My first card of 2012

Ok, a quick note on the New York Times autism My Little Pony screw up that's gone viral. You see, what... what had happen... is the author of the piece was interviewing the girl in the story on her way to school. The girl was listening to Pony electronic dance music on her iPod on the way and one of the songs included Fluttershy going 'yay'. This could describe about 63.7% of all Pony remixes, but here's a possible candidate for the song in question. In the interview that morning, Winter Wrap Up was discussed including Twilight Sparkle's role in the episode. THE PROBLEM: the author wrote down Fluttershy's name but not Twilight Sparkle's in her notes. So when The article was written and it was time to name the nerdy pony trying to fit in, Fluttershy's name was in the notes so Fluttershy's name was used. Tiny mistake. Could have happened to anyone. Kinda like when the Times left out the "don't" in the Iraq WMDs story that one time. I find it interesting that a Pony remix song is the cause of the whole mess since I've got well over five gigs of this shit on my hard drive and MP3 player right now. Kottke.org links to some Pony music in their article on the story but if you want good MLP dubstep forget Skrillex, Alex S. is the real thing.


Dubstep is nice and all, but I prefer Pony trance, techno and weird glitchy stuff.

Ok, enough ponies. You want cards! Have I shown off a single baseball card all year? A real one from a licensed company? Or even unlicensed! One that wasn't completely defaced that is? No! I haven't! THIS CHANGES NOW. Here's my first card acquired in 2012.

Topps206 Mini card of Casey Kotchman. Kotchman has become one of those players that cause fans of a certain team to turn pale and twitch involuntarily when hearing his name. Like Ernie Broglio. Or Larry Andersen. Or Ivan DeJesus. Maybe even Doyle Alexander but I have a different feeling when I hear his name. Casey's the dude the Braves got in return for Mark Teixeira because they were too chicken to risk offering him arbitration in the offseason so they could get draft picks when Tex inevitably signed with the Yankees for 70 bazillion dollars. Picks the Angels were able to turn into Mike Trout. Oh yeah, the other dude we got in the trade, Steven Marek, just signed with the Blue Jays. Guuuuuuuuh. Did I mention that the slew of prospects we gave up to get Tex from Texas were a big reason they were in the World Series the past two years? Ok, I winced slightly when I saw this card come out of an envelope from Adam this afternoon. There is a happy ending though....

CYCLE! Me likey Cycle backs. Me No Likey that Topps always short prints the crap out of them. Numbered to 99! What's the point of a Casey Kotchman card numbered to 99? The number 29 is significant though... It's the number of games Casey played for Boston in 2009. After the Braves traded him for Adam LaRoche. Who if we kept as our first baseman instead of trading him away to the Pirates for Mike Gonzalez in 2007, we never would have needed Teixeira in the first place. GUUUUUUUUUUUUH. Mike Gonzalez is another one of those names. I've had a few Red Sox cards set aside for Adam for a few weeks but I haven't mailed them off because I haven't gotten around to creating his sketch card yet. The Holidays threw my procrastination schedule all off. I'm sure to get to it this weekend, as long as the Pony Madness of a new episode tomorrow doesn't derail me again.

To cap off this post here's some Boards of Canada, who along with Ponies and Baseball is my other big Obsession right now. Happy Cycling!

And They Arrive

Two days after e-mailing me that they were late. These aren't late at all!

ELVIS

and Phil.

Not bad for retail redemptions.

Opening Day Victory Feast

B-Mac hit his third opening day homer, J-Hey is one home run closer to passing Bonds and Jair Jurrjens is cussing a blue streak because Lowe stole all his run support again as the Braves beat the hated Cubs! To celebrate I gorged on a feast of pizza (Grand Slam, of course) beer and three packs of cards. I enjoyed them all while watching the replay of the game on Sports South. Here are the packs:

2009 Topps206

 255 AJ Pierzynski
147 Fernando Perez RC
Christy Mathewson NNO SP
224 Roy Campanella Piedmont Mini
131 Kosuke Fukudome Bronze
80 Jim Thome

I like this set and there are packs of it everywhere. Got lucky with a short print that I don't have. Of course Campy and Christy make any pack a winner.

2010 Topps Heritage

29 Reid Gorecki RC
95 Miguel Cabrera
53 Jason Varitek
148 Chris Getz
247 Casey Blake
TN3 Then & Now Al Kaline & Joe Mauer
255 Jordan Zimmerman
440 Edinson Vazquez SP

Two packs, two SPs. I have half the pack but it was worth it just to finally see that Reid Gorecki is no longer wasting a Brave card. I have no patience for pulling Braves prospects that barely played for the team, especially when they are in every single set produced.

2010 Opening Day

Yeah, I know. What the hell, it's opening day.

