Yeah BOYD!

My Detroit Tigers regained first place in the American League Central today, beating the Cleveland Indians, 4-1.

The Tigers are now 8-4, making fans excited about a group of veterans and young players that have played well together, a team that has played well above anyone's expectations.

My favorite Tigers pitcher, Matthew Boyd, won his first game of the season, allowing the Tribe just one run over six innings, striking out six, and walking just one.

Matthew's ERA sits at 2.60, and the crafty lefty has now struck out 29 batters over 17.1 innings pitched this year.


Boyd is just half of my favorite big league battery mates.

The other half, catcher BIG John Hicks, had two hits, including a line drive home run off Indians starter Trevor Bauer, a big HR that gave the Detroiters a 3-1 lead after Cleveland scored their lone run in the 6th.

BIG John is a terrific ballplayer, a valuable member of the Tigers bench, who can catch, play first base, and DH if needed.



Motor On! 🐯⚾️

PLAY BALL! ⚾️

Baseball Card of the Day...Topps NOW Christin Stewart

Christin Stewart's 2-run HR in the top of the 10th inning on Opening Day against the Blue Jays broke a scoreless tie, as the Tigers beat Toronto, 2-0.


Stewart's first homer of the season gives us our Baseball Card of the Day, and the first Tigers Topps NOW card of the season. 

This is the best looking Topps NOW card design so far, but I think Topps has made a mistake about the $9.99 per card price, a $2.00 increase over the last time I purchased a NOW card.


I think to justify the $9.99 price, the card would have to be a major milestone, such as Miguel Cabrera's 500th HR, Justin Verlander getting his 3,000th strikeout, or Nicholas Castellanos hitting 4 HRs in a game.


Hopefully I'll be able to acquire the card via the good old Internet in about a month, or so.

Have a great weekend!

Play Ball! 🐯⚾️

Baseball Card of the Day... Topps BUNT 19 Andrew McCutchen

 Andrew McCutchen is the first FREE Pack Friday player card on the BUNT 19 app, so I decided to make the former N.L. MVP today's Baseball Card of the Day! 

As soon as I saw that the veteran big leaguer was the first FREE Pack card issued this year, I knew that I had to share the beautiful card in honor of our friend, Collecting CUTCH.


I certainly wish that I could gift him the card to add to his collection, especially after Andrew homered in his Phillies debut yesterday.


Opening Day is always special, and I hope you all had a fabulous day of watching our National Pastime.

Have a great Friday... PLAY Ball! ⚾️

Happy Baseball Birthday... Travis Fryman

We send out Happy Baseball Birthday! wishes to former big league 3rd Baseman Travis Fryman, who turns 50 years young today!

David Travis Fryman  was born on March 25, 1969, in Lexington, Kentucky, grew up in Florida, attending Gonzales Tate High School in Pensacola.

The Detroit Tigers drafted Travis with the 30th pick of the 1st round of the amateur player draft in 1987, and he made his big league debut with Detroit on July 7, 1990, at the age of 21.

As a Tigers fan, I can tell you that I though Travis would become the greatest Detroit player to ever occupy the hot corner, and I wasn't happy at all when the Tigers traded him to the Arizona Diamondbacks after the 1997 season.

In his 6 plus years in Detroit, Fryman batted .274, with 149 HRs and 169 RBI, winning a Silver Slugger Award , making the American League All-Star team four times.

As for Fryman's baseball cards, I collected them all, of all the card companies, Donruss, Fleer, Topps, Upper Deck.

As with all my cards, I collected not for any financial gain, but because he was my 3rd Baseman. 

Travis Fryman looked like a ballplayer should look, played the game the right way.

Of all his baseball cards, when I hear Fryman's name the one card that comes to mind, my favorite card of his, is his 1993 Upper Deck #683.

How awesome is that card! 

Yes, it actually the Tigers team card, but that matters not, it's always the card that pops into my mind....beautiful artwork indeed!


As for the best card I have of Fryman, it has to be his 1996 Leaf Signature Series autographed card.

If you're a Tigers collector, or have Fryman cards in your PC, I'd like to know what your favorite, and best cards are of Travis.


Happy Baseball Birthday! Travis Fryman...welcome to the 50 club! 

Play Ball! 🐯⚾️

Baseball Bulletin... March 25, 2019

We've made it to another Monday.

My weekend was up and down, as my arthritis and fibromyalgia ganged up on me several times, including most of Sunday, causing many failed attempts at posting a weekend Baseball Bulletin. 


