30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

One Contest Ends & Another Begins!

I realize that I'm a little early... but I have to work tomorrow and can't afford to stay up until midnight.  So without further adieu... it's time to announce the winner of April's contest.

Wait... before I do, let's review the prizes.  The winner will receive a collection of "cardboard fools", highlighted by the infamous 1989 Fleer Billy Ripken F-Face card:


Let's get to the randomizations.  First up... we needed to find out April's Post of the Month:


There were ten people who left responses on my Arturs Irbe game used goalie stick post... so each of them will receive four additional entries into the final randomization.

Now for the final randomization...


 
In case this is your first time participating, I'll review the process of selection.  In the case of all "randomizations", I will always hit "randomize" five times and select the name at the top of the sixth list.  Congratulations Mariner1!  Email me your mailing address and I'll ship these out ASAP.

Okay, now onto this month's contest...

Some of you may have read about my addiction to those Fairfield Collector's Cache boxes a few weeks ago.  If you're bored you can read about them here.  

Anyway... this month I'll be giving away a custom Collector's Cache box.  What's inside?  Well... a modified version of what Fairfield promises:

A.  Two MLB Collector Patches

B.  Two Game Used or Autographed Cards

C.  Three Factory Sealed Packs

D.  Two One-Touch Holders

E.  A 1991 Topps Coin Starter Set

F.  Fifty (or more) Baseball Cards

Plus, I'll try my best to cater your custom Collector's Cache box to the team of your preference.  Unfortunately, I can't send the original plastic card box or include all 500 cards that the original Fairfield box promises.  The fact is... I want to keep the shipping affordable and pack everything into a small flat-rate box.

So how do you enter?  As always, there are three ways to play:

A.  Respond to today's question of the day below.

and/or

B.  Promote this contest on your blog, and leave a link below.

and/or

C.  Leave comments in my posts throughout the month of April.

On June 1st, I will put everyone's names from today's post into the list randomizer on www.random.org.  If you promote this contest on your blog, I'll add your name two additional times.

As a bonus, I will randomly select one of my posts from the month of May using the same website.  Anybody who left a comment on that particular post will have their name added four additional times.  That means if you play your cards right, you could end up with seven possible entries.

Let's get this started.  Here are today's questions:

What's your favorite baseball team and why?  How long have you supported them?  Who's your favorite player to don the jersey of your favorite team?

Leave your comments and/or contest plugs below.

Thank you to everyone who participated last month and congratulations to Mariner1 for winning the April contest.

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

38 comments:

Greg Zakwin said...

Dodgers, since I was a young child. Raised with Dodgers' fans for parents. Favorite players are Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw: awesome players, of course, and really nice guys the few times I've met each.

Shout-out to Mike Piazza, favorite player of my childhood.

Zippy Zappy said...

My favorite team is the New York Yankees and they've been my team since I first learned about the MLB.
Hard to say who's my favorite player as I've got several and like my taste in music it depends on my mood (yeah, I know that sounds kinda wierd but I just love my favorites all equally). Right now my mood says, my favorite Yankee is Jorge Posada lol :).

Corky said...

The Seattle Mariners are my favorite team, I have been a fan since the mid-1980s. Ken Griffey Jr is my favorite player to ever wear a Mariners jersey, though Jay Buhner is a close second.

I will also add a post on my blog regarding your contest tomorrow.
http://packwar.blogspot.com/

Nick said...

The Cubs are my favorite team, no doubt. I'm not exactly sure how I came to love the franchise. I was raised in a baseball home, but my dad is by and large a White Sox fan. I guess I just can't help but appreciate the "lovable losers". I've supported them since the mid '90s, when I was just getting into baseball.

Ron Santo is probably my favorite player to ever don a Cubs jersey. Ernie Banks would be a close second.

hiflew said...

Colorado Rockies, I have been a fan since their inception in 1993 although I have only been a "hardcore" fan for about three years.

The Rockies didn't appear on the scene until I was 17 years old. I gravitated toward them (and the Marlins) because the 80s were lacking in expansion teams. The Mariners and Jays had ALWAYS been teams to my 10 year old self and when these new teams came along I was hooked. Then the Marlins did their fire sales and stuff and I no longer supported them.

My favorite all time Rockie is Dante Bichette (WAR be damned)
My favorite current Rockie was Chris Nelson (now Carlos Gonzalez) until he was dumped 3 days ago.
My favorite future Rockie is Christian Friedrich (I went to college with him).

Stealing Home said...

Favorite team? The Dodgers, of course. Been a fan ever since I could cheer.
Kinda like Nick, I support the team opposite of my old man...who for unknown reasons was a giants fan. I still love him anyways.

My favorite player to wear a jersey of would be Koufax, but I dont have one of his. These days you'll find me at the stadium wearing either Milton Bradley or Paul LoDuca's jersey.

AdamE said...

Red Sox. I didn't have a favorite team for a long time then one day I realized I had about 10 copies of that 88 Fleer Changing the Guard Burks/Greenwell/Benzinger. I then started collecting Red Sox.

Below is my list of favorite players.

Benzinger (don't know why I picked him originally but did, probably because I had more cards of him than anyone else)
Greenwell
Vaughn
Pedro
Youkilis
Papi

Benzinger at the top doesn't mean he is my all time favorite. He was my favorite till he went to the Reds. After that Greenwell was my favorite after he left it was Vaughn, etc...

Play at the Plate said...

Texas Rangers. Since I was 8...1978. Man, I'm old.

Will Clark is my favorite all time Ranger!

Dawgbones said...

I bleed Phillies red, don'tcha' know!! It's going on 45-1/2 years now, yes, even after last night's blow-out!! (really?? 14-2) and of course, Mr. Moyer is my favorite player to have donned ye ole red pinstripes...

...and do all the comments we've already left on April's posts count, or just new ones from this point? ;-)

jamicfin said...

I'm a born and raised St. Louis Cardinals fan.
My dad grew up listening to them on KMOX and passed that appreciation on to me.
I have quite a few favorites, but when you narrow it down to players who I've been alive to see; it's a close grouping of Ozzie Smith, CHRIS Carpenter, and Yadier Molina.

Kirk Jacobson said...

I grew up in D.C. IN THE 80's without a team, so naturally the Orioles filled that void. I went to my first game in 1985 at 5 years old. Cal Ripken hit a game winning homer and a 28 year infatuation was born.

The Lost Collector said...

Yankees. Born into it. I remember watching as a kid when they had Mattingly, Winfield, Henderson, Sax. In tee ball, we had a home run contest (tee was about five feet from the fence). Legend has it that I hit a HR and said "this Bud's for you", which is what Rizzuto or another broadcaster said during Yankee games. Not much of a jersey guy, but I do have a Tino jersey.

JediJeff said...

White Sox, because they are not the Cubs. When I came home from grammar school, the Cubs were on WGN, but you had to go to channel 44 to find the Sox. I did go to Cub games, but I was always a Sox fan.

Fav player? Too many. I'll go with 3 of the many: Fox, Thomas, McDowell

Spankee said...

My favorite team story is pretty different from most folks. I didn't grow up in a heavy one-team area. The Orioles were the closest thing, but my brother loved them (especially Ripken) so I had to find something else. My first two favorite teams were the Rangers and Giants (early '90s) mainly because I was on those teams in little league and had their hats. I was also a Mariners fan, but mainly just because of Griffey.

Fast forward to the early 2000s when David Wright was drafted by the Mets. I went to high school with him and his brothers, so I followed him through the minors. When he was called up, I became a Mets fan. Really though, I'm just a David Wright fan. If I really had to pick a favorite team now, it would be the Nationals. I've been to a few Nats games, and they're always on tv here. My wife, daughter and I enjoy watching the games together, so it's hard to not like the team. Zimmerman grew up locally, as well, so that's icing on the cake. Zim is my favorite Nat, though Bryce Harper is certainly giving him a run for his money right now.

Unknown said...

Red Sox are my 1, pirates number 2. Started w the Red Sox when I was 10 because my Dad was a Yankees fan and I needed someone to root against him as they seemed to never lose. So I hopped on with Garciaparra. Nomar jersey was my favorite but grew out of it so now it's my Varitek and Buchholz jerseys

Jeff said...

Been an Angel fan since I pulled a Rod Carew card out of a 1982 Fleer pack. Don't remember why, but he just became my favorite player at that moment. Ted Williams became another favorite after reading many books about him. And for the first time in forever, I now have a current player that I'm becoming a huge fan of - Mike Trout. Kid is the real deal.

Captain Canuck said...

Da Braves. I grew up in northern British Columbia where I only had one channel to watch on tv. When I was 13 my dad drove to Vancouver (about a 17 hour trip one way) with a trailer and bought one of them brand new satellite dishes. Anyways... with it, came WTBS. Chip Carey, Pete van Wieren et al introduced me to Atlanta Braves baseball. About 150 games a year. I was hooked.
I've seen a lot of great and not so great players in the last 25+ years since, but Chipper Jones would have to be my favourite.

C.L. said...

Favorite team is the Cincinnati Reds, and have been since 1988 when I attended my fist baseball game and got Barry Larkin's autograph on a ball. I was hooked; and haven't looked back since. Favorite jersey(s) to don are either Larkin, Jose Rijo, or DatDudeBP.

gcrl said...

Dodgers
1977 (i was 6)
Steve garvey

Dion's IP Autos only said...

Angels
2000
Mike Scioscia

Also here is the link to the pimping of the contest. Thanks Dion

http://dionsipautosonly.blogspot.com/2013/05/mays-contest-over-fujis-place.html

The Angels In Order said...

Favorite team has been the Angels since I was born (1964). I have a few favorites: Nolan Ryan, Wally Joyner, Jim Abbott, and Tim Salmon.

jamicfin said...

Aaaaaaaand pimped...
http://unabashedinterest.blogspot.com/2013/05/hey-you-wanna-win-stuff-i-think-you-do.html

Commishbob said...

Been an Orioles fan since I first discovered baseball in the late 50s. My father was a Yankee fan so I wanted a team of my own. Since Baltimore was my home town it was an easy choice. Brooks Robinson has always been my favorite as he likely is for most Oriole fans of my generation.

Unknown said...

Have to go with Boston Red Sox, no Jersey yet.

Roy-Z said...

Blue Jays.

I grew up about 45 minutes from Syracuse, NY in the roaring 1990s. From the 70's until just a few years ago, the Syracuse Chiefs/Skychiefs/Angry bats with teeth were the AAA affiliate of the Jays. Attendence was so low in the 90s that the players would mosey up on to the stands and chat with little jerks like me for a while during batting practice.

I met Carlos Delgado this way, probably one of the years the Jays won it all.

I currently have a Brett Lawrie shirsey (blue alternate) and a Carlos Delgado Chiefs shirsey. I don't wear the real ones, they're for the players. I wear my own Rome Bombers jersey.

Dhoff said...

I've been a Tigers fan since 1990, when I was 9. My favorite player to don the jersey? Yikes, that's tough. My best childhood memories are of Whitaker playing. But nothing's more exciting to me now than watching Cabrera come up to bat. And Hank Greenberg's noble and historical career, breaking race barriers, damn. And Mr. Tiger himself! Damn. I have to pick one? Not fair.

The Card Hobbyist said...

I became an Atlanta Braves fan during the summer of '91. I had just moved to Georgia and the Braves were in the middle of their worst to first run to the top and the whole state was gaga for the Braves. It was hard not to become a fan during that summer. It's hard for me to pick a favorite player as I tend to favor a different player every year from Ron Gant to Fred McGriff to Andruw Jones to Brian McCann to Justin Upton to....

