A warning - the World Cup is going to start in about an hour (as I type this). Which means for the next month, I'll be focused on the following things, probably in this order:

1. The World Cup
2. Writing my report cards
3. This blog

That's just how it is for me. Baseball and soccer are my two sporting loves. The World Cup only comes around once every four years, and even though it isn't the best soccer in the world (because the players are all just too bloody tired after a long club season), it is the most important. So updates to the blog will be sporadic. However, my phone is never too far away from me, which means Twitter isn't, either (@JonathanRGB).

On to four more packs of Topps 2009 Series 1:

Pack 5 (Babe Ruth on the front):

195 - Tim Lincecum (the baseball card gods continue to send me messages to start a Lincecum PC. I may have to relent soon.)
119- Craig Counsell (all you can see is COUNSELL 30 in giant letters. It's a nice picture...of his back)
262 - Mike Gonzalez (I wish he was still a Brave. Being on the 60-day DL will have to do. Don't come back soon, Mike!)
221 - AL ERA Leaders


78 - Tim Lincecum NL Cy Young (see what I mean? Two Big Time Timmy Jims in one pack!)
84 - Rod Barajas
112 - Hideki Okajima
131 - Joe Torre
104 - Brandon Moss

Pack 6 (Ryan Howard)

260 - Manny Ramirez
256 - Reggie Abercrombie
4 -NL Batting Average Leaders
153 - Lastings Milledge


TR37 - Kevin Kouzmanoff Turkey Red (another one I don't have - nice!)
293 - Brian Bixler
42 - Jeff Francoeur
125 - Roy Oswalt
223 - Dave Roberts

Pack 7 (Purple-Lipped Cheater)

303 - Zach Duke
244 - Sean Rodriguez
111 - Troy Percival
63 - Josh Outman (RC) (I'd show this card if I hadn't already showed the gold card in the last post)
179 - Rafael Furcal


LG2 - Honus Wagner Legends of the Game


144 - Matt Tuiasosopo (RC)
101 - Nick Hundley
74 - Trey Hillman

Pack 8 (Ted Williams)

140 - Brandon Webb
243 - Chase Headley


253 - Edgar Renteria (he's a Flying Wallenda out there!)
203 - Jair Jurrjens
268 - Chris Burke


LG6 - Tris Speaker Legends of the Game
231 - Xavier Nady
234 - John Russell
159 - Matt Antonelli (RC)

I'm off to a quiz night. Hopefully it won't end too late and I can watch the soccer matches. Big one at 2:30 a.m. (Perth time) - the U.S. versus England. C'mon you Yanks!

Yesterday my cards arrived in Australia from Dave & Adam's. Shipped on the 1st of June, arrived on the 10th - I'd say that's pretty good. I'm so glad to have found a big-time online presence who will actually ship internationally; any of the big boys that you can think of, they only ship to the U.S. Trust me, I've looked into it. Maybe I should start naming and shaming them on my Twitter account...

So I prepared my 2009 Topps Series 1 binder (I was smart enough to order a box of binder sheets along with my cards) and broke open the first four packs. Nothing really earth-shattering, but I did get two gold parallel cards in the four packs, as well as a Turkey Red that I didn't already have, and the card of a certain Dodger legend. Read on for more...

35 - David Price (RC)
43 - AL Batting Average Leaders

45 - Aubrey Huff
48 - Mike Napoli
54 - Dusty Baker (the one bad part about the Reds' success? I can't make fun of Dusty Baker now.)


63 - Josh Outman Gold Parallel (991/2009)
69 - Rich Aurilia
71 - Mat Gamel (RC)
75 - Rich Harden
81 - NL Home Run Leaders (strangely, Pujols is not on this card. He finished 4th in 2008.)
87 - Brad Hawpe
102 - Garrett Atkins
105 - Francisco Liriano


115 - Kevin Youkilis
123 - Casey Blake
137 - Angel Salome (RC)
152 - Cody Ransom
165 - Matt Kemp
201 - Checklist (Salty & Ham Bone)
206 - NL ERA Leaders
210 - Geovany Soto (remember when he was Rookie of the Year?)


220 - Jay Bruce


233 - Erik Bedard


235 - Chad Billingsley (THE BUZZSAW!)
239 - Brandon League
241 - David Newhan (the first card out of the first pack, so technically my first 2009 Series 1 card.)
248 - Scott Lewis (RC)


268 - Chris Burke Gold Parallel (926/2009)
281 - Tug Hulett
292 - Francisco Cervelli (RC) (thankfully, no pies anywhere in sight)


312 - Ryan Sweeney
317 - Jarrod Saltalamacchia
328 - Doug Mientkiewicz
329 - Gil Meche


TR3 - Jimmie Foxx Turkey Red


LG15- Pee Wee Reese Legends of the Game (what, you thought Billingsley was the Dodger legend I was talking about?)

Oh, Donruss. Your name will be forever sullied in my mind due to the absolute crap you spewed out in the '80s. Although I'll give you credit, you did come up with some pretty decent cards in the '90s, after you got bought out, of course. But those crap-ass 1980s cards will be your legacy. As a kid, I was always disappointed whenever I got Donruss cards.

I've included this card because it is actual photographic evidence that Don Aase won an American League pitcher of the month award. Take a moment to let that little nugget of information digest. I know it's hard to fathom - you're fighting the urge to call Ripley right now, aren't you?


See, it really did happen, back in May 1985. Here's the circumstances surrounding that shocking incident.


Speaking of the 1980s, here's the only Donruss Diamond Kings card in the lot. Ken Singleton. I'll have to look, but I'm pretty sure it's from the same year as that bakery card. That was his career-best season, after all.


When it comes to crappy Donruss cards, they don't come much crappier than the 1982 set. Unless you count the 1981 set. With Dave Trembley's firing less than a week ago, I've chosen to commemorate the event with the last Orioles skipper to be fired in the middle of an absolutely dreadful season. Cal Ripken Sr. was fired after going 0-6 to start the 1988 season. Blog namesake Frank Robinson got the job and promptly steered the club to fifteen more losses in a row, for a record 0-21 start. He got to keep his job because he's Frank Freakin' Robinson. The next season, the O's had a winning record and finished 2nd in the AL East.


Frankly, I think this is a bit harsh on Cal Sr. and unnecessary on Donruss's part. Did they really have to highlight his failure to reach the Bigs by putting "Did not play major league baseball" and leaving all that white space on the card? Why not include his minor league stats, or his record as a minor league manager?


Apparently, according to the back of Cal Sr.'s card, his son was "one of the most highly regarded prospects in the Oriole system." I don't know - I never heard of the guy. Cal Ripken Jr.? Sounds like the name of a character actor or insurance salesman. But I was able to find a 1994 Donruss card of him. And then, a few cards later, the same card, but with lots of super-shiny gold foil.


The final couple of cards showcase the photography that made Donruss cards pretty decent near the end. I wish I could figure out what Robby Alomar was looking at in this picture. He's looking up - do you think he just skied a pop-up?


And here's the great Lee Arthur Smith, the one-time career saves leader and should-be Hall-of-Famer. Of course, on this card, it's all about the insert picture. Notice how Lee Arthur is stroking his goatee, all contemplative and such? What could he possibly be thinking about?

In 1994, Lee Arthur's only season with the Orioles, he saved 33 games, good enough for the league lead. I doubt we'll ever see such a paltry number on top of the leaderboard again.

There wasn't much in the pile from the good folks at Score. My recollections of Score come from the junk wax era. I decided, in the cheapness of my youth, that Upper Deck was much too expensive to collect. But this Score company seemed pretty decent, and they had pictures on both the front and back of the card, just like UD. Also, they actually had players' uniform numbers on their cards. For a numbers geek, that was pretty cool.

