Great googely moogley, it's the very first week of what I hoped to be a year-long series and I've already horribly screwed it up. Not only did I have to be reminded of the horrible 1950's implications of a monkey in a Dodger uniform, but I also screwed up the card front on this post. I'm not even going to bother fixing it at this point. Today's card front should be Joe Astroth, but you're getting Bill Werle whether you like it or not.
Ha! Ha! The Red Sox blew it too! With twice the payroll that the Braves blew it with! After stealing the best player from the team that beat them! HA!
Sorry Red Sox fans. I really shouldn't be this much of a jerk, but schadenfreude is the only thing keeping me from a full blown emotional collapse. That and the fact that my newly bandwagon jumped adopted Rays are KICKING ASS!
Sorry Rangers fans. Didn't mean to hurt your feelings too. Why do I have to have friends who root for every freaking team?
Here's the toon.
Who is known simply as 'The Lip'?
ɹǝɥɔoɹnp ʇsǝuɹǝ oǝן :˙suɐ
I really need to give up trying to do realistic style drawing and just do caricature. The likeness ain't half bad and that lip is hysterical. I wonder if Topps put Leo the Lip in a cartoon to stick it to Bowman, who actually did a full card of Durocher in 1953? This is Leo's only Topps appearance in '53 but he got a Topps Archives card in 1991.
I need to find a replacement cartoon for #3 now. That monkey thing is really gnawing at me.
Thank goodness I don't have to hear everyone kvetching about a first round playoff exit again this year. Go BRAV^YES!
Billy Hitchcock was the Braves manager for about a year or so in the late '60s. The Opelika, Alabama native did a whole bunch of stuff in the sports world other than managing the Braves but this is a post about cartoons, not about Alabama sports heroes. Here's the 'toon.
What in baseball slang, is a 'monkey suit'?
˙ɯɹoɟıun ןןɐqǝsɐq ɐ :˙suɐ
Guys.
Guys.
Hey guys.
A monkey.
In a Dodger uniform.
GUYS.
A MONKEY.
IN A DODGER UNIFORM.
Ohmygosh guys.
Guys!
IT'S A MONKEY.
IN A DODGER UNIFORM.
GUYS.
Upon further review, FUCK EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS. Godammit, 1950's Topps cartoonist, why couldn't you have put the monkey in pinstripes. You've ruined the joy of monkeys for me now.
And before you tell me that no one calls a baseball uniform a monkey suit, remember this is from 1953. that's like, a hundred years ago. No one says "Lay your peepers on the cool threads on that hepcat, Dad-dad-daddy-o!" anymore either. Well, I might occasionally. But I'm not normal.
Trying to write this post while listening to the game. It's hard to type when you want to crawl in a hole and die.
'53 Topps Joe Astroth. GOD BLESS YOU KRIS MEDLEN. oh god I love you kris. Oh who cares about Joe Astroth. He plays for Philadelphia. PHUCK PHILADELPHIA. gonna throw up. ugh. Here's the cartoon.
Has anyone ever pitched a no-hit game in a World Series?
˙ou :˙suɐ
If anyone wants to know what my face looks like right now, it's right up there in that cartoon.
Three reasons why I chose this cartoon over the others. First, the illustration is striking. A completely blank face in a cartoon is somewhat disconcerting. I was also amused by how quickly the trivia question was rendered useless. Three years after this card was printed, Don Larson screwed up the answer forever. It kind of makes me want to go over all the trivia questions for the set to see how many of them aren't true anymore. I'll wait until I complete the set to do that. JESUS CHRIST OUR OFFENSE SUCKS
Those aren't the real reasons I chose this cartoon though. I really chose it so I could express just how incredibly hard it is to resist drawing a Rorschach face on the back of this card.
Fuck it, I might do it anyway.
If you'll excuse me, I need to go drink heavily and cry right now.
I got busy last night and muffed my one a day cartoon post on the second freaking post. Of course I'm not the only choker in town and I can make up for it by posting another cartoon tonight. Assuming I'm not busy crying into a very large tumbler of vodka and sadness. Enough depressing, meet Joe Black.
Short printed Bum in the hizzouse. As nice as the front is, this series is about the back. Let's see dat 'toon.
What is a 'ukelele hitter' in baseball?
˙ɹɐɟ ooʇ ʇıɥ ʇ,uɐɔ oɥʍ ɹǝʇʇɐq ɐ :˙suɐ
If that's the definition of a ukelele hitter, then the Braves are a whole goddamn ukelele orchestra right now. When we're eliminated today, the starting lineup can go on tour this winter as an indie psyche-folk jam band. I didn't actually choose this cartoon to bash the easily bashable, the sullen player wielding a uke like a war club makes me giggle. Here's the back of the card for context.
