Sharpe Since 92

The Ginter Code, finally some progress

2011-11-17T13:10:00.000-06:00

The last four tweets that the Codemaster blasted out a few weeks back did limit the search field, and also sucked me back in for a bit on the code.

Since he was nice enough to tell us that the the clocks on the ad cards pointed to baseball cards my brain was focused enough to finally see the connection. I've shared this revelation with a couple people thus far, and one other code-head(?) agreed with me. So perhaps me, I, we, us, they, them, all ya'll are onto something finally.

That being said, even if you haven't landed on which cards the clocks point to, what would you do with those cards?

I had been thinking about that right after I read the tweets. I thought to myself "even if I had the cards, how would I know they were the right cards and what would I do with them?"

That's the kicker this year, you have to believe enough in your method to get from times on a clock to baseball cards to move blindly to the next section of breaking the code. If you haven't already read the account on how the 2008 code was broken, you should do yourself a favor and do that now because I feel like this code will have some similar properties.

Okay, so we're back to the 2011 code in all its backwards-clocky-goodness. You have 10 code cards infront of you. Some of the corners of these cards have symbols on them which you have translated into numbers by either using your decipher cards (which have the numbers on the back in some way shape or form) or you put the puzzle together and realized the first row of the puzzle, plus the next symbol from the second row represent numbers 1-30. I'm sure after 4 months this isn't news to anyone who has looked at the Ginter Code.

What may boggle your mind is what the heck to do with the numbers on each of the corners of the cards you've pulled. And it should, because that's what's stopping you from decoding the message this year. And it's stopping me right now too.

So, if you are burned out on trying to figure out how to find the gosh darned correct cards, sit back and think about how you'd use the numbers in each corner of the cards to decipher the Codemaster's poem. It's not going to be magic, but it's certainly not going to be straightforward either.

Just remember, no one ever solved a code by staring at it, you've got to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. Just keep trying different things, but above all else try to think about how you'd turn a message into numbers using the poem.

That is all. I'm out for now.

Re-alignment? How I'd Blow Up Baseball And Start Over

2011-11-16T16:10:00.001-06:00

The Astros to the AL eh? Instead of something simple, let's just blow it all up. Why not? All the records are tarnished from steroids anyway, right? Let's just start over and usher in a new era of baseball.

Starting with the divisions. Four. Four divisions. North, South, East and West. There are no leagues anymore. The AL and NL are gone. As is the crazy All-Star game to decide who gets homefield advantage (stay with me, we'll get there).

What's left? Glad you asked.

MLB East
Toronto Blue Jays
New York Yankees
New York Mets
Boston Red Sox
Philadelphia Phillies
Baltimore Orioles
Washington Nationals

MLB South
Miami Marlins
Tampa Bay Rays
Atlanta Braves
Houston Astros
Texas Rangers
St. Louis Cardinals
Kansas City Royals

MLB North
Minnesota Twins
Milwaukee Brewers
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
Detroit Tigers
Cleveland Indians
Cincinnati Reds
Pittsburgh Pirates

MLB West
Seattle Mariners
San Francisco Giants
Oakland Athletics
San Diego Padres
Los Angeles Dodgers
Anaheim Angels
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies

There we go. While we're at it, since it's just MLB and there isn't an AL/NL, we have to make a decision on the DH. I feel like it's inevitable that the DH will win out someday, so let's just get on with it. I like the strategy of the NL too guys, but I'm making a concession here.

Let's move onto the schedule and playoffs. For starters, we're going to shorten the season slightly to accommodate a larger playoff system. This is win-win. It allows us to further distance ourselves from the tarnished steroid-era records, and gives us a chance to expand the postseason and only play 7 game series. 5 game series are lame. I'll sacrifice a couple weeks of the regular season for better postseason play.

All four division winners are in the playoffs, and then we've got 8 wild cards to dish out.

Round 1 of the playoffs is the wildcard round. It will be seeded based on record.

#1 BYE
#5 v #12
#7 v #10
#4 BYE

#2 BYE
#6 v #11
#8 v #9
#4 BYE

Round 2 of the playoffs is the divisional round and will feature the divisional winners (who did not play during the first round) against the winners of the wildcard round. Imagine the NCAA brackets, but slightly modified. #1 gets the lowest seed to come out of the 5/12 and 7/10 games with #4 getting the leftovers. Same goes for #2 and #3 on the other side.

Round 3 of the playoffs is the championship round. The Final Four. Let's do this.

Of course Round 4 of the playoffs is the World Series.

I reckon we're going to need to shorten the regular season to approximately 148-150 games to fit in the new playoff system, and we're going to need some more cable carriers to step up and broadcast all the games.

As for the regular season, each team in the 8 team divisions will play 13 games against each divisional rival. That's three 3-game series, and a 4-game series. Each team in the 7 team divisions will play 14 games against each divisional rival. That's two 3-game series and two 4-game series. This leaves each team in the 8 team divisions with 57 games to play against other teams in the MLB. Each team in the 7 team divisions has 64 games to play against other MLB teams. You'll average a 2 or 3 game series against every other team in baseball. This is about as fair as it gets people!

In case you are wondering how the season would have turned out, your division winners and 1-4 seeds would have been:

Phillies (East)
Brewers (North)
Rangers (South)
Diamondbacks (West)

The Wildcard round would have featured these matchups:

Yankees v. Angels
Rays v. Braves
Tigers v. Giants
Cardinals v. Red Sox

Let's assume all the teams that made the playoffs moved on you'd have seen a Divisional round like this:

Phillies v. Yankees
Rays v. Diamondbacks
Brewers v. Tigers
Cardinals v. Rangers

I get a smile on my face just thinking about all of this. And I consider(ed) myself a baseball traditionalist.

Oh yeah, one last thing, home field advantage in each round goes to the best record, and the format will be 2-2-1-1-1 for the seven game playoff series.

A TWO FOR ONE: HEY CODEMASTER AND MVP WATCHERS

2011-09-23T07:39:00.000-05:00

It's Matt Kemp's birthday today. In honor of this occasion:

"I'd like to wish Matt Kemp happy birthday today,even though most of the codebreakers have gotten sour. Cheer up, sit back and wait for a tweet to come out slightly half past some hour."

Ryan Braun is the NL MVP

2011-09-02T10:03:00.000-05:00

With apologies to Matt Kemp, who is having a great year for a terrible team, I hereby proclaim Ryan Braun NL MVP.

There are a bunch of players in consideration, the Phillies aces, Justin Upton, Albert Pujols, etc, etc . . . but in the end the clear choice is Ryan Braun and I'm not just being a homer about it.

Braun currently leads Kemp in AVG, OBP, SLG, and OPS. Sure, he trails him by a few homers and stolen bases, and sure, Kemp may end up a 40/40 guy, but I don't care.

Maybe the steroid era ruined me. 40 homers just doesn't sound like that many anymore. Maybe if Matt Kemp was going to hit 58 homers and steal 40 bases I'd give him a second look despite his team's lackluster performance, but he's not going to do that.

Maybe if Matt Kemp was going to steal 80 bases, something really amazing, I could get on board. But what if Matt Kemp is just taking off for second base after every single chasing the 40/40 club thing? I mean, I would. My team is going nowhere, who cares if I'm thrown out. MVP! MVP! Run Matt, run!

Sorry, I'm coming off as a Kemp hater, and I'm not. He's a terrific player and would be even more deserving of the two man fight for the MVP if the Dodgers were headed to the postseason, but they aren't - so he isn't.

Ryan Braun should finish up with around 35 HRs and nearly 40 steals as well. As I said with Kemp, neither total is mind boggling, but in a two man race, the tie goes to Braun.

Silly Codemaster, Tricks Are For Kids!

2011-08-25T20:44:00.000-05:00

Dear Codemaster:

Since you have some sort of conduit into the "masses" trying to solve the code, let me give you this to chew on.

No one is quitting, but they could be frustrated because you are straight gaming us. Make with the clues man. I mean, I do love devoting a giant space in my house to an entire set of cards laid out side by side but I'm pretty positive my wife is just going to pick them up and burn them pretty soon. And that's going to make me sad.

Plus, I'm guessing this little chunk of society trying to solve the code, those 613 followers would love to go back to being productive members of society soon. Just a thought.

What's more, do you hear that? All I hear are these wild geese everywhere. It's going to take months to clear them off my property.

Thanks,
Sharpe

Dear Mr. Codemaster, Where Did You Go?

2011-08-08T14:43:00.000-05:00

Time for another "where'd the Codemaster go?" post. Seems like every time I post something to this effect he wakes up from his drunken slumber, shaves off his 4 day old beard, gets himself back into shape and manages to fire off another line from his "poem".

I get the idea of wanting to control the pace of the code so that they can make it last longer, but this may be the most boring thing I've ever participated in.

I reserve the right to amend that statement if at some point during this lollygagging something substantial happens and then fun begins.

Ginter Code, moving at the speed of molasses

2011-07-28T09:08:00.000-05:00

Hey, so, if any of ya'll out there are working on this thing, and need scans of anything, just let me know. Willing to share everything I've collected to generate more interest in this thing while it plods along at a snails pace. I require nothing in return, just want to see those interested get everything they need to move forward.

Dear Codemaster

2011-07-19T14:43:00.001-05:00

I love the wicked games you play, but I've got you licked this year.

Sincerely,
Sharpe

2011 Ginter Code Live Blog . . . I Wish

2011-07-15T15:38:00.000-05:00

Who would have known what great lengths The Codemaster would have gone to this year to preserve his precious secret message(s).

But, by gosh, he certainly has. Let's start with the fact there is an entire 350 card code parallel set to go along with some other key cards and who knows what else. This thing is a monster. I can say that after just 5 days of what I'll call "information gathering" I'm tired. I'm tired mentally more than I'm tired physically.

In the past, it's behooved people to work together, or work in teams, or whatever, but this year, even that luxury has been mostly mitigated. Having one person trying to assemble all 350 cards to play around with is one thing, having two or three or four trying to do it? That's just insanity. Just try keeping track of 350 images of cards yourself, let alone making sure someone else has copies of everything.

And even once you get your arms wrapped around that portion of the code, there's still the fact you need to figure out what to DO with the darn cards.

So, between the code, a 15 month old, and just keeping up with my streaking Brewers I could no more live blog my attempt on the code this year than I could figure out how to solve the deficit crisis. Just fitting in a good 7 hours of sleep each night is challenging and I'm sure there are people that are hitting this thing harder than me (YOU GUYS ARE CRAZY PEOPLE!)

That being said, I've had several other bloggers and code aficionados contact me and I've been happy to talk Ginter Code with everyone and I've even done some trading. So please, feel free. I think everyone could use a little banter during what is likely to be the biggest blowout of a Ginter Code we've seen to date.

Let's Trade! Ginter Code Trading Scans Madness

2011-07-13T07:03:00.000-05:00

Last night, as I went to bed, I quickly became disillusioned with the Ginter Code.

Kudos to the Codemaster for taking into account the group dynamic and putting together a huge code. The only thing is, I'm put off by the greed. Late last night you could see people selling scans of their code cards on Ebay. I have little problem with that, but when you consider the fact that some people bought a group of code cards only to see their cards then sold as scans, well, that sucks.

So here's what I want to do. Let's just get Part 1 of the Ginter Code over with as quick as possible. As collectors lets do what we did as kids. Let's trade the heck out of these, for free.

A couple days ago, I actually purchased code cards, a big chunk, and a few decipher cards, before the madness started and my stomach turned. If you want to trade, let's trade, I just want to see everything right with the world of Ginter Code.

Contact me via my profile here. I'm most interested in the code cards themselves at this point, but will trade and trade for the decipher cards as well. I have a few hundred available. We can swap needs.

Happy Codebreaking, and let's feel the love people, not the greed!

Sharpe

Where Are The Ginter Code Cards?

2011-07-11T19:46:00.000-05:00

Who does a brother have to, ummm hook up with cards(?), to uhhhh see some 2011 code card action?

The people are thirsty for Ginter Code nuggets. My page views are off the chart, so it must be true. I know nothing. Although I suspect it has something to do with the Free Masons (no I don't, or do I?).

Hook a brother up with some Ginter lovin'. If I get my hands on any I'll post em up.

2011 Ginter Code

2011-07-11T09:01:00.001-05:00

Apparently Ginter has been live, somewhere, for a while (I was unaware) and 2009 co-champ/2010 team-champ Nick Jacoby has a little info about this year's code.

I'll be curious to see how this year's code plays out. Each of the previous year's codes were a variation on the transposition cipher, some of which included using null characters (dummy characters to be thrown away).

The interesting thing about the evolution of the Ginter code is the use of implied and written keys.

For instance the first code in 2008 used like words to link together a chain of cards (implied order), and then used numbers to grab the word and set the position of said word. Very cool.

The second year, 2009, the first key was implied through the patterns found in the borders of the 100 code cards. Once this order was set, a boxed letter on each card told you which letter you needed and the message that was formed gave you the last key to the transposition which used the symbols on the cards, and the color of the backgrounds. Null characters also needed to be removed from the final string of characters to make a readable message.

And last year, 2010, the first layer of transposition was implied through the use of subsets (Celestial Stars) and perhaps even the code advert card (constellations in the background). The second transposition key was written on the cards in the form of stats on the back of the card. Also cool.

Unless the Ginter Code makes a giant leap into the world of substitution ciphers (which I doubt) we should be looking at another multi-layered transposition cipher, with some implied keys and some written keys. Looking forward to seeing some cards later this week.

HBL Week 5: Hey Carl Crawford, Hit Or Get Off The Pot!