            ⚾️  Baseball Card of the Day ⚾️

2018 Topps Gallery #63, Justin Verlander 

The Houston Astros came to terms with RHP Justin Verlander on a three year contract extension worth $66 Million dollars. on Sunday, a few days after I received the Verlander card in the mail.

It's been a long winter here in Michigan, and as cold as it's been, we get a little more sunshine each day as we watch the great Miguel Cabrera having a terrific spring in Florida, showing us that the future Hall of Famer is ready to go when the Tigers face the Blue Jay's in Toronto on Thursday afternoon. 

⚾️💻📰  I decided to give The Athletic a try for a week, to see if it's something I want to subscribe to for baseball news.

This will be the first Internet subscription for me, but I have social media friends who share stories and have good things to say about the baseball coverage.

There have been several quality baseball people go over to the site, including Peter Gammons, Ken Rosenthal, Jonah Keri, Brittany Ghiroli, and Jayson Stark.

Stark, one of the best baseball scribes I've read, is the reason...besides the free week and discounted rate...that I went ahead with the trial... was to read Mr. Stark's colum on Cabrera as he gets ready for the season.

📌 Also, another baseball writer I follow on Twitter,  Emily C. Waldon, who does a great job of reporting on the young players in the Detroit organization, wrote a marvelous article on The Athletic on the struggle of minor league players to make a decent living.

🐯⚾️  In other Tigers news, the club announced on Sunday that RHP Jordan Zimmerman will be the Opening Day starter.

Jordan has said many times this spring that he's completely healthy, something that Tigers fans have been waiting for since 2016.

🏀 How many of you made up brackets for this years college hoops tournament?

I always do at least one obligatory bracket, and, depending on how good my Michigan Wolverines are at tourney time, I pick them to advance to the National Championship game...and, of course, WIN!

📌 After the weekend we've reached the Sweet Sixteen, and here's how yours truly is doing so far.

My Wolverines will be playing the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Thursday night, around 9:40 p.m., on CBS.

💻 Not only is it bracket time in college hoops, it's also been fun interacting in the Garbage Pail Kids Twitter Tournament , which has completed four rounds of voting.

Remember, it's not to late to get involved in the GPK Tourney...and, hey, if you're not on Twitter, this is a terrific time to log on to twitter.com   ,create your account, follow Cards From The Attic,  ...and  VOTE! for your favorite cards, interact with other users, and, well, besides a bunch of fun, you might just WIN a cool prize pack!

Well, it's almost 3 a.m. on Monday Morning, time for a few hours of sleep so I can get up and watch the Dan Patrick Show, my favorite sports radio show.

Dan and The Danettes will be on Bleacher Report Live for the first time...I do listen to the show on the Dan Patrick Show APP., but watching the simulcast makes the show much better.

Have a great start to your week...and, as 

always ... PLAY BALL! ⚾️

Baseball Bulletin...March 22, 2019

As we head into the final weekend of Spring Training baseball games, lets look around ye olde Internet to see what's going on.

Our friend, Collecting Cutch, has a TERRIFIC contest going on... you can win this awesome Carl Yastrzemski card.

 

   

    ⚾️📸 Baseball Picture of the Day 📸⚾️   

Just saw this on Twitter...2-time NL MVP Dale Murphy posting this today.

What baseball fan didn't have that great POWER ALLEY poster hanging on their walls in the 1980s!

Speaking of the 1980s, a young man who almost certainly had that poster, and the #1 authority (well, I hink so anyway), on the '80s, Dubmentality, has a terrific look at the JUNK FOOD era.



⚾️🎂🎁 Happy Baseball Birthday! to the man who should be Commissioner of Baseball, the great Bob Costas, who's 67 today.

⚾️🐟 The big news across baseball this week was the Angels $420 million contract extension of Mike Trout.

Many fans wanted Trout to play baseball somewhere else, like the Yankees, so he has a chance to play after the 162nd game of the year, but I like that Trout stayed, it's where he belongs.

Rhett Bolinger writes why the 2-time AL MVP is comfortable playing with the Angels.

Baseball needs players like Trout to play their entire careers with one team, and not run off to the highest bidder every few years.

Besides, the analytical goofballs are bad enough with Trout now, if he went to play for the Cubs, Phillies, Red Sox, or Dodgers, I think their heads would explode.


⚾️🖋 Other players signing news...

