Return of the Bullpen Cart

OK this is ancient news since it happened back in 2018. For some baseball fans it isn't anything special to write about, but to some old-timers like myself it reaches back to our childhoods. I'm talking about the bullpen carts, modified golf carts designed to look like a motorized batting helmet. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s the MLB had bullpen carts to escort relief pitchers onto the field. Actually now-days they drive around the warning track. They probably did that back then as well, my recollection of them are more vivid because of the plastic toys of the time. More so the NFL helmet carts which were the carts they drive onto the field to take severely injured players off the field. The football carts of course had that full football helmet design. Back in the day the baseball carts were more shaped like a baseball cap and the carts for both sports looked a bit bulky.

So for the 2018 baseball season the bullpen cart returned. The design uses a batting helmet for the main body and the support bars are shaped like bats. The Arizona Diamondbacks were the team to debut the new wave of bullpen carts. If memory serves it was the Washington Nationals then closer Sean Doolittle who was the first pitcher to use it. Maybe he was the first visiting pitcher.

Long story short Topps made a Topps Now card to celebrate the event (there is even an Allen & Ginter card that I plan on getting) I eventually got it. I waited way too long to get it at the original under ten dollars prices. I even went through a period of it not being available on Ebay for a few months. When it finally did come back the prices were super high, higher than I like to pay. Anyway I eventually paid $15 for a copy. I almost had to go up to $20 or more. Also of interest with this card is the seller sent the Topps Now packet "case" the cards come in when you get them directly from Topps and not from some dealer who has already opened the pack to scan the card for their listings.

So here is the card:
Front:

Back:

and the packet/envelope front:

Say Hey Hey Willie

I got a great deal on an excellent card in a Sportlots auction. Not sure if it is a true White Whale or not. It is a vintage card of a Super Star of the game. I am a little surprised I didn't have to fight tooth and nail for it. It is that classic 1959 Topps Baseball design, based on the 1958 Topps Football. When I first started looking back to vintage cards before my time I discovered the Baseball version first I think. Well whichever I found first I like the overall design. I don't remember how old I was when I first saw the design but I think I was kind of young and it may have taken me a year or two to realize that they are in fact the same design. OK so the football is oval and the baseball is a circle so what?

Of course it isn't in the greatest of shapes but it is good 'nuff for my collection. So the financial damages were $15.50 plus $3.95 shipping. Not bad. The low starting bid of $15 was what drew me to the auction. I think I put $25 as my max bid, maybe just $20 due to lower condition. For some cards I don't mind well rounded super soft corners.

1959 Topps Baseball: 50 Willie Mays Giants

Blogiversary: 10 Years And Still Stumbling

Hey this post was published at a weird time of the day. The reason is it is my 10th Blogiversary for this here Trading Card Blog.

For these special occasions I like to go back to my original posts check the time they were posted and post the anniversary announcement or reboot post at the exact same time of day as the original post instead of my usual High O'Clock Noon posting time. You can see my very first post for this blog here. OH boy there are/were a couple of links to dead websites there, well Zistle technically isn't dead yet but might as well be. My personal website "klandersen.com" though has long been gone. Mostly due to letting the domain name registration for it drop. Long story kind of short: Some years back I let the website domain name registration run out because 1) the company I had originally registered with had been bought by some other company and at the time I couldn't recall which company held the current registration. 2) They refused to recognize my membership info or take my money. A few months to a year or two later some Chinese company bought the domain and it was some weird poetry site written in Chinese for a few years. Eventually they let the domain registration go, but I never got around to renewing it after them since it is a pain do keep track of that and when I am dead and gone it will run out again but that time never renewed and all my info would be completely lost. I toyed with the idea of renewing it, but maintaining a personal website is a lot of work that I don't have time for anymore. Blogging takes up plenty of time I don't have already and I have 3 blogs to maintain.

I did make an edit on the opening post to un-link my website and to make an Edit/Update notice explaining the reason for removing the link. I'm sure I have a ton of other posts that need some similar cleaning up. Some I may get to some day and update others I might never get around to updating.

Just because I like this one.

Oh here are some cards that were released in 2009 to help me celebrate and to make this a post about cards and not my sob story about an abandoned personal website. With one or two exceptions most of these cards I have had since 2009 either from a group box break or an online purchase. I chose these randomly since the only thing I really had planned was the fact I was going to show some cards from 2009.

I don't Think Freud would agree with that.

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter's - 158 Sigmund Freud Psychiatrist

Maybe he'd remind us not to forget the Alamo:

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter's - 108 Alamo Mission Compound

He would also think that women throwing the discus around was some plan to humiliate men.

