Skipping the Sports Card Blogroll Update This Month...Let Me Explain

It's not because I haven't posted in a week.  But the SCBR is presently out of date.  And it's not my fault.

There is an ongoing issue lately that has been affecting a lot of the blogs on blogger.com regarding link lists an blog lists gadgets.  I tried adding seven new blogs last week, and while they were added to some of the rolls, they were not added to the two most important ones:  The Blogroll Index and Most Recent Posts.  Fortunately, the seven blogs did make the New in 2012 blog list. 

I am going to remove Jaybarkerfan's list and the New in 2011 roll (it is 2012 you know, and I kept it up for those bloggers who did "blog rookie of the year" kinds of polls).  But the actual removal of blogs from the other rolls will not be happening until blogger corrects this little syntax error:

Syntax error

1519702309-widget-config.js
Code: 0
URI: http://www.blogger.com/static/v1/widgets/1519702309-widget-config.js
Line: 94
Char: 43

I will say that the picked up 18 new blogs this month, bringing the total number of blogs on the active roll to 354.  The following blogs will be moving to the inactive list as soon as the problem is fixed:

• Cardboard Overload
• One Out Away
• The Call of Cardboard
• Cobb and Halladay
• 1207 Consecutive Games
• Way Off Base
• HUPE ROYALTY
• Hoopography
• I'm Ballsy
• Card Geeks
• The Nitty Gritty
• 1980 Topps Baseball
• Grand Slam 1978
• Mantle Baseball Cards

With these fourteen blogs off the active roster, the SCBR presently holds 340 blogs, for a net gain of +4. 

As always, if you or someone you know has a blog about our Hobby of Sports Card Collecting, please send me an e-mail at bdj610@hotmail.com and let me know. If you have a blog that hasn't been worked on lately and you plan on becoming active in the Hobby Blogging Community, let me know that as well.  So far, we have a number of new collectors jumping into the proverbial blog pool.  With 2012 Topps Baseball due officially arriving tomorrow, it is only a matter of time before the number of blogs increases.  Here's hoping.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

2012 Topps is Now Live!!! Guess What I'm Not Getting This Year?

The reason why I have not been posting this past week is because of a transition in jobs.  I still am employed at the same place I've worked for the last thirteen plus years, but have been asked to take back some older responsibilities.  The adjustment isn't all that bad, I just needed a refresher course in a few things, plus I have to learn new things, but it's nothing I can't handle.  It beats the alternative, although I'm getting the feeling...no, I won't go there.  Anyway, the new work also means I get to leave work earlier.  So I'm posting now.

I have been online and have seen that auctions have shown up on the Bay for 2012 Topps S1, and all the goodies that are included within.  One thing I have noticed though is that the legendary SP's have seemed to nowhere in sight.  There will still be short-printed cards in Series 1, but instead of legends, Topps is returning to variation cards of current players in limited quantities.  And it seems that the SP's can be grouped in a few categories:  (hopefully playful) fights with mascots, frivolity in the dugout, or celebrations (think Pie in the Face from 2010). 

To wit, here are the 20 SP cards (not including the already known Pujols and Reyes cards):

• #1B Ryan Braun (celebration with teammates)
• #35B Eric Hosmer (dugout photo with teammates)
• #35C Eric Hosmer (Gatorade bath)
• #76B Ian Kennedy (Pie in the Face)
• #93B Skip Schumaker (It's The Rally Squirrel...and Schumaker's right foot)
• #145B Billy Butler (Gatorade bath...at least the Royals need a way to celebrate)
• #165B Michael Morse (Gatorade bath...okay, so do the Nationals)
• #173B Ryan Roberts (pre-Pie in the Face)
• #185B Pablo Sandoval (fighting with Parrot Pete...again, Pete shows up at the weirdest times)
• #185C Pablo Sandoval (fighting with the Swinging Friar...have you no shame, sir?)
• #188B Bobby Abreu (dugout photo)
• #215B Freddie Freeman (dugout "celebration" with teammates)
• #256B Mat Latos (dugout "celebration" with teammates...Topps couldn't photoshop the Reds jersey on him yet)
• #270B Starlin Castro (dugout photo...great, something for Cub fans to chase)
• #308B Mike Leake (fighting with the Gapper...isn't he on your team???)
• #400B Robinson Cano (dugout photo with teammate)
• #411B Tsuyoshi Nishioka (dugout photo with teammate)
• #421B Heath Bell (dugout photo..with a jar of gumballs)
• #450B Justin Upton (celebration photo)
• #470B Howie Kendrick (dugout "celebration" with teammates)

Now I like the cards.  They show the lighter side of the game, with many happy moments being shared with players and their teammates.  But, just like other variation cards (see 2007 Topps), I'm not really interested in collecting them.  I'll already have each player's regular card, I won't really need the variation.  But that won't mean that I'll be disappointed if I get one (I'll be ecstatic).  But don't expect me to put these in my wantlist on the side bar.  And at least we have a clue as to what number (possibly...there has been a sense of discontinuity with these things) a player will get in series 2 (see #400, 411, 421, 450, and 470).

