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. 

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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.

Trick or Treating with Cardboard Clubhouse

After a sports weekend which featured: (1) my favorite English Premier League team, Manchester United, shooting 37 times without scoring a goal; (2) my favorite college football team, the Georgia Bulldogs, failing to supply any significant offensive output against Florida; and (3) my favorite NFL team, the Green Bay Packers, coming to Atlanta and losing to the Falcons, I started to wonder why I bother with sports. There are just weekends where it would definitely be less frustrating, more entertaining, and more peaceful if I just didn't give a damn about sports at all.

I wondered that for about 5 minutes or so, and then I dismissed that notion quickly. I've been a sports fan my whole life without questioning how or why, and my life would feel emptier -- less complete -- without having the ability to come online, lob a few comments/jokes, and watch the carnage. 

A lot of folks have other things in their life that they like just as completely. For instance, Adam from Cardboard Clubhouse is a huge Halloween fan. I mean huge. As in, "devoting his blog to Halloween since the beginning of September" huge. That is devotion. 

Also as impressive was his "Trick Or Treat" mailer that he sent out to the "SuperCollectors". Let's look at some of the offerings and see what tricks and treats came my way.

First off the top are two minor league cards. Cody Ponce is younger than the Bert Heffernan card by about 5 years -- the Heffernan is from 1989, and Ponce is from 1994. Ponce, of course, is pictured on the Topps Pro Debut set from this year. 

Bert Heffernan was a ninth round pick for Milwaukee from Clemson in 1988. He was already 23 years old when he was drafted, so he really had to be pushed up the chain quickly. He made it to Beloit in 1989 at the age of 24 -- 2 years older than the average Midwest Leaguer -- and slashed .296/.398/.376. He never hit for any power at all. He also never suited up for the big league Brewers. They traded him to the Dodgers for Darren Holmes. The Dodgers were unimpressed enough to allow him to be drafted away in the minor league Rule V draft by the Seattle Mariners after the 1991 season. It was with the Mariners that Heffernan tallied his single major league hit -- a double off Scott Sanderson -- in 11 plate appearances. He was removed from that game for a pinch hitter -- Edgar Martinez.

So, these two qualify as a TREAT for me because (a) I'm really digging the Brewers minor league cards a lot more these days, and, (b) I needed both of them.



Depending on how you look at it, it sure seems like Jonathan Lucroy's 2016 season is like this scene...

His choosing not to join the Indians because of his concern about playing time next year definitely cost Lucroy a trip to the World Series (assuming, of course, that we don't play out a counterfactual which leads to the Indians falling out of the playoffs early) and it may have cost him a championship. 

Of course, Luc doesn't look at it like that. His wife is from Louisiana, and Dallas was his desired location above all -- that or Houston -- when it came to moving on from the Brewers. I'm happy for him that it worked out to get there, though I'm sure he might ask himself "what if" in 10 years or so if the Rangers don't get to the World Series.

Rickie Weeks Jr. is 34 and finished his season with Arizona. But, let's talk about Rickie Sr. instead. Rickie Sr. is the CEO of The Orlando Monarchs Youth Leadership Baseball Program in Florida. That program has its primary focus of reviving baseball in economically deprived areas in the US -- places, as the website says, that do not have "fields, community sponsorships, and baseball leadership support to effectively render the fundamentals of the game in a safe supervised environment." As best I can tell, though, this might be a for-profit enterprise -- none of the usual notations about the enterprise being a 501(3)(c) charitable entity where donations are tax-deductible are present on the website. Hmmm.

Not to cast aspersions on Mr. Weeks Sr., but these two cards are definitely tricks. The giveaway should be the fact that they are logoless Panini. Also, is there a worse set in the history of baseball cards than the Panini Triple Play cartoon set from a few years ago? Seriously, is there?

Score. Geez, remember Score? Pinnacle Brands issued its first set in 1988. Audible gasps came when (1) the cards came in a plastic baggie more akin to opening some candy than getting baseball cards, and (2) there were full color mug shots of the players on the back of each card. Pinnacle also is credited with being the first company to insert printing plates into packs. 