Still can't get the photos off my phone, but I do feel a need to share this with you all. Here's the front cover of the free GameDay program given out at the game last night.
Now, I know this was probably printed at least a week or two ago. But damn, can you say hubris?
In an unrelated note, this is officially the earliest I've ever gotten a schedule for an upcoming season. Gives me something to look forward to, eh?
Why the hell couldn't we play Pittsburgh to close out this season?? Not that it would help most likely.
I actually have some photos and goodies to show you all from the game tonight, but my bluetooth doodad is acting flaky and it's too damn late to be futzing with it. Maybe tomorrow night. I do have some stuff to share from my new hobby though.
One of my goals for this month was to try to sketch something every day, good or bad, pony or non-equine, drunk or not drunk. (usually drunk). Going to the Braves game tonight was pretty much going to chew up all my free time for the day I could use for sketching though. I came up with a clever plan... practice with some quick sketches of the Braves' starting 9 based on the pictures of them that were flashed up on the JumboTron BravesVision ScoreBoard thingy on the back of my ticket confirmation printout. It would be a way to practice on some ballplayers and force me to draw a little quicker than I'm used to. While it was a tad challenging trying to draw, look at the scoreboard and watch the pitch all at the same time, I'm relatively pleased with the outcome. These aren't finished drawings by any stretch of the imagination, but for some quick practice, they're not too terrible. Most of them, anyway.
Michael Bourn
I'm pretty happy with how this one came out, but I did have three at-bats to work on it. Of all the facial expressions I drew this one looks the least ludicrous. Decent looking faces are hard. Gotta keep practicing. As you can see, the text from the ticket confirmation e-mail is a lot more visible on the scan than I expected.
Martin Prado
Martin looks a bit like the illegitimate child of Chief Wahoo here. His eyes do kinda look like that though in the original picture, although I exaggerated them more than I should have. Maybe I should work on caricature instead of portraiture. The obscene looking squiggle at the bottom left is a bat. You know the photo style, where the batter is pointing the bat at the viewer? Perspective's a bitch and I gave up rather quickly on that. I also had to edit this one a smidge, because some personal info was on the other side of the paper.
Chipper Jones
Chipper looks a bit old and haggard in this one and he may or may not have an entire can of Copenhagen in his right cheek. Actually that does kinda fit Chipper, doesn't it?
Dan Uggla
I thought this one sucked the entire time I was drawing it, but looking at it after the fact makes me like it a bit better. The picture for Uggla was this profile view that wasn't terribly flattering, but between the Popeye arm and the square jaw I like how it turned out. I also had to erase the nose and eye a couple times each before they became more not awful. thank goodness for batting gloves, because I can't draw hands for crap.
Freddie Freeman
Another one that drifted into caricature, but I think of all of them this one is probably the most recognizable.
I'm not sure, but I think this was the reference photo used on the big board. I would normally link where I found it but the site was shady as hell so I just took a snip from the Google image search results.
Brian McCann
Guuuuuuuuh.
I actually think this is a pretty good likeness of Alex Gonzalez. It's a damn shame that I was using a Brian McCann photo as a reference when I drew it.
Matt Diaz
I'm not sure if this exercise was good for me because it got me to sketch things out very quickly or if it was bad because I didn't really use proper drawing techniques like drawing all those circles and skeletons and such. Matty D turned out OK I guess. I like his expression, but that arm is pretty noodly. Hands are my nemesis. No wonder I like drawing cartoon ponies. I'm still kinda bummed a lefty was pitching so I didn't get to sketch J-Hey.
Alex Gonzalez
You know, if I had just left out the names, I could probably have passed this off as McCann and McCann's sketch as Gonzo. I would have known however, and it would have remained a great shame to me forever. The effort level just wasn't here with Alex either, I could never half-ass a Mac sketch this way.
Randall Delgado
Delgado is the most bare-bones of all the sketches, mainly because he only got one at bat and wasn't up all that long during that one. It turned out ok though, especially because 95% of my readers couldn't pick out Delgado in a police lineup if there was a million dollars on the line.
I quit at about the 5th inning, once I had gotten all nine to the point where I just couldn't do anything more with them. The only other player whose picture I saw on the big board was George Jose Constanza, which was up and off in the space of about 10 seconds. It was still pretty fun though, and the most fun was my son looking over at me drawing with a fascinated expression. "That one looks done, dad!" If you say so kiddo... :)
So at the same time I've fallen head over heels over a cartoon about lovable little girly ponies, my favorite team in the world is staring playoff elimination square in the face from a team called the Phillies. Methinks the Baseball Gods are messing with me.
