Winning Idea for Opening Day Cards

After an excessive deliberation, Chris and I have chosen the winner of our latest contest where you were asked to submit your ideas for what we should do next at Opening Day Cards.

Without any more delay, the winner is Josh Hudgens! Even though Josh is a St. Louis Cardinals fan, we wish him a hearty congratulations!

In a nutshell, here is Josh's idea:

Viewers comb through their collection and form an All-Star team from their cards, including a player at each position. Then you take a picture and submit it to us. We will post all submissions and YOU the viewers will vote on our site to decide the winning submission for the best All-Star team of baseball cards.

Why we LOVE this idea:

1. It gives us all an excuse to rummage through our collection again, and that is always a good time.
2. We love it when viewers submit pictures of their cards.
3. We REALLY love it when viewers get to vote so we don't have the hard job of deciding who wins
4. This idea is really cool because the winning submission will include both the best all-time greats, including a mix of retired and current MLB stars, and the quality of the cards, for example, rookie cards, relics, autos, etc.
5. It's a contest, and we obviously love contests because they allow us to give away free awesome cards to you all!

We will be using Josh's awesome idea in an upcoming episode, so start combing through your cards now. More contest details, including the announcement of the sweet prize is coming soon!

Thanks to all of you who submitted ideas, we received a TON of great ideas. Don't be surprised if we use your idea even if you didn't win. We are in the business of giving you what you want. You want free baseball cards? You got 'em!

2010 NL Cy Young Preview

This weekend we'll find out who we all selected as the 2010 MLB All-Stars, and our future award winners will surely be in attendance in Anaheim this year.

The Cy Young Award is given out annually to recognize each league's premier pitcher, and the 2010 season has featured some amazing pitching performances. Let's take a look at a couple of candidates for the NL Cy Young Award this season.

Ubaldo Jimenez
The Rockies ace is having a record setting season. He leads all NL hurlers with 14 wins (14-1). Jimenez is just a sneeze away from leading the NL in ERA with a 1.83 ERA. He trails Florida ace Josh Johnson by 0.01 (they both have yielded 23 earned runs, but Johnson has thrown one more inning). He tossed the first no-hitter in Rockies history on April 17th on the road, against the NL best Atlanta Braves. Ubaldo has notched scoreless streaks of 25 1/3 and 33 innings. His one loss: 2-0 loss to Los Angeles Dodgers on the road where he went 7 innings and gave up just one earned run on two hits. Right now it seems pointless to even debate any other player ousting Ubaldo Jimenez for the NL Cy Young Award this season.

Josh Johnson
The Florida Marlins ace is the bright spot in an otherwise disappointing season. Johnson sports an NL leading 1.82 ERA and an 8-3 record. With 115 Ks and only 27 BBs in 114 innings this season, Josh hasn't had too many blemishes. Unfortunately the Fish can't find enough offense to thrust him into the spotlight. After giving up 7 runs in his first two starts, Johnson has gone on to give up just 6 runs in the month of May and 5 runs in all of June. If Jimenez falters, Johnson will be waiting in the wings.

Adam Wainwright
St. Louis is a tough place to win a Cy Young in my opinion. There are just always too many pitchers to compete with on one team, and that makes it hard to stand out. If the Cy Young Award was a team award, the Cardinals would have won it most years in the last decade. Wainwright is the declared ace of the staff, and he boasts great numbers. 2.34 ERA (4th), 11 wins (2nd) and 114 K's (tied 4th). Also hurling for the Cards: Jaime Garcia (who just smoked my Brewers) with a 2.10 ERA and Chris Carpenter who is 9-1 with a 2.70 ERA. Now that's a staff.

Yovani Gallardo
This is my homer pick, I'm a Brewers fan, I admit it. But Yovani has stacked up some great evidence why he should be in this conversation. 8-3, 2.56 ERA, and 120 K's (2nd). After Yo started 0-2 in his first three starts, he rebounded to go 8-1 and only yielded 20 earned runs in his last 14 starts. Definitely not putting up Jimenez numbers, but that won't keep me from talking about him.

Other Notables
Tim Lincecum: the 2008 AND 2009 NL Cy Young winner is leading all hurlers with 121 K's, but has been scuffling lately losing his last two games to fall to 8-4. Timmy better pick it up.
Tim Hudson: the Atlanta ace is having a come back season. I have seen him pitch in person twice this season (vs. the Brewers and vs. the Giants). He is a crafty vet who keeps the ball down and gets a lot of ground ball outs and double plays. He is a big reason why ATL is leading the NL right now with a 8-3 record and 2.37 ERA
Mike Pelfrey: 10-2 for the NY Mets with a 2.93 ERA, one of 3 NL pitchers with 10 or more wins.
San Diego: Mat Latos, Clayton Richard, Jon Garland, Wade LeBlanc all boast ERAs under 3.25. It's up for grabs for the NL West leading Padres.

