Miami "Professional" Baseball: Like catching a real Marlin, it's going to be a struggle.

Wow, if you guys are this big of a disaster in the dead of winter (up here, at least) I cannot wait to see where this s**t flies, having already started to hit the fan and disperse throughout the room of baseball...the Unis, two Shortstops, now you look like Bernie Madoff...I believe this event may likely be too high to register even on the Buehrle meter. Now we can take a moment to imagine if Albert was reppin' South Beach.

        "Following the financial meltdown of 2008, President Bush diagnosed the deus ex machina of the Great Recession like this: "Wall Street got drunk." He was wrong. Wall Street did not get drunk. Wall Street got over. Wall Street made billions underwriting crappy mortgagees, repackaging them as Triple-A investments and peddling them to naïve investors (read: your 401(k), state pension plans); made billions more placing side bets on and against the preceding criminal, but not technically criminal practice; made billions on top of that when the whole unsustainable shell game went belly up, thanks to a massive, unprecedented influx of taxpayer cash -- again: your money -- via TARP and the Federal Reserve's money-for-nothing "discount window," which in turn allowed financial houses to keep handing out the kind of outsized salaries and bonuses that had the encamped residents of Zuccotti Park so peeved."

from Bleacher Report dot com

Live Up To It, or Leave It Alone: It's A Mess In Here

I have too many baseball cards...I have taken a major blow to the collecting soul I have embraced over the last few years. The one that got me into blogging in the first place. Everytime I think of this Ryan Braun news, I get sick to my stomach. I think I was secretly hiding away my true fervor for this athlete since the first box of bowman I opened in 06. He was the first Brewers low-level prospect I invested in after moving back to richmond in 05. I made a lot of money off of a few graded AUTO RCs and kept a "personal" collection" filled with every topps issue and variation of his from both 2007 and 2008 (minus 1/1s).

From 2004-2006 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Brewers were like a god inside me. It had been 7 years since mom and dad passed and I had lived 4-5 of my 9 lives in that span alone.... Going to Miller Park, seeing games in a glorious cathedral where my now long past, father came to see the World Series Braves when he was a teen. It is bigger than my favorite picture of my friend robin and I in front of the park, it is bigger than me going to the park by myself on mother's day. It is something I have been waiting to see in myself...a sea change.
I used to be well aquainted with massive shifts in perception and sudden upheaval of values, senses and awareness. They come fewer now. I feel it happening now. I see the images of the tsunami in Japan, the power of the turn of the earth.

I will be coaching my third year at the HS JV level this winter. I need to let my mind change.

Baseball is a game of physics.

...but physics came first.

Peterson

Ryan Braun: Eye-muffs

Are you truly fucking serious? One of the spate of influences that got me back into collecting? Who carried the brewers in my heart down to virginia in 07, and, along with easily one of the most loveable teams Milwaukee has seen since maybe the short-lived 88-93 "Robin's Egg's" years...

We have yet to hear your "reason" for this positive test, but it was a positive test...like Manny's...and you are a fucking liar. Is it too good to be true? Short answer: yes. Long answer: keep watching baseball til you die. It won't change much.

I have a ton of your cards. I have every 2005-2007 card.

I have every 2007 Topps (RC), AND 2008 topps ROY variation ever printed

I was really looking forward to collecting a rainbow or patch of your

"MVP SEASON"

so much for that shit.

I just feel sick about it, but maybe I'll get better.

even if someone slipped you something during the chaos of the playoff run...

It is still your body, your responsibility, your team, your fans.

they are called that for a reason.

live up to it, or leave it alone.

Shouldn't Have: Did, and Won

Stopped to get sundries at the local Rite Aid, when what should be to the right of the counter? two of these guys and a really dusty pack of 2010 Upper Deck. I asked the college student behind the counter what they cost. I got one of the 2011 Topps footall you see below for 1.99 (I have never seen a pack like this, foil rack pack?), and the UD for a penny...weird, but fully a must.

 Boom.

Never heard of the guy before, which is not surprising because he plays for the Bengals...on defense...looked him up and he appears to have a favorable reputation in his short time in Cincy.

