$30 Habits

Before I jump headlong into this post, I wanted to thank all of you for the kind comments about my dog. It really does mean a lot to me to know that a lot of you cared enough to comment and read that post. I didn't have a lot of desire to write anything the past few days other than to talk about that, so thanks for your patience.

Thanks again.

Before the upheaval last week, I had scanned and planned a bunch of posts to try to catch up on all the great packages that have been arriving from bloggers across the country for me. It's been a great month in that respect, and I have a huge pile of envelopes that will be going out in the next few days to try to catch up on all the trades I've been working on over the past couple of months.

One package came in to me from Robért at $30 a Week Habit.  It's such a good package that it needs musical accompaniment:

Yeah, that's one of Pearl Jam's most repetitive songs with a bit of an anti-drug (probably) bent to it. Last year, Rob Neyer mentioned it as one of the songs that Fox probably would not use in its baseball coverage -- especially with respect to, as he put it, "a certain power-hitting shortstop who joined the Seattle club in the 1990s and became addicted to the fast life and the easy availability of certain (supposedly) performance-enhancing drugs?"

I was a huge Pearl Jam fan about 10 years ago or so -- I spent a bunch of money on collecting their bootlegs from their shows on their 2000 and 2003 tours -- and I still enjoy their music a great deal. That said, "Habit" is, to me, just an okay song.

That does not describe the package I got from Robért. It was excellent.  

It started with a big plastic screw-down holder:

Richie Sexson is a guy who might have been a PC for me if he'd lasted longer in America's Dairyland. A big home run hitter with prodigious power and a birthday two days after mine (though he is 3 years younger than me), the Brewers got him for Jason Bere, Steve Woodard, and Bob Wickman in 2000.  

Then, after the 2003 season, Doug Melvin traded him away to the Arizona Diamondbacks (with Shane Nance and Noochie Varner) for half a team -- Chris Capuano, Craig Counsell, Chad Moeller, Lyle Overbay, Jorge De La Rosa, and Junior Spivey. Sexson played 23 games in his one season in the desert before heading to the Pacific Northwest and hitting 105 homers in three-and-a-half seasons for the Mariners.

Sure looks like the Brewers won both of those trades to me.

I also got a shiny golden K-Rod, happily celebrating a save in 2011:

Now, don't get me wrong. Those two cards were awesome and made the package a very good one.

But the final two cards in the package were what made it an over-the-top ridiculously great package for me.  I mean, how do you top receiving two cards from the 1960s of the greatest third baseman not named Mike Schmidt to play major league baseball:

Mr. Ed Mathews, ladies & gentlemen. Mathews definitely was the player who made putting a strong-hitting and decent fielding player at third base part of the requirements for baseball teams. I mean, the only one close from Mathews's era would be Brooks Robinson -- and Mathews was a far better hitter than Brooks was (Mathews OBP/SLG: .376/.509; Robinson: .322/.401).

Before Mathews came along, the best third-baseman in the HOF was Home Run Baker. Baker now would be hard-pressed to make it to the Hall. He's been surpassed (using the JAWS methodology) by Graig Nettles, Edgar Martinez, Adrian Beltre, Scott Rolen, and Chipper Jones -- and that just the players who either are active, not yet eligible, or not yet elected to the Hall.

Yes, Mathews was better than Boggs, better than Brett, better than Santo, better than Robinson, and better than Molitor. More importantly, he was a pioneer of sorts in the way that Robin Yount and Cal Ripken were -- showing that you could play an important fielding position and still be a power hitter.

Robért, thank you very much for these cards. I've got my eyes peeled for some good Jays cards that you need!

Mailday Post: Robért Went to the National Convention

I have another shorter post for tonight, and then I will try to get to the four massive packages that I have been scanning diligently over the past week.  I love the huge packages, but they do take some time to sort through, don't they?

I'm not complaining, though. It beats the alternative -- nothing.

Some drivin n cryin from 1986 there.  A little throwback to what I listened to a lot a few years later when I was in college.

So, on a far more upbeat theme, Robért from $30 a Week Habit went to Cleveland for the National Collectors Convention this year.  

I wanted to go since I've never been to Cleveland, and there really aren't that many things that would give me such a compelling reason to go there as the NCC -- but I didn't get there. I think I'll save up for Chicago/Rosemont next year and use it as an opportunity to visit my mom up in Wisconsin.

Robért went to the National with a Plan and told us about it. I did not see a category on there for "randomly buy Brewers cards" but, once again, I'm not complaining.  Maybe it was out of pity, but he bought three cards and sent them to me with the following note:

So, part of the National did make it to me!  Here's what Robért was kind enough to send:

I really like the cracked ice (or whatever it was called last year by Topps) Chrome of Ryan Braun. Heck, I really like all three of these cards.  The Gallardo white fabric swatch from Gypsy Queen is just cool, and the serial numbered Braun from the Museum Collection from this year is just icing on the cake.

Thank you very much once again, Robért -- you've outdone yourself.  I definitely need to send you a package again soon.

Trade Post: $30 a Week Habit

About two weeks ago, Robért from $30 a Week Habit ripped through a hanger box of Topps Series 2 and found a Gold Parallel Sean Halton.  While I've set some limitations on how far into the parallels I am going to go with my team set collecting, I decided that the Gold Parallels are numerous enough to chase in a cost-effective manner.  

One cost-effective way to chase these was to see if Robért would send me the Halton.  He was kind enough to do that.  

When I got the envelope, though, it was a bubble mailer.  The first thing to pop out was this note:

Pad the envelope? What you sent, Robért, was more akin to making the Halton padding! Here's what I saw next:

Every one of the cards was serial numbered, and each one had a lower population number than the Halton did.  

Now, certainly, the Carlos Gomez was just 3 fewer, but that one works well because Gomez is a guy I include in my player collections and, further, is a player who is once again tearing up the National League at the plate and sometimes when sliding into base (right, Ian Desmond?).  My only worry with Gomez is that his outbursts and his acting out is becoming so frequent that I fear he might end up going down the Luis Suarez path:

Maybe he won't bite anyone, but Carlos does need to simmer down just a little bit.  He's becoming a magnet for controversy.  It makes it too easy for a team to get rid of a player like that when the performance isn't among the best in the league.  So for his career's sake, he should tone it down.

Thank you, Robért, for the excellent cards.  I promise that you're getting some Blue Jay beauty soon from Atlanta, and it will not include an upside-down Canadian Flag.