That led to Beckett naming Jerry Meyer -- Pinnacle's CEO -- as Sports Card Executive of the Year in early 1998. That didn't go too well for Beckett or Pinnacle -- Pinnacle declared bankruptcy less than a year later, so Beckett retired the award. 

The upside on these two cards is that I needed both of them. The downside is that the Surhoff was "just" for the set and the Bell is the "Gold Rush" Parallel that I haven't even tried to chase as of yet. Also, Bell passed away due to kidney issues in the Dominican Republic in August at the age of just 48.

Still, needing both of these cards makes this a Treat.

Two checklists from 1970s Topps usually would not make it into any blog post for me because I have these cards already. But wait -- don't call these "trick" yet. While both are a bit off center, both are in wonderfully sharp condition, and both are completely clean on the back. It's not often you find a 40-year-old card in nearly perfect condition (though that will happen with exceptional regularity in about 5 years time, I'd guess).

Both of these ended up being upgrades to existing cards in my collection, so call this a Treat!

Oh Ricky. If only you'd stayed with Lucy and little Ricky, you could have been something -- maybe even a "90's Impact Player" like Doug Henry. 

He's not this Doug Henry, though:

Luckily, that is. I don't think that the baseball player is paralyzed from the waist down, nor did he allegedly expose himself to two female construction workers last year. Nope, this Doug Henry is still hanging around baseball. 

He is the current bullpen coach for the Kansas City Royals. Henry came into the AL like a house of fire; in his rookie season in 1991, he appeared in 32 games (36 IP) and finished with 2 wins and 15 saves -- good enough for just 8th place in the Rookie of the Year voting, however, behind Chuck Knoblauch, Juan Guzman, Milt Cuyler, Ivan Rodriguez, Rich DeLucia, Mike Timlin, and Mark Whiten. Henry's problem -- like Heffernan -- was being old by time he hit the majors at the age of 27. It just took that long for him to arrive, it seems.

All in all, these two cards are a trick. I have both of them already, I believe. Even if I didn't, Bones reminds me of Sheffield (always bad) and Doug Henry reminds me how poor talent evaluation got in the Brewers organization in the late 1980s.

Blindingly colorful PC guys! That's usually worth a treat. But, I have both of these. The Molitor card, in particular, is painful to look at. It's so "1990" that it's painful. What else is "1990"?

Your 1990s SNL cast, featuring the late Phil Hartman and the late Chris Farley. Chris Rock, Tim Meadows, David Spade, Farley, Rob Schneider, and Julia Sweeney all debuted in 1990 officially, and Adam Sandler made his uncredited debut on December 8, 1990, marking one heck of a good new group of cast members. 

That's the upside. The downside is clearly how ugly those Classic Pink cards were. This was too:

Before Colin Kaepernick took his much more principled stand, Roseanne Barr just destroyed the National Anthem before a game in San Diego on July 25, 1990. This is how ugly those Classic cards are. No question.

Plesac's 1986 Donruss Rookie pales in comparison, but that, too, is not a pleasantly colored baseball card. The Green version of those cards is tough to look at, and the photo itself is bleached out.  

This is such a trick that it's like candy corn level of trick -- so terrible and obviously disgusting that it should surprise no one that candy corn is made entirely of corn syrup, honey, and table sugar with food color, gelatin, and just a little bit of salt. Candy Corn is lethal too -- if you are 180 pounds and eat a little over 1,600 pieces of candy corn in one sitting, you'll die.

I think the same would happen if all cards looked like that Classic Molitor.

Adam, many thanks for the great cards, and Happy Halloween!

Bubba's Bangin' Batch of . . . Bale?

I figure that baseball fans will barely notice that I post this, what with it being in the midst of Game 2 of the World Series and all. The only baseball fan who'll notice is Night Owl, and he'll ignore it as soon as he sees what Matt from Bubba's Bangin' Batch of Baseball Bits sent to me. 

