Seattle's Most Wanted

OK, maybe not the city of Seattle's, but my big ol' Mariners collection's most wanted. Why would I say that a star with a name like Kennedy Ryan is most wanted?? I only need them to finish off 2011 and continue the slow work on years past. Do you own BASE versions of these cards you want to part with??

US28 Adam Kennedy

US167 Brendan Ryan

 

Also, feel free to help out with some of the sets from the past if you would like. I hope everyone enjoyed yesterday's college football. My Wolverines came up big against Nebraska, but the Huskies layed a stinker against the Beavers. Apple Cup is this weekend, just beat the damn Cougars!! I see the losing streak to the Suckeyes coming to an end in Columbus on Saturday. Go BLUE!!

WANTED!!

As most of you know, I collect Mariners. There has been about 15 new Mariners cards to hit the streets in the last few days. Would anybody be willing to help me collect the Mariners I need from 2011 Topps Update? Here a list of the cards in the new series:

US3 Blake Beavan
US28 Adam Kennedy
US30 Dustin Ackley
US67 Miguel Olivo
US91 Brandon League
US118 Michael Pineda
US167 Brendan Ryan
US173 Charlie Furbush
US179 Michael Pineda
US183 Carlos Peguero
US197 Brandon League
US222 Chris Gimenez
US254 Dustin Ackley
US308 Kyle Seager
US327 Blake Beavan

I would be willing to try and trade for any of these, or charity for the Super Set. Thanks in advance to all the great readers out there

I finally found one

I have been searching high and low for a 2011 Topps team set. The Target's and WalMart's around here can't seem to get them in stock. I could find the AL and NL All-Star sets, but no Mariners. While at the Mariners team store yesterday to buy tickets for next Saturday's Yankee game I found them.

While the 17 card sets have the players that we've all seen in series 1, I'm think it's safe to assume we will be seeing these seven cards as part of series2:

What would a year be with out Topps doing their usual lousy job of airbrushing guys into new uniforms. Why can't they send photographers down to spring training and get some photos at spring games?

I would rather that than these things. Jack Cust's uniform looks kind of close, but Olivo's is bad news. Why does Brendan Ryan's road grey uniform have a number on the front, and why does he still have on red sunglasses??

I like the thought of the last card being a team shot or a stadium picture. Why is it then, that we see the Cleveland Indians on the field for the stadium card and not the hometown 9?

While I feel you fell short in production on these Topps, I bought them and they will go into the binder as I try to continue to work on the Super Set of all Mariner base cards. I only need about 550 more cards to polish this bad boy off.

I'm king of the Card world!

As we all know, Stale Gum recently asked us all this question for the Blog Bat Around:

Michael Eisner has just fired the entire Topps Product Development staff and chose to hire you to take their place. Mr. Eisner has given you carte blanche to do whatever you want with Topps Baseball -- as long as you keep it under $2/pack. If you were in charge of Topps, and based upon what you've seen of 2011 Topps Baseball Series One, what (if anything) would you have done differently?

 

I don't think some of my ideas are going to be very popular, and I might get blackballed for my thoughts, but here we go.

• EVERY LAST INSERT IS GONE!!!!!! Of the four rack packs I bought, instead of the 36 cards it states, I got 26, 27, 28, and 29 base cards in the four packs. I feel like I got short changed. If you are trying to built a set, it will cost you. Give me my 36 base cards! No more Twinkle cards, no more Gold and Black parallels. I guess the Diamond parallels are fine for one time to mark the 60th anniversary. If you want to do the Million card(Diamond giveaway) code cards, great. Don't short me on a regular card though. No more 60 years of Topps, or cards your mom threw out. Leave out the Kimball Minis too please.No more Topps 60, or Diamond Duos. No History of Topps, vintage before Topps reprints, and NO MORE TOPPS TOWN CARDS!!!
• If you want to do the Target throw back, or the WalMart black background parallels fine. Put them in a separate CLEARLY MARKED blaster so people don't feel cheated.
• There will be a 10 year moratorium on Mickey Mantle. No more will we have to waste card #7 every year. To end the confusion if his card is a short print or not, he won't be in the base set. Also, the SP's of old players on the same card number as a base card are gone too. NO MORE GIMMICKS!
• The size of the set will go back to what it used to be, 792 cards and a 132 card Traded set. You can do the main 792 as one set like the 80's, or you can do two sets of 396. I like the break down of all teams have 25 cards for the roster. There would be 30 cards that are team cards like the 70's and 80's with a team photo on the front, with the manager's photo. The back of the team card will have a checklist of the card #, player name, position, and uniform #. Ten of the last 12 cards would be the league leaders in Wins, ERA, Home Runs, RBI's, and stolen bases. The last two cards would be the league MVP's. As far as the 132 card Traded series, it reverts back to what it was. Guys that came up in the season, or players who were traded to new teams. No airbrushing, or photo shop PLEASE!
•  


