Please Stand By!!!

We were hit by some kind of virus a few weeks back. Then, thanks to the gout flareup, I haven't been able to touch the home computer in the basement. Now that we have the proper anti-virus software so we don't get hit again (and again), I have to re-install the software for my scanner (so that I can put images onto this humble, little blog).

One problem, I seem to have lost the original software.

Problem solved: Hewlett Packard has all the software to download on its website.

It will take a bit, but this site will be up and running soon...

Sooner than I thought.

Here is a test image. See if it works. And for the record, yes, I do have this card in my possession.

2013 Topps Update Series #US313 Mariano Rivera SP card.

Thank you for your patience. We will be back with our regular programming soon.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

A Quick St. Patrick's Day Toast

Today is St. Patrick's Day. It is the day that honors St. Patrick, who is the patron saint of Ireland. It also commemorates the arrival of Christianity to the Emerald Isle. In fact, it is said (thanks Wikipedia) that he used shamrocks to explain the Holy Trinity.

My family will be enjoying a slow-cooked corned beef brisket with all the veggies (potatoes, carrots, cabbage) tonight. I would like to apologize publicly to my sister because she is hosting St. Patrick's night dinner as well and I only found out about it three hours after I put the meat in the slow cooker. I have already sent a text saying that we will not make it tonight. Meanwhile, I've been playing Irish music on the computer all afternoon, just to get into the mood.


If anybody says, "Top of the morning to you," to you today, make sure to respond in kind, "And the rest of the day to yourself."

Public Service Announcement (as my wife just said that she found the Bailey's): As you celebrate St. Patrick's Day, please remember to celebrate responsibly.




Now for the baseball portion of the program. If you're wondering, while there are many players of Irish descent in both the Major Leagues and the Minor Leagues, the last native born Irish player was Joe Cleary. Born in County Cork, Cleary only appeared in one game (08/04/1945) in 0.1 inning of work for the Washington Senators. But in that eventful inning, he struck out one batter (the good news), but allowed five hits, three walks, and seven earned runs to score. Saving time for the math, but seven runs in 1/3 innings equals an ERA of 189.

So now, a quick toast to everyone, Irish or just-for-the-day:

May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be at your back.
May your cards collections grow to unmeasurable heights in both volume and value.
May the quest for new cards be swift.
May the journey of life treat you well today and always.
And may a certain North Side baseball team win it all this year (just have a decent season...please).
If you catch my drift.

Sláinte!

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

It's Pie Day!!! Wait. Did I Spell That Correctly??!

It's Pie Day!

If you're in the Chicago area, may I recommend a certain family bakery to get your cake, cupcake, and pie fix?

Wait, it's not that kind of "pie day???"

But I had all this stuff I wanted to talk about.

Like what better time to honor Hall of Famer Harold Joseph Traynor who was honored by Topps and The Sporting News in 1976 as one of baseball's All-Time All-Stars.

No?

I also wanted to talk about former Cub outfielder Felix Pie...

Oh, his last name is pronounced \pee-yay\

So what can I talk about today???

It's 3/14...ohh...


Happy "Pi" Day!!!

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

P.S. Just think, next year, I can run this post again on 3/14/15 9:26:53...jba

Today Is My Birthday!!! Happy Birthday to Me!!!

My Birthday Breakfast. Thanks to Zeb and the kids for making it for me.

My facebook feed has been exploding all day, and I couldn't figure out why.

Then I looked at the date.

I'm kidding of course. I know why I've been getting phone calls and comments on my FB timeline.

It's my birthday today. I am now 38 years old.

Let's put that into perspective. In 2013, there were 43 MLB players who played at least one game during the season who were older than me. That number has decreased as a number of them announced that last year would be their last active season. Guys like Mariano Rivera, Ted Lilly, Andy Pettitte are now among the list of retirees. The "youngest" player who is older than me now is Paul Konerko (born March 5, 1976). And it could happen this year that a guy born after I graduated from high school (in 1994) might make it to the bigs (for the record, Jurickson Profar was born in 1993, when my brother graduated high school).

Feel old yet?

I have every eponymous Topps and Traded/Update set since 1976, including the set from 2014 that I just completed and put into sheets last weekend, I have 39 Topps of the 64 Topps sets. As of right now, every player who has appeared on a Topps card from 1951 through 1990 are no longer in baseball. In 1991-1992 Jason Giambi made his first appearances in the Topps Traded set as a member of Team USA. He would then again as a prospect in 1994. His first "solo" Topps card can be found in 1996. Darren Oliver's first Topps card can be found in 1995. And of course, Derek Jeter made his first Topps appearance in 1993.

Today, I'll be working (thank goodness for this...last year at this time, I was still trying to find work). I am blessed to have the ability to work from home. With the winter we've had (and yes, it snowed again in Chicago even after we had two days of 50+ temps), I've been fortunate to be productive at my new job.

For my birthday, I have five packs of unsearched 2014 Topps cards, and a blister pack that contains four more. I am getting more and more disgusted with the pack searchers. It's been more than a month since this stuff came out, and last night, I see packs that have these tiny tears on the bottom from people trying to find that "hot pack." I have never seen it so blatant as I did last night. It's a shame.

Let's open one of those packs now...

• #157 Matt Adams, Cardinals
• #051 Kyle Lohse, Brewers
• #105 Ryan Howard, Phillies
• #320 Hector Santiago, White Sox
• #174 Bobby Parnell, Mets
• #149 Miguel Cabrera 2013 Season Highlights
• #SV-2 Miguel Cabrera Super Veterans (Retail Exclusive)
• #089 Jarred Cosart, Astros
• #127 Yusmeiro Petit, Giants
• #326 Khris Davis, Brewers
• #120 Kevin Correia, Twins
• #325 Trevor Plouffe, Twins

Overall, a pretty typical pack, although the odds of getting a SV card does come 1:8 packs.

