Where Was I When?

I recently received a big package of Brewers cards from Pat at Hot Corner Cards. Many of the cards were duplicates for me, though in that vein many of them were needed for my team collection. All of them are greatly appreciated. 

But, seeing the years on these cards flash by made me start to think. I've been very reflective lately for a number of reasons, and that reflectiveness had me contemplating this question:

When these cards came out, what was I doing instead of collecting cards?

Now, I'm not going to be able to pick out all of the years successfully, but let me highlight a few.

1991
The cards:

What was I doing/where was I?
Some of these are easy. 

Assuming these cards were released around April of 1991, I was finishing up my freshman year of college and worrying like hell that I wouldn't pull my grades up enough to stay in school on a scholarship. It was close, but I pulled through. Otherwise, I was your typical 19-year-old -- hanging out with friends, staying out late, drinking at each other's houses sometimes, and generally trying to avoid all responsibility for as long as possible.

1992
The Cards:

What was I doing/where was I?
By this point, I had navigated my way through as easy a couple of semesters as I could find at my school to pull my grades up enough so that I wouldn't have to worry any more about my scholarship (so long as I didn't screw up...I didn't, either, thankfully).  I was dating a girl from Texas, had gone snow skiing for the first -- and still only -- time with her and her family, and otherwise life was pretty good. I helped coach my brother's little league team too while working for an electrical contractor.

In other words, it was a very good year.

1999
The Card:

What was I doing/where was I?
I started working in Atlanta as a lawyer in 1999, and I thought I knew a lot at that point. I did know a lot, but I could have learned more by not talking about how much I knew.

It was a good year, though -- lots of hanging out with new friends and old, lots of times hanging out at an Ally-McBeal-like watering hole near our office with other lawyers, and lots of money spent on beer. 

2006
The Cards:

What was I doing/Where Was I?
I changed jobs at the beginning of 2004 after a stressful time looking for that new job. I'd moved from a smaller, specialized firm into a much larger general practice firm in the world of what is called -- sometimes derisively -- BigLaw.  I had learned by this point to keep my mouth shut more, to avoid socializing every day with co-workers, and to pay more attention to what others had to say.

That gives context to what I did in 2006, which is change jobs again to an even bigger firm that paid more money. I thought I had it made.

I also had bought a condo five years earlier and moved into the heart of Atlanta. I loved living there, and there are days that I miss it. I was single, 35 years old, in walking distance of great restaurants, grocery stores, and my office. 

Finally, I even left the country for the first time, spending my 35th birthday freezing my butt off at a soccer game in London:

That is the game between Fulham and Charlton, at The Valley (Charlton's home ground). I got to see American Carlos Bocanegra score a goal for Fulham, even. Both teams have since been relegated to the Championship.

2008
Bear with me...I won't hit everything along the way:
The Card:

What was I doing/Where Was I?
My busiest year to date, workwise. I got involved in the largest case in my career, I thought about moving overseas, and I traveled a ton. 

I thought about moving to Dubai:

That's me in front of the Dubai History Museum.

I visited Italy:

And, to be honest, I wasn't happy because I was doing all this alone. I didn't move to Dubai -- I honestly hated the place. I liked Italy, but Rome was terribly seedy in many respects and had so many places covered in graffiti (that is, after all, a world from the Italian). And while I enjoyed all my travels, I found myself a bit lonely.

That would all change soon enough.

2010
The Cards:

What was I doing/Where Was I?
I met my now-wife in 2009. We got married in 2010 and went on a great honeymoon to Spain and Morocco -- yeah, we did it up. 

Hams at the market in Barcelona

Olives at the market in Tangier. Hey, we like markets!

Life was great in 2010. It still is pretty good too.

Why did I go through all this?
The cards that Pat sent were from so many different times that it got me pensive again. Next time, I'll put on some more Frank Sinatra! 

Seriously, though, it is interesting to me to contemplate what it was I was doing with my free time in the days before I came back to collecting. I was definitely traveling a lot -- both for work and for fun. When I was in town, a great night for me on a weekend often involved music, a book, a bottle of wine, and hanging out with my dog. I didn't have space for much more than a bunch of bookshelves at my condo, though I'm sure I could have come up with something if I had had to.

Anyway, I hope I didn't bore you too much with my brief reminisces.  

More to the point, a big thank you to Pat for your kindness and for the cards. I'm putting together a package this weekend for you.

It Was a Very Good Year...

When I think of things that are vintage that I love in addition to the obvious one -- baseball cards -- my thoughts of course go to music since I played saxophone (all of them...soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone) for 12 years back in school.  I can't play any more, but I still love the jazz standards I learned back then. Frank Sinatra is a singer to whom I would never have listened back in the 1980s, but I love a lot of his music these days.  

In a lot of respects, that is similar to how I have started viewing vintage cards. Those "old" cards from the 1950s and 1960s -- while cool to see in the 1980s -- had nothing for me because I was a kid and wanted new and shiny.  These days, though, my appreciation for those vintage cards has turned into an outright desire to put together a full run of Topps cards of the Milwaukee Braves (and why I'll collect anything Milwaukee Braves).  It's also why I have player collections for Eddie Mathews, Lew Burdette, Warren Spahn, and Joe Adcock. 

Now, I don't have one for Hank Aaron because he was never a part of the stories I heard as a kid. I think that's because Aaron was still prominent 30 years ago -- and is today -- but Mathews, Burdette, Spahn, and Adcock were purely in my mind's eye. No books about them, no autobiographies, no odes on Grecian urns -- just stories from my grandfather and mother about watching them play.

That's a long way of introducing a PWE, but it gives some context for why I care about a team that ceased to exist 6 seasons before I was born.

Commishbob is the blogging standard-bearer for those vintage days. Whether it is championing the cause for why Robert at $30 a week habit should put together the 1959 Topps set next -- a very successful campaign, I'll add, since 1959 won -- or contributing to the 1963 Topps blog, Bob is the man when it comes to what I consider vintage. My definition is "was the card issued before I started collecting in earnest in 1977?"  Well, Bob and Mark Hoyle, but Mark is smarter than the rest of us and just comments.

Anyway, I was very excited when I got this PWE in the mail a week ago mainly because I was not expecting it. When I opened it, though, I was even more excited.

Here's why:

This is a 1966 Topps Rub-Off of Ed Mathews, who is famously the only player to play in all three locations in which the Braves called home. He only played as a rookie in Boston, but he hit 25 homers there. He only played in 1966 in Atlanta, and hit 16 homers there. With Milwaukee, though, he hit 452 homers and hit .277/.385/.528.  You'll win a lot of games with a guy like that on your team.

Bob did not limit his giving with the rub-off. He added this 1965 Topps Embossed card of Mathews. These two cards are the first two cards of Mathews in my collection from his playing days.  

If Bob had stopped with just those two cards/items, it would have been an incredible PWE. But he did not stop there:

Yes, Bob sent me two cards from that fantastic 1962 set that spawned the creation of a tribute set in the guise of Topps' base set twenty-five years later in 1987. As was the case for Eddie Mathews, these two cards are the first two cards that I own of Spahn that were issued during his playing days.

In other words, as always, the Commissioner has gone above and beyond in sending these cards my way.  

Thank you very much, Bob, for the great cards!

Cleaning out Davy Jones's Locker

Being such a generous guy with trading, Matt over at Bob Walk the Plank must have heard nearly every reference to Pirates, ships, planks, and nautical terms generally from bloggers who been the beneficiaries of his largesse. For my part, I've tended to avoid those types of post titles, usually going with the mundane "Mailday from Bob Walk the Plank." That's my creative side, you know.

This time, though, I went with the sailor's "bottom of the sea" reference to drowned Pirates for two reasons. First, Matt included a note in this package to me that said that this was "cleaning out" some trade bait:

 

The other reason is that Davy Jones was an original Milwaukee Brewer. Just as Bud Selig moved the Seattle Pilots out of Seattle after one season in existence, so too was Milwaukee's first major league team moved to another city -- St. Louis -- after just one season. The Brewers became the Browns. The Browns became the Baltimore Orioles around the time that Milwaukee got the Braves from Boston. Milwaukee baseball history: losing and stealing teams since 1901.

Now, Matt was not crazy enough to include that particular card in the package (that card shows Davy Jones on the Tigers anyway).  But, he did include some more of his usual top-end cards, relics, and autographs:

Lots of great cards there:  

My first Lyle Overbay relic and my first Overbay autograph. 

A great Rickie Weeks card before he started emulating the mid-2000s Packers defensive backfield with having long dreadlocks.

Mike Walker, a 26-year-old who hit .223/.318/.367 in Double-A this year.

A couple of great Geoff Jenkins cards that I had never seen before.

And, a big orange star for Carlos Lee.

Matt, as always, thank you. I greatly appreciate it. I should have some more cards for you soon!

He's a Shoebox Legend

About a month ago, I was spending time reading some of the blogs in my blogroll. As an aside, I tend to read most of the blog posts I see posted. Sometimes I miss a few from being wrapped up in whatever I'm doing one night, but I try to read them all. But I don't always comment. I should, but I don't. 

That day about a month ago, though, I saw a post on Shoebox Legends about how Shane almost had his 1982 Topps set complete but for a couple of cards. I told Shane that I probably could help him.

I will, too. I'm way behind on packages getting sent out, but I will.

Shane was kind enough to send me a ton of Brewers in a padded envelope long before I could get him anything. 

At first, though, I was confused because the buffer cards Shane sent to me were Stadium Club Hockey cards. I even recognized one of the players' names -- Mike Modano, the Dallas Stars great. Having received the package on a Saturday meant that I had been in full tailgate mode for the Georgia football game, so I fired off an e-mail to Shane to make sure that he had sent me the correct package.

That was before I had gotten past the hockey players.  

Now, Shane sent me a bunch of cards. Many of them are duplicates of cards I have, which is not a bad thing to me since I'm always looking for condition upgrades.  I'm not going to post everything, but safe to say that there were at least 40 Brewers in the package.  But, here are the highlights of what was lying beneath the hockey sticks.

 There were several Ryan Braun cards in the package. I am guessing that Upper Deck made that card before Braun changed his position from 3B to LF, because otherwise that card doesn't make all that much sense.

Not that cards always have to make sense.

It's Rickie Weeks appreciation week here at Off Hiatus. Unless he re-signs with the Brewers, in which case we'll do it all over again next year.  

This was one of four of those Target parallels from 2013 that Shane included:

That Aoki card always makes me smile. He is so happy to be scoring that run and being shown homeplate. I hope that the Royals go a long way in the playoffs, though it will be tough to overcome both the Angels and Ned Yost.

A lot of the cards that Shane sent to me were condition upgrades. But there were also a few other surprises:

That Carlos Villanueva -- whose facial hair at times has channeled Rollie Fingers -- is a card I needed, as is that Narveson parallel and the Richie Sexson card in the lower left hand corner.  I probably need the Sheffield too, though I'd never admit it. 

Kinkade never played for the Brewers. He was traded to the New York Mets in 1998 for Bill Pulsipher. Kinkade was the proverbial journeyman -- going from the Mets to the Orioles (with Melvin Mora and Leslie Brea for Mike Bordick), to the Dodgers to the Hanshin Tigers in Japan to the Indians to the Marlins to the Cubs to the Yankees to the Mariners before he retired from Triple-A Tacoma at the age of 35 in 2008.   

Shane also threw in some unopened packs for me to rip into.  

I wasn't expecting O-Pee-Chee hockey minis. Opening a pack and seeing these guys brought back some great memories of Sega Hockey in college. I liked playing as the Sabres because Alexander Mogilny was ridiculously fast, and Pat Lafontaine never had a concussion. Christian Ruuttu was one of the backup centers on that team. 

Of course, with Hall of Famers Mark Messier, Mario Lemieux, Mark Howe, Paul Coffey and Doug Gilmour all in these two little packs of 5 cards, those were two great packs.

Apropos of the Hockey Hall of Fame, here's a photo I took when I was in Toronto in 2008:

In honor of his announcing that he is "99.9% sure" that he is retiring, it's former Brewer and then Blue Jay Lyle Oooooooooverbay at the plate. I went to Toronto for our Memorial Day weekend, which there is called "the weekend after the 3-day weekend for Victoria Day".  I stayed at the hotel at Rogers Centre, and I watched the Blue Jays and Royals square off. On Friday night, I watched from the hotel bar. On Saturday, it was from the seat from which I took this picture and after, in the morning, I visited the Hockey Hall of Fame.  On Sunday, I watched from the Hard Rock Cafe there. All in all, it was a good weekend.

Okay, back to the cards.

The final fun part of the package from the Shoebox Legend was an unopened pack of 1993 Pinnacle!

It came with 27 cards in it, but I scanned only 18 of them, including one Brewer, Jim Gantner:

I like Pinnacle's attempt at predicting the future with the "Team 2001" insert of Chuck Knoblauch. Also, that Larkin Legends card is pretty interesting -- it says Gary Sheffield idolized Barry Larkin.  I guess that was before Sheffield started idolizing himself.

Shane, I thank you greatly for the memories of college and of my trip to Toronto, the Pinnacle pack, and all the great Brewers! 

Present Day Minis

I feel like sometimes I can come across as a bit of a dour, brooding sort when it comes to present day cards. After getting past the initial few weeks of "hey, I'm not 12 anymore and I have money and can buy packs to my hearts content whee! and aren't they all great!", I think I spent most of the spring complaining about parallels. 

Some of that criticism is warranted. Like TV Networks churn out copycat show after copycat show -- often, like CBS, for instance, copying itself by churning out a newly located CSI show with a new cast (I'm pretty sure that the next one on the list is "CSI: Missoula") -- Topps watched its competition in the previous decade issued literally dozens upon dozens of parallels and quickly nosedived their companies directly into the ground. One would think that Topps would have recognized that and limited parallels, but, alas, the parallels for a player appearing in Bowman this year....they are quite numerous.

I think I have found the set that is the happy medium that Topps should aim for: the Mini set.

I broke down and bought a box of them from Topps this past week. So what makes it a happy medium? Well, there are only 5 total types of parallels -- Gold (Serial numbered to 63, inserted 1 in every 7 packs), Pink (SN to 25, inserted 1 to every 16 packs), Black (SN5, inserted 1 to every 77 packs), Platinum (SN1, inserted 1 in every 381 packs), and printing plates (inserted 1 in every 96 packs). 

The only insert is a mini version of The Future Is Now (1 in 4). And, each box contains either an autograph (1 in every 142 packs) or a relic (every 29 packs).

In my 24 packs, I should expect 3-4 gold, 1.5 pink, none of the other parallels unless I get lucky, 6 TFIN inserts, and one relic/autograph (one guaranteed, after all). 

How did I do?

Pretty much right on target. I got 4 gold -- including the sidelined and seemingly spray-painted-into-that-jersey Prince Fielder. My one relic is the famous SuperMax Scherzer (for those of you who don't know, our highest security prisons are called Supermax prisons...I represented a guy once who was in one of these).  I nailed the 6 Future cards right on the head. 

And, there's the pink card I knew I'd get.  

Now, this box also had Brewers, of course. I didn't get a Braun or a Gomez or any Seguras -- insert or otherwise -- so I'll be looking to backfill that omission somewhere/somehow. But, I did get a number of Brewers:

Right up front, two of my PC guys in Lucroy and Gallardo. Not bad at all. I mean, having six current players as PCs means that I should get something for them.

Wooten had some bad luck this year with giving up hits. His groundball-to-flyball ratio shaded more to ground balls -- a good thing, generally -- and his K/BB ratio was 3.63. But, where he got killed was on BABIP: on balls in play against him, batters hit a whopping .380. Yikes.

Thornburg was placed on the disabled list on June 7 with a right elbow strain. Rest didn't help him recuperate, so he received a "PRP" (Platelet Rich Plasma) injection in August and was shut down for the rest of the year. He's a possible swingman next year. Doug Melvin didn't really replace him in the bullpen until picking up Jonathan Broxton at the end of August. 

Garza hit the DL in August with an oblique problem -- the second time in two years he had the issue. He missed most of that month with the issue, which allowed Mike "We Didn't Start, oh wait, we did start the" Fiers to worm his way into the starting rotation.

Gennett is the guy who has made Rickie Weeks expendable. Well, he's the guy other than Rickie Weeks who made Weeks expendable. He reminds me of a new-age, non-mustachioed, Jim Gantner -- a decent player who probably will never be an All-Star. Then again, Gennett is doing much more at age 24 than Gantner ever did. Gennett has more pop for sure (Gantner's best SLG: .401 at the age of 30 in 1983; Gennett's career SLG through 704 plate appearances: .449).

At any rate, hopefully Gennett will have Gantner's staying power, so that in 2021, I'll finally get around to starting to collect his cards as a PC.

Gindl has all the makings of a Quad-A player right now. More worryingly, he hit terribly this year in Nashville and the organization turned to trading for Gerardo Parra instead of calling Gindl up in late July.

Finally, I did get Rickie Weeks.  Two of them, in fact:

Weeks played well for many years as a Brewer, and I pulled that Pink Weeks (SN24/25) in the first pack I opened. Right behind a Gallardo.

Weeks almost certainly will be somewhere else next year. A lot of teams could use a second baseman with a career OBP of .347, especially if they can platoon him effectively to avoid tough righties. Maybe Oakland?

Anyway, the final insert in the box was this one. Use it if you wish:

That offer is good on "non-trading card products." So, if you're jonesing for those All-Star insert cards, now's your chance to save a little money on them!

Thanks as always for stopping by.