Playing with Dolls...

Ok... figures. Thought it would be fun to post Isaac's ever growing collection of bobbleheads, figures, etc...

Click on the image for a larger file.
Left to right:
Back Row - Padres & Mets Baskin Robbins sundae helmets from my childhood my parents found during their last move; Fredbird Bobble Belly, Matt Morris / Albert Pujols bobbleheads, Pujols SGA bobble, Gehrig Starting Lineup, Musial Starting Lineup, Pujols figure, Griffey & Big Mac big head figures. The Gehrig, Musial & Pujols figures sit on three autographed baseballs: Aaron Miles, Brad Thompson, and.... ???

Front Row - Lou Brock bobble, Red Schoendienst SGA bobble, Isaac bobble, Gibson Starting Lineup, Ruth Starting Lineup, Ryan Howard figure, Ruth pitching as a Yankee, McFarlane Jim Edmonds McFarlane, Jackie Robinson stealing home McFarlane, Lou Gehrig speech McFarlane.

Cap Envy

I've been eyeing the Cooperstown Collection caps for a few weeks but at $25 - $30 a pop I just couldn't pick just one, much less pull the trigger. Good thing as it turns out. We stopped by TJ Maxx over the weekend and wouldn't you know it, they had a ton of Cardinal caps including many of the Cooperstown caps! These caps were priced from $5 - 10 each so for the price of one cap from the MLB site, I picked up four. They're all fitted and are wool blends.

Clockwise from upper left:
Cooperstown Collection - 1942 Home Cap
Cooperstown Collection - 1943 - 1956
Nike (Saw this one at the ball park last night at 50% off MSRP for $19)
Cooperstown Collection - Not a replica, just an old style cap.



I'm on the lookout for the the 1903, 1918 - 1919, and 1940 caps now. They also had a few St. Louis Browns caps that I would have bought if they were in my size. I may stop by another TJ Maxx or Marshall's to see if they have any more of these. If any other Cardinal fans not in STL are interested, I can grab one for you locally. Just send your hat size.

For fans of any other teams, check out your local shops for your favorite team! They also had modern caps as well if you don't swing it old school.

Happy Birthday!!!

Isaac turns 7 this week but we had the family party over the weekend. Needless to say, we had a Cardinals theme ready for him along with special homemade cookies. The weeklong celebration continues tonight at the Phillies vs. Cardinals game!

Run The Bases

We surprised Isaac with the first of seven games under our modest season ticket package last Sunday, April 12. It was part of the Cardinals week long Opening Day festivities with a special slant for the younger fans. Fans 15 years old or younger received a regular sized Ryan Ludwick “Big Stick” bat and were invited to run the bases after the game. Surprisingly, they handed the bats out BEFORE the game and not afterwards. Good thing that Loshe pitched a three hitter and there were no bad calls. Can you imagine hundreds of bats being thrown onto the field after a bad call? Yikes!

The Bat. DVD included as a frame of reference for actual size… and as a symbol of what might be in 2009.

 

The view the Clydesdales have as they trot onto the field in the right field corner.

Isaac’s little sister as she high five’s Fredbird at first base. That’s Isaac’s hand on the left.

Scoreboard. I didn’t get a good shot of it but MLB parks are displaying the player picture and stats on the scoreboard using the Topps flagship design just like last year.

Our seats are in the right field corner, field level, right at the fair pole: two seats in foul territory, two seats in fair territory. Here’s the reverse view of everyone’s favorite Pujols baseball card picture. This was taken in the first inning. Matsui singled on the first pitch of the game. He would be the Astro’s only base runner until the 9th inning. Absent that hit, Loshe would have had a perfect game going into the Ninth!

Helmar Brewing Series Three Set

Unlike the first series (I do not have the second and cannot comment on it), this series focuses exclusively on baseball subjects. Players and managers from the Negro Leagues, the Majors, and Japan, among others, are featured in the set. Sorry for the fuzzy thumbnails - they're not resizing correctly in blogger. Click on each image for the larger high resolution scan.

Helmar Series Three

I finally had a chance to open the box of Helmar Series 3 cards last week. As in my posts about Helmar Series 1 (here and here), I’ll follow up this St. Louis centric post with one displaying the entire set.

While the first series was available in packs, Series 2 (release in 2006) and 3 (2008) were only available as complete sets with Series 2 being short printed by comparison. I’m trying to track down a Series 2 set now that I have the others. Unlike the first series, this one focuses exclusively on baseball.

The Box

Contents

St. Louis related cards:

Nice to see the folks at Helmar have a sense of humor. They’ve included a “corrected” card for an error from the first series.

Pics of the complete third series coming soon...

Live: New Don Hamerman Baseball Images

Two new Don Hamerman images are now available at 20x200!

I've posted about his baseball photographs before: http://ikescards.blogspot.com/2009/02/don-hamerman-found-baseballs.html and his work graces the cover of Ron Darling's new book: http://www.20x200.com/blog/2009/04/catching-up-with-don-hammerman.html

Hurry! These are limited production and go VERY quickly. It looks like 20x200 recognized Hamerman's images and extended production to 720 copies between the three sizes instead of the usual 222. Don't let that fool you though. The small sizes have sold out in a matter of hours when his other editions went live.

Rawlings



Thread 2


Images: http://www.20x200.com/

Just bought mine... and to top it all off just got free tickets to tonight's Cardinal game!

