Thanks and Happy Birthday Angus!

I'm always excited to get packages from Angus, the poor soul who cheers for the Cleveland Browns and writes Dawg Day Cards. The simple reason for my excitement is that I'm almost always assured of receiving Canadian cards of some sort that I just can't get down here in Atlanta. 

What with my sporadic ability to form coherent thoughts as of late, I've been sitting on this package -- figuratively, of course. If I were literally sitting on it, that would likely explain my inability to think. Then, earlier this week, I saw on Angus's blog that he reached another birthday on October 10. His post brought up a few famous musicians/entertainers that share that date of birth -- Thelonious Monk (for whom my law school softball team, Felonious Punks, was named), Ben Vereen, and David Lee Roth were his choices. 

Since I'm not in a writing mood but I'm always in a musical mood, I thought I'd see who else might share that birthday with Angus and use that to introduce cards. So, here we go.  Let's start off a little slowly:

My God I hated this sappy song in the 1980s. But, Spandau Ballet's bass player is a gentleman named Martin Kemp. Kemp's brother is the guitarist and lead songwriter. Martin Kemp also is an actor and has a role on the long-running BBC soap opera EastEnders. Of course, Martin Kemp's birthday is October 10.




Appropriate for the slow starting music are these Leaf cards from 1988. I saw a tweet recently asking if there was a set that got less respect than the 1988 Donruss set. My response is that 1990 Donruss did, and it got the respect it deserved. Another person pointed out -- correctly -- that 1991 Fleer with its bright yellow borders should get even less respect.

I hate it when I forget such things. 

Okay, what's next?

Oh crap, it's more overwrought emotional claptrap, isn't it? Mike Malinin, born on October 10, joined Goo Goo Dolls as its drummer in January of 1995. He stayed with the band until 2013. In 2014, he apparently was fired by Johnny Rzeznik and bassist Robert Takac because he wanted to be with his wife and his newborn twins. 

According to the Wikipedia entry about it, the suit alleged said that "punitive damages are appropriate to punish such sociopathic conduct and ensure there is no reward for hatred and despicable conduct."

Actually, Mr. Malinin, there is a reward for hatred and despicable conduct. Your respective political party might vote you to be their candidate for president.

Thank you folks, I'll be here all weekend. Try the veal. 

I wouldn't call these "sociopathic" in any way, but it Don Sutton does look a bit upset. My guess is that he was Suttoning and the photographer told him that the photo was going to be a headshot. If anything can make Don Sutton mad, it would be that.

Remember Don, you can't always get what you want. 

Okay, we need something a bit more upbeat...maybe even with some sex appeal.

The band is called The Saturdays, and they are an English/Irish girl group. The redhead in the group is Una Healy -- now Una Foden. She was born on October 10, 1981, in County Tipperary, Ireland. She married Irish rugby union fullback Ben Foden in 2012, and they have two children. She will be appearing on the Irish version of "The Voice" coming up soon. 

If you enjoy photos of attractive women, you can do a lot worse than an Google Image Search for Ms. Healy.

Upbeat and attractive?

There is nothing more upbeat than 1970s O-Pee-Chee! Especially the 1972 version with the beautiful art deco lettering. While it's been said before (H/T The Shlabotnik Report), I especially love the dye/airbrush job that O-Pee-Chee put on Cooper's appearance in the 1977 set -- repainting him as a Brewer after his appearance in the Topps set with the exact same photo as a Red Sox player:

Sure, his hat looks a little purple, but it'll do pig. It'll do.

But man, does this put me into a funky mood.

One of the originators of funk music was the band called The Meters (not The Funky Meters, just The Meters). This song is some badass funk that is so cool that the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s had to be invented just to showcase the music! One of the members of this band -- born on October 10, 1948 -- is Cyril Neville. 

Cyril is a percussionist and is the youngest of the four Neville brothers (Art, Charles, and Aaron are the others) who make up the band called, of course, The Neville Brothers. Back when funk was first developing, Cyril and Art had a band in which Cyril was the lead singer and danced and sang a lot like a funk king from Augusta, Georgia, by the name of James Brown. 

Funky baseball cards? Damn, I should have held back those cards from the 1970s, I guess. I'll have to just put up some others:



These beauties from the 1980s (and one from 2003 in the style of the 1980 Topps of Cecil Cooper) deserve that awesome funk sound. Granted, this might be the first time in Jim Gantner's life that he is appearing in the same neighborhood as "funky" -- especially without his usual mustache -- but we won't penalize the rest of the cards for Gumby's indiscretion.

Nor should we.

I also snuck in a 1984 Nestle card in amongst these mostly Canadian baked cards. I couldn't help it -- Angus snuck in the Nestle on me, so let's go eat some chocolate bars.

Okay, we need one more song to close this out. Let's get eclectic -- at least off the beaten path a bit...

Too much to go to Tanya Tucker -- born October 10, 1958 in Seminole, Texas? Maybe so. She's struggling with her health right now.  She had to cancel some shows in Canada and the northern US after contracting an upper respiratory infection while in South Dakota. 

Geez, she has some wicked vibrato going on in that song.

Okay, I can't close on that song. Let's shoehorn in one more 10/10 baby:

James a/k/a "Midge" Ure (Midge is Jim spelled out as if said backwards) is the Scottish lead singer of Ultravox, and he was born on October 10, 1953. Midge is actually on tour right now -- appearing TONIGHT (October 13) in Milwaukee at Shank Hall and then on Saturday here in Atlanta at The EARL of all places. Wow, that would be a cool show to see in that small of a venue!

Midge is also responsible for unleashing on the world one of the most well-known songs that patronizes Africa -- "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid and, indeed, the entire Band Aid effort was a joint effort involving Ure and Bob Geldof.

Apropos of that melange? This melange:

While I should have featured the 1960 NL Home Run Leaders by itself, it seems strangely appropriate to be added in here since it is a bit clipped -- it's probably about an eighth of an inch narrower than a normal card. Of course, you don't find that card cheap in most places, so hopefully that meant that Angus got a good deal on it!

Angus, thank you so much for all the great cards -- and Happy Birthday once again!