Where Did the Time Go?

It's been a very long month for me. Today is the first day in 3 weeks that I haven't worked (at least I hope I won't work), so I finally get to sit down at my computer in my home office and relax for a day. Perhaps it is appropriate, then, that today I am writing about a package that I received in the mail almost two months ago now from someone whose 2016 buried them: Julie from A Cracked Bat.

Julie and I traded a few times back in 2015, when both of us had much more time on our hands to spend with our hobbies and our cards. Those halcyon days. Oh how I miss them.

I'm not complaining, though. I'm very happy with my job, and even though I have been exhausted lately it's much better than sitting around twiddling my thumbs and wondering how long I'd have a job (as was the case in 2014, to be fair).

Anyway, it's time to show off the cards. Let's get to them, powered by some music of course. I'm going to go a bit basic on the music though; since Julie's living in the great state of Michigan, I'll go with music from Michigander musicians.

Eminem

While I have not listened to much Eminem in the last several years -- I mean, I know he has released new stuff but I just haven't listened to it -- I have always liked a lot of his early stuff. "My Name Is" is a really good song that makes me think of my younger days ... holy crap, that song is from 1999. Geez I'm old.

Perhaps surprisingly, these cards are now eleven years old.  The word "Fleer" hasn't appeared on a baseball card since for a decade. Let that sink in for a moment. I will not bemoan the fact that baseball card collecting is more fun with multiple companies having licenses because the companies abused those licenses and collectors with their multitudinous parallels and inserts and parallels of inserts for most of the decade of the aughts.

For what it's worth, I am not a fan of the Fielder or the Weeks cards. The white on orange name plate reminds me too much of the vomit-inducing colors of the Tennessee Volunteers. Orange is evil, people.

Orange is evil.

Kid Rock

I'll admit it. This song -- again from 1999...this song graduates high school this year, y'all -- was something of a guilty pleasure for me 18 years ago. At least when it first came out. 1999 was the year of the rap-rockers like Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit, and, at a more principled level, Korn. Kid Rock wasn't really a rap-rocker, though. As we have seen his career develop, he doesn't care about any particular genre of music -- he will besmirch them all given enough time.

If you're missing those days of 1999, though, feel free to sign up for the Kid Rock Cruise, featuring Kid Rock, Doug E. Fresh, and a bunch of artists I've never heard of.

I picked Kid Rock for these Gypsy Queen Minis because, back in the day, Kid Rock palled around with a dwarf named Joseph Calleja a/k/a Joe C. Joe C. had coeliac disease which stunted his growth at 3'9" tall and ultimately led to his untimely death at the age of 26. 

Joe C.'s contribution to American music did not end with his collaboration with Kid Rock. He also contributed an instant classic song to an important soundtrack. I'm speaking, of course, of his song "Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat Bitch" on the South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut Soundtrack. May he rest in peace.

The Von Bondies

When I first heard the Von Bondies back in 2005 or 2006, I liked this song ("C'mon C'mon") but I can't actually remember hearing any other song by them at all. In fact, the only other thing that I remember about this band is that the lead singer Jason Stollsteimer got his ass kicked by Jack White at a Detroit club in 2003. Stollsteimer and White had been feuding in the press, apparently, and that led to the scuffle.

Ah, the craziness of youth.

As I was sorting through a bunch of Bowman after that Nashville card show I attended, I actually wondered aloud to myself where I had gotten the Bowman Platinum Orlando Arcia card. Now I know that I need to thank Julie for it!  That Trent Clark card seems to pop up in multiple iterations and parallels at nearly every show I attend as well -- but I don't think I had the purple one...just as I didn't have a purple Heritage High Number of the YMCA's favorite pitcher, Jungmann.

Sorry. Had to do it.

The Romantics

I could have gone for the two big hits that The Romantics had -- "What I Like About You" or "Talking in Your Sleep." But I wanted to go with this one because, well, look at how adored these guys with their poofed up pompadours are at this soda shop in 1983! Plus, all that vinyl clothing...it's too shiny to be leather, right, unless they legitimately are wearing patent leather jackets. 

I suppose that's possible, of course.

Just don't read the comments here, where people start saying how much they loved 80s girls because their body parts were real and their rear ends weren't the size of "airplane hangars." 

Yikes...

This random jumble of cards was intriguing. The Sheets card was a "Fleer" insert (after Fleer's name was bought by Upper Deck). The O'Leary card is one of those Cyberstats parallels, I think. Then you get the Topps reprint of Coooooooooooooooooooooooop! in the early 2000s -- you know, before the Brewers were reduced to getting cards of only Robin Yount with occasionally Paul Molitor thrown in. 

Then, there is the encapsulated "Just Minors" card of Gaby Hernandez and Yuniesky Betancourt. It's hard to comprehend how former GM Doug Melvin allowed himself to be put in a position where he forced his manager, Ron Roenicke, to play Yuni for 68 games at FIRST BASE in 2013 -- a season in which Betancourt's slash line was .212/.240/.355. It made Juan Francisco look like Paul Goldschmidt.

The real question, though, is whether Julie was just trolling me with that card. After all, Betancourt came up in the Seattle system, and that card shows him with San Antonio in 2005. The other guy on the card, Gaby Hernandez, was a Mets farmhand in the Gulf Coast league in 2004 when his photo was taken.

Hmmmm....

The White Stripes

I could use Michigan music for literally dozens more posts -- there are so many great options available from there. But after mentioning Jack White above, I felt compelled to go this direction. However, there's no way I would subject you to the now ubiquitous "Seven Nation Army." I remember in 2006 that that song got adopted by the European Championships as the song for the crowd to chant aloud. It was cool then.

Now, 11 years later, it's a tired cliche. It's been beaten into the ground by nearly every sports team on every continent. If Antarctica had a sports team, the penguins supporting the team would chant that damn song. 

Come on, folks -- come up with something new. Y'all finally got past having Blur's "Song 2" blasted every three seconds during NBA games -- let "Seven Nation Army" drop now too.

The final card I'm highlighting is this beautiful SP Legendary Cuts of Warren Spahn. Julie's one of the bloggers who remembers that I also have several Milwaukee Brave collections that I chase. It's always a pleasure to get a new one, too.

Julie, thanks for the great cards and sorry for how long it took me to post them!

Crackin' Wax Case Break: Topps Flagship Series 1

The last two years, I have participated in case breaks for the Topps Series 1 cards. Last year, I went with Nachos Grande. This year, I saw Crackin' Wax's charity break first and decided to join up there. That's not meant to be a statement on either breakers' offerings. That's more along the lines of my collecting ADHD: First in time, first in mind.

Anyway...it was fun catching a few boxes of the case break live as the man known as Topher and his wife a/k/a Literal Quirk bantered with those of us assembled in the peanut gallery. 

Nearly everyone who collects baseball cards and blogs has weighed in on this set and its design already. In fact, I've provided my $15 worth of commentary on a few blogs already (actually, it's more than that, because I bill in 6-minute increments and nothing less! :-|  )

So, here are the 9 base card Brewers. I think I got about 10 of each of these, so let me know if you need any of these (CB?):



I am not a fan of the "dramatic effect clouds" on the card. Also, I'm not sure why Jonathan Lucroy's number looks pink or red.  The original, from Getty images, is a little reddish, but it's not pink.

Otherwise, I don't mind this design all that much, except that it's just the same old complaints: the cropping is poor (too close), pitchers are always shown mid-delivery grimacing, everyone but Maldonado is hitting (and, let's be honest, Maldonado can't hit so that's for the better), and I swear that Ryan Braun is always shown with his eyes bulging in his hitting follow-through. Perhaps when I need an idea for a post, I'll show you the Ryan Braun follow through photos. I guarantee that post will quickly become the most popular post ever on Off Hiatus. 

I've never watched that TV show, but the quote fits.

Back to 2016 Topps.

I did pretty well generally, though, in the case break. I got all the inserts I would have expected to get.  I received several of the Braun "Perspectives" card, though I'd already gotten one of those thanks to the Cardboard Junkie; I also got about 4 each of the horrendous looking dissolving player "back-to-back" inserts:



I don't mind getting new Younts and Molitors every year, but man, that card is not a good look for anyone. And Fielder/Braun works, but again, it just looks like a printing error rather than a cool effect.

Former Commissioner/Franchise Destroyer Bud Selig's First Pitch card also showed up.


I am pretty hard on Bud thanks to his decision in the 1990s to make Milwaukee the poster child for small market teams. Bud may have been the ultimate baseball reactionary and, at the same time, the ultimate baseball socialist. He wanted a return to the early 1970s in labor relations -- before the reserve clause had been interpreted as it was written rather than as perpetual indentured servitude -- and, at the same time (and, to be fair, there's much more sense in this than in the reserve clause), he wanted much greater revenue sharing. 

For people who cheer for teams like the Dodgers and Yankees, keep in mind that the great local TV and radio contracts your teams have require your team to have someone to play against...so, the revenue should be split more equitably. Of course, that's a bit socialist.

Can you tell that these cards don't exactly grab my attention all that much?

Also showing up about 4 times in the case is the Berger's Best of Robin Yount...you know the one...the one on which Topps forgot that it had a mini set in 1975 and not 1974 (and that Robin Yount did not appear on a 1974 card because why would he?)?



The final insert is one that seems harder to pull, apparently. Only one of them in the entire case:



There's that post-swing puffed cheek look again.

Now for the cooler stuff. A couple of parallels:



The Braun is a foil parallel (not that you can tell it from looking at it, of course). The Taylor Jungmann is one of those photo negative parallel things. Except it really isn't, because if it were a photo negative it would look like this:



Which is a hell of a lot cooler than a black and white card that I can't read the player's name on at all. Oddly enough, I did not get any gold parallel cards as best I can tell. I'm guessing these are seeded more frequently in retail rather than hobby boxes in an effort to get us to spend our hard-earned dollars chasing in both arenas rather than picking one or the other.

I hit on a couple of player collection buybacks as well -- one for Jim Slaton and one for Prince Fielder:



In the world of pointless buyback cards, these are two of them. At least the Slaton card from 1983 has sharp corners.

Finally, I did receive one card that is very cool. It was a great hit for the break for me:

It's a Fielder and Braun Back-to-Back base relic serial numbered 97 of 99, and it looks great in hand. Yes, the photos aren't any better here with their dissolving pixelation than they are "back to back", but throw in a couple of swatches of fabric, and it's almost forgiven.



All in all, it was a pretty good break for me. I can complain about the designs and the cheesy buybacks all I want, but I'm sure Topps would eventually like to get rid of all the 1989 cards they have laying around just like the rest of us would.

Thanks go out to Crackin' Wax and Literal Quirk for the break and for a couple of enjoyable hours watching other people open baseball cards. Everything's more fun, after all, with a Death's Door Gin & Ginger Ale drink with a squeeze of lemon juice. 

After all, I'm from Wisconsin. We're all "Wisconsin-Proud" and Death's Door is from Door County!