Regifting

Had my name on the Twins radio broadcast last Friday night for the second time this season with another correct answer emailed in to the trivia question of the game.
Q: Since 1961, players from the Twins and Reds have won 14 MVP awards — who were the players?
A: Bench, F. Robinson, Mauer, Morneau, Killebrew, Versalles, Rose, Morgan, Foster, Carew, Larkin, Votto

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I haven’t been posting as much recently, because I’ve been “pounding the pavement” over at The Bench. I originally registered there in order to make a trade offer to someone, and while that person has never responded 😉 I have several cool trades in the works there.

Meanwhile, Astros trading buddy Daily Dimwit had some Twins cards picked up as his second team in a recent break, and he knew where to get rid of them. With the swap, I picked up these:

clockwise, from top: 2006 Upper Deck Artifacts MLB Game-Used Apparel #MLB-SB Scott Baker [208/325] (jersey); 2008 Topps Co-Signers Silver Blue #26 Justin Morneau (w/Michael Cuddyer) [025/250]; 2008 Topps Co-Signers #16 Joe Mauer

Thanks Dimmy!

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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!

It’s Happening!

First, the email:

RE: 167 2/3 Bill Campbell From: Radio Network ——————————————————————————– Congratulations, you have won a pair of tickets to the Twins game on Monday, Spetember 26th! Please reply to all with your address and phone number. Thanks, and again congratulations!

Looks like that July 15^th correct email answer to the Twins radio trivia question paid off. Then, the subsequent letter:

Minnesota Twins Baseball Club Dear Twins Fan: Congratulations on being drawn as a winner of the US Bank Question of the Day contest. Enclosed are your tickets. Enjoy the game and thanks for listening to the Twins Radio Network. Go Twins!

The two tickets are for the first row of the Home Run Porch out in left field – sweet! Gene & I are already beginning to work out our travel plans. Can’t wait!

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And speaking of the Twins radio trivia question, I answered another one (#11 this season) this past weekend. Q: Cesar Tovar broke up four no-hitters during his career; who were the pitchers in those games? A: Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, Barry Moore, and Dick Boseman

A Manufactured Trade

Or, I guess you could call it a Manutrade. Eric L from Manupatches & Chrome Stratches had a Joe Mauer manupatch for trade, and as it turned out, I knew the LCS had (only) one manupatch, and he was willing to trade for it. In addition, Eric included several T-206 that I needed, only asking in exchange for “high-numbered cards of players with mustaches” (?!)

Well, nothing like a crappy Twins game streaming in the background to help searching for mustachioed ballplayers, and not many sets enter the realm of card #’s greater than 600, but I waded through my Twins dupes and rounded up some. I had been hoping to find a Shane Mack, who I think has an under-appreciated ‘stache, and I found that Bobby Castillo has the Hank Aaron of mustaches on the Twins. (btw, here’s one of the “fantasy” banners from over at WGOM that’s appropriate)

clockwise, from top left: 2010 Topps T-206 Bronze #54 Kevin Slowey; 2010 Topps Manufactured Commemorative Patch #MCP99 Joe Mauer (patch); 2010 Topps T-206 Bronze #143 Michael Cuddyer; 2010 Topps T-206 Piedmont mini #143 Michael Cuddyer; 2010 Topps T-206 Polar Bear mini #127 Nick Blackburn; 2010 Topps T-206 American Caramel mini #135 Delmon Young

Thanks for the trade, Eric!

And while I think of it, to anyone reading this, if Kevin Slowey ends up on a team that you cheer for, I hope its management and the media treat him better than they have in Minnesota. Or better yet, I hope he somehow makes it out of the doghouse and stays in Minnesota.

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Correct answer #9 for the season on Friday night’s Twins radio trivia question means I have one more shot at the drawing for tickets to a September ballgame at Target field. Q: In the 1991 Cy Young voting, the Twins had three pitchers in the top 10: who were they and what were their places? A: #2 Scott Erickson, #4 Jack Morris, and #7 Kevin Tapani.

A High Mean Temperature July Friday Random 10

For the sixth time in recent days we set a record for St. Louis for the highest daily low temperature on record.  We haven’t set any actual record high temperatures, but because it hasn’t cooled down as much at night, our mean temperature for July has been the fourth highest on record.  Yuck.

For the eighth time this season, I nailed the daily Twins radio trivia question, with the last five giving me chances at a drawing for tickets to the September 26th Twins/Royals game at Target Field.  Q: Bert Blyleven was traded away from the Twins, and later was again reacquired by the Twins; which Twins player did this happen to before Blyleven?  A: Roy Smalley
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WMP decided I needed to start out with a couple tracks by the Eno brothers — who am I to argue?

