I Come Here To Praise Dimebox Nick...

Indeed, this post is all about a package I received from Dimebox Nick recently. It's entirely a misappropriation from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar -- from that famous speech that Marc Antony (Act III, Scene II) makes:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

I'm short on words this morning, but I'm long on music. You see, everyone who's read Nick's blog (may he get the bug to blog again soon!) knows at least the following three facts about Nick:

1. He's a Cubs fan.

2. He loves digging through dime boxes, nickel boxes, penny boxes, or any other box of cards that provide good value for the amount spent.

3. He loves music -- particularly The Ramones and The Beatles. 

I was fortunate enough to see The Ramones in concert back in 1995 in Milwaukee at a festival on their last tour, and I've also heard Sir Paul McCartney in concert (he did a show at Piedmont Park in Atlanta several years ago, and I lived about three blocks from the stage...so I got the show free, if a bit muffled). 

I consider myself lucky on both counts.

So, to highlight the cards Nick sent my way, let's go to the music of The Ramones and The Beatles.  I won't drone on and on about each player or card, though -- I'll let the music speak (mostly) for itself.

1.  Jeff D'Amico

I can't be the only one who thinks that D'Amico looks entirely like a frat boy who needs a little, er, re-education here, can I?

2.  Matt Stairs

If anyone looks like they should step right out of a baseball card and into a wrestling ring, it's Matt Stairs. Also, I always liked the wrestler known as The Crusher because he was a Milwaukee native.

3.  Russell Branyan

Pretty obvious, don't y'all think?

4. John Jaha

Yeah, it refers to a different kind of baby, but it definitely was what came to mind immediately when I saw this refugee from one of Nick's mini-collections of little kids with dad on the card.

5.  Jonathan Lucroy

It does seem like only a matter of time before Jonathan Lucroy joins the exodus from Milwaukee of every single tradeable asset. Granted, he needs to show he's healthy and that last year's dire performance was a fluke, but it seems quite likely that while he's here today, he'll be gone tomorrow.

Now, switching over from The Ramones to The Beatles.

6.  B.J. Surhoff

Sir Paul in concert in his hometown at Liverpool F.C.'s famous Anfield Stadium. The song is perfect for the throwback jersey to the old-time Brewers. 

Also, for what it's worth, it does not appear that the Beatles had any particular footballing loyalties whatsoever. 

7.  Rollie Fingers

"Help!" seems an appropriate song for one of the first great closers in baseball history after the invention of the save. Lord knows that the 1982 World Series might have turned out differently -- perhaps -- if Rollie were healthy in the late season and available to close, rather than the Brewers having to trot Pete Ladd out there.

8.  Scott Fletcher

This absolutely awesome bootleg video of one of my personal favorite Beatles song -- pretty much because Pearl Jam regularly covers it, to be fair -- goes well with that Scott Fletcher card. It's not that I particularly like Scott Fletcher -- it's that I particularly love Brewers Police cards.

9.  Scooter Gennett

With a name like Scooter and the fact that he's still pretty young, this song seems to fit for Scooter Gennett. To be fair, though, I have no desire to dance with Scooter Gennett.

10.  Jimmy Nelson

As the first line of the song says, "Got a good reason for taking the easy way out." While the Opening Day brand isn't horrible, it just does feel like Topps says to itself, "well, Opening Day is a good reason to take the easy way out and reuse the same card design again."

11.  Warren Spahn

With his reputation of being rubber-armed and pitching very well into his 40s, is there another recent-vintage pitcher who could aptly be matched with being able to pitch 8 Days a Week?  Don't answer that question, because all your answers are wrong. It's only Warren. At least to me.

Nick, thank you so much for the great cards -- and I hope you're okay with me setting these cards to your favorite bands' songs!

And, to send you out, here's a little musical tribute to "Big Nick."

Bo Knows Trading

I'm positive that Bo, the man behind "Baseball Cards Come to Life" -- which is an excellent read to find out where some of your favorite players from baseball history are now -- has probably had the "Bo Knows" line used on multiple occasions for him in his life.  I mean, for any kid who was alive and can remember 1989 and 1990, the coolest athlete on the planet not named Michael Jordan -- and perhaps even including Jordan -- was Bo Jackson.

As far as I know, Baseball Card Bo is no Bo Jackson.  This Bo knows his baseball cards -- and he knows how to help knock a bunch of needs off want lists for someone like me, who didn't collect in the 1990s.

So what cards does Bo know?

Bo Knows Topps Gallery

And, apparently, Topps decided that Piet Mondrian should meet Jeff Cirillo.  

Bo didn't send me Piet Mondrian though.  I'm also unsure of what artistic movement Dave Nilsson is supposed to represent, though.  I guess the Classics is just supposed to mean, "classic baseball cards" or "classic photography."  

The more I think about it, the more I like the Jeff Cirillo card.

Bo Knows Fleer Ultra

Vaughn is right on that pitch.  The Eldred, though -- nice photo, but very confusing.  Is it a horizontal card, due to the logo location? Or is it a vertical card based on the name location?

Bo would know.

Bo Knows Angry Catchers

While these two cards come from different sets, they must be put together:

It seems something was attached to the Brewers shinguards they gave their catchers caused tremendous pain to shoot suddenly through their bodies.  This must have been somehow controlled by the photographer, who could control when the pain would shoot through Surhoff and Harper so that the photographer could catch the exact look on their respective faces when the pain came.

Or not.

But Bo Knows Triple Play

This is not one of my favorite Triple Play designs, but it is decent looking.  It's tough to screw up black borders.  But, to be fair, the huge silver/gray name at the top comes damn close to screwing up this design for me.  It's just unnecessary -- I see the players name at the bottom already, so why do I need the large version at the top?  Who needs that, anyway?

Oh.

Bo Knows Collector's Choice Special Edition

The first time I saw one of these Special Edition cards, I thought, "wow, Wal-Mart had its own parallels in 1995"?  

Jose Valentin's card, though, gives me another idea for a food issue -- get the David Sunflower Seeds promotional folks fired up!

No.

One of the highlights of the bottom Bo Jackson commercial above is when Wayne Gretzky appears on the screen and just says, "No."

This one goes to the original card issued by anyone for pitcher Jeff D'Amico, who was born exactly four years later than me.  The card looks tailor-made for a Panini card these days and features a high-school version of D'Amico at the bat on the back of the Classic Games card. 

Still, "No."

Bo Knows Donruss.

The Donruss logo with the team name, logo, player number, and position may be one of the 

most difficult to read portions of any card I've run across.  I know there are worse, but this is just tough to look at.  

And, finally....

Bo Knows Sports Illustrated

I did not have any of these Fleer Sports Illustrated cards from 1998 before I received this package from Bo. Back when Sports Illustrated still had staff photographers -- you know, before January of 2015 -- they had some of the best photography in sports.  Their spin doctors at that time claimed that the magazine's "commitment to photography is as strong as ever" as the magazine decided to go entirely with freelancers and use the same photos Topps uses -- Getty Images, mainly.

It's a sad state of affairs, but paper magazines are going the way of newspapers.  Either the coverage has to be incredibly local (and yes, local newspapers covering local news still do okay) or it has to be incredibly specialized.  Sports Illustrated is neither.

But those photos in 1998 were great. Perhaps SI will think about monetizing their photo inventory in the future by having card sets created for all the sports -- and perhaps swimsuits too -- that have appeared in those pages.  That would be a set many of us would buy.

Bo, thank you again for the great cards.