Tuesday, September 30, 2014

TIME TO PLAY THE GAME!

IT'S TIME TO PLAY THE GAME!

Yes, I am excited about this game that starts in an hour.  Devices will be turned off, TV on TBS and on mute, radio will be on with the play by play from Denny Matthews.  Everything waits until after the game.  Since I have a few minutes and I went to a game this year, I will post some photos from my game.  Enjoy!





















Foreshadowing










Billy Butler with a Home Run!







ROYALS WIN!  Let's hope they can do it again.  This is the game that I took the picture used for my background photo.  After this game I realized I needed a new camera too, so if I go next year, I hope to take better pictures.  Well the pre-game is starting, I have to go!

Thank you for reading, and have a great night!



Monday, September 29, 2014

29 Years later- a look at the teams

A few days ago I posted some things to make you remember what life was like in 1985, the last time the Kansas City Royals made the playoffs and won a World Series.  Let me state, my excitement is more on the fact that we made the playoffs, not that we have a chance to win the World Series.  Of course I will be excited if we win it all, but I just wanted to make it this far.  When the Royals made the trade to get James Shields and Wade Davis, I wasn't mad.  I actually posted on facebook "the price was steep, but this gives us a chance to win now".  My goals for the Royals are simple for the last few years- have a winning record.  After the trade, I kept that as a goal, but hoped they would cause excitement allowing the fans to get behind the team.  My goal this year was a playoff spot.  Most of the teams I root for are not championship teams (Mizzou, Royals, Chiefs, I even rooted for Tampa Bay Buccaneers until this year), all I want from them is to make the playoffs.  That's why I am excited.

Anyways, my post tonight isn't going to be too long.  I was supposed to fulfill my duties as an American and do jury duty tomorrow, and figured I wouldn't have time for much else.  I have never done jury duty before and made sure my calender was clear so any plans wouldn't be dashed.  Anyways, today I got a call saying I didn't have to do it.   It was bittersweet because I wanted to do it, but at the same time, relieved I don't have to.  As a result, I have more free time to work on my Royals collection, and a chance to watch Monday Night Football with the Chiefs (currently on), and even better I get to enjoy watching my Royals in the playoffs without worrying about getting to bed in time to show up at court.  I'm rambling again, so I'll get to the point.


Tonight let's look at the 1985 Royals:

Manager- Dick Howser

Steve Balboni
George Brett
Frank White
Willie Wilson
Onix Concepcion
I guess Black & White pictures were still acceptable in 1985.
Darryl Motley
Lonnie Smith
Jim Sundberg
Hal McRae
Lynn Jones
Jorge Orta
Dan Quisenberry
Buddy Biancalana
Pat Sheridan
Dane Iorg
Greg Pryor
John Wathan
Bud Black
Mike Jones
Charlie Leibrandt
Danny Jackson
Bret Saberhagen
Mark Gubicza
Omar Moreno
Mike LaCoss
Jamie Quirk
Steve Farr
Dave Leeper
Mark Huismann
Jim Scranton
Larry Gura
Tony Ferreira
Dennis Leonard
Bob Hegman


And the 2014 Royals:

Manager- Ned Yost

Alcides Escobar
Alex Gordon
Billy Butler
Salvador Perez
Mike Moustakas
Omar Infante
Lorenzo Cain
Nori Aoki
Eric Hosmer
Jarrod Dyson
Wade Davis
Sorry I couldn't find an actual team photo, but this is good enough.
Kelvin Herrera
Aaron Crow
Greg Holland
Danny Valencia
James Shields
Jeremy Guthrie
Raul Ibanez
Francisley Bueno
Danny Duffy
Jason Vargas
Yordano Ventura
Louis Coleman
Brett Hayes
Pedro Ciriaco
Josh Willingham
Jason Frasor
Tim Collins
Christian Colon
Justin Maxwell
Scott Downs
Michael Mariot
Bruce Chen
Erik Kratz
Johnny Giavotella
Casey Coleman
Terrance Gore
Jimmy Paredes
Brandon Finnegan
Jayson Nix
Lane Adams
Liam Hendriks
Carlos Pequero
Aaron Brooks
Wilking Rodriguez
Donnie Joseph
Justin Marks
Francisco Pena
*Luke Hochevar


All the players listed played at least one game in their season.  I included Luke Hochevar because he was on the 60 day injured list all year.

