Off Hiatus: A Retrospective

Today is my two-year anniversary of kicking off my card blogging life. Last year, I didn't even realize that my one-year anniversary had passed until three days after it had hit. It's been a tough, strange, fun, crazy, off-the-wall, difficult year for me personally and professionally as I left BigLaw, basically was my own firm for about 7 months, then joined another firm in July of last year. 

Lew Burdette was happy for me to switch law firms.

In between last February and now, I spent most of my time trying to catch up with trades both incoming and outgoing.  To be fair, it comes and goes for me in terms of having time to put together the outgoing trade packages. I owe some of you a package currently, and I apologize for my laxity in not getting those together already.  They will go out soon.

This past year has been a great one for me in many respects. I lived through a war with Jaybarkerfan -- a war in six parts (1a, 1b, 1c, 2, 3, 4, 5a, 5b, and 6) that was declared a draw thanks in large part to an invasion from Canada and the proprietor of Dawg Day Cards, Angus.

I received cards from a multitude of countries too (and I know I still owe cards, now long overdue, to the Italian Completist...dude, I am VERY sorry...I will be sending you a package soon). As best I recall it, I've gotten cards from Canada (a few times), France, Italy, the Netherlands, and England as a start.

My most popular posts of all time all came in the last year, and I have no earthly idea why these posts are so popular. That's not meant as a jab at the person I traded with whose cards are highlighted in the past, but I still don't know why these two posts both have over 1350 hits each while no other post has over 500 (there is one sitting at 500). Those two popular posts? 

With 1385 hits, it's "Julie: A Trade Post." Julie's "A Cracked Bat" provides a wonderfully different perspective on card collecting, as Julie -- unlike most of us -- came to collecting as an adult rather than having collected as a kid and returning when we want to be kids again. Still, I think the reason that that blogpost gets so many hits is because I included an American Girl Doll reference in it.



Not that I'm above doing things to drive web traffic to my site or anything.

The other post that gets tons of hits -- at 1451 hits as of today -- is "Catching Up with a Trade Post." Mark Kaz is great and the 1990s Brewers he sent were awesome enough to lead me to post both photos of kangaroos and a Violent Femmes song ("Promise" in case you were wondering). But why so many hits for those two?

Of course, now that I think about it, perhaps all the traffic is just looking for a "trading post" and clicks through that way.  Maybe I should name all of my blog posts "trade post."

So, it's the beginning of year three for me as a blogger. While some people do resolutions at the beginning of the year, I tend to like to wait for a different day important only to me. Here are my resolutions:

1.  Grow my Robin Yount collection to 1000 items. It stands currently at 875 items, including magazine covers, mugs, bobbleheads, glasses, placemats, rulers, books, talking baseball cards, and autographs.

2.  Get more organized, again. With the addition of approximately 25,000 to 30,000 cards as part of that Christmas Horde, I have got an absolute crapload (sorry for the legalese) of cards to sort through again. I'm pretty sure I have to have over 100,000 cards now, of which perhaps 20% are Brewers. 

3.  With that said, I want to winnow my collection a bit too. Get rid of some of those Twins cards, or Expos cards, or Blue Jays, or Yankees. Especially Yankees. 

4. To do that, I need to sit down on a regular basis -- perhaps even a scheduled basis -- to put together packages to send out. I'm hoping the "SuperTraders" will help me with this. By the way, does anyone know a good Indians, Royals, or Marlins collector who wants in?
Actually, does anyone know ANY Marlins collectors?

5.  Stick to a better budget on buying cards. Rather, create a budget for buying cards. If I had a budget maybe I'd follow it.

6. Get my Brewers parallels, oddballs, and Paninis all organized and set up in proper want lists and, also, get my Milwaukee Braves post-1965 cards organized and get want lists created. I love my lists and want more.

7.  Last one: Keep up on the 1982 Blog and the "Meet the Brewers" posts, trying to do one a month each.

Okay, finally, one more thing. I wanted to show off a card I got at my local show yesterday:

 

It's a JSA certified Eddie Mathews autograph. I got it for $24 from Frank Moiger, the promoter of the card show, and I love it. I wanted a Mathews autograph, and this one will do quite nicely, thank you.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm still trying to get Coldplay songs out of my head after that Super Bowl halftime last night.

Merry Christmas to me from A Cracked Bat

A Merry Christmas from the Atlanta area, where our meteorologists supplemented the NORAD Santa Tracker with a tracker for Noah and his Ark.

