Organizing and Reorganizing

Watching card content on social media and YouTube these days, I feel like a total Old Guy. So many folks got back into collecting during COVID--at the same time as I was sitting it out and trying not to get sick--that my having gotten back into the hobby initially in 2014 makes me feel like a veteran. 

But I find myself now questioning how I organized things back in 2014. Perhaps that is because Topps started to issue so many sets, or more pointedly, so many parallels that trying to collect anything more than a few things is a fool's game. Or maybe I just want a new reason/excuse to go through my Brewers collection again. 

Either way, I am thinking about reorganzing my Topps binders in particular as follows:

1. The "Flagship" binder: for use with the base Topps set and the Traded/Update set and perhaps other similar use of the flagship design (like 1st Edition or the 1994 Bilingual set).

2012 Update Ryan Braun All-Star SP

2. The "Tobacco" Binder: This one is for Topps 206, A&G, Gypsy Queen (RIP), Turkey Red, and other similar sets.

3. The 1990s Originals: An excuse to put Finest and Stadium Club (and their spinoffs) into their own binder together.

4. Chrome: For Chrome and its many, many variants. 

Garrett Mitchell's 2023 Logofractor

5. Kid-Oriented: A place to put Topps Kids, Big League, Big, Fire, Holiday, Bunt, and Opening Day (RIP), among others

Some numbered to 99 Fire Variant from 2018

6. On Demand: Everything from Topps Now to Throwback Thursdays to the oversized moneygrabs to the Steve Aoki collaborations

7. Higher End: Things like Museum Collection, Tribute, Triple Threads, Sterling, Five Star, Inception, etc.

I couldn't leave this Aramis Ramirez Museum Collection Copper behind at a recent card show

8. Archives: The binder for recycled Designs and the mixed retired player/current player sets of that ilk, like Heritage, Archives, Archives Signature Series, All-Time Fan Favorites, Cracker Jack, and anything similar

9. Regularly Revisited: Stuff like Gallery, Pristine, maybe Rookie Cup, maybe Topps Total, maybe High Tek--the sets that get issued maybe three or four years in a row, then go away, then return again in five or six years. 

10. The One-Offs/Limited Runs: A parking lot to put the Yugos of Topps's history, like DIII, Embossed, Bazooka, Co-Signers, Ticket to Stardom, Unique, Attax, Legacy, American Pie, HD, Stars--things that were out for maybe 3-4 years at the most, perhaps consecutively, which are out there.

11. Oddballs/Food Sets/Promo Sets: Everything from Supers in the early 1970s to Scratchoffs in 1981 to the Drake's sets to the Post Cereal sets of the early 2000s to those bubble packed Team sets to the recent Baseball Card Day stadium giveaways. 

This set helped set socks in 2019. 

The obvious point is that I can organize my cards in any way that I feel like organizing them. But I feel like I want the parallels and inserts to be with the base set from each year instead of being in different binders--that it would be easier to organize my collection in that way. 

My question to you all--especially you team collectors--is this:

How do you have your cards organized? Binders? Boxes? By Player? By Manufacturer?

I'd love to hear how y'all do it.  

Cards from Neosho Drive Me to Drink

I have lived in Georgia now for nearly 21 years. I have lived some place other than Wisconsin for 25 of the past 26 years. What that means is that, for the most part, I have finally rid myself of my Wisconsin accent. It took quite a bit of time, but eventually I got over some of those verbal ticks. 

Like some of those described (and heard) in this video.

I probably still have some of these issues, but I learned a few things about my own speech and the speech I hear when I go back to Wisconsin. It makes me laugh, though, to hear it.

Recently on Twitter, I got in an exchange with a recent addition there -- a fellow who goes by the name of Brewers Signatures. He asked me if I wanted some cards that no longer fit his collection that are all Brewers cards. So, in honor of these cards coming from Neosho -- which is not far from where I grew up -- I thought I'd go all in on celebrating Wisconsin and its drinking.

