Mariner Trades

This time of year usually turns in to a time of depression for the average Mariner fan as we see players being let go to clear out payroll dollars. But this year may be different. The team is only 7 ½ games out of first place in the West and only 5 ½ games out of the Wild Card spot with 61 games still to play.

Will there be redemption this year? Will the Seattle Mariners be playing well in to October?

In the last 2 weeks the Mariners have made a number of trades, and it looks like not only are they plugging holes but also they are trying to bring in some help. Some needs have been filled, specifically at Shortstop, and some young pitchers have been brought in too. The big question on everyone’s mind is what will become of Jarrod Washburn?

UPDATE 7/31-

In a last minute trade before the 4pm deadline, the Mariners traded Jarrod Washburn to the Detroit Tigers for a couple of pitching prospects. This season is turning out to be a pleasant surprise; I guess you can probably tie the Mariners woes to ex-GM Bill Bavasi. The current GM, Jack Zduriencik, is making trades that are filling needs as well as setting the team up for the future.

While Washburn is having a decent season, he is a 34-year old .500 pitcher with a career 4.02 ERA, so to get 2 young arms in return looks to be a good move for the future of the team. I think if Bedard had been healthy the Mariners would have worked some more deals but I am pretty happy with the way that things are going. It is nice to see Seattle working trades in their favor.

Michael Vick's Return

It is official now; Michael Vick is now back in the NFL, I guess I can put aside my “Vick in the UFL” talk for now.

OK… now that Michael Vick has been conditionally reinstated back in to the NFL lets rush and sell every Vick card that we can get our hands on (I am saying this sarcastically). In the last 24 hours there have been well over 100 auctions added and while many of the postings are reasonable you do come across the random oddity. Is a 2007 Topps Chrome Refractor Vick error card really worth $750? As Susan Powter would say “Stop the Insanity!”

With that said, I decided to go take a look to see what Vick cards I have hiding away and actually came across a couple of decent jersey cards packed away in a binder. The Ultimate Super Jersey was pulled from the same box that I pulled my Omar Jacobs Rookie Patch. I don’t remember when I pulled the Triple Artifacts; damn memory fails me now that the temples have begun to grow silver. But I do know that I will be holding on to the cards for now and see how things go with Vick’s return.

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In a USA Today story, Hank Aaron said that he would accept players who have been linked to steroids to be admitted to the Hall of Fame under one condition, that the players HOF plaque contain an asterisk. This announcement by Aaron has drawn some strong opposition from other Hall of fame players who stand determined to argue the admittance of any player connected to performance enhancing drugs including Goose Gossage and Mr. October himself, Reggie Jackson. As a collector and this being sports related, I have my own opinions regarding the subject which also affects my collecting habits.

I personally agree with Gossage and Jackson on the subject. Unfortunately there are players who have been implicated without any proof and there stands the difficulty on who should be admitted to the Hall and who should be denied.

This is one debate where I do not expect any decisions to be made any time soon by the spineless Bud Selig and will continue to be put in to the hands of the Hall of Fame voters to make the final decision. The fans know players are juicing, the managers and owners known players are juicing and even the commissioner knows that players are juicing yet very little has been done to counter this blight.

I now have no interest in collecting players like McGwire, Bonds, Clemens and Sosa. I know that there are collectors out there who still collect some of the players listed in the various reports or in rumors, but I see this as violation of the rules and I just cannot support these players.

Legendary Pioneers

I was reading through a recent announcement from Upper Deck regarding their 2009 SP Legendary Cuts Baseball set. The first collector who completes the entire Cut Signature set will receive a 1 of 1 Legendary Pioneers Quad Cut signature card containing the signatures of Abner Doubleday, James Naismith, Knute Rockne and Fredrick Stanley. This card is no doubt an amazing and interesting card.

The Cut Signature set consists of 321 cards this year and Upper Deck announced that there are at least 5 autograph cards of each player. They did this to entice collectors to attempt to put together the entire set. I love the Legendary Cuts set, the best box I ever busted was a 2001 SP Legendary Cuts, but this promotion seems a bit ludicrous due to the seriously limited availability. Out of 321 total cards, 138 cards have less then 10 copies. That is 43% of the entire set is limited to less then 10 copies. To make it even worse, 75 cards are limited to 5 copies making it a whooping 23% of the set is limited to just 5 copies of each card.

I do have to say that at least UD is being realistic about the contest, they set a deadline of December 1, 2009 and if nobody has collected the entire set they will be awarding the card to the collector who is furthest along in completing the set. Good luck to all you cut signature collectors and happy hunting.

While I do like this card, I have some problems with it too. I prefer to have an image or photo of the player because it adds some visual appeal to the card. This card does have some strong signatures though, only the Stanley signature is illegible. The smeared “e” in Knute Rockne’s signature really detracts from the card too, I am sure they could have found a better specimen to use for such a special release.

Omar Jacobs

A couple of years ago I decided to take a chance on some upper end product and picked up a box of Ultimate Baseball and Ultimate Football.

Last night I was reading through Bad Wax and came across a story about ex-Pittsburgh Steelers Omar Jacobs failing in the NFL and doing well in Arena Football. It got me wondering how it is that a player that “played” for 3 different teams in 2006 and 2007 but never actually played for any of those teams actually made it in to so many different football card sets in 2006? Even worse is that he made it in to some upper end products such as Ultimate, Exquisite and National Treasure.

So reading the story got me thinking about my Ultimate experience, so I pulled out a binder I have sitting in my closet to see what I had pulled from the set and sure enough I was fortunate enough to pull a Omar Jacobs Ultimate Rookie Patch #/25. I look back now and think I should have skipped the box and instead picked up individual cards. This card and $3 and I could pick up an Iced Chai Latte at Starbucks.

Losman in the UFL

The UFL (United Football League) gets their first big name (sorta big name anyway) today with the signing of J.P. Losman by the Las Vegas team. Losman was the 2004 1st Round draft pick of the Buffalo Bills, who had high hopes for the youngster out of Tulane, but he never seemed to really take command of the team.

Hopefully signing with a new team in a new league will give Losman the opportunity to start fresh and prove something. Now that a semi-established NFL player has moved on to the new league, the question is “Who will follow?” At this time the rumors seem to be leaning towards Michael Vick possibly joining the UFL if Roger Goodell does not reinstate him in the NFL at their meeting later this week. If Vick does join the UFL it is quite possible that some other NFL players may follow his trail to the infant football league. Can Adam Jones be far behind?

2009 Upper Deck Icons Football

I have been waffling with the 2009 UD Icons releases. I am just not that impressed with what I have seen so far but in reading some of the reviews it seems that some collectors like the set so I decided to pick up a retail box just so I could get a taste of the set. I also picked up a 2009 UD Icons Baseball box at the same time and will review that at a later date.

To start, I should have gone with my gut on this one; I am not to impressed with this release. When it comes to the cards design things just have a sloppy look. You have a nice action shot of the player, which is great, but then there is a sepia colored, de-saturated image of the player in the background and to “artsy” things up someone decided to use a grunge brush. In my opinion it actually muddies up the entire card design and was a poor decision. The back of the card is simple, an image of the player, team logo, name and stats. Keeping the back simple was a nice addition, it kind of balances out the card design overall.

The retail box also contained Silver Board Parallels, which are essentially the base cards where the background image on the card front is chromed up a bit. Otherwise there is nothing special about this parallel. Another insert pulled was the “Class of 2009”, which in my box I pulled Clay Matthews, Green Bay’s 1st round pick, #/450. The Class of 2009 card was a nice addition, while not a true rookie card it added an extra insert to portray the rookies. One thing that I did like about the retail box was that it also included a pack of “America’s Team”, an all-Dallas Cowboys subset. Not that I am a Cowboys fan, but still a cool subset.

Finally was the “Game Day Gear” jersey card, an Upper Deck generic set jersey card used as an incentive in retail boxes. I actually liked this design better then the “Sophomore Sensations” and “Decade of Dominance” jersey cards that are part of the Icons checklist so I am not complaining.

