Some autos from Dave (Goose Joak)

Just over a week ago, I got an email from Dave, of Goose Joak fame, and he wanted my address. I sent it to him and I have been sitting here ever since wondering what he had for me. Well, I found out today when I got home from work and found a package in the mail. Here are the contents.



Dave is an Omaha Storm Chasers (Royals AAA) season ticket holder and he sent me some goodies from the Chasers home opener at brand new Werner Park. First up is the first ever issue the "O-Zone", the Chasers gameday program. It looks like there are a few good articles in there about how the new ballpark came to be and I am looking forward to reading those.



Next up is a photo of Werner Park that was probably given out at a game. The first thing I think when I see that photo is "man, that is a small park for AAA baseball". Dave said it was small when he first saw it in person, but I wasn't expecting it to be that small. I hope that it doesn't look even smaller when I get to see it in person.

At the same time, I am looking forward to a smaller ballpark for Omaha. I went to one O-Royals game at Rosenbaltt Stadium and most of the seats were either empty or covered up by tarps. The ballpark had grown so big to accommodate the College World Series and it eventually outgrew the O-Royals. That doesn't look like it is going to be the case anymore and I am looking forward to a more intimate feel at Chasers games.



The best part of the package, though, were the autographs that Dave got for me. On this card, he was able to get Mike Moustakas, Mike Montgomery, Blain Hardy, Jeff Suppan, Lucas May, and Greg Holland. For those that don't follow the Royals or Chasers, the two Mikes are two of the top rated prospects in the Royals highly-touted farm system, Blaine is an up and coming pitcher, Lucas and Greg both contributed to the Kansas City Royals last year, and Jeff was the Royals Opening Day starter about a decade ago.

While all of the autographs are great, the Jeff Suppan signature is probably my favorite. He spent a few years with the Royals in the 2000s, but I was never able to get an autograph from him.

Thank a lot, Dave! I really do appreciate it.

Cards from Padrographs

I was a little bit surprised when I checked the mail the other day and found a package waiting for me. It was from Rod, of Padrographs, and in it was a healthy stack of 2010 Topps Pro Debut, a couple of Royals, and about a dozen autographs. The autographs will be saved for later, but most of the other cards are visible in the photo above. I was especially excited about this package because the Topps minor league cards never made their way to this area and it was a product that I was looking forward to. So, thank you Rod for passing some along my way. I really do appreciate it and I can't wait to get some signed.

Some Wicked Cards

This past weekend, I got a nice little package in the mail from Wicked Ortega of My Past Time...I Love It fame. In it was a healthy stack of Royals. Here are the highlights.



He sent me almost a packs-worth of '93 Flair Royals. I wish I would have had a couple of them when I went to Fanfest. Those cards would look great signed. There were also four cards from the Score Select Traded set, a set that I didn't even know of before I got the cards. So, cards like that are always going to be fun. He also included a large group of Royals cards from the late '80s and early '90s. The Saberhagen card in the picture is from that lot. That card's back is pretty cool and it has the headline "SABERHAGEN HOLDS PALE HOSE HITLESS". Very cool card.

Plus, most of the cards are of former players that have been to Fanfest at least once. So I shouldn't have a shortage of cards for next years event.

Thanks Wicked!!

A pack of Phungo and I've been BOpped

I got a couple of packages in the mail the other day, so I figured that I would show them on here.

First up is the pack of 2010 Phungo that I got. I didn't get any black bordered inserts, but I did get some cool cards. Here is the highlights of the pack.



I got lucky and got a pack loaded with Royals. That will probably be the last time that happens this year.

The first card is of Mike Moustakes, the Royals 2007 first round draft pick. Mike played for the Wilmington Blue Rocks last year and led them to the Carolina League finals.

The second card is of the Judy Johnson statue that sits in front of Frawley Stadium in Wilmington, Delaware. Judy, whose real name is William, was a Delaware native that was a star in the Negro Leagues in the '20s and '30s.

The third card is of Jim Eisenreich. I always think of Jim as a Royal and he usually attends Royals Fanfest. But, it is good to see that he also takes part in Phillies events, too. Jim is a good guy.

The fourth card is from Baseball Cards magazine. When I first saw it, I instantly thought I had a 2008 Topps Heritage card of Bret Saberhagen. Luckily, that notion didn't last too long and I was able to figure it out.