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with 20x200 aside from being a huge fan of their concept and offerings. I also cannot guarantee free MLB tickets will magically appear should you purchase either or both of these prints.

A Few Stickers

Not a big sticker guy. Isaac likes to slip them into the binder sleeves so he knows which binders are for his Cardinal cards. These are a few that haven’t made it onto a binder yet.

1967 Topps

#108 Alex Johnson

#195 Al Jackson

#226 Julian Javier – I watched the ‘67 Series between the Cards and Red Sox on MLBTV last month. Hard to believe this slight hitting infielder hit a three run homer in game seven of the series to help win it. One of his sons or grandsons practices medicine in a local St. Louis hospital.

#404 Nelson Briles

1966 Topps

#7 Tracy Stallard.

#179 Cardinal Rookiies: Dennis Aust, Bob Tolan

1965 Topps

#28 – Barney Schultz. Barney, a knuckle-baller, pitched in a then record 9 consecutive games in 1962. He pitched in four games of the Cardinals 1964 World Series victory over the Yankees.

The Streak Continues…

Another two Quik Trip packs over lunch, another pair of winners… at least if you’re a Cardinal fan.

16 – Chris Perez. 2008 Closer-In-Waiting just suffered bad-mullet-kharma and was sent to the minors yesterday. And yes, that might be the least genuine “action” shot I’ve seen in this set.

368 – Aaron Miles. Another curious example of Topps not airbrushing the new uniforms for a player who switched teams well ahead of time. I like Miles, Isaac absolutely loves him… its a shame he had to go to Chicago. But hey, if someone wants to overpay for my skills, I’d do the same thing.

437 – Zach Duke SP

 

C26 – Vladimir Guerrero Chrome /1960

 

 

NF5 – Fifty Star Flag Insert

All in all, another surprisingly good pair of retail packs from the gas station!

1962 Topps

Just one ‘62 Cardinal in the vintage box.

#223 Alex Grammas. The border is noticeably darker than a non-Cardinal card numbered #501.

1960 Topps

#291 Bob Keegan. According to the cartoon on the back says Bob threw a no-no for the White Sox in 1958.

Isaac still refers to these as Heritage cards when he sees them.

1959 Topps

243 Marv Grissom – Marv? Marquis? Could it be?!?!?

#379 Bob Miller – Airbrushed over the Philadelphia cap I presume.

Retail Therapy III

Stopped by the Quik Trip this morning for a cup of coffee, saw the Heritage box and thought, "Why not, let's see how far this goes..."

Two packs. Each pack had an insert and a Cardinal: one Flashback, one News Flashback, and base cards of Ryan Franklin and Yadier Molina.

Sorry for the crappy Blackberry pics; I thought I'd try the post-from-phone-via-email feature. Click on the image for an even better view of BB phone fuzziness. I gotta say that as great as the Curve is, the cam really stinks... especially when compared to iPhone pics I've seen. Ah well, its free... can't complain too much.

Shades Of Greatness

Postcard from Shades of Greatness: Art Inspired by Negro Leagues Baseball, a traveling exhibit presented by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum which visited St. Louis earlier this year.

Image: Kadir Nelson, “Low and Away” (Click on image for larger image)

Mr. Nelson’s art can also be found in his book, “We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball.” Click on the bookcover on the right to view a slideshow of images in the book. While its targeted towards younger readers, the stories, paintings & illustrations make this book HIGHLY recommended for baseball fans of any age.

Retail Therapy

The local Quik Trips have carried trading cards for the last year or so and the ones I frequent started putting up 09 Heritage a week or so ago. Avoiding the retail vs. hobby debate, the sheer convenience of picking up a pack or two along with the morning coffee outweighs the base card blues found inside. Or does it?

I ended up buying two packs earlier this week and, surprised by the retail goodness, picked up another two packs this morning at a different location. Out of four packs, only one yielded 100% base cards and that one had a Sizemore so Isaac was pretty excited. All in all, 2 short prints, a Flashback, a Berkman /1960, and a Molina /560 out of four retail packs.

2009 Dad Packs!

2009 Dad Packs are live! I travel quite a bit and have been picking up singles here and there of Cardinals, Isaac's favorite players, and the occasional oddball I think he'll like. Isaac is also turning seven soon and has started doing chores around the house. What better way to reward him (instead of an allowance) than homemade Dad Packs?!? Look for auto's, game used, and even 09 Topps and Heritage packs inside!

Can you tell which ones Dad the Engineer / IT guy did and the lone pack designed by Mom the Art Teacher?

Follow Up: Topps 2008 Red Hot Rookie Redemption

Guess what was waiting for Isaac today? That's right, the first of two 2008 Red Hot Rookies: The Rangers' Chris Davis.

I'll say this for Topps support, while they weren't proactive about correcting the wrong email dates they support representative was honest and provided accurate information. He said the email should have said "4 - 6 weeks" and sure enough, this card arrived four weeks to the day.

The card itself is pretty blah. Davis's face is obscured by the helmet and sunglasses. He appeared in 80 games for the Rangers last year yet this picture appears to be from spring training, batting practice, or a minor league game. Topps couldn't get a major league shot for a guy who played half a season in the majors? One last thing, is "Rangers" airbrushed / Photoshop'd on his jersey or is that just me?