Oh eBay, you know me so well...

I love the "recommendations" that eBay comes up with every time you click on a random auction. A few days ago Joe Collector had a link to a ridiculous auction of a "rare" pack of 1990 Bowman that had been graded. I wasn't even away that people grade unopened packs.

Because I clicked on the link, eBay generated a list of all ridiculously graded late 80's/early 90's wax packs available for me. Not that I could ever open them and get the 7 cents worth of cards inside.



That's about $100 worth of stupidity right there that eBay figures I want. Good times. (Thousands if I want the really good stuff that, once again, cannot be opened.)


If you eBay (and I know you do), click here and let's see what goodies are available to a discerning shopper like yourself.

You know you want to.

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.

Bad Wax Contest Winner

Bad Wax has weekly contests. You probably have seen them. A few weeks ago I stumbled across one that asked a few trivia questions. It had already been answered a bunch of times so I checked my answers and entered. Translation - I cheated.

In my defense I knew 2 of them and was pretty sure on the 3rd. The other question I would have had to look up, but it seemed kind of silly with all of the right answers staring me straight in the face.

It would have been like Ralph Fiennes in Quiz Show. What's the difference if you take the time to look up the answers yourself? Eventually you just kind of take the glory.

And that's exactly what I did.

Here's the glory I won: 3 packs of unopened wax! 2006 Fleer, 2007 Topps U+H, 2008 Topps.

Let's rip them and see what we got (the royal we). I'll post my favorite card in each.

2006 Fleer: David Wright
Toweling himself off after a hard day at the office.

OK - One more from this pack.

Carl Everett
I wanted to post this one because it looks to me as if he's spotted a pterodactyl up in the sky. I wish Carl Everett would say more stuff. It doesn't matter what. Just keep talking my man.

OK - Last one

Jeff Kent/Derek Lowe
I always feel as if I must post Beardy's favorite player when given the opportunity. That would be Jeff Kent, by the way.

2007 Topps Updates and Highlights

Johan Santana
Not much to say other than Johan is really good, and it appears that the Mets may have broken him. Hey, what's the harm in repeatedly sending out the league's best pitcher with a sore arm during a lost season? Nothing bad ever happens when guys pitch with a sore arm.

2008 Topps

Paul Byrd
I always loved Byrd. Sure he could be infuriating, but his games were usually exciting.

I was at this game. It was a hell of a thing watching a junkballer and a knuckleballer get out of one jam after another. There were ALWAYS guys on base. That game could have broken wide open at any time, but it didn't until the 6th. Edge of your seat for every pitch. Nothing better than postseason baseball. Made all the better because my team won. Now all we have are the memories of a competitive team past.

And Paul Byrd was a part of that. My memories of Paul are mostly good ones.

Thanks Chemgod. Good Times.

Workin In Shifts: Another Pack From Tribecards

Here's another package of cards from the Great Free Card Give Away of 2009. As usual from David at Tribecards.

This package contained 42 cards, 12 of which have been selected and scanned for your enjoyment. Well, actually, for my enjoyment. I'm the one that gets to keep them. There was a lot of goofyness in this package. A lot of movies, comics, soccer, boxing, and at least on person who I will assume is Canadien. He's on hockey skates, and he looks like he might be wearing a demin Bryan Adams tour jacket under his pads. You'll never know for sure. I didn't scan that one. I've got to keep you on your toes you know.

Well, let's see what that crazy Arkansasianite sent this time.

Arnold Schwarzenegger - Terminator 2

I like this card because the back has a wide range of interesting and obscure facts about the Gov. For example: Did you know that Arnold is from Austria, was a body builder, played Conan the Barbarian, and today is "an international star"? Me neither. Interesting stuff.


Delmon Young 2009 Turkey Red

If I get a Turkey Red...you get to see that Turkey Red. Simple as that.


Gary Stevens - Soccer player card from some kind of set.

Gary played for the Rangers. I liked it better before I knew that and thought he played for McEwan's Lager.

