What Have I Done?

I'd guess that everyone who dabbles in this memorabilia hobby has done this....make a purchase and know immediately (maybe even beforehand) that it's a mistake that you'll regret very soon.

I was killing time between scouting last week and stopped at a Target. I ventured over to the card aisle as I always do just to see what they had. I rarely buying anything but I like to see what's around.

But like the dope that I am I decided that I was going to waste some cash since I hadn't attended the local show for a couple of months and I felt my hobby budget was yearning to be spent. I soon found myself at the checkout stands holding a large hanger pack (I guess that's what they are called) of Heritage High Numbers/Updates(?), a hanging box of 2015 Topps Regular Set Update and an Astros team set. That was one of those things that Topps puts into blister packs.

My premonition that I was wasting money turned out to be spot on. The Heritage pack got me two cards of guys for my fantasy baseball binder.

And that was a a hollow victory because I already had cards of Boxberger and Lowrie from this year with the correct teams. But I felt obligated to use these new ones in the binder.

I got about five cards of other guys I've actually heard of including these two:

And I got a bunch of cards of guys about whom I'm clueless....

And no Orioles, dammit.

The Update box was more interesting. A couple of old school Astros on special cards:

Home Run Derby cards.....they make me hear Chris Berman in my head. Ugh.

Two useless Orioles cards. Manny Machado in an All Star warm-up jersey. Don't need this. And a Mike Mussina card. I'm not one of those Orioles fans that insert a expletive between 'Mike" and 'Mussina' when I say his name but I also don't need to see him in orange and black anymore.

Brock Holt goes in the fantasy baseball binder. The other card is fancy with a gold-ish border and the throwback Topps logo.

Fernando! I like my Stadium Club Fernando more. And we begin seeing the hate my scanner has for newer Topps cards with white borders.

Same deal. My scanner hates these. But it's a Griffey (and Brandon Belt???).

Guys from the World Series.

Hamels updated. I kept his '15 as a Phillie card in the fantasy binder.

A braves pitcher with a gold-ish card.

This Aoki guy had a couple of hits on a mid-season Sunday night to hurt my fantasy team's week as I recall. Don't need to be reminded of that.

And the last card of interest is Dallas Keuchel wearing one of those atrocious All Star caps. Outside of pimping these for profit is there a reason for these to exist? I think not.

But the card is here because it reminds me of this:

Speaking of the Astros the team set had a few cards I thought were pretty nice and cards that represent one huge boatload of strikeouts.

So all in all it's pretty obvious that I could have found a decent '63 Fleer Yaz for what I paid for this stuff. Live and learn.

More Picking the Best Card

While I await the discovery of a mystical cure for my scanner woes I present a few more cards from my Fantasy baseball binder and the cards they bumped. I had these scanned for my original post but they didn't make the cut. So please ignore the fact that you are getting second string scans.

Here is what I said in the first post a few weeks back:

I put one card of each of my players in my binder. I have certain criterion in mind when I hunt up a player's card. I prefer a vertical card, one that shows the player on the correct team, and one from a year I had him. The whole thing forms a hierarchy with a card fitting the above description at the top, and a horizontal, multi-player, die-cut, minor league, different organization card from a previous year at the bottom. But I'll ignore all that to add variety or to spice up the binder with a card I really like. 

I had this minor league card of Freddy Galvis in the binder. I had Galvis a couple of years ago and he only had minor league cards so I had to overpay for one.

It's not bad as MiLB cards go but it gives no indication of his MLB team so it got the boot....

 ...for a 2015 Topps. The weird number of the back makes me think it was from one of those team sets that you see on cardboard hangers in stores. Wrong year but it shows him in the Phils' gear.

Nearly the same holds true for Yasiel Puig. I don't make many smart moves in fantasy baseball but drafting him before he made the Dodgers was one. He hasn't turned out to be the second coming of Willie Mays but he really made a nice impact on my club when he broke in two seasons back.

This card wasn'y hugely expensive but it cost more than the card I replaced it with for sure. No Dodger logos? No good in the binder!

I waited for a nice card to come along and this year I liked the Archives Puig. So there ya go.