While the rain has returned after about a 12-hour respite, I'm thinking that we probably still will not need that $73-million ark being built at the "Creation Museum" in Kentucky, scheduled to be completed next summer. Of course, I'm not sure of the need for a $150-million theme park to try to promote creationism either, just as I'm really not sure about the need for the Hunger Games Theme Park here in Atlanta.

None of that really has any relation to the cards I'm showing off today. My good trading friend Julie from "A Cracked Bat" sent me a fantastic Christmas Card -- a "Michigan" Christmas:

I particularly like "Seven Vernor's Ginger Ales a Fizzing," as that is a local delicacy apparently that I have yet to sample.

Making this card even cooler were the two incredible baseball cards accompanying it.  



On the right, of course, is a 1953 Bowman Black & White Lew Burdette -- a card that goes perfectly in my Burdette player collection.

But, let's talk for a second about Jim Wilson. Wilson's 1953 Bowman color card accompanied the Burdette. More interestingly and from a historic perspective, Wilson holds the distinction of being the first Milwaukee pitcher to throw a no-hitter. On June 12, 1954, he held the Philadelphia Phillies hitless. In fact, the Milwaukee Braves had four no-hitters total and Wilson and Burdette had the first two -- both against the Phillies. 

The other two were both by Warren Spahn -- one against the Phillies and the other against the Giants. Of course, the Brewers have had just one no-hitter in their entire history -- a 5-walk, 7-strikeout performance by Juan Nieves against the woeful Baltimore Orioles in 1987 in the midst of the Brewers 13-game season-opening winning streak punctuated by Robin Yount's diving catch in center field to finish off the game.

Thank you, Julie, for the fantastic cards and the ability to get a little baseball history lesson on Christmas day.  To all the rest of you, have a happy holiday! 

Julie's Been Working for the Drug Squad

How else can you explain why Julie from A Cracked Bat would be sending out so many cards to so many people? She must have some kind of "connections" that are allowing her to put such great envelopes of cards together for people.

I have traded with Julie a couple of times already. In fact, my last trade post (called imaginatively "Julie: A Trade Post") is one of my most viewed posts ever (with over 1150 hits). It might be the American Girl part of the post that draws random hits to the post, but it's more likely that the world wants more "Cracked Bat"!

This time around, Julie sent me several very recent cards from a couple of the higher end sets:

Now that's a lot of Lucroy right there -- two of the Museum Collection base card parallels, the Topps Triple Threads base of both Luc and Gomez, the Lucroy Green parallel, and the Red prism card from Panini that reminds me of a Picasso painting for some reason.

Maybe.

Anyway, Julie also treated me to some relics and autographs too.

Coooooooooooooop! Dave Parker was a Brewer for just one year, but apparently the Brewers kept every one of his old uniforms to let Upper Deck cut them up into little squares. Finally, there's Carlos Villanueva, who was last seen in the bullpen for Baseball's Best Fans (who really seem to believe that Jason Heyward should have felt more kinship to St. Louis after 1 season than he would show for any other team in baseball).

Finally, Julie hooked me up with a few random cards for a couple of my other player collections:

Each of these great cards -- including the Gallardo Chrome Heritage up top -- were ones I knew that I needed for my player collections.  

This last one, though, was not.  I mean, I'm not a Scott Fletcher collector, except for his cards with the Brewers, of course...

...well played, Julie! Well played.

Thanks again for the great cards you've sent this time. And, guess what? I've been collecting up cards to send your way soon!

Julie: A Trade Post

Definition of Julie:

Sweet and downy haired girl, changeable, and often misunderstood and complex. A fearful creature as well as highly loyal. She will rule your affection and once you have hers it will be forever.

-- The Urban Dictionary (written by "Julie Renee")

If you have heard of the Urban Dictionary, you know that it is the frequently Not Safe For Work reference for those slang terms that, perhaps, should not be shared in polite company. Now, the definition for Julie -- not coincidentally written by a woman named Julie -- is quite tame and complimentary compared to other terms.

Thankfully for everyone, I am not turning to the Urban Dictionary for a theme post. But, to honor our blogging, baseball-card-collecting friend Julie of A Cracked Bat and to highlight the cards she sent me, I decided to go with the Google theme.  In other words, what does Google give me when I simply input "Julie"?

Hit 1: Call JULIE before you dig for safe digging in Illinios [sic]

Yes, the Diggers Hotline in Illinois is (1) called Julie and (2) misspells "Illinois" in its headline.  Julie here is an acronym, standing for "Joint Utility Locating Information for Excavators."

