Baseball Cards 2 – What should have came first

Hello and greetings from somewhere out in the deep blue sea.  I was all set to finish my post on Nick Markakis of the Orioles prior to the start of the Twins/O’s series, but due to the dynamic structure of life while on deployment I never got the time (or necessary internet bandwidth) to finish the post.  As such, I’ll be saving that gem for August when the Orioles visit Target Field.

We’re number one… we’re just not quite there yet.

What follows in the second entry in a series I’m simply calling Baseball Cards.

The Twins are set once again to take on the Tampa Bay Rays, but this time the Rays are the ones traveling away from the comfort of home and will get a chance to enjoy the beauty and splendor of Target Field.  In the last series the Twins found ways to lose, including blowing 2 saves in one game when both Joe Nathan and Matt Capps were unable to hold onto the lead in back-2-back innings.   After escaping Tampa with only one win the Twins moved on to Baltimore where they were able to eek out a split in a four game series with the O’s before coming home to Target Field where the offense finally came alive against the visiting Cleveland indians.

Now the Rays are in town and it’s our turn to use a little home-town magic, but with David Price slated to pitch this weekend, the Twins will not be getting a look at him. I’ll save the player profile for the last match up between the two teams later this season and will profile Price even if the Twinkies won’t be getting a shot at him on the field.

Before the season I went out and purchased some baseball cards.  The 2-pack set contained the following cards:
AL EAST
DAVID PRICE (RAYS)
DAVID PRICE / MATT GARZA (DIAMOND DUO CARD)
BEN ZOBRIST (RAYS)
RICKY ROMERO (BLUE JAYS)
JASON VARITEK (RED SOX)  
MARCO SCUTARO (RED SOX) 
CC SABATHIA (YANKEES, CHAMPION OF THE GAME CARD) 
LANCE BERKMAN (YANKEES – TRADED?) 
J.J. HARDY (ORIOLES) 
NICK MARKAKIS (ORIOLES) 

AL CENTRAL  
JUSTIN MORNEAU (TWINS)
RYAN PERRY (TIGERS) 
BILLY BUTLER (ROYALS) 
MIKE AVILES (ROYALS)

AL WEST 
JOSE LOPEZ (MARINERS) 
MICHAEL YOUNG (RANGERS) 

 NL EAST  
FREDDIE FREEMAN (BRAVES) 
LUCAS DUDA (METS) 
DAVID WRIGHT (METS)
 NOLAN RYAN (METS, 60 YEARS OF TOPPS CARD) 
CHASE UTLEY (PHILLIES) 
RYAN HOWARD (PHILLIES, TOPPS 60 CARD) 
JOSE CEDA (MARLINS) 
MIKE STANTON (MARLINS) 
ROGER BERNADINA (NATIONALS) 

NL WEST 
ABUREY HUFF (GIANTS) 
BRIAN WILSON (GIANTS) 
MATT LATOS (PADRES) 
SAN DIEGO PADRES (TEAM CARD) 
JHOULYS CHACIN (ROCKIES) 

NL CENTRAL
PEDRO CIRIACO (PIRATES)
RAMON HERNANDEZ (REDS) 
SCOTT ROLEN (REDS) 
CARLOS GOMEZ (BREWERS) 
STAN MUSIAL (CARDINALS, THROW BACK) 
DAVID PRICE (RAYS) / MATT GARZA (CUBS) (DIAMOND DUO CARD)

The plan started off so simple.  While I’m out to sea I can use the baseball cards to help keep me connected to the Twins.  As the Twins prepare to face each member from my deck I’ll create a player profile using the card and facts gathered from the internet in a pseudo series preview post.   Now that I am actually out to sea and trying to handle day to day operations from my work space aboard Coast Guard Cutter Valiant, finding time to complete player profiles requires working much further ahead in the season than I had originally expected, especially considering the limited bandwidth restrictions that I have to work with.  Needless to say, the job has been tougher than expected, but I still hope to complete profiles on each player in my deck, and hopefully I’ll have figured out the timing of things by the end of the month.  I’m still new to this whole blogging scene.  The last time I wrote any sort of content on the internet was during high school when I had a Live Journal, and I wasn’t doing any sort of informative writing with any sort of valuable content (and maybe I’m still not?).

Stay with me (and my foam finger winder cling), and we’ll all learn a little more about the Twins and a few of the other players around the league.