Catch me on Beckett Radio this Thursday @ 4PM CST

Beckett Radio interviewed me, and you can catch it at 4PM CST this Thursday at http://www.beckett.com/radio - A special thanks to Eric Norton (@ericnorton316 on Twitter) for reaching out! UPDATE:  They posted it early.  Here is the direct link!  https://soundcloud.com/beckett-radio/8-3-tan-man-baseball-fan-trout-watch-and-one-final-nscc-segment - it starts at around the 10 minute mark.

Jose Canseco Enshrined into the Hall of Very Good

Not too long ago, I was notified by The Hall of Very Good to write an article retelling my experience with Jose Canseco when he invited my family and I to his home last year.  The reason?  He has been inducted into the 2016 Hall of Very Good! To read my article on their website, you can go here.

RAINBOW ALERT! 2016 Donruss Signature Series

The last card I needed for the rainbow came in today for my 2016 Donruss Signature Series ... the black 1/1.  Thank you Bill and Chase for reaching out to me.  I hope you all land that special piece for your collection! I REALLY wanted to complete this rainbow, because it is such an anomaly. - It is not licensed - It has no logos - The autographs are not on card On paper, this shouldn't be special.  However, in spite of all this, I count this as the most aesthetically pleasing / eye popping rainbow I've seen. 8 cards

My Crusade is Complete! Plus, my (almost) ENTIRE Want List … In Pics!

At long last, my Crusade is complete!  My 1998 Donruss Crusade rainbow, that is!  Ever since I started seriously collecting Canseco, The 98 Crusade Red was at the top of my wish list - perhaps it was even my first recognized white whale.  I kept thinking to myself ... they are numbered to 25, so how hard can it be to get one?  (Insert painful belly laugh here.) Looking back on my blogs, the start of my new Canseco collection started 2 about 2 1/2 years ago, so that is about the amount of time it took me to finally

This is one blanket statement I love!

For my birthday, several people photoshopped funny pictures of me.  One of which, the famous @GraceCollector made me.  My wife and son had a funny blanket made for me for Father's Day using random pics from my www.TanManBaseballFan.com site.  Brad's pic made the cut!  Here is what he made me: Note that I put "Picture made by Brad" on it because I don't want the search engines grabbing this, and having people think I tattooed myself on his arm, lol! Now this is one blanket statement I can get behind! A close up .... I'm not sure why they cut

Jose Canseco: The Truth Hurts Documentary Review

Fans of Jose Canseco have recently been treated to the documentary Jose Canseco: The Truth Hurts - the recipient of multiple film festival awards.  The first time I heard about this a year or so ago, I have been dying to get my hands on it.  Writer & Director Bill McAdams Jr. was kind enough to send me a copy, and I was anxious to watch it. What immediately stuck out to me what the level of quality the documentary possessed.  From scrolling views of personal photos, baseball cards and newspaper clippings to beautiful video scenery of a baseball field,

Two Years in the Making

It must have been five years ago when I was in my office with my son opening some SP Authentic.  He pulled a beauty of a card. While it wasn't (most likely) this exact card, this is how I remember it.  I thought it was absolutely amazing.  Brilliant even!  They took a game used jersey worn by Griffey to cut up and have him sign a letter ... then put it on a card! Then I found out they just manufactured the letter to be signed.  I thought something was up when they started making sets of these cards that

A Tale of Two White Whales

I was going to add this in with my next article coming up in the next few days (which I'm quite excited about sharing with you) but decided to dedicate a post just to this, because it was so epic! The following is not a story of a brand new shiny 1/1 with pieces of memorabilia, and autographs.  No, this is a story of 2 cards - each with very intriguing backgrounds...stories so rich that they make those who collect older cards dream about the day they get to add them to their collections. Last week, I shared with you my monster

My ENTIRE Jose Canseco Collection – In Pictures!

This last weekend was not only Father's Day; it was also the weekend of the card show! As always, I set out to hunt for some Canseco cards for my collection. As I got there, I could immediately tell that this was a hopping place. Something was much, much more different though. There must have been something in the air, because the show-goers seemed to dress a bit odd. The selection seemed a bit slim... But TONS of people flocked to the quarter bins... Hey, at least there were some decent signers... I knew something was off when I asked this

A Custom of a Different Kind

Know what I love?  Making customs of cards that don't exist or were never made.  It adds a certain layer of depth to my collection.  I suspect many of you who have customs in your collections feel the same way.  A '69 Topps Garvey, '66 Topps Ryan, 81 Fleer Ripken, etc. In the past few weeks, I have focused on creating a few cards that never existed and modifying others. I found this autographed 2011 Goodwin Champions on an advertisement sales sheet for the set.  It didn't look familiar, so I checked my collection.  Not there.  I also checked Becket.