And I was hoping for a 2012 card of Roberto Clemente or Willie Mays.  Maybe in series 2.  You never know. 

Series 1 is (supposed) to arrive in stores tomorrow.  Are you ready?

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1999 Topps #261 Gregg Olson

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Tuesday, January 24, 2012:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1994 Topps #726.
• Player Name, position, team: Gregg Olson, pitcher, Arizona Diamondbacks.
• Major League Debut: September 02, 1988.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1998 stats (Diamondbacks): 64 G, 68.2 IP, 3-4, 25 R,23ER, 5 SO, 25 BB, 0 GS, 0 CG, 0 SHO, 30 SV, 3.01 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Orioles #1st, June 1988. Signed with the Diamondbacks as a Free Agent 01/31/1998. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 9. This is his ninth and final Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: None. On the back of the card, the stats include a black star on the year 1989, and below the picture on the back, the black star represents that he was Rookie of the Year.
• Commentary: Funny isn't it?  Card #261, and it appears in series 2??!  Well, this was about the time when Topps was inconsistent with the number of cards for their eponymous set (463 card numbers, 462 cards with the Mantle retirement).  It had been five years since Gregg Olson appeared on a Topps card when 1999 Topps Series 2 went live.  This means that after leaving the Orioles as a Free Agent to join the Braves, he did not appear in any of Topps products.  Which means that Topps missed the journeyman middle-reliever phase of his career (not surprising as Topps stopped including these unsung players in their products).  After stopping in Atlanta in what was an injury riddled year, Olson travelled around the majors, making stops in Cleveland, Kansas City, Detroit, Houston, Minnesota, and back again to KC.  Within those five lost years, the man who beat Ken Griffey, Jr. as the AL Rookie of the Year, and had saved 160 games for the O's, went 11-8, and had a grand total of 13 saves, with a high water mark of 8 with the Tigers.  Hoping to revive his career as a closer, he signed on with the expansion Diamondbacks. It was just the thing he needed.  He saved 30 games for the expansion franchise, the most he had saved since 1993.  In two years with the D'Backs, he went 12-8, finished 85 games, saved 44 of them, struck out 100 batters, and had an ERA of 3.34. Although he was longer the baby-faced youngster that we all saw on his 1989 Topps card, he had found his fountain of youth in the hot desert of Phoenix.  At the end of the 1999 season, Olson signed with the Dodgers.  I'll always remember Gregg Olson because he made his lone All-Star Team in 1990 at Wrigley Field.  While he didn't pitch in the game, it would have been phenomenal if he had the opportunity to face the Braves' lone representative that night.  His name?  Greg Olson.
• Beckett value: $0.07-$0.20.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 14 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1994 Topps Traded #105T. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. We're looking back at a card from 1994 here on the blog tomorrow.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

The Countdown to 2012 Topps Has Begun...With Super Short Prints?

Remember last year when Topps took advantage of the Red Sox' high profile free agent signings of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez by inserting super short printed variation cards of both players in their soon-to-be-new jerseys (photoshopped for your convenience of course)?  Well, they're at it again.

Above is the preliminary cover for March's Beckett Baseball (Thanks Chris for the clarification).  I'm going to make sure I get a copy as it's about Topps and it's a must have for this collector.  But take a look at the main cards in the photo.  No, not the Pablo Sandoval card that depicts Kung Fu Panda fighting Parrot Pete (what is with that bird anyway??!)  It's Albert Pujols in an Angels jersey and Jose Reyes in his new Miami Marlins uniform. 

According to the Number One Source in the Hobby, Topps managed to print these two cards (#'d 331 and 332 respectively) and add them to packs of the new 2012 Topps Series 1...IN LIMITED QUANTITIES!!!  And there will be more news to come until T-Day.

Somewhere, in an almost abandoned blog on the outskirts of Philadelphia, a writer is preparing (if he has not already done so) to continue his war against gimmicks.  And Topps has fired the first shot.

To paraphrase that great Miami philosopher Horatio Caine, "Things...(puts on shades)...are about to get interesting."  (cue Roger Daltrey's "Yeahhhhh!" from The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again!")

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1990 Topps #33 Greg Walker

Due to the delays described on Sunday, the Random Topps Card of the Day posts for Thursday, January 19, through Sunday, January 22, will be posted during the week.