Seattle Sounders FC

I know that soccer matches are not something that you normally would find on a sports cards blog, but I have been a Seattle Sounders fan for a number of years now and even though I can not attend the games anymore I still keep up with the team in their inaugural MLS season (prior to 2008 the Seattle Sounders were a USL First Division team until the MLS offered an expansion to Seattle).

Anyway, the Sounders FC played in a Friendly against Chelsea FC this afternoon at Qwest Field. For those who do not know, Chelsea is one of the elite teams of the world. Since 2004 the Blues have been Premier League First Division Champions twice and Runner-up twice. They won the FA Cup twice (and are currently the FA Cup Champions) and the League Cup Champions twice with 1 Runner-up. They were also European Cup Runner-up in 2008. So, to play against Chelsea FC is an honor for a first year MLS expansion team.

While the match ended as a 2-0 loss, Seattle walked away with their head held high. Chelsea scored their first goal in the 12th minute and their second goal in the 35th minute, the remainder of the game saw two balanced teams controlling the ball well including some awesome defense by D Zach Scott in the last 10 minutes of the game. An exciting match overall and while a loss is a loss, it was still a great game to watch.

Greg Maddux

One of the greats got some admiration tonight from the team that he will always be connected with, Greg Maddux had his number retired by the Atlanta Braves this evening.

When someone brings up the domination of the Braves, three names will usually come to mind; Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz. These three pitchers were as dependable and domineering as any team manager could ever hope for to have in rotation. In the 10 seasons that all three pitchers were in the rotation they went a combined 425-224-65, that is averaging 42 wins per season just on these 3 starters alone (plus the 2 years that John Smoltz was in the Bullpen).

Maddux retired after pitching for San Diego and LA Dodgers last season, Glavine was un-ceremoniously released last month by the Braves and Smoltz is currently with Boston. Hopefully the Braves will re-sign Glavine in September to allow him to retire properly, letting go a legend like that is just a plain kick in the nuts. It is quite possible that within 6-7 years from now all three men will once again be united at Cooperstown in the Hall of Fame.

2009 Topps Magic Football

I was a bit uncertain about Topps Magic football release. A number of reviews that I have read have pasted the set as “an average release” which does not give it an appealing aura. I finally decided to take the plunge myself because I am a vintage collector and have felt that many of the re-creations have done justice to the original sets.

I picked up a couple of packs and honestly have to say that Topps did a pretty nice job with the set. There are some positive qualities but there are also so negative qualities. Overall I do like what I have seen so far and definitely will consider picking up a box to break to work on building a base set.

Beginning with the card description itself, Topps did a great job using a similar style cardboard for printing; the cards have a similar feel to the original 1951 release. The fronts contain an action shot of the player in their college uniform with a small black box along the bottom containing the player name, position and team nickname. The backs contain player information, the school logo and a question and answer box. The difference from the original set is that instead of a photo of the college campus the bottom box now contains a state map pinpointing the location where the player played during college.


One thing that bothered me was the way that that Topps photoshopped the player’s image to give it an “old-time feel” and to add a grain. The original set used photos that were hand colored, Topps used filters to give the photos a similar look but instead ended up looking cartoonish. Another disappointment is Topps used some photos of players in practice gear, ruining some of the cards.

The minis replicate the original 1951 release, where the cards were 2 1/16 x 2 15/16. The minis are exactly the same in appearance and feel as the full size cards except they contain a black bordered parallel version. I do not want to even go on to the Magic Thrills cards, this insert seem like it was just an addition to add more filler.

I am a huge fan of the original 1955 All-American set so the addition of the All-American insert set made me smile. I had to wonder though why Topps would make this an insert when in 2005 they released the Topps All-American set which was a re-creation of the original 1955 set. Not that I am complaining. It makes me wonder if Topps will re-create the 1950 Felt Backs as its own set? There was a Felt Back set that was re-created as an insert in the 2005 Topps Heritage Football set, but I think it deserves its own release.