A Slow Month on the Blogroll...This Can't be Good!!!

It's now been a month since I last cleaned the Sports Card Blogroll and what better time to maintain it (meaning removing the inactive blogs) than inbetween finally (long overdue) putting those 17-card team sets that I bought months ago into binder sheets (which...by the way...I'm wondering what the heck happened Ultra-Pro??? These sheets are horrible!!!)

So to recap, before the cleanup, only four blogs were added to the blogroll, bringing up our count from 313 last month to 317. The following blogs are being moved to the inactive section of the sidebar and off the active blogroll:

• Field of Cards
• Changing of the Cards
• Baseball Card Clutter
• Bloop Single
• New Card Smell
• Card Cache
• Pack Addict
• 26 Cent Summer
• Leading Off for the Orioles...

Nine blogs are now off the roll. This brings the blog population down to 308 blogs (or a -5 decline). As always, if any of these are your blogs and you plan on starting them up again, please let me know so I can take them off the inactive list. And once again, if you do have a blog, or follow a blog that isn't on the Sports Card Blogroll, send me an e-mail at bdj610@hotmail.com and I will be more than happy to add them to the active roster of Hobby bloggers. I know it's been a rough year. Even my collecting habits have taken a hit. But the phenomenon of blogging about the Hobby we love can't possibly have peaked now. So keep on writing, keep on commenting, keep on collecting, and keep on sharing those journeys.

The more, the merrier.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

And thewritersjourney Comes Up With the Answer...

You know, I did have a feeling that I saw or heard about those cards before...and I did have a sinking feeling that they had something to do with either the All-Star FanFest or the All-Star Factory sets. And thewritersjourney does confirm my hunch regarding the All-Star FanFest.

Enclosed is a picture from an auction from the Bay. These are cards MM1-MM5 in the now confirmed 10-card Mickey Mouse All-Star Game set:


The auction goes on to say that these five cards came from a wrapper redemption at the 2010 FanFest. The cards are of:

• MM1 2010 All-Star Game
• MM2 American League
• MM3 National League
• MM4 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
• MM5 Los Angeles Dodgers

This now wraps up the mystery. Thanks to thewritersjourney for the quick response. The above auction has about 11 hours to go before it ends. And with more of the other five cards now appearing on the Bay, why not complete a full set by winning both auctions. And then contact me if you wind up with all ten cards. Only because my daughter saw them and said she was interested in the whole set...not just the five cards.

That's my girl. She's got the completist mentality as well. A partial set is not good enough...she wants them all!!!

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

M-I-C...K-E-Y...M-O-U-S-...WHAT??!

To respond to Don, who complained about the SP Mickey Mouses (or would that be Mickey Mice) cards in 2010 Topps Update Series, let me give a bit of an update myself.

brentandbecca, one of the biggest case breakers in the hobby, broke forty cases (or so) of the latest product, and determined that there are only...FIVE MICKEY MOUSE CARDS!!!


Yes, friends, only five of these Disney creatures showed up in the cases found so far. In fact, the one auction that had this (which as we speak has only seven minutes or so left, and one bid...) has the five above cards on display.

The description on said auction goes on to read that these carsd are numbered MM6-MM10:

• MM6 Braves
• MM7 Cubs
• MM8 Mets
• MM9 Yankees
• MM10 Giants

Which now leads to one great question, one that I think I know the answer to, but I doubt it...

What were the first five cards and where do you find them??? Does anybody know? Does anybody have scans?

Let the hunt continue...Sorry Don.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1961 Topps #458 Willie Tasby

