The Shark Goes Green

There's been a lot of talk about the Cubs/Athletics trade that pretty much shocked everybody. It wasn't necessarily the moving parts that were surprising, but where they ended up and how. On paper, it looks like it'll work out for everybody involved, but only time will tell. I'll probably root for Jeff Samardzija (and maybe a little for Jason Hammel, though I hardly knew ye) in the postseason just as I rooted for Mark Grace and the Diamondbacks back in 2001. What else will I do as a Cubs fan in the post season?

It's been a long time since I posted any kind of custom card. There was a brief flirtation with a season long set (that lasted all of of about three games) but I think I only posted the first one. The Cubs themselves have been uninspiring most of the season, though the game I attended at Wrigley Field the other day has had me doodling some designs again.

Not feeling real original, I recreated some of my lost templates to give Samardijza a proper sendoff. I never got my laptop hard drive recovered so these are from scratch and therefore slightly different from the originals.

I started my blog back in 2012 and this design was what I used for my custom team set that year. It's still one of my favorites to make. For the Cubs version, the number was white like the name (see the Anthony Rizzo is my blog header). But I tried to tweak this one to match the way the A's show the number on their jerseys, green number with yellow border. What do you think?

This was another one of my favorites and I even ran a poll/contest to come up with a name for it. The winner was PASS (Please Autograph Sweet Spot) because the signature area resembles the sweet spot of a baseball. One of the runner ups was FiPS or something like that because many of the cards I made showed some kind of fist pumping celebration similar to Samardzija here. For the record, the originals of these were made before Topps did their Fired Up insert set this year!

I don't think I have any Samardzija autographs in my collection yet, and I definitely don't have any of my customs signed by him, so these are just for fun for now. Maybe someday. Although, I should probably get him to at least sign my ATCRCS card before he goes and wins a World Series and gets expensive!

First Pitch Friday - Golden Tate

So here I am, getting a start on yesterday's post by branching out and featuring somebody from a different team. If you missed yesterday's post, check it out as I'd like to hear your opinion!

I've mentioned previously that a fellow collector from the Seattle area has been helping me get a few ATCRCS signed for my collection and I have been making him some Mariners cards for some of their new guys. With football underway, I have also been sending him some Seahawks cards for guys that have been appearing at the team Pro Shop for free autograph signings.

Just this past week, Golden Tate was the scheduled guest so I sent a pair of cards (plus extras for him & Tate). Rumor has it Tate really liked them and asked for a business card to have more made. Score! Of the two I sent, one is the first pitch card below:

Tate was drafted out of high school to play baseball by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 42nd round of the 2007 draft. He chose to attend the University of Notre Dame instead and was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the 2nd round of the 2010 NFL draft. Not only that, but Tate was also re-drafted in baseball as well, this time by the San Francisco Giants in the 50th round in 2010.

The other card I sent is part of a very basic design that I've been using for the other free Seahawks signings. It's just a matter of changing out the name, position and photo.

I also created a "PASS" custom from his Notre Dame days but I did not send this one in for the signing.

And last but not least, I ran this latest design by the message board on SCN and have come down to these two "finalists" for something new. Let me know what you think.

Signature Saturday - Tony Campana

For those tired of me talking about Tony Campana, you may want to skip this post. There's a lot of reading but also a lot of pictures!

So what would you do if you found out your favorite (current) player was offering a free signing, but it was almost 500 miles away? Would you make the trip? Would you just say, oh well, maybe next time? Well if you're me, you'd find somebody who was going and try to piggyback a few things onto their stuff.

I was just about to post a request on the SCN message board to see if anybody was going when, lo and behold, somebody preemptively made a post offering help! As I said, it was a free signing but I offered a little something extra for his time and effort and we struck a deal.

The signing was in Knoxville, TN where Campana played AA ball with the Tennessee Smokies. It was free autographs from a player who has a small cult following so I had no idea how big the crowd would be. A list of things immediately sprung to mind to get signed but I couldn't choose. I ended up sending a bunch of items and figured I'd be happy with whatever came back.

And boy am I happy! You've seen these enough on this blog so I won't go into too much detail here. These are Tony's two Topps base cards.

Sticking with cards, below are a couple of my Tony Campana custom cards. The Pass custom on the left has been in my blog header for a couple of weeks now. The black shadow on the left side of the card is from the scan. There's a slight curvature of the card due to it being printed on photo paper. The Hustle, Not Muscle card was recently featured here on the blog and talks about Campana's only MLB home run so far, an inside the park job.

This is the third version of a Tony Campana card from the 2012 Team Set that I've gotten signed but it was actually the first one I made. After realizing, he basically had the same pose on his two Topps cards, I decided to make one of him batting instead. And also one of him running the bases. But this one had such a nice signing area, I decided to send it too.

Another thing I mentioned fairly recently was trying to get an 8x10 signed from the pictures used on Campana's Topps cards. Misson accomplished! I went with the vertical option for both and am excited with how they turned out. Not sure when I'll get these framed up because that project will probably cost a whole lot more than I spent gathering all the pieces!

I also picked up two more 8x10's. The first one is from Campana's 1st MLB home run and is the same photo I used in the custom card. This is the only piece I wanted an inscription on (something denoting the feat) but I can't really complain about a free signing, right? Looks good anyway!

This last 8x10 just looked like a fun picture. Nothing much to add, just really liked it.

Some of you may remember that I am slowly but surely adding ice cream helmets signed by "significant" Cubs players. I'm pretty sure all of the ones I have gotten have won some kind of award or honor while with the Cubs. All-Star. Gold Glove. HOF. But I'm also pretty sure being considered a favorite player is "significant" enough. It's my collection, I make the rules, so shutup already!

And last but not least, we have a staple to most autograph collections, a signed baseball. I have a few signed baseballs but not too many of them survived one of my purges. The balls tend to discolor or the ink fades or bleeds so I've stayed away from getting any new ones. This is an official Major League Baseball signed in blue ink so I'm hoping this one holds up.

Anybody else have multiple autographs from one player of the non-certified variety? I have many more Ryne Sandberg autographs but most of them are certified cards from packs.

And the winner is...

In what turned out to be a pretty tight race, my new set will be called Please Autograph Sweet Spot  or "PASS" for short. This title was suggested by Macey225 so send me your want list, Donnie!

I have really enjoyed making this set and love the flexibility it gives me with other teams and sports. The name suggestions were all pretty good and gave me some ideas for other designs to tinker around with so thanks to all for participating!

Here are a few more I threw together just for fun.

Kirk Cousins is decent TTM according to sportscollectors.net so I might try to send these out before the end of the season. I'm not a Redskins fan persay but I live outside of DC in Virginia so work is always a bit easier on Mondays when the Redskins win. It was funny to listen to the outrage when Cousins was drafted so quickly after RGIII and now the about face once he stepped in with a big win last weekend in RGIII's absence.

As a Patriots fan this guy kills me. But also as a younger brother with a big shot older brother that casts a long shadow, he gets my respect. I also had made a Peyton but for some reason I can't find the file to post. Oh well.

Last but not least (and to keep this blog on target), a Cubs legend. Although, when he gets the call to Cooperstown next year, he'll probably go in as a Brave. Booooo! Haha.

I have also added a new tab at the top that showcases all the cards together that I have posted here so far. So check it out in case you missed any along the line.