Cincinnati Day 2: Ballpark Tour, Museum, & Second Cardinals Game

Our second day in Cincinnati was not as rushed as the first.  My only definite plan was attending the game that night.  After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we decided to head back to the ballpark to visit the Reds Hall of Fame Museum before taking a stadium tour.  The cost was $22 to do both for an adult, or $20 for my son.  Seemed like a good deal, so we bought tickets for the noon tour.  That left about 90 minutes to walk through the museum.  

The Museum consisted of 2 floors on the first and third floors.  The first floor started with a exhibit about Latin players.  This was not just Reds players, but other MLB Latinos as well.

How appropriate to find a display that featured my son's favorite player and a Cardinals legend all in one.  

A closer look at the Molina helmet from his rookie season in 2004.  I was a little surprised to see anything Molina related based on how unpopular he is in  Reds country.  

After watching a short 10 minute film, we made our way through a hallway with various pictures of Negro League players.  That lead to a room full of statues.  

These bronze statues depict the Great 8 players from the 1970s Big Red Machine.  It was hard to get a group picture because the statues were so big.  From there we took the stairs you see on the right to the third floor.

There were 4256 baseballs that lined the staircase.  The balls represent all the hits in Pete Rose's career.  None are the actual hit balls.  They were from batting practice or other game used balls.  Pretty awesome to see that many baseballs in 1 display.

The third floor had the majority of the artifacts and displays.

There were 4 life like statues of John Vander Meer, Ted Kluszewski, Johnny Bench, and Barry Larkin.  The Bench was the most accurate depiction.  Across the room from the statues was a wall dedicated to baseball cards.

The cards ranged from 1869 to present day.  The pull out cabinets displays worked great.  I doubt some of the pre 1900 cards were real.  Some of them were in too pristine condition to be that old.

The next room was dedicated to broadcasting.  You could put on one of Marty Brennaman's jackets and sit at the announcers booth.  My son chose to sit at the pregame desk instead.

The next room had artifacts from the Reds World Series teams.  This is the 1975 trophy.  Pretty cool to see one of these up close.

The corner of that room had some old jerseys.  I found this Cardinals jersey with a zipper in front pretty odd.  

Upon leaving the museum, each of us received a Marion Soto bobblehead.  Each month a different bobblehead is given away to anyone visiting on Saturday or Sunday.  We ended up selling one of ours later in the day for $15.  

We had about a 10 minute wait for the ballpark tour that went by fairly quick.  The tour itself lasted about 90 minutes.  We saw various areas of the ballpark like suites, umpire room, and the hallway leading to the locker rooms.

We also got to visit both dugouts.  This is in the visitor's dugout.

We walked behind home plate on our way to the Reds dugout.  There was a light sprinkle going on at the time, thus the tarp on the field.  The sun was still shining though as you can see from the shadows in our picture.

After the tour we had lunch at LaRosa's Pizza.  Since the Reds struck out 11 Cardinals on Friday night, anyone with a ticket from that game receive a free personal pan pizza.  That was the only positive from the Cardinals Friday night loss.  

We went back to our hotel for a short rest before heading to the stadium for the game.  I did not get the batting practice package this time, so we had to wait in line for the gates to open.

The giveaway that night was a Mr. Redlegs bobblehead.  This little man is pretty heavy.  If anyone is interested in this or a Soto bobblehead, shoot me an email or leave a comment.  Would be happy to sell or trade for a few Cardinals.

The game went a lot better on Saturday.  The Cardinals won 6 to 3 thanks to back to back home runs by Tyler O'Neill and Paul Goldschmidt.  We also got to see Ryan Helsley throw 2 103 mph fastballs like he did in the All Star Game.  There was a fireworks show again, but we opted to avoid traffic and head back to the hotel.  

That ends the baseball part of our trip.  I still have a couple of other posts about the trip.  One about a card show we attended on Sunday morning.  The other about some cards I received on the trip.  

   

    

Cardinals Reds Game 1 Batting Practice

After leaving Louisville, we headed straight to Cincinnati.  We had a little spare time to check into our hotel before we headed to the ballpark.  We arrived with 5 minutes to spare.  The Reds offer a special ticket to watch both teams take batting practice for $22.  Since we never get to see the Cardinals take bp in St. Louis, I figured it was a good deal. 

Until the gates opened for everyone, we were confined to the right and centerfield bleachers.  My wife and I stayed close to centerfield while my son stayed in right.  Tyler O'Neill is getting some fielding practice here.

Dylan Carlson is waiting his turn.  Shortly after this picture he tossed up a ball to my wife.

We received 2 others besides the Carlson toss up.  My son got a toss up from a Reds pithcer.  The third ball landed in the battter's eye during the Reds BP.  A member of the grounds crew tossed it to my son.  We were never really close to any of the home runs, but it was still fun.  Only downside was it was hot for the 2 hours we watched.

After BP we hit up the concession stand.  Behind our seats in the right field bleachers was stand that offered a $25 deal that included 5 hot dogs, unlimited chips, peanuts, and soda.  That was a great investment for the 3 of us.  

Our seats were next to the Cardinals bullpen down the right field line.  Pretty good view of the bullpen and the field.  I failed to get any pictures of Adam Wainwright while he was warming up, but did get Jordan Hicks before he entered the game in the 6th inning.

A big difference between the bullpen at Great American Ballpark and Busch Stadium is the net over the top.  At Busch the relievers toss up quite a few balls, but the net makes it impossible in Cincy.  As for the game it did not turn out well for Cardinals fans.  Wainwright gave up 2 home runs and took the loss in a 9-5 final.  We did get to see Paul Goldschmidt hit a home run.  A big thumbs up for the fireworks show after the game.  They looked great going off over the Ohio River.  

Next post will highlight our second day at the ballpark.

  

Baseball Filled Weekend: Card Shop, 2 Cardinal games, and Card Show

With the opportunity to take a summer vacation winding down before school starts in mid August, I decided to make the trip to Cincinnati this past weekend along with my wife and son.  My daughter was on a school field trip to Canada, but baseball is not really her thing anymore so the timing worked out great.  We left Friday morning with plans to stop at a card shop in Louisville, KY on our way to watch the Cardinals play the Reds on Friday and Saturday night.  Before we left town on Sunday morning, we also hit up a card show.

We arrived back home mid afternoon yesterday, but I did not have a chance to get all my pictures and scans uploaded, so today I will just have a quick recap from the card shop.  We arrived at Louisville Sports Cards about 10 minutes after the store opened.  This was our second visit to the shop.  Last July we hit the store on our way back from a baseball tournament in Lexington.  The store is laid out very well with plenty of showcases, player boxes, and value boxes.  My son and I spent about 45 minutes going through the 6 for $5 boxes and 1 player box.  Time and traffic did not allow us anymore time if we planned on making it to Friday's game on time.  Here is what we found.

There were quite a few Altuve cards in the player box.  This orange jersey swatch caught my son's eye.  For $3 it was an easy decision.

Other than the Altuve jersey card, I only bought 6 cards for $5.  This 2020 Mojo refractor of Carlson was the only Cardinals I found that was worth the price.

I think I did pretty well with the other 5 cards.  My son found another Altuve he needed, while the 2 camo parallels should pay for our trip.  The Henry Davis insert and Ellsbury jersey card will be headed to Trading Bases member Ron B.  I also need a couple of snap cases, so my total for the day was $9.  Since I paid with cash, there was no tax.  I highly recommend a stop here if you are ever in Louisville.

Almost Forgot One

While putting away the 2 trades that pushed me to 25,000 Cardinals, I came across a small lot of cards that I received last week.  Sometimes things get misplaced on my card table without getting a proper recap.  That can happen with a small trade.  I was entering these in my spreadsheet and realized my mistake.  These 4 Cardinals arrived early last week from TCDB member MHLayton.

I did not open any Series 2 Topps this year.  Glad other people did so I can trade for nice inserts like this Musial die cut.

Here are a couple more cards from Series 2.  The top one is a rainbow parallel.  Molina is scheduled to go on a rehab stint next week, then hopefully be back the first week of August.  That should give him and Wainwright just enough time to get 9 starts to break the all time pitcher/catcher battery record.

Nunez was the last card I needed from 2022 Bowman.  Glad to finish this set up before Chrome, Draft, Best, Platinum, and all the rest of the Bowman brands come out.

   

25,000

Continuing yesterday's post, my second milestone I reached with 2 trade packages on Monday was 25,000 Cardinals.  At least that is what TCDB says I have.  I have not cross checked that total with my spreadsheets, but it should be pretty accurate.  TCDB member CoachBarry has the honor of pushing me to that total.

The Holo Prizm parallels from 2021 Select scan great.  The refractor finish looks awesome.

It is rare for me to trade for a Heritage short print I need, even if it is off a common player like Knizner.  I still need to find the Harrison Bader sp before I finish the 2021 Heritage team set.  It was awesome to see Goldschmidt hit a homerun last night, but not so great to see him only get 1 at bat.  He is living up to the name on this 2021 Finest insert.  Juan Yepez start out hot as can be, but has cooled some and is currently on the DL.  His cards like this 2022 Diamond Kings are still going for a nice price.  Glad I was able to trade for this one.

