Los is coming home!!!!

The compa is one happy lady. News here.

On Baseball Wives...

Go here, check out this post. It's awesome!

Headhunting Part II: Get Your Phillies Out

Here's the deal: A Phillies fan who is also in to prospect autos has a pretty awesome EJ. Sooo.... if you have a constellation of Phillies this guy will take, I'll trade you this card: 

I'll update with a better scan later today/tonight. It'll hurt to let this one go, but them's the breaks.

Make an offer in the comment section. Then I'll pass it along! 

Blyleven and Goose GU:

Not sure how to embed these in a PM over at the Bench, so here they are!

I miss baseball...: Looking to Next Season

I'll pay attention to other sports if they're on, but baseball remains the only sport I follow. Like I find myself doing most falls, I can't wait for next season. So, I went through a bunch of cards other bloggers have sent me and found this:

It was a while ago, so who knows who sent me this card? And let's be honest, unless you follow the Rays you probably had no idea who Moore was until this. Or maybe you caught this on Sept. 22. Either way, there's a lot of hype surrounding the 22 year-old former eight-round pick in the 2007 draft. As a Rays fan, I'm on board.

Funny, but nothing on this card screams, "Dude's about to blow up!" There are something interesting stats, some typical Topps language, but Topps still lists him as "Matthew." Whatever. I'm glad he's on our side, at least until his arb years are up!

And he seems pretty down-to-earth as seen in this promo video for the Rays affiliate the Charlotte Stone Crabs.

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Goodnight Pumpsie Green...Wherever You Are!

Pumpsie Green sounds like he might have DJed for these cats, but he was actually the guy who integrated the Red Sox, the last team to integrate, and a Hell of a ballplayer. I first read about Mr. Green in the context of Gene Conley, with whom Mr. Green went on a Kerouacesque multi-day Bender while with the Sox.

Because of the trip I've always had a special place in my heart for Green. Man who integrated the Red Sox and, as this interview with the man says, the "last of the first." Topps All-Star Rookie. Roughian. Would-be pilgrim to the Holy Land. There are complex personalities, then there are the life and times of Pumpsie Green.

This card was a gift from the father-in-law. Still strikes me how it mentions Green was the first Sox switching-hitting regular in 27 years but says NOTHING about Green integrating the Sox. Which was, according to accounts, no easy feat.

Been contemplating sending this card out ttm but have held off. Thinking I'll pull the trigger this weekend. 

EJ x 3: Thanks GCRL!

I'm going after the 2011 Topps Update EJ Rainbow. I was able to land the first two plates fairly easily but hit a snag with plat #3. As outlined here, Jim over at GRCL stepped up and took what I was offering in order to land the EJ. Thanks to Jim, here's 3/4 of the plate rainbow which, as a bonus, includes CC as a foreground lurker. Pretty serendipitous.

And then he included a TON of extra Rays, among them this gem of Fer Perez. 

We lost Fer in the Matt Garza trade, he was later picked up by the Mets, and he was another ballplayer that the compa and I really enjoyed watching back in Durham. He's got a degree from Columbia and has even published in Poetry. A renaissance man, he's a great actor (seriously, check this out), maintains an active Twitter feed, and always has craziness up on Tumblr. A cool guy and a cool card. Compa is still devastated that we let him go!

Thanks again, GCRL!

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!