It's Friday and You Know What That Means...

     I don't even know what that means. It just feels like a day for card-blogging, doesn't it? Well, why don't we take a look at some cards, 'cause that's kind of the line of work I'm currently in...

    I think I'll go through all my binders from 2021-2024, showing off my best/favorite cards from said binders every Friday until I either don't feel like doing it anymore or finish them, whichever comes first. I may also sprinkle some trade bait in these posts here and there. Well, let's get started. Nonsense is boring, cards are exciting.

    2021 was the 70th anniversary of Topps, so all of the cards say something about it; all of them. Unfortunately, I 'm not even close to owning the 2021 Topps complete set, but I'm not really a set collector. I just like to grab cards from the current season until it's done with. Then we move on to the next year. Here are the five of my 2021 Topps cards being featured this fine (and wet) morning:

    Most of these cards have been given to me as gifts for various occasions; whether a birthday or Christmas. This card jumped out at me as soon as it was revealed from a pack because Stephen Strasburg was one of my favorite and best-known players at the time, and the card is nice and suave. As I've noticed was the trend with the 70th anniversary of Topps, this card is reminiscent of a past year, 2005.

    I suppose this card is supposed to be reminiscent of the '52 Topps set, but because the oldest Topps card I own is from 1968 (I'm ashamed of this fact), I wouldn't have known that without the help of the internet. Casey Mize was the first overall pick in the 2018 draft with the Tigers and has been....decent throughout his career, which has been injury plagued. He's been healthy so far all of this season and has a 3.50 ERA. At only 27, hopefully he'll be good for a while.

    I didn't notice this until looking at the card for the post, but my gold German Marquez is numbered  287/2021. I guess it's no big deal, not like that 2019 Topps Holiday Green Luis Robert numbered to 99 that I traded for 2016 Topps Ben Zobrist (the regret hurts me to this day).

    This card is supposed to be reminiscent of 1965 Topps, which I actually did know. Jesus Luzardo has been an interesting pitcher across his career. Is fickle a good word to use? Today he'll be starting at home against the Mets, so good luck to him. Anyway, along with Luzardo I also have the Casey Mize from this set, but he's already been shown.

    When I first saw this card in my pack, I thought 'Tarik Skubal? Well that's a funny name.' I didn't realize that I had the rookie card of someone who was to become one of my favorite players. And, like quite a few 2021 Topps sets, this card is trying to look like 1981 Topps. Not really my favorite design, but whatever. It's one of my favorite cards anyway. I think I still probably pronounce Skubal's name wrong to this day.

    It's now that I realize that my binders are organized by position, so all five of these cards are of pitchers. Don't worry though, next Friday will see some position players; I think. Anyway, thank you for reading, have a nice Friday, and Happy Collecting! I'm gonna go finish my duties for the week. I'm out.

A Rough Start to the Week

     It's already Wednesday, and right off the bat things are terrible in the world of baseball. For me, at least. I can't complain too much though, about anything except for the recent plight of the Rangers.

    Sunday started with the Rangers losing to the Rockies, marking a three game sweep. The game was close, at 3-1 in Colorado's favor. But with a team struggling so much like the Rockies, it's pretty sad to see the Rangers lose three times straight.

    On Monday I went to an indy ball game, and the home team lost 16-0. Yeah, almost every pitcher they threw (except for the first reliever and the first baseman) got annihilated. This broke their perfect seasonal record of 4-0. It was fun though, going out with some friends to hang out, penciling in some fake mustaches (I wanted a unibrow). 
    And, the Rangers lost again, this time to the Indians (or Guardians, whatever you may call them). This game wasn't close, with Cleveland outscoring the champs 7-0.

    Tuesday wasn't all that bad, although the Rangers lost again by a score of 7-4. That loss marks five straight for the Rangers and gives me cold memories of that nine game losing streak they had last season. Hopefully they'll turn it around, but with injuries to all these guys,

(Brock Burke, hard to see)

And a minor injury out of

    it may be tough for them for a while. It might help if Corey Seager and Adolis Garcia would be themselves. At least they both hit homers in yesterday's loss.

    Besides all of these happenings in my particular baseball world, both of my fantasy baseball teams are losing. But, I don't care too much about that right now.

    Well, there we go. Hopefully both the Rangers and the Railroaders can pick it up. Today is the finale with the Indians (Guardians) before the Rangers face off with the Angels in a three game series on May 17th. To be honest, they'd better sweep that one.

    Anyway, thanks for reading and Happy Collecting!

We Have A Winner!

     Now that the five clues have been seen and all the guesses are in, it's time to announce that we have a winner. I'm really glad I didn't need to give out any extra clues on this. 

    After clue 4 it was pretty obvious who my selected player was. Nonetheless, I got a lot of positive feedback from the contest, which is great because I was unsure how good of an idea it was. I guess the guessing game added a nice and entertaining touch. I am most definitely going to have more contests in the future.

    Before I tell you who the winner is, let me first run off all the clues that you needed to figure out:

1: the particular player I'm thinking of was a 7-time All-Star.
2: This player played for only one team across his entire career.
3: The player I'm thinking of has been shown (on cards, of course) on this blog before
4: The selected player has won two Gold Glove Awards and has been a two-time Silver Slugger
5: This Player hit a home run in his first-ever All-Star Game at-bat.

    The three cards the winner will receive are the following:
                    -2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary Evan Longoria (HTA-4) 
                    -2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary Josh Hamilton (HTA-5) 
                    -2004 Donruss Team Heroes #166 Carl Pavano

    

    The person who correctly guessed the player completed a pretty impressive feat; he correctly named the player in only two clues! I have to say, I was quite surprised that he was able to guess my player so quickly, and I ran the rest of the contest with a winner, which made me feel kinda bad for the guessers who had no idea. Oh well.

    

        And the winner is.....
        

        Michael Dillard! 🏆

    It seems fitting that my first follower wins my first contest. It was his first guess too. The selected player (as you all know) was....

    David Wright! Wright is one of my all-time favorite players, and was on the Hall-of-Fame ballot for the first time last season, managing to stay on it, which made me very happy.

    Wright was an all-star in the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2013 seasons.

    He played for the Mets his entire (technically) 14 seasons in the Big Leagues
    David Wright was featured on the post My Temp's 104!
    Wright won Gold Gloves in 2007 and 2008
    And he took Kenny Rogers deep in his first at-bat of the 2006 all-game, tying it at one. The NL would go on to lose 3-2.

    Sorry to those who guessed Wright after our winner Michael. It was pretty impressive that he guessed the player correctly after only two clues, but he did. It was after about the third and fourth clues that it became obvious who the chosen player was. Maybe slightly too easy? 

    So Michael, please send me your address so I can get the cards out to you, and congratulations on winning my first-ever contest! And for promoting my blog, I will also send you the Larry Walker 2004 Fleer Platinum card. A big thanks to everybody who took part in my contest, and hopefully I'll have more for each birthday of the blog. Happy Collecting!

Clue #5

    By now everybody's guessing the same player. Did I make the clues too easy? Perhaps I did, but there's nothing to do about it now. This clue is just a formality, since I said I was gonna give five. Dang, the original plan was to give four, and it was at the fourth that everybody started guessing him. Oh well. I'll take that into account next time.

    Anyway, here are the first four clues that were revealed followed by the fifth and final clue.

Clue #1: the particular player I'm thinking of was a 7-time All-Star.

Clue #2: This player played for only one team across his entire career.

Clue #3: The player I'm thinking of has been shown (on cards, of course) on this blog before

Clue #4: The selected player has won two Gold Glove Awards and has been a two-time Silver Slugger

    And the fifth clue:

5: This Player hit a home run in his first-ever All-Star Game at-bat.

    Well, there's the end of all my clues. I should have stuck with four, but like I said, nothing to do about it now. If anyone can come up with another player who fits all these categories (unlikely, but I don't know), then please tell me in the comments. And please check out the blog Saturday when the winner will be announced. Happy Collecting! I'm out.

Clue #4

    We have two clues left in my little contest. I've been pleasantly surprised with how it has been going, getting 24 comments from 10 different people. Anyway, it's time for the fourth and second-last clue of the contest to be revealed. But first, as always, the clues prior to this revealing one.

    Clue #1: the particular player I'm thinking of was a 7-time All-Star.

    Clue #2: This player played for only one team across his entire career.

    Clue #3: The player I'm thinking of has been shown (on cards, of course) on this blog before

    And clue four is...
        The selected player has won two Gold Glove Awards and has been a two-time Silver Slugger

    There you go. Hopefully this clue will put all the previous clues together. Good luck on your guessing, thanks for entering the contest, and Happy Collecting!

Clue #3

    Alright, here we go with post three of the contest. We've already seen two clues, and today it's time for the third. Let's review:

Clue #1:  the particular player I'm thinking of was a 7-time All-Star. 

Clue #2: This player played for only one team across his entire career.

And now, clue 3:

    The player I'm thinking of has been shown (on cards, of course) on this blog before

Alright, hopefully it's all starting to come together. There'll be two more clues that y'all will get across the next few days. Thanks for partaking in my little event, and Happy Collecting!

Clue #2

    Here we go. I'm here to give out the second clue for this guessing game. I guess this was a good idea after all, since I got seven comments on the first post. I'll keep this brief. As a reminder, whoever is the first to correctly guess the player I selected will win three to four cards. What these cards were and the rules of the contest can be found in my first post for the contest, my last one on the blog.

    Now then, back down to business. The first clue was:
            the particular player I'm thinking of was a 7-time All-Star. 

    Here is the second clue for the game:
             This player played for only one team across his entire career.

    Well, there you go. Remember, there will be three more clues (posted two days apart), and if nobody can guess it, a sixth one.  

    Thank you for participating in my little guessing game, and good luck. Happy collecting!