Night Owl: CC is dead to me edition

More cards form Night Owl. Let me know what you think.

CC Sabathia 2002 Donruss Classics

I was going to go into a big, long winded post here about why CC is dead to me. But I can't. It will take too long and should get it's own post or something. This is supposed to be a joyous occasion. Celebrating the sweet cards that Night Owl sent me about 4 years ago.

So I'm going to save that for later. But CC is dead to me.

Deader 'n hell.

Cory Snyder 1989 Fleer

What's the best way to save a blog post that nearly fell into an endless abyss of self pity? Cory Freakin' Snyder, that's how.

Look at that California boys smile and barely concealed mullet. I have little doubt that Cory is sporting a mullet to this very day. I'd be disappointed if he isn't.

And I love him even more now that I know he used a giant glove called "The Backhander." What does that even mean to a right fielder? I don't know but it's awesome.

Just like Cory

Bruce Egloff 1991 Bowman

" OK Bruce, you get one crack at this. this might end up being your only baseball card ever. We want to make this one count. We have the perfect lighting, the twilight sky, right before it turns dark. We have the menacing clouds in the background. Conditions are perfect. On the count of 3 I want you to look super badass. Ready? 1...2...3!"

"Dammit Bruce..."

Julie Franco 1987 Fleer Limited Edition

When we played wiffle ball kids always imitated Julio's stance way more than any other player. Guy had a crazy stance. He played 25 years and hit .298. That's astounding.

We win't soon again see the likes of Julio Franco. I hope he gets some recognition.

Dan Briggs 1979 Topps

Dan looks like a dreamer, doesn't he?

David Bell 1995 Upper Deck Top Prospects

I always like David Bell and thought he should be better than he was. I think he had a pretty decent career, just not the great career that a lot of us thought would be in store for him. NO matter what, this is a pretty cool card.

Glenallen Hill 1991 Upper Deck

Some players (Carlos Beltran comes to mind) make the difficult plays look easy. They are just so gifted. Judging by this card I'd say Glenallen Hill was the opposite. He's sure making that apparently easy play look pretty hard.

Dude could hit a ball really really far, though.

Victor Martinez 2009 Allen & Ginter

Man, I wish we still had Victor. He had a different handshake for all of his teammates. That's awesome. Now, we just have to look forward to Carlos Santana. Hopefully sometime this year.

Come to think of it, that's not such a bad thing.

Tony Perezchica 1992 Stadium Club

The back of Tony's card states "insufficient major league data available for an accurate analysis of batting strengths and weaknesses."

But let's forget about that for a moment. New Mexico State just took the lead over Michigan State. Usually I'd pull (lightly) for Michigan State because they are in the Big 10, but I know 2 lovely ladies that may be happy to see New Mexico State pull that one out.

Dennis Martinez 1997 Stadium Club

El Presidente

That's a great nickname.

Grady Sizemore 2007 Bowman's Best

Bowman's Best has quietly become one of my favorite products. 2007 in particular was great. the cards are so think and shiny and smooth. I absolutely love this card.

Thanks night Owl.

More to come.

Baseball Dad 2: Metal Universe Edition

God only knows how long ago Baseball Dad sent me a stack of cards. Some were from his group break, and a lot were just a bunch of great Indians cards, a huge variety. I limited my haul to enough cards to make about 4 posts. The plan is to always knock out those posts and get them up on the blog as a proper thank you.

With me it never really works out that way. I try to think of something semi-interesting to say about all of the cards. The problem is, since I'm an Indians collector, I get a lot of the same players. It's hard to think of a lot of different things to say about Cliff Lee. I end up repeating myself a lot.

What happens, then, is I scan the cards into different posts waiting to be commented upon. Then those posts sit there and sit there. This week is all about getting caught up and finally posting those things. And that's how I end up posting about cards that Baseball Dad sent me a year ago.

Here's the first post about these cards...way back on Dec 13.

Notice at the end of the post that I promised to get to some cards that Night Owl sent me. I made a crack about checking back in March. At the time I thought it was ridiculous to think that it would take me until then. Oh well.

Here is the second installment of the Baseball Dad cards:

Cliff Lee 2004 Certified Materials

Speak of the devil. It's CPL in the flesh. Well, not in the flesh. On a shiny piece of cardboard. I was always behind Cliff. I didn't hold it against him that we wouldn't be able to afford him and had to trade him away. It's the way it is and he earned the money.

And then, after the trade, he said some not too nice things about the Cleveland fans. I don't want to get into it here (It deserves it's own post if I ever get to it). Suffice it to say that it is partly my own fault that we haven't won a World Series in Cleveland.

