P-Town Tom's Music

P-Town Tom is a blog world legend when it comes to sending out cards. He's so prolific in sending out cards that I literally had to go back through the posts of cards I've received from him (Here's 1 2 3 4 and 5) to make sure I hadn't used Tom's own profile to mine music for the cards I've gotten from him.

Thankfully, I had not. Also thankfully, I pretty much like the bands Tom feels comfortable enough to share. Indeed, one of those bands is actually a local Atlanta band. So, with no further ado, let's get to the cards and the music!

O.A.R.

O.A.R. is probably my least favorite band on Tom's list. I haven't heard much by one of the other bands, but I've just never been much of an O.A.R. fan. It's a bit too overly emotional -- and not in that emo-style like Bloc Party either. I should like them more, though -- I mean, the band has a saxophonist, after all. 

That said, I did pick the one song by O.A.R. that I distinctly recall hearing on whatever alternative music source that I was listening to back in 2006 -- probably XM Radio's Ethel, if I had to guess. It's all very yearning. I want the overly attractive couple in the video to stop fighting. Maybe that would stop all the weird mold from growing everywhere. I could hope. It just hurts to watch that happen.



Yes, I was kidding about all that earnestness I was feeling. Fleer, though, was not kidding about its emotion-laden set called, appropriately enough, Emotion-XL in 1996. 

I have to argue with this premise, however, in that neither Attack nor Studying nor Towering is actually an emotion. Attack is an action or a noun, but I have never felt "Attack".  Under attack, maybe...but never just "Attack." 

I mean, when is the last time you asked someone, "How do you feel today?" and they responded, "Oh, I'm Attack." Or, even, "I'm Towering today. How about you?" Same goes for studying -- it's something you do, not feel.

Grammarman, to the rescue!

Night Terrors of 1927

Here's the other band I've really never listened to on Tom's list. Now, I've heard of the band's guitarist's previous band (Rilo Kiley), and I've heard of their collaborators Tegan and Sara, but not too much from this band. The collaboration with Tegan and Sara, called "When You Were Mine," is pretty good, though the lead singer sounds a bit like Brandon Flowers of the Killers to me.

I didn't expect to get certified autographs of a Texas Ranger from Tom. He sent these two cards to me in the wake of the Brewers claiming Ramirez off waivers from the Cubs on May 31, 2016. I got this package from Tom the next week. Then, the day after I scanned the cards in and got them into my scan folder, Ramirez was claimed off waivers from the Brewers by the Twins. 

I guess I should pass these along to a Twins collector.

In his Brewer career -- and unless he comes back at some point in the future -- Ramirez threw 1-2/3 innings, allowing 2 hits -- both home runs -- while striking out three. In other words, I have more Neil Ramirez certified autographs than he had innings with Milwaukee. Cool!

Manchester Orchestra

Here's that local Atlanta band that is in Tom's favorite band list. The once-powerful alternative radio station in Atlanta, 99X, played this band all the time back in 2008 and 2009. 99X broke Collective Soul and Butch Walker (and his band, Marvelous 3) back in the 1990s, but with alternative music and radio generally waning in the past decade, 99X fell on hard times.

Thankfully, Manchester Orchestra has found a fairly decent audience worldwide. But, they are about as Mancunian as I am -- both of us like a lot of Manchester's music (and I like Manchester United, though that fact could be a fight-starter amongst Mancunians split between the Red of United and the Blue of Citeh er, City).

Speaking of Red, here's current lefty setup pitcher Will Smith -- who is also, mind you, a Georgian (originally from Newnan). Will came over to the Brewers in exchange for Nori Aoki in the 2013 off-season. Considering the work that Smith has put in since (3.10 ERA in 139-1/3 innings with 58 walks and 184 strikeouts), just imagine how good the Royals bullpen would have been last year having added that arm to the mix. Yikes.

For what it's worth, Smith is in red here because he was drafted by the Angels in 2008 out of community college before being traded with Sean O'Sullivan for Alberto Callaspo.

Imagine Dragons

I might have mentioned before here, and maybe I haven't. But, Imagine Dragons consistently puts out very catchy, lyrically interesting songs. This one, "Radioactive", "Demons," "I Bet My Life" -- all of them get stuck in my head with frightening regularity. This particular video having been "inspired" but an artist is particularly intriguing as well. Clearly a surrealist painter.  

Clearly.

Strangely, the lead singer, Dan Reynolds, looks like Blake Shelton to me.

Nathan Kirby does not look like Blake Shelton, but I'd guess that the Midlothian, Virginia, native sounds a lot more like Blake Shelton than Nevada native Reynolds does. 

Of course, Reynolds didn't have to go through Tommy John Surgery to be able to sing for Imagine Dragons. Kirby, however, blew out his elbow after just five appearances with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. His rehab is going well. 

