Rickey Gets On

"People, they ask me, 'Rickey, how you steal all those bases?' I tell 'em 'Rickey gets on'."

Building The '93 Upper Deck Set

I decided a couple (few?) months ago to build the 1993 Upper Deck set from scratch. It really was from scratch because outside of the Padres in the set, I only had a dozen or so others and some of those are part of player collections (Joey Cora, John Kruk, Scott Radinsky, and Tom Henke come to mind) so I'd need to get duplicates of those too.

I have actually never built a set before so this is a new experience for me. As soon as I decided to do this one I started snagging up '93 UD loosies and lots on Listia. The Rickey above was paired up with his '94 Collector's Choice card, which features a near-mirror image of him sliding headfirst on a horizontal card.

Another Listia pickup was an unopened Marlins team set. I promptly freed the cards from their home for the last 20 years and something immediately caught my eye as I began leafing through them.

They're all stamped with a gold "First Season Marlins" gold leaf insignia. I guess they're technically parallels and probably shouldn't be used as legitimate set pieces but I put them in the mix nonetheless. Well, except for one. I had to set this one aside:

That card alone made the purchase worthwhile. The fact that I also got to knock out about 1/28 of the set at the same time was just icing.

Accidentally stumbling unto a Trevor Hoffman rookie-year card was just the beginning of my '93 UD related luck.  Around a month or so ago I commented on a post by Dime Box Nick that featured some '93 UDs. He mentioned how great they are and remarked that somebody should have a blog dedicated to the set. I said something about working on putting the set together and thought nothing more about it. Then a day or so later I got a Facebook message from a reader of his who had some to send my way. I gathered up every Yankees card and all of the Rickey Henderson cards I had and sent them his direction. What I got back far outweighed what I sent.

I didn't know what to expect but I definitely didn't picture what I ended up getting. He sent a huge box and knocked a few hundred cards off my wantlist in one fell swoop. He also included a couple hundred Padres cards, a great deal of which I didn't already have.

Last weekend I finally got around to putting them all in order and weeding out the doubles. I also made a needs list for the set, so if you have any of those I'd be glad to trade for them. I believe I have the majority of Series 2 but am rather lacking as far as Series 1 goes.

I thought about making a set blog but I barely post here so that probably wouldn't have taken off. I'm sure a lot of my posts on here in the future will be set-related, though.

James Against The Machine

Yes I know my enemies
They're the teachers who taught me to fight me
Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission
Ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite
All of which are American dreams
All of which are American dreams
All of which are American dreams
All of which are American dreams
All of which are American dreams
All of which are American dreams
All of which are American dreams
All of which are American dreams

Don't Let Anyone Push You Around

It's a shame when anyone gets hurt but if you play with fire you're bound to get burned. I know if I threw down my glove and taunted a guy way huger than me right after I hit him with a baseball for the third time I wouldn't be surprised when he leveled me. But, then again, I don't have the sense of entitlement that those chosen ones in royal blue possess.

The Best Kind Of Duplicates

I recently got a PWE from Backstop Marcus which held seven cards, all seven of which I already have copies of. This might sound like it'd be disappointing but far from it. Four of the cards were of Joey Cora and I'd rather have a copy of a Joey Cora card that I already have several of than a new-to-me insert of anyone else.

I especially like this '93 Ultra. It seems like most of his cards show him fielding and I have no complaints with that.

Here are the backs to that Ultra and his '93 Fleer issue. Of the cards that do show him batting, most picture him hitting left-handed.

This is the note he enclosed, along with a card of long-time Padres color guy Mark "Mudcat" Grant. It's a good double to get because everybody loves Mud so it'll be sure to bring a smile to someone's face. As Grant himself would say, this card is "some kind of nice".

Lastly, Marcus included a pair of Pinnacles. I've written about the Harold Reynolds card before. Twice, actually, now that I think of it. I know exactly who wants this card, even if he doesn't know he wants it yet. That made sense, right? As for the Dave Staton card, I've accrued a few doubles of some of his cards and plan on eventually distributing them to other Gaslamp Ballers who have taken part in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Jersey project. Speaking of Staton and Gaslamp Ball, tomorrow is his 45th birthday so I'll be doing a card post about him over there tomorrow.

Thanks to Marcus for the cards and to the rest of you for reading!