A Series 2 Break with Sylvia Plath

I really enjoy the diverse group of people that I encounter through the baseball card blogs and baseball card twitter and baseball cards generally. As with any group as diverse as ours, we all tend to find people that we are most like -- or at least with whom we get along best based on similar backgrounds, similar current lives, or even just similar dislikes. 

One of the people whom I feel like I truly get along with well is Peter from Baseball Every Night. I think we really bonded first over the dislike for the Ortiz-gasm that Topps had last year. Then I found out Peter is a serious, real-life scholar who focuses his scholarly life on the life and times and work of Sylvia Plath. 

I've never asked how or why that happened, but it's pretty cool to me to say that I actually know a real life world renowned expert in literally anything.

Peter broke a box of Topps Series 2 recently and was kind enough to send out the cards from the break on a per-team basis to whomever would pay the $3 shipping to get them. That sounded like a good deal to me, so I joined up immediately. Even though I had already joined Crackin' Wax's break (that will be my next post hopefully over the weekend), I told Peter I'd take the Brewers. After all, you never know when that single Brewers hit might come.

To honor Peter's generosity, let's go to music...inspired by Sylvia Plath. Now, I'm not 100% sure that these songs are all inspired by her or reference her. I'm just taking a Tumblr post's word for it.

1. Belle & Sebastian, "Enter Sylvia Plath"

I figured I'd go with a song that clearly is about her or references her -- Belle & Sebastian's "Enter Sylvia Plath" is pretty obvious about it. I chose a version that had the lyrics imposed on the video in case those help. 

This is a very long song -- over 6 minutes long -- and I have to admit that it got a bit repetitive to me. While the ballet dancing used in the video is cool, the vocals on this song start to meld together -- especially around the 4:15 point where the lyrics simply say, "From my faith [x36]." 

Let's start this Brewers post with two guys who have both had really top-notch seasons who might not get the publicity that other guys get. First, Travis Shaw, whom people know thanks to his having been with the Red Sox for two years. I don't know if it is just that he developed further since he is in his age-27 season or if it is that the Brewers had enough guts to just let him play third. 

One thing I will say that I don't like about his card is the attention to detail. Apparently, Topps Photoshop team couldn't be arsed to think about the fact that Milwaukee doesn't have red in its color scheme and, as a result, Shaw might just wear anything but red batting gloves. I have found photos from this year of him with pink, white, gray, blue, and black batting gloves...but not red.

The other big surprise story might just be "Sunday." Domingo Santana (for you non-Spanish speakers, Domingo in Spanish is Sunday) came over to Milwaukee from Houston in 2015 in the Carlos Gomez & Mike Fiers trade. Last year, he had some injuries that plagued him all year and limited his time on the field to just 77 games. This year, he is hitting .285/.374/.494 with 18 HRs and 9 SBs (in 12 attempts) while playing at a league-average level in right field. 

By the way, he doesn't turn 25 years old until Friday, has played 236 major league games, and yet he does not reach arbitration eligibility until 2019. 

2. The Bangles, "Bell Jar"

I'll admit it. I had no idea that this Bangles song existed. The Bell Jar, of course, is Plath's only novel and was published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The book is said to be semi-autobiographical and shows parallels between Plath's own experiences with what might have been clinical depression and the protagonist's mental illness.

But I'm not a Plath scholar, and I have not read the book. Thus, I defer to Peter's wisdom and statements about it.

I will note that I'm not sure how a movie based on the book directed by Kirsten Dunst and starring Dakota Fanning will do. Hopefully, it will be a better movie than the 1979 version starring Marilyn Hassett and directed by Larry Peerce. No, I've never heard of them either.

Corey Knebel started the year as the setup man to Neftali Feliz. Neftali Feliz was a complete disaster in Milwaukee (27 innings, 23 hits, 8 HRs, 15 BB, 21 K, 5 losses), so Knebel took over as the closer in May. He's done fairly well, but the bullpen for Milwaukee has lost a lot of games for the team. I keep reminding myself that this is a growth year. 

