Virtual Bike Tour of Baseball Sites - Arlington Texas

The next stop on my virtual grand tour of major league cities is Arlington Texas, the home of the Texas Rangers. I've lived in Texas (outside Houston) for 14 years now and haven't had a chance to visit Ameriquest Field. It's only about a 5 hour drive from my house. Click on the map to get a larger view.I'm up to almost 11 miles on the stationery bike per trip to the YMCA. I've decided to head north and then east from here as there are more major league teams to the west. If I can stay with this for a few years I should be able to make it back to the West Coast.

Arlington is the birthplace of 2 major league players, Ben Grieve and Hunter Pence.

1998 Donruss #415 (Spirit of the Game subset)
Ben Grieve was the A's #1 draft pick in 1994. He made is major league debut with the A's on 9/3/97. He was the American League ROY in 1998 and was selected for the 1998 All-Star Team. He had a 9-year career, retiring after the 2005 season, with a career batting average of .269, 118 HRs and 492 rbis. I don't know too much about him but he seems to have been a steady player.

1999 Upper Deck View To A Thrill Doubles
This was a serial numbered (to 2000) insert in 1999 Upper Deck. It's die cut and full of gold foil. It's designed to look like something you'd plug into an computer circuit.

1999 UD Choice Mini Bobbing Head
You could punch out the pieces and make yourself a little Ben Grieve bobbing head. It was an insert in 1999 UD Choice, which was Upper Deck's successor set to Collector's Choice. I only got a few of these so I never actually tried making one.

2004 Justifiable #62
Hunter Pence was the Astros #2 draft pick in 2004. He came up in 2007 and finished 3rd in the ROY voting. He was an All-Star this year (the only NL player not to get into the game). He is an exciting young player and is great fun to watch. I paid $3.34 for this card on eBay in 2007. Today you can get it for $0.99 with free shipping.

2007 Bowman Heritage #226 (Short Print)
These short-printed 2007 Bowman Heritage cards are fun. The cards missing the facsimily autograph are short-printed. I pulled this from a blaster box.

2007 Ultimate Collection Ultimate Write of Passage (12/60)
The pride of my Hunter Pence collection. I got this card (and another great card) by contributing $10 to a group box break hosted by Saints of the Cheap Seats last year. Beckett books it as $60 and 40/60 is on a Buy It Now sale in eBay for $60.

2009 Topps Turkey Red

It was nice to see Turkey Red cards come back this year even if only an insert in Topps.