Moving up to 18 minutes of fame

Before the drama was ARod (we wrote about it), Dallas Braden wasn't a household name among baseball fans. He became well known when he told the Yankees third baseman to stay off his mound. If Braden kept at that pace, he would have probably been forgotten about again. (ebay listing of card pictured)

It will be difficult to forget about him now.

Braden threw a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays today (as a Yankee fan, I thank you). However, the ensuing commentary have been more interesting than the game itself. First, it was Mother's Day and Braden's mother dad from cancer when he was in high school. He was raised by his grandmother after that.

She was at the game today and had plenty to say about her grandson's performance.

"Stick it, ARod," she told reporters after the game, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Twitter.

No we all know where Braden gets it from.

According to Bryan Hoch, the Yankees beat writer for MLB.com, A.J. Burnett watched the end of the game as when Braden and his grandmother embraced said: "Grandma, I love you, but don't cross my mound."

ARod FINALLY took the high road and responded with: "Good for him. Even better that he beat the Rays."

I think I was more surprised by ARod's non-answer than the rest.

If you are looking for Braden's baseball cards, there is a quite a bit of an assortment of cards, but not overwhelming. He has a 142 trading cards and 42 autos, according to Beckett. For now, his cards are going for a relatively cheap prices, but I suspect if you wait a month or two, they will go even lower.

By the way, in the time I write this to just now (which is about 20 minutes), at least 50 more cards have been listed on eBay.

Exquisite baseball drives me crazy

I don't own many Exquisite cards. I never bought a hobby box of the stuff. If I recall properly the stuff is really expensive.

But, I do have a few cards of 2007 Exquisite baseball - and it drives me completely crazy.

Why is this set so big? There are so many cards per player it makes it difficult to chase. Not only for the sheer number of cards, but because of the prize of the hobby box, usually you can't find many of these cheaply on eBay. I've seen Kevin Kouzmanoff card being offered for BIN at $80-plus (example). No one, not even his mother, is going to pay that much money for one his autographs.

Slowly, excruciatingly slow, I've managed to pick up a few cards through eBay and trades. There are 58 of the 2007 Exquisite card on my want list.

I have seven. This is even harder than the 2008 UD Heroes to complete.

This was the latest one I picked up on eBay.

2007 Exquisite Rookie Signature Collection College Ties Autograph with Lyle Overbay.They both played at the University of Nevada-Reno, just not at the same time.

2007 Exquisite Rookie Signature

I came across this card (2007 Exquisite Rookie Signature Materials 12/99) on eBay last weekend, and luckily for me there was only about 7 minutes left when I did. I put in a bid for about $3.00 or so, and ended up only paying $2.25 for this awesome looking card. From the eBay scan, and even my own it looks like the signature is on card but upon in person inspection, it is a sticker- a very carefully placed one at that. You can hardly tell that it is a sticker, and I am going to make myself believe that he signed the sticker while it was on the card. Heck for $2.25 I don't care how the heck it was signed.

Quad relic autograph for that price, you can not beat it. I don't really seek out his cards much these days with all the other things I am trying to track down but he does end up in my watch list often. I really look for Pujols and Cano before anyone else, and the Yankee Stadium Legacy set which has consumed my life. This is my first relic/auto combo of Lind and it is a serial numbered quad game used which makes me very happy.