Angus of Dawg Day Cards has sent me cards so many times by this point that I'm running out of new or innovative ways to write blog posts about the cards. Today's angle:
A movie "from the Producer of 'Cool Runnings' called Angus. The movie came out in 1995 and was sort of the typical high school movie -- fat geeky kid who is good at football and science gets picked on by the jocks but, in the end, the geek wins the heart of the hot girl at the high school dance and the jock gets his comeuppance. By 1995, I was a bit old to be in this movie's target market -- I mean, I was 23 years old and started law school in 1995, so I was more about Clerks. But Clerks didn't have a character named Angus, so I'm not writing about that movie today. All those high school movies seem to have stock characters. So, let's compare the cards I got from Angus to the characters in Angus. Also, please note -- if you haven't seen the movie, this post will ruin it. Probably. 1. The Wise Old Man Providing Advice InAngus, George C. Scott (an Academy Award Winner for his role as General George Patton) played Ivan, Angus's narcoleptic grandfather, who counsels Angus that he shouldn't worry about fitting in and, instead, he should just be himself and let people decide whether they like him or not based on that. Ivan dies midway through the movie, and his death is the turning point for Angus.
The wise old man in the cards that Angus sent is none other than Warren Spahn. Completely unrelated information tidbit: Spahn grew up in Buffalo, New York, and attended South Park High School. 2. The Mom Trying Her Best to Help Her Son The truck-driving mom is called Meg and is played by a second Academy Award Winner, Kathy Bates. Meg and Ivan disagree as to the right things for Angus to do to succeed, though both only want the best for the boy. Meg and Ivan disagreed about whether Angus should transfer to another school to get away from the toxic atmosphere in his current school. Meg believed he should while Ivan believed that Angus needed to stand up for himself and get tougher.
Buck Rodgers was named the permanent Brewers Manager late in 1980. He had filled in on an acting basis during the 1980 season when George Bamberger suffered a heart attack. Bamberger stepped down in early September, and Rodgers took over the reigns again at that point. In what was the turning point of the 1982 season, Rodgers was fired on June 1 with the team record at 23-24. The team won 72 of its remaining 115 games to win the AL East and go to the World Series. I put Buck here because, well, what he was urging the team to do in 1982 was pretty clearly wrong and not working. 3. The Mean Jock Antagonist In the movie, the football king of the high school always dates the hot girl, calls the fat kid names, hurts others physically and mentally, and, in the end, he gets shown up. In Angus, James Van Der Beek of Dawson's Creek fame gets his major motion picture debut as the jerk jock.
Because none of the players on the cards Angus sent to me really fit the "jerk jock" mold -- at least that I'm aware of -- I'll show this cool Fleer fabric logo patch from some time in the early 1970s. Anyone have any idea as to the specific date? 4. The Geeky Sidekick to the Main Character Another actor famous for another role played the part of the geek sidekick. His name is Chris Owen, and Owen became much more well known in the late 1990s for his role as Sherm -- "the Sherminator" -- in the American Pie franchise of movies. Owen has remained close friends since this movie with his co-star lead in the movie, Charlie Talbert.
While Cecil Cooper probably is not a geek, the oddball 7/11 coin from 1984 with its magic motion discs is sort of the geeky sidekick to the rest of the cards Angus sent. 5. The Jock's Yes Man Sidekicks James van der Beek's character Rick had two fellow jocks who followed along with him everywhere to help belittle all in their wake. These two characters were Mike and Andy. Mike was played by Salim Grant, who in recent years has produced music for Snoop Dogg and performed under the name Autobotic. Andy was played by Kevin Connolly -- who is far better known today as E from "Entourage." The two yes-men in Angus's envelope to me are played by a John Axford mini from 2011 Allen & Ginter and a Bowman Heritage certified autograph of Rickie Weeks. These are both cool cards generally, but these guys are supporting characters and not the main star.
6. The Hot Girl Love Interest Who's Dating the Jock But Ends Up with the Geek Ariana Richards played Melissa Lefevre, the girl on whom Angus had a crush. Richards was better known at the time as the "Jurassic Park" girl. She quit acting to attend college, and now she is as much an artist as she is an actress. These two Robin Yount cards definitely were the "pretty girl" in the envelope from Angus. Both are numbered to 1000, and both were needed parallels from the parallel-happy Donruss sets/inserts of the mid-2000s. Angus, thank you very much once again for the great cards. To take us out of this post, let's go to the big song off the Angus soundtrack -- "J.A.R." by Green Day.
To celebrate and in recognition of the fact that time will not be easy to find over the next few months, T.J. sent out a bunch of packages around the blogosphere -- including one to me. Now, I'm a little disappointed that I did not receive one of his badass personal blogger cards on the 1987 Topps design. You know, this one:
For a while in the 1980s, I thought about trying to collect the entire 1987 Topps set in autographed form -- mainly because I like the woodgrain a lot. I know many disagree, but tough luck -- it's what I liked.
You know, like this O-Pee-Chee version of Robin Yount that T.J. sent my way. I have since thought better of that, mainly because there are way too many cards to try to get signed. So, I would have loved to have gotten one of these. Maybe next time. Still, it was pretty awesome to get one of those packages from T.J. So, let me help him out a little bit with some ideas for making his child a true Griffey fan. 1. Nike Air Griffey Max 1 Preschool Shoes from Kids Foot Locker
Sweet looking kicks that keep your child looking stylish and, at the same time, giving props to the first Seattle Mariner in the Hall of Fame.
To go with those badass Nikes, let's go with some Bowman Chrome parallels. We have a Green Axford, a Blue Khrush Davis, and a straight refractor of Johnny Hellweg. None of these guys are with the Brewers any more, as Axford and Davis both are now members of the Oakland Athletics and Hellweg -- who came to Milwaukee as part of the Greinke trade to the Angels -- was released last fall and signed with the Padres. 2. The Requisite Seattle Mariners Onesie
Every baby needs onesies. They are low maintenance, generally, and they are much easier for parents than regular clothes when it comes to changing diapers and getting the little one dressed. Now, I don't have any children, but I was 11 years old when my younger brother was born. So, I have changed my share of diapers and helped little ones get dressed -- and onesies are so much easier than anything else around for the "up to age 2" crowd.
I view these cards as a collecting equivalent of the onesie. They look good in the card sheets, though they don't blow anyone away as being the height of fashion. But a Brewers collector has to have them, just as any parent really has to have the onesie for their kids. 3. Griffey Money? No, really. A "Junior" dollar that you can buy on Amazon from "Kev's Toys" in Florida for the low price of $11.99 plus $4.49 shipping. I mean, sure, your overall transaction has you paying $16.48 for $1 of value, but you can use the Griffey money to teach kids how to save money. "See, son, this is what we call 'a money grab'." Topps is guilty of engaging in conduct that can charitably be called a money grab. Whether it is endless parallels in every dadgum product that gets put out these days -- like these two Gypsy Queen parallels of Yovani Gallardo from last year -- or their affixing foil stamps to old cards, all of this really does feel like a money grab. But, yes, I need them and yes, I'll take them and yes, actually, I appreciate these greatly -- especially the silver mini parallel numbered to 199! 4. Moby MLB Edition Wrap Baby Carrier
T.J. will be missing a great opportunity to have his wife represent the Mariners if he doesn't buy this awesome Seattle Mariners teal baby carrier from Bed Bath & Beyond. Only $50! Every one of these cards is sort of like that baby carrier to me. You won't know you need them till someone points them out to you. Granted, I feel like that baby carrier might be a bit overpriced at $50, so that's why the Prince Fielder Topps Tribute card shows up here -- I have yet to feel like the high-end sets are anything but overpriced hype. Sure, some like Tribute, Triple Threads, and Museum Collection -- the ones with base cards included -- tend to be pretty nice cards generally. But, in those products, the base cards always seem like letdowns or afterthoughts to someone trying to buy cards for "value" rather than for "collecting." 5. Salvino's Baby Bammers Griffey Bear
Another item available from Amazon, but this one is available for just $10.95 with free shipping if you have Amazon Prime! It even comes with an Edgar Martinez bear! Now, this is something for the real hardcore Mariners fan. It's from 17 years ago, and even then it was really only a knockoff of the real Beanie Babies. I'm not even sure what a Baby Bammer is. I always thought that that term would describe this:
Anyway, the best card to put with this hardcore item for a Mariners fan is to have an item only a hardcore Brewer fan could really appreciate.
An autographed 1974 Topps card of Brewers all-time wins leader, Jim Slaton. As I have mentioned in the past, the Brewers' history with pitchers is not exactly a good one. Slaton has the most wins in franchise history with 117, and he is the only pitcher in club history to throw more than 2000 innings in a Brewers' uniform with 2025-1/3 innings. If Slaton had pitched only for Milwaukee, that total would be good enough to put him 427th all-time in innings pitched, 1/3 of an inning behind Johan Santana and Vern Kennedy. Slaton pitched another 658-1/3 innings with other teams, so he's actually 197th all time. That should tell you that the Brewers either don't keep pitchers around generally, or they don't keep the ones they do keep around healthy (see Ted Higuera, for example, or Ben Sheets). Still, to add a clearly authentic autograph of a guy who is a player collection for me is just awesome. Thanks, T.J., for the cards and congratulations again on the addition to your family!
