Joe playing Keanu

I'm not a Matrix or Keanu fan but I was quite impressed when the first movie of the trilogy came out. Since then I've seen it many times but never been patient enough to sit down and watch #2 or 3 in full.

Today I have the morning off and took some time to browse through my collection and found the only Joe Torre card in my PC:

Gotta give it to Joe because you gotta have some moves and patience if your coaching Manny...

That guy could run... without getting caught often: Dave Lopez

You can steal many bases but..

How many times were you caught?

It's like baseketball stars (no offense): keep shooting and eventually you'll average more than 20pts a game. Some guys really suck so there's no rule of thumb.

The caught stealing "CS" data has been collected since the 1914 season. Many of the all time leaders played before that era so therefore we will never be able to quantify how effective they really were. Some of those guys are: Honus Wagner, Bobby Hamilton, Ty Cobb, Max Carey and many other greats.

Among the top 30 all time leaders, the best stolen bases / caught stealing ratios belong to:

1. Tim Raines 5.53 (#5 overall leader)
2. Willie Wilson 4.98 (#11 overall leader)
3. Dave Lopez 4.88 (#23 overall leader)
4. Rickey Henderson 4.28 (#1 overall leader)
5. Joe Jorgan 4.25 (#10 overall)
6. Vince Coleman 4.24 (#6 overall leader and the only one right were he belongs)
7. Ozzie Smith 3.91 (#20 overall)
8. Kenny Lofton 3.88 (#13 overall)
9. Barry Bonds 3.64 (#29 overall)
10. Otis Nixon 3.33 (#14 overall)
11. Bert Campaneris 3.26 (#12 overall. Sorry Bert)
12. Lou Brock 3.05 (#2 overall, wow that's not right)
13. Maury Wills 2.81 (#18 overall)
14. Bret Butler 2.17 (#22 overall)

Going vintage and showing off a card will take me to this Dave Lopes 1976 Topps card commemorating his 38 consecutive stolen bases record. It took 53 years for someone to break Max Carey old record of 32 stolen bags. If you think that's amazing, just try to imagine Mr. Vince Coleman, current record holder, stealing 50 in a row between the 1988 and '89 season. That's something else.

That guy could run: Bert Campaneris

The all time latino stolen base leader, Bert Campaneris is one of those guys who amazingly does not get much attention from the hobby. If you ebay his name you'll come up with less than 70 results and surprisingly none of them is a triple threads, sterling, etc, etc, used/symbolic piece.

When you look at his stats you'll see he ran away with 649 bases and lasted 19 seasons.

Great stealer and not from Pittsburgh, he's guilty of batting more than 279 only twice and having a whooping 259 all time batting average. Imagine Bert with at least a 280 average and therefore more opportunities to fly around the bases.

I'm proud to own...

Catfish vs Termites

Even though in this crazy weather and high humidity environment we live in, I've never had problems with termites or any type of bug messing with my baseball cards.

At a flea market a couple of months ago I spotted this Catfish Crawford card:

It caught my attention (yes you're right, I was bore as Moses in the Grand Canyon) and $.30 later I was playing the taxidermists with it.

Sunny day. I need my sunglasses: Bobby Murcer

I had no idea who Murcer was when I bought this card just because it looked funny. Later I found out he had a decent career overall.

This post was brought to you by RayBan, Arnette, Oakley, Vuarnet, Tuscany and any other sunglasses brand you can think of.

By the way, who won this contest???

Back in the early 2000 I was busy at the university and completely lost track of baseball and therefore baseball cards. I don't recall how this sweepstakes piece found its place into my collection.

Who won that bat?????? 

I've been doing some research on the Internet but so far I've just been able to find that:

"Robert Shell (14 year old back then) from Baraboo Wis. won a 1928 Philadelphia athletics jersey signed by Cobb, valued at $332,500" as part of this contest.

But who won that bat????

Cool nicknames: "The human vacuum cleaner"

A sign that you've made it to the show is having your nickname. If you're lucky enough it will stick with you through good and bad; in sickness and health; Pujols and Andrew Jones type of season, for ever.

I have to admit that Brooks Robinson has one of the coolest nickname ever, forget about the Iron Horse, Will the Thrill, La Cobra, cause the Human Vacuum Cleaner rules.

Bring on the Hoover!!!

My Rickey Henderson RC tks to Cardboard Icons

Back on March 7th, Ben from CardBoard Icons hosted a contest celabrating his 25,000 visits in which the winner, a.k.a yours truly, won a 1980 Topps #482 Rickey Henderson RC. 

Being new in the blogosphere there's no need to say I was thrilled when I found out.

Tks Ben, this card is mint compare to some in my vintage PC.

