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My wife and I went to the movies yesterday and saw the Proposal with Sandra Bullock. I have always liked Sandra and this movie was really entertaining. It was laugh out loud funny at times. The biggest surprise of the movie came when Bullock took a shower but forgot to take a towel with her. I have to say I saw more of Sandra Bullock in that scene than I expected. Wow, she looked good. This has absolutely nothing to do with baseball cards but I just felt like sharing.

Anyway, after the movie we had to get a few things at Wally World. I was in a hurry to get home and watch the Rangers game and hopefully catch a glimpse of my daughter and her fiance along with my grandson Garrett. It was dog night at Rangers Ballpark and they had taken Garrett to the game to participate in all the festivities. Garrett is a Min Pin by the way. Since I was in a hurry I avoided the card aisle but when we checked out the aisle we were on had some packs hanging on racks.

I grabbed a rack pack of 2009 O-Pee-Chee since I haven’t opened any of them yet. Heck these are the first cards I have bought all month. If I had realized it was $4.97 I would have grabbed two packs from the gravity feed instead. Oh well, twenty four cards for me to open and explore.

I keep telling myself I am not going to buy loose retail packs any more because of the potential for being damaged. This rack pack was full of damaged cards. Some from the manufacturing process and some from probably being mishandled on the shelf. The first four cards in the top half had a heavy roller mark and the top left corner of just about every other card was dinked. The bottom half contained five cards with the heavy roller mark and the same top left corner damage.

The day started good with a nice lunch followed by a fun movie. But, in the end it finished on a very sour note. My Rangers were one hit by the Padres and lost the series. I turned to the pack of O-Pee-Chee to lift my spirits a bit after the game it just got worse. Its one thing to open a pack with not much in it. I can normally find some enjoyment out of it somewhere but not when nineteen out of twenty-four cards are damaged. I guess the only saving grace was that I didn’t get a great card with a roller mark.

Oh well, better luck next time I guess.

Recently I was vacationing in Cancun Mexico and we went into town one day to have a look around. Mostly we went into town to try to find my daughter something she would eat. Her diet consists of Chic-Fil-A, Whataburger, cookie dough, my grilled chicken, her mom’s cheese dip, pepperoni pizza and a queso flameada from Casa Ole. The food at the resort was not the best in the world but the rest of us didn’t have any trouble finding something we liked.

We ended up at the Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville in Cancun. I figured she could get a good hamburger and some fries. So much for that thought, she ate about half of it saying the meat didn’t taste like home and the cheese wasn’t right either. Oh well, I won’t take her back to Mexico until her diet expands a bit.

The gift shop to Margaritaville opened up to an old mall that was now about half flea market and half mall. I have been to Mexico in four of the last five years and the part I hate the most is the constant begging and pleading to step into someones shop. I found one phrase that stopped them in their tracks and they would quit hounding me. I told them I was looking for an Xbox and they left me alone every time. So, the next time you are strolling through shops in Mexico and you are being hounded to come in or pestered with what are you looking for, feel free to use my phrase. Hopefully, it will work for you too.

Anyway, while I was strolling through the shops I kept my eyes open for any sports cards and other related items that might interest me. I only found one shop that had anything of interest. Well, that was until I saw the price tags anyway. I found a shop that had a nice selection of McFarlane figures hanging on a wall. In a case on the other side of the shop I saw what looked like a bunch of cards stacked up, but it turned out to just be Pokemon and Magic cards.

The shopkeeper had every sport covered plus he had a bunch of the other figures McFarlane makes. The prices were all marked in pesos so it took me a bit to figure out that he wanted at least $30 for every figure. I told him he was too high and he tried to tell me how rare the pieces were. I thought maybe there was something different about them like Spanish packaging ect but they seemed just like the figures I could get at Toys R Us or Wal Mart.

I decided to pass on the overpriced figures and moved on. I didn’t find anything else sports related other than caps, t-shirts and stuff like that. It was really hot so we hopped the bus back to the resort. The pool had missed me so I cozied up with the swim up bar and began to catch up on my adult beverage consumption. There was a pretty large group of sports fans there from around the world and we debated everything from the Premier League to High School Football in Texas.

Cheers to the ladies from England even though I still don’t get soccer, congrats to “San Fran” as my Rangers can’t win there, to the couple from Houston at least you have Pudge, to the young buck from St. Louis yes Pujols Is The Man, to the pimp from LA who cares about your Raiders, to the guy from Florida with the crooked cap I still think Texas High School Football is better than Florida’s and to the rest of the gang from the pool I hope your teams all win. Well, except when they are playing my team.

Getting back to the package my good buddy Dennis sent me we have some of my favorite baseball cards in all of cardboard land. For longer than I can remember I have had an unwavering affection for the Topps All Star Rookies with the trophies on the front. Dennis sent me twenty-nine in his latest package to arrive in the mail.

