Happy Birthday Steve Garvey, You're Not Special

It just so happens to be some special guy's birthday.

Here's the last hit of his I haven't traded away, a pretty sweet card, which I probably will trade away at some point. But for now, this will serve as the image for my garvey cey russel lopes contest entry. Jim has orchestrated a blogosphere-wide symphony of birthday greetings.

In honor of Garvey's recent Hall of Fame snub, and this day, here's a fitting song for him in under one minute:

Vealtones Vintage Contest Winner!

I got a bit side-tracked this weekend, but now I'm ready to announce the winner for the Vealtones vintage contest.

First, I want to say thanks for all the congrats on my daughter, for all the new followers (I'm up to 101 now!), and for all you old, beloved followers. You guys are all awesome. And this marks my 200th post, so, cool.

OK, onto the randomizing.

First spin:

 

Number two:

 

Third and final:

 

Congratulations, Lost Collector. You win some Yankees vintage, and some stuff you collect. I have some neat Tinos I've been needing an excuse to send you.

Send me your address, and pick yourself out one of these Yankees '50s cards:

1951 Bowman Tommy Byrne

1951 Bowman Billly Johnson

1956 Topps Hank Bauer, with a bite out of it!

1952 Bowman Hank Bauer

Thanks for entering and reading, everyone.

The Vealtones Vintage Contest

As many of you know, I just became a father to a beautiful baby girl, Ms. Evy Jo. To celebrate her and my approach on 200 posts and 2 years of blogging, it's time for a contest.

This will be the Vealtones' first contest, and it's long overdue. What will we be giving away? How about some vintage.

It might be something like this Diamond Stars Zeke Bonura, a card that's beat to hell, but I think most of you out there appreciate well-loved vintage.

Or maybe you'll get something like this Ned Garver from 1952 Bowman, my favorite vintage set, a beautiful card with a little ink on the back.

Or maybe some good ol' Topps. 

Or maybe something really fresh, a creased woodgrain TV.

Well, what you get depends on your entry. To enter, leave a comment listing your favorite team, or, that is, the team you'd like to get a card from. Since I'm giving away vintage, it needs to be a team that existed in the '50s. And I will be giving away a card from the '50s or earlier, real vintagey vintage. Keep in mind, though, the card is likely to be well-loved and probably won't be a hall-of-famer, but I'll find something good for you.

In your comment, please also list a backup team, too, just in case I can't find anything from your first preferred team. 

To enter, you must be a follower of the blog. I want to make sure the winner is one of my actual readers, is someone from the blogging culture that has given so much to me. Be sure to enter by this Friday at 10:00 PM, Eastern time zone. Then, I'll do three spins on random.org and choose the winner.

Again, list in the comments your favorite team and a backup team. The prize will be a vintage card from one of those teams, and I'll try to find some extra goodies that fit your collecting interests. Feel free to share the news about the contest on your own blog, but don't feel obligated.

Thanks for entering. You bloggers have brought me so much joy and made me feel welcome over the years, and now I'll repay that by sending you some piece of beat-to-hell 60-year-old cardboard.

Contest Plug--Win the Duke

I just stumbled onto Cards Beyond Oceans, a cool new blog. They're having what they call a "small" contest, but it's anything but small. You can win a Duke Snider relic auto. Now that's what I call a huge contest. Go check it out and enter here!

A King of a Contest

You should mosey on over to The Diamond King and enter his End of the Year MegaContest. There are a ton of really great prizes being given away, and he has an innovative way to enter. Be sure to read the rules of the contest here, and then enter away.

Another Great Contest at Play at the Plate

Head on over to Play at the Plate and guess the manu-patch. Oh, and thank him for all the great monthly contests he does.

Go HERE now!

Yet More Contests to Check Out

Two contests are going on:

One over at The Bullpen Cardboard for a mystery prize.

The second one is over at My Sports Obsession. There's some sweet Lineage and Ginter up for grabs. This one ends very soon.

Go check 'em out!

Another Contest to Enter

Vintage Sports Cards is giving away some vintage sports cards, some trimmed well-loved '52 Topps cards, to be exact. Check it out here.

Contests Galore

In case you didn't know, generosity and fun is contagious lately across the blogosphere. Here are two great contests at two stellar blogs. Check them out if you haven't entered already:

The Daily Dimwit

Cheap Card Collecting

Going to a Party, if I'm Cool Enough: Contest Happy Fun Time

There's a party going on to celebrate Jaybarkerfan's 100th post. Sounds pretty sweet, but it's super exclusive. You wanna go, Coot?

I'll take that as a yes.

Maybe you can go too, if you enter the contest here.

Thy Contest Is Argyle

Head on over to a great blog to follow Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle and enter his first contest. He has some cool vintage up for grabs. Go check it out.

That is all.

Pluggin' Some Contests, Shamelessly

Just in case you missed the news, a great deluge of generosity has spilled across the blogosphere. There have been a ton of great contests lately, and here are two more excellent ones at:

This Card Is Cool

Buckeye State's Trading Post

Holy Cow That's a Lot of Contests

A busy week this week in the blogosphere. Many great contests to enter, so go check them out, if you haven't already and already plugged on your own blog and then this post is just completely redundant but what the hell.

Just click on the links to join in the fun:

Play at the Plate

Autographed Cards

The Diamond King

RBI Collecting's First Contest--Go Check It Out!

Time for a contest plug. Head on over to RBI Collecting for a chance to win some packs of Heritage or Gypsy Queen. All you have to do is guess some A's.

By the way, here's a grammar pet peeve of mine: Why is there an apostrophe in A's? I know many people do this when, say, making a letter a multiple, and perhaps this apostrophe is more necessary to avoid confusion, since "As" could read as a different word. However, apostrophes are used to mark possessives or to mark missing letters, such as in a contraction or when writing slang ('em instead of them, collectin' instead of collecting) or with years when you're just too damn busy to write the first two numbers ('80s instead of 1980s). Anyway, I thought this would be a good place to rant about an apostrophe rule that is quite controversial in the publishing world. I stand on the side that the apostrophe used to make single letters multiple should not be used.

Maybe I can justify it here, since letters are being cut, as in Athletics is stripped down to A's.

I'm such a nerd. I love these tidbits of ridiculous grammar rules. Oh, and I love good contests. Go check it out!

Contest-tacular

There's a great contest going on over at It's Like Having My Own Card Shop. It's getting bigger and bigger every day, so go get in on it now.

Contest-tastic!

Being a new blog, I get to have a lot of firsts. And here's my first shameless plugging of a contest: Daily Dimwit is holding a very simple contest. Go check it out. By the way, he's an excellent trader, if you're looking for a place to shed some pesky Astros.