FRIENDly new jersey card

On this day 50 years ago, Bob Friend gave up a triple to Pete Rose. It was Rose's first career hit of which he would go on to hit 4,256 total.

2002 Topps Super Teams Bob Friend Authentic Game Worn Jersey Relic

Bob Friend was a member of the 1960 World Series Championship Pittsburgh Pirates which this card commemorates as part of the Super Teams.  The card cost me just over $5 shipped.  It's my first relic of Mr. Friend.

HONUS WAGNER T206!!!!!

As a baseball card fan and a Pittsburgh Pirates fan to be more specific, I have always wanted to add a Honus Wagner T206 to my collection.  I have 3 options regarding this goal.
1) Sell my house to buy 1 baseball card and live in my car.
2) Give up the dream
3) Get a reprint version that is worthy of being on display

After getting back my tax return I decided to splurge and go for option 3.

This Honus Wagner T206 from 2002 Topps T206 features an actual bat relic of Honus.  The card is fricking gorgeous. 

Check that off the bucket list.

$3.26 for a HOF bat? Yes Please

Today, I got one of my ebay winnings from last week.  A 2002 Fleer Classic Cuts Bat relic of HOFer Ralph Kiner.  The best thing about this card is that I won it for only $3.26.  Sometimes, it pays to be a Pirates fan.  LOL!  The card is nice and features the bat in the center of the card along with a picture of Ralph.  I just wish that card companies would use the Pirates logos from the right era when displaying the Pirates of Yesteryear.  Oh well, for $3.26 I can't complain.

On another note entirely, I was just at Wal-Mart and they have 2012 Topps already available for the public.  I bought a box and a blaster.  I'll show some of the inserts, parallels, and hit I got later in the week.  I'm not planning on collecting the set so I will be willing to trade anything that's not a Pirate.  I got some really nice looking inserts along with a bunch of base.  Leave me a comment with your wants.  First come, first serve.

Card store pickups: Cutch, Cobra, and Charlie

I swung by my local card store today and picked up a handful of cards for a grand total of $6.15
Here's my pickups.  It's not much, but it's all for the player collections I have.

Up first for .75 is the Charlie Morton 2011 Topps Cognac parallel.  Not much can be said for this card other than, it's kinda shiny.  I'm not a huge fan of these parallels, but they look good for the Pirates because of the shades of gold and black that refract off it.

Then there's the $2.00 Andrew McCutchen 2009 Upper Deck rookie card.  This card has escaped me for too long and for a couple bucks I decided to take the plunge.

Now the highlight of the trip was getting this bat relic of Dave Parker from 2003 Topps Fan Favorites.  For $3, how could I pass up a bat relic of the Cobra, Dave Parker?  It's simple....I couldn't.

Factor in 7% sales tax and that's $6.15
All in all, a good haul.

Maz Monday: Celebrating the greatest defensive 2nd Baseman of all time

What a wild and crazy week I had.  It took the electric company 8 days to restore my power due to the massive flooding, broken poles, and uprooted trees from Hurricane Irene.  Fortunately, all I lost was power and there was very minimal flooding in the basement.  When the power came back on yesterday, it was the best birthday present I could have asked fore as it restored life as I knew it "back to normal".  The aftermath of Irene truly made me appreciate how much I take for granted everyday.  Without phone service, electricity, and having to take many detours on my road just to get into town to work I am truly more grateful for all that life has blessed me.  Thank you to those that sent messages and wished me well during the week.

I have received several trade packages as the post office began delivering mail again and will highlight those in future posts.

Today though I wanted to do something a little different and highlight the birthday of Bill Mazeroski.  Being a young dude, I didn't get a chance to see Maz play obviously.  However, I have seen numerous videos, interviews, and read many articles/books about Maz.

Last year I made the trek from NJ to Pittsburgh to celebrate my birthday and see Bill Mazeroski's statue unveiled on September 5th.  It was an awesome weeked overall, even though the Pirates lost to the Nationals for both games I was out there.  Here's some of the highlights

SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAZ! AND HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO YOUR STATUE

Now for the cards

Above is the relic cards I have of Maz that I previously had not posted.  I really like that Topps Stadium Series Seat card with the iconic image of Maz rounding 3rd after hitting the walk-off homerun in the 1960 World Series.  And because this card is so damn awesome I have reposted the Three Rivers Stadium Seat with Maz, Parker, and Madlock.  I have added a Bill Mazeroski folder to my Picasa photopage. 

On another note I went to my local card store yesterday and picked up a bunch of randomness along with supplies and some Jerome Bettis cards for the PC.  If anyone is interested in anything below, let me know.

Pirates extend Jose Tabata

The Pirates have extended one of their youth core by signing Jose Tabata through the next 9 years buying out his arbitration years and first shot at free agency.  The deal is worth a total of $37M but keeps Tabata in Pittsburgh through 2019.  Jose has stated his passion for the Pittsburgh Pirates and admiration for Roberto Clemente.

Click here for details of the extension.

In 176 career games, Jose has 104 runs scored, 34 stolen bases, and an average of .286. 

