2015 Topps Allen & Ginter - Blaster #2

If I had opened this box first I would have been happy with it because it had 2 each of Phillies and Astros base cards. But overall, it's got a smaller number of inserts than the other box. One really great thing - there were no duplicates of cards from the first box. In my history of buying mulitple blasters at the same time, I think that has happened never before. Here's some of the cards I like from the 2nd box.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #269 Jeremy Roenick

Another of the very few non-baseball player cards I pulled. This guy played for the Blackhawks, the Coyotes, the Flyers, the Kings and the Sharks. I couldn't tell you which jersey he's wearing here except it's not the Flyers.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Starting Points #65 Maikel Franco

There are 5 Phillies in this insert set and now I have 3 of them.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #273 Cole Hamels

I pulled this card while I was watching Hamels throw the first no-hitter of his career last Saturday, blanking the Cubs. And just for old times sake, Ryan Howard hit a 3-run homer. For just a minute there I thought it was 2008 again. Hamels will probably be playing for somebody else by the end of the week but he went out on a high note.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Menagerie of the Mind #18 Mermaid

My daughter loves mermaids so this card is for her.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #39 Jonathan Singleton

As well as the Astros have been doing this year, Singleton has been a disappointment.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter A World Beneath our Feet #15 Tsetse Fly

Hey, baseball cards with bugs on them. At least I didn't pull the Madagascar Spitting Cockroach.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #179 Manny Machado

I was pretty far into the second box before I pulled my first horizontal card. I was beginning to think Topps had dropped them this year.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter What Once Was Believed #10 Geocentric Solar System

The good old days.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Keys to the City #10 Empire State Building

This is at least the third Allen & Ginter set to feature the Empire State Building. At least they used a different photo for each card.

2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini A and G Back #285 Ichiro Suzuki

I don't know why but apparently this is the first Topps set to feature Ichiro since 2012.

Phillies cards from Dan

A few weeks ago, I came upon dansotherworld and saw that he was giving away baseball cards by MBL division. Since he still had the NL East available, I signed on hoping for some Phillies cards. After reading some more of his blog I realized he was a Phillies collector and figured I wouldn't get many Phillies from him.  After an exchange of emails, and him checking my blog, he said he'd see if he could find some Phillies for me.

A big package arrived the other day with almost 400 cards. Rather more than I expected. Among them were about 100 Phillies cards, of which I needed about half. Pretty good ratio. I will be studying Dan's want list and hoping I'll be able to return the favor.  So here are some of the more interesting Phillies he sent.

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter Framed Relics Ryan Howard

This is pretty much the best card of the bunch. The funny thing about this card is that I had actually bought two of these, one with a white jersey, the other with a bat, back in 2009, but I gave them to a friend, and fellow Phillies fan, for his birthday.

2014 Topps Chrome X-fractors #37 Cliff Lee

I love the way the scans of these cards look. I only had one X-fractor from this set and it wasn't a Phillie.

2010 Topps Tribute Roy Halladay

These are the kinds of cards I never buy, unless I go specifically looking for them on eBay. As it turns out I have one other Phillie from this set.

2008 Ultimate Collection Cole Hamels #10

I've never even seen one of these cards. The base cards are numbered to 350.

2007 Upper Deck Goudey #76 Chase Utley

I had the Red Back version of this card. It's nice to get the base card.

2003 Bowman #243 Il Kim

Topps released four cards featuring Il Kim in 2003, this one, a Stadium Club, a Topps and a Topps Total. Each card features a photo taken in the same spot, with Kim either sitting on or leaning on a bench. These are all the major league cards he has. I only need the Topps Total for the set.

2002 Fleer Authentix #70 Fleer Authentix

Fleer used to produce so many different sets each year it was hard to keep up with. I used to stop at my local card shop (when I had a local card shop) and buy a couple of packs of whatever was new. I have some cards from this set but I didn't have any of the Phillies.

2001 Upper Deck Victory #491 Kent Bottenfield

Something you don't see on baseball cards every day, a pitcher batting. In the 3 three months that Bottenfield spent with the Phillies he had 17 plate appearances.

2001 Topps Archives #235 Robin Roberts

When I pulled this card from the box, I thought, this is a nice card but I already have it. In fact, I have the 2002 Topps Archives Robin Roberts, which is the same card only with the Topps Archives logo on the left side.

I'll have some more cards tomorrow.

