X-JB Josh Beckett
X-JP Jonathan Papelbon

X2-BE Josh Beckett
X2-DO David Ortiz
X2-JP Jonathan Papelbon
X2-MA Manny Ramirez

X3-JB Josh Beckett
X3-MR Manny Ramirez

X4-DO David Ortiz

Oh, and if anyone is collecting the base set of these or the die cut set please let me know because I have quite a few from chasing inserts.

No not here. Over at Grand Cards.  Go check it out.

My favorite Christmas present came in the mail the day after Christmas.  It was a surprise package from another Red Sox collecting blogger Gordon.  I traded/bought cards from Gordon in the past and new he was generous but I was shocked to receive this from him in the mail. 

I had a few presents under the tree this year.  I opeaned new fishing waders, boots, a book, and lures before I got to a package with cards in it.  One basaball card present was better than lasts years ballcard haul of zero cards. Honestly I figured I had some kind of cards coming because I was banned from MyEbay for a week so that I couldn't see what was being bidded on.  Here is what I got:



I actually got the entire team set.  A five card team set with Yaz, Lynn, and Rice is pretty good.  Tony Perez was no slouch either.  So thanks to one package from my wife I have my first completed Kellogg's team set.

Dinged Corners asked what the most inexplicable thing you collect is.  They also started the 6 in 30 binder test months ago.  Since the most inexplicable thing I collect is boxing cards I thought it fit real well to post this on Boxing Day.  That also makes this my most economical post ever.

It was easy picking some cool old cards because they were in the front of my boxing album.  I'm scanning both sides for two reasons.  One because the newly updated blogger uploads so much faster and two because I doubt allot of people have seen the front of these cards not to mention the back.

1938 Churchman's #12 Jack Dempsey  - Why I chose it?  First of all it is over 70 years old.  Secondly Dempsey was such a larger than life guy back in his time.  To top it all off my great grandfather used to talk about listening to his fights on the radio.  Just imagine following sports with nothing but radio and newspaper, boy are we spoiled.



1991 Ringlords #31 Julio Cesar Chavez - Because Chavez was such a warrior I chose this card.  He won his first 100 fights.  The back is a typical 90s style back just like any old baseballcard.

Not a creature was stirring, but perhaps Jason Bay
In hopes that John Henry soon would be there






While visions of Jacoby danced in their heads
And Heidi in her 'kerchief and TC in his cap
Had just settled in for a long winter's nap
When out on Landsdowne there arose such a clatter
I sprang from the press box to see what was the matter
Away to second, Ellsbury went in a flash
We're hoping that he and Cameron won't clash


The moon on the breast of the new hockey rink
He whistled and shouted and called them by name
Because, Jerry, we want you back in the booth








Dice-K was chubby and plump and was never himself
But be thankful at least that he's not Kei Igawa
A wink of Wake's eye and a twist of his wrist
Soon gave us to know we had nothing to dread

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear..
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.."
" So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

Now I know everyone thinks this has nothing to do with basaball cards, but it does.  See my mom sent this to me in a chain letter.  I NEVER forward chain letters, EVER. Maybe that is why I'm not very lucky.  I was however quite impressed with the poem so I posted it here in hopes that the bad luck from not forwarding the e-mail will not get me. I need all the luck I can get when opeaning the packs of card I get for Christmas. 

See it did have to do with baseball cards.

Kellogg's cards are some of my very favorites.  I love the 3D cards and wish they would bring them back.  It would make me eat more cereal if it still came with cards.



04 Chrome Wakefield - I chose this card to scan because I was glad that he got resigned and also because I don't really have very many 04 Topps Red Sox.  Something about the design steared me away from buying any and now there is a big hole in my Topps collection. 

The CollectiveTroll is having a group break and he isn't asking for money.  All he wants is cards in trade that match his criteria.  Right now Phillies, Cubs, Twins, Royals and Angels are still open.  I know that are a bunch of bloggers out there that collect those teams so send him a message and them send him some cards to claim your team.

Drew Brees what happened?  After such a great season he has two fumbles and an interception in the first week of the fantasy playoffs.  I was so sure I was going to win the whole thing too.  Hopefully the rest of my team can pick me up this week and my opponent has a few players that put up stinker scores.

I bought a few packs of UDX, for my two sons at Dollar Tree, as presents for Christmas.  It wouldn't be Christmas without packs in your stocking.  The thing is I accidently bought an odd number of packs.  So rather than give son one more than the other I decided to open one.  Boy was I suprised at what was in it. 


















(I was to lazy to scan the card so I swiped it off of an ebay auction)

I never expected an autographed card at Dollar Tree.

I don't know what to think exactly it kinda sucks that now one of them won't get the thrill of getting thier first autograph in a pack but at the same time one won't be disapointed that the other got it and they didn't.  Plus I now have an auto to trade for a Red Sox.  So if any Ranger fan (or anyone else for that matter) has a Red Sox auto to trade for it please e-mail me.

And for the record, I suck at spelling and now that Blogger took away the spell check button everyone out there can see... 

But I do like the strikethrough button...

I have recently made some trades with GSNHOF. That stands for Great Sports Name Hall of Fame.  Not only does he collect Red Sox and people with odd names but he has been willing to take some of my 90s football cards off of my hands in trade for Red Sox. 

This is the first of two packages from him.

Honestly I don't remember Don as a Red Sox manager.  I was a kid when he was manager and kids don't pay attention to managers.  I remember him as a coach for a few other teams but what really comes to mind when I think of Zimmer is Pedro throwing him to the ground. 

Everybody go check out the cool handmade card that got autographed and is now being given away By Condition Poor.

