2013 Topps Heritage Blaster

My second selection among the prize pool for my Fantasy Blaster/Blogger League was 2013 Topps Heritage.

As with the Gypsy Queen from earlier in the week, I realize doing a break is about 6 months too late so I'm only showing the non base cards. Everything is up for grabs so let me know if you need/want something or want me to take a look at your want list for the base cards.

Since this year's Heritage set mimicks the 1964 Topps set, the Flashback inserts pull topics from 1964 headlines. I pulled two, presidential election coverage and one that talks about Juan Marichal pitching back to back shutouts.

This Then & Now card lets you know (on the back) that Whitey Ford and Felix Hernandez are comparable in Shutouts. Felix Hernandez leds the Majors with 5 in 2012 and Whitey Ford Dean Chance led with 11 in 1964. Whitey Ford had 8. Guess Topps was short on Yankees inserts...

I don't know what a New Age Performer is. Isn't that like crystals and horoscopes and tarot cards and stuff like that?

I did pull four Cubs out of the box, something that would have made this box a success earlier in the year. But unlike Qypsy Queen where I didn't buy any, I actually already picked up a Cubs team set when this was released.

And last, and certainly least, the blue Wal-mart parallel that I was supposed to get. I don't think I could have gotten a worse card from the set. Not only is he a NL Central rival, but arguably one of the top 3 hated players in baseball right now.

This probably would have been a decent pull at the beginning of the season and gone for a couple of bucks towards recouping the blaster cost, but without looking, I'd say it'll cost more to ship than I'd get for it.

I haven't seen what the others have pulled yet and for all I know, they struck gold. But after two fairly disappointing blasters myself, I'm rethinking the Fantasy League for next year. Six-plus months is a long time to wait for something bound to lose value the further from the release date it gets (unless of course you get the one on a million blaster). I'd love to hear any opinions from those who participated on how to change things a little. And even from those who didn't but followed along. What would make you join next year?

2013 Gypsy Queen Blaster

I know I'm about six months late breaking one of these open but its been sitting in my house just as long because it was one of the prizes in my Fantasy Baseball Blaster League. Everybody should have their prizes by now so I thought I'd go ahead and post one of mine.

Before this blaster, I opened exactly zero Gypsy Queen this year. I barely even remembered the inserts from blog posts all those months ago. And after double checking, I didn't even pick up a Cubs team set this year. I have a couple through trades but I'm going to have to find the checklist to see who I'm missing.

Anyway, I didn't scan the base cards because you've probably seen them all. If you want me to check out your want lists, let me know. I won't be collecting this set aside from Cubbies so I don't need them. But I will show the inserts because I don't need these either. Some may be earmarked for some of my regular trade partners but by now, they may already have picked them up. So if you want them, let me know.

First up, we have the minis. These were one per pack. A couple big names.

Overall, I probably would have been much more impressed with this box back in April or whenever it came out. Now, at the end of the season, when the Cubs have long been eliminated and MLB is about to show reruns of the 2007 World Series, I might just be ready for winter. How long until pitchers and catchers report?

Almost for got the highlights from the box, the Cubbies!

I don't think Brett Jackson would have made the cut for set inclusion in hindsight but still two nice additions to the collection. I still have another blaster to open and post about as part of my winnings. Here's hoping the other winners had a little better luck.

2013 Baseball Fantasy League Final Tally

Sorry so blurry...

With the baseball fantasy season now over, I thought I'd give everybody who didn't participate a recap and hopefully entice a few more of you to come out next year. For those that need a refresher, I setup a Yahoo Fantasy League at the beginning of the season with a $15 buy-in. The prize pool included seven different 2013 blasters split among for the top 3 placers and for the team with the best record at the end of the regular season. The blasters were distributed as follows:

1st Place - Pick One
1st Place - Pick One
2nd Place - Pick One
3rd Place - Pick One
1st Place - Pick One
2nd place - Pick One
Best Regular Season Record - Gets what's left!

The blasters included Topps Series 1, Topps Series 2, A&G, Bowman, Heritage, Gypsy Queen & Archives. The season long winners of each of the ten statistical categories will also be taking home a repack ($5 value).

But before I get to the prizes, I'm going to set the scene a little bit because there were some pretty exciting matchups once the playoffs rolled around. Participation was pretty good among fellow bloggers but a couple of offline friends/coworkers signed up to help me fill a few spots and their lineup changes were a little more sporadic. That showed up in the standings though as all six playoff spots were filled by bloggers.

At the end of the "regular season", Larry (unclemoe) from My 2008 Topps Set Blog entered the playoffs as the top seed. This earned him a first round bye and guaranteed him one of the seven blasters no matter how he finished.

Second seed went to Roy-Z of plain gray swatch fame (among other blogs), who also earned a first round bye. Tom from Waiting 'Til Next Year wrapped up the third seed and took on sixth seed, Ty from League Leader in Italics. I qualified as the fourth seed and Brian from Play at the Plate won 9 of his last 10 matchups to be my first round competition as the fifth seed.

No offense to Ty, but Tom took him out pretty easily in the first round, winning 8 categories to Ty's 2. Brian on the other hand, took me all the way to the tie breaker after splitting the 10 categories with 5 apiece. Unfortunately for him, the tiebreaker was who had the better record head to head over the course of the season. During our three weekly matchups, I went 17-12-1, winning the tiebreaker and advancing to the next round.

Roy dominated the offensive categories this season winning 4 of the 5 over the course of the season. But Tom, who is taking home three repacks for pitching categories, put up another dominating week, earning a finals birth with an 8-1-1 victory over Roy in the semifinals.

My matchup against unclemoe was just as tight as my first round matchup. The final score was 5-2-3. With those three ties, that could have been losses and knotted us up at 5-5, I would have lost the tiebreaker as unclemoe beat me 7-22-1 in three regular season meetings. Yikes! But with a guaranteed blaster for the season's top record and three repacks coming his way for category wins, I don't feel too bad!

So if you've been doing the math (4 repacks for Roy, 3 for Tom and 3 for Larry), you'll see the top three seeds wrapped up all the category wins. There's probably some correlation there...

If you thought these matchups were close, wait until the finals and consolation finals!

With the top two seeds knocked out, they still had a shot at third place, which also means a blaster.

The pitching categories were pretty clear cut but check out the offensive ones! One run difference, tied in home runs, one RBI. Luckily for unclemoe, he would have won a tiebreaker, too had things gone a little differently. And don't feel too bad for Roy because he'll end up with more cards than anyone with 4 repacks for his category wins. Granted they're repacks, but still, he gets his buy-in back plus a little more.

And now the finals. Two Cubs fans battling it out for the Fantasy League title. Maybe Tom and I can get a meeting with Theo and let him know which direction the Cubs should go?

This matchup was like any good playoff series, it went down to the wire. Unfortunately for me though, the final score was Tom 6, Me 4.

To Tom's credit, he led the whole week and the final score probably shouldn't have even been this close. I started four pitchers on Sunday, netting 0 Wins. I was hoping I could catch him in Wins and ERA or WHIP but I didn't foresee a Henderson Alvarez no hitter when it came to adding/dropping players for Sunday's games. D'oh!

Thanks to everybody who participated this season. Packages will go out sometime this week. Hopefully, with enough interest we can do it again next year and even add a few more players which could mean bigger, better prize packages. While I already know what boxes the winners have selected as their prizes, I can't wait to see what they get for cards!

Final Prize Summary:

1st Place (Tom) - 3 Blasters

2nd Place (Matt) - 2 Blasters

3rd Place (Larry) - 1 Blaster

Regular Season Best Record (Larry) - 1 Blaster

Runs - Roy

Home Runs - Roy

RBIs - Roy

Stolen Bases - Roy

Batting Avg. - Larry

Wins - Larry

Saves - Tom

Strikeouts - Larry

ERA - Tom

WHIP - Tom

Fantasy Baseball Update

Way back in January (I think), I suggested starting up a Fantasy Baseball League made up entirely of bloggers, with blasters as prizes. A twelve team league was ambitious, but we ended up with 10, mostly bloggers, a co-worker and my older son.

For the most part, we have some pretty dedicated players and it shows in the standings. As it should be, the more active players have risen to the top. I thought I had mentioned declaring a mid-season winner to help keep everyone motivated but I may have been thinking of rewarding the end of season best record. It looks to be a two-horse race between Tom of Waiting 'Til Next Year and Roy of plain gray swatch. Tom has the slight lead but he's playing me this week with just a two-game lead over Roy. We'll see how that ends up...

As I mentioned, I am behind again in my trades because of a found bag of packages. But I will try to find something good for the mid-season winner too.

By the time this posts, A&G should be out and when I return, will pick up a blaster to finish out the prize pool. Good luck the rest of the way!

Fantasy League Incentives

We're getting closer to crunch time on this Blaster Fantasy League. If you've been on the fence, and I know some of you have based on the emails I've gotten, now is the time to get in. I've put out some feelers outside the blogosphere and there's interest there but I'm giving fellow bloggers and readers first crack.

As of this post, there are 6 confirmed and actually signed up in the league in Yahoo. I have sent out invites to 4 others that requested but they have not signed up yet. I'll run the league as long as I get at least 10 but I would prefer to have 12 teams.

Apparently friendly competition with some blasters as prizes isn't enough motivation so I'm going to throw a couple more incentives your way.

First off, I have two extras copies of the children's book "Hothead" that is signed by the author, Cal Ripken Jr. One copy will be randomized among the 5 players currently signed up (taking my team out of the equation). The second copy will be randomized among the 6 teams that join later.

Not everybody collects signed books but how can you turn down a Hall of Fame autograph? I don't recommend destroying signed 1st editions (actually I'm against it) but if books aren't you're thing, they are nice bold signatures that would make pretty decent cuts for a different project. And worst case scenario, you could probably make you're buy-in back by selling it on ebay.

Next, I am guaranteeing a "hit" from your favorite team, just for joining. And by hit, I mean a relic or an autograph. I will comb through my personal collection to find something. If I don't have something already, I have a fairly large semi annual card show coming nearby in the beginning of April. By then I'll know who is signed up and an idea of what teams I'll be looking for so it works out perfectly.

I have also decided to add a prize for the team who is leading the overall standings at the All-Star break. I haven't decided what it will be yet but should be able to find something at the card show if not in the meantime.

So in summary, for $15, you'll get an autograph or relic from your favorite team. On top of that you'll have the opportunity to win one of the above Ripken books. Plus, all the blasters and repacks that are available to top finishers and category winners.

I'm open to suggestions on other prizes too.

Leave a comment, send me an email, do what you got to do because draft day is coming! Let's see if we can get this filled by Monday, otherwise I will open it up to outside the blogging community.

For more details on the league, click here.

Blaster Fantasy League & 2013 Heritage Pack

I stopped off at Wal-mart on my way home from work on Tuesday to pick up some essentials in anticipation of the big snow storm that's supposed to be coming through by the time this post is published. I happened to pass the card aisle and noticed they had 2013 Heritage blasters and packs out, although not many of either.

I hadn't been paying attention to release dates so I wasn't expecting them to be there at all. By the time I got home, there were several posts from others already. Geez, even when I'm early, I'm late.

As you can see by the pictures, I picked up one of each. The blaster is one of the prizes for the Blaster Fantasy League I'm running this year. Click here or the tab above to find out more. Lots of prizes available for the price of less than one Blaster. The league is halfway full already and the start of the season is right around the corner so if you want in, let me know ASAP!