The next three games look awful. Tonight we have a rookie going against a Cy Young lefty. Tomorrow Derek Lowe gets to stink it up one last time in a Braves uniform and Wednesday Tim Hudson either gets a desperation start that wastes him for game one of the NLDS or gets to take the mound for his last outing of the year. And did I mention that the Philadelphia Phillies love nothing more than to stomp upon the Braves' bloody faces with their iron hooves? Meanwhile The Cardinals get to face the 100-loss Astros.
Not gonna lie, it looks bad. The offense looks like they're swinging butterfly nets out there. Two of our best pitchers are hurt bad. The bullpen ran out of gas in August and are coasting on fumes. And the goddamn Phillies are in town. Ugh.
That being said, unless there was a giant cock-up with the tickets I am at the game right now. I am enjoying it greatly. I actually sprung for decent seats this time. A friend of mine has tickets too and should be there too. I might even throw caution to the wind and have a beer. In the early innings of course, to give my liver time to do its job by the end of the game (gotta stay safe out there kids). Autumn is here, bad football is in the air and you gotta enjoy baseball while it's still around. And enjoy I shall.
You've been kinda inundated with cartoons lately (or more precisely one cartoon in particular) and the Baseball cards have been getting neglected a bit. I have felt bad about that, but with my almost allergic disdain for the recent non-sticker products that have come out recently I wasn't really sure where to go with the card aspect of this blog. This almost five-year-old, almost completely devoted to Baseball Cards blog. I've got an idea now though, and it's so crazy it just might work.
This is a 1953 Topps card of Joe Dobson. It's creased, dog eared, it has dirt and smudges on it and there is some paper loss from tape at the top. In other words, it's perfect. I've probably showed it off at some time in the past as I'm obsessed with the '53 set. In 1953, Topps did something that to my knowledge had not previously been done on a major baseball card release. Here's the back of the card:
Can you see it? If you can't you're blind. Or reading a text-only version of this blog. A full quarter of the card back is dominated by a Dugout Quiz prominently featuring a cartoon. I haven't been conferred with full 'expert' honors in baseballcardery yet, but I don't know of any previous sets with a cartoon on the back. There were several baseball sets with what looked like cartoons on the front (strip cards from the teens and the '43 M&P set, I'm looking at you) but none on the back. Another reason why 1953 Topps is the Best. Set. Ever.
To celebrate the toonage, I've picked out 6 cartoons from my set as my favorite '53 cartoons to show off all week. I plan to do the same for all Topps sets with cartoons on the back, but you know how blog planning goes. I've got the '53s scanned and the '54 binder pulled out, but that's about it so far. Luckily, there are no new episodes of that other cartoon out for at least a couple of weeks so I might get bored enough to get some posts set up. Here's the Honorable Mention cartoon from my top 5 of '53:
What is referred to by the term 'cigar box'? ˙pןǝıɟ ןןɐqǝsɐq ןןɐɯs ɐ :˙suɐ
Two reasons why this cartoon made the cut out of the over 200 '53 Topps cards in my collection. First, cigar boxes and baseball cards just go together in my book. Probably not to anyone else in the world under the age of 40, but to me they are inseparable. When I first started collecting cards my grandfather was a big cigar smoker and I'd get to use the empty boxes for card storage. A cigar box was just so much more swank than a shoe box. I can even remember the faint tobaccoey smell the cards would get. Then my grandfather gave up smoking and I started buying official cardboard baseball card storage materials and the cigar boxes went by the wayside, retrofit into a storage facility for old pencils and crayons. One of my sincere regrets in life was not holding onto at least one of those boxes for old times sake.
Also, EL SMOKO brand cigars never fails to put a smile on my face. Say it out loud, eeeeeeeel SMOOOOKO. Excuse me while I have a giggle fit.
No, not a My Little Pony episode I can proudly point to whenever someone asks me why the unholy fcuk are you watching a little girl's cartoon and say BECAUSE IT'S FREAKING AMAZING because that actually happened today too.
Nope, I'm talking about ripping my first complete doubles sticker pack.
I got ALL of 'em! Especially Freddie Freeman! I knew my pack luck couldn't last. Now maybe I can quit buying the buggers and put up a want list.
Through 27 packs:
Total stickers - 222
Stickers I need - 177
Stickers traded away - 19
Dupes - 25
Percentage complete: 188/309 - 61%
Braves team set - 8/9
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE
Order now and you'll not only get ONE duplicate pack of stickers, but you'll get a SECOND DUPLICATE PACK for the SAME price! What a bargain! And each and every one of these stickers is
GEM.
MINT.
TEN.