Be sure to vote for your favorite NL pitching phenom on the right -->

Top 3 Baseball Apps for the iPhone

The Major League Baseball season is in full swing and while we encourage you to catch as many baseball games as possible from within a stadium, how do you stay on top of scores when you’re in line at the urinal? We at Opening Day Cards have deemed it officially impossible to be in every ballpark at the same time so we’ve come to rely on iphone apps to keep us up to date on games happening around the country.

Do you know who won the Red Sox game? Do you know who’s pitching for the Royals on Sunday? Did David Ortiz really strike out 4 more times on Thursday? We used to call friends and family to find these things out but with an iphone you no longer need friends or family #thankstevejobs.

Top 3 Baseball Apps for the iPhone:

#3 - MLB LITE - This is our official “snapshot” app and it’s a free one brought to you by MLB Lite. Don’t expect any details with this app but you’ll get up to the date scores, who’s pitching and whose hitting in a snappy interface that’s perfect for a quick check from underneath the conference table at work. That said you won’t get box scores, recaps or any other information. MLB is always looking to make a buck so if you’re a free-spender check out their $9.99 app that comes with all the bells and whistles (It didn’t make our list because $10 is just too expensive).

#2 – Ball Park Envi – Imagine every MLB stadium in your pocket and then pay these guys $0.99 and actually have it in your pocket. Beautiful shots of all the MLB baseball parks in the country and a fun baseball app to keep in mind before you pick up tickets at a new venue.

#1– Sportacular – These guys do it right and they do it for free. They cover every major sport you can imagine but when spring rolls into town we recommend making those MLB scores your default setting. Here you get complete access to scores, recaps, box scores etcetera.

Fan Mail! Episode 26

Fan mail! We're pretty jazzed about the stuff jamming our mail boxes these last few weeks. A HUGE thank you to everyone who sent us stuff these past few weeks. Sorry this took so long to post, we've been busy!

Big SHOUTOUT to Randy (check out Randy's blog here), Bennett, Anthony (check out Anthony's blog here), Jason, Jesse, Nick and Coach Cantu! You guys are amazing and sent us some awesome stuff fit nicely in our Brewers/Red Sox collection! We received autograph cards, jersey cards, unopened packs, commemorative baseballs, a Brewers pennant, and even our own cards!

So, we tried to fit this video into 10 minutes so we could throw it on YouTube, but we failed. In or time saving effort we crammed in a few packs of Bowman 2009's to send to y'all.

Leave us a comment below to request your FREE* card!

*limit one card per person

Topps Million Card Giveaway - #25

First of all, HUGE shoutout to our buddy over at The Dugout Cards for sponsoring this episode. Check out the site, pick up a card. It's a great place to find and purchase cards online, with some pretty killer deals. Let us know what deals you found.

Second, HUGE shoutout to Jeremy Dunson, our buddy from Facebook, for hatching the idea for this episode. If you enjoy the madness of Million Card Giveaway, and you enjoy us giving them away, thank Jeremy!

Third, here's the dilly for this episode. We are on a treasure hunt for some Topps 2010 Million Card Giveaway (MCG) codes. People love this stuff. It's like baseball card gold. We have plenty of packs lined up and plan on finding a few codes for you.

The same rules apply people:

1. First to comment gets the card (click the little comment link below)
2. Limit one card per person
3. If you haven't received a card from us in the past (what's wrong with you, do you not like free cards?!) you will have to send me your address at joe@openingdaycards.com
4. Rule #76: No excuses, play like a champion!



That second code is still on the market. Here's what you have to do to get it:

Let us know the most exciting thing that happened at a baseball game that you were at in person. Leave us a comment below. The best story gets the second code. We'll pick the winner tomorrow night at 10 pm PST.

Jody Gerut Hits For the Cycle

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Jody Gerut hit for the cycle yesterday which continues to decrease the quality of the Brewers all-time list of players who hit for the cycle.

After Robin Yount hit for the cycle in 1988, and Paul Molitor in 1991, the list was looking respectable. But recent years have seen that list take a nosedive.

In 2004, my least favorite Brewer of all time, scrub catcher Chad Moeller hit for the cycle. Chad is a career .226 hitter, and he isn't exactly a defensive dynamo.

And now, Jody Gerut is the icing on the Brewers Cycle Cake. We acquired Jody in a 2009 trade where we shipped Tony Gwynn Jr. to San Diego. Let's ignore talent for a second, because I don't care who is the better player. What's important about this trade is that it said,

We, the Milwaukee Brewers, will no longer attempt to ever manufacture a run (like perennial powerhouse St. Louis Cardinals have perfected) and will wholly rely on home runs to score.

