2009 upper deck adam (andy) laroche

Who is this? good question. the card and auto sticker say adam laroche, 1st baseman for the pittsburgh pirates. the picture tells a different story

What is this? an autograph card from 2009 upper deck baseball

Where'd I get it? in 1 of 4 hobby packs i picked up a couple of days ago

How much did it cost? packs were $5.99 each. 20 cards per.

Why is this so special? i suppose i could call it an error card. the picture is of adam's little brother andy, who was involved in the manny ramirez trade last july. seriously, upper deck. where is the quality control? it's reminiscent of the 95 topps juan lebron/carlos beltran bait and switch.

it's a sticker auto, by the way.

actually i would rather have a card of andy than adam, but that's just me.

2007 UD Masterpieces Chris Duffy

Note - for the foreseeable future, I'll be posting cards on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with an occasional card on the weekend. One a day is a little too much right now.


Who is this? Pirates outfielder Chris Duffy.

What is this? An autograph card from 2007 UD Masterpieces, card SG-CD.

Where'd I get it? Sports Card Alley.

How much did it cost? Two bucks.

Why is this so special? I really like the UD Masterpieces set so I snagged this card out of the 3 for 5 case. Duffy seems to have been bitten by the Pirates curse. He was the Bucs' starting center fielder out of Spring Training in '06, hit poorly and was optioned to the minors. Instead of reporting to the minor leagues, he just went home. He eventually returned and was reinstalled as the Pirates' center fielder. However he injured his shoulder last year and has not played in a major league game since last July. The Pirates recently moved him to the 60-day DL to open up a roster spot and may be blocked in the organization now by center field prospect Andrew McCutcheon. Things aren't looking too good for the Arizona State star and another Pirates prospect might be going by the wayside. The card is nice at least, the black frame bordering Duffy's portrait and autograph on the canvas-style textured cardboard looks really good and you have to love that signature. I have no idea what those loops and hooks are supposed to be but it is an elegant graph. This won't pay for the kids' college or anything, but it looks good in the binder with the rest of my Masterpieces set.

2006 '52 Topps Rookie Card Yurendell De Caster

Who is this? Pirates third baseman Yurendell De Caster.

What is this? An autograph card from 2006 '52 Topps Rookie Card, card number 52S-YD

Where'd I get it? That same eBay guy with all the penny cards.

How much did it cost? One one thousandth of a ten dollar bill.

Why is this so special? Ok, so I probably overpaid for this one. Yurendell's entire major league career to date consists of two at bats in three games for two strikeouts. The Curacao native has played for the Dutch national team (including the 2007 European Championship gold medal winners) so we might see him again in the 2009 WBC. We won't see him with Pittsburgh because he's with the Nationals organization now, stuck in Triple-A Columbus. His realative anonymity still didn't keep some goober from videoing him looking over the DVD rack in Wal-Mart. Yurendell has an elegant minimalist signature on this card. I don't mind someone signing their name as Y d Ct when their name is 17 letters long and he's given a space smaller than the cap on a Sharpie to sign.

2008 Topps Heritage Freddy Sanchez

Who is this? Pirates second baseman Freddy Sanchez.

What is this? An autograph card from 2008 Topps Heritage, card number ROA-FS.

Where'd I get it? It was a crummy redemption from Topps Heritage.

How much did it cost? 1/24th of a box of Heritage.

Why is this so special? I figured this was a good auto to post on the day I turned on Topps for being a bunch of set-ruining finks. Normally, any autograph from Topps Heritage would be a good one, but this left a bad taste in my mouth. It was a redemption card, it wasn't a vintage autograph, and it was of a player I didn't care much about. Freddy is a decent player and all, it's just that I think "Heritage Autograph" and visions of vintageness dance in my head. Freddy ain't vintage. The signature is pretty weak too, it looks more like someone scribbled Fuji Salz on the card. Blue sharpie on black jersey is also sub-optimal. Oh well, there's some dude in Pittsburgh who'd kick their dog for this card so I should really quit my bellyaching. Hey, random denizen of the Alleghenys, when you're done punting Fido, dig up some Braves cards and make me an offer.

2000 Topps Traded Rico Washington

Who is this? Pirates second baseman Rico Washington.

What is this? An autograph card from 2000 Topps Traded, card number TTA47.

Where'd I get it? Some dealer in Pennsylvania off of Yahoo! Auctions.

How much did it cost? More in shipping than for the card.

Why is this so special? I specifically remember a dealer on Yahoo! auctions back before the auction site went belly up. They were located in Pennsylvania and you could get good deals if you were willing to get jacked on shipping charges. And I mean GOOD deals. I think I got this card and the entire Topps Traded set from that year for something like a 2 dollar bid. '00 Traded is the one with Zito, and I think it's retained its $2.00 value even opened without the one-per-box autograph. The seller had a ton of these sets all up for bit at the same time and each one had been opened to see what autograph was in the box. I'm not sure who was the huge pull at the time, but they certainly searched for it and dumped the rest of the sets on their auction site. I looked through all the possibilities and chose Rico. How could a guy named Rico Washington not hit the big time? Well he did hit the big time this year as he was on the Cardinals' opening day roster after 11 years in the minors. He was back in Triple-A before April was out, but he made it! His MLB "Rookie" card just hit in Topps Series 2. Thank goodness we can finally have a card of Rico to collect. I'm proud of Rico though, I knew he would make it some day. I also bought another set from the dealer at the same time as this one. I didn't really care for the autograph, it was some pitcher for the Phillies I didn't think would do anything at all. It cost only the minimum bid because no one else wanted it either so I got it anyway. I'll post that card tomorrow.

2007 Topps Shawn Chacon

Who is this? Pirates pitcher Shawn Chacon.

What is this? An autograph card from 2007 Topps, card number HA-SC.

Where'd I get it? Flea market during a buying binge.

How much did it cost? $2.50

Why is this so special? Shawn's not a great pitcher, but he's a decent one. I have a fondness for pitchers who come out of nowhere to save 30 games for a team like Shawn did for the Rockies in 2004. Ok, so he also went 1-9 with a 7.11 ERA, but he got some guy a bunch of saves for his fantasy team! Shawn is one of the few major leaguers born in Alaska, and was adopted by family in Colorado when he was four, and was later drafted by the Rockies. He was an All Star for the Rockies in '03 and pitched well for the Yankees in 2005. He was traded to the Pirates in '06afte a rough start and mostly pitched relief for them last year. He is now making a comeback as a starter in the Astros rotation. The cryptic biblical message on the front of this card refers to his streak of 85 1/3 innings pitched without a stolen base. It's also a warning to anyone who wants to filch my autograph of Shawn. Keep your hands off my card, ya thief!

2007 Goudey Jason Bay

Who is this? Pirates outfielder Jason Bay.

What is this? An autograph card from 2007 Upper Deck Goudey, card GG-JB.

Where'd I get it? A hobby pack.

How much did it cost? 5 bucks for the pack.

Why is this so special? When Goudey came out last year, I was in my "Upper Deck Sucks" period and I didn't want to give them any of my money at all. However, the shop I frequent had a promotion - buy $20 worth of Upper Deck packs and you get a ticket for an autograph signing by Braves rookie, Yunel Escobar. Now, this was a real quandry. I wanted the auto, but there was absolutley nothing out by Upper Deck that I was even remotely interested in. The base set sucked, I wasn't interested in all the high end crap and I was much more interested in buying up as much Allen & Ginter as I could. I wasn't going to get another good opportunity to in an in-person signature though, so I resigned myself to getting 4 packs of Base UD and rationalizing it as getting a guaranteed hit in the packs. Lord knows, the base packs weren't going to give up any normal hits, I bought 4 packs that year and got one lonely retro '89 insert. Great value there...

Signing day was coming up and I noticed that Goudey was scheduled to hit the shelves about the same time as the autograph session. I love retro crap, so I figured that would be a better waste of my twenty bucks than the base set. I was apprehensive about how it would look, Upper Deck's first Play Ball set was utterly fantastic, but their follow up the next year was possibly one of the ugliest sets ever made. So would Goudey be 2003 Play Ball or 2004 Play Ball? I didn't have to worry because it was actually 1934-36 Diamond Stars, which was an excellent thing. I got my Yunel auto (and as soon as I get a digital camera that doesn't take pictures that all look like Jimmy Hoffa's last known photograph, I'll show it off), I got four packs of a really good product and my hatred of Upper Deck was lessened, albeit briefly. On top of all that in the very first pack I ripped I pulled the auto box hit, so I ended up with two autographs for the price of one. It cost me in the long run though, as now I have a binder full of Goudey cards and a pile of doubles big enough to choke a mule.

Jason is pretty much the cornerstone of the Pirates' franchise, for whatever that's worth. He's a fantastic outfielder who won the Rookie of the Year award in 2004, in a rout over Khalil Greene. He is a two time All-Star including the 2006 game that was held in Pittsburgh. Last year was injury filled and Jason had an off year, but he's entering his prime years and should bounce back. Jason kind of bit me last year in my work fantasy league. He came off the DL just in time for my championship matchup game. My outfield had been a mess all year and I was rotating mediocre players in and out all year. Jason was available, I wanted an edge to help me win the crown and I wasn't happy with my rightfielder so I picked him up. Jason went on to have an abysmal couple of weeks and the guy I dropped, Brad Hawpe, was on absolute fire as the Rockies came back to win the wild card. Oops. Work fantasy leagues have been kiboshed, so there will be no redemption for me. The signature's pretty though, but I'm not crazy about the orange.

2001 Royal Rookies Ron Paulino

Who is this? Pirates catcher Ronny Paulino.

What is this? An autograph card from 2001 Royal Rookies, card #24. The card is serial numbered 3025/5950

Where'd I get it? In a large lot off autographs I won in an auction.

How much did it cost? Less than a buck.

Why is this so special? When I first got this card, Ron Paulino was nowhere on the prospect radar as far as I could tell. I filed it away as just another prospect auto that wouldn't pan out. Ron is now the Pirates' starting catcher. It just goes to show you have to be patient with these prospect autos. I can see why prospecting is so popular, it's a nice feeling when you look through your stuff and find a card like this of a minor leaguer who really made it. Ronny turns 27 this year and has the Pirates' catching job all to himself so he's definitely on my Fantasy league sleeper list for 2008. The signature on this card is simply spectacular. Ronny signed it so neatly right up the side of the border. I've never seen anyone else sign quite like that and I just love it.