HOLY SWEET MERCIFUL JEEBUS
Gem. Mint. Ten. Stickahs. At least until you peel 'em and stick 'em on your dog's butt. Just because you can.
Through 28 packs:
Total stickers - 230
Stickers I need - 177
Stickers traded away - 19
Dupes - 33
It appears that while I was going Full Brony (never go Full Brony) Chris Harris was undergoing his own, even more disturbing transformation into a YouTube commenter. I reproduced the full unedited text here so I may respond. Don't worry, I speak YouTube.
Y U NO PSOT STICKAH WAANTLYST? DU U NO WNAT TWO COMPLEAT ALLBUM? AN Y U KEEEP PSOTING POKNEE SHO CLPIS?
Chris first questions my reluctance to post a sticker wantlist. I have not done so for two reasons. First of all, I expect to purchase at least ten more packs of stickers before quitting. I'm certainly not going to quit until I get the inevitable double pack. If I post a wantlist people will start sending me stuff and I already have about a half dozen unopened packages on my desk I need to sort through. So, once I quit buying packs and start pasting in the album, then I shall post a wantlist. Don't hold your breath.
Next Chris asks if I do not want two copies of the album The Compleat Beatles. This question confused me as The Compleat Beatles is a film, not an album. There may be a soundtrack out there that I don't know about though and in that case, yes, I very much would like two copies of that album. One to keep and one to eBay so I can buy more cardsponiescards cards of ponies.
Finally, Chris wonders why I keep posting clips of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Chris has a point here, it's kind of dumb to just post clips of the show when I can post the entire bloody episode. Enjoy Episode 16: Sonic Rainboom
If you have watched the entire episode, you may now move on to some more stickahs. I'll rely on your honor.
Only one Braves sticker to go! No doubles in the pack either. I got all these packs out of the same box, so if you are collecting the set you may want to find a full box and just wipe it out.
Through 25 packs:
Total stickers - 206
Stickers I need - 171
Stickers traded away - 19
Dupes - 16
Percentage complete: 180/309 - 58%
Braves team set - 8/9
Whoa! Freddie Freeman! I have the complete Braves set! Wait? No. I already have Freddie because he is one of the 6 included with the album. They put those stickers in the packs too? Ugh, this might completely screw up my sticker out. I may have 6 more doubles without realizing it. Any doubles in this pack were stealth album insert doubles as I needed them all.
Through 26 packs:
Total stickers - 214
Stickers I need - 177
Stickers traded away - 19
Dupes - 17
This evening's morning's (got waylaid by the wife who wanted me to watch that new show with Zooey Deschanel last night while I was writing the post) sticker post is sponsored by the letter D, the Number 5 and the music of Deadmau5.
Yes, ponies were involved. (thanks, Reddit!) And the show with Zooey wasn't half bad, even if at times it looked like the Yin to The Big Bang Theory's Yang with a a bunch of douchebags befriending a nerd instead of the other way around. Unfortunately, now my wife has been emboldened enough to suggest I watch Glee with her.
Help. Someone please help me.
I didn't get gypped on the pack, I just had to mail off two stickers before I had a chance to scan. The missing stickers are #109 and 119. The rest of the pack wasn't bad. 5 stickers needed, one shiny Iron Horse and one duplicate of a stupid Cardinal who will probably be going to the playoffs.
Through 23 packs:
Total stickers - 190
Stickers I need - 156
Stickers traded away - 18
Dupes - 16
Percentage complete: 165/309 - 54%
Braves team set - 7/9
TWINS HOT PACK.
One sticker traded away: #217. I did get another Vladdy though after trading one off. So through the Power of Generosity the one double in the pack, wasn't.
Through 24 packs:
Total stickers - 198
Stickers I need - 163
Stickers traded away - 19
Dupes - 16
Percentage complete: 172/309 - 56%
Braves team set - 7/9
Note: The next 5 days are going to be insane for me as of the moment I post these stickers. It may be sparse on the 'ol blog till next week.
I don't know if you guys have figured this out yet... but I kinda like watching ponies. I know! Shocking! I've managed to hide this little part of my life quite well I think! That's not all I've been up to though. There's only so many ponies you can watch when you're not buying baseball cards because they're boring and expensive. And as we all know, All Pony and no Pony makes Pony a Pony Pony. So I have been distracting myself with other pursuits as well. Here's one of them..
I've been doodling and sending drawings out in trade for a while. Nothing earth shattering, just some goofy doodles to throw into some trade packages for fun. A while back I got a custom sketch card in a trade package. I never got around to posting it am saving for an end of year 'best of' post, but I thought it was really neat. I also thought it was something I couldn't do myself. I scoffed at the "Draw your own sketch card" thing Topps did last year, more because I was too intimidated to try to think of anything to draw than anything else.
