Keith Aulie: Team Canada’s Life Saver

No, its got nothing to do with a hockey game.  Keith Aulie is a defenseman for Team Canada at the WJHC (puck drop in 5 minutes!).  In his spare time, he saves his Dad’s life.  No, seriously. Keith’s Dad, Bill was clearing the ice off his dugout when his tractor fell through.  Keith pulled him [...]

Continue reading about Keith Aulie: Team Canada’s Life Saver »

This is the third and final card from my latest purchase off Sportlots.  Nothing too special about it, just a nice card that I still needed at a good price.  Would that all cards were such no brainers.  Also of note - tonight is the gold medal game in the World Juniors.  Canada takes on [...]

Continue reading about 2008 Topps Chrome Blue Refractor »

I love baseball.  I love watching Josh Hamilton play baseball.  But still, my absolute favorite sporting event to watch is the annual IIHF World Under 20 Men’s Hockey Championships.  Its intense, and Canada is very good at it.  They’ve won 4 gold medals in a row.  Tonight was the semi-final against Russia.  Win or go [...]

Continue reading about Going for Gold: A World Junior Interlude »

At least, I think that’s what I have here.  The card number is “WMDP26″ and I can’t imagine anything else that the “WM” stands for.  This was another pickup from Sportlots, from the same seller who had the Gold Die-Cut from Upper Deck X.  Obviously, this is another one of those pesky retail exclusives.
A cool [...]

Continue reading about 2008 Topps Update Dick Perez Wal-Mart Exclusive »

…that I am done with 2008 Upper Deck X Baseball.  Its not a particularly fulfilling task, but it is done.
This is the Gold Die-Cut.  As far as the rest of the cards, there was a base, a base die-cut, an XPonential insert and a jersey card.  This card has been sitting on Sportlots for quite [...]

Continue reading about With today’s mail, I can finally say… »

I’m watching Penn State get their butts handed to them in the first half right now.  I’m a big believer in second half comebacks, so I am not writing them off yet.  Canada came storming back from 3-0 down in the first period against the USA in the WJHC last night (if you want to [...]

Continue reading about In the Spirit of Bowl Season… »

I just finished off my first blogger to blogger ‘trade’ the other day.  I’ve sent out cards to people who I figured would appreciate them more than I would, but this was the first conventional “I have these cards you need, you have these cards I need” trade.
Cardboard Icons made a post at the beginning [...]

Continue reading about A&G Minis: Blogger Trade »

Patience pays off sometimes.  As soon as I saw the Beam Team Autographs design out of 2008 Topps Stadium Club, I knew I wanted to pick up a Hamilton.  They started out in the $35 range for a total price including shipping.  Just a little bit too much for my taste for a base sticker [...]

Continue reading about 2008 Topps Stadium Club Beam Team Autograph »

Getting back into the swing of things with an easy one - a Q&A session devised by the good folks over at Dinged Corners.  There are two rounds.  My answers are mushed together, because that’s kind of how I end up doing things.
1-If I didn’t collect baseball cards, I’d collect…
Hmmmm, tough one.  I am the [...]

Continue reading about Dinged Corners New Year’s Post »

The highly informative Rangers Blog has a copy of Tom Verducci’s story regarding Hamilton’s Home Run Derby performance.  I’m still not tired of hearing about Hamilton’s HR Derby performance, although I’m sure some are.
I will also add that I don’t want to make this blog into anything political (I am a bit of a politics [...]

Continue reading about Sports Illustrated Year End Story »

I am getting ready to head out for the holidays soon, so the Hamilton posts will be sparse until after Christmas.  I hope everyone has a great holiday season, with lots of fun, family and friends.
      

Continue reading about Holiday Break »

Yes, I am aware that “Ballparking it…” generally means that one is going to estimate something.  I’m not using it in that context.  I’m using it as a title to announce that I have finished off the Josh Hamilton mini-project out of 2008 Upper Deck Ballpark Collection.  Hamilton had two octo jerseys and two hexa [...]

Continue reading about Ballparking it… »

Police seek chicken flingers in Tisdale, Saskatchewan
There’s a lot of doom and gloom in the news today.  Things suck for a lot of people, and in all likelihood, nothing is going to magically change tomorrow.  But, every so often, in the midst of all the foreclosures, and dropping oil prices - there is a story [...]

Continue reading about And now, a break for local news…. »

Waaaay back in spring training, I packaged up a TTM request to Hamilton through the Rangers ST addy, and then began to wait.  After things blew up at the All-Star break, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be seeing this request again - he had just gotten too big.
Then, on a bunch of autographing sites, [...]

Continue reading about Josh Hamilton Signs My Card! »

I finally got around to checking my morning emails from eBay for my saved searches just before noon.  I wasn’t expecting too much - a 7-day auction right now would end on Christmas Day.  Great for bargain hunters, not so great for sellers.
There wasn’t a whole lot of interesting items for Hamilton today, but this [...]

Continue reading about 2008 Upper Deck Documentary Appears to be Live! »

With the end of 2008 rapidly approaching (seriously, it was June, like, yesterday), I guess we can now start to look forward to 2009. In addition to me writing 2008 on my rent cheque for the first couple of months of the year - that also means that there will be new baseball products [...]

Continue reading about The important stuff in 2009 SPx »

A while back, I got really ambitious and scanned in all my 2000 Topps Tek Variations. I also took the time to lament that I had never even seen a ‘Color’ version of Hamilton. Well, the eBay gods must have heard me, because one popped up within a week or so of my [...]

Continue reading about 2000 Topps Tek Colour…errr…Color »

To clarify the title a little bit - the want lists aren’t all that mini - but the cards I am looking for are. Spurred on by my success in finding those last few cards I needed for my A&G base set after posting on Hand Collated’s End of the Year Clearance topic, where [...]

