The 2000 All-Star Weekend Futures Game

As the baseball season has taken its midseason pause, I thought back to when the All-Star festivities visited Turner Field here in Atlanta in 2000. Because I did not have tickets to the actual All-Star game or to any of the Monday Night Home Run Derby, I bought much cheaper tickets for the All-Star Sunday festivities.  I roasted to a lobster red in the hot Atlanta sun that day watching both the "All-Star Celebrity Hitting Challenge" and the All-Star Futures Game.

The rosters for the Celebrity Hitting Challenge were, well, interesting:

To be quite honest, though, I remember nearly nothing from this hitting challenge. Couldn't tell you who won, couldn't tell you what the format was, and can't tell you now whether I even watched it.

I went for the Futures Game.  It was only the second time that they played the Futures game, and it ended with a 3-2 victory for the USA.  

Here's the US Roster from that game:

In retrospect, that is a loaded team in many respects.  A pitching staff with Ben Sheets, C.C. Sabathia, and Barry Zito?  Not bad at all.  An outfield of Josh Hamilton, Vernon Wells, and Brad Wilkerson or Jack Cust or Corey Patterson?  Pretty good too.  The infield was a bit rough, but even there Marcus Giles didn't have a bad (albeit short) career.

The World Roster is less impressive now, certainly:

That Ramon Castro is the guy who made it to 2011 with the white Sox, I think.  Carlos Pena had a couple of decent years, and Felipe Lopez made it to the All-Star game with the Reds in 2005.  The outfield...well, in retrospect, that was a car-crash of guys whose prospect status would fade to black within the next few years.

The pitching staff...ouch.  Danys Baez made the all-star game in 2005 as a closer with the Rays, which puts him as likely being the guy with the best season of any of his other fellow World pitchers. Tomo Ohka might be the second best pitcher on that staff. Carlos Silva had a 9-year career in which he finished 70-70 with a 4.68 ERA for four teams. Otherwise, there are some interesting stories there -- Anderson, for example, appears to have ended his career in 2011 pitching for Neptunus in the Dutch Major League.  Guzman was already 27 when he appeared in Atlanta for this game.

Who was the biggest superstar in this game? I would probably have to say that that title would go either to Josh Hamilton, Josh Beckett, or C.C. Sabathia.  And boy, do they look young:

The Futures Game was a lot of fun to see in 2000. I'm glad that I ponied up the money to get those tickets.  

As a postscript, on the morning of the All-Star Game, the woman in my office who was responsible for billing for the firm I was with at the time e-mailed me and asked if I wanted to go to the All-Star Game -- free tickets.  I grabbed another guy, and we went and enjoyed the game.  It was a great experience -- one I'd highly recommend for anyone who can pull it off.

Memorabilia Monday: Cecil Cooper Signs

As a ten-year-old, Cecil Cooper made me mad. 

It was a sunny Saturday in May in 1982.  It was the first game that I can remember attending, and my mom was patient enough that day in May to say that I could stay after the game to try to get autographs. Whether it was instinct or asking a security guard or asking any one of the dozens of other kids hanging out after the game, we figured out where the players parked next to County Stadium.  I had my ballpoint pen in one hand, my 1982 Brewers police card set in my other hand, and I was ready.

We autograph chasers had to cover two exits from County Stadium. An informal communication system was set up.  Kids were telling their friends and whoever else was in earshot who was signing, whether they were staying long, and whether they were being nice. I'm pretty sure that the players that day had the patience that Job longed for in the Bible, because I know I came home with a bunch of autographs.

But I came home mad too. I've said before that I think I may have related to Paul Molitor because he was a midwestern kid.  Robin Yount grew up before our eyes in Milwaukee. 

Cecil Cooper was a fully formed player by the time he got to Milwaukee.  He was the cool one. He was the guy whose batting stance everyone emulated from the left side -- the bat so loose in his hands that it looked like you could knock it out, weight poised over his back leg with his front leg in an open stance.  He would always take two or three practice loops with his bat in the box, point the bat at the pitcher, then slowly loop his bat back into place.  