A couple of decades ago I drew a little. I wasn't an ar-teest or anything, but I liked to doodle and I took a couple of art classes in high school. Cartoons and comics have been an obsession of mine for way longer than baseball cards. I pretty much learned to read because I wanted to read comics. It helps my mom was also an artist when she was in high school and I got that influence. Even since I got a 'real' job though, I didn't really draw much. Just goofy doodles, when I could think of something clever. Or at least clever enough to amuse myself. (Hell, that philosophy explains 90% of this blog) My big problem is I think better in words than in pictures so writing comes easier than drawing. Combine this with the fact that other than some drafting and entry level art classes I never actually learned to draw properly. So while I enjoyed my doodles, I never really tried to progress beyond that.
Al here is important in this tale. Al is one of the first Braves cards I ever got, pulled from a pack way back in 1981. Not this one, the one I pulled is fairly mangled from excessive love. This photo of the Mad Hungarian looking fairly sinister is also freaking fantastic. One of the things I got to do in art class was paint a picture with acrylics. The assignment was to do something abstract, so I got a little surrealism in my abstract and painted a Joan Miro-inspired bit of weirdness with some odd little critters living in a similarly odd landscape that when turned on its side turned into the face of a skeeery monster. Monstrous Landscape, I called it. (yes I know I'll have to dig it up and take a picture after that description. I'll try to find it) Painting it was fun, and I had a couple of ideas for other paintings, but we moved on to something else in class and I didn't have the cash as a senior in high school to go out and buy a bunch of paints and canvases and brushes and such. So the painting career was over.
My wife has gotten a membership at the Atlanta High Museum of Art for quite a few years now. We usually hit the bigger exhibits when we can get away for a few hours. There's kid stuff there too so, hey family friendly. My favorite thing there by far is the outsider art exhibit, especially the stuff by the Reverend Howard Finster. Howard is from Georgia, he's got a distinct style all his own, his work has been featured on albumcovers by artists I like, and truth be told, he was a little bit nutty. I like nutty. There's a painting he did of George Washington I'm particularly fascinated by along with this Angel that I love to stare at every time we go to the High. Here's some Googled images if you like. .
Now, the thing about Howard Finster - and I know this sounds cliche - is that he's one of those artists whose work you look at and you think "Hell, I could do that". The thing is that it is true. Howard himself didn't even start doing art until he was 60. You can do that, the real trick is you just have to do it.
That's the hard part.
Now the story is up to 2009. Remember that year? Didn't that year just suck? It did for me at least. One thing about that year is that I had a lot of time to think about stuff. Stuff like what I really wanted to do with my life. Unfortunately I was also in a bit of a depression/panic at the time as well so thinking wasn't exactly my strong suit. Oh what I could do with the time of 2009, and the mental state of 2011... One thing I did decide on was after a trip to the High, and looking at that George Washington, was that I wanted to paint another picture. I already had acrylic paint in the house for the kids. I picked up a package of cheap assorted brushes. In lieu of an expensive canvas, I found a pad of art paper that could handle acrylic paint. I was all set. I wanted to paint 1981 Al. I just had to find time to do it. And then... I never did. The brushes and the paper sat in a box for a while, then I got my life back on track, then I got busy, and then... nothing happened.
Back to the present year. Jeremy at No One's Going to Read This Blog sent a package with the aforementioned sketch card that you'll see later this year. I'm ripping off Thorzul's practice of 1) not posting trades and 2) saving the best stuff for end of the year posts so you'll have to wait. Like I said before, it looked fantastic and I was intimidated by the quality and while I would have liked to do something of my own like that I felt I didn't have the talent. You know, typical scaredy-cat negative thinking. Then one day I said what the hell, I'll do it anyway and if it sucks no one will ever know so who cares? I'm beginning to become of the opinion that this attitude right here is probably the best way to have a good life. So I took the '81 Al idea, ditched the painting, took one of the Target security tag cards from a pack of Topps and some #2 pencils and did this:
It wasn't... terrible. And it was kinda... fun? Compared to my handwriting, my art ain't half bad. Of course I had to put the 1/1 MOJO mark on the card. I was still a baseball card geek after all. So after that I started doodling more and more. Collective Troll has somehow gotten 4 of my doodles. I didn't even realize I'd sent him that many packages. So then recently I got mixed up in the whole Pony thing.
YOU JUST KNEW GODDAMN PONIES WOULD COME INTO IT DIDN'T YOU.
DAMMIT DAYF CAN YOU STOP TALKING ABOUT PONIES FOR FIVE FRICKIN' MINUTES.
