Uncustomed Heroes of Baseball: Giants

I am really sad that this guy's going to have to wear a Boston Red Sox uniform next year. I don't really want to hate him. He's a likable guy, he's got a hell of a fan base in San Francisco, and he's too lovable to be hated. So I'm not going to enjoy hating him.

I already made a custom of him earlier on this year, but since he had an amazing postseason, I gave him a cooler one.

This guy is one of the game's unsung heroes, always coming in at odd places and being a good veteran journeyman guy for various teams to pick up. I was happy he finally got a World Series ring this year with the Giants, and I was happy he had a nice year with them. He just signed with the Marlins today, so hopefully that will lead to good things.

Man, Jake Peavy got extremely lucky that he got picked up by the second World Series winning team in a row this July. Whoever's gonna get him next July better pray for success...unless it's the Cubs.

Coming Tomorrow- The Indians weren't nearly as good as in 2013, but they're still improving. A bunch of catchers premiere tomorrow.

Hey, wait a minute...

...I thought the big trades were supposed to happen at the end of July, not August.

All three of these are huge, especially the Morneau one. Still, I (and Topps), would have preferred them make these trades a month earlier. But oh well.

Custom Card of the Day: Morse Edition

 

There are many advantages to being a word-of-mouth player. No, really.

 

A word-of-mouth player's career doesn't begin as a rookie. A word-of-mouth player settles into a number of teams, loses hope, and then all of the sudden sprouts out of absolutely nowhere, and starts playing well midway into his career. And then you look back into your collection and see this guy's been around for a while, and you might even have his rookie card and didn't know it.

 

R.A. Dickey is a great example of a word-of-mouth player, because the 2012 season alone landed him back in everyone's binders, solely due to everyone talking about how good he was. Mark Reynolds was another word-of-mouth player, because after his rookie year, he took like 3 or 4 years to sprout into this awesome player he is. Hell, I took JJ Hardy out of my binders for a period of time, and now look how he's playing. He's an early frontrunner for the All Star game, and this from a mediocre infielder from 2008.

 

But of late, Michael Morse has become the patron saint of the word-of-mouth player. Until the 2011 season, I don't think anybody outside of Washington knew who he was. I went to a Nats game in 2011, and all of the sudden the people were talking about Morse like he was some sort of God. And I'd never heard of him, really. I'd heard of Zimmerman and Desmond, but not Morse. And that game, Morse came late and promptly smacked the ball around. And there was the seed. From there, I scoured my collection for Michael Morse cards.

 

I didn't exactly find his rookie card, but I found a few cards of him on the Mariners (billed as Mike Morse) from 2006 and 2008. And I saw that he'd began as a middling, non-hitting outfielder, which was odd, because I thought the 2008 Mariners already had a Ben Broussard in their roster.

 

Yet last year, he really became a mainstay for the Nats. He was so powerful that he managed to hit a home run backwards.

 

Of course, now he's back with the Mariners, still hitting home runs, though his audience has gone down a tad. He's still good, he just sorta left the picture a little bit since he's on the Mariners, land of the dead prospects.

 

Yet I still enjoy it whenever he hits one out. Because I remember when I saw it like I'd never heard of him before.

 

Coming Tomorrow- He was awful in 2011. He was awesome in 2012. Now...he's alright, I guess.



#1 Sign of a Slow News Week

This guy's signing is one of the top news stories.

I mean, don't get me wrong, Morse is a great player, but the fact that his sign to another team, and the Mariners of all people, gets highly publicized, proves that we're going through a rut in terms of news stories. Something needs to happen. Michael Bourn hasn't been signed yet. Something needs to happen!

Year by Year Customs: 1977

I'm home sick today with a low-grade fever, amongst other things. Figured I'd get this out here now. Today I need to make more customs, and I have a lot of time for that. For now, enjoy these ones. They're not exactly headliners, but the man up top has become a Philly star, nicknamed "The Vanimal".


If this set had a traded set, I'd airbrush him into a Cubs uni. Unfortunately, I was a year too late.


Saw this man play. He's shaping up to be a great player, as well as a pretty big character on the field.


Coming Tomorrow- A cool looking set, three cards of which I still need to make.