TTM - Bill Long

I still cannot believe these former players do not own sharpee's. Then again this guy played for the White Sox so what do you expect? Just kidding Steve, don't worry. Just so you know I do have one of these on its way to you. Merry belated Christmas! You'll also be receiving another autograph card which I will be highlighting next week. And now on to Mr. Bill Long.

Bill Long was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 2nd round of the 1981 amateur draft. Before the 1985 season he was traded to the Chicago White Sox with Ozzie Guillen, Luis Salazar and Tim Lollar for former Cy Young pitcher Lamarr Hoyt. Bill would make his Major League debut with the White Sox later that year on July 21, 1985. In his debut he pitched 5 innings giving up 3 ER on 7 hits and 1 BB with 5 K's. Long was traded to the cross-town Cubs in 1990. The following year in 1991 he signed with the Montreal Expos pitching just 1 2/3 innings before calling it a career. Bill Long finished his 6 year career with a record of 27-27 with a 4.37 ERA and 9 saves in 159 games, 52 as a starter.

Even more 2008 Topps Updates and Highlights

Bought another blaster for the 2008 Topps Updates and Highlights and I gotta say I'm not a big fan. The cards are just boring. Which is really funny because unlike most of you I liked the 2008 Topps set. Between the 2 blasters I bought I only got 5 doubles so thats a good thing. Just thought I would take the time to voice my displeasure with the set. However at this point i have a decent amount of the set and I gotta finish it now. So here's a want list for the remainder of the cards I need.

11, 27, 52, 62, 73, 114, 125, 126, 129, 160, 180, 216, 233, 237, 240, 275, 282, 289, 294, 306, 312, 324

**UPDATE**

Steve over at White Sox Cards just sent me 74 cards towards this set. I have to send a HUGE thank you out to him for the help. I have updated the above list to reflect the remaining cards needed for this set. He also sent me a ton of other cards for other sets which I will repost here as well. I will put up a post on his entire package once I finish posting the updated want lists.

**Update**

Big thanks go out to Scott over at Hand Collated. Just got a stack towards this set. List has been updated

**Update**

I'm reposting this again due to a nice chunk I got from fellow Mets fan Mark over at Stats on the Back and also some that I got for Christmas. I'm so close now I can almost taste it. Thank you very much Mark for your help.

TTM - Mark Leiter

Mark was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the fourth round of the 1983 draft from Ramapo College of New Jersey. He made his major league debut for the New York Yankees on July 24th 1990 pitching 1 1/3 innings giving up 1 hit and 1 walk with no k's or allowing any runs. Mark was the definition of a journeyman who played for many teams throughout his professional career. He has played for the New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, California Angels, San Francisco Giants, Montreal Expos, Philadelphia Phillies, Seattle Mariners and the Milwaukee Brewers. Definitely not as strong a pitcher as his brother Al, he did however, enjoy an 11 year career in the big leagues, finishing his career with a 65-73 record and a 4.57 ERA. Mark had the dubious honor of leading the National League in losses in 1997 with 17.

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays

I haven't been around for a while but I'm back and wanted to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Thank you all again for all the help you have given me since I started this site last month.

Trade with Night Owl

I am slightly behind with these posts and I do apologize for that. I received a package from Night Owl a couple days ago as well. I got a great chunk of cards towards many sets I am working on. Here's just a little bit of what I got here.



First I received four 2008 Goudey's toward my set. I have chosen the David Eckstein card because I believe he is very under-rated. I think he is a much better player than everyone makes him out to be and is also a great presence in the clubhouse. I would still rather have him playing 2nd base for the Mets than Castillo. There were rumors of this last offseason but they failed to happen.

Next we have a 2008 Topps Heritage Eric Chavez. I received seven 08 Heritage cards towards this set. Once a very good player, Eric has seen his numbers plummet in the past few years and has only played in 113 games the past two seasons and only has 430 AB over that time frame. He never really hit for average but did hit for power. Here's hoping he can turn it around.

