A Great Gloveman.

Yay!!! Another sweet Brooklyn Dodger for my PC a 1950 Bowman. Pictured above is great third baseman Billy Cox. Billy debuted in the NL in 1941 with the Pirates, the war took away four years of his career and h returned to baseball for the Pirates in 1946. He joined the Dodgers in 1948, becoming the third baseman of a steller infield. Hodges at first, Robinson at second and Pee Wee Reese at shortstop, has there ever been a greater infield? Cox only hit sixty six homers during his career and only batted a modest .266, not great numbers for a third sacker. It was his skill with his beat up glove that kept him in the game. Leo Durocher once said of Cox " Thats not a third baseman, thats a fucking acrobat". High praise indeed. Cox finished his career on June 11th as a member of the Orioles. A major character in Roger Kahns wonderful book The Boys of Summer, Cox ended up being a barman in his local legion. To me this shows the difference between then and now, does anyone think a star third baseman from 2011 is going to end up tending bar?

This card is part of my Boys of Summer project, the idea being to get one vintage of every player interviewed by Roger Kahn. The biggest problem is price, the only Andy Pafko Dodger card is at least $500, and the Robinson cards are a little pricey. At least there is no hurry to finish the project.

Shiny Chromeness...

And so it begins, the yearly hunt for every variation of Topps Chrome James Shields cards. In 2010 I was fortunate enough to get a Superfractorless rainbow. How will I fair this year? To start with I have the very nice looking Sepia Refractor #/99, I have to be honest here and say well done to Topps, these sepia cards are very very nice.

Moving right along to the Black Refractor, again a new addition to this years set. These are #ed to 100, again a very nice looking card.

Which brings us to the Atomic Refractor #ed to 225. Unsure if I like this card or not, I like the effect on it but it does look a bit like a broken window to me.

Finally today we have the retail only Orange Refractor, strangely the orange and purple are sometimes the hardest to find for a UK collector.

I have incoming the Gold,Purple,Blue refractors, an xfractor and a base refractor. The hunt for a plate and a Red refractor continues.

My 2011 Finest Break.

Here are some of the bettr cards from my recent Finest break, a Zach Britton Finest Freshmen insert. I don't know too much about Mr Britton apart from he seems to be following me about.

Told you! A nice Zach Britton Xfractor #/299. I also got his base card.

The lowest numbered card in the break was this Brett Wallace Green Refractor #/199. I don't follow the Astros so again know nothing about him. It's a very cool looking card though.

The first auto was of the Dodgers Rookie speedster Dee Gordon, this one is #ed out of 499. On card and shiny, very nice.

The best card was this Craig Kimbrel auto/GU to 499. Sadly Mr Kimbrel and the Braves choked away the value of the card (LOL).

Overall it was a fun break and the cards are very nice to look at, just missing a few lower numbered cards, but we can't hit paydirt everytime.