You can see the very end of it here in one of my favorite hits of his entire career:

I saw Coop that May day in 1982. He was wearing a flat cap -- Samuel L. Jackson would call it a Kangol hat these days -- with the brim pointed forward.  He had his sunglasses on.  He saw those kids -- myself included -- who said, "Mr. Cooper, could you please sign an autograph?" or "Hey Coop, just one? Please?" or even "Cecil, come on man!"

He did not respond to any of our requests.  He just kept walking, head held high, to his car.  And that disappointed me.

Now, I won't say that Cecil Cooper lost a fan that day, because I still liked him a lot -- he was still one of "us" even if he was an African-American from Brenham, Texas, and all of "us" were white kids of pretty much all Northern or Eastern European descent.  He will always be the first baseman of the Brewers to me.  But he did make me mad, because he just could have said, "I'm sorry, I don't have time today."  

But he didn't.

In his last year in Milwaukee in 1987, Cooper was not even a shadow of the player he had been.  He only played in 63 games that season, and none after July 12 -- the Sunday before the All-Star Break. Cooper had been supplanted at first base by Greg Brock, so he was the designated hitter in that game.  The next time that the Brewers played was July 16, and in that game, the Brewers had a new designated hitter -- Paul Molitor.  July 16 was the first game of Paul Molitor's 39-game hitting streak.

During his last few months in Milwaukee, Cooper made a public appearance at a local department store or mall and signed autographs there. As I learned in May of 1982 and learned again several times after that over the next 6 seasons, Cooper was a tough person to get after games in Milwaukee. The lines for autographs were long that day in 1987, but I finally got a few cards signed by Cecil Cooper:

Cooper hung around a bit too long, frankly -- that .308 lifetime batting average as of 1984 fell to a .298 career average and killed whatever long-shot Hall of Fame argument he may have had.  

But, these cards signed in 1987 made the 16-year-old me a lot less upset about a day 5 years earlier.  Thanks, Mr. Cooper.

eBay Purchases: Series Two Parallels, Short Prints, and Manu-Patches

My eBay purchasing has continued apace, though certainly more slowly and less expensively than before.  I tend not to post my eBay wins here in large part because, well, I have other things to talk about instead.  And, it's not like I'm trying to say I'm out of material, either.  I just like these cards enough to talk about them.  

The cards that all arrived yesterday, though, deserve to be highlighted.  

As a side note first, I have tended lately to wait for a few weeks -- after the frenzy cools -- to look for the cards from the various sets as they have come out.  This worked for the Brewers Fan Favorite autographs from Topps Archives of Jeromy Burnitz and Greg Vaughn (got both for less than $4 each).  So, after Topps Series 2 came out and I saw the checklist, I set my sights on a few items.  

First, I had not paid attention to the silk cards for Series 1 before, so I started looking for silk cards for Jean Segura and, in Series 2, for Ryan Braun.  I first picked up the Segura, serial numbered 5 of 50 and which is pretty orange-looking in context:

A couple of days later, I saw a Ryan Braun silk that came with a couple of other parallels from a guy who sent along one of the coolest business cards I've gotten from anyone on eBay.  It's such a cool Pittsburghy card that I had to share it:

Richard, whose eBay store is Burgh's-Best-Buys, put up a Braun silk with a Target parallel, a white base card, and the "Peter Gabriel" red rain sparkle parallel all in one auction.  I bought it because, well, three birds with one stone and all, so here are those cards:

The final two auctions I won both came from the same seller.  I was a bit disturbed after I bought these two cards because I kept watching the seller's approval rating sinking like a stone from other disappointed buyers.  Thankfully, I had no problems.  I got both a Jean Segura manu-patch relic -- one of those blaster box insert patches -- and a Yovani Gallardo stupid sparkle parallel.  

Before I show the cards, I have to say that these sparkle parallels remind me of my time between 2005 and 2009 when I was traveling a bunch for work. If you traveled Delta between 2005 and about 2012, you certainly saw the video with the attractive redheaded flight attendant named Katherine Lee.  Some folks called her Deltalina because they thought she looked like Angelina Jolie in some way.  Okay, maybe.  Anyway, here's that video:

The reason that the sparkle parallels remind me of this safety video is the bald flight attendance who shows the use of the life vests and the seat as a floatation device; at the end of his part of the video, you get this:

You get a Topps sparkle parallel.

Ding!

On the other hand, the Segura manu-patch is so cool that my non-collector wife said, "Wow, that's pretty cool!"

Thanks for reading today, and remember, your closest exit door may be behind you.

Mailday Post: Hot Corner Cards

Just before the Fourth of July, I got an unexpected PWE in the mail from Pat from Hot Corner Cards.  I thought about songs that mention corners and the obvious choice is clearly the correct one here:

I listened to Creedence Clearwater Revival as much as the next kid who grew up in the 1980s.  Then, I got to college and had a friend and later roommate who played Chronicle, a greatest hits compilation by CCR so much that I ended up buying it myself and listening to it regularly.  So, I figured out that I really liked the CCR song "Lodi" a lot more than "Down on the Corner," but "Lodi" doesn't fit here.  So "Down on the Corner" it is.

Pat sent me an interesting three-card melange in that envelope.  First, I got a Cy Young Award condition upgrade:

Vuckovich won the Cy Young Award probably at the height of the BBWAA's infatuation with wins over performance.  I mean, Vuke is a Brewer and all, so I'm biased toward him, but his stats are those of a pitcher who got excellent run support and a lot of luck -- 102 walks, 105 strikeouts, 234 hits allowed -- a 1.502 WHIP!  He won the Cy with a Wins Above Replacement of just 2.8; very clearly, the best pitching season that year was authored by Dave Stieb, whose 17-14 record masked a 288-1/3 inning season with 19 complete games and 5 shutouts. 

But they can't take that Award away from Vuke now.

Speaking of a guy whom some want to take an award away from, the second card I got from Pat is a Bowman Chrome (rookie?  I don't know these days) of none other than the Biogenesis Most Valuable Player, Ryan Braun:

I mean, y'all know my stance on Braun.  He's a convicted PED-user, but he is my PED-user, so I welcomed the Hittin' Hebrew's USA uniform right into my Braun binder.  

Finally, Pat sent a brand-spankin' new purple mini parallel from this year's Bowman set, serial numbered 20 of 99 -- a card, by the way, that I'm told by Night Owl (once I get the olives out of my ears) will fit wonderfully into the new UltraPro mini-plastic sheets:

Devin Williams came into the year listed as the Brewers third-leading prospect by Bowman.  Now, that was certainly done on the weight of his high draft-pick status -- 2nd round pick last year -- and his physical talents and not necessarily on results.  Certainly, he was an 18-year-old kid in the Arizona Rookie League last year, but he walked a ton of guys per nine innings last year -- 22 in 34-2/3 innings. This year, he is in Helena in the Pioneer League, and, well, it's not going that well for him. He has cut his walks -- a good thing -- but his homers allowed has normalized more, which means more runs allowed and more hits allowed too.  

It just goes to show that old adage from Baseball Prospectus, et al., is true -- There Is No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect -- TINSTAAPP. I'm hopeful that Williams will continue to develop, find better command of his pitches, and that he'll help the Brewers sometime in 2018 -- when Williams will be 23 years old.  He is still a long way away.

But this card is one that will not go any further.  

Pat, thanks again for the cards!