🖋  Paul Goldschmidt was traded to the St. Louis in the off season, and now the Cardinals want to keep him long term, reports Jennifer Langosch.

🖋 The Ray's are making sure the 2019 AL Cy Young Award winner through the 2023 season.

🖋 The World Series Champion Boston Red Sox appear headed to a new contract.



⚾️ Sarah Langs at MLB.com has all of your Opening Day Starters. (so far).



⚾️ The great Ichiro Suzuki  took a bow for the final time on Thursday, fittingly, in his native Japan. 🇯🇵⚾️

There's always talk about waving the 5 year limit on putting a players name on the Hall of Fame ballot when tragedy strikes, like Lou Gehrig, Roberto Clemente, and Roy Halladay, passing away much to young.

In Ichiro's case, while there's no tragedy, the 10 time All-Star and AL MVP should be Inducted into the HOF in 2020...no player in history excelled playing baseball in Japan and America like he did...and most likely we'll never see a player do it again.




            ⚾️ Baseball Card of the Day ⚾️

My friend Steve at White Sox Cards has a interesting look at the 1960 Topps Norm Cash baseball card.

🤣 While you're watching March Madness and those final games in the Grapefruit & Cactus leagues, make sure you get involved in the Garbage Pail Kids Tournament over on Twitter.... lots of cool prizes up for grabs!

Let's make sure Homer Runt makes it into the next round!

Well, that'll do it for now...time to take some pain meds and lay down.

Have a awesome weekend!

PLAY BALL! ⚾️

Garbage Pail Kids Twitter Tournament

First off, I know absolutely next to nothing about Garbage Pail Kids cards, although I do remember them back in the day.

The great thing about social media is the stuff you learn and the awesome people you meet.

March Madness is back, and over on Twitter that means another very cool tournament by Cards from the Attic, and this time its Garbage Pail Kids.

Yes, Garbage Pail Kids, those crazy cards from the mid 1980s. are going at it in a bracket style format until a GPK Champ is crowned...just like hoops hysteria!


And, the cool thing is, with participation, you have the opportunity to win awesome GPK Prize Packs, and hey, FREE cards are always cool.

The man is SERIOUS about giveaways!

As I said, I really know nothing about GPK, but there's two cards that I'm going to vote for, a couple of baseball related cards...

           ⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️Homer Runt⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️

        ⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️Screwball LEW⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️

Last year I had an absolute blast playing in the Cardboard Chaos, and I'll have fun participating again this year...learning about those weird cards from the 1980s.


Of course, now that I've gotten interested in the GPK, I'm going to have to start collecting the baseball GPK cards.


For all your GPK Tourney info, go to Cards From The Attic.

Go have some fun... PLAY BALL! ⚾️

Baseball Bulletin... March 4, 2019

Happy Monday everyone, I hope that you all had a terrific weekend.

Today is (was) National HUG a G.I. Day.

Make sure to honor all those who are serving, or have served, buy going up and giving them a hug, a pat on the back, a Thank You!  for serving our Country! 

😎 For myself, it was a pretty good sports weekend, with my Michigan Wolverines going on the road and getting a big time win over the Maryland Terrapins.

The win improved their Big Ten record to 15-4, (26-4), moving into second place in the conference behind the Purdue Boilermakers. 

Michigan has one regular season game left, travelling to East Lansing to take on Michigan State.

My favorite NASCAR driver, Kyle Busch, finished 3rd in yesterday's race in Las Vegas, behind winner Joey Logano and Michigan native Brad Kesolowski.

🇺🇸🤼‍♀️ Torrie Wilson will be Inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year.

😎 Here's some Baseball stuff I came about on ye olde Internet.


⚾️🎂🎁 Big leaguers with a #HappyBaseballBirthday  today include Dazzy Vance, Lefty O'Doul, Tom Grieve, Brian Hunter, Sergio Romo, and Tigers right fielder Nicholas Castellanos.



        ⚾️ 📷 Baseball Picture of the Day 📷⚾️

🐯 The annual Spring Training get together of Detroit Tigers catchers...photo courtesy of BIG John Hicks on Instagram.

👀 Bryce Harper signed a 13 year, $330 Million dollar contract with the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday, and that meant a much anticipated baseball card from the one and only Gummy Arts.

Harper has been one of my favorite big leaguers to watch play since he made his debut in 2012....and I wrote in January 2013 that he had become my favorite Washington Nationals player.

