Eye of the Peguin...

This is a card I have wanted for a long time and just never pulled the trigger on it.

It's an on card autograph of one the greatest hockey players of all time, Mario Lemieux.

After the disappointing end to the Pirates season last night, I am moving on to watching hockey.

Nothing like the Penguins logo and a HoF auto to cheer up this Pittsburgh fan. 

Mario Lemieux Rookie!!!!!

The Penguins 2013-14 season kicks off today so I figured, now is as a good a time as ever to show off one of my summer acquisitions.

Mario Lemieux is one of the greatest hockey players of all time.

And now I own his rookie card from 1985-86 Topps.  I grabbed this beauty for $42.  That's half the price that many others have sold for.  Sorry for the crooked scan.  I don't know what's wrong with my scanner.

LET'S GO PENS!!!!

OOPS!!! I forgot to open a thread for the Tigers series

I'm currently dealing with some family issues and saved this as a draft and never posted it.  Since few of you probably knew that the Pirates were facing the Tigers in Pittsburgh this weekend, I'll give everyone a bonus win today.  The Bucs are already ahead in the series 1-0.

If the Bucs can win one of the next two games against the Tigers, someone can win the two cards below.

The Pirates will face off against Max Scherezer and Justin Verlander in the final two games.

LET'S GO BUCS!

Last night's victory against the Twins sealed the series win.  I will post the winner tomorrow and email past winners delivery confirmation numbers of packages by the middle of next week.  I just have a lot going on right now.  Sorry for the delays.

I figured I should show off a Pirates card so how about this one?

The NHL draft was today.  The Penguins selected defenseman Derrick Pouliot with the 8th overall selection which they acquired from the Caronlina Hurricanes in exchange for Jordan Staal.  I'm going to miss Staal.  However, I trust Shero and think his analysis is far better than mine of this draft selection.  One selection the Penguins didn't get wrong was Mario Lemieux who they purposely tanked the rest of the season so they may get the number 1 overall selection back in 1984.  A little known fact is that Mario didnt' shake hands or wear the Penguins on draft night because he wasn't happy being drafted by Pittsburgh and their attempts to reach contract negotiations with him before being drafted.  Now Super Mario is the owner and has brought the franchise from being near obsolete to being an NHL powerhouse.

The card above is a In the Game Cityscapes card featuring a patch of Mario Lemieux and jersey of Jason Bay.  I've had this card for awhile and am just getting around to showing it off.  It's a nice looking card of two of Pittsburgh's franchise faces when this card was made in 2007. 

Penguins for Pennies

Here's some recent Penguins pickups I won a long time ago on ebay.  All were won for under $5 each.  To all you sellers that can't spell Lemieux properly.  Thank you!!!!

Evgeni Malkin Young Guns rookie checklist

Bobble Bobble Bobble! I made a trade with Dodgerbobble

I received my part of a trade package with Josh from dodgerbobble.com.
The agreement was for a Jose Tabata Gold Futures 2012 insert and a Frank Thomas Bowman Heritage Jersey relic.  Josh didn't stop there though as he added several other nice surprises that I didn't previously have.

This is the agreed upon Frank Thomas jersey card that I received in exchange for the Kershaw jersey I had pulled last year.  The Big Hurt was one of my favorites growing up and I still remember that video game he put out for the old Sega system.  That game was the shit back in the day.

Here's the "vintage" portion of the lot he sent me featuring all past Pirates players.  I actually didn't have any of these except the Wagner Lineage, which I have given to my girlfriend (also a Pirates fan).  It's nice seeing baseball players without their caps on all the time and I'm very happy to add the Stargell 206 card to my collection.  The Van Slyke was needed for my Van Slyke PC so that was a very nice surprise too.  I don't think I've mentioned it here before, but I just recently bought a Jay Bell game used bat on ebay for about $20 so it was nice to get that Bell card just a few days after the bat arrived.

 Dodgerbobble also included 6 Steelers and 3 Penguins.  Both teams are always welcomed in a trade if you're short on Pirates.  I am slowly trying to build up Steelers and Penguins collections and cards of HOFer Mario Lemieux are always welcome.

 Here's some 2012 and 2010 Pirates cards.  The Tabata Gold Futures was part of the deal.  Everything else was a bonus.

Thanks so much for the trade Josh.  I'm looking forward to our next trade.

Are the Pirates moneyballing?

Moneyball featuring Brad Pitt came out today on DVD.  I haven't bought my copy yet on bluray, but I did see the movie in the theatre.  I thought that the movie was really good for a mainstream audience and showed how tough the business side of sports can be especially when trying to compete against the Red Sox and Yankees in the American League.  Having the movie focus entirely on sabremetrics would have been a bore so I'm glad that they focused more on the thoughts and feelings that Billy Beane was going through during this transition. 

