jschris

Thanks to this thread, I picked up a retail box at Walmart at lunch today and got a Harper base card, but nothing else spectacular. TONS of product available--boxes, jumbos, and regular packs. Of course, you'd have to drive to Eau Claire to get it (or ask me nicely).

Harmon was scheduled to appear at an Eau Claire Baseball Hall of Fame event in February 2010, but got sick and had to cancel just a few days ahead of the appearance. He felt so bad about it that he didn't take his appearance fee and offered to come back in the summer on his own dime. He's one of the game's classiest ambassadors. Prayers for him and his family.

Maybe, but the "Tailgate Tour" or whatever is this week and I heard the new trophy is going along for the ride.

I just noticed my publisher is doing a second printing of my book. It only took a shade under eight years to sell 1,200 books, so you know I'll be negotiating movie rights and releasing a sequel soon. Only 10 of the 100+ titles in the "Baseball in America" series have gotten more than one printing.

Count me in if you are making a trip to the post office.

How many card dealers are at these shows typically? I was planning on going to the National this summer but now I might not be able to make it. Wondering if the Sun Times show itself is worth the trip from the Eau Claire area if I'm not going for the autograph guests. Paul Horning $49. Jordy Nelson $69. I know, I know--Paul's been signing forever. And I like Jordy. Still, something seems very wrong about that.

Pardon the bump of an older thread. That's a great point about the focus being on historical data research. I'm sure there are factions that do focus on current stuff, but I can't speak to that as I'm not involved. The main reason for the bump, though, is that the next SABR meeting will take place this Saturday and the featured speaker will be Doug Melvin. Might be a good opportunity to check SABR out and see if it interests you. Here's more info: NEXT MEETING Our next Ken Keltner Badger State Chapter meeting will take place on Saturday January 29, 2011, 11 AM SHARP at Long Wong's Chinese-American Sportsbar located at 5230 West Bluemound Road in Milwaukee. Our Guest Speaker will be Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin. We all hope the Brewers have a successful 2011 season, and Mr. Melvin will talk about the transactions that have been made,and his thoughts on the upcoming season. We THANK Mr. Melvin for taking time out of his busy schedule to speak at our meeting, and Paul Wong and his staff for providing the venue, and the food and drink. Buffet meals cost $15, which include a beverage and gratuity The January meeting is being held as a part of SABR Day 2011, as SABR Chapters are holding meetings to get-together and break up the long winter. AGENDA I received a communication from Mr. Melvin's secretary that he will be at the meeting at 11 AM, so he will obviously be the first speaker. Presentations include: Bob Buege: Anybody Can Play First Base Larry Granillo:Peanuts Baseball A Comprehensive look at the wins,losses and others stats of Charlie Brown&the Gang Dennis Degenhardt: Pictorial Re-Cap of SABR 40 held in Atlanta last August. We will also have a 50/50 raffle, and will "pass the hat around" donation with the monies collected being donated to the Brewers Community Foundation. Chapter Business will be discussed including the Milwaukee Public Library meetings planned for May, and a meeting in LaCrosse scheduled for July 16th BREWERS EXHIBIT The Milwaukee Public Library will be exhibiting rare memorabilia about the minor league Milwaukee Brewers. Special Thanks to fellow SABR member Paul Tenpenny for loaning the materials! We also plan on assisting at a number of programs to be held at the Milwaukee Central Library next Spring. Our Chapter would provide presentations related to the Milwaukee Brewers from 1901-1952. Please contact me if you're interested in doing a presentation.

We used to get at least two books a year: The National Pastime and The Baseball Research Journal. The former focused on the stories and the latter had a lot of statistical analysis. Recently they've combined these into one book, but we also usually get the program from the National Convention, which focuses more on stuff that has to do with the location of the convention. Every once in a while we would get a bonus book, usually a biography, but it's been a while since I've seen one of those. The University of Nebraska Press probably still has back issues of several SABR titles for close out prices--you might want to check there for an example. Or shoot me a PM and I can let you borrow what you need. The contacts you have in SABR are endless. I haven't met one SABR person that wasn't willing to share their research or even go out of their way to help you. It also doesn't matter that you are a "newbie". Bob Buege, who put together the Braves Eulogy book and worked with Eddie Mathews on his autobiography, simply volunteered to help me out with my first article. It had to be difficult since that first draft was some kind of train wreck! Didn't matter--he wanted to help a new guy publish some material that would maybe benefit other researchers someday. And just a couple years ago I wrote an article on Burleigh Grimes but it needed a better ending. A fellow in the Twin Cities went to the library and dug through microfiche for a few hours getting me some info on Grimes' time with a semi-pro team in 1912. SABR is like a big team, with the goal of accurately documenting the history of our national pastime. You don't need to contribute new research, but it's obviously a great place to start if you plan on doing some. Shoot me a PM if you want to talk anything specific and I'd be glad to help.

I've been a SABR member since 1998 or so. You get what you put in to it, I guess. I'm more a fan of the stories than the numbers, but there is room for both in SABR. The books are excellent and the discussions (via List-serve) are similar to most here at Brewerfan--informed, insightful, and rational. And I'm what you would consider a shut-in in that I have never attended a chapter meeting (though I did contribute to the Borchert Field history project by interviewing Bert Thiel about his no hitter there). SABR provided a platform for me to realize a life-long dream of being published. After one of my stories ended up in their book, I was contacted by an editor to write a book on my own. It never was on the NYT Best Seller list, but it has sold around 1,200 copies. SABR can count me in as a lifetime member because of that opportunity.

I got my Mr. 3000 as part of a media kit which included a folder, Stan Ross cards, pennant, 8x10 promo pics, and information about the film. Picked the whole thing up for around $25 just as the movie was coming out.

Might be too much "other instruments", but the first thing I thought of was "Still of the Night" by Whitesnake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3DJhwAhrjY Right about 4:25 mark. Even if it doesn't work, it's an awfully nice video of Tawny Kitaen in her pre-husband-beating days!

My deepest sympathies to Chad and Jamie. As a parent, I can think of nothing worse than losing your child. You are in my prayers.

Several years ago on my way from work to my mom's house for Christmas Eve I was listening to the Packers radio broadcast as they prepared to face the Vikings. They had the Culvers trivia game and I was pretty sure I knew the answer. I decided to make one call, but I wasn't even positive I had the right number. Turns out I didn't--I called another number at the station. They gave me the correct one so I dialed it one time, got through, answered the question correctly, and won a five pack of Butter Burger Baskets and a chance for the season-long grand prize of dinner with a Packer at Culvers. Amazingly enough, the next week my name was drawn for that. The Packer ended up being Aaron Kampman--kind of before he was a household name in these parts. My wife and I met him in Appleton the day of the NFL Draft. Aaron was on the phone as he came in and announced to us that the Packers had just drafted Aaron Rodgers. Great guy--talked about parenting and family most of the time. And ate a chicken breast, no bun.

Does anyone have an extra "Homestand" DVD from yesterday's game that they could sell or trade? I've never seen it and I don't get the MLB Network. There are a couple on eBay right now but the Feedback rating is a little lower than my "safe" standard. Please let me know--thanks! Jason

Google won't save me.

The average price on eBay is about as good a market indicator as you are going to get these days. With so many transactions taking place there, I really can't think of a better way to price cards, particularly the modern ones. In general, baseball cards from the mid 80s to early 90s were so overproduced that even the good rookie cards don't command much in premium. I'm guessing you can find complete Donruss sets from 82 and 83 in the $35-45 range. Production cut way back in 84 and 85--expect set prices to be more like $70-80. 86-87 probably run in the $15 range at most.

I'd like to be among the first to express the awesomeness of the CC bobble. Not one current player though, huh?

Oh, I understand that. No worries. I just wished that the timing would have worked out better--we both could have done well on it! I think $250 is a great price on that. Put me in the "wish I could" club.

Wish I would have saw this a week or two ago. At my silent auction Monday night (for the Eau Claire Baseball Hall of Fame) I sold a 24x36 canvas of the same image UNSIGNED for $400. This would have brought probably closer to $500--maybe more.

I just did a report on credit cards for my supervisor so I figured I'd add to the conversation. There is new credit card legislation--some of which is already in place, the rest kicks in in February--that forces issuers to hold promotional rates for six months and places several restrictions on raising rates during the first year (for example, in most cases the issuer cannot raise a rate on existing balances). Certain fees are also limited, and finance charges cannot be applied to any balance repaid over time. Although it seems like a great idea, it leads to several implications from the financial side: 1. Consumers are already seeing fewer unsolicited, pre-approved card offers in the mail (fourth quarter numbers are way down) because more stringent underwriting practices will need to be applied. Banks will shift focus to in-branch offers or offers on their own website so they can easily look at the customer's history with other accounts. Although mailings like ewizabeth linked to makes perfect sense. 2. Variable rate cards tied to an index will be more common. 3. Other fees not addressed by the legislation will become common. Are you ready for an "inactivity fee"? 4. We could very well be seeing the end of no annual fee cards, depending on how much revenue the issuers are losing. 5. As has already been discussed, card issuers will lower maximums in order to reduce risk. Considering your goal of building a credit score and paying off your charges each month, I would look for a simple, no-frills card with a 0% balance transfer rate for the first few months. As Baldkin noted, those promotions are relatively common.

Near the mall in Waikiki is a place called the Wailana Coffee House that apparently has all you can eat pancakes (with great syrup choices), plus eggs and bacon for about $8. If you go, let me know how it is. I'm researching for our next trip out (fifth for the wife and I, second including the kids) next August and stumbled across this place. You really should hit the North Shore for a day to check out the wave action. They had a surfing competition cancelled due to huge waves last week--they were hitting 30-35 feet. Sunset Beach is a good spot to watch them. Haleiwa is a quaint little surf town up there. It's the home of Matsumoto's Shave Ice, the best in the islands. While you are up there, head over to Waimea Falls Park for some nice, easy, and scenic hiking. Waimanalo Bay Beach Park is simply awesome for body boarding. Huge beach that is essentially deserted. However, bring no valuables with you as there are high theft incidences. There is a little wooded area between the ocean and the parking lot--a tour guide said they call that "Sherwood Forest". You are probably safe, but the belongings in your car, with no supervision, might not be. I can go on forever, but I'm supposed to be working right now. Shoot me a message if you have any other specific questions.

I'd be in for one or two.

Unless the teams played an exhibition game sometime, the Yankees would not have played at County Stadium in 1964. Hegan was a late season call up, so that may help put a date on it. It looks like the manager, Yogi Berra, is one of the signatures on the ss. Obviously that helps with value. Downing, Stottlemyre, Sheldon, Hegan, and Terry all match up with signatures I have. The Stan Williams is unmistakable--he's got an awesome autograph. Problems obviously include the condition of the ball, the lightness of the signatures, and the fact that Mickey and Whitey are missing. I don't know if Jim Stinson of Stinson Sports would be interested in something like this or not. A lot of times he offers some affordable alternatives for collectors on a budget. I wouldn't imagine it would garner more than $125-150, though, due to the issues. EDIT: You know what? It could be Mickey below the Berra signature. I'm not an expert on his signature, but he was known to use a clubbie for team balls frequently.

If anyone is looking to sell, please pm me with price (shipped). I'd rather buy on here than ebay. Thanks!

If you've seen a picture of me (and thankfully, chances are real good you haven't), you would know that I am a very poor real life example of a P90X "graduate". That said, I absolutely love the program and will be on the "lean" version of it again beginning next week, with some "Tony Horton One on One" substitute workouts to keep things fresh. I don't follow the diet plan--hence the problem--but the workouts are as intense as you want to make them. As with any program, you really have to buy in to have the best results. The videos, though, are geared so you can do that. I've never been stronger in my life, and I've probably never been in better shape (I could definitively say that if I had any willpower to speak of). Either get a bunch of dumbbells or go with the Powerblock-type dumbbells. I have the powerblocks that go up to 90 pounds each so it's pretty easy to turn up the intensity when I need to. A pull up bar is also recommended, but since I don't have an area for that I've substituted other shoulder and back exercises. Most of the workouts run 55 minutes to an hour, but you can shave some time off by doing your own warm up/cool down. Message me if you have additional questions. Good luck!