No Time, No Posts

I have too many irons in the fire right now. Here's a break from my weekly musings on college football and baseball photo fabrication with an actual, factual trade post. Remember those? Man, they were swell! Awhile back, Tenets of Wilson sent me a brick of cards that I needed from the 2010 Turkey Red inserts and 2011 Topps Heritage. Matt is a fellow Cards fan, so it's always fun trading with him. Contrary to what might seem to be logical, I don't think I could ever have trouble trading with another Cardinals collector because I have more of their doubles than quite a few teams combined.

Can the Brewers make it to the World Series this year for the first time since Yount roamed the infield and won the AL MVP back in 1982? I'm not a believer. Not only do they seem to be a victim of peaking at the wrong time, but any team with Yuniesky Betancourt (the last 't' is actually silent, I recently learned) getting regular at-bats is probably not going to be a champion. Greinke is a great pitcher, but you have to wonder about his ability to step up in a playoff game. Fielder and Braun are great, but is there anyone else you can count on? Is Rickie Weeks... ugh, nevermind, I'm sick of talking about the Brewers already.

In other news, here's Christy Mathewson, showing off his grip.

Floating heads! It's amazing to see that the Cardinals had two of the lowest earned run allowers in baseball last year but couldn't sniff the postseason. This season won't produce any Cardinals ERA champs, but the glimmer of hope of sneaking into the playoffs is still there... sort of. Not really.

Granderson has had an amazing year. Did anyone see this coming?

I should really purchase that 2011 Heritage binder one of these days... and one for Allen & Ginter while I'm at it.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 2: Regroup

We're one week in now and I'm still not sure what to make of this Ducks team. I can tell you my thoughts, but I'm no expert. I think the Ducks were pretty terrible against LSU. I honestly wasn't that impressed by the Tigers. They have a hefty ranking and apparently lofty expectations, but I would be surprised if they're anywhere close to a Top 10 team by the end of the season. (It should be noted that no one ever calls on me for college football opinions or analysis, so take that for what it's worth.)

After month after month of ridiculous hype leading up to the Cowboys Classic game, I've barely paid attention to what's going on this week with the Ducks and Nevada. That would be a scary sign if I was representative of the Ducks football team, but I'm pretty sure I'm not. I have gone through a hectic, mostly sportsless week. Those guys like to practice, hit each other and play their Xbox 360 games in the locker room. I'm so out of touch with today's youth!

The Ducks are favored by about four touchdowns in this game, but it's still a bit nerve-wracking because Nevada was a really good team last year. They no longer have Colin Kaepernick, however, but it seems like they still have a good amount of experienced players from last season. I won't get too excited about this game until LaMichael James scores 3 TDs in the first and proceeds to sit for the final three quarters. Anything less than that will probably be a little scary.

Above footage from a 1997 matchup between the Wolfpack and the Ducks. Still relevant!

Game time is 12:30 PDT with national television coverage on FX. Yes, that channel. Hey, they show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, right?

Airbrushed Fridays: 1976 Topps Traded #497T

I'm not dead! Neither is Smed's Baseball Card Blog, if you're interested. I have been enjoying MusicfestNW this week and when you throw in a heaping helping of crazy other things, I have barely had time to breathe. The usual Ducks thing will head this way tomorrow and then regular posting (and mailing of past due packages) should resume next week. In the meantime, today's card was chosen for a reason. It sounds like Bud Selig is trying to pressure the Houston Astros to move to the American League, which just has travesty screaming all over it if you ask me. Selig likes to pick on the weakest, poorest teams in the league and push them around. Remember when he wanted to contract the Twins and the Expos? Hey, Bud, why don't you move your stupid Brewers back to the AL, instead? That's where they belong.

Joe McIntosh was, briefly, a right handed pitcher in the major leagues. He pitched for the Padres. And then a lot of mysterious stuff happened. That stuff, perhaps, was lost to the sands of time.

Why did Topps airbrush this photo? As mentioned above, McIntosh was traded along with Larry Hardy to Houston for Doug Rader after the end of the 1975 season. And that's where it gets weird...

What's wrong with this picture, anyway? He never suited up with Houston. At least, there's no evidence of it. BR's Minors page for McIntosh shows that he resurfaced in the Astros organization in 1979 at rookie ball level for all of 4 games and 9 total innings. And that was it. Does anyone know what happened to this guy?

If you are interested in obtaining a card featured here, please send me an e-mail. If you have a card you would like to nominate for Airbrushed Fridays, please get in touch as well. I will require that I am able to see the card in person, either on loan or as a donation, so that I can examine the card and experience it in all its cruddiness.

Why Do They Do This?

Do I really need a Derrek Lee jersey swatch on my Albert Pujols jersey card, even though the Lee piece does have a pinstripe on it? This isn't exactly a "your chocolate is in my peanut butter" moment. Nevertheless, it was hard to turn down a half price ($5) Pujols jersey card at last month's card show. There's no chance I will make it to this month's card show unless I win the lottery sometime this week, which would be hard considering how often (never) I gamble. Speaking of which, I unfortunately will not be able to mail out every package I owe to various traders and the free group break recipients until closer to the middle of the month. I apologize for this. It's been extremely chaotic here at Cards on Cards Central.

I picked up a couple more Pujols cards along with the Ballpark Collection dual relic. This one just looks cool. I hate to buy cards because they just "look cool" for no other reason, but I got caught up in this one from 2005 Donruss Elite.

As you can see, it's serial numbered to boot.

Finally, here's an Elements card. I'm actually not completely sure that I don't already own this card, but if I do this should make some fun little trade bait. I am a sucker for these plastic cards or really anything gimmicky that I can afford. For $2, I couldn't resist.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 1: Cowboy Classic

When I started the Good Luck Ducks feature in 2008, Mike Bellotti was in his final season as head coach of the Cardinals, but nobody knew that yet. Chip Kelly was brought over the previous season to replace Gary Crowton, recently the offensive coordinator at LSU before leaving after last season. Oregon's 5th string QB, Jeremiah Masoli, saw time in the opening game and eventually lead Oregon to a surprising 10-win season capped off by a victory over Dez Bryant's Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Holiday Bowl.

It's amazing how much things have changed for Oregon's program since Kelly arrived. 2009 saw the Ducks recover from the opening loss at B.S.U (and the subsequent Blount Punch) to steamroll Oregon State and make it to the Rose Bowl. Last season, the entire college football watching world had the Ducks shoved down their throats thanks to a 12-0 season and a National Championship birth (and a little help from the Disney folks.)

#3 Oregon will appear in another big game to kick off this season, this time in Cowboys Stadium facing #4 LSU. It's a brand new season with a brand new Pac-12 conference. I always say that you never know how a season will go until the team gets on the field. All of the predictions in the world won't make any sense until you see how the team works together on the field in real game action, and unlike many sports that I follow, there's little carryover from season to season. All I can say is this: Good luck, Ducks!

Above footage from the last Pac-10/SEC regular season meeting for the Ducks.

Game time is 5:00 PDT with national TV coverage on ABC. Go Ducks!

Airbrushed Fridays: 1974 Topps #532

It's a start. It's a start. It's a start.

Claude "Skip" Lockwood was a right-handed starting pitcher who later became a successful reliever, starting 106 games and finishing 219 others with a tidy 3.55 ERA to show for it. Lockwood was a converted third baseman before making his major league debut for the ill-fated Seattle Pilots as a pitcher.

Why did Topps airbrush Skip's photo? Skip was traded from to the California Angels (of Anaheim) following the 1973 season as part of a nine-player trade. The Angels would use him as a full-time reliever for the first time.

What's wrong with this picture, anyway? This isn't quite a magic hat (how many times have I linked this post?), but it's still really goofy. How hard is it to apply a darker hue to a solid blue Milwaukee cap? This hard, apparently. For some reason I'm obsessed with the fuzzy background in this photo, which could be Any Stadium, USA.

If you are interested in obtaining a card featured here, please send me an e-mail. If you have a card you would like to nominate for Airbrushed Fridays, please get in touch as well. I will require that I am able to see the card in person, either on loan or as a donation, so that I can examine the card and experience it in all its cruddiness.

Ten Interesting Cards: 1995 Fleer Update

This is the box that got me into this mess in the first place. There's a guy who has been at a couple of card shows that I've been to this year who has junk wax by the tableful and is not shy about dumping it on unsuspecting prey such as myself. Hardly a second went by after I picked up this box before I started looking at other, less attractive Fleer goodies. By now you know that I left the table no less than three boxes, despite the fact that no more than 1% of the cards contained in said packs could actually fit in my collection.

This is an update set, so aside from an odd rookie or two, the players you actually care about are mostly relegated to inserts. Fortunately, this being a mid-'90s Fleer product, there's an insert in every single pack.

This year saw Fleer reduce the quality of their cardstock while dramatically increase their design/marketing budget... with hilarious results! Andre Dawson, normally badass, looks positively goofy here. It probably doesn't help that he's trying to wear teal and pull it off.

This apparently was meant to be a celebration of the new divisional alignment, so there are six total base designs, one for each division. I don't personally feel that the current divisional alignment is anything worth celebrating. The Mets/Cards rivalry makes anything they've got going currently with the Brewers or the Reds just pale in comparison.

You can tell this is an insert card because the design is actually somewhat understated, despite all of the foil. This is a backwards set. Inserts are supposed to look ridiculous. Base cards are supposed to be as consistent as your grandfather's haircut.

I... don't even know what to say.

Here's a little nod to the old school and thus is probably my favorite insert set from this release.

Actually, these Diamond Tribute inserts look a bit like 1994 Fleer Ultra.

Wow, I'm sorry, AL Central fans. I really am.

Even Rickey is trying to run away from this horror show of a set.

This Pettitte base design actually looks normal in comparison to some of the others, which is just a sad state of affairs.

Interestingly enough, Fleer would move on from this to an almost rebellious minimalist approach for the next couple of years, keeping the almost paper-thin cardstock but rejecting glossy and multi-photo rainbow colors. Unfortunately, that approach doesn't appear to have been any more successful.

Now I get to mail stuff! Hooray!