Two More Down In P-Town

Stepped out to the mailbox just now and found the addition that P-Town Tom had mentioned when he knocked off four of my most wanted list.  Two more insert sets killed with this double shot....

Hopefully I'm done with these mini 1987's from 2011.  There are enough of the full size variety left on my list for last year.

And this should be the last Golden Moments too.  Figures it was Trout who was the last one.  He's the active version of Jeter as far as my lists go.  He's always on there, and when I get one, I'll end up with two or more.

Thanks again, Tom!

New Custom: Heartifacts Tandems

For a while I was creating customs of a rather cynical nature, poking fun at athletes who did stupid things.  One was Alex Rodriguez.  He appeared with his Yankee cohorts in a spoof of Jersey Shore that I called the new "Joisey" cards.  I also made one with him when he was rumored to have been dating Madonna.  Might have to continue that series at some point.

I didn't actually make one in response to his PED allegations.  A lot of people expected him to fall off the map after that.  But he has rebounded quite a lot since then.  Now he's respected as an analyst on ESPN's baseball broadcasts, and has landed one of the sexiest women around ~ Jennifer Lopez.

Originally, I was going to call this one something like "Winning Materials" since after his playing career ended and the whole steroids mess, he's now "winning" at life again.  But I found this hockey design from Artifacts and had the idea to modify that instead.

Later I will show the step by step progression in construction of this custom.  But for now....behold:

Leading Ladies Of Sports Broadcasting #7

I've got a couple ladies' cards made up and just have to write the bio material, but this time it's my most recent addition to the series, NHL host Jackie Redmond.  I really just noticed her during the playoffs.  Initially I thought she was kind of the girl next door tomboyish type, but after finding some of these photos, the wow factor jumped way up.

Jackie hosted a variety of sports programs on Canada's SportsNet for six years.  She got her start by winning "Gillette DRAFTED 3: The Search for Canada's Next Sportscaster" in 2011.  She was the first female winner.

She is from London, Ontario Canada, and was raised playing and watching hockey.  She just always played, was at a rink or watching Hockey Night in Canada with her Dad.

She's also quite talented on the mic in a musical sense.  I can attest to this myself after seeing her rapping during playoff coverage. 

I say this about a lot of beautiful women, but it's especially true in this case.  It's all about the eyes....

Well almost all.

Check her out in this video from the show that got her started.

Since I built my new computer, some of my fonts changed, so these are different than previous cards, but it's subtle enough that I think they still go together.

4 Most Wanted Fugitives Captured In P-Town

P-Town Tom sent me return fire for a couple Bryant inserts I sent a little while ago.  He put in the accompanying note that he hoped I was happy with the return.

Well, not only did he exceed my expectations for plain old quantity, he hit four of my most wanted list to boot!  So I don't even have to scan them for this post, I can transfer the images from my list site!

First off, the final end to the 100 card Numbers Game insert set from 2016 Allen & Ginter, Babe Ruth.

Keeping with the elusive Yankee theme, here is a set ender for 2014, the Ellsbury SaberStars.  This was back when Topps made inserts that mentioned other things about baseball besides star players, like the new analytics stats.

Then a double shot from in between those two, of 2015 Leaf Baseball Heroes.  The set was a tribute to Stan Musial (and a sticker dump).  Pretty decent for a logoless set.  I needed (a second) Palmer and one of the stat inserts to kill it. 

And finally, you don't have to look at this dude's ugly mug at the end of my top wants list.  Skybox Star Trek Master Series is complete - the last card was the first card - Gowron #1.

Thanks again to Tom!  It's always nice to have to revamp your priority wants to replace ones that you finally got!

A Short Line Opens Now And Zen

Received a small trade from Doe at the Now And Zen blog last week.

Doe sent me four 1990 Upper Deck baseball singles.  Now, how in the heck do I still need 1990 Upper Deck singles you ask?  Well, besides skipping the junk wax era the first time around, I am completing the date line variations from 101 to 199 for this set.  These were four "with" date line variants.  I showed the backs to illustrate.

Also included were the last two circular holograms to complete that set too.  These fit very nicely doubled up in 15 pocket tobacco mini sheets.  If anyone needs any of these, or a starter, I can send them in one of those sheets.