Well, awesome card aside...Cliff Lee can kiss my ass. (My apologies to Baseball Dad who I know frowns upon that sort of talk. Just take solace in the fact that the actual verbiage in my head is much more colorful.)

Grady Sizemore 2007 Topps Chrome

On to happier things than Phifer Lee. This great card combines my 2 favorite things in card collecting. Chrome and Grady Sizemore...Cleveland's beloved star player still remaining in town. I think he is primed for a breakout year. I made sure I got him on my fantasy team.

Victor Martinez 2004 Diamond Kings

Now here's a former player that I can get behind, despite the fact that he's now a Red Sock (Sox?). Victor was great when he was here and I wish him nothing but the best. Victor never wanted to leave to begin with. I still hope he can, down the road, finish out his career in C-Town. It seems like the right thing.

These Diamond Kings cards are great looking. Much better than the version that was put into the late 80's cards. I miss Donruss.

Mark McGwire 1992 O-Pee-Chee

Look how skinny this dude used to be. Those roids really made him into a monster (physically speaking. I actually like McGwire as a person.) I know I'm in a very small minority, but I like McGwire and I no longer care about his steroid use.

I don't want to get into that, though. I only bring it up to say I legitimately love this card. I love it because that's a perfect swing right there. And steroids didn't give him that swing.

Steve Wojciechowileskichowskinuberchinowski 1997 Fleer

I picked this card for a few reasons:

1. I'd never heard of him. So it gave me a chance to look him up. He wasn't good. No...not at all. He did have more strikeouts than Home runs given up, though. So that's a plus.

2. I wanted to see if I type in his name without looking at it 5 times. I could not.

3. The clinic director of my residency program had a very similar name. I couldn't spell his, either. But he's a really cool dude,and that's what matters.

Chuck Nagy 1988 Topps Tiffany Traded

We interrupt this review to tell you what I'm watching. The Cavs are playing the Kings today and it's Z's first game back at home as a Cav. Cleveland loves Zydrunas. Zydrunas loves Cleveland. I'm glad he's back.

I just watched the pregame intros and Z got a reception that gave me chills. A really nice moment. Cleveland will shower it's guys with love if they let us.

Von Hayes 1991 Fleer Ultra

I hope there's nobody out there who thinks there was a chance I would get a card of a guy named "Von" and post it. Von Hayes was a good player, but not as good as his name. He has a Hall Of Fame name.

Cory Synder 1991 Upper Deck

This card was made after it was plainly evident that Cory Snyder was never going to be the player that once looked inevitable. I still don't know what happened.

He still looks great, though.

Benito Santiago 1997 Metal Universe

Why in the world don't they make cards like this anymore/ Look at how completely awesome that card is. I don't necessarily feel one way or another about Benito. He strikes me as a player who was never really as good as we thought he was. I remember Benitio being very highly thought of. It's not that he was bad, but I doubt he was ever really great. I'm ready to stand corrected about that because I don't feel like looking him up right now.

But this card sure is great. Look at all of the awesomeness going on there. I wish they'd bring back Metal Universe.

That's all for this edition and there's more to come. Thanks Baseball Dad. Many thanks again.

And Night Owl, you shouldn't have to wait any longer. In fact I might have already posted some of yours. I'll bet it's April, though. Sorry I missed my March deadline.

Night Owl: Rick Wise's Stirrups Edition

So, it was about November or December (of 2009 smart asses) when I got these from Night Owl. For no other real reason than Night Owl rules and has one of the best, if not the best, card blogs. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.


A few weeks later I sent out a package to him. It contained some Dodgers and some 1981 Topps cards. He was working on 1981 Topps so I sent him every card on his list that I had. I think it was only about 15 or so and I remember regretting that I didn't have more (and that what I had wasn't in great condition).


Then I went into hibernation. So, I have no idea if those cards ever got there or not. I'd be lying if I said I was 100% sure that I sent them. But, I know I pulled them out and I made the "to send to Night Owl" pile. And they aren't laying around here anywhere. So I'm like 83.2% confident that I sent them. (Let me know if you ever got anything, Greg. Or if you don't even remember)



Here is the first of about 4 installments of the cards that Greg sent over. I tried to narrow it down more. I know that maybe I'd get these posts up in less than 5 months if I didn't make them so long and drawn out. I just couldn't help it. There are too many cool cards.


Let's save the best for...


