An Ode to Justin Bieber

In the baseball card blogging world, getting a Justin Bieber card can only mean one thing: that you have received a card from the fabulous Frenchman, The Card Papoy.

In the past, I've never indulged Mr. Papoy's idolatry of the Biebs. In large part, that's really because I have honestly never listened to a single bit of Bieber's music. Not. A. Note. That's largely because I have never had much use for any of the teenie bopper teen idols -- dating back at least to New Kids on the Block and probably earlier. 

But, let's be honest: I'm not the target market for Bieber, or NKOTB, or 98 Degrees, or the Backstreet Boys, or One Direction, or any of those other teen heartthrobs. Middle-aged men are supposed to hate that music -- it's for the kids of middle-aged men.

I'm done fighting Papoy on this though. He wants to keep sending Bieber cards, well, the least I can do is give him an all-Bieber music selection to slog through listen to while reading my thanks for the cards he's sent to me.

Since I have no idea what songs of his are any good to anyone, I Googled "Justin Bieber's best songs." Here's what we get from that:

1. "Where are Ü Now" -- Skrillex and Diplo with Justin Bieber

Skrillex is actually someone I've featured before thanks to Matt F. of Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius being a fan. This song isn't completely awful, but it sure is incredibly repetitive. 

Then again, I shouldn't be so hard on repetitive songs, since repetition is the creator of earworms. Like this song. All I have in my head now is "Where are you now that I need you?"

Like any good earworm, the very simple parallels from the 1990s are tough to get out of your head. They are fairly numerous such that they can be found with a little looking, but, for the most part, you don't see them every day. I actually kind of like the Stadium Club Golden Rainbow parallel, even if that name is ridiculous and the nameplates on the front are just...terrible.

2.  "One Time"

This was apparently Bieber's first ever song. The video looks like the Sesame Street version of Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice." The fact that Usher is calling up Biebs to invite him to a party is just a little creepy too. I mean, it's actually a lot creepy.

*involuntary shudder*

I'm not a fan of this song. Sorry, kids.

Speaking of kids, here's Victor Roache. Roache was one of the Brewers three picks in the first and compensation round in 2012. They selected Clint Coulter, Roache, and Mitch Haniger. Being four years after that draft, we can see some hits and misses there already. Coulter was #27, Roache was #28 and Haniger was #38. Selection #35 was Mets catcher Kevin Plawecki. #36 was Cardinals OF Stephen Piscotty. #39 was Rangers uberprospect Joey Gallo. #41 was Astros P Lance McCullers.

Roache turns 25 in September. He has not progressed past Double-A Biloxi as of yet. In 367 plate appearances there, he's slashed at .246/.322/.435, and he has been passed by a number of players. He needs to hurry if he wants to get to the majors.

3. "As Long As You Love Me" featuring Big Sean




Michael Marsden starts out this video lecturing the Biebs about how Biebs should treat his hypothetical daughter. So the video goes from there to a church interspersed with Biebs in bed with some chick, then to a parking garage dance party. Real video from Bieber's arrest in Miami for dangerous driving is spliced in as well.

I'm trying to like this. To give it a chance. It's just not working. This is just overproduced crap. Big Sean's cut in the middle isn't bad, but why do I find myself waiting for Michael Marsden to give Bieber those fake bruises showing up in his face? Why do I start yelling "smack that little punk!"? 

I'm too old for this music, aren't I?



Apropos of nothing, here's a "silver starquest common" from 2009 Upper Deck of Prince Fielder and an Upper Deck Denny's Grand Slam hologram from 1992 of Greg Vaughn. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that Silver and Upper Deck go together like a horse and carriage.  

Similar to the Bieber song, though, I have yet to figure out the starquest common thing. I haven't tried too hard, but all my efforts have failed.

4. "Maria I'm Drunk" by Travis Scott f/Justin Bieber & Young Thug




Reading about this track, it seems that this was an odd pairing to a lot of folks. Bieber apparently reached out to Scott to see if they could work together. This song, to Scott, was perfect to have Bieber come on the cut. Originally, Atlanta's own Young Thug was the only "feature." Then, the song leaked out on to the internet, so Scott wanted to mix it back up. Scott sent Bieber the song, and, as Billboard has Scott tell the story, Bieber recorded his own rap verse overnight. 