Next we have 2008 Topps Updates and Highlights Evan Longoria. I got 15 cards from this set. The Rays could not have made their historic run this year without the help of third baseman Evan Longoria. It really is a shame they fell just short of winning it all. Not only because that means they lost to the Phil's, rrrrr frickin Phils, but also with the additions that the Yankees have already made and the possible additions in Boston its going to hard for the Rays to repeat their "Miracle" year.

Lastly we have a 1986 Topps Pete Rose. Good ol' Charlie Hustle. This guy deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Everything he has done on the field for the sport of baseball far outweighs anything he's done off it!!! Thats all I have to say about that.

In addition to the cards mentioned above. Night owl also sent me some 89 Donruss and 89 Fleer. Again all lists have been updated. I want to say thank you again to Night Owl and let him know that I have some more 2008 Topps Heritage that he needs and they will be out to him shortly.

Trade with White Sox Cards

Got a package in the mail from White Sox cards the other day with a TON of stuff that i needed. Got some old stuff and a lot of new stuff. I gotta send a big thank you out to Steve for all these cards. I got a huge chunk of 2008 Topps Updates and Highlights. Over 70 cards so we'll start there:

I had to start with this card. Josh Hamilton is an inspiration. After everything he has gone through in his life to be able to return to baseball is nothing short of a miracle. His performance in the Home Run Derby this year was phenomonal. If I was Justin Morneau I can honestly say I would not have accepted the trophy. I would've handed it right to Josh Hamilton. He had more home runs in his first round than Morneau did for the entire Derby.

Next I received a good amount of 2008 Topps Heritage towards my set. I chose this one to show because of the significance of the play. An unassisted triple play is definitely not something you see everyday. Hell its not even something we see every year. Kudos to Troy for pulling it off. Plus he did it against the hated Atlanta Braves so he earns some brownie points for that one.

I also received some 2008 Goudey's towards my set. I of course had to choose Johan Santana out of this set. One of the best pitchers to ever put on a Mets uniform. He could've been a 20 game winner last year if it wasn't for our horrible bullpen. But with the additions of Putz and K-Rod, Mr. Santana should definitely see some more W's in the win column in 2009.


I also got some great old cards. Here we have a 1989 Fleer Roger Clemens. Got a few of these cards but I had to show the Clemens card due to everything that we have heard about him this past year. I have never been a big fan of Roger but when the steroid scandal started for some reason I believed him. I don't know why but I did. However the more time passes the more I realize that he, along with many of the heroes I had when I grew up watching this great sport, was on the juice. Sad but true.


Lastly we have a 1987 Kirby Puckett Allstar. When I was a kid I always liked Kirby Puckett. In 1991 the Mets were not off to a good start. Both my best friend Lenny and I were big Mets fans but we had enough of the constant losing. So we decided to choose other teams. Give us a break, I was 11 and he was 10, we were fickle. Anyway, the funny part is I chose the Twins and he chose the Braves. And wouldn't you know it the Twins beat the Braves in the World Series in 7 games that year. I always thought it was funny we just happened to pick those teams. However even after our great picks that year in 1992 we were back rooting for our hometown Mets.

Again I want to send a very big thank you out to Steve over at White Sox Cards for all the cards he sent me. I have updated all of my want lists so any help you can provide to finish these and the rest of my sets is always appreciated. Just so you know Steve, I have some more cards set aside for you already and they should be coming out to you shortly. Tune in tomorrow for my post on my trade with Night Owl.

2008 Goudey Want List

Alright with the blaster challenge finished I will now post a want list for this set. I planned on posting it yesterday but Steve over at The Easy Life was nice enough to share some of his doubles with me today so I decided to wait. I'm just working on the base set here. Sure it would be nice to have the whole set but there are WAY to many sp's in this set. I do have a few doubles left over for trade, not many but a few and I will keep my eyes peeled for whoever needs them. My list is as follows:

4, 11, 18, 19, 28, 31, 43, 58, 60, 61, 74, 102, 115, 116, 119, 121, 122, 126, 135, 138, 140, 142, 144, 152, 162, 163, 165, 171, 173, 186, 191, 200, 201, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230

Any help will be appreciated. I have a couple packages set to go out after the holiday and will be checking other want lists over it.

**Update**

Just got 13 cards from, yup you guessed it Steve over at White Sox Cards. This will be the last repost I promise!!! Thanks again Steve

**Update**

Just received four more cards towards this set from Greg over at Night Owl. I will make a full post on this package as well as Steve's on Wednesday. Thanks Greg

2008 Topps Heritage

I love this set. Back when I first started collecting we had nothing like this. That makes me sound old. Anyway, I like the old time look and the reflector and refractor cards are great. Unfortunately there are so many SP's it drives me insane. Here is a list of what I still need for the following set:

Green Back:

5, 11, 13, 14, 19, 23, 26, 32, 35, 42, 45, 57, 60, 64, 65, 67, 69, 78, 81, 82, 83, 84, 92, 116, 122, 129, 155, 159, 173, 186, 187, 195, 211, 231, 239, 256, 263, 267, 277, 279, 281, 283, 285, 297, 298, 301, 315, 321, 324, 330, 332, 334, 337, 347, 381, 415, 426, 427, 429, 430, 431, 433, 436, 441, 443, 444, 447, 449, 451, 452, 453, 454, 455, 456, 459, 461, 462, 463, 464, 465, 466, 467, 468, 469, 470, 472, 475, 477, 479, 480, 482, 483, 484, 486, 488, 489, 490, 491, 492, 493, 495, 496, 497, 498, 499, 500

Black Back:

13, 14, 22, 23, 28, 35, 52, 62, 65, 82, 83, 90, 122, 135, 176, 177, 186, 196, 263, 267, 291, 325, 334, 335, 338, 371,

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have a bunch of doubles as well as some refractors/reflectors/autographs i've got from this set I'd be will to trade. Please let me know. Thank you

**Update**

Got 19 cards yesterday towards this set from Steve over at White Sox Cards. Once again thank you and I will create a separate post on the whole package in the next couple days once I get a chance to do some scanning. For now I have updated my list above

1993 Studio

Just like the 1991 Studio I posted a couple days ago I also got what I have from this set out of a lot of cards. I figure I put up the 91 want list so I may as well through up a 93 want list as well. This set looks nicer than the 91's. Maybe its the phony autographs on them but they just look nice. Please help with this one as well. Thanks all

4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 15, 22, 25, 27, 31, 39, 40, 41, 47, 48, 52, 57, 60, 61, 65, 70, 71, 78, 80, 84, 87, 89, 90, 93, 95, 96, 97, 102, 103, 105, 109, 110, 118, 121, 122, 124, 127, 132, 134, 139, 140, 141, 145, 146, 147, 151, 152, 154, 155, 156, 157, 159, 160, 168, 173, 174, 177, 178, 182, 184, 186, 193, 196, 197, 201, 206, 207, 210, 213, 214, 215, 217, 218,

As you can see I am much closer on this one than the 1991. I'd like to finish off both. Please help if you can.

**Update**

Steve over at The Easy Life was able to help me out with some of this set. I got 7 more cards from him towards it. Thanks buddy. I've updated the above list.

