Jason Bay signs with the NY METS

Today is a good day for all of the teams in the AL East except for the Red Sox. Jason Bay has agreed to a 4 year $66 MILLION dollar deal with a possible 5th year, that would take the contract out to 80 MILLION. The deal is pending a physical. You can read all about it here.



As a Rays fan I am glad Bay is out of the division. However if you are a Jays, Yankees, or Orioles fan you should be even happier. Here is how Bay did last year against the teams in the AL East.

Bay vs. Rays
.254 average
15 runs batted in
4 home runs

Bay vs. Orioles
.368 average
9 runs batted in
3 home runs

Bay vs. Jays
.373 average
10 runs batted in
6 home runs

Bay vs. Yankees
.475 average
13 runs batted in
3 home runs

Good luck in the NL East Jason!

The Card Addict

Johnny Damon signs with the Yankees..........

On this day back in 2005 Johnny Damon decided to leave the 2004 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox and sign a $52 million dollar 4 year deal with the arch enemy NEW YORK YANKEES!

Sorry about the headline for those of you who care about the Yankees or Johnny Damon.

Oh how the times have changed. Where do you think Johnny will be playing in 2010?










Here is a pic of Johnny from his days with the Sox!




A few years later with the Yankees!



Johnny is one hairy dude!

With his new team do you think he will keep the same clean cut look he had with the Yankees, or will he go back to looking like he belongs in a Geico commercial? "Playing center field, so easy a caveman could do it!"

The Card Addict

A little RICKEY to lift my spirits!

Nothing brightens my day more then a few little Rickey cards. Enjoy!!!



Wow this 1986 Fleer Mini looks giant on the post. I heard a rumor that the Yankees are looking for a left fielder. I wonder if they still have Mr. Hendersons number on speed dial!



This little card from 1987 also looks huge scanned. I cannot believe I actually used to root for the Yankees! Loved me some Henderson, Mattingly, and Winfield back in the day.



I am not positive, but I think this miniature card was sold in Europe to promote the game of baseball. I opened a few of these packs back in '88. According to the back of this card, Rickey weighed 13 stone 13 pounds!!!



There were also a lot of little stickers of Rickey that somehow I have saved for 20 years.... Wow I opened a package of stickers 20 years ago and have been keeping this little guy ever since. Where does the time go?



Last but not least for this post is a 1990 SuperStar sticker. This little dude has a flame throwing Texan on the back. Thats right none other then Nolan Ryan!

I feel much better now that I have strolled down memory lane with my all time favorite player. If you have any Rickey Henderson doubles that you would like to trade, get a hold of me via email and lets try to work a deal. jmeloy1218@gmail.com

The Card Addict

2005 Topps series one pack break

So there I was, standing in one of the check out lanes at my local K-Mart looking over the slim pickins in addictive cardboard with grown mens pictures printed on it when a shiny box caught my eye. On the outside, written in bold type were the words 10 packs of baseball cards $9.99. Or something like that...... It was one of those boxes where the wax has been repacked and sold to suckers like myself.

As you can see from the title and picture one of the pacs was a 2005 Topps series 1 wax/crinkly chrome material pack with 6 cards. So I pulled out my trusty pack cutting scissors and hacked it open. Here is what I found.





Bill Muller played 11 seasons and last played for the Dodgers in '06, Ramirez played last year for the Royals, Mr. Park played for the Phillies, Josh Beckett is a Red Sox and Mark Bellhorn last played in '07 for the Reds.

You may be asking your self right now, did he show us 5 cards or 6? Well what was it 5 or 6? Does the checklist count? Do you feel lucky? Well do you? Here is the 6th card:


















A certified on card auto of Casey Kotchman, who when I last checked played for the Red Sox. Another interesting fact about Casey Kotchman is he played his high school ball right here in Pinellas County Flordia for Seminole High School, and my father-in-law was his coach! Well that is about all the excitement I can handle tonight. I wish I had that stinking NFL network so I could watch the Jags and Colts! If there are any Kotchman collectors out there that need this card, shoot me an email it is trade bait.

The Card Addict

2009 Topps Highlights and Updates pack break....

So I have been on the road a lot for work lately, and in my travels I sometimes make it to a small town in Northwest Alabama named Russellville. It is a very nice small community and every time I am there I like to make a trip over to the super Wal Mart and pick up a pack or two of cards. Here are the results of a Jumbo Pack I purchased back in November.



Mr. Ryan, according to the back of this card, Joe Torre hit a solo homer off Nolan in his major league debut.
Mr. Bailey, AL Rookie of the Year
Mr. Beckham, one fine rookie himself
Mr. Peavy gold! I think this guy will be strong in 2010!



Mr. Lugo, the ex-Ray
Mr. Buehrle, perfect game against the Rays
Mr. Cain , 1st time All Star
Mr. Hudson, one of my favorite players, Orlando was always very fan friendly when he was with the Jays!
ICHIRO, what more can you say?
Mr. Lilly, he looks very excited doesn't he?



Mr. Pujols, the best player in the game.
Mr. Lee, the newest member of the Mariners.
Mr. Halladay, the newest member of the Phillies.
Mr. Hunter, one smooth center fielder.
Mr. Fielder, 2009 Home Run Derby CHAMP.

I pulled a few others as well, and was pretty happy with this pack until I started looking at the 11 cards in the last two scans. Every single one of them has two vertical creases running the entire length of each card! I finally got around to sending an email to Topps tonight to voice my displeasure and received a response within 10 minutes. Here is what they sent:



Have any of you every complained about the condition of the cards in a brand new pack? What was the outcome? I will let you know if and how this is resolved. Thanks for reading.

The Card Addict

Second game of the Double header....

After what seems like the craziest month of my life I have returned from the land of the missing to pick up where I last left off, the second half of a great package I received from THE COLLECTIVE TROLL. In the first post I shared all of the great 69's the Troll was kind enough to send my way. Today I will share some of the new goodies that also showed up!

First off a sweet collection of Carl Crawford Cards!!!!



I did not need all of these for my Crawford collection, but who can turn down a Crawford? I really need to get a list of the Crawfords I have posted some where. Does any one have any suggestions on the best way to do it? By the way my fav off this first page has to be the blue bowman.......



Troll also sent me a CC rookie card... along with the GOLD version of the bowman, I guess I have the start of a rainbow! Troll was also kind enough to put this in the package!



And then my favorite Crawford of the bunch, a game used bat Ginter Card. This is one sweet slab of cardboard, wood and plastic!!!



The last card in the package was a card that I have been trying to buy from the Bay for a month with no success, then the Troll pulls it one out of a blaster. The SP of Rickey Henderson from the 2009 Topps Updates and Highlights. Thank you so much for this card, I absolutely love it. It is not that great of a Henderson card, but it is special because it is the first new card he has had in a long time... I was craving new Rickey material.



If you have not started following The Collective Trolls blog yet, you need to start. Marck writes great content, and has a super blog. He is also a great trader and is always looking out for his trading partners. Thanks again Troll, I put a package in the mail today for you, hopefully you will have it shortly.

The Card Addict

First game of a double header!!!!

So I posted exactly zero new posts last week, but I do have a good reason. I was in Wichita Kansas doing some training for my real job. It was my first time ever in Kansas, and all things considered it was not as bad as I thought it might be. I wish I would have written a few posts, but I simply did not have time. Getting home at 11:39 on a Friday after a week of working in Kansas is usually a pretty lousy ending to a week, but this homecoming was made a little better by a package from THE TROLL!!!! If you have never been to THE COLLECTIVE TROLL blog, do yourself a favor and check it out. Marck is a huge baseball fan and an excellent writer. He posts really great interviews, and writes an excellent blog. He is also a great trader! I am going to do this trade in two post because he sent so much. Here is the first part of what I will call the MOTHER LOAD!!!

A few weeks ago, I posted a link to my 1969 Topps want list. Troll took the time to check it out and he delivered.



ROOKIE STARS AND STRIKE OUT LEADERS......oh my!



A WORLD SERIES TRIPLE!



A TOTAL OF SEVEN FROM THE AMERICAN LEAGUE!



AND SIX MORE FROM THE NATIONAL! And since you asked, "Yes that is a DOC ELLIS rookie card!"

Thank you very much Troll, I will post the other amazing cards you sent in the second game of this double header.

THE CARD ADDICT

Welcome to Birdland!!!!

So I made the drive with my 9 year old nephew down to Sarasota today to welcome the Baltimore Orioles to there new Spring Training home, Ed Smith Stadium! We had a great time!