I haven't posted in a really long time. I know excuses are like ...... everybody has one, but I really have a good one. See I don't have high speed Internet and every time I try to upload a picture to blogger it times out. So the way I always post is to save pictures to a usb drive, take it to work, upload the picture, and then go home and write the post. That worked great for a long time until my work firewall got in the way. For some reason I could only look at blogger in HTML view which means there was no Upload Picture button. Finally things are back to normal and I can upload pictures again. So without further adu...

Goose Joak cards

Billy just signed with the Braves. I had hoped the rumors were true and Papelbon might get traded and we would resign Wagner. Why you say?? Well I think Papelbon is a great closer but I also think he is right on the edge all of the time. One of these days he is going to fall off and we will be without a closer. Plus I really like Wagner. He was real nice when I saw him in Chicago this year. Oh yeah, and he signs a great autograph.

Bowden is someone we may get to see more of this year. He seams like he has a lot of potential. But he may be trade bait for a Really Great pitcher (Roy) or a big bat (Gonzalez)

Two post in one week! Blogger may melt down due to this flurry of activity from me. But I am starved for Red Sox now that the season is over. From reading other blogs I seem to be just the opposite of everyone else because I tend to buy more cards after the season is over than during it. I have to get a Sox fix somehow…

On to the infield off-season projections/want list:

Catcher – It is a no brainer who is going to catch next year. Martinez will catch almost every game and rightfully so. The big question here is Varitek. His contract has a two-way option. The team can option him back for a year at 5 Million or he can option himself back at 3 million. I can’t see any way that Theo takes him back at 5 Million. I really don’t see Tek getting 3 million anywhere else so I think it will boil down to how much he wants to play. Take the 3 million to sit on the bench or sign for less to start somewhere else. Personally I hope he retires and they put him in as the bullpen coach.

1st Base – Our first baseman is awesome, great hitter and Gold Glover. I really expected a MVP type of season out of him this year. Unless the Sox trade for Adrian Gonzalez I see him staying at first and moving to 3rd when Lowell needs a break. Why mess with a good thing.

2nd – Pedrioa didn’t have the MVP season of a year ago but no complaints about him either. He is defiantly on of the elite 2nd baseman in baseball.

Shortstop – No matter what we do I am betting that Theo gets it wrong. I would be happy to stick with Alex Gonzalez. He has a great glove and actually hit pretty good this year. I have absolutely no faith in Jed Lowrie. He doesn’t seem durable enough to last a whole season. He looks like a backup to me. There are some Free Agent and trade options out there. Tejada is available. He may be a little pricey but he can hit better than any other free agent SS. Would he take a pay cut to make a run at a title?? If Seattle doesn’t pick up his option I wouldn’t mind seeing Jack Wilson here either. He has sick defense. I’m not into fielding stats but just from watching him I know he is a bad ass in the field. Then there is a rumor that we may get Hanley Ramirez back in a trade. I would love it but it won’t happen.

3rd – I really like Lowell. He is an old school, down and dirty player. Problem is he isn’t only old school he is old. (for a ballplayer) A-Rod had the same injury that Lowell had and he only took off the beginning of the season and never had another problem. Mike limped around on it all year and took tons of days off. This is another glaring hole with not much out there to fill it. Maybe Youkilis should move over from 1st and we just replace the first baseman. Because outside of Blalock and Tejada…

Next up will be the pitching staff.

Well this is it.



The end of the season for the Sox.



I figure a few people opened this expecting the end of the blog. I'm not quiting I just don't usually have enough ambition to post anything. OK, back to the Sox...



Only way the season could have ended in more disappointment is if we wouldn't have made the playoffs at all. I never would have guessed that we would get swept by the Angels. One good thing about the Red Sox is that I know there is no such thing as rebuilding, only reloading. So lets take a look at what bullets need replaced. Most would start with the infield but our most glaring question mark is in the outfield so I am starting there:



Left Fielder - This is the most obvious question this off-season, will Theo resign Bay? He seems to fit in great and put up a great OPS but had a sub par avg for an outfielder on this team. There are a few free agents out there that may be just as good a fit. The most obvious one is Abreau. I wouldn't mind seeing him in LF for a few years. He has a great bat moderate speed and although is fielding is less than stellar it isn't really that bad. Holliday is another option. I'm not sure who is better though Bay or Holliday, almost a toss up to me. But Holliday is represented by Boras so... The dark horses could be Matsui or Vlad. Both are horrific outfielders but could cover the ground in front of the monster no problem. One last option, how about Damon? He isn't the player he once was but he isn't bad either. His girly arm wouldn't be so obvious in our left field either.

Center field - Jacoby isn't going anywhere.

Right field - Has there ever been a more boring player in baseball than JD? He does get on base though. I don't think he is worth that huge contract but he is what he is. He does have a great arm though.

Backups - I don't want Baldelli. Why have a backup that can't ever play? I doubt Gathright stays around either. I like his speed (I bet he is faster than Jacoby) but the guy can't hit, period.

That is it for now. I'll knock out the infield sometime before spring training. Yes it is that hard to make myself post something now-a-days...

The playoffs are not going very well, so I am rewinding to a month ago when the Red Sox could score more than one run in two games. That is right it is overdue trade post time.

Over a month ago I made a trade with A Giant Blog. I sent him some 1960 Topps Giants and he sent me some much needed 1961 Topps.

I like the 1961 Topps but I don't. I like the design, white border yellow highlighted red letters, and the colored team name background. (although I don't understand the color selection) I like all that stuff but the posed pictures,not so much. It is kind of letdown after what I consider the best Topps design of all time. Regardless of all that I have to have them all and there are getting close to 50 years old. I'm always happy to get 50 year old cards.