Winter Warm Up 2011–Name Plates!

I bought these on the last day of Winter Warm Up. They are player name plates for lockers, batting helmet shelves, bat racks and other stuff. These were five for one dollar. I liked the Ankiel and got the others to make five.

Dad – The name plates are on my nook Color. Aside from the baseball card packs and Isaac’s Nintendo DSi, the nook color was a godsend as we waited through all of the lines.

Winter Warm Up 2011–Singles

My dad bought me a few cards too. Some were for autographs and some because they were cool. These are the cool cards.
These will look cool with the Jon Jay autograph from a Target pack.


This matches the Colby Rasmus jersey card I bought at the Flea Market over the summer.

And this one matches a Joe Mather autograph my dad bought at a past Winter Warm Up.

Dad - I'm actually looking forward to catching Ankiel and Mather playing for the Braves this summer when working out of the Atlanta office.

Trade With Carl Crawford Cards

I offered a Juan Marichal Topps scratch off card for trade awhile back and worked out a trade for a 1968 Topps game card of Prime Time’s favorite baseball announcer.

CCC also threw in a bunch of cards for Isaac. Here are a few of Ike’s favorites.



Oh yeah. Ike got bipped… “Dad why did he send all of these Ozzie’s? Why did he write on the Carl Crawford Card? I’m not allowed to write on cards…”

Flea Market Mini's

Made our monthly visit to the local flea market yesterday. Isaac was disappointed the $1 pack guy didn't have any 09's but he picked up a few Pujols' at another booth. We also picked up these Cardinals for the mini binder (not sure what to do with non-T205/206 sized cards yet though). I liked how the dealer framed the 08 A&G's in red cardboard.

Note to self: Next time, take the cards out of the toploaders before scanning. I didn't realize how scuffed up the plastic was until I saw the scans!

1999 Pacific - Rick Ankiel

2001 Bowman Heritage - Red Schoendienst

2001 Bowman Heritage - Stan Musial

2001 Bowman Heritage - Enos Slaughter

2005 Heritage Play Ball - Albert Pujols

2006 A&G Black Border w/ A&G Back - Frankie Frisch

2006 A&G Black Border - Bob Gibson

2006 A&G Base w/A&G Back - Bob Gibson

2007 A&G Black Border - Albert Pujols

2008 A&G w/A&G Back - Rick Ankiel

2008 A&G w/A&G Back - Troy Glaus

2008 A&G w/A&G Back - Adam Wainwright

Trade With Blue Heaven

A by product of Jawdy’s Basement Heroes January Break was a trade with Ernest at Blue Heaven: a stack of Cardinals for a stack of Dodgers. I returned from a trip to Guadalajara to find Blue Heaven’s very generous package. He sent a mix of 80’s & 90’s Cardinals, a smattering of vintage cards and then some really, really vintage cards.

Isaac loved the Ozzies, especially the action shots.

Two current Cardinals. Ankiel’s story truly is amazing and I’m reminded of it every time I see his older cards as a Pitcher.

A few vintage cards… plus four 1972 Topps not pictured.

 

Three interesting Victorian cards from the 1800’s. Check out these links from Blue Heaven for more info: Victorian Baseball Cards, Merchant’s Gargling Oil Cards. Click on the cards for larger images. I doubt we’ll go search these out but, like Japanese cards, they’re fun and interesting.

       

And finally a pin for Isaac’s jean jacket.

Thanks again to Blue Heaven for a great trade. I only hope the cards we sent in return came close in offering the sheer enjoyment with these cards. Check out his blog for Dodgers info and vintage baseball card and memorabilia information. It truly is a great resource and has pointed us to several items of note we would not have known about.

Cardinals Winter Warm-Up Autographs: Day 2

Day two began with breakfast at the 4th Street Grill at the Millennium Hotel, site of the Warm-Up. I mention this b/c we bought 20 fifty cent scratch off tickets to win an autograph ticket for Rick Ankiel, Skip Schumaker, or Ryan Ludwick. In actuality, we bought the tickets for Ankiel; Isaac met Skip last year and we already had a ticket for Ludwick. My wife and I told Isaac that the odds of winning were small, that thousands of tickets had been printed with very few winners, that this was not like playing Yahtzee and his luck may run out, AND that we were NOT going to keep buying tickets until he won. With expectations properly deflated, my wife took my daughter to the buffet line while Isaac scratched off the tickets. Halfway through the stack he uncovered “WINNER.” Scratching below to reveal “ANKIEL.” We played the “What was your favorite part of Winter Warm-Up?” game during our drive home. I told him it was seeing his face after he won a ticket to meet one of his favorite players.

Hawksworth has a chance to make the club as a spot starter / middle reliever. Ankiel is Ankiel. I saw him pitch in the playoffs against the Braves. We were in the stands his first game back where he homered to deep right; one of the few times I’ve seen Tony LaRussa lose his composure and openly celebrate a players accomplishments. Parisi has a better chance than Hawksworth to make the club, having pitched in the majors last year as injuries depleted our pitching staff. Ankiel & Parisi probably spent the most time chatting with each fan, taking time to personalize the experience. Parisi gave Isaac two fist bumps. He’s been fist bumping ever since.

We could not find a David Freese card before the show and brought this red mini-bat along just in case. No cards in the vendor area either so glad we had the bat. Freese seemed like an after thought in the Edmonds trade to the Padres, worked his way into a bona fide big league 3B, and found his way a rung lower on the depth chart behind Wallace by the end of the season.

Glad Ludwick is back this year. Super nice guy who deserves the accolades (not to mention the pending arbitration pay out). He was one of the few players to thank us for coming out for the cause. The Worrell card revealed Isaac’s card collecting mindset. He had tons of cards to choose from: ROY, All Star, League Leaders, etc… but he picked this one. Why? “Because mini’s are cool, Dad!” Did I mention he’s six? Worrell, to his credit, stayed an hour over his scheduled signing time to meet the fan demand and was friendly and pleasant for us stragglers.. Barden is an aging infield prospect who played well in the Summer Games if I recall correctly. Given the Cardinals infield issues and the absence of Barden’s name in the equation, sounds like he’ll be a utility guy at best.

Isaac found this card in a flea market binder last fall, recognized him on the MLB network promos, and bolted for his station before heading to our next paid auto. To honor Joe’s regal status, Isaac opted for a silver Sharpie. Kyle McClellan is another of Isaac’s favorites. He’s a local product who made the club last spring and was one of our more consistent relievers for the first 4 months of the season. Isaac gravitates towards the young players. I asked why given, at the time, the team was loaded with Pujols, Edmonds, Rolen, Eckstein, etc… “Because they’re like me, Dad. They’re kids…” Horton is not a kid, I remember watching him while I was in grade school. He is currently a Cardinals TV & Radio announcer / personality.

Day two: 10 autos - Paid for Ludwick & McClellan. Won Ankiel ($10 in tickets). The rest were freebies. Did not win Molina ($10 in tickets).

All in all, Isaac was on a mission: twenty player autographs in two days. I was surprised he lasted so long on both days: we nearly closed the place Saturday and were third from last on Sunday. Of all the cards he brought, we missed Ken Reitz and Bob Forsch. Its a three day event but we did not go on Monday. Instead, I offered to take him to meet Cardinal HOF-er Orlando Cepeda next month. I extended my offer for next year’s Warm-Up: I told Isaac I would take him all three days for as long as he wants to stand in line. That should give him plenty of time to find more Cardinals cards, not to mention mini’s.