Walter Pennington in 200 Words

     Walter Pennington was born on April 14th, 1998 in Broomfield, Colorado. Pennington pitched four years at the Colorado School of Mines, and in 51 appearances (30 starts) in that time, threw to a record of 24-10. He threw a shutout and saved three games in his college tenure. Due to the 2020 Covid year, the June Amateur Draft was reduced to just five rounds, and Pennington was not included among the players chosen. He ended up signing with the Kansas City Royals as an undrafted free agent for a much smaller bonus. In 149 games and 245 innings across four seasons in the minor leagues, Pennington acquired a 23-11 record and 3.49 ERA. He got his chance to debut in the majors in 2024 with the Royals before he was traded mid-season to the Texas Rangers in exchange for starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen. Overall, in his brief 16 game debut season Pennington owned an ERA of 3.00 and a WHIP of 1.67, whilst acquiring a 1-0 record and 17 strikeouts in 18 innings. Hopefully he will get the chance to pitch a full season in 2025 for the Rangers, and grow to become a successful major leaguer.

Serial Card Countdown (#15-11)

      Thanks again to The Diamond King for 100 serial-numbered cards! The countdown of my favorite cards in the box started last week with numbers 20-16. As we move along today, we have a bit less shiny and a bit more throwback. Let's get started!

#15: 2007 Topps Sterling - Framed White Suede Tom Seaver (43/50)

    Starting the day at #15 is the brother of the Nolan Ryan card from the last post. This is a nice card of a player I really like. I didn't realize how much I liked the design of Topps Sterling until I got these cards. I'm surprised Tom Seaver isn't mentioned more in the 'Greatest of all Time' debate. 

#14: 2022 Panini Three and Two Baseball Black Parallel Harry Heilmann (8/8)

    This card has the lowest numbering of any card in the box at 8. The TCDB said this card is serial-numbered /99, so if anybody could tell me why this one is different, it would be appreciated. Though Heilmann retired 90 years before the card was made, I still like to see the photos of players from way back in the earlier days of baseball. (Thank you to Fuji for the clarification on the parallel)

#13: 2021 Donruss Dominators Blue Manny Machado (072/249)

    The card was so shiny and reflective that it was a little bit difficult to find the actual numbering down on the bottom left-hand corner of the card. Manny Machado has shown few signs of slowing up, and should be headed toward the Hall of Fame, barring any unforeseen events. I'd also like to comment on how many cards from Panini are making the list. Thus far three of them have made the top 20. Who knew?

#12: 2004 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Tools of the Trade Blue Ivan Rodriguez (139/250)

    My fondness of Pudge and the odd design of the card took this one into #12. I'm actually not a huge fan of such a small player photo, but the rest of the design is kinda cool. 

#11: 2021 Panini Diamond Kings Legacy Lithographs Holo Blue Rogers Hornsby (91/99)

    This is a nice card. It almost looks as if Rogers Hornsby is living in a cave. Hornsby was always one of those greats talked about with Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and the like, but looking back over his stats this morning, I remembered that he was in fact a beast: 

    He sported a career slash line of .358/.434/.577 and hit 301 home runs as a middle infielder in a time where homers were fairly uncommon (especially by today's standards). I had forgotten just how amazing he actually was. 

    Well, that wraps up this week's countdown. Next week we'll continue the countdown, headed for the top 10, before finishing the week after. Thanks again to The Diamond King for the awesome cards! And thank y'all for reading. Have a great week, and happy collecting!

Serial Card Countdown (#20-16)

    I won The Diamond King's last serial-numbered card guessing contest, and the prize was 100 numbered cards. Firstly, a huge thanks to The Diamond King for the cards! They are truly amazing, and I could take forever going through them.

    I said half an eternity ago that I would start the countdown, but never got down to it. Now I've finally started, and will hopefully remember to finish the four posts on the subject.

    I'm going to start the countdown of my twenty favorite of the numbered cards, and continue on down, posting every week until I get to number one. There were so many cards to choose from, so it was very difficult to narrow it down. But I finally did it, so here we go.

#20: 2020 Topps Major League Material Relics David Dahl (016/199)

    Alright, things get started with a former Ranger in David Dahl. The game-used patch took the card into the top twenty. Other than the lovely purple patch there isn't a ton on this card other than a decent action shot, but it's a great one. David Dahl has played seven years in the majors (2016, 2018-2021, 2023-2024) and is batting .268 with 324 hits and 46 home runs. He was an all-star in 2016 when he batted .302 with 15 home runs in 100 games.

#19: 2016 Bowman's Best Atomic Refractor Nomar Mazara (067/250)

    The design of this card was just too cool. Obviously, being a Rangers fan pushed it a little bit higher in the standings, but the background is plain awesome. Nomar played from 2016-2022, mostly with the Rangers, and in 684 games batted .256 with 85 home runs. He finished fifth in Rookie of the Year voting in 2016.

#18: 2018 Panini Immaculate Collection Clint Frazier (38/99)

    The patch on this card is enormous! And besides that, I like what they did with Frazier's photo -- it looks very....Panini. Well, that was the first word to come to mind anyway. Though Panini isn't my favorite brand of baseball cards, I like some of 'em (especially Panini Prizm...I dunno why, but I've always liked those). Clint played in the bigs from 2017-2023, and also played under the name Jackson Frazier.

#17: 2023 Bowman Chrome Pink Christian Yelich (082/299)

    Correct me if I'm wrong on the card identification, but I'm not very good at surfing the TCDB for unknown subsets yet. Anyway, I love Christian Yelich, and though the color scheme on the card is awfully strange, it resonates with me. I hope Yeli can have a healthy 2025 season, because it looks like he's coming back to form and I'd hate to see another season go down the drain, especially if it's one of his last good ones.

#16: 2006 Topps Sterling #76 Nolan Ryan (124/250)

    Three of the first five cards in my top twenty feature players who have played for the Rangers (not biased, shhhhhhhh). I really like this card, although it is a little bit difficult to read what the year was (I thought it was 2015 at first). I like the classic photo of Ryan tipping his cap, and think this is a worthy card to finish out the post with.

    Well, there's the top five cards in the countdown. I intentionally got the sheen on the cards -- I like that kind of thing, plus it helps to show how nice the cards look in-hand. I hope you enjoyed, and next Tuesday will be numbers 15 through 11. Thanks again to The Diamond King for the awesome cards, and thank y'all for reading. Have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting!

From Hated to Hero

     I like Matthew Tkachuk. A lot. The NHL star plays for the Florida Panthers, and was hated by pretty much everybody I talk to hockey about. I guess he has a reputation as a bit of a jerk, but I wouldn't know because I'm new to hockey this year.

    And those friends who I said hated Tkachuk? They love him now. I don't know if other Tkachuk haters feel the same way or not.

    If you weren't paying attention to the Four Nations Faceoff (and I know I wasn't), I guess the fans in Canada booed when the U.S. National Anthem played, and this ticked off the USA team. Withing the first nine seconds of the game, there were three brawls. And the first one happened as soon as the puck dropped; a duel between Matty Tkachuk and Canada's Brandon Hagel.

    My first thought is 'Come on guys, y'all both play for my fantasy team. GET ALONG!' I think I was the only person who felt that way.

    Upon watching all three fights, they almost seemed staged, as if the whole thing was planned well in advance. I can't say I know for sure what happened, but mayhem sure broke loose.

    Anyway, now my friends who previously couldn't stand Matthew Tkachuk (or his brother Brady, who was in the second brawl) now regard them as heroes. It's really interesting. If any of y'all saw the game or the fights, what do y'all make of it?

    USA ended up besting Canada 3-1, and has punched its ticket into the finals. This is REALLY interesting. I won't watch any of the games unless I can get the finals for free, but will pay attention to who wins them.

    Well shoot, I just kinda wanted to throw this post out there. I'm glad my guy is getting some well-deserved respect, even if he is a pain in the hindquarters at times. I'll be back on Tuesday (posted Sunday night) with a few cards for a post. It will actually be part one of a countdown I planned on doing in January. I'm really excited to get that going. Have a great night, and catch y'all in the next post!

Quick Additions

    I got the chance to take a quick look into the LCS a couple days ago. Time was limited to just a few minutes, so I had minimal time to poke around. The store had finished their expansion since the last time I had been there, and now had two separate parts of the building; one for Pokemon and gaming cards, and the other for sports cards. The latter is more in my wheelhouse.

    I took a look in one of the many quarter boxes (which they have many more of now) and pulled out four cards. These were the only cards of the whole trip. I forgot my wallet anyway, so a dollar ended up working out just fine.

    I also forgot that the same day was the day of the new Topps flagship release. I didn't know it at the time, and I think I may wait a little bit to actually purchase some of the new cards. They were selling at almost fifty cents a card in some of the packs.