Mailday Post: Trade with Sportscard Mask-A-Rade

Roger at Sportscard Mask-a-Rade had some parallels up for trade that I wanted, so I checked out his want list and sent some Cards cards his way.  In the cards I sent to Roger, I sent a bunch of stickers -- both as blanks of sort and as substantive trade items.  Thankfully, his post did not say that I stuck it to him on this trade, but rather that I stickered him.

I'm in a musical mood as I write this, so how about we go off the beaten path in a direction that will make sense in a moment.  When I was in college, I loved the rap in the last verse of this song:

That's Onyx with the song "Slam."  The last verse, of course, has no rhythm to it, really, but it is so different from the usual rhyme-alongs.  The rapper for that last verse was a guy named Kirk Jones -- better known by his stage name Sticky Fingaz.  Jones also is an actor who appeared in Next Friday, among other shows and movies.

So, I hope Roger didn't get ten sticky fingers from all those stickers I stuck in that package.  The package he sent to me was and is excellent -- so much so that I feel that I owe him a few more cards soon.  Here's what he sent, including some guy who is currently the Cardinals manager:

MINI!

Cirillo for the PC.

2014 Molitor Museum Collection

I have yet to figure out how to play the Topps Attax game.
Not that I've tried very hard to do that. But I like the card.

Target Parallel Ax

This is shiny Soup, though the scan doesn't show it.

Wally World Gomez.  Just a few more parallels to go!

SN37/150

SN107/3000

SN923/2000

SN1359/2001

SN9619/10000

Roger, thank you very much for the first trade between us.  It's proof either that both of us want to get rid of the cards from our divisional rivals or that we can put aside our differences in the interest of, well, getting rid of cards from our divisional rivals.  Let's do it again soon.

And no, Mr. Sticky Fingaz, it's not a figment of your imagination! 

Mailday Post: Vintage Maven Mark Hoyle

Mark Hoyle has been spreading the vintage extras from his collection around the blogosphere liberally.  His duplicates from the 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, and 1975 sets have made their way into my Brewers base set binder and filled some pretty significant holes there.  In honor of Mark, and I sure hope he doesn't hate this song, how about we turn to a song which hit #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the Easy Listening chart back in 1975 (and a song which I played numerous times during my college years as a part of the Vanderbilt Spirit of Gold Marching Band):

The song is a paean to nostalgia -- which in 1975 meant the 1950s -- and the lyrics mention baseball cards:

Old Days, good times I remember

Fun days filled with simple pleasures

Drive-in movies, Comic books and blue jeans

Howdy Dowdy, Baseball cards and birthdays

Take me back to a world gone away

Memories seem like yesterday

So, we've gotten easy listening crossed off as a genre represented on Off Hiatus.  Anyway, here are the cards from the PWE that showed up in my mailbox from Mark:

Let's start with something that may be retro but isn't vintage.  That hurts my eyes, honestly, but the Ted Higuera goes straight into my player collection for him and the other two cards jump into my Brewers oddballs.  

Seriously, though, what was the fascination with bright yellow cards in the early 1990s?  I remember the horrible idea style-wise in the late 1980s was wearing really bright fluorescent clothes -- an idea, by the way, that I ignored except, perhaps, for wearing those cheap rubber gas-station sunglasses in a fluorescent color. But applying that theory to baseball cards is one of those times when I want to quote a 25-year-old Saturday Night Live skit and ask, "Who are the ad wizards who came up with THIS one?"

The next card seemed a little out of character for Mark, but since I needed it, I asked no questions:

Let me put it this way: I hope Mark was the one who sent me this card, because otherwise I have no clue who sent me a 1999 Just Minors Kevin Barker card repping the Louisville Riverbats -- which were, for a short time, the Brewers Triple-A team.

After all that 1990s angst and bright colors, I was glad to see this last card come out of that PWE.  It restored my faith in vintage and is a great addition to my hopefully burgeoning Milwaukee Braves base set binder:

I know a lot of people are ambivalent toward the all-horizontal 1960 Topps set, but count me among those who actually likes it.  It's sort of a cross between the mid-1950s style of having an "action" photo with a posed photo, and I rather like it and want it used in Archives for more than relic cards.

