I'm Not A Slacker

I've been busy on the school and woman front. Yeah. That's the ticket!

So to make up for lost days I present these to you:

2004 Bowman Chrome
Uncirculated X-Fractors
005 / 172

That's right! All of them are numbered 005 / 172

No. 109 Austin Kearns

As you can see here Austin just jogged in and caught a popper off the bat of Andruw. When he was good.

No. 121 Adam Dunn

Adam showing some skill while wearing the Holllywoods to cut down on the X-Fractors sheen as he leaps to rob Mike Piazza of a homer.

No. 181 Kevin Howard

Kevin taking a HUGE lead off of second on one of his Midwest League leading 26 doubles

No. 208 Luis Bolivar

Luis is obviously in a Little League ball park.

No. 235 Miguel Perez

Miguel is known as a pretty good game caller and a strong arm you do not run on. If he develops a bat he will be in the bigs.

No. 270 Jorge Mejia

Jorge is showing his stare that scares the crap out of pitchers of an Arizona League leading hit.

No. 314 Ben Himes

The swing that won the opening game of the 2003 Pioneer League playoffs with a three person quadrangular trot in 2003.

If anyone knows the where abouts of the Ken Griffey Numbered 005 / 172 let me know. We can work something out.

New Writer

As I wrote about the Austin Kearns press plate a few days ago I wondered if there were any other Reds baseball collectors out there. I figured "Hey. This is the greatest professional baseball team out there. Just ask me. There must be someone besides me who collects Reds cards and players."

Well ladies and gentlecollectors - I found him

I introduce to you

Brads55

I clicked on the team collector link on The Bench and found Brads55 and decided to check him out. I was horror struck when I saw he had an Oakland American League baseball team logo as his symbol. Then I read his credentials.

Players collected: Rick Ankiel, Ryan Braun (Brewers), Travis Buck, Eric Byrnes, Sean Casey, Eric Chavez, Bobby Crosby, Andre Dawson, Adam Dunn, Andre Ethier, Prince Fielder, Eric Gagne, Ken Griffey, Jason Isringhausen, Austin Kearns, Austin Kearns, Terrence Long, Russell Martin, Dice K , Fred McGriff, Jonathan Papelbon, Wily Mo Pena, Brandon Phillips, Pokey Reese, Huston Street, Kurt Suzuki, Nick Swisher, Frank Thomas, Troy Tulowitzki, Jered Weaver, David Wright, Ryan Zimmerman

You have to respect a man who will list Austin Kearns twice.

Teams collected: THE CINCINNATI REDS, Oakland A's

He also collects the New Orleans Saints (My second favortite football team being from the area) and the Pittsburgh Penguins - My favorite hockey team.
It's almost like he is my brother from another mother.

I contacted Brads55 about working with me on the blog to make it more Reds fan friendly and he has agreed to share his LOOOOOOOOOTTTTS bigger Reds and card collection with us Reds fans and those who are in denial about being a Reds fan. (New York Metropolitan "fans" come to mind)

A little about our newest Cincy Reds Cards team member:

Mind doing a little interview so I can let people know who you are?

Absolutely! Its a pleasure to be part of this Blog and I'm excited to make some new friends!

Who are you?

I am 28 years old and was born in Los Angeles, CA. I lived there for 12 years and moved right after the Northridge earthquake (1994). My family and I moved to Vancouver, WA (across from Portland, OR) and I graduated high school and started college there. Moved from there in 2000 and went to Reno, NV. After a few years I opted to move to Hawaii for a change! Been here ever since!

When did you first start collecting cards?

I first started collecting cards in 1986. My uncle bought me a box of 1987 Donruss and let me put together a set into a binder (still have it). I've been collecting ever since and haven't looked back!

Is it tougher being a collector in Hawaii as opposed to the mainland?

Most definitely!!! When I moved here 5 years ago there was 2 card shops on this island (the big island of Hawaii). After 3 months the card shop on my side of the island (Kona) had closed. That left me with a 2 hour one-way drive to the only card shop left (in Hilo). As I made a special trip after XMAS a couple months ago to pick up a box and some protectors it turns out that after the long drive that card shop is closed as well (SIGH). So that leaves me with just Wal-Mart for cards. So as you can tell its incredibly tough to collect on this island. If it wasn't for my trading sites I'd have a hard time continuing to collect. The best trading site hands down is thebenchtrading.com . As a matter of fact thats where I met Joe (Bay Rat North West).

Why are you a Reds collector?

It has to be because of Ken Griffey Jr./Sr. I followed them close as Mariners and once the trade was made I was a FAN FOR LIFE!!! A few Reds favorites of mine are :

Ken Griffey Jr., Austin Kearns, Brandon Phillips, Wily Mo Pena, Adam Dunn, Aaron Boone and Bret Boone

What else do you collect outside of the Reds?

As Reds are my National League Team, the A's are my American League Team. I will list the other collection interests below.

How varied is your collection? (Base set / Inserts / GU / Oddballs / Other sports)

My collection hits every realm of the hobby...