Matt shipped a great package of cards my way, but only about half of the cards are baseball cards. Guess what? I'm not going to talk about them tonight. Nope. Instead, I'm going to highlight the pack of Donruss football, er, soccer cards that Bubba sent my way. While I do it, how about I act like a British tabloid and also post photos of each player's "WAG"? Indeed, it's an excuse to put up photos of attractive women, so why not? Maybe that will get this post some readership.

Let's start with this Mario Götze card. Götze burst on the scene in 2010 with Borussia Dortmund in 2009, getting his senior debut with the club at the age of just 17. The precocious midfielder received his first call-up to Die Mannschaft (that's the German Men's National Team, in case you couldn't figure it out) at the tender age of 18. By the time he was 21, he'd completed a move to the giant of German fußball, Bayern Munich. Just a month after his 22nd birthday, he scored the winning goal in extra time to lead the Germans over the Argentinians in the World Cup Final. Oh, and he has been dating German model Ann-Kathrin Brömmel since 2012.

Well done, Mario. Well done.

But all was not as rosy as it seemed. Under coach Pep Guardiola in 2015-16, Götze found himself getting less and less playing time and getting left on the bench. He was able to engineer a move back to Dortmund this past summer. Here's hoping that will put a smile on Mario's and Ann-Kathrin's faces.

Hulk is the appropriately provided nickname for Givanildo Vieira de Sousa, a Brazilian footballer who is pictured with Zenit St. Petersburg on this card. Supposedly, he got his nickname because of his likeness to Lou Ferrigno. I personally don't see it. 

Hulk is married to Iran Souza. This weird story on "Fabwags.com" notes that Brazilian women "like big butts on their man and . . . Iran . . . is proud to be married to one of the current 'sex symbols' of Brazil." The story quotes her as saying, "He is physically privileged, and I can not deny." 

Who knew it goes both ways in Brazil?

Now, I'm not going to go through all of the cards Matt sent because that would get a little tedious (there are 10 different players on 9 cards, after all), but we cannot get past Gerard Piqué. Piqué is still only 29 years old -- it sure feels like he's been around for much longer -- and has been with FC Barcelona for much of his professional career. 

He started in the youth ranks at Barcelona at the age of 10 in 1997 and stayed there until 2004. He left Barça in 2004, though, and played a youth for a year with Manchester United in England. I watched a couple of Piqué's games during his time with United (he only played in 12 senior games, to be fair). He went on loan to Real Zaragoza in 2006 on a loan which required that he appear in at least 20 games for them. He came back to United for the 2006-2007 season, and even scored two goals in the Champions League for the Red Devils (against Roma and Dynamo Kyiv). 

But, he longed to go back home, and with Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand ahead of him, it apparently made sense to sell him back to Barça for £5 million.

Wyclef Jean apparently helped Gerard Piqué notice that Shakira's hips don't lie. Actually, the two met when Piqué appeared in the video for the official song of "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" which I just learned was by Shakira and not Fozzy Bear. Shakira is actually 10 years older to the day than Piqué, and the couple have two sons.

Luiz should have been sent off last Sunday against Manchester United for planting his studs into Marouane Fellaini's leg. As former referees' chief Keith Hackett said, referee Martin Atkinson "lacked the courage" to make the right decision and send Luiz off with a straight red card. 

Based on Atkinson's history in those games, it did not surprise me.

Gareth Bale started his career in the Southampton youth academy. Southampton has had an incredible run of producing top class football players -- Bale, Theo Walcott, Calum Chambers, Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, to name just a few from the past decade. 

Bale made his way in 2007 at the age of 18 to Tottenham Hotspur. With Spurs, he had a terrible run to start his career. He suffered ankle ligament damage in a game in early December of 2007. At the time, he was playing left back for the club, so he got injured making a tackle -- something he doesn't do very much of these days as an attacking midfielder for Real Madrid. 

As he got into his early 20s, though, he started moving up the field and, by 2012, he changed his number to 11 to reflect the fact that he was no longer a defender. He kept signing contract extensions with Tottenham, indicating his interest in staying. But then, Real Madrid came in on September 1, 2013, and made a "Godfather" offer -- a then-record £85.1 million fee (since topped by Paul Pogba's fee this past summer). Spurs owner Daniel Levy snapped it up, and Bale moved to Real. 

He has since led Wales as far as it ever got into any competitive tournament, reaching the semifinals before losing 2-0 to Portugal.

Bale and his high-school sweetheart, Emma Rhys-Jones, got engaged, finally, on July 17, 2016. I say finally because they already have two daughters. They tend to stay out of the spotlight to try to give their daughters as normal a life as is possible.

Atlético Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann was one of the revelations of the Euro 2016 tournament -- at least to folks who were not paying attention to anyone but Barcelona and Real Madrid. Griezmann is just 5'7" tall, and his big break in soccer came thanks to getting invited to come train in Spain with Real Sociedad. 

He played for Sociedad until the end of the 2013/14 season, at which time the capital's less-fancied team came calling. In the time since moving to Atlético and as of October 26, Griezmann has appeared in 81 games for the club and has score 50 goals. His rise has been so meteoric that he was surprisingly named the best player in La Liga just a couple of days ago. Yes, better than Lionel Messi.

Griezmann really became the face of the French team in the wake of the Paris terror attacks in November of 2015. He was on the pitch at the Stade de France, playing against Germany in the friendly match that was abandoned after suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the stadium. Luckily, those bastards didn't get into the stadium.

Even luckier for Griezmann is the fact that his older sister, Maud, is still alive. She was at the Eagles of Death Metal show at the Bataclan music hall. Maud and her boyfriend clung to one another on the bloody floor motionlessly in silence. If they had moved, they would be dead. Indeed, the person next to Maude was shot and killed. 

Griezmann met his significant other, Erika Choperena, in 2011. Erika is a Spanish fashion blogger, so she makes sure that Antoine is dressed spiffily every time they are at a formal event. The couple welcomed their first child, daughter Mia, in April of 2016.

Thanks, Matt, for these soccer cards and the excuse to put up these photos of these attractive women. And, for the excuse to talk about some of the great stories that exist in world football outside of the English Premier League.

Meet the Brewers #34: Tito Francona

On June 15, 1970, Marvin Milkes was wheeling and dealing and engaged in three trades for, as The Sporting News put it in their June 27, 1970, issue, "three pinch-hitters." In a move that makes little sense in light of the ages of the players and, frankly, in light of how quickly the Brewers got rid of his cohort in the trade (but more on that when we meet Brewer #38, Al Downing), the Brewers traded away 25-year-old outfielder Steve Hovley to the Oakland A's and, in return, received Downing and Brewer #34, Tito Francona. 

John Patsy "Tito" Francona grew up in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, and attended high school in New Brighton, where he would later raise his own family. Tito got the nickname of "Tito" by his dad for being the little brother to David. Tito was a local sports star in the late 1940s in Western PA. His SABR biography mentions that he was the starting QB for his high school and was even All State in 1951. Maybe if he hadn't loved baseball he would have joined the assembly line of professional quarterbacks to hail from the area (he is from the same county that produced Joe Namath, after all). But he loved baseball, and his uncle got the attention of St. Louis Browns scouts. He signed with the Browns for $5,000 and a $250-month salary.

The military intervened and took Tito's next two years. On his return, he was no longer with the Browns -- they had moved to Baltimore and become the Orioles. Manager Paul Richards took a liking to Francona and gave him a shot to start at the age of 22. He did pretty well and even got a vote -- probably not deserved -- for rookie of the year in 1956. He and Rocky Colavito tied for 2nd with one vote each behind Luis Aparicio. Of the three, Colavito deserved the award based on WAR (2.4 to Luis's 1.5 and Tito's 1.2).

