Workin' In Shifts: Randomness From Tribecards Uno

Here is another Workin In Shifts card review of cards that I did absolutely nothing to deserve. As usual, the most generous Blog Person of them all, David of Tribecards, sent them. He offered and even though I haven't sent him anything in a long time, I accepted. I have no shame.

And I love free cards.

So, what did he send me? About a week ago I got a package in the mail with 6 individually wrapped stacks of cards. It was like Christmas in July! Only it was August, but just barely, so I'm counting it. There were a few other things in the envelope that I will get to in a later post because, well, I forgot to scan them for this one.

The first pack I opened (and the other 5 remain sealed. I have tremendous will power.) contained 41 cards and a few hours worth of interesting stuff to think about and look at. I'm not kidding you. When I get these packages I really do spend a lot of time looking at what I got. I picked out a few of the cards to share with you now. And, to provide my usual nonsensical and funny only to me thoughts.

This blog exists mainly as a means to crack myself up.


Buck Leonard 2006 Legendary Cuts

I really like all of the Legendary Cuts cards that I have laid my hands on, and this is no exception. I even have a box laying around ready to bust (what did I tell you about my will power). I never knew much about the Negro Leagues until about a year ago when I started to read Joe Posnanski's ridiculously awesome blog and I picked up a copy of his book The Soul Of Baseball about Buck O'Neil. If you consider yourself a baseball fan it really is something you should read. In fact, if one of my fellow bloggers wants to read it, email me and I'll send it to you (I'm not giving it up if you aren't familiar though, or a Yankees fan...just kidding).

The back of this card says that Buck Leonard and Josh Gibson were known as the "Thunder Twins". I thought that those were the superheros that could turn themselves into a bucket of water and a bird in order to put out a fire or something. Remember, they would bump fists and yell: "Thunder Twin Powers ACTIVATE!!!! Form of a bucket of water! Form of a bird!" Exciting stuff. Not sure what it has to do with baseball, though.

I always wondered how come they didn't have to find all of the water in order to reconstitute the one twin. I guess maybe that guy only turned into the bucket and then he was filled with water. But then, how could you possibly expect to put out a forest fire with one bird carrying a bucket of water that it has to keep refilling? You'd be better off having Jimmy Duggan piss on it. Even as a young kid I wondered these things (except the Jimmy Duggan thing. I think I was in college when that movie came out). But I wondered about the other stuff.

Actually, they were pretty lame Super Heroes when I think about it. They should have just left the name to Buck and Josh.

Good Lord, I'll never finish this post if I keep rambling like that. Sorry.

Bobby Jones 1995 Upper Deck

I just love these cards when they get the picture of the guy throwing the ball right at you. I like to think that the photographer was snapping off pictures until the last second before diving out of the way. Maybe the young photograhers took one on the melon occasionally, much to the delight of the grisled veterans.


Unknown 1992 Confex


I have no idea what the heck this is. The front says fun stuff. The back says the Baseball Enquirer. There is a picture with no name that looks like it's probably supposed to be Nolan Ryan but looks more like Robert DeNiro. And there's a rocking chair on the hat for no apparent reason whatsoever. What the hell is going on here? And, there's some sort of fake interview on the back.

I'm confused

Joe Carter 1987 Topps Mini

I don't know what it is about minis that I like so much. And I have fond memories of Joe Carter. I liked him when he was in Cleveland, and I liked that he brought us Carlos Baerga and Sandy Alomar Jr. I was happy for him when he hit that homer.

Rex Hudler 1991 Studio

I love these stupid Studio cards. The backs never cease to crack me up. The only problem is that I liked Rex more before I got this card. And, I think I'm justified.

It says on the back that Rex is from Tempe. His favorite teams are the St Louis Blues, LA Lakers, and Dallas Cowboys. Talk about bandwagon, there's no way around it...what an asshole.

"Yeah, well, you don't seem to mind Lebron being a Yankee and Cowboy fan you stupid hypocrite!" you're saying. Well, you're right. I do love Lebron and I'll defend myself this way:

1. Lebron plays for my team
2. Rex Hudler will never be in the conversation for the greatest baseball player of all time.

As long as Lebron is a Cav he can rout for whoever the heck he wants.

Geez, another tangent. But see how much fun these Studio cards are?

Barry Watson 2008 Americana II

Barry is the famous actor who played the unmatched bachelor in What About Brian. So...yeah...uh...I still have no idea who he is.

