Taking Stock for 2018

Men of philosophy often contemplate important questions of life: What is the optimum governmental system for humans to organize themselves? If God is omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent, why does he allow human suffering? What is the natural state for human economics? 

Some of us are nearly equally philosophical about questions that to outside observers seem less important: should there be more than one official MLB licensee for baseball cards? Is Topps evil or simply horribly incompetent? What card sets should be issued every year? Or even this one:

Noted philosopher W. Axl Rose's oft-repeated question is what is on my mind at this point: where do I go now with my collection? 

My answer to that question is not as easy as it was in the past. When I first got back into collecting about four years ago, I was incredibly naive and thought I would try to build a Brewers collection that would be as complete as possible. 

In those early days, much of my time was spent tracking down checklists, figuring out want lists, chasing stuff on eBay, and ripping open pack after pack. Even then, frustration was beginning to seep in as I catalogued stupid parallel after stupid parallel in dozens of Topps-issued products. 

In the past two years, my time for collecting fell as I became much more involved with work-related efforts with the American Bar Association and, particularly during 2017, as Georgia football took more of my in-person time going to games and my mental time seeking out information about upcoming opponents and the like. This is why I have blogged much less in the past two years than I did in my first two years blogging too.

At the same time, my frustration with Topps grew and grew. Topps Now became an excuse to issue as many cards for the "major market" teams at the expense of teams like the Twins, the Brewers, and the Blue Jays. Even in 2017 as Milwaukee was the final team eliminated from playoff contention in the final week of the season, Topps Now nearly ignored Milwaukee. 

The Brewers had thirteen Topps Now cards issued last season. In contrast, including multiple relic and autograph cards, Aaron Judge by himself had 65 Topps Now cards. Add in the 43 postseason and offseason cards and autographs and relics for him, and Judge had 108 Topps Now cards of the 220 Yankees Topps Now cards this past season. Heck, including autographs and relics, Team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic had 22 cards issued. 

I'm not going to turn this into a "Topps sucks" rant, though, because whether I like Topps or not is irrelevant. If I am going to collect baseball cards, my only choice is Topps for licensed, current cards of major league baseball players. One can agitate for change, but when the agitator is ignored by the powers that be, continuing to rage into the ether is a fruitless exercise -- particularly when one is talking about a hobby and not something very important in life like things going on with one's national government.

So, I'm done with beating my head into a wall where it comes to complaining about too many parallels, or too many Yankees, or too many high-end releases, or simply ugly cards. It's just not worth my limited time. Instead, I'm ignoring that stuff. Going forward, I'm collecting player collections -- which, yes, will include parallels -- and I'm collecting team sets of the base cards for the products that I choose to collect. 

For example, I got this card from Dennis from Too Many Verlanders/Manninghams just before the end of 2017:

I will still try to collect these cards because Ryan Braun is a player collection. Another card I'll seek out:

Again, any Younts that I can add to my collection will be added when I can find them.

But, it means that I will change other things. It means no more tracking and chasing every damn parallel for every card release. It means no more buying Topps Now cards unless it is a player collection for me. It means no more involvement with case breaks, because I don't need 11 copies of Topps Flagship's Will Middlebrooks.

Instead, I'm going to spend more time going into the archives, so to speak, and I don't mean Topps Archives. I mean finding cool oddballs, interesting schedules, magazines, programs, autographed photos, and other memorabilia that I like. Two more examples from Dennis of things I really like and will chase:

I will always collect magazines that have Brewers on the cover. 

I will still try to blog this coming year as well. I still enjoy the Meet the Brewers posts, and I should be doing more of them. I will probably try to mix in more posts about what is in my collection already. And, I will thank people for their kindness when they send me cards. 

Also, I will still try to keep putting music into my blogs. I love music. 

In other words, I will stop trying to do everything and collect everything. I'll stop being my own worst collecting enemy.

Thanks go out to Dennis for the cards and magazines in this post. And thanks go out to all of you who read this.

It's So Easy

I'm back from Athens after watching the Georgia Bulldogs destroy Auburn last night. I realized on Friday on my way out to the game that it was my 20th season as a Georgia fan, and it made me very wistful and reflective. 

Music has always been a major part of my life. I played saxophone from late elementary school all the way through college, and the last time I played was at Madison Square Garden for the NIT Final in 1994. Probably the height of my interest in music, though, was when I was in high school.

Way back when so many years ago, I listened to a lot of metal. It was the late 1980s, and metal was all the rage for raging teenagers. Well, metal and the nascent rap scene emerging out of Los Angeles and New York, but metal was much more accessible for Midwestern kids.

I was on the track team in high school all four years. I wasn't that great at any particular event -- I mean, I threw discus and shot, ran sprints and middle distances, and even ran cross-country one year, but I wasn't good enough at any of them to be a "star" of any kind. But, being a "weight man" as a shot and discus thrower meant that we lifted weights three times a week after doing practice on technique. A staple in the weight room starting in 1987 was "Appetite for Destruction" by Guns 'n' Roses (of course). For whatever reason, I always liked one song that did not get a bunch of major airplay: "It's So Easy."

I think I liked it for the bridge in the song after the second verse..."I see you standing there. You think you're so cool. Why don't you just f**k off!"

I had a lot of rage as a kid. 

Anyway, after that long, tortured introduction to get a song I like into the post...

These days, what is so easy is for me to find cheap Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder cards. Both struggled with injuries in 2014. Braun played through his thumb issues, only to get cryotherapy after the season with two more sessions in his future. Fielder missed the entire season with fusion surgery for a herniated disc in his neck.

So, it was so f**king easy to find so many Brauns and Fielders at my most recent trip to the card show. 

I mean, there's everything from a Chrome version of the 1972 Topps card to a Bowman's Best to 2013 Chip(z) to a 206 to a Heritage League Leader card to the 1989 die-cut mini insert from the 2014 Topps Update set. Lots of Braun for everyone else to hate and for me to collect.

And then I started finding all these ridiculous "Generation Now" inserts for Fielder from the 2007 Topps set.

Thank God he only hit 28 home runs in 2006.

On the other hand, this 2007 Topps card inserted specially for Wal-Mart Shoppers may be one of my favorite inserts. Of course it is because the card echoes those fantastic Post cards from the early 1960s. 

I'd like to see someone emulate the Hostess 1976 set as a mini insert rather than these die-cut abortions from the 1989 set. My guess for next year (if it has been announced, I've missed it) is that the die-cuts will be the 1980 set, but that we'll get plenty of those multi-colored trashy looking 1990 cards too. My vote -- if I get one -- would be to resurrect some of the food issues.

And now, for a couple of inserts.

A Topps Co-Signer. That set didn't last long, did it?

Finest. Nondescript design, fake looking background. It could be one of any number of sets.

Sweet Spot, with raised laces on the card for your pitching pleasure.

A Dick Perez-drawn insert.

Upper Deck cards just look nicer. I think it's the real photography being used.

Prince IS "X", die cut.

Finally, a Peak Performance insert celebrating Prince being the youngest player ever to hit 50 home runs.

These cards are easy to collect these days. 

In other words, pick your player collections wisely, kids. Look for guys who are good, but not TOO good!