Way to go Jody. Congratulations.

Free Cards and more Fan Mail! Episode 21

Episode 21 from chris andrew on Vimeo.

Welcome back to Opening Day Cards, where everyday is Opening Day.

Today we are opening up some more mail we have received in the past few weeks, and more importantly, we are opening up some new packs of baseball cards and giving them all away for free*.

First the fan mail: A big thank you to Troy for sending us some TTM autos of Mike Cameron and Jamie Moyer. A big thank you to the USPS for saving Troy's letter to us.

Next, the free cards* for you: We each open up a pack of 1992 Upper Deck Denny's Grand Slam holograph cards. Tune in to see the two players we opened. We also open packs of Topps 2009 Updates and Highlights. Does Joe get his Edgar Renteria dream card, or Chris his Mike Cameron?

Last, a special surprise: a Mother's Cookies Nolan Ryan 5000 Strike Out card, still sealed in the original package (thank you Nils!). To make this card yours, you need to leave us a comment with your best strike out story. As a hitter, did you strike out in the last inning of a huge playoff game with your team down one run? As a pitcher, did you sit down the league's best slugger in a clutch situation? Leave us a comment with your best strikeout story and this Nolan Ryan is yours!

*limit one card per person

Fan Mail! Episode 20

Episode 20 from chris andrew on Vimeo.

Right now, at this moment as I type this, Chris is running the Boston Marathon. His goal was 2:40, and last I checked his pace was 2:46...so he better pick it up!

So while Chris is running, let's watch a new episode. This one is a shout out to our viewers who have been AWESOME and sent us some mail. Every once in a while I open the mail box and lose my mind to find some baseball cards in there...I hope the same thing happens to you.

If you sent us something and it doesn't appear in this episode, don't worry. We got it, we are just REALLY LATE in releasing this episode. In fact, we already filmed another Fan Mail episode and will release it later this week...plus we have more fan mail we haven't even opened.

Mail is FUN!

Thanks everyone!

Mystery History Contest

We are starting something new at Opening Day Cards.

Introducing... Mystery History Contest!

Be the first to guess the baseball player we post and we will send you a free Mystery History card.

Let the fun begin with this young sprite!

Fantasy Baseball Power Week: Episode 18 Opening Day Cards

We are mixing it up this week. Still FREE cards, but if you want to win these cards, you need to pick the best 3 player team in our first ever Power Fantasy Week. Here's how it works:

1. Pick one infielder, one outfielder, and one pitcher from the cards we opened (see below for lists)
   
2. You get 1 point for each win, save, home run, and RBI that your players record from Wednesday, April 14 through end of day Wednesday, April 21
   
3. Post your picks in our comments
4. The viewer who's 3 player team has the most points wins 2 of the 3 packs we opened (Joe's pack and the extra pack)
   
5. The 2nd place viewer gets Chris' pack of cards
6. We will find an awesome way of settling any ties, don't worry
   

Here are the players (note they may have changed teams in the offseason, you are selecting the player on whichever team they are on now):

Infielders

• Russell Martin, C, LA Dodgers
• Brian Buscher, 3B, Minnesota Twins
• Micah Hoffpauir, 1B, Chicago Scrubs
• Greg Dobbs, 3B, Philadelphia Phillies
• JJ Hardy, SS, Minnesota Twins
  
• German Duran, 3B, Texas Rangers
• Adrian Beltre, 3B, Seattle Mariners
• Jerry Hairston Jr., SS, Cincinnati Reds
• Todd Helton, 1B, Colorado rockies
• Albert Pujols, 1B, St. Louis Cardinals
• Rafael Furcal, SS, LA Dodgers

Outfielders

• Rick Ankiel, OF, St. Louis Cardinals
• Nick Markakis, OF, Baltimore Orioles
• Cody Ross, OF, Florida Marlins

Pitchers

• Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals
• Jared Burton, Cincinnati Reds
• Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants
• Kevin Gregg, Chicago Cubs
• Scott Kazmir, Tampa Bay Rays
• Jonathan Sanchez, San Francisco Giants
• Bobby Jenks, Chicago White Sox
• Justin Hampton, San Diego Padres
• Ramon Ramirez, Boston Red Sox

Good luck!

Episode 16: Opening Day Cards

Hey everybody, we're back in action with some rare finds.

Chris knows a lot of people, and a lot of people know Chris, including a guy over at Know Knew Books in Palo Alto, CA. Chris stopped in one day and struck up a conversation with Bill, the owner (striking up conversations is one of Chris' finest talents...pronouncing baseball players' names...notsomuch). But Bill from Know Knew Books gave us some pretty cool cards. He had a complete set of 1988 Donruss, and an unopened box of 1990 ProCards AAA Minor League Baseball Cards.