I bring this up because a lot of people bash the Pittsburgh Pirates.  I mean let's be honest, they've had 19 losing seasons after all.  This doesn't mean that they aren't trying to get better.  Signing free agents like Albert Pujols or CJ Wilson would cripple the team if they were to not perform above expectations.  A similiar situatin happened in Texas awhile ago when they signed Alex Rodriguez to that ridiculous contract.  Texas didn't make the World Series and the team went bankrupt.  Now Texas is doing good, but it was because they built a Championship caliber team through the draft and international signings.  They built a strong young core of players and have been piecing things together with veterans to fill the gaps. 

The Pirates also have a strong young core of players at the major league level in Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker, and Jose Tabata.  The jury is still out on Pedro Alvarez.  Alex Presley looks like he will be above replacement level in the outfield and there's lots of talented pitching coming up in the next few years.  Unfortunately, I believe that some of the young core will be traded off by then.  Why?  Because they won't be competing for a championship and would like to remain under the payroll budget saving up money for when they are finally close and can go out and get a key free agent.

Now....getting back to the Moneyball movie.....

In the movie, Billy Beane expresses interest in Ricardo Rincon and says that he wanted to get him for $1 million.  Rincon was playing for Cleveland at the time, but he got there from being traded by the Pirates for Brian Giles.

Brian Giles, all domestic abuse cases aside, was a phenomenal player for the Pirates and broke out in a big way when he came to Pittsburgh.  He was an all star in 2000 & 2001.  He was the first player in club history to hit .300 with 30+HR and drive in more than 100 runs in back to back seasons.  He was sensational!!!!!

After playing 4 1/2 seasons with the Bucs, Giles was traded to his hometown San Diego Padres for Oliver Perez and Jason Bay along with a minor leaguer whose name escapes me. 

We all know the story of what happened to Jason Bay.  He went on to win the NL rookie of year in 2004.  He was an All-Star for the Pirates in 2005 and 2006.  Then he was involved in a blockbuster trade with the Red Sox sending Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers and the Pirates receiving 4 players that amounted to nothing (yet).  They included former 1st Round draft picks: Bryan Morris, Craig Hansen, Brandon Moss, and Andy Laroche.  I was a huge fan of Jason Bay while in Pittsburgh and still root for him with the Mets.  He's just a very classy hard working ball player.

Oliver Perez lead the NL in K/9 in 2004, the same year that Jason Bay broke out to win NL ROY.  Oliver's K/9 was an astonishing 10.97 and finished with a 2.98 ERA (tied with Roger Clemens that year).  He was a true ace pitcher, but got little run support (less than 2 runs per outing) and finished with a 12-10 record.  The next two seasons were not so kind and saw Perez begin to be hit hard as he posted an ERA around 6 for each season.  In 2006 he was sent to the Mets with pitcher Ramon Hernandez (a journeyman relief pitcher) for Xavier Nady.

Xavier Nady didn't do much of anything while in Pittsburgh, but he was viewed good enough along with reliever Damaso Marte to net Jeff Karstens, Jose Tabata, Ross Ohlendorf, AND Daniel McCutchen.  I've talked before about my love for the way Jose Tabata plays so I won't go into details again regarding that.  Daniel McCutchen is a very versatile pitcher and can be used to throw to one batter or do a spot start or pitch 6 innings in relief in needed.  He could be a future closer and demonstrated this year that he keeps getting better.  Jeff Karstens broke out in a big way last year as he mixed up all his off speed pitches to be in the top 10 in ERA.  Ross Ohlendorf, well.....he's been released because of two injury plagued seasons.

So I finish with this thought.  The Pirates have been playing to their market, but they have yet to get enough pieces in place to field a team that can be above .500.  I truly do think that GM Neal Huntington has done a sensational job building through the draft and just can't wait to see a team that is all homegrown take the field in 2013 and beyond. 

So to recap, 1 relief journeyman pitcher (Ricardo Rincon) helped net
4 All-Star appearances (2 by Brian Giles & 2 by Jason Bay)
a 2004 NL ROY(Jason Bay)
a 2004 Cy Young candidate (Oliver Perez)
a 2010 NL ROY candidate (Jose Tabata)
a 2011 top 10 ERA leader (Jeff Karstens)
the 3rd smartest professional sports player (Ross Ohlendorf)
more pieces for future trades

Now that I've talked waaaayyyy tooooo much, I will shut up and show off some cards that I haven't spot lighted yet of players all discussed in this post.  As a side note, I have finally updated my Jason Bay relics/auto hits.  I currently have 21 and hope to double that by the end of 2012.  I'm actually hoping to finish with 44 (his current Mets jersey number)

Brian Giles 2002 Leaf Statisical Standout BAT

2003 UD City All-Stars Mario Lemieux & Brian Giles JERSEY

 Jason Bay 2007 UD Black Lustrous 15/50 AUTO

 Jason Bay 2007 UD Black 31/75 AUTO, 4 JERSEY (one which is 2 color)

