Tribecards: Random Brewers Edition

Just when you thought my blog was clear of free stuff from David, you get a bunch of Brewers!

That's right, more free stuff. I signed up for the Brewers on one of the giveaways at Tribecards (so long ago). I think he's had about 6 other giveaway contests since this one. I know he recently sent out just about his whole darn collection recently.

But, before he did that I was able to snag some Brewers. Here are 10 of them:

Cecil Cooper 1987 Topps

Whenever I look at a card like this I wonder if the people milling about in the stands have any idea they are on a card. Some of them have to know, right? There has to be a group of people that bore the heck out of dinner guests with their stories of being in the background of a 1982 Donruss card, or something.

I wish like crazy that I was in that group. And you better believe I'd show that 1988 Brook Jacoby card to every darn person I know.
Dale Sveum 1989 Score

Dale's last name is pronounced "SWAIM" or so I've been informed on the back if this card. That's a real purty swing Dale has there. Almost as pretty as his glorious mustache on the back of the card. You'll have to take my word for it.
Robin Yount 1994 Topps

Rumor has it this Yount guy was pretty good.

I can't think of a single thing to say about 1994 Topps. This card is epically boring.

Ron Robinson 1992 Stadium Club

OK, raise your hand if you had any idea that Chris Elliot used to play ball. I sure didn't.

Wanna buy a monkey?
Buck Martinez 1981 Fleer

Even though the design is really boring and you have to flip the card the wrong way to read the stats, I like Fleer's inaugural edition. And you could do worse than Buck Martinez.

Buck Martinez. What a name. It's like his parents decided that he was going to be a ballplayer when they named him that. Kind of like Wally Joyner. Or Nikki, if you want your little girl to end up a stripper.

I've always believed that there's a lot in a name.

Pat Listach 1992 Pinnacle

I remember Pat Listach as being a great player. I'm afraid to look him up on Baseball Reference because I have a feeling I'd be trashing a memory needlessly.

Damn. I couldn't help myself. Listach sucked.
John Jaha 1992 Donruss Rated Rookie

I'd have no qualms about looking up Johnny Boy. I loved this guy. I don't care what anyone says. This guy was great. He killed the Tribe too.

That's right. Career OPS+ 116. Jaha rocked.

Although he did only play 3 full seasons. I wonder, was he hurt a lot or something?

Tyrone Hill 1992 Pinnacle

HEY YOU GUUUUYSSS!!!

OK, that was mean. I didn't mean that. I'm sure it's just the angle of the camera or something.

Richie Sexson 2001 Donruss

I've got nothing to add other than this is a nice looking card. And I always liked Sexson.

Jeromy Burnitz 1999 Upper Deck Ovation

I liked Burnitz too. I was sad to see him traded, but we got Seitzer in that trade so I wasn't too sad. But I liked him. He was pretty good. He had some good years. He had a few great ones.

He made the all star team once. In 1999 that was. Like a said. Pretty good career.

Jeromy Burnitz made $47 million in his career.

Let me repeat that.

$47 million.

That's four seven zero zero zero zero zero zero.

I just thought everyone should know that.

Thank you again David. Awesome, as usual.

This time I really do think that's the end of them.

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.

Workin' In Shifts: Random Tribecards Pack 5

Just when you thought that there couldn't be any more good stuff from Tribecards!

IT'S PACK 5!!

Yup, we have arrived at another brilliant installment of the "Workin' in Shifts" review series that has been diligently pouring over David's generosity for the past 6 years. I know it's been a few weeks since the last WIS post, but time ceases to exist in my house lately.

I'm not sure if it's because of summer ending, or going into a week long funk after watching another gutwrenching loss by my Buckeyes, just general laziness (likely), or what.

Let's just say I was bowling with this guy. Yeah, that sounds best to me.

On to the cards:

Gary Roenicke - 1985 Topps

After staring at Gary's baseball reference page for a good 5 minutes, I still have no idea whether the guy was any good. So I looked up Lefty Gomez instead (because the back of Gary's card says that Lefty got the first RBI in All Star competition) in the hopes that Lefty was a righty. No such luck.

However, I did find that his name is actually Vernon Louis Gomez and his nickname was Goofy. Goofy Gomez.

Wait...I thought his nickname was Lefty.

Yankees are stupid.


Taryn Manning

Even though I have no idea who she is, Taryn Manning is "a renaissance woman and a true brand." I'm sure that means something to somebody. She's also the lead singer for her band Boomkat. Great. I've always said that what the world needs more of is actresses trying to break into the music biz.


