Commish Bob, Meet Zippy Zappy's Music

Sometimes, it's fun to juxtapose two rather disparate concepts or items or people. You know, like putting together something sweet with something salty -- which works nearly all the time. Or, like putting together old with new. That's kind of the concept for today. I'm putting music that (other than one song) is new to me from Zippy Zappy alongside some vintage cards sent to me by everyone's favorite Houston Cougars fan, Commishbob, The Five Tool Collector.

Let's jump right into the music!

Nipsey Hussle a/k/a Ermias Asghedom is a West Coast rapper who first came to prominence about 2008 or so, when he released two mixtapes that got him a collaboration with Drake and, later, with Snoop Dogg and Problem. The big news about Nipsey Hussle here in April of 2017 is that LeBron James shared an unreleased track of Nipsey's on Instagram, and it led to all the music magazines having a collective freakout.

This song is decent and has a catchy hook. Since it's my first time listening to Nipsey Hussle (do I call him Mr. Hussle?), I might just listen to more based on this.

Of course, I hear this rapper's name and the only person who comes to mind is the great Nipsey Russell -- an Atlanta native who passed away in 2005 in New York. Russell was one of the gang of celebrities who made appearing on panel game shows like Hollywood Squares and Match Game into a career.

If you paid close attention to yesterday's post of cards from Shane, you'll note that he also sent me a Denver Lemaster 1963 Topps card. I went from having zero to two in the space of three days. Can't complain about that, though. Lemaster signed with the Braves organization out of high school, and he started his pitching career in beautiful Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

He made his major league debut in 1962 by pitching a complete game in the second game of a doubleheader against Johnny Klippstein, who gave way to noted baseball author Jim Brosnan after 7 innings. Brosnan picked up the win thanks to the fact that the game featured the 16th home runs of both Vada Pinson and Frank Robinson off Lemaster, with Pinson's homer tying the game in the ninth. Lemaster went with the team to Atlanta before being traded after the 1967 season to Houston with Denis Menke in exchange for Chuck Harrison and Sonny Jackson. He spent his final major league season with the Montreal Expos in 1972, and he was released mid-season that year.

Peter Garrett, the lead singer for Midnight Oil, is the reason I had ever heard of the term alopecia. Well, he and former UConn star and Milwaukee Buck Charlie Villanueva.

Of course, "Beds Are Burning" is not a light song. It's about the plight of Australian aboriginal people whose land had been stolen from them. In typical white European style -- as was the norm in the 18th Century -- the British people who settled Australia shunted the aborigines aside, took their land (or at least any land that was worth having) and set into motion literally centuries of mistreatment and disenfranchisement.

When I visited Australia in 2009, I visited an aboriginal cultural center called Muru Mittigar. The speaker for the presentation was excellent, even if he couldn't teach me how to throw a boomerang properly -- too much baseball in my background.

Anyway, enough about me and Australia.

Bob Shaw from 1962 Topps is next. Shaw was a bit of a journeyman. He started with Detroit, then was traded to the White Sox with Ray Boone for, among others, Tito Francona in 1958. Then, in 1961, the White Sox sent him and future Brave Wes Covington (along with two others) to the Kansas City Athletics for, among others, Don Larsen. Shaw ended up in Milwaukee for the 1962 season thanks to being traded after the 1961 season with Lou Klimchock to Milwaukee for Joe Azcue, Ed Charles, and Manny Jimenez. After spending two years in Milwaukee, the Braves flipped him to the San Francisco Giants with Del Crandall and Bob Hendley in exchange for Felipe Alou, Ed Bailey, Billy Hoeft, and Ernie Bowman in December of 1963.

Don't get unpacked yet, Mr. Shaw.

In June of 1966, the New York Mets bought his contract, and he stayed there a year before the Mets sold him to the Cubs organization. In all, Shaw spent 11 seasons in the major leagues but spent no more than four years in any one city -- including his 86 games as a Milwaukee Brave (22-20, 2.74 ERA in 384 innings and an ERA+ of 130...not bad).