So Happy Birthday to Me!!!

And Happy Birthday to Bryan Hebson.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Images for the 2014 Topps Retail Team Sets are Live!!!

With the baseball season already underway, and because I've already secured my S1 Master set, the next set of products my attention goes to (unless Gypsy Queen comes out) is the team retail sets. Hey, some people go ga-ga over Heritage, I feel the same way towards the team sets.

Readers who have stuck with this humble, little blog, even as I have withered to obscurity, know that I absolutely LOVE the retail sets. Since 2006, I have made it my mission to include these awesome supplements to the eponymous Topps set into my collection. And I have succeeded in getting all 30 team sets (plus the All-Star Team sets since 2011) since then. That's 246 total team sets.

Well, in searching for any info on these beauties, I found this on the MLB shop website:

All 30 team sets (not counting the possible AL and NL All-Star sets) are listed, with pre-sales for just under $20.00 before shipping charges...and they come with binders and pocket pages.

For the first time, Topps will be including coupons within the team sets? I know in recent years that coupons for Topps products have been inserted in retail boxes. A $0.50 coupon might not sound like much, but if it means a price break on packs, it could be worth it.

If I can find better images, and possibly preliminary checklists, I'll get them posted onto the blog. Until then, here is the list of the "cover players" for each team (subject to change):

• Arizona Diamondbacks: Paul Goldschmidt
• Atlanta Braves: Justin Upton
• Baltimore Orioles: Manny Machado
• Boston Red Sox: Dustin Pedroia (note that the logo on the prelim package is the 2013 WS Champions)
• Chicago Cubs: Anthony Rizzo (note that the logo on the prelim packages honors Wrigley Field's 100th anniversary)
• Chicago White Sox: Chris Sale
• Cincinnati Reds: Joey Votto
• Cleveland Indians: Nick Swisher
• Colorado Rockies: Troy Tulowitzki
• Detroit Tigers: Justin Verlander
• Houston Astros: Jarred Cosart (looks like the Future Star theme will carry over here...will every team set have one?)
• Kansas City Royals: Alex Gordon
• Los Angeles Angels: Mike Trout
• Los Angeles Dodgers: Clayton Kershaw
• Miami Marlins: Jose Fernandez
• Milwaukee Brewers: Carlos Gomez
• Minnesota Twins: Joe Mauer
• New York Mets: David Wright
• New York Yankees: Derek Jeter
• Oakland Athletics: Josh Donaldson
• Philadelphia Phillies: Chase Utley
• Pittsburgh Pirates: Andrew McCutchen
• St. Louis Cardinals: Yadier Molina
• San Diego Padres: Andrew Cashner
• San Francisco Giants: Buster Posey
• Seattle Mariners: Felix Hernandez
• Tampa Bay Rays: Wil Myers
• Texas Rangers: Yu Darvish
• Toronto Blue Jays: Jose Reyes
• Washington Nationals: Bryce Harper

Maybe I should hound @toppscards about the team sets the way some collectors ask about Heritage...nah.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Oh My God...Has it Really Been More than a Month??!

Where has the time gone? Here I am thinking that I was just about to catch up and then...

Silence...

No, I'm still here...

In fact, a lot has happened to me Hobby-wise since I last wrote here on this humble, little blog...including:

• Getting a package of cards that didn't belong to me, and it turns out that there is a really bad plot afoot that included me having to change my eBay and PayPal passwords...not that my info was compromised, but I'm not going to take any chances.
• After opening my packs of cards, I was able to help a collector on Facebook complete his basic set. Although I did not request anything in return, he did send some cards my way regardless.
• Yes, I have the master set of 2014 Series 1 Topps, including the retail-exclusive Super Veterans set.

But between dance competitions, gout flareups, and finally figuring out how to accomplish my new job responsibilities in a more timely fashion, I can't believe it's been a month since I last wrote anything...

And spring training games have already started...and the Dodgers and Diamondbacks will begin the 2014 season in Australia in just under two weeks.

Well, just to let you know now that we're getting back into the swing of things...

Does anybody want any cards from 2014 Topps Series 1? How about from previous years? Have any want lists that need to be filled? Send them my way. I need to try and liquidate the extra cards that are taking up space in the basement. Just saying.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

RIP Ralph Kiner 1922-2014

2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Archives Autographs #RK.

Just heard this afternoon that Ralph Kiner, who did most of his damage in the mid 1940's through the early 50's with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and after a stint with the Cubs and Indians became a long-time broadcaster with the New York Mets, passed away today. He was 91 years old.

From the year he made his MLB debut through 1952, Kiner led the National League in home runs, hitting 294 during that seven season run, becoming the player to lead the NL in home runs in seven consecutive seasons. He was also a six-time All-Star (five times with the Bucs, one with the Cubs), and was inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame in 1975.

I bring all of this up because of the card above. Kiner was one of 21 subjects who were not included in the 2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites set but had an autograph card (and one that was part of that elusive Group A - limited to 50 cards). The following year, Topps included him in the base set...and used the same picture above for the base card. On the checklist, he was included as an autographed card...meaning that this card was used for two consecutive years.

Regardless of all of that, this humble little blog sends its condolences to Mr. Kiner's family, the Pirates organization, the Mets organization, and Major League Baseball.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama