A PWE That Should Have Come with Bubblegum

Recently, Jeff from "Wish They Still Came with Bubblegum" peppered the blogging world with PWEs, and I was one of the lucky recipients.  On this Black Friday, how about we recap the cards he sent with music? To be in the spirit of Black Friday, I've got a theme that'll be pretty obvious pretty quickly.

Of course, that's The Beatles "Can't Buy Me Love" off their album, "A Hard Day's Night." That early Beatles stuff is so upbeat and light and airy and poppy. Literally every rock band borrows from The Beatles -- I mean, if you have both Kurt Cobain and Noel Gallagher on the same page, you know that there is something pretty incredible going on.

Speaking of pretty incredible, here's the Stadium Club Members Only Insert commemorating Robin Yount's 3000th hit. The Brewers lost the game in which Yount got his 3000th hit thanks to a Darren Holmes and Doug Henry combined blown save. Henry put two guys on, and Holmes finished it out when he threw away a bunt by Kenny Lofton and allowed two runs to score.  Not so good, Darren.

Here's a catchy country song that's out now that gets stuck in my head every time I hear it. It's called "Buy Me A Boat" and it's by Chris Janson. The refrain goes, "Yeah, and I know what they say, Money can't buy everything. Well, maybe so, but it could buy me a boat." I'm telling you -- if you're prone to getting songs stuck in your head, you might not want to listen to this.

Jeff sent a couple of great oddballs of Robin Yount to go with the Stadium Club card. On the left, that's the 1993 Post cereal card for the 3000th hit, and on the right that's a Baseball Cards Magazine special. 

See, money can't buy everything -- and maybe so, but it could buy me an oddball.

Now here's something you don't see everyday -- T-Pain singing without his autotune. Dude can actually sing...including the first song called "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')."

Mascot cards are okay. I'm not as enamored with them as some people are. I think it goes back to my freshman year of college. I was involved for a year with Vanderbilt's intercollegiate debate team, and we had a tournament at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. My partner and I did okay but we didn't break to the elimination rounds. 

More to the point, nearly all the teams in the tournament were staying in the same hotel. On the Saturday night after the final regulation rounds, SIU's debate team bought some kegs and hired a DJ to come to the hotel. It was a great party. Oddly, though, SIU's Saluki mascot was at the party. She was actually pretty cute under the oversized head. Still, it is seared in my memory how weird it was to have been flirting with someone with a big dog head and mascot outfit on. 

Twenty years ago, Everclear was pretty big -- especially with their song "Santa Monica." Personally, my favorite Everclear song is "Volvo Driving Soccer Mom" but that song doesn't fit this theme -- "I Will Buy You a New Life" does.

Speaking of new, here are two Update cards that I needed that Jeff sent. I finally got around to updating my Topps need list for 2015, so take a look and check it out. There are a few cards that I am surprised I needed, but hey -- that should make for some good trade fodder.

Let's finish on a weird note. As I do sometimes when I do these musically themed posts, I put the word "buy" into Spotify to remind myself of some songs, find new ones that are popular but which I haven't listened to, and then perhaps find something off the wall.  This is the off the wall.  

The band is called Electric Six, and they are from Detroit. Despite this American origin, the only place they have had any singles hit the charts is the United Kingdom.  The always-reliable Wikipedia says their rock is "infused with elements of 'garage, disco, punk rock, new wave, and metal.'" To me, it sounds like Meat Loaf met Stone Temple Pilots or something similarly horrifying.

By the way, the song is called "I Buy the Drugs."

I'm pretty sure Jeff sent me this. Sometimes, when I get a bunch of envelopes in at once, things get mixed together. I hope that isn't the case here.  This card is the most appropriate for that Electric Six song. O'Leary became a short-lived minor star for the Boston Red Sox in the late 1990s, totaling 117 HR in a little less than 1000 games as a league average hitter (OPS+: 100; .276/.331/.459 slash for Boston).  

The Red Sox got the benefit of those 1000 games because Sal Bando, in his infinite lack of wisdom as a GM, decided instead to keep a 27-year-old Matt Mieske (OPS+ for Milwaukee: 90; .260/.317/.436 slash for Milwaukee) instead of the 25-year-old O'Leary. Those two years of development matter at that age. Mieske was never going to be more than he was already, but O'Leary could develop a bit more power and hit slightly better -- and did in 1999 with 28 HR, 103 RBI, and a .280/.343/.495 slash line over 661 plate appearances.

Perhaps the Electric Six were buying Sal Bando his drugs.

Jeff, thank you very much for the cards. I sent you some Braves back your way -- I hope you like them and can use a few of them.