on February 20th, 2009 by albuqwirke
The patch sewn onto his work shirt read “Marion,” but he was always “Mr. Burcham” to me. Marion P. Burcham earned the distinction of becoming the first non-baseball player inducted into the Aardvark Attic of Appreciation, predominately for the role he played during the formative years of my baseball card collecting. Unfortunately, the honor must [...]
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on February 19th, 2009 by albuqwirke
2007 Jacksonville Suns
Official Score – leadoff SINGLE
Manufacturer: Grandstand
Sponsor: Jacksonville Sports Cards, Comcast, 102.9 the point
Retail price: That ship has sailed.
Again, the Jacksonville Suns served as the Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers during the 2007 season. Of course if you are searching for individual players, that shouldn’t matter in the slightest. The 2007 Jacksonville [...]
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on February 15th, 2009 by albuqwirke
Making a list of the most colorful baseball players of all time? Don’t you dare forget Al Hrabosky! Sure, there have been a number of “better” closers in the history of baseball, but if I had been in charge of fielding a professional baseball team to entertain a stadium filled with fans, I would have [...]
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on February 13th, 2009 by albuqwirke
One of the things that I enjoy most about writing for this blog is the fact that it is absolutely adored by the smartest and most sophisticated people surfing the internet today. I’m not sure why that is. Perhaps it is your fascination with the methods I employ in the stringing together the simplest of [...]
Continue reading about today’s word?… the BIRD »
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on February 8th, 2009 by albuqwirke
2008 Jacksonville Suns
Official Score – RBI DOUBLE
Manufacturer: Grandstand
Sponsor: Jacksonville Sports Cards, WQIK 99.1 and WTEV 47
Retail price: $8.00
The Jacksonville Suns served as the Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2001 through the 2008 season. A word of warning that the Suns website now contains a tragic collection of hideous advertisements that have absolutely [...]
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on February 2nd, 2009 by albuqwirke
Regardless of whether you are from before, during, or after “my” time, chances are good that you had at least one opportunity to attend a Grateful Dead concert. Hopefully you took full advantage of that opportunity. After all, the Dead aren’t just Uncle John’s Band. I was lucky enough to have attended a Grateful Dead [...]
Continue reading about American beauties, eh! »
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on January 29th, 2009 by albuqwirke
When I recently informed you trusty readers that I had embarked on a late winter’s mission of contacting retired players by mail, you probably had your fingers crossed that the Aardvark Attic of Appreciation would not snub Leslie Charles Spikes. The truth of the matter is that Charlie Spikes was one of the first players [...]
Continue reading about the “bogalusa bomber” »
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on January 24th, 2009 by albuqwirke
If one can believe what they read on the internets, it would appear that John “Blue Moon” Odom’s intriguing nickname originated from one of his grade-school buddies named Joe Morris. As the story goes, Joe came up with the nickname because John’s round face reminded him of the moon. I failed to uncover any evidence [...]
Continue reading about twice in a blue moon »
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on January 18th, 2009 by albuqwirke
Granted, it would have been more accurate if I had entitled this post “Hu’s on Short,” since that is where Chin-lung Hu spends the majority of his time on the diamond, but it didn’t sound as funny. The awful truth is that for the past season or so, Chin-lung Hu hasn’t been spending nearly enough [...]
Continue reading about Hu’s on second (sometimes) »
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on January 14th, 2009 by albuqwirke
Growing up in west-central Illinois, in the rich watershed drained by the river that had helped make Edgar Lee Masters famous, it was expected that a baseball fan root for either the Cubs or the Cardinals. Given those options, I chose to follow the Orioles.
With few exceptions, my personal heroes can easily be classified as [...]
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on January 8th, 2009 by albuqwirke
I’ve yet to experience the absolute joy that I suspect one would feel by opening a pack of 1972 Topps baseball cards. Instead of collecting baseball cards, the majority of my free time as a seven-year-old was spent trying to comprehend the jokes being served on television programs such as Sanford and Son, M*A*S*H, The [...]
Continue reading about 1972 – electric BOOG-a-loo »
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on December 31st, 2008 by albuqwirke
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
- Bob Dylan (1963)
I wonder why it is that calendar pages seem to flip significantly faster today than they did when I was a kid. While I am willing to entertain the notion that it is only MY perception, something in my gut [...]
Continue reading about the times they are a changin’ »
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on December 26th, 2008 by albuqwirke
“A broom is drearily sweeping
Up the broken pieces of yesterday’s life”
Partially inspired by the relationship between Jimi Hendrix and Curtis Mayfield, but mostly looking for things to do rather than writing thank you notes for gifts I received for Krismas, I thought I would pull together a quick entry about a number of trades that [...]
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on December 24th, 2008 by albuqwirke
Season’s Greetings from your bloggin’ buddies at Aardvark Trading Company!
Hopefully you are reading this because you are completely finished with all of your holiday preparations, as opposed to using Cards in the Attic simply to avoid wrapping those last few presents and getting them under the tree where they belong. I’ve either completed all of [...]