Julie the collector likes to dig too -- through dime boxes, that is.  One card in the huge package she sent to me came in a penny loader with a little sticky note attached:

Behind the note was this card:

Which is one heck of a great find in a dime box.

Hit 2: Julie, The American Girl Doll

I don't know how you folks with daughters do it. These American Girl dolls are ridiculous. My niece has one -- not a Julie doll, mind you -- and the amount of money that these American Girl stores require is unbelievable.  

Here's the Julie doll:

The sentiment behind the doll is great -- standing up and fighting for what's right and all -- but the sentiment is merely an entrée into an entire world of books, clothing ("outfits authentic to her era and stories"), furniture (also period-specific to 1973, including an "Egg Chair" set [for the doll? for the kid?] for $100), and clothing for the human to wear that matches the doll.

Wait.  Where was I? Baseball cards.  Right.  

That little digression into the world of #FirstWorldProblems sort of reminds me of unlicensed cards generally.  I know some folks like/don't mind cards with guys without logos.  I don't mind them that much, to be fair, because I want these companies to stay in business creating cards long enough to get licensed and provide competition for Topps.  So, here are the unlicensed/non-logo-bearing cards that Julie sent to me.

   

 

I like the look of the Donruss Elite of Lucroy. Catcher cards are the best cards to get away with being logoless.  

Maybe the folks at Panini should put together a huge, multi-year set called "The History of Catchers".  Start with the first photos we have, or get an artist to draw Goudey-style art (and I'm talking 1930s Goudey, not the stylized versions we got in 2008 and 2009) and do a set entirely of catchers.  Or Catchers who played more than 50 games in a season.  That way, we can get great photos/art with cards that are inventive and Panini wouldn't have to spend so much time on making Gorman Thomas look like he is hitting as a member of the Chicago Cubs circa 1978.

Here's the thing, though -- just because a card is logo-less does not mean it has to be ugly or discolored.  

Right, Church's Fried Chicken card?

Hit 4 (after skipping Wikipedia): Julie: The 1956 movie starring Doris Day

In Glorious Black & White.  The plot: Doris Day plays widow Julie Benton, who is terrorized by her second husband.  Here's another movie poster to give you an idea of what this film might be like:

Run Julie, Run! Run for your life!

To what could I possibly compare this movie? How about cards from the mid-1990s:

So many sets from the 1990s feel like horror shows.  These duplicate action shots on 1994 Flair, the shiny-faced B.J. Surhoff Diamond King (it's limited in release, kids -- just 10,000 made and serial numbered too!) -- after putting my checklists together for these 1990s sets and looking at the cards online, I'm pretty glad I didn't collect during that decade.  I might never have returned, except for the love of the game of baseball itself.

Hit 5: Julie Bee's Creates The 12-Hour Shoe For The Fabulously Chic Woman

By that, they mean this:

or this:

So, this is our fashion plate Google hit for Julie.  What could possibly qualify here?

Our swatches of fabric and manufactured commemorative patches, of course.  Don't you want something in white with blue pinstripes? Of course you do.  Or maybe you'd rather be blandly attired in something white like Lyle Overbay?  The best choice is something bespoke -- made personally for you just like a manufactured patch made just for Jean Segura.

Hit 6: Julie & Julia

I watched this movie with my wife a few years ago, when it first appeared on DVD. My wife and I like to cook together from time to time, and, to be honest, I find Amy Adams to be incredibly attractive.

The problem with the Julie & Julia movie is...well, there are a couple of problems.  First, Julia Child was no fan of Julie Powell, the blogger who worked her way through Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking -- but mainly because Child thought that Powell was just not taking the art of cooking very seriously and thought it was a stunt.

The other part -- which was not mentioned, referenced, or touched on in any way in the movie -- was the fact that Powell was cheating on her husband for two years after she wrote the book that became the movie.  The movie portrayed their relationship as this supportive love fest, but the reality was less enticing.  

What cards could possibly go along with this random dissertation?

They look like cards.  They have backs like cards. But they aren't cards.  They are stickers. It's all a big lie.

Other Hits:

Julie (1975 Hindi Movie)

This Bollywood movie featured at its core an Anglo-Indian family dealing with difficult issues related to that crossroads between being Indian and being Christians with an Anglo background.  It's so random I had to include it for something completely random:

A "Molten Metal" Geoff Jenkins.  A metal card with (thankfully) rounded corners is about as random as it gets in my book.  

Julie, thank you for the great cards.  I hope that my weird, strange post highlighting your first name won't drive you away from sending me cards!