Spahn is a Giant!

One of the neat little things I've acquired lately is a card of the Great Warren Spahn. Capital "G". 

Ok, so it's not so little. It's big. Like, giant. A 1964 Topps Giant in fact.

These are fantastic cards. And can be had for cheap. A Spahn like this one, in near mint condition can be had for under $5. Unless you live outside of the U.S. In which case American sellers will charge you a MINIMUM of $24 shipping for just one card.
But that's post for another time.

I recently read a post about someone laying the smack on modern cards. They're garbage. They're the same every year, etc... I think it was Owl, maybe? Anyway, the point is, is that I can't argue. Sure I want the shiny new cards of Freddie and Ronald. But …… after I get them and they go in the binder.... that's usually the end of it. That's where the appreciation stops. Where if I find a 1965 Topps #487 Woody Woodward (still missing that one), I'll coo over it for weeks. AND I'll revisit said card repeatedly over the next few months. I'll remember how and where I got it. How good it made me feel to fit it in it's home. It's not a binder. It's a home.

Maybe that's just me.

So for those not familiar with the 1964 Topps Giant series, it's a 60 cards set, including 7 short prints.
For size comparison, Tom Glavine popped by to help out.

Do any of you have any of these at home in your collection?

A journey to the dark side....

Way back in the day, I ranted about graded cards. I didn't like them. I still don't like them. But despite what my girlfriend says, I'm not a dinosaur.

I understand the need for them. The hobby is changing. And graded cards are where it's heading. Heck, it's already there. 

In an online world, buying and selling graded cards is easy. No muss, no fuss. Each party knows exactly what the value is. With raw cards? Not so much. Extremely subjective. 

Now don't misunderstand me... I'm not running around acquiring these hunks of plastic all willy nilly. But I'm not cracking them out of their cases like I used to either.

Well, almost never.

There are a few exceptions... like when I literally trip over one at a local card show that slides into my wheelhouse. 

There it was. And cheap too. I had no idea just how cheap until much later. I now feel bad about it. If I run into the seller again, I might throw some cash his way. Somehow a hockey collector ended up with a baseball card and didn't know what it was worth. Being junk wax, I mistakenly assumed it was priced correctly.
Ah well, I was probably going to hell anyway.

What say you? Do you like graded cards? Do you crack them out of their wee prisons?

Card Show Pick Ups....

One of the advantages to not having blogged in a significant amount of time, is that I do have fodder to share. Provided I can find it again....

I present to you a find at the last card show in these parts before the world ended.

Behold!

Whoa. My scanner dislikes cards in holders. Steve looks a wee blurry.
Anyway, Mr. Avery was sitting there, looking all lonely amongst a plethora of modern hockey singles. Our eyes met, we shared a moment, and he came home with me.
All for $5.
Kinda like Tinder.

For those of you younger than the t-shirt I'm currently wearing, Steve was the number four starter for the Braves for many years.
Behind Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Tom Glavine. So yeah, he never really got much of an opportunity.
He was an All Star in '93, winning 18 games.

But I'll always remember him for his post season heroics. Especially in the 1991 NLCS against Pittsburgh. He held the first place Pirates scoreless over 16 1/3 innings. One of the best "where the hell did that guy come from?" moments that everyone loves.

Your Topps 2020 Braves! Uh.... 2021? 2020 1/2?

Awhile back, when there was still optimism in the world and the only threat was that winter would never end, Topps put out their latest "effort" in 2020 Series 1. As per usual, the card design and quality is crap. But that's for another discussion.

Also, as per usual, I tried to grab as many of the Bravos as I could. (there's no way I'm wasting money on the rest of this set) Let's see who I've managed to acquire...

Shane Greene. Pitcher. May be our closer. He's no Kimbrel, but I do like the high socks.

Dansby Swanson. Shortstop. Put together a nice year last season. I like him.

Was the photographer trying to do one of these and just got his angles wrong?
(Photo of 1991 Topps Weiss ganked from the interwebs as I have no idea where my set is to scan it)

Charlie Culberson. 2B? LF? PH? Just one of those guys that plays anywhere when needed.
Got him from the Dodgers in the Kemp deal. Free agent as of last December. Shouldn't have a card.

Tyler Flowers. Catcher. Re-signed as a free agent to back up Brian McCann. No. Travis D'Arnoud?

Ron Acuna. CF. The Headcase himself. Let's hope he pulls it together and stops getting benched for swollen empty head syndrome.

Nick Markakis. RF. This guy's still alive? Wasn't his rookie card in '84 Donruss? No. Wait. That was Nick Esasky. I've been away from this too long.....

Julio Teheran. SP. Julio!!! Going to love watching Julio tutor the young starters like Soroka this year. A great pitcher.
What? They didn't sign him? He's in the Inferior League now with Anaheim? uh... California... uh... Los Angeles?
Crap.

Luke Jackson. RP.  According to the back of Luke's Topps card, Luke is the Braves closer. Someone might want to pass that along to Shane Greene, Mark Melancon and Will Smith. Maybe Brian Snitker while they're at it.

The Braves. Featuring Johan Camargo. Not sure if I'm comfy with him at third this season.

Austin Riley. LF. 3B. Oh Austin.... you came out swinging. Find that again, won't you?

Billy Hamilton. OF. He garnered a grand total of 26 appearances before being jettisoned off to the Giants. And yet here he is. Should not have a card.

Mike Soroka. SP. Let the pigeons loose! Hark! The Angels sing! (Not a Teheran pun, promise) The Man Himself. Lives just down the street from me. Calgary's own! Thank you Chris Reitsma.

So those are the base cards. Let's see what inserts I'm missing....

SP Variations
47 Chipper Jones
150 Ronald Acuna Jr.
SSP Variations
150 Ronald Acuna Jr.

156 Hank Aaron

Meh... Not too worried about those. Although maybe the Chippah...

1985 Topps Baseball
85-7 Chipper Jones
85-8 Dale Murphy
85-9 Hank Aaron
85-10 Mike Soroka
85-11 Ozzie Albies

85-12 Ronald Acuña Jr.

Alright, those could be cool....

Decade’s Best
DB-4 Hank Aaron – Milwaukee Braves
DB-5 Warren Spahn – Milwaukee Braves
DB-12 Eddie Mathews – Milwaukee Braves
DB-20 Hank Aaron – Milwaukee Braves
DB-40 Phil Niekro
DB-47 Dale Murphy
DB-59 Chipper Jones
DB-67 Chipper Jones
DB-77 Tom Glavine

DB-78 John Smoltz

Again, interested... I already have one of the Chippers

Decade’s Next
DN-2 Austin Riley
DN-5 Ronald Acuña Jr.
DN-16 Ozzie Albies
DN-30 Mike Soroka
Home Run Challenge
HRC-2 Ronald Acuña Jr.

HRC-4 Freddie Freeman

starting to get a wee ridiculous now.... How many damn inserts does one set need?

Whatever. If I find them, I find them. I'm not going fanatical about them.

How about you? Did you track down all of the possible cards for your team?

Testing...Testing.... Is this thing on.........?

Well.... It's been awhile. Is this even still a thing? But while the zombie apocalypse rages on, I've found myself with a wee bit of time on my hands. I'm probably the only one though.

No?

So I've been doing a bit of organizing, a bit of cleaning... and I found a small stack of cards that I had acquired quite awhile ago, but had never found their way into their permanent homes. From that, I discovered that they hadn't been removed from my want lists either. Maybe I should actually update my want lists... 

 One of those cards is this handsome fella.

 I am slowly building my Braves team sets for all of the A&G years.... Unfortunately, I don't think I have anything after..... 2014? Ugh.
I suppose I have to start somewhere....

Oh! And look who I found in a pack just the other day...

They're still pumping out CHIPPAHS in 2020!!!!!!!
A beautiful thing.

Anyway, if anyone is still out there, I hope all is well with you and yours.... Wish me well on this journey.
Seriously.
If you don't, I'll get distracted and disappear down a different rabbit hole again.....

Italy Fails To Qualify for 2018 World Cup

with a draw today versus Sweden, Italy has failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1958.

That is all.

Anyone else feeling old today?

Normally, I don't feel my age. I'm not old. But I'm no teenager either. Today though, I have to admit that I feel a little old.

You see, today is Heather Thomas' 60th birthday.

This is Heather.
(remember Fall Guy?)

Now, pretty much every male within 5-6 years either side of my age had this poster on their bedroom wall growing up.

Heck, I would still have it if I wasn't married. (Love you honey!)