Belgian singer Stromae's song "Tous Les Mêmes" is next up. I don't speak French, so I had to rely on Wikipedia and Google Translate to find out that this song's title means "All the Same." The video is supposed to convey how annoyed he is with the attitude of men towards women and how they treat women.

It probably says a lot about me that my first thought on seeing Stromae and his odd haircut was, "he kind of looks like Paul Pogba." That's probably influenced by the fact that the Commish and I both support Manchester United.

And, to be fair, they really don't look all that much alike other than the affinity for really screwed-up haircuts.

No really screwed-up haircuts in the Braves cards that Bob sent, so let's go with Tony Cloninger. If you know anything about Tony Cloninger or have heard the name at all, you know that he was the first National League player -- not pitcher, player --  to hit two grand slams in the same game. The Braves won that game against the Giants by the score of 17-3, and Cloninger went 3-for-5 with nine RBI. Of course, Cloninger did it in 1966 as a member of the Atlanta Braves, so for my purposes it really doesn't count.

Nothing like a good Bollywood dance scene featuring guys dressed in harem pants á la MC Hammer. Then I hear the name of the song is "Sing Raja" and all that comes to my head is former Boston Celtic Dino Radja. Don't ask me why. I don't know.

The song itself isn't bad, but it suffers from the whole not knowing the language thing for me. I like my lyrics -- what can I say?

Red Schoendienst from 1959 Topps is next. I'll note that it's a good day when you get a Hall of Famer's card in the mail for free. Schoendienst is still alive -- aged 94 years old. He went to the Cardinals spring training camp last year, and he made it to St. Louis this year for Opening Day.

Arukara is Japanese. Kenny says their songs are "very weird" and he "can't keep with the plot of their songs at all."

That makes two of us.

This song reminds me, though, of the types of songs that would find their way onto the soundtrack for EA Sports's FIFA games ten years ago or so, when I had time to play video games. It's got a good guitar riff going for it. I was concerned initially that it might turn into Nickelback Japan, but that thankfully didn't happen.

Perhaps appropriately, Arukara's song "Chao Han Music" is the new ending theme for Dragon Ball Super anime. Anime is something else I never got into either.

Chuck Tanner is much more known as a manager than he is as a baseball player -- which is what happens when your playing career includes just 396 games played over 8 seasons. He does hold the distinction of having hit a homerun off the very first pitch he ever saw as a major leaguer -- off Gerry Staley as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the eighth inning on April 12, 1955. His homer spurred a comeback from 2 runs down to turn the game into a 4-3 win for the Braves and Warren Spahn.

Skambankt sounds a bit like old school Dio, but only if Dio sang only in Norwegian. 

Norwegians really like metal. Like, at an inordinate level of love. In fact, in trying to find an article to summarize that love, I found this article which talks about how Norway actually spawned incredibly violent, rightwing metalheads who literally killed other people and end up in Norwegian jails that the article says that is like "getting comped at a Comfort Inn." That article is worth reading for the sheer weirdness of it all.

To close, let's go to something far more upbeat than Norwegian death metal. Lou [sic] Burdette's 1960 Topps Card! Burdette being a PC for me is based almost entirely on his winning 3 of the 4 games the Braves needed to win the one, and only, World Series title in Milwaukee's history. The fact that Burdette was a big time jokester does not hurt either. 

My thanks go out to Kenny for providing the soundtrack and definitely out to Bob for the fantastic cards. Thanks guys!

Typophiles And Wall Shots

I have never met anyone who calls themselves a typophile.

Okay, that took forever to type. You ever try typing something while changing fonts every single letter?

