Retro Mariner Sunday 2/26/12

The year was 1989, and Mariners would leave Arizona to start their season. They would have some new rookies to kick off the year. One was much hyped to be the greatest outfielder of all-time. The other was a little infielder no one knew too much about. That outfielder has retired, but the shortstop named "Little O" is still around. Omar will turn 45 this April!

Omar was a part of the building of the Mariners run of teams that would have success in the 90's. Omar would spend all of the 1989 season as a Mariner. For some reason, management didn't think that he should start the season in Seattle, and he would play in AAA Calgary until the start of July. By not being with the Mariners, he missed being a part of Randy Johnson's no-hitter in June of that year. Omar would be redeemed by making the final out of Chris Bosio's no-no on April 22, 1993. That would be the year he would win his first Gold Glove. On December 20th of that year, he was traded to Cleveland for Felix Fermin, Reggie Jefferson, and cash. In the 1993 draft, the M's drafted Alex Rodriguez and Felix was the stop gap until Alex was ready.

Omar would really come into his own in his 12 years as an Indian. He would help them to the World Series, win many of his 11 Gold Gloves, and become an icon for defensive shortstops. Omar has moved onto other teams, but they just don't look right to me. I never really could get used to him as a member of the San Francisco Giants.

He didn't really look right as a Texas Ranger either.

I continue to forget that he spent the last two years in Chicago as a White Sox.

This year, Omar has signed on with the Toronto Blue Jays. I hope that he can stay healthy and have some consistency with them. It would be cool to see him actually be able to get some hits this year. Omar currently sits 159 hits away form the magical number of 3000. I hope for the sake of history, for old time Mariner fans, and Tribe fans that Omar can get to 3000, and cement his place for a future date with Cooperstown.

Baseball on vacation

How fun is it to get away for awhile and still have the love of baseball around you? We had been spending the last few days in the So Cal desert enjoying the sun. My son and I did get to play golf at PGA West's Nicklaus course.

Yesterday started the second leg of the trip. We moved onto Anaheim and later Hollywood. Today is Disneyland, but last night we decided to walk to dinner. They put in the back corner of the restaurant near two long tables with pre made menus. We got to meet and say hello to the Wildcats. They were on their way from Bakersfield to play in San Diego this weekend. Nice highlight to a great week so far.

Athletics collectors....

Does anyone know of any active bloggers or collectors of the Oakland Athletics. I want to do my next post over at the 1979 Topps blog, but don't know of any A's fans. I would really love to give an A's fan some love. If anybody knows of any Athletics fans, let me know please. I'm thinking of getting the post up tomorrow sometime and don't want a collector left out.

I hope everybody is enjoying their teams reporting to Spring Training. I will try up start getting some Mariners spring stories up if anybody is interested. Hope everybody heads over for and enjoys some 1979 fun.

Who's this guy??

Today in the mail was a small bubbler from the great Night Owl. He sent me a few new 2012 Mariners I needed. One that struck me was this one:

Looks like Franklin in the home teals with the patch in rememberance of the late great Dave Niehaus. What struck me was the back:

Since when did Guti pitch, and when did he play for the M's and the Nationals last year?? It seems as though Topps has let their proof reading slip again. The blurb at the bottom talks about him, it's just the middle part that seems way off whack. The career stats on the back of his card are for Nationals reliever Sean Burnett. It seems odd that Sean doesn't even have a card in Series 1 for a mistake to be made. I for one am calling shenanigans on Topps once again for puting out another goofy card. I don't know if anyone has seen a card with Franklin's correct stats or not. Do I need to find the corrected card for my collection too?

Big thanks to the nighttime Dodger loving bird from the East Coast for helping me out as always!!

Put it on the wall

Have you been to other ballparks? Do you want to remember you experiences? I usually do when we get to experience a new stadium. While I have been to Safeco Field many, many times it is fun to go to other's homes and see the game on the road.

I've always thought the best way is to frame my tickets from the game and keep them for all to see. I've only been to a few different stadiums with my son and wife. It is a memory we won't forget ever from each one.

The first one we ever went to was Yankee Stadium in it's final year. I didn't even care who they were playing when my wife had a chance to get the tickets. We found afterwards that they would be playing my Mariners. The pinstripes were done by me with a navy blue pen and a ruler to give it that Yankee feel.

For my son's birthday in 2010, we decided to surprise him with a trip to Beantown. Thankfully less than a week after his birthday, the Mariners were making a trip to Boston. While it was a cold, rainy night and the Mariners got beat again we got to see historic Fenway Park. I decided the background had to be red for the Sox, right?

