Happy trails, Jaybarkerfan -- Until We Meet Again

As nearly everyone in the blogosphere has lamented, Wes -- a/k/a Jaybarkerfan or JBF -- has decided to hang up his keyboard. It sound like the real world got in the way of the blog world, and that is truly a shame.  

Certainly, it is a difficult task to write quality posts all the time. I know that the quality of my posts varies greatly depending on the amount of time I have to write, the amount of caffeine or alcohol in my system, and my general level of creativity. It's tough to try to be interesting all the time -- especially in writing about trade posts.

I could edit my posts to reduce the number of items that I show, but where's the fun in that?

All that said, I can understand completely when someone decides that they just want to step back from blogging and just be a lurker. It's a lot easier and a lot less time-consuming.

Nonetheless, Wes, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans stopped in with a song for you.

This was the second package in about a month that I received from JBF. This one was overflowing with cards and oddballs that I need for either my team collection, my player collections, or both.

I should make that scan my new header. Or my background.

On the other hand, those are five coins that only a member of the Sheffield/Gooden clan could love. If I had a dollar for every time in the 1980s that I heard that Gary Sheffield is Dwight Gooden's nephew, I could have paid for law school without taking out any student loans.

Thankfully, JBF was kind enough to send me the coins for two guys I really like

I'm not a football collector. Not in the least. But one of the first items to fall out of this envelope was a 4"x6" card from Prestige of a certain record-breaking SEC quarterback whose brother is a reality TV whor---star.

Aaron Murray was and is a Damn Good Dawg. I loved watching him dismantle defenses during his senior year at Georgia. It's a shame that he isn't a little bit taller -- he could have been a baller -- and that he didn't get drafted by a team that has a reasonably healthy starting quarterback.

At least he didn't get drafted by or end up playing for a team in the NFC North like Matthew Stafford and Jay Cutler -- previously the only quarterbacks whose college careers I cared about who are in the NFL.

Once I got by those oddballs, the cards started stacking up.

This is that 2010 Cards your Mom Threw out Version.
We need more mothers to throw out more of these
1989 Topps cards immediately.

Here's a nice little oddball addition to the Greg Vaughn collection. I have the 1991 Toys R Us Rookie, but I didn't have the 1990 version until now.

I get closer to having a Wily Peralta PC with each passing day.

I couldn't pick Chris Saenz out of a police lineup.

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This wonderful Mike Hegan card goes into the Brewers collection in the 1976 Topps team set. Hegan was a Brewers TV commentator for over a decade after he retired. He left Milwaukee and went to Cleveland in 1989, and he stayed there until 2010. Unfortunately, Hegan passed away on Christmas Day in 2013.

I talk about my PCs a lot on here, so I won't go too much over the top this time on each other than to point out that I needed nearly every one of these cards either for a PC or a team set.

I never saw one of these before October 2014. Now I have two.

Chrome, baby. Chrome.

This Home Run Club card is one of the best looking cards from the 1990s that I've come across outside of those 1993 Studio cards I was raving about the other day.

Die Cut Corey Hart. He's "X". It sounds like a new Kentucky alternative radio station. "Tune in now to Corey Hart's X-107."

Everyone has been great about sending me their Ryan Braun cards rather than throwing them out, lighting them on fire, or otherwise treating him as the cheater that he admits to being. Thanks for your consideration, guys and gals.

This Braun is a Chrome version of the Topps 206 card from 2010 that was inserted in one of the Topps Base-type sets...I think the Update. It's serial numbered as 162/999.

JBF, your writing presence on the Internet will be missed. Just don't be a stranger with your comments on all of our respective blogs. Or with your serial numbered Silver Autographs!

I just didn't know that you were born in Atlanta.

For some reason, I always liked the Fabulous Freebirds. Even if they were "heels."

Thanks again for your generosity, Wes. I hope that my Georgia Bulldogs and your Alabama Crimson Tide can meet in the SEC Championship game in an epic struggle to rival our game from a couple of years ago -- when Aaron Murray came THISCLOSE to winning that game in the final 5 seconds of the game.  I was there, and it was incredible.

This time, though, I want Georgia to win. Y'all have won plenty!

Monster Package #6: Winnings from Fuji

Back in April, the incredible San Jose Fuji had a 1000-hour contest in honor of his 1000th post. Considering I have yet to reach 200, I'm in awe of getting to 1000 posts.  Heck, I'll be lucky to last 1000 days as a blogger. Well, actually, I'd better last that long considering I still have another 697 cards to go in the 1982 Topps set that I started blogging about back in March.

