Thank you to all of you who read my post trying to honor the memory of Ray Peters. Your comments meant a lot to me. Ray was truly a special man who will be dearly missed.
In the meantime since my last post, I have been the honored recipient of two single-card plain white envelopes. The first arrived a couple of days ago from New Jersey and my Twitter friend Nick Vossbrink who also blogs at NJWV and, in addition, is one of the two new co-chairs of the SABR Baseball Cards Committee and Blog Editor. Nick is one of those people with whom I feel I could converse about any subject and learn something new. I like people like that.
Nick sent me an awesome thank you note featuring an Auguste Renoir painting of a ballerina that totally pump-faked me into thinking it was an Edgar Degas because whenever I see Impressionists and ballerinas that is a Pavlovian response.
See what I mean? But even now, thirty years later, I still hear the teacher I had in high school for training for the Academic Decathlon competition -- which is where my Impressionist knowledge comes from -- saying, "yeah, but look at the eyes. Those are Renoir eyes."
Anyway, Nick sent me a very cool 1980s oddball to add to my collection of a Giant turned Brewer, Rob Deer:
I'm pretty sure Deer is either about to swing and miss or crush the ball. That was what he did. For many Brewers fans, Deer's approach at the plate reminded them of an earlier Brewer hero, Gorman Thomas -- lots of homers, lots of strikeouts, a pretty good number of walks too, and low batting averages that didn't kill the team thanks to the OBP and the SLG.
To thank Nick further, here's a Baroque composition featuring attractive women looking cold on a beach with Tomaso Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor accompanying them.
Thanks Nick!
Next up, a PWE showed up yesterday from Mark Hoyle. Mark has either been buying a lot of potato chips from Utz lately, or else he ran into a deep, cheap vein of these cards at his local card shows.
Whichever one of these it is, Mark was kind enough to share an Utz card with me:
If I were inclined to add any more player collections -- and trust me, I'm more likely to get rid of some than add some -- Lorenzo Cain would be in the running definitely. LoCain is such an upbeat guy, and he's also an incredible center fielder as well. It is unbelievable to me that Cain has yet to win a Gold Glove -- he deserved one last year, in my opinion, so I hope that issue gets addressed this year.
To thank Mark for the card, I think I'll give him faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, and more money -- from Tom T. Hall.
I grew up on country music in the 1970s, and I do recall this song. I probably would not have remembered this song, however, except for Twitter stalking Mark's timeline and seeing that he had interacted with the Great Wes Moore talking about the lyrics to this song specifically.
Now that's what you call a friend -- someone to remind you of a Tom T. Hall song from 1976 that you haven't thought about in probably 40 years.
It's shocking, I know, that I'm actually posting today. Or is nothing shocking?
I've got a ton of things to post to catch up on all the great stuff I've gotten over the past three months -- since mid-October, when I last posted, but also about the time I last scanned. So, I'm pretty sure that I got some of these items in September even.
It's been a busy fall for me. I've seen Georgia play football in person more times this year than in any year since I was in law school at Georgia and got very cheap tickets for all the home games in the student section. I saw Georgia play in 6 games in 5 different cities -- 2 in Athens and 1 each in Jacksonville, South Bend, Auburn, and Atlanta.
It was worth it.
But, all that travel got me very behind. So, let's just start plowing in and catch up.
From Mark Hoyle
Mark sent me a couple of packages. One featured something I asked rhetorically for on Twitter:
The Robin Yount RC Cola can from 1977 is a great addition to the Robin Yount collection for me. Soon, perhaps, I'll get my player collections updated. That was the second package, though. The first one Mark sent included something interesting:
Seeing this heavy-paper placard for the induction ceremony onto the Brewers' Walls of Honor for Milwaukee made me wonder if there are others of these out there. There must be, but I've never seen them. Thank you, Mark, for the can, the placard, and the stickers and other cards you sent my way.
Shane sent me a package filled up with 80s oddballs like that Ben Oglivie Fleer Star Sticker, that Ron Belliard autograph, and, in the middle, the Yovani Gallardo mini Topps 206 card. Interestingly enough, Gallardo appears to be returning to the Brewers on a one-year deal pending a physical. Gallardo does not seem to have much left in the tank from all indications -- his past two years for Baltimore and Seattle were a car-crash like 248-2/3 innings of a 5.57 ERA (a FIP of 5.30) with 1.4 HR/9, 4.4 BB/9, and 6.5 K/9. I can't imagine the Brewers are paying him much. Maybe he'll get a card in the Traded set.
Thanks, Shane, for the great oddballs and the Belliard!
Joey from Dub Mentality has seemingly burst onto the scene this year thanks to getting his brand out on Twitter and Facebook to the point of where he now is a freelance writer for Beckett. Good for him! I'm sure that my invitation to write for Beckett got lost in the mail. That, or Beckett would rather have someone who doesn't constantly complain about all of Topps's bullshit.
Personally, I like Joey because he's a fellow Georgia Bulldog fan who seems to have gone to as many games as me. Plus, I mean, look at the cards he sent me!
So, when I got this package split between Bulldogs and Brewers, my wife was a bit fast on the draw in getting rid of the envelope that the cards came in and threw it out before I wrote down who sent it and scanned it. I know now who sent it, and I *think* I recall it being the braintrust behind Condition Sensitive.
*edit* Nope, Buckstore Cards it is!
In any event, great Paul Molitor autograph and great cards of Georgia Bulldogs Chris Conley and Cordy Glenn. Thanks!
When Kenny sends cards, I can often count on cards of scantily clad, hot Japanese girls. The "mini-zapping" I got, though, had more than just Kana Momonogi.
And this was just the tip of the iceberg. Cool minor leaguer cards, a Ricky Bones autograph, two Manchester United guys (including the best goalkeeper in the world, David De Gea), a card for a PC of Mike Caldwell, and even a guy who is hitting like crazy in the minors -- 2017 First Round pick Keston Hiura. He could be at second for the Brewers as soon as 2019.
Huge scan dump, I know, but with Wes there is always great quantity and great quality. Lots of autographs, lots of relics (including a guy from the Milwaukee Bucks...though not the Greek Freak) and lots of serial-numbered cards too.
As is usually the case with Wes, he added a nice note:
I hope 2018 is the Brewers' year, my friend. I definitely hope so.
I'll admit that I had no idea that Eddie Mathews was on a "Fire" card. Indeed, I'm not sure that I know what a "Fire" card is, but I'm glad the Bru sent it to me.
This is the problem with such cards getting issued for me. Topps throws up so many different sets each year that I've given up keeping track of them. I'm thinking that my collecting habits are going to change in the coming year thanks to this. In fact, if my collecting habits don't change, it's because I've given up collecting entirely. #ThanksTopps
Seriously, though, thank you to Bru for sending these cards. I'll always take new issues from y'all!
Tom sent me these cards -- two Topps Fire and two Topps Gallery cards with a Fleer sticker -- in two different PWEs. Tom got the bizarro blaster of Topps Gallery that included as many Yankees in the blaster as it did Brewers (two). Tom got the Villar and the Arcia in the course of putting that set together. His duplicates are my only cards.
It's been awhile since Angus blogged -- even longer than it's been for me -- but he is still sending out great cards here at Christmas time. This package showed up in my mailbox last week, so this is like almost new news here!
An Oyo Gary Garter? Yes please! Especially when accompanied by a bunch of O-Pee-Chee stickers!
Oddballs galore came from Canada to me -- Kellogg's, stickers, Post cereal, and minor league cards. All of these are great additions to my collection. In fact, I'm thinking that that Gorman Thomas is a completely new card to me.
As always, my right Honourable friend, many thanks go out to you!
I wish I knew exactly who to thank for these cards. EDIT: Thanks go out to Angels in Order for the great cards! I know they came from the Dallas Metroplex -- from a city called Mansfield that's about equidistant from Dallas and Fort Worth south of Arlington. I have guesses about whom that might be, but I just don't know for sure.
Oh, yes, the cards:
I mean, I want to thank my secret Santa for the great vintage cards from the 1960s, the 1980s oddball, and the Warren Spahn/Fernando Valenzuela stamp.
If only I knew who to thank!
At any rate, that's me all caught up on cards I've gotten from others during the past several months. Thank you all who sent me cards.
I am going to be trying to do more posts again soon, with an eye toward getting back on the "Meet the Brewers" path and, in addition, finding a way to rediscover the love for collecting after feeling like I've given up this year. With Judge-mania driving baseball cards this year, I have really tuned out. The Brewers were the last team eliminated from playoff contention, yet Topps treated them like the sub-.500 team that they were in 2016.
So, to hell with Topps and its money grabs. Onward and upward for 2018 with finding more police cards!
