Christmas in July, Celebrated in September

Back nearly two months ago, my Gator loving friend John from Johnny's Trading Spot sent out a ton of packages to people around the card-collecting world to celebrate "Christmas in July." I was one of the recipients of one of those packages, and I now am here to celebrate the autumnal equinox with Christmas. It's just over 90 shopping days until Christmas, after all.

Just proving that it really was Christmas in July. John sent a massive package of cards, so I'm going to share some of them. In the past with cards from John, I've written them up with everything from a comparison to the local cougar lounge (Johnny's Hideaway) to comparisons to old cars to music drawn from John's blog.

How about I just show the cards and talk about them?

Let's start with Orlando Arcia's coin from 2017 Topps Archives. I like the coins from the original issue back in 1987 through 1990, which themselves were throwbacks to the 1971 coins, which themselves were throwbacks to the original 1964 coins. Each and every one of those issues is a great oddball that needs those cardboard and plastic cases to be able to display them properly.

Arcia has improved greatly this year. He might be a cornerstone. His OBP has improved this year, though he has not hit for as much power in the second half as he did in the first half (which was driven by his excellent June). He obviously needs to continue developing, though he seems to have the right attitude and his fielding is already among the best in the league.

Next up, we have some 2003 Fleer Hardball discs. I'm pretty sure this set was created by a Fleer card designer who wondered to himself or herself what those MSA discs would have looked like if MSA issued 200 of them and had licensing and had parallels. The answer: not bad, but oddballs should be kept as oddballs for a reason. Weird shapes and sizes of cards are best kept in small doses for fear of overdose.

Parallels? Really? Come on. I mean, it's cool if it was a "parallel" that was exactly the same except for the fact that, instead of "Fleer Hardball," the disc said, "Donruss Superstars" and another said "Upper Deck Dandies" and another said "Topps Lemons" or something like that.

According to Baseball Card Pedia, 1997 Pinnacle Inside came "inside one of 24 collectible player soup cans."

If that happened today, I'd have the same look on my face as Dave Nilsson has on his face on this card.

I have not paid any attention to what Panini has been doing this year in cards. Should I?

Based on this card, I'm thinking I'm okay with being a collecting version of Joe Barry Carroll a/k/a Joe Barely Cares when it comes to Panini. I'll pick up Diamond Kings and the like at card shows if I see them cheap. Otherwise, I'm not going out of my way to find them.

As for Ray, 2016's #1 pick for the Brewers struggled in the Carolina League this year, hitting just .238/.311/.367 in 503 plate appearances with 7 HR and 24 SB in 34 attempts. He struck out too much too. That said, he still is his toolsy self...we'll see what happens.

Out of these two cards, let's talk about Kevin Barker. He made it to Milwaukee at the age of 23 in 1999 and performed decently in 127 plate appearances -- .282/.331/.385. In 2000, he hit similarly -- .220/.352/.330. But, in their infinite wisdom in 1999, the Brewers played Mark Loretta and Sean Barry instead of Barker and, then, traded for Richie Sexson in 2000. That led to his eventual trade to San Diego in spring training in 2002 (where he got 7 games and 20 plate appearances). From there, he bounced around yearly -- to Detroit, to Florida, to Philadelphia, to Toronto (where he got into 12 games with 18 plate appearances) for two years, to Cincinnati (29 games, 36 plate appearances in 2009). 

I mean, he grinded out 323 plate appearances across 11 years with four teams. There's something to be said for that sticktoitiveness.

These test proof cards that Panini put out last year are just plain awful. Other than photo comparison, I couldn't tell you from this scan that this is Orlando Arcia. Combine a single color with no logos and discolored uniforms, and you have what should otherwise be thrown away except for that serial number and the hint of it showing a baseball player on it.

UGH.

It wouldn't be Christmas without 1995 Fleer. It really wouldn't. It's like the bow on the present. The star on the tree. The asbestos substituting for snow on the tree.

No, really.

Pure, white, fireproof asbestos snow. 

It's weird packaging for baseball cards, but I'm not surprised that Fleer used it in 1995.

John -- many thanks for the great cards. I hope that your home and your family are all safe after Irma.

My Favorite Baseball Card of My Favorite Baseball Player

Peter at Baseball Every Night is celebrating his one-year anniversary as a blogger. To mark the occasion, he is holding a contest: write a post of any length, content, or whatever about your favorite baseball card of your favorite baseball player.

If you haven't interacted with Peter before, you should at least follow him on Twitter. Well, you should so long as you appreciate erudite conversation in which he discusses the ins and outs of game theory as it relates to Sylvia Plath.

No, not really.

But you should follow him if you appreciate discussions of good beer, a dislike for the overkill of love shown to David Ortiz last year by Topps, and a complete hatred of 1995 Fleer cards. From time to time, I've been known to ruffle Peter's feathers by saying that, contrary to reality, he actually loves  1995 Fleer. Believe me -- he really does. Not. I mean does not.

So, it should not be a surprise that his contest rules state clearly that:

Any entrants selecting a card from 1995 Fleer will be automatically disqualified. But please do still post as I'll then forward your entry to a psychiatrist so that you can get the help you need.

I can see his point. There's very little to like about that card set. I've stated my dislike for it in the past. But then, it got personal:

Any entrants that select a 1995 Fleer card that I deem is intentionally trying to get disqualified (Tony L.) will be re-entered into the contest and will have their name added to the randomizer 18 times.

Whoa. It sounds like I can tip the scales in my favor in a major way here! But I hate 1995 Fleer. What's a guy to do?

How about a custom "card"?

 

It's just a prototype for Peter's very own 1995 Fleer card, featuring his position of Blogger and Sylvia Plath Scholar and highlighting the baseball that he stole from a crying 7-year-old kid. Or, rather, that he got by beating out a surly 13-year-old kid. One of those two.

In reality:

The reality is that most cards of my favorite players are cool but never really approach the level of being "THE" favorite. Yet, every time I think of my favorite card literally in my entire collection, I always seem to come back to the same one:

I come back over and over again to the Cardsphere Hero custom card from Christmas of 2015 that came my way courtesy of Gavin at Breakdown Cards. Gavin has a far more popular and much more interesting blog than mine -- I mean, come on...I'm a one note wonder and his collection is as eclectic as it comes -- and he's a much more talented artist and card maker to boot.

Gavin deserves the thanks and praise that all in the blogworld give him. And I haven't thanked him enough yet for this incredible card that remains my favorite baseball card almost 18 months after I received it.

Thanks go out to Peter for both the contest and for being a good sport for putting up with my chicanery and once again to Gavin. And, also, thank you for reading -- I appreciate it.

S.mackdown

I'm terribly slow at posting and at catching up on trades. I have a package waiting for one trade partner, and I need to put together another trade package for another trade partner.

Jimmy from Talking S.mack cards is the exact opposite of me. He is meticulous about following up with trade offers, making sure things are acceptable on each end, etc. I sent him a bunch of those Topps Heritage Minor League cards that I opened way back when, and in return he crossed some needs off my lists (and probably kept some cards from ever getting to the want lists in the first place).

I've been in a strange, out-of-sorts mood all day today. I had trouble getting my clutch to engage properly on my car this morning to allow me to start it right away. That threw me off for the entire day -- my schedule was off, my routine was off, everything felt off. The music in my life which seems to go with that is late 1980s stuff. Random 1980s stuff.

Like:

I tipped my hand on this Pixies song going around in my head lately. The normal speed version of this song is really good. But I have always been more drawn to the "UK Surf" version. It's more pensive, and that's usually the mood I'm in when I want to hear it.  Like yesterday and today.

Nothing says "pensive" like 2009 Topps base cards. I'm being serious here. I still have card needs in that arena -- 2009 seems like the time that a lot of my trade partners started coming back, but mostly they hadn't made it back enough to have accumulated enough 2009 base cards to send Brewers to me. Plus, 2009 is too recent for most card show dealers to schlep boxes and boxes of them to shows. So, it's a big hole.

That hole got smaller, though, thanks to Jimmy's kindness here!

Most people who have heard of Oingo Boingo know their album Dead Man's Party, which features the song "Weird Science." I heard that on tape as a kid and said, "Let's buy another one of their tapes." The one I bought -- probably through BMG -- was BOI-NGO. This album never got any airplay whatsoever, as best I can tell, though this song, "We Close Our Eyes," was covered by every teen boy's late 1980s crush (Susanna Hoffs) for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer film soundtrack.

In that vein, let's show some cards from Peter Steinberg's favorite set, 1995 Fleer. Seriously, if you have duplicates, I think Peter, from Baseball Every Night, is trying to build at least 2 or 3 sets of 1995 Fleer, so send all your duplicates to him. He'll appreciate it greatly!

For some reason, it seems songs that I dig that are alternative end up on TV shows much later than when I get into them and suddenly become even more mainstream. "A Little Respect" by Erasure apparently got played on episode 3, season 1 of Scrubs. To be fair, this song did hit the top 20 in the United States, so it's not like it's entirely out of the blue.

Vince Clarke wrote the songs and played keyboards for Erasure. The guy is an awesome, visionary musician. He was a founding member of Depeche Mode, then formed Yazoo (known as Yaz here in the United States), then he started up Erasure. 

Some Upper Deck and some 1990s parallels to add to some player collections come with a little respect. I sometimes have trouble telling all the Upper Deck base sets from the 2000s apart. They all feature excellent photography that isn't overly filtered or contrasted so as to make veins pop off the card. But, they also tend to feature very similar minimalist designs. 

That, or I am just lazy and haven't taken the time to figure out which year is which yet. 

It's probably the second one.

Okay, last song to go with a great last card...inspired by what I just wrote about Vince Clarke:

This song has always kicked ass as a dance tune. When I was in my late teens, a buddy and I used to go to an underage dance club. We never had any money on us -- not even a quarter for water -- just enough to pay the cover charge and dance our asses off. While we always thought we were there trying to meet girls, the reality was we were there to hang out and have fun. We tried awkwardly to meet girls -- like teenage boys do -- but I usually ended up at least as interested in dancing like an idiot. 

I'd go home drenched in sweat, but thoroughly entertained. I loved the music -- stuff like Erasure, Yaz(oo), Ministry, Nine Inch Nails (Pretty Hate Machine came out in 1989, y'all), and even things like N.W.A. It was so much fun. 

As much as I can rail on and on about parallels, the reason I do it, I think, is because I'd like them to be more limited in scope -- maybe two or three per set tops -- and not as limited in number. I want to collect them. I want them to give me good memories 25 years from now about being shiny and pink and cool and attractive.

Well, at least as cool and attractive as this card design can be.

Jimmy, thank you so much for the great cards. They are much appreciated.

And everyone else, don't forget to send Peter your 1995 Fleer.

Ugliness in a One-Card Post

I have other cards I could write up, but those cards are going to take a little more time and effort to write up than I can muster today. So, I'm going with a really ugly one card post. It's okay that I say that, because Peter -- the man behind the Baseball Every Night blog said it himself when he sent the card to me.

See? I never knew that Peter was a cheerleader in his past, though. It's amazing the things you can learn about your fellow card collectors just by interacting with them. Granted, based on his "cheer" in his letter above, Peter must have cheered in the 1870s.

Still, with an introduction like that, I was halfway expecting a crime scene photograph from the Manson Family or something. Nope -- it's just Graeme:

1995 Fleer is one of those sets that really creates a split in the hobby. Some people will tell you it is one of the ugliest sets ever made with all the busy crap going on here. Then, there are some baseball card collectors who are blind and cannot see how ugly it is.

That's the split, really. 

Peter sent me this in response to an email he sent to me where he listed out a bunch of cards that he had in his possession that he wanted to get rid of as not fitting in his collection. I looked at his list, and this one was the only card on the list that I needed.

Today, I was doing some sorting and cleanup around here -- finally getting cards into their binders after being lazy about it for a little while. I went to put old Graeme away, and things got even uglier. You see, I already had this card in my binder -- I just hadn't updated my Fleer Want List to reflect it. Thus, things got even uglier for me because, well, this one is just a duplicate.

Egad.

At least I had the opportunity today to get some organization done and to talk to a friend on the phone for a while. It's one of the fundamental things as a collector -- trying to stay organized enough so that you do not become the place where people dispose of their ugly children.

Next time, it will be different.

Many thanks, though, to Peter for adding some ugliness to my life.