Trade With Chavez Ravining: Parks and Recreation, Bisons and Kershaws and Puigs, Plus Steve Nash!

I completed my second trade with my buddy Alex from Chavez Ravining. I met Alex for the first time at the Campanella-Reese Bobblehead game, and we chatted about cards and baseball for a few innings. It's nice to put a face to online interactions.

I've never been particularly particular when it comes to the autographs I pick up in my quest to complete a Master Set of 2013 Press Pass Parks and Recreation. There are 13 John Hancocks to acquire, and as long as I have one of each I'm a happy man. It could be a parallel auto, have different color ink, or have other features that would differentiate it from the others, and I wouldn't care. The above Megan Mullally signature leaves me just three shy of completing the auto subset.

Alex could have sent me just the Mullally auto and that would have been sufficient. But in typical Chavez Ravining fashion, he sent a huge bubbler full of cardboard goodness. I was surprised to find this Chrome Black Refractor Bison, numbered 003/100, and man does my newest Mattycakes' card ever scan in magnificently.

Next up, some brand new additions to my Kemp, Kershaw, and Martin PCs. I came to find I pretty much had no base or inserts of any of these three gentlemen from 2014 releases. Alex quickly helped to rectify that.

#ManBearPuig checks in next as Alex sent along four new Yasiels for my modest PC of the Cuban star. One day I will own his signature.

Alex sent a boatload of cards so rather than scanning in everything I chose to pick nine of my favorites and go that route. Man, those are some beautiful pieces of cardboard. The Santana has 2014 Card of The Year potential just oozing from it.

I did not expect to find a jumbo relic of Steve Nash from his Lakers' days. It hails from Panini Crusade and the colorful swatch is a sweet bonus. Nash will always be in my top 5 all-time of NBAers and his auto -- picturing him as a member of the Phoenix Suns and preferably on-card -- is on my short-list of must-own cards.

Alex knows I have an affinity for 1/1 Archer Sketch cards, so he decided to create an original sketch card of his own. It's a 1/1 and signed on the back by the man himself. I quite dig it.

Alex also knocked off a needed Allen & Ginter card -- 2013 Nelson Mandela, Peacemakers -- from my still lengthy A&G Want List, which dates back to 2011.

Thanks, as always, for another fantastic trade Alex!

Yes, I'm an Alex Rodriguez Fan. Yes, He's a Hall of Famer.

I don't care that Alex Rodriguez admitted to taking PEDs and may have taken them again. I don't support cheating but baseball went on quite the witch-hunt to "take down" the future Hall of Famer. On top of that, it's hypocritical to attack A-Rod but allow guys who cheated to remain in the Hall of Fame and in the good graces of the press (Mike Schmidt, his generation, and those that played before him in regards to greenies and other amphetamines; Gaylord Perry and his spitball; etc., etc.).

The scratches are from the one-touch the card came in. I shouldn't have been so lazy in not removing it, but the card is still gorgeous. I won't even get into the fact that A-Rod should have been a Dodger, so I'll just say this beaut is numbered 249/391 and is on-card to boot! I've wanted a John Hancock of Alex for some time and figured now was as good a time as any to find a deal, which I thankfully did.

From Brian Brohm To Alex Rodriguez To Alex Gordon

38/99

The border on the A-Rod is much brighter than my picture alludes to. It's a really nice creme color.

040/250

My first XFractor Auto, and the oddity of how Patel came to be signed makes the card one of the more interesting and oddball pieces of my collection. Plus, it's so shiny! Look at it sparkle!

Patch-y

Any off-centeredness stems from my poor cropping skills, not the cards themselves.

None of these are for trade.

Alex Rodriguez/Jeff Bagwell Dual Relic

Picked this sweet dual relic up at my local shop for a measly $2. A Black Friday deal, and one I was happy to get. Come to think of it, I think I actually bought it two days before Black Friday, so hooray for cool card shop owners!

The A-Rod relic is a piece of jersey, and the Bagwell relic is a slice of a pair of game-worn pants. I really, really like the design of the card, with both players having a couple of pictures on the card. It sort has a futuristic look to it.

"Trade" With Baseball Savvy: Vintage. And Darren Dreifort.

I helped set up Lakers Savvy, a new Lakers blog that will be coming to a computer near you at some point soonish, a while back. It's the brainchild of Howard Cole, who runs Baseball Savvy. I told Howard no payment was necessary, that I was happy to help as much as I could. When he eventually offered to send cards my way, I couldn't turn them down. I mean, when someone offers you cardboard, and vintage cardboard no less, you jump on it.

Howard was kind enough to send me five cards, and all five now have a permanent home in my collection. Without further adieu, let's get to 'em:

1955 Bowman Don Hoak

This thing is in near mint condition. A beautiful looking set from Bowman, and my first from the set which I one day hope to put together. The Dodgers portion of it, of course.

1960 Topps Carl Furillo

1961 Topps Dodgers Team Card

1973 Topps Steve Garvey. Third Base. Awesome.

1995 Donruss Gold Leaf Rookies Darren Dreifort

This bad boy is my first Dreifort, well, anything, if memory serves. And it's signed. The best part of this card is how Howard came to procure it. This is how he told the story: "I paid $55 million for this one, over five years." Ah, it's the little things in life that bring me so much joy.

Thanks again for the cards Howard, and good luck with Lakers Savvy.

Congratulations Are In Order

To the Yankees for their 7-3 win Wednesday night, the final nail in the coffin of the Phillies. The Yanks take the series 4-2, capturing the World Series for the 27th time in franchise history.

If I were Alex Rodriguez, I would wear my new Championship Ring on my middle finger. Especially during interviews and press conferences. And I would have a never-ending itch on my temple.


Scratch away A-Rod.

Scratch away.