It's Retro Sunday!!! Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Sunday, October 24, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1961 Topps #458.
• Player Name, position, team: Willy Tasby, outfielder, Washington Senators.
• Major League Debut: September 9, 1958.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1960 stats (Orioles-Red Sox): 144 G, 470 AB, 77 R, 126 H, 19 2B, 2 3B, 7 HR, 40 RBI, .263 ERA.
• Any special information about player: Signed with the Browns as a Free Agent before the 1950 season. Selected by the Senators in the Expansion Draft #37th, 10/14/1960. Bats: right, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Tasby's third regular Topps card (total includes regular cards only). After a colorful start to the 1960's, Topps returned (thankfully) to a vertically oriented design for the 1961 campaign. It may have been a bit bland compared to what was named the "Set of the Decade" by Topps Magazine readers in 1991, but what was found in packs of 1961 Topps were cards filled with large pictures, headshots and poses alike, dominating the 2½ x 3½ piece of cardboard, with the only design element the rectangles that held the name, position, and team name of the player above. Willie Tasby made it to the big leagues when rosters expanded in September, 1958. He did well enough to impress the coaching staff that he won the centerfield position for the 1959 Orioles. He even was named to the first ever Topps All-Star Rookie team. Traded to Boston in June, 1960 (the bio on the back goes into full detail about the transaction that sent him to the Red Sox in exchange for Gene Stephens) he hit for a .281 average (108 hits), 7 hrs, 37 rbi. Tasby was exposed by the Red Sox in the AL expansion draft in December. The expansion teams, the Los Angeles Angels, and the Washington Senators (the original Senators moved to Minneapolis), were set to choose players from the eight existing American League teams only. And Tasby was selected as the 19th player for the new Senators. And it was with the Senators that he achieved career highs in home runs and rbi's (17 and 63 respectively). Below his statistics are cartoons depicting Tasby's minor league career (leading the Piedmont League with 27 home runs in 1954; hitting for a .322 average with AAA-Louisville in 1958), and his interests off the field ("Willie enjoys listening to modern jazz recordings. Solid.")
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $3.00-$8.00.
• How many cards of this player do I own?: 0 cards.

In case you're actually wondering, I don't own this card, but was able to get a crystal clean copy of the image from the from the Baseball Card Cyber Museum. So thank you Joe McAnally and the folks at the BCCM. (You have to stop by and visit them now. They just announced that they are allowing more people to enter the museum at one time.)

Well, it's back to normal on Monday. Tomorrow's card will be: 1983 Topps #299. Post will arrive at 1:00 PM CST. Come on back then to see what the Topps Card Randomizer gets us to look at then.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

And So It is Set that on Wednesday, the World Series Begins...

in San Francisco, CA!!!

Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants, the 2010 National League Champions!!!

The Giants make their first appearance in the World Series since 2002. So now the World Series pits a team that has never been to the big dance before vs. a team that hasn't won it since moving to the West Coast in 1958 (the Giants last won it all in 1954).

So the Freak, Kung Fu Panda, and the rest of the boys are moving forward while the Fighting Phils are left to wonder what could have been. Hats off to them though for making the series worth watching.

Would it be too cliché to say...THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!!! THE GIANTS WIN THE
PENNANT!!! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!!!

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

One Final Note: If Topps Total was Still Around...

Then this guy's card would have been number #666.

Have a nice day.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Random Topps Card of the Day: 1977 Topps #594 Biff Pocoroba

Thanks to the Topps Card Randomizer, introducing the Random Topps Card of the Day for Saturday, October 23, 2010:

• Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1977 Topps #594.
• Player Name, position, team: Biff Pocoroba, catcher, Atlanta Braves.
• Major League Debut: April 25, 1975.
• Last Line of Statistics: 1976 stats (Braves): 54 G, 174 AB, 16 R, 42 H, 7 2B, 0 3B, 0 HR, 14 RBI, .241 AVG.
• Any special information about player: Drafted by the Braves 17th, June 1971. Bats: both, Throws: right.
• Any special information about this specific card: Pocoroba's second regular Topps (total includes regular and traded cards only). The only problem I have with the cards from 1977 Topps (at least the ones in my possession anyway) are that many are so off-center, you have to wonder if quality control was asleep at the wheel back then. Of course, if you've ever seen pictures of the process of cutting cards (I think Topps Magazine #5 had this), you could only imagine that with millions of sheets to print, certainly some would have been cut improperly. Such is the case of this second-year card of Biff Pocoroba. Now I have to admit, until I pulled this card for the CotD, I have only heard the name Biff used twice in my lifetime. The first Biff I knew was the muppet from Sesame Street (Biff and Sully), and the other was Biff from the Back to the Future movie. Thanks to a great 1974 season in AA-Savannah (.311, 9 HR, 45 RBI's), Biff made the jump to the majors in 1975 (that's according to the bio. It also goes on to say that he hit left part of the season. Of course he did, he was a switch hitter). It was in 1977 that he appeared in 113 games, the only season in his ten seasons, all with Atlanta, that he reached 100 games. Of course, with the number of games played that year, he reached career highs in a number of offensive statistic (46 runs, 96 hits, 8 home runs, 44 runs batted in, .290 average, .445 slugging). In fact, the following year, he made the NL All-Star team. Injuries over the years cost him playing time, and after the 1984 season, he called it a career.
• Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.12-$0.30.
• How many cards of each player do I own?: 9 cards.

Tomorrow is Retro Sunday, the one day of the week that we feature a card from 1951-1975. The card we will feature tomorrow is: 1961 Topps #458. Come back at 1:00 PM CST to see who (or what) it is.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama