More Foghat

Many folks like to make New Year's Resolutions. I've never been able to keep up with my resolutions past about January 5, so I don't make them and, instead, aim for making changes when I need to make them. That usually doesn't work either, but it makes me feel better not to make resolutions.

I was on Twitter early on New Year's Day when I came across a fellow blogger's resolution:

New Year's resolution: more Foghat, less caring about what people think of Foghat. pic.twitter.com/WeWa7YgP2W

— NightOwlCards (@nightowlcards) January 1, 2016

I am totally on board with making resolutions like this one -- so much so that I'm going to highlight the great pre-Christmas package of cards that Night Owl sent to me using Foghat songs, of course! 

Maybelline

Foghat covered the Chuck Berry classic Maybelline as a B-side on their first album, the first album called Foghat. Looking through Foghat's catalog both on their albums and on their singles, I was surprised as the number of covers that the band recorded and included on their albums. I mean, lots of bands cover songs in concert, but to have Foghat recording "Maybelline," "That'll Be the Day," and "Take Me To the River" (among others) just surprised me. Even one song I associate with Foghat -- "I Just Want to Make Love to You" -- was a cover of a song by Willie Dixon.

In 2009, Upper Deck "covered" the O-Pee-Chee brand with a set that looked like it wanted to be the 1976 Topps set when it grew up. In the spirit of being a cover act, Upper Deck covered the old late 1980s trick of putting cards on the bottom of their boxes. Unlike the 80s versions, though, Upper Deck did not put stats on the backs of these cards.

I appreciate this panel coming from Night Owl particularly since it has his guy Kershaw on it next to my PC Braun. I'm getting pretty close to just going full bore after Braun cards. Close. Not there yet.

Drivin' Wheel

This is the first song on Foghat's sixth album called Night Shift. "Drivin' Wheel" has since been incorporated into a number of video games, including a couple of the Grand Theft Auto games and a NASCAR game called NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup.

Maybe the tie between the song and these cards is the repurposing of things from the past for use in the present. Sure, "Drivin' Wheel" is a bit closer in time to the video games employing it, but these A&G minis are closer in actual reuse than the song.  So, let's call it a draw and say, that they are reasonably equivalent.

Or something like that.

Slow Ride

"Slow Ride" is the song I am probably most familiar with as being a Foghat song. Guess why? A video game. It was included in the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. I used to play Guitar Hero and Rock Band a decent amount when I was single. I'd go out with friends, have a few beers, come home and decide that I wanted to chill out by myself with music by playing Guitar Hero. "Slow Ride" was the first song that you had to play when you started your "tour" in the game.

Thanks to Wikipedia, I also know that this song also appeared in a Grand Theft Auto game and, also, was named as the 45th "Best Hard Rock" song of all time by VH1. It also was Foghat's highest charting US single, reaching #20.

To me, only one item that Greg sent could possibly go with this big hit:

I don't think I'd ever seen a Topps Comic before I got this sent to me. With my love of oddballs, I'm shocked that I haven't seen one before. Hisle's huge 1978 was followed by a torn rotator cuff. It's too bad -- maybe he'd be more remembered and his current charitable work would be more highlighted as a result.

Fool for the City

Foghat was an English band, yet they were one of those oddities where they were more popular in the United States than in their native land. Maybe it's because lead singer, the late "Lonesome" Dave Peverett, couldn't find a good manhole in which he could fish -- as he is shown doing in a New York sewer on the cover of the Fool for the City album.

While the song is cited as being a "great example of the 'boogie rock' genre" using repetitive, driving rhythms and a laid-back attitude "with no sign of being pretentious", I am tying the song to two inserts from 2015 Topps that have to be the very opposite of boogie rock. 

Or, perhaps, Ryan Braun is.

Mumbo Jumbo

This is a song released by Foghat in 2003 on an album called "Family Joules." Before writing this post, I'd never heard of it. But, it was on a live album on Spotify called "Live at the Blues Warehouse" and it fits a group of cards that Night Owl sent to me to a T -- the Mumbo Jumbo of parallels and inserts!



