Borrowing Ideas is Not a Crime

Way back in 1981, my parents bought me my very first complete set while we were on a trip to Seattle.  When I got home, I had so much fun sitting down on my family room floor... sorting and resorting that complete set.  I'd build fantasy line ups one day.  The next day, I'd pull out the sports section from the San Jose Mercury News and create lists for batting and pitching leaders.

1981 Fleer #381

In hindsight... that's probably why I liked Bill Madlock so much as a kid.  He was consistently had one of the highest batting averages during the strike-shortened MLB season.

Anyways... it'd be fun to have a Christmas Carol moment, travel back in time, and watch myself sort and resort that set.  I'd love to see all of the creative ways I sorted cards as a nine year old.

These days... I don't find different ways of sorting cards, but I do enjoy finding new and creative ways to collect cards.  Fellow bloggers are my number one source for these new ideas.

Back on January 2nd, 2010... Drews Cards: A Teenager's Journey Through The Card Collecting Universe showed his readers his collection of Sports Card Trifectas.  What's a trifecta?  Well it's where he'd pick up a rookie card, autograph, and memorabilia card for a specific player.  Considering I enjoy collecting all three of these things, I immediately fell in love with his idea.

Nearly twelve years later, I've put together thirty-nine different trifectas.  The latest involves one of the newest members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame:  Mr. Derek Jeter.  Let's check it out...

Rookie Card:  1993 Topps #98

I have a few different Jeter rookie cards and enjoy all of them.  Ultimately, I went with this one because it's a nice looking card and collecting Topps flagship rookie cards have been a part of my collecting interest since the early 80's.

Memorabilia Card:  2003 Flair Sweet Swatch Jumbo Jersey #DJ-SSJ

I'm pretty sure I only own two Jeter game-used memorabilia cards... and one of them uses the 1993 Topps card design.  That left this oversized card which I pulled out of a Fairfield Cache box back in 2013.  I remember scouring all of the Targets, Walmarts, and Toys "R" Us stores in my area searching for these boxes containing the 2003 Flair box topper packs.  It paid off for sure.

Autographed Card:  1997 Topps Rookie of the Year Autograph #NNO

Normally my favorite autographed card gets the honor of being part of the player's trifecta.  Unfortunately... my favorite Jeter autograph is a Stadium Club Co-Signers card which he shares with Chipper Jones.  It doesn't seem right that he should have to share the spotlight with another guy, so I decided to go with this on-card autograph from the 90's.

Thank you Dean for sharing this idea on your blog!  I'm not sure if you're still collecting, but I wanted to let you know you have forever made an impact on my collection and it's much appreciated.

How about you?

Have you ever borrowed a collecting idea from a fellow blogger?

If so, share it down below.  Maybe I'll borrow it too.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

Sports Card Trifecta #34: Steve Carlton

Steve Carlton was one of my favorite players growing up... and I'm pretty sure I rooted for him before Rickey Henderson... which would make him my first favorite baseball player.

It just so happened that he was one of the best pitchers in the league right about the same time I started analyzing baseball statistics back in the late 70's/early 80's.  I was that kid who'd sit down with my American League Red Book and National League Green Book and memorize league leaders.  And that's right around the time Carlton was leading the NL in wins and strikeouts, while winning his 3rd and 4th Cy Young Awards.

You might be wondering why East Bay guys like Mike Norris or Steve McCatty weren't my favorite players since they were both great pitchers who came close to bringing home Cy Young Awards during that time period.  Well it's pretty simple.  They were right-handed... while Carlton was a lefty like myself.

A few weeks ago I put together a Sports Card Trifecta for Freddie Freeman... and realized that I hadn't built one for Lefty.  I had the recipe and all of the ingredients... I just dropped the ball.

Well in honor of his 76th birthday, it's time to finally cross this one off the list.  Here ya go...

Rookie Card:  1965 Topps #477

I landed this card in a trade with Starting Nine back in 2012... while working on my Steve Carlton project where I collected all of his Topps flagship cards from his playing years.

Autographed Card:  1999 UD Century Legends Epic Signatures #SC

If I'm building a Sports Card Trifecta of a baseball player and I own an autograph of him from this set, chances are I'm going to use it.  Carlton has sort of a weird grin on his face... but I love the blue Sharpie on the B&W background.

Memorabilia Card:  2009 Goodwin Champions Memorabilia #GCM-SC

As much as I enjoy collecting memorabilia cards... I've gotta admit there aren't any sitting in my Steve Carlton PC that really stand out.  Ultimately... I went with this Goodwin Champions card.  The orange sky is kinda cool.  I guess.

Bonus Vintage:  1975 Topps #185

What happens when you combine a hall of fame pitcher, a classic card design, and a well cropped action shot?  You get a completely different type of Sports Card Trifecta.

Well that wraps up today's post.  Here's your question of the day...

When it comes to athletes... who were some of your childhood favorites?

I'll respond to my own question with two more Cy Young Award winning southpaws...

1978 Topps #135

1981 Topps Traded #850

Happy birthday Lefty!  Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

TWiB: 60's Legends, Baseball Trivia, and a few Favorites

It's human nature to have regrets.  One of my biggest regrets is not holding onto the Apple IIe computer my dad purchased for the family back in the early 80's.  My friends and I would play all kinds of different games for hours in his office and I would even mess around with some basic programming.  That memory totally slipped my mind until two days ago.

On Thursday and Friday, my students participated in Hour of Code which essential gave them a chance to play around coding through a variety of self-guided activities.  If you want to check it out for yourself... click here.

I had a lot of fun building a simple shooter game and watching all of the cool things my students produced in a little over an hour.  It was definitely the highlight of my week... outside of the arrival of my COMC package.