He also included a couple of bonus All Star Rookies in a 2000 Topps Chrome Warren Morris and a 2008 Topps Opening Day Dustin Pedroia. The Pedroia is worth bonus points as not only does it included the Topps Trophy but it also has red, white and blue bunting on the front. Red, white and blue bunting always reminds me of Baseball.

I pulled my binder out to see just how many of the base Topps cards I would need in my set and I’m happy to say I am now eleven cards closer to being able to Touch’em All. This issue has always brought me a lot of joy in my collecting. I can open current year packs and get cards that I need and I can open older junk wax or scrounge through the bargain bin at a show or shop. They also remind me of players that once looked like the real deal or at least a solid every day player but ended up fading into obscurity. After all the only reason I have a Leo Gomez or a John Ellis in my collection are because of that little trophy.

Another reason I enjoy collecting the Topps All Star Rookies are the players that did have productive careers. Just flipping through my pages I find names like Ron Fairly, Rico Petrocelli, Tony Perez, Rod Carew, Tom Seaver, Reggie Smith, Jerry Koosman, Al Oliver, Lou Piniella, Thurman Munson, Chris Chambliss, Carlton Fisk, Buddy Bell, Fred Lynn, Willie Randolph, Andre Dawson, Eddie Murray, Ken Griffey Jr, Robin Ventura, David Justice, Larry Walker, Jeff Bagwell, Kenny Lofton and Derek Jeter. Plus younger guys like Brandon Webb, Justin Verlander, Nick Markakis, Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun and Evan Longoria just to name a few.

One day I imagine Topps will get rid of the little trophies and that will be a very sad day for me. I grew up on Topps and I grew up chasing those little trophies. The cards have changed so much over the years but my little trophy fetish still burns, at least through 2009. The first question I have for the 2010 release is, will my trophies be back?

Thanks again Dennis for feeding my addiction.

My good buddy Dennis sent me another package that I received yesterday and as usual it was packed with good stuff. Dennis has been a big help for the Touch’em All Project as he seems to always send me stuff for active collections I am working on.

This Kinsler card is one that stood out a bit to me. I don’t expect a lot from Topps in the way of photography in their base set but I really liked this shot of Kinsler rounding first. The name on the back of the jersey, the Texas flag and number 5. Plus its a blue jersey and not those horrible red jerseys they are wearing this year.

According to the back of the card Kinsler has had success against some pretty good pitchers. Going into the 2009 season he is hitting .700 against Wandy Rodriguez, .500 against Cliff Lee, .462 against Roy Oswalt, .455 against Paul Byrd and .417 againts Kenny Rogers.

Going into todays action Ian is batting .316 with 9 home runs and 28 ribbies. He has also scored 25 runs and stolen 8 bases. He is currently ranked in the top ten in five different offensive categories in the American League. So far his fielding has been improved this year as well. I have been hard on him for his defense in the past so I have to give him a star for making improvement this year.

Thanks again to Dennis for the Kinsler, I can mark this one off the list. I’ll be posting more good stuff soon so stay tuned.

I was in Walmart and I just had to have a pack of cards. Just a pack thats all I needed, not what I wanted but what I needed. My conscience reminded me that gas prices were on the rise again, up ten cents overnight. Maybe I should wait….. or maybe just throw caution to the wind and get a buggy full of blasters.

Well the responsible adult in me won out and I settled for one rack pack of 2009 Goudey Baseball. I had a choice of Heritage or Goudey so I picked the Goudey since I haven’t opened any of them yet. Okay, there are 16 cards in this rack pack, so lets check’em out.

Top Section

• Derrek Lee

• Jermaine Dye

• Gary Sheffield

• Jay Bruce Mini Green

• Yovani Gallardo

• Travis Snider Rookie

• Alex Rios

• Chien-Ming Wang

I first thought I was going to hate these cards but now that I get my hands on them I kind of like them. I think they did a pretty good job of keeping with the original design. Some of the players look good with the outline while some look like comic book art.

Bottom Section

• Justin Verlander

• Travis Hafner

• Kelly Shoppach

• Nick Swisher

• Phil Hughes

• Wade LeBlanc Rookie

• Jonathon Niese Rookie

• Jack Cust

I like the Verlander but the Phil Hughes is kind of creepy. Theres something about the Swisher that appeals to me. Might be the powder blue or maybe its because he just might be ordering another round. Travis Hafner looks absolutely huge and not in a good way on his card.

The 2009 Goudey Rack Pack fed my pack urge but its not enough to make me go crazy. They are nice but not exceptional. I’ll open some more somewhere down the line but I prefer Heritage to Goudey.