2002 Autographed Reds Baseball

Not my favorite of all the autographed baseballs I have in my collection but I can't complain because an autographed baseball of my favorite team is still something I'll gladly add to my collection any day if the price is right. There are a total 14 signatures on this baseball and I can identify 11 of them: Bob Boone, Paul Wilson, Willie Mo Pena, Juan Castro, Brandon Larson, Chris Reitsma, Ryan Wagner, John Reidling, Ray Knight and Jason LaRue. While there are no Larkin, Griffey or Dunn autographs on this ball I'm still please with it.

1958 Autographed Redlegs Baseball

This is the oldest team autographed baseball in my collection. While some of the signatures have faded over time, many of the key signatures are still visible. Of the 29 signatures on this baseball the 20 that can be read include: Smokey Burgess, Bob Purkey, Joe Nuxhall, Ed Bailey, Pete Whisenant, Willard Schmidt, Alex Kellner, George Crowe, Dee Fondy, Bob Henrich, Frank Robinson, Jerry Lynch, Jay Hook, Dutch Dotterer, Tom Acker, Ted Wieand, Hal Jeffcoat, Brooks Lawrence, Vada Pinson, and Roy McMillan. Not a bad looking baseball for being almost 70 years old.

A Votto Auto!

I purchased this photo a while ago and never took the time to scan the picture to post on the blog...until now. I have a few other autographed 8x10s in my collection, but this is probably my favorite. I've always been a huge fan of the "Red Surge" because he's not too flashy and his discipline at the plate is phenomenal. Did you know that Votto has only popped out 59 times since 2008? That's just insane. Votto reminds me a lot of Ted Williams when it comes to his approach on hitting. He's very patient and hardly swings at bad pitches. Just look at his numbers from last year: .314 BA, .459 OBP, .541 SLG, 1.000 OPS, 7.6 WAR! What more can I say.

Combing the Desert

One of the projects I've been working on this past year has been to complete the 1991 Topps Desert Shield Cincinnati Reds team set. I was recently able to purchase four more card: Tim Birtsas, Randy Myers, Hal Morris and Dan Wilson. I only have two more cards until this project is complete (Paul O'neill and Eric Davis). I should be able to wrap this set up hopefully within the next few months.

By the way, did I mention I was a huge Spaceballs fan? 

Wire to Wire

It seems like ages since the 1990 season (26 years to be more precise). The 1990 Reds were a team that no one imagined would win the World Series when the season began, myself included. I still don't know to this day how a scrappy mid market team from the  National League West was able to stay in first place from Opening Day through the end of the season. Regardless, it was a season to remember for Reds fans. This copy of the Cincinnati Post commemorates the Reds spectacular season and World Series championship. I still need to have the newspaper framed for displaying, but I'm happy that it's part of my collection. I don't have much hope for the 2016 season since the Reds appear to be in a rebuilding stage but who knows, they just might surprise everyone like they did back in 1990.

2016 Topps

So just about everyone has weighed in on 2016 Topps. Based on the overall feedback it would appear that most of us bloggers out there aren't very thrilled with this year's flagship product. I too am not a fan of this year's design for one specific reason: it's a mashup between Stadium Club and Gypsy Queen. I appreciate the fact that Topps decided to do away with the border on this years design. I also like many of the photos they used as well. Unfortunately, what could have been a good design fails with the fading and blurring background and the obscene amount of space wasted with the peeking logo at the bottom corner of each card. I'm all for team logos on cards, but this was just executed poorly. I purchased a jumbo pack from Target the other day and this was the only Red I pulled. I guess I should be happy that I landed at least one member of my team. The pack wasn't too shabby and I did land some decent cards that I'm more than willing to trade to any of you out there if you're interested. I'm only looking for base 2016 Reds in return (looking for cards 48, 176, 199, 221, 222, 292, 328, 333). Anyway, here are a couple of cards some of you might be interested in. Just drop me an email at lucksc0620 at gmail.com if you're interested. I'll have a complete list of cards available hopefully tomorrow.

Update: ok, here's the list
37 C.J. Cron (Los Angeles Angels)
42 A.J. Ramos (Miami Marlins)
46 Jhonny Peralta (St. Louis Cardinals)
84 Mookie Betts (Boston Red Sox)
89 Edwin Encarnacion (Toronto Blue Jays)
90 Koji Uehara (Boston Red Sox)
112 Matt Kemp (San Diego Padres)
119 Sean Doolittle (Oakland A's)
132 Joe Ross (Washington Nationals)
161 Phil Hughes (Minnesota Twins)
167 Jacob Ellsbury (New York Yankees)
174 Jared Weaver (Los Angeles Angels)
178 Rob Refshyder (New York Yankees)
184 Travis Jankowski (San Diego Padres)
203 Aaron Hill (Arizona Diamondbacks)
209 Max Scherzer (Washington Nationals)
229 Jesse Hahn (Oakland A's)
233 J.J. Hardy (Baltimore Orioles)
242 Matt Wisler (Atlanta Braves)
254 Matt Holliday (St. Louis Cardinals)
276 Francisco Cervelli (Pittsburgh Pirates)
279 Evan Gattis (Houston Astros)
290 Zack Godley (Arizona Diamondbacks)
297 Detroit Tigers Team Card
321 Hanley Ramirez (Boston Red Sox)
329 Comeback Kids (New York Yankees)
341 Josh Hamiton (Texas Rangers)
346 League Leaders (Keuchel, Estrada, Kluber)
349 Ben Revere (Toronto Blue Jays)
350 Kris Bryant (Chicago Cubs)
131 Adam LaRoche (Chicago White Sox) Gold Parallel
FP-14 Hayley Atwell (Kansas City Royals) First Pitch
P-22 Randy Johnson (Arizona Diamondbacks) Perspectives
WOW-9 Nomar Garciaparra (Los Angeles Dodgers) Walk-Off Winners

Leather and Lumber

No, I'm not talking about the Donruss sets of the early 2000s (although I have been tempted on numerous occasions to put one of these together). I'm talking about the "elements" that make up the game we cherish. The elements that comprise the balls, gloves and bats of the game. I shared in a previous post my autographed Pete Rose Rawlings black bat and today I've decided to share with you my autographed Pete Rose Louisville Slugger ball glove. There's a bit of a water stain in the glove where Pete signed, but it hasn't affected the signature. Pete will be inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame the weekend of June 24th-26th. In case you're wondering, the ball that I have displayed in the glove is from the August 13, 1999 game when the Reds took on the Phillies at Cinergy Field. It's the only time I've caught a foul ball during a game and it was a nice surprise to occur on my birthday of that year.  The Reds won that game 5-4.