First pack of 2010 A&G

I bought one loose pack in addition to my box today. Topps ain't fooling around on this one, check out the powder blue wrapper. Here's the results from the first pack of 2010 A&G for me.

The first card is....

78 Leonardo Da Vinci

Can't ask for a better card than this to start off the 2010 set. I wonder if Leo has anything to do with the Ginter code?

80 Will Venable

I really need to figure out something else to say about this guy other than Max's kid. A little help, Pads fans?

44 Chris Coughlan

Swiped Hanson's rookie of the year award last year. WE SHALL HAVE OUR REVENGE.

210 Chris Johnson RC

No clue who this guy is. His stats say he's played Four Hundred Six games so either those are minor league totals or he's an awfully old rookie.

174 Eric Byrnes

He's with the Mariners? He's still in the League?

303 Trevor Cahill SP

I'm assuming cards 301-350 are short prints once again, just as they have been since 2007.

Mark Teixeira mini

My first mini is.... Mark Teixeira. How disappointing. He's on my list of favorite players just underneath JD Drew.

Oh goody a no-number variation. At least it can't go in my A&G minis Frankenset now.

TDH27 Ken Griffey Jr This Day in History

Me likey this insert set. Baseball and history tidbits all in one! I am going to have to show great restraint not to cut out the mini card on the first doubles I get of these things. If I had the cash to blow I'd buy a set just for that purpose.

Ginter Code Ad

I have to say this year's code is going to be much harder than last year's. The clues were pretty hard to miss last year. After tearing through my box, I don't recall any oddities to help out in solving this year's cypher.

Pretty successful pack, that! Short print, no number mini and a nifty card of my favorite Renaissance Man. I'm going to be working long hours the next few days, but I'll wash down some No-doze with a Red Bull and try to get something from my box break up by tomorrow.

Early candidate for coolest card in the 2010 A&G set

I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE

Yep, I got a box in hand my peeps.

Nope, I didn't make it home before I started ripping it.

$110!!!

I never thought I'd be happy about paying $110 for a box of cards but if all goes well I will be doing so in less than an hour. Yes, the Allen & Ginter Sickness has taken me.

In the meantime, chew on this:

More details later... I've been saving this one.

The Kid Who Could - Page 8

Filth, filth and more filth.

Enough of the writer's depraved mind, let's get to page 8 of The Kid Who Could Could. Here we have our first major plot twist.

Andrew is impressed enough with Peter's skills to play ball with him in an informal setting, but there's no way he's going to let someone on his team without all the requisite measurables. Andrew has all the makings of a future NFL GM. However, Tony the anthropomorphic spokescat has one more trick up his sleeve. Well, he doesn't actually have sleeves, but it's tucked in under his cravat somewhere. Specifically, three tickets to The Big Game.

You can tell this comic is almost twenty years old by this scene right here. I dare you to show me even one of today's overprotective helicopter parents who would allow their child to just up and go to a ballgame with some random dude who wandered into the neighborhood with tickets in his hand. I know Tony's pretty famous and one of the most beloved cereal mascots around, but Michael Jackson was really beloved and famous and that didn't turn out well. Hell, I get evil looks from all the paranoid soccer moms at the park when I take my own children there. You think they're going to trust their precious spawn to a natural (carniverous) predator? The fact that the kids are playing outside at all is pretty sketchy in today's society.

I never got to go to Busch stadium before it got leveled, so I'll have to rely on a Cardinal fan (paging Mr. Madding...) to let me know how faithful a representation this is. It looks a heck of a lot like old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium though, whuch I believe was stamped out of the same mold. I'm not as interested in the stadium as the crowd. Comic book crowds are almost always gold as the bored artist gets to go wild for a panel to create all that background filler. This is a pretty good crowd here, I'm a ringer for the big guy on the left, although I'm not a fan of polka dot shirts. There are no less than three guys wearing flannel shirts which was the fashion of the time, one of whom appears to be wearing a bowler hat, which was not. Not too many ladies at the ballpark, but there's one right in center who is either very tall and slender or Tim Curry from Rocky Horror. Either way she is sex-AY.And who's that on the far right? It's Carmen Sandiego! We found her! The little boy she's with suffers from a very unfortunate case of 'guy in front's leg appearing in an awkward place'. More filth from the artist, tsk tsk. I'm not going to smother my children with overprotection, but I'm sure as hell keeping them away from anyone who creates comics.

Joy of a Completed Page - 2006 Heritage

You know, when you get this set in pages and you're able to see them all next to each other in the same place, you are immediately struck by just how horrifically ugly this set really is. I own some '57 Topps, and 2006 Heritage, you're no '57 Topps.

My Bowemans

let me show you them

thanks to project '62 for half of these suckas

Ok, I'll hop on this train

ZOMGZ AYE AN GEE SOOPA SHORT PRINCE!@!!!1

(context and more context)

This is totally real by the way. Promise.

Why I'll end up paying the Allen & Ginter Strasburg Tax

I'll do it but I will mind, and I'll mind a lot. I've already talked to the owner at the local shop about Ginter prices. Basically he told me that I can forget about paying under $100 for a box but he promised me that the price would be fair. This guy is not a wax ripoff artist at all, but I'm still not expecting to pay less than $120. At $130 I'm going to be vocal about my displeasure and at $140 I'll probably walk out of the store.  But eventually I'll suck it up, and I'll overpay for one of these boxes.

Why? Because it's my favorite set to build. I've successfully built three out of the five sets, and I'm pretty close to the final two.

Because I've ripped a box of this stuff every year this blog has been in existence.

Because I want to compete in Gint-A-Cuffs.

And because of this

this

and this:

I totally have to get this card. Woof.

As for the price, I'm just going to have to bend over and take it. Prices of a hobby box of this year's A&G getting jacked up 30 to 40 bucks a pop is a consequence of Topps' baseball license monopoly. I shouldn't even be blaming it on Strasburg, nobody with a lick of sense out there is willing to pay that much money just for a lottery ticket to maybe pull a Strasburg non-rookie in a set builder's set. Topps is the only game in town now and we have to play by their rules. The rules are that Topps gets theirs, dealers get to jack up prices and collectors have to take it because there's no Goudey or Elite or SP Authentic to compete with this release for collecting dollars.

You know what, I've wasted more than the $40 markup on these boxes in junkwax this year. I can put that same amount toward a box I really want. I'm not gonna like it though.

UPDATE:

Holy frelling frackity frig, there's a deadline for signing up for Gint-A-Cuffs!!!

WHY DOES NO ONE TELL ME THESE THINGS?!

Sign up by Wednesday at 11:50pm!!!

PANIC!!!!!!!!1

WELCOME TO THE BIGS, ROOK

Get that weak-assed bullsh!t

OUT

OF

OUR

HOUSE

Oh God how I love baseball.....

Joy of a Completed Page - 2005 Topps Heritage

Hey, look! I remembered to rotate the image this time!

Also: Andre Ethier was an A?

And what is it with all these Cubs??

Tobacco use is addictive

This may very well be the greatest music video known to man.



I've been listening to Tobacco and Black Moth Super Rainbow all weekend. I'm mildly obsessed with these bands right now. I'm certain that my insane musical tastes are not shared with most of my readers so I'll give you a little Tobacco that you can like.

I chose Mr.Fielder Jones of the Chicago Americans because he's giving you the exact same look that you all are giving me after watching that video:

ಠ_ಠ

I don't care what you think, that video is completely wonderful and no one can sway my opinion on this matter. For all you who watched, here's the back of the card as a bonus. If you didn't watch  it then go away, you don't deserve to see how many subjects there are.

 Mmmmm mmmmm, Piedmont goodness.

This game may be relevant to your interests

I think the object of this game is to make Wade Boggs throw up. It's not a very good game, it's kinda like Tapper with a little added alcoholism and sexism for fun. Also, I'm going to have to convince myself that the things Wade eats to sober up are chicken sandwiches because otherwise there's really no hope for this game. However, it got me to thinking about why Wade Boggs is the least loved Hall of Fame singles hitter ever.