FIRST!
Grady Sizemore 2006 Upper Deck F/X Materials

I'm not sure what set this card is from but it is clearly awesome. It's great in the scan and the scan doesn't even do it justice. It looks really cool in different light, almost Chromish or something. And, you all know I'm a sucker for Chrome.


I'm going to be so, so sad when Grady is gone. I just hope we don't trade him before his last year like we did with Cliff Lee.
Tommy Hinzo 1988 Upper Deck


Look at good old Tommy Hinzo with his subhelmet hat. I think there's an organization for that on some stupid blog somewhere. Some kind of alliance or something. Someone needs to get off their lazy butt and admit more members.

Carlos Baerga 1992 Leaf


What a great looking card. That's a sweat action shot. Man, you look at that and you might get the idea that Carlos was a great second baseman. You'd be wrong. He was not. But I can see how you'd get that idea.


Dude could hit, though. Man, for about 5 years this cat could rake.



Kenny Lofton 1999 Upper Deck


It's hard to explain to non Indians fans the 190 pounds of awesome that was Kenny Lofton. But he was. I loved this guy. All 3 times he played for Cleveland. You'd be hard pressed to find a more beloved player in C-Town than Lofton.


On a team with Baerga, Belle, Thome, , El Presidente, and the like Lofton is the one who found himself in a place of honor on my college dorm room wall. Staring down a poster of Darren Daulten (roommate from Philadelphia.) We didn't talk about it much. We both knew who would win that battle, and there was no reason for me to rub it in.



George Hendrick 1975 Topps


One of the best sets ever. Yount and Brett rookies. Unique color scheme. Instantly recognizable. Just a great set. This card is just a classic. Classic pose. Empty stadium and a blue sky with airbrushed looking clouds.


Plus the hat with the crooked "C" on it.

Grady Sizemore 2009 Upper Deck X - Exponential 3


People don't seem to like Upper Deck X. I never got why. I like it. It's cheap and the cards look shiny and cool. What more could you want?


The back tells us that Grady is a "bona fide five-tool player." I think he's proven that. Let's just hope that from now on he keeps his tool out of the coffee mug and off the internets from now on.



Roberto Alomar 1999 Pacific Crown Royale


Man, that was a hell of a double play combo. Alomar and Vizquel. Probably the best I will ever see in Cleveland in my lifetime. And I feel like I did enjoy it and appreciate it while it lasted. So often you forget to appreciate things until their too late.


But not these guys. they were good and we all knew it.



Kenny Lofton 1999 Ovation


Another Lofton. I like these Ovation cards. They look pretty good and they have a nice texture to them. You can feel the seams on the ball.


But, couldn't they have found a better picture of Kenny? I refuse to believe that this was the best cut that Kenny took.



Rick Wise 1979 Topps


I just wanted to show you this card so that you could also admire the glasses and the stirrups.



Sean DePaula 2002 Topps Total


I don't remember Sean DePaula. The Indians drafted him in 1996 and he first appearend in a game in 1999. He played in 3 different years briefly at the major league level. His inning total was just less than 35 innings.


I have no idea what happened to Sean, nor do I know why no other team gave him a shot. As far as baseball reference is concerned, he's still an Indian. There's no mention of him being released or traded or anything. In 2003 he played for the Reds AAA team and then there was nothing.


You might think that's not much of a career. What I think is that Sean DePaula played in the Major Leagues. He pitched 5 innings n the ALDS. He struck out 5 Red Sox in the playoffs. He is credited with a Major League win.


Anyone out there who wouldn't take that?




Well, that's all for this installment. Thanks Night Owl. There is more to come.

Tribecards From Long Ago: Oddibe Edition

Remember way back over the summer when David from Tribecards was sending out cards for no particular reason other than...he's David and he's awesome? Well, I'm not quite finished with him. This is the the next installment of cards that he sent me. You can see my other hilarious write ups here. And here. And here

And here

Yeah, David sends out a lot of stuff. Here's some more of it. (And there's one more after this too)

Jeffrey Hammonds 2001 Black Diamond

Look at how cool this card is. Black Diamond. I gotta get me some more of those. The only problem is I'm going to have the Kiss song playing over and over again in my head for the foreseeable future. I guess it could be worst. It could be that "Your beautiful" song that makes me want to punch something.

(Holy Cow! I forgot that Peter Criss sings this.)

Oddibe McDowell 1986 Donruss

You know it's a shame that people just don't seem to be naming their kids "Oddibe" anymore. I wonder why that is? It's a perfectly good name.

I love this cards becaue it reminds me that I need to start a set featuring players with diastemas

Brett Butler 1991 Stadium Club

I loved Brett Butler when he was on the tribe, almost as much a Tony Bernezard. In hindsight I wish I would have picked Butler seein-as-how Tony turned out to be something of a D-Bag.