And rounding out the package, there were three Opening Day inserts.  Yasiel looks more like he's about to open up a can of whupass rather than the season....

Thanks Doe!

Blog Bat Around: Rock The Red For Red Scheondienst

Ol' Red's longevity was something to be admired.  I also take pride in usually knowing how to spell his last name correctly without looking.

I went through some of my binders and game used stashes and watched for big blotches of red.  Red frames and uniforms and design colors - hopefully several of these elements together.  Here are my top ten (-ish) red cards in tribute to Red Schoendienst in order by sport.
 
1960 Topps Roy McMillan #45

This one is the only 1960 Topps card that I saw in my binder to use the black and white lettering on the red banner.  All the others used yellow and white for the most part.  Bonus points for being a Cincinnati player too.


1996 Circa Royce Clayton #176

I like the many shades of red on this one.  Probably a nice set to try to collect at some point.  The quote in the corner is a nice touch too.  Clayton played on eight or nine different teams, so his cards only have a couple sections of red pallette card designs - Cardinals and Rangers.


2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Dealing Aces Stephen Strasburg #DA-SS

Pretty straightforward red frame design and all red type with the Nats uniform to boot.  You may recognize some familiar elements that also appear in my series that focuses on more curvaceous subject matter.  This one is from my minor collection of Stras oddballs.


2014 Topps Red Foil Parallel Brian Matusz #547

I've got a lot of parallel Matusz cards, but most of the red ones are frames only.  In 2014, Topps made these "red foil" parallels, which should be called "red shimmer" since they're not just flat red.  They scan very magenta, so I took some phone pics too.  As you can see, you get a different reflective effect from slightly changing the angle.


1994-95 Flair #216, 1996-97 Pinnacle By The Numbers #3, and 2002 Atomic Sergei Fedorov

Fedorov probably has the highest percentage of red in his cards of anything I collect, especially in the Detroit home uniform.  Threw these in together on the scanner, but the Pinnacle and Atomic don't show their shiny so well in scans either.


2007 Playoff Prestige Xtra Points Red Jared Zabransky #239 (/100) 

Scan and photos of the 2007 Fiesta Bowl Boise State quarterback.  I'm still waiting for this guys' other stuff to drop in price since he never really made it in the NFL.  Not sure if he's still in the CFL or not.  Last seen with Edmonton Eskimos a few years ago.


2003 Upper Deck Pros & Prospects Priest Holmes #43

Gonna triple up on Priest to finish things out here.  He's the #1 player I try to "supercollect", and since he was a Chief most of his career, there are a plethora of red washed cardboard to choose from.  The Pros & Prospects is a nice team color themed set that I've recently started.  It's not overly shiny or cluttered, though the type and UD logo are all silver foil.  The simplest of the Priest cards I'll show.


2006 Fleer Hot Prospects Retrospective jersey Priest Holmes #RE-PH

The first of a couple game-used Preists I used here.  Red uni, background and even the fabric swatch.  Not a completely thrilling design, but decent enough.


2004 Leaf Rookies & Stars Longevity Ruby Priest Holmes #45 (/250)

This is the one that's part of the complete rainbow I finished back in 2014.  It's called Ruby, so the magenta-like scan hue is excused in this case.  All kinds of reflected colors on these.


2005 Leaf Certified Materials Mirror Red (& Materials) Priest Holmes #59 (/100) 

Got both the regular and swatch version of this one.  This time they called it Mirror Red, but it still scans more magenta. 

So it's really more than ten, but these are the reddest cards I have.  Probably could have found more in my Capitals collection, but there's a whole higher level to their Redness.

This Day In Baseball History

1996    

In the first inning of their 6-2 victory over the Braves, the Dodgers turn their first triple play in forty-seven years.

After making a running, back-to-the-plate grab of Chipper Jones's popup to short left with runners on first and second,

Juan Castro throws

...to second baseman Delino Deshields

to double up Marquis Grissom,

then the ball is relayed to first baseman Eric Karros

to get Mark Lemke, who was also running on the pitch.

I don't own any of these cards myself except Chipper and Grissom.