I know -- how terrible to celebrate alcohol? Right? If you think that, well, you've never lived in Wisconsin.

1.  Wisconsin Is a Drunk Place ... Everywhere

Recently, a list of the twenty drunkest cities in America came out. These cities were identified by self-reported binge drinking and heavy drinking rates using various health studies. Of the top 20, TWELVE were in Wisconsin -- and 6 of the top 7 were. In order from bottom to top: 17. Milwaukee/Waukesha/West Allis; 16. Janesville/Beloit; 15. Racine; 12. Sheboygan; 11. Wausau; 9. Eau Claire; 7. Fond du Lac; 6. LaCrosse/Onalaska; 4. Madison; 3. Green Bay; 2. Oshkosh/Neenah; and 1. Appleton.

Only one other state -- North Dakota -- had more than one location (Fargo & Grand Forks, but, then again, that is almost all of North Dakota).

So, what drives me to drink? Panini Prizm. Actually, there were quite a few very colorful parallels from 2012 -- it looks almost Christmasy with these two cards together! 

Martin Maldonado (Twitter: @Machete1224) has hung around Milwaukee as Jonathan Lucroy's backup since coming up in 2011 for one plate appearance. Maldonado is not beyond help as a hitter, to be fair -- he tends to hit a few homers and draws some walks at times. Still, he'd be stretched as anything more than a backup based on the 918 plate appearances he's made to date. He's 29, and he's arbitration eligible after this season. He may leave town merely because of that, or he may stick around and bridge the gap between Lucroy and Jacob Nottingham.

2.  Lewis Black on Drinking in Wisconsin (NSFW)

This Lewis Black standup is entirely one that could only be done in Wisconsin. Only people in Wisconsin -- or people who have gone to Wisconsin -- can understand what he means. One funny line is him wondering what it is that Wisconsin people do on New Year's Eve considering how much they drink the rest of the year. It's worth a listen to understand my people.

Personally, I had to give up on that. First off, it's just not as easy to rebound from a night of drinking when you're in your mid-40s as it was back in my 20s. Second, I moved from Wisconsin at the ages of both 18 and 23, so the locals there will say that I got out of practice. Third and most importantly, I use my brain too much for work. I have to be able to think. So, for me, it's weekends only at best for a drink -- except, perhaps, if I meet up with friends for one or two drinks on a very rare occasion.

Yes, more 2012 Panini Prizm Parallels. To be fair, the parallels look much better than the base cards do. The base cards -- all silver borders everywhere -- are flat out ugly. The colors at least cover up the lack of logos here. 

The more I see these parallels, the more they are almost acceptable. The real problem with Panini Prizm Parallels -- besides the alliteration, of course -- is that they are more numerous than drunks in a Milwaukee bar on a Friday night. Just like the drunks, these parallels come in all shapes and sizes. And, just like the drunks, they all start to blend together after awhile.

3.  People in WIsconsin LOVE Brandy Old-Fashioneds

This is a rather normal sounding person making this drink. However, it's almost certain that this guy is from Wisconsin. It's practically the official drink of the State of Wisconsin. I mean, if you Google "Brandy Old Fashioned", the first link that comes up is from "Edible Milwaukee" and it's titled, "Wisconsin's (Un)Official State Cocktail."  Wisconsinites love brandy. Korbel Brandy says that they export 385,000 cases of brandy and fully one-third of their entire production -- 139,000 cases -- go to Wisconsin. 

Personally, I never made it to this drink. Perhaps I left the state too soon and got swallowed up by my high-falutin' gin bucks (gin and ginger ale with lemon juice). Perhaps it was that I never really tried one. It doesn't sound terrible, to be fair, but I'm not going to buy the stuff I need to make it for this weekend. Nope, I'll stick to my drink, thanks.

One last tri-color grouping -- this time of Robin Yount -- finishes off the Panini Prizms I got. This card looks far better with the colored outline than with the silver. In silver, Robin's bleached out -- the airbrushing annihilating the pinstripes and making it look like he's wearing his Robin Yount pajamas on the field. I say that because I don't think that is an old enough photo for Robin to have been wearing the mostly white home uniforms from the 1970s.

4. Tailgating in Wisconsin is Different

To people in Wisconsin, tailgating means three things -- cornhole, grilling brats, and drinking a lot of beer. It's not like a southern college football game, either. At a southern football game, the tailgating is sort of refined. People bring lots of food. Sure, there's beer, but bourbon fuels southern football. 

Plus, you would not see people in the South dressed this warmly and looking happy:

Nope. If it's below 40 degrees at a University of Georgia game, you're going to see me very cold and unhappy, like this:

Let's be clear. I'm pretty much a Southerner now, even if I am still a Brewers fan and appreciate these cards:



I am glad I grew up in Wisconsin. I am glad that I am a Brewers fan and a Packers fan. I'm also very glad that I left at age 18, found the South, found a place where winter doesn't last at least 5 months and snow doesn't fall in at least 6 months of every year, and where it is cold when it is below 40 degrees. 

But, I'm especially glad for great people like my new Twitter pal for sending me great Brewers cards to remind me what I left behind.

#SuperTrader Highly Subjective and Completely Awesome

I'm a little behind on sending out cards to the #SuperTraders group. I will be trying to address that later this week; as I mentioned on Bob Walk the Plank, I went with a bit of quantity that hopefully a few people will like/need.

But, I don't want to take away from the great PWE from #SuperTrader Brian at Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary. It's such a refined group of cards, though, so it deserves a refined approach here.

American composer and musical genius/legend Aaron Copland is an American orchestral legend. This movement of the "Statements for Orchestra" called "Subjective" is a very moody and emotive piece that feels unresolved with the use of minor keys and expressive strings.

So, let's talk moody and unresolved. The Brewers traded Lorenzo Cain as part of their "all-in" deal in after the 2010 season, giving up Alcides Escobar, Cain, Jake Odorizzi, and Jeremy Jeffress (who has since returned) in exchange for Greinke and Yuniesky Betancourt. Betancourt is a bête noire among Brewers fans -- mainly because we had to deal with watching him play first base for more than 1/3 of the season in 2013 thanks to injuries to Mat Gamel and Corey Hart. 

Some people wish we could have that Greinke trade in 2010 back, but it was the right deal at the time, and trading Zach in 2012 (for Johnny Hellweg, Ariel Pena, and Jean Segura). Now that Hellweg has signed a minor league deal with the Padres and Segura is a Diamondback right next to Greinke, maybe folks will get over it. Plus, Pena may yet be a useful pitcher.

Bianchi was a utility infielder in 2013, thus earning him a card in that set. He spent last year in the Boston organization, and is a free agent currently. His last name means "white hair" in Italian. For what that's worth.

Let's stick with refined and American but not subjective...

I'd argue that either Copland or Gershwin could be considered America's first major contribution to the world's orchestral music. Gershwin's music to me seemed to have more of a popular bent in its time, combining the hot music of the time -- jazz -- into his compositions seamlessly. In this song, his music is along the lines of a tone poem in evoking a feeling of being in Paris -- with car horns honking, quiet interludes along the Seine, and the rush-rush of the big city.

Not that these evoke feelings of Paris, but the horizontal cards here tend to evoke more of a feeling of being at the park than the way-too-closely-cropped photos that dominate recent cards. As the Braun card says, it's all about perspective.

Richard Rodgers -- of the famous duos of Rodgers & Hart and Rodgers & Hammerstein -- wrote some of the most enduring songs in Broadway's storied history. "Blue Moon" (co-opted by Manchester City), "You'll Never Walk Alone" (co-opted by Liverpool), and "The Lady is a Tramp" (as far as I know, no English football team has adopted this as their song) are some of his best known songs. 

Of course, leading off the musical Oklahoma! is this classic. It is the perfect optimism needed to lead off a show like Oklahoma! 



Speaking of optimism...yes, it's prospect time. The Brewers farm system has gone in two years from being a desolate desert of dying dreams to being jam-packed with top-level prospects and guys with a ton of potential upside. Harrison is an athlete who turned down a football scholarship to Nebraska to play minor league baseball. He is still very raw and has a ways to go to be a contributor -- but people love his upside. 

Taylor was a 21-year-old in Double-A last year in Biloxi. He didn't hit poorly, but he did not show a lot of pop and got passed up in the prospect lists by the massive influx of new talent coming in from trades. He, too, needs to show more this year -- especially in terms of OBP.

Also, yes, I like musicals.

Finally, any discussion of great American composers has to include one of the greatest ever from the only truly American music form -- jazz. Duke Ellington elevated jazz -- adding in orchestral flair to his arrangements that many jazz performers of the 1920s lacked. In many respects, Ellington took jazz from being a pop music based around jam sessions and fast playing improvisation to having a bit more structure. Of course Ellington's band could jam and improv with anyone in the day, but they also were tight and played like no other band of the time.

His work in jazz earned him a special posthumous Pulitzer Prize for music in 1999.

The most special card in the package from Brian is this awesome yellow printing plate from 2016 Topps. I have to admit -- I'm a sucker for a printing plate. I just love them. I am not willing to pay exorbitant prices for them but I am always super excited when I get one in a trade or find one I like for, say, around or under $15 to $20.  

Brian, thank you very much for the awesome envelope. My #SuperTrader announcement on what I have special to send out will come tomorrow, hopefully (assuming that my purchase arrives!).

Blowing it Up

With the Brewers being godawful terrible right from the get-go this year, it was only a matter of time before the team made some trades. I've talked about it here before -- this iteration of the Milwaukee Brewers had to be blown up.

It started last week with the return of Aramis Ramirez to the Pirates for what qualifies as a lottery ticket.

#Pirates, #Brewers have now announced trade sending Aramis Ramirez to Pittsburgh. Read more: http://t.co/52bBMot4y2 pic.twitter.com/eiKJlQc1Zf

— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) July 23, 2015

In that trade, the Brewers received Yhonathan Barrios, a 23-year-old Columbian who started his baseball life as an infielder. He's in Triple-A, has a live arm, but has the typical problem that position players who transition to pitching have -- his fastball is straight and hitters don't really miss it all that much (K/9 in high-A in 2014 was 5.4, Double-A in 2014 and 2015 was 4.2, and Triple-A in 2015 was 5.2).  

The Brewers assigned him to Double-A Biloxi.  Barrios probably is not a prospect -- I mean, how many minor league closers really are prospects?  But, the Brewers probably need to find out quickly what he can do since he will be subject to the Rule 5 Draft if the Brewers don't put him on their 40-man roster.

Then, yesterday, there was this drama:

ICYMI: Carlos Gomez said goodbye, Wilmer Flores wept, but there was no #Brewers-Mets trade http://t.co/etOdGFmGKV pic.twitter.com/ZrsUk3hhcl

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) July 30, 2015

We learned a couple of things yesterday. First, we learned that Terry Collins didn't mind completely embarrassing one of his players during a very emotional time. I don't care if the trade never was consummated. The fact that Flores was that emotional and the fact that Collins did absolutely nothing to help the guy out before pinch hitting for him in the ninth inning shows me that Collins doesn't care about his players.

We also learned that the Mets were willing to lie to every news outlet in America when they said that they nixed the trade because of Gomez's adductor and hip muscles. Hell, their reasons kept changing, but the story that seems to have emerged -- and was more plausible than a health issue -- was that the Mets asked the Brewers to pick up part of Gomez's 2016 salary and the Brewers refused. Considering that Gomez is on a team-friendly deal for next year, I can't blame the Brewers for refusing.  

Then, tonight, as I sat down to write this post, this happened:

OF Carlos Gomez, RHP Mike Fiers, International Slot 76 to Hou for OF Brett Phillips, OF Domingo Santana, LHP Josh Hader & RHP Adrian Houser.

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 30, 2015

At first, I didn't know what to think, mainly due to my lack of knowledge about the Astros system.  Who are these guys?

Adrian Houser was the Astros second round pick in 2011 out of high school in Oklahoma. He's a 22-year-old who has not shown much at Double-A this year in the Texas League. He's the one guy who isn't universally on prospect lists, but MLB.com listed him as #21 in the Astros organization as of mid-season.

Josh Hader is now in his third organization in three years. He was drafted by the Orioles in 2011, and the Astros picked him up as part of trading Bud Norris to the O's in 2013. Hader was the Astros Minor League pitcher of the year in 2014 after an excellent year in the California League (and a taste of Double-A) at the age of 20.  He's been very good in Double-A in the Texas League this year, and he'll join the rest of the Brewers top prospects in Biloxi (as will Houser and Phillips).  MLB.com put him as the 14th best Astros prospect as of mid-season.

Domingo Santana is the most advanced of the four prospects in that he is at Triple-A and will be assigned by Milwaukee to Colorado Springs. In Fresno, he was hitting .320/.426/.582 with 16 HRs, 48 BBs, 91 Ks in 326 plate appearances.  It's his second season at Triple-A. He looked terribly overmatched last year when the Astros brought him up for a cup of coffee in September -- as in, 0-for-17 with 14 strikeouts overmatched.  This year, in 14 games, he hit .256/.310/.462 in 42 plate appearances (but, again, a lot of Ks and not many BBs -- 2 BB, 17 Ks).  Coming in to the season, he was rated as the #71 Prospect in baseball by MLB.com (he dropped to #87 at mid-season), and as of mid-season he was the #7 prospect in Houston's system.

Finally, there is Brett Maverick Phillips.  No kidding. That's his name. It should surprise no one to hear that Brett Maverick was born and raised in Seminole, Florida. He was drafted out of high school in the sixth round in 2012 by the Astros, and he was considered untouchable until the Brewers were willing to put Mike Fiers into the deal.  He's an outfielder who has been raking at the plate over the past two years -- .310/.375/.529 last year in the Midwest League and California League and .320/.377/.548 in the California League and the Double-A Texas League this year. He was rated as the Astros 2nd best prospect at mid-season behind Alex Bregman and ahead of Mark Appel and as the 39th best prospect overall.

For me, there's a little bit of sadness, of course, in having one of the guys I really tried to collect in Carlos Gomez getting traded. At this point, though, I'm okay with it. I mean, he does have Scott Boras as his agent. So, that means that he would have never re-signed with Milwaukee after his contract expired at the end of next season. He'll be 31 when he starts the season in 2017, so you have to think he'll be looking for a very rich 5- to 7-year deal -- probably with the Yankees or Cardinals just to piss me off.

So, thanks, Carlos, it's been great collecting your cards.

Maybe I should start a Maverick collection.

Who Is Bob Walk?

Never fear -- this is not another one of those "Jeopardy!" posts.  Instead, to highlight another great bubblope from Vegas refugee Matt at Bob Walk the Plank, I thought, "what do we really know about his blog's namesake, Bob Walk?"  

Well, since Matt sent me five cards, how about we pick up five random facts about Bob Walk from Wikipedia and a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review interview with Walk from three years ago. 

1.  Bob Walk Fact 1: Walk Was Warmed Up and Ready to Pitch in the Bullpen when Stan Belinda allowed *that* hit to Francisco Cabrera in 1992

While Wikipedia has no source for this claim, the Washington Post mentioned it in an article two years ago as well in mentioning that, prior to 2013, the Pirates last winning season was that year in 1992.

A guy who played for the Pirates in that long losing spell was current Brewer Aramis Ramirez.

This great jersey bit from the 2015 Donruss set -- complete with a pinstripe! -- starts off the proceedings.  

Having nothing to do with that interesting tidbit about Bob Walk but still odd is the following fact: while Aramis Ramirez claims he is retiring after this season, he actually retired after last year and has been replaced by a bottle of Aramis cologne at third base.

Actually, that spokesmodel would probably hit better than Ramirez has this year.

2.  Bob Walk Fact 2: Bob Walk was the Starting Pitcher in Game 1 of the 1980 World Series for the Philadelphia Phillies

When asked about that start when the Pirates visited the Phillies in 2012, Walk said that all he though in the bullpen was, "Hey, all my buddies at home are looking at me now! . . . Like I said I think I was too young and dumb to be as nervous as I should've been."

A guy for Milwaukee who really never seemed nervous -- but not because he was young and dumb, but rather because that was just his personality -- was Ben Oglivie. Oglivie was a very intelligent man who completed the New York Times Crossword Puzzle every day.  And, he started in Game 1 in the 1982 World Series for Milwaukee. 

This is my first "certified" Ben Oglivie autograph, though I have a few already that I got in person way back when.

3.  Bob Walk Fact 3: The guy loves chicken wings.

In his interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the following colloquy occurred:

App I wish I could invent:

Find the nearest chicken wings.

Favorite brunch food

Chicken wings.

Favorite guilty pleasure:

Chicken wings.

Hand it to Bob -- he's consistent.

Relevant to absolutely nothing at all related to chicken wings is this 2004 Fleer Genuine Insiders Reflections Parallel, serial numbered to 99:

As far as I can tell, Geoff Jenkins has never spoken about any kind of love he has for chicken wings.

4.  Bob Walk Fact 4:  The Braves Released Walk in March of 1984. He became an NL All-Star in 1988.  Great Job, Ted Turner!

Mistakes in player personnel decisions plagued the Braves in the early and mid-1980s. That's why they were so bad in the late 1980s -- signing Bruce Sutter to that ridiculous contract, for one, and cutting a guy like Walk for another.  Well, maybe.  Could the Braves have foreseen Walk cutting his walks allowed in half? Sure -- if you say that the walk rate going up the way it did in 1983 in the minors was the aberration and not the new normal.

Another player personnel move that could have been second guessed a lot was the return for Greg Vaughn in 1996. The team got Bryce Florie, Marc Newfield, and Ron Villone in return. One never knows what other options were available or whether the market for sellers was depressed, but that just seems low for a guy with 5 or 6 years left in his career.  

No matter.  Here's one Greg Vaughn:

It comes from last years Fan Favorites autographs.  The Brewers don't have any of those autographs in the mix this year, perhaps because Topps believes the Brewers don't have fans.

5.  Bob Walk Fact 5: He believes life would be better without the Designated Hitter

Well, of course he would.  He wasn't a very good hitter -- career line of .145/.180/.180 in 583 plate appearances. 

Maybe Walk just hates Greg Vaughn, whose best natural position was designated hitter. Perhaps, but Walk couldn't hate this card:

From the 2015 Topps Tier One Acclaimed Autographs subset, this Vaughn is serial numbered 29 of 399. I've never hated the designated hitter, to be fair -- I mean, it saved Paul Molitor's career, after all.  

Matt, thank you very much for these great cards. I'm sure you didn't learn anything from this short run through random Bob Walkdom, but perhaps someone did.

PWEs in the War with JBF

As we speak, bubble mailers are making their way to Alabama, to carry the word of Off Hiatus.  Propaganda in war is as much a part of the game as bullets and boxes, after all.  One wins or loses wars not only with dropping bombs, but with dropping leaflets.

The leaflets heading to Alabama have shown Off Hiatus's superiority to date.  Don't get me wrong -- the PWEs I have received have been excellent, and the number of serial numbered cards and jersey/bat inserts are large.  But, as JBF himself admitted, Off Hiatus prevailed in the first round.  And that win was based not on serial numbers, but on vintage and oddballs.

We will see how future rounds proceed.  To be fair, I am expecting that, eventually, I too will be as overwhelmed as Bob Walk the Plank became...and let's be honest, if Matt can get overwhelmed, there's no way I will avoid it.

Wes hit my mailbox machine-gun style in the first days of the war.  On the first day, there was one PWE, then two, then three, then four...and then five and six.

Those five and six showed up on the same day here in Georgia.  Here's what that looked like:

Yes, eleven PWEs!

Let's just run right through these, same as we did before, but rather than posting all of the cards, I will hit the highlights.

From Envelope one, JBF hits me right in the Player Collections.  We have the Peter Gabriel parallel from 2014 (that's what I call it...it's red rain, pouring down...) and a Rickie Weeks All-Star Game work-out Jersey relic from the 2011 Topps Update set.  

What about PWE 2?  More PC cards.  There's a B.J. Surhoff as a Toys 'R' Us Kid, er, Rookie and then two Yo's -- one from 2010 Upper Deck at the plate (and Gallardo was/is an excellent hitter...too bad he is in DH land now in Texas) and one piece of his jersey or undershirt or arm sleeve from Gypsy Queen.  Very nice indeed!

Now, the third envelope didn't have any PC guys, but it did have a beautifully framed John Axford Allen & Ginter relic, with the frame color-coordinated with the color of the relic.  If Topps did that more often for its relics, I would not complain!

On the other hand, the fourth PWE had four PC cards -- two more Surhoffs, a Plesac Sportsflics card, and a Burnitz swatch in lovely gray nylon:

PWE #5 was highlighted by some mid-2000s cards that I did not have an a relic from the same time from from the much-traveled Chris Capuano (who is making his 2015 debut for the Yankees as I write this) and a card from the equally well-traveled Mike Cameron:

Halfway there.  

Yes, halfway...this next one is the middle envelope -- or the median, for you math guys.  This one is highlighted by a Yellow Deer, a color-coordinated Ramirez, and a Cobra sighting.

The next envelop had another B.J. Surhoff card that I needed (this time for the team collection), a Chris Johnson pitcher-type who never made it past Double-A and probably got on this card through a nice win-loss record (13-6) and ERA (2.98) in 1990, and Johnny Estrada Relic.  I'd almost forgotten he was a Brewer.

Envelope 8: It's a Rickie Weeks Wal-Mart Parallel from 2014 and a Bill Hall NL Artifact from Upper Deck serial numbered 45 of 50 -- Sweet!

The 9th envelope of the eleven brought another Wal-Mart Parallel -- this time of Khris Davis -- and a full-sized card relic from 2014 Allen & Ginter of PC guy Jean Segura (who appears to be playing pretty well despite finding himself on the DL currently):

The tenth envelope had the one card from before 1980 that popped up in the PWEs and a Carlos Lee "Ovation Apparel" relic:

And, finally, we have a Robin Yount sighting...it's a 1983 Topps card that I have already, but it's still a Robin, and it was accompanied by an autograph from a guy who didn't last long in the Milwaukee system named Tim Bausher:

Bauser started with the Seattle system in 2001, got released, pitching in the indie leagues for a little while in 2003 where the Brewers saw him and signed him.  Bausher has a Brewers uniform on him -- probably from his time in Beloit in 2003 -- but, by the time this 2004 card was issued, Bausher had moved on to Colorado's Double-A Tulsa affiliate. By 2005, Bausher was in Triple-A with the Red Sox organization. In 2006, he moved on to the Reds organization.  For 2007, he was with the Royals system, got bombed in Double-A Wichita, and ended up in the Independent leagues again at the age of 28.  That's where Baseball Reference loses him.

So, now, for me, it's on to battle a monster.  The first monster, actually:

Pray for me, y'all.