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Monday, January 23, 2012:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1990 Topps #33.
• Player Name, position, team: Greg Walker, first baseman, Chicago White Sox.
• Major League Debut: September 18, 1982.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1989 stats (White Sox): 77 G, 233 AB, 25 R, 49 H, 14 2B, 0 3B. 5 HR, 26 RBI, 0 SB, .335 SLG, 23 BB, 50 SO, .210 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Phillies, #20th, June 1977. Drafted by the White Sox in the Rule V Draft, 12/03/1979. Bats: left. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 8. This is his eighth and final Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: None. There is a 1989 Monthly Scoreboard which splits Walker's runs and hits by month.
• Commentary: I don't see why people get so down on the 1990 Topps set. The design shows a lot of color with the borders, and if you have a factory set, you could pretend you have a jigsaw puzzle and try to reassemble what the printing sheets look like before they were cut. In fact, I have three of the six sheets of 1990 Topps somewhere in my basement. Granted, unless you have the orange sheet (with a nameless Frank Thomas), they aren't worth much either. But I'm sure they would look nice framed anyway. Greg Walker was the White Sox' first baseman throughout most of the 1980's. He was a member of the "Winning Ugly" White Sox from 1983, and 22 home runs and 78 rbi's from 1984 through 1987. He saw limited time in 1988, and in 1989, was replaced by eventual 1989 Topps All-Star Rookie Team member Carlos Martinez. Walker was released by the White Sox at the end of April, 1990, and signed with the Orioles a few days later. He played with the O's for two months before being released by the team in July, 1990. It would be the end of his major league career as a player. He returned to the Sox as their hitting coach in 2003. In 2012, he joins the Atlanta Braves as their new hitting coach.
• Beckett value: $0.01-$0.05.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 11 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: 1999 Topps #261. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Flash back with the blog tomorrow.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Making Up for Lost Time

For those wondering why the posts suddenly stopped, I have a very good explanation:

Our computer was infected with a virus. (cue ominous music...dun dun dunnnnnnnnnn)

It was one of those things were the program hid all of our files, shortcuts, and everything and then started sending messages like "your OS is failing" or "your hard drive is going to crash due to memory loss". Worse was the "click here to scan." When you do, this thing called System Check, which looks like something from Microsoft (but it's NOT) started "scanning" for errors, "found" sixteen, "fixed" seven of them, and suggested that if I wanted to fix the other nine, I had to "buy this program."

Red Flag!!!

Already something was fishy.

Then when I tried to close the program, it wouldn't. At that point I knew we had a virus. But that was Friday.

It's just that on Tuesday, I didn't know what was happening. So I turned off the computer. Unfortunately after shutting down the computer, it would not reboot. Some file was missing or corrupted and Windows would not start.

Thanks to Kevin, a friend of mine who knows his way around computers and even built our now disabled computer, we were able to log in. But because of concerns about our hard drive, he suggested to keep the computer off.

On Friday, I had a hunch that something else could be happening. All that stuff I mentioned earlier happened, leading me to believe our computer was infected.

But how was I going to get online if this trojan horse hid all of our files? Thank you Google Desktop. The programs that appear on the bottom right of the desktop (we still use xp) were not affected and once I knew that our files were still safe, I started to search for a site that could clear out the System Check virus. It is a relatively new virus as the website I found had only four comments, first from January 10. Following the steps, including a download of a free program (paying would give more features...didn't need them), allowed me to find and erase all traces of System Check.

On Saturday, Kevin came back and after taking apart the computer, gave it a thorough cleaning (admittedly, he said ours was relatively clean on the inside), installed more ram to our computer. I tested it last night. Our computer is now fast. Not Tony Campana fast (hey, needed to reference baseball somehow), but faster than what my family is used to with this machine.

So there you have it. The Random Card of the Day posts will be done today, and I have six or seven blogs to add to the Sports Card Blogroll. I have a lot of catching up to do.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1985 Topps #67 Rafael Santana

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Wednesday, January 18, 2012:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1985 Topps #67.
• Player Name, position, team: Rafael Santana, shortstop, New York Mets.
• Major League Debut: April 5, 1983.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1984 stats (Mets): 51 G, 152 AB, 14 R, 42 H, 11 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 12 RBI, 0 SB, .382 SLG, 9 BB, 17 SO, .276 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Yankees as a Free Agent 08/31/1976. Signed with the Mets as a Free Agent 01/27/1984. Bats: right. Throws: right.
• Number of regular Topps Cards (includes regular and traded cards only): 7. This is his first Topps card.
• Blurb on the back: "Rafael participated in 2 Triple Plays during 1979."
• Commentary: Regarding the blurb, that is exactly how it is written...verbatim. Apparently, Topps was in a bit of a rush to edit the sentence. But it's been more than 27 years since the card was printed, so hey...history right? Santana's breakout season came in 1985 as he was became the team's primary shortstop. While not exactly Ozzie Smith in the field, he led the NL in putouts with 301, so committing 25 errors (fifth in the NL) in 722 chances isn't all that bad. At the plate, he hit a decent .257 with a homer and 29 driven in. He went 5-20 during the 1986 World Series, scoring three runs and driving in 2 more. What I'll remember him for is that he was card #792 in my all-time favorite Topps set from 1989. Although out of Topps' spotlight since 1990, he did make a couple of appearances in three of Topps sets in 2005: Super Teams, Retired, and All-Time Fan Favorites. And he has autograph cards in each set.
• Beckett value: $0.02-$0.10.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 10 cards.

Tomorrow's card will be: Thursday: 1981 Topps Traded #749. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Hope you will be too.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama