When The Red Sox Won, So Did I!

 
In case you haven't heard, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series last month. Many lucky people have benefited from this momentous occasion. Free tacos were distributed. Some guy even won the lottery. As for me, I won a contest!

Collector's Crack held the "8th Annual Almost The Easiest World Series Contest On The Web", and gave contestants the option to predict the result of the World Series. I was one of three people to correctly guess the Red Sox emerging victorious over the Los Angeles Dodgers. The first tie-breaker was the number of games played, of which I guessed 6. No one guessed it would go 5 games, so the final tie-breaker was used. I guessed that there would be 17 home runs hit during the series. The total ended up being 14, but since I was the closest, I won!

The prize was some fantastic 1979 Hostess 3-card panels:
The author of Collector's Crack, the man known as Cynacal Buddha, also gifted me some Red Sox cards:

Among the beautiful cards is an autograph of the top prospect in the Red Sox system, a SN15 of a Hall of Fame pitcher, and a memorabilia card of a hopefully future Hall of Famer! These are incredible!

My utmost gratitude to CB for holding the contest and sending these great cards my way. Thanks a bunch!

Payday Pack - Short Guy Short Print

I had a tiny amount of money, so I made a brief trip to the local Wally World and wandered over to their diminutive card selection. I picked up a small 12 card pack of Series Two, and was not short-changed. Here are my three favorites from the pack:

3rd Place

2018 Topps #379 Power Up (CL)

Why hasn't this card gotten more love in the blogging community? This card is fantastic! Someone actually thought Jason Werth and Ryan Zimmerman needed the Anthony Rizzo/Kris Bryant bro-mance treatment, and came up with...Zimmwerth? Are you serious? Even better, the card is them yelling! This is the primal scream of baseball on cardboard! I don't know why they're screaming, but I want to join in and scream with them: AAAHHHHHH!!!!

2nd Place

2018 Topps - Salute #S-34 Travis Shaw

You just got to love those throwback Brewers uniforms! The Mayor of Ding Dong City is rocking the Milwaukee pinstripes!

1st Place

2018 Topps #400 Jose Altuve (SP)

A short print of one of baseball's diminutive stars! Not a bad return for a some loose change!

Other Contestants Not Appearing On Stage:
#585 Brandon Crawford
#444 Aaron Altherr
#442 Jesus Aguilar
#629 Max Scherzer
#351 Bryce Harper
#568 J.C. Ramirez
#650 Justin Verlander
#599 Justin Turner
#436 Yu Darvish

Repack Haiku #77 (Lloyd McClendon)

"Legendary Lloyd"

Homered in five straight at bats

As Little Leaguer

1989 Donruss #595 Lloyd McClendon

He accomplished the feat during the 1971 Little League World Series.

Time Travel Trading Update #22

Another 2 weeks have gone by without a trade proposal. That makes one trade in the past 9 weeks. At some point I'll have to officially end the Time Travel Trading Project, and although I don't think that time is now, it does appear to be in the near future. Maybe I'll go to the end of the year, maybe when the 2019 Topps set comes out, I don't know. For now, I'll continue to pimp cards and hopefully entice a few more trades out of this. Today I'm going to feature that last 2 cards I received in February.

1990 Topps #18 Carlos Quintana

Another Red Sox card on the block! I swear I'm not doing it on purpose, I just seem to get a lot of Red Sox cards in trades. (I wonder why....). Anyway, he'll end up in my doubles box if no one rescues him!

How Acquired - Received from a Chris from Nachos Grande along with a 2013 Topps Update Stephen Drew and 1971 Topps Hal McRae in exchange for the 2018 Topps Eric Hosmer.

Time Travel Trading Update #4

Why Should You Want These Cards? - The colorful 1990 Topps set is very underrated in my humble opinion. It's a nice looking set. Quintana was one of those types of players that arrived on the scene without much fanfare but was a steady producer once he hit the Majors. Unfortunately, he was never the same after a car accident wiped out his entire season in 1992.

1954 Bowman #16 Jim Wilson

This card officially made my project an unqualified success. I never would have dreamed I'd be able to get anything this old from the original pack. Since then I've acquired another 1954 Bowman plus two cards even older.

How Acquired - Received from a TCDB member in exchange for a 2018 Topps Derek Jeter Highlights black parallel insert.

