Latest Acquired Autograph: ARod

I purchased an autograph from Ebay recently. I have been eyeing an auto card of ARod for awhile and finally I pulled the trigger.  Oh by the way, not THAT ARod, but of former Detroit Tiger thirdsacker Aurelio Rodriguez.

Aurelio Rodriguez was the Tigers 3B throughout the 70s and was best known for his good glove and greater arm and not his hitting.  His Gold Glove award in 1976 was 1st by someone not named Brooks Robinson since 1959. 
I personally never saw him play, but I am guessing he had to be real good defensively.  He did spend around 15 years in the majors with a career avg. of .237.
Sadly, he was hit by a car as a pedestrian in 2000 and passed away.  So picking up his autograph can be a bit pricey.  I have been patienly waiting for an signed card of him on EBay and found one with a decent price. Of course, I want one with him as a Tiger and picking one that comes over as legit.  I ended up with a 1972 Topps version:

He did not sign but the back.  Beggars can't be choosers I guess.  I suppose by signing the back it adds proof to the legitimacy of the autograph.

Striving For Perfection

I have decided on a new theme or section for my baseball card collection.  I will try as much as I can to get rookie cards of all the pitchers who pitched complete game perfect games.  My accountant says that Sandy Koufax or Jim Bunning rcs are out of my budget so I will not pursue those.  I do have Koufax's 1966 Topps and Jim Bunning's 1958 Topps cards as a part of my hall of fame collection.
So here are the perfectos I have now:

2004 Bowman

Felix Hernandez (August 15, 2012 vs Tampa Bay)

2005 Bowman Heritage

Philip Humber (April 12, 2012 vs Seattle)

2007 Topps Update

Dallas Braden (May 9, 2010 vs Tampa Bay)

1989 Upper Deck

Randy Johnson (May 18,2004 vs Atlanta)

1987 Donruss

David Cone (July 18, 1999 vs Montreal)

1988 Donruss

David Wells(May 17, 1998 vs Minnesota)

1989 Topps Traded

Kenny Rogers (July 28, 1994 vs California)
And a honorary member is Armando Galarraga.  He would have be on the list if not for the bad call by umpire Jim Joyce or it if instant replay was used then. So on June 2, 2010 vs Cleveland, Galarraga had the 28 out "perfect game" or the "imperfect game".  And I do have his 2008 Bowman rookie card.

3 More Dime box pick ups.

Just a minor update today.  Along with a nice stack of cards I added to MSU collection, I picked up these three cards from the dime boxes from the LCS:
Curt Schilling's final year card from 2008 Upper Deck:

Wade Boggs New York Yankees card from the 1993 Select Rookie/Traded set. Singles in the set seem a bit harder to find than other sets of the early 90s.

and my Roberto Alomar Cleveland Indian card. 2000 Fleer Showcase:

More LCS buys

Here is a few recent purchases from my local card shop.  Found them in either the dime and quarter boxes or Tiger binders.
Rookie cards of a current Tiger:

1994 Pinnacle

I have always liked this Torii Hunter rookie because he is fielding and looks like is about to rob a home run or an extra base hit from the batter, which is famously known for.
A rookie card of a recently departed Tiger:

2013 Bowman

Safe to say, Avisail Garcia is my favorite current White Sox player. Likely, the only one I am a fan of.
And another rookie card of a former Tiger:

2008 Bowman

Armando Galarraga was the author of the "imperfect" perfect game or the 28 out "perfect" game. Which ever way you want to call it.  Galarraga showed great sportsmanship after being robbed of an actual perfect game.
Plus I got a couple Hall of Famers.  I now have 132 Hall of Fame players in my collection.

2006 Topps Allen & Ginter

Napolean Lajoie of the Cleveland Naps(now Indians) was Ty Cobb's biggest rival in the batting title race every year.  And yes, the Cleveland team named after Lajoie before choosing the Indians.

1985 Woolworth's

Ed Walsh of the Chicago White Sox is the MLB's all time leader in career ERA - 1.82. He pitched from 1904-1917.  I think his record is pretty safe.

Upon Further Review....

To my fellow collectors, have any of you ever found a card in your common/tradeable/undesirable boxes that you never realized you owned.  Well, today it happened to me.
Several months ago I bought one of the repack of packs at Target.  One of those packages of various older packs of cards for like $10-12 dollars.   I  remember this one in particular had a 2009 OPC, 2011 Topps Lineage and 2008 Upper Deck Piece of History along with others. 
I was going through one of my common boxes and found this gem:

Evidently I pulled a Joe Mauer jersey card out of the UD Piece of History.  In my defense,  the jersey is kinda small and hidden compared to the box score on the card.
This has happened to me before. Years ago, I bought a box of 2001 Upper Deck Legends of NY at discount at one of those big box retail stores.  The box promised good odds for a jersey or autograph card.  I thought I purchased a dud of box, but months (maybe even a year or so) later I discovered I had a Carl Erskine jersey card.  Now I consider I own a little piece of Dem Bums of Brooklyn with my Erskine jersey card:

I guess I should pay more attention what I have when I open packs.

Trading on the Web

I got some cards back from http://swingandapopupboston.blogspot.com/.  Here is some of the baseball card portion of the cards I received. A couple vintage rookies of minor stars of the past:

Various cards for my last year collection:

plus one more of a recent retiree:

Thanks for the trade. Hope to do again.

4 More Hall of Famers Down

I recently acquired cards of four Hall of Famers.  4 less to go in trying to attain at least one card of every player. I have a total of 130 different Hall of Fame players. My new ones are:

Grover Cleveland Alexander.  2001 Topps Before There Was Topps insert

Ted Williams.  1994 Upper Deck All Time Heroes

Tris Speaker.  2009 Topps Turkey Red insert

John Henry "Pop" Lloyd.  2001 Topps What Could Have Been insert.  And Lloyd is also one more Negro League player added to my collection.