Centered? the Wade Boggs saga. Card #630

Ever since I picked up this card I've been curious about the "centering". For a while I thought it was my copy who had the problem. Browsing Ebay today I found this one just like it. Looking further into the matter, I found the match #629 for the AL Batting title runner up Mr. Carew... including part of Boggs sleeve.

What I still don't get is why is Fleer had to split the card instead of using the single shot.

Riddle me this, riddle me that, uncentered on the front, centered on the back

Joe's hobby is playing billiards

Joe's hobby is playing billiard. I get it, I get it,  you don't have to say it 2 YEARS IN A ROW!! in the back of his card:

 

K Tom is on my "list"

For any vintage collector fan there is always an unwritten list of cards that you would choose and set aside for later negotiation even when radomly browsing through a stack or a shoebox full of cardboard. No matter if you're a team or player collector or even if you hate the Yanks, Reds, & Tigers; you'll never turn your cheek when running into a Mantle, Rose, Cobb, et al. Even duplicates will always be welcome if you're like me.

Among those players, I have Mr. Seaver and being honest, I just know about him what I've read in the back of my cards, Wikipedia and Baseball Reference

I'm not a Mets fan and don't care if Omar Minaya is planning to put the whole Dominican Republic on their payroll. 

But, Tom Seaver is on my "list"

Graded goodie from cheapbay

A couple of blogs ago I wrote about vintage goodie on the way. Finally it has arrived:

It has been with me for just 5 days but man I love this card. 

How much did I pay? USD$5.76 delivered 

If there's something that I'm 100% sure off now it's that by going vintage on my collection, my passion for the hobby is getting stronger.

My first Koufax! My first Spahn! 

My first redemption... finally delivered!!!!!

My saga started early last year when I bought my one and only box of 2007 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects as the previous year. Back then I was still heavy hitting breaking boxes of new products, specially BDPP and SPLC. Overall it was a decent break until I hit my redemption so I immediately knew no autograph was on board cause I'm not that lucky and collation wouldn't smile at me, at least not that day. That was it, I would have to pay outrageous shipping from my country and then wait forever to get my deserved auto.

April 8th, 2008: I Found a cheaper way than FedEx (USD$35) and send it through IMPOSDOM (Dominican Postal Office) for USD$2. On a regular day I would have never sent that or any decent card/redemption by Imposdom but with that pricing I had no choice. 

February 20th, 2009: Went to my local courier company to pick up a vintage goodie I'll blog about later, and when Jessie (the clerk) said I had 2 pkg's instead of 1... 

Payback was around the corner:

Finally!!!

Winter ball now shading.

Winter baseball used to be a great time of the year when Dominican MLB stars played for their local teams and proudly dressed in either:

• Blue (Tigres del Licey). By the way, my team. Legendary guys like Alonzo Perry and young stars like Anderson Hernandez and Ronnie Paulino are just a few.

• Red (Leones del Escogido). Our enemies, antithesis, etc, etc,  for more than 99 years and counting. Sosa, Big Pappy and so on. But nowadays they reeeeeeally suck. 

• Yellow (Aguilas Cibaenas). Ruled the 90's and part of the early 00's. They just can't stand loosing. Not that anybody enjoys loosing but you have to see this guys loosing a game specially when they're home team; just get that hell out of ballpark quick, preferably by the 6th inning

• Green (Estrellas Orientales). Our Dominican version of the Cubs

• Orange (Toros del Este). I don't care much about them

• Red and whatever they feel like and the league allows them to wear (Gigantes del Cibao). The new kids on the block. The best team during this past season but started whining and complaining about umpires during the finals and you know how that story always ends

But now is not as simple as "when it was a game" because of all the restrictions by MLB Teams that don't allow their big guns to participate in winter ball cause THEY COULD GET HURT... and I'll add: taking a shower, driving, eating mangu, filling a W2 form, and you name it.

And because I need to show off a card and not because I like this next one, here's my Leones del Escogido Sammy "mustache" Sosa

Nolan Ryan vintage stuff

I've never been a Ryan fan but I happen to have at least 20 different cards of the old man stuffed in a binder somewhere but all of them of the 90's and is that growing up back then I never thougt as possible getting for my PC any of his 70's or not even early 80's cards and not specially in a flea market.

But I managed to get these 3 babies a couple of months ago and without furhther intro here they are:

Turn back the clock.... tan-tan-tan...

The first time I got my hands on this card, was the TBC version and really caught my attention. The look in his eyes, so weird, so brokeback mountain, so police academy 3, so Pauly Shore, so, so, so...

C'mon, this guy belted 3,023 hits and YOU, so so so called "decision picture publisher" or whatever is your job title, had to choose this 1979 pic for a FOREVER TO BE REMEMBER TURN BACK THE CLOCK EDITION!! man!! Haven't you seen his Topps 1971? or 1974?

Anyway, during my flea market excursions I have gather some other moldy and creased versions of his cards to share.