Monthly...Scratch That...Whenever Comment Mailbag: Before The End of the Year Edition!!!

New Year's Resolution #415: Actually stick to a routine on this humble little blog!!!

I haven't done this in a long time, and there are so many to go through, but I promise next year, I'll actually do these comment mailbag response things once a month (probably on the same day I remove blogs from the blogroll...just like the fire department recommends to change the batteries in your smoke detectors when daylight savings time comes). The last time I did one of these things was back in July, so I have a lot of comments to catch up to. Now, I may have responded to some comments already, so thanks to the Google Reader, I can catch and figure out what I want to respond to.

Anyway, on with the comments!!!

To Dan, it's not the "div" thing that's causing the problems with the large amount of space when I format tables on a blog post. I could set it up so that there is just one line of space between the table code and the last bit of text and there would still be that huge gap. I've given up on trying to figure it out, and now it's become a running joke (as you'll see later on when I keep on going with my all-star rosters).

To Ken, if the blogroll not updating is the cause of bloggers quitting, then there would be no more blogs left. It's a glitch that the people in charge of this site have to fix (not mine, but Blogger). I don't know if I should be copying the feed site of the blog, or the actual web address of the blog, but either way, new posts on any of the blogs will show up eventually.

To friend of the blog and frequent commenter TDLindgren, I wouldn't be surprised if all 30 teams will eventually have a giveaway day promotion with Topps cards in some way shape or form now that they have the exclusive license. Many already do so now. However, it seems that most teams will use the cards found in the team-retail packs (online, I've seen auctions for Yankees giveaway days that have packs carrying a few of the same cards that are found in the team sets). Others (like the Giants and the Athletics as I've found on eBay), have their own giveaway days with Topps cards, featuring full team sets, and they include players who didn't appear in the base set. I'm still looking for the 2008 and 2009 Topps Emerald San Francisco Giants sets by the way, so if anybody has a spare set, please let me know.

To both of the ladies from A Cardboard Problem, thank you.

An anonymous poster (I don't mind the anonymous posts so much, but I'd like to know who reads this stuff), after reading my post about this year's All-Star Rookie team, brought up the insert set from 2000 that featured active (at the time) players for an All-Time All-Star Rookie Team. Included on the team were: Mark McGwire, Chuck Knoblauch, Chipper Jones, Cal Ripken, Jose Canseco, Manny Ramirez, Ken Griffey, Jr., Mike Piazza, Billy Wagner, and Dwight Gooden.

He's hoping that with 2010 Topps Series 2, there will be another one of these insert sets, which would include (his picks): Albert Pujols, Dustin Pedroia, Chipper Jones (again), Derek Jeter, Manny Ramirez (again), Ichiro Suzuki, Ken Griffey, Jr (again), Joe Mauer, CC Sabathia, and Roy Oswalt.

While I won't disagree with many of the picks, I think that for 2010, we could find other players for a 2010 version of this set. And I also see a problem with the first baseman choice. Here's why. While Pujols is now the Cardinals' first baseman, he actually was named on to the 2001 team as a third baseman (Craig Wilson of the Pirates was the teams 1b). So you can either put Pujols at third (replacing Chipper), or use players like Ryan Braun or Ryan Zimmerman at third. At first, instead of Pujols, guys like Prince Fielder or even Mark Teixeira would be more appropriate. In the outfield, instead of Manny or Griffey, you have a wide talent pool to choose from, including guys like Magglio Ordoñez, Carlos Beltran, Adam Dunn, Jason Bay, Matt Holliday, etc.

To the writer of Paul's Random Stuff, it's only a theory, and until Topps releases either the actual voting results or what their ballot looked like, we will never know if Wieters was even included. Regardless, congrats to Omir Santos.

To motherscratcher, unfortunately, that auction for all 25 short print cards from 2009 Topps U & H did not sell for $399.00 BIN. In fact, nobody bit on it at all. I have not seen if the seller has broken the set, has kept the set, or maybe even sold it off line. But it goes to show that in this economy, people are using a bit more common sense (because if not for the economy, I would have bit for $399.00, and then my wife would have me sleeping on the couch for a few months...)

Thanks to all who commented on my 500th post (that's how bad I've been at this mailbag thing!!!)

Unfortunately, if I go back any further, responding to any comments from September back would be moot now, especially since we're almost at the end of the year, so I'm going to stop for now.

So ends the monthly comment mailbag for now. Starting next year, I'll try and do better with this. Please keep those comments coming. If just to show that people are still reading this blog. There will be some changes coming next year with both this blog and the Sports Card Blogroll. All of which should make both of these blogs relevant going into the first year of Topps being the exclusive home of baseball cards, both major and minor league (I hope). Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama