This week, I'm starting the week with a post about a card that I got from JT at the Writer's Journey.
I'll admit it: I had never heard of Bert Kaempfert before this song. Of course, Kaempfert wrote such standards as "Strangers in the Night" and Wayne Newton's signature song "Danke Schoen." Perhaps I should have heard of him before this song.
Anyway, back to baseball cards. Last year, Topps had a bunch of online exclusives that they sold in sets of anywhere from 5 to 8 cards and which were available only for a week. They were called the "Throwback Thursday" collection. While I promised not to rant as much this year, this one's worth a rant. Topps issued a total of 185 "Throwback" cards last year, with designs ranging from the 1988 Topps Glossy All-Stars Design to 1957-58 Basketball (showing guys like Lou Brock and Satchel Paige but annoyingly talking about the card design instead of the player on the back).
So, these cards look great, in my opinion. It's fun to see old football card designs used for baseball. In fact, that might be a better use for Topps Archives.
Amongst the 185 Throwback cards, there were SIXTEEN cards that had Aaron Judge on it (and 21 cards with the Yankees). There were, though, three teams that only got featured on 1 card. I'm pretty sure the "most disdained" team has to be the Detroit Tigers. The only representation they got was having Michael Fulmer on a 1997-98 Bowman's Best Basketball "Mirror Image" design with Aaron Judge (they shared being rookies of the year, you see, so that makes them mirror images).
Otherwise, the other two team to get the "one-card" shrift both got their single card in the same "set." 475 people purchased the TBT set featuring the 1968 Topps Baseball Design -- a true cop out set in light of the fact that it was the Heritage design already last year -- and those 475 people got the only cards featuring a Cincinnati Red (Johnny Bench) and the only card featuring a Milwaukee Brewer -- Paul Molitor.
The backs of these cards each note that this set -- "Throwback Thursday Set 5" -- all featured players that did not have their own rookie cards by themselves. All of them (Bench, Molitor, Andre Dawson, Nolan Ryan, Carlton Fisk, and Willie Stargell) had to share.
This kind of money grab is where I'm fine with Topps being completely oblivious to the fact that baseball exists outside of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Even though this is a really cool looking card -- which I am very thankful to JT for sending to me -- I'm 100% okay with Topps soaking all the Judgeaholics and taking their $20 a pop every single week.
That's right Topps -- just give them The Judge.
My thanks again to JT for the excellent addition to my Paul Molitor collection!
I sometimes think that I have an oddly organized brain. It stores random trivia and song lyrics at a frightening pace, for instance. Weird connections between the two make it so that the song generator in my head kicks off if you say a random word to me. Do that, and pretty soon I can't stop hearing the song "Requiem for a Dying Song" in my head for hours.
For whatever reason, one of those word associations in my head has attached Pearl Jam's song "Whipping" to the card-collecting-world-famous Zippy Zappings from Kenny, the proprietor of Torren' Up Cards.
Other than the ending of each word being "pping", I have no idea why my brain ties these two disparate things together. Hell, the song is almost as old as Kenny is. But, that's the way things work for me.
So, after a long week away in planning meetings and, also, a fair amount of fun too, let's see where my brain goes with this Zapping.
Kenny sent me a package with four portions: three "packs" of cards, and a "loose" pack. Let's start "loose" and go from there:
These are from a 2008 Upper Deck/Kellogg's promotion from Japan. Ryan from "This Card Is Cool" mentioned this set (along with the related sets from 2007, 2009, and 2010) on his blog in March of 2015. I am not surprised that, as best I can tell, there are not any Milwaukee Brewers in any of these sets. Disappointed, perhaps, but not surprised.
In typing that paragraph up, my brain went to a very dark place.
Now, let me defend my brain. I spent Wednesday through Saturday this week at a planning retreat for the American Bar Association Forum on Construction Law group. I'm a division chair within that organization, and our planning retreat was held at the Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, North Carolina. I'm not a golfer, so on Friday my wife and I headed to the pool -- not to bake in the sun, mind you, but rather to get a beer, hang out, people watch a bit, and generally decompress. It didn't suck. Well, until this damn song came on over the music at the pool. So, for the first time in about 8 years, I heard it and it got stuck in my brain for a little while. Then, the dark thoughts about no Brewers come up and there you are. Next!
This is the 1990 version of the ACE Novelty MVP pin. Like most things that are Robin Yount items, I need not look any further than the Cynical Buddha for more information to share with you. CB's post shows the full packaging in which this pin came. Indeed, I have an unopened package that I purchased somewhere and at some point in the last two years.
Where's this go?
My wondering where I got the unopened pin leads me here. Someone apparently took a digital video of the movie "An American Tail" as seen through a fishtank and posted this video. Next?
I love the Sega Card Gen cards, and Kenny sent me two Jonathan Lucroy cards (from 2011 and 2012) along with this K-Rod card. K-Rod features, though, because seeing the card flipped a switch in my head.
If you listen to a bit of the song, you'll know why I couldn't avoid this link.
This Kraft Singles Superstars is from Canada. I swear that Kenny's mailings might cover the most actual countries of origin than nearly any other trader I've ever met. I'm just waiting for him to unearth some Korean cards.
Another natural association. Canadian. Kraft Dinners. It's nearly a Pavlovian response in my head. It seems so obvious to me that I'm afraid people will think my head is filled with cliches. Topps's airbrushing in the 1970s was often clumsy and terrible. This is as opposed to its Photoshopping in its current cards where it's not quite as obvious that the photo has been changed except for the actual facts about the player pictured -- you know, showing game action of a draft pick in the major league uniform, for existence. Making the 1970s clumsiness more obvious is that Money is in pinstripes. Milwaukee's uniforms did not have pinstripes until 1978; Money's team in 1972 -- the Phillies -- did. Ken Berry's change on his uniform isn't as obvious (though Milwaukee did not wear gray any year that I can see), but that hat is a clear airbrush job since Berry had not played for Milwaukee when the card was issued in 1974.
The satin hats led my brain to old, old school country music and Jeannie Pruett's signature song, "Satin Sheets." I guess the oddity is that this song is in my head at all in the first place, though it did spend three weeks atop the Country Music charts in 1973. My mom's listening to country music in the 1970s must have put it into my RAM around then.
In prospecting circles, most people recognize 21-year-old Brewers prospect Orlando Arcia as one of the top prospects in the minor leagues. Intriguingly, the Brewers have been playing Orlando at second base in the past week, leading me to wonder if the team might keep Jonathan Villar (currently leading the National League in stolen bases...and also in caught stealing...but generally having an excellent season) at short for a little while and break Arcia in at short. But, in the story about Arcia, Brewers GM David Stearns denied any position change was in the works. We'll see. But, where does my head go with that Bowman yellow Orlando staring at me?
Of course. It's Tony Orlando and Dawn with their song about coming home after three years in prison, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon." There's nothing like a good soft-rock song about an ex-con making demands on his girlfriend/family, is there?
After listening to the song and knowing its words, it strikes me as a bit off that this song -- and its yellow ribbons -- got co-opted to become a national symbol for soldiers off at war or even people being held as hostages. As that Library of Congress website explains, its symbolism extends well back into the U.S. Civil War, so it's not quite as obvious or crazy as it first may seem.
Thank you, Kenny, for the great cards -- only a few of which I've shared here. They are excellent!
Of course I'm lying. I received an excellent envelope in the mail today from north of the border -- Ontario, to be exact. Mike from Not Another Baseball Card Blog packaged up some Brewers to send my way in response to a package I sent to him. I made him wait quite a while to get the cards I sent his way, so I was very happy when the return envelope came my way. I know that I can be slow to send out packages to others at times, so I never take any offense when others take a while to send me cards. Heck, I am pretty sure that I have sent out packages of cards to folks on more than one occasion that I'm pretty sure weren't reciprocated. You know what? It doesn't really bother me. All that said, these cards -- and Mike's blog -- have a distinctly Canadian feel, so it's Canadian music time. I'll start with a song that was stuck in my head literally all day until I listened to the whole song at about 2 PM this afternoon:
If I were more ambitious, I'd probably go to see The Strumbellas (a Juno-award winning Toronto band whose music has been called "folk popgrass") live this weekend for free for a St. Patrick's Day Party here in Atlanta this Saturday. Instead, I'm pretty sure that -- if it isn't raining -- I'll have a lot of yard work to do.
I'm praying for rain.
Anyway, here are some cards to go with that very catchy tune:
A literal fistful of O-Pee-Chee cards! Now, I wouldn't expect to receive anything less from a Canadian collector. Or rather, I'm pleased to see that junk wax Canadian-style is as ubiquitous in Canada as it is here in the United States.
Now, I just need to find some of those 1990 Fleer "Printed in Canada" cards. Are those things legitimately rare, or are they just rare because I'm in the Southern United States?
What's next on the Canada playlist?
I went through a period where I was really listened to a lot of Flogging Molly. By way of that, and back on Yahoo radio or something crazy like that which no longer exists, I heard of both the Dropkick Murphys and this band from Vancouver -- The Real McKenzies. Whenever I was in a super-contemplative mood, I'd listen to this song. When I wanted upbeat music, I'd listen to this:
I mean, what's better than punk music with bagpipes?
Absolutely nothing. Don't even try.
Cal Eldred recognized in his photo 22 years ago that he would be competing with -- and losing badly to -- such fantastic music. It's pretty clear, though, that Greg Vaughn is happy just to be associated with it. Okay, time for some 90s Canadian music...
Sure, Our Lady Peace sounded like maple-syrup grunge to a lot of people, probably. But "Starseed" is a damn good song from a band that really is underrated in my opinion. At the same time, though, I did hear this song a ton in the mid-1990s, so perhaps they aren't underrated at all. Dude! Mid-90s Finest? AWESOME! Maybe it's just that I wasn't around for these cards when they were new, but these just struck me as being really great cards today. It sort of like listening to some of those 1990s bands again "for the first time" today -- it can be very surprising how ... good some of the songs/cards are. Now, for the early/mid 2000s....
Maybe it hasn't been long enough since this song was released. I haven't listened to this song in a long time. If I'm honest -- and unlike "Starseed" -- I could have done without hearing this song. For whatever reason, this song sounds like it is the musical personification of Johnny Knoxville and "Jackass"...and to be honest, I've never been a fan of that. Can't tell you a good reason why other than it just doesn't appeal to me. Anyway, don't get me wrong -- I didn't turn off the radio when Sum 41 came on. But, I was okay when the song ended and Jimmy Eats World started playing.
Again, don't get me wrong about these cards either. They are cool, in that I need them for my team collection. And these guys even did reasonably well for the Brewers (well, other than Rigdon and his career FIP of 5.67 with Milwaukee). I just don't mind when the next card comes off the pile.
Finally, let's move back to more contemporary times.
While I've heard songs off Arcade Fire's first album Funeral, I really got into the band when they released Neon Bible with such great songs as "Keep the Car Running" and "No Cars Go." "Reflektor" is a song that I've liked since it was released a couple of years ago.
I will say, though, that one bad thing about having Spotify at my fingertips is that I don't often listen to full albums any more. I really should listen to this full album.
This song was hitting the alternative charts around the time I got back into collecting and into blogging a couple of years ago -- 2014 -- just like the coup de grâce of this envelope from Mike:
This is just fantastic. I tried for many months back in 2014 to pick up one of these at a decent -- not even reasonable...just decent price -- and failed. Since then, they seem to elude me regularly. So, for this card to have been included in this cross-border trade package is unbelievable. Mike, you're awesome dude! Thank you SO much for these cards! And I never even played Barenaked Ladies!
It's pretty well known around the blogosphere that I love oddballs. As a kid, whenever I'd see one of those 33-card or 44-card sets at a toy store, a drug store, or a grocery store, I'd throw down the dollar or two and buy it. If I heard about a food company using cards as a giveaway, I'd suddenly have a craving for three boxes of granola or macaroni and cheese or potato chips.
With that reputation, I probably should not have been surprised by the contents of the second and third boxes of Monster #5 from Jaybarkerfan. After the cruel attack on my home in box 1, it was clear that things could not get worse...well, unless the other two boxes were filled with cards of Will Clark and the 1981 New York Yankees.
Thankfully, they were far better.
Box 2: The Unopened Packs
In case you were wondering, this box was still random.
JBF said so:
As a kid, I'd save up my nickels, dimes, and quarters to buy packs of cards. JBF gave me a kickstart toward a new pack:
I imagine that this nickel could still be used to buy things, even if it is anywhere from 77 to 102 years old. The date for this coin cannot be determined, however, as the date for the coin has worn off through normal circulation. Originally, the date would appear on the shoulder on the heads side of the coin -- as raised numerals. Those numerals frequently wore off through usual circulation. But still, this is a cool coin.
On the other hand, I don't think I'll be able to get too many packs in return for this:
See, this is why it is good we have an international contingent in the blogosphere. I can guess at what this 1 guilder note says, I could try using Google translate, but instead, I'm calling out toThe Dutch Card Guy for help -- Jeroen, help!
The box, though, contained a ton of packs for me to open, so I'm not going to need to spend the nickel or my 1 guilder note any time soon.
Yes, those boxes were filled with unopened packs:
Laid out on the floor, that box looked like this:
And another one...
Laid out on the floor, that box looked like this:
And finally:
That box contained a bunch of non-sports packs:
In total, here's what all those packs looked like back in the priority mail box:
I tore through nearly all of those packs too. I haven't opened all of them -- I did not open the non-sports stuff, and I saved a couple of rack packs for reasons that will be clear in a second. There were definitely some highlights for me in those packs.
Actually, let's start with those rack pack highlights -- the ones I left unopened. They remained unopened because they are going into player collections:
There were two rack packs with this Paul Molitor Glossy All-Star in them. I chose to keep this one sealed because, well, it had two Hall of Famers on the front and because I've met Brett Butler when he lived here and he's a good guy.
Another Molitor rack pack with two Hall of Famers on the front that goes into the Paul Molitor collection.
Never mind the Hall of Famer in the middle -- it's Dan Plesac on the left that I care about, and it's that fact that puts this rack pack into the Plesac player collection.
Of course, I couldn't NOT open those other packs. Here are a few highlights:
The Yount and Lucroy Gypsy Queens came in the same pack, which happens to me never. The other cards were needed for the team collection or for a player collection. So, these packs overall were not all that fruitful for Brewers cards, but they still were fun to tear through.
Box 3: Box Sets
Box 3 is best introduced by some Canadians:
Yes, that was Barenaked Ladies singing "Box Set" off their album "Gordon," which was released in 1992...which makes me feel even older than my 43 years.
What did Box 3 look like?
More random doom? Sign me up. Just please, no more Gigli.
The first thing to pop out?
A 35-year-old Brewers program from the Opening Series against the Boston Red Sox in 1980. The big news for the 1980 season was the fact that County Stadium had gotten a brand new scoreboard -- touted inside as begin the "World's Most Advanced Scoreboard System" and featuring "more than 32,000 40-watt light bulbs." Indeed, that scoreboard appears in the first Major League movie on many occasions, including in this clip at the 1:09 mark.
Those of us in Milwaukee chuckled that the advertisement for our local NBC station, WTMJ 4, stayed up. Also, if you look closely during some of the early scenes in the movie -- the part where the Indians are sucking -- you can see that the clock on the scoreboard shows that the producers did not adjust the clock to proper game times. Often, you can see that they were filming in the morning at Milwaukee County Stadium (if you can't tell it by the lighting, you can see the clock at 20 minutes till 11 AM at least once or twice). All thanks to that state of the art scoreboard with all the 40-watt light bulbs. What else was in this box? Ask my buddy Gus what he sees:
Yes, more unopened packs and some bags of randomness, but also two 800-count-sized boxes filled with boxed sets from the 1980s and 1990s! Indeed, as you might be able to see, there were a few repacks in this box and a graded card. Of whom?
Former Milwaukee Buck Andrew Bogut. It's a 9.5! Maybe, though, I should try my hand at freeing him. I mean, I won't be heartbroken if I damage this card, to be fair, and I'm not sure that it holds all *that* much value as a graded card...we'll see. Now, I haven't fully catalogued all of them, but I did find two sets from Woolworths that were $1.99 each back in 1986. They featured 33 cards and one stick of gum. And, as you can see in the photo below, they both each still had their gum inside. Yes, 29-year-old gum, and in both boxes, they were stuck to the back of Gorman Thomas's card. Thankfully, Thomas was a Mariner in this set! At any rate, here's a photo showing the stacks of boxes that were in Monster #5, including the 29-year-old gum.
Sorry, I threw the gum out so it won't be living on to be thrown into another trade package. Actually, for that, I'm not sorry at all. Finally, let me show you a few highlights from the various repacks and bags and boxes in Monster #5, Box 3:
A Ziploc bag filled with Topps Coins from 1988 and 1990!
A 1973 Topps Cy Young card!
Inside that unopened pack of Topps Heritage was this Sandy Koufax insert of "A Legend Retires '66." I get that it is a career retrospective insert set -- and a really nice photo at that -- but it confused me at first to see the caption as "Sandy Notches Shutout at 19."
One of the repacks Bipped me. Not a full on "Bipping" but a single 1986 Topps Update card of the Bipster.
This was a JBF insert -- the 1968 Topps Tommy Davis game card. In case you missed it, Topps Archives is going to use this design for an insert set this year. It's a 33-card insert, and it contains three Brewers in it. I hope I get a few of those thanks to JBF entering me into the Nachos Grande Case Break!
My first First Pitch insert. Macklemore apparently threw out this pitch on a night last year for which the Mariners did a Macklemore bobblehead give away. To be fair, he did a pretty good job of the pitch -- full wind-up and all.
Back to the box:
My God does he look small.
Pat LaFontaine, whose career was destroyed by concussions.
Daren Puppa is sporting a perfect 1990 mullet. Between LaFontaine and Alexandr Mogilny on NHL 95 on Sega, I became a Sabres fan for a while. Puppa was not all that good by that point.
What is one of these Baseball Card Magazine cards doing in a repack?
This one is a card JBF threw in as well. What Cabrera collector would like it?
Il Calcio!
A complete set from Fleer of the 1988 World Series cards.
And, to close things out, a Dave Nilsson from the Upper Deck "Final Edition" from 1991. I broke open that box just to pull Nilsson out. That wraps up Monster #5. I feel like things are actually going my way in this War right now. JBF should be getting to my last few sorties soon, and there is one monster remaining. So, I am certainly not getting cocky about my chances here. But, again, I think my research and the depth of cards available to me here has helped me hold my own in a war that I thought initially would be a lopsided affair. But, again, there's one more Monster to go. We'll see how that turns out.