💻 The #3 Phillies Jersey of Harper set a Fanatics record over a 24-hour period.


😎 Who's the best ballplayer ever?
     ● CUT 4 says the answer is Mickey Kaline.

I honestly can say that I've never heard of Mickey Kaline, but that last name is absolutely fantastic!

Mickey had quite the big league career...apparently.

💛💙⚾️ For the 2nd consecutive week, Michigan Junior Tommy Henry is the BIG Ten Pitcher of the Week. 💛💙⚾️

🐎⚾️ Henry is also a graduate of Portage Northern High School, like yours truly.



📰 Historic Hamtramck Park is being renovated, and it got a good start in funding the project with a $10,000 donation from Jack White.

White, a Motown native, loves baseball, and the Tigers, and its awesome to see a star like that giving back to a great cause in his community.

🐯 The ballpark was once home to the Detroit Stars of the old Negro Leagues, an is one of just five (5) Negro Leagues ballparks still in existence. 


🎯 Well, that's all for now, it's almost midnight,  and its literally taken me about 10 hours, on, and off, to complete this post.

Hope you had a great Monday evening, and if you're reading this on Tuesday, well, my apologies for the delay...go out and HUG a service member and thank them for all they do each and every day for us.


Play Ball! ⚾️🇺🇸🐯🎂🎁😎🐎

Happy Baseball Birthday! ... Nicholas Castellanos

Sending out Happy Baseball Birthday!  wishes to Detroit Tigers rightfielder Nicholas Castellanos, who turns 27 today.

I'm a big fan of the young man, and I know that I'm in the minority when it comes to most Tigers fans on social media, but I'll take a .298 batting average, with 23 HRs, 89 RBI, 46 doubles and 185 base hits any time.

🐯 The Tigers weren't a good team last year, winning just 64 games...without Castellanos, they likely wouldn't have won 54 games

🐯 Castellanos should spend his entire career in the Motor City, and the Tigers can, and should, make that happen.

Happy Baseball Birthday! Nicholas...have yourself an awesome day.....I'm sure it'll involve the newest addition... Lola Castellanos.

Lola and Nicholas Castellanos courtesy of Detroit Tigers on Twitter.


PLAY BALL!⚾️

Card Corner...2019 Topps Heritage Detroit Tigers Cards

Topps released their 2019 Tops Heritage Baseball on Wednesday, and there are plenty of Detroit Tigers cards for sale already on ebay.

Heritage pays homage to the Topps 1970 card set.

The cards, just like they were 49 years ago, are simple, with gray borders, and a simple pose by the player, with TIGERS in either upper left or right hand corners.

I like Heritage cards because it brings me back to when I opened those packs with my my allowance, paper route and birthday money, searching for all the Tigers cards, especially, of course, my hero.

Because the Tigers released James McCann, that Freehan card won't have a Tigers catcher to pose in that classic batting stance, unless one comes out late this year in Heritage Update w/ BIG John Hicks or Grayson Griener.


The TIGERS base cards are...

#12 Jordan Zimmerman

#33 Jeimer Candelario

#95 BIG Joe Jimenez

#98 Nicholas Castellanos

#152 Matt Boyd

                             Yeah Boyd! 

#177 Niko Goodrum

#207 Dawel Lugo RC / Cristin Stewart RC - Rookie Stars

I LOVE that 2019 Tigers Rookie Stars card!

🐯⚾️Here's hoping Stewart and Lugo have better careers for the Tigers than Norman McRae and Bob Reed.

#269 Shane Greene

#313 Michael Fulmer


#472 Miguel Cabrera (SP)

The Cabrera card is short printed, as are all Heritage cards #400 through #500, and will be more difficult to pull in packs.

There are also black color variations of each Tigers player, with just 50 copies of each card

The Walmart my Princess works at never has cards on their actual release date, ao I'm hoping that this weekend they'll show up so I can open a few packs.

If you've opened opened up any Heritage this week, let's hear about your experiences so far, what you think about the cards, did you go hobby, or retail, did you get your favorite player, team... did you get any hits?


⚾️ If your a Chicago White Sox collector, my friend Steve at White Sox Cards has you covered.

⚾️ If you're a L.A. Dodgers fan, Earnest at Dodgers Blue Heaven has all your info.

Give these awesome bloggers a follow and give them your thoughts on the 2019 Topps Heritage cards.


Have a great weekend, keep on blogging, keep collecting, and keep ripping open baseball cards!

Play Ball! ⚾️