X-Fractorlicious!

OK, so that post title makes the actual post sound a lot more exciting than it really is. The point is getting you here. Even if I have to trick you.

To what purpose...I'm not quite sure.

This post is to brag about a decent return on a couple of Bowman Draft Rack Packs. The grocery store by my office has a little (very little) section with cards. It's mostly YuGiOh and whatnot. But there are sportscards, and it gets updated every so often. If my wife doesn't want me spending money on a few packs here and there she shouldn't send me on errands. Right?

So I picked up 2 rack packs of Bowman Draft. In these you get the usual Bowman cards, a gold card, and some Chrome. You all know I like chrome because it's all shiny and stuff.

Here are 2 cards that I pulled that pleasantly surprised me.

J.D. Martin Draft Chrome Purple Refractor.

It's not numbered so I don't know how rare these purple refractors are. I suspect they aren't very rare. Still, it was nice to pull from a rack pack. It's the only purple refractor I've ever pulled from a pack of 2009 Bowman draft. Of course, this is the first time I've opened any.

Still...

David Ortiz X-Fractor 189/199

Nice. I love X-fractors. It's hard to tell in the scan, but there's absolutely no reason for me to lie. Except to impress everyone so they will like me. Not too bad getting the Ortiz either. That guy has a lot of balls. No, really, look...he's holding at least 4 balls there.

So, an X-Fractor and a Purple Refractor out of 2 rack packs - not too shabby.

2009 Topps Chrome

A while back, Stusigpi over at I Am Joe Collector finagled his way into Blowout Cards offering Topps Chrome at the low low price of $43 a box. It was cheaper than I'd seen it by far, before or since. So I picked up a few boxes.

Because I love sparkley things.

Here are some highlights of the first box. You might want to pay close attention because you probably haven't seen a 2009 Topps Chrome break anywhere.

Hung-Wen Chen World Baseball Classic

This is my favorite card of the whole bunch. Look at that guy. Is that the worst picture they could have found of this poor guy or what? Plus, his name is Hung.

But the best thing about the card? The first sentence on the back is "Chen missed the 2009 World Baseball Classic,..." What? Why is he on a card then?

He's in the Cubs organization so hopefully this isn't the last we've seen of Hung.
Fu-Ti Ni World Baseball Classic Blue Refractor 168/199

Hung and Fu are teammates. Fu is in the Tigers organization. This card is great for many reasons. I love the name Fu almost as much as Hung. Fu actually has a baseball picture instead of a mug shot. The only thing to distinguish it as a blue refractor is the little stripe at the bottom. It is miscut, I think. There is a small silver stripe at the top that looks out of place.

Mark Buehrle Blue Refractor 184/199

Can you believe this guy pitched a perfect game? Not that he's bad or anything, but man. I thought this guy was only good against the Indians.

Walter Silva Gold Refractor 29/50

Isn't Chroma awesome with their shiny colorful cards. I love this card. Even if the guy on it kind of sucks, I love it anyway.

Will Venable Auto

OK, OK. Not bad. I've heard of him. Cool looking sig too, even if it looks nothing like his name.

Trevor Crowe Auto

Alright now! An Indian. Even if it is Trevor Crowe. I used to have high hopes for Trevor, a first round draft pick. At this point, at the age of 26, he has pretty much cemented himself in that 4th outfielder at best level. But (much like Gregg Jefferies) I still get a little excited when I see one of his cards. I can't help it.

The good thing about a guy like Trevor is I never have to worry about a club like the Yankees ripping him away. The rub is that I wouldn't really care if they did.

Not bad I guess. A few cool parallels and an Indians Auto.

Shiny as hell too.

Back with a few more down the line.

I'm On A Roll, This Time

Here is try number 2

I've figured some stuff out but it still seems like it should work differently.

At the very least you can enjoy this acoustic version of Lucky. With a red border even!

It works OK as long as I type the post before pasting the embed code. Probably not how it's supposed to work but hey...whatever.

******Update******

Of course the picture apparently doesn't fit. But I'm getting closer.

Accidents Waiting To Happen

This is really just a test post.

I had the morning off so I decided to see if I could figure out how you nerdy computer people get youtubes and whatnot onto your blogposts straight out of the ether. Then I could download interesting videos and stuff right onto my blog.

From there it's just a short step to me videotaping my breaks of stuff like 1992 Fleer.

So, if this works, you will all be able to enjoy a little of the overwhelming evidence that Radiohead is better than...well...everyone.

Don't underestimate the significance of this (should it work). Me getting the youtube thingy to work in one morning would be the equivalent of 2 monkeys making a satellite dish out of a lawn chair, a rubber hose, and speaker wire. You should all be impressed.

Man, I hope this works. (I looks good in the preview anyway)

*******Update********

Well, as you can see, it kind of worked. Each paragraph, however, runs forever without going to a new line. This caused words to be cut off in the post. I don't know what to do about this to rectify it. A little help?

Also, the font size in the compose page is Largest before the video and normal after the video but it all seems to be normal size after I post it.

Except that last update. Something funny is going on with my font sizes.

What Goes Around Comes Around

It was ego really. Just pure ego. I mean really, how did I think I was going to get away with it? Like I was just going to willy nilly Bip people all over the ether with no regard for human life and common decency? Without any consequences? What a fool.

Well, my checkered past has finally caught up with me. I arrived home the other day to find a package waiting for me. I knew who it was from, even though return address said "Bip Robert". I've seen Beardy's writing enough that I knew immediately. I knew what was in it. Some things you just know.

Beardy knew. Somehow he knew. He'd seen it on the blogs. He's always on line. He doesn't have a job. At least not one that requires work. However he figured it out, there would be no running. There would be no hiding. No escape.

Beardy was sending me home to get my shine box.

As I broke out into a cold sweat, my heart started to race. I felt faint. My wife maneuvered a chair under me a split second before I hit the floor. I opened the package and peered inside, my worst fears realized.

Right there on top was the note. "Christ, he even sent a limerick." I thought. I sent my concerned wife from the room.

She didn't need to see this. She's an innocent.

Four 1987 Eddie Murray Sportflics. My God. It's going to be Eddie Murray. The Oriole Legend. The one time Indian favorite.

Please Beardy...not...not Eddie Murray. Not Sportflics. I love both. Did I really deserve this?

Six 1987 Topps Eddie Murrays. At this point I'm numb. I'm ten cards in and I feel like Eddie Murray is mocking me. I can hear the laughter of a crazed Bearded man some 500 miles to my southeast. I may never recover.

At this point Grady wanders into the room. Panicked, I leap for him. Cover him. Shield him from the still unfolding horror. I usher him, scared and confused from the room and deposit him squarely in front of Elmo's Grill. I retreat back to the office and lock the door. I can't risk him coming in here again. I barely saved him that time.

But I did save him. It is to be my redemption.

Encouraged, I press on.

Six 1988 Topps Eddie Murray Record Breakers. Please. No more. I can barely take this. I see 12 Murrays staring back at me from 6 cards; behind glorious mustaches that my wife will never allow. This isn't fair. What I did wasn't so bad. I don't deserve this.

From the deep recesses of my brain I hear the words of William Munny, killer of woman and children, echoing "deserve's got nothing to do with it."

But I saved the boy.

And with that, I pear back into the envelope. Empty.

It's over. Finally over. And I'm alive. Beaten but alive.

It's 2 days later now and I can finally talk about it. Am I the same man that I was before I was Bipped? Hell, I don't know. Probably not. Who could ever really know a thing like that.

At my core I think I'm the same. A little older. Wiser.

Here's A Card

Anything to get Pink Beardy off of the front page there so he's not staring at me every time I open my blog.

So here's a card.

And, with Cory Snyder you got no complaints.