The Sports : I Collect Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey, Golf, Nascar, and Non-Sports Cards.

The Types : Everything - Base, SPs, #'d, Die-Cuts, RCs, G/U, Autos, Oddballs, Vintage, Unopened Packs/Boxes. You name it, I collect it.

Why do the Cubs stink so much?

Because they don't have Griffey on the team!

Any other info you want add to this that I did not ask you?

I hope to add an appreciation of Reds cards from every aspect of the hobby. Planning to add a DAILY scan of some of my Favorite Reds cards and also host a WEEKLY live yahoo webcam mailday and box breaks. This should be fun! Mahalo and Aloha everybody, Brad

And all 12 readers of Cincy Reds cards say Mahalo and Aloha to you, Brad. We look forward to your first posting that is gonna make all those Braves, Cubs, White Sox, Indians and even the WNBA lovin Mets fans out there envy us.

You Drive 26 Miles

To the local card shop
And what do you get?

A new pack of Heritage
And nary a Met.

I made a trip to the local card shop today - Clayton's Cards in Roy, UT - to thumb through the game used and low price boxes. What did I find? Gaze upon the metallic and solid cardboard works of art and prepare to be awestruck.

Card 1 - $3.00
2006 Bowman Heritage
Pieces of Greatness Bat Card
No. PG-EE Edwin Encarnacion
This is how a game used card should be made. Thick, industrial grade cardboard. What John Wayne Toilet Paper wishes it could be. This card could be used to pry open a window that was painted shut 5 years ago.

Card 2 - $3.00
2006 Topps Heritage
Clubhouse Collection Bat Card
No. CC-AD Adam Dunn
Look at Adam smile as he knows he's gonna smash a tater out of Great American Ballpark off of Ol' Huddy. Look at that bat that drove in Kearns and Ross to win the game. Even I am smiling.

Card 3 - $3.00
2005 Leaf Certified Materials
Mirror Blue Fabric 083 / 100
No. 2 Adam Dunn
I like these cards. One more Blue and I can make my special lady a nice pair of earrings. Look at Dunn setting up to wiff on the fastball from Zambrano.

Card 4 - $3.00
2005 Leaf Certified Materials
Mirror White Parallel 089 / 250
No. 2 Adam Dunn
Look at the brilliance as the card shines. It puts the BAAAAAAMMMM! In Peanut Butter and Jammmmmmm! Marvel at Adam as he learned from the previous Zambrano pitch and hangs back to crush a deep double to drive in Encarnacion.

Now on to the Topps Heritage pack.
Can we remain Cub free?

Please let there be a God and
let Him love thy Reds fan.

Card 1
Not officaly a Mets card. He is with the Twins here. I predict that the 3 times Johan matches up with the Reds this year he will experience tightness in the chest, slight dizziness from the mind numbing hitting and possible fainting. They are all signs of looseritis.

Card 2
Rookie card of the younger brother of this guy. A former Red.

Card 3
How dumb was the joke the school photo guy told Orlando to get this face? Did the guy say he was a Cubs fan? That is all I can figure to get a look like that.

Card 4
Chrome Parallel of some pitcher. 1387 / 1959. Looks like he plays for some baseball team in New York City. Not a Red so I don't care.

Stick of Gum I left at the store for some near diabetic kid.

Card 5
This is a pretty good card. Ivan looks happy knowing he is batting in that lineup. Who would have thought that I Rod would be batting 8th in a lineup because the rest of the batters were that good to make him bat there? But still not a Red so who cares. If Joey at Squeezeplay cards wants this card let me know.

Card 6
Some kid that had a good rookie season. If he was a Red I would be able to pronounce his name.

Card 7
Tiny Surfers. Big waves. Why is this a card? What next? 1960 Presidential candidates cards?

Card 8
Let me explain how I view cards

Step 1
Holy Frejolies! I got a Red! Out of all the cards! With only buying one pack!

Step 2
They mean Edwin?

Step 3
How freekin Un Bee Live It Able is this card? Juan Encarnacion of the St. Louis Cardinals? In a Reds hat and uni? What the heck?
Juan last played for the Reds in
July of 2002
In 5 years they could not find a photo of Juan in a Cardinals outfit?
They could not do a bad photoshop job?
Not even this?
How hard is that? And I do not even go to photoshop academy
to learn how to copy and paste.
I would rather have a 1959 Ernie Banks card cut in half and taped with blue Duct Tape then gold foil stamped on the tape than this lazy card. But. It will go at the end of my Reds Team Set when I get it because of the hat. Shame on you Topps! Shame! Make me sully my Reds Team binder with a Cardinal.

Now that I have that out of my system.

It was a good trip to the store. For under four sawbacks I got 4 Game Used Cards of my Reds. 3 Dunns at that. And a pack of Topps Heritage. The pack was a good one and the Game Used are going into my Reds Game Used binder. I look forward to next week's trip as I passed up 5 George Foster G/U and some other Reds parallels and 2 autos. All GU/ are 2-3 dollars and the parallels under 2 dollars. I am gonna be stocking up on the players from the 2008 World Series Champion Reds.