Finally, last year we made a trip down to the Bay Area for my birthday. I really wanted to go to AT&T Park to watch the Giants. We figured out the rotation, and realized we would miss local boy Tim Lincecum by a day. Much to my delight, the Giants decided to pitch him on Saturday instead when we were attending. I decided to include the Imagine No Violence button they were handing out that night.

We are hoping to make another trip again this summer or early fall. Probably somewhere on the West Coast due to other commitments this summer. Where have you been away from home, and where would you really like to go to see a game whether you team is there or not??

Willie caught a Brooklyn subway in New Mexico

Not long ago I set up a deal with Corey of Classon Ave. I sent some Tim Wallach's for his other blog. I also included some other Topps sets needs. I was supposed to send him a '83 Fleer Ryne Sandberg RC that started the deal. He didn't get it, and I can't find it. Did I missend it to somebody else??

Corey did send me some Mariners I needed during that deal that helped knock down the Mariners collection. I got home yesterday and there was a PWE in the mail. Corey decided to send a couple of Willie's for the Pops PC. It had a great hand written note saying one was well loved, and the note even used my Six Degrees idea from the 1979 Topps Blog.

Big thanks from my son Andrew who is the new Pops fan, and also from me for cards for a PC we both are proud to be building. I think the end of this post needs an old school Expos logo for Corey and his Tim Wallach love.

Desperately seeking Shelly

As we all know, Shelly has been making her rounds on the blogs. I decided enough was enough. This morning, I clicked the link to their website. I found where to correspond with them, and asked about Shelly. I said that if they want to be legitimate followers and contribute to our blogs, Welcome. If they continue to use robot spam programs, we will continue to delete them. If and when I hear back from Shelly I will let everybody see their response. Feel free to hit their blog, and spam them at http://coollectors.blogspot.com

Bloggers Unite against Shelly and her Spam!!

Time for Charity

It is that time of year again. I don't want to waste my time or money buying a bunch of cards I don't want. As I do with each new series that comes out, I ask you my fellow bloggers for some pity. I know that everybody has been picking up Series 1. If you want to rid yourself of extra Mariners, I'm your home for the poor Mariners cards.

Here's the Mariners I need from Series 1:

#118 Miguel Olivo
#119 Ichiro League Leaders
#168 Blake Beavan
#197 Brendan Ryan
#225 Michael Pineda
#232 Felix Hernandez League Leaders
#263 Steve Delabar
#269 Jason Vargas
#274 Alex Liddi
#286 Franklin Gutierrez
#315 Dustin Ackley

I'm open to any of the inserts that contain Mariners, but they are of lower priority.

Let's focus people...

Ding Dong the Witch is dead!! Thank goodness football is over. Now we can focus on the real sport for the next 8 months, Baseball!!

Coming soon: 2012 Topps Mariners want list. Will you help a poor Mariners fan out??

78 never looked so great!

I wanted to make sure to send out Happy Birthday wishes to one of my favorites from the past.

It was on this day in 1934 that the greatest home run hitter was born. Hank was a great player, but was also a very gracious person who never focused on himself. He was one of the best people to break the Babe's record given the racial tensions in this country still in 1974.

While he won't be with us forever, we should all thank him for his accomplishments and the way he changed the face of baseball. Happy Birthday Hank!!

Probably the greatest outfield of all time!!

Hubie at home

Do you ever get that random e-mail? Another blogger or reader says "hey, I have a card for you!" You go back and forth asking what can I send in return, and they say nothing. They ask if your address is still the same and the next thing you know, BAM! cards in your mailbox.

I recently got that e-mail from Steve. We made a trade in 2010, but I can't remember what was sent(bad blogger on my part). Steve had the 1992 Upper Deck of Hubie Brooks for the Angels in the Desert PC.

He insisted more than once that I didn't need to send any return, just keep up the great?! blogging I do. I'm self critical so I don't think I do all that great on these. Yesterday I come home from work and in the mailbox is Hubie. He will now find his place in the binder of other Angels from Palm Springs. Big thanks to you Steve for sending Hubie to his new home showing him batting at home plate.

Who wants to be famous?

As you may or may not know, I have a new blog. I have really started to ramp up and get the posts out for 1979 Topps. I think the post are of decent quality, and they are coming on a fairly consistent basis. I'm still trying to get the readership up, but I also want to give back to the blog community. Starting with my last post last night, I decided to give someone else some pub. Here is my question to you or tell your friends. Do you have a favorite team, or player from cards like these?

If you would like to be a part of the 1979 experience, let me know. I do know that there are some bloggers that are fans of certain teams, so we may have to alternate fame for those blogs as their teams come up. I hope that everyone would like to be part of this, and will join in. You can leave me comments here, or go and check out the home of cardboard from 33 years ago.