But that's a post for another day.  It's Saturday... which means another This Week in Blogging:


#1:  Sayonara Salute

Dick Allen was one of the most feared hitters of his era and one of the greatest baseball players waiting to be admitted into Cooperstown.

2001 Fleer Greats of the Game Autographs #NNO

On Monday I read the news about him passing away at the age of 78.  A few bloggers who took the time to write tributes for him:

Night Owl Cards

The Phillies Room

1991 MusiCards Blog

Collecting Cutch

SABR

If I missed any, please leave the link down below and I'll add them to this post.

1964 Topps #243

I personally didn't follow his career while he was playing, although there's a chance I got to see him play in his final MLB season with the Oakland A's back in 1977.

2001 Topps American Pie Timeless Classics #BBTC-41

That being said... I am happy to say that I do own a few of his cards including this trifecta.  Rest in peace Mr. Allen.

#2:  Not on your Favorite Team?  No Problem

On Monday, Chris The Collector showed off his some of the cards in his Dan Marino collection and asked his readers "Who's your favorite player that never played for your favorite team?".  I responded with Marino, Ed Reed, and Ray Lewis, but here are a few more guys from other sports:

2008 Topps Chrome Refractor #83

1975 Topps #185

I collect a few guys who have never played for the A's or Padres... but Ichiro and Steve Carlton would be my favorites. 

1998-99 Topps Chrome Preview #77

I don't really follow basketball anymore, but back in the 80's, 90's, and 2000's... I was a big Los Angeles Lakers fan.  And like many other guys who enjoyed watching NBA highlights, I was a fan of MJ.

2000-01 UD Legends Legendary Game Jersey #J-JS

There are a few hockey players from the 90's that I enjoyed rooting for... even though they never played for my beloved San Jose Sharks.  Joe Sakic is at the top of that list.

#3:  Oldest Rose

Daniel over at It's like having my own Card Shop showed off a pair of vintage Pete Rose cards on his blog earlier in the week and asked his readers about their oldest Rose card.  As I suspected... here's my response:

1968 Topps Game #68

I was actually disappointed that I didn't have any other cards of Charlie Hustle from the 60's.  I might end up doing something about that.

#4:  Baseball Trivia

Matt over at Diamond Jesters sure has a way with words.  His haikus routinely reveal interesting pieces of baseball trivia.  This week he wrote about Bob Ojeda and how he won the longest pro baseball game.

1984 Topps Traded #108T

I love this kind of stuff, so I dug a little deeper and discovered that Tom Seaver holds the honor of winning the longest (in terms of time) game in MLB history.  Back on May 8th, 1984 the Chicago White Sox hosted the Milwaukee Brewers.  The game was suspended in the top of the 18th and completed the following day when Harold Baines hit a walk-off home run.  The total time was 8 hours and 6 minutes.

1984 O-Pee-Chee #261

According to this blog, this was Seaver's first relief appearance since 1976.   The coolest part about this win was that Seaver started the next game (later that evening) and won that one too.  Two wins in one day.  Can't imagine that happens too often.

#5:  Mr. October

1994 UD Denny's Holograms #NNO

It's December... which means it's that time of the year for Thorzul (at Death Stare Cards) to show off his Card-vent Calendar.  On Wednesday, he shared a cool Reggie Jackson card that reminded me why he's called Mr. October.

Reggie won five World Series rings in seven years.  And GCRL also pointed out that he won six pennants over the course of ten years.

***Reggie missed the 1972 World Series due to injury.  Thanks for the heads up sg488.

By the way... I wrote a post on this rare Denny's hologram back in April of 2016.  Last month, I received an anonymous comment providing some new information about the card.  It's kind of cool to find out that people stumble across and read old blog posts.  It's even cooler when they leave a comment.  Thank you Mr. or Mrs. Unknown.

#6:  More Baseball Trivia

If you enjoy looking at baseball cards from the 70's and learning some interesting facts... then you should check out The Shlabotnik Report.  This week he wrote about some guys with the last name beginning with the letter "F" and included an interesting fact about Tim Foli.  He was involved in three triple plays during his career.

1968 Topps #20

Well... me being the curious being that I am... started researching to see who holds the record.  I came up short, but I did discover that Brooks Robinson holds the record for hitting into triple plays with four.

#7:  The Say Hey Kid

The Diamond King showed off five of his favorite Willie Mays cards last night and asked his readers what their favorite Mays card is.  The goal is to eventually write a post revealing my top five and answering his question.

In the meantime... I figured I'd share a pair of cool collectibles made of metal:

1987 Topps Bronze Premiums

From 1983 to 1991, Topps would give miniature (1.25" x 1.75") bronze cards to card dealers who purchased cases of their Traded sets.  In 1987, Topps used Willie's 1953 Topps card as their reward.  Interested in seeing the other eight bronze premiums?  Click here.

1995 Topps Legends of the 60's Medallions #1

In 1995, Topps offered their Stadium Club members the opportunity to purchase these heavy bronze medallions for $39.95.  Each month a new card was offered and Willie was the first card in the series.  Interested in seeing the other eleven cards in the set?  Click here.

Well that's it for today.  Another This Week in Blogging post... and another week closer to my two week vacation.

Oh and in case you were curious about how long it takes me to write a post like this... this one came in right under the three hour mark.  Yikes.  I spend way too much time writing.

Here are a few questions for you to ponder while I count down the minutes to Christmas Break:

Is there anything from your childhood you regret giving away or throwing out?

Have you ever played around with coding?

Do you have a favorite Dick Allen memory?

Do you have a favorite Reggie Jackson memory?

I look forward to reading and responding to your comments.  Until then... happy Saturday and sayonara!