Time Travel Trading Update #6

Why Should You Want This Card? - It's been said before: Jim Wilson is a badass! From the back of his card: "In 1945 Jim suffered a severe injury which looked like the end of his baseball career. He was pitching for the Boston Red Sox against Detroit at Briggs Stadium. Hank Greenberg was at bat and hit a line drive which struck Jim in the head. He was knocked out and carried from the field. He had a delicate brain operation and was warned by his surgeon to give up the game. He decided to try again, and he had a 12-6 record for Louisville in 1946."

I need your help to keep this project going! make me an offer!

The Time Travel Trade Stack:

2008-09 O-Pee-Chee (hockey)
#128 Tim Thomas

2001 Upper Deck - e-Card (golf)
#E-TW Tiger Woods

1993-94 Fleer (basketball)
#224 Michael Jordan (LL)

1990-91 Hoops (basketball)
#168 Glen Rice (RC)

1990 Topps
#18 Carlos Quintana ***LAST CHANCE***

1986 Sportflics
#122 John Tudor

1986 Topps
#5 Rose Special '75-'78
#6 Rose Special '79-'82
 #401 Fernando Valenzuela (Turn Back The Clock)

1985 Topps
#694 Joe Carter

1983 Topps (football)
#219 Joe Cribbs (LL)
#280 Mike Renfro
#307 Jim Plunkett

1982 Donruss
#NNO Checklist 545-653

1982 O-Pee-Chee E.T. The Extraterrestrial (non-sport)
#15 Among Elliott's Toys

1981 Topps
#63 Steve Renko
#704 Bill Travers

1980 Topps
#143 Bruce Bochte
#157 Willie Wilson
#671 A's Future Stars

1980 Topps (football)
#280 Jack Lambert (AP)

1979 Topps
#130 Bob Watson
#465 Reggie Smith

1978 Topps (football)
#126 Rick Kane (RC)

1977 Topps
#524 Rowland Office

1977 Topps (football)
#206 Cleveland Browns (CL)
#269 Archie Griffin (RC)
#405 Joe Greene

1975 Topps
#378 Derrel Thomas
#402 Bob Tolan

1974 Topps
#38 Don Kessinger
#67 Tommy Helms

1974 Topps - Team Checklists
#NNO Montreal Expos

1973-74 O-Pee-Chee (hockey)
#53 Richard Lemieux

1973 Topps
#18 Leroy Stanton
#29 Tony Taylor
#36 Steve Barber
#79 Jim Willoughby (RC)
#98 Dick Woodson
#99 Carl Taylor

1972 Topps
#43 Rick Wise
#109 Jerry May

1971 Topps (football)
#22 Ken Avery (RC)

1970 Topps
#47 Bob Miller
#56 Phillies Rookies - Joe Lis/Scott Reid (RC)
#103 Frank Reberger

1970 Red Rose and Blue Ribbon North American Wildlife In Danger (non-sport)
#32 Polar Bear

1969 Topps
#139 Andy Kosco

1969 Topps - Deckle Edge
#13 Mel Stottlemyre

1969 Topps (football)
#73 Bennie McRae
#154 Sam Baker

1968 Topps
#4 1967 AL RBI Leaders (Yastrzemski/Killebrew/Robinson)
#348 Larry Colton/Dick Thoenen

1968 Topps - Game
#15 Steve Hargan

1968 Topps (football)
#7 Earl Gros

1966 Topps
#154 Chuck Hiller

1967 Philadelphia (football)
#109 New York Giants (TC)

1966 Philadelphia (football)
#104 Rams vs. Browns

1965 Philadelphia (football)
#193 John Paluck

1964 Philadelphia (football)
#172 Ken Gray (RC)

1964 Topps
#60 Frank Malzone
#79 Bob Heffner (RC)
#352 Eddie Bressoud

1963 Topps
#111 Al Jackson
#155 Bill Stafford
#246 Lee Strange
#343 Johnny Pesky (MGR)

1962 Topps
#278 Ken Johnson

1960 Topps
#95 Frank Thomas

1959 Topps (football)
#80 Joe Perry

1958 Topps
#371 Marty Keough (RC)

1958 Topps Zorro (non-sport)
#83 Rude Awakening

1957 Topps
#66 Brooks Lawrence
#235 Tom Poholsky
#249 Dave Pope
#371 Bob Lennon

1956 Topps
#21 Joe Collins
#103 Willie Miranda (white back)
#156 Johnny Antonelli

1956 Topps Flags of the World (non-sport)
#70 Jordan

1955 Topps
#126 Dick Hall (RC)

1954 Bowman
#16 Jim Wilson ***LAST CHANCE***
#73 Don Mueller

1952 Bowman
#57 Clyde Vollmer

1938 Church & Dwight Useful Birds Of America Tenth Series (J9-6) (non-sport)
#2 Black-throated Green Warbler