Beardy Trims His Beard

I stumbled across this picture of Beardy before he grew out his beard. Always an Orioles fan, you can see that he's all decked out for the game.

Looking Good Beardy!

OK, that's not Beardy, nor is it anyone in his family (I don't think). I wish like hell that it was, but it's not. I just ran across it at HCwDB and the first thing I thought of was Beardy. I couldn't stop laughing.

It's probably just me.

Stale Gum Contest

Inspired by Beardy, I've decided to dust off the old photoshop skills to enter the National Chicle Parody Card Contest over at Stale Gum (It's this whole other blog).

Without any rational explanation, "Chicle" is actually the name of a baseball card set coming out in 2010. It is apparently a fun little retro-themed set where they take one player's card and put another player's name on it.

It's really fun, and easy to do.

Here's mine:

Look. You can hardly tell. In fact, the only way that you'd know that this isn't an actual card of the Mick is when you realize that he never played for the Tribe. On the other hand, that's apparently the entire point of the set. Nothing makes sense!!!

You're damn right I used three exclamation points!

This is fun as all get out. I'll probably even make a few more.

Admit it...at first you thought it was Mantle, didn't you?

Going Costanza (mostly)

Oh Captain My Captain is having a contest or something. The rules are pretty vague and hard to follow. It's something to do with football, picking the winner to the playoffs or something. Since he pretty much called me out I had to oblige and answer.

I pretty much made a fool of myself in Canuck's Fantasy League this year. I came in dead last, which was the worst thing that could have happened. The second worst thing would have been to have Beardy win, and he damn near did. That's the kind of stuff that happens to you when you draft Ladainian Tomlinson in the first round. I can't even remember who I took in the second but I'm sure he sucked too.

So the plan was to really show Canuck and the rest of them. I was going to research the hell out of it and really come up with a fool proof prediction for the playoffs. El Capitan definitely gave everyone enough time.

The problem is I never did it. I remembered this morning (at work) that I hadn't made my picks yet. I knew the games started at 4 but I didn't even know who played in the first game. I gave some guy with a toothache 3.4 cc 2% lido with epi and ran to the computer (I'm trying to impress everyone with my doctor talk) to make my pick.

It was right then that I settled on a fool proof plan. I was going to go Costanza. If my every football instinct is wrong, then the opposite would be right. I felt very strongly that the Jets would win so I put in my pick...Bengals FTW!

I didn't have enough time to make the rest of my picks right then so I promised to pick them as soon as I got home from work. I ran back to the op, put my foot on the guys chest, and started cranking with everything I had... invigorated with my foolproof plan for glory.

As soon as I got home, right at the scheduled start time, I ran in the house and booted my lovely wife from the computer. I noticed that Canuck had closed the contest but had left a spot open just for me. (Those Canadians are so nice) He's seen me in action and probably figured that it wouldn't make any difference either way if he still let me pick. I can't say I blame him. I really crapped the bed in that league.

But he didn't count on me going Costanza.

What I did was just pick every team that I thought would lose. This was very hard in a lot of cases as, like most American men, I figure I know more about football than just about anyone on the planet.

There are 2 picks where I just couldn't do it. The second round AFC picks. As a Cleveland man I have no stakes in the playoffs. So, naturally, I'll pretty much pull for whoever I pick here. Without the Yinzers in the playoffs I had only 2 teams to worry about. Baltimore and Cincy. I hate them both.

I don't think either of them will win in the first round, but I forced myself to pick them anyway. I just couldn't do it in the second round. If they are still playing in the second round I couldn't bring myself to root for them. Wouldn't it be a hell of a thing if that was my undoing?

All of my other picks were Costanza picks.

You laugh, but I've definitely had worse idea's than this one.

NFC:
Philly over Dallas
Arizona over Green Bay

Philly over New Orleans
Arizona over Minny

Philly over Arizona

AFC:
Cincy over NY
Baltimore over New England

San Diego over Baltimore
Indy over Cincy

San Diego over Indy

Super Bowl:
San Diego over Philly

Total pts: 51

For the record, my picks were in before the start of the first game.

*******UPDATE*******

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that after two games I've been mathematically eliminated. Thanks a lot George.

Don't worry about me. I'm in Cleveland. We're used to this kind of stuff.

Achiever Card Blog In The New Year

In true Achiever Card Blog fashion I am here to wish everyone a wonderful holiday and a merry new year...on Jan6th. You know, after all of that has long since passed. Despite all evidence to the contrary I plan to continue this blog for the foreseeable future. There may be some changes. I'll try to describe some of them here. There also may be some changes that I have yet to think about and, therefore, would be unable to describe at this juncture.

I haven't been around much lately and unlike my other many hiatuses, this is not due to laziness. Well, not mostly due to laziness. As many of you know, I'm a dentist. At the end of the year there are many people who show up in the last 2 weeks and expect you to do all of the work that they should have been getting done the entire year. There isn't a lot of time to dick around on the computer.

Also at the end of this year, my wife, who is a prosthodontist (a dentist who specializes in really difficult and complex cases) is buying her own practice. Which means that I'm buying a practice (along with working at my regular office). This stuff takes up a lot more time than you'd think. All of this during Christmas which as you all know is normally a very relaxing and laid back time of the year.

Then, there was the 2 days I lost to The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I'm not saying that I spent 2 days reading it. I'm saying that after I read it I spent 2 days in a darkened corner of my basement weeping softly while curled into the fetal position. It is without a doubt the bleakest thing I've ever read.

It is awesome. I definitely recommend it. It's one of those books that you will find yourself thinking about constantly.

Without giving anything important away, it is about a man and his son trying to survive in the most terrifying post-apocalyptic world I've ever imagined. Seriously, John Connor would long for the robots and Mad Max would just off himself. Thunderdome is like Space Mountain compared to this.

A few things to expect are these:

• Not all posts will be about baseball cards. Because it's hard to post at work about cards for me, I might just throw up some random thoughts that have nothing to do with anything because they are hilarious. At least that's what my wife says. "Oh motherscratcher, you're so funny. can you clean the garage?" "Jeez that's great! You're a genius. Why don't you run to the store and pick up the things on this list." "I can't believe how lucky I am to be married to such a funny guy. Can you get up and feed Grady so I can sleep in a little longer funny man?"
• I plan on a contest or 2
• I might try a group break
• I have a plan for a custom set. I've been thinking about it a lot. My photoshop skills aren't good enough so I might throw myself on the mercy of the Beardy for a little help.
• Other great stuff I haven't thought of yet.

I know there is no way for me to post once a day. It just won't happen. My goal is 3 times a week. I really should be able to handle that.

And also, I plan to try to leave more comments on all of your blogs because...well...who doesn't love comments?

We'll see how it goes.

Buckeye's Win!

The Rose Bowl is over. The Buckeyes won. Elation (and a huge sigh of relief) washes over the entire Buckeyes fan base. And Stusigpi owes me a box of cards. Good times abound in Cleveland.

In my last post I (without his prior knowledge) forced Stusigpi (I Am Joe Collector) into a bet that, with benefit of hindsight, was somewhat unrealistic. If I had taken the time to consider it, I surely would have realized that Jeff would very unlikely be able send me an anti-government militia following a Buckeye's Rose Bowl Victory. This in no small part is due to the fact that most of those militias are probably in Washington. Despite Oregon's close proximity to it's northern (slightly deranged) neighbor, the fact remains that it's a whole other state.

Jeff, being the intelligent lawyer that he is, saw the folly of my original proposal, and counterproposed a more realistic "box of cards" wager. He did this in the midst of a post whose main purpose was to mock the idiots (myself incuded) who insist on calling Ohio State THE Ohio State University. No matter, it is a tradition that we will continue despite the fact that none of us actually know WHY we do it.

(I can never figure out which pictures will be big and which ones really small)

As you all know by now, the Buckeyes emerged victorious against a very good Oregon Ducks team. This will go a little way toward restoring some of the respectability that the Buckeyes and Big Ten have lost the last few years. Some of the criticism is deserved, and some isn't.

Jim Tressel has taken a lot of heat for not being able to win bowl games, and big games in general. There are a lot of places to read about this in more depth and detail than I can provide. I will simply offer a few thoughts:

Jim Tressel is now 4-3 in BCS Bowls. The 3 losses occurred at the hands of teams that finished 1,1, and 2 in the nation. I don't know. I guess I just don't see why people think that's so terrible.

(damn, another tiny picture)

As for the game, I will say simply that the Ducks are damn fast. I think they are a national title contender next season. I think the Buckeyes (who were able to keep up...barely) will also be in that picture. It would be fun to see a rematch for all the marbles next year.

Terrelle Pryor finally looked like the type of player deserving of the hype he received in high school. He doesn't look like he is moving fast (not like that LaMichael James kid - holy crap is that kid fast) but he must be. All season he seems to be half a step ahead of anyone pursuing him. And, he finally learned how to pass. He looked in control, less panicky than he has at any other time in his career.

He looked like a QB. I really good QB. It was a hell of a thing to watch for someone who has seen every snap, good or bad, that he has taken in his college career.

The game ended on a high note as LeGarrette Blount didn't sucker punch anyone in the face.

Now I just await my prize.

Or, we can wait until next year in the National Title game and go double or nothing.

Rose Bowl

Well, it's a new year. My plans last year for a post a day have failed miserably. I enter this year with a new resolve not to fall so drastically short of my goals. This year my goal is a post a month. I feel like there is a good chance I can meet, or even slightly exceed this goal.

Because this is supposedly primarily a baseball card blog, I will kick off the new year by talking about football.

The Rose Bowl is today. Ohio State v Oregon. Or, more widely known as Motherscratcher v Stusigpi (AKA I Am Joe Collector)

That's right, Stusigpi is from the Pacific Northwest. Way out Oregon way. I will assume (for the purposes of this ridiculous post) that he is a die hard Oregon fan. Here is where I'd make fun of him for having a Donald Duck mascot, but I'm a Buckeye nut so I'll just let that one slide. Forget I mentioned it.

When Jeff and I first met over the ether he said: "I hold a special place in my soul for the dislike of a few college football programs." And then he lumps us in with Nebraska and Florida State. Can you imagine? We probably pay our players twice as much as those schools combined.

And Oregon? They spend their money on uniforms.

And Cheerleaders:

We might have The Best Damn Band In The Land. But, Oregon definitely has the best cheerleaders.

Since our inauspicious introduction, I feel like I may have turned Jeff's image of Buckeye fans (well deserved in many respects) around somewhat. Maybe instead of reserving a special place of dislike in his soul we've moved closer to the bowel or possibly the armpit. I'd take that. Baby steps, you know.

But anyway, in a few short hours the Buckeyes will rumble into Pasedena for the first time since 1997 and take on a Ducks team that is likely more talented. The Buckeyes haven't seen the likes of their offense, but the Ducks haven't seen the likes of our defense either. It should be entertaining.

No mention on whether Tressel intends to deploy the Dick Chaney Defense at any point.

If we were mayors of our respective towns, we would make some kind of silly bet based on what we are most known for. So, if Oregon wins we'd get rain and anti-government militias. If the Bucks win I'll be sending over some brown road sludge and unemployment. It should be epic.

And so, 364 days a year Stusigpi is one of my favorite bloggers. Today...he's my mortal enemy. That is unless he's an Oregon State fan. That would be OK I guess. I've got nothing against Oregon State. ( I won't even entertain the possibility that he's some kind of front running SEC fan. No, he seems like way to decent a guy for that).

After the game, Jeff, Beardy, and I can go back to being the 3 best friends that anyone could have.

And, of course, Woody hovers over all.