Whoa.

Went to my (relatively) local card shop a day or two ago, Champ Sportscards in Huntsville, Alabama. The store was great, and the shop owner, Brooks, was friendly as I asked him some general questions about his shop and business.


One of the things I thought was awesome about the store was that there was a box full of 1961 Topps and 1962 Post (previously reviewed here). The 1962 Post set was really cool to me, especially. Ended up with these two cards from that box that included Orlando Cepeda and Maury Wills...

Harvey Haddix card. If you're a real baseball fan, you know his story. (I actually managed to squeeze this card into a penny sleeve, not so with this next card.)As soon as I saw this one, I had to have it, forgoing the one with a Giants player with a rip across his face. The (hopefully) kid that did this back in 1962 gave Ron Hansen a ski-mask-looking thing over his face, and a "beany." Ron is exhorting us to look at his "cop." I assume that by "BALLS" the kid was referring to Hansen's eyeballs. That's just a guess, though. [the middle bubble reads, "Tweet," referring to Hansen's status as an Oriole] The corners are horrendously worn, making my efforts to put this in a penny sleeve hopeless. The card is also heavily creased, as you may be able to tell.

However, this was a terrific card, and the Haddix balanced out the eccentricity of my purchase. The total price for both these?

Three dollars. (By the way, I also snagged a Curt Schilling Donruss RC, Brandon Hicks 2010 Chrome RC, a Glavine, and a Cardinal-jerseyed Smoltz for $2. Total.)

I love this hobby.

1990 Upper Deck Baseball stickers

May it first be noted that this, being the fifth post of 2012 on TDTC, marks the passage of lasts year's post mark of four! Progress! Here, now is Upper Deck's 22 year old foray into team stickers. Shiinneee...These actually scanned surprisingly well, considering how hard it is to see them. Best I can tell, these were inserted one per pack of 1990 Upper Deck.

A Pirates sticker here-Each sticker is a little bit like "A history of MLB logos". Pirates fans, did that particular scalawag have any sort of nickname/existence as a team mascot? Jess wonderin'...

St. Louis Cardinals sticker. The back of the sticker is a blank white back. Yawn...I actually have a nice stack of these hologram stickers-maybe I could use them as trade package throw-ins. Unfortunately I do not have the Braves version of this sticker-anyone care to help me out there?

This card is sorta creepy. Apparently Chief Wahoo has gone...3-D! Considering this was 1990, this is like, bangin', cutting-edge technology! Amazing! (Looking back, Mr. Cardinal seems to have this 3-D form too. Cool, I guess. (Picture 1990 kid pulling Mr. Wahoo here: "Buzz Hype, yo! Man, that is clean!!!")

Last, I post a Cubs card. I posted this mostly because I have like 5 of them I don't really care for. (Picture afore-mentioned 1990 kid: "I have like, five of these Cubs hologrammies. Buzz kill, man!)Any diehard Cubs fans want these? (I know you're out there.)

So there you have it. 1990 Upper Deck hologram stickers! I frankly have no idea what a kid in 1990 would have done with these. They're not by any means something you stick on your car bumper (though that would look awesome to have the entire back of your car a giant hologram, ...right?) They're just...shiny. Huh. Well, anyway, 1990 UD holograms, everybody! (Let's bounce on outta heah, ya'll!)

Spring Training Is Here!

Quite a few baseball cards depict players in spring training. This is for two reasons: First,

it is easier for photographers to get close to the players when they are playing meaningless games than when they are, and also to get shots of players in new uniforms (See 2008 Tampa Bay Rays Upper Deck cards) or posed shots for various sets. The alternative for this second reason is airbrushing, which is a whole 'nother story.

Along with this rather random Trot Nixon card, here is an interesting poem I came across that seemed appropriate for today.

William Carlos Williams, "At the Ball Game" (from Spring and All)

At the Ball Game

The crowd at the ball game

is moved uniformly

by a spirit of uselessness

which delights them--

all the exciting detail

of the chase

and the escape, the error

the flash of genius--

all to no end save beauty

the eternal--

So in detail they, the crowd,

are beautiful

for this

to be warned against

saluted and defied--

It is alive, venomous

it smiles grimly

its words cut--

The flashy female with her

mother, gets it--

The Jew gets it straight--it

is deadly, terrifying--

It is the Inquisition, the

Revolution

It is beauty itself

that lives

day by day in them

idly--

This is

the power of their faces

It is summer, it is the solstice

the crowd is

cheering, the crowd is laughing

in detail

permanently, seriously

without thought

We're underway with the 2012 baseball season everyone! Go Braves!

A Quandary, A Dilemma, A Bind

I was going through some junk wax today and saw some old acquaintaces, some 2010 Topps Million Card Giveaway cards.This was before I was as connected with bloggers who use these codes, as I am now, and sadly these cards were useless to me or anyone else and then expired. Surely they have some purpose?

Hmmm...Let's experiment with this here card. This is a 2010 MCG card of Ichiro Suzuki. Incidentally, my good friend Wikipedia tells me that Ichiro's manager in 1994 was the one who convinced him to put "Ichiro" of the back of his jersey, instead of "Suzuki." Apparently it was part of some marketing deal. I dunno, it kind of annoys me that on all his cards he is referred to as "Ichiro." I mean, Albert Pujols has both names on his card. Should he have just his last name on there (or first?) Hm. (Does Ron Artest have "Metta World Peace on his basketball cards? By the way, I always read "Metta World Peace" with a deep voice.)

Using the awesome power of my (other) good friend scissors, I lopped and cropped Ichiro out of his tilted posture to this:

I know what you're thinking-I lopped the bottom part off. I didn't; it just scanned funny. It actually has "ked is not" slanted across the bottom, which is awesome.

In conclusion, I really don't know what to do with these. Still. What I'll probably end up doing with them is using them for 'dummy' support cards in trade packages...or something. I'll try to avoid cutting them up anymore. No promises though.

What about you-any similar situations like this?

Topps Comes Through (?)

More like a "Things Done WITH Cards-style post here today, boys and girls. Here we go...

One day, many moons ago, I found that our beloved Topps Company offered, and still does, a "No Purchase Necessary" deal. How, you may ask, does it work? By digging out my magnifying glass, and squinting at the fine print, here's what I found.... "For the chance to obtain any of the cards above, (inserts) at the same odds, (from 1:3-1:40,000-there's a yeah, right insert for ya) while supplies last, hand print your name and address on a 3 x 5 card (What if I do it an a 4 x 6 card? Will they refuse to mail anything to me?)

and mail in a #10 envelope to NPN 2011 Topps Baseball...etc, etc. Only one card per envelope, mailed separately, (eh?) postmarked by November 16th, 2011 and received by November 23rd 2011..." and then it talks about how you must do a multiplication problem too if you are of Canadian descent. Yeah, sure, okay. This I did, I mailed a card in a #10 envelope, and waited. Last week, lo and behold, I received a small manila envelope.

What could be inside?

Oh, wow! It's an insert card of recently-alleged-steroid-user Ryan Braun! Cool!

Two days later... (Yes, I did this for Series one and two...I'm just crazy that way...)




Same deal with a small manila envelope and....

Ta-da! A Bob Feller 60 years of Topps insert!

So what do you think? Is this some sort of out reach thing by Topps for poor kids without 2 bucks to buy a pack of cards with? I really wonder if any actual card collectors do this...Anyone? Any and all feedback from you all would be welcomed.

The Team Card

For my inaugural post as I try to help resurrect TDTC, I have for you an exposition of the "small stuff" team card. Above I posted an image of a classic team card, the 1961 Detroit Tigers Team Card. This card sort of embodies the KISS model to me-the whole team, right there. Lately, though, especially in the years that I've started collecting (2008, 2010-2012) there's been some messing with that formula by Topps and Upper Deck. Take a look.