 I like his sig, especially with the "K" inside the large "R" loop. Points to this quick, otherwise uninspired auto for an actual "dot" over the "i" as it may be...plus, the card itself is a solid offering with a very very cool photo of Keith assessing the offensive formation. The colors are really sharp, but still can't make up for the (dirty-edged) sticker.
However, upon further inspectionthe odds of pulling one of these autos lands at 1:1061 (assuming it is a Group C auto, which I cannot confirm through my current resources, if you all have a good site/sites for full checklists, let me know)
hell, unless someone wants to trade, I do buhleeve we have a keepah hyah.


lucky.
Peterson

Ones That Speak Volumes: SHAH Post Jan. 2, 2010 Greg Halman

Originally posted: Saturday, January 2, 2010


Ones That Speak To Me: Greg Halman

The cut off scan does not do this card justice. Greg used almost the exact middle 2/4 of the box, didn't cross over his own line once, and appears to have spelled "Halman" with an uppercase cursive "G"...nope look to the right...BIG H. Greg just lays this one out in the middle of a spate of fresh-sharpie greatness. He is also the #1 Mariner's prospect for '10 (get used to it) and I could not pass up an auto, refractor, and photo of this card for a whopping $7 last spring. A classic Sky-shot with the right proportions.

I am an amateur photographer, and I have studied proportions and their role in human perception. That being said, it still boggles me how some cards not like this get printed.

Still looking for some traders out there. Check your emails or email me...Haven't traded in years, and am really sick of eBay. I am tired of selling away "valuable" cards and keeping base collecting dust. TONS of tradebait up for grabs, I am very eager to downsize with new family forming(albeit slowly) and I am mad generous. just email me your interest and I will check your wantlist. my wantlist is real broad, and since autos can get pricey, I am also very interested in fair-good-VG vintage cards of any team or player. I have TONS of 07 and 09 A&G,06-08 Topps heritage, 07 Goudey doubles, and bits of every other set released between 2005-2007.

Thank you and good day,

Peterson

peterson238@yahoo.com




I am so sorry, Greg. I really wanted to see you grow. I feel awful as I have been following your path more than alot of others. It's over. Just like that, it isn't about prospects, refractors and eBay, autographs, or baseball. He's Dead.
STOP VIOLENCE EVERYWHERE>

Woop! (chris berman): Three for Three...

Got two blasters of legends and one of chrome.

ALL OUT OF 25...IT'S BEEN AGES SINCE I'VE HAD THIS KIND OF LUCK.

The Campbell/Harper went for its BIN on sBay. Franco is waiting on a 43-45dollar offer, with a BIN of 50. One other sold for 48+shipping a week ago.
I am taking offers outright on the Miller. I was literally stunned when I pulled this. I just wanted to get a cam rc for future sale. go figure. Von Miller has got to be one of the least-talked about, most impactful rookies in this class, and it is starting to make sense as to why he was the #2 PICK in the draft.




Last call for comments: Random.org goes into effect on SUNDAY.
thanks for my regulars for pitching in, and welcome any new heads to the place I write about my Gambling Problem (with a hobby twist)...

Now We're Cookin': (See Below)

READER POLL (AND POOL, WITH PRIZE) Premiering the "Home After Blyleven Collection"

I need some real answers and I want them bad enough to give you cards to get them. I have been writing this blog and keeping up as best I can for some time now, and the numbers aren't doin it anymore...

 Why do you read this blog?

(details not withstanding)

1. post a comment, name goes in twice.

2. Email your reason (name goes in twice)

3. Expand in email with details or critique as a writer, or consumer of my "product" per se
(not slam, reserved for those on my blogroll only, no dbags)
(If I gain aven a glimmer of insight, Name goes in three times)

If you respond to this poll, your post name will be entered into randon.org and photo'd to determine single winner.
SIDEBAR I have about 5000-10,000 2005-10 cards that you can walk away with for free if you know where I live (you can ask) and can pick them up (if it involves more than this, money will be exchanged)

the prize: Your pick of my "Home After Blyleven: Tipsy" collection including the "cognac diamond parallel from the update series".

Omar Vizquel: Tied In Knots..."ay, you playin again this year Omar"?

Omar had a great run in the majors, He actually did most of his damage and made a name for himself with the Indians in the 90s. I will reiterate for newer readers, that I went on a sports hiatus from right at the baseball strike (didn't hurt that it coincided with the first surge of pubescent need to venture) until right around 2001 when I graduated college and bartended on Cape Cod.

All this doesn't preclude me from harping positivity on his example before you.

He has the full knot up twice, and almost a third time at the front in "Omar"

I, myself, the royal "we", also have multiple knots, almost identical to his,

 in my own auto, so I feel akin. (mine are on the "t" and "s" in Peterson-looks just like above except the second knot, the "s" is smaller to create proportionality)

He even makes time to get in my personal favorite "inscriptions", the jersey #.

Leaf,Donruss, again almost clipped a great rendition of a Man's Mark,

but, they make it super-easy to ignore all but the sig-in-the-box...

thanks?

I Should Clarify: Weekend Update

Sell it (45 maybe) or break it open (likely 20back if I'm real lucky)?