How I Accidentally Became a Darrell Evans Supercollector

Well not really, but close.  I was walking around the Value Village near my house, checking out books and looking to see if they had any cheap lego base pieces I could use to display my growing Micro Figures collection when I spotted a bunch of baseball cards bagged hanging on a display hook.  Actually the baseball cards were spread out all over the store on random display hooks.  Most of the cards were 2011 Topps baseball or mid 90's junk wax I'm sure someone donated to get a tax deduction.  But one bag stuck out at me.  To be honest I didn't really even realize that Darrell Evans was on the front, but his 89 Donruss cards was right there on top, but when I flipped the bag over I noticed that the back card was a 1974 Topps. As a matter of fact half the bag looked like it was filled with 70's wax!  I also failed to notice whose 74 card was on the back at the time.  But it was Darrell Evans.  As a matter of fact all the cards in the bag were Evans.

Here's the card that got me to by the pack and at $1.99 I have no regrets.  The 74's distinct back could not be denied. I didn't pack search the cards, so I was a little surprised that all the cards in the bag were of Evans.  More than half of the cards were his '89 Donruss card.

1989 was Darrell's last year, he actually finished his career with the team he started with, the Braves. the rest of the cards were a nice collection of 70's and early 80's cards. Darrell did have cards issued in the 1990's with him in his Braves uniform again.

1977 was Darrell's scruffy phase.

Yikes that '85 Fleer didn't scan so good.

Not a bad little collection of cards for under 2 bucks.  I think I might have to send a couple of the 70's cards to Darrell and see if he'll sign them.  Since I started collecting back in the 80's I mainly remember Darrell as a Tiger, but I'm sure there are plenty of fans out there that remember him as a Brave and Giant.  Darrell retired after the 1989 season and went to coach for the Yankees. Darrell is now the Commissioner  and an instructor for the California Winter League.  

Author Bill James was quoted as saying that Evan's was "the most underrated player in baseball history, absolutely number one on the list."  

And for most of his career poor Darrell was overshadowed by another 3rd baseman, Mike Schmidt.

What am I going to do?? I'm going to make it official!!! A Prince Fielder post!

I have to say I was pretty surprised the Tigers managed to scoop up Prince Fielder the other day.  I had no illusions that he would be coming back to Milwaukee.  I kept reading the scuttlebutt on who was wooing him and the speculation on where he would end up. I have a couple of buddies who are Tigers fans and they where going crazy!  Like the prodigal son coming home and taking his rightful place on the throne.  Right where his daddy played.  Of course it's common knowledge that Prince and his dad Cecil don't have a very good relationship, but I'm pretty sure every Tigers fan was pretty happy with the news.

AJ over at his blog The Lost Collector posed an interesting question. What do you do when one of your favorite players or a player you have a PC for goes to a new team?  And it's great timing because when I heard the news yesterday it's exactly what I thought about my Prince Fielder collection.  I never officially had him as a personal PC.  If you've read the blog before you'll notice I didn't have him up on the Who I Collect.  Sure he gets collected by default since he was a Brewer.  It got me thinking why when he was obviously one of the two best players on the team didn't I have a PC for him?  I don't know. I mean it's not like I didn't collect him, I have a huge stack of Prince Fielder cards and some really nice stuff too. Maybe it's that I didn't need another focus.   But I've decided to make it official and I've made my decision on the fate my collecting Prince Fielder.  He shall be added!  And I do plan to keep collecting his cards.  So it's official.  Prince now has his name officially up on the side board of Who I Collect.  I really don't know why it took him signing with another team to get me to take the plunge.  I guess it also begs the question if he had gone to another team would I still feel the same way?  I guess we'll never know.   I wish him all the best and I hope he has a great long career with the Tigers.

Almost the easiest World Series contest of the Web!!!!

Since my Super Bowl contest was so much fun, I figured I'd copy the premise and do a World Series contest.

Almost the Easiest World Series Contest on the Web Web Web Web Web.

The contest simple:  Tell me who is going to win the World Series.  And then add who the opponent is and how many games in the series for tie breakers.  And since you people still might tie, tell me how many home runs in the entire series, both teams combine total.  So your entry should look something like this.

Brewers defeat Yankees in 5, 14 home runs.  Yeah it's a pipe dream.

The Contestants

National League:
Philadelphia Phillies (NL East Champs)
Milwaukee Brewers (NL Central Champs)
Arizona Diamondbacks (NL West Champs)
St. Louis Cardinals (NL Wildcard)

American League:
New York Yankees (AL East Champs)
Detroit Tigers (AL Central Champs)
Texas Rangers (AL West Champs)
Tampa Bay Rays (AL Wildcard)

The Prizes:

I'm not sure yet, but it'll be good and on top of what ever I come up with I throw in a bunch of cards from the team of your choice.  These will include, base, inserts, parallels, maybe in even a relic.

You have until October 2nd.  I was going to make the deadline Sept 30 the start of the playoffs but seeing as the Wildcard race went up to the last day of the regular season, I figure I'll give you a few extra days.  I'll post the official entries Monday sometime.

You won't get anymore entries if you pimp or you decided to follow (if you're not already), but both are appreciated.

I also plan on having a big Trivia contest with some great prizes after this to celebrate my second anniversary of the blog, so stay tuned for that.

cb out