TriStar Fuji

One of the great pleasures in collecting is having others have the same interest and passion. Not the usual refrain I hear "You still do that?" So as usual it was great to see fellow blogger Mr. Fuji of The Chronicles of Fuji. He informed me he had a bag of goodies for me and it would be better to get at the end of the day. I thanked him profusely and picked it up from a friend of his on the way out. Wa la . A bag of goodies.

What did this very generous bag of treasure include? Well a Big Mac Bobble Head now at my office and subject of future post. A binder of empty sheets. Going to be home to our soccer cards.

A selection of Tuff Stuff and Beckett Mags with King Albert 

An empty box of Wheaties Fuel cereal with King Albert-wonder what they tasted like. Apparently there were several players on the cover of this defunct cereals.

There was even a Fuel cereal bar.

Included in the bag was a box of cards. Many of which were new additions to the collection. On to the cards-first some new Yadis! 2008 Bowman, 2010 bowman chrome 2010, and 2009 Topps Heritage.

Some more interesting Topps. 2003 Gallery J.D. Drew, 2010 Opening Day Toppstown Stars, 2008 Heritage Pujols, 2014 Red Sparkle Joe Kelley, and 2014 Stadium Club Beam Team Waino.

Some Topps vintage including a high 1962 Red Schoendiest, 1962 Rookie Tim McCarver! 1964 Broglio, 1968 Cardinals Celebrate, 1968 Larry Jaster. I have this card but the one rom Fuji as some interesting photo issues-double up the image. I filed it away before taking a shot of it. 1971 Ted Simmons.

Next is a very interesting odd ball a 1968 Atlantic Oil Play Ball Contest Brock and another Simba,  a 1980 Kellogg's.

A few more cards to wrap it up. 2013 Hometown Heroes Willie, 1997 Leaf Fractal Matrix Andy Benes. AND drum roll please. Patrick Wisdom  2015 Topps Pro Debut Ornge Auto #ed 3 out of 25!

The Right Handed Corner Infielder is now at Triple A Memphis. He has been in 34 games, scored 19 runs, 7 Hrs, 23 RBIs, .278 BA, .331 OBP, .524 SLG %. Thank you Fuji!!!!!!

.

Who Knew? Art Howe Edition

I am really excited about writing a number of “Who Knew?” posts about ex Cardinals who we may not associate with being a Redbird. So next up is a former Redbird better known for his coaching than playing, funny how many managers were Cardinals? This “Who Knew?” former Cardinal is Art Howe.

Art Howe was born exactly one year after my mother and he managed several teams-Astros 1989-1993, Oakland As 1996-2002, and the Mets 2003-2004. His career win loss record as a manager was 1,129 and 1, 137. However, he started as an infielder-first with the Pirates 1974-75 before being traded to the Astros on January 6th, 1976. He played until 1984 with the Astros but missed the entire 1983 season due to a fractured jaw that was a result of a hit by pitch.

He signed with Cardinals and played with the Birds 1984-1985. He would finish his career with the Redbirds. He played in 891 games with a lifetime batting average of .260 and 43 home runs.

My other love-Beer Post

I love beer-not your run of the mill excuse for bitter water-nope. Craft beer made by craft breweries-and I would count large regional Sierra Nevada as part of the craft family. None the less, a few days ago news broke that one of our favorite craft breweries and somewhat local Lagunitas sold out totally to Heineken. Originally owner Tony Magee sold 50% off a couple of years ago. So today I bought my last Lagunitas beer. Sad really.

For my 40th Bday we and a group of friends went up to Sonoma and hit Russian River and Lagunitas. Actually, it was the first weekend the beer garden/tasting area was open-see picture above from their website. Here is my last 12 pack.

About 6 years ago my wife and two of our close friends were headed to Celebrator Brew Newspaper Anniversary party in Berkley that always coincides with San Francisco Beer Week. We stopped off at a few spots before heading to the party. One of which was the  Beer Revolution beer bar in Oakland. As we were getting ready to leave the older guy jamming in a one man band by the door announces "Hey my name is Tony Magee and I am the founder and owner of Lagunitas and for the next hour all Lagunitas beer is on me". OMG! Never will forget that, but no more Lagunitas for me.

TriStar Yadi and Autos Edition

I admit my Yadi PC collection is growing at a snail's pace-but thanks to the TriStar I was able to add a whopping two new cards. One which I don't find all that attractive and that is a 2016 Topps Bunt Titans card #ed 06 out of 25 (you can see I took a photo against my computer). Unfortunately the rear area has the code snatched off-so not sure if considered mint. The second was a relic card from the 2007 Topps Heritage Club House Collection.

A good thing about a show like this is that I can always pick up some Redbird autos on the cheep-these were had for between $3 and $5.

Jeremy Hazelbaker 2016 Topps Chrome auto and 2016 Topps Scouting Report.

Matt Adams 2013 Gypsy Queen.

Oscar Taveras (RIP) 2014 Bowman Chrome Blue Refractor Auto #ed 012 out of 150

Alex Reyes (our first) 2016 Bowman Chrome Prime Position #ed 151 out of 250.

Michal Wacha 2015 Topps Five Star #ed 211 out of 399

There was a guy at the last Serramonte Show I hit who was at this show and again had $3 autos and relics-though significantly fewer that in January.

However, I was able to snag some nice autos-I have really taken to the 1998 Fleer SI Greats of the Game Autos-the old school photos and stars-so when I spotted both George ”Big Red Machine” Foster AND Boston Red Sox great Rico Petrocelli for $3 per bam.

I also picked up a Kevin Mitchell auto (though it ended up being a little bent due to it being in a-ironically-card saver) that commemorates his bare handed catch against the Redbirds on April 26th, 1989-a game which I attended but my obstructed view kept me from seeing.

TriStar 2017

This past weekend was the annual TriStar show at the Cow Palace in South San Francisco, just yards away from SF city limits. As Usual, I left my house early, fueled up grabbed some Mickey D, and drove the hour twenty minutes arriving an hour early-yes a hour-never know what traffic issues could arise. I love the Cow Palace that magnificent work of concrete.

Last year the show seemed more focused on vintage, which it typically is, in comparison to the previous year-in other words dime boxes were few and far between. I can’t say for sure this year because there seemed to be a bounty of dime boxes-though I consider dime boxes to be anything less than a $1 per card-hey this IS the Bay Area.

I stood in line a few minutes early and eavesdropped on a conversation between a Dodgers’ and a Giants’ fan regarding grading and PSA strategy. PSA and Beckett were both in attendance-and they were there to drop some cards off and to look for vintage-one of the guys is trying to finish the 1948 Bowman Basketball set and he is apparently close. Next year I will bring some cards to submit.

I walked in turned the corner and ran in to two tables of monster dime boxes by team-a few minutes in I remembered I went through these last year. I picked up 300 cards-a good many I ended up not needing.  From there I hit some 5 for $1 boxes that had many Topps paper parallels. Then a picked up some nice autos for 3-$5 per-and hit more boxes. Ran in to Mr Fuji-legendary blogger of San Jose Fuji, who had emailed me the day before asking I could use some pages-indeed I could and I let him know. Alas, he had a big paper bag filled with goodies-I am saving that for last. I love chatting with him while we look at cards. The last table had some nice dime boxes and I picked up some decent cards. Bummer is I didn’t look at any vintage-the oldest card I picked up was a 1981 TCMA Football card.

In large part this is because I have a source for vintage cards on the Bay-and when he says NRM they are-so I have been picking off a few cards here and there.

Also, like last year a player signing got on stage and talked baseball which was really cool-last year it was Reggie, this year Will "The Thrill" Clark-I hated him when he was on the Giants-and liked when he was on the Redbirds-yes he was on the Redbirds.

When I hit a show or buy a lot I “process” the cards by checking my Excel spreadsheets then pick a few nice cards to show off-but alas I must of deleted the TriStar recap-so all I can show off are the Yadis, Autos, relics, and Non-Topps and Bowman cards. Which I hope do in two-three more posts.