Okay, Fine, Here's "Get Outta My Dreams (And Into My Car)"

A few months ago, I received a PWE from Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown. That is nothing out of the ordinary -- Gavin is great at sending out PWEs to people in the blog world, and his generosity is awesome. Knowing my predilection for blogging with music, though, Gavin became the first blogger -- and perhaps, to date, only blogger (note: Zippy Zappy wondering what he did wrong to get Nickelback does not count) -- to make a musical request for the cards he sent.

Gavin specifically requested Billy Ocean and Tears for Fears. I obliged, embedding "Caribbean Queen," "Shout," "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," "Loverboy," "Sowing the Seeds of Love," and "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going" into that post. In the comments, he said, "Next tradepost, we need to work in "Get Out of My Dreams (And Into My Car)" somewhere."

Well, I forgot to do that the next time Gavin sent something. He even tried to set me up, giving me a little Chuck Carr sketch card to work it in. 

Yeah, not so much.

This time around, his hint was less subtle than Chuck Carr:

Thanks, Gavin -- sometimes, I need that obvious help to wake up and remember. I figured I'd lead off with the song so that he wouldn't miss it. So, here it is:

Wait, that's not Billy Ocean. That's Gwar!

Crap. Now I have to find Billy Ocean again.

As always, though, Gavin sent this PWE wrapped in his junk mail -- this time, for Proactiv. He personalized it, though, in a way that really made sense:

Of course, the girl with clear skin always roots for the Brewers. 

To thank Gavin for the cards he sent to me, I thought -- hey, how about I expand Gavin's collections around his hometown and his old schools even more by pointing out some potentially obvious additions that should be made?

Let start with a supercollection that he should start -- the Girl from Granite Hills collection.

Indeed, Gavin's been holding out or, else, he doesn't check Wikipedia as religiously as I do when I'm looking for ideas on themes for a post. Because when I read the entry for Granite Hills High School, I learned that "model" and "actress" Julia Schultz was a member of the class of 1997 from GHHS. 

Julia Schultz?

Julia Schultz. Well, she is Mrs. Brett Tomko (so there's your baseball angle), and she went to Gavin's high school. That card can be yours for just $2.99 plus $0.99 shipping! Act now!

In terms of her acting career, she appeared in the movie Tomcats, where she simulates fellatio on Jerry O'Connell (you can find it yourself if you Google her name and click on Videos....I'm going to stay away from linking to it, though). She was also in Rush Hour 2 as "Tex's Girlfriend". She appeared as herself in a few Playboy videos and on the Howard Stern show.

So, what can match up with the beauty of Julia Schultz?

Nothing, really. Maybe Stadium Club?

Gavin was kind enough to send me the three Brewers he got in his Stadium Club box that he opened from this year along with two from last year.

I am appreciative to Susan Lulgjuraj a/k/a Yanxchick a/k/a Sooz for picking a Ryan Braun photo that did not feature bulging eyes Braunie -- it is a nice change. 

As a few of us dissected on Twitter, that Yount photo came from the same photoshoot that spawned his 1992 Pinnacle "Sidelines" card of him riding his motocross bike.

Reed gets on cards this year thanks to making 6 trips to the plate last year in September at the age of 22. He's in Colorado Springs right now, and he appears to be whatever a three-true-outcomes guy is when that guy doesn't hit home runs. He's hit a total of 470 times in Triple-A over last year and this year, and he's slashing at .246/.366/.348. In other words, pitchers will just give him something to hit in the majors knowing he can't hurt them -- he's not going to hit for power.  He just won't -- he's hit a total of 15 homers in 2217 plate appearances. 

Okay, let's move on.

Next up on the list is a New York Times Best Selling Author K. Bromberg a/k/a Kristy Schilling Bromberg, who appears to have graduated from Granite Hills in 1994. 

Ms. Bromberg's books are described on Amazon as "novels that contain a mixture of sweet, emotional, a whole lot of sexy and a little bit of real." In other words, her books fall into that "50 Shades of Grey" genre without being fanfiction for Twilight. Oddly, her books are published both in English and German. 

