Twitch Sends Me Cards

Interacting with collectors by way of anything other than face-to-face interaction can have its awkward moments. For instance, when you're way behind on sending out response packages to people, you feel a little awkward interacting with them because you feel like you want to say, "sorry, man, I know, I'm way behind." 

Other times, there is some awkwardness when you can't remember who sent you cards. I have solved that problem for myself by scanning the cards as soon as I get them in and then saving them in a scan folder named for the person who sent them to me.

Then, there is the awkwardness I felt recently. I know Twitch of Twitch Collects Cards. By that, I mean, I interact regularly with him on Twitter, watch his creative process in drawing all kinds of awesome sketch cards, and read his insomnia-filled tweets that make me feel awful inside for him. 

The fact is, though, that I never really knew Twitch's name or address before getting cards in the mail. Well, I probably did know CC is really Twitch (I mean, I did read Gavin's trade post), but still -- I didn't want to give credit for a package based on a hunch.  

To make up for my gaffe, I will first show you some of the fantastic art that Twitch is working on. 

I colored 7 #SketchCards today! Haku, Kitty, Karai, Jason/Lono, Gizmo, Rocketeer, BB-8. #collect #art #commissionme pic.twitter.com/vzacHZs5sl

— #RecallRauner (@TwitchWasHere) June 16, 2016

As the hashtag says, you can commission some of these great sketch cards or other items by contacting Twitch via Twitter. This is just the tip of the iceberg on the great art that Twitch is creating. I wish I had even one-tenth of this artistic ability. As best I can tell, my creativity is limited to words.

And, as you probably know if you've read this blog, that is a pretty limited creative streak for me. 

Twitch was kind enough to send me a ton of Brewers. I admit that I am now at a loss as to what to send back, but I'll figure that out soon.

Here's the highlights:

Liquor-fractors and pizza. Yummy. I Googled "Liquor and Pizza" and it turns out that El Cajon, California must be the best place to live in America. I found that Shinar Pizza there allows you to order a fresh pizza, liquor, beer, or wine, smokes (if you're so inclined), or even groceries all at once and they will deliver.

Sticking with shiny and 2011, how about a few of those diamond anniversary parallels?

Two player collections for me in Jonathan Lucroy (now at 147 Lucroy Cards/items) and Corey Hart (lagging behind at 103).

As best I can tell, Hart is done as a player. He tried to play last year with Pittsburgh, and he just could not get through all of the injuries. 

An interesting sidelight is that there is another baseball playing Corey Hart who is a coach in the Blue Jays organization. He stands 6-feet tall and has a shaved head (as opposed to the 6'7", shaggy haired outfielder).  

That Corey Hart and this Corey Hart both played in the Brewers organization together at Nashville in 2005. Now-Coach Corey Hart's first at-bat in the Brewers organization was to pinch-hit for the tall Corey Hart. Coach Corey Hart also told the story that he was asked to sign a baseball card of the other Corey Hart in 2008 or 2009. The card had the facsimile signature on it, and the card company had screwed up -- they put Coach Corey's signature on OF Corey's card.

Perhaps appropriately for Twitch's art is this story in which Craig Calcaterra talked to OF Corey about his extensive superhero action figure collection!

Next up: A&G Minis!

Another J. Corey Hart card -- a 2009 "Old Planter" back -- and a 2011 Mark Rogers Bazooka parallel hand-serial-numbered 2 out of just 25.

Rogers is the rare Mainer major leaguer. I don't know if he is still pitching now (he tried and failed to catch on with Texas in 2015), but he pitched last year in the Independent Atlantic League for Long Island and Bridgeport with not a whole lot of success (39 innings, 6.23 ERA, 25 walks, 9 HR allowed). At one time very early in his career -- based entirely on being the 5th pick overall in the 2004 draft, almost certainly -- Rogers was the 55th and then the 44th best prospect in baseball according to Baseball America in 2005 and 2006 respectively.

Then injuries caught him. Remember everyone and repeat after Baseball Prospectus: There Is No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect. 

Rogers was smart and invested his bonus money wisely, according to this Portland Press Herald article. So, he's financially okay. But, Rogers really was a guy who never lived up to his high draft pick status.

On the left is Chris Dennis. Dennis was born in Windsor, Ontario, and was drafted by the Brewers in the 13th round of the 2007 MLB Draft from St. Thomas of Villanova High School in LaSalle, Ontario. He got as high as High-A Brevard County in 2011 before he couldn't keep up enough with his bat (in 96 plate appearances, he slashed .169/.274/.253). I don't know where he went from there -- perhaps he decided to go to college or try something different since, after all, he was 23 at the end of 2011.

On the right is a 1984 Topps Sticker of Larry Bowa. But ignore that. The important guy is the one in the middle -- Birmingham, Alabama, native Charlie Moore. While Moore was pretty much done as a player in 1987, it would have been nice for him to get to stay in Milwaukee for his final season in the majors rather than ending up on Chris Dennis's eventual stomping grounds in Ontario. Moore made it to the majors in 1973 at the age of 20, but he played over 120 games in a season just three times -- 1977, 1982, and 1983.

It's Yovani Gallardo times four -- three shiny cards (two chrome and one "Prizm") and one Turkey Red. Gallardo signed in the offseason with Baltimore to a two-year, $20 million contract with a $13 million team option for 2018 or a $2 million option buy out. Gallardo hasn't pitched much this year for Baltimore thanks to injuries. He'll get every opportunity to claim a rotation spot there, though. 

These cards helped push my Gallardo collection up to 153 cards.

For me, it's always good to add to my ever-burgeoning Ryan Braun collection. The first one is the base "O-Pee-Chee" (put in quotes in deference to the fact that, well, these cards are just Upper Deck in O-Pee-Chee name with a wannabe 1976 Topps look) from 2009. The next actually goes in my 2010 Upper Deck team collection. The "20th Anniversary" card is one I needed too -- even though I have one that looks almost exactly like it already, I still needed it. Finally, that fancy Topps High Tek thing from 2014 is actually a "Spiral Bricks Gold Diffractor" and it is serial numbered as number 22 of 99.

Thanks to this infusion of Brauns, my Ryan collection has now reached 564 different Ryan Braun cards/items.  

Twitch, many thanks for the great package of cards -- to be fair, there were at least 10 more cards I could have included here.

Okay, one more:

Thanks for the cards and thanks for the great art you post, CC!

Milwaukee Braves from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 90s, and 10s

Card shows can be hit or miss. Sometimes, the show contains rich veins of oddballs, lesser-known sets, and good condition commons from 50 years ago at a reasonable price. Other times, it feels like everyone decided to bring their  1988 Fleer and 1989 Topps to the show. Each of those has its positives and negatives, of course (if all I could find were those '88 Fleer and '89 Topps, I'd pick up the cards I still need from both of those sets and leave after spending $2...that can be a positive, I suppose). 

My most recent card show visit was more like the first than the second, and, to be fair, that is usually the case. At the first table at which I stopped on getting to the show, the prices were a bit higher than I might otherwise pay -- a lot of 25 cent cards, which doesn't break the bank but add up pretty quickly as well as some vintage cards that ran higher and even into the hundreds of dollars.  

I stayed away from that high-end stuff. I will have to go there eventually, when I'm further down the road on my Braves collections and am looking for that Hank Aaron 1954 Topps to complete a team set. Hopefully, at that point, I can still find a good deal.

Anyway, the first group of cards that I sat down to flip through was a set called The 1960s that TCMA put out in two series -- one in 1978 and one in 1981. All of the cards here -- and the ones I put up in my trade bait -- were from Series I in 1978.

Joe Torre

Let's start with a 36-year-old card of a Hall of Famer in gem mint condition that cost a quarter. Joe Torre is pictured in his Milwaukee Braves hat but was listed on the back of the card as an Atlanta Brave. That makes little sense -- Torre played in parts of 6 seasons in Milwaukee (yes, it was only 2 games in 1960 as a 19-year-old catcher) and was an all-star three times for the Brewtown Braves before the team was purchased and squirreled away to the city where I reside. 

But, Torre played just three seasons with Atlanta before the Braves sent him to the Cardinals for fellow Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda.  Bad trade.  Cepeda was 4 years older than Torre and played just 401 games in 4 season for the Braves, while Torre -- at the age of 28 -- was just getting to his best years (including his MVP year in 1971).

Anyway, I count him as a Milwaukee Brave for my purposes in this set.

Ty Cline

Ty Cline played three seasons as a CF, 1B, and PH with Milwaukee before the move in 1965 brought him back to his Southern roots -- he attended Clemson University before signing with the Indians in 1960.

Ken Johnson

Ken Johnson as a Milwaukee Brave is as nonsensical as Joe Torre being an Atlanta Brave. Johnson, who was an original Houston Colt .45, pitched 172-2/3 innings in the 1965 season in Milwaukee. He remained with Atlanta for 3-1/2 more seasons. He's more "Atlanta" than "Milwaukee" despite being included with Milwaukee for this set.

Mack Jones

Mack Jones played parts of 4 seasons in Milwaukee and two full seasons in Atlanta. He's pictured as an Atlanta Brave, but the back of the card lists him with Milwaukee. This TCMA set is a weird one.

Gary Kolb

Gary Kolb was an outfielder and catcher. He played a total of 60 games with the Milwaukee Braves, 103 games with the Pirates, 90 games with the Cardinals, and 40 games with the Mets. I guess TCMA just had a photo of him as a Brave.

Frank Lary

This one is even weirder. Frank "Mule" Lary spent 11 seasons with the Tigers before bouncing around the leagues after leaving Detroit in 1964. He pitched a grand total of 12-1/3 innings for the Milwaukee Braves in 5 appearances in 1964. 

Jesse Gonder

Gonder was another short-time Brave, this time as a backup catcher. He spent 31 games (57 plate appearances) with the Braves in 1965, hitting .151/.211/.245. 

Ed Bailey

And finally, here's another one-year Brave: Ed Bailey. At least Bailey spent all of 1964 with the Braves -- 95 games, 309 plate appearances, hitting near the league average in OPS. He spent the majority of his career in Cincinnati.

As you can see, that was a weird find to me. So many one-year wonders -- many of whom probably don't have many or any other cards as Braves. Thankfully, this same seller also had some "true" vintage.

For instance, how about these two 1957 Topps cards, mine for $1 each?

Gene Conley is one of the few people in history (only?) who can say that he won a World Series title and an NBA title. Conley was on the World Series winning Braves team in 1957, and then, in his spare time, he won three NBA Titles in 1959, 1960, and 1961 with the Boston Celtics. This amazing 6'8" athlete is 84 years old and still is with us.

Frank Torre, unfortunately, is no longer alive. Frank being a Brave almost certainly led the team to sign his younger brother Joe and probably led Joe to signing.

This was the most expensive card of the day at $6. It's from 1958 and shows the World Series winning Milwaukee Braves. Part of me thinks that I could have done a little better on the price, but that was down already from $10, so at least I did get that much knocked off.

These two cards are both from 1960 Topps. Other than the 14-year-old girl style of coloring every other letter, I could have been convinced easily that the Chuck Dressen card came from 1965 Topps with that pennant and logo and all. 

As for Charlie Lau, anyone who could be credited by George Brett as being the man who taught him to hit is a good addition to anyone's collection.

Speaking of 1965 Topps, these three cards together cost me $2. Klimchock played a total of 318 games in the major leagues spread over 12 seasons. He spent all or a part of 4 seasons in Milwaukee and made a total of 76 appearances. 

I've mentioned Fischer before, I believe.  I think he may still be alive in the mountains in North Georgia in Hiawassee.

Oliver was a Midwestern boy whom the Cardinals signed first before trading him to the Braves with Bob Sadowski in return for one of my player collection guys, Lew Burdette, in 1963. He had the ignominious distinction of being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies by the Atlanta Braves so that the Braves could get baseball immortal Bob Uecker.

Three more modern cards also made their way into my Milwaukee Braves collection. There's the 2012 Hank Aaron Allen & Ginter card along with a 2001 reprint of the 1965 Topps Aaron and a 1999 reprint of the 1957 Topps Aaron, showing him with the reversed negative.

So, not that you asked, but I do have reasons why I do not include Aaron as a player collection. First off, his cards are more expensive, for the most part, than anything of Spahn or Mathews. 

Granted, the 1952 Topps Mathews -- which was both his rookie card and was the last card of the 1952 set (making it susceptible to damage from rubber-banding in a fashion that has inflated the prices for the #1 card, Wisconsin native Andy Pafko) -- is pretty damn expensive (check this one out: PSA "Authentic" as altered [I think trimmed] is listed on Amazon by Dean's Cards for the low, low price of $1,380!). So I'll have enough super-expensive cards to chase for my team set without adding the need to get TWO of every Aaron.

The other reason is more personal and simpler: Hank Aaron in my mind is an Atlanta Brave. Yes, he spent more years in MIlwaukee as a Brave than in Atlanta, but Hank is an Atlanta guy. He lives here. He has a BMW dealership here. He's been a part of the Atlanta front office for many, many years. He's active in the community here in Atlanta. Both Mathews and Spahn are guys who are "Milwaukee" Braves, and Burdette and Adcock similarly are guys I associate with those Milwaukee teams of the late 1950s. But when I think of Hank, I think of the homer off Al Downing. I think of Turner Field being located on Hank Aaron Drive. I think of Atlanta. I guess that's a bias of living in the Atlanta area for over 19 years now, but that's the way it is.

I did get one more card for my Braves team set. It's my buddy, the bad-hitting Bob Buhl, and it's a wood-grain TV set of him:

I have always liked the 1955 Bowman for the "Color TV" design. Maybe I just have a thing for wood-grained paneling, since that was all the rage in the 1970s as a cheap way to cover up a crappy drywall job. I mean, I am partial to both the 1963 and 1987 Topps sets too. Hmm.

Anyway, this Buhl card -- which looks like he is wearing lipstick, rouge, but that he forgot to manscape his unibrow -- set me back $2. I couldn't just leave it on the table at that price.

I'm starting to find that I like the vintage cards and photos of those players from the 1960s since it gives me a reason to find out who these guys were. I hope you've enjoyed this walk through as well.

Card Show Purchases: The Vintage

When my interest in baseball cards was rekindled earlier this year, the one new spark that produced a flame in me immediately was to seek out cards that I did not collect when I was a kid -- either because I couldn't find them or, more likely, because I couldn't find them in a price range that I could afford then. Since I now can afford some of those cards, I decided to collect some of those cards.  

Once again being choosy, though, led me to decide to collect only Milwaukee Braves cards. Yeah, I have nascent player collections of Joe Adcock, Warren Spahn, and Eddie Mathews, and I'll probably add 1957 World Series MVP Lew Burdette to that. But, I want to collect all the Milwaukee Braves cards I can. At least from the major sets.

Since I haven't catalogued those PCs yet, I was careful about what I bought from any of those players.  But, I knew that I had not picked up the Mathews or Spahn from Gypsy Queen.  

Those photos are nothing original from Topps; I'm pretty sure that the Mathews photo has been on at least four different inserts in the past several years, and the same is true for Spahn.  

Now, these cards are new so they better be in perfect shape or else they better be free.  I'm not all that choosy on vintage cards, though, when it comes to condition. Let's be honest -- finding a few dime or 50 cent cards from the 1950s or early 1960s is likely to lead to finding these cards in less than ideal condition.  But, when I saw the vintage binder with dollar cards, I got sucked in.  

Hank's brother was nowhere near as good as he was, but not many people have ever been that good.  

Future GM Woody Woodward is looking very serious in his pose in foul territory during spring training.  He never hit any homers as a Milwaukee Brave and had a slash line of .207/.241/.257.

Did he have blackmail photos of the Braves GM?
    

Blasingame was touted as being the heir apparent to Warren Spahn when he was signed straight out of high school in 1961. He ended up on the Houston Astros in 1967. Eventually, his sartorial style featured in Ball Four.

Someone before me thought that Ty's hat looked better Red. Ty attended Clemson University, so after Clemson's recent trip to the land of Red and Black in Athens, he may disagree with that assessment.

Yup, it's a 1966. Joe's as disgusted about my inability to identify a 1966 Topps as I am. Topps avoided showing guys in hats so as to avoid the whole "Atlanta stealing the Braves and leaving Milwaukee without baseball" discussion.

Mack had to be happier than most of the Braves when the team moved to Atlanta, since he grew up in the ATL. Mack passed away 10 years ago and is buried in Forest Law Cemetery here in Atlanta.

Rico was one of the first players from noted Dominican baseball factory San Pedro de Macoris to make it to the major leagues, and he was the first San Pedran to be an All-Star. Indeed, he still stands fourth all-time in games played by San Pedro natives -- though Robinson Cano probably will pass him in the next year or two.

Lee Maye (not Lee May) played 7 years with the Braves beginning in 1959. He was a far better R&B and soul singer under his full name, Arthur Lee Maye.

See?

I love YouTube.

Bob Buhl to me will always be the pitcher who couldn't hit. I think it came from going 0 for 1962 -- 0 for 69 at bats, to be exact, with the Chicago Cubs.  With the Braves, his worst hitting year was probably 1954, when he went 1 for 31. 

Pisoni got a badly-drawn boy card in the 1959 Topps set. He had never played for Milwaukee before and had appeared in 9 total games for the Braves that season -- going 4-for-24.  After that performance, the Braves decided to send Pisoni back to the New York Yankees from whence he came in the Rule 5 draft.

Covington came up with the Braves in 1956. He and Hank Aaron were contemporaries in the Braves system and, according to his SABR biography, Covington had a propensity for two things -- getting hurt and pissing people off by opening his mouth.

I'm a lawyer, so I can relate with that second one.

This card of the Nitro, West Virginia, great is what may spur my starting that Lew Burdette collection.  It's actually in much better shape than most of these cards are, but that's not why I am going to start the Burdette collection. I'll start the Burdette collection because Lew went 179-120 with a 3.53 ERA with the Braves (6-11 in Boston in 1952, otherwise with Milwaukee) and he was the MVP of the 1957 World Series -- which, to date, remains the only World Series victory for a Milwaukee team.

When I tell people about my collecting the Braves, I tell them that while some kids went to bed with stories of giants and beanstalks, I went to bed with stories of Giants and Brutons. He didn't get to the major leagues until 1953 when he was already 27 years old, and he immediately led baseball in stolen bases in 1953 (with 26), 1954 (34), and 1955 (25). 

People didn't believe in stealing in the 1950s.  It was a simpler time.

Ray Shearer got a baseball card in 1958 for playing in 2 games with the Milwaukee Braves in 1957 -- one on September 18 and one on September 29. He passed away very young -- at the age of 52 in 1982 in York, Pennsylvania.

Bob Buhl appears to be questioning me about why I'm picking on him for his hitting when Al Leiter didn't get all kinds of crap in 2003 when he went 1 for 53 for the New York Mets.  

I'm sorry Bob -- I didn't know. 

Like I said at the top, I'd have rather these cards been in better shape than they are, and perhaps some day I'll seek out better and better copies of these cards for my collection. But I'm not buying these for "investments" so frankly, I really don't care if Ty Cline's hat is colored in red. I just care that I have the cards.

Even for Ray Shearer and his 3 at bat career.