So, my take on this song: it's disjointed and overdoes the autotune. I've never listened to Travis Scott before, and after this, I probably won't listen to any more of his music. It's a dirge. Billboard calls it a "hypnotic masterpiece"; I call it "music to listen to while stoned if you're thinking of jumping off a building because it's so boring it will destroy your will to stay awake and you'll fall asleep before you jump."



To follow that little rant, let's get paralleled. The card on the left is the 2012 Topps Museum Collection Green Parallel serial numbered 159 of 199. On the right is Yovani Gallardo's 2013 Topps Archives Gold Parallel serial numbered 80 of 199.

Many thanks go out to the Card Papoy for the great cards he sent my way. There were a bunch more, but I'm not sure I can listen to any more of Justin Bieber's best songs. But, to meet the title of this post, I give you Gilly W's Hon Eng 10 Site (I'm guessing that means Honors English...). Gilly wrote an ode to the Biebs that I thought Papoy would enjoy:

Come on everyone. Let's all get Bieber fever.

Thanks for getting through that with me. And, on another note, thank you to all of you for the now well-over 100,000 hits here on Off Hiatus! I am humbled that you would take the time to read this.

Thanks everyone.

Off Hiatus: A Retrospective

Today is my two-year anniversary of kicking off my card blogging life. Last year, I didn't even realize that my one-year anniversary had passed until three days after it had hit. It's been a tough, strange, fun, crazy, off-the-wall, difficult year for me personally and professionally as I left BigLaw, basically was my own firm for about 7 months, then joined another firm in July of last year. 

Lew Burdette was happy for me to switch law firms.

In between last February and now, I spent most of my time trying to catch up with trades both incoming and outgoing.  To be fair, it comes and goes for me in terms of having time to put together the outgoing trade packages. I owe some of you a package currently, and I apologize for my laxity in not getting those together already.  They will go out soon.

This past year has been a great one for me in many respects. I lived through a war with Jaybarkerfan -- a war in six parts (1a, 1b, 1c, 2, 3, 4, 5a, 5b, and 6) that was declared a draw thanks in large part to an invasion from Canada and the proprietor of Dawg Day Cards, Angus.

I received cards from a multitude of countries too (and I know I still owe cards, now long overdue, to the Italian Completist...dude, I am VERY sorry...I will be sending you a package soon). As best I recall it, I've gotten cards from Canada (a few times), France, Italy, the Netherlands, and England as a start.

My most popular posts of all time all came in the last year, and I have no earthly idea why these posts are so popular. That's not meant as a jab at the person I traded with whose cards are highlighted in the past, but I still don't know why these two posts both have over 1350 hits each while no other post has over 500 (there is one sitting at 500). Those two popular posts? 

With 1385 hits, it's "Julie: A Trade Post." Julie's "A Cracked Bat" provides a wonderfully different perspective on card collecting, as Julie -- unlike most of us -- came to collecting as an adult rather than having collected as a kid and returning when we want to be kids again. Still, I think the reason that that blogpost gets so many hits is because I included an American Girl Doll reference in it.



Not that I'm above doing things to drive web traffic to my site or anything.

The other post that gets tons of hits -- at 1451 hits as of today -- is "Catching Up with a Trade Post." Mark Kaz is great and the 1990s Brewers he sent were awesome enough to lead me to post both photos of kangaroos and a Violent Femmes song ("Promise" in case you were wondering). But why so many hits for those two?

Of course, now that I think about it, perhaps all the traffic is just looking for a "trading post" and clicks through that way.  Maybe I should name all of my blog posts "trade post."

So, it's the beginning of year three for me as a blogger. While some people do resolutions at the beginning of the year, I tend to like to wait for a different day important only to me. Here are my resolutions:

1.  Grow my Robin Yount collection to 1000 items. It stands currently at 875 items, including magazine covers, mugs, bobbleheads, glasses, placemats, rulers, books, talking baseball cards, and autographs.

2.  Get more organized, again. With the addition of approximately 25,000 to 30,000 cards as part of that Christmas Horde, I have got an absolute crapload (sorry for the legalese) of cards to sort through again. I'm pretty sure I have to have over 100,000 cards now, of which perhaps 20% are Brewers. 