Jay Payton - 2001 Fleer Triple Crown

I just like the look of this card. Jay Payton is cool too. He's from Zanesville.

True story, I was in a wedding in Zanesville. The reception was in the hotel ballroom that we were all staying. I highly recommend that. When people don't have to drive the party doesn't really end, it just moves. Good times. I've been told numerous times what a great time I had. You will not hear from me anything about the groom's father falling asleep in a chair and the groom actually tea-bagging his own dad. I will never admit to witnessing something this disturbing. As far as I know there are no photos of this anywhere. I'm not confirming anything. In fact, I'm a little bit confused as to why you brought it up in the first place.


Albie Lopez - 1995 Score

Somewhere in the back of my mind I still think that Albie Lopez is going to be a phenominal pitcher. I still get a little tingle when I see one of his cards.

Albie Lopez made over $10 mil in his career. I just thought you should know.


Sal Fasano - 1995 Upper Deck

Make that former Indian Sal Fasano. Look at young, vigerous 1995 Top Prospect Sal Fasano. So full of piss and vinegar. That is not the dude that I watched last year in the Tribe uni. I still liked watching him.

For a short time last year, Rob Neyer (who is not a fan of the Chief Wahoo caricature) took to calling the Indians the "Cleveland Fasanos" until such time as they change their mascot. It didn't last but I got a huge kick out of it while it did. I wish Rob would throw out a Clevand Fasanos reference occasionally just to keep people on their toes and reward loyal readers.


Bill Bonham - 1979 Topps

I will not look it up because right now this could still be John's brother. As far as I know.


BJ Surhoff - 1992 Studio

Am I the only one who for years thought BJ's name was "Shuroff"? I still have trouble not pronouncing it with the "sh" sound at the beginning.

Unfortunately, all of the info on the back of this card is boring. I won't bore you with it. I'm doing a good enough job at that without any help.


Manny Ramirez - 1995 Score Hitters Inc

What the hell is going on here? What is the point of the whole eye thing at the top? That's just creepy, man. That's creepy.

The back reminds us that Manny was second in the '94 ROY voting. It makes no mention of the fact that he lost out to Bob Hamelin. I wonder if the writers would like that one back?


Mookie Wilson - 1984 Topps

I can't look at a 1984 Topps card without thinking of Don Mattingly.

I like guys named Mookie. Quick, give me one guy named Mookie who people hate.


Randy Johnson - 1993 Flair

I just scanned this because it's one of the best looking cards ever. I have to get more from this set.


Rey Quinones - 1989 Fleer

I have very little tolerance for guys named Ray who spell their name "Rey". This guy's going to have to work pretty hard to get out of my doghouse. That mustache doesn't hurt his cause.


Sandy Alomar Jr - 1999 Upper Deck 10th Anniversary team

This is a fantastic looking card. Obviously it's the 1989 set with just the right amount of touch ups in cool gold foil. I like it a lot.

Believe it or not, there is still more to come. I have to keep at it because I've gotten myself way behind in the last few weeks and I have a lot of stuff that needs posting.

Thanks again David.

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.

Update on Seitzer from Tribecards

One of David's favorite things to do is give away baseball cards. This works out perfectly because one of my favorite things to do is to get free baseball cards. Synergism.

Another one of my favorite things to do is to give some of my cards to my son Grady to see what he does.

One of Grady's favorite things to do is to see how much of the card he can fit into his mouth. Never very much at first, but the kid is nothing if not tenacious.

2 of the cards I received in the last pack made their way to Grady and he treated them accordingly. I'd link to the post, but it's right there man. Just look down.

Here is the first one. He got Seitzer because I figured I still had over 3,000 to spare. As you will see, the book value is shot. This card would no longer rate any higher than VG-EX.



The other card is this 1988 Score Jeffrey Leonard. This one wasn't chosen for the post, but it's a fine card none-the-less.

I'm not sure what Grady's attraction to it is. It could be Jeff's perfect form on the swing. It could be the sweet way the Jeff wears his stirrups. It could be that Jeff shares a birthday with his old man (me, I'm pretty sure). Most likely Grady just mistook it for a slice of cheese. I've done that many times myself.

What isn't up for debate is the sure fact that we got our money's worth from these cards.

I thank you David.

And Grady thanks you too.

Workin' In Shifts: Tribecards Random Pack 3

Here is another pack of the Workin' In Shifts feature for the random packs of kindness that David sent from his Tribecards Workshop down in Arkansas. In my head it's kind of like Santa's Workshop, only it's in Arkansas, and Bill Clinton drops by occasionally to have a few beers, eat a Big Mac and talk about Gilmore Girls.

36 cards in this pack. Here are 10 for your viewing pleasure:


Kevin Seitzer 1990 Donruss

It's great to see this card as I'm trying to collect all of them. Not the 1990 Donruss set. Not the Kevin Seitzer player set either. No I'm trying to collect all of the 1990 Donruss Kevin Seitzer cards. I have gotten one in every single pack of 1990 Donruss that I have ever opened. This card brings the collection to about 3,786 Seitzers.

This is not a bad thing. I've always like Seitzer. He was kind of the poor man's Gregg jefferies in the late 80's, only it turned out that he was pretty good. Also, he had a nice stint with the Tribe.

Seth Smith 2008 UD Timeline SP Prospect somthin' er other

Don't know this guy. Cool card though, with the top notched out and everything. I'm not sure if that makes this a "die cut" or not. I thought die cuts were done with lasers or something. I doubt they'd waste the laser maching when they can just ship them over to Mrs. Seabeck's 3rd grade classroom for the tops to be trimmed.

Hey, I just looked this guy up. He's pretty damn good. Shows what I know. I need to pay more attention to the NL.

Luke Richardson Hockey Card

I know nothing about hockey. I can stare at the back of this card all day and have no idea if the numbers add up to good things or bad things.

What I do know is that Luke here played for the Petersborough Petes. That is until he was promoted to the Toronto Tors before being shipped off to the Edmonton Eds.

(Look, I know that wasn't funny. Cut me some slack. I'm sleep deprived.)

Brook Jacoby 1992 Stadium Club

"Brook Jacoby" goes into the pantheon of great baseball names right next to Wally Joyner. I'm not sure why Brook (kind of a girls name) goes so well with Jacoby, but it does. It just sounds like a ballplayer.

Brook lives (or lived) in Oxnard. Oxnard is one of my absolute favorite places to say out loud. Oxnard.

Tom Goodwin 1997 Skybox

Pretty pink card featuring a quote from Tom:

"You just try to be the best defensive player you can be. Hey, [if] you put me back there at catcher, [then] I've got to throw out Kenny Lofton. That would be my job."

Look, I could spend the rest of the post just talking about that quote and it's appearance on the front of this card. But I won't.

I'll only say that I HAVE to get more of these cards. Expect a post dedicated to this set at some point in the future...meaning the next few years. Probably.

Bret Saberhagen 1993 Topps

there's nothing particularly interesting about this card, other than the fact that Saberhagen was awesome and we don't talk about him enough.

Pat Tabler 1991 Score

Pat was Cleveland's All Star representative in 1987, the year that the Tribe was supposed to be awesome...but was not. This is opposed to the years in the 80's that the Tribe was supposed to suck...and did.

Looking at Pat's stats, he WAS pretty good. It's just not rosey thinking from from a young Tribe fan. He wasn't George Brett or anything, but I knew that at the time...I think.

Quilvio Veras 1996 Upper Deck

I don't know this guy either. I just like this card because of all the pretty shiney orange/gold foil at the bottom. Also Quilvio looks like he might be all of 5 feet tall. the back of the card says 5'9". So does Baseball Reference. I'm not buying it. Not for a second.

Quilvio was 3rd in ROY voting in 95. Probably on the strength of 56 stolen bases. But he was caught 21 times. That, my friends, kind of sucks.

Here is the back of the Quilvio card that I mistakenly scanned. I figured since I scanned it I might as well show it to you.

Patrick Roy Hockey Card.

This is my only card of Patrick Waahh. I know he is good because I have heard of him.

Pat was a great goaltender who would stop a puck by any means necessary. On this card we have Larry Odelein retrieving the puck after one of Patrick's incredible sphincter saves. No wonder the guy was an all star.

Gregg Jefferies 1992 Studio

I've been very clear what I think of this Studio set. To put it mildly, I'm for it.

I guess by following my earlier logic, Gregg Jefferies is the rich man's Kevin Seitzer. I still haven't given up hope of buying a Trans Am using my Gregg Jefferies rookie card. This one isn't a rookie, but it might get me the floor mats.

Let's see what good stuff we learn about ol' Gregg from the back, shall we?

Named the minor League player of the decade in 1989. This is not to be confused with Robin Ventura being named the amateur player of the decade. Also, Gregg didn't get his face punched in by an old man.

Gregg likes Chevy Chase (very reasonable in 92), The Hustler (reasonable for any time) and David Letterman (ibid, your honor). He also says his favorite book is "Of Mice and Men". Yeah...right.

Well, that's all for this installment. Thank you once again David. There is still much more to come.