Topps Now: The Numbers

As the world changes and information becomes available at everyone's fingertips, a lot of companies have fallen way behind or by the wayside entirely. Nearly everyone who is old enough to have been able to turn on a computer in the 1990s probably used America Online to first get online. I certainly did. Yet, now, AOL struggles for relevance and the guy whose voice welcomed millions of us online (after the obligatory cracks and beeps of our modem connecting) now is an Uber driver in Ohio.

In our little world of baseball cards, the card companies, too, have struggled to stay relevant. Ever since the heyday of the early 1990s, companies like Fleer, Upper Deck, Donruss/Playoff, Pinnacle/Score, MLB Showdown, and Topps have tried various gimmicks to get new collectors interested in cards. Let's be honest -- the new gimmicks were not really aimed at existing collectors, though if those things helped get people to buy more packs, then sure, that would work too.

The latest craze, of course, is Topps Now, which was so successful so quickly that Topps expanded it almost immediate from baseball into MLS, UFC, WWE, politics, and television shows I've never watched. Indeed, Topps is continuing to issue cards even today -- issuing cards for the Players Choice Awards (I guess issuing 18 for the Gold Gloves would have been too many, or maybe they didn't notice the Gold Gloves being awarded on the night of the election...morons in MLB).

Anyway, as many of you know, I've been tracking Topps Now. I tracked the cards all the way through the end of the regular season to tally up numbers on which teams were seen most frequently and which were ignored the most. I stopped at card 536 -- the "Giants clinch Final NL Wild Card Spot" card.

I was going to do more with it in terms of classifying the cards into "reasons for issuance" but man is classifying the reasons nebulous at best. Sometimes it would be just rookies hitting homers, sometimes it was a good pitching performance, sometimes it would be good pitching crossed with hitting, and sometimes it would be just a long home run. Throw in the cards for trades, retirements, all-stars, a no-hitter, and random cutesy stuff, and that became nearly impossible to track.

So, let's go to the lists instead, counting backwards from 30 to 1 in terms of fewest to most.

30. Arizona Diamondbacks: 2 cards

The Diamondbacks got only two cards all season -- Zack Greinke's 3-hit shutout for career win #150 on June 7 (281 purchased) and Paul Goldschmidt's walk-off homer on August 22 (294 purchased). Arizona finished 69-93 and cleaned house after the season, so perhaps the low number should not be a surprise. But the D-Backs did have 8 walkoff wins (including 3 out of 5 games in August on the 22nd, 24th, and 26th), so perhaps they should have gotten a few more.

29. Tampa Bay Rays: 3 cards

The only reason the Rays have three cards is that Matt Moore featured on the "Traded" card along with Jonathan Lucroy and others. The Rays had three walk-off wins, none of which featured on a Topps Now card.

28. Milwaukee Brewers: 6 cards

To get to 6, you have to include the Prince Fielder retirement card and the Jonathan Lucroy traded card. The other four were Aaron Hill, two team cards (one for the team's second triple play and one for scoring in every inning in a game in August), and one for Chris Carter hitting his 40th home run. The Brewers had only one walk-off win all year, and it was lost in the All-Star shuffle.

27. Toronto Blue Jays: 8 cards

Considering this team went to the playoffs, finished 89-73, and led the American League in attendance with 3,392,099 people at their games, it's hard to believe that they got only 8 cards. But it is pretty easy to understand why this might be: shipping costs to Canada being what they are might have limited sales of their cards. The top seller in the regular season was a Josh Donaldson card at 524. Still, there should be more.

26. Philadelphia Phillies: 9 cards

One of these was for having the first overall pick in Mickey Moniak. Three went to rookie pitchers. Ryan Howard only got one card.

24T. Oakland A's: 10 cards

Oakland gets to 10 by including Jimmy Foxx showing up on one of the 7,402 David Ortiz Now cards (more on that in a minute). 

24T. Cincinnati Reds: 10 cards

The Reds got to 10 by having a player on the traded card, a player on the "MLB Turn Back the Clock" card (#270), and with Frank Robinson showing up on an Albert Pujols milestone card.

23. Minnesota Twins: 13 Cards

The Twins count includes another Pujols milestone card (with Harmon Killebrew) and a card for the batting titles being renamed for Rod Carew and Tony Gwynn.

21T. David Ortiz: 14 cards

Topps should have just had a separate ToppsNow program just for Ortiz. 

I don't know why I find that funny, but I do.

21T (for real). San Diego Padres: 14 cards

21T. Seattle Mariners: 14 cards

From here on out, I'm just going to comment where appropriate. I'd like to end this post tonight, after all.

19T. Atlanta Braves: 15 cards

The Atlanta Braves were absolutely terrible until literally the last month of the season and finished just 20.5 games worse record-wise than the Blue Jays. But they got 15 cards.

19T. Kansas City Royals: 15 cards

Topps paid attention to the Royals as long as they had to. Almost all of these cards were before the end of July. Also, the Royals were the only team to feature an insect.

18. Pittsburgh Pirates: 16 cards

This includes sharing the Eric Kratz card with the Astros and a Roberto Clemente appearance on an Ichiro card. 

16T. Chicago White Sox: 17 cards

16T. St. Louis Cardinals: 17 cards

One of the best rookies of the season was Aledmys Diaz of the Cardinals. The 25-year-old from Cuba was an All-Star immediately and hit 17 HRs while slashing .300/.369/.510. He got 2 cards, or as many as David Ortiz had in April.

14T. Detroit Tigers: 18 cards

14T Texas Rangers: 18 cards

That counts Prince Fielder on both teams, since his card showed him in all three uniforms he wore. It also includes an Al Kaline cameo on an Ichiro card.

13. Colorado Rockies: 19 cards

The Rockies finished two games better than Milwaukee, 6 games better than the Diamondbacks, 3 games worse than the Pirates, and 11 games worse than the Cardinals. But apparently it was a memorable season nonetheless, apparently. That might be because Trevor Story -- the Topps poster boy for April who signed off on a splashy exclusive signature contract shortly after a good start -- had 3 of the first 9 ToppsNow cards and 6 total before getting injured. Topps loved them some Trevor Story.

11T. Miami Marlins: 20 cards

11T Cleveland Indians: 20 cards

Is it surprising that the Indians were relatively ignored? Just six more cards than David Ortiz? I don't think it is. After all, Cleveland is in the Midwest and is not the Chicago Cubs.

The Marlins lept up the charts for cards thanks to the Ichiro-gasm around his 3000th hit (I'm not saying it was unjustified, mind you).

10. Baltimore Orioles: 23 cards

The Orioles had the same record as the Blue Jays -- 89-73. Mark Trumbo hit a lot of homers that ended up commemorated on cards. He appeared on 6 cards total.

9. San Francisco Giants: 24 cards

The Giants edged out the Orioles thanks to a Willie McCovey cameo on a David Ortiz card. 

8. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: 25 cards

Lots of Albert Pujols in the set too. While I picked on David Ortiz for being on 14 cards, Pujols wasn't far behind -- he was on 11 of the Angels 25 total cards.

7. Houston Astros: 26 cards

Carlos Correa appeared on 8 cards, including one for a "dramatic walk-off single." Of course, that was in May, when seemingly every walk-off got a card.

6. Washington Nationals: 27 cards

This one is a little surprising with the star power on the team. Daniel Murphy appeared on five cards, Bryce Harper was on seven, and Max Scherzer was on just two. Of course, 27 cards is still a lot.

5. New York Mets: 31 cards

Yes, we're getting into the major media market teams now, i.e., the teams that Topps pushes because they sell cards and make money. Especially Bartolo Colon (5 cards), Curtis Granderson (4 cards), Noah Syndergaard (4 cards), and Yoenis Cespedes (3 cards). There are probably others with more here, but the Mets are fairly evenly dispersed.

3T: Los Angeles Dodgers: 34 cards

3T: New York Yankees: 34 cards

Clayton Kershaw was on 6 cards. 

Gary Sanchez was on eleven, and that doesn't count the two different relic cards Sanchez had. That is 11 cards for fifty-three games in which he played in 2016.

Look, Sanchez was excellent in his first 55 MLB games (his 0-for-2 in 2 games last year getting factored in there by me...not sure if Topps did), hitting 20 homers in 201 at bats. He's 23, so maybe this is a new level of performance for him. It is not, however, consistent with his minor league performance. Just saying.

2.  Chicago Cubs: 40 cards

Kris Bryant was on 8 cards. Gary Sanchez was on 11. I think Topps overdid the Gary Sanchez. 

1. Boston Red Sox: 42 cards

It should come as no surprise that the Red Sox got so many cards. David Ortiz's retirement after an excellent season helped that, as did the young talents like Mookie Betts, Yoan Moncada, Xander Bogaerts, and Jackie Bradley Jr. Hell, Andrew Benintendi got more cards (3) than the Diamondbacks and Paul Goldschmidt got.

Topps pushed the Red Sox, though -- the Sox appeared on the Father's Day card, the Turn Back the Clock card, and the September 11 card -- oddly enough, from Rogers Centre in Toronto -- in addition to their own player cards.

These numbers should not be surprising, in the end. The better teams get publicity and accolades and have more positive moments than the bad teams do. But I can't help but feel that Topps is infected with some of that elitist bias on which some people are blaming Hillary Clinton's election loss. 

For Topps, it's being based in New York City that leads to a lot of groupthink about what games or events are worthy of being on cards. Yes, I get it -- it's about the money. But even the least purchased baseball Topps Now card (my man Chris Carter's card #523 sold just 178 cards) would be the second highest selling Topps Now MLS card, being behind only Frank Lampard's hat trick for NYCFC selling 255 cards on July 31 (The lowest selling? Toronto FC's first playoff win sold a terrible 34 cards on October 26).  At $10 a card, Topps is still making almost $1800 (gross, not net) on the Chris Carter card. 

As always, Topps can do better. 

Thanks Again to Matt from BWTP!

It has to get boring to Matt from Bob Walk the Plank to read all the thanks and kudos and homilies about the cards that he douses all of us in the blog world with. I mean, is there a blogger out there who has made Matt aware of his/her presence that Matt has not sent cards to? 

It had been a while for me in getting cards from Matt. That's my fault, really, since I have been serving as opposing counsel to him in his war with JBF. It's also my fault because I let my supply of padded envelopes disappear, leaving me unable to get many things out in the mail to anyone. 

But I did get a little envelope recently from Matt. As always, it had some fantastic cards inside. I'm in a musical mood today -- perhaps it should be more sturm und drang than light and airy with the election tomorrow and all . . . I'm a bit scared for our future with the two candidates we have running, to be honest. But, I need a musical pick-me-up. So, let's turn to the music of West Virginians. 

Let's start with the most unusual of these artists:

Wilber Pan a/k/a Pan Weibo a/k/a Will Pan is a Taiwanese Mandopop singer-songwriter and rapper. Pan was born somewhere in West Virginia (according to his really messy Wikipedia page) but moved with his family to Taiwan at the age of seven. I say his Wikipedia page is messy because it contains the following sentence:  "He was offered an athletic scholarship in basketball by a NCAA Division III college, (which do not offer athletic scholarships) but chose to continue his education at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (aka Cal Poly Pomona) in the United States."

The thing is that the scholarship story came from a now dead link from a Chinese language website -- so there is absolutely no way to tell how right/wrong/mistranslated this "offer" may have been. He has won lots of Chinese language music awards, though, so he must be popular.

Jean Segura had a really good year this year for Arizona. Like many Brewers fans, I honestly believe that there is no way at all that Segura has the rebound year he had in Milwaukee. His time in town was marred by his son's death, and you have to think that he needed a change in scenery to help him through that grieving process. 

I mean, it's nowhere near the same, but my grieving process when I had to put my dog Clea down due to multiple health issues in 2010 was aided immensely by moving in with my now wife. It helped me not to go to the condo where Clea and I lived and find it empty. I can only imagine what it would be like with losing a child. 

Also, I'd bet that Segura feels more at home in Arizona with its much larger Hispanic/Latino population over what Milwaukee has. 

Who's next?

So, the former host of Hollywood Squares, Peter Marshall, somehow got himself inducted into the West Virginia Hall of Fame. This video is from March of 2016 for Peter's 90th birthday. Peter Marshall is really named Ralph Pierre LaCock, and he was born in Huntington, West Virginia. The above is a funny interview that Fred Willard did with Peter.

Marshall actually did make a number of appearances on Broadway and on London's West End in a number of musicals. In fact, Marshall appeared in the musical Bye Bye Birdie -- a satirical send-up of America's reaction to Elvis Presley -- for its entire 268 performance run.

Also, something I am sure I knew at some point in the past but I had forgotten: Peter's son is none other than former Chicago Cubs, Kansas City Royals, and Yokohama Taiyo Whales first baseman and outfielder Pete LaCock. I think Marshall is actually pointing out Pete in the audience at the beginning of this clip.

Another fine Jean Segura autograph gets added to my collection. If Segura had not been traded, he would have been fighting with Scooter Gennett for time at second base and with Jonathan Villar for time at short this past season -- at least until Orlando Arcia was called up in August. Segura spent most of his time at second for the D-Backs this year. Again, he had a great year -- 6th in the NL in WAR for position players, according to Baseball Reference -- but I don't think there is anyway that happens in Milwaukee.

Plus, Jonathan Villar is actually a year younger than Segura.

Hawkshaw Hawkins was also born in Huntington just five years earlier than Peter Marshall was. But Hawkins died a long time ago -- on March 5, 1963. The song here, "Lonesome 7-7203," was his only number 1 song, and it probably got there because of his untimely demise. 

Hawkins was in Kansas City with a group of artists doing a benefit concert for a DJ's family. One of the other artists, BIlly Walker, got a call and had to get back to Nashville, so Hawkins gave Walker his commercial airline ticket. Hawkins then hitched a ride back to Nashville with the other two artists, Cowboy Copas and Patsy Cline. After stopping to refuel in Dyersburg, Tennessee, the plane took off and hit bad weather about 20 minutes later. The plane crashed near Camden, about 90 miles from Nashville.

While this excellent card does not deserve such a morose introduction, well, someone had to get it. This is a 2015 Topps Tribute Green Relic card serial numbered to 150. These Topps higher end cards tend to get lost to me when it comes time to put team sets together. 

It's not like I see too many Tribute singles just laying around at the card shows I attend, and any relic serial numbered to 150 never comes terribly cheaply on eBay or any other outlet. It's a shame that there are so many of these types of cards around because it makes all of them less desirable. 

There is something to be said for scarcity of products just as much as there is scarcity of a particular card. If there are 6 different sets issued and each has 5 parallels serial numbered around 100, you're looking at 3000 "higher-end" cards available. People still expect a premium -- even if that is not really that scarce and even if the only reason this one is numbered to 150 and some other card with the same photo and a similar cloth swatch is numbered to 175 is that this one is green and the other one is blue.

Bill Withers was born in someplace called Slab Fork, West Virginia -- a place that apparently has 202 people in Raleigh County not very far from Beckley. Slab Fork is in the heart of coal country, and there are some incredible photos you can see when you look at the Google Image Search for it. 

Maybe it was this rural upbringing that led Withers to record his best known song -- "Lean On Me." I know a lot of children of the 1980s know this song for the Club Nouveau remake, but this version from Soul Train is just more soulful and seems almost more meaningful too. 

I went through Bill Withers's part of West Virginia back in 1993, when I had a summer job working for a guy who contracted with furniture companies to install furniture on institutional projects. My first ten days of working with him was spent at seven different state parks in West Virginia -- Bluestone, Babcock, Canaan Valley Resort, Lost River, Cacapon Resort, North Bend, and Tygart Lake.

It's a beautiful state, and this song really gives a feel for the kind of people that Bill Withers sang about. Yeah, there were a lot of mountain folk. Many of them were not well educated, and most of them had not spent much time outside of their hometowns (well, other than at Cacapon, which is about 2 hours from Washington, DC). Most of them worked hard, scratched out a living as best they could, and were as excited to meet someone not from their town as I was to be in West Virginia. 

Actually, they were far more excited than I was. But I was scratching out my own living.

Speaking of excited, how about these 2014 Brewers/2016 Texas Rangers? This is one of those framed cards that Topps has been doing with its flagship set, and it is serial numbered 17 of 20.

Word came out today that Carlos Gomez is apparently seeking a long-term deal -- up to five years in length -- as a free agent. Scott Boras, in his effort to sell ice to Eskimos, thinks that Gomez can get a big payday because Gomez is a "rare player" coming on the market. Boras is correct about that -- there aren't too many players who would think that they deserve a five-year contract just two months after getting released. As the Rangers website I linked to says, it's possible that Gomez could end up hanging out on the market for a while thanks to this type of talk.

Okay, last one:

Brad Paisley is 10 months younger than me, and he was born in Glen Dale, West Virginia, near Wheeling. My wife likes Brad Paisley a lot -- not as much as she likes Luke Bryan or Carrie Underwood, mind you, but she likes Brad Paisley. He has a number of hits, of course. I like this video and song for the world travel involved and for the point it makes -- that as much as he enjoys all the great stuff he has seen around the world, he still misses his home.

It's one of those songs that can make people wistful for wherever it is they live, come from, or wish they were.

A guy who understands a thing about Southern Comfort Zones is Jonathan Lucroy. He turned down a trade to Cleveland -- and what might have still been a trip to the World Series -- and instead got to go nearly home to Texas. Lucroy grew up in Florida, but really is a southerner despite that. I can totally understand that mindset too. While I enjoyed growing up in Wisconsin and enjoy getting back up there every once in a while to see family, the fact is that I'm much more of a southerner than a northerner -- 21 years in Georgia with 4 years in college in Tennessee will do that to a person.

As always, Matt, many thanks for the great cards. I'm sure most of these bands aren't really in your musical wheelhouse, but I hope you liked them just the same.

Gunslinger by Jeff Pearlman

I love to read. I have literally hundreds of books in my house -- some of which I've read, others I have not yet read. I've been slogging through a dense biography about Karl Marx over the past several months, for instance, and it reminded me why I put it down the first time I started reading it -- while interesting, it is not a fast-paced book.

Often, though, I will have two or three books going at once. Over the summer, for example, I had a weekend where I had to be in Florida for a trade association meeting and had most of Saturday free. So, I read Jonah Keri's book Up, Up & Away about the Montreal Expos and that team's time in Montreal -- and how it fell apart. It's a great book that I can highly recommend, and it's a fast read -- I read it basically in one sitting over about 4 hours (I read very fast, usually).

Another very easy book for me to get through is one that just came out last week: Gunslinger: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre by Jeff Pearlman. 

This is actually a scan of a 4" x 6" card that replicates the book's front cover and, on the back, has a couple of the book-jacket quotes that publishers like to use to validate how great a writer or book is.

Pearlman has written several sports books, including the book about the cocaine-using Dallas Cowboys called Boys Will Be Boys: The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty (which I have also read). He also is the writer who wrote the Sports Illustrated story about John Rocker that led to Rocker's suspension and ultimate downfall.

Pearlman is active on Twitter, and it was on Twitter that he made an offer much like the one that Molly Knight made for her book, The Best Team Money Can Buy about the Dodgers -- if you emailed a screenshot of proof that you preordered the book, then he would send an autographed front plate to paste into the book.

And that's what I did:

Not sure where Jeff is getting the Southern Cal influence here (he went to Delaware, I went to Vanderbilt and Georgia...) but hey, thanks for the cool autograph for the book. I stuck that into the front of the book, and that's where it will stay.

Now, for the book. There have been a couple of excerpts published online already if you want a flavor for how the book reads. This one on Sports Illustrated talks about how much of a wastrel Favre was during his one-year tenure with the Falcons. A second one on Bleacher Report pretty much confirms what a complete dick Favre was to Aaron Rodgers when Rodgers was drafted -- though Rodgers certainly exacerbated the issues by being cocky and tone-deaf himself. 

For me, a lot of the book covered familiar ground. If you knew anything about the behind-the-scenes world in which Favre ran in Wisconsin, you knew that he was a big-time drinker. A number of stories later in his career mentioned his womanizing in past-tense terms until, of course, Favre started sending pictures of little Brett to Brent Musburger's FSU Cowgirl crush/internet sensation/New York Jets sideline eye-candy/Deanna Favre lookalike Jenn Sterger. 

Brett & Deanna Favre

Jenn Sterger

Favre and his Hamlet act on retirement over his past several years in Green Bay had worn on me. By the time he was traded to the Jets, I was relieved. It was time for him to go, and it was time for the team to move on. Simply put, Favre viewed himself as bigger than the team by that point, and he loved the attention that his continued on-again, off-again retirement drew to him.

Pearlman did not speak to Favre for this book, but he did speak to over 500 other people in and around Favre's life -- everyone from Brett's mother to drinking buddy and wingman Mark Chmura to Jets OC and destroyer of the Georgia Bulldog football program Brian Schottenheimer.

As with most public figures and professional athletes, there are any number of negatives about Favre. He was an arrogant prick to rookies, he believed he deserved (and he received) special treatment from the Packers in his later years -- to the point of getting to dress in the coaches' room rather than with the other 52 players on the roster -- and he was an alcoholic womanizer who treated his high school sweetheart Deanna like complete crap. 

On the other hand, you also get the good -- the arrogance often leads to an ability to overcome setbacks, and Favre needed that cockiness early on in his career. In Favre's second year in Green Bay, the Packers had drafted Mark Brunell out of Washington. Favre was so stubborn at times that Coach Mike Holmgren was perpetually one series away from benching Favre and giving Brunell a shot to play. While a less confident player might have been shaken by that, Favre was motivated by it. 

Similarly, any number of stories about the good stuff Brett Favre did -- like the stories that Pearlman put into his prologue about Favre befriending little kids with cancer -- don't sell as many books. Those likely fell by the wayside early on. This is not to say that cutting the feel-good stories was an intentional act meant to make Favre look bad. Rather, it's more an indication that the "juicy" stuff is more interesting; we sort of expect the nice stories more than some of the negative.

In the end, Favre comes across as a complicated human being, sort of as you would expect. He was petulant, caring, obnoxious, vindictive, insecure, annoying, cocky, warm, loving, hateful and hated all at once. In other words, he really is a human being and not some caricature drawn by John Madden on a Sunday afternoon talking about how Favre just plays like a kid with joy and all that. It is an interesting portrait, and it is a good read -- especially if you are a Green Bay Packers fan.

One last thing: I have two of those 4 x 6 cards of the cover. If you want one of them, let me know by commenting below. If more than two people let me know that they want them before Monday, November 7, at 7 PM Eastern Standard Time, I'll do a randomizer giveaway. Otherwise, I'll just give them away. Thanks for stopping by.

Behind the Scenes at SunTrust Park

Sometimes, you get lucky. I got lucky this week. One of my friends here in Atlanta seems to know about everyone in the legal industry in town. One of his good friends asked him if he wanted to take a tour of the construction of the Braves' new stadium, SunTrust Park. He said, "of course!" and then was asked to put a group together for a tour.

Our group included 4 or 5 judges and a number of prosecutors and former prosecutors. I fell into the group of "played fantasy baseball," but that did not matter to me. Being a construction lawyer, though, getting to go on this tour was like the clichéd kid in a candy store. I was so excited for the tour, and it did not disappoint.

The thing that excited me most was the fact that I could take photos in the stadium. I didn't hear any restrictions on posting pictures either, so here goes.

First, here are some photos from across the street of the outside of the stadium from behind center field:

My first thought on seeing the stadium was that, from the outside, SunTrust Park is Turner Field plopped down in the suburbs. It's the accoutrements that do it -- the red brick exterior, the Delta sign on top of the scoreboard, and, as I found out on the tour, many of the same amenities that the Ted has are echoed at SunTrust Park.

The construction geek in me would like to point out the very attractive precast concrete architectural panels on this portion of the stadium. 

The construction lawyer who is a member of the Florida Precast Concrete Association also would like you to look at the very attractive precast parking deck to the east of the stadium.

The small blue crane-like extension under the big tower crane is actually a concrete pour taking place. That building is going to be an Omni Hotel right outside the stadium. While it is not a part of the stadium, like the hotel at Rogers Centre in Toronto, this hotel will be tall enough to where rooms above the 8th or 9th floor will be able to see into the stadium and watch the game. Just be sure to close your blinds if you and your mate get amorous, though.

I mentioned this on Twitter yesterday, and I'll ask the question again (as did everyone in our group): why would millionaire athletes be so okay with showering in gang showers as if they are in middle school or prison? I mean, my freshman and sophomore dorms in college had shared shower facilities, but even there we had separate stalls. Maybe it's just the high quality showerheads that make it all better.

The electricians apparently had just finished installing and electrifying the lights over the lockers in the Braves locker room yesterday. It's a pretty nice locker, certainly. It will almost certainly be the only time I am ever in the Braves locker room in person, so it was pretty cool to see this. They have enough lockers in here for the full September rosters plus a few DL guys. 

Across the hall from the players' locker room is the bat boy's locker room. That facility had a few bigger lockers for the somewhat older kids and then a couple of small ones for the "junior" bat boys. 

SunTrust Park actually has far fewer corporate suites than most stadiums. As this story points out, there are only 32 suites -- the second-lowest number in baseball ahead of only Kauffman Stadium's 25 suites. The Braves made the decision to increase club seats instead. 

The top photo here shows the Delta Sky 360 Club area. That Delta sign was constructed using reclaimed wood, which certainly gives it a cool effect. This club will be available to the people whose seats are in the lower deck right behind home plate. 

The bottom photo shows a wine rack in the SunTrust Club. That's the super-high-end club for the 375 fanciest season ticket holders who will have the first row or two along the field as their seats. The SunTrust Club will have these wine racks for its members to bring along their favorite bottles of wine, check them in, and have them at their disposal at any time they want during a game -- and possibly even outside of regular game days.

The closest cone is where home plate will be; the far cone is second base. The distance from home plate to the backstop is tiny -- it's probably as small as the area that Wrigley Field has behind home plate. Throughout our tour, we kept hearing that the goal for this stadium was to feel more intimate and have people feel closer to the action than Turner Field does. As this shows, that goal will likely be achieved -- at least behind home plate. 

And yes, I'm standing at the wall behind the plate and not on the field.

That intimacy does come at the price (for the cheap seats) of being higher above the field -- though any upper deck seat tends to inspire feelings. You can see what I mean in this next photo:

The view down the third-base line. While foul territory looked small to me, that's a bit of an illusion -- as this story mentions, there may be a little bit more foul territory at SunTrust Park than at the Ted. Braves GM John Coppolella expects it to play slightly better for hitters than Turner Field does, I would agree thanks to the fact that the right field power alley is 15 feet closer to home plate than Turner Field's similar dimension.

Another amenity for the high rollers are these mesh seats. A company called, of all things, 4Topps manufactures these. The mesh seats are becoming popular these days at stadiums around the country as a way to incorporate more comfortable seating -- and breathable seating, which is very important in Atlanta's hot summers -- to improve the experience for patrons. A lot of stadiums have used these with half-moon tables (see below for the artist's rendering for SunTrust) for patio seating. 

One of the more fun places to watch games at Turner Field is the Chophouse. It's a bar inside the stadium where people can stand or sit after getting into the stadium for cheap -- it was $5 at Turner Field for such access. At SunTrust Park, the Chophouse is getting an upgrade. It's closer to the field, for one thing. It now also has multiple levels, including party suites at field level behind the right field fence that can be rented out for parties.

This view from behind home plate shows you where those party suites are.

In front of the Chophouse, there is a great seating area featuring those mesh seats but also tables with beer taps and which include a food and beverage cost in the price of the ticket. It's not an all-you-can-eat/drink area, but it is a pretty cool amenity. But think about this: with that many seats and beer taps at each table (probably about 40-50 tables, as a guess), it will take one heck of a beer keg to keep up, right?

Or, maybe it will just be one heck of a huge storage tank in the bowels of the stadium. I would estimate that the fatter of the two pipes is maybe 5 or 6 inches in diameter. There are pipes for soda as well, but those aren't nearly as interesting as the beer pipes.

I hope you enjoyed this little behind the scenes tour. I certainly did. I think the new stadium will be a nice upgrade in many respects for the Braves.

So, Zippy Zappy, You Send Me a Marlin....

After I took on the challenge of listening and commenting on the 10 songs that Kenny a/k/a Zippy Zappy posed to me (and don't worry -- I'll give you more commentary!), he promised that he would send me some cards as a reward. 

\

When you see the Torrens leading the way, you know you've been Zippy Zapped. See, it says so right on the card. That confirms it. 

The Torrens was the front side of the package -- in a penny sleeve and a toploader. On the back side of the package was another toploader...with a Marlin?

When I first opened the package, I was a little confused. I know ZZ knows what he's doing, and that he must be sending this card to me for a reason. That reason became eminently clear when I turned over the card:



Yes, it's a beautiful chrome card numbered out of 250, but his Up Close section holds the clear answer: "Hit College World Series-clinching home run for Vanderbilt in '14." Ah yes, there it is. He hit the homer off Virginia's Nick Howard -- who had been the Reds 1st Round pick in the 2014 draft (and who currently sports a less-than-stellar K/BB ratio for his minor league career of 0.88 -- no kidding, he's walked 101 and struck out 89 in 112 innings).

Funny thing, though, is that Norwood made it all the way through that same 2014 draft completely undrafted. The Marlins scouted the Cape Cod League heavily, and Norwood looked good with a wood bat. So, to buy out Norwood's senior year of college, the Marlins handed him a $275,000 signing bonus. Norwood has made it to the Florida State League now, and actually looked okay there -- .271/.347/.397 on a Jupiter team that hit .237/.308/.322 and in a league that hit .250/.321/.356.  He was pretty age-appropriate there too, so hopefully that's a good sign that he's on his way to the pros.

Now, I have my doubts that I'll start a John Norwood collection of any kind, but this one will go into my "Random Cards I Like" binder next to a few soccer cards, a couple of Georgia Bulldog football players, and some other random things I've gotten over time.

Thankfully, though, ZZ didn't stop with Norwood. But, let's use Norwood as a crutch for this post...Norwood's favorite musical artist is Jay-Z, so that's what will power me here.

Let's start with "Otis," a song with Jay Z, Kanye West, and featuring Otis Redding. I swear I hear a little sample of Spandau Ballet at the beginning. 

What they do to this car in the video is just wrong. Yeah, sure, I guess all they are talking about is how much money they have and all that, so they can afford to tear up that Mercedes. But damn, why? 



That is usually the response I have to seeing a Panini Prizm card. "Damn, why?" DeMuth is shown in his college uniform at Indiana University -- airbrushed away so don't sue Panini! -- and Medeiros is probably shown in his high school uniform. From this card, he could be a conehead, though.

DeMuth finally made it to Double-A this year. I say finally because he was drafted after his senior year, so he has to develop quickly. DeMuth's biggest problem may be the rather imposing shadow being cast by 2016 draftee Lucas Erceg (a kid with an incredible story), the Brewers 2nd Round pick in 2016 who, by all indications, is a very talented player with a strong potential to move quickly. 

Medeiros was the 1st round pick for Milwaukee in 2014. As happens for high school pitchers sometimes, his development has hit some speed bumps due to his inability to throw strikes. He's still rated as the 12th best Brewers prospect, so there is still hope. He is only 20, after all.

Yeah, okay, Jay Z and Pearl Jam together playing "99 Problems." This reminds me of the crossovers that happened about 25 years ago when Anthrax and Public Enemy played together, except that at least Public Enemy let the guys from Anthrax actually sing/rap along with them rather than turning them into some kind of glorified backup band.

I mean, "99 Problems" is a good song. Don't get me wrong here. It's just that if you're going to pair Jay Z with Pearl Jam, how about giving Pearl Jam something to other than play their guitars?

On the other hand, I think we can hold it against Anthrax that their existence probably led directly to the abortion called Limp Bizkit.



A couple more young guys. Wagner was part of the Jean Segura trade to the Diamondbacks after the 2015 season. Of course, the Brewers got Isan Diaz in that trade, so I'm okay with that.

Jake Gatewood was a compensatory pick in the first round of the 2014 draft out of high school in Clovis, California. He's listed at shortstop on this card because, as an 18- and 19-year-old, he was still playing up the middle. He spent 2016 still with the Timber Rattlers as a 20-year-old (he turned 21 on September 25), but he spent his time playing third base. He needs to learn some plate patience, though -- 18 walks, 141 Ks in 524 plate appearances (but with 14 HRs and 33 2Bs) for a slash line of .240/.268/.391. The OBP is clearly not optimal.

So, this song is 13 years old, but it rocks. "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" has a great grinding beat that you can't help but bob your head along with and a hook that gets stuck in your head immediately. Thank Timbaland for this.

Plus, you can't go wrong with a rap that includes the line "I check cheddar like a food inspector." You really can't. Unless that Italian dude that ZZ was listening to before was the one saying it.

The two guys on the 2016 Brewers team that deserve an anthem like this are easy to name -- Ryan Braun and Jonathan Villar. I'm fully into the "Ryan Braun is an a-hole but he's our a-hole" feel right now after Braun's come back season. That probably means that he'll get traded this offseason to the Dodgers for Puig and a couple of minor league arms, but hey, that'd be cool too so he wouldn't be our a-hole any more.

Jonathan Villar is like a shortstop version of Carlos Gomez in some respects. He makes some crazy decisions on the basepaths from time to time, and he'll get thrown out doing something dumb like trying to go from first to third on a bunt or something (no, I don't think that happened). But, he makes things happen good as well. The upside, though, is that many in the organization think he is eminently more trainable than Gomez was -- that the team will be able to adjust his thinking somewhat without taking away his ability to be aggressive. I hope so. I like him -- and all he cost was a Cy Sneed (who, truth be told pitched respectably in the Texas League this past season...but he might be Mike Fiers reincarnated).

A little shout out to ZZ here -- not only with the "Empire State of Mind," but also the little A-Rod cameo at the beginning of this video from the American Music Awards from 2009. This song is damn cool, and Alicia Keys has an incredible voice.

You know what's fun, though? Falling down into the rabbit hole that are comments on YouTube. Between trying to figure out what some of the people are actually saying, following the trolls in their flame wars, and then getting past the spam merchants, it's actually incredibly entertaining.



When I think of Zippy Zappy and New York, I think of the Sega Card-Gen cards. ZZ is the guy who first sent me cards from these Japanese releases...and to think he kind of had to talk me into taking the first ones. That was my own ignorance, of course -- once I found out what they were, I snapped those suckers up immediately. Now, I look forward to getting more of them. So, when I got these two from ZZ in his most recent mailer, I was super excited.

Excited enough to play that Japanese song again by Frederic!

Here's hoping this is enough to get it stuck in P-Town Tom's head. Maybe it can be the victory theme for Tom for the Cubs!

Thanks a ton, Kenny, for the great cards!

Ginter Bits and More from Bubba

I really shouldn't post about more cards from Matt of Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits on a night featuring yet another World Series game -- especially Game 7 -- but I have the time to post tonight.  Poor Matt -- my posts about the cards he's sent me are always getting overlooked. Still, at least this time it is baseball cards and not soccer card. I'm sure that will make people happier.

If you've read Matt's blog, you know that he happened upon an eBay listing of a case of Allen & Ginter Black from which the autographs had pretty much been removed (other than a great surprise -- you should read it!). Thankfully, he was nice enough to share some of his largesse with me, along with some other great cards.

Let's ring those cards in with a nominally appropriate song:

It's a nominally appropriate song only, because it truly is a sad song. There are a few songs in my life that I immediately associate with a particular person or time, and this is one of them. In 2002, I had been dating a woman for about a year and things just fell apart between us. She pretty much moved on without telling me -- nice of her to do that, no? -- I had a weekend where I pretty much just stayed in and felt sorry for myself. I listened to this song repeatedly. It was pathetic yet cathartic. 

Baseball cards have much more of a cathartic, nostalgic feel to me. Yeah, I get upset about stuff that Topps does, mainly because we are so reliant on Topps, but in the end I really enjoy collecting. It's brought me back to being a better fan of baseball, too -- I know much more now about the American League than I did before because all I cared about was NL-only fantasy baseball.

So, speaking of nostalgic and nominal appropriateness, here are the four A&G Black cards Bubba sent my way:



I'd appreciate the Molitor more if it weren't the same damn photo we have been seeing over and over again in Archives and any number of other products for the past 5 years. Sucks that Topps relies so heavily on Getty -- and then so heavily on the photos they have already purchased, in order to save money. Otherwise, though, I like A&G black -- it's a good-looking card.

Bubba did not stop with the Black, though, so let's see what else we've got. With music? Yes, of course. You do know whose blog you're reading, right?

Sorry Cleveland fans -- I really do hope the Cubs win tonight. I've probably jinxed them by saying that -- hell, a stiff breeze seemingly can jinx the Cubs, after all -- so it's all Pearl Jam today, featuring Cubs fan Eddie Vedder.

Yellow Ledbetter is a song that Vedder often just makes up as he goes. There are no set lyrics to it. Sometimes, Topps has that same feel -- especially when it comes to inserts and parallels. This is an Allen & Ginter back mini parallel of Jimmy Nelson from this years set. It's nice and all, but the parallels featuring different backs are pretty damn pointless. Who displays a card with its back showing just to show off the variation? No one I know.

This song was written by Vedder when he was a teenager. He wrote it about his own mother's plight with his stepfather, Peter Mueller. As his Wikipedia page points out correctly (and as you can hear for yourself on this Youtube upload of the 1994 Pearl Jam show from the Fox Theater in Atlanta, which was recorded for posterity), Vedder says that the song is "dedicated to the bastard that married my Momma." The song takes on a bizarre, surreal feel when Sugarland sings it, though.

While I wouldn't say that Hank Aaron deserves that introduction, he definitely deserves the chorus -- you really can't find a better man in many respects. Aaron backs up his big name by doing a lot of charitable work and caring greatly for those less fortunate.

"Given to Fly" is one of those songs that you hear and you feel better. In talking about the song, Vedder said that his conception for the song was it feeling like a cardboard children's book -- "it's a fable, that's all." The song revolves around a riff that Mike McCready said he came up with while being stuck in his condo on a snowy day in Seattle.

The great thing: Vedder dedicated the song at Wrigley in August to Joe Maddon.

Sure, it's not Ginter, but I'll take a 7-year-old relic of Rickie Weeks that I don't have any day (or any age relic, or any Rickie Weeks card I don't have, or any Brewers card I don't have, of course).  The photo of Miller Park's roof looming made me think of this song -- that, and the fact that the lack of a solid background makes Rickie look like he's just floating in space here.

It's hard to believe that this song was released 14 years ago now. Man, time sometimes feels like it goes by quickly. This song musically feels like an Irish drinking song to me -- like you should be swaying back and forth with a Guinness in your hand. Lyrically, it's much more existential and focuses on internal security. 

It should come as no surprise that this song was written by Vedder just before the first show that Pearl Jam did after the Roskilde tragedy in 2000. If you're not familiar, Pearl Jam was at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. People fell down on one spot as the crowd rushed to the stage. They couldn't get up, and then crowd surfers ended up falling on top of them. This caused nine people to be crushed to death. In fact, Pearl Jam wrote a song on their "Riot Act" album called "Love Boat Captain" in which the lyrics reference "nine friends we'll never know."

Pearl Jam refused for many years after to do any festivals, and now only does a few.

But, "I Am Mine" is about being secure, being able to reassure yourself that things will be okay -- that you can get past the obstacles in life. 

Many of you won't like me saying this, but you have to admit that Ryan Braun has gotten past some big obstacles -- mostly self-inflicted -- that have happened in his life and really turned in a top-notch season this past year. Lots of people hoped he was done, and in 2014 he looked done -- slash line of .266/.324/.453. This year, though, he looked back to himself -- .305/.365/.538. That's a solid season, and for a guy making the money he is making, that is earning his pay. Sure, he may never be the 150-game-a-year guy he used to be, but I'll take 135 games like this past year any day (30 HR, 91 RBI, 16 SB). 

Matt, thanks again for the great cards, and enjoy the last game of the 2016 baseball season tonight.