3.  With that said, I want to winnow my collection a bit too. Get rid of some of those Twins cards, or Expos cards, or Blue Jays, or Yankees. Especially Yankees. 

4. To do that, I need to sit down on a regular basis -- perhaps even a scheduled basis -- to put together packages to send out. I'm hoping the "SuperTraders" will help me with this. By the way, does anyone know a good Indians, Royals, or Marlins collector who wants in?
Actually, does anyone know ANY Marlins collectors?

5.  Stick to a better budget on buying cards. Rather, create a budget for buying cards. If I had a budget maybe I'd follow it.

6. Get my Brewers parallels, oddballs, and Paninis all organized and set up in proper want lists and, also, get my Milwaukee Braves post-1965 cards organized and get want lists created. I love my lists and want more.

7.  Last one: Keep up on the 1982 Blog and the "Meet the Brewers" posts, trying to do one a month each.

Okay, finally, one more thing. I wanted to show off a card I got at my local show yesterday:

 

It's a JSA certified Eddie Mathews autograph. I got it for $24 from Frank Moiger, the promoter of the card show, and I love it. I wanted a Mathews autograph, and this one will do quite nicely, thank you.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm still trying to get Coldplay songs out of my head after that Super Bowl halftime last night.

Je suis un collectionneur

It's a sad truth that the French people have a reputation among tourists of being rude. Whether it's this story from Scotland's National Newspaper, The Scotsman, proclaiming, "The French admit they're too rude to tourists" or this story explaining five reasons why Americans might think this is the case, it's easy to find complaints on the internet about the "rude French."

The major problems with this generalization? Well, the first is simple: when people say that they think French people are rude, they are referring to Paris. Big city people tend to be more cautious around strangers generally -- it's how you survive in a city, after all -- and that caution and reservation can be seen as rudeness.

Second, I think there is a perception that Paris is supposed to be like what people see in the movies for Paris. It's supposed to be all high fashion, the Moulin Rouge, and baguette-carrying, mustachioed, guys giving the okay sign.

The reality is, though, that French people are just people like you and me. They are courteous -- especially when treated with courtesy themselves. They are cautious in unfamiliar situations -- especially when someone they've never met comes up to them demanding that they speak in an unfamiliar language and tell them how to get somewhere.  

And, they are collectors. Like Kevin a/k/a the Card Papoy. During the week before Christmas, a package from France appeared in my mailbox. I'm pretty sure that it's my turn to send some cards Kevin's way at this point, so it was a welcome surprise. Thankfully, with the massive Christmas gift I got producing some interesting cards, I'll be able to send some cool stuff out in the next few months.

But, that's in the future. For now, let's get through the cards Kevin sent, starting by getting Lucky Pierre (caution: that link goes to the Urban Dictionary) out of the way.

Canadian buzzkillers out of the way, how about some late 1990s Upper Deck cards?

Now, other than Trevor Hoffman -- who may or may not make the Hall of Fame this year in his first year on the ballot -- these three cards are like baseball card representations of a Green Day song.

Todd Dunn and Brian Banks...yeah. 

Dunn was a sandwich round compensation pick in the 1993 draft for the Brewers (35th pick overall). The best thing I can say about him is that he attended Bishop Kenney High School in Florida, which is the same school that the daughter of two good friends of mine attends. 

Banks was the second round pick in that same 1993 draft out of BYU. The fact that he got 249 plate appearances for the 1999 Brewers (.242/.317/.352) says more about the Brewers than anything I can say.



Four more Upper Deck cards from 1997. 

Eldred, of course, is a PC. As his card caption mentions and as I've said before, Eldred got put through the Phil Garner meat grinder in 1993, facing a league high 1087 batters that season. That number is the fourth-highest total from 1993 to the present and sixth-highest in the past 25 years. For comparison's sake, only three pitchers in the past ten seasons (2006 to 2015) have topped 1000 -- CC Sabathia had 1023 in 2008 when the Brewers pitched him about every second day because they knew they didn't have to worry about his future health, Felix Hernandez's 1001 in 2010, and David Price's 1009 in 2014. (I think I mention that meat grinder every time I write about Eldred...apologies!)

Okay, on to the shiny cards with autographs and wood chips and leather embedded!