•  The card stock would go back to what we all love-CARDBOARD! Goodbye white, goodbye slick cards. The back of cards would have stats, not a bunch of trivial crap. If the guys haven't had much time in the majors, we get their full minor and major league stats. I liked cards that would have sevens years of minors stats and one line of majors.
•  
• Since we are going back to the way cards used to be, FOIL IS GONE TOO!! That's right, we didn't have foil when we were kids. It has run it's course for the last 20 years, time to go.
• Topps will go back to doing what it does best, a base set of cards. The only other set we will make is Heritage. This is a way to get the younger collectors to know what the older set looked like. Sets like Opening day, Chrome, Gypsy Queen, and A&G will all be gone. Too many different things to try and collect. Our Bowman cards will be made as one set. It will only contain prospects that have not made it to the Major Leagues yet. It will be similar to the Pro Debut set from last year. If you like we can re-name Bowman to Pro Debut. There will be no big leaguers in this set, and there will be NO CHROME!
• The size of a pack of cards will be increased to what it once was. I think 17 or 18 cards in a pack should be a good number. Quality control will do a better job of insuring that collation of cards is to higher standards also.
• We will have a whole new team working on our website. They will be more up on the news of the collecting world. We will ask bloggers to write guest commentaries. We will have checklists that are full and accurate before cards come out. NO MORE TBA's ON A CHECKLIST. We will also have complete checklists from all previous years sets.
• Topps will discontinue the production of manufactured relics. No more hat patches, no more simulated gloves, no abortion cut signatures. Sticker auto's are a thing of the past. No more jersey pieces that may or may not have actually been worn, or aren't even from that player's era.
• Topps wants to give collectors a reason to try and seek out their local card stores. In hobby boxes only, there will be a pack of cards that won't be base cards...it will be on card autos from cards that are at least 25 years old. We work with living players to have some of the leftover cards that don't ship from the Topps Million Card Giveaway to sign these for us. Collectors will go to LCS's and buy Hobby boxes knowing they will get their autos.

There you have a run down of the things I would like to see changed if I was king of the Card world. Let me know what you think. I know some ideas are pretty radical, but I want this hobby to go back to what it was and made me love it as a kid.

Manny and more

I guess the big excitement for Mariner fans is we signed Manny DelCarmen to a minor league deal yesterday. I'm really not all that excited about that one. I know there are still other guys out there that can help more. I guess we will see how he does in Peoria. The magic day is down to 3 days and counting!!

Also, yesterday I went to Target to get a Valentine's card for my wife(our 20th day together). I wanted to resist the urge but couldn't. I bought a couple rack packs and got a few Mariners I needed. I came to a conclusion, and it will be a big topic I'm going to hit this weekend for the Blog Bat Around. I can't guarantee that anyone is going to like my ideas, but I'll give them to you this weekend anyways. Some of the inserts are spoken for and I will get a hold of those people soon. I will try to put up later what is available which is pretty much all of it, except the M's cards. Here's the few Mariners I got:

Keep your eyes out for this

I know that most of the country is trying to survive the blizzard right now, so I can wait. If any of you do make travels out and do buy cards, keep me in mind. I still haven't decided if I want to buy a box of cards to have as trade bait, but all I really want for sure is the Mariners cards. I feel like I have so many other cards right now that I don't want or need. Anyways, here the list of cards I'm looking for to make the 2011 Series 1 complete in the binder.

1. #83 Greg Halman
2. #85 Jack Wilson
3. #116 Russell Branyan
4. #149 David Aardsma
5. #168 Felix Hernandez
6. #173 Jose Lopez
7. #200 Ichiro
8. #224 Milton Bradley
9. #235 Felix AL ERA Leaders
10. #237 Jason Vargas
11. #252 Michael Saunders

Any help from my great blog friends and readers would be greatly helpful. Also, big thanks to 82Redbirds of Way Off Base fame for the help on the list of cards needed.

Waiting is hard to do...

I'm waiting to find out all the Mariners cards that will be in Series 1 this year. So far on eBay I've see what looks to be 11 cards. I'm thinking that as I see more and can get a definitive list, I'm going to put them up on the side again and ask the blogland for help in completing the Mariners cards I need. This will come in a charity form of course to help out a man with a lousy team get through the upcoming depressing summer of losing. Will you  help will the list hits the sidebar??

Thanks alot!!

A big thanks alot(stick in the eye and kick to the junk) to Topps. It seems that they signed an exclusive deal with Bryce Harper yesterday. We all know that means all the 2011 Topps products will be riddled with his stuff. Why can't they leave well enough alone and give us what we want. I know some people like to prospect, and some like the big hits. This kid is only now starting to get his feet wet in the Fall League. I know it has be all about the new guy, both he and Strasburg. Whatever happened to letting guys develop before the big hype? There are some of in the world that just want to collect a base set of cards from players in the league. I'm tired of a pack of cards being full of inserts and parallels and so on. I will still buy my share of cards next year, but this what we have to look forward to next year. YAY(can you feel the sarcasm?)!!