I currently have 3 Autos, 2 relics, an auto/relic, and a manufactured bat barrel of Jose.  Pictured above is a selection of my "hit" Tabata collection

I decided to also post 2 of my Dave Parker jersey relics.  Dave was an MVP for the Pirates in 1978 and was the 1979 All Star Game MVP.  During the 70s, Parker was one of the most feared batters in the National League and also won 3 gold gloves (1977-1979).  I have about a dozen Parker relics, but only 1 auto.  I plan on scanning them all in later in the month.

I want to be &%$@ing Batman too!

You're probably asking yourself, what the hell am I talking about?
Well I went on COMC about a week ago looking to buy a good size lot of Pirates Prospects cheap.  I find that I can find the cards on eBay, but most sellers overcharge for shipping.  If you do it right on COMC, you can pickup a lot of cool cards from the same seller, which I guess you can do on eBay too, it just takes longer.
Anyway, enough of blah blah blah.  Here's some of the cards that I manged to pick up for the price of a blaster and rack pack (about $30 shipped).

I really like that Colton Cain card a lot.  Here's why:
1) Colton Cain is a cool name and his signature is legible
2) Colton has a 3.64 ERA in 106 IP in A ball this year.  He also has a 81:31 strikeout to walk ratio.
3) I want to be Batman too

The second card on the top is a USA Jersey card of Robbie Grossman.  I've talked a lot about Robbie over the past couple weeks and yesterday he made minor league history.  He was the first minor leaguer to have 100 Walks and 100 Runs in a season since Nick Swisher in 2004.  Best of all he hit a game winning home run last night too.  Robbie is going to be an amazing athlete if he can continue this success in AA and above.

The Jordy Mercer auto is my first Jordy Mercer card I actually own.  I've seen Jordy play a couple times this year with AA and AAA.  I also got to see him play in Citizens Bank Park during an exhibition game between the Pirates and Phils before the season opened.  I think Jordy has the potential to be a very solid utility ballplayer with some pop in the future.

The dual bat relic of Robbie Grossman and Quincy Latimore is really neat especially since it was less than a $1.00.  Numbered 61/250

I didn't have any Jarek Cunningham cards other than the Bradenton Marauders team set card.  This card is a numbered parallel 83/199.  I got this card for $0.55

Also on this scan is 2 Tony Sanchez Bowman cards for the PC.  

At the top of this scan are 2 Daniel McCutchen autos and a Jeff Clement auto. These on card autos were all had for $5.08.  How could I pass that up?  Daniel McCutchen has been pretty solid as a long swingman throughout the season.  He has also been used as a setup man from time to time.  Jeff Clement was part of the deal that sent beloved Jack Wilson to Seattle.  Jeff was selected by the Mariners as a power hitting catcher, but he was never able to live up to the hype that made him such a desired prospect.  After struggling for most of last season and then getting injured twice last year, Jeff is back in the Pirates AAA Indianapolis Indians.  In 13 games he has a .342 average with 4 extra base hits.  Yesterday he went 1 for 1 as a pinch hitter. 

On the bottom row is an autograph of pitching prospect Colton Cain and utility man Steve Pearce.  I like how Steve is blowing a bubble while running.  Really classy there Steve.  I also decided to pick up a Mark Buehrle jersey card.  I used to enjoy watching the ChiSox play when they had the Big Hurt, Ventura, and Black Jack together in the early mid 90s and still watch their games from time to time on MLB network.  This card of Buehrle is nice looking though because he's wearing a throwback uniform.  I love throwback uniform cards.

Last but certainly not least is another Robbie Grossman card.  This 2009 Donruss Elite Throwback Threads features a piece of Robbie's high school uniform and is number 7/250. 

There you have it 14 cards for $30 shipped.  Of that 14 I got 7 Autos, 4 relics, 2 player PC, and a numbered parallel.

showing off some old Pirates Trophy winners

I'm short on time today, so this will be a very short post.  Lots of cards, but not many words.

Here's some Pirates cards I've had for awhile, but haven't added to my blog yet.

The connection between all these cards is that they won some kind of National League award while in a Pirate uniform.

Andy Van Slyke was one of my favorite players when I was younger.  AVS was absolutely awesome in Center Field as he won 5 gold gloves in a row wearing a Bucs uniform.  The first card listed is my only Van Slyke auto card I own.

Vern Law won the 1960 NL Cy Young award.  This card was part of the 2011 Topps Lineage series.

Jack Wilson, well known for his glove and defensive prowess, actually won an award using his bat in 2004 when he won the Silver Slugger Award.  Jack was also selected to his only All-Star game that year.

Bill Madlock was the first player to win 2 NL Batting Titles with 2 different teams when he won the award in 1979.  Mad Dog was a crucial part to the offensive threat of the World Series Champion Pirates that same year. I have about a dozen more Madlock autos/relics/parallels that I need to post, but not going to happen today.

Doug Drabek won the 1990 Cy Young Award.

Most of you know who Jason Bay is so I won't go on and on about how much I admire Jason Bay's work ethic and what he brings to a clubhouse.  He was the first Pirate to ever win the Rookie Of The Year award when he won it in 2004.

And who could forget Freddy Sanchez who won a NL Batting title in 2006? Surely not I.

That's all for today, but please check back tomorrow as I celebrate what would have been Roberto Clemente's 77th birthday and highlight all my Clemente cards and memorabilia.