Contest Winnings from Thorzul

Before I go headfirst into Series One, like everyone else in the blogosphere, I want to flash back one more time to Update Series, via a package from Thorzul, who needs no introduction.

For those unaware, Thorzul had his annual Trade Me Anything contest, and coupled the outgoing cards with DVDs, challenging others to guess the references. I ended up winning the remaining inserts of the box. Let's see what was in here.

Topps Pennant: Royals Insert. These were silly, and I hope Topps doesn't bring them back for 2013.

Gold #'d to 2012s:
Rhiner Cruz, Astros. One rookie that I've been told to keep an eye on, though he'll be in last place this year.
Scott Baker, Twins. Forgot he was still on the Twins. Is probably on some other team now.
Aroldis Chapman, Reds. Now that is awesome. A gold numbered card of Chapman goes right with my gold of Andy Pettite's last season before his first retirement, and my gold of Evan Longoria's rookie, which you can't have.
Kyle Blanks, Padres. Apparently a fun player.
Jose Altuve, Astros. Another fun player with great potential. Sadly on the Astros
Travis Wood, Reds. Almost pitched a no-hitter against my Phillies. Still a bit pissed about that.
Trevor Cahill, A's. Now on the D-Backs I think.

Gold Shiny Things:
Jay Bruce, Reds. Very nice, as Bruce is still a pretty big deal.
Hector Santiago, White Sox. Rookie, so I guess he's good.

Golden Moments:
Johnny Bench
George Brett
Josh Hamilton
Matt Cain. I think Cain is the only one I don't have.

Golden Greats:
Mike Schmidt. Always nice to pull a Phillie
Wade Boggs, unfortunately in a Sox uni
Willie Stargell. There are not enough Stargell cards in the world.

A few used Golden Giveaway cards. Thankfully. I didn't want to get let down five times and not get any actual cards.

And the Giants Topps Pennant insert

Overall, some pretty nice cards. Thanks again, Thorzul! Of course, now I can concentrate on Series 1.

Oh, credibility wasted

 

Ugh.

Why does he keep lying like this? In 2009, Alex Rodriguez said 'Okay, I did steroids, but it only did it once, and I'll never do it again'. Of course, now we know that was bullcrap.

Apparently, A-Rod kept taking steroids, only this time from a different place, some BALCO-esque place in Miami. And that adds to the already-sliding A-Rod slope.

I mean, first he loses his ability to hit. Then he gets hurt last season and never gets back. Then he gets replaced by Kevin Youkilis and is likely out for the season. NOW...THIS! Alex Rodriguez is becoming the most scorned, despised player in baseball, whereas 10 years ago he was one of the most beloved. I mean, from people calling him the best player in baseball to people saying he sucks at life. What a downhill ride.

This hurts the Yankee fans even more, because they've lost their hero, their icon, and the only guy worth a damn, except for the other people on the team worth a damn (which is like 6 or 7 people). It especially hurts his chances at the Hall of Fame, which were definite 5 years ago, and are now very unlikely.

I don't even know what to say. I honestly just don't care anymore. That's how this whole thing has made me feel. A ray of indifference. I don't care if they get rid of him, I don't care if he never gets elected to the hall of fame, I don't care what happens to A-Rod.

It's sad. It really is.

Local Card Show: A Fistful of 10 cent bins

It snowed last night, covering the driveway in a lump of snow, and making it incredibly cold. Yet that wasn't enough to keep me from driving out to the local mall for a card show today. I've been going to considerably less of these lately, but whenever I do go, I make sure to fill a brown bag up with scoured commons and cool stuff, derived from 10 cent bins. Which I accomplished today, from a few different dealers.

Baseball:
2012 Topps Update (I got quite a bit of this): Matt Cain HL, Josh Hamilton AS, Jamie Moyer HL, Adam Dunn AS, Asdrubal Cabrera AS, CJ Wilson AS, Andrew McCutchen AS, Justin Verlander AS, Giancarlo Stanton, Roy Oswalt, a clearly photoshopped Michael Pineda, Rafael Soriano, AJ Burnett, Ernesto Frieri, Jake Westbrook, Brett Myers, Andrew Cashner
2008 SP Authentic: Chien Ming Wang, Frank Thomas, Grady Sizemore, Greg Maddux, Jim Thome, Pedro Martinez
2002 Topps Archives: Luis Aparicio, Rollie Fingers, Fergie Jenkins, Rich Gossage
2001 Topps Archives Dave Winfield
1983 Topps Tom Seaver
1982 Topps Dave Winfield
2002 Diamond Kings ICHIRO
2004 Diamond Kings Roy Oswalt, Brandon Phillips
2005 Diamond Kings CC Sabathia
2000 Topps Update Barry Zito Rookie! Probably worth a lot more after his 2012 season, but not as much as it did in 2002.
2002 Topps Rickey Henderson, Randy Johnson
2001 Golden Moments of Jackie Robinson
2007 Topps 52 Rookies of Ubaldo Jimenez
2007 SP Authentic Nomar Garciaparra, John Smoltz
2008 UD Masterpieces of Hunter Pence
2002 Topps Heritage Kerry Wood
2007 Topps Heritage Randy Johnson
1999 Topps Gallery Manny Ramirez
2000 Topps Stadium Club Curt Schilling
2001 SP Authentic Greg Maddux
2003 Playoff Prestige Rickey Henderson