Continue reading about rock the wells with cards of non-sport »
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on December 14th, 2008 by albuqwirke
I really hadn’t intended to collect 2008 Topps Stadium Club cards, let alone build an entire set- that is, until fellow card bloggers and a national department store chain conspired to present me with an offer I was unable to refuse.
Fourteen blaster boxes later, yes fourteen, and I am still trying to completely wrap my [...]
Continue reading about pandora’s blaster: 2008 topps stadium club »
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on December 13th, 2008 by albuqwirke
2008 Albuquerque Isotopes DAV team set
Official Score – seeing eye DOUBLE
Manufacturer: Disabled American Veterans (undetermined printer)
Sponsor: Disabled American Veterans
Retail price: FREE SGA– not available for purchase
I’d like to promise that this will be my final post about the Isotopes this year, but you never know. I definitely wanted to get this review completed this calendar [...]
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on December 10th, 2008 by albuqwirke
2008 Salt Lake Bees DAV team set
Official Score – TWO RUN TRIPLE
Manufacturer: Disabled American Veterans (undetermined printer)
Sponsor: Disabled American Veterans
Retail price: FREE SGA– not available for purchase
The Salt Lake Bees are the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. A long-time member of the Pacific Coast League, the Bees play their home games [...]
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on December 9th, 2008 by albuqwirke
2003 Lancaster Jethawks team set
Official Score – ground rule DOUBLE
Manufacturer: Grandstand Cards
Sponsor: Bubble Yum
Retail price: $6.00(ish)
The 2003 Lancaster Jethawks finished 4th in the California Southern League. The Baseball Cube indicates that Rick Rodriguez managed the team, yet this team set begs to differ. I wasn’t there, so I honestly couldn’t tell you who was in [...]
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on December 8th, 2008 by albuqwirke
Are you going to sit there at your computer and tell me that you’ve never attended a minor league All Star game? If so, I’m going to fire back that you really should make an effort to do so. You never know who(m) you might bump into…
Actually, now that I think about it, you probably [...]
Continue reading about march of the “cey hay” kid »
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on December 7th, 2008 by albuqwirke
2008 Louisville Bats DAV team set
Official Score – base hit
Manufacturer: Disabled American Veterans (undetermined printer)
Sponsor: Disabled American Veterans
Retail price: FREE SGA– not available for purchase
The Louisville Bats are the Triple-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. After running away from the competition in the Western division of the International League in 2008, the Bats’ magical season [...]
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on November 24th, 2008 by albuqwirke
Baseball players are interesting folks. This post examines the basic approaches players tend to employ regarding autograph requests on “error cards.” Some refuse flat out to sign them… end of story.
Other players (Eric Patterson comes to mind) will autograph an error card while explaining that it isn’t their photo on the front. Obviously they are [...]
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Tags:
autographing,
good traders,
what I collect
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on October 31st, 2008 by albuqwirke
2008 Sioux Falls Canaries DAV team set
Official Score – RAIN OUT – no make up date scheduled
Manufacturer: Disabled American Veterans (undetermined printing source)
Sponsor: Disabled American Veterans
Retail price: FREE SGA– not available for purchase
Who doesn’t love FREE baseball cards? It would be impossible to not like FREE baseball cards, right?
…. er, not so fast ….
The [...]
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on October 29th, 2008 by albuqwirke
2008 Fresno Grizzlies team set
Official Score – HIT BY PITCH
Manufacturer: MultiAd Sports
Retail price: $10.00
Consider yourself warned that you should turn your computer speakers WAY down before you click on this link to the Fresno Grizzlies website.
Okay… perhaps in the future you will take my warnings seriously.
I’ve been sitting on this team set for [...]
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on October 27th, 2008 by albuqwirke
It appears that I finally found enough spare time to sort out the rest of the Topps 52s that I got autographed this season and thought I’d post an entry about them in an attempt to generate new and renewed interest in trading for this particular product.
If you are hoping I will list these cards [...]
Continue reading about topps 52s in-person autos: 2008 season wrap-up »
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on September 25th, 2008 by statsmaniac
It seems most anyone who follows a sport or collects anything related to sports, a question that will eventually surface is “Do you have any autographs?” or some related variation. That leads me to the subject of this blog….Why do we get autographs, and why are we impressed by them?
Autographs mean different things to different [...]
Continue reading about Got autographs??…Of Course!! »
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on September 24th, 2008 by albuqwirke
2008 Memphis Redbirds team set
Official Score – TWO RUN HOMER
Manufacturer: MultiAd Sports
Sponsor: Superlo Foods
Retail price: $6.00
This may be the first set of MultiAd cards I’ve reviewed that does not contain a checklist. But don’t sweat it, the cards are numbered # of 35 on the back. Besides, you have already figured out that when [...]
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on September 22nd, 2008 by albuqwirke
Did I ever tell you about the baseball franchise that preceded the Albuquerque Isotopes? Actually, there were a number of teams that called Albuquerque home over the past 120 years, but arguably no team was more popular than the Albuquerque Dukes.
The Dukes were the Los Angeles Dodgers Triple-A affiliate from 1972 thru 2000. Prior to [...]
Continue reading about welcome back dodgers »
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