TTM - Mark Knudson

This is another of the recent autographs I have received through the mail. And Mr Knudson actually owns a sharpie so theres a plus right off the bat. Mark is a former major league pitcher. He was drafted by the Houston Astros in 1982 from Colorado State University. He made his Major League debut on July 8, 1985 with a horrible performance where he went 7 innings, giving up 14 hits and 7 runs with 1 walk and only 1 strike out. On August 15th 1986 (My sixth birthday by the way) Knudson along with Don August were traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for Danny Darwin. Both of which I also have TTM autographs for. He pitched sporadically for Milwaukee over the next two seasons, and in 1989 compiled an 8-5 record with a 3.35 ERA. At the beginning of the 1991 season he came down with a virus that severely affected his performance for the rest of his career. He only pitched 35 innings that year and did not pitch at all in 1992. In 1993 he tried to become a broadcaster for the then expansion Colorado Rockies. He would actually wind up pitching for them. After just 4 games and posting a horrible 22.24 ERA he retired from the sport. He finished his career with a 24-29 record and a 4.72 ERA

1991 Studio

This was another set that got started out of a big lot box. I like the concept of these cards. They aren't the best looking things but I like that they are just normal head shots of the players. Something different at a time when all cards were pretty much the same. So my challenge to you, help me finish this one off. Dig through those doubles you have hiding away and see what you can find. Remaining cards needed:

3, 11, 12, 13, 15, 21, 25, 30, 31, 32, 35, 40, 41, 43, 45, 51, 54, 61, 63, 71, 72, 75, 76, 81, 83, 84, 85, 92, 94, 95, 99, 101, 102, 103, 108, 109, 114, 115, 118, 121, 123, 127, 128, 131, 132, 135, 136, 143, 146, 150, 152, 154, 155, 160, 161, 165, 172, 173, 175, 179, 182, 184, 185, 188, 191, 192, 195, 197, 202, 204, 205, 206, 212, 213, 215, 220, 222, 223, 224, 229, 231, 233, 235, 239, 244, 251, 254, 255, 257, 262, 264

As you can tell I am missing a good chunk of this set. But I like it and I want to collect the whole thing. I don't have any doubles for it but I have plenty of other stuff for trade. Please help me work to finish this one off. Thank you

**Update**

Big thank you goes out to My Buddy Steve over at The Easy Life. He just gave me a HUGE chunk toward this set. The above list has been updated. Appreciate it Steve thanks again

My first package

I have to send a big thank you out to Paul over at Paul's Random Stuff. I received my first package in the mail, a couple days ago, since I started this blog and it was about fifty 89 Fleer that I needed towards my set. I got a bunch of great cards in here. Just to mention a couple good ones.

First we have:
Good old Nails! Look at that stance. He looks like he's about to take one right out of the park. Dykstra was always one of my favorite Mets as a kid. It's a shame he wound up with those evil Philadelphia Phillies.


I had to throw this one on. First of all it was obviously poorly cut. But seriously, I didn't know Aguilera was a cone head. I mean look how high he's wearing his hat. That just looks weird. I think he has a jar of Vaseline under there.......for help with his pitches! Pervs!!!


Putting this one up for a couple reasons. 1. For Steve at Whitesox Cards, I'm sure he'll appreciate it. and 2. Don Pall was nice enough to sign 6 cards for me. Steve is now the proud owner of one of them.



Lastly we have Ricky Henderson. Seriously does he know how to smile. He looks like he's about to charge the camera guy and beat the crap out of him with the bat. This is a challenge to all. I cannot find a card where this guy smiles. I don't think there are any. Someone prove me wrong!

Again, big thanks to Paul. The cards will definitely help towards finishing the set. To everyone else, the want list is still up, check it out.

1983 Topps

The bulk of what I have so far towards this set is thanks to a 5000 card lot I bought at the local card shop. I had a couple strays from this set but now I have a good chunk so I have to finish it. Thats where you all come in. Please help me put another check mark in the complete set column. Cards I still need:

2, 10, 15, 20, 30, 35, 36, 40, 41, 42, 49, 55, 60, 61, 63, 65, 70, 71, 80, 82, 83, 100, 101, 103, 105, 112, 118, 121, 123, 126, 127, 129, 137, 140, 145, 146, 150, 155, 156, 163, 168, 177, 191, 198, 203, 216, 217, 220, 229, 230, 240, 241, 249, 250, 255, 256, 257, 258, 270, 273, 285, 289, 300, 305, 306, 307, 312, 313, 322, 325, 332, 338, 346, 350, 358, 360, 361, 364, 367, 368, 370, 372, 375, 383, 386, 388, 389, 390, 391, 393, 397, 398, 399, 401, 406, 407, 410, 417, 420, 425, 428, 437, 459, 463, 471, 472, 474, 482, 491, 498, 500, 501, 505, 507, 508, 520, 525, 527, 534, 535, 536, 544, 555, 570, 572, 576, 578, 579, 580, 585, 589, 593, 600, 602, 603, 608, 610, 612, 615, 619, 626, 630, 642, 645, 652, 660, 661, 665, 685, 688, 693, 697, 700, 710, 715, 720, 721, 734, 735, 740, 743, 748, 765, 766, 769, 770, 782, 787, 792

As usual any help will be greatly appreciated and I will certainly get something back to you for it.

TTM - Scott Livingstone

Got some more autographs through the mail recently. We'll start first with Scott Livingstone. First let me start by saying damn you Scott and damn the invention of the ballpoint pen. Ahh, now that thats out of the way. Scott was a third baseman drafted out of Texas A&M in 1988 by the Detroit Tigers. He made his Major League debut on July 19, 1991 going 3 for 5 with an rbi. During his career he played for the Detroit Tigers, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals and the Montreal Expos. He played his final game on September 26, 1998. Never a power bat but he did finish his 8 seasons in the bigs with a respectable .281 batting average and struck out only 189 times in 1533 career at bats. Word of advise Scott, invest in a damn sharpie!!!!

K-Rod to the M-E-T-S

I know I haven't posted in a while and this is slightly old news but i've been sick. I'm back now and have to start with the big news on the NY Mets front. K-Rod has signed with the Mets. I have to say I'm shocked by this deal for a number of different reasons. To start with I can't believe this deal happened so quickly. I thought this was gonna be a long drawn out thing like the Sabathia deal. Also his deal was no where near what everyone was expecting. All the chatter was he wanted 4 or 5 guaranteed years. In the end he settled for 3 years and 37 million with a vested option for a 4th. I bet this pissed Brian Fuentes off. He was probably looking at at least that if K-Rod got what he was supposedly asking for. Now that we have arguably the best closer in the game lets work on getting him some more bullpen help. Whatdya say Omar?










Take that all you 86 Topps haters!!!

1989 Fleer

Going back to the 80's for this one. This is another set I started back when I was a kid and of course is not finished. Just like all my other sets. Anyway thought I'd through a list up for some help, here goes

90, 407, 468

**Update**

Got a great stack of cards here from Paul over at Paul's Random Stuff. If you have not checked out his blog you should definitely do so. Great site. And a great stack here. Thanks a lot man. I'll do a more in depth post at a later time. I would go into further detail now but I use Steve over at The Easy Life for his scanner and he's probably busy with his wife right now. Just kidding buddy. Much love, Happy Birthday!!! For now I have updated my want list. Please help me finish this one off. Thanks all!

**Update**

Just got 8 more cards towards this set from Steve over at White Sox Cards. Thanks again Steve. Gonna look for some more stuff for ya soon. See what else I got for ya. The list above has been updated.

**Update**

2 More cards towards this set. Big thanks go out to Marks at Stats on the Back.

1987 Topps

I have to send a very big THANKYOU to My Buddy Steve over at The Easy Life. We had a flood a couple years back and I lost a big chunk of this set to the flood. Steve gave me close to 400 cards to get me very close to completing this set. Here's a list of the remaining cards need to finish up this set.

200, 393, 522

Steve loves this set. Says he just likes the wood grain look. This was the first year I actually started collecting cards and I am somewhat partial to this set as well for that reason. I'm so close. Please help me finish this one off.

**Update**

Just got three more cards towards this set from Steve over at White Sox cards. I've updated the list above. Big thank you for the help. I'm so close to finishing this one off now I can taste it. Tastes like woodgrain. Mmmm Woodgrain!

**Update**

Got a bunch more cards for this set. Thank yous go out Steve and Ben. I'm soooo close. Just 9 cards to go!!!

**Update**

And then there were 3. Almost there

C.C. Sabathia

Last year all the talk was about a trade for Johan Santana. This year its all about the #1 free agent pitcher on the market, C.C. Sabathia. C.C. started last year with the Cleveland Indians but he did not get off to a good start. Before being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers he started the year with a poor 6-8 record with a 3.83 ERA. However once he got to the National League his year turned completely around. An 11-2 record along with only a 1.65 ERA had him in the running for National League Cy Young without even pitching in the league for the whole season. The Yankees have already offered him more money than Johan with a contract offer of six years at 140 million. This would make him the highest paid pitcher in baseball. C.C. however has not accepted this deal. The Yankees have recently stated this deal will not be on the table forever but that doesn't mean the deal will be pulled any time soon. This is the only official offer that we know of but there are other teams that would certainly love to add Sabathia to their rotation. First and foremost we have the Milwaukee Brewers. They would certainly love to have him back after his phenominal second half performance from last year but they don't have the cash to match this deal. Honestly nobody really does and Sabathia knows this, so why hasn't he taken this deal yet? From what we hear he wants to play on the west coast. That also brings a couple more teams into the mix. The Giants name has been thrown around, but with all the money they have invested in the under-achieving Barry Zito can they really afford a deal close to the Yankees? The Angels name is another one we hear a lot about and as much as I believe they would love to have him it seems like they are just using C.C. to help bring down Mark Teixiera's asking price. Tex is currently looking for a 10 year deal. Could any team, even the Yankees, actually afford to sign both? When we break this down it almost seems like Sabathia will be signing with the Yankees out of necessity. He certainly does not want to play there or else he would've taken the deal by now. But how close to the Yankees price can these other teams come? Will he be willing to sacrifice that much money to play elsewhere? Only time will tell. Personally I believe if he can receive an offer even in the 130 million range, possibly even lower from another team he will take it but the question is where will this offer come from? What do you think? Where will C.C. sign this offseason? My money is on the Yankees even though its not his first choice. Or is it?

I'm sorry

Just wanted to take a moment and apoligize to everyone who I told will be getting packages from me. I said they would be mailed out by Monday but I lied. I can assure you though they were mailed on Tuesday so they are on their way. I mailed out approximately 250 cards total including some ttm autographs so there should some happy people out there in a couple days. Starting later today I'm gonna try and get some better/more informative posts on this site so the few readers I have please continue to read and please pass the word along to others. I'd like to get some more readers/commenters on here. Please help make this a great blog. I promise to post more than want lists, really I swear though I'm sure I'll have plenty more of them but I also want to get some more movie and baseball posts. Not just cards but actual baseball posts. Check back later today where I will start discussing the current free agent market starting with possibly the biggest name out there right now C.C. Sabathia.

Not Just a one trick pony

Lately it seems I have only been posting want lists and I feel bad about that. While working on these sets is my main objective behind this site theres more to this guy than just cards. Aside from cards my other love is horror movies. Old, new, foreign, silent, I love them all. I've actually set up what I am calling Horrorfest 2009. January 5 through January 10th I will be hosting a showing of nothing but horror movies from 10AM to midnight every single day. I will be making a schedule and it will be a come and go as you please affair. Should be a blast! I will be showing movies as far back as the silent film Nosferatu all the way up to, hopefully, Quarantine. (As long as its out on DVD before the fest) I plan on making further posts about some of my favorite and my not so favorite horror movies. Any other horror fans out there. What are some of your favorite movies? I have enough to fill the entire fest already but that doesn't mean I can't add some new films.

Here's a trailer for one of, if not, the best horror films of all time




Its also a great book which I recommend to all.