I'm going to try and whip a quick post up as I have burgers to throw on the grill. No vegan household here.
Kill a cow.
Cook a cow.
Eat a cow.
Mark over at the Chronicles of Fuji sent a small envelope that was mostly stuffed with Justin Upton cards. No - I am not a collector of the younger Upton. I made a call out a while ago for Donaldson and Upton cards as my nephew (technically great nephew) collects cards and those are his two favorite players. Fuji sent in a nice donation for him, including these I am showing with some relics and a Panini Contenders.
Not all were Upton-ish, though. Here's three cards from a White Sox Kid's Club set, that would have been a giveaway to members of their club. Not sure the exact year, but with Wuentin only being on the south side from 2008-2011, I'm guessing in that range. Thanks Mark!
I am not taking part in Dave's Pack a Day giveaway over at Tribe Cards this season. He changed the format this year to a team assignment instead of a player draft. Didn't matter, I decided to take a year off and let someone else scoop up the White Sox. Dave did get around to mailing out what I think are the cards from 2014. Can't recall, but all I know is I got a lot of free cards, with some going to player collections and one really sweet miscut Stadium Club.
A few minis too I managed to secure. I don't actively hunt Joltin' Joe, but I take what I can. And one less card for a few A&G mini sets I need to complete. While I am not participating, I am watching the rips, Dave, and some nice stuff has appeared. Thanks for doing this for all us bloggers.
I think the grill is all warmed up. Then again, it was 95 degrees today and my back yard gets nothing but sun. I probably could have cooked without lighting that sucker, considering the nuclear furnace when you factor in the humidity.
Every Thursday, I post a card showing a ballplayer wearing a throwback uniform from my collection. Hopefully, he will be wearing it well, with proper pants blousing. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.
Still time for free cards - Click Here for details.
Over the next 30 days, I will drive west to Denver, and then east to New York about 10 days after returning from the mountains. Not sure how much cardboard will be involved. I have a couple ideas, but who knows what will fit in. Denver is a play it by ear. New York has a semi strict itinerary.
I really need to get to my scan folder. It's getting too full, so I hope you (and by you, I mean the guys I highlight) will forgive if I do some lumping over a few posts. There has been lots of sweet cards coming in, covering a wide range of collections.
Shane over at Reds Card Collector had a May the 4th contest for a complete insert set from the Chrome Perspectives set. I lucked out to be at the top of the Random list. Scans don't do the whole set justice. Here is just 3 of the 10 cards. Love the whole wanted poster idea of the cards, with Grievous, Vader, Dooku and other Star Wars villains appearing on cards. Thanks for the contest, Shane.
Corey at Tim Wallach dropped a fat PWE on me. I almost have an envelope ready to head back in return. Corey sent a nice collection of White Sox and Blackhawks, some shown shown above. I love getting vintage of 1980 Olympic gold medalists. O'Callahan didn't have a long NHL career, but as the only member of Team USA that came to Chicago, I'll take it. Should have a return to you within a month, I hope.
Some more Blackhawks, these in a #Supertrader envelope from Adam at Cardboard Clubhouse. I dropped a decent Reds package to him, and he outdid it in return. Lots of Hawks via full junk wax team sets. What wasn't an addition to a year section of the Hawks box filled in missing cards for the team sets. Great bunch of 80's and 90's stars with the 3 pictured. Two Hall of Famers in Goulet and Savard. And would they just put Grandpa in already? Com'on, NHL.
How about some baseball set fills as well? I'll have to double check, but I still don't have the complete Fleer set pictured. I know - right? What the hell is wrong with me. Psycho Steve was needed, though. So was the '92 SC of Sax and a game card of closer Hernandez. For a few years, he was lights out when handed the ball in the last inning.
Remember the idea of Stadium Club? Exclusive cards and all this other perks. I actually was (is?) a charter member. I believe my charter set, with medallion, is in a box in the basement. I would go look for it, but I would probably find another 10k stash of cards my wife tucked away in a cleaning binge and I really just don't have the time for that. Still have the shoe box full from the last one to sort out.
The star of Adam's package is this sealed White Sox Stadium Club team set. I have NEVER seen this before. 30 cards within, with the usual names of Thomas, Ventura, Fisk, McDowell and others from 1993. But there are other names forgotten. Remember when Dave Stieb was a member of the White Sox? Or Ellis Burks? Terry Leach? Not a lot to remember, even if the club did win the West Division that year. Not sure if I should open this or not. Thanks for the cards, Adam.
Reminder - want free cards? I'm running an easy giveaway at this link. Sign up.
If you pick up any of the 10 pack repacks from Target, for the past year a staple in them has been a pack or two of 2015 Leaf Heroes of Baseball. The bad Musial autograph from the blaster was in a separate top loader, so there is no chance of pulling that. I've almost built the 60 cards baset and 20 card Musial insert set from repacks. You get 5 cards in the pack with photo shopping to wipe out the logos.
Philly? Cub? Philly? Cub? Oh I just don't know!
One of the curious cards in the set, to my eyes, is Roberto Alomar.
On the back, the reference to any team is the back to back titles for the Toronto Blue Jays (which, btw, is typed out just like that - full city and mascot). But you can clearly see Roberto is not a Blue Jay but a White Sox, a team Alomar played a total of 85 games with in parts of 2003 and 2004.
I mentioned the shop jobs, and clearly someone made sure his helmet is clean and not a single stitch of the Sox logo is shown by his left arm. Someone at Leaf, though, didn't do so good with the background.
I've seen Panini go above and beyond to wipe out all traces of team logos. Not sure if the background gives a company some leeway, but those got missed. And it's not like you can't make them out. These are not 2016 Topps flagship backgrounds. Hell - that's Paulie sitting in the dugout. A blind man with cataracts could identify Konerko on this card.
Topps, I get a cut of whatever you earn for me finding this. A case of Dynasty is sufficient.
As you can see, I decided it was time for a small redesign. Nothing extreme, as the layout is the same. Just some new colors (based on the '59 White Sox uniform palette) and a new header. I didn't go nuts and dropped the animated TV gif. I was thinking of a scrolling marquee board, ala the 70's version of the Titanton, but I went simple. Nothing too drastic.
I don't need your help, Oliver!
Recently, a local big box (Meijer's) had 5 blasters of 2014 Panini Golden Age. I love the 3 year run of that set, as I have talked in the past. A couple weeks prior I found one at Target, so I did my best to grab as many of the ones from Meijer over the course of a week. I got 4. I want to hunt down the person that got the last one.
I am long done with the base. I was just looking for the inserts and hits in the blasters. Remember when blasters contained a guaranteed hit? Well, best I could tell the '14 Golden Age contains hits from the Legends of Music relic set, as all my hits were from that 8 card set. Yeah, I got some dupes, but read on and maybe there might be a giveaway at the end of the post (there is). But the guaranteed relic wasn't all I found in a couple.
This is one of the First Fifty serialed cards. You can see the words in the upper corners replacing the scroll work of the base cards. And yes - the numbering is to 50. This card is 30 of 50 showcasing the beautiful Gene Tierney. Not bad for a low numbered serial from a blaster. On to the hits.
Willie appears in the relic set twice. Two different images, and I assume the relics are different on both.
Because they are different on the two cards I pulled. The top black relic feels like, almost like a part of a number patch, so I'm not quite sure what it's from. If it's a shirt, it would be dang heavy and hot to wear. But this other relic is a bandana, plain and simple. And no - both cards do not smell like hemp. Much.
Father to the far less talented former singer of the Monday Night Football theme song, Here's a nice two color piece of what appears to be a jacket from Hank Williams. There are only two kinds of music I hate - Country and Western. But I give a tone of respect to Mr. Williams. Won't buy any of his stuff, but if I know he's singing, I won't turn the station. Nice faint pin stripe in the center.
No Nick - this one is mine. Find your own. I was most excited when this card came out of the first of the 4 I got from Meijers. What's to say about a punk legend that I hasn't already been said. The relic is a piece of a t-shirt (what else?) and humbling to own. More so than the Nelson and the Williams. I have 4 of the 8 from the set. There is a 3rd Willie card, another of Hank and two from Liberace. I don't expect any more blasters, so I will have to complete this set from ebay.
However, that wasn't the end of the hits. When I found the relic pack from one blaster (that contained Joey Ramone), I set it aside to save it for last. The pack just before I revealed my relic, this came out.
Expired redemption? Yes. But just barely, and Panini has a great history of honoring old, expired redemptions. I quickll made the request, and so far, this is still showing as"active". I redeemed it in the middle of May, only 5 and a half months after the expiration. I'm sure this is laying around the office. I'll post it if/when it showing up in my mailbox.
So yeah, with this new blog look, how about a contest? Along with the blasters, I ripped a box of 14 Golden Age from a sale I saw at Dave and Adam's. So I have a LOT of base. So much that I have one complete base set (150 cards) along with a partial set maybe 30 cards short. Plus a few extra inserts and 2 extra Willie Nelson relics. The bandana one. So like I usually run my giveaways, comment below if you want in. I'll go a week or so. Promote if you like, but not needed. Follow me if you want, but again, not needed. Let's close comment entries on 6/12 at 11:59pm. All the names hit the randomizer. The person is position #1 gets the full set with a funky piece of bandana with a word on it. The person at the very bottom gets the partial set with a plain red relic swatch.
It's that simple. And if you have any Golden Age inserts laying around from the 2012-2014 release years, my Wants list at the top shows the full size inserts I need. And any minis are appreciated too.
Now comes the hard part - Ramones or Hank? Ramones or Hank? If only the Ramones covered a Hank Williams song.
But do you ever go back and read some of the comments left?
For the past couple days, Night Owl, Stubby and myself have been having a spirited discussion concerning Chase Utley. Feel free to read our responses, but for the tl:dr crowd, the gist is that NO feels Utley plays the game hard and did no wrong in the take out injury from last year's NLCS. And the Mets are whiners for the rule change. Stubby thinks Utley is an asshole and the Dodgers are Bush leaguers. I think Utley may not have gone in with intent to injure, but he went in too hard and the rule change, while not perfect, is beneficial. I also did a lot of research and posted a ton of links. I tend to be that way. But one of NO responses was "You sure went out of your way to
dig up ... well, I don't know what you dug up, because you're not proving anything. In fact, what the fuck are you talking about?"
Being that I have my own forum, I decided to respond more over here. I have a mailing from NO to show off (and it could be my last from him for all I know), but I am a pretty honest and upfront guy. At least I like to believe I am. I certainly don't have the readership of Night Owl Cards. I'm sure the Owl easily breaks triple digits with each post. I'd have to run a contest to hit that level in views. 25% of the numbers on my posts are probably accidental clicks or redirects. As I have stated - I write for me. I write for fun and enjoyment. Sure, I can put time into a post and feel sad if the views are low, but I'll keep writing and trying to be unique. I do a lot of Sudoko and other puzzles for the same reason I write - it keeps my mind sharp.
I tend to be subtle when I write. I will tap dance around what's in my head when I know it's bad. I don't like being negative in a direct sense, and the answer to "what the fuck are you talking about" is pretty negative. To Owl, and to anyone that has watched our discussion there, I should pull the band aid off and hopefully not piss anyone off. Greg - know that I love ya, and I hold no ill will against you. We both have our thoughts and passionate feelings about sports.
But I feel you are being biased.
We are all guilty of it. I am. There isn't a single blogger, nor reader of the blogs, that isn't biased in one sense or another. My point is your bias sees that Utley slide as a hard play, and the evidence is clear it was far too hard. Utley went in late, with no attempt to reach the bag and all attempt to take down the fielder. The injury could have been avoided, but Chase decided he was going to do whatever was needed to stop that double play, in violation of the rules that stood at the time. Sure, they changed the rules after the fact, and maybe the new rule isn't perfect, but it's a start. You say if the uniforms were reversed, you would be more angry, but still okay with it. I'm sorry - I can't believe you. I know if one of the players were is Sox pinstripes, his position in the play would affect my reaction and my bias.
