Glass Mariners

I am not a fan of wide vision, Tall Boys or oversized cards in general, mini cards too, they are difficult to store and in a case like mine where I have limited space storing cards comes in to mind when making some purchases. 

 I gave in last year when I did my Black Friday COMC order and picked up both Felix Hernandez and Robinson Cano from the 2017 Gypsy Queen release. They really display nicely with a refractor surface and I really dig the design, even the backs look neat. The 2018 release has a border so the colored parallels look great but with no Mariners on the checklist I wont be adding any to my collection.

The Mariners Loose Cano For Half The Season

The tweet from Rosenthal says it all, Robinson Cano has been suspended 80 games for testing positive to a diuretic, Furosemide, prior to the season.

Cano admitted that he took the diuretic because it was prescribed by a licensed doctor while he was at his home in the Dominican Republic during the off season. The problem is that Furosemide is used as a masking agent for steroids and the MLB drug policy requires the MLB to prove that is was being used with the intended use of steroids, so this doesn’t look good. Cano has agreed to the punishment and will not appeal the suspension, which will cost him $11.85 million in lost salary as well as being ineligible for the All-Star game and any post season playoff games.

Damn it! damn it! damn it!

Ichiro's Future In The Mariners' Front Office

There was an odd turn of events when the Mariners announced this morning that Ichiro was being released. He is batting .205 with nine hits in 44 at bats, so he has shown signs of slowing down a bit and I think that people were expecting him to announce his retirement some time this season, but this was kind of unexpected. But the Mariners also announced that Ichiro will be taking on a position in the Mariners’ front office, so he will be remaining with the organization.

Some reporters pointed out that nowhere in the announcement does it say that Ichiro is retiring so this doesn’t mean that he is done playing so we will have to wait and see.

Care Packages Part Two

I decided to split off the rest of the Mariners cards because there are so many I want to highlight and even this list is cut down from the original 15 card that I had pulled out to post about.

2001 Stadium Club Rickey Henderson (Rickey in a Mariners uni is always a win)

2009 Topps Heritage Ichiro

2012 Bowman Platinum Ruby Hisashi Iwakuma (I love this card)

2016 Topps Walmart/Marketside Robinson Cano

2017 Topps Holiday Robinson Cano

2017 Topps Chrome Reverse Negative Kyle Seager

This was a fun one that Jon included in his package. A 1992 Topps Mike Jackson with a message from Mike himself telling me to turn over his card. Sure Mike, I’ll oblige.

Flip the card… it’s a 1992 Topps Blank Back woohoo!

Care Packages x3

Since the beginning of March my health problems have worsened which has left me in a terrible state. My arthritis pain is significantly worse, I will be returning to my pain specialist soon to begin treatment on my hip degeneration, multiple seizures and migraines have floored me and some days even walking is a struggle, so my body is very strained and I have been dealing with depression. You probably noticed my posts have been less frequent because it is difficult to focus but I am trying to keep myself engaged.

Over the past few weeks I have received three care packages, which have lifted my spirits. They came from Tom at The Angels In Order, Jon from A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts and Angus from Dawg Day Cards. Between the three there were probably 100 cards, this really put a smile on my face.

Unfortunately, I had the cards in three stacks on my computer desk and I moved a blanket off of the end of my bed, hitting the desk and sent most of the cards to the floor in a big jumble so I don’t remember who sent which card. So I am going to present some of the cards that helped lift me up, know that while I am not posting every card I want to thank all three of them for the care packages and each card is now happily in their place in my boxes and binders.

Tomorrow I will post up the rest of the Mariners cards

Starting with the Seahawks

1992 All World Greats of the Game (Straight off my wants list)

1994 Bowman Rick Mirer (One of my favorites)

1997 Totally Certified Red Chris Warren

2015 Panini Intros Richard Sherman (Still upset about the way things went down)

For my Griffey PC

1990 Donruss Best of the AL

1994 Church’s Show Stoppers

1999 Upper Deck Textbook Excellence

Ichiro Is Back (Not Official Yet)

Early reports out of Seattle is that the Mariners and Ichiro are close to completing a one year deal and with the injury of Mariners' outfielder Ben Gamel the deal makes sense. I am excited about this and cant wait to see him prowling around the outfield in the Pacific Northwest where he belongs.

One Card Post- Nelson Cruz Sleeve Patch

A one card post today from the 2017 Hits Memorabilia release. This En Fuego Nelson Cruz patch card is #3/3 and I found it for under $5 delivered.

At first, I was confused about the logo because the Mariners have been using the nautical compass as the logo since 1993 but then I remembered that this past season they wore a 40^th Anniversary patch on their sleeve.

A Welcome Care Package

I just received a care package from Jon from A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts, which I very much so appreciate. He was wondering how I was doing and sent some cards and a DVD too.

The DVD is from the 2007 Season Ticket Holder package and includes highlights from the team’s 30-year history. It was narrated by Dave Niehaus, the voice of the Mariners from 1977 until his death in 2010, and just hearing his voice brought back some wonderful memories of watching baseball over the years. A lot of happy memories.

New additions to my Steve Kerr collection, Sonics collection and Mariners’ collections. There were more cards sent but I only scanned about half of the cards.

I have been working on my Edgar mini-pc and now I have my first Edgar relic card.

The Mariners just retried Edgar Martinez's number and in conjunction with the ceremony they did an Edgar Martinez bobble head SGA and his bat has a light on it that works. I am not a bobble head collector and have picked up only a couple of Griffey SGAs but I do plan on picking up one of the Edgar Lights Out bobble heads when they drop down to realistic prices.

It's a light bat (bobblehead)!

Edgar Martinez Bobblehead Night—with fully functioning light bat—is August 11th. https://t.co/hczcHnsOrT pic.twitter.com/q938N0JS3H

— Mariners (@Mariners) June 5, 2017

The last two cards are a Buhner and Edgar 1999 Upper Deck Black Diamond Triple Diamond #/1500. I had the Buhner card on my wants list so that is a number card off the list. I haven’t built an Edgar want list yet, I am making some changes in my collection so I do plan to create one eventually.

Griffey Is Permanently At Home

Yesterday the Mariners unveiled the new statue of Ken Griffey Jr outside of SafeCo Field. The statue is located on the corner of Edgar Martinez Dr. and Dave Niehaus Way, a location that is now being referred to as the Mariners Triangle.

After the unveiling Griffey took his famous “swing” pose next to the statue, which is now my phone’s background. After the ceremony Snoop Dogg showed up, he said that he couldn’t make it to the unveiling but wanted to get his picture with the statue. He actually posted a video of his visit to the statue on his Twitter feed.

I do not know when I will head up to Seattle again but you can be sure that when I do I will be taking my picture with the statue and make sure to include some of my Griffey wallet card.

All The Ingredients To Becoming A Mariner Moose Supercollector

Becoming a super collector is never an easy thing, often it takes years of hunting and buying to even become just a player collector but there is that occasional time when someone becomes a super collector without even realizing it and that is what happened with me and it really wasn’t an expensive endeavor either.

 

In late 2015 I begin picking up some Funko Pop! figures and along the way I purchased the Mariners Moose figure as it seemed logical as a Mariners fan I should have it. That began my search for Moose cards from major releases and then I realized I needed to organize a checklist to see what I had picked up and what was still out there. Scouring the Google machine and I was able to come up with a checklist, which now sits at 34 cards with the upcoming release of 2017 Topps MLB Sticker Collection. This list is made up of official sets, SGA and Topps Wall Art (5x7 cards). I currently have 30 of these cards, giving me 88% of all Mariners Moose cards. There are also Topps Chipz, which I have picked up some, but I do not consider them part of the checklist and will only pick up the last three if there is a crazy deal.

What is tough is that three of the remaining four cards I have never seen and only found on checklists so I am in a tough situation with these. The cards I have never seen are 1994 Mascot Mania (Given away at the 1994 All-Star game), 2005 Trendwest Resorts Mariners SGA and the 2004 (or possibly 2005) Premera Mariners Get Well Tour Mariners Team Issue #14. The fourth card is #55 in the 2017 Topps MLB Sticker Collection which was released today.

To give a bit of history, the Mariner Moose showed up for the first time in a game on April 13, 1990, his first card was part of the 1991 Country Hearth Mariners SGA set but his first “Official” card was not until 2007 when Topps inserted both a base card and a gold parallel in the 2007 Topps Opening Day release as The Moose, card #205.

In the 26-year history of the Mariner Moose he broke his ankle, learned to drive an ATV, ran as Vice President on the “Griffey in ‘96” ticket and has made it to the final ballot of the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2006 and 2007, but has not been selected yet.

Here is the checklist of the cards that are in my collection, the cards marked with an * asterisk are cards that are in my COMC account.

1991 Country Hearth Mariners Team Set #29

*1992 Mother’s Cookies Seattle Mariners Team Checklist #28 (Currently in my COMC account)

2007 Topps Opening Day #205

2007 Topps Opening Day Gold Parallel #205 (The difference is the opening day date in the upper right corner and #/2007)

2008 Topps Opening Day Tattoos #MM-1

2008 Topps Stadium Club Sketch (Blue)

2008 Topps Stadium Club Sketch (Red)

2009 Mariners Team Issue #00

2010 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M20

2011 Topps Attax #217

2011 Topps Attax Foil parallel #217

2011 Mariners Team Issue #27 (I do want to pick up a unsigned version of this card)

2011 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-20

2012 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-23

2012 Topps Mariners Team Set #SEA15

2012 Topps Stickers #117

2013 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-3

2013 Topps Opening Day Mascots Autographs #MA-3

2013 Topps MLB Sticker Collection #126

2014 Topps Chipz #MAMO

2014 Topps Chipz Blue #MAMO

2014 Topps Chipz Red #MAMO

2014 Topps MLB Sticker Collection #126

2014 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-23

2015 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-21

2015 Topps Opening Day Mascots Jumbo 5x7 #M-21

2016 BASF Mariners Team Issue #MM

*2016 Topps Allen & Ginter's Mascot’s In The Wild #MIW-7 (Currently in my COMC account)

2016 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-19

2016 Topps Opening Day Mascots Autographs #M-19

2016 Topps MLB Sticker Collection #55

2016 Topps Opening Day Jumbo 5x7 #M-19

2016 Topps Opening Day Jumbo 5x7 Gold parallel #M-19

I have a couple of cards that I picked up because they include the Moose but I do not count on the checklist:

2008 Topps Target Back To School Ichiro #TB6

2012 Topps Wacky Packages Series 9 #52 Moose Attack

 *2014 Topps Manufactured Commemorative Patch Felix Hernandez #CP-11 (In my COMC account)