Football:
2012 Topps Prime (Hobby version, which means Thick Version): Desean Jackson, LeSean McCoy, Ray Lewis, Ladanian Tomlinson, Drew Brees, Calvin Johnson, Jay Cutler, Maurice Jones-Drew
2012 Topps Prime Gold: Matt Ryan, AJ Green
2012 Topps Prime Primetimers: DeSean Jackson, Josh Freeman
2004 Topps Total Matt Schaub ROOKIE! And if that's not enough...
2004 Topps Matt Schaub ROOKIE! I got both of those from the same dealer. And also,
2004 Topps Kellen Winslow Jr. ROOKIE!
2000 Topps Troy Aikman, Terrell Owens, Marshall Faulk, Jerome Bettis, Tony Gonzalez, Marvin Harrison, Steve Young, Deion Sanders, Edgerrin James
1999 Topps Curtis Martin, Marvin Harrison, Terrell Owens, Jerome Bettis, Tony Gonzalez
2005 Topps Steven Jackson, Marvin Harrison, Clinton Portis, Curtis Martin, Larry Fitzgerald
2002 Gridiron Kings Marvin Harrison
2003 Gridiron Kings Rich Gannon (!), Clinton Portis, Terrell Owens, Curtis Martin, Todd Heap
2012 Topps QB Reprints: Jim Plunkett, Dan Fouts, Steve Young and Phil Simms
2006 Turkey Red Terrell Owens, Ray Lewis, Clinton Portis, LaDanian Tomlinson
2007 Topps Maurice Jones-Drew, Marques Colston, Tony Romo
2000 Topps Gallery Randy Moss, Terrell Owens
2004 Fleer Showcase Tony Gonzalez, Ricky Williams
2004 Topps Edgerrin James, Tony Gonzalez
2000 Fleer Tradition Hines Ward, Marvin Harrison
2002 Topps Tony Gonzalez
1997 Topps Terrell Owens
2001 Topps Tony Gonzalez
2004 Flair Marvin Harrison
2007 Topps HOF Thurman Thomas insert
2003 Topps (Heritage?) Tony Gonzalez
1993 Topps Joe Montana (Card 200. The other Montana from that set I got at another show)
1995 Topps Jerome Bettis
2003 Fleer Authentix Ahman Green
2008 Topps Black Brett Favre
2007 Upper Deck Donovan McNabb
1988 Topps Jerry Rice

So yeah, that was a pretty nice show.

Double Upton

This has been a great week for brothers in sports. First, both Harbaughs land a spot in the Super Bowl, and now both Uptons end up on the Braves, or as a certain miniature-horse-loving-bloggers calls them, the Barves.

Let's examine this, for a moment. The Braves outfield next year will be feature Justin Upton, BJ Upton, and Jason Heyward. That means that 2/3rds of the Braves outfield will be made up of Upton siblings.

Maybe that's a little lopsided, too. Both brothers are great players by themselves, but imagine both on the same team. That'd be an experience. Not since the Hairstons have we seen siblings playing together, and the Hairstons were/are mediocre at best.

Also, this isn't a great sign when putting them in the same sentence as the Phillies. The Braves and the Nationals alone have put them into first place already, and their lack of real reasoning in the lineup might bring them below the Mets, which is a scary prospect indeed. But it'll be interesting to see how the NL East race turns out next year, as either the Braves, or the Nationals, or for some strange reason one of the other teams, could take it.

But still, with the Uptons, those Braves are gonna be strong. Heck, I imagine Fredi Gonzalez is combing the nation for younger Upton sibling, maybe to play 2nd base now that Martin's gone.

Maybe, for 2014, the Braves will be made up entirely of Upton siblings. Which would actually be kinda cool.

Stream of Consciousness- Jacoby Ellisbury

The one downside of frigid months like January and February, where illness is in the air, the roads freeze up, and there's no baseball, is that there's nothing to write about.

A former teacher of mine, one that was well loved by 98% of the students that had him (God knows what happened to the other two, though I assume they may have frozen in ice), introduced my class, as well as me, to Stream of Consciousness writing, where you'd take any word from the dictionary, and able to write freely about it. He took the word 'layoff', and I wrote a page-long musing on where the term may have come from, presumably involving the boss' mistress (and you can see the bad pun all the way from the comfort of your home).

So tonight I thought I'd introduce a nice experiment to keep the writing going, and to stay relevant within the blogosphere. I took one of my binders, skimmed its pages and put my thumb on a card, one I'd be writing about tonight. That card was a 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Jacoby Ellisbury.

Let us begin:

Ellisbury is an odd name, mainly because I'd never seen it before until Jacoby came along, and haven't seen it since. It's unique, like throwing a toaster out the window every 12th of each month is unique. As well as many other things, such as 'not sane', 'unwise', and 'harmful to whoever's mowing the lawn'. It could have just been Ellis, but that's too simple, isn't it. And that makes about 3% of the audience think about that one guy from that one Monty Python whose name was Ellis, who didn't really exist or something.