Seriously, why does Wade catch so much crap from fans? It can't just be because of his girlfriend, your average NBA benchwarmer is involved in 3.7 sex scandals a season so I think we're all pretty jaded towards that sort of thing right now. It can't possibly be the drinking, see: Mickey Mantle. Was it the Hall of Fame cap thing? You'd think that a guy who had worse OCD than Nomar Garciaparra in his playing routines would be pretty beloved. The man was of Cheers and the Simpsons for Pete's sake! He should be universally admired for his mustache alone!

The only theory I can come up with is that he no longer has a natural fan base. Padres fans love Gwynn. Royals fans love Brett. Brewers fans love Yount. Red Sox fans loathe Boggs. His number isn't even retired. Why? He signed with the Yankees. If he signs with the Dodgers instead he would still be beloved and there would probably be a popular chain of Boggs restaurants in Massachusetts that sold only fried chicken and Miller Lite. So for an extra year on his contract Boggs ended up a pariah in the town where he should have been a saint.

So what about the Yankees? He won a couple of gold gloves and a World Series with them. Why can't the Yankee fans pick up the slack? Unfortunately for Wade, in the Book of Yankee Lore, Wade Boggs is waaaaaaaay down on the all-time Yankee list somewhere between Hank Bauer and Urban Shocker. There's just too many other Great Yankee players out there, Wade gets lost in the shuffle. Hell, 99% of Yankee fans will identify Wade with the Red Sox anyway. They all bought packs of Topps in the '80s, they know which team name Wade had on his cards.

Wade hung on to the league by his fingertips with a couple of seasons with the Devil Rays. He was able to muddle through enough at bats with Tampa to get that 3000th hit, which got him in the Hall on his first ballot instead of getting passed over for years like many of his contemporaries. Wade's jersey has been retired by the Rays and not the Sox, which make you think maybe Wade was right about the cap thing.  Still, how many Rays fans remember he was on the team back in the bad old days where a couple dozen washed up former stars passed through the roster in their first few years of existence? Probably not many. Here's some proof for you all that Wade was a Ray.

So instead of being venerated for his bat and 'stache, Wade gets bad video game knockoffs just for signing a contract. You think players will ever understand that there is more to a contract than just money and years?

By the Power of a half-filled page of Panini stickers

Team USA will go out and kick some Ghanan booty today!

I'm a lost cause, but someone go help this guy out. He's crazy, he'll do it.

400

C'mon Billy, hang around a couple more years and get #500.

Joy of a completed page - 2004 Heritage

I don't have too many completed paged of this set you'll have to take what you can get. I'm not sure why Roy Oswalt is trying to escape though...

Auto-Matic Contest

There's a contest going on over on my long abandoned blog Auto-Matic for the People. Paul of Paul's Random Stuff has taken over management brilliantly, so if you thought the blog was dead go and check it out again. Since I have been an absentee landlord I shall make this offer: If you go over there and enter the contest, I'll provide a second chance drawing for anyone who doesn't win. However many entries you had on the original contest, you'll get that many here. Prize will be some autos from my own collection. Please link to Auto-Matic for your bonus entries, this is a very boring post to be linking to.

Joy of a Completed Page - 2003 Heritage

Column 1: Phlopped Phenoms
Column 2: Solid, but EXPENSIVE
Column 3: Hallbound Heritage

I never have to buy another pack of Bowman ever again

Thanks to Project '62:

I HAZ A HEYWARD

I'm so happy I'm putting a moratorium on Cubs bashing until at least the All-Star break. Lou Piniella is still fair game though. I still want the Topps 100 and Expectations card of J-Hey but I know that it will be much easier to just buy those, even at inflated Atlanta prices. I'm scrounging for Cubs tonight so I can make a post office run tomorrow. Such a beautiful thing does not come without a price however....

MURPHY BIPPED

Oy, I wasn't expecting that one. There was a good Murph in the package though to make up for it.

Aw yeah, Chicle Murphy. Gotta love it. Wait.. what the fungus?

nnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

BAZOOKA'D

Well played, Mr. Gritz... Well played...