Adam Lind and his breakout

(Short print 2009 Goodwin Adam Lind, courtesy of VOTC)

Well it seems as though I did something right in collecting a younger player with no experience and just hoping he did something big. Now, he's done so much that his cards have gone up 10 fold on eBay. He is 5th in homeruns in the American League, and he is currently ranked 11th in batting with a .307 BA, 35 HRs, and 114 RBI. He's 4th in the AL in slugging and 5th in OPS.

Am I happy? Sure, you bet I am. Makes me happy to see him succeed and makes it more fun to follow him, especially when he hits 3 homeruns at Fenway. Now I love him that much more. I have taken a break from buying things on eBay for a while now, with the exception being the Goodwin box, and this card.




I really hope that he can continue to hit like this next season and beyond because then that would make me happy. Who knows, when Matsui finally can't walk maybe the Yankees sign him as a DH.....

P.S. Lind did not play today due to a sore elbow, thanks to Jonathan Papelbitch for hitting him last night. Just another reason to hate that idiot and the face he makes looking in for the sign.

Ridiculous Auction #3 of the Week

Adam Lind hit 3 homeruns tonight which is absolutely insane. It also sparked me to go hunting around eBay some more. (No, I still haven't scanned or written the intended post for today.)

Check out this auction which just went up today, and I know this because I search daily for his stuff. If you don't care to look, I will say the opening bid is $24,999.99. If that doesn't make you click it, sorry.

More about Lind tomorrow or Thursday from me.

Ridiculous Auction #2 of the Week

Yes, this is ridiculous but it has 25 bids and is legitimate. I just wanted to share this because I am watching it just to see what happens, not because I would ever be able to have this kind of extra money to spend on one card. I love Albert, but not this much. Check it out.

For those of you that follow me on Twitter, I did say I was going to show you my exciting mail.... but I have been playing on eBay and doing homework. I will scan the stuff tonight for another post.

But it's Arod!!!

Really, that's the argument this eBay seller is giving for selling his Alex Rodriguez 1/1 autograph.

It's a nice card. It's a pretty card. I actually like ARod and am not one of the haters. I had his The Natural poster on my wall when I was a teenager with googly eyes staring at him and Jeter in The Prodigy poster.

This card popped up on eBay for an unGodly price. It's higher than you are thinking, trust me.

C'mon Sooz, it can't be much higher than a couple of thousand. After all, his stock fell slightly after the entire steroid thing.

I understand. Trust me, but it's ARod!. AROD!!!!

I can't even tell you the price of this card because it just seems so foolish. Check out the auction for yourself.

Just sayin'

Yankees sweep Boston and clinch the AL East. ALDS starts October 7 in NY. Wooohoooo

2009 Goodwin Champions Packs 13-20 & Review

I told you guys that this would probably be the slowest box break ever considering I won't be buying another hobby box for quite some time (maybe). I finished the rest of the box last night on commercial breaks of Grey's Anatomy (which was awesome). Overall I am extremely happy with the box vs. money spent.

I scanned everything in the last few packs, the Hamilton 20th anniversary card is reserved for Tricia over at the Hamiltonian if she needs it. Otherwise all 20th anniversary cards will be sent to VOTC in exchange for Cano and Pujols goodness. Here are the scans, and the breakdown of the box will be after the pics.

So there you have it. My entire box was scanned for your viewing pleasure, and for mine because I really love the design of these cards. I don't really see the card stock being that big of an issue here. I would rather have a nicely designed card on average card stock than a crappy design on a thicker one.

Here is the breakdown:

- 57 base cards (no doubles)

- 21 mini (2 doubles, Iwamura and Uehara)

- 5 gypsy back

- 1 silver mini (Miguel Cabrera)

- 2 relics (Victor Martinez and Ryan Braun)

- 1 auto (Troy Tulowitzki)

- 1 case hit (Entomology redemption)

- 10 UD 20th anniversary cards

If I had to give this product a letter grade it would get a B+. I wouldn't give it an A simply because of the 20th anniversary card insert ratio. You only get 5 cards per pack to begin with and when the stick you with one of those goofy inserts you lose out on a base card, rather than getting that as a bonus.

As far I'm concerned this was a sweet hobby box for me considering I like Ryan Braun and Troy Tulowitzki. It sucked because Pujols is not a short print and I still didn't get one. As far as Yankees base cards, I ended up with Pettitte, Joe D., and Bucky Dent. No Jeter or Cano in the box either which kinda sucks, oh and no Russ Martin or Adam Lind. I didn't expect the Lind though because I believe he is a super SP for some unknown reason.

Luckily Target has packs here and blasters. I was able to pick up some packs and get a few Yankees, still no Jeter or Pujols though.

Anyone pull a Pujols foil or gypsy back? I am still looking for those, as well as Lind, Cano, and Martin. Holla if you have them.

My one baseball regret

I often think about the day a woman will make her way onto a major league baseball roster. She might be a pitcher or a second baseman, but one day - and I hope I'm around to see it - a woman will play the game.

This blog post was inspired by this post over at Padrographs.

It never would have been me, but that doesn't mean I don't have a regret from not playing baseball. Growing up, I loved baseball with a passion.

I'd play baseball and stickball with neighborhood kids and was always one of the first ones picked (tooting my own horn). I remember making a one-handed catch and ran straight into a parked car, but I held on to the ball.

There was another time I was playing two-hand touch football and I was wearing a girlie suspenders outfit with only one side notched. Well, during a play it broke and my pants fell down.

I took the good with the bad.

However, when I was a sophomore in high school, I transferred to public school after spending a year in a catholic school. I decided I wanted to play baseball instead of softball. I was a catcher, and a decent one at that with a good arm.

I could also hit the ball well.

When I brought my case to the school principal, I was told I would try out for the baseball team because there was a female equivalent sport in softball.

So, I left his office and played softball. I enjoyed it, but there were so many days during softball practice I would look beyond the outfield and watch the baseball team practice. I was jealous.

In college, I played softball. There was no baseball team, so softball was my only option.

However, there often are days I think about what it would have been like to play baseball. I took batting practice last year with the independent baseball team that used to be in Atlantic City. The batting practice coach was pleasantly surprised with my hitting once I got my timing down.

So, my one regret was not fighting to try out for the baseball team in high school. It's the only thing I think about what could have been.

2009 Goodwin Champions Packs 9-12 *Case Hit

So here is the moment you have all been waiting for, at least maybe like 4 of you have been. As I mentioned before there was some talk about the hits being within the last two packs, however my packs were all jumbled up in the box so I just put 10 per half and started. In these packs I got a box hit, as well as a surprise case hit. The case hit came first, then the box hit so it was a more than happy time opening the middle of this box.

Here are the scans:




OK, so it was not the most exciting case hit on Earth but I can use it to make this box cost half as much as it did, and to me that is super exciting.

So when I first opened the auto pack, I barely even looked at the card because I was like wow, a double in consecutive packs is a little odd. Then I scanned it and noticed oh hi, he signed this one. Duh. Even though I am over collecting Tulo, I will probably hold onto this one since it is a hard signed copy and add it to my other Tulo autos.

There were also (surprise!) 2 20th anniversary cards in the packs, but one was Mark Messier and the other was Eli Manning and my brother got those before I scanned. I'm sure you are all heartbroken that they were not pictured.

I will probably break the rest of the box later today once I finish my homework and stuff. Anyone get a Pujols, Cano, Lind, or Russ gypsy back? I got a Cano mini, but need the rest as of now. Perhaps Albert is lurking in the bottom of the box...

2009 Goodwin Champions Packs 5-8

OK, so these packs were cool.... The best though is yet to come. I have to scan the next group of packs while I watch the Yankees (not) win. Believe me, you want to stop back in the am to check out my loot.






Also, for those of you scouring Targets looking for some retail, one of my local Targets had them today. Packs were $1.99 for 4 cards, rack packs $4.99 for 12 cards, and blasters for $19.99 (12 packs).

2009 Goodwin Champions Hobby Box

My immediate defense: It was the bargain of the century, and it was scraping what little was left of my money out of our closed eBay store and putting it to good use. Now, everything is officially empty- wallet included.