This reminds me of a week long soccer camp I would attend as a kid. It was at Osborne Park, a short drive from my house. My friends and I would all go for the camp because everyone I knew played soccer. This was before we got old enough to play football for the school.

At this camp they would import some english soccer players from accross the pond. At one point we were taking a break in the shade and one of the English guys was talking to us about strategy or something. The thing was, he was kind of laying on his left on the ground, propped up on his left elbow. He had his right knee, however, bent with his right foot flat on the ground. You know how a dog lays when it wants its belly rubbed? Yeah.

And, he was comando. And, I was sitting right there taking the full brunt of the assault. I remember wondering how they weren't dangling below his shorts when he stood up. I thought they might start talking to me like that cartoon one did in the video that Michael Keaton showed his brother in Johnny Dangerously. What the hell is wrong with the English anyway?

I was just a kid, man. It scarred me. I'm still not completely over it. Maybe it's not as bad as what happened to Tim Robbins in Mystic River, but still, it ain't right.

My God, man. Why the heck did I get into that? Why didn't one of you stop me for crying out loud?


Walt Weiss 1993 Studio

Let's talk about something more pleasant, like Studio and Walt Weiss, a good American sports hero who I'm sure wore his cup. The backs of these cards are usually interesting but this one is kind of bland. Walt likes to play the drums. So, there you go.

He also likes Chris Berman, but I'll give him a pass. This was 1993. Probably before we realized that Berman is one of the most annoying people to walk the face of the earth.


April - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Sticker. I don't remember the show that much so I don't remember April. She does look pretty 1989 hot, though. Why did you girls all try to tease your hair so that it would scrape on the ceiling?


Max Manning 1993 Ted Williams

Max was a pitcher for the Newark Eagles form 1939-47. What made Max different from the other players is that he was college educated. He also lost 3 years to World War 2.


Larry Walker 1999 Flair Showcase

This is a really cool looking card. Fleer Flair. I still don't quite understand if Flair was their own thing or just a set put out by fleer, like A & G is put out by Topps. Either way, it looks great. I always liked Larry Walker too.


Reggie Sanders 1995 Pinnacle Zenith

This is an awesome looking card too. It's all gold and whatnot. The back has a really cool hit location chart. Reggie liked to spread it out a bit.


Silver Surfer

Everything I know about the Silver Surfer I learned from that movie last year. I think it was the fantastic 4. Going by that movie, it seems like this guy was pretty unstopable. Not very bright , though.

Really, that's not me talking, that's the back of the card. The Silver Surfer got rated a 4 for intelligence. Now, I'm not sure if it's out of 7 or 10. But, either way, it's kind of a slap in the face. His strength and speed are a 7, as is his energy projection.

Wait...what? What the heck is an "energy projection"? No, you know what? I don't care.


Hipolito Pichardo 1993 Upper Deck

I was pumped to get this Hipolito card. I always remembered this guy. I now have an excuse to show you this:

Grady's toy...Hipolito Pichardo.

Hipolito Pichardo the toy has been around for as long as Grady has been around. I bet you didn't know this, but, one of the job's of the father is to take some of the toys and give them names that don't suck. If you leave it all up to mom you end up with Mr Hippo, Mr Monkey, Mr Squirrel, Mr Sun, Mr worm, etc. You can't let this happen.

When my wife first uttered Mr Hippo I had to intervene. "No. That's not Mr Hippo. That's Hipolito Pichardo." Well, it was silly enough for Grady to love it; partly due to the song I made up. It's sung to the tune of "Lady" by Styx. The only words are...you guessed it...Hipolito Pichardo. Sing along:

Seriously, sing along.

I'm not doing this until you are all singing along.

Hiiiippoooo

Hipolito Pichaaaardooooooo

Hiiiipooo

Ewoowwwoowwooowwooowwooooooooo

The Kid is all smiles. Good times are had by all. Feel free to use that on your kids. They'll love it.


Jerry Dybzinski 1982 Topps.