Ken Caminiti 1999 HoLoGrFX

I can't help but be a little sad whenever I run accross a Caminiti card. I really loved that guy and I was shook up when he passed. And I was disappointed that he took steroids. Now...I don't care. I stoped caring a long time ago about the steroids. But, I still miss Ken. He was a hell of a ballplayer.

Dwight Gooden 1986 Topps All Star Set

What could have been.

Paul Sorrento 1993 Topps

The forgotten man in the ridiculous Indians lineup of the mid 90's. Paul was steady. He was solid. He was nobody's favorite player, but we were all glad to have him.


Unknown 1992 Confex

OK, I couldn't resist. I had to put the other one up. Just what the heck are these things supposed to be? If the other was supposed to make us think of Nolan Ryan, I guess this is supposed to make us think of Steve Howe. They have him doing drugs on the front, and on the back they basically mock his inability to stop partying and rehab. Good times.

You know, for the kids.

Bob James 1984 Topps

I don't know Bob James but I wanted to show this card for 2 reasons.

1. I like 1984 Topps (Mattingly Rookie)
2. Look how terrible those uniforms are. The hats are the worst.

I do like the way Bob wears his stirrups, though. And man, that guy could really fill out a uniform.

I especially like the picture of him in the bottom left where he's wearing his off-season car mechanic attire.

Juaquin Arias 2007 Topps Auto

Sweet! An auto! I love auto cards. Juaquin is having a rough time of it. He's been up to the Big's for a cup of coffee a few times. This year in 3 games he is hitless in 8 ABs. On the bright side he has only 3 strikeouts, so that's less than half the time. I figure things have to start falling in sooner or later, right?

OK, that's enough for now. Thank you very much David.

And remember everybody, there are 5 more to come some time in the near future. Stay tuned.

TBL Card Fest: Punk Rock Paint Breaths New Life

After laying dormant for a few month, Mr Paint of Punk Rock Paint fame has infused some much needed life to the TBL set. We need only 3 more to add another checklist to the set. We've taken a big enough break. I guess it was inevitable. Makers of the TBL cards are most likely far lazier than the average human. And then Beardy, for some reason, gets a job. Well fellas, it's time to get cracking again.

Here are the 3 awesome cards giving the set a re-boot, courtesy of Punk Rock Paint:


TBL083 Nixon #02 2009 Sports Royalty
Punk Rock Paint

I just watched Frost Nixon the other day. Good movie. I must admit, though, that I thought of this poster more than once.



TBL084 Walter #08 2009 Sports Royalty
Punk Rock Paint

Look at this card. It's as if Walter is insisting on us making more.




TBL085 Jesus #07 2009 Sports Royalty
Punk Rock Paint

Dios mio, mang.


Sweet, it's good to have TBL Card Fest back in my life. I have to see if I can remember what rudimentary photoshop skills I stll posses. Maybe I'll try MS paint.

Thanks Travis, you are the man.

The Internet Repak

My love for the Repak is well documented. Well, it's documented twice anyway. I've never gotten an internet repak, though. So I decided to try my luck on one.

Technically speaking this isn't really a repak. At least it isn't advertised as such. It's advertized as "BASEBALL CARD LOT, STARS, RC, AUTO, GU, INSERTS, $75+++". But, make no mistake, it's a repak. You have just as good chance of getting something really good here as you do in any of the ones you pass up in the card isle every time you go to the grocery store or target.

That doesn't mean you won't get something interesting or amusing. And, at $10 it won't break the bank. It was around $5 for the cards and $5 for the shiping.

Here is the long winded description:

This auction is for (1) lot of mixed year baseball cards with at least $75++ worth of cards according to the current Beckett Baseball Plus price guide. All lots will include at least one GAME USED JERSEY guaranteed. Each lot is comprised from a selection of only Hall of Famers, Future Hall of Famers, current stars/minor stars, rookie cards, autograph cards, game used cards, limited serially numbered cards and inserts and will contain ABSOLUTELY NO COMMONS. The lots will be compiled from over 250,000 star/rookie/auto/game used/inserts/ graded cards that I have accumulated over the years. Some of the stars you could find feature all the top names in the MLB over the years including Rodriguez, Ramirez, Jeter, Ortiz, Rose, Brett, Mattingly, Griffey, Ripken, Bonds, Maddux, Ryan, Santana, Pujols, Ichiro, Guerrero, Jones, Puckett, Gwynn, Molitor, Clemens, Peavy, Beltran, Fielder, Wright, Mantle, Schmidt, Boggs, Schilling etc.. All the major brands are represented, Upper Deck, Bowman, Bowman Chrome, Topps, Topps Chrome, Finest, Fleer Ultra, Pinnacle, Leaf, Score, SP Authentic, Donruss, Playoff, Sweet Spot and the like. Are you sick of paying top dollar for packs that don't deliver? These lots will satisfy the baseball card collector in all of you and unlike packs for the same price, have guaranteed value. Check out my feedback on my sport card lots. This a great chance to bolster and diversify your present collection for a nice affordable price. Check out my feedback from my other lots that I have sold...Winning bidder to add $5 for safe, secure shipping.

