Ginter Bits and More from Bubba

I really shouldn't post about more cards from Matt of Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits on a night featuring yet another World Series game -- especially Game 7 -- but I have the time to post tonight.  Poor Matt -- my posts about the cards he's sent me are always getting overlooked. Still, at least this time it is baseball cards and not soccer card. I'm sure that will make people happier.

If you've read Matt's blog, you know that he happened upon an eBay listing of a case of Allen & Ginter Black from which the autographs had pretty much been removed (other than a great surprise -- you should read it!). Thankfully, he was nice enough to share some of his largesse with me, along with some other great cards.

Let's ring those cards in with a nominally appropriate song:

It's a nominally appropriate song only, because it truly is a sad song. There are a few songs in my life that I immediately associate with a particular person or time, and this is one of them. In 2002, I had been dating a woman for about a year and things just fell apart between us. She pretty much moved on without telling me -- nice of her to do that, no? -- I had a weekend where I pretty much just stayed in and felt sorry for myself. I listened to this song repeatedly. It was pathetic yet cathartic. 

Baseball cards have much more of a cathartic, nostalgic feel to me. Yeah, I get upset about stuff that Topps does, mainly because we are so reliant on Topps, but in the end I really enjoy collecting. It's brought me back to being a better fan of baseball, too -- I know much more now about the American League than I did before because all I cared about was NL-only fantasy baseball.

So, speaking of nostalgic and nominal appropriateness, here are the four A&G Black cards Bubba sent my way:



I'd appreciate the Molitor more if it weren't the same damn photo we have been seeing over and over again in Archives and any number of other products for the past 5 years. Sucks that Topps relies so heavily on Getty -- and then so heavily on the photos they have already purchased, in order to save money. Otherwise, though, I like A&G black -- it's a good-looking card.

Bubba did not stop with the Black, though, so let's see what else we've got. With music? Yes, of course. You do know whose blog you're reading, right?

Sorry Cleveland fans -- I really do hope the Cubs win tonight. I've probably jinxed them by saying that -- hell, a stiff breeze seemingly can jinx the Cubs, after all -- so it's all Pearl Jam today, featuring Cubs fan Eddie Vedder.

Yellow Ledbetter is a song that Vedder often just makes up as he goes. There are no set lyrics to it. Sometimes, Topps has that same feel -- especially when it comes to inserts and parallels. This is an Allen & Ginter back mini parallel of Jimmy Nelson from this years set. It's nice and all, but the parallels featuring different backs are pretty damn pointless. Who displays a card with its back showing just to show off the variation? No one I know.

This song was written by Vedder when he was a teenager. He wrote it about his own mother's plight with his stepfather, Peter Mueller. As his Wikipedia page points out correctly (and as you can hear for yourself on this Youtube upload of the 1994 Pearl Jam show from the Fox Theater in Atlanta, which was recorded for posterity), Vedder says that the song is "dedicated to the bastard that married my Momma." The song takes on a bizarre, surreal feel when Sugarland sings it, though.

While I wouldn't say that Hank Aaron deserves that introduction, he definitely deserves the chorus -- you really can't find a better man in many respects. Aaron backs up his big name by doing a lot of charitable work and caring greatly for those less fortunate.

"Given to Fly" is one of those songs that you hear and you feel better. In talking about the song, Vedder said that his conception for the song was it feeling like a cardboard children's book -- "it's a fable, that's all." The song revolves around a riff that Mike McCready said he came up with while being stuck in his condo on a snowy day in Seattle.

The great thing: Vedder dedicated the song at Wrigley in August to Joe Maddon.

Sure, it's not Ginter, but I'll take a 7-year-old relic of Rickie Weeks that I don't have any day (or any age relic, or any Rickie Weeks card I don't have, or any Brewers card I don't have, of course).  The photo of Miller Park's roof looming made me think of this song -- that, and the fact that the lack of a solid background makes Rickie look like he's just floating in space here.

It's hard to believe that this song was released 14 years ago now. Man, time sometimes feels like it goes by quickly. This song musically feels like an Irish drinking song to me -- like you should be swaying back and forth with a Guinness in your hand. Lyrically, it's much more existential and focuses on internal security. 

It should come as no surprise that this song was written by Vedder just before the first show that Pearl Jam did after the Roskilde tragedy in 2000. If you're not familiar, Pearl Jam was at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. People fell down on one spot as the crowd rushed to the stage. They couldn't get up, and then crowd surfers ended up falling on top of them. This caused nine people to be crushed to death. In fact, Pearl Jam wrote a song on their "Riot Act" album called "Love Boat Captain" in which the lyrics reference "nine friends we'll never know."

Pearl Jam refused for many years after to do any festivals, and now only does a few.

But, "I Am Mine" is about being secure, being able to reassure yourself that things will be okay -- that you can get past the obstacles in life. 

Many of you won't like me saying this, but you have to admit that Ryan Braun has gotten past some big obstacles -- mostly self-inflicted -- that have happened in his life and really turned in a top-notch season this past year. Lots of people hoped he was done, and in 2014 he looked done -- slash line of .266/.324/.453. This year, though, he looked back to himself -- .305/.365/.538. That's a solid season, and for a guy making the money he is making, that is earning his pay. Sure, he may never be the 150-game-a-year guy he used to be, but I'll take 135 games like this past year any day (30 HR, 91 RBI, 16 SB). 

Matt, thanks again for the great cards, and enjoy the last game of the 2016 baseball season tonight.

Squeaky Wheels

In Jim Bouton's famous book Ball Four, he made it clear that he loved his pitching coach, Johnny Sain. Sain was famed for a couple of things; of course, everyone knows "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain" from Sain's days with the Boston Braves. Sain also mentored recent great pitching coach Leo Mazzone along with 16 total 20-game winners in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Sain always encouraged his pitchers to ask management for everything they deserved and more. The famous line that still sticks with me that Bouton wrote in Ball Four is "Don't be afraid to climb those golden stairs."

There are times that Sain's advice has inured to my detriment. For instance, when I was a new associate expressing my opinion about how the firm should operate, that was definitely a bad time to "climb those golden stairs." Why? Well, unlike baseball, those of us in the civilian world have a longer career arc to figuring things out than our baseball counterparts, so climbing the golden stairs should take place only after one has enough gold built up to make the stairs golden. The talent pitchers have create that gold.

Other times, though, the gold for the stairs comes from being a consumer. Very recently, I have exercised my customer service rights to complain to good effect. One was minor -- I got one of those single serving boxes of cereal that was fully sealed but entirely empty. I sent a message to Kellogg's customer service, and a week later I got a coupon for a free Kellogg's product. 

So, thanks Kellogg's!

My other customer service experience was more interesting.

I finally lost my cool with getting ignored on Twitter by @Toppscards. I sent customer service an email, and then I climbed those golden stairs: I found an email address for the President of the company, and I included him on that email. I even included my cell phone number and invited a call. I didn't expect one, though.

To my surprise and to Topps's credit, however, I received a call from the Director of New Product Development & the eCommerce Marketplace (i.e., topps.com), Mr. Jeff Heckman. Mr. Heckman has been out front for Topps talking about Topps Now in various places (such as WGN Radio), so I am guessing that my complaints were directed to him since they were focused on Topps Now. 

Mr. Heckman tried to explain that they understood that not everyone would be happy with the card selections made on a daily basis for Topps Now. The point I tried to get across calmly and without sounding whiny (and I'm not sure if I succeeded on either front) was that there are lots of fans for teams other than the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, and Cubs who would love for a couple of their highlights to be featured on the cards. 

He emphasized to me that his team was aware of my complaints through Twitter and that they did follow through on Twitter to try to find the events that mattered. He thanked me for my interest and for caring enough to write, and then said he'd send me something as a goodwill gesture. I told him that that was not why I wrote, but he said not to worry about it. He got my address and, a few days later, I was shocked at what showed up.

First: one box of Archives Snapshots:



These cards were the highlights. I'm thinking that I need to sell that Vizquel black and white parallel on eBay, maybe. I certainly could have done a little better on the autograph, though to be fair I am quite pleased to see someone who to us today is a minor star getting an autograph.

Next, I got a full two-box pair of Topps Finest.  The highlights:



A Rollie Fingers autograph numbered to 150, a Brewers parallel (albeit of a guy who was terrible this year in Triple A) numbered to 250, and a Daniel Norris autograph highlighted those two boxes. If there is a Mariners fan out there who wants a Ketel One Marte card numbered to 99, then I've got he or she covered too.  Can't complain about that!
And finally -- yes, there was more -- I got a box of those Black Allen & Ginter cards from this year:



A Braun and a Molitor mini were my only Brewers. The autograph in my box was of Colorado Rockies catcher -- and the preseason #97 prospect according to Baseball America -- Tom Murphy. Murphy is 25 and has had a couple of major league callups the past two years, totaling 88 plate appearances and hitting 8 home runs. Murphy will get every chance next spring to be the catcher for the Rockies -- or at least the short side of a platoon with lefty hitting Tony Wolters. Despite playing only 12 games, Murphy had a higher WAR (0.6) than Nick Hundley (79 games, 0.1 WAR) or Dustin Garneau (23 games, 0.1 WAR).

So, I guess I'm hopeful that Murphy might grow up some day to be a real player. And when he does, he needs to make sure that he isn't afraid to climb those golden stairs.

Many thanks go out to Jeff Heckman at Topps for these great cards. While I appreciate them greatly, it will not stop me from criticizing Topps when it deserves it. After all, everyone needs someone who will give them a reality check.