I'm glad I had the occasion to use the phrase seein-as-how. It always makes me laugh. I have a friend who would proofread papers for some of her friends when she was in college. She once told me that she proofread a paper with that exact phrase in it. In college. Let me repeat that so as to make sure you are understanding this correctly. A college student wrote a paper with "seein-as-how" in it.

For example, one might say something to the effect of "Watson and Crick are important figures in the history of genetics seein-as-how they first came up with the double helix." Yes, one might say this...if one was a complete moron.

Anyway, I always laugh.

Tony Stewart 2009 Press Pass

I know as much about Nascar as Edinboro students know about english. I wanted to show you this card to let you know that I'm at least 63.8% sure that Tony Stewart is the guy on the left. I know I should know this seein-as-how he's one of the more popular drivers, but I don't.

And, I don't care.

Wally Joyner 1992 Studio

Look at Wally.He looks like he's 15 years old there. Dude could hit, though. The back of his card informs up that he likes Letterman. So, Mr. Joyner is welcome in my house anytime.

Russ Davis 1999 Skybox Thunder

The back of this card contains (for no explicable reason) the phrasing:

"You got more flow than Rockefeller has dough.

And if y'all didn't know before, now you know.

You're all that, and mo'."

Now, I must apologize. The more posts I do the less I try to curse (regardless of the fact that it is one of the few endeavors at which I truly excel). I think it's a crutch in a lot of cases. I especially try to avoid it in these posts that are in appreciation for other bloggers who frown upon that type of thing.

But, in this case, I feel like I have no other acceptable way to state the obvious question: "What the fuck is that all about?"

Marquis Grissom 1994 Donruss Studio

I love the Studio sets because of all of the comic gold on the back in the form of personal information. Marquis Grissom has about the most boring info I could imagine. The most interesting thing he could think of is that his hobbies are fishing and drawing.

I can't think of anything remotely funny to say about that.

Dante Bichette 1993 Upper Deck

I don't know if this is some kind of special subset or something and I'm too lazy to look it up. All I know is that it looks like every trapper keeper I ever owned, so it's all good in my book.

On the front of the card he's performing his old "hide the fungo bat handle" trick that used to keep Vinny Castilla in stitches. Don Baylor never did figure it out.

Rance Mulliniks 1987 Donruss

I'm still dumfounded by the fact that a dude named Rance, who looks like this, somehow had a 16 year Major League career.

Really...Rance?

Les Norman 1994 Upper Deck Minors

Les Norman was a Royals Top Prospect. His Baseball Reference page lists his position as Outfielder and Pinch Runner. Think about that. I'll come back to that.

In '95 and '96 Les made it to the big leagues for 73 glorious games. In those games he OPSed a dazzling .466.

To be fair about the whole thing we won't use OPS. Les never claimed to have much power. We'll use OBP. His career .275 is only slightly worse than mine. You might say that .275 is better than .000, but I beg to differ. Les made a hell of a lot more outs than I ever did.

"Well, he's a pinch runner. He let's others get on base for him." You might be thinking. I would counter with Les's grand total of 1 career stolen base.

But all of this is besides the point. The point, as I alluded to earlier, is that Les's position is listed as pinch runner (along with outfielder). My question is this:

What does it say about the state of the Royal's organization when One of their "top prospects" (according to Upper Deck) plays "pinch runner"? Now, who out there is surprised at how well the Royals have performed that last 20 years or so?

Bob Lemon 2005 Upper Deck Classics

That's Fall of Famer Bob Lemon to you, bub.

What strikes me about this card is the hat. Apparently Cleveland couldn't decide whether to go with Chief Wahoo of the "C". So they took the worst possible solution and went with both at the same time. This is the ridiculous final product.

I wish they would have gone with the "C" and let the Chief slowly fade into bolivian. I wish that now, actually. It's never too late.
Hiram Bocachica 1994 Siganture Rookies Auto

I have no idea who this kid is, and I've never heard of this set. But, he played all over...the field and the country. A lot of positions and a lot of cities.

He also signed 7,750 of these cards. That's a lot, man. With only 18 left by the time he got to this one I'm surprised he could move his hand at all, much less make a fairly legible auto.

So, here's to you Hiram. May your helmet always be so gargantuan that you can barely swing.

And here's to you, David. The appreciation of the free cards you sent me probably close to a year ago has finally come to a close. I knew I could do it.

I love them all, dude.

*This post was originally started on 9/27/09. How about that. If anyone thinks they can procrastinate like me...bring it on, man.

Shark Week Table Of Contents

I've got a lot of stuff that I've been meaning to get to, some of it for many months. There's a little corner of our "office" that I've somehow taken over. My wonderful wife hasn't objected. I do my best to keep things organized but I've only been marginally successful.

When I get a trade package, or a package from a break, or just a random package that someone has contributed to the cause, I like to make a post, sometimes multiple posts out of it. I'm extremely inefficient at doing this.

So what happens is I get the cards and I put them in a stack somewhere in my corner secure in the knowledge that I'll remember who sent them. Sometimes I write it down or put them in what amounts to an "in" box, but not every time. I'm just terribly, terribly overmatched when it comes to any type of sustained organization.

Well, this time it caught up with me. I have a huge amount of stacks to go through and a lot of backlogged posts to write up. I have a lot of the cards scanned into post waiting to be written; some of them scanned in months ago. The whole big mess is almost indecipherable at this point.

What I've done is write them all up so that I can post them all this week.

A very wise soul once said that we should live every week like it's shark week. So that's what this is. Only with trade posts and whatnot instead of sharks. Essentially it will be like Beardy's blog was (I swear that dude did about 17 trades every week. How does he find the time? I wish I was more like Beardy.)

If you have a post coming it should be up tout suite, meaning this week some time. In many cases I won't remember why you sent me the cards in the first place. It may have been a trade. If this is the case there's about a 13.78% chance of me remembering what I sent you (dear God I hope I sent everything.) If you sent me cards and I never posted about them and you aren't on the list, you should let me know. Seriously.

I'm only about 82.4% confident that I've gotten everyone. I'm less sure that the cards listed in the posts are actually attributed to the correct contributor. But I did my best. If your cards got lost in the shuffle I sincerely apologize and do wish that you'd contact me about it. I'll do my best to straighten things out. But, the plain truth is I probably won't have any real way of doing that.

On the other hand, maybe I got everything in it's right place. Stranger things have happened.

Here is what you can expect this week during the Achiever Card Blog Shark Week!

1. Tribecards Random Packs Part 6
2. Night Owl Cards Part 1
3. Baseball Dad Part 2
4. Tribecards: Brewers Edition
5. Night Owl: CC is Dead to Me Edition
6. Baseball Dad Part 3
7. Thorzul Rules
8. I Am Joe Collector Breaks
9. Baseball Dad Part 4
10. Condition Poor Trade
11. Night Owl: Candy Man Edition
12. I Am Joe Collector: Big League Choo Edition
13. Baseball Dad: Christmas Card
14. A Thorzul Bonus (I think)
15. I Am Joe Collector: Exquisite Edition

I've actually been scanning and writing these posts a little at a time for what seems like forever. Some of these posts were actually written a long time ago. I've been saving them up for Shark Week because at a certain point it seemed like the right thing to do. There was likely alcohol involved with that decision. The point is that because of the time frame there is bound to be repeated anecdotes and jokes (or what passes for jokes around here). Please don't hold that against me too much. There's only so much you can say about Carlos Baerga's alleged coke habit, you know?

I really feel bad that it took me so long to get this stuff up. Please, for the love of all that is good and holy, don't for one second let this prevent you from sending me more free stuff. Because that would be the real tragedy. We cannot...we mustn't let it come to that. Because if that happens, the terrorists win.

Achiever Card Blog Shark Week

It's coming!

I finally have posts for all of the stuff you've sent me over the last 87 months or so. It will all be unveiled this week. That's right, starting tomorrow I will spend the week congratulating myself for finally doing something any normal or reasonable person would have accomplished easily shortly after the cards arrived.

But that's not how I role.

So, I stacked them all into one week and I will be caught up with everything. Life will once again make sense and things can get back to normal.

I didn't know what to call it. I wanted it to be like "Shark Week" but with a card twist or something.

Card Shark Week?.......no

Carck Week?......you must be kidding

Trade Week?........lame

Achiever Card Blog's Fantastic Trade Post Extravaganza?.......That's actually not too bad

Just Like, My Opinion, Man..............That might become some other feature, but not for trades

We're Gonna Need A Bigger Blog...........That's pretty good too. I wish I would have thought of that before I set all of the posts to drop.

But I'm not going to go back and change everything now. So the thoroughly unoriginal "Shark Week" it is, despite the fact that sharks have nothing to do with anything and it makes no sense.

Why should I have to start making sense now anyway?

So it's coming.

Chum's in the water, dudes and dudettes.