Trade with the Dimwit

Amongst all of my recent Gypsy Queen collecting, Heritage has kind of been forgotten. Forgotten until a nice little trade package arrived from Texas. 

Sam of Daily Dimwit fame commented to one of my recent posts about UD Origins, and shortly thereafter, a trade was brewing.

Six more 2011 Topps Heritage cards knocked off the want list. Manny Acta has a double chin.

Detroit Tigers lead-off man, and future gold glove winner, Austin Jackson. When I watch Jackson play, I always think "Mike Cameron". 

Sam also tossed in three 2011 Topps Kimball Champions Mini's. Hanley, Bautista, and Kershaw. What a great looking insert set. 

 The original target of my desires was this 2005 UD Origins Torii Hunter Authentic memorabilia card. I didn't know it has a pinstripe. Cool. Also today, I got a bubble mailer from a recent eBay score. The Man Ram from the same set. Both cards show the player sprinting around the bases. Sadly, my last thought of Manny on the bases is him walking to first on a ground out.

This trade was a breeze. If you're a trader, give The Daily Dimwit a look. Not a trader? Go give his blog a look anyway. There's some great stuff there.
Thanks for the trade Sam!

He Played a Lot of Games in a Row. Yawn.

2005 UD Origins Authentic Memorabilia PB-CR

  

                                     Alan Trammell           Cal Ripken

Games                                     2300                      3000

Hits                                          2365                      3184

Hits/Game                              1.028                      1.061

OBP.                                         .352                       .340

ExtraBaseHits                         652                        1078

EBH/Game                               .28                          .36

Steals                                        236                          36

 Runs                                         1231                       1647

Steals+Runs/Game                  .64                          .56

RBI                                           1003                      1695

RBI/Game                                .436                        .565

Why do I torture myself? How come every set I build requires a card of Ripken? Why does the sewingmachinegal always say, "he has pretty eyes." OK, I admit, the guy had a great career. What bugs the crap outta me is the, "Cal is the only shortstop to play the position from 1980 until 2000" guy. The guy played a lot of games in a row. Big deal. The consecutive games streak is the most over rated stat in the history of Major League baseball. I guess I am a bit anti-Cal because there were seasons in which Alan Trammell deserved the start at short in the All-Star game, but was slighted because Cal is handsome, plays everyday, hits a few home runs, rescues kittens, revives the dead...

Anyway, if the Hall-of-Fame voters do the right thing and vote Alan Trammell in, I will be less pissed at Cal. It's how my mind works. 

The Ripken card was an eBay score. One of the three short prints (Gwynn and Ryan), I snagged it for $15 bucks shipped. I hate forking over dough for Ripken cards.

Another "I Wish UD Still Did Baseball" Piece

From about 1993-ish until 2008, I bought almost no cards. I bought a million gallons of beer and other crap I didn't need. 2008 brought about my most recent collecting era. I have eras of collecting. My kid years. My Teen/early married guy era. I am in the midst of my most enjoyable era. I have a bit of extra cabbage to spend on cards. The only problem I have now is; what to buy. The options are many. Sadly, since the Topps monopoly took effect, the options are not as great as they were.

I often look around eBay for nice looking cards. Often they are Upper Deck products. Today a new card to me caught my eye. A card from one of my off years. 2005 UD Origins. The base set is only 200 cards with a ton of parallels. By the looks of things, the product was a mid to higher end type of product. This Pudge is available over at COMC for $4 bucks. What a great looking card! The diamond shaped swatch is very cool. I wonder what the designers that UD used are doing these days? I miss their stuff.