It's baseball, just not cards.

Not a popular pastime in the UK, baseball or baseball cards. Without e-bay, COMC and trading the pickings are very slim.

I do however have a dream.

There are shops dotted around the UK called 'Poundland', where everything for sale, is not surprisingly a pound. There is always one joker who asks 'How much are these?'

There is an odd mix of items contained within these shops and I have this glorious dream that by some freak of ordering, a collection of baseball cards find their way into the storeroom. Not really knowing what to do with said items and not at the desperate stage of throwing anything on the shelves, they are kept deep within the stockroom.

I need to know and always ask 'Do you have any cards?'

I cannot walk past one of these shops without diving in, its drive my wife mad. I do the same with TKMaxx, imagining a bored shop assistant distracted, careless....bemused, taking delivery of a box or two of Topps or Bowman thinking it is a new brand of stomach medicine. As I said a dream but you never know.

On a recent shopping trip to Canterbury, a large Poundland beckoned me inside. A quick stroll down a few aisles, past hygiene items, gardening products and rows and rows of batteries my heart sinking as nothing remotely resembling baseball cards leaps from the shelves. Then I come across a selection of books - Wayne Rooney's autobiography, Unsolved Mysteries, The Worst Album Covers in the World...EVER, enough cookery books to cook for the rest of your life...

Hang on.

What's this? Tucked behind 'Being Jordan' ( the frank and open story of topless model , sorry glamour model, Katie Price's rise to fame and fortune) Is that a baseball bat? Why yes it is. A sole hardback copy of Stephen King's Faithful. A chronicle of the Boston Red Sox's historic 2004 season for a pound. I had to ask.

Yes...sir...it's a pound sir, everything in the store is a pound...sir. I pass over my pound.

The nearest I have been so far.

I will never doubt the dream.

Never will I walk past a 'Poundland' or similar discount shop again.

Soon I will walk away laden with a selection of baseball cards.

Very soon...

Jacoby Ellsbury Wishlist

For a number of years I have been a Jacoby Ellsbury player collector. I don't mean attempting to collect every possible card ever produced that has his moniker on it, just the non-print run cards. If a few serial numbered cards come my way or a relic, I will not looked that gift horse in the mouth.
By my calculations (or Beckett actually) there are 164 cards since 2005 that fit into this collecting remit.
So far I have collected;

5 of a possible 10 cards from 2005,

1 of 5 cards from 2006

7 of 17 cards from 2007,

38 of 41 cards from 2008,

49 of 52 cards from 2009,

24 of 39 cards from 2010

making that 124/164 collected so far.

To view my progress see Pursuit of Jacoby.

My current top tens Jacoby Ellsbury pursuits are:

2005 Lowell Spinners Choice #5

2006 Wilmington Blue Rocks Choice #1
2007 Tristar Autothentics #67
2007 Tristar Autothentics Blue #67
2007 Tristar Elegance #46
2008 Topps Red Sox Gift Set #20
2008 Topps Chrome Blue Refractors #124
2009 Topps Target #660
2009 Topps 206 Old Mill #195
2009 Topps 206 Polar Bear #195

I am essentially a trading whore but realise that winning these when(and if ) they arrive on e-bay may be my only option.

'Tash'tastic baseball cards

Real life takes over and the little 'luxury' things like writing a blog post fall by the way-side. Fortunately the recent snow falls have closed my school so I am able to spend the spare time doing what I enjoy.
While I have been unable to write, a few packages fell on my doorstep. A tidy little pile of Red Sox from Mr Ross at Boxbusters, some boxes of 2010 Topps Series 2 courtesy of the Alley family in North Carolina and a second selection of Red Sox from fellow Red Sox collector Chris at The Call of Cardboard.
Chris sent along an assortment of '81 Topps and '82 Donruss and I noticed that so many of the players sported lip fungus in this era. In fact it was unusual to be photographed sans facial hair.

A popular charity in recent years has been a prostate cancer awareness group who have hijacked the month of November and proclaimed it 'Mo'vember. Many TV celebrities, sports stars (including a touring Australian Rugby Team) and the rest of us common people grew 'tashes' to raise awareness. Premier League footballers have yet to join as they are far to image conscious and poncy. Regrettably while sporting a moustache, all I need is a cowboy outfit and I could be quite easily (although not comfortably ) qualify as a member of the village people.

So here to help raise the awareness just at the end of 'Mo' vember, a few macho tashes found in the selection of Red Sox from Chris. Mr Dennis Eckersley sporting a Magnum PI tashe, stare and healthy growth of hair.

Mr Jerry Remy opting also for a Tom Selleck but failing miserably with the hair.

and finally Mr Dwight Evans favouring a Burt Reynolds (in the Sally Field era) tashe.

No Pogonophobes in the 1980's.