But my Archives Maikel Franco which I picked up when I claimed him made way for a better '15 card.

I just got this one in a couple of weeks back. Stadium Club > Archives, at least in this case.

Kyle Seager on a Bowman card. I don't remember when I had this guy but that Bowman card, even if it was from the correct year, yuck. Dark and unreadable.

'15 Stadium Club, wrong year, better card!

But SC doesn't trump all. I really like this next one. James McCann chats behind his glove with his pitcher. Unique and really cool. But I can't get around the fact that either of them could be the card's subject. Aesthetically, it's a sweet card. But for the binder it's like a two player card. Unacceptable.

2015 Topps gives it the bump.

Finally we have the case of Jordan Zimmermann. I like the 2012 Archives. that's even the year I had him.

But I bounced it for a '15 Stadium Club. And I'm having second thoughts. I may switch back. that Archives may not be as pretty but it is from the right year, right team and it's the only one of that set in my binder so it ticks the 'unique' box. I need to think more on this.

I got free cards!

Yes, they were just 2015 Topps cards but hey, free is free.Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park I took in the Orioles game here in Houston. My wife decided that she needed a shirt to display her loyalties (to the wrong team!!) and when we were leaving the Astros' team store the lady handed me four cello pack of new Topps cards. She remarked that we could have them despite my obviously being an 'enemy' fan.

I didn't get anything special in the packs but one of them did have an Oriole showing on the front.

They each contained four cards and a coupon for 50 cents off a Topps retail product. The other side of the coupon explains that it's good on pretty much any current Topps pack.

Here is what each of the packs contained:

First pack...three pitchers and an outfielder I've never heard of.

Second pack....ditto!

Third pack was better. Looks like the Giants' guy is trying to seperate himself from his better know packmates. Sometimes I suck at scanning.

A couple of semi-related notes....Lucas Duda hit 30 homers last year. That's really good for a catcher. I knew nothing about the guy which shows you the difference between the Yankees and Mets. The Nats had about four guys in Spring Training that were sporting that 'bushy bearded Jayson Werth' look. I witnessed three occasions when a fan mistook one of those guys for him. 

Look, an Orioles hot pack! Three pitchers and Manny Machado.

After watching the Orioles meekly fold up and crawl away for three straight nights here in Houston I'm ready to declare the 2015 version of my team to be dead in the water.

But I had fun at the ballpark anyway. One night with an old college friend whose son was once an Orioles prospect, one game with my wife and a third with my sons and a couple other old friends. Good times, bad games. Oh, and free cards.

Opening Day On Opening Day

Over the weekend I saw something I hadn't seen in many years...a box of card pack being sold at a checkout stand. For some reason the Target I visited had a box of Topps Opening Day right there on the shelves along side the multi-packs of disposable lighters and Burt's Bees lip balm. The last time I saw anything like that was in the early 90s when our local Albertson's had Pro Set football boxes next to the register.

I'll spare you my curmudgeonly rant about how I don't understand the point of a set that's pretty much the same as the regular set. I'm sure there are plenty of reasons for it. At least it runs a buck a pack. I wouldn't have bought a pack had the box been the regular 2015 Topps. Not for three dollars a throw.

So for the low, low price of 99 cents I bought a pack. I was hoping for either an Oriole or someone on my newly minted fantasy team. I got neither but I at least got a card of one of my favorite non-Orioles, Andrew McCutchen. His flying braids always make for a cool card.

My pack also has a shiny sort of card. I think Drew Smyly was on my fantasy team a couple of years ago when he pitched to Detroit(?). The fantasy team that made me swear I'd never have another fantasy baseball team.

This is the Twins' mascot? A bear?

This one is for Ana Lu. Tongue is love.

I guess this card had Jose Abreu listed because he is in that pile of guys after a walk off or something. Seems more like a White Sox team card to me.

I also got a rookie card of a guy with a really long name. But I liked the photo so I scanned it.

There was a game last night but today, for almost everyone else, is Opening Day. I wish they still had a Reds' afternoon game as the official opener but whatever. I hope your team wins today. Enjoy!