The Amen Break Featuring Cards from Angus

Over the course of about three weeks, I got several packages from my Canadian friend Angus of Dawg Day Cards. Angus first introduced himself to me about two years ago and immediately waded in on my card war with the legendary Jaybarkerfan. This summer, it seems that Angus found himself on a driving tour of the United States with stops in Ohio, Arizona, and parts in between. In the process, he stopped at card stores and bought things -- hopefully plenty for himself to get his blog reignited -- and a few things for other collectors.

I thought about this post as I was driving home today -- that I needed to get off my lazy butt and post some samples of the cards that Angus sent my way. I had no idea, however, what I was going to say about them or whether I would have music to go along with the cards.

Then, NPR's All Things Considered had a fascinating five-minute story about one of the most famous -- and most frequently sampled -- drum breaks in the history of rock: the "Amen Break." The break was played by the late Gregory Sylvester Coleman of a DC funk band called The Winstons, and it was in a B-side called "Amen, Brother." The song itself is a simple enough piece -- only 2-1/2 minutes of funky jazzy sounding beats. The break is located at about 1:25 in the song:

If you are a music fan, you'll recognize that break soon after you hear it. According to NPR, it's been sampled more than 2000 times. According to the exhaustive "Who Sampled" website, that total is actually in excess of 2500 (2661 and counting). 

That ought to give me enough options for songs to select to accompany the cards from Angus. So, let's get to it.

N.W.A., "Straight Outta Compton"

Needless to say, that song is NSFW. It's the most popular song according to "Who Sampled" to have sampled the Amen Break. It is pretty obvious in the song too -- literally the whole drumline on this song is the Amen Break on loop. And this is almost always the way that the break is used -- as the foundation for the entire song.

 

Speaking of foundations, the foundation of my baseball card collecting truly came from chasing police card sets. I know I have said it on many occasions, but these police cards created my love for oddballs and comprise a large portion of each player collection I have for players before about the year 1996. The police sets continued after 1996, but they just are not as easily available. 

As an aside, the Jerry Augustine above was the first new addition to his player collection since June of 2016 -- when I added another police card to my PC for him. 

Snow, "Informer"

Canadian rapper Snow used the Amen Break as the base for his famous song "Informer." Once again, as with N.W.A., the drum break -- here, slowed down a bit -- is basically the entire base for the song. I had to use Snow, after all, since he is Canadian -- having grown up in the North York district of Toronto.  

I have always liked this song for its fast, mostly incomprehensible lyrics and the reggae sound incorporated in it. That sound comes honestly -- Snow's neighborhood in Toronto was a heavily Jamaican area, and he is well respected in Jamaican-Canadian music circles for his music. It's also incredibly catchy -- thanks in part to the Amen Break.

 

I think this is perhaps my second Topps Pristine card and the first one that I have that is encapsulated by itself. I'm very tempted to take Richie out of the hermetically sealed package for ease of storage more than anything. Still, it's tough to disturb the Topps hologram seal on it. My little kid voice in my head keeps screaming, "You'll ruin it if you take it out of that case! Don't do it!"

I listen to that kid, usually. I mean, I still collect cards thanks to that kid, so why wouldn't I?

Yaz(oo), "Situation (The Aggressive Attitude Mix)"

This one takes a little bit more listening. Slowly but surely, however, that drum fill becomes clearer as the underneath drumline again. I've always been a big fan of Yaz (Yazoo in the UK). As I have mentioned before, Vince Clarke of Yazoo came out of Depeche Mode and formed Yazoo with Alison Moyet. After Yazoo, he teamed up with Eric Radcliffe as a band called "The Assembly." Later in his career, he joined up with Andy Bell to form Erasure. 

If you want to hear something truly cool, do a YouTube search for "Foreigner vs. Yazoo Urgent Situation". It is what it says it is -- a mashup of "Situation" and "Urgent" and it is fantastic.

I'm not sure that Warren Spahn would have ever heard of Yazoo, though he certainly heard of Yaz from the Red Sox. I have my doubts that Spahnie would have even cared about Foreigner either.

