The First Package from the Elephant in the Room

Wes a/k/a Jaybarkerfan is well known in the blogosphere for sending out both massive boxes of stuff and high quality relics and autographs to other collectors. For the first time in my 7 months online and back collecting, I got a comment from Wes saying that it was "time our paths crossed." 

I'm glad they have.

JBF sent me a plastic card holder with a number of awesome cards:

Bill Hall Goudey jersey relic from 2008. I'm still torn about whether to try to collect Bill Hall or not. His numbers and his career give every indication of possibly being...ahem, wind-aided...but he was a good player for many years in Milwaukee.  

See, and this is why I keep thinking about it. A serial numbered 50/200 relic. I'll probably just look for a current player. 

Look, kids -- it's Shaun of the Dead!

Big Brad Nelson. The Brewers let him go after 2009, when he went 0-for-21 in the major leagues. With that total and the fact that he has not played in the major leagues since that time, Nelson qualifies as the player on the Opening Day rosters from 2009 who has yet to get a hit. The Brewers released him, and since then, Nelson has bounced from Seattle to Texas to the Cubs to the Twins who, in July of this year, released the 31-year-old from Triple-A.

Mike Cameron could go get 'em in centerfield. By the end of his career, though, that was all he could do. I feel assured that the bat from which this relic was harvest must have flown through the strike zone without making contact on numerous occasions.

A Serial numbered card from Pacific Omega in 2000.  Perez played 24 games for Milwaukee in 2000 and hit .173/.290/.212. The Brewers traded him to the Padres after that performance, and he hit .198/.320/.210 there. That's impressively bad, even though he did get on base at a decent clip.

Rigdon came to Milwaukee in the Richie Sexson trade. He started a total of 27 games for the Brewers with a 5.19 ERA (5.67 FIP) and generally had problems walking way too many guys.

Pretty sweet mustache with that old-school "M" logo on Mr. Fosse there. I have to admit that I still like that hat.  

The 1970s were such a simpler time. Often more colorful, but simpler.

JBF also hit a couple of my PCs with a relic, an autograph, and a serial numbered card:

That's Absolutely Ben Sheets Ink there. I haven't gotten to Ben Sheets in my cataloguing quite yet -- I'm just at Dan Plesac, meaning that I'm still on guys who debuted in the 1980s -- but I know that I did not have either the autograph or the Swatch.

I have catalogued the Ryan Braun cards, so I know very well that I needed that card. 

Wes, thank you very much for the cards. Or, as he put it in his note to me:

I agree completely! 

Thanks again.