Happy Mom's Day

An official Happy Mothers Day greeting to all the Mom's out there including my own Mom, step-mom and wife.

In honor of Mom's Day I thought I would write a post about children (more specifically two daughters) because without these two girls today would be very different.

To begin with, I present my own daughter, who for those of you who read my blog may remember that my Jennifer, graduated high school in May of 2008 and was accepted into the long-term Rotary Youth Exchange of Florida program that has sent her to Finland for this past year. If you want to read about her adventures please go here: Jenny's Journal from Finland Thankfully she gets her writing skills from her Mother.

"an american in Paris"

petting a real reindeer in Lapland Finland, in the arctic circle, during Christmas time

Jennifer will be returning to the USA on May 24th, it has been a looooong year without her and I do miss her terribly. She will be attending Flagler college (St Augustine Florida) in the fall to begin her "new" life as a college student. As Jenny has reminded me in many emails and IM's "Daddy, I am so much more grown up and independent now and so ready for college . . . but I will always be your little girl".

Jennifer was born in 1991 and as some of you may know (even have helped out) I am still putting together a binder of cards from 1991 as a surprise for her. She is still my little girl who hopefully will always be my little baseball partner. Thanks to my wife who is Jennifer's Mommy . . . today is for both of you.

While my daughter went off to Finland last summer, my wife and I "adopted" an exchange student as a replacement (that is one of the unwritten rules of the program) . We were blessed to be able to call Vivian our daughter this past fall. Vivian is from Taiwan and we now have two new countries we "must" visit. Today, I thank her Mom for allowing us to be "parents" to Vivian this past year. Of course I had to take her to a Rays game !

Today is a day to thank some very special Moms; especially Jennifers and Vivians.

Happy Mothers Day to all !

Kudos to Longoria

It was announced today that Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays won the AL player of the week award for this past week. Longoria went 7 for 19 with two round trippers including that grand slam in the season opener against Boston on Thursday.

Longoria is the first repeat winner this year and needless to say, Longoria is becoming the heart and soul of the young Rays and just might make a run for AL MVP (if the Rays can put together few more wins and make 2009 a repeat performance of last years AL Championship team).

Early in the week, Longoria collected his 100th RBI of his career, in only his 135th game. That ranks him third behind Ryan Braun (118 games) and Albert Pujols (131 games) as the fastest to reach that plateau amongst active players.

As an aside, being a Cubs fan living in Sarasota, the Tampa Bay Rays are the AL team I root for. I actually attended the game this past Saturday against the BoSox - being the only game the Rays lost as they took three out of four over the weekend. I probably will stay away from now on, maybe.

I still have a hard time grasping indoor/domed baseball, although Tropicana is very family friendly, being indoors is just not "right" (that is just the traditionalist coming out in me). I did have a great time though . . . (sorry no pictures).

Congratualtions to Longoria . . . Lets Go Rays !

More from David

I have a long day (Saturday) ahead of me away from home - I am dealing in a (non-cash) poker tournament (yes I am a qualified texas hold'em and blackjack dealer) and there is this "big" event today in Sarasota. I know what you are saying, what is a guy in Florida dealing cards for (being indoors all day) when every day is sunshine . . . truth be told, beacuse everyday is sunshine it is ok . . . I still prefer cardboard to plastic.

So, I wanted to share a few more cards that came in the "goliath" of a package from David of Indian Baseball Cards and then some . . .

So generous was he that along with the many Cubs cards he sent he also sent about 20 Tampa Rays (Devil Rays) cards. Living in Sarasota gives me a "close" AL team to cheer for at times.

I like the 2007 A & G !

Is this a homerun swing or . . . is that ball speeding right over Crawford bat for strike three ? Nice Devil Ray card, 2006 Fleer Ultra # 50.

Two more favorites are:



a swell Rogers Hornsby(#137)




and a sliding Mickey Morandini (1999 Fleer Tradition)

Thank you again David !

A Goliath package from David

Yes it has taken me a little bit (too long and I apologize for that) to THANK YOU David from Indian Baseball Cards and then some . . . for the most generous of shipments I received last week.

Somehow he heard of my "want" of Cubs cards and satisfied that "want" with a load (over 100 cards spanning 47 years !)

Some of my favorites are:

Top Row: a 1962 Topps Jim Brewer # 191 (upper left corner); a great pose by Mitch Williams (top center) and my first Razor: Andrew Cashner.

Middle Row: three Alfonso Soriano's; 2007 Turkey Red, 2008 UD in black and white and 2008 UD Timeline. I hope you can notice the great eyeliner Soriano has.

Bottom Row: a 1991 Fleer Greg Maddux bunting and the 1993 Fleer League Leader with the Maddux powerful face pre-release, to my first O-Pee-Chee, 1991, of George Bell watching a lazy fly ball reach the Wrigley basket (or at least I think so).

Also included in the package were several Studio 1992's, Donruss 1992's, Donruss 1987's, several Topps Stadium cards of various years and many other cards including this 1985 Father-Son card of Dizzy and Steve Trout (got to love that hair !)

I will be posting another entry with more of my favorites from David, including some Tampa Bay Rays (Devil Rays) he sent along (living in Sarasota one must cheer for the Rays, sometimes).

Thank you David !