A Cardboard Clubhouse Christmas/Birthday?

I have a Christmastime birthday. As anyone else who is similarly situated can tell you, those of us born at the "most wonderful time of the year" often feel a little short-changed when it comes to our birthdays. One of my law partners was born on Christmas Day and turned 50 this year; he said he could count on one hand the number of birthday-only parties he had had in his life. 

I'd have to agree with that from my perspective. My birthday is tomorrow. Growing up, I had a ninth birthday party in third grade when we went bowling. After that, I had a thirtieth birthday party thrown by the woman I was dating at that time and a fortieth birthday party thrown by my wife.

I'm not crying about it, to be fair. As much as I dislike this old saw, well, it is what it is. 

Note: I am not a Liverpool fan. In fact, I really wish that Manchester United had Jurgen Klopp instead of the Scousers. If you've ever met a Scouser, you'd know -- their version of "English" might as well be Dutch -- it's damn near incomprehensible. I went to a match at White Hart Lane (Tottenham Hotspur, if you're not up on your English stadiums) against Liverpool, and the Londoners around me were taking the piss out of the Liverpudlians -- saying things like, "you've got no education" and "you shag your mum" and other such ditties. But Klopp singing happy birthday is still class.

Anyway, someone else in the card blogging world who can understand this conundrum is Adam from Cardboard Clubhouse. Adam's birthday is 8 days before mine, and he posted his birthday meal as a post last week to celebrate. My wife and I are celebrating my birthday tonight with dinner at one of our favorite hangouts in Dunwoody, so maybe I'll have dinner posted later tonight as well. 

Enough birthday talk. Adam sent me a nice handful of cards that I'd like to highlight today:



Odd -- the Stadium Club insert photo would not have been out of place on the logoless Donruss. And, if you don't start humming crappy Cyndi Lauper songs when you see that insert, well, you're clearly not a child of the 1980s.

God I hated that song. Kind of like how some trades were easily hated for me as a Brewers fan both at the time the trade was made and in retrospect.  Such as trading Dante Bichette for Kevin Reimer:

Or Nelson Cruz AND Carlos Lee for Francisco Cordero, Kevin Mench, and Laynce Nix and a minor leaguer.  Basically, trading two twenty-dollar bills for a five and four quarters.

Happier times were enjoyed by John Jaha. In 1996, he hit 34 home runs for the Brewers. At the time, that was tied with Larry Hisle as being the sixth-most homers in a season for the club. Since that time, the Brewers have added nine seasons in which players hit more than 34 home runs -- no surprise there, to be fair.  Still, injuries and weight problems led to Jaha's downfall as a major leaguer.

One of the players to add a couple of those seasons with more than 34 homers was Richie Sexson. He never really got attached to Milwaukee, and, as a result, the Brewers didn't get too attached to him and traded him away too.

Let's close with three cards from 2015. One of these guys was traded away to bring tons of quality to the minor league system, one guy is likely to be traded in the next 8 months in a similar-type trade, and the final one is likely to be one of the building blocks going forward.

Being all up to date means needing to get a song here that is all up to date.  Here's a recent favorite of mine:

Many thanks to Adam for all of these great cards -- the return envelope is being put together nearly contemporaneously herewith, to put it in lawyer-speak.

A PWE from the Shoebox Legend

The Brewers finished their work on the pre-waiver deadline by sending Gerardo Parra to the Orioles for pitcher Zach Davies, a guy who was drafted out of high school by the Orioles in 2011 and suddenly developed into a real prospect.  He's slight of build -- 6' tall but just 160 pounds -- but he's a 22-year-old who has had good success in Triple-A already this year as a starter.  In their other trade of the day, the team sent Jonathan Broxton to the Cardinals -- meaning that he'll probably turn into the reincarnation of Bruce Sutter thanks to the power of the dark side of the Force -- in exchange for Malik Collymore, a raw athlete built like a linebacker who is still in Rookie ball.

After all that trading, it feels almost cathartic as a Brewers fan to get back to card collecting and hoping that next year will be a little bit better.  A great pick-me-up can in the mail this week from Shane of Shoebox Legends.  He and I have sent cards back and forth several times now, and I was really happy to see a PWE from him in my mailbox this week.

What did Shane send my way? 8 great cards.  Let's count them down:

#8: 2009 Upper Deck Todd Coffey

Coffee spent parts of three seasons in Milwaukee. His BB/K ratio always seemed to indicate that he should have better results than he did, but he was plagued by giving up too many home runs. He's still at it, though -- pitching in relief for Los Diablos Rojos del Mexico (a/k/a the Mexico City Red Devils).

#7: 2014 Panini Prizm Jimmy Nelson

Maybe this card should be #8, since everyone knows my aversion to the no-logo cards and because Nelson looks like he's a member of the airbrushed away Yankees with that gray and blue-turned-to-black that Panini went with here.  He pitched well two nights ago only to watch the bullpen blow the game. I hope Jimmy gets used to being on a bad team for a couple of years.

#6: 2004 Fleer Platinum Name Plates Richie Sexson

It's tough to rate a 4-color patch piece serial numbered to 420 this low. But this card is a mess. A piece of a uniform of a guy traded after the 2003 season, shown with the Brewers in a really unattractive photo but listed on the Diamondbacks thanks to the trade. Why is this a mess? The photo is cropped poorly. The D-backs name looks like no font that should ever show its face outside of a disco album from 1978.  And, well, if it's a Brewers uniform that's cut up, then just don't worry about the trade and just list him as a Brewer.  Ugh.

#5: 1986 Sportflics Teddy Higuera

It's not that there's anything wrong with this card. It's just not as nice as the other cards Shane sent.

#4: 2015 Bowman (Chrome) Prospect Parallel Tyler Wagner

Please pardon the cat hair that makes its debut on Tyler Wagner's first Bowman card. After all the trades that the Brewers made, I fully expect Bowman Chrome or Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects will have about 8 or 10 Brewers farmhands in it.

Ha. Who am I kidding? We'll see the Yankees' 50th best prospect in those two sets before we'll see 10 Brewers.

#3: 2011 Topps Lineage Mini Relic Yovani Gallardo

I'm torn on ranking this card as highly as I have in large part because I already have it in my Gallardo player collection and, then, partly because it's just a piece of white fabric that causes this to be a relic.

#2: 2015 Stadium Club Wily Peralta Gold Foil Parallel

So, this is the first 2015 Stadium Club card I have in my collection, and it's a gold parallel. If Peralta were a player collection for me, it might have ranked #1 overall. It's a good photo, cropped well. My only complaint is not having a background behind Peralta to look at. But that's a minor problem.

I'm hoping that when I go to my local card show tomorrow, I'll be able to pick up the Series 2 Brewers, the Stadium Club Brewers, and whatever other recent releases there have been. With all the turbulence in my work life this year, it's been tough to keep up.

#1: 2015 Stadium Club Contact Sheet Insert Carlos Gomez

A Carlos Gomez Stadium Club insert seems an appropriate way to bring this post to a close. It's a new addition to my Gomez player collection, which is greatly appreciated, just as Gomez's joy in playing the game of baseball was greatly appreciated over his 5-1/2 years in Milwaukee.

Shane, thank you very much for the great cards and the midweek lift that your PWE brought me!

War with Jaybarkerfan: Monster #3

I mentioned previously that, over the weekend, three monsters appeared at the same time from Hazel Green in my ongoing war with Jaybarkerfan,  The third monster was "only" an envelope.  What was in it?

Let's start with the monster inside the package:

Dracula has joined the fray. Just what I needed -- a blood sucker. I could bring out the lawyer joke and say that Dracula just left me alone as a professional courtesy, but he wasn't that kind.

I had to call in the cat again.

To be fair, Gus always does a great job.  He's been rewarded with treats and, in honor of the fact that today is National Hug Your Cat Day, he's even gotten a nice petting, brushing, and yes, he got a hug too.  He's taken down three monsters, after all.  He deserved it.

But the message on the letter is actually the important part.  Here's the letter without the cat attack:

As you can see, Monster #3 is a future scare -- entry into the Nachos Grande Archives Case Break! 

And suddenly, Dracula makes sense as the third monster.

But JBF did not want to leave anything to chance:

Guaranteed hits?  What is in there?  

Well, sorry to say that I tore through the unopened packs of 1991 Stadium Club that protected the two hits inside this tape monster.  Here, though, are the hits:

Luis Martinez was a product of the Brewers scouting in the Dominican Republic in the mid-1990s.  Signed at age 16, he did not come stateside until 1998 at the age of 18.  In his first two minor league seasons with Helena and then Ogden in the Pioneer League -- Rookie ball -- and, well, while I'm not a fan of W-L records to tell the story of a season, his does: over 98-1/3 innings, 17 starts, 32 appearances, he finished 0-16.  He allowed 130 hits, 8 homers, 100 walks, and struck out 90.  

By 2003, though, Martinez had a good year: 12-5 record including a 4-0 mark in Triple-A. The problem was that that year was literally his only decent year ever in the minor leagues.  It was an aberration.  Still he got his big league debut in 2003 as a result.  The results were predictable: in his four major league starts, he pitched 16-1/3 innings and allowed 25 hits, 3 homers, 15 walks, 18 runs (all earned) and struck out 10.  He had three wild pitches, and threw in a balk for good measure.

He ended up in Japan for a couple of years and looked decent, but this guy should have never sniffed the major leagues.  It says more about Milwaukee than anything else that he did. 

A happier card is this Sexson/Overbay relic card.  It's interesting to have this "team tandem" card in 2005 featuring these two both on Milwaukee though.  That's because Sexson and Overbay were traded for one another in December of 2003.  I guess Donruss/Playoff had some old Richie Sexson fabric laying around...or maybe just old Milwaukee jerseys laying around and a terrible photo of Sexson and said, "what the hell, just put them on the card together.  No one will care."

Okay, I care.  And I appreciate both of these cards and the entry into the Archives case break too.

But, Wes, my friend -- an invasion from is imminent.  Can you handle a monster yourself?

#WarWithJBF: Here Come the PWEs

In my first post about Jaybarkerfan's assault on the postal workers in North Atlanta, I noted that I thought I would win the first battle.  But, as I also said, "the first shots never determine the final outcome."  After all, no one is exactly sure who fired the first shot of the American Revolution at the Battle of Lexington, and the Confederates, under the leadership of General Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard, first the first shot at Fort Sumter.

Is that a plain white envelope I see on the horizon, sir?

If General Beauregard asked that question, his view west to Alabama from the outskirts of Atlanta would have been filled with mail trucks.  You see, the onslaught of PWEs has begun. The first one I received carried some notes to warn me of what is coming:

As best I can tell, I think I am around day four of the PWEs.  On the first day, just one PWE showed up.  It contained these notes accompanied by four cards:

I already have the top three cards, which is why they are small, but I did not have the Upper Deck Game Jersey of Ryan Braun.  That's a great new edition.

The next day (Thursday), nothing arrived from the Hazel Green Roll Tide Church. On Friday, two envelopes arrived.  One of them, unfortunately, had been slashed open by some intrepid felon within the United States Postal Service.  The other one, though, had another great relic card:

Corey Hart's contribution to the 2012 Topps Golden Moments Game-Used Memorabilia Insert set arrived -- and it too was a new addition to a player collection.  

Then yesterday arrived.  Before yesterday, I was under the impression that JBF had sent out a PWE a day. Now, I know that is not the case.  

My wife has been following these proceedings closely -- after the warnings from Bob Walk the Plank were passed along to me, I thought it wise to give my wife a heads up to avoid moving any heavy boxes.  I filled her in when those notes above came. When she brought in the mail yesterday, all she said to me was, "I guess that guy wasn't kidding."

Yes, yesterday, SEVEN PWEs showed up.  It's starting to add up now...and my thoughts are that I may see another 11 PWEs before this is over -- and before the 6 "Monsters" arrive.  I am not afraid of monsters, though.  Not yet, at least!

So what did these PWEs have?

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

Yes, that's a relic in every envelope.  Every. Single. One.  

The cool thing is that about half of the "filler" cards are ones I needed for my player collections and/or for the Brewers team binders.  

You might be able to tell from my write up here that my trepidation is increasing.  I mean, as much as you can see from the photos that Bob Walk the Plank posted -- and as many of you have found out personally -- one cannot appreciate the sheer volume of cards that Wes sends out.

Now, I have some great stuff for him already -- some of which has arrived in Alabama but most of which is yet to come.  Don't get me wrong.  

But this war...is this where we are heading?

We'll see.