Here's a classic card for you. The Diamondbacks, one of the newest franchises, congregating for the timeless team photo in the bleachers. Some of them are even smiling. Imagine that!

Very next year-WHAT?!? Upper Deck portraying Scott Rolen on more than one card in a year set is enough for me to with they were out of the baseball card business! (A quick glance at the back, however shows that the next best player on the team at the time was...uh...Alex Rios. Never mind.) Anyway, there's one example of the "team" card...a player fielding spring training grounders. Any Jose Bautista Blue Jays from you in the comments section might make this a tad less awkward.

Speaking of less awkward, here's another "team" card. Tim Lincecum and...someone else. Better...but still feels like a representative sort of effort. I don't know that I like that. Why not just do away with the team card and have two player cards from this angle? On to the next card:

Here's the 2011 Topps rendition of the Detroit Tigers team. Brennan Boesch and Miggy Cabrera. I still really don't like this. Is Topps implying that the Detroit Tigers play with two players every game? On another odd observation (maybe Topps really does have too many inserts this year) these guys probably have a Diamond Duo insert somewhere...

Here's a slightly more classic example. You know what, this feels about right. It's not posed, per se, though they are smiling for the camera, and they've obviously just wrapped up a game, so they're all in uniform and (presumably) smiling after a win.

So there you have it. Here's a final Topps Heritage classic version team card.

I had a couple of other 2011 Topps cards with more players in the shots, but the White Sox card really seemed best to me. Another card I didn't post was the 2010 Tigers "franchise history" card, which (I think) showed a statue inside the ballpark. Hm. Somewhere, there's a fine line between cards in a Baseball set, and promotional cards you get in a fan pack, I think.

1999 Workman Publishing Baseball Tarot

As I am oft to do, I randomly searched Amazon for baseball-related material.  I don't quite remember the combination of terms that led me here, but I found myself intrigued and perplexed by an offer for something called, "Baseball Tarot."  I believe it cost me five bucks.  Maybe not even that much.  Brand new.

I will say the packaging is quite ingenious.  The whole thing comes a thick fold-out arrangement with the book (with which to interpret the cards) on one side (it can be removed for easier reading) and the deck of 78 cards on the other.  Since this was new, I had to remove the celophane from the package and from the cards.

I know very little to nothing about tarot, other than I know one shuffles the cards, deals them, then flips them over in a certain arrangement in order to decipher one's future - or something.  I dunno.  Anyway, this is the same thing, but relates the entire process to baseball.  I found the tie-in quite clever and amusing. 

The cards are divded into two "sections" or "categories" for lack of better words - "The Majors" and "The Minors."  The majors contain cards depicting "The Rookie," "The Legend," "The Manager," etc.  The Minors are further broken down into "suits:" The Suit of Balls, The Suit of Bats, etc.  Each card has a baseball-related term (or terms) associated with it and those terms are then parlayed into life lessons: Error, Triple Play, Home Run, Shake Off... 

As you can see, the cards are quite a bit bigger than a standard card (shown by the 1987 O-Pee-Chee Dennis Lamp above).

The book is very well thought out, I have to admit.  I really expected some goofy baseball tie-in, and though there is certainly some of that in the book, much of it actually can be applied to baseball and life (in terms of the writing and organization. What you do with the actual readings is in your hands, as it were).  For example, when laying out the cards, one can employ a "Ball, Strike, Out" or a "Who, What, I Dunno" or a myriad of other baseball-related scenarios.  Each scenario is explained for the person wishing to partake in a reading.

How one interprets each card is also related to baseball: Are you ahead of the count or behind it when the card is drawn?  Are you in the ballpark?  What's the signal? and so forth...

Though I don't give a rip (pun intended, after all we are talking about a "pack" of cards here) about tarot readings and the like, I think the tie-in to America's pasttime was (is) very well executed in this little package.  For the novelty alone, it was worth the five bucks I spent.