Zach Davies has had a Pete Vuckovich in 1982-style year this year to date. His ERA is slightly worse than league average, his strikeouts are down by over 1 per nine innings, and his walks are up 0.7 walks per nine, and yet he has gotten such crazy run support that he has a 12-5 record. Pitcher wins are such a bullshit stat.

Again, I have to remind myself that Zach Davies only turned 24 before the beginning of this season. He needs to keep developing and improving, certainly, and we Brewers fans have to hope that he stays away from the injury bug.

3. Tears for Fears, "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams"

This song was a B-side for Tears for Fears initially before being released as a single in 1991. Apparently the song was conceived of as taking a verse from the song "Sowing The Seeds of Love" sung as a rap, combined with a Talking Heads-style chorus, and put over the chord structure from one of Tears for Fears biggest hits, "Shout." 

The song title was pulled from a collection of short stories that Plath wrote that was published posthumously in 1977. The second print edition was split into four parts and included a number of new stories not available in the first edition.

Hernan Perez is like a Swiss Army knife. He's got tons of different uses -- even having pitched an inning this year -- but he is never the exactly correct tool for any particular situation. You need that knife's corkscrew in case you need to open a bottle of wine, but it's not an ideal corkscrew and there are far better ones available. You need that little scissors every once in awhile, but it's better to have a real, full-sized one. You get the picture. Perez is useful to have around to give guys around the diamond a break, a day off. If he starts every day, though, he's playing too much.

Jesus Aguilar was a surprise waiver claim from Cleveland before the season started. He played well in spring training to force his way onto the 25-man roster and has split time with Eric Thames at first base. He's a player that is nice to have around -- he's a good hitter who gets on base -- but he should be seen as expendable to improve the roster in the offseason.

Finally, those throwback uniforms on the team card are sweet, aren't they?

4. Breathe Owl Breathe, "Sylvia Plath"

Breathe Owl Breathe is a folk-rock band with a pretty unique sound. I mean, not many rock bands have a cellist playing pizzicato cello. Well, not many rock bands have a cellist. This show is from a series called "Sleepover Shows." The song is actually pretty cool, to be fair. Just very laid back. And, this video is 100% hippy. The band has an album called Passage of Pegasus that was produced by Eric Johnson of The Shins, for what it's worth.

The final cards I'm highlighting from Peter are these two. First, we have a Blue Jays-era Eric Thames photo in foil. It's odd -- I don't think I got any foil parallels in the Crackin' Wax case break, but I got one in this single box break.

The other card is, of course, the Legend Eddie Mathews. I think that's Mathews photo 3 that Topps always uses. Of course, Peter did not have to send me this card, but he knows I collect Mathews and was kind enough to make an exception.

Peter, many thanks to you for hosting the break. One more song for you: "Crackle And Drag" by Paul Westerberg.

3 Cards and the Truth

Nashville legend Harlan Howard wrote dozens of hits in his life, so much so that he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1973 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997. He was asked one time how he formulated great country songs. His reply is now practically a cliché, but he said it first. His response was, "Three chords and the truth."

The now-legendary giving of Matt from Bob Walk the Plank is almost a cliché by now as well. The guy opens up more top-end cards on a regular basis than I see in a year living in the card show lands here in Atlanta. His recent mailer to me brought to mind Harlan Howard -- it contained three cards and Matt's truth that he had stocked up again on Brewers.

Relying on Harlan's line, here are three songs to go with the three cards.

Ry Cooder, "Three Chords and the Truth"

It's not an exciting video for sure -- basically someone just put up the cover art for the album and uploaded the song. It's a bluesy five-minute song of three chords and Ry Cooder's truth. It's worth a listen -- it sort of reminds me of early 1970s Rolling Stones in some respects.

Corey Knebel's truth is that he attended the University of Texas at Austin and was a Detroit Tigers' first round draft pick (39th overall) in 2013. He signed shortly thereafter, and by the next May he was already in the major leagues with Detroit. He didn't do all that well in his first exposure to the majors, but he was still in demand enough to be sent to the Texas Rangers in a 2014 July trade with Jake Thompson for Joakim Soria. 

Neither Thompson nor Knebel made it through the 2015 season as a Ranger. Thompson went to Philadelphia as part of the Cole Hamels trade, and Knebel came to Milwaukee with the already departed Luis Sardinas and minor league pitcher Marcos Diplan in the Yovani Gallardo trade in January of 2015. Knebel just got recalled from Triple-A a couple of days ago. If the Brewers trade Jeremy Jeffress and/or Will Smith away by the end of July, don't be surprised if Knebel and Tyler Thornburg share closing duties to see whom the long term closer is.

Mrs. Jay Barker, er, Sara Evans: "Three Chords and the Truth"

Look, Sara Evans looks really good now, especially since she is now 45 years old. I mean, that's older than me and I don't look that good.  

</insert charity laugh>

In this video from 1997, Sara was around 25 years old. Let's just say that she was displaying her best fastball in this video. She is gorgeous and, to top it off, this song really allows her to show off her vocal abilities -- unlike all the overdubbed stuff that literally everyone puts out these days.

And I am not even that big of a country music fan. But, if it sounded like this more often, I might listen more often. Instead, it's Florida-Georgia Line and Luke Bryan singing songs that make them sound like 40-year-old overgrown bro frat boys thinking they are still 23. 

Taylor Jungmann actually attended the same high school (Georgetown (TX) HS) as Corey Knebel, and he also attended the University of Texas. Jungmann was the Brewers 1st Round pick -- 12th overall -- in 2011. Two picks later, the Marlins selected Jose Fernandez, and 6 picks later, the Athletics selected VandyBoy Sonny Gray. 

On the bright side, Jungmann is a better hitter than either Fernandez or Gray. Jungmann looked decent last year, but this year he has been a train wreck. He's been demoted to Double-A Biloxi after 20-2/3 innings of 9.15 ERA ball in Milwaukee and 31 innings of 9.87 ERA pitching in Colorado Springs. Usually ERA does not tell a complete story, but in that neighborhood there are only horror stories.

U2: "All Along The Watchtower"

In their version of the Bob Dylan classic which Jimi Hendrix appropriated and made his own on Electric Ladyland, U2 added lines to the song that did not appear in previous versions. In particular, in the bridge of the song, Bono sings, "All I got is a red guitar. Three chords, and the Truth. All I got is a red guitar. The rest is up to you."

Because I was a big U2 fan in high school -- they lost me for a while with that Zooropa stuff, though some of those songs are now okay -- I must have listened to Rattle and Hum from first song ("Helter Skelter") to last ("All I Want Is You") dozens, if not hundreds, of times. Keep in mind -- I grew up in the country, didn't go to the cool kid parties, and I spent a lot of time in my bedroom going through magazines to find evidence for debate topics. 

I know -- it's a complete shock that I wasn't at the cool kid parties after that last revelation.

To be fair, though, Matt did send me a revelation as well:



It's a Jonathan Lucroy 2016 Topps Clear serial numbered 3 of 10! Holy moly. This is my first of the acetate cards that Topps has put out the past several years, and I must admit that I am impressed -- it is a good looking card on both sides of it.

Lucroy is in the news so much lately for trade rumors that I half expected him to be dating Taylor Swift at this point. One day, it's Texas. The next day, it's Boston. Then, it's Cleveland. 

To be honest, I'm okay with him getting traded if it means a good return. I'm also okay if Lucroy retires as a Brewer after a contract extension after the 2018 season. Either way, it's a win for the team.

But, with three printing plates and this clear out of the way, do I need to go for the rainbow?

Maybe. Of course, there is that framed version of which there are only 16. That one might be tough to come by too...or...