Johnny's Trading Again

Over the four years I've been blogging, I have been the recipient of tons of cards and bobbleheads and all kinds of other stuff from John at Johnny's Trading Spot. He is a megacollector. Not only does he want all the Braves ever -- as he puts it, he only needs "like 108,000 more Braves cards" -- but he also puts sets together too. So, it looks like I definitely need to send him some cards again soon.

This is especially true because he sent me yet another package of cards about a month ago with some fantastic Brewers to add to my collection. Let's start with a short print from 2017:

Eric Thames seemed initially to be a very inspired signing by the Brewers early last year. Of course, he was not that much of a different player than when he went to Korea. It helped him early on that teams did not know whether he could handle what they were serving up to him -- especially the Reds. 

These days, Thames's playing time is getting squeezed a bit by the Brewers surplus of outfielders and corner players -- it's tough to find room for Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, Domingo Santana, Ryan Braun, Brett Phillips, Keon Broxton, Jesus Aguilar, and Eric Thames on the same roster. Of those, Phillips and Broxton have options remaining, and Aguilar was a waiver wire pickup last year who might find himself there this year if the Brewers can't clear that logjam.

We'll see how good David Stearns is in that trading process. So far, he's made me a Believer.

Strangely enough, 1981 Kellogg's seem to elude me. 1982 and 1983 are plentiful, it seems, but 1981...maybe kids just didn't want to remind themselves about the strike by buying baseball cards. Still, these two Brewers stalwarts were both very much needed for my collection. 

The Greatest American Hero was one of my favorite TV shows in 1981. William Katt as the everyman superhero who screwed up and made mistakes but in the end always beat the bad guys was kind of an inspiration to me as a 9-year-old, because I always screwed up and made mistakes. My visual memory of that show tied to this song is the scene where he flies into a billboard and crashes. He was also about as graceful as a rhinoceros high on LSD. Plus, Connie Sellecca was hot.

Now, though, she's just married to John Tesh. That was after being married to Gil Gerard (yeah, Buck Rogers from that three year show at the end of the 1980s).

Gotta love these snowflake/holiday cards from last year. Well, actually, you don't have to love them. To be honest, I'm sort of agnostic. They are cool and all, but I'd prefer them if they weren't a glorified parallel. I guess they are pretty cool. They do put me in a holiday spirit, even though the only holiday really upcoming right now is St. Patrick's Day. Guess I'll have to drink a Guinness.

Sort of like the cards, I'm a bit agnostic on Madonna -- especially her early career. If you didn't live through that era, well, imagine if Taylor Swift spurred on an entire army of teenage wannabes who dressed like her and you have the feel of what it was like when Madonna first got big. This was really one of her first hits, and she became a phenomenon.

John has been sprinkling these Fleer Excel cards throughout the blogosphere. You have to love that El Paso Diablos card of future Brewer and Astro Mark Loretta!

I am still working on putting together my minor league want lists for the Brewers. I'm working on refining my Milwaukee Braves want lists currently, so that's taken more of my time recently. That and listening to tons and tons of different podcasts. 

If you have any podcast recommendations, let me know. 

When I think of 1995, I think of the time when I met Oasis. Speaking of which, I really need to find my signed concert ticket from that day. Of course, they were gobshites then and are gobshites now. Time has certainly revealed that Noel was the more talented of the Gallagher brothers. 

Oh, and f**k Man Citeh, Noel & Liam. 

It might seem weird that my favorite item from this box (which had a ton more things in it!) is a media guide, but I love media guides. Part of me thinks I should go back to my efforts to buy up as many old (but good) baseball books as I could. The other side of me, though, thinks I should stick with the Brewers but buy up every Media Guide in sight of every team. I know I have the Brewers from 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1993 at a minimum.

And maybe I should do that. I enjoy the background about the players and all, and I also enjoy tidbits like seeing Fred "Chicken" Stanley showing up to work for the Brewers in 1992 -- one of the 1970 Brewers came back home.

John, thank you very much for the cards and ESPECIALLY for the media guide.

Christmas in July, Celebrated in September

Back nearly two months ago, my Gator loving friend John from Johnny's Trading Spot sent out a ton of packages to people around the card-collecting world to celebrate "Christmas in July." I was one of the recipients of one of those packages, and I now am here to celebrate the autumnal equinox with Christmas. It's just over 90 shopping days until Christmas, after all.

Just proving that it really was Christmas in July. John sent a massive package of cards, so I'm going to share some of them. In the past with cards from John, I've written them up with everything from a comparison to the local cougar lounge (Johnny's Hideaway) to comparisons to old cars to music drawn from John's blog.

How about I just show the cards and talk about them?

Let's start with Orlando Arcia's coin from 2017 Topps Archives. I like the coins from the original issue back in 1987 through 1990, which themselves were throwbacks to the 1971 coins, which themselves were throwbacks to the original 1964 coins. Each and every one of those issues is a great oddball that needs those cardboard and plastic cases to be able to display them properly.

Arcia has improved greatly this year. He might be a cornerstone. His OBP has improved this year, though he has not hit for as much power in the second half as he did in the first half (which was driven by his excellent June). He obviously needs to continue developing, though he seems to have the right attitude and his fielding is already among the best in the league.

Next up, we have some 2003 Fleer Hardball discs. I'm pretty sure this set was created by a Fleer card designer who wondered to himself or herself what those MSA discs would have looked like if MSA issued 200 of them and had licensing and had parallels. The answer: not bad, but oddballs should be kept as oddballs for a reason. Weird shapes and sizes of cards are best kept in small doses for fear of overdose.

Parallels? Really? Come on. I mean, it's cool if it was a "parallel" that was exactly the same except for the fact that, instead of "Fleer Hardball," the disc said, "Donruss Superstars" and another said "Upper Deck Dandies" and another said "Topps Lemons" or something like that.

According to Baseball Card Pedia, 1997 Pinnacle Inside came "inside one of 24 collectible player soup cans."

If that happened today, I'd have the same look on my face as Dave Nilsson has on his face on this card.

I have not paid any attention to what Panini has been doing this year in cards. Should I?

Based on this card, I'm thinking I'm okay with being a collecting version of Joe Barry Carroll a/k/a Joe Barely Cares when it comes to Panini. I'll pick up Diamond Kings and the like at card shows if I see them cheap. Otherwise, I'm not going out of my way to find them.

As for Ray, 2016's #1 pick for the Brewers struggled in the Carolina League this year, hitting just .238/.311/.367 in 503 plate appearances with 7 HR and 24 SB in 34 attempts. He struck out too much too. That said, he still is his toolsy self...we'll see what happens.

Out of these two cards, let's talk about Kevin Barker. He made it to Milwaukee at the age of 23 in 1999 and performed decently in 127 plate appearances -- .282/.331/.385. In 2000, he hit similarly -- .220/.352/.330. But, in their infinite wisdom in 1999, the Brewers played Mark Loretta and Sean Barry instead of Barker and, then, traded for Richie Sexson in 2000. That led to his eventual trade to San Diego in spring training in 2002 (where he got 7 games and 20 plate appearances). From there, he bounced around yearly -- to Detroit, to Florida, to Philadelphia, to Toronto (where he got into 12 games with 18 plate appearances) for two years, to Cincinnati (29 games, 36 plate appearances in 2009). 

I mean, he grinded out 323 plate appearances across 11 years with four teams. There's something to be said for that sticktoitiveness.

These test proof cards that Panini put out last year are just plain awful. Other than photo comparison, I couldn't tell you from this scan that this is Orlando Arcia. Combine a single color with no logos and discolored uniforms, and you have what should otherwise be thrown away except for that serial number and the hint of it showing a baseball player on it.

UGH.

It wouldn't be Christmas without 1995 Fleer. It really wouldn't. It's like the bow on the present. The star on the tree. The asbestos substituting for snow on the tree.

No, really.

Pure, white, fireproof asbestos snow. 

It's weird packaging for baseball cards, but I'm not surprised that Fleer used it in 1995.

John -- many thanks for the great cards. I hope that your home and your family are all safe after Irma.

Music from the Trading Spot

One of the trading world's really underrated guys is John from Johnny's Trading Spot. I say he's underrated because the guy literally drops fantastic packages on every one of his trading partners whenever he sends something. Johnny has sent me boxes of bobbleheads, massive and jammed Priority Mailers, and tons of awesome parallels that I have distinct difficulty finding in the wild at card shows or online.