JESUS.
Well, no, because this is relevant. One thing about this whole Pony Madness fandom I've gotten ensnared into by virtue of my second-born child's lack of a Y chromosome is that there is a hell of a lot of fan-based artwork out there. A whole lot of it is actually not disgusting! Because 1) Pony fans are crazy obsessive* and 2) Ponies are amazingly easy to draw. Due to the cultish friendliness of the fanbase always trying to help each other out, there are also a whole bunch of drawing tutorials floating out there. Actual real tutorials! Where you have to draw the circles and the lines and block out the skeleton and stuff before you grab a pencil in your mitt and ham-handedly start carving lines into the paper so deep that the only way to erase a mistake is to have the paper recycled into pulp and made into brand new paper otherwise known as My Drawing Style. I might have picked up one or two of them on a certain image board that shall remain nameless. And I might have actually started to finally draw properly by drawing marshmallow ponies. And since it had previously been established that I enjoy drawing... and I had managed to become obsessed with miniature cartoon equines... well, what the hell was I supposed to do? Not have fun? Where's the fun in that?
So, on September 1st I idly doodled Pinkie Pie on a scratch pad at work while I was on the phone. Not even sure why, it just kinda happened. When I came home that night I decided to try to actually draw something for real on a sheet of paper without lines on it. A few beers later, I had a page full of sketches. Mostly not even pony related! And it was fun! So from there, I've been drawing every day - I sometimes have problems remembering to put on pants every day - usually during free time I would normally be blogging. Sorry 'bout that. All blog and no play makes Homer a Pony something? Lucky for you, a lot of the drawings are baseball related which means there is some fresh content for the blog coming through the pipeline. And in bubble mailers. So that's what I've been up to lately and what you have to look forward to on the blog now that I'm completely sick and tired of new non-sticker related product.
AND THAT'S HOW EQUESTRIA WAS MADE.
*NO WE NEVER WOULD HAVE FRELLING REALIZED THAT PONY FANS CAN BE OBSESSIVE DAYF. NEVER EVER EVER. GOSH.
Theme song for tonight's episode: Discord Shufflin' in a loop, FOREVER
Warning: an unfortunate side effect of Pony Madness is that you start to appreciate actually enjoy cheesy Party Rock dance music in an unironic fashion. I'm going to have to listen to Radiohead for 12 straight hours to counteract that video lest I lose all my angry hipster cred. I better post the stickers quick before I start dancing (shudder) joyfully.
A former Brave, a soon to be former Brave, a guy who has been in every Brave trade rumor for the past two years, a guy who kills the Braves, an MVP and some other guys. And FINALLY some doubles start appearing. It's been like watching a horror movie where the monster just. never. jumps. out. Just give me my doubles already! It's sticker packs! Doubles just naturally appear in sticker packs! It's what they do!
Through 21 packs:
Total stickers - 174
Stickers I need - 144
Stickers traded away - 15
Dupes - 15
Percentage complete: 152/309 - 49%
Braves team set - 6/9
CHIPPER!!!
In the pack that puts me over the 50% mark!
WOOOOOOOO!
No dupes in the pack either! It... it's a sign! My sticker luck has changed! I might actually have a shot at completing this thing! I'm optimistic about stickers for once!
Through 22 packs:
Total stickers - 182
Stickers I need - 151
Stickers traded away - 16
Dupes - 15
Man, I want to go watch some Star Trek Next Gen. John de Lancie is a boss. Here's the last two packs of the first batch of stickers.
Don't let the pony header spook you, just having a little fun since Season 2 started today. You'll get Old Planter and Torii Hunter back in due time. I might keep Derpy though. Another decent pack here with no dupes. The Cardinals and Tigers are strong with this pack. Wait, when did Alex Avila become a Tiger? Oh wait, he's always been a Tiger. I'm mixing him up with Mike Aviles. Wait, when did Mike Aviles become a Red Sock? Miguel Olivo is still a Mariner, right? At least for the next two weeks?
Through 19 packs:
Total stickers - 156
Stickers I need - 131
Stickers traded away - 15
Dupes - 12
Percentage complete: 139/309 - 45%
Braves team set - 5/9
Another superlative pack! Kershaw's got a mighty nice photo for a sticker. Tulo and Hambone are good pickups, as are Posada and Beltre. Still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Furcal is a Cardinal. Just can't see him in red. The one duplicate from the pack? A shiny Hank Aaron. Can't beat that with a dead cat.