Let's see if it holds up. I actually got 41 cards in the lot. Here are 15 cards, not necessarily picked at random, but I didn't put a lot of thought into it either (as per usual).


Greg Maddux 1993 Finest
This might be my favorite card in the lot. I green and colorful and shiny. It looks like candy. I like candy.

Dennis Eckersley 1995 Sportflix
My love of Sportflix (or Sportflics, depending on the year) is also well documented. If I could get anyone to read this damn blog I wouldn't have to keep explaining this stuff to you. You'd already know. I will now spend a minute flipping my card from side to side.

OK, let's continue.

Kevin Brown 1987 Donruss
This isn't really Kevin brown. This is his little brother. Or the 13 year old kid that lives next door. I can't believe that Donruss fell for it.

Jason Lane 2001 Bowman Draft
I don't know who this is. I thought he was the effeminate actor from the Birdcage. I guess this card's in here because it's a rookie card (allegedly).

Brooks Robinson 2007 Goudey Heads Up Mini
No offense to Brooks but this is a really stupid looking card.

John Smoltz 2006 Fleer Strikeout Kings
If I'm John Smoltz I'm not sure how I feel about appearing on a card with "KKK Kings" written right underneath my picture. I know they turned the middle K around (I guess the second guy to strikeout usually goes down looking), but maybe Fleer should have spent a little bit more time on the design here. I'm just saying.

Derek Lowe 1994 Classic
I don't know why, but I'm a fan of minor league cards of players I've heard of.

Jim Thome 1992 Bowman
Not bad... a Jim Thome Rookie card (or rookieish card at least)

CC Sabathia 1999 Finest
With the protective coating I might add, which those of you who are frequent readers know is very important to me. For all we know, that coating might be what is sendi9ng the total value over the $75 mark.

Jeff Francoeur 2005 Bowman Draft
FRENCHIE!!!!!!

Todd Helton 2003 Donruss Classics
This is a very regal looking card. It looks all fancy restaurant and stuff. If this card was a restaurant it definately wouldn't have hubcaps on the wall and the waiters wouldn't have pieces of flare. It's so pretty I might think twice about letting my 10 month old son play with it and drool all over it.

Joe Mauer 2007 Topps Moments and Milestones 144/150
The first of 3 numbered cards. Imagine my surprise that it came from the Moments and Milestones set, where I believe every single card is numbered to something. Hey, with Joe Mauer you've got no complaints.

Frank Thomas 2004 Donruss Production Line 156/952
This is numbered to 952 because Big Frank OPSed 952 in 2003. This creates a situation where the better you are, the more cards will be produced and the less valuable they will be. Forget Frank Thomas...get me a Production Line card of Tony Pena Jr. Now that would be valuable.

Hanley Ramirez 2007 Topps Moments and Milestones 131/150
Another of those "rare" Moments and Milestones cards. Consider my ghast flabbered.

Fausto Carmona 2008 Upper Deck Game Worn Jersey
The "Hit" of the lot, I suppose. The alluded to "GU" card. Not bad for an Indians collector like myself. I'll always love Fausto for the bug game in 2007, even if he never quite puts it back together.

There were 26 other similar cards in the lot. I can't complain. He promised no commons and it's hard to argue that he didn't deliver on that. I got 3 worthless numbered cards and a worthless relic to go along with my worthless rookies, all stars, and hall of famers. Nothing to knock your socks off, but I didn't really expect anything to knock my socks off.

There's some fun stuff here, but there would have been no reason to buy this for $10 if I'd known what was in it. There are a lot better ways to spend $10. But, there are a lot worse ways too I suppose.

Did he deliver on his promise of $75++ Beckett Book Value? I hve little doubt he did, although I didn't look a single one of these cards up. I considered posting all the cards with the book value and add it all up for a good laugh, but I'm way too lazy for that right now.