I have mixed feelings about him at this point, since he gave his ulnar collateral ligament to his college baseball team's cause.  That baseball team was the Virginia Cavaliers, and Kirby helped beat my Vanderbilt Commodores in the 2015 College World Series by throwing the final two innings of the third and final game of that World Series.

Still, I hope he ends up healthy and helping the Brewers soon. It's the least he could do in my selfish little world. 

Thankfully, Tom isn't nearly as selfish as I am and sent me this great package of cards. Rest assured, Tom, that I have many, many Conlon cards that will be coming your way.

More cards from All Cardinals

Thanks for indulging my fatalistic swirlings on Wednesday regarding the state of the Milwaukee Brewers.  I know it's a long season, and it's only 16 games into the season -- less than 10% of the games have been played -- but it is shaping up statistically to be a long season.  Fangraphs puts the Brewers overall playoff odds at just 1%.  It's not the worst odds in baseball -- the Phillies and their 5-11 record project to having a 0.1% chance -- but it's not a warm and fuzzy feeling to see a 3-13 record at this point in the year.

But that's enough negativity for one week.  Today's post is about good things.  

Just a few weeks after the first envelope arrived from All Cardinals All the Time, a second one appeared.  This one had a lot fewer cards than the first envelope did, but the exceptional quality of the cards definitely made up for relatively lower numbers.

First, I feel the need to make a confession.  In the early 1990s, while I was in college, I joined a fantasy baseball league run by a friend of mine.  In that league's second season, the owners decided to go from an AL-only league to an NL-only league and start over.  That was a good thing for most of us because most of us had no clue what we were doing at the time.  

Anyway, that first NL season was 1992.  It was the first time I'd really followed the NL closely, and my team was good due to some great auction success -- a very cheap Greg Maddux and picking up Bob Tewksbury for $4 at the auction (season stats: 16-5, 2.16 ERA, 233 innings, 1.017 WHIP) will do that.  My offense, though, was generated by the mid-level stars of the day, and three of them were Cardinals outfielders:  Bernard Gilkey, Felix Jose, and Ray Lankford.  

Lankford in particular became a personal favorite fantasy guy of mine -- a guy I would get in most leagues for many years until about 2000.  I mention this because the proprietor of All Cardinals All the Time is a Lankford Supercollector.  His handle for blogging is CardinalsFan16 (Lankford's number with the Cards), his Blogger photo is Lankford, and even the site on which he keeps his want lists is emblazoned with the title "Ray Lankford Collector."

I still have a soft spot in my heart for Lankford for those years of great production in the 1990s.  Now, I have another reason to like Ray.

I still don't know what the shame about Ray was, though.

Here are the three Brewers cards that came my way in the envelope:

Big Ben McDonald lasted only two seasons in Milwaukee -- his age-28 and age-29 seasons. After that second season, he was done.  He went to Louisiana State University on a basketball scholarship (he is 6'7" tall, so...) despite being an all-District football player -- as a kicker and punter.  He left LSU's basketball team after two seasons and focused on baseball.  He started his junior season in baseball with 44-2/3 consecutive scoreless innings, and the Baltimore Orioles made him the first overall pick in the 1989 draft. McDonald is now a broadcaster for the SEC Network.

Matt Mieske is one of the 10 best players ever in Western Michigan University's history.  In terms of year of major league service, his 8 seasons in the league tie him with current Ranger Adam Rosales for 8th all time, behind Charlie Maxwell (a two-time all-star with the Detroit Tigers in 1956 and 1957), John VanderWal, Phil Regan, Mike Squires, Stubby Overmire, Jim Bouton, and Wayne Terwilliger. He came to Milwaukee as part of the Gary Sheffield trade. His major league exploits saw him inducted into the Great Lakes Hardball Hall of Fame in 2013.

Scott Karl was the Brewers 6th Round pick in 1992 out of the University of Hawaii-Manoa. I'm guessing that Milwaukee scouts must have loved finding reasons to go to Hawaii in the mid-to-late 1980s.  The three guys with the move service time in the major leagues from Hawaii-Manoa are: (1) 8-year veteran (and former Brewer) Chuck Crim; (2) 7-year veteran (and former Brewer) Glenn Braggs, and (3) Karl (who tied with Mike Campbell with playing in 6 seasons, but who far outshined Campbell).

Hey, any excuse to get out of Wisconsin's weather to Hawaii, I suppose!

Now, those three cards are all nice, but they don't compare to the other two cards I received:

Gary Carter Game-Used Bat cards? Absolutely! These are fantastic relic cards from Upper Deck in 2001.  These two cards just blew me away.

Massive thanks go out to CardinalsFan16 -- both for the Lankford trip down memory lane and for these great cards!