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter's - 213 Stephanie Brown Trafton Discus Throwing Champion

OK so I didn't plan on making those 2009 Allen & Ginter's cards some kind of tall tale but it worked out that way. Sticking with the retro set idea one of the sets from 2009 I enjoyed was Upper Deck's Goodwin Champions. One of the sets from that year that I have in recent months sort of completed. I have the few remaining cards I need for my set bought at COMC and in my "to be shipped" queue. Ages ago I showed the Alex Ovechkin card (a few times think).

2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions - 34 Alex Ovechkin Hockey Washington Capitals

(Ouch one of my older poorly cropped images not corrected by photoscape Sorry)

2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions - 101 Cal Ripken Jr Orioles

Next Topps did a similar sort of retro set in the style of the old T206 cards:

2009 Topps T-206 - 21 Ivan Rodriguez Astros

2009 Topps T-206 - 217 Garrett Atkins Rockies

Notice that picture/image of Atkins Topps also used for Allen & Ginter's (at least on this Rip card) Notice though his eyes are different it looks like he is squinting on the 206 card and sort of stunned on the A&G.

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter's - RC43 Garrett Atkins Rockies Rip Card #29/50

I didn't scan the back but Yes I am keeping it unripped. I hate the rip card concept. They need to find a way that the "wrapper" card can be kept in decent condition after being "ripped".

Next We have yet another sort of retro card, this time Heritage which is more a direct updating a 49 year old design with the modern players. Some years Topps did this very well other years they blew it. 2009 I think was a good year:

2009 Topps Heritage - 372 Brian Schneider Mets

Meanwhile O-Pee-Chee does a mean retro card. I love 2009 OPC. I have the Nationals team set, and need to work on the full set, and also the parallel black bordered sets:

2009 O-Pee-Chee - 518 Washington Nationals team card/Checklist

In 2009 Topps had a little fun online. I've mentioned these before. I'm too lazy right now to provide the link to my previous post. ACK I'm not even sure what tags I used for those. Oh Well.

2009 Topps Million Card Giveaway Code Card - TMC-5 Mickey Mantle Yankees

Of course I had to include some mascots right?

Previously Shown:

 2009 Disabled American Veterans DAV - 191 Lucky The Beaver Portland Beavers

Previously Shown:

2009 Disabled American Veterans DAV - 123 Uncle Slam Patomac Nationals

2009 Multi-Ad Sports - 29 Sherman Shorebird Mascot Delmarva Shorebirds

OK this last card is a PC player for several reasons first played for one of my fave teams The Rams, secondly he was a super Quarterback and he is also a Similar namesake niche player;

2009 Upper Deck Football: 1 Kurt Warner Cardinals

COTW: A 1973 Kellogg's Baseball Met

A 1973 Kellogg's Baseball Met

What time is it? Who cares? It's Whenever, and here is a card of the whenever that I got recently. Actually I am not sure of the exact delivery date because it was in a batch of "held" mail that I received about mid month when I returned from a family business related thing in the Mid-West So it could have arrived as early as Friday 13 Sep or as late as Monday 16 Sep.

It is a 1973 Kellogg's Baseball Card. Now I like most of the Kellogg's 1970s cards, mostly because of the early 1970s 3-D effect. However, this set is not 3-D it is the first set Kellogg's did without the 3-D imaging If I recall. For some reason I don't like this set nearly as much as I do the other Kellogg's sets even if you ignore the whole 3-D thing. Anyway this card is of one of my PC guys I started to collect back in the day as a PC guy before I even knew that PC Player Collecting was even a "thing".

I got it from Sportlots for the opening 25¢ bid plus $2.00 shipping.

1973 Kellogg's Baseball - 21 Tug McGraw Mets

The Art Of The Sweep

When I started the draft for this post the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs were in full motion. The Finals series to determine the 2019 Champions between the St. Louis Blues

and the Boston Bruins

was just beginning. So yeah this post draft had a full length playoff beard that almost rivals Rip Van Winkle's beard. The Final Series is long long over and the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup.

Their fourth time in the Final Series and now their first WIN.

Among many things that were interesting about this season's playoffs was the results of the Eastern Conference Champions Road to victory.

The Boston Bruins representing the Eastern Conference had a somewhat normal road to the Cup Finals.

In round one the Bruins beat the Maple Leafs in 7 games.

Then for round 2, in 6 games they beat the Blue Jackets.

Who had swept the Tampa Bay Lightning round 1.

The Bruins then swept the Carolina Hurricanes.

Who in round one beat my Washington Capitals,

then in round 2 swept the New York Islanders

who had swept the Pittsburgh Penguins in round 1.

I just find that a neat sort of pattern.

Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance.

Note: The cards I showed here were totally picked at random. Most of them were in the same semi-unsorted box. The box is only sorted somewhat by sport and/or set.

COTW: Michelle Wie RC

2014 Upper Deck SP Game Used Golf: R59 Michelle Wie

In this episode of Card Of The Whenever I go to a sport that I am not an avid fan of - Golf. The only thing about golf that I really like or enjoy about the sport is Mini Golf. Even that I haven't done in years and years. Partly because my area doesn't have any Putt-Putt mini golf courses anymore.

Back to the card. I don't recall where I got this one or for how much. I know it wouldn't be for too much. I think I got it solely because the player Michelle Wie is a golf babe. That being said this particular card doesn't show off her sexuality.

On The Trading Card Database it was hard to find this card because it is in some sort of Rookie Cards insert set called "Retro Rookies". Oh and it is marked as being a 2014 set. At the time I was looking for it on TCDB I had no idea the set had inserts let alone that it was released the year after the copyright date on the card. I'm fairly sure the set is one of those where the base cards like this one were intended to be sent to the golfers to get autographed.

Anyway here is the card for this month's quick and dirty get it posted before the month ends end of the month post.

 2014 Upper Deck: SP Game Used Golf: R59 Michelle Wie

Monthly Deadline: Card Off Line

1977 Miscut Makes The Monthly Cut

Well surprise surprise we arrive at the end of a month and I am burning the midnight bridges, OK so I'm not THAT close to this month's deadline but it feels real close. It is so close that when looking for a card or two to blog about I came across this mid to late 1970s Topps card that is really miscut in my "to be blogged" card queue in monster boxes.

The subject card is Topps 1977 Baseball card number 516 Bake McBride of the St. Louis Cardinals. I'm fairly sure I have a normally cut version of this card but I didn't look in that part of my collection. So if you look carefully at this poor card you will see they miscut it REAL GOOD. Not only can you see that the next card below is some Cubs card you can see that off to the right is the slightest sliver of the card that was on the right of this card on the sheet. I should probably research sometime which cards those were. I probably won't though as it is a bit of an effort to research that type of stuff. Also the back side miscutting shows the edge of the card on the right (since the back is landscaped it would be the card "below" from the front side point of view) and also just the slightest of a sliver of the card on the "bottom" left (or "right" if it were the front side)

1977 Topps Baseball: 516 Bake McBride Cardinals

Miscut

I know there are some collectors who go GA-GA for miscut cards and a few of them are fellow bloggers. Well Sorry this miscut isn't for trade or sale at this time. I'll still enjoy it a bit more.

Topps Now: Harper Now

I did a little Topps Now splurging on Ebay a little while back. I purchased a total of 8 Topps Now cards from this year and last year. The ones from last year I've been sitting on for a little bit. You could say they were all technically Washington Nationals related, but yeah, technically these cards I'm about to show are not Nats cards they are Phillies cards with Bryce Harper. Huh? Oh yeah that tiny contract thing.

Now that Bryce is on a different team any new cards of him I get in his Philly uniform I'll yak about here on this my main blog. Old Nats Hawper cards I'll chat about on my Curly W Cards blog. I suppose I could also post the Harper Phillies cards on my Nats blog but I don't want to. Occasionally I will post Nats Alumni in team uniforms from their post-Nationals career, but I probably shouldn't. Then again these are my blogs my rules.

Before I get into the two new Harper Now cards I'll show the two copies of the technically first Bryce Harper as a Phillie card. Another blogger showed a new Bowman card which is the first released in packs product so he considers that one Harper's Philly debut card I hear that one is another dang super short print. UGH first 2012 Topps Archives SSP RC and now this? ACK! Anyway my "first" Bryce as a Phillie card I posted about on Curly W Cards when I ordered the two copies and gave the pertinent details of the order. The images I showed there were from the Ebay listing the images here are the actual copies in hand.

 I might eventually purge down to just one copy someday.

2019 Topps Now Baseball: ST-3 Bryce Harper Phillies

Now onto the other Now cards. Both I got from Ebay two different sellers. The first one is his Spring Training Debut with the Phillies I got for $7.50 Free Shipping.

2019 Topps Now Baseball: ST-4 Bryce Harper Phillies

The other card I got for $8.00 Free Shipping it is from the regular season. Harper's First Home Run as a Phillie.

2019 Topps Now Baseball: 24 Bryce Harper Phillies

I don't like the Now backs with no description of the event. Sometimes the card title on the front is not enough. And NO I will not pursue Bryce's "First Homer vs The Nationals" or "First Grand Slam vs Old Team".  You have to draw lines somewhere sometimes.