Which reminds me of this:



Which reminds me of these:

Panini Prizm just never seem to look right, and it's not just the lack of logos. Well, that helps a great deal toward these cards not looking "right," but it is not the only reason. The other reason is the way they are presented -- guys floating in a silver space of nothingness. 

I envision the card designers at Panini saying to their computers, "just one background. Or one Logo. Either one. But, please, just one!"

Oh well. Sorry Gavin.

Two more here. These last two are Girls of Grossmont College rather than Granite Hills, but I think, for both of them, an exception can be made.

First, let's start with Stephanie Nicole Garcia-Colace. Y'all know her better by another name.

That's right -- Nikki Bella is a Girl of Grossmont College. She walked on to the soccer team at Grossmont, and later claimed that she was being recruited by a professional league in Italy. Instead, she and her sister acted some, modeled some, and then tried out for the WWE, signing with Florida Championship Wrestling back in June of 2007. More to the point and as that link above the photo shows, Nikki has 209 cards in the Trading Card Database currently. 

It's a natural collection to start, Gavin!

Perhaps it would be natural for me to start up a PC of one of the Brewers many prospects, such as Monte Harrison. I hate to say it, but I'm pretty risk averse in that regard -- I want these guys to make the majors and then do something before I commit. The last time I fell for that "hot young player" schtick, I got a Jean Segura right upside my head (although thanks must go out to the Diamondbacks for giving the Brewers 20-year-old Isan Diaz, who is playing very well in the Midwest League this year). 

And, finally...

There is one final "Girl of Grossmont College" that Gavin should consider collecting. 

That would be the lovely and talented Rachel Bilson. Yes, she only has two cards available currently according to Trading Card Database (both from the 2008 PopCardz set), but she is a fairly well-known TV and movie actress. I'd argue that more people know who she is than anyone else on this page. 

Only one card that Gavin sent could go with this:

It's the amber parallel of the 2013 Topps Triple Threads card of Robin Yount, serial numbered 70 out of 125. There's no other way to end this great PWE from Gavin than with this card.

Gavin, you win. Here's the real version for you.

Thank you for the great cards, and maybe I've inspired you to start a Nikki Bella collection!

Gavin, Here's Your Long-Distance Dedication

Everyone knows Gavin. If you don't know Gavin -- the owner/operator/magician in charge of Baseball Card Breakdown -- well, you should start reading his blog before mine. Gavin is inventive, imaginative, and excellent with using his computer's Photoshop abilities to create some of the best, most desired custom cards around. Sure, Bob Lemke has his, and he does a great job. But, he also charges like $15 a card to get them. Gavin is such a good dude that he just gives them away.

Like this one:

Gavin wrote on the back of this card-that-never-was of the late Lyman Bostock -- shot dead in Gary, Indiana, in 1978 in September of his age 27 season. Bostock might not have been a future Hall of Famer, but he was a very good player. The 6-year-old me didn't understand how a baseball player could be killed, though I knew what that meant by that point in my life. So, it was really weird to see a Bostock 1981 Topps cards. Very weird.

But, on the back, Gavin said he hoped that I needed some cards he sent. And, honestly for the first time, I've gotten a suggestion as to the artists I should use for these cards. 

Well, Gavin, here's your long-distance dedication:

You might not want to listen to that at work. Casey gets a little bit frosty on that dedication.

So, let's take a look at what Gavin sent, with a few songs per Gavin's requests thrown in!

Caribbean Queen

There's a lot of unsettling stuff in that video. First, Billy Ocean looks like way too much like Darryl Jenks, Eddie Murphy's foil and competition for love in the movie Coming to America.

Second, that girl Billy's singing about in the video looks 14 years old at the beginning. Finally, what is with all the crappy sound effects in that song? The lasers, the breaking glass, a laugh at the beginning that sounds like Vincent Price -- I mean, all it's missing is one of those little "bomb" sound key chains that were fun for about 12 minutes in 1988.

What fits this song? Please don't throw things at me...

K-Rod's from Venezuela (Caracas), and I'm very happy he's no longer a Brewer. K-Rod should learn from this song and learn to treat the women in his life like queens rather than hitting and kicking the 23-year-old mother of his child (as he did in 2012, which he got out of by shipping her back to their native Venezuela).

Let's move on to something happier.

Shout

I am an admitted Anglophile. This song was a huge favorite of mine in 1985. I was a huge Chris Adams fan back then, and this song got used for a montage on World Class Championship Wrestling for WCCW:

Wow, now that brings back some weird memories.  My guy Adams is shown completely whiffing -- but getting the benefit of a great sell -- on a superkick at the 1:12 mark. I think he hit the guy's mullet, maybe. Adams shows up again at 1:32 against the Great Kabuki. The fact that I remember the Great Kabuki scares me.  Let's look at cards...



Jeromy Burnitz isn't exactly Chris Adams, and Nori Aoki isn't the Great Kabuki, either. But the two Gold Label are pretty awesome, and I'm instinctively drawn to red cards, I think...even Panini Prizm.

Everybody Wants to Rule The World

One thing I've noticed from these first three videos is how oddly...normal Billy Ocean and Tears for Fears dressed for their videos. I mean, it's just a salmon-colored polo shirt there. Sure, he's got a wicked rat-tail driving in that little convertible in that weird black and white jacket, but otherwise, it's just normal.

In the interest of normal, I present Bowman. Sure, any group of cards that includes a guy named Callix Crabbe can't be all normal, but these cards are pretty straight forward.

Loverboy

Yeah, damned if I know what some post-apocalyptic Star Wars rip off has to do with either Billy Ocean or the song "Lover Boy." I mean, I found this ridiculousness by Googling "Weirdest Billy Ocean Song." A person called Olivia Collette named this "The most weird-ass music video of the '80s." As she says on that blog, "I'm still not sure why George Lucas didn't sue."

Cards to go with this?

So, there's an Eddie Mathews Diamond King, which could easily be claimed to show him playing softball in Milwaukee with that black hat. Next, there's a 4x6 photo of Robin Yount. But, it's not just any photo of Robin Yount.  Thanks to Google Images, I can confirm that:

It is the photo of Robin's 3000th hit complete with a facsimile autograph. Jumping to the bottom, we have the first two ever cards found of the secret 1990 Donruss Confidential set. Sorry, gents, this set is rarer than those "Aqueous Test" set. As best we can tell, Brock and Spiers -- who went by Billy for about as long as it took him to hit puberty -- are the only two cards in the set.  Going back to the middle, now, there is an awesome Monte Harrison Bowman Mini serial numbered to 250.

And, one of the highlights of the package is the awesome Hank Aaron Jacksonville Braves custom -- which is also based on a real photo of the Hammer:

Sowing the Seeds of Love

I sort of stopped listening to Tears for Fears around this time. It came out in 1989, and by that time I had cast my lot for a while with a weird melange of metal, some dance stuff, and rap. When I was in high school, that all made sense. Sure, Tone Loc followed by Guns N Roses into Soul II Soul. Why not?

To be fair, this is a pretty good song -- even with the rare sighting of a trumpet/bugle solo in a pop song. And, there's only so much Billy Ocean that I can handle before I turn back to that Lover Boy video and scream in dismay and misunderstanding.

So, there are two more cards that Gavin sent:

The Sexson 2003 Bowman confuses me. Did it come in this casing originally? If so, why? It's serial numbered to 250, which is still reasonably plentiful to be cased in Topps-provided plastic. Any help there?

Finally, there's a Stadium Club Gold Parallel of Jonathan Lucroy. Luc is quickly becoming the player whose cards I'm chasing most these days -- I guess because he's still with the team, he's a catcher, he's a good player, and he's one of about three guys on the team whose name I recognize. 

Gavin, thank you very much for the great cards! And, since you asked for songs from both artists, here's one last Billy Ocean song to keep you going.