Opening Day with the Oakland A's

So I'm sitting here waiting for the first pitch, and here are my pregame photos. I didn't bring my camera. When did Ichiro get all that power? He was hitting a ton of shots into the stands during BP.

And first pitch:

Cards From Cards from the Quarry

 The smallest trade to arrive this week (and thus the easiest to post about!) came from hiflew at Cards from the Quarry. I emailed him about my Opening Day extras and he grabbed a bunch for his master set. In return he sent some of my set needs!

He included two right handed national league hurlers for my 2011 Topps set - Daniel Hudson from the D'Backs and Brad Lidge from the Phillies. I still need one more card from this set - #24!

I have also now finally started collecting the 2010 Turkey Red set. I believe the nine cards hiflew sent are the first for me, though I think the third series is on the way.

It's a great selection of players from the first series, too, including Ryan Howard (is he still hot?), Ryne Sandberg, Ryan Braun, new Giant Miguel Tejada, and even Mickey Mantle!

Thanks again for a great trade and I hope we can do business again soon! I've got two large trades to post about, but I'm going to save them for next week. It's going to take a while to sort through and scan all that goodness!

Happy Opening Day!

I'm working on a bunch of posts. I have two large trades and one smaller one to report on, some recent eBay grabs, pack busts, and some other topics to blog about, and I have several trades to respond to. But I want to say Happy Opening Day to everyone! (Again, I guess, with my post this morning.) And while my Giants lost today, I offer this:

Tomorrow I head across the bay to see the A's take on the Mariners. Last time I saw a regular season game in Oakland, it was the A's vs. Mariners right before the 2007 All-Star break. Ichiro scored and was standing around home plate as the play continued, the ball got away from the catcher and ended up under his feet. The catcher pushed him out of the way, and a big bench-clearing fight ensued. I was in the sixth row right behind home plate and got to see my first big brawl up close. A short summary is here. I also caught a pretty well-hit home run ball during BP from someone on the Mariners (no idea who).

I'll be bringing my camera and taking some pictures - not sure if I'll be able to get any action shots but I'll sure be trying. I have okay seats.