The Post Season Is Looming

It doesn't seem like that long ago that the Brewers were riding workhorse CC Sabathia's arm into the October lime-light . . . . ahhhhh the memories.

I really do get excited for playoff baseball. Although I wonder why the first round is played during the day, but I digress.

Lucky me, I've got tickets to Game 1 and Game 5 (if necessary) at Target Field to see the loser of the Yanks/Rays divisional battle take on the Twins in the first round. I couldn't be more excited.

I've never seen playoff baseball (remember, grew up near Milwaukee, with the Brewers, enough said). For Game 1 we'll be sitting in the RF bleachers near the open plaza area where Thome likes to swat those moon shots. So excited. The Twins really are my adopted team, and even though I grew up a Brewers fan I've gotten extremely close with this team as well.

The Twins pitching seems to be sputtering a bit here down the stretch, but hopefully these silly 5 game series help out a bit with that. I've never been a huge fan of Carl Pavano, but he pitched decent most of the year. Hopefully he and Liriano can pitch a couple of gems next week and allow me to also see my first ALCS. Tickets are in hand for that, should it happen.

And finally, a little nod to my fantasy baseball team, making a run for the title in the final week. Currently in first place, trying to power through the loss of Longo, only 5 days remain before I find out if I bring home title number four in 11 years. I've got midweek starts coming from Derek Lowe (he's been on fire of late), Ian Kennedy, and Justin Verlander. I'm praying for good outings.

I still owe a couple people trade posts, and I'll get to those this week. Promise!

APB: 2009 Topps #192 Collin Balester

I'd like to slam the door shut on 2009 Topps Series 1. Collin Balester. If you can hook me up, email me for my address. I'll send you back something in return, dealer's choice.

Thanks for helping. Double points for it being his gold or black card!

Trade With Ryan from "O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog

Thankfully my little code challenge gave me some time to refocus on cards for a bit, and Ryan from "O" No!!! Another Orioles Blog hit me up with a trade offer.

This was one of my favs from the bunch:



I want to say he knocked about 100 cards off my 2009 Topps Series 2 and U&H wantlists. He took so many cards off this is all I have left from 2009 Topps:

Series 1: 192
Series 2: 484, 500, 537
U&H: 1, 7, 13, 17, 20, 41, 48, 49, 68, 70, 76, 89, 98, 107, 109, 117, 119, 152, 155, 167, 176, 183, 184, 201, 206, 211, 223, 242, 247, 253, 255, 256, 260, 261, 276, 282, 289, 293, 324, 330

Ryan, thanks for the trade. I hope the 1983 Jim Palmer treats you well. Glad to knock something off your Top 10 Most Wanted. Check out Ryan's other Top 10s. I'm guessing some of you might have what he's looking for.

SS92 CIPHER SOLUTION

If Dave Magadan's scrawny frame had you scratching your head this week, and you'd like to see how to solve the cipher I put together, head on over to check out the solution from the guy who broke through.

Mike from JDs Wild Cardz. You might also know him as half of the tag-team duo that broke the 2009 Ginter Code.

Congrats to Mike. I regretfully informed Mike that the David Price auto showed up damaged, and we're working together to find an equally fantastic prize as a replacement.

It's been fun guys. Thanks for playing!

THE CIPHER HAS BEEN BROKEN!

I'll hold off on posting any details here in case anyone else wants to try to finish it off.

I've asked the person who cracked it to post a solution post for it, and I'll link over to it when I see it's up.

Thanks to everyone for playing along and if you're interested in having me put together another one, just leave me a comment. I had fun building it, and have no idea how many had fun trying to solve it.

Anyone any closer to cracking this thing?

I don't think I recall much of Andy Van Slyke as a Cardinal. My memories of him start with the Pirates. I've also got a wood Van Slyke Louisville slugger bat that I still like to use on occassion.

I received a couple of trade packages this weekend, and I'll try to get those posted over the next couple of nights. As usual, people were generous. I opened a bubble mailer full of 1986 Sportflics on Saturday and was greeted immediately by Paul Molitor. No better way to start a Saturday afternoon.

In baseball related news, I see that Mark Rogers is scheduled to make a start for the Brewers in the coming weeks. Rogers was drafted 5th overall in the 2004 draft but his career has been hampered by injuries up until this point.

It's Been A Week . . .

You know, it was fun creating this code for people to puzzle over. Just going back through this checklist from that season, do you even remember half these guys? I have nooooo clue who Keith Atherton or Nick Esasky is. None at all. Guys like that, it's fun to try to remember who was playing back then. Decades ago. It was fun to page through my binder. I'll probably do it again.

On a side note, if you haven't seen the fun going on at JDs Wild Cardz, you should stop in!

Kent Tekulve

How many of Kent Tekulve's baseball cards shamelessly promote his tinted spectacles? All of them? 90%?

What I always liked about this card is that I was more drawn to his seemingly odd delivery rather than his tinted glasses.

Maybe his tinted glasses are the key to my code?

My favorite part this far of this entire endeavor is using some old cards from the mass production era for a new purpose.

Anyone out there a Tekulve collector? Someone must have a binder solely devoted to this guy, right?

Bo Jackson Is Dying . . .

To tell you the answer to my code:

?????????????????

I know, I know, that was low, but it got you here to look around, right?

He's also dying to tell you how you can enter my contest to win this David Price Sweet Beginnings Auto numbered 17/299 even if you don't want to be bothered with solving the code.




Progress has been made out there, I assure you, and I now have confirmation that 10+ people are working on it, and more have tried and said "I give".