That is a lot of 2011 showing there -- liquorfractors, black parallels numbered to 99 (Weeks), some gold parallels numbered to 2011, a diamond anniversary parallel, and an Attax of Casey McGehee. Of course, there is a Betancourt in there too, as if to remind me that the Brewers in 2013 started Betancourt at FIRST BASE for 68 games thanks to the Mat Gamel failure. As a first baseman, Betancourt made a great shortstop.

Sweet Home Chicago

Considering that everyone whose name isn't blues legend Robert Johnson is covering the song, I shouldn't be surprised to find this in Foghat's repertoire. Literally everyone from Eric Clapton, the Blues Brothers, Stevie Ray Vaughn (who played the song accompanied by his brother Jimmie, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, and Clapton at Vaughn's last show at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin in his final show before dying in a helicopter crash after the show), Fleetwood Mac, and Status Quo have covered the song.

I think of the Blues Brothers, I guess -- but this Foghat version is a good one.

Speaking of good ones, here's Tim Leary. Okay, what makes it good is the fact that the card is autographed by Leary. Leary himself as a player was a little less than great. His best year was with the Dodgers in 1988, when he put up a 17-11 season with 2.91 ERA (2.75 FIP) with 56 walks and 180 strikeouts. Still, a thirteen-season career is nothing to sneeze at.

Greg, I hope these Foghat songs are a sufficient thank you for some great cards coming my way that I have in this post. 

Remember: it's a slow ride, my friend. Take it easy.

Walking in Pittsburgh

Matt at Bob Walk the Plank needs little introduction.  Seriously, if you need an introduction to him, click on the link, read his blog, comment on a few posts, and offer to send him Pirates. He'll send you cards for your team collections/player collections happily and without reservation. At least that's been my experience with him.

The real problem with Matt, though, is that he has sent so many cards my way that I'm starting to run out of themes/ideas for posts to feature the cards he send my way. I'm in a loquacious mood today, though, so I came up with one to feature the fantastic five cards that came my way in his great Christmas giving spree.

Card #1: Mark Knudson Leaf 2013 "Memories Buy Back" 1 of 1

I appreciate 1 of 1 cards. I really do. It's just a shame that card companies stoop to manipulation of this type to create false scarcity. 

For what it's worth, I follow Mark Knudson on Twitter. He's a broadcaster with Mile High Sports and writes for AXS.com and, according to his Twitter bio, he "[doesn't] have a humble opinion." I've gotten into some conversations on Twitter with him about college football; he's very much an "East Coast bias" conspiracy theorist. At times, I agree with him, though -- for example, Christian McCaffrey should have been the Heisman Trophy winner this year.  

Anyway, a song to go with this card:

A shameful money grab by Leaf deserves a song called "Walkashame." 

Card #2: Greg Vaughn 2015 Topps Tier One

Matt sent a note with this envelope saying that he thought he had sent me this card already. He was right, but I don't mind.  It's a very nice card of a guy who was a bright light for the Brewers in the post-Yount days in the mid-1990s. 

My favorite memory of Vaughn actually comes from a game in Pittsburgh. I was there for a wedding of a college friend in early August of 1996.  We decided to go to a Pirates v. San Diego Padres game -- I suppose to say that we had been to Three Rivers -- shortly after Vaughn was traded to the Padres. Vaughn slammed a massive home run off Dan Miceli to lead off the fourth inning to help give Fernando Valenzuela the win (and set up Trevor Hoffman for the save).

So, to go with Vaughn and to celebrate that 20-years-ago home run trot:

Considering I only heard of this song thanks to RUN-DMC, that's the version I needed to use.

Card #3: Robin Yount 2008 Upper Deck Sweet Swatch Memorabilia

I love the loose thread in the middle of this swatch of fabric. With the gray color, I'm guessing this is from an away jersey from late in Yount's career...unlike the photo showing him in those wonderful blue away jerseys from the glory days. That uniform is probably my all-time favorite Brewer uniform home or away -- probably because, in the 1980s, we didn't get every game on TV...we only got away games.

This song is a recent favorite of mine; we'll see if it stands the test of time with me.

This song from Passion Pit is pretty catchy, and it always leads me to sing along with it. That's usually a good sign that I'll like the song for a while. On the other hand, I sang along with Billie Jean all the time in 1982...

Card #4: Yovani Gallardo 2008 SP Legendary Cuts Memorable Moments

So, this is the second 1 of 1 card in this envelope from Matt. I like this one more than the Knudson, certainly. It's a great addition to the Gallardo collection, but well...let's be honest. It's a little boring for a 1 of 1. No autograph, no swatch, no patch, no DNA-tested part of that scraggly goatee that Gallardo was sporting this year...just a single sentence about striking out 8 Kansas City Royals on June 24, 2007.

Let's wake up:

Pantera should wake y'all up. Usually, the piercing guitars played super loudly serves to wake me up pretty quickly. Other times, though, the repetitive guitar, bass, and drum lines in 1980s heavy metal -- especially Metallica -- will lull me to sleep. No lie. I've used Metallica's "Master of Puppets" on repeat as my fall-asleep music on overnight flights on at least a couple of occasions in my life already.

Card #5: Rollie Fingers 1999 Fleer/Sports Illustrated Autograph Collection

Rollie is a classic. I see his visage on a card, and it makes me smile. Those early 1980s teams were my "good old days" and always will be, and the trade after the 1980 season to get Fingers was truly a fan's life-changing event for me.  

Another classic?

Young Johnny Cash singing what would become a signature song for him -- so much so that his biopic was named for the song.

Matt, thank you very much for the Walk down memory lane and through these walking songs!

Je suis un collectionneur

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Todd Dunn and Brian Banks...yeah. 

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

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



Four more Upper Deck cards from 1997. 

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

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



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

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

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

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

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



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

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

And finally, it's shiny happy Overbay:

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

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

More Christmas Cheer from the Card Chop

The great thing about being too busy to post before Christmas is that I get to keep Christmas alive after by posting about the cool stuff that folks have sent to me. I get it, though -- by the time I finish all these up, it'll be past New Year's Day, and no one wants Christmas trees up past New Year's Day.

Today's presents come from Idaho, courtesy of The Card Chop. 

A brief digression:  I know Night Owl is convinced that Braves bloggers now rule the Internet, and I think I agree. There probably is something to the fact that the TBS SuperStation -- you know, before TBS became synonymous with "reruns of TV Shows that may have been funny the first time you watched them but now feel hopelessly dated" -- carrying the Braves games nationwide in the 1980s and 1990s helped spur folks to become Braves fans even though they don't live anywhere close to Atlanta and probably think that someone making a reference to the Perimeter is a reference to a math story problem. 

Now, I'm not lumping The Chop Keeper into that group -- frankly, I'm not sure why the Chop Keeper is a Braves fan, and that really doesn't matter. But, the Braves being good for a long time starting about 25 years ago make sense as to why the bloggers are coming out now -- it's that lag between being a kid and a fan and being an adult trying to be a kid. 

I mean, 1992 was a great year for Braves fans -- going back to the World Series to prove that 1991 was not a fluke, for instance. It gave Braves fans their defining moment of fandom in the seventh game of the NLCS as well: the Sid Bream Slide. So, Braves fans, enjoy the game:

Meanwhile, I'll enjoy Robin Yount's 3000th Hit:

Both in card form and in video form:

That card was a great reminder of that simpler time in college when I really didn't like the Braves because, well, about 66% of the Vanderbilt campus suddenly starting wearing Braves hats and jumping on board the bandwagon.

A better reminder of even simpler times -- and a fun addition to my Yount collection -- was this one:

The scanner didn't pick up what you can definitely see in person -- that the white baseball on the front of this unopened "Super Size" card is fairly transparent. It's transparent enough to allow someone to see inside the package to tell that this pack holds a Robin Yount Super Baseball card.  

These two items are both great additions to my Robin Yount collection, which is inching closer to 900 items now. Hopefully, I'll add more to this collection soon.  In the meantime, just Super Size me.

Thanks again, Steve Chop Keeper, for the excellent Christmas gift and keep on chopping -- and thank Deion Sanders for that!

The Best Customs Around

Today is both my birthday and a very special end of the year, not-on-the-normal-date card show. So, for me to write a post about something else take some doing. 

And yet, this post is well overdue. Many folks have been seeing the fantastic custom cards that Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown sprinkled around the blog world. Gavin sent a bunch of other cards -- including my very special Lamarr Hoyt serial numbered 1 of 12 Christmas ornament -- but the custom card is the only one I'm going to highlight today. I was one of the lucky recipients of a custom card:

 

If you haven't noticed, I changed my avatar both here on Blogger and on Twitter to this awesome photo of Robin Yount in the past month. I remember this day extremely well, in fact. 

On October 21, 1982 -- a Thursday (I had to look that up) -- the Brewers were welcomed back to Milwaukee on the day after losing the incredibly disappointing Game 7 on a Wednesday night in St. Louis. Yes, they played Game 7 on a Wednesday. Nearly 100,000 people lined Wisconsin Avenue to watch the Brewers ride in open-top antique convertibles from downtown to Milwaukee County Stadium.

Gorman Thomas shakes hands while smoking a big cigar

The parade ended at Milwaukee County Stadium. It was there that the cars drove the players into the stadium on the warning track. Yount disappeared into the dugout -- I don't remember seeing him leave the dais on the infield, but the Milwaukee Sentinel story from October 22 mentions it.

Yount then came out on of the same opening where all the card had entered and, to take the words from the Sentinel, "he emerged . . . looking like a model in an ad for men's cologne with his hair pushed back by the wind, a leather jacket on and sunglasses firmly in place."

I was a lucky 10-year-old kid. My mom let me skip school that day and drove me the 30 miles to Milwaukee County Stadium to join around 10,000 other fans at the stadium to see this. We got to see the players speak, to see Bud Selig hiding his tears of joy behind his sunglasses, and to see the usual politicians glomming on to any kind of winner they could. As the newspaper mentioned, Governor Lee Dreyfus, Milwaukee Mayor Henry Maier, and Milwaukee County Executive William O'Donnell "were the only ones booed this day."

As a crowd, we chanted for Harvey Kuenn to speak. Harvey was our local hero still, and we wanted him to get his plaudits. He too was on the verge of tears, telling the assembled that "This is the most fantastic thing that has ever happened -- anywhere, anyplace. Yet, there is only one place this could happen. In Milwaukee."

Bud Selig promised that day that the team would be back to the World Series "again and again and again." That, obviously, didn't happen. The team hasn't been back to the World Series since 1982, and it won't be back for a number of years to come in all likelihood. 

But, it's not often that a card captures the spirit of a day -- one that makes a man now 44 years old today feel like a 10-year-old again.

It is a little sad to me that these photos are all in black and white. My world that day was full of color, and sound, and excitement, and these photos make it look a bit dreary.  Still, it was a day that I'll never forget.

Thank you, Gavin, for the trip down memory lane and for making me feel like a kid today.

A Cardboard Clubhouse Christmas/Birthday?

I have a Christmastime birthday. As anyone else who is similarly situated can tell you, those of us born at the "most wonderful time of the year" often feel a little short-changed when it comes to our birthdays. One of my law partners was born on Christmas Day and turned 50 this year; he said he could count on one hand the number of birthday-only parties he had had in his life. 

I'd have to agree with that from my perspective. My birthday is tomorrow. Growing up, I had a ninth birthday party in third grade when we went bowling. After that, I had a thirtieth birthday party thrown by the woman I was dating at that time and a fortieth birthday party thrown by my wife.

I'm not crying about it, to be fair. As much as I dislike this old saw, well, it is what it is. 

Note: I am not a Liverpool fan. In fact, I really wish that Manchester United had Jurgen Klopp instead of the Scousers. If you've ever met a Scouser, you'd know -- their version of "English" might as well be Dutch -- it's damn near incomprehensible. I went to a match at White Hart Lane (Tottenham Hotspur, if you're not up on your English stadiums) against Liverpool, and the Londoners around me were taking the piss out of the Liverpudlians -- saying things like, "you've got no education" and "you shag your mum" and other such ditties. But Klopp singing happy birthday is still class.

Anyway, someone else in the card blogging world who can understand this conundrum is Adam from Cardboard Clubhouse. Adam's birthday is 8 days before mine, and he posted his birthday meal as a post last week to celebrate. My wife and I are celebrating my birthday tonight with dinner at one of our favorite hangouts in Dunwoody, so maybe I'll have dinner posted later tonight as well. 

Enough birthday talk. Adam sent me a nice handful of cards that I'd like to highlight today:



Odd -- the Stadium Club insert photo would not have been out of place on the logoless Donruss. And, if you don't start humming crappy Cyndi Lauper songs when you see that insert, well, you're clearly not a child of the 1980s.

God I hated that song. Kind of like how some trades were easily hated for me as a Brewers fan both at the time the trade was made and in retrospect.  Such as trading Dante Bichette for Kevin Reimer:

Or Nelson Cruz AND Carlos Lee for Francisco Cordero, Kevin Mench, and Laynce Nix and a minor leaguer.  Basically, trading two twenty-dollar bills for a five and four quarters.

Happier times were enjoyed by John Jaha. In 1996, he hit 34 home runs for the Brewers. At the time, that was tied with Larry Hisle as being the sixth-most homers in a season for the club. Since that time, the Brewers have added nine seasons in which players hit more than 34 home runs -- no surprise there, to be fair.  Still, injuries and weight problems led to Jaha's downfall as a major leaguer.

One of the players to add a couple of those seasons with more than 34 homers was Richie Sexson. He never really got attached to Milwaukee, and, as a result, the Brewers didn't get too attached to him and traded him away too.

Let's close with three cards from 2015. One of these guys was traded away to bring tons of quality to the minor league system, one guy is likely to be traded in the next 8 months in a similar-type trade, and the final one is likely to be one of the building blocks going forward.

Being all up to date means needing to get a song here that is all up to date.  Here's a recent favorite of mine:

Many thanks to Adam for all of these great cards -- the return envelope is being put together nearly contemporaneously herewith, to put it in lawyer-speak.

Merry Christmas to me from A Cracked Bat

A Merry Christmas from the Atlanta area, where our meteorologists supplemented the NORAD Santa Tracker with a tracker for Noah and his Ark.

While the rain has returned after about a 12-hour respite, I'm thinking that we probably still will not need that $73-million ark being built at the "Creation Museum" in Kentucky, scheduled to be completed next summer. Of course, I'm not sure of the need for a $150-million theme park to try to promote creationism either, just as I'm really not sure about the need for the Hunger Games Theme Park here in Atlanta.

None of that really has any relation to the cards I'm showing off today. My good trading friend Julie from "A Cracked Bat" sent me a fantastic Christmas Card -- a "Michigan" Christmas:

I particularly like "Seven Vernor's Ginger Ales a Fizzing," as that is a local delicacy apparently that I have yet to sample.

Making this card even cooler were the two incredible baseball cards accompanying it.  



On the right, of course, is a 1953 Bowman Black & White Lew Burdette -- a card that goes perfectly in my Burdette player collection.

But, let's talk for a second about Jim Wilson. Wilson's 1953 Bowman color card accompanied the Burdette. More interestingly and from a historic perspective, Wilson holds the distinction of being the first Milwaukee pitcher to throw a no-hitter. On June 12, 1954, he held the Philadelphia Phillies hitless. In fact, the Milwaukee Braves had four no-hitters total and Wilson and Burdette had the first two -- both against the Phillies. 

The other two were both by Warren Spahn -- one against the Phillies and the other against the Giants. Of course, the Brewers have had just one no-hitter in their entire history -- a 5-walk, 7-strikeout performance by Juan Nieves against the woeful Baltimore Orioles in 1987 in the midst of the Brewers 13-game season-opening winning streak punctuated by Robin Yount's diving catch in center field to finish off the game.

Thank you, Julie, for the fantastic cards and the ability to get a little baseball history lesson on Christmas day.  To all the rest of you, have a happy holiday!