The Dimebox Man in Black

Yesterday, I had my fantasy baseball auction for the one league I am in this year.  As the commissioner on a day-to-day basis, websites have made my life much easier.  But, I think my card collecting affected my strategy -- I ended up putting together the Brewers starting infield on my team. It wasn't my strategy coming in to do that, but as the flow of the auction went on and as it became apparent that the Brewers were going to go at auction at reasonable prices, I just went with where the current took me.

I'm doing the same today in writing up a trade post.  Nick -- from the always entertaining "Dime Boxes -- The Low-End Baseball Card Collector's Journey" blog -- and I have swapped envelopes fairly regularly over the past year.  I send him random oddballs I have unearthed along with other cards I hope he'll like, and in return he sends me cards for my collection that he has picked up in his various and sundry travels around the dime boxes of Chicagoland.  

His most recent envelope of cards appeared recently, and the theme for the post was apparent even before I opened it.

I can think of no more appropriate music legend than Johnny Cash to appear on a "Forever" stamp.  And when the opportunity to put up a bunch of Johnny Cash music is given to me, I will seize that opportunity.  

I grew up on Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. Their music is classic country music to me.  When Barbara Mandrell, Kenny Rogers, and Dolly Parton (among others) kept moving toward pop sounds -- as Nashville continues to do today -- those guys were going the other direction.  

Some random facts about Cash before getting into the cards and music:

• He was born J.R. Cash. Neither initial stood for anything. He came up with John when the Air Force made him have a first name other than "J".  
• Like many of us in the baseball-card-collecting hobby, Johnny Cash and his second wife, June Carter Cash, were major packrats -- to the point of where their only child together (John Carter Cash) unearthed a lost album in their house after the two of them passed away in 2003.
• Cash was fined about $125,000 in the mid-1960s for having his car cause a massive forest fire in California by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  The fire scared away 44 endangered California condors from their sanctuary, to which Cash replied, "I don't give a damn about your yellow buzzards."

Now, to the cards.

1.  "Doin' My Time"

From the album "Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar" came this song about being in prison -- a common theme for Cash despite his famously never serving more than an overnight stint in a county jail.

Someone that knows something about doin' time for his transgressions is my favorite steroid user, Ryan Braun.  Nick noticed that I did not have the Gypsy Queen mini of Braun's from last year, and, he also pulled one of the retail chrome Heritage cards to send my way:

2.  "Cocaine Blues"

Johnny Cash struggled with addiction his whole life. He made several trips to rehab, spent time overnight in jail from time to time for possession of controlled substances, and generally abused both amphetamines and barbiturates during much of his adult life. This was an old folk song that a number of artists, including a personal favorite, Uncle Tupelo, performed.  Here's Cash's version, live from Folsom Prison:

He's an easy mark for the cocaine songs, and thankfully he didn't have to go through rehab for drugs on multiple occasions, but Paul Molitor famously struggled with cocaine addiction in the late 1970s and early 1980s as well.  Somewhere, Nick found a 1988 Molitor O-Pee-Chee and the sparkly 2014 Bowman Is Back Insert of Molitor and was kind enough to ship them to me:

3.  "Blue Train"

This song was from one of Cash's sessions at Sun Records, but it was not released until after Cash had left Sun to sign with Columbia.

This song title fits for the Topps base set and Opening Day efforts for this year for Milwaukee. I like the design -- it's good to see Topps hearing a lot of the comments on blogs that matching cards' borders with the team colors is a good thing.  Nick sent me two cards that fall into this category -- one of which is a foil parallel and one of which is an Opening Day card:

4.  "Chicken In Black"

For the first time in, well, forever, I was hoping for a Gary Sheffield card.  You see, this song was written by Cash as a self-parodying protest to try to get Columbia to drop him from the label.  It worked -- he was gone two years later -- but the song itself tells the sort-of funny story about a three-way brain transplant gone bad.

You could probably figure out why I'd say Sheffield would work there.  I'll use the song instead for the men who preceded and succeeded Sheffield as the Brewers starting shortstop, a Sportsflics card of Ernest Riles and a Toys R Us boxed set card of Bill Spiers:

5. "One Piece at a Time"

As a kid, I always enjoyed Cash's song about a scavenging auto worker who built a Frankenstein Cadillac by taking one piece of it at a time from his job in Detroit.  The song lyrics even refer to the car as the "Psycho-Billy Cadillac."

In my mind, the perfect Psycho-Billy player was Brooks Kieschnick.  As a pitcher, he was an outstanding hitter whose presence on the team as a potential extra bat was never used enough.

6.  "Wabash Cannonball"

Johnny Cash was neither the first nor the last to sing this old folk tune, and his version is not the most famous either -- Roy Acuff's probably is.

To be fair, the Wabash River does not go through Muncie, Indiana -- the White River, one of the main tributaries to the Wabash, does. Having little tie to this player other than "he just got to Milwaukee and now he's on my fantasy baseball team", I don't have much to go on yet for Muncie native Adam Lind.

7.  "The Wanderer"

I have liked this song that Johnny Cash did with U2 since it was released in 1993 on U2's "Zooropa" album. 

My use here is a stretch.  It's not like Travis Ishikawa has played on a ton of teams -- he started with San Francisco, came to Milwaukee in 2012, went to the Yankees and Baltimore in 2013, then returned to the Bay in 2014.  But, this 2013 mini of him is my excuse to get this into the post.

8.  "I've Been Everywhere"

This song got licensed to a motel chain to use for its advertisements.  Since Cash covered the song, I'm not complaining too loudly, I suppose.

  

This Mike Ferraro card from 1972 might have been everywhere too.  Ferraro himself was a long-time coach for the Yankees over a number of different stints and also managed the Indians and the Royals.

9.  "Guess Things Happen That Way"

A song that hit number 1 on the Country chart and number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958, "Guess Things Happen That Way" was a mix of doo-wop and gospel and sounds very much like it came from 1958.

I am using this song for two guys whose last year in Milwaukee might have been 2014. Rickie Weeks and Yovani Gallardo both find themselves in new uniforms this year.  I guess things happen that way.

The Weeks is a Fleer mini die-cut...which you can't see from this scan because the die-cutting was to round off one corner.  The Gallardo is, of course, from Topps Heritage.

10.  "Folsom Prison Blues"

This song traditionally started off nearly every one of Cash's live shows and, of course, is a classic.

The Brewers this year apparently are talking about having Carlos Gomez leading off.  So, here's his chrome Heritage card that Nick sent to finish off this fantastic PWE:

Nick, thank you for the great cards and for the excuse to put up a 10-song Johnny Cash playlist on my blog. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did in writing it!

Junkie Man, Tell Me What Your Story Is

I've been going with a lot of theme posts lately.  They are more fun for me to write than the usual "thanks for the cards" posts, and I hope they haven't been too over the top. Of course, I'm an obnoxious lawyer from Milwaukee, so "over the top" is part of my DNA.  It is part I've suppressed being in the South for the better part of 25 years between college, law school, and life, but it's still there.

My post title, though can only mean one thing: the Junior Junkie bestowed a bubble mailer on me. 

Well, I suppose it could just mean I'm a big fan of the band Rancid too.  There was a time back in law school where I listened to the album ....And Out Come the Wolves on a very regular basis, so that is part of it too.  With the title being "Junkie Man", how about a link to that song:

I do love me some mid-1990s ska/punk/grunge music. But, I don't think I have a theme post in me today -- sorry TJ -- so a simple review of the great cards that came my way from Louisiana will have to suffice.

STICKERS!

I remember buying some of these packs of Fleer team stickers back in about 1980 or 1981. The gum tasted funny -- almost that fake sweet that sugarless gum had back then -- and it was disappointing then not to see pictures of real baseball players.  It was also disappointing that Fleer stickers believed that the centerfield fence was 480 feet from home plate.  Who wants to see that?

These stickers, though, now make me feel nostalgic for a far simpler time.  

LOGOLESS ELITE EXTRA EDITION MINOR LEAGUERS!

I talked about Lara in a post fairly recently as the kid who might move quickly up in the system because of his talent -- but he is incredibly young.  DeMuth was a 4-year player at Indiana University who was pushed upwards fairly rapidly in the Brewers system. He struggled in the Midwest League last year, but at age 23, he'll need to keep progressing quickly.  Kole was drafted in the 8th round last year out of Villanova.  He got knocked around pretty good in rookie ball last year -- a 7.64 ERA and 48 hits in 35-1/3 innings, which isn't good even if the league ERA was 4.72 -- so, well, good luck JB.  Sneed wasn't much better -- a 5.92 ERA in 38 innings -- so, once again, work on that stuff, Cy.    Stokes spent last summer in the Arizona rookie league and showed good speed and OBP but no power at all.  We'll see about these guys.

SHINY SEGURA!

You can't tell it, but I think this Segura was one of those Foil parallels.  Add it to the PC!

1973 Originals!

As a team collector, I like different cards like this. But, I can't treat this as anything other than an oddball. I don't know what to chase here, because Topps doesn't tell us how many of each card exist, which cards have the "original" stamp, etc.  So, it's stick it with the cereal box cards from the 1980s and add it to the Brewers database, but otherwise, I view these with some disinterest.  If I get them, fantastic -- I love them when I have them.  But, without a set list, I don't know what I'm missing.  

GLOSSY Gallardos!

A Chrome Refractor and a Topps Tribute card for a pitcher whose time in Milwaukee put him 6th all-time in WAR for pitchers, 5th in ERA, 5th in wins, 3rd in Win-Loss Percentage, 7th in fewest hits per nine innings, 1st in strikeouts per nine innings, 7th in innings pitched, 1st in strikeouts, and 6th in games started in his career.  In other words, he's all over the leaderboard.  That's why he's a PC for me, and these both go right into the PC.

THE ONES WHO NEVER MADE IT

I remember Barker.  He came in with all kinds of promise, but his career with Milwaukee consisted of 78 games in 1999 and 2000 with very little power but decent OBP skills.  That didn't cut it for a first baseman.  

Bausher?  His biggest claim to fame was that the Brewers signed him in 2003 out of an Independent league after seeing him pitch in just one game.  Bausher got all the way to Triple-A -- in 2005 with Boston and in 2006 with Boston and then Cincinnati.  Then the trip back down happened.

Then, there was this one:

What in the heck is this? Some weird cross-promotion between Topps and some card graders, I guess?  Belcher got as far as Double-A for Milwaukee and Montreal in 2004 and then 2005 (with Washington, the erstwhile Montreal, of course), but then found himself in the Independent leagues from 2006 on.  He was an OF and C whose bat couldn't carry him past Double-A.  

Too bad, because this strange looking presentation actually is kind of cool and includes his certified autograph!

Thanks, TJ, for these great cards -- especially the Gallardos and the Segura!

Explain the Infield Fly Rule

I've never been big on the April Fools' joke stuff.  First off, everyone's expecting stupid gags. I'm pretty sure the height of the April Fools joke to me was pointing behind my brother's head and telling him that he missed a hot-air balloon.  I'm sure of that, and I am also sure that I was no more than five years old at the time.  Of course, that's pretty much the target demographic for such jokes.

But, not wanting to let a good excuse for a theme post go by, I decided to use the day to highlight the package of all kinds of needed cards that I got from Adam at Infield Fly Rule.  I sent some shiny Rockies his way, and he sent me a bunch of junk wax that somehow has eluded me.  

Now, Adam is not a fool.  But this day has me ready to talk about fools in pop culture.


1.  MOVIE:  Fool's Gold
First, there was a flat out awful movie that came out in 2008 called "Fool's Gold". Rotten Tomatoes reviewers have 16 people who liked it and 128 people who called it Rotten. The movie starred Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey as a divorcing couple whose 8-year-long treasure hunt led them to financial ruin and a tattered marriage. Co-star Alexis Dziena had the best scene in the movie when she was almost impaled by a sword, and the on-screen result was this:

I saw this movie. In fact, it was the last movie that I watched in a movie theater. I went to the movie in Dubai, of all places, so the screen shot above would have to be completed with Arabic subtitles.  I saw it in the Mall of the Emirates, which features the indoor ski runs:

And I saw the movie because I was going around town with some Aussies, and the movie was filmed in Australia.

A propos of nothing, this is as good of an excuse as any to show Rob Deer cards.  Why? Because Deer often looked really bad at the plate, got paid plenty of money, and made as much sense for a team to continue employing him as it did for someone to build a ski hill with a black diamond run inside in the freaking desert!

Yes, I needed all of those late 1980s cards -- the Score, the Fleer, and the Topps Big.  I had the Score already, but my copy was signed by Deer in person in 1988 at a game. So, I needed a clean version.

2.  MUSIC: Fools Gold

From the horrendous (or, at least the Rob Deer) to the excellent. A band from Manchester called The Stone Roses never got much airtime in the United States much beyond one song off their second album (the song was called "Love Spreads").  The Stone Roses came out of the "Madchester" scene around the same time as Inspiral Carpets and The Happy Mondays, and they probably influenced the direction of music in the UK at least as much as The Smiths or the punk scene of the late 1970s.  

On their self-titled first album, the Stone Roses released a nearly 10-minute long track called "Fools Gold."  It's an upbeat, dance-type song that is worth a listen some time.  They also did a much shorter version on the BBC's "Top of the Pops":

For a song and a group I consider to be sublime, only a sublime player's cards will do:

A Hall of Famer will fit the bill.  Beloved by Brewers fans and Twins fans and thanked by Blue Jays fans for his part in the 1993 World Series, Paul Molitor was a gentleman to all fans -- even obnoxious kids like me.

3.  TV: BBC's Only Fools And Horses

This is a very English show.  Much as Coach and Sam Malone are part of our American TV vernacular from the 1980s, Del Boy and Rodney are a part of the British TV language from that same time. Even more, though, Only Fools and Horses actually added new slang to the "Queen's" English -- such as "plonker" (meaning a fool or an idiot). 

Slapstick is always funny.  Just ask this guy:

I don't think Plesac has added any words to the English language as of yet, but he is an habitual jokester who fits into this category reasonably well.  Plonker.

4.  Movie: Fools Rush In

Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek star in a hilarious romantic comedy about two people who have a one-night stand. She gets pregnant, and they decide to get married. In the process, the two realize that they have to compromise some of their own cultural traditions. Hilarity ensues.

No, I've never seen the movie.

But, really, any movie starring Matthew Perry has to be the epitome of the 1990s.  

Kind of like Stadium Club is, in many respects, the epitome of the 1990s in baseball cards. You get parallels. You get blurred photos to give the effect of movement.  Heck, you even get Dave Nilsson having to give up his Aussie Culture to come live in the surf-less Midwest to pursue his childhood dream of baseball.  

See, it's got everything.

5.  Music: What a Fool Believes

The 1979 Doobie Brothers hit "What A Fool Believes" is an interesting song to me.  Michael Jackson actually sang backup on the original Doobie Brothers track.  Seriously:

It's sort of like when you collect a player and see him giving a cameo on some other guy's card:

Yup, there on Chuck Knoblauch's actual Topps Rookie Card in front of almost 15 fans in the bleachers in Milwaukee is none other than Greg Vaughn trying to break up a double play. I'm guessing it's after Knoblauch threw the ball already, but it's tough to say.  Still, there's Vaughn singing backup on Knoblauch's hit.

6. Movie: April Fool's Day

An 80s slasher pic with a typical set up: nine college kids stay at a friend's remote island mansion and end up murdered over April Fool's day weekend.

Yikes.

Nothing says slasher pic like...

Come on -- look at the guy. Mild mannered. Quiet. No one would suspect this guy singlehandedly murdered the Brewers.  To be fair, he really didn't do it himself.  It was counting on him to be healthy that did it.  That, and Phil Garner deciding that his pitching staff didn't need no stinking ligaments or rotator cuffs and that what Billy Martin did in 1980 with the Oakland A's was a great way to run a pitching staff.  

Three starters in 1992 -- Wegman, Jaime Navarro, and Chris Bosio -- all threw over 230 innings that year.  Wegman threw 261-2/3 innings.  What made that egregious for Wegman was the fact that he missed most of 1989 and 1990 with injuries. He pitched 193-1/3 innings in 28 starts in 1991, then the 261.2 innings in 35 starts in 1992, and then he threw 307 total innings after 1992 over three seasons for Milwaukee.  

Substitute Dr. Jobe and Dr. Andrews for a murdered, and you see the blood on the floor. Just in a controlled setting.

7.  Music: Why Do Fools Fall In Love

Last one.  Thankfully for y'all of course.  

In 1955, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers recorded a big hit called "Why Do Fools Fall in Love."  The original title for the song was "Why do birds sing so gay", but someone decided that the lyrics should be changed to something less feathery.  The result:

And the easy card analog:

I mean, of course this is the 1991 version of the 1953 Topps card of Ed Mathews, but such a glorious reprint deserves to be treated with the respect of the original  At least now.

Adam -- thank you very much for the great cards, all of which filled gaps in my 1980s and 1990s collecting days.  

And, thank you to all of you who read this -- you are the ones who suffered all these fools.