Pie In The Face Fail

I don't know about you, but this just cracks me up. You've probably seen it already, but in case you haven't, here it is:

Coghlan Pie In The Face Fail

The only good news is that Wes Helms will not be subject of another stupid pie-in-the-face gimmick card.

Not to Feature My Work

But......

CSX at Fairport
DL RS-3 Chase at Mt. Pocono
DL RS-3 Chase at Moscow
Night Shoot at Steamtown Roundhouse

Look at them.....NOW!

8 Packs in Cooperstown

Cooperstown is a little village that is completely and utterly dedicated to baseball. So, what do I do when I make my return there (yes, my first visit was in 03)? I find a card shop. And, I went into 5 or 6 places before I could find a place that sold a decent amount of wax. There were places that sold retail packs of crap, but nothing worth buying by any means. I think it was called On Deck Circle, or something like that. But, they had plenty of wax, including packs from the early 2000s for which I am a complete sucker to. So, for 20 bucks, here's what I bought:

2009 Heritage
2002 Topps Series 2 (2)
2000 Topps (4)
2000 Bowman
A bag of crap (free)

2009 Heritage brought forth not a lot, except for a Papelbon base card and a flashback of Frank Robinson. The only notable card I pulled from 02 Series 2 was a Junior Griffey, other than that....not much. 2000 Bowman was confusing as hell, but I did pull a Berkman, a Bagwell, a Smoltz, and a Jayson Werth, which I'm pretty sure is a prospect card. The bag of crap was just that. 2000 Topps was definatly the highlight. Pulled a Big Mac, not saying much, but I still like it. So, I give you now, the semi mojo pack (no big hits, but hall of famers, sticking with the Cooperstown theme):

Bret Saberhagen (12)
Dave Martinez (161)
Mike Morgan (195)
Andy Sheets (149)
Cal Ripken (4)
David Justice (66)
John Smoltz (125)
Greg Vaughn (113)
Frank Thomas (55)
Felipe Lopez, Pablo Ozuna, Alfonso Soriano Prospects Card (203)
Garret Anderson (97)
A Checklist

20 Bucks worth of wax, completely worth it.

Note: Stay tuned for a Railfan Report tonight, whenever I feel like posting it.

Waiting and Waiting and Waiting...

Well, today was the day to catch those D&H Lightning Stripe GP38-2s. Went out to Wilkes-Barre at 7:15 and arrived at the 3rd Avenue Trestle at 7:45. Just as I get to the spot, CP 412 rolls by with 2 NS Trash-9s for power. My freight fix has been cured (for now). I'm thinking to myself this day is gonna be sweet. Figures it would turn out the opposite. After an hour of waiting, nothing, not even scanner chatter. Another railfan comes by and says that they pulled out of Scranton at 8:50. So, we figure, oh must be coming by in an hour. At 9:30, another railfan comes by and said the train is on the ground in Scranton....

Let me just repeat that: ON THE FREAKING GROUND.

All looks pretty much hopeless at this point. Most packed up and headed out, 2 others came back from down by the river banks where they were attempting to get shots (they were, by the way, the Blaszczyk brothers, Andrew and Christopher, who take some very exceptional railroad photographs), and some brave souls, including the Blaszczyk brothers and me, stayed in hopes of catching something. At 10, we learned that they had detrained the passengers and they reevalute the options at 12. Yee-hah. It was almost done for. I had started making plans for a trip to Steamtown. The Blaszczyk brothers had to make it to West Virginia to set up a night photo shoot tomorrow. But, wait! Andrew received a text before they left that the train would depart at 12. So, might as well get some lunch and come back. We arrive back at around 12 to set back up to finish what we came for. Railfans started arriving in saying the train had cleared Taylor Yard in Scranton. Other chasers started arriving as well. I ditched the idea of chasing, since it was much later than anyone expected. Soon enough, someone got a call from someone else on the train that they were at Hudson, five minutes out. At 1:04 PM EDT, 5 hours after arriving at the 3rd Avenue Trestle, the excursion finally rounded the curve above with those 2 D&H Lightning Stripe GP38-2s leading: 7312 and 7304. Good lord. I guess it was worth it, but 5 hours, seriously? Anyway, not to bore you more, but afterwards, I went to Target and was searching for Blasters of 2010 Bowman, to no avail. But, I did buy a jumbo pack 2009 Topps 206 and a pack of 2010 Upper Deck. Sure, I share the pulls with you.

