Young moves to the front office.

Michael Young has officially returned to the Texas Rangers. Young helped interview managerial candidates earlier this year and has been assisting in various roles. Yesterday the team announced his appointment as a special assistance to General Manager Jon Daniels. This is a real job and Young is probably going to be helping with player instruction as well as other assignments.

Good to see Michael back in the Texas fold. Apparently he was able to think things over after being traded and decided to patch it up with Daniels. Smart move on both sides.

Posting this 2005 Studio Master Strokes game-used card of Michael Young today to celebrate the news of his official entry into the front office side of baseball. This card is numbered 186/250 and was part of the lot recently sent to me by Matthew over at Bob Walk the Plank.

Also in the news is former Ranger Alfonso Soriano's announcement of his retirement as a player after 16 seasons. Soriano never really impressed me but he was a pretty good player for the better part of his career. Problem was, he knew he was good. Perhaps the biggest thank-you Rangers fans owe Soriano was that he replaced Alex Rodriguez on the team.

Finding a card shop.

Being just recently moved, I have been on the lookout for a good local card shop. Checking the mighty Internet yielded nothing closer than about half an hour's drive away. With the price of gas I am hesitant to drive such a distance for the sole purpose of checking out an unknown card shop.

To the rescue came Tom over at The Angels, In Order. Tom mentioned in a post how well he was treated at the card shop he frequents. A quick request for details pointed me to Duane's Sportscards.

Duane's had actually shown up on my previous searches but was out of my range for a blind try. Armed with Tom's endorsement I felt I could justify the gas and time to make the trek. That decided, I headed out Monday morning.

All I can say is that it was great and well worth the drive. Apparently there are four dealers in Duane's with only one being there most of the time. The dealers do sell each others cards though so that isn't a problem. The thing to remember is to check each dealer's area since they may have similar boxes (i.e. Rangers quarter box). All four are very well organized and everything is tagged.

After filling some holes in my Senators collection I spent some time looking around. Thumbing through a Rangers quarter box I found several cards I could use including this 1993 Studio Rafael Palmeiro. Card number 185 in the set, it was also the last card I needed to complete my team set. I probably spent too much but I haven't been to a shop in some time and am not buying packs because I don't have any more space for non-Ranger cards.

All in all I'm going to give Duane's two thumbs up. Well organized. Prices marked. Large selection of vintage. All excellent things to find in a card shop. Couple that with the dealer who was there knowing who Jon Matlack was and I'll definitely be returning. Thanks for the recommendation Tom!

Bombed in The Bronx.

Mark $ Teixeira and his Yankee teammates unloaded on Texas last night with a 9-2 score. Ugly game. Dollar Man is seen here on card number PC-59 of the 2004 Studio Players Collection set. The card is numbered 53/150 and features a piece of Mark's jersey that smells like money.

The only Ranger whose bat was working last night was David Murphy. Murph went 2-for-4 with a double and a home run. He had a run scored and the only two RBI for Texas.

Following last night's debacle Jason Jennings was designated for assignment and Pedro Strop called up from Triple A to replace him. Wonder if that means my autograph request to Jennings will go unanswered?

What a surprise!

Had a very good mail day today. When I checked the mail this morning there were two boxes waiting for me. The first was a trade from The Bench that I had been expecting. It was, as usual, a nice box. The second box blew me away though.

First some background. I have several blogs that I watch with the idea of possibly adding them to my links list. One such blog is Padrographs. It is a neat blog dedicated to San Diego Padres autographs. Fun read. Well, I was reading away a couple of days ago and noticed a post talking about mailing out packages. To my surprise my name was on the list of mailed out boxes. A little strange considering that I had never even communicated with Rod, the writer of the blog. I posted a quick reply of pre-arrival thanks and made a mental note to look for Padres stuff to send in return.

Today the box came in and I can safely say that I will most likely be unable to return the favor. In addition to this 1992 Studio Rafael Palmeiro which completed my team set from that year; the box contained several other awesome treasures. A certified Rangers auto I didn't have, quite a few base cards I needed, a Stadium Club Nolan Ryan medallion, commemorative Ryan tickets, and an odd-ball Kevin Brown I had no idea existed. Needless to say, I am overwhelmed at Rod's generosity. If you get a chance, check out his excellent blog. Thanks again Rod, I'll make a feeble attempt to repay you at some point.

1991 Studio - Jeff Kunkel

Card of the day today is number 126 in the 1992 Studio set. I remember when this set came out. I thought it was a great set at the time and still do. The photography and interesting information on the backs of the cards are what really makes the set work.

It appears that the photographer caught Jeff just before a really embarrassing situation. The back of the card informs us that, in addition to chewing gum, Jeff also collects baseball cards. How cool is that?

Kunkel bounced back and forth from the minors to the big show from 1984 through 1988. His first full season with Texas was in 1989. That was also his next to last. Following the 1990 season he was granted free agency. After appearing in 20 games with the Cubs in 1992 his Major League career was over. With a career batting average of only .221 and a fielding percentage of .943 it is understandable that he had trouble sticking on a MLB roster. The cool thing about Jeff though is the position he played. This card says infield. That is less than the whole truth. Jeff played just about every position except for catcher. He even pitched a few innings for Texas. A more accurate description might be "UTL" for utility player. If a guy can do it he can be worth a decent penny as a utility player.