So I threw my support behind Score. I bought their debut '88 set. The1989 set wasn't too bad, still lots of primary colors. Then, the 1990 set happened.

U-G-L-Y! You ain't got no alibi.

That was it for me and Score. A year later, I was out of the hobby altogether. Was it Score's fault? I'll leave it to you, dear reader, to decide.

Here's the highlights from the Score cards in the Orioles lot:

Speaking of 1990, here's a card from the 1990 Super Stars set. I'm not sure if this is an insert series or a completely different set, but I like how the design parallels the '88 Score rather than its bastard cousin, 1990 Score.


And I've included the back of the card as photographic evidence that, at one time, Phil Bradley was indeed considered a superstar, at least by the folks at Score.


Skipping ahead two years, There were two 1992 Score cards included in the lot, and they were both former Red Sox players. Hitting from the left side of the plate, Sam Horn. And hitting from the right side, Dwight Evans in his final card (Dewey retired after the 1991 season).


Who's more gangsta than late '90s Skybox cards? Mark McLemore, that's who!


Behold the power of Harold Baines's beard! There were actually two Score cards in the pile that featured The Beard. This card showed it off the best.


Finally, we come to one of the worst insert series I have seen. 1996 Score included the "Radar Rating" set. First of all, the layout is, well, pretty crap. Secondly, why do we need another insert set about fast pitchers, the second-most celebrated group of baseball players behind home-run hitters? Thirdly, that radar gun graphic is cutting off the top of Mussina's head. Fourthly, the back of the card isn't any better than the front:


No, I can't make out what that black squiggly thing under the "Speed Statistic" is, either. And isn't it weird that, in a subset called "Radar Rating," you call attention to a guy's change-up? I like the wrap-around sunglasses, Mike. How very mid-90s.

Can you help?

As part of my plan for organising my collection, I have bought binders for the five teams I collect (see the right sidebar for the list). These are your standard 3-ring PVC binders, but I did get a red one for the Reds, blue for the Mariners, black for the White Sox, etc.

Of course, they are still pretty damn plain. Which is where you, dear reader, come in. I am in need of logo stickers for the Reds, Mariners, Orioles, White Sox and Athletics to adorn my team binders. I'll tell you right now that I will be using these stickers, so if you find the idea of actually sticking stickers on stuff abhorrent, then you have been forewarned. However, if you have some team logo stickers to spare, I'd love to give them a good home where they will be well-loved.

My contact information is posted here. I'll also be cross-posting this on Twitter so you can always direct-message me at JonathanRGB if you don't want to send an e-mail for some reason.

Thanks a bunch in advance. You all are the best!

No, I'm not overly distraught from that fella's recent retirement announcement to post. It's just that I will be sans computer for the next few days so I can't post anything, even if I wanted to. My phone will still work (hopefully) so I'll be Twittering. If you're on Twitter and you haven't added me (JonathanRGB) to your friends list, then maybe you should so you can stay in the loop. All the cool kids are doing it.

P.S. Sorry Armando Galarraga. That sucks what happens to you. Maybe the Baseball Gods just decided there's been too many perfect games and no-hitters lately.

P.P.S. I'll have a full report from the lovely town of Goomalling in my next post, coming Sunday.

Over the weekend I made a badly-needed visit to Al's Card Shop up in Perth. While I was there, I found that the pickings in terms of baseball boxes were slim. Apparently, about a week after I visited the last time, a couple of guys came in three times over the course of a week and pretty much cleaned them out of their hobby boxes. I was planning on buying an '08 Topps base, but I had to settle for '09 Bowman. I don't know if those people found out about Al's from my previous blog post or not, but the timing was kinda strange, because baseball cards aren't a big seller in Perth. If I threw some business their way by my free advertising, then I'm glad I did.

It wasn't a huge tragedy, because it allowed me instead to focus on the collection of singles at Al's. I picked up ten cards for various PCs that I am trying to get started, as well as some badly needed supplies. Here's the haul:

Let's start off with a couple of Hall of Famers, shall we? These cards are part of a ten-card set that Fleer produced for Sports Illustrated. They had some, but not all, of the cards in the set, so I just grabbed the two Orioles. If they had all ten, I probably would have bought them all. Maybe I'll go back and get the rest later.

It's a nice crisp design and I really like the poses. Both Frank and Brooksie look so youthful - seeing Frank in a Baltimore uni like that reminds me that Bill DeWitt traded him away from Cincinnati in part because he was "an old 30." As you know, he only went and won the Triple Crown that season. Grrr.


Another Brooks Robinson Hall of Fame card. Again, if there had been other Orioles (or Reds) available I would have snagged them. This is a Topps production, and the back of the card contains all of the text on Brooksie's plaque. I should make copies of this card and hand them out to all my infielders so they can see what "ready position" looks like. You can't have a better fielding instructor than Brooks Robinson, in my opinion.


Here's two 2008 Topps Co-Signers cards, Junior Griffey and Ichiro. I can't figure out if the Ichiro card is mis-cut or not. I suspect, looking at Junior's card, that it is. Regardless, I figured I'd get it, put it in the PC, and I can always replace it when I come across a better one.

By the way, we have now entered the Junior portion of the blog post. You have been warned.


Here's Junior's 2009 UD Spectrum base card. I mention this card for a very important reason - I have an official announcement to make. For a while, I have been kicking around the idea of doing something similar to Thorzul when he decided to collect all of C.C. Sabathia's Brewers cards. I have decided to do the same with Junior's White Sox cards. The situations between the two players are comparable, right down to the fact that both were traded for the 2008 stretch run.

Even though Junior's wearing a Reds uniform in this card, the White Sox logo makes this a Chicago card as far as I'm concerned. So this is the first card in the quest - every Ken Griffey Jr. White Sox card. Now, I just need to find a list of all those cards so I can check them off. Thorzul, where did you find your Sabathia list?

Oh yeah, we're not done with Spectrum. Hold that thought for a second...


Before Griffey was traded to the Sox, he was a Red, of course, and this is his final Upper Deck base card - 2008 Series 1 #239. It's sad that Junior rated such a non-descript card number, but I love that the card shows his trademark home-run swing. I hope that he didn't actually just rip a pitch foul.


Here's two different card companies' takes on the same event - Junior becoming the youngest player ever to hit 350 home runs (ah, those were the days, when Junior was a legitimate threat to break Hank Aaron's record). On the left, we have Skybox. On the right, Topps. The Topps effort is fairly staid, with a picture of Junior's batting stance and a chart on the back showing the youngest players to 250 (Griffey, Jimmie Foxx, Eddie Mathews, Mickey Mantle and Mel Ott, in case you were wondering. Hank Aaron was 6th). The fireworks in the front are a bit distracting, but overall, what you would expect from Topps, I would think.

Skybox, on the other hand, went with a different tact. Lots of gold leaf. Reflective chrome writing (which is a lot more readable in the scan than it is in person). And on the back, a breakdown of his 1998 home/road and day/night splits. But that's not all. Because the observant among you would have noticed that this is 1999 Skybox. And that means only one thing:


GANGSTA TEXT!!!

"What's up Junior Griff?" Ugh. The things I do for having a robust Griffey PC. Time for one more card to get the bad taste out of my mouth:


Why hello there, red parallel Felix Hernandez 2009 Spectrum that was misfiled in the 50-cent box with the Spectrum base cards. I believe you'll be coming home with me.

Not a bad trip to the card shop, I must say. I'm about halfway through the Bowman box and I haven't pulled anything earth-shattering, but I did get the Ichiro and King Felix base cards for my respective PCs. And a bunch of chrome cards that will be heading out to appropriate fans of other teams when the situation arises.