The French Connection

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm going to be out of town most of this week. So, I thought I would engage in a little bit of pre-programming to catch up on trade posts and to have stuff ready to post when I return from my trip.

This post is a bit of a long time in getting done. About a month ago, Kevin from The Card Papoy emailed me to ask for my address so as to send me some cards. Since he's from France, I had no idea how long it would take for them to show up (answer: about two weeks).

The great thing with Kevin -- and as is the case with Julie from A Cracked Bat as well -- is that Kevin was collecting cards at the time when I was not. That's a large timeframe -- 1990 to 2013 -- but he was able to send me a bunch of cards that I had never seen before.

Let's start with the player collection guys -- like Greg Vaughn.

I have to admit -- I'm a sucker these days for Stadium Club. I am becoming more of an unapologetic fan of full-bleed card photography and design with each passing day of looking at cards like these and Upper Deck's offerings in the late 00s.

These cards show those semi-decent, semi-garbage 1990s uniforms that the Brewers wore, and that attempt to keep an MB logo without using the old ball-in-glove look from 1978. 

Next up, card #87 of the Rickie Weeks collection:

I like the Topps Lineage set from 2011, though I'm not a big fan of the dark-blue backs without stats. I'm also unclear as to how this set shows any of Topps's "lineage."

Jose Valentin seemed to get a bunch of really cool "double play" photos on his cards in the 1990s. The two cards that I got from Kevin were not among them.

Now, I like art a lot. There are a lot of cool-looking mosaics out there, especially religious icons from the late Middle Ages. The Topps card of Jose Valentin, however, looks more like the pixelation experienced during a thunderstorm on DirecTV feeds than any kind of artistic effort. While these two cards will not make a "Top 5 Jose Valentin" countdown, they are still cards I needed for my collection.

And the Rest:

Back in the 1960s -- and as I got to see them after school in the late 1970s and early 1980s -- Gilligan's Island enjoyed a 3-season, 98-episode run on TV. During the first season of the series, the theme song gave the short shrift to the Professor and Mary Ann, calling them simply, "the rest."

I'm not intending to give these cards the same short shrift, but I'm also not going to talk all that much about the Pat Listach years. 

It is safe to say that the Brewers organization in the late 1980s through the 1990s did not have the best record in turning out major-league-ready talent. When you're signing guys like Bruce Ruffin, Franklin Stubbs, the skeletal remains of Willie Randolph, and Jim Tatum, it's not a good sign.

As for Gary Sheffield, well, his track record speaks for itself. There wasn't much the team could have done to make him happy and have him stay for most of his career since, after all, Sheffield wore out his welcome nearly everywhere he went -- 6 years in Miami, 4 in Los Angeles, 4 in Milwaukee, 3 with the Yankees, 2 with the Braves, 2 with the Padres, 2 with the Tigers, and 1 with the Mets speaks volumes about a guy who was never happy except perhaps with the Marlins. And, that would end as soon as the team started dismantling the 1997 team. Of course, Sheffield made over $168 million in his career. I'm sure he'll dry his eyes with $100 bills over my criticisms.

Nonetheless, this was a fantastic package of cards from Kevin.

Kevin, thank you very much for the cards -- they are much appreciated and I needed most of them.