 2008 UD Generations Ralph Kiner BAT Jason Bay JERSEY

Jason Bay 2006 UD EPIC SWATCH JERSEY 15/50

 Adam & Andy Laroche 2009 Upper Deck SPX Winning Materials DUAL JERSEY

Brandon Moss 2008 & 2009 Topps Gold

Oliver Perez 2005 Upper Deck Origins ATUO

Xavier Nady 2007 UD Masterpieces Stroke of Genius AUTO

Jose Tabata 2011 Topps Next 60 AUTO

Daniel McCutchen 2010 Topps Triple Threads AUTO JERSEY 21/25

You know what it is, Black and Yellow, Black and Yellow

Yeah uh huh. You know what it is. Black and yellow. Black and yellow. 

After browsing the interwebs today, I see that Wiz Khalifa is being sued for plagiarism of his song Black and Yellow which was "stolen in concept" from rapper Maxamillion's Pink and Yellow song copyrighted in 2007.  While I don't really care for Wiz Khalifa, I am a fan of the song Black and Yellow because it gets me amped up to root for some Pittsburgh sports teams. 

But what gets me more excited is some pieces of cardboard featuring clothing with black and yellow on it.  Yesterday I went to my local mall after work and saw that they were having a baseball card show.  Since I live in NJ, there's not a whole lot of Pittsburgh love.  For baseball there's the Phillies, Yankees, and Mets.  For hockey, it's the Devils, Rangers, and Flyers.  Football has the Eagles, Giants, and Jets.  No one likes the Pirates or Penguins around here, but there are quite a few Steeler fans.  I had low hopes of finding anything of interest since that's what normally happens at these types of shows.  Boy was I surprised to see a vendor there with boxes upon boxes full of vintage Pirates cards.  I already have every base 1976-present Topps Pirates card, but I was able to get a good chunk of pre 1971 Topps for about $3 or less a card including some rag copies of 1952 Topps for $5.  My girlfriend even picked up an original Piedmont 350 tobacco card which I will post sometime next week.  In addition to the vintage cards, all of which will get their own post also next week, I picked up 2 sweet jersey cards of 2 of Pittsburgh most recognized sports heroes.

Up first is Hall of Famer and 2 time World Series Champion Willie Stargell.  I was looking at an extremely nice copy of Stargell's rookie card, but it was waaaaayyyyy out of my price range when the guy said "I just bought a Stargell jersey card last week. Do you want to see it?" I said sure, thinking it would be a standard white relic or something.  He dug around some of his boxes he hadn't opened up or priced yet and said here it is.  I asked how much and $15 less in my wallet it was now in my possession.  I'm such a sucker for those black and yellow jerseys.

At the next table over, I was rummaging through some .10 bins and came across a lot of Penguins.  The cards weren't in any order, not even by sport.  I grabbed them all which you can see below.  But the real highlight of this table was the card you see above.  Mario Lemieux!!!!  Are you kidding me?  $15? Um yes please.  Mario is one of the greatest hockey players of all time and is currently the owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins.  He's the first person in hockey history to win a Stanley Cup as a player and an owner.  I know the Pens aren't looking too hot the past couple weeks, but once some of their star players come back from injuries, Super Mario might win his 4th Stanley Cups this year.  Below are the cards I bought for .10 a piece.  I have already put them in pages and at less than $1 to fill a page, I couldn't pass it up.

At my last and final stop I noticed a table with jersey relics for $3 or 2 for $4.  I looked and looked and looked for Pirates players, but found nothing until the very last handful when I came across these two gems.

Dave Parker and Willie Stargell Fleer Fall Classic Post Season Glory bat relic of The Cobra.  This card is numbered 71/150.  The Cobra and Pops were part of the 1979 World Series Champions Pittsburgh Pirates.  My only regret with this card is that I wish the photo of Willie Stargell was from the 79 series with those funky uniforms.

The very next card was this 2005 MLB Game Used Apparel Upperdeck Artifact jersey relic of Andy Van Slyke.  The card is numbered 40/325.  Andy is still my favorite center fielder that ever put on a Pirates uniform.  It just seemed like if the ball got past the infield, Andy would be able to track it down in the outfield and catch it.  He wasn't a speedster like Andrew McCutchen is, but he had some of the best baseball instincts of an outfielder.  There's an interview where he says that he tried to get Barry Bonds to move more to the right in that famous "Sid Bream slide" 1992 Playoff game and Barry gave him the finger.  Sure enough, if Barry had moved over a couple steps, the Pirates probably would have gone to the World Series that year as Bonds would have thrown Bream out at home.  No matter how true that story is, the reality is that AVS stayed sitting in the outfield for an hour after the game just contemplating what had just happened. 

Stay tuned tomorrow for some old vintage Topps that I will post.

Oh and Let's Go Steelers!!!!