I figure this is a good enough representation of what to expect from one of these "repak" lots. Not whole hell of a lot.

My opinion on the Topps exclusive

I think it will probably end up being either a good thing or a bad thing for the hobby. Either that it won't make that big of a difference.

The Incredible Edible X

I got a box of 2008 Upper Deck X to bust. "Why" you say? Why not, I say. Other than nobody seems to like it very much. But, it was cheap, and it had 2 autos (on average) so I got a box. What the hell, right?

The following is what transpired


Here's the box. It's all black and whatnot with a big silver X on the front. But I don't need to tell you. You can see that for yourself. I'm not going back to erase it though. We're already past it. Just move on, dudes.

Base: Grady Sizemore
Was there any doubt as to who I would choose to represent the base cards?

Die Cut: Evan Longoria
This is exactly like the base cards but they are cut out into the shape of an 'X'. They used either some guy with a very steady hand, or a machine. Maybe they used a laser machine. I'm sure most of you know how they do it. I just never thought about it before, and I'm not about to look it up now.

And, no, I don't really think that they might have used some dude with a sharp pair of scissors or an exacto knife. you're not dealing with morons here.

Xponential: Ryan Zimmerman
I love Ryan Zimmerman. That's why I got him on my fantasy team...last year. When he kind of sucked.

Xponential 2: Jeff Kent
I figured I would be remiss if I didn't try to include Beardy's favorite player.

Xponential 3: Ichiro and Jeter

I got 2 of these cards. It seems that the higher the number you get the harder the pull. 3 is pretty high, therefore I only got 2 of them. It fits right in there between 2 and 4. Like I said, you're not dealing with morons.

Xponential 4: Ryan Howard
This is the only Xp 4 in the box. All of the Xponential variation cards are pretty shiny. They're all pretty much the same too. I'm having trouble figuring out what the hell the difference is between everything. They are only baseball cards in the academic sense; shiny and X shaped, and they had once been made of cardboard.

I'm also not sure why Upper Deck picked the letter 'X' to focus on. Not that there's anything wrong with 'X'. Why not 'Q', or 'F' or something? I guess it's so they could make "Xponential" variations, although I think Qponential is more fun to say, even if it doesn't really mean anything.

But let's get to the good stuff. What everyone has been patiently waiting for through my nonsensical ramblings. The 2 autograph cards.

Brian Bass
This dude is a Baltimore reliever now, although he was with the Twins for the purposes of this card. I'm not sure it really matters. Brian Bass isn't the type of pull that makes you want to run over to Freedom Cardboard and yell mojo all over the damn place.

But, we know the next one will be better. The hit of the box.

STEVE HOLT!!!!!
Oh wait..

Steve HolmDamn, I was excited there for a second. I thought I pulled a Steve Holt auto. That would have been awesome.

Instead I got another guy who I haven't heard of. Oh well. Pujols doesn't hit a home run every time either.

I figure I'll show my kid the die cuts. Then I'll give him some of those round tipped scissors and the base cards and see what he can do. I'm pretty sure he'll just end up trying to eat everything though, which I doubt will hurt the value very much.

It was a fun break, though. It always is.


Oh yeah, I got 4 of those dumb ass Yankee Stadium Legacy cards too.

VOTC Contest

Rob at Voice of the Collector is having a contest.

I have proven over and over again that I am nothing if not an opportunist who takes any chance to get free cards and contribute very little in return. So I am once again taking this opportunity to enter as many times as possible. This post is my entry.

Like Laslo Hollyfeld says, they made the rules.

Anyone reading this already knows who Rob is and knows of his site. He went to the National in beautiful, exotic Cleveland last weekend to report on the happenings and goings on and whatnot, as well as show off his "Beckett Sucks" t-shirt. Now, he's giving away a lot of his loot. Probably for 2 reasons:

1. Rob is an awesome dude.

2. This stuff is too good to burn.

Here is an example of 2 lovely things that Rob is giving away:


There's plenty more where that came from. Head on over and check it out for yourself.

OH MY GOD! IT'S A FIRE...

SALE!!!



Mark Derosa - June 28
Ryan Garko - July 27
Ben Fransisco - July 29
Cliff Lee - July 29
Victor Martinez - July 31
Kerry Wood - ? What's he still doing here?


Indians back in contention - 2012?

When Shapiro blows things up he sure doesn't half ass it, does he? Victor was particularly hard to see go.

At least there's still this to look forward to: