Picked up a 1971 Topps

I got a 1971 Topps card in the mail from a regular reader who prefers his anonymity. He hooks me up and I definitely owe the guy. I plan on reciprocating in some way, once I can figure out what exactly I want to do. The scan doesn't do the card justice, I think it shifted a little on the glass and caused what you see (the off-sidedness). The card is actually nicely centered, so I am really happy with it.

June 4, 2010 Greensboro Grasshoppers vs Delmarva Shorebirds

I was afforded a chance to go the the new Greensboro park to watch the Greensboro Grasshoppers take on the Delmarva Shorebirds (Orioles Low A team) on Friday, June 4, 2010. I met up with my good friend who knows a thing or two about baseball and we watched the Orioles 2009 1st round (5th overall) draft pick Matt Hobgood pitch. He kind of disappointed me a bit in that he struggled in his start (although he did go 7 innings) and seemed to be overweight. His fastball was ranging between 87-91 MPH and seemed to have trouble repeating his arm slot.
I met and spoke with Hobgood after the game and let me tell you, the kid is a real pleasure to talk to. He shook my hand twice and signed a ball for me. I was able to meet Hobgood after Steven Bumbry (son of Al Bumbry) let Hobgood know that I was interested in meeting and talking to him. Bumbry signed a ball for me also and was very nice to track Hobgood down for me. I won't forget that.

I also met and talked to Mike Devereaux, a former Oriole who I watched when I was a kid growing up as an Oriole fan. He was a good player in the early to mid 1990s. I'm glad he is back with the organization. He definitely seemed appreciative when I told him that I grew up watching him and appreciated the effort he gave on the field. He also signed a ball for me.

I got a cool autograph from former Oriole Ryan Minor. He is significant in that he played in place of Cal Ripken the day The Streak ended. With me being a huge Cal fan, this ball is going to hold special significance to me. Also, because I thought it was a good conversation piece, I got him to sign a ball for Max as well.

Here is a look at the Greensboro field. I really liked it there. I liked that instead of bat boys, they have bat dogs (dogs trained to retrieve the bats). That was really cool to see. The park was easily accessible and I plan on going to several more games there in the future.

Time to Say Goodbye

I met Dave Trembley in 2007 while he was still interim manager for the Baltimore Orioles. I was impressed at how well the Orioles had been playing since Trembley took over and as he signed the baseball I handed him, I told him so. I also told him that I had hoped that the Front Office would keep him as the manager full-time soon after. He smiled and said... 'Thank you, and if they don't, then that's ok too.'

In my mind, that was a classy answer from a very classy man.
It is not Dave Trembley's fault for the bowling shoe tendencies that this season has shown. Sometimes change for changes sake helps a team (see last year's Colorado Rockies), but all signs point to more of the same as this season progresses...

I was not sad at all when Lee Mazzilli was removed in 2005 (I never wanted him here in the first place) and I was calling for Sam Perlozzo's head after the Mother's Day Massacre of the 2007 season. When I began to see the reports today that Trembley is about to be removed as manager, I felt nothing but sadness.

Part of me feels like they are doing Dave a favor. This team is bad. I mean Ashton Kutcher movie bad. He can take the rest of the summer off and reflect that it wasn't his fault that he was handed a team that was to be measured on wins and losses, but lacked talent in a lot of areas and carried a lot of IFs into this season.

The Orioles players should be ashamed of themselves. Some random thoughts on the 2010 Orioles:

• Mike Gonzalez should not be allowed near the bullpen ever. He should have let someone know he was hurt in Spring Training.
• Koji Uehara needs to go back to Japan. Period. He gets winded opening up the paper in the morning.
• Garrett Atkins is done. Time to release him and call up Brandon Snyder. Even if Snyder is batting .220. That's .019 points higher than Atkins. One home run out of the 1B position. Are you kidding me?
• Matt Wieters may not be the next Joe Mauer.
• Brian Matusz may not be the next Greg Maddux.
• Adam Jones has regressed and needs to be sent to Norfolk to learn the game again.
• I'm afraid we may not see Nolan Reimold in the majors again. Makes me sad.
• Miguel Tejada, Kevin Millwood and Ty Wigginton need to be traded. Do these guys a favor and ship them to contenders and land a few more prospects.

This season was a wash after the first two weeks. It has been very hard for me to watch. I have been losing interest all around. The blog, fantasy, any other games, etc. I haven't even voted for the all star team. I started the other blog with Max to try to keep interested and that is slipping too.

If it weren't for Max, I think I'd have given up already. Thanks buddy.

Anyway, back to Dave. Apparently the Orioles plan to replace Trembley with 3rd base coach Juan Samuel. I have been unimpressed with him as a coach so far.

Something that really has bothered me was that certain people in baseball have criticized Dave Trembley because he never played baseball. He has a Masters in education and started out as a high school teacher and baseball coach in the late 70's. He moved on to coaching a small college in LA and then became a scout for the Cubs in 1984. He worked his way up through the minors as a manager, specializing in the development of younger players (a key in his hiring as the Orioles manager). This is a guy who spent 20+ years in the minor leagues as a scout and manager who finally got to realize his dream and become a Major League manager.

I'd really like to see him get reassigned in the organization, but I highly doubt that will happen.

I don't feel too bad for Dave beacuse for almost 3 years, he got to realize his dream and be one of only 30 managers in MLB. I do feel bad for him because is has been a very classy person and deserved much better from the Orioles players and their Front Office. The players and Andy MacPhail better lose some sleep over this.

I now close with an exceprt from Roch Kubatko's blog on masnsports.com "I will say before turning off my laptop, that Trembley is a good man who loves the Orioles as if he grew up rooting for them. He lived and breathed this job. He also cares a great deal about the fans. It isn't just for show. I hope that means something to even his harshest critics."

Good luck Dave. I hope the past few months haven't quieted your love for the game as they have for me. I hope to run into you one day and offer you a beer. Also, thanks for being nice enough to sign a ball (2 of them) for me and talk to me for a few minutes. That, I will never forget.

Winston-Salem Card Show Part III

I picked up a couple random cards while at the show for a dollar a piece...
Here is a 1986 Topps Jumbo Cal Ripken. I found a couple Dodger jumbos also for Max. I kind of like going through the dollar boxes and seeing what can be found...

I was able to knock out 3 cards for my 1970 set, all in really good condition.

I also found this 1954 Topps Howie Fox. Don't know who he is, but I LOVE 1954 Topps. I love the bright colors. Forget Chrome technology, give me a nice, clean, brightly colored card any day of the week... 1954 Topps are so nice. I may try to get a few more soon...

Set Complete - 2010 Topps

Here is the completer card for 2010 Topps. Didn't take me long :) I will do a complete rundown of the 3 boxes I bought in the coming days.
Now I can focus on knocking out some of the older sets that have stalled out (1948 Bowman, 2009 A&G and 1970 Topps).

Set Started - 1971 Topps (Winston-Salem Card Show Part II)

I had low expectations at the Winston-Salem card show, like I said yesterday, but I did run across something I felt that I had to pick up. A guy had this partial set of 1971 Topps.
I had a poll on here a while back saying that I was going to start 1959 Topps next, but I couldn't pass this up. The cards were lower grade (much like my 55 or 70 set), but I got them for a really good price ($60) and I already had a good many here that I hadn't sorted yet.

After I picked up the partial set, I went to another table where the seller had a bunch of cards half off, so I got this Pete Rose and the below Ernie Banks.

I wonder why Banks looks so surprised? Ohhhh noooo, I done gone and stung myself... Banks was a hell of a player, though, he is definitely one of those who I'd love to meet in person.

The 1971 set isn't the best in the world, not too many HUGE RCs (Blyleven, Garvey, etc) and the black cards are easily damaged. I'm not going to go too crazy in getting these in mint condition, but it will be definitely a fun set to put together.

Bo Knows Your Mom - Winston-Salem Card Show Part I

For the first time in something like 10 years, a card show was held in Winston-Salem, NC. This is big because just a year ago, card shows were becoming scarce around NC. I had begun to worry that they would go the way of the dinosaur and not be held anymore. I am happy to see a good number of shows popping up around the area now (time to have one in Greenville, guys!!).

A small (very small) show was held this weekend in Hanes Mall. I practically grew up in Hanes Mall. My mom worked there part time almost 20 years ago, just to get out of the house. One of my brothers and one of my sisters also worked in the mall, too during their high school days.

The show only consisted of 5 tables, with mostly junk, but Pete, P.A., Andy and I were able to come away with a few notable things...

Once again with Bo Knows Your Mom. This shot of Bo Jackson in his football pads with a bat over his shoulders is an iconic image from the 90's collecting scene. A kid I grew up with had this as a poster on his wall. This is just a bad ass shot of a player who was freaking awesome, but didn't last as long as many would have liked.

99% of the cards from the late 80's - early 90's aren't worth crap, so you have to find little things you like about them for them to have any 'value' to you. I spent $1.00 on this card and am completely satisfied with my purchase. I had discussed this shot recently and was so glad to find this in the dollar box at this show.

Words could not describe Bo back in his heyday. The reverse of the card says all that needs to be said... BO.