Workin' In Shifts: Tribecards Pack 4

There are probably some of you who are wondering why I call these card review posts "Workin' In Shifts". Well, I'll try to make sense of it for you.

I'm an idiot and I very seldom have a point.

Now that' I've cleared that up let's see what I got in my next Random Packs Of Kindness package.

Officer H.T. Loki - 21 Jump Street

I have never seen a single episode of 21 Jump Street (that I can recall). The sum total of my knowledge of that show is that Johnny Depp was on it. Now I know something else. There was also a guy named Officer H.T.Loki. Does this make me more inclined to go back and see what I was missing?

No. No, it does not.

Steve Kemp 1979 Topps

A Tiger from the vintage era. The back of this card informs us that Steve was a College All-American at USC. I knew there was something about this guy that I didn't like.

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

I know very little about these guys other than they were reportedly nitty, and almost certainly gritty. They played dirt.

The best thing about this card is the trivia question on the back.

Not that it's a terribly interesting trivia question. The interesting part is that apparently the producers of these cards thought that people would be forced to complete the set in order to get the answers to the trivia questions. It didn't work on me. I'm not any more likely to track down card #96 than I was 2 minutes ago. On the other hand, I'm set should I run across card #46.

For the record, my guess is (B) The 70's.

- I'm not %100 sure what the matching boots might look like, but "Hot pants" has to be 70's. Doesn't it?

Jon Garland Sticker

Jon is one of those Jons that spells his name without the 'h'. I'm not sure how I feel about that, to tell you the truth.

The back of the sticker (Actually, I just realized it's an incredibly thin card) has a helpful tip for young ballers:

"When you throw, make sure the ball faces away from you so your fingers stay behind the baseball." Also, it makes it much less likely that you will throw the ball straight into your own face.

That's a good tip, dudes. Be sure to pass it on.

Junior Herndon - 1999 Baseball America

You'd think a guy legitimately named Junior would be a can't miss. In 1999 he was the #52 prospect in America (allegedly). By 2004-2006 he had been signed and released by the Royals...twice. When the 2004-2006 Royals have no use for you, I guess it's time for a little self reflection.

The back of the card notes that: "A ski instructor in the off-season, Herndon is extremely poised on the mound." I'm not sure if this is implying that the later can be directly attributed to the former. If they are, I'd like to see the evidence to back that up.

Junior played for the Rancho Cucamongo Quakes. You have no idea how happy it makes me that there is an actual place called Rancho Cucamongo.

Devon White 1989 Topps somethin'-er-other

This is one of those annoying cards that's just a little bigger than regular cards for no particular reason whatsoever. I'll probably trim this one down to the correct size.

The back says that Devon collected 4 hits against the Indians on 7-1-87. The question becomes, since this normally impressive feat came against the '87 Indians, should it still count? I guess it would depend on the pitcher in this case.

Steve Carlton

Yeah, it counts. Even if Steve was probably 57 years old by then.

By the way, the attendence was 5,005 that day. Yikes.

Billy Bean 1988 Topps

If he's such a genius how come he got drafted by the Tigers, huh?

Dean Palmer 1997 Skybox

Another one with a quote on the front. "We have been unified as a team...People are not playing for stats. They care about winning first."

We're just taking it one game at a time. I'm just trying to do my best for the club. Blah, blah , blah.

Who thought this stuff was interesting enough that it had to go on the front of the card?

David Howard 1992 Score

This guy played for the Royals and Cardinals from '91 - '99, and I've never heard of him. Career OPS+ of 57...I guess that explains it. Come to think of it, he'd fit right in there with this years Royals.

Anthony Telford 1991 Stadium Club

I don't know much about Telford. What I do know is that for this 1991 card there was "insufficient Major League data available for an accurate analysis of pitch selection."

If you ask me, the Topps statasticians took the coward's way out.

RMS Carpathia 2008 Mayo

This is the boat that came to the rescue of the Titanic in the 1997 movie. In the sequel, 6 years later, she was torpedoed by a german sub.

Germans man...what a bunch of A-holes.

Jovanny Cedano Auto

In 4 seasons with in the Ranger's farm system, Jovanny never made it past A ball. That's not what I find unusual. Hey, the guy just wasn't good enough. No shame in that.

What I find unusual is that there were 4,950 of these autographed cards made and hand numbered. I have no idea if this happens all over the minors. Maybe it does. I just thought that was overkill for a dude in the minors.

In 2009 he was baseball americas #9 prospect in the Ranger's organization. Another good call by those guys. I think he's selling cars with Junior Herndon now.

Another post in the books for the Random Packs of Kindness.

Thanks again David.

Still more to come. Stay tuned.

Are you guys getting tired of these yet? (Both of you that read them?) Because I'm not.