One More Down...

2000 Metal Base Shredders
NNO Todd Helton
$2.50 Shipped

Still need Tony Gwynn, Vladimir Guerrero, Erubiel Durazo, Eric Munson...maybe more.

Here are the ones I have so far.
Mo Vaughn/Todd Helton
Troy Glaus/Matt Williams

Base Shredders were seeded 1:288 packs back in the day, so they were more than a case hit. Four Base Shredders would have taken 1152 packs. Not a whole lot of staying power in the price/card range. None of these has cost more than $4 off of eBay, though I can usually only get one every month or so.

One Card I Will Never Own (Part 1)

To forever live in infamy as "#661"

Draft Musings and Good, Good News

Last night, I watched the MLB Draft. And honestly, I really enjoyed it - aside from the raging hardon that John Hart just couldn't hide behind the MLB Network desk for every SAFE pick on the board. All told, it was an enjoying piece of television to fill my Blue Jays void from the night. (Luckily, Strasburg filled that void tonight, because 8-0 Rays is kind of making me sick right now.)

The Jays draft can be summed up in one word: Underwhelming. Virtually all mid-ceiling, John Hart-approved safe picks, and really no one incredibly impressive new Jays.

However, this is the state of the MLB Draft. It will never be as prospected as the NFL or NHL drafts. Much of this, of course, is due to the fact that in baseball, even after being drafted, a player still has to succeed in being promoted through 2-3 Low A teams, a High-A team, Double A, and finally Triple A before getting to the show. Needless to day, it takes a while to see the results of a draft. There is the Washington Nationals 2009 draft, though, that is an extreme exception with Storen and Strasburg already in the National League (and also, 5-0 Mike Leake in Cincinnati.)

Of course, all of the hype with this draft got me thinking of past Blue Jays drafts, and one #1 in particular, Dustin McGowan (2000).

Since signing on as a professional with the Jays in 2000 (it has now been a decade), Dustin McGowan is 20-22 with a 4.71 ERA in fragments of four injury-marred seasons from 2005-2008. I've stuck with my main man Dustin through the years, and last night read excellent news from the injury front..
According to Mike Rutsey of the Toronto Sun:

Right-handed pitcher Dustin McGowan (who is on the 60-day disabled list in his lengthy recovery from shoulder surgery performed in July of 2008) threw off the mound Monday for the first time since a triple-A spring training game March 19. McGowan threw 25 pitches in a bullpen session. Afterward he reported: “No problems.”

McGowan’s recovery has been an on-again, off-again misadventure for quite some time as last season he even missed time due to a knee injury that required surgery.

This spring, McGowan at one time was progressing so well that the Jays were talking about him breaking camp as one of the members of their rotation. Then came his outing in the spring training game against the Pirates affiliate where he experienced a “dead arm”. Now he is back and throwing but given his history and the problem with shoulder injuries there are no guarantees that he will make it back to the big-league level. The Jays have put no timetable on his latest recovery.

This isn't even news to most Jays fans at this point. I, myself will watch the news wire from here on, hoping for the day in which MLB's greatest chops will once again grace the league with mid-90's heat and knee-bending curves. Best of luck, Dustin.

2010 Upper Deck MLS Collation Issues

This is more of a warning on how to purchase these cards rather than advice as to not buying them. They're good cards...excellent set and checklist, along with amazing photography.

As some of you may have read in my previous post, I pulled a Landon Donovan Materials card in my first pack. I was hooked on the set after that. When I purchased that pack, I had just had a lengthy conversation with Wal-Mart's trading cards vendor, who was kind enough to open up a brand new box for me. The packs are stacked in-box in side-by-side, two columns of 10 packs, I believe, maybe 12. So I took two from the left and two from the right, or the top four packs in the box.

Today, after depositing my paycheck, I decided that the MLS cards go great with my 2010 Bowman collection, and decided to buy four more. The vendor was there again, just leaving this time. For some reason, he had opened up and set another box of UD MLS cards right next to the one I bought one week ago tomorrow. I decided to grab the top four packs again in hopes of pulling another relic or hit of some sort.

Mind you, last week I received NO doubles from my four packs. At the end of today, these are the quantities of my cards:

7 Justin Mapp - 1
9 Patrick Nyarko - 2
16 Jorge Flores - 1
17 Maykel Galindo - 1
21 Jesus Padilla - 1
23 Zach Thornton - 1
24 Mehdi Ballouchey - 1
28 Omar Cummings -1
32 Scott Palguta 2
35 Eric Brunner 1
37 Jason Garey 1
43 Chad Marshall 1
48 Clyde Simms 1
52 Tony Perkins 1
53 Chris Potius 1
57 Josh Wicks 2
60 David Ferreira 1
65 Heath Pearce 2
66 Dario Sala 1
71 Mike Chabala 1
76 Brian Mullan 1
77 Dominic Oduro 2
82 Kevin Hartman 1
86 Jack Jewsbury 1
93 Edson Buddle 2
103 Darrius Barnes 1
105 Shalrie Joseph 1
106 Jeff Laurentowicz 1
107 Kenny Mansally 1
112 Taylor Twellman 1
114 Danleigh Borman 1
115 Andrew Boyens 1
116 Kevin Goldthwaite 2
125 Andrew Jacobson 1
126 Sebastien Le Toux 1
131 Kyle Beckerman 1
134 Fabian Espindola 1
140 Robbie Russell 2
148 Chris Leitch 2
151 Chris Wondolowski 1
152 Osvaldo Alonso 1
158 Freddie Ljunberg 1
160 Sanna Nyassi 2
164 Nana Attakora 2
172 Nick Garcia 1
178 Ike Opara 1
186 Toni Stahl 1
190 Andrew Wiedman 2
191 Christiane 1

The italicized cards are actually inserted subsets.

So far I have pulled 12 doubles out of 8 packs. Whould you agree that there is a collation issue here?

4 Packs of 2010 Upper Deck MLS (Football Hit?!)

I was pretty excited to see these last Tuesday at the local (20 minute drive) Sprawl Mart. I had just deposited my first "summer" paycheck and written another for $130 in student loan repayments, so I felt like a dabble in cards was an excellent reward for myself. I decided that I would throw down $20, and for $19 I was able to purchase 4 packs of 2010 Upper Deck MLS, 3 Packs of 2010 Bowman Baseball, a three-pack of Extra Spearmint gum, Goya seasoning packets and a can of Hormel White Chicken Chili. Needless to say, even before checkout, I was In the Zone.

Once I got out to the Green Beret (Yes, I named my Jeep after the most bad-of-assery branch of the Marines) I couldn't compose myself, and started ripping packs. I ripped Bowman first, but everyone's seen those, so one to the MLS cards.

Yes, this was in the first pack:
With MLS cards still in their infancy, this is one of the best cards you can pull from this set. I was certainly very happy at this point. Immediately I thought of flipping it, but after letting it sink in as my first ever "hit" of any kind in football products, it now recides watching over me as I type. Probably the only cards that would top this one in the set would be some of the autographs or a multi-color piece of Landon's jersey. Apparently multi-colored swatches (not really patches) are short printed and say "Premium" in the white void in the top left.

About all I had hoped for in this pack was some Reds (Toronto FC). I did manage a few, but nothing especially awesome.
The design is ok. I do not believe, in any way, that it is a rip-off of 2010 Topps products. Similar, yes. But can we really call every set with "Player Name/Team" across the bottom a ripoff of 1957 Topps?

There's only a few ways to make a sports card.

The cards have the low-gloss feel of Upper Deck's efforts with the "First Edition" series. It was kind of disappointing, but it keeps a pack of 8 cards at $0.99, where pack prices should be.

The photography in this set, though I will admit my sample size was only 32 cards, is excellent. Check out this Kyle Beckerman:
Awwwwesome. I was pumped when Real Salt Lake won that game. I'm a big fan of anything-but-LA Galaxy.

Next we have a new representative of Team USA for this year's World Cup:
Yes, he is a Galaxy player, but he did some time with Toronto. OK in my book, and a Team USAer to boot.

I guess this would be the equivalent to Upper Deck hockey's Young Guns insert set, but sadly no John Tavares:
Ike was the #3 overall pick in this year's draft by the San Diego Earthquakes. A dreadful teams, let's see if he can help out this season. I pulled two of these, from the top 4 packs in the box, so I am assuming they are not difficult pulls.

Now, I know 90% of the readers of this blog are baseball followers, but I am hoping to spread the word of MLS cards to you. It's good stuff, so check it out for $.98/pack.

Are Printing Plates Worth It?

This ends within the next two days on eBay.

Dustin McGowan is my favorite player now with Halladay on the Candy Stripers and Marcum being a hard player to collect.

This is the first ever 1/1 McGowan I have ever seen, but I just cannot manage to consider it a true 1/1. I don't even consider it a real card, honestly.

Of course, I put a bid on it, mainly just a shot in the dark. It looks good for a printing plate (much better than the cyan and magenta plates will look) but still, printing plates are just not my style. I may up my bid and see if I can pull it off, but I just don't see it happening. Maybe I'll be lucky and a black one will come around.

But honestly, if I had to choose between 4 1/1 printing plates and true 1/1 parallel like a Carolina Brights, I'd take the true 1/1.

Thoughts?

Blogger is having some problems, so click the link to see the card.

I Respect That

Amidst all of the mouth-foaming for Stephen Strasburg '10 Bowmans, I came across this beauty in my daily Base Shredders/Dustin McGowan/Shaun Marcum eBay searchings. I didn't attempt to bid on this one, but I am still happy to see it get the respect it deserves. With Marcum's season so far, it's amazing how a Strasburg Purple Refractor (#/999) is selling for the same amount of this Marcum Red Refractor AUTO RC....#'ed to /25.

Stay Tuned

The resurgent Adam Lind says stay tuned. I have a lot of (or one) posts planned, which may end up being anywhere between 1 and 5 posts. Maybe one will pop up tonight. If you just cannot stand to go without reading my disheveled thoughts until then...go here. And join that blog, too. We've got some ripping to do.

Kim Jones Moment #1

Ladies and Gentleman...Your 2010 National League All Stars: The Philadelphia Phillies!

MLB voting for All Stars is a joke. Last year's teams were a sham, and this year is the worst yet. Just taking a look at the standings right now, I am embarrassed by the showings of the fans this year.

Take a look at the NL Team, as it stands:

C - Yadier Molina: Good. I suppose with McCann and Jean Martin off to relatively slow seasons, Yadier is probably the best choice. Defensively, he is an excellent catcher. He picked me off while I was in high school, while playing in the Cardinal's farm system.

1B - Albert Pujols: The man is a legend, but Joey Votto has been a little bit better this season. Whoever is hotter heading into the game is deserving of the honor. However, Joey does not even place in the top 5 among AL 1B as of right now.

2B - Chase Utley: Utley is having a good season so far, but Dan Uggla (as much as I despise him) is better right now. Equal in runs scored and steals (1!), Uggla is better in HR and RBI. Chase leads in BA by about .01, not enough to get him the call over Uggla.

3B - Placido Polanco: Leading by a good 80,000 votes, Placido is the worst of them all. He is doing good, with a solid 5HR, 21 RsBI and a .306 BA, but Casey McGehee, Mark Reynolds, Jorge Cantu, David Wright, Scott Rolen and Ryan Zimmerman have all had better seasons up to this point.

SS - Jimmy Rollins: Rollins came into 2010 on fire, and then got hurt. He has 41 ABs over 14 games played.

OF - Ryan Braun, Jayson Werth, Shane Victorino: I agree with Braun and Werth. Werth is awesome, and should make the team for his beard alone. Braun is great, though .322 with 8HR and 32RsBI, he is the number 1 ranked OFer in fantasy sports (Yahoo) at this time. But Victorino? No way. The Flyin Hawaiian is off to a mediocre start at best. I could list all the OFers who are a better option, but I won't. Let's pick one at (not so) random: Andre Ethier. Guy's a freakin' god this season.

The American League isn't much better. Teixeira, barely managing to hit .210 this season will probably play 1B. No, this is not anti-Yankee, as I agree fully with Cano for 2B, as much as I hate the lackadaisical way he plays. Jeter seemingly shouldn't be SS starter, but there isn't much of a better option (maybe I'm missing someone? Oh yes, Jason Bartlett.)

What upsets my stomach is the Rangers (Sorry, Play at the Plate, BigD and others...).

Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, and most of all Taylor Teagarden have NO business going to Anaheim this July. Elvis Andrus, maybe. Nelson Cruz and Vlad: Definitely.

What it comes down to is ballot-box stuffing. Obviously Texas fans and Philadelphia fans have figured our how to manipulate the abomination that is MLB All-Star voting. It's an awful, awful system, and if MLB had any sense it would re-configure everything involving the system. 25 votes per person? Kill it. Home field advantage for World Series? Kill it. This is an exhibition game. Will the 2010 World Series participants want Mark Teixeira, Placido Polanco, Shane Victorino and Hideki Matsui playing for the advanatge? I know I sure wouldn't.

New Additions and a Bold Claim

First, the claim.
Give this maybe 2-3 months. I've been seeing a trend in conversation, facebook comments, news interviews and so on. First off, it was kind of funny. Then it was being taken slightly more seriously...

But here it is. By the end of the summer,

ascots will be IN.

__________________________________

Anyways. The extreme lack of new options (in the North) in baseball and hockey cards (the newest release up here is '10 Heritage Baseball.) has me doing pretty much nothing but sniffing around for some more trades and snapping up singles off of eBay. I did purchase a blaster of '09 T206 today, but it was a waste.

As many/none of you may know, I am working on putting together one of the hardest memorabilia sets of all time (seeded 1:288 pack back in the day); 2000 Metal Base Shredders. If you're unfamiliar with the cards, they're fully holo-foiled out game used base pieces of players who "shred the bases". And no, it does not mean fast players. Apparently it was a set more for hitters, and, well, Eric Munson.

For $2.24 Shipped, I picked up this beauty:
Big Mo Vaughn. Rumble, rumble, rumble. How sweet would a patch card be made from that jersey?

Next up, everyone's favorite 20-something who has not pitched in the Bigs for almost 2 full years, Dustin McGowan. The only reason McGowan is my #1 collecting interest is, well, Shaun Marcum's cards suck. Poor photos (except '06 UD), only 2 autos with a few variations, and pretty much allllll base cards. Just not worth the effort. Maybe if he wins 15 games this year that will all change.

First up, 2004 Bowman Autograph:
Not bad. But green? Maybe the Oakland cards looked good in '04.

Next, 2006 Topps Chrome Red Refractor s/n #30/90. Nice, rare, refractory goodness.
So that's red, blue and black complete for this rainbow. Still need base, refractor and xfractor. Doable.

And now, what you've all been waiting for.
My new favorite card.
All the glory of the CN Tower.
Bright eyed and bushy-tailed young Blue Jay form Georgia.
Oh, and inked:
What a glorious card.

**There is currently 0:35.8 second remaining in the Eastern Conference Finals. Mike Richards, the one player I would rather have on my team than ANY other NHL player, just set up a tap-in for Jeff Carter. This team is nasty, nasty, nasty. Chicago is gonna have a bit of a challenge on their hands.

Six pack of Awful

Ladies and Gentleman (Boys and Girls...)

I have recently opened the worst packs a Jays fan can possibly rip.

With a few minutes to burn before a movie Tuesday night (Shutter Island, if you're interested), We (myself and m'lady) decided to kill some minutes in the KMart in the neighboring strip mall. It was my first time at this particular "Target of the South", and in terms of prices it was amazing. Blasters marked down to $4.96 in some cases (but I avoided the UD Documentary set) and loose packs from 2008 gravity feeders (weird, right?) for a buck. Can't go wrong, right?

Wrong.

Things went very, very wrong.

I had four packs in my hand, and asked Sam if I should grab another. So she shuffled through the feeder, grabbing me another. I then grabbed a second "one last pack."

I "marked" the pack she picked out by tearing the top seam a bit. Just to see if he luck is really better than mine. It wasn't.

After about 10 minutes in line (with only two people in front of us) we ambled out to the parking lot to explore the goodies in the packs.

You may be getting to the anxious point of noticing that there are, in fact, NO PICTURES in this post. There is a reason for that.

And the reason is such:

6 Pack, 5 Cards Per Pack, for 30 cards.

Pack 1 (Samantha's Choice):
Curt Schilling
Hideki Matsui
Carl Yastrzemski
YSL Gil MacDougald
Dan Uggla Charcoal

Wow, that was painful. Maybe Samantha shouldn't be picking my packs.

Pack 2:
Don Mattingly. Hmm.
Jeter/Griffey/Ripken/Ichiro. Four players on one card is entirely too many.
Paul Konerko
YSL Whitey Ford. I manage to beat the odds and get one of these in about every pack.
Albert Pujols Charcoal. Okay, that one is nice.

Noticing a trend yet?

Pack 3:
Scott Rolen. So Jays DO exist in UD products? No shit.
Carlos Lee
Kelly Johnson
Nick Markakis
Goddammit. Jacoby Ellsbury Charcoal.

This was the best pack of the all. Seriously.

Pack 4:
Matt Kemp
Ryan Zimmerman
Eddie Murray/Prince Fielder
John Lackey
Griffey/Clemente/Guerrero/DiMaggio Charcoal (They just HAD to add a Yengwe to this one)

Pack 5:
Mike Schmidt
Joba Chamberlain
Justin Verlander
Daric Barton
Howie Kendrick Charcoal

OK, Only one Yankee, but unmemorable at best.

Pack 6:
Ryan Theriot
Bo Knows Jackson
Ugh. Manny Ramirez...
YSL The Boggs Head...
Dave Winfield (NYY) Charcoal.

In case you've missed the glaring disdain I have for the collation of these packs...here's the rub:

9 New York Yankees
4 Red Sox
2 Angels
1 each of Phillies, A's, Tigers, White Sox, Marlins...etc...

I am debating whether to email Upper Deck or just put all in cards back in an envelope with the receipt and place it in a flaming bag of dog shit on their stoop. These packs were a disgrace to our game and hobby.

Custom Contest

Over at Hey, That's Mine!

Neat lil' blog. Checker out.

Please Help: 2004 Donruss Studio

Sometimes a set comes a long that just gets you. People collect sets - birth year sets, first year favorite player sets, favorite team World Series Champion sets. When I decide which cards I like I can rarely use my favorite team as a representation. Mainly because the Jays, aside from the 80's and about 1990-1993, are extremely underproduced in sets, not only as base cards, but in inserts, relics, autographs. Maybe it's the Canada thing. It doesn't matter.

Especially with this set.

2004 Donruss Studio is my favorite set off all time visually. Yes, all time. Sorry, Topps 206, 1995 Topps, 1986 Topps and yes, 2010 Bowman (I usually hate Bowman, but love this year's design). It's simple. The shots are all poses, as was the status quo with Studio back in the day.

The design? A simple holo-logo in the upper left. A team logo (I need team logos) in the bottom right, along a film strip line, with the player's name in white. Simple. Unpretentious. But what makes the cards are the backgrounds. The players are placed on a stunning backdrop of their team's city's skyline...at dusk. In years before Studio showed vague, off-angled shots of the stadium, and in latter years blurred and faded the city skylines into one colour with borders. Both of these designs I enjoy, but nothing comes close to 2004.

I mean, seriously...even the Yankees look great in this set:



The above is Hideki Matsui's Gold Proof Parallel. #/50.

Now I am sure there was some PhotoShopping going on in some of the skyline shots in this set.
Some, like this Chutley; the sky is actually pretty well lit, while the city lights just seem to be turned on for the night:



Even with LA Looks cover boy Chase (ultimate douche name grand prize winner), these cards still look great.

One disappointment I have with the set, in terms of background; is Boston's:



...and Abe Alverez is my segue into my other complaint: Checklist.

The autographs are bad, bad, bad. With the exception of these bad boys:





As (none/many/who cares) you may know, I am not a Ryan Howard fan. At all. And with the price of that card ($60 on COMC), it may deter me from completing the set eventually. However, I love me some Carlos Beltran in the Royals uni, so that one is a must have. Other than the previous two, not many of the signers have made it in the bigs. However, my main man Dustin McGowan is featured as a rookie auto. I scored that card off eBay for $1.75 last night. You'll see it soon. Other "names" in the auto set include Abe Alverez, Chris Shelton, Michael Hessman, Ryan Wagner, Joey Gathright (check this out), Jay Payton, Carlos Hines, Mike Gosling, Casey Daigle///and it just gets more obscure from there. Oh, and as his friend know him: "EL MAYO"



My affinity for this set mainly lies within the base and the "Private Signings" autographs. The inserts, as Donruss is famous for, are forgettable. Behold:





Meh.



More horizontal? Really?



Oh. Spoke too soon...(there are random legends in this set, including a Gary Carter Private Signings.)



Ehh. More horizontal. Corked bats...blech.

But it gets worse. Possibly the worst designed jersey card set ever:



There's more, but some of the inserts are not even worth pining over. Some are "die-cut" (their edges are...rounded. That's it.) But none are necessary. They're also exceptionally rare, which is more of a good thing.

But, with all sets, there's usually something to dislike; and although the inserts are dreadful and the autographs are mediocre at best, we still have some stunning base cards:









Pretty good one to end on, eh?

Anyways. I want all of these, but I simply cannot find any reasonably priced boxes. If you have any, let me know. I'm interested.

Friday Rock Out: The Strokes

This isn't the best video for a Friday Rock Out, because nothing really happened last night except a decent thunderstorm. But enjoy it anyways, it's rock solid.

Royal Court of Beltran

LADIES AND GENTLEMAN

I have just been handed an urgent and disturbing news bulletin.

CF Carlos Beltran has been cleared to begin jogging and participating in light baseball activities.

Urgent, no. Disturbing, only to Mets fans. The $118 Million man can finally resume baseball...ish activites. With a brace on his knee.

This is a poor segue into the post I intended, but when a Ron Burgundy quote is handed to you, you smile and compliment the moustache.

When Carlos Beltran was on the Royals, I was very much into collecting cards. I was young and enjoyed shiny/hologrammy/embossed cards, and 98-03 was a great time for flashy, tasteless, dare I say - Japanesish cards.

At the time, I was pulling Beltran cards like they were Yankees. Now, they're just Yankees. Blech.

So I started collecting Carlos. He then went on to Houston and New York; and somewhere in between aliens captured Carlos, and destroyed the cartiledge and tendons and whatnot and crippled him out of baseball shape.

Here are some Carlos cards I enjoy:

2000 Topps Chrome
New Millenium Stars #NMS6

One pack of buckshot Topps Chrome netted me this insert and my first ever refractor.
It is still one of my favorite packs of all time. (The refractor was Ryan Rupe, Hoorah!)

2003 Upper Deck Ovation
Standing "O" #S-35

This card is shaped like a baseball. It has taken everything in my power
to not come out with an "O Face" joke. And for once, self control triumphs.

2003 Victory #39
Single.
I loved this set. I never had to worry about UD quality control touching
my sharp edges...and messin 'em up.

2001 Bowman's Best #36

This card scanned to a nuclear yellow. For those of you unfamiliar with Bowman's Best '01,
the cards all have a refractor finish and slight texture. The blue behind Carlos is, for lack
of a better word, ribbed (for, yes, my pleasure) and the circular lines are indented. Also kind of
rough behind the nameplate. Very over the top, and necessary.

2000 Topps Tek
#17, Variation 1

Topps: "I got an idea. Let's make a card...out of plastic. Print close to 30 background parallels
of each card...use terrible photos, make it transparent...with holofoil on both sides...and
hell let's give 'em that awful digital serial numbering."

Whoever said that, I thank them. Long live Topps Tek.


"O. O. You know what I'm talking about. O."

Bowman 2010 Strasburg Watch: May

Average Cost of Cards Sold on EBay May 11/12, 2010

Bowman Base Card: $6.05
Bowman Chrome Base Card: $22.33
Bowman Chrome Refractor: $59.99
Bowman Autograph Blue: $465.00
Bowman Chrome Refractor Auto: $No Data
Bowman Blue Parallel: $27.50

Stay Tuned for second report on or around June 10-14.
This didn't take a whole lot of effort, so I might just start going every week or every other week.
Also, I am fully expecting the amount of listings to blow within the next few weeks.

A New Project at APC

It's the Stephen Strasburg Rookie Card watch!

Today is May 11, 2010; and 2010 Bowman is LIVE.

As you may know, some hot shot young buck in the Warshington Nationals organization is included in this set.

As is often the case with Bowman rookie cards, and almost all cards these days; their values peak at release. I completely expect this to happen with Strasburg (except for when he throws a no-hitter versus the Pirates, eventually; and inevitably gets signed by the Yankees or Red Sox.)

So here is my plan.

His cards will be all over eBay, so every 11th day of every month, I will write up a short post on the going prices of his singles on eBay. I will use the following 5 cards:

Bowman Flagship Base
Bowman Chrome Base
Bowman Chrome Refractor
Bowman Flagship Autograph
Bowman Chrome Refractor Autograph

I will post again later with results for the cards which I am currently watching.

MLB's G20 Stunt: Safety or Fiscal Opportunity?

It's official, MLB relocates Blue Jays June 25-27 series against the Phillies to Philadelphia due to G20 summit. More on mlb.com soon. 22 minutes ago

-Jordan Bastian Twitter Feed

The suspense it over. Major League Baseball has officially moved the 6/25-27 series in Toronto with the Philadelphia Phillies to Philadelphia, in response to heightened security for the looming G20 summit.

So far this year, Toronto is struggling with attendance. With Canada being hit harder, and recovering slower from the recession, the Blue Jays now rank 29th in average attendance.

The Blue Jays now have three more home games subtracted from their schedule. The three games in which Toronto was looking for their highest attendance of the year, with many fans buying tickets ahead of time for all three games in anticipation of the return of the son of Toronto, Roy Halladay.

The fans were not going to go to boo.
They weren't going to pick fights with scrawny, foul-mouthed Philly fans making the trek to Toronto.

Roy's fans were coming out for one more chance to see the Good Doctor dominate once again at Rogers Centre, even if it was against their own team.

There are, however, two winners in this decision. Major League Baseball and the Philadelphia Phillies.

Major League Baseball gets what it wants: three guaranteed weekend sellouts just as the season begins to heat up. Merchandise sales will rocket in Philadelphia, as the fans, dying to run on the their field in Halladay jerseys and tees, will spend.

Philadelphia, well it's a no brainer. They get to pad their ridiculous lineup even more with a DH.

What does Toronto get? The last at-bat. "A home game" according to MLB.

Questions arise. Is this truly a safety stunt? I doubt it. To me, this is a money grab for Major League Baseball. They are the real winners.

All this does is further hurt baseball in an amazing city.

What a Story

In case you haven't heard yet...