I've Got The Ball - a Q&A Session

Q:  Is Jose Rosado intimidated by big-name hitters?
A:  "They've got the bat, and they've got the name, but I've got the ball." --Jose Rosado


1997 Circa Jose Rosado - #11

Q:  What does Juan Gonzalez think of Kevin Appier?
A:  "To me, he's the best right-hander in this league." --Juan Gonzalez
(Juan Gonzalez has apparently never heard of this "Roger Clemens" fellow.)


1997 Circa Kevin Appier - #158

Q:  How does Chili Davis feel about being traded?
A:  "At my age...it's nice to know that someone wants you.  I've told young guys it's not an insult to be traded."  --Chili Davis


1997 Circa Chili Davis - #248

That's right, Chili, it's not an insult to be traded.  In fact, I've been trying to get people to trade me Chili Davis for months now.  I put him on my "Most Wanted" list and everything.  I had given up hope of getting him, until this card arrived in my mailbox.


1997 Fleer Ultra Chili Davis - #432

CHILI HULK SMASH!!!!

All of these (and even more Circa cards) came to me via "reader of blogs, writer of none" Steve.  He found me on Zistle. Another benefit of Zistle -- only on there will people who want your old MLB Showdown cards know that you want their old Circa cards.  It's like the Millionaire Matchmaker for card collectors.  It was a super-easy trade. You can check out all his stuff on his Zistle profile. 
Thanks again, Steve!

I Got Fuji-fied!

Last month San Jose Fuji was one of the winners of my Big Pile Contest.  He posted his haul on his site already.  (I just noticed that I WAS NOT following Fuji!  Huge mistake.  Rectified.......now.)

Well, he was awesome and sent me a very unexpected Thank You present.  First off...I got the Fuji trader card (above).  Way cool.

He also sent these beauties:

On-card autos of Tom Gordon, Mike Macfarlane, and Kevin Appier.  These cards are from the 1991 Kansas City Life Insurance cards set.  They are taller than a regular card, so these will not go in the standard pages...I'll have to find another way to show them off.  Fuji apologized that the Appier was a little bent up, but I think these guys are GREAT!!!  As three guys on the teams of my youth, these are way more treasured by me than anything I would buy in the store today.

Thank you so much, Fuji!!!

Shiny Parallels and their Non-Shiny Brethren

I never expected to use the word "Brethren" in this blog, but look in the title -- there it is!

I have to show off some brethren cards that I got in Colbey's most recent group break (check out Cardboard Collections for good cheap group breaks on a regular basis).  KC was the big winner on parallels in this break (several Pinnacle products).  The checklists for each team were not super-deep, so I was able to get the base cards for them, too.

These are all 1995 Pinnacle Summit.  The base cards are on top, while the "N-th Degree" parallels are below.  They are pretty shiny, as the scan indicates. 

1995 Pinnacle Summit #120 Joe Vitiello, #121 Jon Nunnally, and #139 Joe Randa

These guys were from the 1996 Pinnacle Aficionado box that Colbey opened, too.  These cards are really neat in that the faces on the right are a dot-picture (like you would see in the Wall-Street Journal), but the texture of them is such that the dots are raised above the level of the card stock so you can feel it as you run your fingers across it.

1996 Pinnacle Aficionado #65 Kevin Appier and #128 Johnny Damon

The final product that I wanted to show off featured a young (that is, short-haired) Johnny Damon and a young (that is, still thin) Sal Fasano.

1996 Summit #124 Johnny Damon and #169 Sal Fasano

I love discovering these less-prominent sets that I completely missed during my hiatus from card collecting.  Thanks for bringing them out into the open, Colbey.