There were also Phungo cards of JA Happ and Ryan Howard as well as some assorted Royals cards. Overall, it was a great pack. Thanks Phungo!

The other package I got was from Rod, of Padrographs, and he Bipped me. Actually he BOpped me.



So there were only nine of them. I know it's low for Bippage, but it is still my first. But, he also included some '09 Topps U&H Royals cards and a bunch of Bos and Bretts. Thanks Rod!

If anyone needs a 1987 Topps Bo Jackson, I might have one or two I could spare.

Cards from Padrographs and the Collective Troll

A couple of weeks ago, I got a couple of packages in the mail. One was from Rod, of Padrographs, and the other was from Marck, The Collective Troll. I've been meaning to post these the past two weeks but I haven't gotten around to it for various reasons. Sorry about that. But, here they are now.

First up is the package from Rod. It was a nice assortment of Royals and it even contained one Padrograph. Besides the Padrograph, here were a few of the highlights.



2000 Topps, Brett Laxton: I like this card because I actually remember Laxton. I saw him pitch once in Kansas City and he threw 3 scoreless innings in relief. He is best known for recording 16 Ks in the College World Series as a freshman for LSU.

2009 Goodwin Champions, Zack Grienke: I'm pretty sure that this is the only current Royal in the set. Now I don't have to buy any packs of GC.

1997 Topps, Joe Randa: I didn't know that he was on the Topps All-Rookie Team. Cool card.

2008 Razor, Mike Montgomery: I have bought a few of these cards to get signed and they look great. I'm sure that this one will, too.

1989 Pacific, Bo Jackson: You can never have enough Bo Jackson cards. Never.

2009 Phungo, Luke Hochevar: This is actually a double, but it is still cool. It's not every day that you get a Phungo card in the mail.

2009 A&G, Zack Grienk mini: I bought a box of A&G this year, but I never got this card. This card is definitely heading to Fanfest with me.

Next up are some of the cards from the Troll. He sent me all of the Royals and '81 Donruss cards that he had. Here is just a peak at some of the goodies.



Like I said, he sent me all of his '81 Donruss cards. I'm not sure which ones I don't have, but I do know that I need that Pattin card.



There were even some '82 Donruss thrown in (both Pirates and Royals). It's good to see that Donruss kept their Chicago theme going in '82.



He threw in some cards from the '92 Classic/Best set. Those are always good cards. You never know when you night run across a former minor leaguer coaching in the minors.



He sent a few Frank Whites that I didn't have. That In Action card is sweet. I have never seen it before. It will be going to Fanfest with me as a back-up.



He sent me quite a few Dennis Leonard cards, too. I probably have more autographs from Dennis Leonard than from other player. Now I got some more cards to get signed in case I run across him at an alumni signing.



Out of all of the cards that he sent, this one is by far my favorite. You might be wondering why this one is my favorite. Surely I have three of these and at least two of them do not have that small stain in the top right corner. Truth be told, I only have one of these cards. And I took it to Minneapolis with me to get signed since Frank works for the Royals broadcast. My little autograph book holds three cards per page and I put Frank on the same page as two John Mizerock cards. I got John to sign for me and he started signing away. He signed his '87 Topps card. He then signed his '87 Donruss card. I saw where he was going and tried to tell him to stop before he started to sign my '81 Donruss Frank White. I got his to stop alright, right after he signed "John M" on it.



When he had realized what he had done, he just stopped and stared at it, then looked up at me and said "oh, man, I'm sorry. I'm sorry about that". Since there was nothing to be done, I just told him not to worry about it and thanked him for signing. He got fired a week later*. But, on a positive note, I got a replacement for it much sooner than I ever thought I would.

All in all, there were some great cards in both packages. There were way too many to scan, so these were the ones that intrigued me the most. Thank you Rod and Marck!!

*Obviously, John Mizerock's firing had nothing to do with him signing my Frank White card. He has managed at every level in the Royals organization and I was sorry to see that they let him go.

Contest Winnings from APAD

A couple of weeks ago, I won a contest at A Pack A Day. If you haven't been following APAD lately, you are missing out. Skoormit has been a one-man posting machine on there. He's been averaging close to a pack a day while also updating his own blog, EX-MT.