10 Felipe Lopez
26 Eric Young Jr.
81 Coco Crisp Blue Parallel
TTS8 Jay Bruce ToppsTown Code
70 Jeff Niemann
46 John Garland
94 Kelly Shoppach

The complete and utter lack of any major star in this pack allows me to pretend it was actually a pack of Topps Total. I realized after the fact that I took a picture of the ToppsTown code. Well, I wouldn't want any of you ne'er-do-wells to steal my code so I guess I'll just have to redeem the thing.

TOPPSTOWN CODE REDEMPTION SWAG:

Brad Lidge
Brandon Phillips
Mark Buehrle
Nick Markakis
Johnny Damon
Mark Teixeira
Asdrubal Cabrera
Yadier Molina

I just spent an hour messing with this site and I still don't know what the hell is going on. I need another beer.

Random Current Brave #1

It's Opening Day!!!! Right now!!!! and I'm stuck at work so I had to schedule this Post to coincide with the firt pitch!!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!1 Here's some Mac to mark the greatest day in the world.

These Topps206 relics looks really slick. It's odd that the jersey cards are a lot tougher to find than the autographs in that set. A lot tougher for me, anyway. I've pulled three autos (two redemptions) and this Mac here is the first relic from the set I've actually seen in person. It was five bucks at Atlanta Sports cards so I just had to let it follow me home. Can I keep it ma? It's so cute and I'll take care of it...

Chipper's the face of the franchise, but Brian is the leader of the team. Here's to another All-Star appearance in 2010 and maybe that MVP trophy that McCann is going to win one of these days. I think this is my first relic card of the Braves' horrifically unlucky blue alternate jerseys. I am all for cutting those things to shreds.

Variation O's

Here's two more in-hand images for the Topps206 Variation Gallery. Oddly enough, both are Orioles.

I thought I had something more to say, but I don't. So I won't. Say anything. Ok then.

Topps 206 Blaster Team Collation Answer

A while back, Dinged Corners posed a question about Topps206 team collation when she pulled a whopping ten Yankees out of one blaster. Always eager to add a data point to any meaningful research, I ripped a blaster and sorted by teams. My blaster wasn't nearly as top heavy as hers but it wasn't as balanced as I expected. With 48 cards and 30 teams, you're looking at an average of 1.6 cards per team. You'd expect to get at least one card from most teams, but a full 40% of the league was completely shut out of this blaster. I didn't include the Mantle Checklists in my total, the Yankees already have an unfair advantage in payroll, they don't need one in collation.

Here are the teams with...

Four cards in the box

"I'm so HAPPY! happyhappyhappy"

Astros
Tigers
Twins
Yankees


Three cards in the box

"Kneel before Yesco, puny humans!"

A's
Braves
Cubs
Dodgers
Rangers
White Sox

Two cards in the box

This card was thisclose to being a weird anomaly, like a card of Mike Piazza in a Marlins uniform.

Cardinals
Giants
Nationals
Padres
Rays
Red Sox

One card in the box

This is the only Mariners card you need.

Mariners
Royals

No cards at all

You expected an image here??

Angels
Blue Jays
Brewers
Diamondbacks
Indians
Marlins
Mets
Orioles
Pirates
Phillies
Reds
Rockies

This wasn't a great blaster, but I knocked out a chunk of my wantlist and got some neat minis. What, you want to know what was in it? Not much, trust me... Just enjoy this small piece of the ongoing search for a Grand Unified Theory of Blaster Collation. Ripping blasters... FOR SCIENCE!

Additions to the Topps206 SP Variation Gallery

Got one in a trade, the other in a blaster. No one's taken me up on my offer to link their blog if they let me swipe a SP image off one of their posts, so I may have to resort to ganking images off of eBay soon.

Ty Cobb SP

Gordon Beckham SP

Remember, T206 short prints have the last name of the player or 'rookie' on the back, SP minis are on different all-white card stock.

Variation gallery can be found here.

Last Pack/Best Set of 2009

Last pack of the year, last post of the year, last anything of the year, as soon as I'm done typing this I'm going to bed. I've thought it over very carefully and I think I've finally chosen a set of the year:

Allen & Ginter and Goodwin Champions are right up there with it, but I chose Topps206 for two reasons:

1) It's an all baseball set. I like the oddballs in my retro sets, but there's a purity to this set I find refreshing.

2) The short printed cards are variations that are technically outside the base set. This means that f I want to complete this set I could just go with the 1-300 base cards and call it a day. As someone with neither the time or the ca$h to be chasing a bunch of shorties, I appreciate this a lot.

So there it is, my set of the year even though I don't do award thingys on this blog. Let's open the last pack of '09 in its honor.