Shane from Off The Wall Cards -- another Red Sox guy in the blogosphere -- calls himself a typophile on his Twitter biography. I suppose that it makes sense that a graphic designer like Shane would pay special attention to fonts. Here at Off Hiatus, I tend to swap fonts from post to post amongst the few choices we get -- using Arial, Georgia, Helvetica, and Times more often than not with Trebuchet and Verdana sometimes appearing and Courier showing up only if I've totally screwed up.  

I've never liked Courier.

Perhaps it is telling about me, though, that I have watched a movie about a font in the past. Have any of you seen Helvetica? No, seriously, it really is a movie about the font.

Okay, enough about fonts for now. Shane is a great guy to follow on Twitter, and that is where he and I first interacted. I still owe him a follow-up package -- blame it on malaise and work -- but I've got one cooking right now. It just needs to marinate.

Being a graphic designer, Shane dabbles in making custom cards. He sent me one, in fact, that surprised me at how authentic it looks:

Making custom cards is a time when being a typophile must be helpful. Topps and Panini seem to miss that fact from time to time -- going for "good enough" over "authentic" at times such as the redone 1983 Donruss that Panini did this year (their font for player names is too condensed). We collectors see that stuff and cringe.

Of course, this is a card that never existed, and it could only have existed if Topps had done a Traded/Update set in 1977. Wynn started 1977 as a member of the New York Yankees. He was released by the Yankees in July, and the Brewers picked him up two weeks later. In his day, the "Toy Cannon" did a lot of little things well without being a standout at any one thing. He never had a batting average over .282, yet he had two seasons where his OBP was over .400, including his 1969 season when he slashed at .269/.436/.507 while stealing 23 bases (and walking 148 times, 14 intentional).

Now, that was the only custom in the package, but the mailer was packed with great cards that need just a little bit of Boston music to go with it...some mighty music, in fact.

When you mention the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, the first song most people think of is this one -- "The Impression That I Get." It's a fun, upbeat ska song that brought the Bosstones national prominence in the alternative rock scene around the time that swing music got popular too. The Bosstones have such a great horn section that it's tough not to like them for a band geek like me.

Shane started out strong by sending some vintage Braves cards my way. I can't say that I had ever heard of or even contemplated the existence of Humberto Robinson before getting this card. Robinson was a Panamanian pitcher whom the Boston Braves signed. In 1954, he put up silly numbers in the Sally League: 23-8, 2.41 ERA in 276 innings. Right around the 1959 season's start, though, the Braves shipped him to Cleveland for the 41-year-old Mickey Vernon. Robinson passed away in 2009 at the age of 79.

Haas missed all of the 1959 season with an injury. He had come up in the Cubs system but then was traded before the 1958 season to the Braves. He only appeared in 55 total major league games over three seasons as a player, and then managed the Atlanta Braves for 121 games in 1985.

Chuck Dressen is part of one of my favorite jokes from the New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. The joke came in his discussion about rating all-time third basemen. Boston Braves coach Tom Daly made a joke about the fact that the 1931 Cincinnati Reds would have to build a screen around third base. When asked why be a reporter, Daly dead-panned, "Well, I don't think the fans want to see Joe Stripp or Charlie Dressen . . ."

While "The Impression That I Get" got much more airplay, I preferred "The Rascal King." It was catchy and upbeat, and the video for this song is just cool. The video nails the old-movie feel that this music calls up from inside. It should have an old-time police detective in a trench coat and fedora.

Thankfully, I can say honestly that I never went for this look in the 1990s. To be fair, I kind of like the dressier look -- the zoot suits and the fedoras sure beat the flannel of the early 1990s. I never went for this look because, well, I was in law school and no one in Athens was dressing like this. Too hot.

Scan dump alert!

The reprints from the late 1990s/early 2000s dominate here. I needed nearly all of these cards in some form or fashion. I do wish, though, that Topps would use more players than just Hall of Famers in their insert sets. I know it all comes down to contracts and rights fees, but I wonder what it is that Topps is spending its money on. No, actually, I know they are focused on getting contracts for signatures as opposed to contracts for a wider breadth of players to appear on cards.

It's too bad. We could use more cards of guys like Del Crandall, Lew Burdette, and Gus Bell as opposed to seeing that same Eddie Mathews pose (from that "Cooperstown Collection") again and again.

Bosstones lead singer Dicky Barrett notoriously had some serious drug issues before joining the band. This is a song about heroin addiction, and is apparently a reminder never to do drugs ever again. Barrett has gone on to be the announcer for "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", so I guess he's got that going for him.

Shane's apparently done a bit of TTM/IP autograph hunting, since he shared the Ron Belliard and Geoff Jenkins autographs with me. It's good to see the consistency between the Fleer Ultra TTM/IP version and the Topps certified version. Finally, I'm a little surprised by the fact that Fernando Viña didn't put a more prominent tilde over the "n" in his last name.

As the 1990s wound down, the Bosstones did as well in many respects. Ska got co-opted by that atrocious 311 sound, and pretty soon American music tastes went away from the big horn sounds and dancehall/ska type music and devolved more toward a garage sound championed by bands like The White Stripes and The Strokes. 

As this post winds down -- I could post another 50 cards, mind you, but I need to end it somewhere -- I thought I'd go all horizontal. Everything from one of those insert coins from Topps to mid-1980s stickers to some early 2000s Chrome to a Heritage insert that had eluded me. 

Shane is a great dude, and I need to get my butt moving to finish off the return package. My thanks go out to Shane for all the great cards and for his patience.

Musical Dodgers, Accompanied by Brewers

Everyone knows Jim as the creative force behind Garvey Cey Russell Lopes, Timeless Teams, Oh My O-Pee-Chee, and, now Frankendodger. Jim's understated style and writing is a true credit to his favorite team, the Dodgers. 

On the other hand, it seems that the Dodgers have spawned some truly, well, interesting  songs as tributes to the Dodgers. I did a little poking around on YouTube and found a few fan songs. I don't know how to describe them adequately -- words are entirely insufficient. You have to listen to these to truly appreciate them. Thankfully, there are enough songs for me to use to show off the cards that Jim sent to me.

1.  Danny Kaye -- "D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song"

Danny Kaye's old song about the Dodgers came out of his love for the team -- having been born and raised in Brooklyn and later moving to Los Angeles to become a star. You have to be at least in your late thirties to have any recollection of Danny Kaye as an entertainer, since he passed away in 1987. 

Kaye, though, was a lifelong baseball fan who was a part-owner of the Seattle Mariners for its first five years of existence and who would, from time to time, travel with the Dodgers and his old pal Leo Durocher.

Let's start appropriately old school to accompany that song. I know that I should have saved that fantastic Lou [sic] Burdette and Bobby Shantz card for last. I love how Shantz looks like he is about 12 years old next to 1957 World Series hero Burdette. Considering that Shantz stood just 5'6" tall and, according to Baseball Reference, weighed just 139 pounds while Burdette was a strapping 6'2" tall, that size difference is just about right. Incidentally, Shantz is still with us and will turn 91 years old in September.

The two Spahns are from 1994 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes set. I needed both and actually still need both again for my Milwaukee Braves collection. That team collection is where the Mathews card will go.

2. DJ Felli Fel f/Ice Cube, Tyga, & Ty Dolla $ign -- "Dodgers"

DJ Felli Fel name checks about the entire 2013 team, front office, announcers, and most of the first three rows of Dodger stadium in this hip hop tribute. Did you hear, by the way, that the 2013 Dodgers started from the bottom?

Listen to the song and you might hear that.



Apropos of starting from the bottom, it's your 2016 Milwaukee Brewers stickers! I am as much of a proponent of having a simple set as anyone. But, somehow, I never see any of the "modern" stickers -- say, the last 3-5 years -- really show up on blogs. I guess either people are not proud that they have these Topps stickers in their collection, or literally no one actually collects these stickers.

Thoughts?

3. Becky G -- "Dodger Blue"




Becky G is an attractive woman -- almost a girl, really, in that she is barely 19 years old. In the past, she has collaborated with Pitbull and she has even gotten a CoverGirl contract beginning in July 2014. 

None of that happened thanks to this song. Lyrically, it's horrendous. Musically, it sounds like what it is -- a teenager trying to sound cool or tough. God this is terrible. 



The only thing that Jim sent my way that really deserves to be paired with that execrable song is Gary Sheffield. His time in Milwaukee was a trainwreck that ended with a 50-game 1991 season in which he slashed .194/.277/.320. He was traded to San Diego and promptly led the National League in batting average in 1992. He later played a little over 3-1/2 seasons for the Dodgers after coming to LA as part of the trade that sent Mike Piazza to the Marlins. 

4. "Dodgers Fight Song"

Holy crap -- is that Mr. T as Max Headroom? Bloody hell, as the Brits would say -- that is absolutely awful too.  Let's try something else....

Ozomatli -- "Can't Stop the Blue"

At least that video by Ozomatli doesn't cause epileptic seizures. This song is actually much more of a funk song than it is anything else. That makes it eminently more acceptable to my ears than that previous ... "song".

Dodgers fans, did either of these songs ever get any airtime in the stadium?

Let's get things back on track with an oddball, a parallel, and the logoless. That Ryan Braun is from 2016 Donruss, while the Lucroy is my first Diamond King card from this year. I do like the canvas feel that the Diamond King cards have, and the artwork on the cards is top notch. Diamond Kings hide the licensing issues much better than Donruss does.

The Yount is the 1992 Cracker Jack Donruss card. Importantly, it is a different photo from the one used on his regular Donruss card. If Topps did these today, you know damn well that they would recycle the same photo from the flagship set -- those photos are expensive after all, and collectors don't deserve anything "new"!

5. "Los Angeles Dodgers 2013 - We Own the West"

This is just a fan video of photos/clips set to a Dropkick Murphys song. Why the Dropkick Murphys, though? I don't get it. The Murphys are as Boston as Boston can be. I understand it's the theme, but couldn't they find a song by someone not so clearly associated with another city?

Of course, it's still a great song, and this person put a ton of work into this video. If you're a Dodger fan wanting to get fired up about some recent nostalgia, this is the video to watch.

Recent nostalgia for Brewers fans has been hard to come by in many respects. Trading Khris Davis away was a good move for the team, since in return the Brewers got a real live catching prospect in Jacob Nottingham. 

Trent Clark was the fifteenth pick overall in 2015. He's struggling a little bit this year as he is a 19-year-old playing in the Midwest League, but his batting eye and approach is top notch. Through 113 plate appearances so far this year, he's slashing .217/.357/.380 (yes, that .217 is correct -- 20 hits in 92 at bats, but 20 walks, 8 doubles, 2 triples, and a home run are in there too). It's very early in his development, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him making his Milwaukee debut at the age of 22 in 2019. 

6. "Dodgers Fan Song"

This song isn't bad. It's not great, either. There is something very generic about it...it really seems like the intent of this song was not to get fired up so much as it was not to offend anyone. No smack talk. No name checks. It's really cliche-filled nothingness to me.

It's like it's meant to appeal to a 55-year-old woman living in Simi Valley. And, judging solely by the look of the posting account, that might be exactly who wrote the song.

Not that there is anything wrong with being a suburban housewife.



These early 2000s Topps cards have much the same feel to me. Generic. Well, they are less generic looking than the cards from 2010-2014 that Topps put out -- what with that ubiquitous white border every year and all -- but these cards do not appear to be anything about which someone will wax nostalgic. 

At least I won't.

Jim -- thank you very much for the great cards you sent my way. I hope my critique of Dodgers fan songs from YouTube led to some laughs for you.