When I first played fantasy baseball I would name my teams after players from the Tribe. But that was it. My first team was named predictably: Ernie Camacho. I had this idea in my head that when asked who was winning the league, the other players would be forced to say something like: "Ernie Camacho is out in front right now"

Well, my second year my team was Jerry Dybzinski. Jerry homered in his first at bat for the Tribe in 1980. As of the printing of this card he had yet to homer again.

Ah, early 80's Tribe. You got to love 'em.



Robby Thompson 1992 studio

I had to end on this astounding card. I was floored when I saw this. I mean, did Robby approve that pose? Did he have no say in the matter? Was this considered OK back in 1992? So many questions.

What isn't in question is that this might be the most hilariously terrible photo of a baseball player ever put to cardboard. He's gazing into the camera in his turtleneck with his head resting against the bat. What a sensitive soul Robby is.

That is really really awful.

Robby wishes he could take this one back. He has to, right?

Well, that's all for this installment of "Workin' In Shifts" I know they are taking a long time to get out, but I'm moving at the speed of life right now.

Once again, thank you David. You are the best.

More to come.

Joe Collector Break

Here is the loot I got from Joe Collector in the August group break and also the Bowman's Best group break.

You really need to get in on these breaks. I think there are open spots for the monthly break club. It's worth getting in. It's cheap and fun and you'll get stuff you probably wouldn't have bought on your own. In September you will get some Icons and Finest at a fraction of the cost of one of those boxes.

Stusigpi is also breaking a case of 2007 Exquisite baseball. Did you read that correctly? A CASE OF EXQUISITE! When the heck are you going to have a chance to bust Exquisite? And you are guaranteed hits. There's no chance of coming away empty handed or getting a bad team. No. You will get hits. The only question is if they will be mildly cool, really cool, or completely freaking awesome.

Someone is getting a case hit. This isn't an "I hope there's a case hit" thing. Someone will get it. It could be you. I hope it's me. There are spots left so get your asses over there so we can get this thing done!

In August we did some Ginter. Now I've posted the hell out of 2 boxes of Ginter already with the Gint-A-Cuffs. So I won't bore you too much with it. I picked 3 cards.


Last year when Casey was still in Cleveland I saw him in Perkins eating with his kids. On TV he looks like a lot of other ballplayers. Up close he looks every bit the guy considered the best high school athlete in Iowa history. You might remember that Dan Gable is from Iowa.




I just like to look at the cards of 2 of the guys that I heard might be involved in the Cliff Lee trade. That's what we do in Cleveland. We torture ourselves.

By the way, how's Cliff working out for Philly? Anyone know?

Now on to the Bowman's Best. I was unfamiliar with this set. I didn't know what the cards looked like. And, I didn't know how expensive a box is. If not for this break I might never have known. That would have sucked. They are some of my favorite cards I've ever gotten.


Of course you knew that Sizemore was going up there.


It's also not a bad idea to put the eventual MVP up here either. I refuse to accept that there are enough stupid baseball writers out there that Teixiera might win.


Shawn Riggins 417/799

I don't know this guy, but hey...numbered rookie card.



Even though I hate the Red Sox I was excited to get this rookie card of Jonathan Papelbon in some kind of green parallel numbered to 249. It's a really sweet card of one of the best closers in the game. You can't complain about that, am I right? This guy is...wait...huh?

Why does it say Josh? His name is Jonathan, right?

Yeah, that must be him. There must be some kind of mistake on the card. Josh Papelbon is a 26 year old who's still in A ball so they wouldn't make a card of him.

Yeah, that's right. It's Jonathan. Case solved. They just wrote the wrong name. Could happen to anyone.



Eric Bedard Auto. I wonder if this is still Beardy bait?


Adam LaRoche Auto. I lost track of where the hell this guy is. I just know he's not in Pittsburgh anymore, which is a good thing for anybody.

There was more stuff but that's all I scanned.

Thanks for the breaks Stusigpi. I love the stuff that you pick out. Good times.

Personally, I don't agree with all of the terrible things that The Bearded One says about you. I think you're a great guy.