260 Andrew Miller

Andrew Miller either suffers from cripping social anxiety disorder or Topps is overusing the hell out of this pose. This is the 4th or 5th card where he's peeping over his glove.

64 Corey Hart

I tried so hard not to do this, really I did, but I can refrain no longer.

Corey Hart: Sunglasses at Night

(why the hell can't I embed a crappy Corey Hart video? Seriously WTF YouTube?)

198 Brad Nelson RC

Brad's a big 'ol dude playing first for the Brewers. I think they have one of those already. This is Brad's rookie card, but he made his debut in '08. Since Brad is hopelessly blocked at first, he played in the OF last year in his September callup.

282 Ian Kinsler Piedmont mini

This card is why I collect cards. Just look at how cool this is. THE BALL'S IN THE GLOVE!

Also: this. Topps nailed this card.

Phil Hughes Auto Redemption

Have you ever seen a miscut redemption card before? Wild and wacky schtuff. Is it just me or are there a bunch of redemptions in this set?

262 Tommy Hanson RC

PPPPPBBBBTTTTHHHHTTTBBBTTTTTTHHHHH!!!!!

This card makes me grin like an idiot.

Mantle Checklist 5 of 7

Ending the year on a Mick. I'm tempted to check this checklist just out of principle.

There it is, so long crappy 2009 and hello awesome 2010! Happy happy everbody!

The challenge of an incomplete page #1

Aaaah, the thrill of the chase.


(I told you I was putting Bronze cards in the binder)

Holiday Lazies

I was going to do a Blaster break of Topps206, but I'm too lazy. In my defense, between family and job, this Christmas was a lot of work. Here are four cards from the rip that caught my eye instead.

But first, the reason why Topps206 blasters are better than hobby boxes...

Mini sized mini cards that you can cut off the box! The Lou Gehrig mini had Howard's card encroach on his border a bit, but Lou looks pretty jacked up on that card anyway so no biggie.

Tommy Hanson goes full Bumgarner on his Topps206 rookie card. Never go full Bumgarner. I'm kind of peeved that I'm going to have to track down his short print to get a Topps206 card of him where he doesn't look ridiculous.

There can never be enough cards of Campy. The sunset horizon adds to the greatness of this card. A lumber yard full of bats don't hurt either.

I don't care what anyone says, I like the bronze cards. They look nifty and I'd rather have these to fill out holes in my set than have to chase another decoy card insert set on my current paltry card budget. Yes I'm putting bronze cards in my set binder. At least until I get a base card to replace it. I'm cheap like that. The Howard closeup in full swing is a pretty neat photo choice.

Poor Hunter looks bewildered. Kind of how I feel right now as I realize I'm blogging at 11:00pm when I'm frikkin' exhausted and ready to pass out. ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2009 Topps206 Short Print Varataion Checklist and Gallery

As a away to assist in identifying Short Print mini cards, here's a list of the Short Print variation cards in 2009 Topps206. As I obtain images of the cards I'll post them here for reference. The base size cards are easy to spot, check the back for one that looks like this:


The mini variations are stealth other than the white card stock and this will hopefully be a useful reference to any completist or player collector out there.

So far, if the image is on this post it means I have the card in hand. If any bloggers out there have any Short Print images they are willing to donate to the gallery, let me know and I'll post it along with a link to your blog.

Short print list lovingly stolen from Trader Crack.

Short Print Variations:

1 Ryan Howard
10 Andrew McCutchen
19 Mel Ott
23 Koji Uehara
28 Kenshin Kawakami
36 Jimmie Foxx
41 David Hernandez
44 Michael Bowden
49 Walter Johnson
57 Matt LaPorta
61 Derrek Holland
66 Ty Cobb
71 Dustin Pedroia
72 Rick Porcello
83 Rogers Hornsby
87 Ryan Perry
90 Alex Rodriguez
102 Hanley Ramirez
103 Andrew Bailey
107 Fernando Martinez
113 Tris Speaker
116 Chase Utley
120 Derek Jeter
129 Ichiro
130 Honus Wagner
137 Mark Teixeira
138 Elvis Andrus
142 Evan Longoria
143 Cy Young
154 Mickey Mantle
160 Thurman Munson
171 David Wright
174 Gordon Beckham
175 Manny Ramirez
177 Pee Wee Reese
181 David Price
207 Jackie Robinson
224 Roy Campanella
231 CC Sabathia
234 Grady Sizemore
237 Christy Mathewson
254 Johnny Mize
262 Tommy Hanson
268 Aaron Poreda
271 Lou Gehrig
274 Colby Rasmus
286 Tim Lincecum
287 Babe Ruth
299 Albert Pujols
300 George Sisler

Porcello and Perry courtesy Grand Cards.
Speaker, Pujols, Longoria and Andrus courtesy Project '62.