Before the advent of at-bat music and music for guys coming in from the bullpen and, well, the wall-to-wall music that now assaults our senses at every sporting event because God forbid fans be allowed to cheer organically for their team, how did fans know what music that baseball players liked? I find myself assuming that Spahn would have been a fan of Frank Sinatra or Guy Lombardo or something similarly big-band and tuxedo-clad. But does anyone know?

And what makes me contemplate this stuff, anyway?

Jay-Z featuring Mary J. Blige, "Can't Knock the Hustle (Desired State Remix)"

This song is a remix of Jay-Z's third single from his debut album, Reasonable Doubt. Mary J. Blige appeared on the track as a favor to Damon Dash. But, by the time that Jay-Z's album was about to drop, Blige had already blown up and her label did not want her associated with some unknown punk from New Jersey. So, Combat Jack a/k/a Reggie Ossé (a lawyer for Def Jam/Island) tells the story that he basically had to beg for her to remain in the song. The whole story is intriguing to me, and you can read it on the song's Wikipedia page because why should I type the whole thing again!

Hostess cards rule. These were all condition upgrades to the ones I had in my collection already from my little kid days. Those days saw me as a 6-year-old learning how to cut along lines to get the cards off the box. I wasn't always successful. Actually, I was downright terrible at it and have a bunch of Hostess cards that are miscut, cut crookedly, or have weird scissor cuts from a jagged-edge fabric scissors getting used.

Pete Broberg is an interesting guy. He went to Dartmouth from Palm Beach County and is the son of a one-time Palm Beach municipal court judge. He grew up surfing off Palm Beach island. He loves sci-fi books and movies, and spent much of his time at the theater on Clematis Street in West Palm Beach watching Saturday sci-fi matinees. 

He excelled in baseball in high school, and the Oakland A's made him their first round pick -- second overall -- in 1968. He was selected one spot behind Tim Foli, two spots ahead of Thurman Munson, and 126 picks and 5 rounds ahead of future Brewers star Cecil Cooper. He didn't sign, so the Washington Senators made him the first overall pick in the 1971 June Secondary Draft out of Dartmouth.

His career was not what one would have hoped for -- 41-71, 4.56 ERA in just under 1000 innings pitched. But, Pete was a smart man and attended Nova Southeastern Law School. He made Law Review and was published in the Nova Law Journal. Even more wisely, all he does is draft and administer wills and estates and handle residential real estate closings in the law firm that still bears the name of his dad's law partner and his dad. So, maybe some day in the future, he and I will run into each other at a Florida Bar Association meeting. After all, Construction Law falls under the Real Property and Probate section of the Florida Bar.

The Theme from Futurama

Perhaps I should have put Pete Broberg's card with this song.

You can hear the Amen Break for the first time around the 12-second mark of the song, and it appears on and off throughout the song. 

I've watched a few episodes of Futurama. I never started watching it regularly, probably because I never watch much of anything all that regularly unless my wife wants to watch something with me. I really have never been a big TV watcher -- I was always wanting to be outside or reading or listening to music or organizing my baseball cards. I also like silence a lot too.

To close things out, Angus sent me these Leaf Certified autographs from 1996. I believe that this is my first David Nilsson autograph, so that's really cool.

Mike Potts jumped out at me as being interesting in this group. Potts was born in Langdale/Valley, Alabama -- just across the Chattahoochee River from Georgia and south of I-85. He went to high school in Lithonia, Georgia -- a town just outside the I-285 "Perimeter" and just north of I-20 in Eastern DeKalb County. The Indians drafted him from Lithonia High School in 1989, but he did not sign. The Braves then drafted him in 1990 from Gordon College in Barnesville, Georgia and signed him. The Brewers signed him off waivers before the 1996 season, and Potts pitched in 24 games for the Brewers that year.

Potts was done with baseball after the 1996 season. He decided at that time to follow in his father's footsteps and became a police officer. He worked for a couple of years for the Durham Sheriff's Office before he joined the North Carolina Highway Patrol in 2001. Potts was injured in the line of duty in February of 2013 when, on what seemed to be a routine traffic stop, he was shot in both of his hands, in his shoulder, and in his face. 

Mikel Edward Brady II was sentenced to 20 years in prison as part of a plea deal for the shooting. Thankfully, Potts was able to return to his position within a year and by February 2014. Potts saw his bravery and resolve to get back to work as nothing more than just doing his job. In May of 2014, he received the North Carolina Purple Heart for injuries received in the line of duty. 

Here's a photo of him receiving that award:

Angus, thanks for the great cards -- and especially for the excuse to find out about Patrolman Potts and Pete Broberg!

So, Zippy Zappy, You Send Me a Marlin....

After I took on the challenge of listening and commenting on the 10 songs that Kenny a/k/a Zippy Zappy posed to me (and don't worry -- I'll give you more commentary!), he promised that he would send me some cards as a reward. 

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When you see the Torrens leading the way, you know you've been Zippy Zapped. See, it says so right on the card. That confirms it. 

The Torrens was the front side of the package -- in a penny sleeve and a toploader. On the back side of the package was another toploader...with a Marlin?

When I first opened the package, I was a little confused. I know ZZ knows what he's doing, and that he must be sending this card to me for a reason. That reason became eminently clear when I turned over the card:



Yes, it's a beautiful chrome card numbered out of 250, but his Up Close section holds the clear answer: "Hit College World Series-clinching home run for Vanderbilt in '14." Ah yes, there it is. He hit the homer off Virginia's Nick Howard -- who had been the Reds 1st Round pick in the 2014 draft (and who currently sports a less-than-stellar K/BB ratio for his minor league career of 0.88 -- no kidding, he's walked 101 and struck out 89 in 112 innings).

Funny thing, though, is that Norwood made it all the way through that same 2014 draft completely undrafted. The Marlins scouted the Cape Cod League heavily, and Norwood looked good with a wood bat. So, to buy out Norwood's senior year of college, the Marlins handed him a $275,000 signing bonus. Norwood has made it to the Florida State League now, and actually looked okay there -- .271/.347/.397 on a Jupiter team that hit .237/.308/.322 and in a league that hit .250/.321/.356.  He was pretty age-appropriate there too, so hopefully that's a good sign that he's on his way to the pros.

Now, I have my doubts that I'll start a John Norwood collection of any kind, but this one will go into my "Random Cards I Like" binder next to a few soccer cards, a couple of Georgia Bulldog football players, and some other random things I've gotten over time.

Thankfully, though, ZZ didn't stop with Norwood. But, let's use Norwood as a crutch for this post...Norwood's favorite musical artist is Jay-Z, so that's what will power me here.

Let's start with "Otis," a song with Jay Z, Kanye West, and featuring Otis Redding. I swear I hear a little sample of Spandau Ballet at the beginning. 

What they do to this car in the video is just wrong. Yeah, sure, I guess all they are talking about is how much money they have and all that, so they can afford to tear up that Mercedes. But damn, why? 



That is usually the response I have to seeing a Panini Prizm card. "Damn, why?" DeMuth is shown in his college uniform at Indiana University -- airbrushed away so don't sue Panini! -- and Medeiros is probably shown in his high school uniform. From this card, he could be a conehead, though.

DeMuth finally made it to Double-A this year. I say finally because he was drafted after his senior year, so he has to develop quickly. DeMuth's biggest problem may be the rather imposing shadow being cast by 2016 draftee Lucas Erceg (a kid with an incredible story), the Brewers 2nd Round pick in 2016 who, by all indications, is a very talented player with a strong potential to move quickly. 

Medeiros was the 1st round pick for Milwaukee in 2014. As happens for high school pitchers sometimes, his development has hit some speed bumps due to his inability to throw strikes. He's still rated as the 12th best Brewers prospect, so there is still hope. He is only 20, after all.

Yeah, okay, Jay Z and Pearl Jam together playing "99 Problems." This reminds me of the crossovers that happened about 25 years ago when Anthrax and Public Enemy played together, except that at least Public Enemy let the guys from Anthrax actually sing/rap along with them rather than turning them into some kind of glorified backup band.

I mean, "99 Problems" is a good song. Don't get me wrong here. It's just that if you're going to pair Jay Z with Pearl Jam, how about giving Pearl Jam something to other than play their guitars?

On the other hand, I think we can hold it against Anthrax that their existence probably led directly to the abortion called Limp Bizkit.



A couple more young guys. Wagner was part of the Jean Segura trade to the Diamondbacks after the 2015 season. Of course, the Brewers got Isan Diaz in that trade, so I'm okay with that.

Jake Gatewood was a compensatory pick in the first round of the 2014 draft out of high school in Clovis, California. He's listed at shortstop on this card because, as an 18- and 19-year-old, he was still playing up the middle. He spent 2016 still with the Timber Rattlers as a 20-year-old (he turned 21 on September 25), but he spent his time playing third base. He needs to learn some plate patience, though -- 18 walks, 141 Ks in 524 plate appearances (but with 14 HRs and 33 2Bs) for a slash line of .240/.268/.391. The OBP is clearly not optimal.

So, this song is 13 years old, but it rocks. "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" has a great grinding beat that you can't help but bob your head along with and a hook that gets stuck in your head immediately. Thank Timbaland for this.

Plus, you can't go wrong with a rap that includes the line "I check cheddar like a food inspector." You really can't. Unless that Italian dude that ZZ was listening to before was the one saying it.

The two guys on the 2016 Brewers team that deserve an anthem like this are easy to name -- Ryan Braun and Jonathan Villar. I'm fully into the "Ryan Braun is an a-hole but he's our a-hole" feel right now after Braun's come back season. That probably means that he'll get traded this offseason to the Dodgers for Puig and a couple of minor league arms, but hey, that'd be cool too so he wouldn't be our a-hole any more.

Jonathan Villar is like a shortstop version of Carlos Gomez in some respects. He makes some crazy decisions on the basepaths from time to time, and he'll get thrown out doing something dumb like trying to go from first to third on a bunt or something (no, I don't think that happened). But, he makes things happen good as well. The upside, though, is that many in the organization think he is eminently more trainable than Gomez was -- that the team will be able to adjust his thinking somewhat without taking away his ability to be aggressive. I hope so. I like him -- and all he cost was a Cy Sneed (who, truth be told pitched respectably in the Texas League this past season...but he might be Mike Fiers reincarnated).

A little shout out to ZZ here -- not only with the "Empire State of Mind," but also the little A-Rod cameo at the beginning of this video from the American Music Awards from 2009. This song is damn cool, and Alicia Keys has an incredible voice.

You know what's fun, though? Falling down into the rabbit hole that are comments on YouTube. Between trying to figure out what some of the people are actually saying, following the trolls in their flame wars, and then getting past the spam merchants, it's actually incredibly entertaining.



When I think of Zippy Zappy and New York, I think of the Sega Card-Gen cards. ZZ is the guy who first sent me cards from these Japanese releases...and to think he kind of had to talk me into taking the first ones. That was my own ignorance, of course -- once I found out what they were, I snapped those suckers up immediately. Now, I look forward to getting more of them. So, when I got these two from ZZ in his most recent mailer, I was super excited.

Excited enough to play that Japanese song again by Frederic!

Here's hoping this is enough to get it stuck in P-Town Tom's head. Maybe it can be the victory theme for Tom for the Cubs!

Thanks a ton, Kenny, for the great cards!

Cards from All Cardinals All the Time

Recently, an unexpected package arrived here in the north Atlanta suburbs from Ray at All Cardinals All the Time.  He is a Ray Lankford supercollector, and with those two Rays in my head, I immediately thought of this:

Huh?  Yeah.  When I was in college, I was a member of the Vanderbilt Marching Band.  One of our more notorious band members was a guy named Ray.  Everyone has a friend -- or knows someone like -- Ray.  Ray is that guy with the really loud voice who can be heard over everyone heckling the referees but who doesn't necessarily have the best grasp of the rules of the game.  So rather than yelling about something like whether a lineman is getting held on a pass rush, Ray would just yell one of two things: "Hey Ref, you need Gatorade because your calls are as weak as water" or "Hey Ref, You Suck!"

He was a real wordsmith.

Within the band, there was a group of guys who attended Belmont University (side note: yep, Vandy's Marching Band really was the marching band of Vandy, Belmont, David Lipscomb University and Trevecca Nazarene College...we wouldn't have had enough people otherwise, I think) who were a little bit older than most folks in the band. By that, I mean they were 23 or 24 and not 18 or 19.  They liked Ray a lot but enjoyed making fun of him as well. So, they appropriated MC Hammer's song "Pray" and turned it into "Ray!"  We need a Ray, just to make it today...

Anyway, long intro just to give you a frightening look into how my brain plays word association and turns it into the first chapter of "The Sound and the Fury" -- you know, the part of the book that was the tale told by an "idiot"?

So, getting back to why I have a blog, here are the highlights from the cards that Ray sent to me...highlighted by music, of course.

Jeromy Burnitz

According to this website, Jeromy Burnitz used the song "Blurry" by Puddle of Mudd as a walk-up song at least one time during the 2002 season.  Ray was kind enough to send me six Burnitz cards that I needed either for my player collection or my team collection:

Jeff Cirillo

"Got a Machine head, it's better than the rest, green to red, machine head."  Cirillo used this song, according to this list, during the 2008 season while employed by the Minnesota Twins. Maybe he used its first few lyrics to remind himself to "breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in...."

To be fair, I really liked this song when it first came out in 1995.  By 2008, though, I was a little bit tired of it.

I'm not tired of getting Cirillo's cards for my collection though, and Ray sent me this one that goes into my team collection:

Geoff Jenkins

Using that same list as the one from Cirillo, it appears that Geoff Jenkins really liked Jay-Z in 2008.  He used two songs as his walk-up music: "Dig A Hole" and "30 Something."  Can't really fault him for using either song, to be fair.  Jay-Z had his fastball then. He's good now, but he's more of a junkballer now, if you know what I mean.  

Before 2008 and according to a now-available-in-archives only page that used to be on ESPN's Page 3, Jenkins used Usher's "Yeah!"  So, Jay-Z was an upgrade.

Ray sent me two Jenkins cards from Jenkins's prime.

Dave Nilsson

I couldn't find anything talking about his walk-up music or any other music he likes.  So, here's what we get instead:

Because I like Cypress Hill and liked listening to them back in college too.  

Here's the Dave Nilsson card that Ray sent to me for my player collection:

Ben Sheets

According to this forum posting, Manny Parra and Ben Sheets both used "Welcome Home" by Coheed + Cambria as their intro music at various points in their respective careers. Personally, I never liked Coheed + Cambria. They sounds to me like a Rush tribute band using guitars instead of keyboards.  And, while I like Rush and all, I am hardly what you'd call a superfan of their music.

I am a superfan of getting cards like these, though:

Lots of great early 2000s Donruss there!

Jose Valentin

Finally, there's Jose Valentin.  These two songs came once again from the same list as the Geoff Jenkins music.  During his final seasons in the majors, Valentin played with the New York Mets.  During at least one of those years, he used either of these two songs by Don Omar -- "Salio El Sol" (the top video) and "Reggaeton Latino".  I'd not heard these songs before, but they are decent, I think.  

Just like Circa Thunder from 1998 is pretty decent. 

Actually, no, Circa Thunder is not decent. These colors on a card with that "Valentin" down the side is godawful terrible.  I really don't like the color orange -- every college team that wears orange (Auburn, Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma State, Syracuse, Virginia) are all evil in varying shades of evilness.  This card reminds me of why I don't like orange.

But, it shows a Brewers player so I have to have it.  And since it shows a guy in a player collection, I had to have two -- and now, thanks to Ray, I do.

Thanks a lot for the great cards!