PWEs in the War with JBF

As we speak, bubble mailers are making their way to Alabama, to carry the word of Off Hiatus.  Propaganda in war is as much a part of the game as bullets and boxes, after all.  One wins or loses wars not only with dropping bombs, but with dropping leaflets.

The leaflets heading to Alabama have shown Off Hiatus's superiority to date.  Don't get me wrong -- the PWEs I have received have been excellent, and the number of serial numbered cards and jersey/bat inserts are large.  But, as JBF himself admitted, Off Hiatus prevailed in the first round.  And that win was based not on serial numbers, but on vintage and oddballs.

We will see how future rounds proceed.  To be fair, I am expecting that, eventually, I too will be as overwhelmed as Bob Walk the Plank became...and let's be honest, if Matt can get overwhelmed, there's no way I will avoid it.

Wes hit my mailbox machine-gun style in the first days of the war.  On the first day, there was one PWE, then two, then three, then four...and then five and six.

Those five and six showed up on the same day here in Georgia.  Here's what that looked like:

Yes, eleven PWEs!

Let's just run right through these, same as we did before, but rather than posting all of the cards, I will hit the highlights.

From Envelope one, JBF hits me right in the Player Collections.  We have the Peter Gabriel parallel from 2014 (that's what I call it...it's red rain, pouring down...) and a Rickie Weeks All-Star Game work-out Jersey relic from the 2011 Topps Update set.  

What about PWE 2?  More PC cards.  There's a B.J. Surhoff as a Toys 'R' Us Kid, er, Rookie and then two Yo's -- one from 2010 Upper Deck at the plate (and Gallardo was/is an excellent hitter...too bad he is in DH land now in Texas) and one piece of his jersey or undershirt or arm sleeve from Gypsy Queen.  Very nice indeed!

Now, the third envelope didn't have any PC guys, but it did have a beautifully framed John Axford Allen & Ginter relic, with the frame color-coordinated with the color of the relic.  If Topps did that more often for its relics, I would not complain!

On the other hand, the fourth PWE had four PC cards -- two more Surhoffs, a Plesac Sportsflics card, and a Burnitz swatch in lovely gray nylon:

PWE #5 was highlighted by some mid-2000s cards that I did not have an a relic from the same time from from the much-traveled Chris Capuano (who is making his 2015 debut for the Yankees as I write this) and a card from the equally well-traveled Mike Cameron:

Halfway there.  

Yes, halfway...this next one is the middle envelope -- or the median, for you math guys.  This one is highlighted by a Yellow Deer, a color-coordinated Ramirez, and a Cobra sighting.

The next envelop had another B.J. Surhoff card that I needed (this time for the team collection), a Chris Johnson pitcher-type who never made it past Double-A and probably got on this card through a nice win-loss record (13-6) and ERA (2.98) in 1990, and Johnny Estrada Relic.  I'd almost forgotten he was a Brewer.

Envelope 8: It's a Rickie Weeks Wal-Mart Parallel from 2014 and a Bill Hall NL Artifact from Upper Deck serial numbered 45 of 50 -- Sweet!

The 9th envelope of the eleven brought another Wal-Mart Parallel -- this time of Khris Davis -- and a full-sized card relic from 2014 Allen & Ginter of PC guy Jean Segura (who appears to be playing pretty well despite finding himself on the DL currently):

The tenth envelope had the one card from before 1980 that popped up in the PWEs and a Carlos Lee "Ovation Apparel" relic:

And, finally, we have a Robin Yount sighting...it's a 1983 Topps card that I have already, but it's still a Robin, and it was accompanied by an autograph from a guy who didn't last long in the Milwaukee system named Tim Bausher:

Bauser started with the Seattle system in 2001, got released, pitching in the indie leagues for a little while in 2003 where the Brewers saw him and signed him.  Bausher has a Brewers uniform on him -- probably from his time in Beloit in 2003 -- but, by the time this 2004 card was issued, Bausher had moved on to Colorado's Double-A Tulsa affiliate. By 2005, Bausher was in Triple-A with the Red Sox organization. In 2006, he moved on to the Reds organization.  For 2007, he was with the Royals system, got bombed in Double-A Wichita, and ended up in the Independent leagues again at the age of 28.  That's where Baseball Reference loses him.

So, now, for me, it's on to battle a monster.  The first monster, actually:

Pray for me, y'all.

"Faith, Hope & Charity": Cards from Bob Walk the Plank

Writer's block is a weird thing.  For me, it usually applies in one of two ways. Sometimes, I'm uninspired to write or blog. In those times, either I plow through and write something that probably feels as uninspiring to read as it was to write, or I just don't write at all. Other times, I have writer's block because I know that I have a very difficult, uphill argument to write. That issue alone can make it difficult to get inspired, so writer's block in that case is often just avoidance.

Lately, I have had some writer's block when it comes to work but not to blogging. I feel very inspired by my hobby currently, while my work has a few difficult arguments to handle right now.  