The pack didn't give me much to go on as far as getting a feel for this set. I pulled all base cards, no inserts or short prints aside from one blue bordered parallel. As for now, I think I will just stick to the Cubs cards and skip chasing this set. Or maybe pick up a complete set on ebay later on.

Some noteworthy cards:

Padres hot pack! These will be on their way to Marcus over at All the Way to the Backstop as soon as possible. I believe I'm a trade package behind so its time to catch up!

The only "insert" I pulled was this blue bordered Robinson Cano. Anybody pull any Cubs? As always, I'm interested and this one is available.

And the best part of the pack? This Darwin Barney card! The Cubs checklist is a lot bigger than the flagship's series one so I'm excited about tracking down all of the base cards and parallels. Since I'm showing off the card, I may as well break it down.

Photo by Brian D. Kersey (courtesy of Getty Images)

The photo was taken on May 5, 2012 prior to a game at Wrigley Field. The Cubs lost to the Dodgers 5-1. Not a particularly notable game for Barney either who went 0-4 at the plate. Not too many uses for this kind of photo, but its perfect for the extreme closeup, Heritage set!

The back highlights Barney's record tying errorless games streak although there is no mention of the resulting Gold Glove Award. I wasn't brave enough to "ruin" the back of the card by scratching off the answer to the trivia question so I did what any kid would have done with an original 1964 Topps card. I googled it.

"What was Sid Gordon's gift for HR'ing on "Maine Day" in '52?"

A summary of the 1952 season on Wikipedia provided this nugget:

On the 22nd of June, Boston Braves player Sid Gordon hits a two-run homer over the left field fence at Braves Field. His homer won Gordon the prize of a 100 pound bear cub for being the first Braves player to homer on "State of Maine Day". After the game, Gordon was presented with the animal in the Braves clubhouse.

I haven't looked at any of the other trivia questions but I do wonder if the prize "cub" was intentionally used on a Cubs card or if it is merely a coincidence.

Don't forget to sign up for the fantasy league!

2013 Fantasy Baseball League + Topps Series 1

You probably didn't notice so I'll point it out right now. With the release of 2013 Topps Series 1, I decided to go ahead and start the ball rolling on the Fantasy Baseball League I'll be running through Yahoo. I added a new tab at the top of the page that has a bunch of the rules (mostly a recap of my intitial post but a little more formalized), the plan for prizes and a running tab of readers/fellow bloggers who committed to join.

I also went ahead and used my buy-in money to pick up a blaster from Wal-mart:

So click the tab at the top and if you're interested, leave a comment and I'll add you to the list. 

It was tough to not pick up a blaster for myself but I'm going to try to go about my collecting a little differently this year. I went ahead and bought my Cubs team set from a pre-sale on ebay. In an effort to save a little bit of money, I'm going to test my willpower and hold out for the inevitable price reduction to build my set. I prefer hand collating the sets which is still pretty pricey compared to buying a factory sealed one but we'll see how it goes. Last year's Series 1 hobby boxes can be had for about half the original price. Sure I'll miss out on wrapper redemptions and code cards but I've never really done those anyway.

There is a big card show near me in March (or maybe April this year?) so I'm going to try to hold out at least until then. Hopefully even until Series 2 drops in June. We'll see!

That's not to say I'm not interested in your Cubs parallels!

I did already cave and bought one jumbo pack just to tide me over though. Any non-Cubs posted below are available for grabs.

As stated on the package, I pulled 3 of the blue bordered parallels. All horizontal cards and you know how much I like those! When I first saw the base card design, I was a little skeptical of how they would translate to a horizontal design but they are much better than I expected.

I couldn't find the odds on the jumbo pack for the Emerald parallels but I did pull one. They are 1:6 hobby packs though.

These Chasing History cards seem to be part of the same series so I don't know why the Willie Mays is vertical and the Hanley Ramirez and Frank Robinson are horizontal. 

This was a Josh Reddick hot pack. The gold card is numbered out of 2013 and is a 1:5 pack pull. Nothing extra special about the Chasing the Dream card although there are apparently autographed versions of these inserts.

There are 6 Cubs with base cards in Series 1 but I didn't pull any of them. I did however, manage to pull one of the inserts, a 1972 Mini Anthony Rizzo. I'll take that.

And the only base card worth noting (unless I somehow missed an SP because I haven't figured those out yet) was a Jake Odorizzi rookie. He came through the Carolina League two seasons ago with the Wilmington Blue Rocks so we saw him play against the Potomac Nationals. I have no feelings one way or the other for the Royals but its always nice to see these guys from A ball make it to the show. I think I have a Pro Debut signed by him but I'll have to go back and look.

I do like the Career Chase line added to the backs of the card just below the personal statistics. However, this one on Odorizzi's card is a little on the ridiculous side:

 With 4 strikeouts, Odorizzi is 5710 away from Nolan Ryan's all-time record of 5,714.

Also, no 2012 MLB stats on the card? Just minor leagues? Where did those 4 K's come from?

On the other hand, they got Tyler Clippard's just plain wrong. Topps claims Mariano Rivera's save record is 575. You can see by the Brian Wilson I posted for comparison, the current record is 608. Not only that, but Clippard's total of "33" plus "519 saves away" adds up to 552? Yeah, yeah, I know. From yesterday's post, I'm one to complain about Topps mistakes, right?

If you made it this far, I'll remind you again: Go check out the Fantasy League!

Pimp My Fantasy Baseball League

I had a long weekend with one kid sick and the other with an all day wrestling tournament so today's post is just to pimp my Fantasy Baseball League that I'm trying to get started. With a few more participants, I can lock in some rules and the prizes.

Just leave a comment on the original post linked above. Thanks!

Fantasy Baseball Anyone?

Anybody interested in joining a new league?

One of my regular fantasy baseball leagues seems to be crumbling so I am looking to start my own. This may seem a bit early but sometimes it can be tough to fill a league. Wanted to give everybody enough time to come up with the buy-in.

Standard ten categories, 5 offensive, 5 pitching.

Batting Avg., RBIs, Runs, Stolen Bases, Home Runs

ERA, Strikeouts, Wins, Saves, WHIP

I’m flexible if everybody wants more categories but these seem pretty standard. 

Would probably go through Yahoo since that's where my other leagues are. Easier to keep them in place. Weekly head-to-head matchups. Twelve team league, top 6 teams make playoffs.

Buy-in and prizes

Since this is a card collecting community, I thought it would be fun to have the prize be baseball cards.

Option 1:

$15 per person would yield a cornucopia of blasters. I’m thinking 1 Blaster each of Topps Series 1, Topps Series 2, Archives, A&G, Heritage, Gypsy Queen, Bowman and Opening Day. We could do winner take all or split the winnings among the top 3 finishers. Remaining funds go towards shipping and extra prizes (see below).

Option 2:

$25 per person. Upgrade blasters to a smaller selection of hobby boxes. Brands/sets would depend on what group wants within price range with any remaining funds going to shipping and extra prizes (see below)

Extra prizes:

I think it would also be fun to have some extra prizes to keep it interesting for those not in the hunt for the grand prizes. Things such as winning a stat category for the year, any perfect 10-0 weeks, etc). I can get a repack box at Wal-mart and piece out random packs to the winners.

Payment due by March 1st (gives me time to find a replacement if necessary). Live online draft towards the end of March/Spring Training. I would buy all cards as they are released.My local Wal-Mart and Target carried all of these blasters in 2012 so I'm confident they will again. If we go the hobby box route, I would buy them from Dave & Adam's Card World or Atlanta Sports depending on the deal(s) I could get.

If you are interested, let me know which option you'd prefer.