Cardinal Nation mourn loss of Oscar Taveras

This from the Cardinals' email blast.

"The St. Louis Cardinals offer condolences to the family of Oscar Taveras, the 22 year old Cardinals Outfielder, who was killed earlier today in an automobile accident in the Dominican Republic.

"We are all stunned and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of one of the youngest members of the Cardinals family," Cardinals Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said. "Oscar was an amazing talent with a bright future who was taken from us well before his time. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends tonight."

"I simply can't believe it," said John Mozeliak, Sr. VP & GM of the St. Louis Cardinals. "I first met Oscar when he was sixteen years old and will forever remember him as a wonderful young man who was a gifted athlete with an infectious love for life who lived every day to the fullest."

The team will provide additional information on funeral arrangements at a later time."

I know I haven't been posting much, more out of having to study for a final license exam and helping my wife get through her midterms, than a loss of desire. But I was actually preparing a posting featuring the Taveras autos I picked up this year. I feel horrible for his family, friends, and for Cardinal Nation. He had so  much pressure on him to be a star and I know he would have been but we will never know how good he would have become. Thankfully we don't experience this more in sports. In our personal lives all too often this is common. His exciting swing and our two Taveras autos.

A fitting end to the Birds' post-season run

Another confession, I didn't watch last night's game. I knew what the result was going to be after watching Games 1, 2, and 4. I am not saying the Giants didn't win the series but what I am saying is they were given opportunities by the Birds and like any good team took advantage of them.

I saw it coming during Game 1 when the Giants had two bloop hits, a Wong error, and a dropped ball by Grichuck. I told my wife this has a feeling to it when one team gets the "bounces" so to speak. Apart from the Giants, why did the Birds fail?

1. Mike Matheny isn't a good post-season manager when the series gets deep. Some of his calls were questionable to say the least and his loyalty to some players (Randy Choke) just odd.

2. Matt Adams looked lost at first making two errors in Game 4 and his series sub par batting average. I will never forget his dumb founded look after the second error. I hope they trade him for what they can get and transition one of their many outfielders to first.

3. Missing runs. Yep mission runs. They needed to have more runs than those scored off of home runs. It was good while it lasted but they aren't home run hitters.

4. The bull pen-Rosenthal, Choke, and whom ever gave up the series ending blast last night.

However, back in May in my post State of Redbirds I stated my disgust. Alas, I am proud they made it this far however I hate to see them embarrassed again in the Post-Season. I am happy for my friends that are Giants' fans, but for the millions of mean spirited fans I am not. They booed every Cardinal except Matheny when we went to Game 1of the 2012 NCLS including the trainer! Not happy for the woman who shouted at me as we walked around AT&T during 2012's NCLS Game 1 "Cardinals' Suck!", of course that is incongruent with them making it to the NLCS. Also not happy for at idiot work who has been giving me hard time but is unable to name the Giants' infield. Too bad they have such fans as I really like the Giants' players.

At least there is next year-but for now go Royals!

What a show-my first card show in 30 years wrap up and a confession

I have to confess to the fact that we didn't watch Game 3 of the NCLS yesterday. Now wait before thoughts of fair weather fan come to your mind. The game started at 1pm here in the Bay Area and we were on a media black out beginning then until I returned home. I even put a sign on my office door asking others not to discuss the game with me. However, I made a deal with my wife that if we accidentally found out of the results of the game and the boys lost we would tell the other so we wouldn't watch three hours of baseball only to be disappointed. So she heard the score from one of her many students. So we didn't watch. I haven't had the opportunity to comment on Yadi's injury. I don't believe a team is only one person but not having Yadi is a blow so knowing the game went into extra innings shows the team isn't going to go down with out a fight just because Yadi is out.

Now let me wrap up the posts related to the card show I attended last month. Here are some of my favorite Cardinals' cards I was able to add to our collection. First up some old A's teammates reunited and it "felt so good".

 A Hall of Famer and a couple of rookies.

A couple of cool die cuts 

Jimmy and Rick 

A few King Alberts to wrap up the card show finds. 

When the numbers become too overwhelming, or how to milk more money out of us.

As we sit here waiting to see if the Birds can even up the NLCS series I have been researching the Topps' Moments and Milestones sets which were hobby only releases in 2006, 2007, and 2008. I haven't been able to locate a checklist for 2006 but if it is anything like the subsequent year's issues it must be about 190 base cards with each numbered to #150 and each with 2-4 parallels numbered to 29, 25, 10, and/or 1of 1.  According to BaseballCardPedia.com if one were to attempt to complete the base card sets, which means no parallels, your complete base set for 2007 would be a staggering 12,475 unique cards! 2008 was even bigger at 12,579! The concept of the issue was to have a card for each of a player's M&M.

I recently won a lot of 56 Albert Pujols 2006, 2007, 2008 M&M base cards for about 23 cents per. I thought to myself I could put a dent in some want list cards. Alas, I didn't run the numbers. First, the base cards then the numbers.  The 2006 M&M honors all 130 of Albert's RBI and all 194 hits during his 2001 ROY campaign. The only thing that changes is the number of RBI/Hits noted on the front of the card.

The 2007 MOM which isn't very imaginative again honors Albert's 2001 ROY campaign. The 2007 MOM notes every Run Scored and Home Run of his in 2001.

For its finale the 2008 M&M included base cards for all of Albert's 97 Walks, 129 Runs Scored, 195 hits, and 41 Home Runs of his 2005 NL MVP season.  I have included a parallel of his Home Run card. 

So if I were to seek an example of each of Albert's 2006 M&M cards including parallels I would have to locate 1446 cards, for 2007 I would need 1560, and in 2008 I would need to locate 1848! For a grand total for just Albert standing at 4854. Needless to say I will not be attempting to get one of each but I can comfortable picking them up at card shows since the odds are I would not have it.

Next up the NCLS

Great job boyz! Now the Gigantes. The Giants have been excellent in the playoffs and I like their team but having to put up with Giant's fans at work is going to be rough especially if the Cards loose. I have already had to fend off barbs, which is OK I can give as well as I take-and I know it is good fun. Heck I am almost as old as the (SF) Giants franchise! Should be a good series. We would love to go to one of the games in SF but weekdays are rough since it is a 2 1/2 to 3 hour round trip and being on a school/work night is a little too much.

What a show-my first card show in 30 years Part 3

One of the excellent benefits of living in the Bay area is collecting a team that others are far less likely too. However, of course the down side is there isn't has many Cardinals' cards to choose from, and even fewer Yadi cards we need. The only Yadi card I could add to the collection is the 2009 Topps Black retail parallel, as a matter of fact I added several other Redbirds to our collection. Here is the Yadi in all of its glory.

What a show-my first card show in 30 years Part 2

We only collect baseball cards but as I dug through the 5 for $1 card boxes I stumbled across these two which as a history buff I really appreciate.These are the 2006 Topps Chrome Signers of the Declaration of Independence subset.

I am not going to troll on Ebay for them but I will keep my eyes open at card shows. There were two history subsets in the 2006 Chrome. One the aforementioned Signers of the Declaration of Independence (DOI) and another 39 card Signers of the Constitution (SOC). There are 56 DOI cards total each with a refractor parallel. The regular card was seeded one per seven hobby and retail packs while the Refractor was seeded one per eleven hobby and one per 44 retail packs. Oddly the SOC base insert was seeded one per 15 hobby and retail packs, but the refractor was seeded one per nine hobby packs and one per 36 retail packs.

Willam Paca was the Governor of Maryland and possibly the first Italian-American to be elected to a governorship. William Hooper born in Boston but represented North Carolina during the run up to the signing.

What a show-my first card show in 30 years Part 1

Last weekend I drove almost to San Francisco to attend my first card show in many many years. I have to say it was a little over whelming at first but I found Fuji author of the wonderful blog Chronicles of Fuji, which has been an inspiration to my and my blogging. Most certainly a highlight of my blogging and collecting. Appropriately I met Fuji over some dime boxes. He was looking for Cardinals for me and I A's, Padres, and Japanese players for him. we both had great luck. Before these dime boxes I hit a guy's bins for a few vintage Redbirds, but it was the vendor I hit last which was having a buy one for $1 get four free-or 20 cents per. I must of spent an hour and half at his tables. This dealer had so many jumbo boxes of mostly inserts, parallels, and chrome I could't even go through them all. I will post the Cardinals' cards another time.

I thought I would start with the non-Cardinals I picked up for fellow bloggers. I knew I would run into Fuji and I was able to grab a few Japanese players from a 25 cent box before meeting up with him. While looking through the boxes and bins I scored a couple of cards for Matt of the impressive Bob Walk the Plank blog. Thank you for the cards Matt! I will need to get yours out.

2011 Topps Finest Cutch

1963 Post Mazeroski

1995 Pinnacle Zenith Nomo

2007 SP Rookie Edition Kei Igawa

2003 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Ichiro

The advice that Fuji gave me in preparing for the show was spot on-I think next time I will bring the 800 count box. I needed to bring something to drink because man I worked up a thirst but I am a little freaked outto have water near my cardboard.         

A little Cardinals' Nation on the Central Coast of Cali and 1964

Driving home from work two nights ago I was able to snap a picture of a fellow citizen of Cardinals' Nation.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1964 World Series Championship. Here are a few 1964 Topps and 1965 World Series Highlight cards. I have this glass packed away at my parents  and I need to bring it home when I go back.