    Anyway, the four cards I acquired were all part of 2024 Bowman Chrome.

    Why not start with Brandon Sproat? I scouted him out in a post earlier this year, and since then I have become very interested in him. I was not at all expecting to find his card, so it ended up being a pretty nice addition. I hope to see Sproat pitch in the majors this year. The Mets are looking pretty good for 2025, but maybe they could use a little bit of help on the starting pitching side.

    Honestly, I don't think it's a very good shot of a player (especially a prospect) when you can't even see his face. Anyway, Bryce Eldridge is another guy I hope to see in the big leagues in 2025. At 20 years of age, he has a lot of time to improve, and he has already shown a lot of talent in the minor leagues. The Giants (who I am still loyal to) could use a sturdy first baseman, and hopefully Eldridge can be that guy.

    I am very interested to see what happens to Sam Basallo as he hits the majors. He's shown a lot of talent and is expected to debut this year. However, Baltimore already has one of the best catchers in the game (if not the best), and Ryan Mountcastle is a pretty good option at first. I guess that's what DH is for.

    So all four of the cards were of pretty high-profile prospects. Roman Anthony is the #2 prospect for 2025 via MLB.com, and of all the prospects here, I think he's the one I'm most excited to see play. He possesses the skills to become a superstar in the near future, and should provide a boost to an already good Red Sox team. 

    That wraps up the grabs from the last LCS stop. I like these cards a lot -- I've always liked Bowman as I have said before, and think the design works very well with the chrome aspect of the cards. The photos do not do them justice; these cards are very nice. I will be paying attention to each of these guys in Spring Training and rooting for them to make the Opening Day roster. 

    Thanks for stopping by the blog, have a great rest of the week (we're so close to weekend guys), and happy collecting!

Early Predictions?

    Posting might slow down a little bit as life gets busier for me, which is fine. I have no cards to post today, so I apologize for that (cards will come up soon though, so don't you worry). But for today I have a little poll.

    I've sent this out to a group of friends to see what they think will come of the upcoming baseball season. I know Spring Training hasn't started yet, so it may be a little bit early to decide which teams will be the best and all that jazz. But I want to use the results of this poll on my post before Opening Day for reference.

    So if you'd like to fill it out that would be great, but no pressure. Click here to fill it out.

    Thank you for reading, have a great weekend, and happy collecting! I'll be back soon with cards.

More Help With the PC (and some mystery items)

     I've been working on the Evan Carter PC for about a year now, and while I can't say it's big (yet), I've gotten some sweet new additions for it, including two more from the biggest contributor of the PC, Johnny's Trading Spot. He sent me a package that arrived several days ago, full with lovely cards.

    

    I really like both of these cards. My LCS doesn't carry very many A&G cards that I know of, so I don't get my hands on very many. 

    The picture for the left-hand card really doesn't do it justice. It's a wonderfully vivid card, and of course, it's very shiny. These two cards are going straight into top loaders and then the PC box. Thank you!

    Now, this may have been the end of the post is John hadn't sent me a smorgasbord of other Rangers cards.

    Four more Rangers from the 2024 Topps Big League set. I'm really glad that the team kept Eovaldi around for the next three years. Hopefully he and Jacob deGrom can throw a pretty one-two punch. I hope Jonah Heim can rebound also after an abysmal 2024 season. 

    I'm remaining in 2024 with Topps Chrome Justin Foscue. Chrome and 2024 Topps looks like they were meant to be. They look so good together. I'm gonna miss the 2024 design. 

    Next we have a tiny little Josh Jung. I didn't mess with the size of the image to bring the point across. Though the card is small, I actually really like it; it looks old. I hope that Josh Jung can have a fully healthy season in 2025 that includes no hand breaking.

    I didn't know this at first, but this is a member of Topps Big League, so I probably should have put it with his quartet of friends earlier. Oh well. Die cut cards are so interesting to me. The first one I got was Steve Carlton from 2022 Topps, and my reaction was, 'It looks like they gave a two-year old scissors!' This card doesn't quite look like that. I like this one a lot, with the baseball directing the cutting on the card. It looks really nice.

    This is a last of the 2024 Cards(?). I think we all agree (from reading other blogs) that Topps did a really good job on their 2024 Holiday design. The Corey Seager ornament is fantastic. Besides just looking amazing, it also has a glorious shine to it, which makes it even more appealing. 

    This is 10 wonderful cards. And yet we're not done with this package! The generosity is really quite unbelievable. 

    This card looks like it came straight out of the '90s.....which would make sense since it's 2022 Bowman Heritiage -- based on the 1994 Bowman design. I wonder who the catcher is.

    The Lone Not-Ranger. I had to do my research on Spook Jacobs, because I did not know who he was. Jacobs was a second-baseman who played from 1954-1956 with the Athletics and Pirates (he played with both the Philadelphia and Kansas City Athletics). Before he played in the Majors, spook was a sergeant in World War II. Apparently a sportswriter gave him the nickname. Spook played 14 seasons and 1735 games in the minor leagues, where he slashed .300/.383/.364 with 1162 runs. He hit 9 home runs in the minors.

    Well that was a fun three minutes of research. Spook seemed to be a pretty cool guy. He died in 2011 at the age of 85.

    This is a cool little box full of near 35-year old bubblegum. I've chewed 1990s gum before (in the 2020s), but I don't think I'll be chewing this one any time soon. The box is really cool; that's my favorite Rangers logo. I actually really like this. I would not complain if this were a thing again. However, there's probably some law regarding food-borne illness which wouldn't let it slide.

    A huge thank you to John for all the amazing new cards! His generosity is shocking. I had never seen some of these before, but I really like each and every item inside this package. 

    Thank you all for reading, have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting! I'll catch y'all later.

    This post featured almost completely Rangers cards. While I'm on the subject of the Rangers (which it seems I almost always am), I have started yet another new blog. This one was the result of being turned down from a writing job. In my hopes of one day reapplying for that job, I've started Rangers Nation. This blog will feature bi-weekly posts on the Rangers upcoming 2025 season. I'm trying to keep the quality of writing on that blog to a peak, although it probably won't stay that way very long (once I get into rants and the like). If there are Rangers fans among us, you can go ahead and check it out. Or, if you're just interested, I won't turn you away.

A PWE From Angels in Order

     I've been getting a lot of PWEs recently. It's surprising me, but I'll never complain about getting cards. Just yesterday I received two packages of cards from fellow card bloggers, and will devote a post to each of them.

    About a week ago, The Angels in Order held a giveaway on his blog. I was glad to see that he had plenty of Rangers cards to give away, and so I claimed a couple of those, as well as a few other cards that peaked my interest. 

    For reference, the beige spot on Pudge's card is the table I set the card while photographing it. I guess there was a sort of token on the card (for lack of a better word) which is no longer with us. Still a cool card.

    This is a really nice looking card from 2013 Topps Archives. Joe Nathan is one of the better closers of the last 30 years. In his 16-year career he racked up 377 saves while pitching to a 2.87 ERA. He was an all-star seven times, and finished fourth in Cy Young Award voting in 2004 when he saved 44 games with a 1.62 ERA. Nathan played three seasons with the Rangers, from 2012-2014, and the year this card is from was arguably the best of his career (1.39 ERA, 43 saves).

    I saw the Choo Choo Coleman card on somebody's blog (I don't remember which one), and it instantly grew on me. When I saw it in the giveaway, I was absolutely stoked and claimed it. Coleman played four years in the big leagues (1961-1963, 1966). The catcher batted .197 in 462 at-bats. 

    Come on, you have to claim an Angel from Angels in Order. And who better than soon-to-be Hall of Fame member Albert Pujols? And a gold parallel. This guy was extraordinary. It's still crazy to think that he hit more home runs than Willie Mays. If he's not a unanimous first-ballot Hall of Fame vote, they're gonna have to keep me (and probably an army of people) away from whoever didn't vote for him.

    Next we've got a pair of poorly-cropped braves. I think I had seen the Glavine before, and it's a really nice card. Ledezma's card is also interesting. The uneven white bordering on the bottom made it such a pain to photograph (which is why scanners are nice). At first I thought Ledezma's revenge had to do with a comeback season, but no it was this instead: 

    Ouch Detroit. That stings a little bit.

    And finally, things are finished with a new member of Cooperstown in Ichiro. 2007 Topps is one of my favorite designs, and the white design on the Opening Day set  actually looks really nice. I was wondering how the bright green back of the card fares with the white...

    Not quite as well.

    That'll do it for the cards I got. Thank you Tom of The Angels in Order for the great cards! And thank you all for reading my blog. Have a great weekend, and happy collecting!