My favorite 2015 Topps Series 1 Cards - Part 1

Except for trying to acquire additional Phillies or Astros cards, I've probably bought all the 2015 Topps Series 1 cards I'm going to. Here are some of my favorites.

Cole Hamels #10

Cole trying to get one last pitch in before being overcome by the red tide. I'm not sure about these horizontal cards.

Todd Frazier #42

The third base one-handed catch and throw play. One of my favorite plays in baseball.

Andre Ethier #93

Let's see. We have a runner sliding into a base. We have a loose baseball. What's missing? Oh, yeah, where's the fielder?

Clayton Kershaw #100

I really like a close-cropped photo like this.

James Loney #107

That is some low pitch to swing at.

Michael Taylor #132

Good catch! I assume.

Masahiro Tanaka #142

A "Future Stars" and an All-Star Rookie Cup. It kills me that a guy like this, a 7-year pro in Japan, is still considered a rookie when he comes to the US.

Paul Konerko #177

Paul Konerko appreciation day. He deserved it.

Melvin Upton #184

He'll always be known as B.J. to me. Mainly because it's too much trouble to change his name on all his cards in my database.

Wilin Rosario #208

The only real complaint I have about 2015 Topps is that the Rockies cards are much too purple.

Trade with the Night Owl

A few months ago, Greg at The Night Owl blog, published this card to his Twitter feed.

2004 Bowman Chrome Autographs #338 Jason Hirsh

He's a guy most of you haven't heard of but it's an Astro card with an on-card auto. I didn't have any of the auto cards from this set.  So we arranged a trade. I sent him this cool card:

2013 Topps Chrome Chrome Connections Die Cuts Matt Kemp

and two 2014 A&G Dodgers for the Hirsh and 2 2014 A&G Phillies.

Hirsh didn't have much of a career but no one can say he wasn't a gamer. After spending the 2006 season with the Astros, he ended up with the Rockies in 2007 and 2008. In his first start of 2007, J. J. Hardy hit a line drive off Hirsh's right shin. Hirsch retrieved the ball and threw Hardy out at first. He also pitched 6 more innings and won the game. That doesn't sound too unusual except the the ball off his shin broke his leg. After the 2008 season he spent the rest of his career, until 2013, in the minors trying to recover from various injuries.

In addition to the cards mentioned, I threw in a bunch of Dodger cards I didn't need and he threw in Phillies cards. One of the problems with making a blind trade like this is that I have a lot of Phillies cards and in any random selection of Phillies cards, I'm bound to have some of them. Greg, of course, has the same problem. I hope I sent him something he needed. Of what he sent, I needed 17 cards.  Here are some highlights.

1992 Score 100 Rising Stars #72 Pat Combs

I have what I think is a pretty complete list of 1990's Phillies. But this card wasn't on it.

2006 Topps #139 Jason Michaels

I also have a pretty good list of Phillies cards from 2000-2005. After that, I'm still working on it. But I know I didn't have this card. I think, however, that this is the only 2006 Topps Phillies card I needed.

2009 O-Pee-Chee #235 Feliz Perez

There is nothing too exciting about a 2009 O-Pee-Chee card but this card illustrates the value of these sorts of trades to me. I didn't know I needed this card but eventually I would. have How do you obtain a card like this except through a trade? Or maybe a card show. I think trolling eBay would be worthless.

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter #165 Chase Utley

 Can't go wrong with this card.

2011 Topps Lineage #169 Cliff Lee

I bought 2 blasters of this product. One of them had horribly miss-cut cards. Plus, I think they are unattractive. But, of course, I still need the Phillies.

2011 Topps Lineage 1975 Mini #131 Carlos Lee

I kind of like the minis. I believe Cliff and Carlos are not related.

2012 Triple Play #63 Ryan Howard

Howard has been one of my favorite Phillies for the past 6-7 years but he's having such a bad year in 2014, that was been benched for few games recently.

2013 Topps Opening Day #217 Carlos Ruiz

Greg sent 5 cards from this set I needed. Here's a funny thing that happens often while I'm working with my cards and watching the Phillies on TV. As I was uploading this card, there was a pop-up at the plate which Ruiz had to make a long run for but dropped the ball. Right behind him was Howard.

2013 Topps Opening Day Mascots Phillie Phanatic

Who doesn't like the Phanatic? That was a rhetorical question.

Here are the two 2014 Topps Allen & Ginter Phillies that were a part of the trade.