So, Jean Segura. These are great cards -- a blue chrome parallel and a Topps Tribute serial numbered 24 out of just 50. As for the player, though...I mean, I've put a fair amount of time, money, and energy into collecting Segura's cards. The only reason I haven't abandoned his PC at this point is, well, I keep getting these good cards of him. I'm thinking, though, that it might be time to cut bait. 

I'm pretty sure that Segura is going to get traded or designated for assignment or non-tendered within the next year or so. The Brewers have stocked up on replacements for him already -- with Orlando Arcia getting to Double A in 2015 and adding former Astro Jonathan Villar in trade for minor leaguer Cy Sneed -- so it's just a matter of time. At that point -- if not sooner -- I'll relegate Segura back to the Brewer boxes, I'm guessing.  Maybe. 

And, when I do, perhaps I'll replace him with Demi Orimoloye. I mean, after all, who wouldn't want a PC of the first African-born major leaguer (assuming that he makes the long trip to the majors)? Especially one trained to play baseball in Canada....

Next up -- a game used "ball" card. I'm surprised that Topps hasn't revived this type of relic card, considering how cheaply one can purchase game used balls.

Okay, last three cards, none of which are related to one another. First, let's look at some player collection inserts I needed:



The Braun Starquest is a "Starquest Rare." I haven't looked much at this, but I don't have a clue as to how much rarer a Starquest Rare" was over a "Starquest Common."

The Molitor Kimball Champions mini card is pretty cool. I do wonder how much further the "using old card designs" thing can go, though. I'd like to see revived use of oddball designs, for what it's worth. Use some of those cool "Topps Cereal Series" card designs from 1984 instead of yet another cigarette company card. Just my $0.02.

And finally, it's shiny happy Overbay:

From 2004, it's Lyle Overbay on a Leaf Certified Materials Red Mirror bat relic card. 2004 and 2005 pretty much destroyed any joy that parallels, inserts, and relic cards might otherwise have brought. Anyone who has tried to put together their own "comprehensive" checklists for their favorite team or player hates 2004 and 2005 for the ridiculous numbers of parallels, insert parallels, and base sets. Donruss/Leaf -- then owned by Playoff -- likely was largely responsible for massive glut of cards that led to the limitations on licenses in 2006. That, and financial viability for the card companies, of course.  

Still, all that just doesn't matter. What matters is that these cards and the unquestioned kindness Kevin displays to all of us in the Blogger world.  Thanks, Kevin!

Cards from the Papoy

Last week, a package arrived from France. 

Packages also arrived from Italy and Idaho, in case those fine gentlemen were wondering (and yes, I'm bad about telling folks that stuff has arrived...I need to get better at that).

Back to this one, though. If you are talking about packages arriving from France and the package contains baseball cards and one, single Justin Bieber card, then you are talking about a package from Kevin -- The Card Papoy.

Let's get Bieber out of the way first:

I don't like Justin Bieber's music. I've never like teen pop music, to be fair -- when everyone else was listening to "Thriller," I was listening to The Clash. In fifth grade. 

Still, the best thing that Justin Bieber ever gave to us was the Justin Bieber Roast on Comedy Central.  For some not-safe-for-work language being used, put on your headphones.

If you haven't watched Martha Stewart make a reference to shanking a woman in prison, you should watch it. But don't watch it if strong language offends you, because you'll be offended.

None of that, though, has anything to do with the Brewers cards that came my way.  Here are a few of the highlights:

This is the first Fleer Tiffany from 1996 that I have ever seen or added to my collection. The Fleer 1996 set is actually one I sort of like for NOT being a glossy set.  But, to be fair, with glossy stock and foil on the front, this card looks pretty sharp.  I am a sucker for the full-bleed cards.

It's refractor mania! That's a Finest Refractor and a Chrome Refractor from last year and two X-Fractors from 2013. 

....


....


....

Sorry, all the shininess mesmerized me there for a minute. Refractors are parallels made for Chrome-y cards, so how about regular parallels?

Gotta whole lotta Lohse.  This year, that is a horrible thing. For the low, low price of just $11 million, Kyle has dredged up the ghosts of Navarros past, currently in the lead in the National League in losses with 9 and earned runs allowed with 60, and he's second in home runs allowed with 17. And the great thing is that the Brewers keep sending him out there -- he's tied for first in games started too.