UD Pack:
Scott Podsednik 128
Ryan Spilborghs 176
Jeremy Reed 324
Star Rookie Checklist 1
Asdrubal Cabrera 164
Fernando Perez 476
Brandon Medders 438
Renyel Pinto 220
Jesse Litsch 525
Joe Saunders Bio SB-39
Mark Teixeira Pure Heat PH-11
Koyie Hill 176
Kevin Frandsen 431
Rick Porcello 206
Nick Punto 310
Dexter Fowler 179
James Shields 487
Tigers Checklist 580

Not a lot of stuff there....

Topps 206 1st Half
Rich Harden 37
Garret Anderson 233
J-Becks 148
Casey Kotchman 279
Johnny Mize Mini - Old Mill Back 254 (1 in 20 pack hit-jo!)
Han Ram 102
Elvis Andrus 138

BAM! How's a 1 in 20 pack hit for ya? And, Beckett...well, it's a Red Sox card.

2nd Half
Mike Cameron 111
Chad Billingsley 285
King Felix Gold Junk 112
Koji Uehara 23
Aaron Poreda 268

Yeah, again, not much.

I'll end your misery now.

Where's the Freight?!?!

Spent almost an hour out at Newburgh, New York on the CSX River Line this morning. I didn't catch a damn thing. All that was running was Amtrak and Metro North on the other side of the Hudson. So, now I'm in Scranton and I still haven't caught a freight to this point.

I did catch some passenger crap, though. On Sunday, I caught an outbound Metro North train (6834) arriving at Danbury, CT with CDOT BL20GH #130 leading. And, today, I saw an inbound Metro North train (64) heading to Hoboken depart Port Jervis, NY with Comet V Cab Car 6700 and MN GP40FH-2 #4903 (hooray for strange geeps!). In addition, I shot some static stuff (go figure, the static catches were better than the stuff moving). Sunday, I shot the equipment at the Danbury Railway Museum which included (but isn't limited to) an old New Haven FL9, a New Haven ALCo RS1, a B&M Steamer, and bunches and bunches of other assorted junk, some nicer than others. Today, I found the old Erie RR Turntable in Port Jervis. The turntable was pretty dead, but the stuff around it was nice: a nicely painted Erie E8 and a NY&GL RS3.

So far, success is...well, what it is. Not a hell of a lot so far. But, tomorrow, say hello to some D&H Lightning Stripes.

OH, IT'S ON!

NRHS 2010, Here We Come!

Time for D&H Lightning Stripes, ALCo's, and ridiculous amounts of railfanning. Yes, it's NRHS Convention time! Only my first ever trip for one of these conventions, but it should bring lots of good stuff. And, it's in Scranton. So, it will add some The Office theme to it. I'll be there from Monday to Friday, then I'm heading down to Lancaster, then out west to Columbus. Yup, orientation time. But, tomorrow is when the fun begins!

USA Soccer: Awful Start, Excellent Comeback, Crappy Officiating

Nope, I'm not heartbroken over the Celtics losing. I don't care enough about basketball in general to be heartbroken. I could go on a rant about what I think is wrong with the NBA right now, but I won't. Instead, why not talk about that awesome comeback/should've-been-victory for USA Soccer. I was quite underwhelmed with the start of the game. How does the defense give so much freakin space to Slovenia Midfielder Valter Birsa?! I know, it's easy to say that watching it on the tube. But, he easily could have read the paper, made dinner, and saved 15% on his car insurance by switching to Geico, and still would have made the shot! The game did make for some excellent entertainment, though. The USA made a 2 goal comeback courtesy of Landon Donovan and Michael Bradley, as you all should know by now. And, it should have been a 3 goal comeback. Figures that the ref would call a phantom foul against...well, I still don't know who. I'm also trying to understand how a ball off the shoulder is a handball. Last time I checked, the shoulder attaches the arm to the body, but is not part of the arm. Just sayin...
In the end, it was a very thrilling and entertaining game. But, we all know, it should have been a very thrilling and entertaining win.