One More Post from eBay

As many of you know, I decided to start a second blog to indulge myself in a bit of cataloging and, at the same time, in a bit of history and oddball love. My new blog, "Collecting the 1980s: Remembering the Oddballs from the Best Decade in Cards," focuses on the fun, offbeat, and forgotten cards from the 1980s. Of course I call it the best decade in cards because that is when I was a kid and cards are always best when you're a kid. I'd sure appreciate it if you would stop over there and read some of those posts and comment.

All that said, I'm trying not to neglect this blog more than I have already. I mean, my purchases are still focused on the Brewers as are my (dwindling) trades with other people. But y'all know how it is sometimes -- you need a little bit of extra spice in your life. That change or twist to keep things exciting and interesting. That's what the new blog is, really -- a new twist for me to keep writing about things I enjoy while paying little attention to new issues other than to note them for future checklists. 

So, I still surf on eBay looking for deals. Sometimes, it is just for a Topps Now card -- to pay $5.99 for a card that Topps would charge me $9.99 to get. I'm not super excited about that "deal" -- I mean, it's still one card for $6 -- but it's better than a $10 card. Other times, I can find the random lots that have cards I need. Today's post is one of those times. 

Powered by the prog-rock timeline at Strawberry Bricks, let's dig in.

Strawberry Bricks calls itself "a record guide to music of the progressive era of rock music." As is the case with a lot of genres of music, the timeline for prog rock starts with the Beatles -- here, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It is incredible to think about all the different genres of rock music that the Beatles influenced. Everything from the prog rock of Pink Floyd and Yes to the grunge sound of Nirvana (Kurt Cobain was heavily influenced by the Beatles) to the blatant worshipfulness of 90s Britpop from Oasis is descended directly from the Beatles. And that is just a quick run.

This song, "A Day In The Life," has been called the 28th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone and, then, in a list of just Beatles songs, it was called the best song by Rolling Stone. I'm not sure how that is squared other than different writers at different times looking at different things. 

 

One of the impetuses for buying this lot were the Prince Fielder cards that I needed for my Fielder collection. Other than the one of him signing autographs -- which I think goes into my team set -- all of these were needed for the Prince book. As you might be able to see, the 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History parallels are both serial numbered -- the blue one is 184/299 and the gold one is 48/50 -- and so is the 2009 Upper Deck Icons Future Foundations, which is numbered 750/999. 

Last year, I posted some Braves cards accompanied by jazz. One of the songs I included was "Blue Rondo à la Turk" by Dave Brubeck. The Nice, a London band from 1967 formed by Keith Emerson (later of Emerson, Lake & Palmer), performed this prog-rock cover of the song and titled it simply "Rondo." 

Emerson is the keyboardist here -- as he always has been in his other bands prior to his death on March 11, 2016 -- but rather than using all kinds of different types of keyboards as he did later in ELP, he focused almost exclusively on using a Hammond organ. No less a music luminary than John Peel was an early champion of The Nice and infamously referred to ELP as "a waste of talent and electricity."

I'm hoping that these three guys don't end up as wastes of talent and electricity. There are troubling signs for each, however.

Gilbert Lara -- a die-cut card from the 2014 Elite Extra Edition set serial numbered to 200 -- does not turn 20 years old until October 20 of this year. He moved up to full-season Wisconsin this year and has struggled -- 7 BB and 73 Ks in 210 plate appearances, slash of .189/.219/.269 is not good even when you are 2 years younger than the average age in the league. Fangraphs has Lara rated as a 40 Future Value player and notes that "the quality of his at-bats is resoundingly poor, he looks tense and uncomfortable in the box, gets visibly frustrated when he struggles, and hasn't tapped into his considerable raw power in games, even in the hitter-friendly Pioneer League." Not good.

Nathan Kirby was drafted in the second round in 2015 out of the University of Virginia. Prior to that college season, he was seen as a potential top-10 talent. Injuries (strained lat) cost him much of that 2015 season, and he slid into the second round where the Brewers selected him #40 overall. He went to Single-A Wisconsin, threw 12-2/3 innings, and was promptly sidelined by a torn ulnar collateral ligament leading directly to Tommy John surgery. This year, he came back in spring training only to suffer from ulnar neuritis -- leading to ulnar nerve transposition surgery which will keep him out to at least the end of this month. He'll be 24 next year and really needs to do something as a pro pitcher next year.

Braden Webb was an oddball of sorts himself. He graduated high school in 2014 and had Tommy John surgery even before he graduated. Despite being old for his high school class -- he turned 19 prior to graduating high school -- he sat out and stayed out of college entirely in 2015 before enrolling for one season with the South Carolina Gamecocks. Due to his age, he was draft eligible after that season, and the Brewers picked him in the third round of the 2016 draft. As was the case for Webb in college, he is struggling with his control at Single-A Wisconsin this year -- walking 5 men every 9 innings. 

One thing you can count on from prog rock are super long, overly indulgent (at times) songs which seem to go on and on and on. Often, that is not a bad thing. This is especially true when the men (and in prog rock, it is almost entirely men) who are playing are virtuoso in their playing ability. 

This song, "Bare Wires Suite," is by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and comprised the entire first side of the album called Bare Wires. Embedded within this suite are seven individual songs: "Bare Wires," "Where Did I Belong," "I Started Walking," "Open Up A New Door," "Fire," "I Know Now," and "Look In The Mirror." Unlike some of the other prog rock here, there is a bluesy feel to this song. You can hear the blues chord changes flying by in each of the songs by listening to the bass line, the rhythm guitar, and, at times, the keyboards. Any jazz band member will tell you that the bass line is literally the most important sound within that jazz ensemble -- along with the drums -- because it sets tempo and key. Everything else from there is icing on the cake.

Before this season began, I expressed some concern that Arcia had the potential to turn into Rey Ordoñez 2.0 due to the significant questions about his ability to hit at the major league level. All indications from scouts were that Arcia would be a plus-plus fielder -- and that has definitely been the case. As it stands currently, he leads the NL in total zone runs, range factor per nine innings, double plays turned, assists, and putouts at short. Yes, he's committed 11 errors, but that happens when you get to a ton of balls.

The question was going to be his bat. This concern was highlighted after his .219/.273/.358 slash line last year (an OPS+ of just 66). Thankfully, he has improved significantly this year. He hit a low-water mark on May 17 with an 0-for-4 performance against the Padres that left his slash line at .208/.261/.352 (eerily similar to 2016). Since that game and over the past 7 weeks, Arcia has hit .356/.388/.494 with four homers and four steals. 

Sure, he's not walking a ton (10 walks in 170 plate appearances) and his contact hasn't been great (30 Ks) but he has been hitting 8th for much of that time, meaning that walks generally do not come into play with the pitcher hitting behind him. That burst has put him just about right at being an average NL hitter. With his glove, that makes him a very valuable player. 

And all of this has been done before he turns 23 years old on August 4. If he can stay at being a league average hitter for his whole career and fields as well as he has, he could quite literally end up being more Ozzie Smith 2.0 (career OPS+: 87) than Rey Ordoñez. I'm not making him a PC yet -- I'm still feeling a bit burned by Jean Segura's hacktastic ways -- but he will be soon enough if his development continues.

Before the band added Phil Collins and lost Peter Gabriel, Genesis was very much a prog rock band instead of singing pop songs like "Sussudio." The song "The Silent Sun" was Genesis's first-ever single from its first album, From Genesis to Revelation, and it was released in 1968. The album was not released until March of 1969 even though the single was released on February 22, 1968. 

If you listen to this short song -- it's only a little over 2 minutes long -- you will hear nothing that sounds either like anything Genesis or Peter Gabriel released in the 1980s. It's very much a piece of its time in the late 1960s.

And finally: lots of Ryan Braun. The fact that much of this lot is Braun-focused is appropriate since it seems nearly every set by every card issuer these days includes Braun and maybe Arcia and that's about it. Somehow, I'd missed that Topps issued Gold Label again last year -- it must have been an online exclusive or something -- so this lot helped me by getting me the parallel/variations of the "Class 2 and Class 3." There's also a 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Silver parallel serial numbered to 399 in there as well along with one of what is Panini's best set every year -- Diamond Kings from 2017. I'd still prefer hatless players from Panini rather than no-logo, but at least there isn't a fake autograph on it.

All of these cards fit well into my collection either for team sets or for my player collections. The great thing about this purchase was that I got a total of 38 different Brewers cards, including a couple of relics, a few autographs, and several serial numbered cards, for just $7.12 total with shipping included. Basically, that's less than 50 cents a card. For what I got, that seems like a good deal to me.

Thanks for stopping by and let me know if you want to trade.

An eBay Seller Comes Through

A couple of weeks ago, I had a problem on eBay. I won a small auction for a Brewers lot containing a couple of decent autographs and a low serial numbered card, but I kept getting errors every time I tried to pay for the lot. Because I got the lot for literally the minimum bid, I was concerned that this problem resulted from an unsavory seller.

Thankfully, that concern was misplaced. After a couple of messages with the seller -- who also could not figure out what was going on -- I contacted eBay customer service. We got it all worked out without a problem.

So, a nice little story, right? Well, this seller did one better and gave me some extra stuff as well in the envelope to thank me for my patience with the issues. Fast forward a month and I'm finally getting around to posting these cards.

I just got back from a planning retreat in Park City, Utah for the American Bar Association group for which I am in leadership. On our last night there, a few of us met randomly together and just blew it out. I'm usually a pretty buttoned-down person to anyone who is observing from the outside and does not know me that well. The reality is that I draw lines like most people and tend not to show a lot of my crazier side to people with whom I interact in a business setting.

What did I do? I showed my attention-hog side and started showing off my lyrical knowledge of random songs...while all of us were in our hotel robes drinking wine on this large patio. Yup. So, it was everything from "U and Dat" by E-40 to "Pompeii" by Bastille and "Funky Cold Medina" by Tone Lōc. It inspired me to hit some old rap songs from my college days to accompany this post.

We didn't sing or even listen to "Pop Goes The Weasel," but we should have. In preparing for finding songs for this post, I looked at some old Billboard rap charts and saw this song had topped the Rap chart in 1991. 

If you have never heard the song, take a listen and watch the video as well. It features Henry Rollins dressed as Vanilla Ice (seriously) and 3rd Bass basically was ripping Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer (among others) for being weasels who "go pop." The base sample track should be familiar to many of you as well, as the band built the song on the horns and bass line from "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel.

My purchase on eBay started with these three cards. Yeah, K-Rod is uninspiring to many including myself. But I am a sucker, after all, and when a Brewers cards serial numbered 2 of 25 is packaged with two autographs for $0.99 plus $3 shipping, I'm probably going to buy it. 

Jason Rogers, of course, was a part of the Great Pirate Robbery of December 2015. The Brewers received minor league pitcher Trey Supak and current starting centerfielder Keon Broxton for Rogers in a trade that probably seemed like a good idea at the time to the Pirates -- turning some outfield depth into a potentially useful first baseman. The problem was that Rogers was neither given a chance by Pittsburgh in the majors and, then, struggled when he did get 33 plate appearances (.080/.303/.160). The Pirates released Rogers on Friday from his minor league contract, and the report out of Pittsburgh was that Rogers will sign with the Hanshin Tigers in the Japanese Central League.

Monte Harrison has moved steadily down the list of top Brewers prospects as the Brewers have acquired more organizational depth and players closer to the majors in trades and the draft. Harrison was promoted to the High-A Carolina Mudcats the day after the Midwest League All-Star game. He was the star of that All-Star Game: he hit two homers in the game the night after finishing second in the home run derby(oops, no he didn't). He did all kinds of weird things in that game, including hitting a home run while batting out of order and swapping jerseys with his first-base coach during his home run trot. It's good to see him having fun and fulfilling some of his massive potential. Before his promotion, he was hitting .265/.359/.475 with 11 HR and 11 SB in 261 plate appearances (though he is still striking out too much).

What's that you say? You haven't heard of the song "U And Dat"? Let's rectify that. I only wish this was the uncensored version.

Before I met my wife, I lived in Midtown Atlanta. No suburbs for me. My next door neighbor was an African-American guy named Bob who is one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. Bob and I bonded over college football and sports generally, but we also talked a lot about music too. He introduced this song to me, and I really liked it. I used to crack him up by knowing all the words to it and being able to sing along with it.

I would imagine it would be humorous to see a blond, white, 35-year-old guy singing this song. 

As I mentioned, the eBay seller threw in some extra autographs for me. Man, did he come through. First up is that Wei-Chung Wang Panini card. I absolutely love the fact that he signed his autograph using the Chinese characters of his native Taiwan. I'm not sure why he wouldn't sign like that, but I like it nonetheless -- it looks sharp.

Wang, of course, was a Rule 5 pick after the 2013 season. The Brewers plucked him from Pittsburgh's rookie league roster, stashed him for a year in 2014 while using him sparingly, and then were able to sneak him through waivers. Wang has had great success this year in Colorado Springs working out of the bullpen, and I would not be surprised to see him up later this year in the Brewers pen. Also, I think that is probably where his future major league career will take him. He is only 25, so he has a little time.

Michael Reed, on the other hand, is struggling a bit this year. He has fallen behind the hot prospects in Colorado (Brett Phillips, Lewis Brinson, and Ryan Cordell) as well as the guys in Milwaukee already (Domingo Santana & Keon Broxton). To make matters worse for him, he's not making good contact in Double-A Biloxi -- .215/.352/.367 in 193 plate appearances. He's showing more power this year, but he probably needs a change in scenery soon. Maybe a minor deadline deal to shore up the bullpen?

Finally, there is the card about which I was more excited than any of the other cards I got in this deal -- the Ben Sheets autograph serial numbered 46 of 49. Too bad it is a Panini product and that Sheets apparently pitched before color photography was invented. In all seriousness, that Hometown Heroes product was (in my opinion) Panini's best product. It was ruined by the lack of licensing and discoloration issues resulting from that, but including the players they included in the set made it a winner.

Thanks for reading!

Pyramid Ratings and the 2017 Milwaukee Brewers

In January, the excellent baseball website Hardball Times had an article by Paul Moehringer called "The Pyramid Rating System's All-Time Milwaukee Brewers/Braves." The basic conceit behind the article is set forth in the article talking about the Baltimore Orioles all-time team: to build a modern team -- 12 pitchers with 5 starters, 6 relievers, and a spot starter and 13 position players, including 2 catchers -- based around the historical teams. 

The author focused on a city-centric approach rather than a franchise approach, which means, for example, that the Washington Senators' various iterations are made a part of the Washington Nationals' franchise history. This means, too, that former franchises including the Philadelphia Athletics, the Montreal Expos, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Boston Braves, the New York Giants, and the St. Louis Browns are resurrected. From there, the author creates 6 divisions of 6 teams each named after the current divisions. 

The Milwaukee "franchise" is placed in the AL Central alongside the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns, and Tampa Bay Rays. The thought behind putting the Milwaukee Braves with the Brewers is that if the Braves had never left, Atlanta would have gotten a team anyway but the Brewers would never have existed. The final rule is that players can only be placed on one team -- so Warren Spahn ends up on the Boston Braves, thereby depriving the Milwaukee team of its clear, by far best pitcher.

The Milwaukee team is heavy on hitting. Very heavy. At the same time, the pitching is as thin as tissue paper. Milwaukee's best pitcher in its history is the one pitcher who "dominated over an extended period of time": Teddy Higuera. Seriously, that's it. 

In terms of the starting lineups, it's again a very interesting set up. I'm going to use it to introduce the cards I bought recently from Brent Williams off eBay to try and guess what chances the guys in this year's sets have of making it to the "all-time team."

Let's start with the easy one:

That's a whole lot of Ryan Braun, and for good reason: Braun is the starting left-fielder on the Milwaukee team. The projected starting lineup puts him hitting third against righties and second against lefties. It's actually a pretty incredible lineup: against righties, the lineup is constructed with Eddie Mathews leading off. As the article notes, Mathews led the NL in walks four times, including three straight years from 1961 to 1963. He finished in the top-10 in OBP in the NL 10 times. 

Yeah, Eddie Mathews was really, really damn good. 

Braun was a shoo-in for a spot on the team, even if he is the only non-Hall of Fame starting outfielder alongside CF Robin Yount and RF Hank Aaron. He's backed up by Carlos Gomez and Gorman Thomas and, if necessary, Hank Aaron. Other than Braun, the other four outfielders on the team all played centerfield for significant portions of their career.

Now, onto the totally speculative:

With Orlando Arcia, we have very little to go on currently. Hitting-wise, he is improving. He is getting used to being in the big league. He chalks up a recent 9-game hitting streak to better pitch recognition:

.@Brewers shortstop Orlando Arcia tells @SophiaMinnaert that his pitch recognition is improving pic.twitter.com/4r82BTauWN

— FOX Sports Wisconsin (@fswisconsin) May 30, 2017

And props to Sophia Minnaert for being bilingual. As a quick aside, I'm a big fan of sideline reporters who are bilingual and can translate on the fly. Atlanta United has Brittany Arnold who can do the same thing, and I feel like it is important so that we get to hear from guys like Arcia (or Miguel Almiron with ATLUTD) directly just the same as the English speakers who get interviewed on ESPN.

Back to the Milwaukee team. The Brewers/Braves roster only includes Yount and Braves stalwart Johnny Logan at shortstop (though Bill Hall could play the spot in a pinch). Logan was one of the all-time best defensive shortstops ever, and he was not a complete zero with the bat (OPS+ career of 94). Because Yount can play short, though, the author felt justified in carrying Gorman Thomas to destroy lefties.

If Arcia can develop further -- continuing to improve his pitch recognition, continuing to keep his strikeouts down, learning how to read pitchers on the basepaths, and the like and, further, assuming that he spends a good amount of his career in Milwaukee -- then there is a very good chance that he could end up displacing Logan. He is still very young -- turning 23 in August -- so that development time will be interesting to watch.

Next up: Jonathan Villar. Based off last season, if Villar could have been projected out from there, he would have been difficult to leave off the roster. This year has seen him come back down some -- he is hitting terribly this year -- so it's an open question as to what he can be or is.

He would be hard-pressed to be a starter on the all-time Milwaukee team since the team lines up another Hall of Famer there: Paul Molitor. Molitor could have been put at a number of positions, but second base was the best fit. Behind Molitor, the team would have long-time underrated Brewer Don Money, who could fill in both at second and at third. Money was such a good fielder at third base that he set a major league record with 86 straight games without an error in 1974. Despite that, he ended up being the AL All-Star starter at second in 1978 -- playing there while Molitor played short and Yount played golf.

Long-time Brewer Jim Gantner made the 40-man roster as a 2B/3B fill-in as well, and Bill Hall could slot in here at second as well. So, odd as it may sound, Villar joins a long line of Brewers with positional flexibility in the infield. Molitor, Money, Gantner, and Hall all played all over the infield, with only Gantner not being at least a part-time starter at shortstop in that time (he started 5 games at short in his career). 

All the caveats about time in Milwaukee apply to Villar, and if he can produce near what he did last year, he has a good shot to get onto the roster at a minimum. Don't underrate Don Money here, though: during his 11 years in Milwaukee, he hit .270/.338/.421 for an OPS+ of 114, including four all-star games. He platooned from 1979 through 1983, but he always had good power.

Welcome to the black hole that is pitching in Milwaukee. I supposed Davies and Nelson have as good a chance as anyone to make it into the mix for a slot pitching for the Milwaukee "Brewers" all-timers. To give you an idea of what I mean by black hole, here's the pitching staff:

SP: Higuera, Ben Sheets, Mike Caldwell, Chris Bosio, and Bill Wegman

Closer: Ken Sanders

8th inning: Dan Plesac

7th Inning: Tom Murphy

Setup: Chuck Crim and Dave Jolly

Mop-up: Braves P Don McMahon

Spot Starter: Lew Burdette

Others on the 40-man: Ricky Bones, Bob Buhl, Doug Davis, Cal Eldred, Mike Fetters, Ray Searage, and Bob Wickman

I'm a little surprised that Yovani Gallardo did not make the team over Doug Davis or Ricky Bones or even Chris Bosio. I have tweeted at him and left a comment to see his reasoning (or to see if Yovani just got missed in the shuffle).

So, either of these guys could get there, I suppose. But I kind of doubt it. 

No chance. Not unless Scooter ends up back in Milwaukee, jacks up on steroids, and suddenly turns into a lefty-hitting Bret Boone or Jeff Kent. 

Since these guys are no-hopers, let's look at the catching slot and at first base. I've mentioned in the past about how Del Crandall was really a star in his day. He ends up getting the nod as a part of a platoon with Jonathan Lucroy. Not bad. But, if we look at how the 40-man stacks up, we find Joe Torre listed as a C/1B. That's weird because I think of Torre as a Cardinal thanks to his MVP season there. As the article points out, though, Torre's career essentially gets split four ways thanks to the way that the pyramid system is structured -- his Braves time is half Milwaukee, half Atlanta -- and his best season was 1971 with St. Louis. 

At first base, we plug in Cecil Cooper. Arguably, that's a difficult slot too. Prince Fielder becomes a platoon DH who will absolutely annihilate right-handed pitching as a 1-2 punch with Eddie Mathews (career for Fielder against RHP: .294/.403/.539: a .942 OPS...which is basically Willie Mays), though Fielder sits against lefties to allow Gorman Thomas to mash. On the 40-man, George Scott beats out Joe Adcock for the spot thanks to the fact that Scott won five Gold Gloves in Milwaukee while also crushing the ball (.283/.342/.456).

I highly recommend reading the articles on Hardball Times about your favorite team's all-time team. Sure, the clubs like the Red Sox and the Yankees -- with their long histories -- have a distinct advantage over newcomers like the Marlins or the Brewers or the Padres. But it sure is fun to revisit those old names.

And, while you're at it, look up Brent Williams on eBay and Twitter -- he's a collector who sells rather than being just a seller.

Then *poof* he was gone

For Brewers fans who troll around on eBay looking for items -- and especially for Robin Yount collectors -- a usual stop used to always be wfbookmen's page. Thanks to WF, I have added numerous Robin Yount relics and autographs to my collection -- sometimes at high prices, sometimes at cheap prices. From time to time, he might be a little slow in shipping for unknown reasons, but most of the time he's a solid eBay seller.

I'd stopped buying from him for a while to focus on picking up more team sets rather than the individual player cards. Plus, I'd often have to stop myself from bidding on far too many items. Then, I got one of his emails saying he had a bunch of stuff on sale with short deadlines for purchase. So, I looked at the stuff and, back at the end of January, I bought a whole raft of items from him (which I'm going to show below). It was a weird sale -- I was able to pick up many of the items by putting in a last minute opening bid on each, which usually doesn't happen.

But a weirder thing happened. Shortly after I left feedback, I went back to see what else he might have for sale, and a strange sight appeared:

Say what? Just like Kaiser Soze -- though hopefully without the international terrorist/bad guy overtones -- it seems like it was just *poof* gone. I hope he is okay -- as you can see, he's been a seller for over 19 years. Perhaps it was just a reaction to the continually increasing eBay fees.

At any rate, thanks to the big sale, I got a bunch of nice items. 

