Stuff And Things

Thought I’d clear out a few photos, etc. in a post prior to my surgery tomorrow…

While doing a bit of last-minute mulching in the back, I came across this little guy, below. Plume moths are cool, but they’re small and hide in the grass, so photographing them is difficult. This one was okay with settling on my hand, and stayed there while I went to get my phone and find a little fading sunlight to take the picture. I haven’t added to my insect photo pages lately, so this will be a nice addition:

6091 – Grape Plume Moth (Geina periscelidactylus)

Memorial Day weekend took us up to Chicago area for a wedding, and at the last minute I realized that the Twins would also be playing in Chicago the same time. I was able to take in the Friday night game from the third row of right centerfield at The Cell on a clear, cool evening. While it was a good game, the only runs the Twins scored were in the first inning, when I was still a couple stops away on the “L” red line. The Twins ended up losing 3-2, but haven’t lost a game since.

action from the bottom of the second inning

I’m still actively collecting Twins baseball cards, but things have slowed a bit. Lately I’ve managed to add a few new players to my certified autograph card collection, among those Jim Perry, shown below, along with another Bert Blyleven AU, my 62^nd and 63^rd different Glen Perkins AU, and some Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer jersey cards.

clockwise, from top left: 2005 Topps Pristine Legends Personal Endorsements #PEA-BB Bert Blyleven (auto); 2005 Upper Deck Artifacts Autofacts #PE Jim Perry [298/599] (auto); 2007 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Ultimate Write of Passage #WP-PK Glen Perkins [13/60] (auto); 2015 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection #CCR-JMA Joe Mauer (jersey); 2006 Topps Turkey Red White #TRR-JM Joe Mauer [94/99] (jersey); 2008 Upper Deck SP^x Winning Materials SPX die cut #WM-MO Justin Morneau [090/150] (jersey); 2008 Upper Deck A Piece of History Franchise History Gold #FH-30 Joe Mauer [67/99] (jersey); 2007 Topps Chrome Refractor White #348 Glen Perkins [003/200] (auto)

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Interleague And Interdivisional Trades

I got to hear my name on the radio last night for the first time this season with the correct answer emailed in for the Twins’ trivia question of the game.
Q: Which former Twins players have had uniform number three on the Royals?
A: Harmon Killebrew, Steve Braun

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I contacted Jeff at 2 by 3 Heroes about a trade, and he found a nice variety of Twins cards from my wantlists in exchange for a wide assortment of White Sox cards. It seems that my trades between the AL Central rival collectors have been the smoothest, and I certainly look forward to dealing with Jeff again in the future. Sometime, though, I need to show Jeff what a gold card from 2005 Topps looks like 😉

clockwise, from top left: 2012 Topps Heritage SP #470 Ben Revere; 2005 Topps Opening Day Target Exclusive #38 Torii Hunter (jersey); 2003 Upper Deck #519 Lew Ford; 2010 Topps Walmart Black #102 Minnesota Twins

A second trade was with PadresFan86 who’s a member at Sports Card Arena. He had several Tier One Blue cards for trade, and I had a couple Tony Gwynn Topps Sterling cards to trade. He threw in a couple cards, including the impressive s#’d Walker card below.

clockwise, from top left: 2011 Topps Tier One Blue #28 Bert Blyleven [057/199]; 2011 Topps Tier One Blue #97 Joe Mauer [058/199]; 1998 Pinnacle Plus Artist Proof Gold #AP27 Todd Walker [073/100]

Thanks for the trade, guys!

CSI: Philadelphia [2002 Fleer Ultra]

Time for another investigative baseball card post. This card arrived in a recent trade, and the presence of an action shot with a throwback uniform made me think that we could probably nail down the actual play in the photo:

2002 Fleer Ultra #197 Corey Koskie

What do we see initially? Well,
1) Corey Koskie has made a headfirst slide into second base
2) It’s a day game, and it’s not in the Metrodome
3) That’s a White Sox player in a throwback uniform

What did the Citizens of WGOM determine this time?
– the uniform is the 1917 Throwback, which the White Sox wore at home on Sundays that season
– the Twins only played one Sunday game (3PM) at New Comisky, on April 22^nd
– Koskie only reached second twice; the first was when he walked, and then Ortiz walked right after him, but in the 8^th inning he hit a line drive double to deep right field. He then scored on the next at bat when David Ortiz hit his 5^th HR of the year. The White Sox player looks to be shortstop Royce Clayton, who would correctly be covering the bag on that play.

The Twins went on to win the game 4-2, and the two runs scoring on the HR turned out to be the difference in the game. As was pointed out in the discussion at WGOM, Koskie had only one game in the 19 that year against the White Sox in which he didn’t reach base: July 4^th. He was a likable and under appreciated ballplayer — in his 2001 season, he was a 20/20 man that was 25^th in the MVP voting.

A Trio Of Central Division Trades

Lately, I’ve been stirring up the trade lines and keeping the local postal delivery person busy, and some of the fruits of those trades are coming home to roost. Here are three from the good folks who cheer for and collect Central Division teams, two in the A.L. (yes, we in the AL Central can still trade civilly even though rivals).

I found a sweet Indians dual bat relic, and Baseball Dad from ALL TRIBE BASEBALL and I made a small swap with a relic as the kicker. Below are a few of the other cards I needed:

left to right: 2011 Topps Gold #132 Brian Duensing [0148/2011]; 1999 Skybox Premium #268 Doug Mientkiewicz; 2011 Topps Heritage #70 Justin Morneau

I had a nice collection of cards from Steve of White Sox Cards quite a while back, and wanted to send some additional cards his way, which I eventually did. Steve returned several back — well, he cleaned out some Twins junk wax 😉 but he included these two nice cards (I see a theme with them):

left to right: 2008 Topps Gold Foil #287 Justin Morneau/Johan Santana/Joe Mauer; 2011 Topps Heritage Chrome #C83 Justin Morneau/Joe Mauer [1921/1962]

FanOfReds from Nachos Grande and I have sent a few small packages back and forth lately, and when he flashed a sweet black border parallel Heritage card, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t gone through my blaster box singles for him yet; 1 SP and several singles that he needed crossed paths with some Twins, including these two:

left to right: 2011 Topps Heritage Baseball Flash Backs #BF-7 Harmon Killebrew; 2011 Topps Heritage Black border #C83 Justin Morneau/Joe Mauer

Thanks muchly, guys. Best of luck with your collecting!