I like to keep a few sealed packs on-hand for times when I really want to open something, but don't want to head all the way to the store to buy something. I've found one of the best ways to do that is to get the 20-pack Fairfield repacks from Target. I've been gradually working my way through one of those for the last month or so, and was down to two packs left...neither of which particularly excited me: a 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth pack and one remaining pack of 2015 Topps Series 1. First I opened the Babe Ruth pack and got....cards of Babe Ruth (yawn). Next was the Topps pack. There had been about 4 packs of Series 1 altogether in here, and I hadn't received anything to write home about. I wasn't expecting much from this one either, and it didn't start out promising as I read the card names from the back...
Tony Sipp.
Bryce Berentz.
Tom Koehler.
You can see where this is going...dullsville.
Brandon Belt.
Clayton Kershaw. -- Well, at least he's somebody I know I can trade. It's the #100 card.
Eric Young.
Mets Team Card.
....
Etc. Another boring pack. However, I flip the cards over to look at the pictures on the front, and am pleasantly surprised. The Mets team card has an interesting camo-uni photo...and the Clayton Kershaw card looked...different.
It wasn't this card #100 that I was expecting:
It was this card #100:
The "bubble-gum" variation. I had forgotten this was a thing...but knew I hadn't seen this card before. It was definitely a nice thing to see out of a Fairfield repack!
So the question to my Dodger-collecting friends is....Does anybody need it?
I want to thank everyone for entering the contest -- I was hoping for 25-30 entries...and we got 34! This is one where having more people makes the results better and the game more fun, so all of your entries (even up to the very last-minute!) are much appreciated.
On some of the questions, there was substantial agreement. On others, you guys were all over the board. Without further ado, here are the results:
1) The most famous baseball card is ___________.
T206 Honus Wagner
26
1952 Topps Mickey Mantle
7
Ty Cobb
1
This question was the one with the most agreement of any question -- 26 of 34 said the T206 Honus Wagner. I was surprised that nobody chose the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey, Jr.
2) A current or former MLB player named "Bill" or "Billy" is __________.
Billy
Ripken
13
Bill Buckner
5
Billy Martin
5
Billy Williams
4
Billy Hamilton
3
Billy Butler
2
Bill Madlock
1
Billy Wagner
1
I expected these results to be all Buckner and Williams when I posted it - Ripken never crossed my mind. But ol' "Rick Face" himself came out on top with over 2x the votes of his nearest competitor.
3) A current MLB catcher is __________.
Buster
Posey
16
Yadier Molina
12
Joe Mauer
3
Brian McCann
2
Russell Martin
1
Apparently only the NL catchers matter to you guys.
4) The "junk wax era" ended in this year: __________.
1993
10
1994
7
1995
5
1992
2
1996
2
1999
2
2000
2
2001
1
2002
1
2004
1
2014
1
The exact year is up for debate, but the window of 1992-1996 is fairly well-agreed-upon. Except for the one who thinks it ended last week.
5) If I could own an MLB team, I would choose this one: __________.
Dodgers
13
Yankees
12
Red Sox
4
Rangers
2
Angels
1
Mets
1
Dustin Pedroia
1
Looks like a little East Coast vs. West Coast battle going on here. The Dodgers take it by one vote. However, there was one vote for this team:
(Not a Baseball Team)
6) Name a member of the Boone family that played in the big leagues: __________.
Bob
Boone
15
Bret Boone
11
Aaron Boone
6
Ray Boone
2
Look at that family! You only had four choices on this one, and most of you went with Bob and Bret.
7) A current or former Pittsburgh Pirate player is __________.
Roberto
Clemente
16
Andrew McCutchen
14
Willie Stargell
4
You had a lot more possible choices here, but stuck with only 3 different guys. This was "Sheep" at its finest! :-)
8) This number is the most iconic record in baseball: __________.
56
15
42
4
61
4
714
2
715
2
755
2
762
2
62
1
300
1
744
1
Dimaggio's 56-game hitting streak took the top spot here, with Jackie's # and the Home-Run records following behind.
9) The ideal baseball card set should have this many cards in it: __________.
792
11
660
6
300
4
750
2
200
1
220
1
250
1
330
1
400
1
600
1
661
1
752
1
762
1
881
1
900
1
The fans of the Topps overproduction sets came out in force here.
10) When going to a baseball game, I buy this many beers: __________.
2
16
0
7
3
6
1
3
5
1
6
1
The good news...only 2 of my blog readers are those drunk guys screaming in the 4th inning. For everyone who answered 2 beers, that'll only cost you 28 dollars.
11) The greatest third-baseman of all time is: __________.
Mike
Schmidt
17
Brooks Robinson
10
George Brett
3
Archi Cianfrocco
1
Cal Ripken
1
Chipper Jones
1
Wade Boggs
1
"The Human Vacuum Cleaner" made it close, but Schmidt took this one.
12) A team in the American League West is __________.
Angels
12
A's
9
Rangers
8
Mariners
4
Astros
0
Yankees
1
One of these things is not like the other....
13) The best "role model" in baseball right now is: __________.
14) The most I would spend on one World Series ticket for my favorite team is __________.
$200
8
$100
7
$500
6
$250
3
$300
2
$350
2
$15
1
$25
1
$125
1
$150
1
$400
1
$1,000
1
Only $15 for the World Series? I've spent more than that for Spring Training. :-)
15) The age at which girls become more important than baseball cards for a card-collecting boy is __________.
13
12
15
8
14
6
16
5
12
1
17
1
25
1
16) A pitcher in the 2013 All-Star game was __________.
Clayton
Kershaw
14
Mariano Rivera
10
Justin Verlander
3
Max Scherzer
3
Yu Darvish
3
Matt Harvey
1
Even Rivera's final All-Star game appearance wasn't enough to top Clayton.
17) The most-poorly-run franchise in baseball is: __________.
Marlins
14
Astros
7
Cubs
4
Mets
4
Royals
3
Dodgers
1
Mariners
1
18) The scariest current or former pitcher for a batter to face: __________.
Randy
Johnson
18
Bob Gibson
4
Nolan Ryan
3
Aroldis Chapman
1
Justin Verlander
1
R.A. Dickey
1
Rick Ankiel
1
Roger Clemens
1
Roy Halladay
1
Ryne Duren
1
Sandy Koufax
1
Satchel Paige
1
Randy Johnson vs. John Kruk:
I just learned who Ryne Duren was, too.
19) A baseball team that has blue as one of its team colors is __________.
Dodgers
20
Blue Jays
8
Cubs
4
Mets
1
Yankees
1
Even though they have BLUE in their name, the Jays could only swing 8 votes.
20) I feel cheated if I spend more than this amount for a pack of cards: __________.
$5.00
13
$3.00
11
$2.99
4
$4.99
2
$1.00
1
$4.00
1
$10.00
1
$15.00
1
If all the 99-cent people had rounded up, $3 and $5 would have been tied! One person only buys Opening Day and Triple Play, I see.
Scoring and Winners:
As I mentioned originally, for each question you get the number of points equal to the number of people who gave the answer you did -- highest score wins.
Without further ado, our winners are: TTG and The Lost Collector!!! The local Dodger-bloggers (Stealing Home and Greg Z) were close in 3rd and 4th.
Here's what we have for the standings:
TTG (Joe) -
fromanunlikelysource
254
The Lost Collector
245
Stealing Home/All Trade Bait All The Time
244
Greg Z/Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle
240
Daniel/It's like having my own Card Shop
231
Steve D.
230
Josh D / Royals and Randoms
226
Nachos Grande
225
Scott O
221
The Diamond King
219
Dhoff / Coot Veal and the Vealtones
218
Thoughts And Sox
213
RAZ @ The Raz Card Blog
210
Great Sports Name Hall of Fame
210
TorontoBlueJaysCollection
208
Alex M/Chavez Ravining
207
Jeff - One Man's Junk (Wax)
207
Stubby--stubbyschristmas
207
Nick P./Dime Boxes
206
Matt / Tenets of Wilson
203
rnisly
202
hockeykazi
197
Zach from Autographed Cards
193
Tribecards
192
Kerry B / Cards on Cards
185
Marcus
184
Gavin at Baseball Card Breakdown
177
Play at the Plate
169
Bleedin' Brown and Gold
166
captkirk42
164
Robin
153
The Junior Junkie
139
Dawgbones/Schmidt Happened!
127
John H
98
I also said I would give one prize to a random participant. Thank you to those who promoted the contest on your blog....I have double-entered you here. The traditional 3 spins of the randomizer yields....The Junior Junkie! Congrats!
I would love to run this game again in the future. Thanks to everyone who entered. If you have any comments about how this ran, or if you have any good ideas for future questions, please post them in the comments below.
When Spankee ran his big Group Break awhile back, in addition to picking up the Royals, I decided to buy in for the Dodgers, too. I figured one of three things would happen:
1) I would get something I really liked and wanted to keep.
2) I would get some cool trade bait.
3) I could give the whole stack to some local fans (there are LOTS of Dodger fans here in the LA burbs).
Well, I got a bunch of cool stuff, but nothing that jumps out and says KEEP this, so everything here is for trade. There were a bunch of other base cards from the break that I would also happily trade, so if you are looking for anything from the packs that he busted, let me know.
Here was my Dodger hit.
2008 Baseball Heroes #94 Relic - Chad Billingsley - #013/125
Some Gypsy Queen:
2011 Gypsy Queen Green Paper Paralle #59 Duke Snider, Great Ones #GO17 Pee Wee Reese
Campanella:
2009 Topps #PR-14 Roy Campanella, 2011 Topps T60 #T60-59 Roy Campanella
A few oldies:
2004 Donruss Studio #100 Duke Snider, 1988 Stadium Club #361 Adrian Beltre
In addition, there were a few other non-team-specific cards that came my way. The first one is a 2009 Goodwin Champions on-card auto of poker player Evelyn Ng (#A-EN). The second one is the 2011 Gypsy Queen "Levitia" (#GQ10). Finally is a Kenesaw Mountain Landis Obak mini (#13)
Evelyn Ng, Levitia, Kenesaw Mountain Landis
If you see anything there that tickles your fancy, please leave a comment on this post or send me an email. Thanks!
I have a 2-year-old son. I'm still new to this whole blogging thing. I am also very lazy.
Those are the three main things that contributed to me not hooking up my new scanner for over 2 months. And since I didn't have a scanner connected, I didn't want to show the results of any of my trades. But tonight, a sudden wave of productivity washed over me, and I installed the darn thing. And it works great!
AWESOME. Love me some David DeJesus (and all Kansas City Royals), and Alex Gordon is on the way up. I never got attached to Rick Ankiel as a Royal (there wasn't enough time before he was traded!), but I mostly collect the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back.
There was one other card I had requested of him:
2010 National Chicle - # 65 - Clayton Kershaw
Art/Painted cards are some of my favorite, and I thought this one was cool-looking. Besides, aren't there some Kershaw Kollectors (yes, I just made that up) that are reading this now? If anyone needs it, it's for trade.
Finally, as the blogging veterans know and I am still discovering -- the generosity of many out there is so great as to add "throw-ins" of extra stuff the recipient might like. Justin was generous to me and tossed in these two beauties:
2011 Topps Stickers!! - Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas - Number 73 and 76.
These were my first 2011 stickers (believe it or not) and was happy to see them. Just a few more needed for the complete base set. :-)
So, thanks again, Justin! You can see his whole post on what I gave him (Eddie Murrays). It was a very smooth trade, and if you ever get a chance to trade with him I would jump on it.