I'll see my beloved Blackhawks get away with one, knowing that they should have received a penalty, or the call was light in our favor. And I'll even comment that we got lucky and chalk it up to "well, we were owed for this and that". The games (all sports) tend to balance themselves out over the season and what should have happened in one game is offset by what didn't happen in another. But there is no balance out for injuries. Granted, Tejada going out did not affect the outcome of the series, but what if it did?
I brought up the Greinke/Quentin altercation of 2013. Owl thinks Quentin is a lowlife scum. Quentin got 8 games suspension. Greinke lost a month time - maybe about the same amount of starts. Per NO, "Charging the mound is not anything that should be part of the game". I'll let you in on a secret of why I brought that play up.
I think it does belong in the game.
Think about it. You have a ball coming at you at 90 MPH. You have less than 2 seconds to react to the placement of the ball. The pitcher has complete control over whether you do or don't get hit. Some pitches away, but a few are intentional. And what's the recourse of a field player on a pitcher that intentionally plunks them? Do they get to throw a fast ball at him? If Puig gets hit by Matt Harvey, does he get to take the mound and throw one when Harvey comes to the plate? Sure, the other team's pitcher gets to send back a message. And they should - I support that as well. But messages should not at someone's head. Never. That's Bush League. And Greinke went Bush on Quentin. You can state the facts of the game at the time of the pitch - doesn't matter. Greinke was throwing at Quentin. It's evident.
Syndergaard threw Utley. And Greinke threw at Quentin. And if someone is intending to hurt you, in the heat of the game, you are going to take matters in your own hands. Do you think Quentin started running towards the mound thinking "I'm going to break his collarbone"? Did Utley slide thinking "I'm busting that leg"? No. Neither did. But injuries happen. History has existed between Greinke and Quentin. Greinke threw at Quentin's head. Quentin responded. Right or wrong - if you head hunt, expect a response.
Well, I think I have said my peace. As I mentioned, NO did send me some cards recently. Could be the last shipment from NY for all I know, but let's appreciate the rectangle goodness within.
Some shiny. A couple nice PC additions in the old school logo on the Crede and the UD Icons. Plus some pen corrected vintage and a sweet Fisk button. Thanks Greg.
In the heat of our discussion, NO tweeted:
Someone stop me from starting a blog called Chase Utley Is Baseball's Greatest Gift because I'm about 30 minutes away from doing it.
Greg - in my book, we're cool. We're not going to be in agreement on everything, and we shouldn't be. It's who we are as humans to think as we do, form opinions counter to another and hopefully discuss amicably. Over at Night Owl Cards, you can say what you want, being honest and truthful. On your blog, everything is valid and correct, with not a single inaccurate word written.
I'm not a very organized person. One look at my desk will show you that.
Have another pop, why don't ya!
Surprisingly, when I had a car, it was always clean. I keep my wife's car clean. My desk at work (though I am rarely there) is clean. I fold all the laundry, take out the garbage, do the dishes. Everything needed to keep stuff neat and organized. But my desk is a mess, and that is an extension of my head. That's a mess too.
I need to leave myself notes to not forget things. I make lists when running to the store for anything more than 3 items. And even on three I will forget something. No matter how important something is, I will forget about it. My brain just works that way. I remember that Lee Majors and Farrah Fawcett were once married. Why? Why can't I replace that useless bit of info with something like which short prints I need for 2013 Gypsy Queen. So what that a rat can tread water for 3 days and fit through a hole the size of a quarter. I still need like a dozen 2015 A&G base cards. Or maybe more - I can't remember off the top of my head.
So I make lists. And when it comes to lists here, people look at them. And I can mark off numbers and my lists get smaller. Adam from Addiction as Therapy helps a lot with my lists.
I like that he helps with SPs. Short prints are the bane to set collectors. I don't aggressively go after them, but the part of my mind next to the memory of my home phone number when I was eight (312-389-9551) needs to complete the sets. So I work on them.
Adam also likes to fill other White Sox needs, and that's a good thing. Though, I am hoping I forget that LaRoche ever wore black. Just like I hope to forget David Wells, Bartolo Colon, Jose Canceso and Manny Ramirez ever wore it too.
Maybe there is something more I can learn about Farrah Fawcett.