Through 20 packs:
Total stickers - 164
Stickers I need - 138
Stickers traded away - 15
Dupes - 13
Percentage complete: 146/309 - 47%
Braves team set - 5/9
After 20 packs I'm almost at 50% completion for the set! I'd be over had I not shipped some stickers off. One of these days I'll start getting the double packs...
tl;dr version: watch some ponies if you choose to do so. If not, that's cool too.
Ok.
So while I think the whole trolling everyone with Ponies thing is utterly hilarious, I'm not actually kidding when I say I like the show. In fact, I like the show a hell of a lot more than I like cards right now. I can pinpoint the exact moment that the ponies took the lead by a nose (Ha! A horse pun) ahead of cards. The nanosecond I saw the card backs of 2011 Topps Lineage. Absolutely effing drek ugly garbage. And overall as a set, I like (well, just like, not like like) the idea of Topps Lineage. Hell, I'm still trying to complete my 2009 Upper Deck Timelines set. Those stupid card backs just utterly killed new cards for me though. I don't think I've even bought a pack of Allen & Ginter since then. Just stickers. And ponies. The daughter gets the ponies. I haven't actually gotten to the point where I'm buying ponies for myself. Yet.
The show I'll watch. I've already gone on record that I like the Powerpuff Girls, and this show is basically the Powerpuff Girls multiplied by two and transformed from lovable superheroes into cute ponies with crippling mental problems who are able to learn and grow and kick the asses of monsters terrorizing Equestria through the power of niceness and Friendship with a Capital Eff. It's funny, it's sweet, it is NOT CYNICAL OR IRONIC OR WRITTEN FOR STONERS like 99% of the other cartoons out there and it's something I can share with my daughter. It's just a pleasant, well done show free of cynical snark for a change. So I like it, and for the forseeable future you're going to see Ponies. I may or may not snap out of this at some point in the future. Who the hell knows. I may end up having a nervous breakdown and start collecting stamps again. I will still be posting cards though, and I've actually got an idea for some card posts that might be fun planned to come up in the next week or two.
In the meantime, Ponies. If you flat out hate ponies and just can't be here anymore if there shall be ponies in any shape or form, then sorry. Do what ya gotta do. If you don't care for ponies, and just want to see cards, I'll give ya cards. Nothing new because I'm pretty much done with that, but vintage and stickers will be seen a plenty. If you do in fact like the Ponies, or are merely curious about just how the hell a middle aged guy who was recently completely obsessed with cardboard pictures of men performing feats of athletic skill could suddenly come out of the stable as a Brony, here's some links for ya.
Every Season 1 Episode: If you're going to watch only one, make it Dragonshy (Ep. 7) or Sonic Rainboom (Ep 16). Still interested? Watch the two-episode pilot (Ep 1, 2). Still still interested but not quite ready to watch the whole series? Ticket Master, Suited for Success then The Best Night Ever (Ep 3, 14, 26). Still undecided? Watch the Cutie Mark Chronicles (Ep. 23). That one will either hook you for good or drive you away forever. They are best watched in order, however.
Season 2 starts an hour after this post goes up and will probably have already started by the time the majority of you stumble across it. You can watch it on The Hub if you have a super-deluxe cable package with all the channels. Season 2, Ep 1 debuts at 9am. If, like most of Humanity, you do not have the hub, you can find a stream here. Or maybe here. Look around a bit and you'll find somewhere to watch it. The episode will likely be on YouTube before the day is done.
If you'e especially brave you can go to Reddit/r/mylittlepony, or Equestria Daily, or one of the many Ponychans, or (Heaven help you) 4Chan /co/. I'm not linking any of these because quite frankly they are all utterly terrifying each in their own individual ways. Here There Be Dragons (and Ponies). If you like the show, there's some absolutely brilliant and hilarious shit in there, but there is also an equal or greater amount of cringeworthy, horrifying, oh my Dear God WHY, utterly un-unseeable nightmares in these places. As with any fandom, there are always a goodly amount of trolls and lunatics out there, so be careful.
So that's about it. the show is good, the YouTube parodies are funny, the music is actually pretty cool, the ponies are adorable and at long last, a TV show aimed at girls is actually good. If you've read this far, you're probably ready to see a leaked clip from the new episode.
The actual song is on my other blog if this version is abhorrent to you. I completely understand. Me from six months ago thinks I'm completely insane too. Even me from three months ago is looking at me kinda funny. Me from three weeks ago is looking away in denial. Me from three minutes ago is correcting typos because I can't type when I've been drinking. And oh yes, I have been drinking.
