Saturday, December 26, 2015

A Cardboard Clubhouse Christmas/Birthday?

I have a Christmastime birthday. As anyone else who is similarly situated can tell you, those of us born at the "most wonderful time of the year" often feel a little short-changed when it comes to our birthdays. One of my law partners was born on Christmas Day and turned 50 this year; he said he could count on one hand the number of birthday-only parties he had had in his life. 

I'd have to agree with that from my perspective. My birthday is tomorrow. Growing up, I had a ninth birthday party in third grade when we went bowling. After that, I had a thirtieth birthday party thrown by the woman I was dating at that time and a fortieth birthday party thrown by my wife.

I'm not crying about it, to be fair. As much as I dislike this old saw, well, it is what it is. 


Note: I am not a Liverpool fan. In fact, I really wish that Manchester United had Jurgen Klopp instead of the Scousers. If you've ever met a Scouser, you'd know -- their version of "English" might as well be Dutch -- it's damn near incomprehensible. I went to a match at White Hart Lane (Tottenham Hotspur, if you're not up on your English stadiums) against Liverpool, and the Londoners around me were taking the piss out of the Liverpudlians -- saying things like, "you've got no education" and "you shag your mum" and other such ditties. But Klopp singing happy birthday is still class.

Anyway, someone else in the card blogging world who can understand this conundrum is Adam from Cardboard Clubhouse. Adam's birthday is 8 days before mine, and he posted his birthday meal as a post last week to celebrate. My wife and I are celebrating my birthday tonight with dinner at one of our favorite hangouts in Dunwoody, so maybe I'll have dinner posted later tonight as well. 

Enough birthday talk. Adam sent me a nice handful of cards that I'd like to highlight today:



Odd -- the Stadium Club insert photo would not have been out of place on the logoless Donruss. And, if you don't start humming crappy Cyndi Lauper songs when you see that insert, well, you're clearly not a child of the 1980s.


God I hated that song. Kind of like how some trades were easily hated for me as a Brewers fan both at the time the trade was made and in retrospect.  Such as trading Dante Bichette for Kevin Reimer:

Or Nelson Cruz AND Carlos Lee for Francisco Cordero, Kevin Mench, and Laynce Nix and a minor leaguer.  Basically, trading two twenty-dollar bills for a five and four quarters.


Happier times were enjoyed by John Jaha. In 1996, he hit 34 home runs for the Brewers. At the time, that was tied with Larry Hisle as being the sixth-most homers in a season for the club. Since that time, the Brewers have added nine seasons in which players hit more than 34 home runs -- no surprise there, to be fair.  Still, injuries and weight problems led to Jaha's downfall as a major leaguer.


One of the players to add a couple of those seasons with more than 34 homers was Richie Sexson. He never really got attached to Milwaukee, and, as a result, the Brewers didn't get too attached to him and traded him away too.


Let's close with three cards from 2015. One of these guys was traded away to bring tons of quality to the minor league system, one guy is likely to be traded in the next 8 months in a similar-type trade, and the final one is likely to be one of the building blocks going forward.




Being all up to date means needing to get a song here that is all up to date.  Here's a recent favorite of mine:



Many thanks to Adam for all of these great cards -- the return envelope is being put together nearly contemporaneously herewith, to put it in lawyer-speak.

13 comments:

  1. I found Bichette forgettable until he hit Colorado.. I think pretty much every fan has hated a uniform set their favourite team used. For me it's the Angry Bird Grey Jay... I like to forget the uniform Jaha's wearing existed as well. lol

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    1. No doubt that Dante Bichette was a Coors creation -- unlike Larry Walker or Andres Galarraga, who were helped a lot but were both excellent hitters anywhere.

      And that Jaha uniform -- the Brewers do not do "throwbacks" to those jerseys for sure, and for good reason. They are ugly uniforms from an ugly time in Brewer history.

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    2. Yeah. Galarraga definitely had a resurrection in Colorado.
      Waklker is an interesting case.. He didn't play baseball in his youth, but softball. So the first few years in the minors were a struggle, but he was able to turn into a very good player. If not for the injuries, a possible borderline Hall Of Fame player. He is in Canada's Baseball Hall, though.

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  2. I really liked John Jaha. Cool player.

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    1. If Jaha hadn't had his injury problems -- knees and shoulders in particular -- he would be held in much higher regard by Brewers fans. Billy Beane liked him a lot and picked him up in hopes he'd get a bit healthier. He didn't, unfortunately.

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  3. I liked the true colors inserts.

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    1. I like the True Colors inserts a lot too, except for the fact that they make me think of Cyndi Lauper!

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  4. A girl I knew in college has her birthday on the 26th. Everyone always combined their presents to her. One year when we left for Christmas break I handed her a wrapped gift with birthday wrapping and a birthday card - I didn't even mention Christmas at all. I told her I was sorry that I would miss her birthday and for her to have a good one. She cried.

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    1. Hit publish too soon.

      Happy Birthday!

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    2. Hit publish too soon.

      Happy Birthday!

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    3. That is exactly the type of thing that literally never happens to people like that girl and me. And, it is exactly why she cried. I'm sure you scored tons of points with her that day.

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    4. My cousin was born Christmas Day..

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  5. Happy belated birthday Tony! Glad you enjoyed the cards.

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