Plowing Along

You'd think that as a mostly baseball card collector, the summer/baseball season would be an ideal time for me to be collecting.  But, actually, it's just the opposite.  While the summer does provide new products almost every week, the summer also brings countless activities and events that conflict with collecting.

Most importantly for me, there's golf.  Other then my wife and my dog, there is nothing I love more than golf.  And that includes card collecting.  Collecting fills the void left when I can no longer golf in the winter and fall.  So, now that summer vacation is here and I have the golf course to myself, I'm not as passionately collecting cards.  I'm starting to notice that this summer, most of my spare change is being spent on golf balls, golf clubs, and golf tournaments.  Doesn't leave much left over for card purchases.

With that said, I did pinch a few pennies from the golf fund and have managed to pick up a card here and there.

Today I received my 58th unique 1910 Murad T51 college series card.  It's a nice little card of the Michigan Agricultural College and, were I a better blogger, I'd have figure out a better way to riff off the agriculture/summer connection. But, I'm not a writer, I'm a picture poster.

It's a great card from a set that I'm getting ever closer to hitting the 50% complete mark, as I'm now at 39% of the way done.

Remembering Our Heroes

As I get ready to visit the cemetery to honor local service members, I thought today would be a great day to share the story about how a collector of military artifacts from Denmark helped my family.

Dog tags of soldier killed in Vietnam returned to family

 

The Memorial Day service.

Uncle Randy's headstone.

 

I'm Blanking

I'm not sure that I have writers block as much as I have run out of inspirational material to write about.  Also, it didn't help that the past couple of weeks have been hectic at work.  So, for the most part, my blog compositions have been as blank as the back of this Dexter Fowler card.

But, I am hoping to turn around this blog and find some fresh new material, just like what happens when I turned over this Dexter Fowler card.

So, I now have three of the 2012 Gypsy Queen mini variations and the Gypsy Queen 1/1 Blank Back Dexter Fowler, and yet I don't have the base card.  This hobby is weird sometimes. 

So, I'm now 3 days away from summer vacation, and I've got some big plans for sprucing up my collection, my blog, my want list, and my trade bait list during my time off. 

A Little Something to Make the Kershaw Fans Drool

After my previous defeats at tracking down rare Hochevars, I wasn't about to let this beauty slip through my fingers.

That's right, it's a Just Minors 2007 Triple Signatures (#'d 2/10) featuring my boy Hoch, Homer Bailey, and some guy named Clayton Kershaw.

I'd never heard of Mr. Kershaw, so I did a quick internet search and was puzzled when this came up.



Now why would Just Majors put a country singer's autograph on a baseball card.  Upon further review, I realized I was watching Sammy Kershaw.  Maybe Clayton is related to him or something.  We may never know.

Either way, he must not be much of a player since the seller also included these cards in the package.

Either way, I'm very glad that my low numbered 2007 Just Majors Triple Signatures collection has doubled.

Incidentally, the black Royals autograph card is numbered 2/3, which is pretty sweet.

And, if you'll excuse me, I must continue my quest of obtaining every Hochevar card ever.

p.s.  School lets out this Friday, so my posts should come at a more regular rate throughout the summer, assuming I can find anything to post about.

Dex Knows Golf

I stumbled into this kick ass Mile High Sports Magazine on eBay, and it happens to feature two of my favorite things: Dexter Fowler and golf.

And how did they know that on my Colorado Golf Bucket List is a round with Dex.  This magazine is a mind reader.

This is an All Points Bulletin

If you know (or, worst yet, are) ebay buyer f***b with a rating of 1668, please warn them that they may have won the past three battles over rare Hochevar cards, but they will not win the war.

You caught me by surprise when you sniped this 2010 Topps T206 black printing plate away from me.  And I shouldn't have been so careless with my bidding on this 2008 Topps yellow plate.  But I now consider the camel's back broken with this last straw, this 2007 Tristar patch card.  It doesn't even have an autograph, for crying out loud.  Twenty bucks should have been plenty of money to bring it home to me.  But noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

It shouldn't have to come to this, but I'm going to take a page from the Napkin Doon Book of Nemesis Destruction and track you down, rip off your face, and TAKE MY CARDS BACK.

So, let word spread that eBay isn't big enough for two Hochevar supercollectors, and I totally called firsties a long time ago.

Cool Hand Luke

It was a great outing for Hoch last night.  Sadly, I couldn't get the live feed to work, so I had to settle with watching the gameday pitch-by-pitch. 

Here are his highlights for the night.

Joining the Dark Side

I've never quite understood the point of getting modern cards slabbed.  I completely understand slabbing and authenticating vintage cards, but is there really any point in authenticating a card that was released five years ago?  But, if I need a card, the fact that it's slabbed isn't going to stop me from owning it.

Which was the case with this 2006 Bowman Sterling Luke Hochevar Black Refractor, which is numbered 7/25. 

It goes great with my regular refractor card, which is numbered 15/199.