He has fallen off the table so badly that even with no further contractual obligations being required, no one will trade for him.  I wonder if, perhaps, the Brewers could send him to a team with cash for "future considerations" and mean that the future considerations are that we'll never have to see Kyle Lohse in a Brewers uniform again.

That would be nice.

Okay, now we're into the "Holy crap that is a great card" portion of the box.  That's especially true of that Robin Yount Relic from the SP Legendary Cuts set from 2006.  It's not serial numbered, but who cares? It's a great addition to the Yount collection -- which now numbers 712 strong.

And finally, last but not least, some shiny serial numbered goodness:

That's a Finest "blue" Refractor, serial numbered to 125.  It doesn't look any bluer than the regular Finest card, though it is a bit shinier, but hey -- throw a serial number on it and I'm a happy man! 

Kevin, thanks for the great cards and the opportunity to reference Martha Stewart shanking a woman in prison!

The French Connection

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm going to be out of town most of this week. So, I thought I would engage in a little bit of pre-programming to catch up on trade posts and to have stuff ready to post when I return from my trip.

This post is a bit of a long time in getting done. About a month ago, Kevin from The Card Papoy emailed me to ask for my address so as to send me some cards. Since he's from France, I had no idea how long it would take for them to show up (answer: about two weeks).

The great thing with Kevin -- and as is the case with Julie from A Cracked Bat as well -- is that Kevin was collecting cards at the time when I was not. That's a large timeframe -- 1990 to 2013 -- but he was able to send me a bunch of cards that I had never seen before.

Let's start with the player collection guys -- like Greg Vaughn.

I have to admit -- I'm a sucker these days for Stadium Club. I am becoming more of an unapologetic fan of full-bleed card photography and design with each passing day of looking at cards like these and Upper Deck's offerings in the late 00s.

These cards show those semi-decent, semi-garbage 1990s uniforms that the Brewers wore, and that attempt to keep an MB logo without using the old ball-in-glove look from 1978. 

Next up, card #87 of the Rickie Weeks collection:

I like the Topps Lineage set from 2011, though I'm not a big fan of the dark-blue backs without stats. I'm also unclear as to how this set shows any of Topps's "lineage."

Jose Valentin seemed to get a bunch of really cool "double play" photos on his cards in the 1990s. The two cards that I got from Kevin were not among them.

Now, I like art a lot. There are a lot of cool-looking mosaics out there, especially religious icons from the late Middle Ages. The Topps card of Jose Valentin, however, looks more like the pixelation experienced during a thunderstorm on DirecTV feeds than any kind of artistic effort. While these two cards will not make a "Top 5 Jose Valentin" countdown, they are still cards I needed for my collection.

And the Rest:

Back in the 1960s -- and as I got to see them after school in the late 1970s and early 1980s -- Gilligan's Island enjoyed a 3-season, 98-episode run on TV. During the first season of the series, the theme song gave the short shrift to the Professor and Mary Ann, calling them simply, "the rest."

I'm not intending to give these cards the same short shrift, but I'm also not going to talk all that much about the Pat Listach years. 

It is safe to say that the Brewers organization in the late 1980s through the 1990s did not have the best record in turning out major-league-ready talent. When you're signing guys like Bruce Ruffin, Franklin Stubbs, the skeletal remains of Willie Randolph, and Jim Tatum, it's not a good sign.

As for Gary Sheffield, well, his track record speaks for itself. There wasn't much the team could have done to make him happy and have him stay for most of his career since, after all, Sheffield wore out his welcome nearly everywhere he went -- 6 years in Miami, 4 in Los Angeles, 4 in Milwaukee, 3 with the Yankees, 2 with the Braves, 2 with the Padres, 2 with the Tigers, and 1 with the Mets speaks volumes about a guy who was never happy except perhaps with the Marlins. And, that would end as soon as the team started dismantling the 1997 team. Of course, Sheffield made over $168 million in his career. I'm sure he'll dry his eyes with $100 bills over my criticisms.

Nonetheless, this was a fantastic package of cards from Kevin.

Kevin, thank you very much for the cards -- they are much appreciated and I needed most of them.