The inspiration here, though, is easy to come by. Fellow bloggers keep sending me such excellent envelopes filled with cards that blogging is fun.  It keeps me thinking about ways to talk about the cards that are more than just, "hey, look, got these. Thanks." There's nothing wrong with that, but I like themes for my posts.

Today's theme came as the result of a problem posed to me by Matt of Bob Walk the Plank. You see, he sent me a Robin Yount card that I really needed, but, it came with this note:

What is a guy to do when his player collection is trapped inside lucite with an interloper? 

I didn't use a paper clip, like MacGyver would have, but I did free the Yount card from his plastic prison.  That act, though, inspired me to use titles of MacGyver episodes to present the cards.

1.  Episode 15: The Enemy Within

Back in the decade and a half when the Astros were in the NL Central, that would have been a fair assessment of the Astros from the Brewers perspective...if the Brewers really mattered at that point.  So, here's Mike Scott in the lucite lockup that Yount left behind:

Yes, it's a Topps Pristine from 2005, serial numbered to 549.  Bru, do you want this? Otherwise, it is up for grabs and features the shiniest looking sunglasses/glasses I've ever seen on a card.  It's downright eerie sometimes.  I had to put it into a box so the light wouldn't reflect in my face.

EDIT:

Oops. Didn't show the Yount!

2.  Episode 123: Strictly Business

The Brewers tried to get Richie Sexson to agree to a contract extension.  When it became apparent that Sexson would not sign, the Brewers traded him to the Diamondbacks and unleashed the power of the Overbay in Milwaukee.

Of course, both the team and the player would tell you that this was all strictly business. It's disappointing when a player you like is pushed out the door before he is shoved, but it happens.  Remember -- we cheer for laundry or, in this case, white and blue swatches of fabric.

3.  Episode 18: Ugly Duckling

This humorous plot synopsis tells us that the episode was about an awkward female hacker who is wanted by both the US Government and the bad guys because she can crack the launch code on some top secret missiles.  Awkward?

While not a female hacker Johnny Estrada was an awkward stopgap at catcher for the Brewers.  Estrada stayed in Milwaukee for just one season and came over in one of the Brewers/Diamondbacks trades from that mid-2000s time period (Estrada, Greg Aquino and Claudio Vargas for Doug Davis, Dana Eveland, and Dave Krynzel was this one).  Estrada's batting average was so empty and bereft of value (.278/.296/.403 slash line in 2007...) that the Brewers traded him to the Mets for Guillermo Mota and replaced Estrada with the late career Jason Kendall.  You know -- the Jason Kendall with a SLG south of .325.  

So, yeah, kinda awkward.  Everyone was waiting on Lucroy, after all.

4. Episode 125: Hind-Sight

Hindsight is great -- we all say, "yeah, well, hindsight is 20/20 vision." It's easy to second guess things when you know the result that will follow, after all.  

A perfect example of this is Jose Capellan.  Throughout his minor league career with the Braves, Capellan was a starter who tended to put up some very good peripheral numbers. The trade that brought Capellan to Milwaukee -- Capellan and a minor leaguer for Danny Kolb -- seemed like a steal at the time.  With hindsight, we know that neither club truly did all that well in the process.  

Kolb was the Braves closer in 2005 on the heels of his All-Star season in 2004 (hey, everyone gets a representative!), but a look at Kolb's peripheral numbers screamed "DANGER!"  Those numbers: 3.3 K/9 in 2004 as a closer with a FIP a full run higher than his ERA.  He sucked.  Trust me. I saw a lot of those games.

For his part, Capellan spent part of 2005 with Milwaukee in the bullpen.  The Brewers saw his stuff and said, "This guy is a reliever." 71-2/3 innings of 4.40 pitching and a FIP of 4.95 said otherwise.  Unhappy in 2007, Capellan demanded a trade. By the end of 2008 at the age of 27, Capellan would never return to the big leagues.  He last pitched in the Venezuelan Winter League in 2013 for Tigres de Aragua.

5.  Episode 93: Two Times Trouble

The plot summary on VUDU is short and to the point: "In Chicago, MacGyver tries to help Roxy, an old friend, during her shoot of a Rock Against Drugs video. She believes her twin sister is trying to kill her, fueled by jealousy over her music career."

Rock Against Drugs?  Two Times Trouble?

We get two cards of Ryan Braun, of course. Now these two cards are hardly trouble, but Braun's two issues with steroid accusations/positive tests somehow makes this far more perfect than I could have expected based solely on the episode title.  The Prizm is a "42 parallel" meaning that it is numbered to 42.  I guess that makes it the meaning of life.

Matt, thank you very much for the cards and for the excuse to link to a bunch of dodgy websites with questionable claims as to the legality of hosting complete episodes of MacGyver.  

In all seriousness, your generosity is just incredible, and I greatly appreciate the cards.