John is right up there with Wes/JBF in my book -- both of them are incredibly generous fellow SEC fans who go above and beyond and seemingly ask for very little in return generally. John recently (within the past two months) sent me yet another excellent package. To thank John, I did a little research and found some of his favorite bands from his past. That means I read his blog, by the way.

Anyway, let's get to the music and the cards!

One of the first things I found on John's blog was a post where he showed off a TON of cards from a set all about Kiss from the late 1970s. I think it's a Donruss set based off a search on Trading Card Database. Every time I see a set like that, I think, "Man, I need to look more at non-sports cards and collect some." 

Then that feeling passes as I look at my mounting want lists for the Brewers. I have chipped away at those in terms of organization, though -- I'm all the way up to 2014 in terms of getting all the Topps parallels, inserts, and autographs into binders!

Speaking of parallels and inserts...here are four parallels that I needed. It's always interesting to get a Yuniesky Betancourt card. How he started in 152 games at shortstop for a 2011 team that won 96 games and won the NL Central is one of sabermetrics biggest questions. Betancourt "hit" for an OPS of .652 and tallied -0.5 WAR. And the Brewers paid him $4.3 million for that "production." Wow.

For whatever reason, it makes me chuckle to look at that team page on Baseball Reference and see the photos of the top 12 players from that team -- nearly everyone is shown on a team other than Milwaukee! The list goes Ryan Braun (MIL), Prince Fielder (TEX), Shaun Marcum (CLE), Corey Hart (PIT), Nyjer Morgan (CLE), Yovani Gallardo (SEA), Rickie Weeks Jr. (TAM), Randy Wolf (DET), John Axford (OAK) Carlos Gomez (TEX), Zack Greinke (ARI), and Jerry Hairston Jr. (BAL).

By the way, that Surhoff #1 pick is one of my favorite cards. I loved that subset in the 1985 Topps, and I was disappointed that it came out too early in 1985 for B.J. to be included. 

Now, when I saw John was a CDB fan, I knew damn well that he is a true Southerner despite his questionable choice of being a Florida Gator. Charlie Daniels comes from that late 1970s pop-country music time when country was really still country, but, as always, certain pop sensibilities had invaded. You have your Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelsons, of course, but folks like Eddie Rabbitt and Ronnie Milsap and Barbara Mandrell were their generation's versions of Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw, and Miranda Lambert. 

By the way, be sure to watch this video at least from the 3:30 mark on to see what happens when someone learns a new special kaleidoscope camera effect.

Let's get on the Upper Deck here. Two Prince Fielder inserts to go with a card from Carlos Lee to commemorate his short-lived Milwaukee stay and a Mat Gamel "Signature Star." Man, if Mat Gamel could have stayed healthy. All I got here, though, is that he went to the same Jacksonville High School as the daughter of two good friends of mine in Jacksonville (she's there as a senior now), and that his brother Ben is off to a pretty good start in Seattle this year.

I'm just not a huge fan of the song "Freebird," but I've listened to "Sweet Home Alabama" literally hundreds or thousands of times. I do hope that Neil Young will remember that a southern man don't need him around anyhow.

Of course, this is a big song for the University of Alabama, as you might expect. 

Man, I miss college football about this time of year.

Anyway...baseball cards....

Bowman seems to go well with the collegiate feel here for me. The whole "Bowman is about prospects" thing works in this regard. 

So, who is Cody Scarpetta and how did he end up on a Bowman Platinum card? Scarpetta was an 11th round draft pick in 2007 out of high school in Rockford, Illinois. His dad Dan was a third-round pick of the Brewers in 1982 who made it all the way to Triple-A before crashing out at the age of 25. Cody worked his way up the system all the way to Double-A Huntsville (Sweet Home Alabama) in 2011 and, in addition, made five appearances in the Arizona Fall League that year at the age of 22. He got shelled, and it was an indication that something was wrong -- as in, yup, Tommy John surgery. That really killed his career, though he continued to pitch in independent league baseball last year.

There are literally dozens of better songs from Steve Miller Band that I could have posted. But, I'm a child of the 1980s, and this song from 1982 is the one I most remember personally. Yes, "The Joker" is a thousand times better in my opinion, even if Billboard put this song at #70 on its list of Greatest Songs of all time. 

I bet my list would vary greatly from theirs.

Here's "the rest". Seth Lintz in the 2010 Pro Debut set as a blue parallel got into that set because he was a second round draft pick in 2008 out of high school. He barely made it to the Midwest League with the Brewers -- total of 14 appearances as a reliever in 2011 and 2012 with Wisconsin -- before he was cut loose. He made the independent league rounds some as well for a while, but it doesn't look like he has pitched since 2015.

Jed Bradley -- from Huntsville -- recently retired from baseball. He made it to the major leagues briefly last September with the Braves and appeared in 6 games in the same city where he went to college (he's a Tech kid). His card mate, Taylor Jungmann, was sent down to Double-A Biloxi earlier this year to be stretched out as a starter. Jungman and Bradley were both first round picks in 2011, but neither has really panned out. Jungmann's been passed not only Josh Hader, but also by Luis Ortiz and Brandon Woodruff and maybe even journeyman Paolo Espino.

My thanks go out to John as always for a great package of baseball cards. I would have played Molly Hatchet, but there's no damn way I'm putting any song called "Gator Country" on this blog!

Johnny's Trading Spot #SuperTrader Debut

As many of you know, the man whose force of will helped create the SuperTraders group last year -- Wes a/k/a Jaybarkerfan -- decided to leave his creation behind and focus entirely on getting every Josh Willingham card ever. Just call him, "Willinghammer Rising!"

As a result, the man who loves looking at shadows for Sunday silliness -- Johnny of Johnny's Trading Spot -- took over as the Braves SuperTrader. To introduce himself to the group, he sent out Priority Mailers. Well, at least that's what I got. 

To honor John's favorite silliness, let's look at the inserts and parallels he sent to me accompanied by songs only the Shadow will know. Or, rather, songs about shadows. I don't think I've heard of any of these songs before, so I'm hearing them for the first time too.

"Prakriti" by The Shadows

So, have you ever wondered what Candlebox or maybe *shudder* Nickelback would sound like if they sang in Nepali? I'm pretty sure this is it. The Shadows are known as Nepal's first hard rock band, and they hail from Narayangarh, Chitwan, Nepal. 

I haven't the foggiest idea what they are saying. Apparently, though, they are known and are popular due to their lyrics discussing social issues. 

Let's start this post with first basemen. The top card is from the 1994 Upper Deck Major League Baseball 125th Anniversary set, and it's the special foil stamped parallel of Cecil Cooper. I have not seen too many of these cards -- read as: no others that I can recall -- so this was a pretty awesome card to get.

On the bottom, it's a Prince Fielder Upper Deck insert from 2006 and a Topps Attax code card from 2010. Ah yes, 2005/2006...those halcyon days when the Brewers had prospects that were forcing their way quickly into the major leagues -- and I hope those days return soon. Prince was one of the first to get there and made his presence known in a big way. 

"In the Shadows" by The Rasmus

Here's an alternative rock band that somehow escaped my notice in 2003. The band is called The Rasmus. The song isn't too bad -- it's pretty generic alt-rock from a band from Finland, though, so maybe I missed it by the fact I was busy in 2003 getting indoctrinated into Manchester United soccer (that's the year I really became a fan).

That said, with the name of this band, it's almost like my random word search forced me into covering current events here, what with all the kerfuffle about Colby Rasmus's neckbeard making its way into baseball Twitter today. 

Personally, I don't see the big deal.

Going the other direction here, we have the perpetually clean-shaven Teddy Higuera. The Studio card is one of those promo cards. Next to it, of course, we have a Score Gold Rush card -- which were too numerous to presage fully Topps's conversion to the serial numbered gold parallel standard several years later. But, that gold background is only okay -- it's a little too tough to know whether Higuera is pitching on Tatooine or in Cleveland for my taste.

Finally, we have a sticker-back from 1989. For player collectors, these sticker backs are great and completely frustrating for the same reason: how many variations of each back are there? I mean, I know Higuera has at least 4 or 5 variations of which stickers are on the other side. My problem is that I have no idea how many total there are. This is good for my Yount collection though -- increased possibility of adding to it based on the variation.

"Apache" by The Shadows

I think this song appeared in every Western film from 1960 through about 1985, or at least a variation of it. The Shadows are revered by fans of what I would call "proper" country & western music (as opposed to the "Contemporary Country" stuff that is on the radio today) -- the band's rockabilly sensibilities shine through. It feels like tumbleweeds should roll through when this song is playing.

The band also served the backing band for English rock legend Sir Cliff Richard. Richard is huge in England, but he's barely received any notice here in the United States. The Shadows' collaboration with Richard ended in 2009's Golden Anniversary tour in the UK.

Speaking of gold...and silver and metallic and rainbow foils, here are some mid-1990s (and one early 2000s) parallels all gilded up and ready for review. When card companies figured out a way to stick foil everywhere on cards, suddenly everyone everywhere did it.

I'm thinking that there are a couple of innovations coming in the near future to cards. First, I'm waiting for the first high-end GIF cards -- maybe a minute long GIF that has a small solar panel on it to charge a microbattery (you know, like the ones Evan Musk is developing). Second, a similar microbattery card will be produced with the player's voice to tell stories. If it's a super high-end card, perhaps it will include wifi access to update the stories.

Not sure I'd buy either of these creations, but I could see it happen.

"Shadows" by Sabrina Carpenter

Sabrina Carpenter is someone I've never heard of, but that's because I don't have kids to make me watch Disney movies or listen to Radio Disney. She is a 17-year-old actress/singer whose voice sounds similar to many of the other former Disney stars. 

To be quite honest, this song surprised me in how easily it got stuck in my head. It's a well-crafted pop song -- the background music doesn't detract from her voice, and she has what seems like an excellent voice. Of course, who knows how much studio help her voice gets, but it sounds like she can really sing.

To go with a song that surprised me greatly -- I was guessing that I almost certainly wouldn't like it -- here are four very random cards. Jeromy Burnitz is in the midst of a silver Pacific Revolution. It's a card my cat Gus loves, because he loves to chase reflected light spots around the room.

Then, we have two Cal Eldreds -- a Virtual Reality parallel, and a Team 2000 insert. That Team 2000 insert reminds me: I had the 2000 Edition of Baseball Prospectus out recently and read the Brewers section. This section may have colored my view of the Sal-Bando-led Brewers somewhat. Here's what it said about Eldred:

The second poor decision was Phil Garner's sacrifice of Cal Eldred. . . . It's hard to remember how good Eldred was, but when he came up he was a better pitcher than Alex Fernandez. There was every reason to expect Eldred would grow into a staff ace, the kind of guy who makes the job of building a solid rotation almost easy. But Garner couldn't wait for it to happen. Everyone rushed to call him a genius in 1992, so he had to keep putting up a good front. Eldred's career was sacrificed in the seventh and eighth innings of his starts during meaningless 1993 and 1994 seasons, where the only goal was satisfying Phil Garner's sense of self-worth.

Harsh. But true. The whole chapter on the Brewers is a horrible reminder of the days that were the second half of the 1990s in Milwaukee baseball.

"Shadows" by Lindsey Sterling

I am not sure how dubstep and the violin work together, but Lindsey Stirling sort of makes it work. She was a quarterfinalist on season 5 of America's Got Talent, but Piers Morgan and Sharon Osbourne shot down her hopes and dreams by saying that she simply wasn't good enough to dance and play violin at the same time and that it would not fill a theater in Vegas. 

She also teamed with the Atlanta Music Project in 2013 to spread music appreciation to children who might not otherwise have the chance. I'm not sure how well that went, but hey, she's trying.

This cluster of four cards will finish off this post. On top is just a really well-done card. I like the black and white background with Dave Nilsson in the foreground in color. It just works. 

The middle cards -- a Skybox of Nilsson and one of the Gold Label variants (I think it's a Type 2 or Row 2 or whatever the hell weird nomenclature those used) of Jeromy Burnitz. That uniform of him throwing, though, looks fake to me.

Finally, we close with a Robin. I finally got my hands on a Leaf base-set checklist with Robin on it. Seriously, it took me nearly three years of collecting to get this card. I have no idea why it took that long.

Thanks to John, though, that search is over. As always, my deepest thanks go out to John for the cards and to all of you for reading.