I included a picture of the bottom of the box in case some of you were unfamiliar with the stated odds. The odds are not printed on the hobby packs, which I noticed the other day.

This is going to be a slow box break with a review of the total contents at the end. I know you're all shaking your head going, "how long is she going to drag this on for?" The answer is probably the end of the night in all honesty. I have been hell bent on getting my mitts on these cards since I saw the preview cards months ago. I know many of you have already opened these, and some of you were not pleased. I don't understand how anyone could be disappointed in the design of these cards by any means. You all drooled over A&G and they were on white backgrounds with halfway decent drawings, yet some of those same people are crying that they got ripped off or whatever. I'm just sayin'.

Anyway, clearly I love these. There are a few things that I do not like but they aren't enough to make me grumpy, which is good for you guys so you don't have to listen to me bitch. I will tell you the one thing that is annoying right off the bat to me. I don't like how if you get one of these cheesy 20th anniversary inserts you get one less card per pack. I have no interest in these inserts and I don't know many people that do, so why wouldn't they make it an extra card every so many packs? The only reason I am not going to burn them is because VOTC is trying to complete the set.

Here are the first 4 packs, in scan form rather than words. Words are boring, and these cards are too cool to not scan all of them.



The A-Rod card was a Gypsy Queen back, which I can't complain about. I could have ended up with Garrett Atkins... (If he is lurking in this box as a gypsy queen, I promise I will kick my own ass for even saying it.)

Victor Martinez Game Used (white) jersey (Indians...) card. Now, I know some of you had mentioned to me that they had noticed alot of people pulled the "hits" from within the last 2 packs on each side. When I opened the box up the packs had shifted and there were an uneven number on each side, not to mention a pack smack in the middle. So I really had no idea what was where to start. Normally when I go into a store and buy packs, I ALWAYS buy the bottom ones and that's something I have done for years so if I come across a box of these somewhere I will test the theory (for the sake of reporting, of course).

As far as trading these, I am undecided what I am doing with them. I will probably try to flip some of them for Pujols, Cano, Lind or Russ Martin.

More packs to come later....

Loot from Upper Deck

As most of you know I have been writing articles for Upper Deck's blog over the last couple of weeks. In exchange for writing they are offering cards, which is what they money would be spent on anyway so it's a win win for me cutting out the middle man.

In light of only needing 36 cards to finish my 2009 O-Pee-Chee base set, I requested a box of them thinking it would get me to completion or very close to it at least. I'll start by making it clear that I did not get a "loaded" box by any means, so don't get too excited.

Out of however many base cards are in a box, I needed SEVEN of them. Which left me with roughly 200 doubles and 100 triples, frickin sweet. I logged my SEVEN cards in, and went through Sooz's want list and she needed 36, and Flash over at Dropped Third Strike needed 63 of them. They each got more out of this than I did, even with the inserts. I got 4 inserts I really liked and the rest were blah. I have yet to go through the black borders to see how many I needed, but rest assured I will let you all know if that turns out to be disastrous as well.

Here are the highlights, no game used card in the whole box....

I have SO many doubles so if you are trying to put this set together and can help me get those last 29 cards I would be more than happy to send you plenty in return. I probably even have a couple of black border doubles floating around as I try to complete that next.

Sunday Question: What did you get from Goodwin?

I want to see your Goodwin goodies. Throw up some links in the posts.

I need a fix and since I can't buy anything for some time, I need you all to help.

Thanks!

2009 Goodwin Champions

For those of you that follow me on Twitter you probably already know that I have been running around like a mad woman since Monday trying to locate packs or blasters of Goodwin. I was and still am hellbent on finding a blaster and will mow people down to get one (half kidding). Well, since Target had yeilded zero results I took myself to ToyWiz against all better judgement and sure enough they had them. They were in their display case so I had asked to see the packs so I could pick my own and count them. 18 packs were there. I am not going to go off on a tangent about this, draw your own conclusions. I did have a conversation with the owner/manager (not sure which) about why they are in the case along with some of the other higher end packs. He told me that they put those types of packs into the case so that customers can't search them. I can understand that completely, and it makes sense. I did mentiont that I have never seen a complete box in the case ever, always a pile of loose packs. I was assured the boxes are not searched, and I will take that information and pass it along to all of you in the local or not so local area.

The conversation I had with the manager/owner was not in any sort of argumentative way. We spoke about the packs, and the storage of them and briefly discussed the pros and cons of buying online. He also mentioned a dislike for Beckett which may make the masses cheer and throw beers, but it was more of a $10 price tag that makes him not like it as well as the flimsy thinness of the pages recently. He didn't give me the impression that they sell many issues.

My method for choosing packs was simple. I piled them into piles of 4, took the bottom 4 packs, and then picked just 2 since they were $4.50 each (box was $85). So me and my Goodwin Champions were finally united. I jetted to the supermarket and then to class after that. I opened my packs while waiting for the professor to show up because I couldn't wait any longer. Here is what I got:

More than pleased with the way the cards look. I love the design, and the colors are amazing. One thing I thought was kind of odd was that the David Wright card has Mr. Met in the lower corner. I wonder if that is some sort of variation, or that they are all like that. There is no Phillie Phanatic on the Chase Utley. I got a mini Robbie Cano card which made my day.

I am working on posting the results of my OPC hobby box... It may or may not happen, lol.

Do you belong in this set?

"Get off my lawn"

If you belong in this set of trading cards, undoubtedly, you've heard those words.

While we collect trading cards for multiple reasons, they serve so many purposes. Parents get them made up for their children competing in soccer, football or other sports.

This site, The Problem With Young People Today Is..., created online trading cards with all the little hoodlums running around the neighborhood.

There's the stoner and the skank, all made with the backgrounds of some of your favorite cards.

With only three cards in the set, there certainly has to be a couple of more.

Name them.

CONTEST!!! Picture Game

Hi Haters. I know you are all going to get your boxers in a bunch when I saw that I scanned this from (gasp!) Beckett, but this is probably the only thing I can take for what it's worth. I like reading the previews, I enjoy flipping through it, and most of all I only bought it because Albert is on the cover. There is a short article on his chances of winning the triple crown, and I will read anything about him really. So if you don't want to play, you don't have to.

Here is a fun little game. Since I know pretty much all of you don't read or buy Beckett I am going to offer a prize for the first person to get at least 6 correct answers. The prize will be a game used card from my pc (Yankees are not an option here) or you can have an A-Rod hater t-shirt.

There is no time for the end of the contest, it will be the first person with the correct 6 guesses. Good luck, and stay tuned for the results of my free OPC hobby box from Upper Deck.

Trading cards to die for

OK, so my pun was really bad, but it was the only thing I had.

I came across this disturbing story browsing the web. Apparently, two 10-year-old boys robbed a 9 year old girl in Sweden at knife point.

They wanted her Japanese cartoon trading cards, which were probably Pokemon cards or something of the sort.

I would have fought dirty and crazy if one of you boys tried to come after me for my Jeter cards.

There could have been five of you with UZIs and you would have had to cut me down to get my cards from me.

I wish I was in that park to help that girl out that day. I would have taught those boys just how cherished trading cards.

I'm thinking paper cuts ... on their mouth.

The Doc is back

Dr. Wax Battle is back.

He's been on hiatus for a while and he revamped his website to include a blog and a forum. Check out his new site here.

Many of you know the Doc. If you ever watch Stale Gum's box breaks, you definitely know the Doc. He is based out of a card shop in New Jersey, which is only about 45 minutes from where I live.

I like giving him my money.

He is one of the few remaining card shops in the area.

Doc also revolutionized what box breaks are about. He had a successful web show based on trading cards.

I plan on visiting the Doc soon. I've gotten some pretty cool cards from him in the past. Hopefully, his Jeter collection has more items than when I was there last time. It's tough getting Jeter cards because there because his card shop is in an area filled with Yankee fans.

I feel safe in saying, Welcome back Doc. We've all missed you.

Sunday Question: What does this time of year do to you?

The weather is getting cool. Football is upon us. Yet, baseball season is still here.

The question is what does this weather do to you? Does your baseball fandom wane with the start of college football and the NFL? Or do you get pumped with the impending baseball divisional races?

For me, football only is significant because of work. Otherwise, I don't care for it until baseball season is finally over.

Baseball is number one in my heart.

Love,
Sooz

Conrgratulations to the Captain

If you are reading this and are annoyed before I even write anything else, please click the little "x" and spare us the sarcasm and general dislike comments. Happy Marie is here! Surely the national media was on overkill for the last few days with this, but in New York where people actually care and this matters. When asked what Jeter would remember most from this day years from now he said it would be the fans, and how so many people stayed through the delay and sat in the rain to cheer for him and the team.

Congrats to Derek Jeter for passing Lou Gehrig as the leader in hits as a Yankee. I was at the stadium last night and it was amazing how many people were there, and waited for an hour an a half rain delay for a game that otherwise means nothing really. Granted the Yankees want to clinch as soon as possible, however this wasn't a now or never game for us and it surely will make no difference in Baltimore's season.

No one was in their seats for the top of the 1st because it was pouring (I was sitting in my seat), and between the top and bottom of the first people came and they stood. We all stood and waited for Jeter to strike out. Then most people ran for cover, and did not come back out until Jeter's next AB.

When he hit that single I jumped probably as high as I could along with most everyone else. It was such an awesome feeling, even though I did nothing. One of the guys walked by and kissed me on the head, incredibly random however people were being random. Jeter was greeted by teammates in foul territory at first, some of the Orioles were clapping for him (by some I mean I saw one), but on behalf of the fans I would like to thank the O's for stepping back for a minute to let Jeter enjoy the moment. We were winning the game at that point so Jeter got to enjoy it, and the O's were respectful of what was going on. Nick Swisher, which most people didn't notice, waited a long time to get in the box after Jeter's hit. He stood there long enough so that Jeter could soak it in a little longer and take his helmet off one more time before stepping in.

I had a great time and there is no where else I would have rather been last night. It could have snowed last night and I would have sat there waiting.

Please take a look at this link if you are a Yankees fan living outside NY, we have linked this blog many times before and it is by far the best beat writer blog around. There is some audio from the press conference and post game there to check out.

Cool site

My friend Jon sent me a message with a link to this site telling me to go here for a good laugh. Boy was he right. This is a link to "The Worthless Card Collection", which is making me crack up as I go through them. Take a look at this site, well worth the visit.

This should help most of you procrastinate the day away until work is over.

The most random pull ever

As many of you might have noticed, I should win worst blogger of the week for being MIA. I have been back in school, 2 classes turned into three, and they are slightly higher on my list of priorities now. I still love all of you, promise.

My mom being the good sport she is, was out shopping the other day while I was at school and thought she was being nice by picking me up a couple of packs of cards. I say thought because she grabbed some American Heritage rack packs. I thought about returning both or one of them, but then decided why not open them since I haven't seen any of them yet. I wasn't impressed at all, I got a couple of reprint Jackie Robinson cards, a Firefighter card, and some other random crap. However, there was this card and I swear this Target is the best ever.



I find this card a little on the eerie side considering what happened to the space shuttle. I have no idea what I am going to do with this card. It was really cool to get something that wasn't a white swatch of a jersey, but it strikes me as odd. Interesting piece of history, but not sure if it's something I really want to keep in my collection.

My writing for the Upper Deck blog paid some nice dividends in terms of a hobby box of O-Pee-Chee which I will crack this weekend. Perhaps a live box break, though with no camera. We'll see how it goes, because if for some reason the Yankees are rained out tomorrow night the game may be played as a double header Saturday in which case I'll end up there and not playing with cards.

Anyone have any pre-orders in for any boxes? I still need to order a box of Goodwin, I am less excited about the release now only because I haven't really had much time to think about cards in the last week or two.

9/11

September 11th (9/11) is a date that we will forever hear and say with sad memories of what happened that day. It's hard to believe that it was 8 years ago already. I don't know a single person that can't tell every detail of what they were doing when they found out what was happening.

Everyone should take a moment today to remember the men and women who lost their lives that day, and all the men and women who lost their lives defending our freedom overseas.

Fantasy baseball update

We're coming close to the end of the baseball season and the blog fantasy baseball is winding down. I'm completely out of the running, but there is a nice race at the top of the league, which looks like it could go to the wire.

The Dude 7,645
Grand Cards 7,604
Purple Donkey 7,314
Carolina Xfractors 7,074
Victorious Secret 7,049
The Franchise 6,765
Legion of Boom 6,598
Cards on Cards 6,388
gcrl 6,155
Gabe's Babe 5,470
Boneyard Braves 5,396
WESTCOAST PIMP 5,393

This is about Jeter - not for the haters

Derek Jeter tied the Yankees all-time hit record tonight with a single in the 7th inning of Wednesday's game. He tied Lou Gehrig, one of the all-time great Yankees.

Jeter did it in front of a packed house and I was slightly disappointed I wasn't there. However, I've been at Yankee Stadium for many amazing moments in Yankees history.

The video of the hit can be viewed here on Yankees.com.

I remember when Jeter first made a mark with the Yankees in 1996 (even though he came in 1995). There was a big article in Sports Illustrated about the two newest New York short stops: Jeter and Rey Ordonez.

he article, if I recall correctly, gave the edge to Ordonez and I was intrigued by both of these men. However, only one really had my heart.

Jeter came up with a class of good shortstops, which included Ordonez, Alex Rodriguez, Alex Gonzalez, Edgar Renteria and Nomar Garciaparra.

He wasn't the best player of that group. Jeter still isn't. But one thing the Yankees captain had going for him is his consistent play ever since he started in 1996. Jeter has been reliable ever since and in the big moment, no one would rather see Jeter more than any other current Yankee.

I was there when Jeter dived into the stands against the Red Sox. I'll never forget that game.

Hopefully, there will still be several more years of Derek Jeter in a Yankees uniform.

Congratulations!

Not trading cards related, but cool

I can't embed the video, but this is a You tube clip of a 4-year-old drummer.

He kicks your ass.

Go here.

Jeter vs. Gehrig

I'm not sure where the confusion is for some people on Twitter and elsewhere but no one is saying Jeter is/was a better player than Gehrig. I have yet to read someone stating that as an opinion. Maybe there are people saying this, and I just missed it. Jeter is not the powerhitter that Gehrig was and Jeter has also been quoted as saying he doesn't care if he ever hits another homerun again when asked about him being the 8th man on the roster to reach 20 in the season.

The following of Jeter breaking the Yankees all-time leader in hits and putting Gehrig in the same sentence is based on the Yankees all-time leaderboard which is no indication of him being an MVP or anything like that. Jeter has a place in Yankees history whether some of you like it or not, and he will be one of the greatest Yankees ever despite playing longer than Gehrig and whoever else.

Here are the Yankees all-time leaders so you can see for yourself. Yes, Jeter has had more AB's and plate appearances than Gehrig but what is the big deal? This stat is meaningless to everyone outside of the Yankees fan base, so why all the hate if you don't like the Yankees? It's a franchise record and by no means an indication that he should be MVP or that anyone should be saying he is the best player that ever lived. If someone can show me another player who has meant what Jeter has to the Yankees, and brought that many championships to a team in the same years that Jeter has been playing, by all means tell me.

Sunday Question: Create your own player

Ok, I know it's Monday. But the holiday had me all messed up this weekend. So, here's the holiday question:

Create your ultimate baseball player. Take different attributes such as speed, base running, hitting, hitting for power, eye, intangibles, build, hands, feet ... anything, and create your ultimate player.

The main rule is you can only use active players. You can't use Babe Ruth's power and lustful appetite.

I'll be back later with my own player. For now, it's back to watching Cincinnati beat the crap out of Rutgers.

As the blogosphere turns...

Recently it seems like there is some sort of non-existent competition between the "real" media, and us lowly bloggers who know nothing about the hobby. It kinda makes me wonder if the next issue of the "hobby magazine" will include coupons for tampons and beauty tips. We as the community of consumers who choose to buy or not buy cards, magazines, and supplies should just take things for face value and not support those outlets or companies that seem to think we don't deserve a voice.

Don't get me wrong, I really have read very little into this whole situation and would love to hear the story from someone who knows it better than I currently do. What I do know is that certain "real" media outlets have their thongs in a twist over getting beat to a story. What is the big f#$#ing deal? "Real" media is always in competition to get the story out first, be it on tv, news, newspaper, whatever- point is no one is ever alone in reporting on an issue or a story.

If certain people have some sort of issue with the blogosphere beating them to things, well don't go to bed at 9p.m. and you won't miss the late night news.

See now I'm being a girl and gossiping. Problem is, you would expect that of a woman.... yet I couldn't give a s@#$ less about who says what first. Get a life. Sure, if Sooz or myself hear something and it's breaking news that we don't see elsewhere we try and get it up as soon as possible. If we missed it, well guess what? We lose, and then guess what we do? We get over it.

I'm done being a twa... about this because I really don't care.

P.S. Some of you find my tweets about random things and wanting to hate something new funny so I figured you would all get a chuckle out of my two cents. If not... oh well.

Thome deserves more respect

There are many things this generation of baseball players will be remembered for and, good or bad, there are some baseball players that may be forgotten altogether.

Jim Thome is one of the best home run hitters in the game, but it's seemingly rare that he gets enough credit for what he does. Part of the problem may have been where he has played. He spent most of his career in Cleveland, went to Philadelphia for big money in the early part of this decade and spent the last couple of years with the White Sox.

Thome was recently traded to the Dodgers where he's expected to be a pinch hitter, the nasty hitter who can crush a ball in the blink of an eye.

However, Thome has 564 career home runs, which is 12th on the all-time list.

For someone with as many home runs as has, I feel he hasn't gotten enough attention over the years. If I am off base, please let me know. But I don't recall Thome being mentioned in the same breath as Mickey Mantle or Jimmie Foxx or Mike Schmidt.

According to Beckett, he only has two rookie cards: 1991 Bowman #68 and 1991 Upper Deck Final Edition #17F. Both come at a steal on eBay.

A PSA 10 of the Bowman (pictured) recently ended at $20, but you can get one ungraded for just a few bucks.

A 100-card lot of his Upper Deck FE cards went for under $100, all ungraded.

For a member of the 500 home run hitter club, Thome doesn't get enough respect or credit for what he has done. And, from everything I've heard, Thome is one of the good ones.

A tale of two teams

Recently I stumbled across a friends picture on Facebook and they were wearing a Mets hat. Now, if they were a Mets fan then it would be great. This person swears to be the biggest die-hard Yankees, I bleed pinstripes, Yankees are Gods type of fan yet was wearing a Mets hat because they wanted to "blend in" at Citi Field. Honestly, that's a bunch of horse sh**. Anywhere I have gone to see a game I was wearing my Yankees gear including Fenway Park. You couldn't pay me to wear a Mets hat. They also wear it to Mets games because their significant other is a Mets fan, and it supposedly "makes them happy" and there is no difference because the "Mets suck anyway who cares".

Separate incident, I was at Starbucks a few days ago and I saw a friend of mine sitting outside drinking coffee so I went over to say hello... Another one wear a Mets hat. They claimed that their Yankees hat was wet from sitting in the rain at the game the night before. Well, either wear a different hat or don't wear one. Furthermore, why do you even own a Yankees hat? "I wear it when my company goes to Mets games." What? Really, another bunch of B.S. that makes no sense to me.

In my world you are either a Mets or Yankees fan, you are not both. You do not root for both when they are not playing each other. If the Yankees are not in the playoffs I would root for whoever is playing the Mets on principal since their fans are such a**holes. Same thing if you are a Giants fan around here, you do not ever root for the Jets. Ever.

Now, what I want to ask you guys is this: Where you live, if there are 2 MLB teams can you be a fan of both? I know perhaps some places might be different although it seems like in California the Dodgers and Giants fans hate each other (rightfully so if you ask me). Anyone think being a fan of both teams is possible? If you are a fan of two teams within the same state I would like to hear about it.

Don't get me wrong, if you like a bunch of teams or players from all over that's cool. I love a bunch of random teams/players and have a bunch of different shirts I like to wear representing my favorites. Not one of them is a Met.