None of these pitchers will be helping the Cardinals anytime soon.  Miller and Lester both retired after 2021 season, while Flaherty will be out for at least another month.   Even if he comes back, I would not bank on him being effective.  

Just like the first package, my son came away with 4 new Altuve cards.  This brings his total to 540.  The 2 Quick Pitch cards on the right really stand out in person.

 

A New #1

I reached a couple of milestones on TCDB yesterday with 2 trade packages that arrived.  I will talk about 1 today, but save the second for my next post.  

There are quite a few Cardinals collectors on TCDB.  When I do not have many trades going on, I usually try to hit up one of them to see if we can exchange duplicates.  One of my go to guys is member timriess.  He gets involved in some box breaks that I do not and vice versa.  We have traded so many times that the cards he needs from me has fallen from over 400 to less than 50.  Our most recent trade pushed him to #1 on my most frequent traders list.  Nice to see a fellow Cardinals fan there.  Let's see what the latest trade brought me.

I have no plans to open any 2022 Donruss, so the 2 Ozzies are welcome additions.  I have opened a few 2022 Topps packs, but not enough to pull a nice blue 1987 parallel.

Here are more cards from sets I have not and will not open.  The Molina is a short print from 2022 Diamond Kings.  Yepez is the last base card I needed for my Series 2 team set. 

I love get older base cards like this 2011 Topps Heritage Minors.  I have seen this card many times, but never realized I needed it.  Good thing the trade matching feature keeps track off cards like this.

2 more cards that I thought I had, but did not.  Topps cranks out so many inserts over their 2 Series and Update releases that it can be hard to keep track of them all.  

My son did quite well with these 4 new 2022 Altuve cards.  We both agreed the Sweet Shades insert is the best.  His push for 600 continues.

  

Small Peoria Autograph Recap

Last Sunday my son, wife, and I made our first trip to Peoria this year to watch the Cardinals High A team play.  My daughter chose to stay home and spend the day with her boyfriend.  Her loss.  Now that my son's baseball season is over, I hope to have a few more weekends free for watching games.  

As with any minor league game we attend, we try get get some autographs.  Dozer Park is a easy park to get autographs in.  The netting only goes to the dugouts right now.  Sundays are also team autograph day after the game.  I believe there were around 15 players who were signing this time.  We only had cards for 3 players, and were lucky enough to get 2 of them.  

Love was a 3rd round pick in 2021.  He has been in the Chiefs starting rotation all season.  His in person autograph is very similar to his certified one below.  

Our other autograph was from relief pitcher Levi Prater.

Prater was a 3rd round selection in 2020.  He has an interesting story.  As a young child he lost 3 fingers on his right hand in a lawn mower accident.  His ring finger and pinky remain.  Not sure how his glove fits, but it must work somehow.  I was hoping he would pitch, but he did not.  His in person autograph is also very close to his certified one.

As for the game, the Chiefs lost 6 to 5.  After being down 4 to 0, they managed to tie the score in the bottom of the 8th.  In the top of the 9th, the other team got their leadoff batter on second.  He was clearly picked off, but was called safe.  After he scored the go ahead run, we got to see the Chiefs manager come out on the field to give the umpire a good tongue lashing.  His efforts got him ejected.  The highlight of the game for my son and I was participating in a snow cone eating challenge.  I waxed him pretty good, but ended up with a brain freeze.  Good thing it was around 90 degrees that afternoon.  

  

Bench Trade

In my recent flurry of trades, I managed to complete one on The Bench trading site.  Before I discovered TCDB, this was my favorite place to trade.  In recent years the membership has shifted from set/team/player collectors to those more interested in the latest and greatest player that can be turned for a profit.  I still search the site daily, but rarely find any posts that lead to a trade.  That changed earlier this month when member davids5505 was looking to complete the 2021 Topps Big League set.  I sent him a healthy staff of base cards in exchange for some nice Cardinals.

This member opened some pack of his own that produced some parallels for trade bait.  I gladly scooped up these 3.

He also had quite a few 2022 Donruss inserts for trade.  I still need the Nootbaar base card, but now have the orange parallel.  The patriot in me really likes the Musial Independence Day parallel.  

I also receive a 2002 Topps insert and a 2021 Update gold parallel.  No offense to Austin Dean, but the Paul Goldscmidt card is a way better card.  I have made no secret of my love for the 1987 Topps design.  Put the NL MVP of the first half on the card and you get a great card.

New Cardinals HOF Autograph

It has been a long time since I added a new Cardinals Hall of Fame autograph to my collection.  I already have cards of the typical Topps guys like Ozzie Smith, Lou Brock, and Bob Gibson.  I did add this Pujols  autograph to my collection a few months ago, but he is not in the Hall yet.  Other guys like Dizzy Dean and Joe Medwick are a little hard to find at a decent price.  

One player I have been eyeing is Ted Simmons.  He does not have very many certified autographs yet, but since his HOF induction in 2020 Topps has been including him in more products.  One of his more recent cards is from 2022 Topps Heritage.

I won this card off EBAY for a little more than the price of a blaster.  I was really hoping to find a copy at the Midwest Monster card show last month, but had zero luck.  There were plenty to choose from online.  This Real One autograph was the best card in my eyes.  It looks a lot better than the Panini products, and is a lot cheaper than his 2018 Topps Archives card.  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday

The first 2 for Tuesday of July only features 3 cards.  2 of them are parallels for team sets that I would love to complete, while the 3rd card I hope to get autographed sometime this season.  

These 2 cards came from TCDB member nwcardsupplies.  He is also a member of Trading Bases.  I am not doing to bad on the 2011 Diamond Anniversary parallel set.  Out of 31 Cardinals, I need 8 more.  4 of those are short prints.  I still need 6 more of the 2014 Update Red Hot Foil cards.  

This LJ Jones card from 2020 Parkside Negro League Draft set came from member glassnickels.  Jones is currently with the Peoria Chiefs.  I made my first trip there this past Sunday, but was not in the right place at the right time to get him to sign.  I should have a couple of more chances later this year.  

Somewhat New Lankford Card

I usually get pretty excited to show off a new Ray Lankford card.  It rarely happens anymore, maybe once or twice a year.  Those rare 1990s parallels I need just do not show up that often, and Lankford does not get any hobby love from Topps since he was not a major star.  He does however get the buyback treatment every now and then.

This 2017 buyback is from the 1993 Bowman set.  If you look closely above the nameplate you will see the bronze foil stamp.  I do not go crazy over buybacks, but for around $2 I will buy up those of my favorite player.  A day after I won this card, one of those rare 1990s parallels I needed was listed on EBAY.  I was thrilled until I saw the asking price of over $200 or best offer.  The card is no longer listed, so I assume someone was willing to overpay.  
  

Cardinals Lot

I had a hard time coming up with a theme and title for today's post.  These 7 cards I received from TCDB member CraigM do not have a lot in common other than all are Cardinals.  Thus the bland title.  Onto the cards.

I am a fan of the unlicensed cards from the overproduction era.  They are not worth much, but they do not pop up very often.  These 2 Zeile cards are from a 1990 MVP set.  

1997 Score Hobby Reserve parallels were inserted in Series 2 packs.  Series 1 packs featured the Premium Stock parallels.  That does not make much sense to me.  It would be like Topps putting gold border in Series 1, then a silver border in Series 2.  Too much confusion.

I really need to complete an Ultra Gold Medallion team set.  This Haren from 2004 is only my second one from that year.  With 8 more to find, I am pretty sure this year will not be my first to complete.  The Rolen insert is also from 2004.  

I liked the Topps Reserve brand even though it was only around for 2001 and 2002.  This Renteria is from the 2001 set.  That set will not get completed for awhile due to the Pujols rookie card.

Trading with a Mission

One feature I often overlook on the TCDB website is the Stats tab in the Transactions area.  Here you can find the number of trades you have completed the last few years along with how many cards you have sent and received.  You can also track how many times you have traded with certain members.  

I know I have traded with member Themissionguy quite a few times, but did not realize he was in my top 3.  He has a large wantlist and is always willing to work out a trade.  Last week we completed our 8th trade that gained me 6 new Cardinals for my pc.

The 2022 Topps rainbow foil parallels seem to be tougher to find this year compared to previous years.  I am guessing the overproduction leads to greater pack odds.

These 2022 inserts are not that tough to find.  The 1987 design combined with a Cardinals HOF player makes for a great card in my biased opinion.  The Stars of MLB insert looks better with the chrome finish compared to the regular version.

Molina has been on the DL for almost a month now with to return date in site.  He and Wainwright need 9 more starts to have the all time battery record.  Hope they can still achieve that before the end of the season.  Yadi almost looks unrecognizable on the Welcome to the Show insert.  That photo should be from his rookie year in 2004.