Panini 2012/2013 Liga Portuguêsa

I was a bit curious why Panini hadn't yet started selling the new stickers and album for the 2012/2013 season for Portuguese football league.

I was wishing it was because they were really improving the collection for this year.

I said 'wishing'.

But they really don't care about my wishes and so they have done the same all over again.

I like the cover main colour. It's my team's colour so I like it.

And if we count that Rúben Amorim is on loan from SLBenfica on Braga so we may say that we have two SLBenfica players on the cover! Even if I don't understand that away Braga uniform being green.

Love to see Salvio wearing the SLBenfica uniform again. Great player.

The stickers cases follow the colour.

And we have those packs with 10 stickers cases again.

From those 4 stickers examples I could see that there is no chrome sticker for the teams logo. I only see those chrome stickers on the UEFA Champions sticker collection. At least SLBenfica is there.

Then the players photo look always the same. And there is no states on the sticker it self. Only players' vital info.

Here is one page from my team. And even if the album and stickers were edited a bit later than usual they didn't updated the last transfers made on the deadline. That's why we still have Javi Garcia wearing the most beautiful uniform ever.

The only one thing that made me take a second look was the insert sticker of 'Top Stars'. I think I can call it that. It only appeared a couple of years ago in Panini football stickers.

This is how I wished all the album stickers were! I'm tired of all the ID photo kind. I want to see the players in action. Would love to see a flying goalkeeper sticker. Lovely.


So...Panini...I'm not making this year album again. And won't make UEFA Champions League too. From now on will only make FIFA World Cup albums. And that's only because we get stickers for the majority of countries around the globe.

Card Chase Box - 1994 Select

Keeping the dig of my Card Chase box here it is one more pack. This time is a 1994 Select 12 card pack.

I don't know why but the pack colours make me think of Hawaii so I imagined the cards picturing players playing ball on the beach and diving for the catch on the sand.

Why not? If there is the normal football which is played in grass, then there is the indoor too and also beach football. Lets try play baseball on the beach too.

This was just me rambling.

Now the cards!

I grouped the rookies cards. Select call them '1994 Rookie Prospects' so I'm not sure if this really may count as their truly rookie cards like it stands for us now.

Mark Kiefer - I didn't know that Brewers logo but I like it. Mark didn't get much ML time and only played 3 years in MLB. The card says he was a Brewers top Pitching prospect but it seems he didn't make it. He's brother with Steve Kiefer.

Tony Longmire - Seemed like an OF for the future but only played 3 years with Phillies and had few AB. Even if he batted .356 in the last year in 59 games. He suffered from injuries. Could have made it big but maybe bad luck can explain why he didn't.

Gerald Williams - WoW A Yankee prospect! Made ML debut in '94 but was on '96 that he had his highest moment: "On May 1, he set a Yankees team record with 6 hits against Baltimore in a 15 inning game." (info from wikipedia). Can we have something like this in the playoffs? We can use something like this to beat the Orioles!

Mark Acre - For what says in his card it seems he used to dance on the mound to pitch the ball. Those clumsy moves are still present in many pitchers. Chris Sale (love him!) is a great pitcher but he does look like he's disjointing while pitching.

For what I checked I didn't get that good prospects. But I like the card front design. The back makes me read on diagonal and makes my neck hurt.

Now with the veterans.

Barry Bonds - Do I really have to say anything? On '94 he was already with SF and perhaps that's the reason why he's multiplied in a vertigo moment on this card. What is that people!? If the card was to be an holo-card please make it right! Not that...

Graeme Lloyd - I was missing *the* trend already. Here is an other future-Yankee.

Chili Davis - Hummm But the player that stands out in the photo is Hudler. Won 2 WS with Yankees in his last 2 years as a ML player. But I have to deal with the fact I have him in an Angles uniform.

Pete Harnisch - Had his best years with Astros but then an injure might have degraded his career from then on.

Rene Arocha - Playing for STL and SF makes me don't care much about a player and really Arocha didn't have much lucky in both of the teams. He only played in MLB for 5 years.

Chris Sabo - Ohhh the goggles! Nowadays we don't see those anymore which is really a shame! And he really needed them from what I can see in the card back photo. I do the same when I cannot see the bus right in front of me.

Spike Owen - Blast! Got Spike right the year after being in pinstripes! But eventually he got a career high .310 in 82 games for the Angels in '94.

Manuel Lee - My favourite card in the pack thanks to the photo. Jump Lee, jump! I like to see 2B plays immortalized in cards.


Mostly I enjoyed the pack mainly because getting base cards with horizontal design is a first for me. We get some horizontal action but it's not the design in itself. Here is. And we get 3 different photos of each player in this design. The stats on the back are not the best of it because I find it a bit difficult to read.

Other thing I liked is seeing the 'RP' (and there would be a 'CP - Closing Pitchers' as well) as a position to distinguish between the starting Pitchers and bullpen Pitchers.

Nick Markakis - Woman Perspective post

Hello there.

Back to one of my favorite categories: bring light to the women side of baseball players appreciation.

Today I'm going to show my fair play, and even if Baltimore is making my Yankees sweat until the end to win the AL East, I'm talking about Nick Markakis.

After talking about two handsome blonds (they get less blond throughout the years) lets talk about a Latin kind of man.

I have this 2009 Topps UH Propaganda card. I like those cards, have a couple more that might even show in one of this posts...let you think about it ehehe

But talking about this precise card I must say Nick seems like a vampire! Look at those eyes? I see some kind of Cullen's eyes in those. And the hair goes for it too. I'd prefer to see more dark hair you people! He has that south-European look to him.

But make this card a poster and it would 'Serve Proudly' in my teens-wall-covered-in-posters-times.

Next I have this 2011 Topps Series One base card.

Not the best fielding photo to appreciate his handsomeness but I can see his skills in action. He can run and catch. And look gorgeous doing so. So if I would fall from the skies he would run and catch me without much trouble. Like it!!!!!

But here, I'd like to propose some fielding kind of photo.

See Topps? (Since they are the only ones now...) Even if this photo might be from the practice prior to game, I can see Nick better. Beard is well trimmed. Full chest with lots of space to breath (that's useful in a player). And yes...the mouth. Beautiful line moth. And his jaw line? Uhhhhhhhh That's the way to go!

The final card I have of him (yep, I only have 3 cards of Markakis, poor me) is one specimen of this 2012 Topps Heritage base card.

Please Topps, let me choose the photos. If it is a prepared shooting session why not make it look more like this:

This example seems to have a bit of photoshop to it, but if it is only on the background I can let it pass without trouble.

But let me look at Nick posing.

Did I mention the eyes? That horizon-lost-look...

Well, since I don't have more Markakis cards I must end the post with some good photos I found of him on the web.

I don't like orange. Even more because it has some political references in Portugal. But Nick does look awesome in any kind of colours.

Card Chase Box - 1988 Donruss pack 2

Now on with the second see-one-of-the-cards-1988-Donruss-packs.

Ohhhhh I already have the Winfield card from the other pack...It's up to trade so.

The drawing this time around was a bit better. Will Clark didn't scared me off like Calderon did. Well not Calderon himself but his draw. I think I like better the Upper deck Collector's Choice drawings than Donruss Diamond Kings.

Lets see...two Blue Jays: Jimmy Key who won the first WS for a non-USA team and in the first WS outside USA too in '92. After spending 8 years with Toronto moved to New York for my Yankees (love the trending former/wanna-be NYY player) and won his second WS title in '96; and David Wells also a '92 WS winner and one of the chosen ones by pitching a no-hitter in '98...for whom?...Yes! The Yankees!

I'm starting to think I'll go and do a Topps-photoshop (or gimp) on my cards to all the trending-Yankees-cards I already have.

Then I see a Zane Smith as a Brave, Junior Ortiz as a Pirate, John Kruk as a Padre who drafted him back in '81 and whom I know better from ESPNAmerica shows and finally the Red Sox Bruce Hurst.

Now with the second half of the pack I got 3 puzzle pieces to complete the Stan Musial puzzle. At least I already have some Stan Musial career stats which is better than the grass pieces I got in the previous pack.

Now with the cards.

Mickey Hatcher? I think I saw you before. Yep. An other card up to trade. It seems Dodgers are quite the trend in the blogosphere so...

Tiger Mike Heath warming-up. Also a Yankee by draft but didn't have much playing-time there and only stayed for a year.

Got 2 Phillies: Don Carman and Rick Schu. Don pitches looking down and Schu has that hairiness to him. Yep, I don't have much to say.

And the final three cards are: Dale Mohorcic who I got here in his last times with a Rangers uniform before moving to Yankees; Minnesota Mark Davidson in a bunt-photo-card which I doooooooo like a lot! Make it dusty or bunty and I like it! And if he won the WS back in '87 with Twins it means this photo might be from that winning year. Like it even more!; and finally the Cub Damon Berryhill. The guy back in the photo looks like having an Atomic-Ant helmet.

Card Chase Box - 1988 Donruss pack 1

So lets see which other packs I got from the Card Chase Box. Got two see-one-of-the-cards-1988-Donruss-packs. Lets check the first one.

In the first pack there was Steve Balboni also a Yankee for 2 times (First from '81 to '83 and second from '89 to '90) but I got him precisely in between.

And so I ripped the first pack and the first card I see after the Balboni one is this:

OMG!
I'm ok with drawings but this is just gross...Poor Calderon. I know he was once a Red Sox but he didn't deserve this. Oh well...on with the game.

3 Yankees! Alright! Besides Winfield (since I got his LAA card for '90 Score set I got pretty happy to have Dave wearing a Yankee uniform) I also got Gary Ward a two time All-Star Game player (even if he didn't have the best years as a Yankee) and Ron Guidry one of the Yankees' Captains! One-team-player and Captain for my Yankees and this card is a shinny bright little thing for me. #49 retired.

The other cards I got two Boston players: Clemens and Ellis Burks. The last started and ended his career with Red Sox while the first started as a Red Sox and ended as a Yankee. But I only have Boston cards of him...poor me.

Keeping my trend here comes a Jay Howell card in A's uniform after spending 3 years with Yankees. He also got a WS title with Dodgers in '88.

Next got precisely a Dodger, Mickey Hatcher "most notably, he was Kirk Gibson's replacement for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1988 World Series, batting .368 (7/19) with two home runs and five RBI." (info from wikipedia). It's like those bands with only a #1 hit and nothing else.

To end the first half I was a lucky girl and got Lou Whitaker. And in a great photo!

Now with the second half of the pack I got 3 puzzle pieces to complete the Stan Musial puzzle. It's a 40-something pieces puzzle. Lets see what I got in the next packs.

About the cards got Matt Young in his only year with LA and he pitched an unofficial no-hitter against the Indians. How can it be an unofficial? Was it during umpires lunch time?

Got 3 more Pitchers: Jerry Don Gleaton a RP for six different teams including here in Royals uniform; Todd Worrell, also a RP but with a more significant career including NL Rookie of the year in '86 and 3 All-Star selections; and finally Mark Williamson who have pitched (along with Bob Milacki, Mike Flanagan, and Gregg Olson) a no-hitter against Oakland back in '91. He was also a one-team-player, playing only for Baltimore Orioles.

To end this pack there was a Steve Kiefer with a career BA of .192. Hummm But he was a Yankee in his final year ('89) as a ML player so I might think of it.

My Zistle collections

Just added to the sidebar the link to my collections I already put online at Zistle.

Mainly baseball but I started to add the few hockey cards I got in the past month.

Card Chase box

The other day I ordered one of these boxes proclaiming to be the World's Great Card Chase Baseball.

I bought it because I found out what I'm collecting. I'm collecting at least a card from each year since '86. From every brand and set. And what better way then getting a few sorted vintage packs?

The box promised a lot. Got 16 packs for sure. Some only with a few couple of cards but ok...They were from 2 or 3 different brands.

This one is the pack that gives the name to the box. I just couldn't picture where it says how much cards it should bring but I got 6.

The photo is quite dark, sorry for that. But here is the list of the players:

• 1987 Topps #479 Bob Sebra P@MTL - played from '85 to '90 for 5 different teams and his wiki page doesn't even has his stats.
• 1989 Topps #98 Marty Pevey C/OF@MTL (MLB debut) - might be better known for being former third base coach for the Toronto Blue Jays
• 1990 Score #1T Dave Winfield OF@LAA - now we're talking!!!!!! Former Yankee by '90 (remeber the trend I mention about me having former/going-to-be Yankees' players?) and a HOF! And besides that I do watch him in the ESPN America program Baseball Tonight.
• 1997 Score #431 Deion Sanders OF@CIN - the comeback year after a year playing for the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL. And that's the best shoot they had of him? Laying down making some funny face during practice?
• 1997 Score #333 John Wetteland P@TEX - keeping the trend a former Yankee collecting a total of 74 Saves in 2 years with the Yankees. And they traded him!? The WS (which he won with NY in '96) MVP!?
• 1988 Donruss #399 Jim Rice OF@BOS - yep, he was a Red Sox but he was also a great player. HOF for a reason and a retired number to Boston. Must respect.

All in all I might say I got pretty good cards to make up for the couple I was not so lucky.

Will post soon about the other 15 packs I got in the box.