It's always nice checking off a card from my ever-shrinking Hochevar want list, even if it means adding another graded card to my collection.

So It's Come To This, Has It?

I now sit idly by on my computer waiting for 1/1 Hochevar cards to pop up for auction because I basically have all the others.  Luckily for me, three such cards have surfaced this week.  I've won one (see below), got sniped on another because the auction ended whilst I was still at work so I couldn't defend my bid, and I still have a day left on the other.

I'm also still reeling from the schlacking Hoch took from the Yankee's bats earlier this week.  The wife was flipping through the channels and stumbled upon the Royals/Yanks game and yelled at me to come see if it was Luke pitching.  Sure enough, it was him.  I was elated!  Then I was bummed because Luke proceeded to drill A-Roid in the arm with a pitch, load the bases, and give up a grand slam to one of them other Damn Yanks. Broke my heart.

I then made the mistake of reading every article online that bashed my guy, which has kept me away from the blogosphere for a few days. Also, this has been a fairly busy time at work, getting ready for the school year to end.

So, to recap, I haven't been blogging because there are few cards available that I want/need, my favorite player is being run over on and off the field, and life has been busy.  At least I know that one of those anti-blogging issues will be resolved in the next couple of weeks (work), and I'm hoping the other two will come around as well.

How about a 2011 A&G printing plate to help heal the wounds?

It will go well with the rest of my 2011 A&G Hochevars.

Also, be assured that there will be at least one more Hochevar post this week as I finally received one of my 2006 white whales in the mail this week.

GQ Triple Back

Saw this lot of Dexter Fowler 2012 GQ minis on the bay and ended up winning them for less than a buck a piece shipped.  Not too shabby.  I much prefer gathering these mini parallels in groups than the usual piece-meal method I use on the bay.

Nothing too fancy on the fronts.

But straight sexy on the back.

And speaking of Dexter Fowler. 

Thanks to a tip from fellow Rockies fan Hiflew (Cards from the Quarry, duh!), I was able to attend Dexter Fowler t-shirt night.  Here I am wearing said t-shirt and the new hat from my bro-in-law.

 My wife also picked up a program and guest guide while she was buying a Dinger doll for my golfing buddy Ryan.

And the Rockies seem to be taking their "Year of the Fan" slogan to heart, because they sure gave the fans a performance in the bottom of the 5th Friday night.  

If you missed the highlights, after giving up four runs to the Mets in the top of the 5th, the Rockies followed Eric Young's hustle on the base paths with three walks, seven hits (including two three-run homers from Carlos Gonzalez and Dexter Fowler), and a hit batsman, along with four errors from the Mets, to score 11 runs, one shy of the Rockies' record for runs in an inning. Gonzalez set a club record with five RBIs in the inning, as the Rockies sent 15 men to the plate.

It was an absolute pleasure to watch.

Also, while at the game, I ended up sitting next to the high school football coach of Met's center fielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis.  Turns out, Kirk went to high school at Denver Christian Academy, which means he'll soon be a member of the Colorado Collection. 

It was an all around great night at the ballpark with my wife and brother-in-law.

And thanks again to Hiflew for letting me know about Dex Night at the ball park.  Be on the lookout for your Colorado Rockies care package in the mail in the near future.  I believe you'll enjoy what I rounded up for you!

The Big 7

Grabbed another lot of T51 Murads off the bay last week.  This one featured 15 different cards, of which, 7 were new additions to my collection, which now sits at 57/150 or 38% complete.

This week I add Georgetown, George Washington, Pratt Institute, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Wesleyan, Amherst, and Columbia to the filing cabinet.

And, here are the cards that ended up being duplicates to ones already in my collection.

Man, I love this set, and I'm very excited to be nearing my 2012 goal of owning 50% of these cards.

Step 12

Last night's Royals v Tigers series opener was rained out, so Hochevar's start got pushed to today.  In his honor, I shall post a Two-fer Tuesday of recent Hochevar pickups.

The first item is (as this post title suggests) my 12th step toward completing a 61-card black-boarder mojo-set.  It came to me via a BIN w/ free shipping.  I swooped in and grabbed it minutes after it was listed.  I am taking this set seriously, you guys!

A big tip of the cap goes out to the Sports Syzygist for turning me on to the following toy.  He posted about the two that he picked up and said that the roster of players available was fairly deep, so I decided to check if Hoch was up for sale.

They are Lego-esque in their size, but appear to be a little more maneuverable.  I may need to pick up one more of these to crack open, since I plan on keeping the cellophane wrapper on this fella.

Sadly, as Offy mentions in his post about the figures, they are a bit on the pricey side considering how small they are.  They run in the $10-12 range (depending on how much shopping around you do) and apparently the Lego ones can run in the $3-5 range.  I think the $3-5 price-point would entice me to pick up most of my favorite Rockies and Royals, but at $12 (plus shipping) a shot, I'm going to stick to just Hochevar and possibly Dex Fowler.

Good luck to #44 on the bump today.