Winner of the hundred followers contest!

Last week I had a contest to celebrate a hundred followers ( I have nine more now!)  I asked you guys to guess the number of fiction books on my shelf and my headboard for a Bryce Harper patch card.

The correct total was 72.

So, with a guess of 71, Alfredo Ortega is the winner!    
CONGRATULATIONS!

Send me your address and I will get the card out to you next week. (martinpradofan @ hotmail.com)

Chipper Jones and me.

Last night I watched Driven, which featured Chipper Jones.   It showcased his entire baseball career as well as how he was brought up.  It made me think about what it meant to be his fan and about the fact that he will never play again.   This was something I have been meaning to write for a long time, but never got around to.

 I don’t remember why I picked him out. I was ten way back in 1995, which was his first full season as an Atlanta Brave and when I first started watching him.  Likely I thought he was cute.  Hell, I still think he is cute… and sexy… and handsome… and a hunk that has gotten better as he aged, like wine.  Although I don’t like to admit, it that is a big reason why I like him.   Makes me seem like one of those female that only cares about watching the guys and nothing about the sport itself.

I’m not or well, at least not only that.  I love baseball and everything about it.  Always have.  I played tee-ball for two years.   I would have gone on but my mom was scared about me playing with the older boys.   It was something I loved doing, unlike the tap and dance classes that my mom signed me up for and hated.

My family also liked baseball, especially my grandmother.  I can’t count the number of times we watched the games together.   Whenever we were away from each other and were watching the game, we would always call each other whenever Chipper hit a homerun.  A lot of times the line would be busy as we were both calling each other at the same time.

It is hard to believe that the ballplayer I picked out when I was ten would spend his entire career as an Atlanta Brave or that he would do so well.  Through his eighteen years I never once had a player I liked more.   He has always been my favorite ball player and still is and always will be.  Through the years my walls have been plastered with various boy bands, movie posters and animal pictures, but Chipper Jones had always stayed up. It has always been my dream to meet him, to just shake his hand and say a few words to him.  Five minutes is all I need.  I still hold onto that dream

Some might call it an obsession and maybe it is.  I think that partially has to do with my Asperger’s Syndrome which I have talked about in past posts.    We tend to have special interests that we get very into and Chipper and the Braves have always been mine.   I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t bring up his name, something I know has driven my mom crazy.   With my grandmother passed away she is the only one I really talk to about Chipper, or well… besides you guys.  It is something I have gotten better at not talking about with people and likely why I talk about him so much at home as I have keep it in  everywhere else.

When I learned that he was gone to retire I was heartbroken.  I even cried, I admit it. I made it to two games last year, his bobble head night and the night they honored him.  I have watched him for eighteen years.   I have watched him come up to the plate, and take the field hundreds if not thousands of times.  I have watched him, hit homeruns and doubles and singles and even triples.  I have watched him get ground balls and pop flies and making amazing plays on the field.  I have yelled and screamed and cheered.  I have clipped articles out of the paper and bought magazines with his picture.  I have pulled his baseball cards from packs and bought memorabilia of all kinds.

To think I will no longer get to watch number ten take the field, or to see him come through to win the game for his team or hear them announce his name is something that is hard to accept.  I will always be a Brave fan and there are several players that I am big fans of, but this year will be different.  It will not be the same with Chipper and that will take some getting use to.

I. HATE. BLACKOUT. RULES!

HATE HATE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE



I was all set to watch  the Tigers VS Braves games tonight.  Actually I was set to watch it when it came on live, but MLBN lied and showed the blasted cursed damn dirty rotten Phillies.  The other channel it was suppose to come on, I don't have.


No fear though, MLBN would be showing the game at 8PM.  I eagerly count down the hours and excitedly rush in the house after coming home from a trip to town and flip on the TV.  My heart pounds in eager anticipation for the clock to read 8:00 PM

..only to see a black screen with the message "MLB preseason baseball has been blocked out on this channel."

Direct TV (piece of crap) must abide (abide... seriously?) by agreed upon rules for distrbuting programs.."
WARNING:  The half assed rant below contains cursing


....WHAT THE HELL?   It is a fucking spring training game gosh darn it!  Blackout rules are the biggest bunch of BS ever.    .   IF I COULD GO TO THE GAME, I WOULD BE THERE FUCKWITS!   

I was all set to see, Uggla, Freeman, Heyward and the Upoton brothers who where said to be playin today.

 PS  This rant was meant to be longer, but I'm hungry and tired and MONK is on.



PPS...Damnit my sandwich and curly fries are cold.

100 followers contest!

So  I have a hundred followers currently.  Wow.  Just, wow.  I was ecstatic when I got one.   I started this blog not knowing what I was doing.  I still don't know what I am doing but it is good to know I must be doing something right.  Or maybe  people have been taking pity on me.

Pessimistic much? Yup.  They live longer.  Really, they do. Google it.   A recent study came out proving it.   Another study came out that the more you eat the heavier you get.  Crazy, right?   There really was an article about pessimists though on yahoo though.

 Thanks to all those that have followed me.  Without you, I'd just be typing to myself.  I also would not have discovered  padded envelopes in a variety of sizes.

Thus have decided to do a contest.


I have a Bryce Harper patch car from 2013 topps.  Yea, a patch card, real exciting.   I don't do a lot of contests.

Guess the number of  fiction books on  my bookshelves and  on the headboard of my bed and you can have it.  Correctly guess it that is or come close.  Contest will last till next friday.   Don't guess the same number as someone else or the first person that posts it gets the number



















Hint: it is between 1-100 (it is not a 100)

Now that is a a lotta cards

My brother gave me a late christmas gift....

 

 

 

A box full of cards. Lots and lots of cards.   Cards of all years from the 80's to the 00's.  Cards from various companies, such as tri star, topps, and donruss (and likely  more) Cards from different sets. topps base, topps staduim and many more.  Along with baseall cards, there are basketball,football and even nascar thrown in.

 

 

 

 

...and more.  Actually they all fit in the box untill I took some out to look at them then couldn't get them to fit back in.

 

I have no idea what to do with them all.   So far I have been keeping all the Braves I have come across.  Thye have ranged from a Freedie Freeman to a Charlie O'Brian.  I really should try and sort through them. I just have no where to put them all.

The best chocolate bar in the WORLD (that is no longer made)

I  have always been a huge Chipper fan. Anything and everything that had   (...had?) his name or image on it had to be mine! mine! MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!   Shirts (lots of them)  posters (lots of them) figurines (lots of them) cards (lots and lots of them with help from you) and more   I even have a Chipper trashcan.

 Back in 98 when I was all of thirteen, they announced they would be making a candy bar in honor of Chipper.  Well, you can imagine my reaction.

....I can make even the most rabid of the Bebier fan girls seem tame in comparison


Here is a youtube link of the bar and what a (very young) Chipper thinks.

 

 

Of course when they came out I had to have them. I don't remember where I got them from, just that I did.   I had two. One to eat and one to save.    I am not a big fan of candy but I loved that Chipper bar with its crispy rice!   So much so, that I did something unthinkable. 

I was all set to save the other bar when we went to the grocery store.  How I remember this and yet forget where I put the TV remote five minutes later... I do not know.  I  just know it was late and I was in my then step fathers red Toyota. He had stopped by Bi-lo and I decided to stay in the truck while he shopped.  I also know that  when I looked up at the street lights they reminded me of alien space ships. (I was strange, even then)  I already had the bar with me at the time.  I don't know why, but I did.  Likely because I was (...was?) and over zealous fan girl.

I looked down at his sexy  cute face on the  wrapper  smiling back at me and told myself this bar was the one I was going to save.  I must not give into temptation and eat  his chocolaty goodness.    Like Eve with the apple, I was to be tempted, but this time it would be a then 26 year old ballplayer who led me astray as I ripped into the bar and devoured every bit of it.

I tried to justify myself by saying I would keep the wrapper.  Anyone that knows me though, knows  that this did not happen.  I would lose my own head if it were not attached... and other parts.  Thus the wrapper was lost forever.  I remember being upset and then getting over it. From time to time though I would  be reminded of the Bar that was named after the one they called Chipper and the despair and disappointment would come flooding back.  I would eagerly search google in hopes of coming across any signs of the bar only to leave the computer chair (actually a  kitchen chair dubbing as a computer chair) dejected and heartbroken.

Then one day I was searching ebay, and I came across the most wondrous site ever. Someone was selling a Martin Prado  light switch cover.


No, It was the Chipper bar.   Actually there was a Prado light switch cover I really wanted, but that is a tale for another time and place.   My journey was not over though.  I had another adversary, even worse than my nonexistent will power... my Mom


See, it was under her account. I had the money I could give her, but she thought it was a waste a of money.  Back and forth we went like two zombies with a severed arm,   but I prevailed in the end.



Now...

 BEHOLD THE WONDROUS CHIPPER BAR

and no, I am not gunnna eat it this time!

Gimme your (EXLUSIVE) blue bordered (PARALLEL) cards! ...please.

So Wal-Mart has once again decided they where going to have their very own special blue bordered parallel cards or as the packs so excitedly exclaim.. LOOK FOR EXCLUSIVE BLUE-BORDERED PARALLEL CARS! COLLECT THE WHOLE SET!


.. lik.. OHHH MMM GEEE!!!!!


It makes set collecting  even that much harder for people that only have retail, unless they order online. WHY do they think this is a good idea?    Have they TALKED to any collectors out there?  Who decided this shit?  Wal-mart?  Topps?  Money grubbing bastards?



But uhh...  I really like the look of the blue bordered cards.  I even managed to pull a  blue Freddie and McCann.  They are just so purtty!


So.... I am going to try and complete a most impossible task, a task that will fail at, but I bask in the glory of failure, because, hey, it is baseball cards.


I am going to try  to build a (EXLUSIVE) blue bordered set.  This is where you guys come in.  I need your blue cards, all of them.  You can have my inserts... minus any Braves.  You can have the normal bordered cards, I just gotta get me some blue. Tell your friends or your baseball blogging friends! Tell your enemies... or well, baseball blogging enemies!  Tell anyone or well,  anyone that blogs and collects baseball cards!

Currently my want list is massive.  It will be easier to list the cards I HAVE.


15, 16,  20, 38,  39, 44, 56, 60, 93, 108, 114, 120, 129,  130, 133, 135, 140, 145, 151,  152,  164, 166,
177, 193,  205, 210,  214, 240, 250, 255, 259, 275, 280, 300, 322,  329

Plus whatever number McCannn and Freddie are.

Any help would be much appreciated.  oh, I switched e-mails .  Actually I lost my password to my old account because hotmail said my old one was to weak so I changed it and then forget what I changed it to and didn't enter any info to get it backed because I  always passed that part of hotmail by while loudly cursing it.  I don't want to put no damn phone number damnit!

My new one?

martinpradofan @ hotmail . com

I also want a Chipper patch card.  I'll trade my soul for that.