admin, Author at Tan Man Baseball Fan

Happy Jose Canseco Day!

May all your hopes and dreams come true! :D

I've waited for this day to come for a long time. I LOVE the simple, classy designs of Fleer Ultra. Too bad they can't use logos though :/ Either way though, still looks mega sweet. Can't wait! Based upon the ad, it looks like there is gonna be some major cool stuff in it as well. Coming February 30th :D

German Baseball is Dangerous

At church today, the sermon was on Genesis 11 and how God confused people's languages at the tower of Babel. Our pastor told us about someone who translated "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" from English to German and back to English. Here is what it said. (Narrate this in your mind in the voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger.) Execute me to the ball play Execute me with the masses Buy me certain groundnuts and crackerstackfusig I'm not interested if I never receive back Let me root, root, root for the main team If they do not win, it is dishonor

When you land a card you missed out on previously

I've had some pretty great luck recently in landing cards I had missed originally. The latest one is kind of fun because of the roller coaster that it took in order to get there. It involves this card here: In and of itself, it is a beautiful card. 1997 Finest Embossed Refractor. Awesome stuff, right? Well, someone was selling a bunch of cards which a bunch of us forum junkies caught wind of. It was being sold by a guy who had a bunch of Finest / Refractor cards that were missing serial numbers, die-cuts, etc. I saw that he

Fun with Junk Wax & Bubble Gum

Remember the days when you could get a pack of baseball cards for 50 cents? I do. I don't ever remember getting anything absolutely remarkable, but then again, the hits back then were serial numbered to 10,000 or more and the only time you heard about somebody ever pulling one was through a friend's friend's uncle. I ended up taking a trip down memory lane and picked up a nice little run of topps wax packs from the junk wax era. The packs I received were from 1984 and ran all the way through 1993. I decided to crack open

Have we Just Been Punked by Topps?

Disclaimer: This is all in fun. I am not trying to bad-mouth Topps here at all. Just another excuse to amuse myself with photoshop. I enjoy the heck out of much of what they put out, and am a big fan of theirs. I *love* the buybacks! At the end of 2015, we player collectors of retired greats were treated to a unique release of Topps Archives Buybacks: Signature Series. You have heard me gush enough about those already, along with many others, I'm sure. Then, Topps released this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz8aFyFf_f8 An advertisement that enthusiastically proclaimed that inserted into

1991-92 Skybox … Derek Jeter?

Didn't the early 90's have some of the wildest graphics ever? Too bad the cards from that era were mass produced, otherwise I think I'd have a much greater respect for 1991 Donruss. Born out of the late 80's / early 90's were eye-popping graphics from some of our favorite shows growing up, like ... The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air #yoholmessmellyalater Saved by the Bell #kellywassodreamy One of my twitter (my twitter handle is @tanmanbbfan ) followers sent this, because it fits perfectly in line with the theme... So the other night I was thinking about Skybox, and how clean

Mutant Cards, Zits and Cool Customs

We are now about 20 days into 2016, and I haven't written a single article. Forgive me, readers, for it has been too long. The end of 2015 went by faster than any other year I can recall, and I am still scratching my head wondering where all the Christmas lights have gone. Perhaps it is the 79 degree forecast on the eve of the coldest month of the year for us. (Seriously, Jan 31st here is supposed to be 79, and I wouldn't doubt it hitting 80!) All that to say, I've been working on an idea I'm really