Card of the Week: 2000 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. Game-Used Baseball (Prime-Time Piece!)

This absolutely stunning card came my way via eBay, and considering Junior's following and the quality of the card, was reasonably priced in my opinion (a fortnight's dollars plus two shillings). Yet another piece of game-used memorabilia in my never ending quest to accumulate everything Griffey, this card features a sweet swatch of rawhide that prominently showcases the MLB logo. Though it's difficult to connect a piece of game-used baseball directly to a player, I'd like to imagine Griffey using this particular ball to gun down a runner trying to score from third on a flyball. Regardless of the story behind the ball, it's one more step towards completing my National Griff-ography (still waiting on that M's patch) and a card that I plan on enjoying for quite some time.

On a completed unrelated note I saw Avatar tonight, and Native American allegories aside, enjoyed the movie. It certainly has some shortcomings but the visual effects are quite spectacular and the action sequences are a sight to behold. I wouldn't consider it a "must see", but then again I don't consider anything but The Natural a "must see". Make sure to catch it while it's in theaters (which will likely be until June). Enjoy the rest of your weekends!

Card of the Week: 2000 Upper Deck Roger Clemens Game Used Ball

Let me start this post off with the disclaimer that I absolutely despise Roger Clemens. I hate that he played for the Yankees (by the way, if there are any Yankees fans who read this blog, god forbid, I have a few hundred Bronx Bombers cards I can send your way), I hate that he beaned Mike Piazza and threw a jagged bat barrel at him, and I hate that he used steroids but doesn't have the cajones to come clean about it. Why then, you might ask, with all that unchanneled anger, would Bud want to feature a Roger Clemens as the Card of the Week (besides of course the fact that Aubrey Huff was featured as card of the week before, so it can't be that hard)?

Well, this card is about so much more than just Roger Clemens. For one, I have always been a fan of game-used ball cards. Granted they can't be connected to a single player, which actually may be a good thing in this case because Clemens might not have got his dirty mitts on this particular baseball, but they are still a unique game-used item and one that you don't see in sets very often (or ever) anymore. Another unique thing about this card is the fact that it shows actual game use and dirt stains, and more importantly, a logo that shows this ball was not used in just another regular season game. After a little research I was able to determine with some certainy (say, 70%) that this swatch of ball came from a game of the 1999 Fall Classic that featured the Yankees against the Atlanta Braves. That's right, an authentic game-used World Series baseball! Sure the series was a snoozer (the Yankees swept the series in 4 games), but that just means there are less baseballs from this series are available. Compare the logo on the ball swatch with the logo on the complete baseball, they look the same don't they?

Not too bad for 75 cents plus shipping on eBay...