Thursday, June 4, 2015

War with Jaybarkerfan: Monster #3

I mentioned previously that, over the weekend, three monsters appeared at the same time from Hazel Green in my ongoing war with Jaybarkerfan,  The third monster was "only" an envelope.  What was in it?

Let's start with the monster inside the package:


Dracula has joined the fray. Just what I needed -- a blood sucker. I could bring out the lawyer joke and say that Dracula just left me alone as a professional courtesy, but he wasn't that kind.

I had to call in the cat again.


To be fair, Gus always does a great job.  He's been rewarded with treats and, in honor of the fact that today is National Hug Your Cat Day, he's even gotten a nice petting, brushing, and yes, he got a hug too.  He's taken down three monsters, after all.  He deserved it.

But the message on the letter is actually the important part.  Here's the letter without the cat attack:


As you can see, Monster #3 is a future scare -- entry into the Nachos Grande Archives Case Break

And suddenly, Dracula makes sense as the third monster.

But JBF did not want to leave anything to chance:


Guaranteed hits?  What is in there?  

Well, sorry to say that I tore through the unopened packs of 1991 Stadium Club that protected the two hits inside this tape monster.  Here, though, are the hits:

Luis Martinez was a product of the Brewers scouting in the Dominican Republic in the mid-1990s.  Signed at age 16, he did not come stateside until 1998 at the age of 18.  In his first two minor league seasons with Helena and then Ogden in the Pioneer League -- Rookie ball -- and, well, while I'm not a fan of W-L records to tell the story of a season, his does: over 98-1/3 innings, 17 starts, 32 appearances, he finished 0-16.  He allowed 130 hits, 8 homers, 100 walks, and struck out 90.  

By 2003, though, Martinez had a good year: 12-5 record including a 4-0 mark in Triple-A. The problem was that that year was literally his only decent year ever in the minor leagues.  It was an aberration.  Still he got his big league debut in 2003 as a result.  The results were predictable: in his four major league starts, he pitched 16-1/3 innings and allowed 25 hits, 3 homers, 15 walks, 18 runs (all earned) and struck out 10.  He had three wild pitches, and threw in a balk for good measure.

He ended up in Japan for a couple of years and looked decent, but this guy should have never sniffed the major leagues.  It says more about Milwaukee than anything else that he did. 



A happier card is this Sexson/Overbay relic card.  It's interesting to have this "team tandem" card in 2005 featuring these two both on Milwaukee though.  That's because Sexson and Overbay were traded for one another in December of 2003.  I guess Donruss/Playoff had some old Richie Sexson fabric laying around...or maybe just old Milwaukee jerseys laying around and a terrible photo of Sexson and said, "what the hell, just put them on the card together.  No one will care."

Okay, I care.  And I appreciate both of these cards and the entry into the Archives case break too.

But, Wes, my friend -- an invasion from is imminent.  Can you handle a monster yourself?

2 comments:

  1. When I saw that Wes had taken the Brewers in the case break, I remember thinking man, that guy is really committed ! Thanks for sharing those with us again, it's very entertaining !

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  2. That Wes is a generous and creative dude. Hope you do well in the Archives break.

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