I think it may have come about from a gravedigger named Ellis. He was busy doing his work, and suddenly, fell asleep at the exact wrong time. Hence the name Ellisbury.

Jacoby is just as odd as the previously panned surname, though not as uncommon. I can recall a Texans player, some college player, and a world renowned blind orthrodontist with that name.

(I kid of course. I've never heard of a college player with that name)

I feel as though they were just gonna name him Jake, like they were just gonna name him Ellis, but they couldn't finish the job. It's like they were gonna add more than 'Jacoby', like it was gonna be Jacobynth or Jacobyce, or something oddly practical like that, but whoever was making the birth certificate died while naming him, like the carving on the cave in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

(This is the second Monty Python reference the writer has made. He realizes this, and will attempt to make more varied references in an attempt to save the audience from confusion)

And now for something completely different. Jacoby is seen, on this card, holding a bat. This much is absolutely certain. The rest has been shrouded in a not-quite-white, not-quite-yellow, too-intricate-to-be-beige border, cropping the nonexistent Boston fans. I kid, of course. Boston fans do exist, their common sense is what's nonexistent.

Another trait of Jacoby's is his tendency to put those tapey things resembling eyeblack under his eyes. Why he couldn't just slather some eyeblack is beyond me, for it'd be much cooler. Instead, he opted for the stickers, the ones that just come off, aren't very reusable, and are a bit of a waste, the exact thing his ancestors had in mind. It's even more ironic if you have the knowledge that his ancestors are Native American. I'm not bashing the Native Americans, mind you. America's done enough of that.

David Ortiz uses actual eyeblack, I think. Actually, come to think of it, doesn't he use the stickers? Him AND Jacoby both waste stickers. Maybe they should have a sticker party, to just apply them together, throw them out together, attempt to make them stick together. Maybe the rest of the team should join in with the stickers, so that when we ask what's killing the environment, Al Gore can now answer 'The Boston Red Sox'

FIN

(P.S.- Should I do one of these again, or should I obliterate it before it festers and grows? I swear the next one won't be as offensive, though mother always said never to swear.)

(P.S.S.- I really don't want to see the search tag 'blind orthodontists named Jacoby' being tied to this site. Nor should it become a thing. If it does...then, I won't stop it. But until there actually exists a blind orthodontist named Jacoby, the joke will still be funny.)

The Har-Bowl: Two Weeks Away

Well, after much speculating, predicting, and hovering (the latter was mostly done by Bill Belichick, in the most Belechickian way possible), we finally have our Super Bowl match set, and it's one I was secretly hoping for.

The Baltimore Ravens, led by John Harbaugh, with their trusty QB Joe Flacco, and future Hall of Famer Ray Lewis, took the AFC. They made this fan very happy by clobbering the New England Patriots, by stomping over them repeatedly until it wasn't funny anymore (I kid, it's always funny). They seem like a fun team, one that's been deserving a Super Bowl nod for a while now.

They'll be facing the San Francisco Giants, led by Jim Harbaugh, with trusty QB Colin Kaepernick, and future Hall of Famer (?) Randy Moss. They made this fan angry by defeating his Green Bay Packers, and kicking them when they were down, but they redeemed it by coming back to defeat the Atlanta Falcons, the kings of irony. I'm not too pleased with these guys, for beating the Packers, but I'm not against them.

That's the thing, I don't hate any of these teams. If I'll root for any of them, I'll probably go with Baltimore. They seem like the better team, and they're a bit more fun to watch. And also, that proves I have nothing against Baltimore after yesterday's much-regretful comments about Earl Weaver.

But still, the whole Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh aspect is gonna be fun. I imagine whoever loses the game is just gonna get the other brother in a headlock after the game, and start yelling "HAVE NOT!" until Mrs. Harbaugh comes in and breaks it up, and tells the winning Harbaugh to take out the trash.

If anything, it'll be good for football. Which is nice.

A Sad Day for Baseball

Wow. Two of baseball's biggest characters, and most legendary figures have passed away. On the same day, no less. It really is sad, because I had all the respect in the world for one of them.

Stan Musial was one of the most legendary baseball players on his time. He played for one team over a stretch of time, played until he was 43, and captivated the hearts of Cardinals fans. No St. Louis played down the line could top his classiness, his memorability, and his stats, though Ozzie and Albert came close.

He was a hell of a player, and he'll be missed.

So there. A lot of great words for a great man. Many of those same words won't be used to describe Earl Weaver.

Yes, Earl Weaver was one of the greatest strategic managers of all time, treating the game like a battlefield, and planning his roster like no man before him. He deserves every accolade met.

But, as a Yankee fan, I tended to really dislike the guy. Sure, he's smart and a great manager, but he also terrorized my Yankees for years. He also cursed out every working umpire from the 60's up to the 80's. He was a loudmouth, rude, mass of a human being. The m there was intentional.

So yeah, Stan the man was amazing and will be missed. Earl will be missed alright. Just not as much by me.

(Please don't kill me O's fans)