Tigers Vex Verlander/Collecting Cutch Doubles Up

Baseball is a funny game sometimes, and last night was one of those times, although I'm sure Justin Verlander isn't laughing.


The Astros ace, and former Detroit pitching legend, hurled a complete game two-hitter, striking out 11 batters, on Wednesday night...and lost, 2-1.

Those HRs were the only two hits of the night for the Tigers, both were solo homers, one in the 5th inning off the bat of Ronny Rodriguez in the 5th, and the other a no doubter blast of the bat of BIG John Hicks, were all the offense the boys from Motown needed.

👉 Hicks, a native of Goochland, Virginia, also homered off Verlander (also a Goochland native), last year in Houston.

I post the 2018 Topps Update HOT Pink Mother's Day parallel card of BIG John to let you know that we are less that 6 weeks from the 4th annual "Save Second Base" event held each October by our blogging buddy Collecting Cutch.


Cutch is holding a Preview and Contest post up on his blog... head over there to get the contest info, and, heck, you might just win a prize!


Kate Upton is a Astros pitchers wife now, which makes all us Tigers fans sad, so, in the spirit of Cutch's Contest, let's leave on a happy note.

Have a awesome day!

Play Ball! 🐯⚾️

Matthew Boyd reaches 200 K!

Matthew Boyd struck out nine batters on Sunday afternoon in Tampa, becoming the 12th pitcher in Detroit Tigers history, and just the 3rd lefty, to strikeout 200+ batters in a season.

With about 6 starts left this season, Boyd has a chance to finish in the top 10 single season strikeouts in team history (Max Scherzer K'd 240 in 2013).

👉 Boyd won't come close to 2nd ("Prince Hal" Newhouser, 275 in 1946), or 1st (Mickey Lolich, 301 in 1971).



Matthew's next start should come in Minneapolis on Friday night vs the Twins, followed by a start vs the Indians the following week...it certainly won't be an easy task, but you never know.



Have a fantastic week!


PLAY BALL! 🐯⚾️

Super Saturday, August 17, 2019

Today was quite the long day.

We have a ton of stuff to do as we get ready to move on Wednesday, and today was a nice break from all the pressure that we've been under the past few months.

My first stop was FanFare, our local card shop, to finish up Topps Baseball Card Day with the Vladamir Guerrero, Jr. card, FREE, with a $10.00 purchase of Topps products.

I bought two packs of 2019 Topps Heritage High Number, as well as some card pages.

Nothing special in the packs, but I did get a Tigers player in one of the packs.

🐯⚾️ Jody Mercer has had some big hits and a couple big home runs to win games for my Tigers this year, and I was happy to see him in the pack...he's headed to the card binder tomorrow.

Next up was the card show over on the West side of Kalamazoo.

                           "Kickoff Classic!"

I brought some cards to sell, accomplished what I needed to do to help our financial situation, and even had my favorite dealer toss in two cool Miguel Cantera relic cards.

I couldn't pass up these cards of the future Hall of Famer.

This was the inaugural Kalamazoo Card Show, and we have another one coming up in November, which, of course, I'll be attending, and, hopefully, be able to spend more time at.

                            " The Feast" 

After the show it was time for our annual church picnic, out on the Northside of Kalamazoo, at Markin Glen Park, and we indulged ourselves with grilled hotdogs, hamburgers, delicious baked beans, pasta salad, and tasty brownies and cookies with dessert.

👉 What really made the picnic is that we were allowed to bring our dog with us, and he thrived getting out and running around in all that green grass...and he ate two hot dogs!


I don't get out and around enough to do much with baseball cards, and so days like today are special to me and my Princess.


Until next time, thanks for reading my blog, It's much appreciated.


OH...PLAY BALL!

Card Corner... Topps Living Set Cards #223-24-25.

Three new cards have been released today for the Topps Living Set collectors, including a young Detroit Tigers pitcher, a slugging Twins outfielder, and a power hitting Hall of Famer.


Card #223 is Vladamir Guerrero, Sr., and POW!, how cool is it that Topps has him as a Montreal Expos player...look at that magnificent Expos ballcap!

Spencer Turnbull, Card #224, a rookie pitcher for the Tigers, who, has shown promise this year, and will definitely be in the Tigers starting rotation in 2020 as the team continues to rebuild for the future.

When you look at these amazing cards, the details are amazing...we can only imagine what those eyes of Spencer are looking at.



Now, I'm not a Minnesota Twins fan, but I'm a baseball fan who likes watch Max Kepler, Card #225, play the game.