My nephew is a baseball fanatic. He likes talking baseball. He really likes watching his favorite team the Rays on TV. He loves playing baseball! He has already been playing for 5 years! He started t-ball when he was four and has been going non stop ever since. Two years in a row his team from Pinellas Park has won the Dizzy Dean Florida State Championship... I really love watching him play.

So when I found out the Orioles were having a Fanfest right down the road I decided I would invite him to go. He was up to the task and then some.

We arrived promptly at 1:25 PM to find this waiting for us!


The last thing the uncle of a 9 year old wants to see is a line like this. We waited, and waited, then right at 1:30 the gates opened and this thing started moving... What could have been a real downer quickly and easily passed as we walked through the gates. We were later told that the attendence figure was 3,500 people. Not a bad turnout. I think most of the people were there for this:



You read that correctly! A FREE SODA and DOG! Who could ask for anything more! They also were giving away new Orioles hats, one for the adults and a different one for kids. We also scored this cool pennant!



Next we went and played various games put on by various radio stations and cell phone companies. My nephew loved it! He threw balls and swung at virtual pitches on a nintendo Wii. This was followed by the National Anthem, and a question and answer period.



Who is that guy in the black you ask? None other then Hall of Fame pitcher, Jim Palmer. Here is the only downer for the entire day. Palmer did not stay and sign autos. He announced that he was going to a wedding in Stuart and would be leaving right after the Q and A. He did stick around a few minutes and sign a few items, but we were not lucky enough to score one.

We did score these though:

First off was JIM JOHNSON!





Next was 2009 All-Star and gold glove winner ADAM JONES!





Then we had to switch lines and wait for BRAD BERGENSEN!





Last but not least, NOLAN REIMOLD!



The weather was perfect, the free hot dog tasted great, and the autos came out very nice. This was a first class event and very well organized. We finished our day at the park with my nephew running for home!



I hope the Orioles were excited by the support of the community in Sarasota. We Grapefruit League fans do not want to lose any more teams to that wicked Cactus League out west. Thank you Orioles and Ed Smith Stadium. We had a blast!

The Card Addict

Crawford from the Bay!

So I was searching the Bay, one of my addictions, and came across this card. The starting bid was $.90 and it had FREE SHIPPING! I bid the minimum and hoped for the best. As you can see I won the auction. I almost feel bad because I know the seller of this card had to lose money on this deal. Kranky1024, the seller, sent it to me in a regular envelope which makes me mad if I spend the usual $3.00 shipping and handling fee but for free what should I expect. The card arrived in great shape and that is all that matters. So the listing had to be .15, the postage was .44, the top loader had to be .05 and the final fee was most likely another .09 to .12 cents. I am sure it took at least 5 minutes to list and pack this card. So in the end it had to cost more to send me this card then it was worth. I am glad you did. Thank you Kranky1024!

Getting some ink....

Bergesen is supposed to be there!



Hall of Famer Jim Palmer and never a player Dave Trembley are supposed to be there!



Super Rookie Nolan Riemold and recent Gold Glover Adam Jones are supposed to be there!



Last but not least, Jim Johnson is supposed to be there. Did I mention gold glover Adam Jones?

Hopefully this will be the last time I post these cards without autographs. I plan on taking my nephew down to the Orioles new spring training home, Ed Smith Stadium, in Sarasota for FanFest this weekend. You can read about it here. So good bye plain unsigned cards, hello sharpie ink. I will be sure to post the results of the trip some time in the future.

The Card Addict

Ken Griffery Jr. is not done!

Jr. has signed a 1 year deal to come back to the Mariners in 2010. Read about it here. In honor of the man with 630 career home runs here a few of my favorite Griffey cards. I am not a Griffey collector so don't expect firework here, I think I will also add some really bad commentary as well. Sorry I am in one of those moods tonight.

Jr. says, "Dad, your head is huge!"



Jr. says, "I will be taking this pitch the other way with full extension, and you will like it!"



Jr. says, "Man, it is hard being this pretty."



Jr. says, "Hey, you guys forgot your bats, is that the ice cream truck I hear?"



Jr. says, "I am so good, I can hit your stuff with no hands on the bat!"



Jr. says, "Hey guy with the camera, did you get my good side?"



Jr. says, "Are you seriously thinking about trying to score from third on this shallow pop up? GOOD LUCK!"



I am very glad Grif Jr. is coming back, I could watch that sweet swing for 10 more years and still not see it enough.

The Card Addict