The Time Travel Trading Project is simple in concept. I started out with a random pack of 2018 Topps Series 1 baseball cards. My aim was to trade every card in that pack for something older. Each card I receive in turn is then made available for trade, with the goal to get the oldest card I can get.

Number of trades completed: 26
Unique trading partners: 21

Number of cards mailed out: 57
Year of oldest card mailed out: 1956

Number of cards received: 134
Year of oldest card received: 1938

Trade Recap: Cards With Gum

"To finish, or not to finish? That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the knowledge of a set close to completion, or to take up trades and by opposing end it?" - Shakespear's card collecting younger brother probably

Recently,  Jon from Community Gum offered up a lot of 2016 Topps Archive for trade. It's a set I've always liked, and the one Archives set I actually have a decent amount of. I looked at what he had available, and saw most of the base cards listed I didn't have, including the remaining Red Sox I need from that set. I figured what the heck, and sent him an email. In exchange for a bunch of cards for his Cubs players collection, he was kind enough to send me 71 cards from the set.

With those cards, the set is now 89% complete. I'll be honest, I wasn't planing on finishing this set. I was never fond of the concept of chasing short prints to complete any set, and Archives tacked on 10 hard to get cards right at the end. Not something I want to put much effort into.

Yet...89% is really close. I haven't completed a set since the early 90's when I was in high school, and it might just be cool to complete another one. Of course, I have other older sets that are above 70% complete that I could concentrate on without having to worry about acquiring higher valued cards.

I guess for now I'll stay on the fence. I won't actively seek the remaining cards out, but I'll keep it in the back of my mind for future trades. For anyone I may end up trading with, it'll be something else to consider besides the always welcomed Red Sox cards.

Here's what's left:

1 Albert Pujols
13 Jason Heyward
25 Kyle Schwarber RC
29 Russell Martin
30 Manny Machado
47 Jorge Lopez RC
59 Robinson Cano
83 Satchel Paige
95 Jim Bunning
126 Yu Darvish
129 Mike Trout
149 Brian Dozier
150 Kris Bryant
169 Jorge Soler
183 Salvador Perez
201 Jackie Robinson
204 Miguel Cabrera
229 Billy Butler
237 Miguel Sano RC
257 Giancarlo Stanton
264 Luke Jackson RC
268 Carl Edwards Jr. RC
299 Hector Rondon
300 Sandy Koufax
301 Kenta Maeda RC, SP
302 Randy Jones SP
303 Tom Gordon SP
304 Al Kaline SP
305 Steve Garvey SP
306 Tito Francona SP
307 Phil Nevin SP
308 Charlie Hayes SP
309 Kris Benson SP
310 Sandy Koufax SP
(For it's worth, I also need just one more card for the Father Son insert set: #FS-FF Tito & Terry Francona)

Anybody else have a set they're unsure they want to complete or not? Does the presence of short prints factor into your decision to finish a set?

Repack Haiku #76 (Roy Halladay)

The man they called "Doc"

Among best pitchers ever

Lock for Hall of Fame

2010 Topps #200a Roy Halladay

He passed away one year ago today...

Red (Suit) Alert! Secret Santa Is A Go!

Just a quick little PSA in case anyone is interested. Last year Matt from Bob Walk The Plank held a Secret Santa among the blogging community. I participated for the first time last year and really enjoyed it. Matt has gone into blogging retirement, and the mantle has been passed on to Jon at A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts. Sign-ups are this week, so head on over there for the chance to buy me something nice!

Today is also apparently Redhead Appreciation Day or something, so for your viewing pleasure may I present the fiery might of Craig Kimbrel's beard!

2018 Topps #242 Craig Kimbrel

Fear the beard!