Max, and the Twins, are whopping homers at a record pace this year, with Max
contributing a career high 32 HRs...probably why he's smiling!

A friendly reminder that if you're on Twitter, follow @ToppsLivingStats , who hosts a weekly contest where you can win a FREE Topps Living Set card if you correctly predict a card that Topps will release that week.

This week I had a Tigers player, rookie catcher Jake Roger's, who's hitting the ball well for only being up for about a month...but it's great to see any Tigers player in the set, so Turnbull will find his way into my collection.


Until next time, thanks for reading my blog, and, as always...PLAY BALL! ⚾️

Card Corner... Topps Living Set Ken Griffey, Jr.

The newest addition to Topps Living Set collection is great addition, indeed, as I say hello to Ken Griffey, Jr.

Griffey, the owner of the sweetest swing that I've ever seen, as well as the biggest smile in baseball, was a magnificent ballplayer, who, despite getting injured quite a few times, managed to bat .284, collect 2.781 base hits, and smash 630 HRd in his 22 year career.



Junior arrived on the same day, Thursday, as did my TLS Al Kaline card.

👉 My Topps Living Set Collection

New: Ken Griffey Jr., TLS Card #193

My TLS Cards: 24

My TLS HOF Cards: 11

My TLS Seattle Mariners: 2

I'm expecting two more Topps Living Set cards two arrive soon, another Hall of Famer, and a former slugging outfielder for my Jacksonville Suns collection.


Are you a Topps Living Set card collector?

If so, I'd love to hear about the cards in your collection, why you like the cards, and your favorites so far.


Thanks again for taking time to reading my blog, it's much appreciated, believe me.

It's not always easy for me to post, as it depends on my health...and weather, or not, my phone will work properly.


Have a terrific weekend... PLAY BALL! ⚾️

Card Corner... Niko Goodrum Topps NOW

Back on Friday, May 31st, Detroit Tigers utility man extraordinaire, Niko Goodrum, had a career night, in front of his family and friends, collecting 5 hits, including 2 HRs, as the Tigers beat Niko's hometown Braves, 8-2.


The next day Niko got himself a Topps NOW card, and as of Thursday afternoon, I've excitedly placed it into my Tigers collection.

Now in his 3rd year in Detroit, the versatile swit has become a fan favorite in the Motor City, and has played every position except cather and pitcher in 237 games.

👉 A year ago Wednesday, I posted about another Niko Goodrum card I'd received.


I don't get many Topps NOW cards, but when something cool happens, especially in a Tigers game, I try and get one.

In this case, Niko's 5 hit night was the first by a player on the Tigers since Dmitri Yong in 2003.


Thanks for reading this post, it's much appreciated!


Play Ball! 🐯⚾️

Topps Living Set... Mr Tiger is here!

I made it to the post office box today (Thursday afternoon).and had a few packages waiting for me, and I was very happy to see that the Topps Living Set card of Mr. Tiger himself, the great Detroit Tigers HOFer, Al Kaline, had arrived.

Kaline, card #184, was released on May 15th of this year, and it was a no brainer that I'd purchase the card to add to my TLS collection. 

Seeing that beautiful signature of Al Kaline just never gets old! 

The reason that I'm just getting the card is that instead of going right through Topps, I decided to order two of the cards online, at $5.00 each, instead of paying the $7.99 at Topps.com.

The seller, who I won't mention (he's a good guy), apparently received his cards damaged in delivery from Topps, and as of last week, still hadn't gotten them replaced, so I went ahead and got one one, at $6.79 ( FREE Shipping), just to make sure I have one.


On Ebay right now, the Kaline cards ( UNGRADED) are priced from $4.99 (PLUS Shipping), to $19.99 (FREE Shipping).

Of course, there are also Kaline cards up for bidding, including cards of Mr. Tiger that are GRADED, but I'm a collector who prefers the card as is, an so I looked for the best price w/ the FREE Shipping. 

When I get the other two cards of Kaline one of them will go into my TLS HOF pages, another one will go in my separate TLS page with just Tigers cards, and the third one, well, I may just give it away, who knows. 

👉 My Topps Living Set Totals

TLS Total: 24

TLS HOF Total: 11

TLS Detroit Tigers: 4 ( V. Martinez, Matt Boyd, Kaline, Christin Stewart).

I also got a couple other cards in the mail, which I'll share in upcoming posts, and I'm expecting two more Topps Living Set cards to arrive by the weekend.


Thanks for reading this post, and, until next time, PLAY BALL! 🐯⚾️