Get Ready To Sock Some Dingers

Its that time of year again, my friends, that time of year when the sky is usually blue enough that it hurts your eyes to look at, the time of the year when the titans of the game take off the training wheels and let 'er rip. Finally, its opening day. Finally.

This year, its been tough to get excited with Mauer on the shelf for up to a month, and the Twins hurting in general, but everything always seems to work itself out. In fact, Mauer is far from the biggest name on the DL, as Rodriguez is out for a few weeks and Hamels is also out for a few weeks. Everyone is still recouperating from the WBC, and the fans are putting on their winter jackets to sit through the early games in the cold weather cities. Its still a wonderful time of the year.

To me, Football is obviously the bigger sport, and much more of delicacy considering the lack of games, but that doesn’t take all the excitement out of the boys of summer. I will say this, I did not re-purchase the baseball package this year, and I think that is a pretty good idea. You get to that middle part of the season where teams are on autopilot and you just get bored. At least I did last year. It becomes another job to get home and watch the games you paid for.

As for the hobby, I havent bought a box of baseball cards for myself in a long time, and Prime Cuts was really the only set I saw that was worth my time. I bought a box of threads with money I had won or gotten as a gift, so it really wasn’t the same as risking my shit for a box of cards that wasn’t going to produce. Baseball has become even more of a first world collector's sport because there just isnt anything worth spending 200 bucks on for a box these days. Triple Threads is a disgusting excuse for a product, and Topps Sterling is even worse. I cant justify spending 200 bucks on a five hit box, let alone 250 on a 1 hit box or a 1 auto box, when the majority of the autos are worth less than 10 bucks on ebay.

Baseball should have a good season this year, though, as most of us are looking for another team to recreate the Tampa Bay miracle. Last year showed that payroll means nothing, and Baseball needed that. It didn’t stop the Spankees from spending a small country on Captain Cheeseburger and Mark Texiera, and if you were looking at how much was being thrown around, you would wonder what the hell people were talking about when they mentioned the bad economy.

Either way, today should have been a holiday, and it should be your top priority to get out to a park this week to enjoy the nice or shitty weather for playing Baseball. Im going to try to make an Angels game, but work sucks about that, so it may not be possible.

So, umm, PLAY BALL!

Wow, Now Is The Time To Order Boxes

First off, let me say, I am not receiving anything free for posting this. Secondly, it shouldnt matter, because this is great shit.

For those of you wax busters out there, you know that we arent the only ones struggling in the economy these days. Not only do the shops feel it due to a retail sales dip during christmas time, but they also give you ways to save that would never ever be available before. This carries into both Blowout Cards and DACardworld as both are offering some pretty awesome deals for the holidays.

First off, you can get free shipping from both sites, pretty much automatically. That is huge when they normally charge 9 bucks and above to ship your shit to you. Secondly, they are both having holiday sales that put normal box prices to shame. With DA, you can get free stuff with just about any order, all the way up to really nice boxes and packs with orders over $1000 dollars. Buy $50-$1000 bucks worth of any sport at drastically reduced prices and you will get a slew of boxes and packs to go with it.

At Blowout, they are offering amazing prices on a lot of sweet boxes, like Legendary Cuts, Leaf Limited, Chrome Baseball and FB, and about 100 others. Its worth taking a look, I bought a few things for myself at both stores, and I am pretty happy with my purchases.

If DA and Blowout are reading this and want to give us some boxes to break (or not break) and send out to the readers, I guess I can get into the holiday spirit and have some nice giveaways just this once, mainly since the manufacturers are really not involved in this.

2008 SCU Secret Holiday Gift Giver (PLEASE SIGN UP)

Ladies and Gents, or maybe just gents, I have an idea. First, let me wish you all a wonderful holiday season, and secondly, lets cash in a little on it.

Here is what I want to do. For those of you who read this blog and those of you who have your own, I want to organize a Secret Santa thing for all of us. Each of you who want to participate will be able to set a list of wants and be entered into the pool. You will give a gift of at least $30 sell value to your secret person, and you will receive the same from the person who has you. You can dictate what is on your list, so here is mine:

Gellman - SCU - Adrian Peterson, Joe Mauer, Cris Carter, Jared Allen, Kevin Williams, Retired HOF Vikings and Twins, no base please.

Please post your list in the comments, and I will add you into the draw and post you on the list below. Once you have posted your list in the comments, please post a second comment with your address (it will not be approved), you may also email it to me. Hopefully we can get a bunch of people, the more the merrier. Also, this is not sport specific, if you want hockey, you can ask for hockey. Please give your Secret Santa a nice list to work with, as it will be easier to get you your gift. You do not have to draw from your PC, you can purchase from anywhere, but please send your guy/gal something from their list. Gifts will need to be purchased and sent by Jan 15th, hopefully 25 dollars isnt too much to spend. Even if we only get 4 people, this can still happen, I will fill an odd numbered spot if needed, you may post more than one list as long as you will send more than one $30 SV package, you will not get yourself.

Participants and Lists

1. Gellman - Adrian Peterson, Joe Mauer, Cris Carter, Jared Allen, Kevin Williams (DE), Retired and HOF Vikings and Twins, no base please.

2. Dave - Relic or auto cards of Carolina Hurricanes (favorite is Eric Staal), Buffalo Bills (Edwards, Lynch, Evans, Poz or players from the 80s and 90s) or Don Mattingly from between the years 2004 - 2007.

3. Darkship - George Brett relic, auto's and oddball's, Vikings cards (AP, Greenway)

4. Stusigpi - pete rose, Nolan Ryan, Hank Aaron, Roy Campanella, eric Dickerson, Kurt Warner,

5. Psad - Drew Brees, Matt Forte, Kyle Orton, Dustin Keller, Geovany Soto. Other historic Cubs or Bears cards would be cool too. I mainly collect RCs, Autos or Memorabilia.

6. HawaiianLion - Colt Brennan (Hawaii/Redskins), Davone Bess (Hawaii/Dolphins), Derek Jeter, Manu Ginobili, Star Wars sketch cards.

7. Matt F - Ichiro, Alex Gordon, George Brett, Harmon Killebrew, Jamie Moyer, Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers [Non-Favre].

8. Waltersmaaron - Yovani Gallardo, Greg Jennings any Brewers Packers or Wisconsin Badger alumni in badger uni's

More details to come, as soon as we get a complete list for sign up.

Happy Fucking 4th Of July From SCU

I cant tell you how awesome it is to have a day like this off. Its fucking gorgeous. Got the brats and beer goin' and flowin' so you know its going to rock.

I wanted to give a special hat tip to reader Dan who is stationed all the way over in Iraq and still seems to collect cards despite being in a war zone. Days like this wouldnt be possible without guys like Dan, so thanks for the email, and keep on doin' what your doin'. Our thoughts are with you!