I Saw It on Ebay

Here's a pretty cool item I saw this week on Ebay.
I'm sure you can find the individual stamps on a regular basis but how often do you see the album?

1962 Topps Baseball Stamp Album and Record Book

Hot Stove, Frozen Brain

The other day I was thinking about one of my favorite former Cubs,  Ryan Dempster.  I know he was traded last summer to the Rangers but I couldn't recall what had happened with him after the season.  A quick check on the interweb gave me the answer -- he signed a two-year contract with the Boston Red Sox.  At this time of year, and into the early part of each season I often find myself saying, "I didn't know he was with them now".  With 30 teams making trades and dozens of free agents I guess it's forgivable to miss some moves.  Does this ever happen to you?

Anyway, speaking of Ryan Dempster I recently added some cards to my collection, which has reached a modest 80+.  Good luck in Beantown, Ryan!

I Bought a Blaster -- Sort of Wish I Hadn't

I've really stayed away from buying new cards the last few years and I've had no regrets.  This year's Topps flagship looked good enough to me that I went out to Target and bought a blaster.  My biggest  disappointment was getting zero Cubs out of 81 cards.  I got 5 Reds and 5 Cardinals -- great!  I really only found two base cards that I'm happy with.  Target blasters have 20 red parallels and while that's fine I found that most of them were the same as the base cards in the box thus greatly reducing the overall number of individual players.  (Is that by design?)  As long as I'm complaining, I was also unimpressed by the photography.  Yes, there were some good ones, --Russell Martin, Josh Reddick, Adam Jones-- but there were way too many boring ones.  That being said here are the cards I did like:

 I've always been a Hunter Pence fan no matter what team he's on.

Rookie of the year.

I do like the inserts:

I put Chipper on Ebay.  Probably won't sell.

That's Right, Woodchuck Chuckers. It's Groundhog Day!

FYI (Today's birthdays are in the previous post)

Don't Drive Angry

Ned Ryerson!  

Ned: Phil? Hey, Phil? Phil! Phil Connors? Phil Connors, I thought that was you! 

Phil: Hi, how you doing? Thanks for watching. 

[Starts to walk away] 

Ned: Hey, hey! Now, don't you tell me you don't remember me because I sure as heckfire remember you. 

Phil: Not a chance. 

Ned: Ned... Ryerson. "Needlenose Ned"? "Ned the Head"? C'mon, buddy. Case Western High. Ned Ryerson: I did the whistling belly-button trick at the high school talent show? Bing! Ned Ryerson: got the shingles real bad senior year, almost didn't graduate? Bing, again. Ned Ryerson: I dated your sister Mary Pat a couple times until you told me not to anymore? Well? 

Phil: Ned Ryerson? Ned: Bing! Phil: Bing.

Hackenbush's dream breakfast

I'm a sucker for a happy ending!