1. “Voices” – Roger Eno, Voices
2. “An Ending (Ascent)” – Brian Eno, Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks
3. “The Journey/Recollection” – Rick Wakeman, Journey to the Centre of the Earth
4. “Knife Edge” – Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
5. “Ancestors” – Lisa Gerrard, Whale Rider soundtrack
6. “Schwarze Augen” – Klaus Doldinger, Das Boot (The Director’s Cut) soundtrack
7. “Sonatine III – Be Over” – Joe Hisaishi, Sonatine
8. “Let Your Hair Hang Down” – They Might Be Giants, Join Us
9. “Show Me Mary” – Catherine Wheel, Chrome
10. “Vishnu” – E.S. Posthumus, Makara

Stay cool this weekend!

Some Syzygistic Syzygism

Last week I nabbed my seventh Twins radio trivia answer, or rather, someone with a name really similar to mine from the same city! Kris Atteberry mispronounced my name, then eventually corrected it, and then mispronounced it again. Oh well. Q: Which Twins pitcher has the most innings pitched in a season without starting a game? A: Bill “Soupy” Campbell with 167 2/3 innings in 1976. My inital guess was Mike Marshall, but he started one game (and it was fewer innings). Next was Ron Perranoski, and finally when I saw Campbell’s total was higher than Marshall’s, I submitted him FTW.

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Offy from Sports Syzygy bit at my most recent trade bait post and for three BoSox relics he swapped the cards below. I should not have doubted his ability to take a whack at my ’90s wantlists; he included a pair of nice ’95 Pucketts that I’d been looking for for a long time.

clockwise, from top left: 2009 Upper Deck Signature Series Impressions #IMP-JN Joe Nathan auto; 2009 Topps T-206 Piedmont mini #FMA-19 Denard Span auto; 1995 Donruss Leaf Statistical Standouts #6 Kirby Puckett [4965/5000]; 1995 Donruss Leaf Gold Leaf Stars #13 Kirby Puckett [06269/10000]

Thanks again, Offy, you done good!

A Twins HOFer And An MLB HOFer

Last week, I won a sixth Twins radio trivia question. Q: What major league teams did Twins’ World Series manager Sam Mele play for during his playing career? A: Boston Red Sox, Washington Senators, Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Redlegs, Cleveland Indians. Dan Gladden suggested I split my “winnings” with fellow broadcaster John Gordon, while Gordo suggested that I probably used Google. Well, duh! This was the first time that they recognized my name as a multiple winner, finally.
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Greg at Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle approached me about a a “Super Box” Twins auto he got a while back that I had expressed interest in. For a plethora of Kemp, Kershaw, Martin, and Piazza cards, Greg traded the Brad Radke auto and included a s#’d minor league card and an auto to trade to Daily Dimwit in a future trade.

2008 TriStar Prospects Plus #28 Carlos Gutierrez [13/25]; 2001 Fleer Autographics Brad Radke (auto)

A second package arrived as well, this one from the Sewingmachineguy himself. I had a sweet Kaline Tiger Stadium seat relic card, and sent it along to him with some other Tiger niceties, while SWG turned around and traded a s#’d jersey/auto Rod Carew and a DSPAN2 auto, along with a couple Series II singles. I idolized Rod growing up, to the point of learning to switch hit just so I could stand in the box like he did. I was pleased to learn that SWG sported the loose-gripped magic wand stance back in the day, too.

2010 Topps National Chicle #NCA-DS Denard Span [168/199] (auto); 2005 Upper Deck AL Artifacts Signatures #AL-RC Rod Carew [05/30] (jersey/auto)

Super trades, guys!

A Cool Card Swap

This is starting to get old: for the fifth time this season, I was listening to the Twins game on Father’s Day and sent the first correct answer email for the Twins radio trivia question. This question was, “Which Twin holds the team record for runs in a season, and how many?” Answer: Chuck Knoblauch – 140

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Another SportsCardFun.com-based trade: COOLBRUCE specializes in chrome cards, but had several other Twins cards to swap for some s#’d Yankees, Red Sox, and Braves. Bruce was very accommodating during a few adjustments to our trade; here are some of the featured Twins cards I received among all the Bowman chrome, some ’90s cards (always glad to cross those off the wantlists), etc.:

clockwise, from top left: 2008 Update All-Star Stitches #AS-JN Joe Nathan (jersey); 2009 SP^x Game Patch Autograph #GJA-BF Boof Bonser [02/23] (patch/auto); 2002 Donruss Select Rookies & Prospects #64 Luis Rivas (auto); 1995 Score Hall of Gold #HG11 Kirby Puckett; 2008 Upper Deck SP Authentic Rookie Exclusives #RE-NB Nick Blackburn; 2003 Fleer Flair Future Fame #91 Lew Ford [08/25]

Thanks for the cool trade, Bruce!