Pimpin' a couple "new to me" blogs

I must admit, I figured my request for info on the 1986 Sportflics set was going to be a long conversation with myself, but it turned into meeting two new people out there collecting cards.

PROJECT1962

You've probably got a pretty decent idea of what's going on over there. But what I found to be the most cool in his site is his visual Trade Bait page. I might have to copy that idea. I see a Gorman Thomas over there I'd like to get my hands on.

Speaking of Gorman Thomas, anyone broken my code yet? Doesn't seem like it. I know one person has a lead, and plenty of people are stumped. And it's all in good clean fun.

Also, I'd like to mention AdamE at Thoughts & Sox who pointed me to the Sportflics checklist for 1986 and pointed me toward some boxes to purchase.

All in all, it's been a good day. Thanks guys for your help, and Chris over at P1962 is sending some quintuplets of Ernie Riles 1986 Sportflics my way, ha, too cool!

Until tomorrow morning when Bo Jackson will ask the question, can anyone out there solve it?

SPORTFLIX!!!

I decided it probably wasn't even worth the time to track down an image from this set because they scan so poorly.

So here's the deal, I'm contemplating trying to track down the entire set of 1986 SportFlix baseball cards.

The only problem is that I have no idea where to find a checklist. Can anyone help me out?

I started going through all my old cards back in March and came across a handful of these things. I think I have Pete Rose, Reggie Jackson and a few others. I immediately reconnected with these. In terms of gimmicky cards, these were my favorite along with the first set of Action Packed football cards (which should also go on my list).

Other than trying to find a checklist, I'm also wondering if anyone else has any of these cards and if they'd put them up for trade.

Any other quirky sets out there you guys are addicted to building?

No One Has Broken The Cipher

That's right, we're at Day 5 and still no one has a clue what's going on here:

?

I've got to imagine all the smaht kids that were working on the Ginter Code should be ripe for a chance at redemption. And even if you aren't the code breaking type, like I said, you can still enter the contest to win the free on-card Dave Price auto and maybe bring some more worthy code breakers into the fold. I imagine he'll be pitching in the post-season before we see a full reveal on this thing :)

For the record. I love Gorman Thomas. I think that was his last card.

Day 4: The Cipher Is Still Unsolved

Leon Durham commands you to try solving this cipher:

?

No really, he does. I posted this before the long holiday weekend and we're still no closer to having a winner of the David Price Sweet Beginning auto, plus all the bragging rights that come along with cracking this thing.

Sure, you don't get your own card like in the Ginter Code contest, but here are a couple reasons to try this one:

1. I actually gave you the code
2. It might actually last longer than the Ginter Code if no one tries it, so get on it


That is all.

Oh, on a baseball-y note, how many of your favorite teams do a "Legends Game" or what they used to call "Old Timers Game". Twins had one yesterday and it was ridiculously well received by the Minnesota faithful. Just curious if other teams are still doing this each year. I know the fans here are already calling for it to happen again next year.

Can You Solve It?

That's right, I've got no shame. I'm back to self promote. But before I do, I wanted to promote someone else first:

Way Off Base is a blog I hadn't come across before running my contest. Always great to come across new people with like interests, even if they are Cardinals fans.

So again, I'll ask Can You Solve It?. All those questions marks in the right nav bar link you straight in as well.

Even if you can't I'd be forever grateful for the free press, plus Way Off Base needs a little more competition since they've already declared they'll be the ones winning and solving the puzzle.

Even if you don't want to attempt to solve it, you can always enter to win the prize should no one else succeed. See the contest post for details. Good luck!

Contest Time: Two Ways To Win

As I've been saying today, there's this thing:

??????????

Don't want to take the time to solve it, but still want a shot at the David Price Sweet Beginnings auto? I'll make you a deal.

You shamelessly promote this contest with a short entry on your blog, click the little follow button on my blog, and leave me a comment in this thread so I know you have and you'll be entered to win the Price auto if no one solves the code/puzzle. Deal? It's win-win.

Let's say if no one has solved it by the time we crown a World Series champ, I'll draw for a winner of the card, and upgrade the prize for anyone who can solve it.

Or you could just solve it right now and declare yourself the winner. Your choice!

Prize #1 For The ?

How about this, we start the ante with a 017/299 David Price on-card Sweet Beginnings. You solve the ? down below, and it's yours. I started by issuing this as a challenge to the three Ginter Code Champions. Mr. Wong, Mr. Jacoby, and Mr. Gellner.

This is probably as much exposition you'll get from me on it for now, but this idea started after I felt sad about this year's Ginter Code and really not having a shot to break it. Having to wait another year for a new interesting puzzle to solve seemed much too long of a wait. So I created this monster instead. For now, since I have no clue how hard this is to solve, I'll just offer the Price card as loot for winning. If it strings out longer than it took people to finish off the Ginter Code this year, I'll potentially start adding more interesting things to the mix.

Good luck if you decide to work on it. Thanks for reading.

?

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6	14	14	3	13	2	14	13	14	6
1	17	5	6	16	9	17	3	16	15
14	18	10	13	8	5	17	16	1	17
18	18	9	13	16	12	3	11	1	10
14	3	5	5	1	7	10	4	5	6
2	2	11	6	13	15	12	16	6	16
9	17	12	13	16	16	17	16	3	8
16	17	12	13	11	15	10	18	14	6
11	18	18	13	18	4	11	12	13	11
9	3	2	1	11	16	17	9	13	14