Cards from Fantastic Catch or Envelopes Welcome Me Home

After being away from home for a little bit, there is one constant that keeps me going....the unspoken threat of a manila envelope in the mailbox. They lurk for you when at work and try to give ideas to the bills and magazines always present in the mailbox to get noticed more. Here's the top 5 pieces of advice from the manila envelope to these other scraps of mail that get thrown on the table unopened and unloved.
1. "Try and hold your breath.  You seem frail and bendy"
2. "You're looking a little pale. You need more sunlight to turn yellow."
3."I can give you the number of a good toploader implant doctor."
4. "Allow yourself to be covered in stickers."
5."See that. That's a delivery confirmation stamp. Use it. Live it. Love it."

In any case, one of the envelopes I received some time ago was from the gentleman at Fantastic Catch.  He exhibited a lot of patience with me and came through with ....well, a fantastic package.  Everyone can tell I'm a Phillies fan, but I don't mind some cards from the original AL Philadelphia team, especially with the year they had this year. Here are some highlights.

2008 or 2009 Upper Deck Common or Uncommon or Rare or Ultra Rare Starquest Jimmy Rollins: Honestly, if it's not chrome or refractory and it's a retail one per pack insert, colored parallels barely matter.  The only starquest that matters is Collector's Choice style circa 1997.

2012 Topps Daric Barton:  He was benched for the Chris Carter/Brandon Moss platoon this year and was not part of the excitement.

2006 Ovation Eric Chavez: He was a Yankee last year, and he destroyed righties, and he played more than 70 games. Remember when he was a 2nd/3rd round fantasy pick?

2012 Topps Opening Day Roy Halladay: The stripped down version of Topps with the stripped down 2012 version of Halladay.  I hope the 2013 version is close to the 2011 version.

2012 Topps Update Blue Border Laynce Nix: An injured bench player is the most forgotten of players as a retail parallel issued only in blaster packs is the most cast aside of parallel.

2012 Topps Kyle Kendrick: He was officially labeled a pleasant surprise in 2012, upping his K rate to a career best 6.6 K/9.

2006 Ovation Ryan Howard:  Who misses themed cards? Spotlighted baseballs anyone?

2006 Artifacts Pat Burrell: Burrell had the best chewing mouth ever....possibly.

2012 Topps  A Cut Above Roy Halladay: Die cuts are back in 2012....It's almost like they forgot what the purpose was. This looks like a 'Z', which would be in the omega position of the alphabet.

Always fun to receive a manila envelope....maybe next time, the rest of my mail will be inspired and every piece will transform into one.

A Fantastic Catch of Cards

Notice I joined the world of pun titles, and started with a bad one.
Sometime in the hazy sunlit past, I made a deal with Fantastic Catch (who's holding a cool group break by the way with sign-ups open right now and deserves the patronage of your support).  He was able to touch on quite a few parts of my wantlist with precision and credulity and gets a Jim Edmonds level catch rating in my book.

2010 Topps Update Ivan Rodriguez: Pudge V2.0 has crossed off into the sunset at the conclusion of last year, and here marks one of his first versions of cards with his last team. Surprisingly, not all cards I need are Phillies as you can see.  For some reason, I;m still building the 2010 Update set.  It might be because I love to see players in their new uniforms for the first time.  I always expect these to be glossier like the Topps Traded sets pre-1993.

2011 Topps Purple Diamond Ryan Howard: These were only inserted in Toys R Us packs, and I've ran out of reasons to go there at my age.  This card I never would've received in a pack, so that was righteous.

2011 Topps Opening Day Carlos Ruiz: Chooch knows no other holiday except opening day.  I'm still voting for him for the all-star game.

2010 Topps Update More Tales of the Game Roy Halladay:  When the Phillies played a home game in Toronto because of one those world leader summits that are held ever so often. If Halladay was moderator of the G20 summitt, maybe they would finally comprehend the correlation between hard work and success and stop false negotiating.  "I threw a perfect game...what did you do?" would be the perfect retort to those leaders.

2010 Upper Deck Supreme Chase Utley and 2010 Upper Deck Kyle Kendrick: Remember when Upper Deck tried to produce a set without logos?  I think they forgot to airbrush something on the Utley insert.  Kendrick demonstrates the perfect pose for such a set: profilin' with style.  Supposedly, these Supreme cards were rare, but they're not serial numbered.  There could be 100 or a bajillion.  Any card with Utley with sunglasses is a good card for me.

And with that, I thank you for perusing some of the haul from Fantastic Catch (and thanking him too).