Pimpage ensues:
http://cardhobbyist.com/2013/05/01/contest-pimpage/

arpsmith said...

Go Giants. I have been a Giants fan basically since birth. I grew up in Northern California and gravitated to the Giants instead of the A's for reasons I am not totally clear about since the A's dominated the early 70s (I was born in 71) and the Giants pretty much sucked. I recall hiding under my covers listening to a transistor radio at as a young lad listening to Hank Greenwald. My favorite player to ever wear the Giants uni is Willie McCovey. Thanks for the contest!

Anonymous said...

my favorite team is the New York Yankees.

I became a Yankees fan in 1985 when Rickey Henderson was traded the previous winter, and i've been a fan ever since. Although I do have a soft spot in my heart for your Oakland A's as that is the team Rickey is best known for playing with. Now, my favorite player is Robinson Cano...which works out perfect, because they both wear/wore #24. It's like it was meant to happen.

this should be a fun contest!
thanks, Fuji!

Stack22 said...

Current favorite team is the Yankees, Bernie Williams is my all-time favorite.

I liked the Expos when I was younger.

I'm also a fan of the Albuquerque Isotopes, Stony Brook Seawolves, and Arizona State Sundevils.

Swing And A Pop-up said...

Boston Red Sox. I've lived in New England pretty much my entire life so I would say it's because they are the hometown team.
As long as I can remember. The first game I remember watching was the 1978 playoff against the Yankees. I cried at the end of the game. Little did I know that the just the beginning of a lot of tears.
I've had a lot of favorite players over the years, but my all time favorite would be Jim Rice.

Brendan Taylor said...

My Florida/Miami Marlins for better or worse are my favorite team of All-Time. I grew up going to games at 4 years old with my dad and fell in love with them as of 1999. I have great memories of that 2003 World series of us shocking the world beating the Yankees. Favorite player is hands down Luis Castillo!

Brendan Taylor said...

Btw yall should check out my blog http://truschoolsports.blogspot.com/ join the site if you like what you see.

Metallattorney said...

I am a Red Sox fan. I got into baseball in 1991 and bought my first pack of Topps that year. The pack had two Red Sox cards (Dennis Lamp and Tom Bolton) so I decided to follow them. I have been a fan ever since.

I own jerseys of Mo Vaughn, Nomar Garciaparra, and Trot Nixon. The Nixon is probably my favorite because it is more authentic-looking and it has the 100th Anniversary shoulder patch the team had in 2001.

Jamie B. said...

NO DOUBT THE CUBS! Biggest Cubs fan alive since early 80s. I would get into fist fights over my Cubbies. We will win it all one day I have no doubt. I have loved players of the Cubs all the way from Bill Buckner to Jody Davis To Gary Matthews (Sarge) all the way to Starling Castro but my favorite Cub of all time is MARK GRACE!!! GO CUBS GO!

Jafronius said...

Thanks for another contest! I've been a Cubs fan since 1987. I remember watching them clinch in 1984, but didn't really start paying attention until the summer of 1987, when we'd get home from school and instead of Transformers and GI Joe, WGN had Cubs games and I actually started paying attention to them. My favorite Cub is Andre Dawson, who came as a free agent that year and had a monster year - curiosity got me watching the Cubs and The Hawk (and Harry Caray) made me a fan.

Adam and Elissa said...

You haven't specified that it has to be MLB team, so I'll pitch in with the Perth Heat of the Australian Baseball League. Why? I'm an Aussie and they're from my hometown, and have followed them since they were formed back in 1989. Favourite Heat player - former MLB pitcher Graeme Lloyd, now their pitching coach. Why wouldn't you like the only MLB player you'll see play in person :) - A

Fuji said...

All comments from April's post of the month count... at least up until the contest deadline.