Carl Who???

We all knew Carl Crawford was going at the end of the 2010 season, we all knew he was going to be making 20 billion dollars over the next 500 years (or something like that), what we didn't know was where he was going. He decided to go to Boston and instantly became a Rays anti-hero. I wasn't a big fan of Crawford due to his insistance on not batting lead off and refusal to play centre field, but I wasn't a hater either. I respect his decision to go to the Sox, I just hope it blows up in his face.

Anyhow, on to the subject of todays rambling. Crawfords long term replacement is this guy above, Desmond Jennings. He was called up in June and I think he is staying for good. Last night against the Jays he hit two home runs and stole a base. His stats so far this years are as follows, .354 avg, 8 homers, 19 rbi's and 14 stolen bases. I believe he has more homers than Crawford and is not too far behind him in steals. Of course it is a small sample size, but I honestly believe Desmond Jennings is going to be a super star for many years.

On a side note about the card. I bet the dude to the right of Jennings wishes he was holding a different pose when the shot was taken, imagine for the rest of that dudes life he is the fish face dude from Opening Day 2011.

Look Into My Eyes.

What is Billy Loes thinking? That is a serious stare he has. The card is a Bowman 1954, picked up last week from good old ebay. My Brooklyn Dodgers PC has been lying dormant the last few months and I have had the urge recently to start collecting a few more cards. This one is the first of a few picked up through trades or buying.
Billy Loes played for the Dodgers from 1950-1956 he also played for the Giants and Orioles. He had a record of 80-64 in his eleven seasons of major league ball. He was an all star in 1957. Sadly Billy passed away in July of this year at the grand old age of 80.

Thank You Mr Fuji.

The rather sweet card above is a Fleer 1981 Willie McCovey, Mr McCovey was good enough to put his auto across the card. The card was my prize in the rather splendid contest run by Fuji from The Chronicles of Fuji. Not only does Fuji write a first class blog and run a really great contest he is also a really nice guy. So many thanks for the contest and the prize and keep up the good work.

Say Hey Ernie.

Ebay.co.uk is usually a pile of old toss, the usual junk wax era stuff with a bit of good thrown in, usually cards being sold by the other UK bloggers. Every now and again there are cards that will surprise. Last week during one of my seemingly fruitless trips through the crap, I came across a nine card lot of Topps 1970 cards. Aha I thought this will be guys I have never heard of, but I clicked on the link and to my utter surprise included in the lot were Willie and Ernie plus seven lesser cards. The problem now was how much to have as a highest bid, due to the auction ending when I would be tucked up in bed. So I bid fifteen pounds or twenty three dollars if you prefer and retired to bed. I was very surprised the next day to find that I had one the auction, even more surprised when I got an email from Tony (Collector across the pond) telling me he had just missed out on a lot of 1970 Topps. Tony is a massive Giants fan and was no doubt looking to get the Willie.

I guess the moral of the story is, just keep on looking as you never know what you may find. Hey Tony the Willie is for trade!!!!!

Shields Allen and Ginterness

Had a nice PC mail day yesterday. A nice lot of four Allen and Ginter 2011 Shields cards. The mini cards are the regular, A&G back and the black border. The full sized card is a break the code card, so I'm still missing the regular full size card which will hopefully be in my box that's coming from the States. Although it would appear that the box has been strapped to the back of a turtle for delivery it's taking so long.

As usual it's a great looking set of cards, I really like the black border this year and the cool code cards. I'm hoping for some Pacquio cards but will probably end up with Ian Desmond cards instead.

Newk.

Don Newcombe was one of the lucky ones, he only played one year in the Negro Leagues before being bought by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946. After three years in the Minors Newk was promoted to the Dodgers in 1949. In 49 he was voted rookie of the year and went to the all star game. Newk was the pitcher relieved by Ralph Branca in the famous 1951 play off with the Giants, Branca went on to throw the fateful pitch to a grateful Bobby Thomson.

Not only was he a great pitcher he was also a great hitter, his lifetime average of .271 is the ninth best by a pitcher in baseball history, he is one of the only pitchers to be used regulary as a pinch hitter.

Newk lost two years of playing time due to the Police action in Korea.

Newcombe is the only player to win the MVP, Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards. So hats off to Don Newcombe still going strong at age 85.

Trade With Collector From Across The Pond.

Here are the results of a trade with Tony from the blog Collector From Across The Pond. In exchange for some Brandon Belts, Timmy Lincecum and Yu Darvish cards Tony was kind enough to trade me these beauties. First up is the iconic 1955 Bowman of Phil Rizzuto, I really like this set, the TV screen is such a cool idea. Shame Topps can't think of something this good in 2011. There is a little paper loss on the front and back, but who cares it's a HOFer and from a cool set.

Next we have a 1952 Topps Gene Woodling card, I know nothing about Gene Woodling and can't be bothered to google him, but he is a Yankee and a sweet old vintage card.

Lastly we have a 2001 Cooperstown Collection Johnny Bench Bat card. Bench is considered one of the best catchers of all time. I love having Hall of Fame GU cards in my collection and this will sit nicely with my others.

A word about Tony. Not only is Tony a great guy to trade with and a good mate he is the Uk's premier Adam Lind collector. So if anyone reading this has some nice Adam Lind cards they want to off load via trade give Tony a look via his blog.