A few weeks ago, he had a contest where he bought some packs of '88 Topps. You had to guess if there would be more California-born players or more foriegn-born players in the packs and you had to guess how many more there would be. The name of the contest was "Cali vs World". Cali won by 23 and I had the closest guess at 14.

Skoormit asked me what I wanted and I told him that I would take some Royals cards, but if he had any junk autos sitting around, I would rather have them. He ended up sending me some cool Royals cards and one autograph (which isn't junk). I'll show the Royals here and save the auto for a later date. If you really want to know who it is, go to Skoormit's blog. He posted the winnings on there.



Here is the first scan. There is a bunch of gold Royals here. But, the one card that really stood out to me was the Joey Gathright mini. I have never seen those before. Were they randomly inserted into packs of Fleer that year, or what?



Here is the second scan. There is some new OPC, a Fleer Greats Bo, a couple of Royals legends out of the '84 Topps set, and a couple of '71 Topps Royals. Check out that Rich Severson card. It has a few wrinkles in it and some bent corners. But the one feature that really stands out to me is the tack hole in it. Look just behind his head and you can see a nice exit wound from a tack. The tack entered the photo on the back by his cheek and came out on the other side in the back of the head. Someone didn't like Mr. Severson as a kid.

Here is the highlight of the package.



A Bo Jackson bat card form 2008 Playoff Prime Cuts, numbered 25/99. How cool is that? This is my first game used card of a former player and it's Bo! For about four months in 1991, I became a Bo player collector. I had nearly all of his cards up to that point except for some Traded/Update rookie cards. So this is a very cool addition. Thanks Skoormit!

Cards from the Great Orioles Autograph Project

On Saturday, I got an unexpected package in the mail from Ryan of "The Great Orioles Autograph Project". Well, it was almost unexpected since he mentioned in a comment on his blog that he had sent it. In the package was a healthy assortment of Royals cards ranging from 1980 to the present. I have picked out eighteen cards to show on here. All of these cards stood out to me for some reason or another.



2000 Pacific Crown Royale, Mark Quinn- I was a big Mark Quinn fan when he broke in with the Royals. In his first game ever, hit hit two home runs in the game. He went on to hit 45 homers for the Royals in just over two seasons before injuries (like freak kung fu injuries in his basement) derailed his career.

1995 Topps, Juan LeBron- I have never heard of Juan, but I know Carlos Beltran when I see him.

1996 Collector's Choice, Mike Sweeney- An older rookie card of Mike Sweeney from his catching days.

1983 Donruss, Hal McRea- I think that this is from the first Diamond King subset and it is only the second card from the subset that I have. I like the picture in picture.

1992 Bowman, Joe Randa- If Joe is at Royals fanfest this year, this card will be going with me to get signed. I love the Freddy Krueger sweater.

2008 Topps Heritage, Tony Pena- I have no idea who that is pictured on the card, but it is not Tony Pena, Jr. This is the second Royals card from 2008 that I've seen that has the wrong player on it. The first was the Brian Bannister Bowman card that has Luke Hochevar on it.

2007 Tristar, Mike Moustakas- This is the first card that I've got of the Royals 2007 fisrt round draft pick.

2008 Documentury, Mark Teahen- This is only my second Royals card from the set. Of course, the back says nothing about Mark Teahen.

1993 Select, Jeff Conine- Jeff has got to be one of the few players that have had two stints with three different clubs (Kansas City, Florida, and Baltimore).



1960 Topps, Ken Hamlin- This was the only card that he sent me of a player that never played with the Royals. But, Ken obviously played for the KC A's, so it is a welcome bonus. It's pretty beat-up and has a home made update on it, but it is still a cool addition.

2005 Fleer, Matt Stairs- Matt was a fan favorite in Kansas City and probably is wherever he plays. I might send this card out to him to get signed.

1994 Signature Rookies, Jamie Bluma- Jamie only got into 17 games with the Royals, but he is still involved with the franchise and is at Opening Day every year. I wish that I would have had this card in the spring when he came to town to teach a youth clinic. Hopefully, he will come back next year.

2001 Upper Deck Vintage, Jeff Suppan- This is the first card that I have aver seen from this set. This card is from when Jeff was the staff ace.

2008 Topps, Yunieasky Betancourt- Ryan didn't waste any time throwing in one of the newest Royals.

2005 Topps, Aaron Guiel- Here is another scrappy player that was a fan favorite in Kansas City. I was at the first game that Aaron ever played in Kansas City and he threw me a ball after catching the final out of an inning.

1996 Topps Stadium Club, Joe Randa- This is the first time that I have seen this set and I think I like it.

1985 Fleer, Bret Saberhagen- A Bret Saberhagen rookie! Very cool! It's too bad that Bret doesn't ever make it back to Kansas City to sign. I wouldn't mind an autograph from him.

1980 Topps, Darrell Porter- This was the oldest Royals card that was sent. This is probably my fifth card from the set.

So, all in all, Ryan sent me some great cards. There was way too many to show on here individually, but these two scans have a pretty nice cross section of what was sent. Thanks Ryan!

A pack of Phungo cards

When I got home from work yesterday, I was surprised to find a pack of Phungo cards in the mail. Deal sent me the pack as a way of saying thanks after coming in second in the last contest and being stuck with the Grienke signed Sports Illustrated.

I must have recieved a hot pack (I feel like I work for Beckett) since I got one autograph and four insert cards in the pack. But first, here are the base cards.



The base cards included (in no particular order):
Abraham Lincoln- maybe the coolest card in the pack
Shane Victorino- a World Series card that was recently featured on Phungo
Alex Gordon- always nice to get a Royal in a pack
Luke Hochevar- TWO Royals in one pack!
BJ Upton- another World Series card
Bobby Abreu- a cool card taken from the Yankees video board, I believe
Rollie Fingers- a card from last years All-Star celebrity softball game

Speaking of the celebrity softball game, I got a random email from Deal about two weeks ago telling me that I should go to the Futures Game (the softball game is right after the Futures Game, that is how Rollie ties into this). Why I couldn't think of that myself is beyond me, but luckily there was someone out there to point out the obvious. Since that day, I've been planning on going to see it and I even received my tickets a couple of days ago.

The Futures Game brings me to the insert cards in the pack- three Donruss Threads cards of players that will be appearing in the game.



There was also a random Justin Huber card. Justin Huber, of course, is the only Royal whose Dad I have met. Justin is Australian and I met his Dad in Kansas City a couple of years ago after he got a September call-up. His Dad said that he tries to come to the States for a few weeks every year to see his son play. He was a real nice guy and encouraged me to make it to Australia sometime. Justin is currently playing for Rochester and I may send this card to him.

All in all, it was a great pack of cards. Thank you Deal. The autograph will be shown on whenever I make it to my 2007 cards.

Royals cards from White Sox Cards

On Thursday, I got a little package in the mail from Steve of White Sox Cards. He recently had a little "Make Me Laugh" contest in which you had to come up with a caption for a photo. I came in second place and Steve was nice enough to give me a runner up prize. He asked me what I wanted (it's not too often you get to pick your prize) and I asked for some 2009 Royals. Here is what I got: a couple of Upper Deck, a Topps Heritage David DeJesus, five Topps cards, and Goudey Alex Gordon that looks nothing like Alex Gordon. Great cards and a ton of powder blue! Thank you Steve!

Contest Winnings

I recently won a contest put on by Sports Locker. The prize was some Howard Johnson cards. While I am not a big HoJo fan, I could not pass up the challenge of answering the three questions that it was going to take to win the contest.

The first one was: What team first hired HoJo as a coach in their minor league system? I didn't read the question too well and answer the Butte Copper Kings (TB). Apparently the TB in parenthesis was good enough. I got the answer from Wikipedia.

The second question was: Is Howard Johnson 1st, 3rd, or 5th on the Mets all-time home run list? He is third. I didn't see the answer on Wikipedia (although I noticed it on there later) and ended up going to Baseball-Reference.com to find the answer.

The final question was: Where does Howard Johnson's son play his college baseball? He plays at Jacksonville University. That was by far the hardest question of the three. Wikipedia listed his son's first name (Glen) and my first Google search didn't turn up much (apparently Glen Johnson is also the name of a professional soccer player). I then refined my search a bit by adding when he was drafted by the Mets and I eventually found the JU informaton.

So, it was a fun and challenging little contest. Here is what I won. Nine different HoJo cards (there was a duplicate of the Pinnacle card) and a random Ozzie Smith card. I'm lazy and didn't feel like taking the cards out of their top-loaders, so part of them didn't fit on my scanner.



The random Ozzie card is cool because he will be coaching the USA squad in the Futures Game in two weeks. I will be attending that game and that is one less card I have to look for before I head to St. Louis. Speaking of Ozzie, if anyone has an extra '81 Donruss card of him, let me know. I don't have it and I would like to try to get one signed while I am in St. Louis.

Thank you JRJ!

Cards from Dinged Corners

A couple of weeks ago, I took part in an interesting little contest curtesy of Dinged Corners. It was a fairly simple contest. They bought a repack box and all one had to do was pick a team. Any card in the box that had a player from your team was yours. I, of course, picked the Royals and here is most of my loot from the contest.



You just cannot go wrong with two Royals Hall of Famers (White and Brett), the Royals single season home run hitter (Balboni), any Bo Jackson card, and a Gary Thurman Rated Rookie. I had completely forgotten that Gary was a Rated Rookie.

They also threw in a few newer cards.



Here are some Topps Attax that they sent. I haven't bought any of these cards so far, so they are all new to me. They even included a couple of Royals from this years Heritage set that I was needing. Also included was a Brett Favre from last years Goudey set. I wonder if Upper Deck recycled this photo for this years set.

They also sent me a few autographs, which I can never seem to have enough of. I am going to save a couple of them to post individually on here. But here is one that I will show tonight.



This is a signed index card from long-time Expo, NPB Central League MVP, and short-time Royal Warren Cromartie. They apparently sent a card to him to get signed and recieved this along with the signed cards. It looks like when he started to sign it, he picked a Sharpie that was about out of ink and he had to start over with a new one.

And probably the best part of the package was this piece of original art from Lucy. It was part of the thank you note that she sent.



Pretty good, isn't it?

All in all, it was a bunch of great stuff. Thank you so much!

Found some '09 Goudey

I stopped by the card shop to get some sheets and was surprised to find some '09 Goudey. The first thing I noticed was the price. They were $5 a pack with 8 cards per pack. Boxes were $75 dollars for 18 packs. To me, that seemed a little steep when compared to Topps Heritage. Maybe that is just me, though. But according to the box, there is one game-used card and one autograph per box, on average.

I ended up getting five packs of the stuff. No autograph or relic for me today. Overall, I think that the design is bland. I deffinitely like last years better. Here are nine ramdomly selected cards that I got.



I also got two minis. The Aviles card was the only Royals that I got in the packs. I wish that I would have had it yesterday so I could have got it signed. Both of these are blue backs.



I also got two Sports Royalty cards. I'm guessing that these are short prints. The Bird card uses the exact same photo that was used in last years set. Nice work UD.



Here are the two big head cards (that's what I call them at least) that I got. Nothing too special there, although I do like the little devil on Pedroia's card.



I only got one base card of a retired player and it is of Dave Concepcion. I think that it is the ugliest card that I got today. There just isn't any depth to his face.




I think that this is the first 2009 card of Ken Griffey as a Mariner, part 2. What I don't understand is why they put Griffey with his new team, but not Trevor Hoffman.



The last thing I have to show is a 4-in 1. That is what it is called on the back. I'm not sure how these things go as far as SPs or whatnot. I only got one of them, but the card shop owner pulled two out of one pack. Check out how much more detail is put into Jeter's face compared to Yogi's or Concepcion's.



That's it. The highlight for me was the Aviles card that I got in the last pack. I might go pick up some more of these tomorrow.

Also, when I got home from the card shop, I had this card waiting for me in the mailbox.



This card and a thank you note were sent to me after I sent Sean about a dozen old wax packs. I figured that he would enjoy opeing some ftuff that was older than he was. Sean's father, Paul, runs Wrigley Wax and when Sean broke his arm, Paul set out to make him feel better by asking other people to send Sean some cards. He apparently gets jealous of his dad always getting cool cards in the mail and Paul thought that this might cheer him up. If you haven't already, I'm sure that Sean wouldn't mind some more cards. Thanks for this one Sean!

Cards from Padrographs

Every once in a while, I will get some cards from fellow bloggers. I have always tried to give them a shout-out during one of my posts, but I never felt like that was enough. So, from now on, I will be including some scans of the new cards. I should have started this a couple of months ago when I first got my scanner. Oh well. I have started it now. But, I will not include any autographed cards sent to me. Those will fall in line with all of the rest of the autographed cards.

So, without further delay, here are some highlights of a package that Rod, from Padrographs, sent me a couple of days ago. First up is a postcard from Virginia. I am assuming that he took this along with him to the post office with my address on it to make it easier for himself. I wonder how many of these he has. Check out the little Teddy Roosevelt strumming the banjo.



The first card out of the shoot was this oddball Kevin Appier. I have never seen these before. It was made by Fleer and is the same width as a normal card. But, it is over an inch longer. It was issued in '94. Any ideas where these came from?



After that was a nice stack of Royals cards. The very top card was this one. This is my very first card of a Royal from '69, their first year. My first impression when I pulled it out was that it was a reprint. Besides it being mis-cut (but not as badly mis-cut on the bottom as it looks), it was in pristine condition. After checking it out, I found that it was actually from the '69 set. I can't believe how well this 40 year-old card has been preserved. Plus, it is of the Royals first manager and 2009 Hall of Fame inductee, Joe Gordon. This was a great start to the stack.



Next up were some current Royals that I needed. I had two Tony Pena, Jr. cards prior to this package arriving and got another one that day that I ordered. So, my TPJ collection ballooned from two to five cards in one day. I also got an Alex Gordon Mockumentary (not pictured) that I did not have.



Next up are some awesome Bo Jackson rookie cards. Here are his '86 and '87 Donruss, The Rookies, cards.



To be perfectly honest with you, I pretty much grew up a Dodger fan. In 1986, at the age of seven, I made the Dodgers my favorite team (mostly because my dad was from the LA area and that was his team). But, for some reason, by the time I was in fifth grade (1990), I was switching my affiliation over to the Royals. The only reason for that was because of Bo. He was all over TV and all over magazine ads. I starting buying up every single card of him that I could afford. The two pictured above were two that I never had (I don't even remember the '87). Anyway, the Royals got off to a crappy start that year and I quickly fell back to my team, the Dodgers.

I was a Dodger fan until they traded away Piazza. After that, I gave up on them and went a season without a team, though I was still a Dodger fan at heart. At the end of that season, I went to my third Royals game ever (it was less than a two hour drive from my college town). I got to see Mike Sweeney, Jermaine Dye, Carlos Beltran, Johnny Damon, and Mark Quinn. After the home opener the next year, I was officially a Royal fan and, boy, has it been a rocky ride.

Anyways, here are three more Bo's that I did not have (Rod also included all three of his '87 rookies).



Since I grew up a Dodger fan in Royals territory, I knew a ton of Royals fans. I was able to trade Royals for Dodgers for awhile until I got so sick of hearing about the Royals that I started giving them away, mostly to my best friend, Dustin, and my cousin, Matt. Twenty years later, I still have a few Royals from back then, but I have hardly any George Brett's. Well, Rod helped to alleviate that problem. Here are a few that I know that I do not have.



That Donruss Threads card looked pretty cool to me until I looked at it closer. The Royals have never wore jerseys like that until last year. They always had Royals in white until the new alternates came out last year (unless this is just a bad picture where it looks like George is wearing blue instead of white). No wonder MLB was suing them.

Mixed in with the Brett cards was this sweet 1991 Spring Training schedule with Brett pictured on the front.



And last, but not least (and trust me, there were too many cards to post on here) was a 2008 Topps Update and Highlight card of Brett Tomko. I already had this card. The only reason why I am showing it is because I want to know why this card was even published. By the time Topps, series 2, was distributed, Brett had already been released by the Royals. So, why did they make a card of him in the '08 U&H as a Royal? He had pitched in six games with the Padres since his release from the Royals and the U&H came out after the season was over. Oh well. I guess this goes in the same book as why did UD make a 2009 card of Richie Sexson.



So, thank you Rod. As always, I am in dept to you.

I also got a 1993 Classic/Best card that was signed by a former Royal. I will post this card before I get to my 1994s.