Continue reading about Mini Wantlists Added »

Sports Illustrated is reporting that Hamilton has declined to participate in the upcoming World Baseball Classic.
I’m a little bit torn on this one.  Quite frankly - I’d love to see him in this tournament showcasing his skills - the article says that Team USA manager Davey Johnson intended to use Hamilton as his clean up [...]

Continue reading about Hamilton bows out of WBC »

I picked up this blaster when I stopped at wal-Mart on my way home from the card show.  MVP is a nice, low-end hockey set.  Boxes generally sell in the $50+ range, the blaster was $25 CDN + tax.  Rookie cards fall 1:2 packs, inserts are also 1:2 packs, so you never hit an all-base [...]

Continue reading about 2008-09 Upper Deck MVP Hockey Blaster Break »

Well, my truck started so I headed off to the show.  Its not a huge show.  Admission is free, if you bring a donation for the local food bank.  Attendance was sparse,  but that wasn’t surprising considering the weather.  I didn’t even really make my rounds - I did all my shopping at a friend’s [...]

Continue reading about Show Pickups »

If my truck starts this morning (its currently -43 when you take into account the windchill factor here), I am heading out to one of the quasi-monthly shows that occur here during the winter months.  I don’t have a great expectation that I will be finding a ton of stuff off my wantlist (this is [...]

Continue reading about Heading out to a show…. »

A few days ago, I got a Christmas package from a friend.  Being as how I never really progressed past the age of four when it comes to Christmas presents, I immediately asked if I could shake it.  He told me to go ahead and open it (I will shake, hold it up to the [...]

Continue reading about 2000 Topps Stadium Club Co Signers »

One of the items in my RSS reader is a feed from Sports Collectors Daily about Sports Memorabilia News.  Most memorabilia is out of my price range, but I love reading about some of the things that pop up for auction.  Today they had a story about Josh Hamilton auctioning off some of his duds [...]

Continue reading about Hamilton Auctions Off HR Derby Spikes »

And by legit - I mean intentionally inserted into packs.  I came across these auctions on eBay today:
2000 BOWMAN “PLATE PROOF” JOSH HAMILTON TEEN IDOL RC !!
2008 TOPPS “NEGATIVE” PROOF JOSH HAMILTON RANGERS RARE!
I thought I recalled something about some unscrupulous eBayer’s peeling off layers of Chrome cards and selling them as “Proofs” - [...]

Continue reading about Are These Legit? »

No, not me.  And not Barack Obama just yet either.  Josh Hamilton is heading to the White House tomorrow along with his wife to participate in a roundtable (why do I always type ’roundhouse’) discussion aimed at reducing drug use.  An admirable goal to be sure.
Check out the comments on the blog entry as well.  [...]

Continue reading about Heading to the White House…. »

No, I haven’t gotten around to picking up any of Hamilton’s cards from 2008 Topps Stadium Club yet, although I am really looking forward to snagging one or two of the Beam Team Autographs - they look amazing.
Dave, over at Goose Joak (I have no idea what that means), a Fantasy Baseball Card Blog gave [...]

Continue reading about Josh Hamilton Stadium Club »

Another Home Run Derby card to add to the binder. Hamilton’s Derby performance was deemed worthy of a Flashbacks insert card in 2008 Topps Heritage High Numbers. I haven’t broken any of this product, a friend hooked me up with Hamilton’s lone card in the product.
Great picture for this card, even if it [...]

Continue reading about 2008 Heritage High Numbers Flashbacks »

A stopover from the Hamiltons for a moment, to show off one of those cards that slips through QC, and makes you go “Hmmmmm.” Of course, some might argue I am being presumptuous to say that UD actually has a QC department.
The card in question is a Frank Thomas Stadium Scenes Jersey Blue Parallel. [...]

Continue reading about Weird Frank Thomas POH Card »

I have mostly broken myself of the habit of needing to rush to eBay and pick up new singles as soon as a product trickles on to the market.  I still rush to check out all the new singles on eBay, but I don’t buy immediately.  I do this for a couple of reasons - [...]

Continue reading about 2008 Bowman Chrome Catch Up »

Josh Hamilton’s Home Run Derby performance checks in at #5 on ESPN’s list of “The Things We Forget” for 2008.  Its a great story, with Hamilton recounting the Home Run Derby while he awaits a book signing in Chapel Hill.
I think one of the best points the authour makes is when he says that 2008 [...]

Continue reading about ESPN: The Things We Forget »

Brett Hull is currently trying to somehow extricate himself from the sticky situation he got himself into when he signed known idiot Sean Avery to a four year contract this off season.  As you may or may not have heard Sean Avery made a rather tasteless remark about his ex-girlfriend Elisha Cuthbert a few days [...]

Continue reading about Hull brings up Hamilton »

As has been well documented, Josh Hamilton’s road back into baseball got a huge boost when he was selected in MLB’s Rule 5 draft by the Chicago Cubs, who quickly flipped him to the Cincinnati Reds.  Being a Rule 5 pick - Hamilton had to stay on the team’s major league roster, or be returned [...]

Continue reading about Rule 5 Redemption Redux? »

The Texas Rangers team site posted a question and answer session with Josh Hamilton late yesterday.  There are video links as well, but that’s verboten for me at work, so I’ll have to defer on those until I get home later.
A pretty light hearted session, a few questions about his book, and then lots of [...]

Continue reading about Josh Hamilton Q&A »

I picked up this card in a trade on Beckett last week.  I believe this is the slightly rarer version, without the facsimile signature on the front of it.  Regardless, this card freaks me out.

Let me explain.  I’m a pretty big X-Files fan.  Geeky, I know - but I have a blog about baseball cards [...]

Continue reading about 2007 Bowman Heritage…and why it freaks me out »