Happy Birthday Campy! My Roy Campanella Collection.

In honor of Roy Campanella's birthday, I thought this would be as good a time as any to get my Campy PC posted, in totality. I'll have a new page at the top of the old blog soon with the PC there for your viewing pleasure. By far the crown jewel of my small Roy PC is Campy's 1950 Bowman card, whose acquisition was detailed in full way back when.

Seriously. I adore this card. It's my entry into The Mojo Beard's Top Card Gallery (thanks to Kevin for letting me contribute!). I would love another copy, or two or three. Greedy? Sure, I suppose. But look at it. It's an amazing, wonderful, beautiful card.

You can't go wrong with 1956 Topps. A great action shot of Campy on a fantastically-designed set.

I really love the design of '55 Bowman, and Bowman gave this card an elegant look with a great pose of Roy smiling, looking off into the future and another World Series title (of course, he was unfortunately unable to be on the field when that title was won).

1952 Bowman. Can't go wrong. And if this card wasn't so well-loved, I almost certainly would not have been able to afford it. Again, a GREAT shot of Roy, the card's retained its excellent color, and the Spring Training feel it has is something I really enjoy.

Milk mustache, off-centeredness and all (Campy probably posed for this shot in Movember), his 1953 Topps card came dirt cheap based off of a poor eBay listing. Roy's smile and the Brooklyn B seal the deal for me.

My one and only Roy relic. Thanks Sam!

So there you have it. My Campy PC, on what would have been the Hall of Famer's 90th birthday. RIP Roy.

Trade With Play At The Plate: Nothing Is More Appropriate Today Than A New York Themed Post

I completed my first trade with Brian from Play At The Plate. In return for a pair of Rangers autos, Brian sent me three relics. As it so happens, all are of New York Yankees, and the bubbler arrived yesterday. So posting it on the tenth anniversary of September 11th seemed like the obvious play.

First up, a new Russ Martin, his bat relic from this year's Ginter offering.

I now have both of Martin's relics from 2011 A&G. Which is pretty awesome.

Next up are a pair of Roger Clemens relics, which I'm very happy to add to my modest Clemens PC.

A big thanks to Brian for the great trade! Finally, while I'd like to come up with some transcendent thing to say on 9/11, I think this picture I stumbled across is plenty enough, and speaks louder than anything I could possibly come up with.

In Memoriam: Manny Ramirez

With Manny Ramirez now off to the Windy City, I thought I would look back at some of the memorable moments he had in his roughly two years with the team.

I did a "Caption This Photo" on the above picture last year.

But seriously, the man put up a line of .322/.433/.580/1.012 in 223 games with the Dodgers, playing injured in many of those contests, especially down the stretch in 2009. That line is good enough for a 171 OPS+. He had 99 extra-base hits in his LA stint, and put up a WAR of 7.8 (3.6 alone over the final 53 games in 2008), an outstanding number, especially considering how poor he is defensively and how much time he's missed the past two seasons.

Overall, the Manny Ramirez Era in Los Angeles is an unquestioned success, an A grade from me for the future Hall Of Famer.

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Readers who enjoyed this post will also enjoy: In Memoriam: Blake DeWitt

In Memoriam: Blake DeWitt

Every post referencing our now departed second/third baseman can be found here.