I was lucky enough to fall as the number 2 person on Fuji's winning list for his giveaway for my post about how the doldrums of summer had become the doldrums for bloggers, which I made on May 31. Thank God that the comment wasn't some banal "Great card Fuji [read as: blatantly ensuring that I comment on each post to enter the contest!]".  I fear that I go in spurts sometimes with commenting -- a lot of comments at some points, barely any at other times.  I mean nothing by it other than I don't have anything to add to the discussion most of the time if I don't comment!

Back to the mail from Fuji -- my prize was to get a lot of Brewers cards (and a few Gary Carters) from Fuji. I think I'll present these by player because I'm still shaky on sorting by year, and I scanned and sorted these into my collection already!

Gary Carter
For those of you who don't know or are new here, Gary Carter was my favorite non-Brewer player as a kid. I was a catcher from age 8 until age 15, so catchers always are represented disproportionately among my favorites. This is the reason that guys like Charlie Moore, Ted Simmons, B.J. Surhoff, Dave Nilsson, and Jonathan Lucroy end up as player collections for me -- at least in part; the other part is that they were either good players or Brewers for a long time.  Heck, I had to edit myself so as not to include Buck Martinez, Charlie O'Brien, and Ray Fosse in my collections.  

But, Carter was my favorite catcher in the league. He seemed like the nicest guy, the most friendly, and the best overall player as a catcher of all of the guys in the league at that time. In other words, to me, he was the Anti-Fisk. I really disliked Carlton Fisk -- who seemed obnoxious, mean, and played for the White Sox which made him obnoxious and mean.

Anyway, here are the Carters from Fuji:

That Kaybee Kings card is just a fine looking card. I miss the days of walking into a toy store and finding a set of cards made especially for the store.

Okay, I can't write nearly as much about everyone else as I did just there -- I scanned nearly 100 cards in individually.  It will take a while to get through them, so they are presented without comment.

Corey Hart

Paul Molitor

Robin Yount

Charlie Moore

Ted Simmons

Yovani Gallardo

Rickie Weeks

Jonathan Lucroy

Ben Sheets

Carlos Gomez

Yeah, the team card is technically Braun, Gomez, and Hart, but you can see Gomez's face. I suppose I should chase three more of this card though -- one for each PC and one for the Brewers collection.

Bill Wegman

Ryan Braun

Once again, it's a two PC card, meaning I need two more of this card -- one for the Prince PC and one for my Brewers collection. And, is Topps foreshadowing Braun's steroid conviction by calling him a "bash brother"?  HA!

Greg Vaughn

Chuck Crim

Dan Plesac

Gorman Thomas

This card is a good reason why I just have a problem with the unlicensed cards. That uniform looks like no uniform the Brewers ever wore.  Not road, not home, not 70s, not 80s, not even in the off-season softball league. I have the same issue with the Ted Higuera jersey below on his Hometown Heroes card -- it's one thing to airbrush the logos out, but these uniforms are unrecognizable. 

Would MLB Properties sue them if the jersey looked remotely like a real Brewers jersey? If so, perhaps Panini should go with either current photos (to make all of us feel old) or they should find and use headshots -- no caps, but full color, sharp photos that are head shots. I think that is what bugs me about the unlicensed cards -- the retouching is so extensive that the photo quality is affected.  Since MLBPA licenses those cards and their players benefit, then those players should pose for the photographers hatless.

-- end unsolicited advice --

Ted Higuera

Geoff Jenkins

Jim Gantner

Jim Slaton

Bob McClure

Moose Haas

Cal Eldred

Dave Nilsson

Jeromy Burnitz

Like I said, Fuji sent me a haul.  And I haven't even played "Boulevard of Broken Prospects."

Today's version features a guy that, in my opinion, was never a prospect and a guy who was the 13th overall pick in the draft in 1998 and played fewer games in the majors than the non-prospect.

First, the non-prospect: Willie Lozado.

Lozado got to play in the big leagues in 1984 because Paul Molitor had his right elbow reconstructed.  

Then, there's the kid whose injuries prevented him from ever developing as anyone hoped. After all, TINSTAAPP (There Is No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect).  J.M. Gold:

The final card I'll feature is the true superstar of the package -- Fuji himself:

While I know this was a "prize" package, you outdid yourself Mr. Fuji! Thank you for the contest, and thank you for the always entertaining blog!