First off, we have two media guides from the Brewers early days. I eventually would like to get a complete run of the media guides in good shape like these two -- as opposed to the well-worn versions of my youth, which were my bedtime reading as a kid as if I would be tested on what Robin Yount's middle name is...which, oddly enough, is listed as "R." but many sources (including the late Bob Lemke) say that his real middle name was Rachel...leading me to believe that I too would use just the R and that his parents really wanted a girl when he was born -- but I digress.

Anyway, I don't have many of them currently, but I do like them. The 1973 one featuring Del Crandall and George Scott is particularly nice.

Another group of items that were available featured some of those Topps buyback cards with those wonderful foil stamps to "update" them. 

As you can see, other than the 1976 Topps Team card for the Brewers (with Hank Aaron placed in the center of the standing players), the rest all fit neatly into player collections -- Moore, Money, Cooper, and Oglivie are all core players from the Brewers teams of my childhood. I don't think I paid more than $1 for any one of these cards. These were, in fact, the items that were lingering without bids late on, so I snapped them up for the $0.99 open.

Something WF always seemed to have were the "higher end" sets like Triple Threads. He also seemed to have all the cool inserts and box toppers. I snapped up a couple of these as well:

I especially like the 2010 Heritage team stamps box topper with Braun and Fielder. I wish that Topps had done actual stamps for the new generation, as opposed to printing them on the box topper. Still, it's a pretty cool item to add to my Braun collection. I'm not sure that I'll find two more for both the Fielder and the team collections, though. I think this is the only one I've found (though I haven't looked all that hard).

Going deeper into the oddball side of things, this time around there were two team-issued photos and a couple of large oddballs for sale. 

In order:

The top one is probably from about 1978 or 1979 or maybe 1980. But, I think it's earlier because by 1980 Gorman Thomas was already on his way to covering up with the full beard look that would make him fit in well with Jayson Werth and Charlie Blackmon these days -- the halfway-to-homeless look.  

The next one has to be from 1983 (or it was a reprint from 1982) since it lists Harvey Kuenn as being "Manager." Harvey was the manager from May of 1982 through the end of 1983. Harry Dalton decided to fire Harvey at the end of the 1983 season after what appeared to be a disappointing finish -- losing 18 of 24 games in September of 1983 featuring a 10-game losing streak to blow the division title. Considering that Rene Lachemann came in the next year and led the team to a 67-94 record (featuring Paul Molitor missing most of the season due to Tommy John surgery), perhaps the chinks in the armor were simply displaying themselves a bit earlier.

The next item is a Cecil Cooper Mr. Z's pizza 5 x 7 photo. I have one of these already, but I kept this one unopened. 

Finally, there is the Jeff Cirillo black & white 5x7 photo issued by The Ohio Casualty Group. I really am confused by these because I'm just not sure if this is a giveaway or if Ohio Casualty just sponsored the team-issued set. I know that OCG issued a set of similarly sized photos featuring Braves and Brewers in 1999 for what was supposed to be County Stadium's final season (before the "Big Blue" crane collapse). But I don't know much more than that.

For the final items, well, it would not be a purchase from WFBookmen without some Robin Yount stuff infiltrating it.

The top item is one of those "Diamondmark" bookmarks issued in the early 1990s, when everyone was putting baseball players on everything. Skipping down, we have two serial numbered items -- one of Yount by himself serial numbered to 399 and one with Paul Molitor serial numbered to 1999.

The second item is an unused ticket stub from the 2010 game featuring a Robin Yount bobblehead for the team's 40th anniversary. It's incredible how many times the Brewers seem to feature that 1982 team and its players on bobbleheads, ticket stubs, and other stadium giveaways. This year, for instance, there is a Robin bobblehead being issued to commemorate his ride into County Stadium on his motorbike -- which was immortalized by Gavin on a Cardsphere Heroes card in 2015:

I will use any excuse I can to show that photo. 

At any rate, I'm hopeful that wfbookmen's exile from eBay will end eventually, or that he will surface on another auction site. My Yount collection hopes so too.