The Brian Roberts Card of the Day-Plus Are There Any Other B-Rob Card Collectors Out There?

Welcome to the Brian Roberts card of the day! Today's card is from 2008 Topps Finest, card #29 the uber-shiny refractor version. I don't know why I love refractors so much, but I do... I had just got back into the hobby in 1993 when Topps released the Finest Refractors for the first time. I was completely wowed back then and I still love them. They scan so nice and look so cool. I hate trapping refractors in my player binders-I prefer to let them be free in top-loaders so they can move around and do what they do best-refract! I thought the back of the card in 2008 was a big bust. I love me some trivia, but I prefer the Finest Moment or at least something relevant to the player. This trivia question asks "Which team holds the record for consecutive losses?" I answered to myself and I was wrong. I will give you the answer at the end of this post. I am slowly sorting and scanning my Brian Roberts cards. I am also adding to the collection pretty quickly. Dude has ALOT of cards. As I add to my collection, I am gaining dupes. I am looking for other Roberts collectors that I can trade with. I don't have anything real fancy or high-end, but I have a couple of duplicate refractors and a couple of extra relic cards that I would like to trade for B-Rob cards that I still need. If you are a Roberts collector, please get in touch with me! My email addy is bacontowne at yahoo dot com. Oh, and the answer to the trivia question is the 1961 Phillies who dropped 23 games in a row. Thanx for reading...

The Brian Roberts Card of the Day

This Saturday Brian Roberts played in his first game this spring. He has been hampered with back problems. How did he do? He struck out in each of his three at bats. This is a good thing though because he was able to swing without pain. He says that he will be ready for Opening Day against the Tampa Bay Rays. He will remain the Orioles lead-off hitter. The Card of the Day today comes from 2007 Fleer Ultra which looks alot like 1987 Fleer. The insert series is called Feel the Game and it has a white jersey swatch on it. It reminds me of one of my favorite books to read to my sons called "Pat The Cat" where you could feel something that felt like cat fur. Pat the Cat, Feel the Game, it's all the same. I will update my Roberts list one of these days, but for now I want to thank My Past Time...I Love It! for sharing this great relic card of Brian Roberts with me. I have my tickets already and I can't wait till opening day!

Brian Roberts Cards is Back!!!

When I started a 3rd blog a lot of people thought I was over extending myself. Well, it turns out they were correct... I have not had the time to do all of my normal responsibilies and post on 3 different blogs. I am sorry. I had big plans for this blog during the spring. I had planned on covering the Orioles in spring training, posting a ton of pictures, chatting with B-Rob on a regular basis... None of that happened. Sarasota is literally one town away from where I live, but without a car it might as well be 1,000 miles. I never made it to camp or to a game and I never spoke with Brian Roberts. I probably could have found a way over there, but I never got my press credentials approved through the Orioles. That really upset me because not only did I play in their organization, I worked for the team for two years... Oh well. I am still a Brian Roberts fan and I still want to make this blog happen. Obviously I would like to post everyday here, but considering this is only my second post this month, I won't make any promises to do that. I will promise to maintain this blog throughout the season however. I will promise to post on at least a weekly basis, sum up Roberts week and his stats on a weekly basis. I will also post more cards, one at a time, front and back, as I get more. Right now I have plenty enough cards to post every other day for a while... Kevin from the Orioles Card "O" The Day sent me some, so did Stale Gum and I still have more to post from Cards on Cards. Today I got one of the most amazing packages I have ever received from legendary trader Alredo "Wicked" Ortega of the My Past Time... I Love It! blog. I am going to need to use all 3 blogs and about a weeks worth of posting to show off all of the gems he sent... I don't have any scanned for posting tonight, so I must ask you all to stay tuned. The Brian Roberts Card of the Day will return, in fact I will probably scedule one card per day until Opening Day as a countdown. There is some really good stuff here, too, so please stay tuned! I will probably put a contest up here pretty soon plus, like my other blogs, I will post a "Greatest ____ of All Time" poll. Till then...

3 Posts in One AKA 9 New Orioles Cards from 4 Different Sources...

I have realized that working 2 jobs, volunteering, doing roller derby and having a family doesn’t leave a ton of time to maintain 3 blogs, but I am determined to make this work. More now than ever that I realize that people are reading. This post is going to be 3 posts rolled into one and it will probably stay up for at least 3 days. Rather than post three different 3 from 3s, here are 9 new cards, all of Orioles, some of them named Brian Roberts. My B-Rob collection has reached 80 cards (I need to update my list); my Nick Markakis collection is now filling 2 pages with another 6 pages full of random Orioles. We will start with proof that people read this thing. Two weeks ago I posted a Roberts card from 2002 and complained that I didn’t have any Roberts’s rookie cards, cards from 2001. Within a week that problem was solved. Texas Brian from the ever amazing Play at the Plate blog had a package of 2010 Topps coming for me (I will update that list soon, too) and as is typical for him, he included some SWEET extras. One of them is this 2001 Donruss Signature Series foil card. It says “Rookie” on the side of the card, but card companies throw that tag around so often when it isn’t the case. This however is the REAL DEAL. It is numbered 0473/800 on the back. The other bonuses were Rays cards which will find their way up on the Collective Troll in due time. The next 3 cards all came from the same person, the ever generous and super awesome Ed from Roll out the Barrel. Ed and I swap packages about every three weeks and his never disappoint. He also sent me a slew of 2010 Topps and inserts for my set chase, PLUS some Brian The first one is for my set, the “When They Were Young” series anyway. I think I have one of these for the PC on its way. The card shows Roberts batting right-handed as a youngster in North Carolina. He was wearing #1 then, he still wears it now. The next card from RotB is #64 from the 2009 Upper Deck SP Authentic set. The back of the card mentions Roberts going 3-4 on opening day as the Orioles beat the Yankees 10-5. The final B-Rob card from Ed is an insert from 2007 SP Authentic. The Authentic Speed subset. This chronicles base stealers and Roberts had swiped 36 bags the year prior. Switching gears from current to a little while ago… This next card came from Sean at Condition Poor, it is a 2010 SlangKo Sportscard Co. of former Orioles centerfielder Paul Blair. Blair spent 13 seasons in Baltimore, won 2 Worlds Championships with them, went to 2 All Star games, paced the AL in triples and won 8 Gold Gloves. This card showcases the last feat. Only 7 other outfielders have won more Gold Gloves than Blair.
The next card is a SlangKo, too. From a less colorful series, but awesome nonetheless. I have decided it would look much better with an autograph across the front and that is what I have planned for it. It is of Orioles star right fielder Nick Markakis. I don’t collect Nick, but he and Adam Jones are both exceptionally complete outfielders and might get my All Star vote again this year. The next 3 cards come from a first time trader, a reader from Colorado named Lou. Colorado Lou if you please. Lou isn’t a Rockies fan, a Cards fan rather. I explained to him that all of my Cards go to Cards on Cards, but he sent me some cards anyway. Two more Markakii. These could be available for trading if you have similar Roberts or Rays cards. The first is from 2008 Allen and Ginter. The Dick Perez sketch card that says 1/1 on the front, but isn’t really a 1/1. It still looks rad. It would however look much more rad with a nice sharpie signature across the front. I will have to get cracking on that. The second card from Lou and 3rd new Markakis comes from 2009 Finest, card #21, a blue refractor. The card is serial numbered 152/399. The Finest Trivia question is: Who is the only AL player with SBs in one World Series championship game? The answer of course is BJ Upton. The final card from Colorado Lou shifts us back to the man for him this blog is dedicated to, Mr. Brian Roberts. It is from 2007 SPX and is die-cut into a little bit of an X. It is card #2 in the set. Okay, that is it, 3 posts in one. 9 new Orioles cards from 4 different awesome sources. Thanks to Sean, Brian, Ed and Lou!!! On a set building note, I have packages from these 4 fine folks, plus Dog Faced Gremlin, Baseball Dad, Cardboard Junkie, Cards on Cards and Largo Frank-all of which contain 2010 Topps base and inserts. I plan on posting the hits on the Troll and updated my needs and trade lists very soon. Go Roberts! Leading off and heading out…

The Roberts PC is up to 70 Cards-Fresh Stuff from Wicked Ortega

I have yet to see B-Rob in camp, but I will be out there again on Wednesday, camera in hand. For now you will have to settle for pictures of him on baseball cards. At least they are awesome looking cards... These all came from the greatest trader in the world, Wicked Ortega from the My Past Time...I Love It! Blog. He sent a TON of cool stuff covering every faction of my collection, but these are the Roberts cards. The one on top is from 2009 Topps Chrome. Wicked had sent me a regular refractor of this card a while back, now I have the blue version to go with it. This one is numbered 168/199. For the record, I LOVE these blue refractors. Its like 2003 all over again. This next one is from 2009 SP Legendary Cuts, card #1 of #1. Awesome. The third and final Roberts card comes from 2006 SP Authentic and the Baseball Heroes subset. It is number SPAH-69 in the set. The company he is sharing looks a bit odd, but I guess second baseman don't have the longest shelf life. I do think that the Baseball Heroes Card would look better like this. This brings me up to 70 cards in my Roberts collection! Woo hoo! Thanks for everything Wicked! You rule! Leading off over and out!

Spring Training

Pitchers and catchers report tomorrow. I can not wait! Matt Wieters, Chris Tillman and David Hernandez will all be neighbors for the next six weeks. I will try and make it out there on Friday and then again on Monday. Next week all position players will have arrived. This will be the official HQ for all Orioles pictures. I will show Pirates pics on the Troll... Stay tuned! Oh don't forget, there WILL be a contest here soon. It will be open ONLY to the first 25 followers of this blog. Just saying... Vote Brian Roberts and Jason Bartlett All Star middle infield for the American League!

The Brian Roberts Card of the Day

I think I finally have all of my Brian Roberts cards sorted out, well almost. I know I still have a few more relics and fancy cards in screw-down holders SOMEWHERE in the house, but I have nearly everything documented on the lists on the side bar. As it stands I have 67 different Roberts cards. Not bad I think. Initially I asked for a couple cards, so I could have something to get signed if I ever ran into him again. Then, I decided that I wanted a relic. Then, once I had a jersey relic, I wanted a bat relic. Basically I got a little greedy and the whole thing snowballed and now I have more cards of Roberts than anyone except Danny Tartabull, Carl Crawford, BJ Upton (who I still don’t collect) and Scott Kazmir. I have twice as many Roberts cards as I have Gomes cards and 6 times more than Bartlett and 12 times more than Zobrist. Now that I know I have 67, naturally I want to hit 100. Another thing that I realized is that I do NOT have a Roberts rookie card. I have 2 cards from 2002 of Roberts, which I thought MIGHT have been his rookie, but he definitely has cards in the 2001 set. I will show off my oldest Roberts card as the Leading Off Card of the Day (or week depending on how lazy I get). This one came from Paul from the Carl Crawford Cards blog, which was the inspiration for the address of this one (brianrobertscards). The week prior to Christmas 2009 Paul sent me an awesome slabbed and graded Carl Crawford autograph from Just Minors. You can read that original post HERE from the Collective Troll. I immediately posted the CC auto, but didn’t mention the other card in that package, a 2002 Upper Deck Brian Roberts, card #3. I love the design of the 2002 set. I have lucked out and received a number of these cards the last few months-mainly from Tampa Bay Sports Wasteland, Cards on Cards and Cobb and Halladay. It might be my favorite Upper Deck set of the 2000s. I hadn’t really thought much about this card since I received it. It went right into the B-Rob binder and has sat quietly there ever since. The card has the Star Rookie imprint on it, which means nothing as there are Roberts cards from 2007 which call him a rookie, but I still thought it may have been a RC. The picture shows Roberts batting from the left side and taking off towards first after making contact. The focus is a little bit weak and Roberts dark jersey doesn’t stand out at all against the dark background. It is actually not a great looking card at all. That also made me think it might have been his rookie. Rookie cards are almost always hideously ugly. The back of the card recycles the same image from the front and shows Roberts numbers from his 2001 call-up when he jumped from AA to AAA and eventually the majors. He managed 273 at-bats for the Orioles in 2001 and batted .253 with 17 RBI. He stole 12 bases for the Orioles and totaled 45 for the year between the 3 teams. The back of the card says “Roberts joined Baltimore in mid-May and showed superb ability on offense. In July he batted .294 with 9 RBI, 11 runs and four steals. He clubbed his first Major League homer on 7/25/01. Awesome! This card stands as my oldest Roberts card and therefore is among my favorites. I WOULD like to add at least one rookie card to the mix though, so get in touch if you have one to spare… Thanks for the great card Paul! Thanks for reading, go Roberts!