2011-04-29T09:41:00.000-05:00

And we're back for yet another year of blogging my fantasy baseball team. Because, quite honestly, I found great pleasure in re-reading some of the craziness I posted in relation to the 2010 season.

I signed Benji Molina year ago today. Really? Really? Things are so much better this year (kind of).

Here's the deal. My fantasy team is rolling with Russell Martin at catcher while Carlos Santana works the kinks out. I was able to pick up Martin in exchange for Ian Kennedy a couple weeks ago. I liked Ian a lot, but quite frankly I was never going to trust him enough to play him this year.

I went the value pitching route this year, rather than throwing all my money into say CC Sabathia or Dan Haren. Although, at this point, those would have been great moves. I'm suffering from Win-itis on my team right now.

You see, on a weekly basis, I trot out some combination of 4 or 5 starters from a group of Brett Anderson, Josh Beckett, Derek Lowe, and Ricky Nolasco. I've been smart enough not to pitch John Lackey up until this point, although I did make the mistake of running Narveson out there this week for 2 starts. But anyway, as I was saying, these cats aren't winning any games, and while I've been rolling out three closers in Papelbon, Marmol, and Bell that also means that I'm dead last in Ks.

ERA and WHIP are great, which is the reverse of a year ago. It took every fantastic 2 start option I could find last year to pile up enough Ks and every safe SP start to bring down my ERA and WHIP from the mountains they began the year on in 2010.

Although in 2011 I face a similar problem to what I like to call the Lance Berkman fiasco from last season.

CARL CRAWFORD. WOULD YOU PLEASE HIT THE BASEBALL AND STEAL SOME BASES? YOU ARE DRIVING ME INSANE.

I can handle Aubrey Huff not hitting. That happens. Frequently. But Carl Crawford was supposed to walk on water in Boston with PEDroida, Gonzalez, Big Youk, Ellsbury, etc. Now he hits 8th behind Jed "Career Year" Lowrie and right infront of Jarrod "Way Too Much" Saltalamacchia.

I'm benching Carl Crawford next week, and I'm sick about it.

Week 5 should also mark the return of Evan Longoria. Finally. A month without Longo. Thank God I have Jose Bautista as well. Chipper Jones and Scott Rolen were both trotted out for a couple of weeks, but they can't seem to stay in the lineup much of the time and Rolen hit the DL already.

The only people I can applaud on this team up to this point are Rickie Weeks and Troy Tulowitzki. Thank you guys. Thank you for doing your jobs. Now let's go out there this week and start the march toward back to back titles.

2011 Allen & Ginter, the Ginter Code, and my 2010 Ginter Code Diary

2011-03-30T09:24:00.003-05:00

While I'm "off cards" right now, I must admit that this design appeals to me . . . a lot. I dig the logo box in the bottom right corner and how it's offset diagonally in the upper left hand corner. Oh, and did I mention that I can't wait for the 2011 Ginter Code.

The Ginter Code series is what spawned my interested in cryptography and cryptanalysis. I've gained another hobby and am very thankful to Topps for that. For any of you that are planning to pursue the 2011 code I'd suggest gaining a basic understanding of how cryptography works.

For the 2008, 2009, and 2010 Ginter codes, Topps has employed 3 different forms of transposition ciphers. They stepped up their game last year by adding a layer of message concealment. While I'm not a fan of how it was handled they definitely needed a way to try and prolong the code-breaking. The issue I had with how it was handled last year is that the previous champ had all the incentive to break down and email Topps first.

Have any of you ever defended a title? Sometimes it can push you to a higher level, sometimes it can make you stressed and panicky. I believe that either way, no matter who had won the 2009 code probably would have found the 2010 ciphertext (code) first. You'd want to repeat and if you had been banging your head against the wall as much as we all were last year, you'd eventually do the only thing you could do. Email Topps. But the previous champ would have been curious first. He'd be wondering if someone solved it. And knowing that an auto-reply message from Topps changed to "Thank you for your submission but the code has been solved." in 2009 once the code had been solved provided a huge incentive for the previous code submitters to find the code last year. It basically took all-out burnout for Nick Jacoby's team to run into the code last year. A point I was headed toward, but didn't quite hit. They hit it faster than me, so kudos to them.

I wanted to add my thought process from the 2010 Ginter Code, and this year I'll be blogging about my attempt to solve the 2011 Code - live - as I'm doing it. I'm okay with someone beating me to the prize using the info I may or may not be able to provide. I feel like everyone is competing against Nick Jacoby plus anyone who finds a crack first this year. I'm not against teams or teaming-up to try and solve the code. It's exactly what a couple of us did last year. I just feel like whoever finds some information first will likely want to see if the two time champ can help him/her solve it first. And that's fine - game on! I'm excited to take my shot at dethroning the champ. Last year you could have solved the code just by seeing the actual code and having a decent knowledge of cryptography. It was basic transposition with some nulls added via the non-baseball player cards.

Anyway, back to 2010. It's great that I have a gmail log of what we were trying last June/July and I'm happy to share how I got from point A to point B and what we tried in lieu of having the ciphertext to work with.

June 28, 2010 - Noticed there were no code card scans on Ebay. Assumed the information was contained in a subset or base set.

June 29, 2010 - Realized there was a 401 card set plus a 75 card subset entitled "This Day In History". One TDIH card included in each pack.

"TDIH feels tacked on for 'no reason'. plus it has numbers, dates, and players birthdays. Feels more plausible than those subsets that come 2 per box. That would take forever to gather."

A spreadsheet is created noting all the TDIH cards. Noted that some cards were replaced from the original checklist. Players base card numbers are logged and birthdays.

June 30, 2010 - At this point nothing is popping out. Find out that Celestial Star cards are seeded at one per case. Acquire scans of all these cards. Sort all TDIH cards by star sign and break the 75 cards into groups to start searching for the transposition key for each of the 12 star signs. Start looking for a way to pull one letter off each card. Birth day number. Month number. No luck, the letters that are coming back are not representative of English using frequency analysis. All of this added to the master spreadsheet.

Per the 2010 solution blog, Nick Jacoby finds the ciphertext by emailing code@topps.com that night.

July 1, 2010 - Noting there are many spelling errors and differences between the front tag line and writing on the back of the TDIH cards. Looking at finding a subset of the cards to find an initial message. No luck. Logged all the wording from all the TDIH cards into excel to be able to pull letters from the cards via formulas.

July 2, 2010 - No progress. Cards are still in Zodiac/Star Sign months. Still looking for local transposition to find partial messages within each group. The irony here is that if we have the actual code, we're probably done. This is why I can applaud Topps for message concealment, just didn't care for the method.

July 2 - July 5, 2010 - I'm out of town for the long holiday weekend, no progress made. Only notable quote from the weekend:

"I just got done watching two shows on TV. Wonder Pets and Dora. Both episodes revolved around getting to Coney Island. I think this a sign. Need to look at the card that references Coney Island again. :)"

July 6 - July 16, 2010 - Pretty frustrated, but never emailed the Topps address to see if anyone had won. Since I had had contact with Nick, I figured if he broke it he'd have told me :)

I didn't figure anyone else was close so I didn't bother to email Topps. In hindsight it would have been a great decision. Heck, by this point in 2009 I had emailed in 5-10 crazy solutions all of which would have gotten me the code this year. I almost wonder if Topps realized only the winners and crazy people emailed that address the previous year and thus decided to hide the code there. Or conversely I wonder if a lot of people emailed in solutions the previous year so they thought it was a good way to slowly distribute the code. Either way, total failure on my part.

By July 18th the Jacoby team had put their solution online.

As I stated, I'm very much looking forward to live blogging my attempt on the Code this year. I need to do something with this blog! So, until this summer . . .

If you get bored, and need something to read you can click through my profile to my other blog where I'm detailing my efforts to solve a cipher that has went unsolved for over 70 years. I'm still working toward the solution - slowly.

Sharpe

Hey. Hi! How's It Going?

2011-03-14T20:52:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted a single thing since Dec 22nd. I checked back in the other day to see that I had something like 400 page views in the last month. I had no idea. Lots of those were related to the two codes I posted last year - which is fantastic. Glad to see people are still looking. Seriously, I'm amazed. Maybe there's some automated blog crawling stuff out there running me up to 400 hits. I'm going to chalk it up to that.

I must admit, I did not have a ton of motivation to post anything over the winter, and I can't believe it's spring already.

Spring training is here, Greinke is already hurt, I'll soon be defending my Trevor Hoffman rookie card over 7.86 arduous miles, and my fantasy baseball auction is this weekend. No better time than the present to post something I guess.

I really only checked in because I heard through the grapevine that SS92 Code Challenge #1 winner Mike Gellner was finally getting a card in this year's Ginter set to commemorate his teaming up with Nick Jacoby (SS Code Challenge #2 winner) to win the 2009 Ginter code. Well, hats off to Mike! Long overdue.

And The Winner Is?

2010-12-22T09:08:00.000-06:00

I figured my little hint yesterday would spark one of the few people working on my code . . .

Someone believes they've solved it and that someone is none other than Nick Jacoby.

Check out his post over at Cardboard Overload.

Solution is not given away, but he has completed the final task. Thank you to everyone that took a look, I really enjoy creating these and will likely take the next step and put out my own set of custom cards for my next one so that I can have complete creative control. Consider it the Ginter Code tune-up for anyone who will attempt to break that code next summer.

I figure I'll need to make it harder to really challenge these Ginter champs.

Congrats Nick.

What to do ... what to do?

2010-12-21T15:25:00.002-06:00

Sneak peak into my brain, maybe . . .

Tis the season! Enjoy.

Oh and anyone who plugs/plugged this code endeavor, well consider yourself on my Christmas list. I'll reach out to you if I don't have your address.

My Last Bit Of Brewers Gold

2010-12-21T10:55:00.000-06:00

Anyone else out there holding some nice 2010 (or 2009) Brewers gold? I'd love to make a trade.

Felipe Lopez was a nice fill-in during the 2009 season while Rickie was on the mend again. Not sure where he ended up last year, but if memory serves me correctly he didn't do much of anything . . .

BREWERS LAND ZACK GREINKE

2010-12-19T07:47:00.001-06:00

Bring on my photoshopped Zach Greinke card!

2010 Topps Update Series - Tony Gwynn SP (US-203)

2010-12-18T10:38:00.002-06:00

I'll add this card over to the Visual Trade Bait page in a few moments . . .

I honestly didn't realize that Tony Gywnn started his competitive donut eating days during his playing days. That's quite the spare tire look he's sporting in this photo. Couldn't we have gotten something a little more flattering?

Are there any Gwynn fans/collectors out there that want/need this card? Please do let me know. I'd love to make a trade. For now I'll plop him beside the Nolan Ryan SP I found in the 2009 Updates & Highlights.

For those wondering, no, the code hasn't been broken yet, but several people have made progress. I'm very excited for those several people! Go bloggers go!

My First MCG Redemption: Sweet Mariner Action

2010-12-17T20:26:00.001-06:00

If I could only remember where I was reading today that the MCG redemption cards seemed to be everywhere now, I'd point you to that person's blog. The problem is I read a TON of your blogs today. I probably left an electronic paper trail littered with comments, but for now know that I read this somewhere and that sets the stage for this post.

I dove headfirst into a jumbo pack of 2010 Update Series (what happened to the U&H moniker? that was short lived). Plenty pleased with the cards I nabbed, which I'll save for another post, I was excited to see I did indeed pull a MCG redemption code.

I then wandered over to www.toppsmillion.com to see what had been recently unlocked. I saw a few 80s cards, a few 90s cards, a few 70s cards and 1 1950s card. It didn't look super promising, but I thought what the heck, I've never done this before, let's give it a whirl!

Here's what I ended up with:

Stan, nice 'stache. And I notched a cool little cartoon on the back as well. A cartoon about someone named Jack Reed.

Well, overall, I'm happy with this experience, although I'm sure if I pulled a 1992 Mark McGwire I'd have a different stance.

More Brewers Gold & Contest Update

2010-12-17T10:28:00.001-06:00

Brew Crew Kockout! Another fantastic card from the 2010 set, and it's in my hands. I'd really really really really love the gold or black parallel of Prince's card #1 from the set. Pleading with you readers out there ...

This card came as part of the aforementioned trade with Nachos Grande. He's building quite the sweet set of 2010 Ginter relics, so see if you can help him out.

Code Challenge #2 is now a week old, and remains unbroken, although I can confirm some chips and cracks have been taken out of it.

Just remember, I have tried to take some common concepts and put them to use in my code. Some that I learned from the Ginter Code challenges and some that I learned on my own. Pattern recognition is key. First Ginter Code had words that interlocked from card to card to set the order. Second Ginter Code had a group of 9 cards in order 1-9 that paired with another group of 9 cards in order to give you your start. Third Ginter Code gave you birthday hints throughout the set to figure out how to group the cards and start the de-transposing. All great codes in their own way, all primarily based on transposition and finding which pieces of text to read.

I Told You I'd Steal This Idea - Visual Trade Bait

2010-12-16T08:48:00.001-06:00

I've finally stolen the visual trade bait idea from the Project 1962 blog.

I was made aware of this blog, and this idea for trade bait during my first code contest when I was pimping a couple of "new to me" blogs. I made quite a few new friends during those weeks, and the same goes for during this code challenge as well.

I've only added a couple of cards to the page, stuff I already had scanned in. Some shiny 2009 Topps Heritage and a couple other cards I'd posted as available in trade before including the Roy Halladay propaganda poster card.

As you can see at the top of my page now there is a tab for "Home" and "Visual Trade Bait", a feature I didn't even know was available but I plan to make more use of now that I know I can add up to 10 other "pages".

I'll post an update as I add more cards to it.

What the heck is the checklist for?

2010-12-15T08:19:00.000-06:00

Anyone know, other than me?

Some Gold & Code Contest Update

2010-12-14T11:22:00.002-06:00

Bernie's Bash Brothers. Love it. I love both you guys equally, but not as much as I'd love having a rotation and bullpen . . . but also not as much as I love the trade I pulled off with Chris at Nachos Grande. You can see the relics I sent his way from the 2010 A&G set. If you've got some lying around that you'd like to deal for cards you'd enjoy more, I'd encourage you to look at his want list. Chris is one of the easiest guys out there to trade with and his list is always filled with potential trade fits. Check it out.

I'd still love to trade for any other 2010 Brewers gold parallels. Let me know if you've got something.

Now for a little code contest update. Last time I put up a code contest, I had a lot better idea who was working on it, and what they had managed to figure out. This time, I know nothing. Which is fine. Just know that I'll be using a sliding scale for determining the prize. Maybe it will slide all the way up to that 1951 Topps Blue Back Johnny Mize card. Anyone find any interesting things in the code yet?

The Game Is Afoot: Code Contest

2010-12-13T08:57:00.003-06:00

Good morning ladies and gents! I'm always astounded at the number of people who click through to look at the codes I've created. I believe the first code challenge brought in somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 page views, although I suspect that 100+ were from the champion himself, Mike from JD's Wild Cardz.

Who will be the first to crack Code Challenge #2? You? You??? YOU???? I'm just curious to see how many people may or may not be working on it. Like last time, if you are kind enough to pimp this little code breaking contest like Nachos Grande I'll be forever grateful and throw you into a drawing for the prize if it's not solved. Just let me know you did so.

Good luck!

CODE CHALLENGE #2

2010-12-11T01:08:00.000-06:00

Justin, You Complete Me

2010-12-10T10:13:00.001-06:00

Maybe more specifically, you've completed my 2009 Topps Series 1 set by sending over Colin Balester. And for that, I couldn't be more appreciative.

If you guys haven't seen Justin's site, or his want list please swing by and see if you can help him out. He's looking for post-2000 Cubs cards as well.

So where have I been for a month? Well, that's a great question, and I've got an equally great answer. Job hunting! Yes, Mr. Economy through me a curveball and decided to set me down swinging. As you can imagine, cards were the first thing cut from the budget. Okay, maybe not the first, but they were UP THERE!

Meanwhile I've been following the Brewers progress this offseason. Very pumped to have added Shaun Marcum to the rotation. Now if we could just find a way to bring Greinke into the fold we'd be set. Maybe a three-way where we move Prince? Or perhaps a trade out west with the Angels who are looking for a bat. I'm just hoping Doug Melvin doesn't settle for Carl Pavano - I'm not a fan. Just don't like him.

I received some other trade packages in the past month or so and I'll get some things posted again now.

I still owe Justin some cards in trade, and I'll be getting something out his way this weekend, and I know there are a couple other people who are waiting for a post about a completed trade with me as well. I haven't forgotten, don't worry!

Oh, and if you're into that sort of thing, I'm also working on the next SS92 code. To debut sometime around New Year's. And yes, Mr. Gellner, I know I still owe you a back-up prize from solving the first one.

Looking For Brewers Gold!

2010-11-04T13:12:00.003-05:00

Ahoy-hoy!

So here's the deal. I skipped the 2010 Topps set, but I would love to have something to remember the season that was 2009 for your Milwaukee Brewers.

I like tradin, so let me know if you've got any of these little devils lying around. I promise to find something you need, want, like in return.

The Braun, pictured above, would be #1 on my list. It looks creepy and awesome with that huge head in the background. The Prince card, the notorious bowling-ball celebration would be very cool to have as well.

If there are other parallels (do they still do the black ones?) I'd be interested in those as well.

I'll go back to mourning my horribly wrong World Series prediction now.

Expanded Playoffs?

2010-10-28T10:10:00.002-05:00

It's like they're reading my mind. It looks like my comments the other day were directly in response to this article (they weren't), but I'm glad to see expanded playoffs are getting a serious look.

That and a 7-game divisional series, which in my opinion is long overdue.

Game 1 Thoughts

2010-10-28T08:36:00.002-05:00

Honestly, I thought the game was over last night when Cliff Lee and the Rangers jumped out to a 2-0 lead.

I just don't believe in these Giant bats, and I still believe it goes no further than Game 5. In my 4-1 prediction, I thought this first game was the one that had the potential to let Lincecum sneak by Lee.

I know the rest of America is cheering for the (s)crappy, waiver-wire, non-Bonds San Francisco Giants, but not me, I'm sticking with my boys the Rangers. I'm looking forward to Game 2 tonight, and seeing the Rangers even up at 1 apiece before heading home.

Playoff Baseball and Why I Can't Root For San Fran

2010-10-25T09:28:00.003-05:00

I love playoff baseball. Why this sport plays a 162 game schedule, to sift through all the statistical anomalies only to allow 4 teams in from each league boggles my mind.

Now, I'm not advocating 8 teams per league like hockey (and maybe baseketball, I checked out on the NBA years ago), but maybe 6 teams per league?

Why not? The two best teams in baseball aren't in the World Series anyway, and I'm not even saying that with negative connotations. I'm going to try to watch every out of the Rangers-Giants series. I find it fascinating. Hitting (and Cliff Lee) versus Pitching (and some waiver wire fodder).

This series is going to be great. Very low rated, but fantastic baseball. This I assure you. The Giants pitching will make the Texas squad as low scoring as their own team of misfit infielders and outfielders.

Now back to the playoff system. Can we just fix this up? I don't care how you do it. I wish the solution was adding two more teams to make four 4-team divisions in each league, but I get the sense teams would be contracted before they were added. I just don't like the 6 team NL Central nor the two 4-team Wests.

In my dream scenario, you'd go all out on realignment with 4 divisions, and 4 division winners with 2 wild card teams, much like the NFL does. Two best division winners get a bye and we go 7 game series in every round. I really don't understand the point of the 5 game series. You play all year, 6 months, 162 games, just to reduce each team to positions players plus 2 or 3 starting pitchers and a couple of bullpen guys? This is nonsensical. 7 game series. Everyone wins. Oh, and schedule in some day-night double headers during the summer to get the regular season wrapped up in late September and get these series going a week earlier.

Do you see why this is a great idea? You pull 4 more teams into the "playoff fever" and the best teams are still saved from being bounced by "a team that doesn't deserve to be in the playoffs" (I'm calling this now, because I know how some of you think about adding more teams to the playoffs).

So there you go, let's get on it. More playoff teams, one more round of playoff baseball. If need be eliminate some games from the regular season schedule. Maybe we can distance ourselves from the shamed record book by retreating back to a little bit shorter schedule to include more action packed playoff baseball.

You with me?

Now back to the World Series. I'm pulling for the Rangers. I like what Nolan Ryan did there, the attitude he instilled in that staff. I like the Cliff Lee angle and I like that offense. Now, I'm not hating on the Giants, and I'm sure 75% of America considers them the underdogs and will be cheering for them, but I just can't get behind that team.

Yes, they have GREAT pitching, but I can't support a team GMd by one of the worst GMs in baseball that put together a team of Juan Uribe, Edgar Renteria, Freddy Sanchez, Travis Ishikawa, Cody Ross, etc, etc. I just can't. I love Lincecum and Cain and Wilson, but I just can't support this team.

Now for my prediction. I've got the Rangers in 5. I believe all the games will be close, but in the end, I see the Rangers bats defying the odds and overpowering the Giants arms.

Side note, can we get Will Clark to DH for both teams? I'd settle for letting him throw out the first pitch and maybe get some light pinch-hitting duty.

I miss you Will.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm Steak!

2010-10-15T12:29:00.002-05:00

JD's Wild Cardz has a contest going . . . but I think I prefer Heinz 57.

Nonetheless, if you like shiny Chrome-y goodness as well as possible super-double-secret prizes, you should check it out!

Stay Tuned

2010-10-15T09:29:00.001-05:00

JD's Wild Cardz will have a breaking news announcement sometime soon today!

You won't want to miss it.

A&G Blastery Goodness?

2010-10-12T13:48:00.004-05:00

Ruiz looks like he's spent quite a bit of time at the post-game buffet table, am I right?

Millwood is proof positive that if you pitched good once a bunch of years ago that some franchise with a terrible pitching staff will still let you go out and throw every 5 days when you aren't hurt.

I don't like Shane Victorino. I'm pretty sure it's solely due to him playing for a fantasy nemesis. I'm sure he's gritty as heck, but I hate him.

This is one of the worst cards I've ever seen. I have no idea what I'm looking at.

And one of the cooler subsets in the A&G product this year, if you ask me, and you didn't, so I'll tell you. Really I dig the art and the stare from De Coronado. Staring contest between him and Ian Desmond . . . no clue who would win. It would be close, but I'm going with Coronado. It's really too bad his ship was eaten by Nessie.

When will I just stop posting the TDH cards, they're pure pain. I'm going to need to roll off back to back Ginter Code wins in 2011 and 2012 just to feel better about it.

For the record, I've heard rumblings that there is another code coming up . . . not on my site again though (yet).

A&G Blaster Pack #5

2010-10-11T08:46:00.003-05:00

I'm leading once again with the mini from the pack. I think Topps did a nice job on the design of some of the mini-subsets and no-so-great on others. Visually the grey is appealing to me, and anchors the card. Dinosaurs are cool.

Who's more ferocious? Velo-ci-raptor or Mike Leake? You're right . . . not Mike Leake. Where' the game face Mike?

E-Jack pre-trade . . . nice game face, but Velociraptor still wins.

Some guy named Tejada. Sorry Mets fans, I'm not required to know who #79 out of spring training is. My knowledge goes deep, but not this deep.

Mark Reynolds once tried to kill a Velociraptor, but he swung and missed him.

... ... ...

Still Testing The Theory: 2010 A&G Blaster Break

2010-10-08T10:43:00.003-05:00

Moving onto pack 4! Little less commentary today, but here we go . . .

I'll lead with the Black Bordered mini parallel of AAAA player Chris Davis. Sorry Chris, the dream is dead. Enjoy your AAA HR titles.

Lucy ...

Durango! (I don't know who this is)

Please enjoy the Barton scan.

Ian Desmond looks angry doesn't he? Does anyone else get the feeling the Nationals will be all the talk of the 2013 season?

Bleh, TDH cards . . . I loath you.

Trade With Kelly At Baseball Obsession-itis

2010-10-07T20:07:00.003-05:00

One of those mutually beneficial trades. Kelly had some of the 2009 U&H lying around that I needed, and I had a little of the same, along with some 2009 A&G to knock of her lists.

There's still more damage to be done on those lists, so if you have a minute, swing by and check those out. It's all nicely Google doc'd so you can come back to it later.

I pictured my favorite card from the trade. Looks like something that should be over at Play at the Plate!

On an unrelated tangent - hmm I think that's redundant, ah well - I did another 2010 A&G Blaster Pack Break to try and prove or disprove JD's Wild Theory. More on that in the AM. Now for some night time baseball action, oh wait, it's all on TBS so I can't see it. Shame!

My ALDS Game #1 Yankees/Twins Photo Tour

2010-10-07T09:15:00.010-05:00

Just grabbed a couple of the pictures I liked that I took at last night's game.

1st pitch!

Liriano was dealing to open . . .

A-Rod, Jeter, and Cano . . .

Thome gets hit by a pitch (you can see the ball after the richochets in the upper left corner of the picture)

Cuddy homers!

Twins try to rally . . .

Jeter tells Mo to shut the door.

I'll try to post more later when I get the chance if anyone is interested in anything specific - let me know!

JD's Wild Theory: Part 3 . . . It's Getting Sketchy

2010-10-06T12:12:00.002-05:00

Pack three (chosen by JD himself as the big winner) featured this sketch card of Mark Buehrle's perfect game from last season. Very cool. Not Theory Proving Cool yet however.

Side note, the mini was this:

Feels like there should be a Spice Girl or the Queen involved in this card.

Contest: Can't Have Too Many Cards

2010-10-06T09:32:00.002-05:00

Especially these cards!

Pretty sure I don't a single of these vaunted rookie cards from the early 80s. I'd love to win. Maybe you would too?

Swing over, and check it out. A comment gets you an entry into the 500th post contest.

JD's Wild Theory Part II: The Hunt For The Undies

2010-10-06T07:20:00.009-05:00

I know there's a swatch of some wrestlers undies waiting for me somewhere in this blaster. JD says so. I don't want to have to purchase a second blaster to prove him even more wrong. So let's dive into pack #2

Neil Walker? Is that his name? This guy must be 29 now. I remember when he was the young up and coming catching prospect in the Pirates organization. I believe some injuries set him back the better part of a decade. Of course my memory is horrible. But here it is, one of 13 of his rookie cards!

Sometime back in 2019 I'm going to come back and look at Mr. Hollands card and remark how young he looks. Baby faced! I'm a fan of his and hope he bounces back into form in the playoffs and next season. Still nothing to prove JD right . . . yet!

Matt Kemp. Man, I wish I didn't confuse you and Andre Either all the time. You're basically the same person to me - which solely has to do with the fact that you both arrived on the scene at the same time, both played outfield, and I'd never heard of either of you when you were making impacts on rival fantasy baseball teams. I can't remember which guy is better though either. Still nothing in our hunt for the undies.

Roy Halladay is a superstar, and I love him. I wish him well in the post season. However I can't bear to look at this card.

Jorge Posada mini. I believe this is a regular backed mini. Definitely not a retail exclusive mini, although with a little work, maybe he could be the next "Hot Tejada"?

Sorry JD, nothing to prove you right here, but we've got 6 packs to go.

In honor of my appearance at the Twins/Yankees game tonight I'll do another pack break at lunch and post the results. Thus far I've opened packs #7 and #8. Any requests for the next one?

JD's Wild Theory

2010-10-05T20:16:00.012-05:00

Mr. JD. I'm calling you out. I have terrible luck with blasters, but you say they're filling them with all sorts of fabulous prizes. Including, but not limited to: diaper swatches, autographs, cool retail exclusive minis and other fine treats.

So here I am, going back on my word not to touch the Topps Allen & Ginter product. But just know it's being done for friends . . . and in the name of SCIENCE!

I can assure everyone this is for the greater good, the trading community, and again . . . SCIENCE.

So with this I bring you . . .

2010 A&G BLASTER PACK 1:

Okay, here we go. Someone called Scott. Old timer. Cool? Maybe. Part of the greatness of buying a blaster? Likely not JD.

Mr. August! Very cool, but not Theory Proving Cool.

Let's pretend this is Balderdash. You guys ever play? Gosh, what a great game for people who like to bs each other. Lyle Oitker is the world record holder for holding both his hands over his head while holding one object in his left hand. He did this for 19 days, 11 hours, 58 minutes, and 12 seconds. Amazing.

Stoic Alex Rios. Game on!

Oh, and then these GD cards. Okay, I'll let it fly. Although we had the right concept for solving the Ginter Code, we were using this cards as the text to build from (since, oh, you know we didn't know we had to give up and email Topps with some random giving-up sort of statement). Many of these cards contain typos on the back. A select few have text on the front that doesn't match the first sentence from the back. We thought we were onto something between these and the celestial star cards. We knew we had to chunk some sub-set of players cards out by birthday, and then use the astrological breaks in the months to order the whichever cards fell into those 12 star signs. Ah, anyway, not even close to Theory Proving Cool. I promise.

Lastly, a mini. A Twins mini. Some sort of non-regular back. JD, it's yours if you want it.

But what, what's this? One more card? Relic??? Auto??? Oh, checklist. 1 Pack down, 7 to go.

We Are The Champions!

2010-10-04T10:41:00.003-05:00

Totally nerdy, but my fantasy baseball team took down the title. This is my fourth in 11 years. Very, very exciting stuff.

I plan to take some of the winnings and get some cards. Maybe break a box and get a couple cards of my team MVPs: Troy Tulowitzki, Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, and Jose Bautista.

So many choices.

I'm looking forward to being at Target Field on Wednesday night for Game 1 between the Yankees and Twins. Although I think the Yankees are the better team, and the Twins pitching is sputtering, I feel like it's just time for the Twins to move past these guys in a short series. I'll be cheering my heart out on Wednesday night!

The Post Season Is Looming

2010-09-29T08:30:00.006-05:00

It doesn't seem like that long ago that the Brewers were riding workhorse CC Sabathia's arm into the October lime-light . . . . ahhhhh the memories.

I really do get excited for playoff baseball. Although I wonder why the first round is played during the day, but I digress.

Lucky me, I've got tickets to Game 1 and Game 5 (if necessary) at Target Field to see the loser of the Yanks/Rays divisional battle take on the Twins in the first round. I couldn't be more excited.

I've never seen playoff baseball (remember, grew up near Milwaukee, with the Brewers, enough said). For Game 1 we'll be sitting in the RF bleachers near the open plaza area where Thome likes to swat those moon shots. So excited. The Twins really are my adopted team, and even though I grew up a Brewers fan I've gotten extremely close with this team as well.

The Twins pitching seems to be sputtering a bit here down the stretch, but hopefully these silly 5 game series help out a bit with that. I've never been a huge fan of Carl Pavano, but he pitched decent most of the year. Hopefully he and Liriano can pitch a couple of gems next week and allow me to also see my first ALCS. Tickets are in hand for that, should it happen.

And finally, a little nod to my fantasy baseball team, making a run for the title in the final week. Currently in first place, trying to power through the loss of Longo, only 5 days remain before I find out if I bring home title number four in 11 years. I've got midweek starts coming from Derek Lowe (he's been on fire of late), Ian Kennedy, and Justin Verlander. I'm praying for good outings.

I still owe a couple people trade posts, and I'll get to those this week. Promise!

APB: 2009 Topps #192 Collin Balester

2010-09-22T11:46:00.001-05:00

I'd like to slam the door shut on 2009 Topps Series 1. Collin Balester. If you can hook me up, email me for my address. I'll send you back something in return, dealer's choice.

Thanks for helping. Double points for it being his gold or black card!

Trade With Ryan from "O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog

2010-09-21T10:09:00.004-05:00

Thankfully my little code challenge gave me some time to refocus on cards for a bit, and Ryan from "O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog hit me up with a trade offer.

This was one of my favs from the bunch:

I want to say he knocked about 100 cards off my 2009 Topps Series 2 and U&H wantlists. He took so many cards off this is all I have left from 2009 Topps:

Series 1: 192
Series 2: 484, 500, 537
U&H: 1, 7, 13, 17, 20, 41, 48, 49, 68, 70, 76, 89, 98, 107, 109, 117, 119, 152, 155, 167, 176, 183, 184, 201, 206, 211, 223, 242, 247, 253, 255, 256, 260, 261, 276, 282, 289, 293, 324, 330

Ryan, thanks for the trade. I hope the 1983 Jim Palmer treats you well. Glad to knock something off your Top 10 Most Wanted. Check out Ryan's other Top 10s. I'm guessing some of you might have what he's looking for.

SS92 CIPHER SOLUTION

2010-09-14T15:36:00.003-05:00

If Dave Magadan's scrawny frame had you scratching your head this week, and you'd like to see how to solve the cipher I put together, head on over to check out the solution from the guy who broke through.

Mike from JDs Wild Cardz. You might also know him as half of the tag-team duo that broke the 2009 Ginter Code.

Congrats to Mike. I regretfully informed Mike that the David Price auto showed up damaged, and we're working together to find an equally fantastic prize as a replacement.

It's been fun guys. Thanks for playing!

THE CIPHER HAS BEEN BROKEN!

2010-09-14T10:22:00.003-05:00

I'll hold off on posting any details here in case anyone else wants to try to finish it off.

I've asked the person who cracked it to post a solution post for it, and I'll link over to it when I see it's up.

Thanks to everyone for playing along and if you're interested in having me put together another one, just leave me a comment. I had fun building it, and have no idea how many had fun trying to solve it.

Anyone any closer to cracking this thing?

2010-09-13T08:43:00.002-05:00

I don't think I recall much of Andy Van Slyke as a Cardinal. My memories of him start with the Pirates. I've also got a wood Van Slyke Louisville slugger bat that I still like to use on occassion.

I received a couple of trade packages this weekend, and I'll try to get those posted over the next couple of nights. As usual, people were generous. I opened a bubble mailer full of 1986 Sportflics on Saturday and was greeted immediately by Paul Molitor. No better way to start a Saturday afternoon.

In baseball related news, I see that Mark Rogers is scheduled to make a start for the Brewers in the coming weeks. Rogers was drafted 5th overall in the 2004 draft but his career has been hampered by injuries up until this point.

It's Been A Week . . .

2010-09-10T13:17:00.004-05:00

You know, it was fun creating this code for people to puzzle over. Just going back through this checklist from that season, do you even remember half these guys? I have nooooo clue who Keith Atherton or Nick Esasky is. None at all. Guys like that, it's fun to try to remember who was playing back then. Decades ago. It was fun to page through my binder. I'll probably do it again.

On a side note, if you haven't seen the fun going on at JDs Wild Cardz, you should stop in!

Kent Tekulve

2010-09-10T08:48:00.003-05:00

How many of Kent Tekulve's baseball cards shamelessly promote his tinted spectacles? All of them? 90%?

What I always liked about this card is that I was more drawn to his seemingly odd delivery rather than his tinted glasses.

Maybe his tinted glasses are the key to my code?

My favorite part this far of this entire endeavor is using some old cards from the mass production era for a new purpose.

Anyone out there a Tekulve collector? Someone must have a binder solely devoted to this guy, right?

Bo Jackson Is Dying . . .

2010-09-09T09:20:00.003-05:00

To tell you the answer to my code:

?????????????????

I know, I know, that was low, but it got you here to look around, right?

He's also dying to tell you how you can enter my contest to win this David Price Sweet Beginnings Auto numbered 17/299 even if you don't want to be bothered with solving the code.

Progress has been made out there, I assure you, and I now have confirmation that 10+ people are working on it, and more have tried and said "I give".

Pimpin' a couple "new to me" blogs

2010-09-08T22:04:00.003-05:00

I must admit, I figured my request for info on the 1986 Sportflics set was going to be a long conversation with myself, but it turned into meeting two new people out there collecting cards.

PROJECT1962

You've probably got a pretty decent idea of what's going on over there. But what I found to be the most cool in his site is his visual Trade Bait page. I might have to copy that idea. I see a Gorman Thomas over there I'd like to get my hands on.

Speaking of Gorman Thomas, anyone broken my code yet? Doesn't seem like it. I know one person has a lead, and plenty of people are stumped. And it's all in good clean fun.

Also, I'd like to mention AdamE at Thoughts & Sox who pointed me to the Sportflics checklist for 1986 and pointed me toward some boxes to purchase.

All in all, it's been a good day. Thanks guys for your help, and Chris over at P1962 is sending some quintuplets of Ernie Riles 1986 Sportflics my way, ha, too cool!

Until tomorrow morning when Bo Jackson will ask the question, can anyone out there solve it?

SPORTFLIX!!!

2010-09-08T10:52:00.003-05:00

I decided it probably wasn't even worth the time to track down an image from this set because they scan so poorly.

So here's the deal, I'm contemplating trying to track down the entire set of 1986 SportFlix baseball cards.

The only problem is that I have no idea where to find a checklist. Can anyone help me out?

I started going through all my old cards back in March and came across a handful of these things. I think I have Pete Rose, Reggie Jackson and a few others. I immediately reconnected with these. In terms of gimmicky cards, these were my favorite along with the first set of Action Packed football cards (which should also go on my list).

Other than trying to find a checklist, I'm also wondering if anyone else has any of these cards and if they'd put them up for trade.

Any other quirky sets out there you guys are addicted to building?

No One Has Broken The Cipher

2010-09-08T09:17:00.003-05:00

That's right, we're at Day 5 and still no one has a clue what's going on here:

?

I've got to imagine all the smaht kids that were working on the Ginter Code should be ripe for a chance at redemption. And even if you aren't the code breaking type, like I said, you can still enter the contest to win the free on-card Dave Price auto and maybe bring some more worthy code breakers into the fold. I imagine he'll be pitching in the post-season before we see a full reveal on this thing :)

For the record. I love Gorman Thomas. I think that was his last card.

Day 4: The Cipher Is Still Unsolved

2010-09-07T08:37:00.003-05:00

Leon Durham commands you to try solving this cipher:

?

No really, he does. I posted this before the long holiday weekend and we're still no closer to having a winner of the David Price Sweet Beginning auto, plus all the bragging rights that come along with cracking this thing.

Sure, you don't get your own card like in the Ginter Code contest, but here are a couple reasons to try this one:

1. I actually gave you the code
2. It might actually last longer than the Ginter Code if no one tries it, so get on it

That is all.

Oh, on a baseball-y note, how many of your favorite teams do a "Legends Game" or what they used to call "Old Timers Game". Twins had one yesterday and it was ridiculously well received by the Minnesota faithful. Just curious if other teams are still doing this each year. I know the fans here are already calling for it to happen again next year.

Can You Solve It?

2010-09-05T22:41:00.004-05:00

That's right, I've got no shame. I'm back to self promote. But before I do, I wanted to promote someone else first:

Way Off Base is a blog I hadn't come across before running my contest. Always great to come across new people with like interests, even if they are Cardinals fans.

So again, I'll ask Can You Solve It?. All those questions marks in the right nav bar link you straight in as well.

Even if you can't I'd be forever grateful for the free press, plus Way Off Base needs a little more competition since they've already declared they'll be the ones winning and solving the puzzle.

Even if you don't want to attempt to solve it, you can always enter to win the prize should no one else succeed. See the contest post for details. Good luck!

Contest Time: Two Ways To Win

2010-09-03T21:33:00.003-05:00

As I've been saying today, there's this thing:

??????????

Don't want to take the time to solve it, but still want a shot at the David Price Sweet Beginnings auto? I'll make you a deal.

You shamelessly promote this contest with a short entry on your blog, click the little follow button on my blog, and leave me a comment in this thread so I know you have and you'll be entered to win the Price auto if no one solves the code/puzzle. Deal? It's win-win.

Let's say if no one has solved it by the time we crown a World Series champ, I'll draw for a winner of the card, and upgrade the prize for anyone who can solve it.

Or you could just solve it right now and declare yourself the winner. Your choice!

Prize #1 For The ?

2010-09-03T16:40:00.003-05:00

How about this, we start the ante with a 017/299 David Price on-card Sweet Beginnings. You solve the ? down below, and it's yours. I started by issuing this as a challenge to the three Ginter Code Champions. Mr. Wong, Mr. Jacoby, and Mr. Gellner.

This is probably as much exposition you'll get from me on it for now, but this idea started after I felt sad about this year's Ginter Code and really not having a shot to break it. Having to wait another year for a new interesting puzzle to solve seemed much too long of a wait. So I created this monster instead. For now, since I have no clue how hard this is to solve, I'll just offer the Price card as loot for winning. If it strings out longer than it took people to finish off the Ginter Code this year, I'll potentially start adding more interesting things to the mix.

Good luck if you decide to work on it. Thanks for reading.

?

2010-09-03T12:54:00.023-05:00

6	14	14	3	13	2	14	13	14	6
1	17	5	6	16	9	17	3	16	15
14	18	10	13	8	5	17	16	1	17
18	18	9	13	16	12	3	11	1	10
14	3	5	5	1	7	10	4	5	6
2	2	11	6	13	15	12	16	6	16
9	17	12	13	16	16	17	16	3	8
16	17	12	13	11	15	10	18	14	6
11	18	18	13	18	4	11	12	13	11
9	3	2	1	11	16	17	9	13	14

Here we go!

2010-08-23T10:18:00.002-05:00

I had quite the man-crush on Luke Scott going into the year, for fantasy baseball purposes. Even though he's a streaky hitter, I love his power, and I thought he'd slot nicely into the middle of that Baltimore lineup giving him plenty of RBI opps.

Because of this, my buddy Brian got me a Luke Scott autographed ball while he was down visiting Rays and Twins spring training, oh, you know, 5 months ago. Better late than never I always say.

So that's what you've got going on the the picture up there. Luke Scott.

Speaking of Luke Scott, he, along with about 12 other guys have been leading a charge for my fantasy baseball team of late. We've surged back up to 4th place after being as low as 10th two weeks ago, and as high as 1st 8 weeks ago. What an up and down season it's been.

Sadly for Luke, he's been way too hot to keep rolling with, and Aubrey Huff has been way to cold to not gamble on.

So this week I'm rolling out VMart, Huff, Weeks, Rollins, Longoria, Crawford, something called Gregor Blanco, Bautista, and Tulo.

It was a tough call at DH between Jeter and Tulo, but Rollins provides more SBs than Jeter, and Tulo will provide more RBIs than both. Plus I just played Tulo through a .150 stretch last week and I'd like to make some of that up if he gets hot.

As for pitching, we've been rolling out as many 2 start guys off the waiver wire as possible to try to catch up in Wins. We're middle of the pack in WHIP and low in ERA, so we might as well try to gain 7 points in Wins. Last week we went 5 for 12 in Wins. Not terrible.

This week we're going 3 starters and 4 closers: Verlander, Dickey (FA pickup), Rzepcynski (FA pickup, I love this kid for next year), and Bell/Marmol/Wagner/Kuo for the saves. Should be an interesting week. Only 5 starts, but plenty of nice save opps.

As for the card collecting front. I sent some minis off to JD's Wild Cardz today since he's diggint that sort of thing of late.

Anyone else out there doing some notable trading? I'd love to get back into the game.

Fine, I'll End My Month-Long Standoff With Nothingness

2010-08-20T14:27:00.003-05:00

I received some good advice this afternoon to pick up, and move on. Get back to posting, and such.

So, pictured above is the little guy, Theodore. That's his reaction to Thome's walk-off home run against the hated White Sox on Tuesday night here at Target Field.

That was his second game, and first walk-off homerun. I was excited for him. I guess when you're not even as old as the current baseball season you have those kind of moments still :)

Couple of quick updates:

1) I'm trying like the Dickens to finish off the 2009 Goudey set. I've finished off the first 20 SPs (retired greats) and even have an extra #216, Robin Yount, to trade for anyone who can knock some stuff off my Sports Royalty and Heads-Up list.

2) Got any mini '09 Goudeys laying around that you have no need for? I'm interested. I think I'll build the mini set as well. What can I say, my first set collected since my childhood has a strangle-hold on my heart.

3) I'm also trying to finish off the 2009 Topps Series 2, and U&H. If you can help out, let me know what you are looking for in trades and we can try to work something out.

4) My fantasy baseball team has been flirting with 4th place of late. I'll dive into that next Monday.

Lastly, I'm trying to work out a contest idea to give-away the box of A&G I broke this year. I think I had 2 or 3 autos. 2 for sure. 1 solid one. I just want to put all these cards out of my house and into the hands of a collector that will appreciate them. I won't lie, the one relic I got was of some wrestler, so you'll be stuck with that too.

Alright, I'm off for now, but I'll be back soon. To anyone out there still reading.

2010 Ginter Code

2010-07-21T14:35:00.001-05:00

Once again, boo.

Topps, you are so lame, I can't begin to regret the dollars I spent on your product (which was ALL that many).

Sorry, just needed to vent. Someday I'll return to real blogging.

2010 Topps Allen & Ginter - The Ginter Code

2010-07-16T10:34:00.002-05:00

Well, suffice it to say Topps won't get one more of my trading card dollars.

Once the "big reveal" comes out for the Ginter code you can see what I'm saying.

It's definitely been cracked, and in under a week again. Although I'm sure Topps will drag their feet in announcing it to steal more of your money.

Keep buying those packs in hopes of breaking the code! LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!

HBL Week 14 & The Ginter Code Update

2010-07-06T08:21:00.005-05:00

I can sum up how I already feel about this week of fantasy baseball in 2 words. John Ely.

Sweet jebus man, all I wanted was your super safe ERA and WHIP, mediocre Ks, and possibility to notch a win in 2 starts and you go and DESTROY me last night. Thanks buddy. If Jake Peavy hadn't become a man in recent weeks I'd probably be more upset.

So I'm rolling 6 starters out there this week. Ely and Medlen are pitching out of the relief spots in my rotation (thank you dual eligibility), to go with Peavy, Verlander, Niemann, and Kennedy. Billy Wagner is the only closer getting a shot this week. Marmol has been brutal on the WHIP lately and Heath Bell has been brutal on it all year, albeit in limited innings. I can roll three closers later, time to catch up in Wins and Ks (fingers crossed).

I'm doing some ridiculous stuff on offense this week. I was forced to pick up Ronny Paulino to after playing without a catcher last week (VMart), and now I'm starting Russell Branyan at first base. Yup, I am. Weeks, Jeter, Rollins, Longoria, Crawford, Byrd and Aubrey Huff (I think he's back to hitting) round out the rest. Looking forward to climbing back into 2nd or 3rd place if I can have a good week.

On the baseball card front, I busted my box of 2010 Allen & Ginter last Friday. I didn't do scans, but I took pictures of every pack as I ripped it for the Gint-a-Cuffs contest. I'll have to spend some time tallying up and posting the break soon.

I continue to work on the Ginter Code. It's brutal. As far as I can tell, no one solved it in the first week. Not even the two champs teaming up have broken it, or if they have, they haven't said anything yet. I quickly scanned some of the other blogs and forums this morning but haven't seen anyone claiming to have solved it yet.

Oh A&G, why do you taunt me so?

2010-07-01T21:39:00.003-05:00

Ginter code cracking is in progress. Good thing a lot of other people out there open a lot of product before I get a shot at my cards. The Ginter Code laughs in my face, but I laugh back. Ha! Who shall have the last laugh? Who knows!

Tomorrow my boxes of A&G should be sitting on my doorstep when I get home and I can begin the long journey toward finishing off the code (ha, HA!) and producing a winning Gint-a-Cuffs II score.

I'm very excited, and very tired. Long hours of thinking and looking at cards . . . many hours. Exhausted.

I need some sort of Rocky like montage here. Please choose your favorite and hum softly to yourself. If you need some help, go with the Hearts On Fire montage. It's my personal favorite from Rocky IV.

The Ginter Code

2010-06-28T12:42:00.003-05:00

I'll be honest, my fantasy baseball team and my card collecting has me depressed of late. I can't seem to get anything scanned (lack of time, not motivation) and my baseball team keeps getting more and more decimated by injuries.

Quick rundown shows I tried to do something about it though. Traded Uggla and Thornton for Rollins and Wagner this week - which looks lopsided but I can't keep either player next year and the other guy can keep both . . . details.

VMart (if he plays, really don't want to call up wonder boy Carlos Santana), Berkman (wait? I thought you stopped playing him???), Weeks (he'll be hurt in 20 minutes), Jeter & Longoria (these guys did NOT hit in June), Byrd (jebus, really?), Crawford (will he log more than 7 ABs this week? hope so!), Magglio, and newly acquired Jimmy Rollins. What will I do with 3 shortstops in August when Tulo comes back? No idea.

Back to what's important, the Ginter Code. Last year's co-champ, Nick Jacoby, already has a headstart on this years code. Thanks Nick for letting me steal that Code advert from your site!

From what I've been able to assess based on early ebay listings (no code cards), the wrapper Nick posted on his site (no code parallels listed), and from my gut feeling based on how quickly it was solved last year by Mike and Nick, I have a feeling that the code itself won't be as obvious this year. Meaning, you probably need to actually investigate each card or maybe some of the subsets/short prints to "see what you can see".

Although, for now, until cases, boxes, and packs show up, only Nick Jacoby (and any other early busters) know for sure.

It's Been A While

2010-06-21T08:25:00.004-05:00

This is a smaller version of a post I've been meaning to write for a while.

As I've said in the past, I have been digging through the tens of thousands of cards I've been slowing bringing back to my house from my parents basement.

This card caught my eye the other day. It doesn't scan well, so my apologies for that, but it's a 1992 Rookie Sensation card of Darren Lewis. For starters I was unaware that Darren played for 13 seasons. I was aware that he was a speed guy with little to no power. I think even Craig Counsell's career OPS puts him to shame.

Anyway, I was struck by the blue card. I remember I was chasing someone's rookie sensation card from this set, but I can't remember who. I do remember really liking the blue cards and it might explain my infatuation with the 2003 Topps set. Anyone else have any memory of this subset?

On a side note, my fantasy baseball team is in a state of disarray. It's like I'm in a game of No Limit Hold 'Em and I can't survive the swings, they're killing me.

Tulowitzki's yearly broken bone and subsequent 2 month absence is really going to put a dent in my championship plans. I'm pondering dealing him for a Ryan Howard/Prince Fielder type guy with a closer tossed in to round out my rotation that's apparently now rounding into shape.

Jake Peavy's dead arm may finally be a thing of the past, but I fear that it's too late for him (and Verlander) to help me make up the distance in the K category. I was counting on those two guys for ~500 Ks. I might get 400. That's going to cost me 6-7 roto points. Darn you two.

As for the offense. Sadly, Nick Swisher is all I have to go on at first base and since he's still batting over .280, I'm going to be taking the plunge when his average dies, total bases dry up and RBIs go away. He'll probably still walk a bunch and score runs if they let him bat second enough.

Victor Martinez, Kid Swish, Uggla, Jeter, and Longoria will round out the infield for now. Crawford, Magglio (gosh, wish I didn't have to sit him last week due to injury concerns), and Marlon Byrd make up the outfield, and this is how dire things are. I'm starting Rickie Weeks at DH. Yup, Rickie Weeks. It's bad. I can't even bring myself to look at Berkman or Jose Bautista.

The pitching staff seems okay, but I really wish I had Brett Anderson healthy. Peavy and Verlander are joined by Kennedy (tough luck guy lately, pitches great, can't win), and Jeff Niemann. 5th starter d'jour continues to be Kris Medlen until he makes me think otherwise. Marmol and shaky shaky Heath Bell are the two savers.

I really do have a backlog of post ideas I need to get out here, I've been stuck on a side project for a while now, and I don't envision it getting any better anytime soon with the Ginter Code dropping this week. Take care. Until next time!

2009 Topps U&H SP

2010-06-03T08:00:00.004-05:00

Somewhat recently I had purchased 3 packs of 2009 Topps Updates & Highlights. These were being used as rewards for completing long runs in coordination with training for my summer 10K event.

At some point as I got busy during May, I'd completely forgotten I purchased the packs and they sat unopened on my desk. Last night I came across the stack and decided to rip one open, and look who was there to greet me. Nolan Ryan.

This is the first Topps short print I've pulled. Mr. No-Hitter. You can't do much better than that. It seemed particularly fitting on a night where Aramando Galaragga threw a perfect game. That's right, I'm choosing to pretend that is what happened.

News & Notes

2010-06-01T08:52:00.003-05:00

Last week I officially pre-ordered my box of Allen & Ginter. I'm very excited for the release even though I don't necessarily dig the cards themselves that much. There are, however, a couple of reasons to be excited.

#1 - GINT-A-CUFFS. I made a decent showing last year and I'm hoping to pull off a win.

#2 - The Ginter Code. One half of last year's championship duo is already talking repeat. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this link.

One quick note about fantasy baseball. My team has started to roll, even if Derek Holland blew out his rotator cuff the same week I dropped a pile of money in his lap.

Lance Berkman has finally been given the heave ho at first base. Nick Swisher is in the lineup in his stead. Once he goes cold it's anyone's guess who we plug in there. VMart, Kid Swish, Weeks (Uggla is cold as heck), Tulo, Longoria, Crawford, Magglio, JD Drew, and Derek Jeter round out the potent offense.

On the pitching side of things, Ben Sheets takes Derek Hollands place, this only after I lost out in the bidding for John Ely. Sheets, Blue Steel, Bell, Marmol, Kennedy, and Niemann join Brett Anderson this week. That's right, finally got Brett back. Hope he sticks around. Jake Peavy has joined Lance Berkman in the pariah club. Welcome to the bench Jake.

Happy Long Weekend

2010-05-28T07:50:00.002-05:00

Time to kick back and relax!

I'll be taking in my third game this week at Target Field. This place is amazing to watch a game. Tonight it's Slowey versus Colby Lewis. This will also mark my first game with Theodore. He'll never remember it, of course, but it's exciting all the same.

To celebrate I'm finally getting around to showing off another of the Goudey SPs I crossed off my list this month. I've also got a trade to post where another blogger helped me out with this set as well.

HBL Week 8: My Big Splash

2010-05-24T08:05:00.002-05:00

Victor Martinez was my big fantasy baseball acquisition this past week, as seen here in his 2006 Topps Turkey Red card.

I felt I needed to make a move to put another above average bat in my lineup and Victor Martinez was in the unenviable position of playing for one of the last place teams in our league along with having a contract that is doubling (basically expiring) at the end of the year.

I won't say VMart came cheap, because he didn't. I laid out Jay Bruce and Tyler Flowers to land VMart and Ben Sheets. I was hoping to grab Sheets and let him sit on my bench for a while to see if he built arm strength and became useful even for a small stretch of the season. He did have a nice outing this weekend against the Giants.

My lineup now feels much better, but I could use another bat. Why? Because Lance Berkman is turds. There, I said it, pure turds. But I have been calling the Astros the worst team in baseball since very early April. They are horrid. Even Astros coverboy, Roy Oswalt, wants out. It's that bad. Berkman isn't hitting, Carlos Lee isn't hitting. No one is hitting.

So Lance is problem number one. Problem number two is icy cold Marlon Byrd. I still think based on park factors and his lineup slot that he'll be fine at the end of the year, but I would like a hot hand to swap in for him this week. Sadly, I didn't act fast enough and I'm adding JD Drew today. He won't officially suit up for us until next week and Byrd might be out of his 2x32 slump by then. Or he could be up to 3x56 and lose his job, who knows. All I know is I no longer have Jay Bruce to swap in. I'm really okay with this. I couldn't count on Bruce every week and he has a contract that wasn't totally desirable either (long term).

Martinez, Berkman and Byrd are joined by the other stalwarts: Dan "Red Hot" Uggla, Jeter, Tulowitzki, Longoria, Crawford and Magglio Ordonez. I love my lineup, just wish I had a 1b. I'm pondering playing Gaby Sanchez at 1b this week but can't seem to pull the trigger. Lance Berkman is a thorn in my side. He's hitting .292 over his last 14 games, but .190 something over his last 7. What to do?

Well, one thing I've worried very little about since April left town is the pitching staff. Jeff Niemann is living up to the hype I created for him this spring, Verlander and Peavy have gone back to being dominant, and Ian Kennedy looks like a young stud in AZ. Carlos Marmol has 44Ks out of the bullpen to go with a few saves, and we're starting to build some depth at SP with Sheets and newly acquired Derek Holland. We had to lay out a decent chunk of cash for Holland, but I'm hoping it's worth it. We've also added Kris Medlen. I like his arm, and so does Bobby Cox. It doesn't hurt that both Medlen and Holland are RP eligible if we decide to roll 7 SPs out there for a couple weeks to try to catch up in Ks and Wins.

That's all for this week, my goal is to get that box of 1998 Donruss Updates scanned this week so I can tell the tale of the Search for the Crusade Cards.

HBL Week 6

2010-05-10T07:44:00.002-05:00

I figured I'd kill two birds with one post. Above is the third of four Goudeys I picked up in an ebay lot a couple weeks back. I've been slow to post and wanted to get it out there. I believe if they'd have made an entire set of these cards I'd have collected that as well. I like the cartoon details on the front, it just appeals to me.

Over to the HBL. My team has made great strides in the past two weeks. The pitching has really picked up with Peavy, Verlander, Beuhrle, Kenndedy, and Jeff Niemann. I can't say enough good things about Jeff Niemann this year. He's really starting to make his move toward the top tier of pitchers. He always had a really nice K rate in the minors and I've been comparing his career path with Ben Sheets (hopefully not the injuries). It took Sheets three full seasons before he finally brought the WHIP down and K-rate way up.

As good as the pitching has been the hitting has been equally terrible. Then came the injuries . . . to Benji Molina and Troy Tulowitzki. Molina, fine, I'll put AJ Pierzynski back in. Tulo? Well Tulo I was counting on busting out of his yearly slow start pretty soon, but he's hurt again. Am I surprised? Nope. Did I plan for this? Yup. Derek Jeter, you're a lucky man. You were going to grab some pine this week due to your all around crappy play, but you get a reprieve in the form of a Tulo quad injury.

I've been unhappy with Jeter all year due to his non-base-stealing. At this point I'd rather be playing Rickie Weeks at DH. More RBI, more runs, and more SBs, but then again, Rickie is due to be hurt in a week or so.

Lance Berkman is the other hitting I'm putting on notice. We will not abide another crappy week from you Lance. One more week Lance, that's it. We're sitting in the top half of the standings and I won't let you ruin things.

Lastly, Jay Bruce, I love you, but it's time to sit. I've got Marlon Byrd burning a hole in my pocket as well as most of the NL pitchers. So that's it, Jay Bruce sits till he hits (above .270).

Calling All Code Breakers

2010-05-06T07:04:00.003-05:00

Jason Wong, the man who solved the 2008 Ginter Code, is hosting a code contest of his own.

Here is a link to his blog with a note about the contest.

Anyone looking to take a shot at the Ginter Code from the Allen & Ginter set may want to give Jason's cipher a try.

Here is a direct linkto the cipher. I hope others will try to crack it, I know I'm going to give it a shot.

Thanks for putting time into designing it Jason.

Jim Palmer National Chicle

2010-05-05T07:40:00.003-05:00

Is Jim Palmer in drag? Between his sexy flowing locks, chest hair, lipstick, and rogue . . . I mean, what's going on here?

I totally dig the Chicle set for it's combination of artists working on the cards, but something just rubs me wrong on this Palmer card.

Anyhow, this card comes to me courtesy of one of Brian's kids, who I now owe at least a pack of cards for all the cards they've bestowed on me in 2010.

Are there any other cards in this set that are this disturbing?

I'll also take a moment to plug this thread over on the Cardboard Junkie blog. I've had a nice time discussing 2010 with everyone over there.

They weren't kidding when they say "painted" baseball cards.

Even More Trade Bait: Walter Johnson Patch

2010-05-04T10:45:00.004-05:00

This came out of a 2009 Topps Series 2 blaster last summer. My guess is somewhere out there someone is collecting these. I'm not a Johnson collector, or a Senators collector, and I was basically just hoping to pull Palmer or Yount - no dice. I did enjoy the Series 2 cards from the blaster though.

If you're looking to add this to your collection, let me know what you'd like to offer up in exchange. Glad to help get this to a good home.

More Trade Bait: Roy Halladay Propaganda

2010-05-04T07:27:00.003-05:00

This was easily among my favorite subsets from the 2009 products. I'm a sucker for the art (I nearly bought some of the full size stuff), and I dig the format. As luck would have it, I received the entire set as a gift last fall, and now I'm putting the Roy Halladay I pulled from a pack up for trade.

Halladay has been lights out thus far this year. Definitely wish he was pitching for my fantasy team. Sometimes I wonder if those injury problems will ever come back to haunt him, but he's been so good and so healthy for such a long time now it seems like the distant past.

If you are a Roy Collector, or just really dig the propaganda series, leave a message or shoot me an email.

Trade Bait: T206 Polar Bear Minis

2010-05-03T19:57:00.007-05:00

Who would like to add some King Felix to their T206 mini collection? I'm hoping someone out there is interested. Here's a shot of the front as well.

If King Felix isn't your guy . . . well there might not be anything else here to tempt you. But if you're a completionist maybe I can interest you in a couple other Polar Bears.

Otherwise, I've also got some Conor Jackson for you. Here he is in all his T206 Polar Bear glory!

Now if you're wondering what you could possibly trade me, there are some ideas over there to the right. I'm working on the 2009 Topps U&H still, 2009 Goudey short prints and 4-in-1s. As I said this morning, I have a limited number of needs from 2009 Topps Series 1 (just 1 card) and Topps Series 2 (down to about 5, I need to update from a now pending trade).

I'm also interested in acquiring any 2010 Topps Series 1 base cards. I've got nothing thus far. I could also get into some 2009 Topps Legends of the Game subset. I don't have a ton of those, so let me know what you've got.

This will be the first in a series of trade bait posts where I'm hoping to get some cards into the hands of people who need them in exchange for helping me sunset my 2009 sets so I can look into 2010. Thanks for looking!

Jake Peavy is dealing right now, thank the gods . . .

HBL Week 5: Hey Lance Berkman, Hit Or Get Off The Pot!

2010-05-03T12:32:00.003-05:00

Yes, that title will do nicely. It sums up my feelings leading into fantasy baseball Week 5.

Here's what has happened since we last checked in.

I promoted Jeff Niemann a week too late, Brett Anderson was promoted and promptly got injured, and I started stock piling draft picks for our upcoming minor league draft.

Week four was a banner period for the team. There are only two things I was upset about. Rickie Weeks and Dan Uggla have gone cold at the same time, and Lance Berkman still hasn't hit. Sure there are a variety of things I could complain about like my ERA being over 5 to start the period and my WHIP going over 1.50, but these things have started to work themselves out. Verlander had a nice game yesterday, and overall the pitching staff lead by Verlander, Peavy, Ian Kennedy, Jeff Niemann, Carlos Marmol, and Heath Bell can't possibly be this bad all year.

One thing I really love is that no matter how many guys Marmol puts on base, and no matter how many games the Cubs win by more than 4 runs (READ: All of them), he strikes out all three batters he faces like clockwork. Half the reason for acquiring Marmol and his saves was the K appeal.

But I digress, the pitching should be fine. If I can't have faith in Peavy and Verlander, I built my team completely wrong to start with and there's nothing I can do.

What I can be upset with is this turd of a month Lance Berkman has had. Are you healthy Lance? If not, go sit, I'll find someone else to fill in like I did with Huff for a couple weeks. I'm sick of playing you and seeing no power, no hits, just a bunch of sac flies and RBI ground outs. That's just turds. A word that is starting to become deeply synonymous with Lance Berkman. So that's it, Lance, hit.

Other moves I made were claiming Bengie Molina off waivers, putting in a bid on Wilson Ramos while he's filling in for Joe Mauer, and grabbing Marlon Byrd. I don't really think Byrd is all that great, but I'm playing defense here. Every other hitter I don't think is that great is currently on another roster continuing to put up solid numbers for the competition (I'm looking at you Callaspo, Alex Gonzalez, Kelly Johnson, Jose Guillen, Garret Jones, Polanco, Headley, and Ian Desmond). So this is pure defense. If I could tuck away Andruw Jones I would. But his batting average tells me no one is this 12 team league will touch him.

So that's the scoop, not much to report. We finished in 1st place for the period and are currently in 7th place overall. WHIP, Wins, and ERA are the only things holding us back right now, and hopefully that ship will right itself this week. If only I could find a way not to have to play Mark Beuhrle. I'm crossing my fingers and praying that the Toronto Wells don't light him up later this week. Until next week . . .

Where Are You Colin Balester - 2009 Topps Nearly Complete

2010-05-03T09:10:00.004-05:00

This is where it all started last year. Just over a year ago I thought "maybe it would be fun to collect cards and write about it as I did it - as an outlet".

I had absolutely no idea anyone else was doing this, let alone 100s of people doing this. In the past year, I've talked with a lot of people who are out there collecting and trading. I've made a ton of trades and read a lot of your blogs. It's been fun, and to think, it all started with a hobby box of Series 1 Topps last April.

Here is where I stand, one year later. I missing just one card from Series 1. It's card number 192.

COLIN BALESTER WHY DO YOU ESCAPE MY CLUTCHES?

Okay, now that I've got that off my chest, does someone out there have this card? I want it. I want to cross Series 1 off my list. Speaking of lists, this is what I have left from Series 2:

417, 423, 430, 431, 448, 471, 484, 494, 500, 505, 510, 537

I'm 12 steps from Series 2 perfection as well. Again, any help would be appreciated. I swear I'll find something to trade you in return for helping me close the door on 2009 Topps Series 1 and Series 2.

I made it my goal to collect no new product until I finished up 2009 Topps.

I've also updated my needs list with 2009 Topps Updates & Highlights. That list is a bit longer.

Sports Royalty Mike Bossy

2010-04-28T07:06:00.004-05:00

I must confess. I don't know who Mike Bossy is. I'm not even intrigued a little bit to find out.

Maybe once fantasy baseball stops destroying my will to live I'll look into who this guy is. For now, enjoy his portrait.

On a separate and somewhat related note I commented on a post over at Sewingmachineguy on Cards. This turned out to be an excellent idea as I'm now set to receive a few more of these Goudey short prints to try and complete my 2009 set. In exchange I plan to hit a few of his 2009 T206 needs.

Anyone who follows through on a comment from me, to my blog, to my needs list and actually knocks a few off is alright by me. Thanks for taking the time to poke around - it's much appreciated.

Jack Morris Goudey SP

2010-04-27T08:03:00.004-05:00

Hello Jack Morris! In a Tigers uniform no less.

Jack Morris is a borderline Hall of Famer in my book. I could go either way. If he got in, I wouldn't be upset. If he was left on the outside looking in I could see why people felt that way too.

I don't use wins as a way to measure how great a pitcher was, but he did win at least 14 games over the course of 13 of 14 seasons culminating with his 21 win season in 1992 with the Blue Jays. That season is one reason you can't take wins seriously. 4.04 ERA. Those 21 wins were a product of an explosive Jays offense.

Morris did have approximately 8 seasons of dominant pitching. Do you need to be a pitcher who strikes out a batter per inning to be dominant and get into the Hall of Fame? In the roto world we live in now, it almost seems like you have to for quite some time. Morris averaged only 5.83 strikeouts per nine innings over his career, and had a WHIP of nearly 1.30. I believe these are the things keeping him out of the Hall.

In the end, I'm glad to add Jack to my Goudey collection. I'm still searching for more short prints from last year, and if you have any laying around, please let me know, I'd love to take them off your hands one way or another. My needs list is in the right sidebar.

This Jack Morris card came as part of a 4 card lot on eBay.

HBL Week 4

2010-04-26T08:06:00.003-05:00

Once upon a time I thought Dave Bush would be a solid #3 for the Brewers, and even after two years of injuries I thought Dave could be a productive member of the staff.

I believed this because he was very good about not putting many runners on base. I believe he finished top 5 in WHIP in 2007. This is definitely not 2007.

Last week I pondered starting Jeff Niemann against Boston and Toronto or Dave Bush against the Pirates and the Cubs. Bush normally pitches much better at home, and well, the Pirates are still the Pirates. This decision looked like there was no way I could lose after the first Bush and Niemann starts. Bush took an easy win during the Pirates series that saw the Brewers outscore the Pirates 36-1 which included a 20 run outbust on Wednesday.

Well the plane definitely crashed into the mountain yesterday for Bush when he was just destroyed by Kosuke "April" Fukudome and the rest of the Cub bats.

Normally I could handle this sort of implosion, especially from a borderline fantasy starting pitcher, but after Jake Peavy and Justin Verlander, my aces, both imploded on the same night last week, well I'm at wits end. I've got a 5.22 ERA and 1.49 WHIP to chisel down starting this week. So welcome to the show Jeff Niemann. You join Brett Anderson (elbow), Verlander and Peavy, and Ian Kennedy in the rotation this week. I'm sitting Beuhrle due to general suckiness combined with the fact that he pitches @TEX and @NYY.

The lineup is pretty much status quoa. Pierzynski (better hit this week), Berkman, Weeks as my 2b d'jour, Jeter, Longoria, Crawford, Ordonez, Bruce (3of d'jour), and Tulowitzki. Tough to sit Uggla, and tough to play Musical Outfielders with Bruce and Francouer since guessing will probably lead to guessing wrong again. Sat Bruce last week and he outhit Frenchy by a mile.

I'm hoping to bring myself some good luck, I sent the Peavy T206 card I mentioned here over to White Sox Cards. I feel like I need to exercise some Verlander demons as well. Anyone interested in receiving a T206 Verlander in the mail this week? Just let me know.

As a side note, thus far this season I started stashing away some minor league talent including Josh Bell and Todd Frazier. This is in addition to Gaby Sanchez who I have no real need for but I'm hoping shows some promise as a late bloomer.

Great Card Design Continued: Topps Stadium Club

2010-04-24T19:08:00.006-05:00

Yesterday I wrote a post asking which card designs you like best or preferences you have for how a card looks and is laid out. I won't lie, I'd love to get more feedback. What works? What doesn't? What do you love, and what do you hate?

Today I'm going to continue a little bit more on the theme of card design. I spent the better part of this afternoon going through 4 huge plastic tubs filled with baseball and football cards from my youth (late 80s and early 90s). I bet a saw over 100 different card designs as I opened cardboard monster box after monster box.

Very quickly I realized the best sets I saw today were the early Topps Stadium Club sets, and the early Upper Deck sets. Both the football and baseball sets are equally top notch for both products. I can't stress this enough. Glossy is good.

On the flip side, ToppsGold, whatever the heck that attempt was, is terrible. Foil is terrible. You got that? FOIL IS BAD. You can't read it and it doesn't present well. I kind of wished I'd scanned a ToppsGold card. Wait, this is the internet, let me go grab one. This scan is courtesy of 25 Years of Baseball. Steve writes a good blog so check it out.

Again, people, foil is a horrible thing. I stand by that. I'm not a designer, and I'm not very artistic, but those two things I'll stand by.

Now let's go back to Topps Stadium Club. 1991, 1992, and 1993:

Even if the design element didn't change much from year to year, the pictures are great on these cards even 17-19 years later. It's no secret this set was designed to compete against the new Upper Deck cards which were high gloss with color photos on the back.

As I said, I saw a lot of different card designs today, and many were and still are terrible. I wish I could properly capture with words the visual vomit that was being put out by the one thousand or so people making football cards in the early 90s. That's probably another story for another day on another blog though.

The Best Baseball Card Design

2010-04-23T12:39:00.008-05:00

I thought I'd throw out a discussion topic for Friday.

I'm toying around with the idea of making an original baseball card design and among the many things I've been pondering this today is baseball card borders.

In your opinions, what makes a great baseball card border and what sets would you say back up your preference?

Here are some examples of a few colored or pattern border retro sets 1968 Topps and 1975 Topps:

Or how about white around the border to keep everything clean looking?

A couple other questions are running through my mind too. I think most people would agree that the player photo should be the most prominent part of the card, but what's next? Is it the player name? The team name? What do you feel absolutely needs to be on the front of the card?

Thanks for posting your thoughts, I'm very curious to see what you think makes a great border and a great design.

2009 Topps Series 1 #192

2010-04-23T08:01:00.002-05:00

Major oversight on my part last summer. While building the 2009 Topps set, I thought I was completely finished with Series 1. That statement is incorrect.

Washington Nationals pitcher Colin Balester is eluding me. I should also mention approximately 30 cards from Series 2 as well:

371, 382, 396, 417, 423, 430, 431, 437, 440, 448, 462, 469, 471
475, 477, 484, 492, 494, 500, 505, 508, 510, 537, 577, 581, 610
612, 619, 622, 624, 641, 649

If you can help bring any of these wanted cards into the fold for me, please leave me a comment or email me directly.

Also, to any of you hunting down Turkey Reds from last year, I have 9 or so leftover that I'd like to move in a trade. I'll try to post this evening.

Trade With Baseball Dad

2010-04-22T09:07:00.004-05:00

Very surprised and excited that someone was following my estate sale finds which included a group of 1993 Topps Stadium Club master photos. I was informed by a reader that these were done as a mail-in redemption that year.

Baseball Dad over at All Tribe Baseball offered up a deal I couldn't refuse. In exchange for the Mark McGwire he'd send me a Will Clark. Done!

Welcome home Will, we've been waiting for you. I also netted a few other Clark cards in the deal and hopefully I'll have a chance to scan and post those as well. McGwire should show up in Ohio today along with a couple of friends I packaged up.

David Price Goudey RC Auto

2010-04-22T07:13:00.002-05:00

David Price is off to a good start with the Rays this year, although he's still walking a few batters each game. You'd hope at some point he'd nail down that command and become an elite pitcher, but it may still take a season or so. Very respectable 3.20 ERA and averaging nearly a K per inning. His worst start thus far came against the White Sox, who have a very pathetic lineup.

I was excited to see the Price autograph on my favorite set to collect from last year. That reminds me, I should get back to work on those short prints. Guess I'll head over to ebay and see what I can see.

Today's Ray: Ben Zobrist Auto

2010-04-21T07:59:00.003-05:00

I swear to you that this hasn't turned into a Rays blog. I know there are enough of those out there.

However, today I present to you the 2010 Topps Ben Zobrist on card auto. Again, completely compliments of my friend Brian and his trip to Rays/Twins spring training last month.

Ben carried my middle of the pack fantasy team last season and I actually packaged him up in a deal for Evan Longoria. Yes, I covet all Rays players. They must all be mine. Wow, how did this happen? Although I think this obsession is allowing me to forget how the Brewers were almost swept by the Nats.

That is all for now, go Rays, er I mean Brewers!

White Sox Cards & CTBNL Trade

2010-04-20T15:04:00.007-05:00

This is exactly how much catch-up I'm trying to play, this trade for cards to be named later came in from Steve over at White Sox Cards in mid-February. I haven't forgotten Steve, I swear.

I originally promised to send him some Sox 2009 Topps T206 cards that I had from his want list, but I see they've mostly disappeared except for AJ Pierzynski and Jake Peavy. Now, I know I have Jake Peavy, but I do have a love affair with the man. See, it's right here.

So it's either part with Peavy or scour his want list for something new. I'm sure I'll make a decision quickly this week to close the book on this trade.

Steve did send over 16 cards I needed from my 1992 Topps Stadium Club want list. This side project started sometime over the winter when I realized I had about half the cards from Series 1. I really liked the idea of the rookie card image in color on the back of the cards. In fact, I can actually remember buying these packs when I was 15 or so and really liking the glossy photo paper. Very high end for its day. Here's a shot of some of the cards he sent over.

These cards bring back great memories. My friends and I used to heckle Chili Davis and Tim Wallach (not pictured here) unmercifully at Third World County Stadium when they came to town to take on the Brewers. I'd go so far as to say with the light crowds at the start of the 1995 season (remember they were going to use scabs to start the year but pushed the dates back instead once they reached an agreement?) that Tim Wallach could hear every word we shouted at him. Chili Davis too. You could basically sit anywhere you wanted in that park it was so empty. Don't get me wrong, it was empty to begin with but even the ushers didn't make you leave the "nice" seats in the beginning of that 1995 season.

Here are a few more including one of my favorites to watch in that era, Jay Buhner.

I'll do my best to update my list of Series 1 needs from the 1992 Stadium Club set. Also if you have anything to trade from Series 2, I don't think I have any. Although I did find a real cheap set of Series 3 back in December. But that's another post for another day - or just later tonight.

Jeff Niemann Auto

2010-04-20T12:57:00.004-05:00

Jeff Niemann. I love you, but I'm scared to know if you love me back. That's why I couldn't possibly have started you this week in fantasy baseball.

You see Jeff, it's been a long time since I had feelings like this about a young pitcher - and well, I don't want to be hurt again.

Many have hurt me Jeff, too many to recount. But I'll try. Just last year there was Johnny Cueto, Jon Sanchez, and Chris Volstad to name a few. Oh, before that there was Phil Hughes, and his AL East cohort Clay Buchholz. Go back further and you'll find Joel Zumaya. I'm telling you, this list could go on forever.

That's it Jeff, while I totally dig this dorky photo on your 2009 Topps card, along with the sweet autograph you supplied my friend Brian while he swung by Spring Training last month, I simply didn't have it in me to see if you would love me back this week against Boston and the Toronto Wells. Yes, at this point, Vernon Wells has become bigger than the team itself, hence I move for them to rename the franchise.

Now if you somehow find it in you to destroy the Wells, and the Rays have won 12 straight, I'll have no choice but to see how you fair next week. But all I ask is that you don't hurt me Jeff. It would set me back a decade.

For the record, I went with Dave Bush against the Pirates (tonight) and Cubs if you'd like to see how I fare.

This begins three days of Rays autos that I'd like to post. I have a mini-obsession with that franchise, especially their pitching.

Let's Talk Baseball & Cards & HBL Week 3

2010-04-18T07:45:00.005-05:00

Let's talk about everything and anything. It feels like a month since i last posted. Oh wait, it has been? Totally makes sense. Apparently these little baseball fans in training, newborn children, take up quite a bit of your time. Who'd have thunk that? My little guy's name is Theodore William.

I assure you we didn't name him after Teddy Higuera and Will Clark, two of my favorite players from the 80s. Nor did we name him after Ted Williams, but many of my baseball friends are already calling him Teddy Ballgame. Too funny. Theodore was a name we both liked and William is a family name, but no one has to know if I secretly appreciate his name for the baseball roots, right?

The nice part about my three weeks off from work is that I was able to get some scans in and recall some long lost trades I did.

My friend Brian and I also ran a team 50K race, so the Hoffman Rookie Card may or may not have changed hands, I'll have to do an update on that as well. What I can tell you is that we busted a box of 1998 Leaf Updates in search of the Crusade cards. If you've never seen these fantastic cards, take a look. I'm going to do a long post on that box break this week as well.

So back to where I started, the image that kicked off this post, the Jim Palmer Sports Royalty Goudey Graph. I actually purchased this card sometime back in January or February. I took such a liking to what most people decided was a horrible set - I knew my first Palmer auto should be from it. I'm very happy to have added it to my collection. I also spent some time bidding and losing out on a couple different Jim Palmer rookie cards from the 1966 Topps set. I'll likely make another run at one. Since I know there are many Palmer collectors out there, do any of you have one? Did you use ebay to snag it? Just curious.

Speaking of Jim Palmer, I could really use him on my fantasy team this week. First a quick recap of the first two weeks of my season.

Berkman got hurt, I got mad. Signed Aubrey Huff and Luke Scott. Guess which is still on my team? As a flier I also picked up Gaby Sanchez last week. Everything I've read says he should be a middle of the order bat for the Marlins down the road. I'd like that very much. He's hit 8th much of the season, but I've got the patience to wait on him. I like him.

I've also had to scramble at the outfield position. While I still like Jay Bruce, I can't let him do to me this year what BJ Upton did to me last year. I continually started Upton all year despite his lack of usefulness outside of stolen bases. I always thought to myself "this is the month he gets the power back". It never happened. While Bruce has 2 steals, he also only has 1 run scored and 2 RBI in two weeks. That's killing me. So I made the hot waiver pickup, Jeff Francouer. Other than the 20 inning extravaganza that was played last night he's been on fire. Taking walks even! I can't believe it. But I'll try to ride his hot streak this week.

Another guy on my 'list' is Raul Ibanez. I traded for him in the off-season full well knowing I despised the guy because I didn't understand where he came from and why he was good. He played in Philly and hit behind Howard and Utley so I was willing to give it a go. Well the Phillies decided to hit him 6th this year which makes him mostly useless to me. He was rendered completely useless by not hitting, ever. At all. Luckily I was able to trade Justin Frasor right before he lost his closer job for Magglio Ordonez.

The other trouble spot for me so far has been starting pitching. Verlander and Peavy had terrible first weeks, and while each had 2 starts this week, and both pitched better, I still didn't get a win out of either pitching. In fact, I don't think I have a win this week. Brett Anderson and Ian Kennedy also both had 2 starts and neither won their first game on Tuesday. Both also pitch today. Realistically I'm just looking for Kennedy not to get BLOWD UP, and Anderson to pitch well. Here's to hoping.

And to round out my first (long) post back in a while, I'll give you the tough calls I made this week in fantasy baseball.

I like the Marlins going on the road to Houston and Colorado. Houston might be the worst team in the NL. I've been saying that since before the season. Because of this, I'm going to give Gaby Sanchez a start at 1b instead of Aubrey Huff, and I'm going to play Dan Uggla (red hot) over Rickie Weeks (also red hot) just because I don't necessarily need the steals from Rickie right now. I can still cheer for him all week.

My last tough call is whether or not to promote Jeff Niemann this week to pitch against Boston and Toronto. Boston's lineup scares me, and no one has been able to stop Vernon (back on the roids) Wells. Seriously, does anyone else think that Wells was sick of being a punchline and just decided to do whatever he had to do to stop getting picked on? I do. Anyway, I can't decide if I want to use Niemann, double down on Ian Kennedy for a second week, or use Dave Bush on the road against the Pirates and at home against the Cubs. Leaning toward Bush. Bush is normally great at home and poor on the road, but it's the Pirates on the road. Bush would join Peavy, Verlander, Anderson, Beuhrle, Marmol, and Heath Bell for Week 3.

As for the rest of my hitters, catcher is set with AJ (ice cold) Pierzynski. Third base, shortstop and DH are set all season with Longoria, Derek Jeter, and Troy Tulowitzki - also known as the heart of my team. And Carl Crawford takes the other outfield spot next to Maggs and Frenchy.

This post got super long, but I'm glad to be back, I might have enough in me to do 2 posts a day for a while, so long as I can find the time.

One last note since I talked with a few of you other bloggers about MLB The Show. I spent three weeks playing this game, bought the PS3 just to play it, and I love it. I honed in on a set of sliders that make it realistic and fun for me, and now that I have I'm starting a Brewers dynasty. Let's see how much I get to play now that I'm back at work.

2010 Topps Series 1 Pack Break

2010-03-26T09:03:00.004-05:00

It was finally time for me to break down and purchase a pack of 2010 cards. I'd been doing my best to stick to finishing off the 2009 Topps Series 2, U&H, 2009 Goudey SPs, and continue my work toward finishing the 1992 Stadium Club set, but I broke down and needed to feel like I was part of the club again.

I was happy to get a Brewer even if it was Craig Counsell. Anyone else notice what I did about this pack? A theme of sorts . . . ?

And for those of you who like the inserts, I'll show those off as well.

I'm not sure I care much for the shots of Major Leaugers in Little League. Doesn't do anything for me. I feel like there's been enough "History of the Game" type of stuff in recent years and it's time to move on. Counting Topps Town as cards is just sick and wrong.

Our Trophy - The Trevor Hoffman Rookie Card

2010-03-25T08:39:00.003-05:00

I've said it once, and I'll say it again. I was dead wrong about Trevor Hoffman last year. I said he was washed up and there was nothing left in the tank. I said he couldn't get by with location and a nothing fastball. I was wrong.

However, something great came from being wrong. I learned why Hoff still had it. This dude is a machine. Here, check out some of thedetails.

So once I found out that Hoffman was a workout fiend and liked to continuously run laps around Petco/Miller Park before games, he became an inspiration to me and my running partner Brian. All last summer we'd talk about making Hoff proud by knocking out mile after mile, night after night. Of course we are resigned to MLB The Show for picking up our saves, but we've got the running part down.

As the summer wore on and we both got more and more into the baseball card scene, Brian noticed that our local card shop had a Hoffman Rookie Card. He gladly picked it up and now we're using it as a traveling trophy.

The last race we ran last season was the Baldwin Area Medical Center Booster Shot 10K. While there were only 4 men in my age group, I did manage to place 3rd while Brian placed fourth thus Hoffman is mine until April 17th when I'll be defending my title over 12.5K. Wish me luck, I'd like to keep the Hoffman card all summer!

Target Field - My First Look

2010-03-24T11:50:00.004-05:00

A friend and I took a trip to Target Field this weekend for the season ticket holder open house. We split a 20 game package and I was excited to see how the stadium with the smallest urban footprint would look and feel.

My initial reaction is it felt a bit like PNC and a bit like Camden. I think the Camden feel I got was that you are able to walk in off the streets of downtown Minneapolis right into the RF bleachers. There's a small pavilion out there when you first get into the park. I feel like there are a couple other street entrances, but this is the one we used.

The concourses are wide and chock full of eating options. However the seating area is cramped by comparison. Next to Wrigely, which was designed for early 1900s American bodies I've never sat in smaller seats. I'm not an overly large person, but not the smallest either, and I think once you've got a row full of people it could get quite uncomfortable.

Back to the stadium itself. There are some real interesting features in this park. I love the scoreboard with Paul and Minnie, who will shake hands after a Twins homerun. If you look closely at the terrible photo from my Moto Q, you can see a granite facade in RF that overhands the field slightly. I'm very interested to see how and how often this comes into play. The seats in this small section are single game seats only, as I understand it. No season tickets there. It's good to spread the novelty around a bit.

Eventually we wandered up to our seats in section 301. The only bad part about Row 3 is that the tunnel from the concourse is still at eye level and loiterers could potentially block our view of home plate. I plan to make good friends with the Ushers in that section as quickly as possible. We definitely in the nose bleeds. Not even a towering Mauer or Morneau foul HR ball will reach us (I don't think). With that said, I'm still eagerly anticipating my first game in May against the Orioles.

To close, the stadium definitely has a quaint feel to it. All the seats are very close to the field. And I mean close. So close that I'd be afraid to sit in the box seats near the dugouts if I had a couple of beers in me. I'd probably wear a John Olerud style helmet and not forget my glove in the car.

HBL Dynasty Team

2010-03-16T12:47:00.005-05:00

It's that time of year again. My hopes and dreams are alive and well. All the various hamstrings, rotator cuffs and elbows are secure and in place.

The Hampshire Baseball League is a dynasty version of fantasy baseball. I created the league back in 2000, where it was still run with spreadsheets and email/phone call transactions. It wasn't until 2001 that we took our show online to CBS.

I'll be honest, I have no idea how I put the concept for this league together, but somehow we ended up with a fantasy game that mimics the MLB pretty well.

For starters, our twelve team league rolls with a 25 man roster. We start nine hitters, one from each position plus a DH, and seven pitchers. We're required by commissioner decree to play at least three starting pitchers and two relief pitchers. The other two pitchers are dealers choice.

Our rosters round out with a 9 man bench. In addition to this, we conduct a yearly Minor League Player draft during the All-Star break. This is to fill our 10 minor league spots. You can draft whomever you'd like in this draft so long as they've not exhausted rookie eligibility requirement as established by MLB.

As I said in the beginning, this is a dynasty league. A keeper league but with no real limit on the number of players you can keep. It breaks down like this.

We use a salary cap of $54.25. That's real money (we've since added a buy-in fee of $50 to spice things up as we've gotten older and more established financially).

You may use that $54.25 as you wish across your 25 players. After the season, each player you decided to keep will cost you an additional $0.50. A $1.00 player will become $1.50 in Year 2. Every three years, a player's salary will double instead of moving up $0.50. Here's an example, the best from our league, Albert Pujols.

2001: 0.25
2002: 0.75
2003: 1.25
2004: 2.50
2005: 3.00
2006: 3.50
2007: 7.00
2008: 7.50
2009: 8.00
2010: 16.00

We actually thought no one would ever survive 10 years on the same contract, but after owning AP for 9 years, the original owner who plucked him off the waiver pile in 2001 for a quarter just traded him to a team that found a home for his $16.00. Incredible.

As you can see, keeping even 10 players will increase your overall salary a minimum of $5, and if any of those players is doubling you may find yourself strapped for cash in a heartbeat. Especially when doling out $16.00 to AP.

This is why the Minor League Draft is critical. Much like MLB, growing your own talent is crucial to building a competitive team in this league. Each year, the auction we have in March is filled with players who were dumped because their salaries became unmanagable for one reason or another. As you can imagine in this dynasty league, the pickings are slim in the March auction and this leads to over-inflated prices. Sure you can find some deals, but someone like CC Sabathia is now available every March because someone will inevitably overpay for pitching.

This is why I say our league mirrors the MLB setup quite a bit. Players drafted in the Minor League Draft are given a salary (once promoted) based on the round they were selected. $1.00 for first rounders, $0.75 for second, $0.50 for third, and $0.25 for fourth. With this structure in place, the contract increase and doubling system basically works as our arbitration process. If a player is good enough to keep, in his first 7 years in the league he may make: $1.00, $1.50, $2.00, $4.00, 4.50, $5.00, $10 before finally becoming a Free Agent.

I wanted to share this unique setup because I feel like there are a lot of 32 man roster, $260, cookie cutter leagues out there now and I'm proud of the very unique league my friends have helped me build over the years. As a kicker, I'm proud to say I've won three titles in this league, although my last came in 2005 and I've since taken over the former last place team in the league while allowing another set of friends to take over my old team. Without further ado, I present to you my roster for the upcoming season.

C: AJ Pierzynski
1B: Lance Berkman
2B: Dan Uggla
SS: Troy Tulowitzki
3B: Evan Longoria
OF: Jay Bruce
OF: Carl Crawford
OF: Raul Ibanez
DH: Derek Jeter

SP: Jake Peavy
SP: Justin Verlander
SP: Mark Buehrle
SP: Jon O. Sanchez
SP: Ian Kennedy
RP: Carlos Marmol
RP: Heath Bell

2B: Rickie Weeks
OF: Lastings Milledge
SP: Wade LeBlanc
SP: Pedro Martinez
SP: Billy Buckner
SP: Dave Bush
SP: James McDonald
RP: Scott Downs
RP: Jason Frasor

Our in-season Free Agency opens up on March 29th, a week before the season kicks off and some of these guys will already be dead weight. Normally we wouldn't have auctioned so early, but with the due date of the new baby scheduled for March 26th, we didn't have much choice other than to tuck it into the last week of February. I look forward to regaling you with tales of our championship season, and displaying some cards of my players from week to week.

For the record, my off-season moves entailed moving a bunch of guys (Zobrist, Cueto, Chris Davis, De La Rosa, Ryan Howard) for Evan Longoria and Carlos Marmol. My big free agent signings were Jeter and Peavy for $8 each, and I traded Colby Rasmus who will eventually be up for $0.25 - I'll probably regret that, but I needed help now - for Carl Crawford who is $7.50 and has two years left before he doubles again (making him a FA). I'm currently sitting on Brett Anderson, Carlos Santana, and Jeff Niemann in my minors. I'm hoping all three will contribute this year, thus all the fliers at the back-end of my rotation and at catcher with AJ.

The Man, The Myth, The Master Photo

2010-03-16T07:21:00.004-05:00

If there was a trophy to commemorate the craziness that went on this winter, I'd hope that this photo would be etched into the trophy.

It appears as if Bip is Superman, flying into home plate, bringing you a sack full of crappy cards you've got no use for.

That concludes my most excellent estate sale find. I was happy to be able to get a string of posts in again.

With funds being held in check, I'm laying low until the A&G release and taking a stab at the Ginter Code again this year.

George Brett 1993 Stadium Club Master Photo

2010-03-15T11:11:00.002-05:00

Quick post to try and make good on my promise to show all 6 quickly. Didn't see as much free time over the weekend as I would have liked.

I like this one quite a bit!

Only 1 remains!

1993 Topps Stadium Club Master Photo #4

2010-03-12T07:45:00.004-06:00

Another Oaktown masher. Mr. Ruben Sierra to you. I had the utmost respect for Ruben as a player. I felt like he was a solid athlete with good to great power. Injuries started to derail him right as he hit his prime and he also was plagued with a normal person's player arc. Oh what roids could have done for Ruben.

He was 2nd in the MVP balloting in 1989 and was only 23 years old. This kid had a bright future. He still managed to play for 20 years and smacked over 300 HRs. He played with a ton of teams, but I'll probably most remember him as a Ranger or Yankee.

6	14	14	3	13	2	14	13	14	6
1	17	5	6	16	9	17	3	16	15
14	18	10	13	8	5	17	16	1	17
18	18	9	13	16	12	3	11	1	10
14	3	5	5	1	7	10	4	5	6
2	2	11	6	13	15	12	16	6	16
9	17	12	13	16	16	17	16	3	8
16	17	12	13	11	15	10	18	14	6
11	18	18	13	18	4	11	12	13	11
9	3	2	1	11	16	17	9	13	14

6	14	14	3	13	2	14	13	14	6
1	17	5	6	16	9	17	3	16	15
14	18	10	13	8	5	17	16	1	17
18	18	9	13	16	12	3	11	1	10
14	3	5	5	1	7	10	4	5	6
2	2	11	6	13	15	12	16	6	16
9	17	12	13	16	16	17	16	3	8
16	17	12	13	11	15	10	18	14	6
11	18	18	13	18	4	11	12	13	11
9	3	2	1	11	16	17	9	13	14

6	14	14	3	13	2	14	13	14	6
1	17	5	6	16	9	17	3	16	15
14	18	10	13	8	5	17	16	1	17
18	18	9	13	16	12	3	11	1	10
14	3	5	5	1	7	10	4	5	6
2	2	11	6	13	15	12	16	6	16
9	17	12	13	16	16	17	16	3	8
16	17	12	13	11	15	10	18	14	6
11	18	18	13	18	4	11	12	13	11
9	3	2	1	11	16	17	9	13	14