Check it out as we each open a pack of these old school cards. Let us know if you know any of the players we opened. Did they make it to the bigs? Did they play for your team? Do you want their card? Are there any horse socks? Is anybody listening to me?

Thanks for tuning in!

Red Sox Rotation Preview - Episode 12

Chris weighs in on the Red Sox starting five. Some exciting changes for the Red Sox this season, including the addition of John Lackey.

Here's how it looks right now:

1. Josh Beckett

2. Jon Lester

3. John Lackey

4. Tim Wakefield

5. Clay Buchholz

If you're dying for more (like we are so close to Opening Day!), check out the MLB.com write-up on the rotation here.

Baseball Cards for Free: Episode 11

This episode is a challenge to you.

We are sick and tired of offering FREE* baseball cards, and having only some of them requested. We DARE you to request them all. There are only 12 cards in a pack of Topps 2010, that means we need 24 cards requested.

It's getting so close to Opening Day, that we are losing our minds. We get some pretty sweet cards in here, but they are all up for grabs. Absolutely FREE*.

Thanks for tuning in!

*For a limited time only, limit 2 cards per person, while supplies last

Special Edition: Hottest MLB Wives

Chris and Joe countdown the Top 5 most attractive MLB baseball players' wives.

There are a lot of attractive women out there, and a lot of wealthy, athletic baseball players. It's hard to pick the top5, but we did the hard work of prioritizing them all for you and filtering it down to the cream of the crop.

Did we get it right...are these the most attractive? You be the judge.

Visit us on YouTube

Free Baseball Cards: Opening Day Cards Episode 6

Baseball - Opening Day Cards #6 from chris andrew on Vimeo.

Chris apologizes that this was so late. He has been going through a lot personally, and you have paid the price, which isn't right. He's sorry.

This time we are back in action opening packs of Upper Deck 2010 baseball cards, and again, we are giving them all away for free. Nothing better than FREE BASEBALL CARDS*.

Straight outta Take Me Out to the Ballgame, we dabble in some Cracker Jack in this episode. A delicious caramel corn treat with a prize to open at the end. Mmmm.


*This is a limited time offer. Llimit 2 cards per person, while supplies last

Free Baseball Cards: Opening Day Cards Episode 5

Baseball - OpeningDayCards #5 from chris andrew on Vimeo.

Busting through some Topps 2010 Series 1 packs. These may be the best 2 packs we have opened so far, so perk up.

Now I know this episode isn't supposed to air until tomorrow, but Chris is MIA. He took off for Montana, and left me holding the bag (this is Joe). Before he left, he uploaded the video to Vimeo, and people have started to watch it. In fact, people have already started requesting cards. In fact, in fact, many cards are already gone. I mailed some today. Bottom line, you get to see this episode before it was ever supposed to air, and you need to see it before all the cards are gone.

We are continuing the madness of giving away FREE BASEBALL CARDS*. Just leave us a comment below letting us know what card you want, and I will mail it to you.

Also, in this episode Chris mentions a sweet Jimmy Rollins commercial, check it out here to see why Chris chose Rollins as his Dream Card.

Enjoy,

Joe

* limit 2 cards per person, while supplies last

Free Baseball Cards: Opening Day Cards Episode 4

medium from chris andrew on Vimeo.

Check out our 4th Episode where we continue to give away free baseball cards. Be the first to comment on the card you want and it's yours!

In today's episode, watch Joe and Chris each open a pack of Upper Deck 2010. A new twist on today's show is the introduction to Double Bubble bubble gum, which really starts to add up. Joe has to eat another piece for each National League player in his pack (as the Brewers are a National League team) and Chris does the same for the American League (as the Red Sox are an American League team).

Final count: Chris 13, Joe 10.

Coming Soon: Opening Day Cards, where every day is Opening Day

Is there a better feeling than opening a new fresh pack of baseball cards? Ever feel the rush of excitement that comes with discovering each new player mixed with the gentle reverence and care to not degrade the quality of the cards in any way?

Then Opening Day Cards is the place for you. Tune in each week to catch a new episode of Opening Day Cards, where everyday is Opening Day.

So what is Opening Day Cards all about? Each week Joe and Chris each open a new pack of baseball cards and we share ALL of the excitement with you. Join us as we discuss the players, teams, news and cards. And best of all, each card is up for grabs. That's right, for a limited time, we are giving away cards. All you have to do is leave us a comment with the card you want and we will ship it directly to you. If there is an easier way to get free cards, let us know, we want them.

Thanks for tuning in. Opening Day for MLB action is April 4th, but at Opening Day Cards Opening Day is February 28, 2010. Then let the free cards begin!