Mark, thanks again for a great PWE, and I hope we exchange more envelopes along the way.

Memorabilia Monday: An eBay Stadium Giveaway

I love the fact that eBay exists.  There are times that I wish that my local flea market or card show were more like eBay -- at least in terms of the available selection of items.  The problem is that I know it would turn out more like what Dave Chappelle envisioned the internet would be like if you could visit it. 

So, let's forget I ever thought about that.

Instead, for this edition of Memorabilia Monday, I'm highlighting a cool stadium giveaway from 1990 of Milwaukee Brewers cards.  It should surprise no one that these cards were sponsored by Miller High Life.  Miller Brewing is such a part of Milwaukee life that people take it personally there.  Seriously, saying you like Budweiser in Milwaukee is similar to saying you like Pepsi in Atlanta -- people immediately view you with suspicion and disdain for making such bad decisions in life.

Now, usually, when you get cards in a giveaway at the ballpark, they come in a cellophane wrapper.  Not these.  Here's the book that they came in:

The book contains four-pocket plastic sheets that hold standard-sized cards.  It's pretty unique in that regard -- I don't know that I have seen another similar card giveaway.

The cards themselves are not bad looking cards -- kind of generic except for including beer logos on them:

1990 was a strange year for the Brewers.  The team had been in decline from 1987 forward, and, as I have mentioned before, the Brewers had to make a splash in free agency -- signing Dave Parker -- simply to convince long-time shortstop and centerfielder Robin Yount to re-sign with the Brewers.  Despite making that signing and despite Parker having a fairly good year, the Brewers struggled and finished 74-88.  

This was in no small part driven by the fact that Paul Molitor missed 59 games due to injuries -- which were a fact of life in his time in Milwaukee -- and due to the fact that Robin Yount suddenly looked very old at age 34 in hitting just .247/.337/.380 in 158 games.  Closer Dan Plesac walked too many hitters, causing him to fall into a job-sharing position with Chuck Crim.

On the positive side that year, 21-year-old Gary Sheffield looked every bit the up-and-coming superstar that people were predicting for Dwight Gooden's nephew, and Parker contributed a decent season as well.  Ted Higuera chipped in with his last reasonably full season as a starting pitcher at the age of 32.

Still, this Memorabilia Monday was a throwback for me to my last summer as a full-time Wisconsin resident.  That August, I moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and came to the realization that I liked living in the South better than I did living in the cold of the Midwest.  So, despite the fact that the baseball season was not a great one, it still was a special one to me as I look back twenty-four years thanks to this great purchase off eBay.

Mailbag Post: S.Mack Talk

When I finished up my case break of the 2013 Topps Series 2 case, I thought I had gotten a lot of those Emerald Sparkle parallels. To be fair, I did get over 70 of them, so it wasn't like I had pulled 10 of them or something.  Jimmy over at S.Mack Talk e-mailed me and mentioned that he needed a few of those emerald sparkles, and asked if I had any of them.

Well, I only had two of the cards that Jimmy needed.  I guess the good news is that I was able to help a little bit and sent him those.  In return, Jimmy sent me a couple of cards I need for one of my attempts at completing an Archives set:

The thing I remember most about the long-time Cardinals coach and player was the fact that he played every position during the 1988 season, picking up the catcher's position last when he replaced Tony Pena. Buckner?  Well, besides that play in the 1986 World Series, he was an excellent hitter whose knees were famously creaky.  

Jimmy also sent me an insert from the 2014 Topps set:

That Hank Aaron insert will go nicely into my Milwaukee Braves collection, which I will get around to cataloguing sometime in 2017 at my current pace.

Jimmy, thank you very much for the cards and what is now our second trade -- they were much appreciated.