So with nothing else to write, I will say thanks for reading and have a great night.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Lazy Sund..... wait, I'm pretty busy for it being so lazy

Showing off my hat and shades.
I really don't have much to say today, I have a few things I'm doing.  I am watching football on TV, but since its not the Chiefs or Rams, I'm not paying a lot of attention.  It's the Packers and Bears, and while my mom likes both teams, I don't care that much.  It's more noise rights now.  If the Rams were on, I would watch, not because I like them, but because they are local enough that I know a bit about them.



Regional SI cover talking about the Royals
Anyways, I am working on my blog today in some sort of way.  I am going through my Royals cards and finding what cards I need to complete some sets.  You may have noticed I added a tab for completed sets.  I will be adding to that soon.  I still have a lot of work to do, so it could take a while.



HOF magazine featuring Greg Maddux
This has the potential to be a busy week, and I can't guarantee I will be here all week.  I plan on a blog of some sort tomorrow, likely a mashup of Royals and Chiefs, and beyond that I can't promise anything.  I have some stuff to do outside of sports this week that I hope won't take long, but who knows.  The Chiefs play Monday Night Football, and I will have to go to bed early.  The Royals play sometime this week, and I might miss it.  Just my luck.  At least I can record it.


My dad doing one of his passions, Garden Tractor Pulling.
I'm not writing doom and gloom, everything is alright, just a case of bad timing is all.  You may have noticed random pictures posted throughout this post, I just wanted to add pictures.
One of many oddities I collect.










Thanks for reading such a short post, but before I go, I have started talking to fellow bloggers and am working on sending some cards away soon.  I know where I can send some, but if you read my blog, feel free to comment and let me know what you collect, and I will start setting them aside for some future trade talks.  I already know what some of you collect, like the Pirates, Tigers, Brewers, Dodgers, and so forth, but I also have other sports as well like football and some basketball, and wrestling.  Let me know if there are any niche players or sets or anything you collect.  If I don't respond quickly don't worry, I hope to have everything back to normal by next weekend.  Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

Friday, September 26, 2014

TWENTY NINE YEARS!

 In 1985 I was three years old.  I don't remember a lot about the time to be honest, but thanks to the internet I can flashback to that time.  Maybe if I watched that TV show The Goldbergs like my friend tells me to, I wouldn't need a refresher.  Since I don't I looked it up.  I remember a lot of the events, but not from when it happened.

Michael Jackson was rich, and bought the entire Beatles catalog for $47 Million Dollars!
 
Coca-Cola introduced the New Coke, which lasted half the year.  I remember it vaguely but I remember Crystal Pepsi flopping a lot more a few years later.

Windows 1.0 was released by the Microsoft Corporation.

Compact Discs become available to buy.

The Unabomber killed his first victim.


Live Aid raises over $50 million for famine relief in Ethiopia.  If Michael Jackson didn't buy the Beatles catalog, Live Aid would have doubled their effort (that was a quick joke for people who don't understand my sarcasm, which happens more often these days).

A new car cost on average $9,000.  Gas cost $1.09.

A movie ticket set you back $27.50.  IF YOU BOUGHT 10 TICKETS!

TTM autographs were less pricy as stamps only cost 22 cents.  The majority of them seemed to say love on them.  The stamps, not the autographs.
 
The President was Ronald Reagan.  Jerry Lewis contrary to some reports was NOT the Vice President.

Brian Mulroney was the Canadian Prime Minister.  Sorry for not having a joke here, I'm not caught up on Canadian history to make a witty jab.

The Dow-Jones stock market reached a high of 1,553.  It has gone up 10 fold in the years since.

The national debt was only in the billions.

Musically, "We Are the World" won Grammy's for Record, Song, and Best Pop Duo or Group.  Other hits included a lot of movie theme songs and according to many magazines, the worst song ever- "We Built This City".  Those lists came out before Justin Beiber was around.


Other songs were "Shout" from Tears For Fears, "Broken Wings" from Mr. Mister, and "Can't Fight This Feeling" from REO Speedwagon.

Top Movies: Back To The Future, The Color Purple, Out of Africa, & any movie from Stallone, Chevy Chase, or the Brat Pack. 

TV featured sitcoms and dramas that didn't have a twist every two minutes.  Shows like- The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Murder She Wrote, Cheers, Dallas, Dynasty, The Golden Girls, and 227.
 
Cagney and Lacey, St. Elsewhere, and The Golden Girls won Emmy's.  Betty White won Best Actress (some things never change).


Children on milk cartons first appears.




"Where's the Beef?" was first asked, and has annoyed Wendy's employees ever since (I can attest to it).



Wrestlemania debuted.  Mr. T, Cyndi Lauper, and Liberace, The Rockettes, Billy Martin, and Muhammad Ali all appear at the show. 



Garrison Keillor, Stephen King, Carl Sagan, and Danielle Steel all had successful books.



Pete Rose set the all time hits record.



The Nintendo Entertainment System arrives to the U.S.

Richard Ramirez, The Night Stalker, is captured.




Calvin & Hobbes debuts in newspapers.







Among those born: Joe Flacco, Cristiano Ronaldo, Reggie Bush, Kyle Busch, Ashley Tisdale, Anna Kendrick, Alex Ovechkin, Bruno Mars, Wayne Rooney.



Among those we lost: E.B. White, Rock Hudson, Yul Brynner, Orson Welles, Phil Silvers, Roger Maris.















Oh and in 1985 the Kansas City Royals won the World Series.  This isn't even really about that.  It's been 29 years since they went to the World Series.  It's also been 29 years since they made the playoffs.  Yes, they can't even make the playoffs.  Now they have finally achieved it.

Thank you for reading, have a great night.  Part two will come next time.  It will feature cards.


Thursday, September 25, 2014

More Listia Goodies

I've been putting off a couple posts until the time is right.  I had one planned for tonight but nixed until until a couple more days.  I have another one I want to post too, but again, want to do it when it is official.  I got a couple more packages from Listia today, so I will show them off.  I have really fallen in love with Listia lately.  A couple days ago, I wanted to win an auction but didn't have enough credits.  I scoured ways to get points without paying and saw one that would get me a ton of points.  I signed up for Swagbucks, just to get the points, and now have a ton of points.  I hope to get some more stuff soon.

Anyways, let's look at the haul I got today.  I'll start with some Royals.


Let me start off with the hologram.  It is cut on the bottom because I cut it.  Somehow, it melted onto the pocket page and the wouldn't come off.  It was an added bonus because the guy felt bad for taking so long to ship it.  I'm not mad, because it was an extra card, and because I don't really care if I had it or not.  I have a few of the holographic stickers, but the Royals one has eluded me.

I only really wanted two cards in the batch, but it was cheap enough I got all of these (I also got a third of the Balboni cards).  The cards I wanted was the first two on the bottom, the Larry Gura, and the David Cone.  While I do plan to eventually collect the team sets, those were two I knew I didn't have yet.  I'm not sure if I have any '84 Donruss, Royals or otherwise.  The Cone card I wanted because I have started a decent Cone collection, but for some reason, most have been cards when he played on other teams.  It was refreshing to get another one as a Royal.

In total, I spent 100 points on all the cards, so even if I did have all the other cards, I think it was well worth it just for those two cards.

For the other package I got, we go across the state to the St. Louis Cardinals.  I tend to show hate on the Cardinals, but I like a lot of players that have played for them.  I think a lot of the hate grows from the fans who shove the team down my throat and the media in Central Missouri.  Granted, I know they have been the better team in the last couple decades, but I just get tired of hearing about them.  Anyways, lets look at what I got.


This package had it all.  Let me start with the card I actually won- the Red Schoendist.  I don't have a lot of his cards, but as I have been collecting more Musial cards, I have started to get more of Red.  Something I like about the card is the Cooperstown logo is strategically placed (or maybe it was luck) right in the center of his hat.  This prevents them from erasing the team logo out, and as a result, the card looks crisp.  I only paid 191 points for this one, not a bad deal at all.

I was surprised when I opened it because I didn't remember anything about other cards, but this was a nice bonus.  I like the Tewksbury card because I like the set but also because in the 90's the Royals were hardly ever on TV in Mid-Missouri so I was stuck with Cardinals.  I liked him okay, and depending on the day, I like the dark colored alternative hats the Cards wore.

Jim Edmonds was reason enough to watch a Cardinals game when he played.  I've heard stories he was also an all around nice guy in St. Louis, so that's cool.  This card is good enough to keep in my Cardinals collection for now.  I have a decent collection of Cardinals that I might thin out one day.

The Joe McEwing card is alright.  I will never admit I was a big fan of him, so this card doesn't do much for me.  I won't make my collection, but its not just some card I will throw away.  I'm sure when I start making trades it will find a good home.

I thought something else that was cool was the stamps on the package.  I have never been one to collect stamps, but a Ted Williams stamp will always catch my eye.  For about a decade or so, Boston was a team I rooted for.  It partially started in the late 90's when I felt sorry for them for not winning a World Series in 7 decades, but then in 2004 I had a boss who was from Boston.  I really rooted for Boston that year since I wanted them to win, but also since he was outnumbered by Cardinals fans at work.  We both worked the night Boston won the series.  It seemed that I usually rooted against the team everyone else rooted for in major championships.  Once I was the only worker who didn't root for the Steelers to win the Super Bowl.  My reason- the owner of where I worked (Pilot Travel Centers) had a small stake in the team.  Oddly enough, I like Jimmy Haslam and hopes the new team he owns (Cleveland Browns) does well just for him.

Before I go, I thought I would show off something sports related.  Sometimes I try my luck at scratcher tickets, and earlier this year I bought one.  Sadly I didn't win, but wanted to show it off anyways.


I also tried one of the Royals tickets too, but can't seem to find it.  Maybe I won on it.  Anyways, thanks for reading, and have a great night.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Auction goodies from Listia

Since I started aggressively perusing Listia a couple months ago, I've experienced many ups and downs. I've had a lot more success than failures and I can't really complain.  I never buy points (once I bought 500 points for $1 to verify my account), and I've never listed an auction.  I've won over 10 auctions now and I think I've gotten my money's worth.  In the past week I have gotten quite a few envelopes of cards.  Today I will show off a few.


We begin with some cards I have shown often on here.  I have gotten a few here and there, but I knew I needed the Rico Rossy card.  I spent 499 points on these four cards, which is a bit more than I wanted, but now I am only down to I think 2 or three more cards and I will complete the team set.

I was searching for Johnny Damon cards and came across this one.  I checked and I didn't have it so I put it in my watch list.  The starting bid price was 75 points, so with less than a day, I put in a max bid of 100 I think.  It wasn't one I was going to go after hard, but when I checked later, I found out I won.  Nobody else bid so I got it for the 75 points. I'm never going to be a Yankees fan, but the black border matches the uniform well in this photo.



I remember this set when I was growing up.  It was a joint Upper Deck and Sonic set and I have a few of them already.  The other day I was looking and three or four were listed and I bid on all of them.  As each of them ended I kept losing.  I decided I was going to go all in for this one.  I won it with 606 points, which I knew I overpaid for, but I was happy to get.  I got it within a couple of days, but when I opened it, it was bent in a couple spots.  It was packaged in 4 pieces of notebook paper.  No penny sleeve or anything.  Just notebook paper inside an envelope.  I guess I can't complain, since I basically got it just from watching videos to get points.  I need to see how many cards I have and hope to complete this set within a couple years.  It's only like 20 or so cards, it shouldn't be too hard.



This last set really excited me.  I love oddball sets, specifically ones from food products.  I like marketing and advertising, so mix it with trading cards and I'm in.  These 4 card are from 1991, and I mainly got it for the Ozzie Smith.  I don't remember having these growing up, but they remind me of a set I would want.  Though I got it for Ozzie, I think I like the Biggio best.  It doesn't look like the card was touched up at all and shows no logo's.  All solid players, I was a bit surprised I got these for only 300 points.  Again I was the only bidder, but I probably would have gone up to at least 500.  Out of all of the cards listed, I won these first.  Since I got them fairly cheap I think that spoiled me so I never pay too much for cards.

That will wrap it up for today, but next time, I will feature another lot I won off Listia, which was all of one player.  Thank you for reading and have a great night.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Final cards from Just Commons

I probably have enough cards to show for two more posts, but I'm just going to finish it up tonight.  I've spent enough days on them so let's begin.


We start with 1994 Collector's Choice.  I always said that 1994 was my favorite year in cards.  There wasn't a whole lot of sets I didn't like, and the prices were still cheap.  I was 12 at the time, so it was still sets from my childhood.

These are all nice cards, and all solid players.  My favorite in the bunch is the Vince Coleman card with the Appier being a close second.

We have more from the set though-


We have players sliding!  Some of them even look like they know how to run the bases. Maybe they can be advisers to the 2014 squad.


We also have players in all positions.  I like the Keith Miller card because it gives me the impression that he made a great stop and an amazing throw to first to get the runner out.

We have other sets though too!


IT'S A BIRD!

IT'S A PLANE!

IT'S... IT'S!!!!!


It's a 92 Fleer Ultra with Wally Joyner wearing those dumb shade glasses.  I am inching closer to completing this set, just today I got a couple more cards from this set (I might have completed it with the Rico Rossy card).

I always hated those shades the ballplayers wore in the 90's.  I know that it was before Lasik surgery and all that and I know that the sun was probably a pain to look up to find the ball, but as someone who wears glasses, I hated those things.  I had some clip-on sunglasses before and wore them for about 20 seconds.  They were corny and didn't help much.  I'm so glad you don't see them as much if at all today.

Ok, what else do I have?


Here is another 1994 set, this being the Leaf variety.  I can't remember if I got these the year they came out or if I got them later, but I did like them.  A bit much on the border on the bottom, but I'll take it.  I remember seeing Jose Lind and Felix Jose play in a game I went to once.  I should look up when that game was, it was my first Royals game.

Alright, what do I have next.


2001 Donruss is a set I don't remember having.  I'm not sure if I like the design much. Too much graphics on the card takes away from the pictures.  Plus I wasn't a fan of the darker blue uniforms.


Another Chico Lind card.  He seems happy, that or really scared.  Next to him is Rico Rossy.  I started the month with ZERO Rossy cards and now I have two.  Things are looking up.

I like the last two cards, even if Cone is smiling just a bit too much.  I like the design, but I think I am ruined by photoshop, those backgrounds look a little too good.  Still nice cards.


I will finish with a mixed bag.  The Naturals are the Royals Double A affiliate and Brooks Pounders has one of the better names in baseball.  I was thinking of getting a jersey of one of the Royals minor league teams, but couldn't decide between the Naturals or the Omaha Storm Chasers.  I have already decided it won't be the Idaho Falls Chukars.  Possibly the worst name in minor league baseball.

I bought 3 Gypsy Queen cards, George Brett was the only Royals one I got.  I'm still not a big fan of the design, but it was cheap enough.  I do like the look of the Roberto Clemente card though.  It was also cheap.  The other card I got was Ozzie Smith.  I am planning on thinning out my Cardinals collection at some point, but Ozzie and Pujols are two players I won't get rid of.

That wraps up my 180 cards from Just Commons.  I didn't show them all, but I showed off enough.  I hope you enjoyed seeing them these past few days, and I have got a few more packages this past week I am ready to show off.

Thank you for reading and have a great night.