(drinking pony is the best pony)
Why did Curtis Granderson have to become the best player in the league once he went to the Damn Yankees?? I feel I have a moral obligation to hate him, but I just can't. Why couldn't the Tigers have traded Miguel Cabrera instead? Him I could hate. This was a rather good pack if I say so myself. No dupes and three got traded away. Got a future HOFer in Pudge, a Brave for about a week and a half in Helms and Andrew McCutchen. I will be so glad when McLouth is gone next year so I don't have to listen to posters on the AJC Braves blog demand we trade Nate back to the Pirates for McCutchen anymore. I may be overestimating certain members of that crowd though.
Through 17 packs:
Total stickers - 140
Stickers I need - 116
Stickers traded away - 14
Dupes - 12
Percentage complete: 123/309 - 40%
Braves team set - 5/9
Can't complain about no dupes. Boy howdy, once I start pulling dupes you bet I'm gonna complain like HELL. Not crazy about the player selection. Three superstars I dislike and a handful of younger former 'future stars'. Actually, I'm pretty sure Loney and Soto's prospect expiration dates are long expired. I'm serious though, if anyone needs stickers, just ask. You never know the ponies might just be a clever ruse to weed out readers who are not totally devoted to the Stickies.
Through 18 packs:
Total stickers - 148
Stickers I need - 124
Stickers traded away - 14
Dupes - 12
The theme song for tonight's sticker post is At The Grand Gala from MLP:FIM Episode 26 "The Best Night Ever":
The voice acting in this show is frigging fantastic.
Now, onto the stickers. Yes, you have to listen to the song while you read the post. Otherwise it will lose all its emotional impact.
Interesting thing about this pack. If the top row quit baseball forever to become the new team of Iron Chefs while the bottom row did the same thing to form the world's first Death Metal Barbershop Quartet Supergroup, not only would I not miss any of them at all, but I think their overall contributions to the Human Experience would increase tenfold. Just my opinion though. (Michael Young is seriously wasting his wonderful singing voice)
No doubles in this pack but three of these fellows are on a truck to Virginia.
Through 15 packs:
Total stickers - 126
Stickers I need - 104
Stickers traded away - 11
Dupes - 11
Percentage complete: 110/309 - 36%
Braves team set - 5/9
I don't get some of these foil team sticker pairings. Indians and Phillies? I guess they both have kinda sorta red team colors. I think this is also my tenth Yunel Escobar sticker. I just keep finding the damn things everywhere. Yunel is the only dupe though and my good luck avoiding the doubles is starting to scare me. My luck will even out eventually and I'll end up with 78 straight packs of complete duplicates.
Through 16 packs:
Total stickers - 132
Stickers I need - 111
Stickers traded away - 11
Dupes - 12
Percentage complete: 118/309 - 38%
Braves team set - 5/9
Oh yeah, here's a PSA for a certain Canadian reader. This is Rainbow DASH.
DASH. Not Rainbow Brite. Or Bright. I was going to post a Rainbow Brite for comparison, but I did an image search for Rainbow Brite with safesearch off and saw things that will never ever be unseen. Goddamnit, internet.
Freedom Cardboard in Alpharetta, GA is having a signing with Craig Kimbrel and Brandon Beachy this Saturday if anyone out there in The ATL is interested. Freedom is working with BP Sports on this one and apparently there's going to be another card show at the end of October as well.
tl;dr version: pre-sale Beachy = $15 Kimbrel = $25 Authentication = $10 a pop Happy Meal Combo = $50 tickets the day of = ????
September 17th 2011 at 10:00 FCB will welcome two special guests into it’s doors for a public autograph session. Atlanta Brave closer Craig Kimbrel, and rookie starter Brandon Beachy will be on hand to sign your items in the store. JSA will also be on hand with their witnessed protection program to issue certificates for those who wish to add the extra service.
The autograph tickets be $15 for Brandon Beachy and $25 for Craig Kimbrel for any item. JSA Certificates are $10 per signature. A “The Works” combo pack that includes 1 Kimbrel ticket, 1 Beachy ticket and 2 JSA tickets can also be purchased at a discounted rate of $50. Please note that these are ADVANCE rates and prices for day of the signing tickets can be found by hitting the “learn more” button below. We will also have plenty of blank baseballs, jerseys, 8x10s, mini helmets and other items at reasonable prices for you to get signed. The store address is 9850 Nesbit Ferry Rd Suite 21, Alpharetta GA 30023. You may call (770) 993-6955 with any questions. Comments and questions on this blog entry will also be given proper attention.
September 17th is the last game I'll be able to make this season without having to figure out a way to get off work so I'll probably be skipping this in order to get to the stadium in plenty of time. Last game I went to ran out of parking and we were over a half hour late. Not happening this time. I might camp out the night before. The Beachy auto is tempting though. Too bad Medlen won't be there, I'd show up late for the game to get Med's auto. Didja hear? Kris might be back for the postseason! W00t!
