! But all twelve at one time? Rarely. Checklist here.

CANDIDATE B:

Another complete 33 card set for consideration: 1986 Topps Quaker Granola. Checklist here.  It's filled with stars of the day and a pilgrim on the face of each card. Chew on that!

Granola's mate in the running: 1992 Whitehall Legends to Life! These cards do not scan well and gave my camera difficulty. That's a politician for ya! Only wants you to see their good side. The five card checklist: Cobb, Gehrig, Ruth, Wagner and  Young. Cards were still sealed in plastic wrap. Scratch-free and ready to rock you with their early 90s holographic design.

Please review the rules before voting:

Before I close, a thank you goes out to Fuji for the chicken he sent my way. Chicken travels better than one might expect when it's FAMOUS! Fuji recently obtained one for himself and shared it on his blog. That's when I began whining; commenting too quickly to notice an error before entering. Truly, I only mentioned the bird was going on my Santa list. Fuji must've had concerns about Santa's ability to travel this covid-Christmas. He stepped right into the red suit and sent one to me. The postal sleigh dropped it off only a couple of days ago.

As you can see, the F.C. is right at home among friends in my happy corner. Fuji, you once asked about those brightly colored cans on the speakers. "Rainbow Seeker" is a pineapple/sage drink by Blake's Hard Cider, a few miles up the road from me.  It's good cold or with a little OJ which is my preference. A percentage of the proceeds from this cider support the LGBT National Hotline.  

Thank you Chris, Fuji and JQ - and thanks to all my readers! Get out there and vote! 

Cards From The Coach

Put me in coach. I'm ready to trade. Today.  In truth, it was mid-July. Coach Tom needed Big League help - or was it biggly help? Well he got Big League. Desperate for anything baseball, a  friend and I opened a stack of packs. I helped a couple of pals knock some cards off their wantlists and they each rewarded me generously. I shared my goods from Shlabby last week. 

P-Town's thank-you included a card from a set I'd never seen. This insert is from 2000 Pacific Invincible, Kings of the Diamond:

I won't go off on my regular rant about Juan Gon. His was one of my first player collections when I followed the Rangers in the early 90s. By 1999, I was over him and so were the Rangers. He was traded to Detroit. Baby Juan wanted the Tigers to bring in the fences so he could knock his balls out of the park. They did not and he left, taking his balls with him. This is a cool card and fits nicely into the Tiger collection.

How about this 1978 Hostess Milt May, a fix for my sweet tooth - cut out with loving care. The black still shows around three sides of the card.

Big League help was in store for me too. Orange parallel Tigs and a Tuve;

I was so disappointed the day I learned Shoop was a Shcope.  The 2020 baseball season is what it is and for him, that was 44 games. Schoop suffered a wrist injury ending his season early. What IS early in a 60 game season? I never saw the Tigers play this year. My only source for baseball is satellite tv. No cable out in these here woods. Satellite innernets allow no quality streaming options. Watching a box break can be painful.

Tom pulled a special card from his Big League and teased me with it on his blog. I assumed it was me but it could've been any Tiger fan who also enjoys catchers. Can you spot the card?

That's a fun little autograph on Jake's first Big League card! I'm sure his parents are proud.  He didn't make an appearance this MLB season but there's always next year. 

Tom, thank you for a fun swap! 

I have to be honest with you, my reader friends. This has been a tough year for me and the game. The sting of the Astros scandal hurt a lot this spring. The Tigers had little to offer, during another year of their life-long [my life] rebuild.  The season shut down before it began and then, the waiting. By the first of July, I really didn't care anymore. The ginormous salaries have disgusted me for sometime. Trout signs yet another ridiculous contract. Talent is one thing but come on - no athlete is worth these sums of money. I look at the world we are living in right now and realize none of this truly matters. 

How is my collecting and an occasional hoarding mentality making the world a better place to live? The hobby is fun and more so when shared. I find less joy collecting new players. I narrowed my focus to four players - and two of these fellows are deceased. The living are Posey and Altuve. I enjoyed a little Stadium Club this past month but new cards haven't meant much to me this year. I can tell you what has made the difference for me. You.

My fellow collectors - readers and bloggers alike - you have made my year better. Generosities have been many with freebies everywhere. I put up my Pick Pockets tab in January. It took sometime for folks to find it but you did. That made me happy. I love sharing and giving. This blog has given away over 1000 cards this year. I know because I've kept a spreadsheet - who picked and when, and how many cards. And the year isn't over. So many of you have used this opportunity to return the favors, knocking cards off my wantlists. Thank you for this. Maybe giving away a few cards is making your day a little brighter. Perhaps that matters.

So about those Pickpockets. The tab is down for a couple of days while I update the page and add new cards. You'll see it this weekend, probably Sunday afternoon/evening. I have the cards ready to scan and upload. I am still offering cards to anyone who stumbles across this blog for the first time. Cards have been designated for trade pals and regular readers. This will not change. I think it's important to reward my trade pals first. Going forward, trade partners get first picks. For the first 7-10 days, it's trade pals only. After that, I'll open the page up to regular readers too with an announcement on the page for "open-trading season".  I have 3000+ cards to choose from every time we have a new round. As long as I can afford the postage, your virtual dime box will be here - and free.

Thank you for keeping the hobby fun and for supporting this blog. And with that...

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It's Round Six! Your candidates are factory sets!  

1987 Sportflics offers a complete 200 card base set with an additional 136 Team Logo Trivia Cards, more aptly named 'trivial' cards. Many of these little buggers find their way to file 13. Trivialities aside, this set is full of star cards. I believe this set is also known for the first use of a color player photo on the card back. Feel free to correct me on this...and risk having your ballot voided. LOL.

CANDIDATE A:

Not a fan of the 'flics? Well Candidate B is vying for your vote! In fact, it's been pining for acceptance since 1989.  Bowman is back! With it's annoying, slightly oversized design, 89 Bowman has been filling dime boxes since 19...89.  [?]  But - and there always is one - what about that Griffey Jr rookie card?  This factory box is still sealed. Junior is likely as minty fresh today as he was upon insertion. One thing this box offers you - storage for the 484 card set.

CANDIDATE B:

Are you whining? This is a serious election. Faced with candidates that may not appeal to you, will you vote anyway?  Every vote counts at the end of this election. Consider these cards trade fodder or add them to your collection. Per usual, a rule recap is in order:

This prize package is growing. Mail in votes count too. Cards from Tom and Shlabby netted them each a vote. Any cards received on or before November 3rd  count.  November 4th = too late.

Now get to votin'!  Please?

Fuji's Touch of Zen

It's a rainy Sunday afternoon. I'm listening to peaceful ambient music without a care in the world today. Life is happening everywhere but right here, right now - there is peace in my home. It's a rare moment when life isn't calm here. I am blessed and fortunate. 

I don't subscribe to a specific belief system but prefer to say I'm spiritual: living with gratitude in the present moment and treating others as I would want to be treated. Fuji shared a card on his blog this summer which caught my eye with its touch of Zen; the ying and yang.  I commented of my desire to search the ends of earth for a copy. He made it so much easier for me. I only had to walk to the mailbox. Live in the flow and let life come to you. No, I am not high. Week upon week, your judgements continue. LOL.

Zen is not a belief system. If you are curious, check out this page.  No matter your beliefs or lack thereof, zen meditation can be part of any daily practice. The page link contains this snippet:

So, again, what is Zen? Stop now. Stop trying to get an intellectual lock on something that is vast and boundless, far more than the rational mind can grasp. Just breathe in with full awareness. Taste the breath. Appreciate it fully. Now breathe out, slowly, with equal appreciation. Give it all away; hold onto nothing. Breathe in with gratitude; breathe out with love. Receiving and offering—this is what we are doing each time we inhale and exhale. To do so with conscious awareness, on a regular basis, is the transformative practice we call Zen. 

The back of the card may be of interest to my science nerd pals.  'Nerd' is always a compliment in my book. So what did Sanchez do to merit his appearance on this card? All the zeros on the board behind his levitating image tell us he threw a no-hitter, one of only three Puerto Rican players to do so. The others were John Candelaria and Juan Nieves. This card examines the elasticity of a baseball. Only one bat came into contact with balls thrown during Jonathan's no-no, a long fly ball to deep center-field in the ninth inning. Also, the Exploratorium is in San Francisco which means the 'no Dodgers'  rule comes into play.  That is a rule, yes? 

This card is quirky and fits perfectly into my collection. Thanks for the surprise, Fuji!!

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Round Five voting is complete. Twenty-three votes with the winner taking thirteen of them. This means ten of you appreciated the 1986 Sportflics Rookies offered. It seems quantity won this election by a small margin. The Topps Traded sets go into the ballot box.  Round six will be up in a few days with a battle of baseball sets. 

Round Five winner

I hope you're enjoying these voting opportunities half as much as I am in offering them to you. It's fun to read your individual choices with reasons for your selections. If any of you are curious as to how I'm tracking your votes, here's a spreadsheet snippet:

Bo is leading the mail-in balloting! Winning candidates are highlighted in green. Votes are tabulated with auto-sum and highlighted in yellow:

After the final round, each voter's total number of votes will be auto-summed.  This number will be used to determine how many times the voter's name is entered into the Randomizer.  I am grateful for the copy/paste function! 

We've had 39 different voters so far. Two of these are foreign interference regulars. What's an election without it?  I'm not an excel guru so this format works well for me. Keepin' it simple! 

Thank you for supporting this blog. We have a month to go!!