But yeah.... Heather, everyone's dream girl, is now 60.

It seems like only last summer I tacked that poster up on my wall.

Remember kids, not too long ago, Grandma was smokin' hot!

2017 Bowman Platinum Baseball - Canadian Edition

Awhile back, in true Topps fashion, they declared that 2017 Bowman Platinum would be a WalMart exclusive product.
No hobby shops.
No sales to Canada.

Epic fail.

I guess Topps knows there are no baseball fans North of the 49th parallel, let alone any Dodger fans looking for Bellanger rookies. Yes, Bowman Platinum is the first product to feature a true Bellanger RC.

I love exclusives, don't you?

Anyways, I had a talk with the elderly lady that stocks up our local WalMart about this very thing. She wouldn't tell me who she worked for..... but she did say that she didn't remember seeing any baseball, and that she didn't realize that people were actually looking for it.

ugh.

That explains why the card section is normally 90% Pokémon and 10% hockey.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and voila! There were six packs of these beauties on a peg in the middle of an explosion of Pikachu something or other.....

One came home with me. Only one because there was no price tag and the nearest three scanning stations were all broken. Gotta love WalMart.

One Exclusive Prospect Card per pack!!!!


I have to say that the quality of the cards has decreased over the last year or so. I guess a lot like every other brand of Topps cards.

 Is Reynaldo my exclusive prospect?

 Or maybe Alex?

KIEBOOM!!!!! Heh, heh....

I haven't heard of most of these guys...

This is a Rookie Radar insert. Is this my exclusive?

A Brave!!!!!!!!! And a blue parallel Brave to boot.
I wish I knew who he was.

and finally, an autograph of Andy Ibanez.

Apparently, Andy is Texas' #2 ranked prospect and one of the top infielders in the minor leagues. He currently plays for the Frisco RoughRiders of the Texas League.

So now you know.

Over all I'd give 2017 Platinum a 3/5

Cheap card stock, bleh design, and the shiny just isn't there anymore.

What say you?

Two sport champion, Gene Conley, dead at 86.

When you think of two sport super stars in Atlanta..... yeah, the mind tends to wander over to dual personality known as Neon and Prime Time.

And rightfully so. Who can forget the media coverage of Deion leaving one sports venue after a game, sprinting to a waiting helicopter to be carried off to another stadium and the start of another game.
Deion managed a Super Bowl win with Dallas and the 49ers, but lost in his only World Series appearance with the Braves. He would've been the third athlete to capture championships in two of the four major sports.


Meet the second athlete to have accomplished that feat. Gene Conley.

Gene played baseball as a pitcher from 1952 until 1963.

 He pitched in three All Star games, 1954, 1959 and was the winning pitcher in 1955. He won the World Series with Milwaukee in 1957.

Gene played for the Phillies and Red Sox late in his baseball career, but we don't care about that. These fabulous Braves cards are from my own personal collection. Jealous?

Gene also played pro basketball as a center for the Boston Celtics.

(I don't have any of his basketball cards.... don't know if he even has any...)

He played the bouncy ball in 1952/53 and then from 1957 to 1964. He won NBA Championships in 1958, 59, 60.
Yeah. He played both sports at the same time. Awesome.


As immortalized on the back of his '56 Topps card... Gene stood 6'8"

Gene is the only athlete to play on three professional sports teams from the same city.
Boston Braves
Boston Red Sox
Boston Celtics

Gene was also the last living player to have played for both the Boston Braves and the Boston Red Sox.



Gene Conley 10.11.1930 - 04.07.2017

Early Santa visit? Nope, but close....

I received an envelope in the post the other day. It's that time of year. Xmas cards from folks you haven't seen or talked to in way too long.
Only the card in this envelope wasn't the Xmas kind. Although it was from a friend I haven't talked to in the previously mentioned way too long.

Jim, from gcrl fame, and with a newish blog to give us his thoughts, ( click here  cards as i see them ) sent over this extremely shiny monstrosity.

Some sapphire parallel that is supposedly /250 but Topps was too lazy to number it.
It's nice when people remember you when they pull certain cards. This will go very nicely into my Adam binder.

Adam is retired now, so his card count in future year's offerings should fall slightly. Probably down to 0.

Thanks for the thought pal. I've got a little something for you once the holiday mail rush dies down. No way I'm going anywhere near a post office right now. Yikes.

The benefit of an experienced rotation..

So for the past two seasons, the Braves have, and have publically admitted to, shall we say, not tried to hard to win a lot of ballgames.

Yeah.

They tanked.

Anybody young with promise? Traded away.

Anybody hitting really well? Traded.

Able to pitch a ball over the plate? Gone.

All gone, except Freddie. He's the face. Gotta keep him. And god love him for staying positive and having a damn good year despite management's best Major League efforts.

It's been a lean two years. TV doesn't show them anymore. As a result, I have no idea who most of the lineup is.

Why would anyone do this?

Money.

What? Get rich by losing? Huh?

It's all a big master plan to start to win in 2017. The year they move out of antiquated Turner Field (what?) and move into their brand new shiny digs, SunTrust Park in Cobb County.

All I can say is, this better be worth it. These last two years have been hell.

Now in preparation of winning it all, the Barves have started to assemble their new Cy Young winning rotation.

On Thursday, they announced the first signing.

42 year old R.A. Dickey. Atlanta will be R.A.'s sixth team in fifteen years.

On Friday they announced the signing of 43 year old Bartolo Colon. Atlanta is Bartolo's ninth team in twenty one years.

 and yes, Colon did pitch for the Expos. Remember them? Not as a rookie.... but in his sixth season.
Yeah.............................


Today, the final piece was added with the surprise re-signing of former Brave, 77 year old Phil Niekro.

General Manager John Coppolella was heard saying about Niekro that they needed to add some veteran leadership for the youngsters. It will be nice for Phil to mentor young Dickey. Help him develop and perfect his curveball that he has spent the last fifteen years using.


Looking forward to a great year! (maybe it should be Cialis Park?)

Captain Canuck All Request Radio...

Well.. maybe not radio exactly, but I felt like the Wolfman* there for awhile. I received an email from a reader. Just to reach out and say, "Hey. How's it going."  You know, that kind of thing. It kind of surprised me. But it was nice to know someone just wanted to see how things were going. In the end, they said it would be nice if I got back to posting more.
The next day in the mail, I received a small package from gcrl. The contents, or most of it, I'll reveal here. In amongst the cards was a note. It said words to the effect "i hope you like these... maybe they'll even be worth a post."

Not one, but two requests for more posts.

From me.

That's scary as hell.

But who am I to refuse my public? (even if it has taken me a couple of weeks to scan the cards and actually post. I never promise timely posts. Just the posts ma'am, just the posts.)

gcrl managed to hit upon a few off of the ole want lists....

Freddie Freeman, the one man team himself, from 2015 Gypsy Queen.

1985 Fleer Donnie Moore. If you don't know Donnie's tragic story, do some googling. And please, if you need help, talk to someone. Anyone.

A slender 1992 Ron gant. You can tell it's a package from gcrl because one of the cards has a memorial patch on the sleeve.
I'll save you the google. It's for John W. Mullen 1924-1991. He was with the Braves in various front office capacities from Boston until his death in '91.

Better times. 2015 Heritage. 2nd place bitches. Only Freddie remains from that pic....

jim likes to rub salt in the wounds. Here's a Gold Alex Wood. I hated that trade then, I despise it now.

These are so cool. But I can't get them here. A Craig Kimbrel CHIPZ. I wish I had more of them. I only have Kimbrel and Uggla, so I thought this was a dupe. Until I came into my office at night in the dark and saw it sitting there on my desk glowing like Homer. IT"S A GLOW IN THE DARK VARIANT KIMBREL!!!!!

 awesome.

Mr Jeff Blauser from 1992 Stadium Club fame represents a few of the inevitable dupes in any surprise gift package.

 not shown are
1987 Topps Paul Assenmacher
2014 Topps Gerald Laird
2014 Topps Emilio Bonifacio
2015 Topps Nick Markakis
2015 Topps Andrelton Simmons
2016 Topps Julio Teheran
2016 Bowman Hector Olivera (salt, meet open wound)

and this.....


I couldn't believe this....


I only have 8 from the team set...


I still need 10.....


and somehow, it's a double.


but what a wonderful duplicate it is.

look at that gloriousness.

thanks big guy. hope everyone likes the post.


(* kudos to you if you know who the Wolfman is...)