1994 Miller Brewing Commemorative Set

Tito was not a star, though. The Orioles decided to trade him to the White Sox prior to the 1958 season along with Billy Goodman and Ray more in exchange for Jack Harshman, Russ Heman, Jim Marshall and Larry Doby. The White Sox only gave him 142 plate appearances before deciding to get rid of him as well, sending him to Detroit with Bill Fischer in exchange for Bob Shaw and fellow father-of-a-manager Ray Boone.

The Tigers seemed unimpressed as well. Thus, on March 21, 1959, Francona is traded again -- for the third time is just 14 months -- but this time to the Cleveland Indians and once again for Larry Doby. Francona responded with his best season as a major leaguer -- 20 HR, 79 RBI, 2 SB, .363/.414/.566 slash line, and a fifth place finish in the MVP voting. 

Going by WAR, he was highly overrated -- really finishing about 10th -- but still it was a good year for Tito. And, as he said when his son was hired in 2012 as the Indians manager, Cleveland "was [his] home team. There was always a great atmosphere and it was only 90 miles from home." In 1961 he was named to his one and only All-Star team as an Indian at the age of 27. 

He stayed in Cleveland until after the 1964 season when the St. Louis Cardinals bought his contract. He played through 1966 there until the Phillies purchased his contract prior to the 1967 season. His stay in Philadelphia lasted only two months, at which time the Atlanta Braves bought his contract. He spent three years in Atlanta before, in August of 1969, the Oakland A's bought his contract -- only to trade him at the age of 36 to Milwaukee in 1970.

Tito's 1970 season was his last as a major leaguer. In an odd quirk, his son Terry also finished his career as a Milwaukee Brewer. Thanks to Terry joining the Brewers in 1990 -- 5 full years before the short, forgettable Milwaukee career of Derrick May -- Tito also can claim the title of being the first Brewer to see his son play for the Brewers!

After his retirement, Tito worked as the Parks and Recreation Director in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. He was inducted into the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame in 1978 -- an honor his son also received in 1995 and that guy Namath got in 1982. 

Finally, the Indians honored Tito in 2016 by inviting him to throw out the first pitch before Game 1 of the American League Divisional Series against the Boston Red Sox. Tito looks damn good for being 82 years old!

Due to his short time with the Brewers and his retirement from baseball after the 1970 season, the 1994 Miller Brewing card set is the only card of Tito as a Milwaukee Brewer. He actually had a card on the Indians in 2016 in the Topps Archives set, and the "Father-Son" insert set also featured him and Terry together.

Ugliness in a One-Card Post

I have other cards I could write up, but those cards are going to take a little more time and effort to write up than I can muster today. So, I'm going with a really ugly one card post. It's okay that I say that, because Peter -- the man behind the Baseball Every Night blog said it himself when he sent the card to me.

See? I never knew that Peter was a cheerleader in his past, though. It's amazing the things you can learn about your fellow card collectors just by interacting with them. Granted, based on his "cheer" in his letter above, Peter must have cheered in the 1870s.

Still, with an introduction like that, I was halfway expecting a crime scene photograph from the Manson Family or something. Nope -- it's just Graeme:

1995 Fleer is one of those sets that really creates a split in the hobby. Some people will tell you it is one of the ugliest sets ever made with all the busy crap going on here. Then, there are some baseball card collectors who are blind and cannot see how ugly it is.

That's the split, really. 

Peter sent me this in response to an email he sent to me where he listed out a bunch of cards that he had in his possession that he wanted to get rid of as not fitting in his collection. I looked at his list, and this one was the only card on the list that I needed.

Today, I was doing some sorting and cleanup around here -- finally getting cards into their binders after being lazy about it for a little while. I went to put old Graeme away, and things got even uglier. You see, I already had this card in my binder -- I just hadn't updated my Fleer Want List to reflect it. Thus, things got even uglier for me because, well, this one is just a duplicate.

Egad.

At least I had the opportunity today to get some organization done and to talk to a friend on the phone for a while. It's one of the fundamental things as a collector -- trying to stay organized enough so that you do not become the place where people dispose of their ugly children.

Next time, it will be different.

Many thanks, though, to Peter for adding some ugliness to my life.