Showing posts with label Leaf. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leaf. Show all posts

Monday, July 17, 2017

On the road again Part 2

I finished opening the Leaf 2016 Babe Ruth blaster box. To my surprise it had perfect collation. I received the complete base set, 1-80 and the two ten card subsets, Quotables and Career Achievements. Nice. I didn't pull a stadium seat or Ruth bat relic but that's OK. I found a cheap stadium seat card from the set on eBay and that'll serve as my 'insert example'.

It's a fun set to shuffle through. Lots of interesting pics of The babe. I am still relying on my phone camera so you'l have to excuse the pics. I'll just show a few. When I get home this will go into a binder.

There were several cards of Ruth with kids, his and others:


Wow, I need to take better pix with my phone. Anyway there were pic of Ruth messing around with other sports including these:


Gimmicky/publicity pictures:


But the best cards, of course, show the Babe in uniform on the baseball diamond. I chose some of my favorites for these two shots:



It's a neat set, especially considering I pretty much got it for free. I'm looking forward to seeing it in binder pages.

Oh, and I also opened the Sage college football jumbo pack. Here are the 'highlights':



Monday, August 15, 2016

'96 Leaf Signature El Presidente


Ok, I know that just the sight of a Dennis Martinez card makes Night Owl break out in hives but some things can't be helped. Besides I think down deep Mr. Owl likes El Presidente, maybe not as much as I do, (I really really like him) but time heals all wounds.

Anyway I've seen these 1996 Leaf Signature cards pop up on other blogs from time to time. But only recently did I decide to investigate them. I found that many can be had for reasonable prices. I'm not really a signed card collector but if I can pick up one of my favorite players cheap I'll go ahead and grab it.

I saw some with silver foil 'medallions' on them and others with bronze and I believe there were also gold foil ones. I have no idea what the significance is. I suspect the bronze were more plentiful/cheaper. Any help from 90s collectors? Frankly they'd be better looking cards without that glob of foil smack in the middle of the photo but it was the 90s and cards had to be fancied up to get attention I suppose.


Finally here is a nice interview with Dennis that I found on Fangraphs. Worth a read.

Monday, August 18, 2014

Monday Morning Quarterback #25 Trent Green 1999 Leaf Certified



In this ongoing series of posts I am going to feature cards from my fantasy football player collection, specifically the 117 quarterbacks I've had on my team's roster since 1980. I have one selected card for each player in my All-Time Flyers binder. Through the years I've tried to use as many different card varieties as possible while holding on to my preference which is: a card issued in a year I owned the player showing him in the proper team uni in a vertical format. Card availability and my whims have had a big impact on that standard as we will see. 
NFL Info: Trent Green was drafted by the Chargers in 1993 out of Indiana but never played for them. After a year as a backup he played in Canada and then returned to play for the Redskins and won the starting job there in 1998. But the following season he moved to the Rams and was slated to start for them until he was hurt in the preseason and the job went to the then unheralded Kurt Warner who took them to the Super Bowl. In 2000 Green returned the favor and played well during a long stretch as a sub for the injured Warner.

He was traded to the chiefs and from 2001 through 2005 he started every game for them. A series of concussions hampered Green throughout the next three years as he played for the Dolphins and Rams (again) before retiring. He has worked as a color analyst for several networks in recent years and is currently employed by NBC.

Fantasy Impact: I had Green on my roster only once, as a back-up to Kurt Warner in 2000. He filling in very nicely when I used him for the month and a half that Warner sat out. He actually outscored Warner on a per game basis for me that season. I took my division but was KO'd in the playoffs with Warner back as my qb.

The Card: This is a pretty hum-drum card with the sort of chromy front that makes it look really crappy when scanned. In fact I'm picking up a replacement card when I get the energy to scour eBay for something better. Meanwhile this will do. The back of the card has Green's game-by-game stats for the 1998 season. I'd always prefer career stats. Another reason to replace it.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Things That Bother Me



---When you're in a grocery store line, and have been for awhile, and they open a new line without moving over the people who have been waiting.

---When you are doing 10 over the limit and you look in the rear view mirror and all you see is the grill of a jacked-up 6 wheel pick-up truck. Get off my back, dammit.

---Chris Berman

---When eBay sellers don't give discounted shipping on multiple card purchases. I'm NOT gonna pay $2 in postage for each of my five .99 cards.

---When a card company can't even bother to get their facts straight on the back of a card.

That's a 2014 Leaf Charles Sims that I picked up for my University of Houston collection. Except Leaf messed up. Charles Sims was NOT a "four-year running back at West Virginia." He played three seasons as a Houston Cougar and racked up numerous awards and records at UH. He graduated in the spring of 2013 and as such he was able to transfer with his one year of eligibility left. He chose to follow his former offensive coordinator to WVU. A lot of Cougar fans were upset by this but I never begrudge a kid from making a decision that may benefit his future.


He got a degree, played his heart out at UH, and left on good terms as far as I heard.  But here is what Leaf said on his card:


After his one season at WVU he was drafted by the Tampa Bay Bucs in the third round. I wish him well. Go Coogs!!



Sunday, May 11, 2014

"Why did I just buy that?"



"Why did I just buy that?"

Go ahead and raise your hand if you have NEVER said that after some random hobby purchase. You, you in the back with your hand up.....you're not being honest!

This is a Leaf History of Baseball 2012 Cut Signature Edition Billy Pierce edition. I bought it on eBay last week. The guy was taking offers so I low balled him and he accepted. Then I saw it for a couple of bucks less than even my offer so my time spent thinking I got on over on the seller was pretty short-lived.

It scanned like crap because it's a thick 'card' in a hopelessly thick case. Why it's in a Beckett slab I'll never know because it's not graded or anything. Let's weigh the positives and negatives on this thing, shall we?

Negatives first:

1) It's stupid. It's a piece of a picture with an autograph. In a card that won't fit in a page pocket. And it doesn't even show much of Pierce (which with a 'cut' is kind of the point I suppose).

2) I have more autographs of Billy Pierce than I need already. Plus (this is a bonus negative) I don't really collect autographs anyway.

3) It cost way more than it's worth. I just bought a really nice signed George Brace photo of Billy Pierce on eBay for $10. This was twice that.

4) It wasn't not on my want list. In fact I had no idea it existed and I am not chasing modern Pierce cards to any extent.

5) It's stupid. That one is worth mentioning twice.

6) The case appears to be welded shut. Even my Dremel cut-off saw attachment is going to have issues with it.

Positives:

1) It's Billy Pierce.


Whatever.

Oh, here is the back: