Is it over?

This has been another down year for the Mariners. It has also been a down year for their right fielder. He has not made the plays in the field that he would normally make. He is not as consistent at the plate like he normally would be. This year he is at his lowest average since coming to the states hitting .275 this year. I still wonder if he is injured and not saying anything.

I also wonder with only 28 games remaining in the Mariners schedule, and I'm assuming young players to be called up, can he do it? For his first ten consecutive seasons Ichiro has been able to amass more than 200 hits for all 10 years. Right now he only has 154 hits this season. His strikeout totals are up, and he can't beat out the infield hit like he used to. What do you think:
Is it possible to get 46 hits in the next 28 games to reach 200 for the season??

Is this heaven??

There is always a pursuit and wanting for the Holy Grail. Every person is striving to find it.

It's Mine!! All Mine!!
 Do you have those cards that you hope to someday own so they can be the cornerstone of your collection?? I know that those cards for me were the three 1983 Tony Gwynn rookie cards. After spending a very warm Saturday afternoon at the Boeing Classic golf tournament with my son, we decided to head to my favorite card store that I don't get to very often. After finding a few Mariners I needed, and some Angels cards for the other side project, I perused the the cases of unobtainable cards. They shined at me like a beacon of light!! The first card I see is the mother lode I have longed for:

What would you pay for this card??The sticker said book value: $25, our price $10!! Sign me up, I own the first white whale.

Also in the great case was the second of his rookies. This 1983 Donruss beauty had a  price tag stating it was $6.95. A little high, but I could live with that to get the second of three rookies.

The completion of the trifecta was there in the case too. 1983 Fleer #360 was also on the glass shelf with a low, low price of $4.95. Hot diggity dog, I can have all three rookies for only $22?? Sold, sold, and sold!!
I thought I would never own any of his rookies, let alone all three at the same time. I guess it is time to start to focus on the player collections of Pops, and the Murph now.

Pip Pip Cheerio!

Not too long ago a package was in my mailbox from a guy that is a long ways away from me. How far you ask? I don't know if this is anywhere close to him:

All joking aside, John of Pursuit of 80's(ness), Pursuit of Red Sox, and Pursuit of Jacoby fame sent me some cards to start my journey into collecting my first set I pursued. Here is a showing of the 65 cards of 1980 goodness I received thanks to the Royal Mail of the UK.

Alot of the cards are common players that no one would recognize, unless you are older like me, or if they were on your favorite team. Some of the most recognizable names in the bunch were Alan Trammell, Don Baylor, Ray Fosse, Bert Blyleven, Mickey Lolich, Charlie Hough, and Carl Yastrzemski. If you include the two 1980's I already owned, I now own 67 of 726 of these beauties.

It always seems that every trade I make the other person always have a bunch of Mariners cards laying around. I know that I'm one of the few people crazy enough to give this team my heart and soul. The nice part about being a fan of a less than popular team is most everyone has extra cards of my team. John was nice enough to include some Mariners of old and new. I'm excited to own a 2011 Bowman Chavez card. This kid is a couple years away, but is supposed to be a big deal when he makes it up the big leagues.

Thanks again to my favorite new trader across the pond, and also the new favorite of my son. Andrew is into all things that have to do with the UK. He was excited to see a package from overseas. Your cards are on their way to you John.

A perfect? 10

OK, so that was a cheap ploy to get you to read this entry but obviously it worked. I'm not sure this is a number you want your baseball team to have. So far before we have even got to the September call-ups, the Seattle Mariners have already had 10 players make their MLB debut this season. Here's how the debuts have gone so far this year.

Josh Lueke: April 3rd

Tom Wilhelmsen: April 3rd

Michael Pineda: April 5th

Carlos Peguero: April 19th

Mike Wilson: May 10th

Dustin Ackley: June 17th

Blake Beavan: July 3rd

Kyle Seager: July 7th

Trayvon Robinson: August 5th

Anthony Vasquez: August 23rd

I expect the Mariners to probably bring in this year's #1 draft pick in September with the recent DFA of reliever Chris Ray. Could this be a foreshadowing come September 1?

Danny Hultzen: September 1??

It will be happy days in my head if the Mariners can ever get good again and stop with the debut carousel.

Let's get serious people

I know that it is common place and it happens at every sporting event. I know people get drunk, and they think they are tough. Are we that much of barbarians that we have to show we think our team is better than your team?? Is it really necessary to fight in front of kids because "you're not wearing my teams jersey?" I also know that part of this was probably gang related. I'm not trying to cast aspersions on anyone, but I've been to NFL games at both teams stadiums.

This picture shows one of the melees inside the stadium during a PRESEASON football game. The game doesn't even count for anything people!! The evening would conclude with two separate shooting incidents, with people clinging to life. I still don't understand how idiotic violence can make one team better than the other.

Going back in time

I recently put up that I had decided to try and collect the 1980 Topps set. I decided to show some of the reasons I really like this set. Besides the fact that this was the first set I really started to buy cards for every time I would go into a 7-11 as a kid, I still love the design. This set featured some stars that were at the end of their careers, some that had played for a few years, but weren't super big time yet, and a some up and coming rookies. My favorite part is the colors and the styles of the uniforms.

We all know that some of the unis of the late 70's and early 80's were deemed hideous. I kind of liked most of them. Some of the other things I like about the 1980 set is not only the look of the ribbons for the position and team name, but the use of different colors in team names and player's names. Did you ever notice that there were 4 different colors of player's names? Blue, black, green, and red were used for the player's names.

There were also some great things to look for like, the future stars cards to know who was up and coming. 1980 was way before the age of the Internet.

You got to know a few of the records that were broken from the year before.  

What would Topps be without their notoriety for airbrushing that wasn't all that great??

Topps was kind enough to show who made the All-Star team from the year before. A tradition they would end after 1981's set of cards.

You got to see a picture similar to the ones that would be handed out to fans at stadiums at the end of the year, showing you the entire team and coaching staff just like our pictures of our Little League teams.

You had to know who was the League Leaders in big time categories for the year before for pitchers and hitters.

The backs were a simple design with a color that was easy on the eyes. You got stats, you got a little bit of knowledge about the player, and you would get some great cartoons on the side too to keep it fun.

The other great thing you would get is lots of Checklists. You would use them to keep track of what cards you needed to finish off what you didn't have. You didn't realize that they were part of the set and you would mark them with a ball point pen. Now they are considered damaged cards.

I believe besides the 1980 Mariners team set I put together in the Super Set, I only own 2 cards from this great set. Let me know if you could help an old guy try to recapture some of his youth.
All photos of 1980 Topps were used from The Baseball Card Cyber Museum

A day late

I didn't post it yeaterday because I spent the day with him. I must be getting older, because my boy is growing up. I'm officially the father of a teenager now. My son turned 13 yesterday. I am very proud of the great young man he has become.

It has been a fun ride so far to see him grow from infancy to the grown up and sometimes testy man he has become. I'm excited to see what the next few years hold in store while he continues to grow up before he leaves to go out on his own. He is also excited to know that he shares his birthday with Dustin Pedroia, Boog Powell, and Diego Segui of Pilots and Mariners lore.

Happy Birthday Andrew!!

This junk will rule!!

OK, maybe not completely. Recently I sent some 1989 Bowman needs to the great Thorzul Will Rule. He in return, sent me a few needs cards for two collections.

The '88 Fleer gets me closer to finishing that year, the four cards from '92 Fleer finish off the regular set, and an elusive '94 Donruss card.

Also, he chipped away a little on the old Angels in the Desert list.Two '90 Fleers get me down to one needed from that year. The '92 Upper Deck's are firsts in the Angels needs.

Big thanks to one of the big dogs of the blogging world for helping out a little guy work on his dreams of collecting cards.

Hop on "Pops" list!

My very first player I liked was found in the 1979 World Series. He was nearing the end of his career, but I loved the windmill of the bat, and the leader role he played.

 I became such a big fan of his, I had to go out and buy a black stovetop Pirates hat, and one of the old yellow batting helmets we all wore as kids in the 70's and early 80's. After retiring in 1982, the Pirates retired his #8. He made it to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 1988 with 82.4 of the vote, and we lost "Pops" to cancer in 2001.
Here is a wantlist of cards I need for the "Pops" collection. It is vintage heavy, and I'm thin on cards of his. Raise the Jolly Roger for "Pops" cards. Any inserts, odd balls, relics, or autos are welcome but not expected.

Topps
1963 #553 RC (I'm not expecting anybody to give up a RC)
1964 #342
1965 #377
1966 #99 Buc Belters
1966 #255
1967 #140
1967 #266 Pitt Power
1968 #86
1969 #545
1970 #470
1971 #230
1972 #87 RBI Leaders
1972 #89 HR Leaders
1972 #343 Boyhood Stars
1972 #447
1972 #448 In Action
1973 #370
1974 #100
1974 #202 HR Leaders
1974 #203 RBI Leaders
1975 #100
1976 #270
1978 #510
2010 #110B SP

Donruss
1983 #8 Diamond King
1983 #610
1991 #702 Puzzle Card

Fleer
1983 #324
1983 #634 Fountain of Youth

Chop down this list!!

I started not too long ago to try and collect one of my childhood favorites, Dale Murphy. If you are Twitter, give him a follow at @DaleMurphy3.

After looking through what cards I have of Murph, it's pretty slim pickins. Here's a list of the base cards I need of his, inserts, autos, and relics are just icing on the cake.

Topps
1977 #476 (not expecting anybody to send me his RC)
1978 #708
1983 #401 All Star
1983 #502 Team Leaders
1984 #126 Team Leaders
1984 #133 RBI leaders
1984 #391 All Star
1986 #456 Team Leaders
1986 #600
1986 #705 All Star
1987 #490
1988 #90
1990 #750
1992 #68
1993 #445
2010 #532B
2011 #135B

Donruss
1983 #299
1983 #47
1984 #66
1985 #66
1986 #66
1987 #3 Diamond King
1987 #78
1988 #46 All Star
1988 #78
1989 #104
1990 #168
1991 #484
1992 #146

Fleer
1981 #243
1982 #443
1983 #142
1984 #186
1985 #335
1986 #640 NL West Sluggers
1988 #544
1988 #639 All Star
1989 #596
1991 #409
1993 #496

Score
1988 #450
1990 #66
1991 #650
1992 #80
1993 #597

Upper Deck
1989 #672 Team Card
1990 #533
1991 #447
1992 #127
1993 #706

Are you ready??

It is that time of year. Except for those of us who are hardcore baseball fans, everyone will turn to football. While I will be watching it too, I still love baseball first. It will be fun to watch the Seahawks start out tonight in San Diego. We will get to see our first glimpses of Tarvaris Jackson on the field as  the Hawks QB.

While I know that Tarvaris was not too well thought of for his time in Minnesota, I think given a new chance in Seattle he might be alright. The kid was thrown into the fire, told to sit behind Mr. Sexter in Favre, and was supposed to get better. With his old offensive coordinator here and knowing the system he might shine. I trust him more than Clipboard Jesus Charlie Whitehurst.

Oh yeah, the Mariners stole a victory from the Rangers last night. We should have won 2 of 3, but what else can we do? Just keep going out there, and let's see what happens.

Here's looking at you, and the start of the football season.

Call back later...

I know that it will start to get pub everyday now. I agree that it is impressive. I highly doubt he will come close. I think Dan Uggla is a good player. I know getting a 30 game hitting streak is not easy. I would like to see the guy make a run at it.

This man holds the record for the longest streak. It is one of those records that you just can feel will never be broken. With the specialized pitchers of today, and all the differences in today's game I don't think it can be done. We all know no one will top Cy Young's 511 wins. Someday maybe someone will hit .400. Let's put some support behind Dan and see how far he can go.

Have you ever noticed??

I know I sound like cranky old Andy Rooney there. But as I was going through a box of cards for a trade I'm putting together, I found some that made me stop. I know not many of us think much of 1991 Bowman. I bought a box long ago for $5. Take a look at these three odd ones I found that I wanted to share.

#141 Milt Cuyler

I assume since Milt is a switch hitter that's why the bats are marked L and R. Is he going to take both up to the plate and see if he can hit with both at the same time??

#38 Bo Dodson

According to the back of the card, Bo debuted in 1989 and played for A Stockton in 1990. Why did someone write 49 in the middle of the Brewers logo on his hat? Nice prank guys.

#174 Scott Lusader

I don't know if Scott wore those goggles all the time or not. Was it a dare, was it a requirement? I know that some people thought they looked cool, but not so much.

As we all know, there are always funny cards out there that grab our attention. What are some of your favorites??