The best pack of Ginter I'll probably get this year

I know you're all sick and tired of Ginter but I'm poor and I couldn't rip a case and I don't care I'll enjoy this set at my pace and my pace is one blaster every 3 weeks.

My blaster today was as lame as my last blaster. No relics, no autos, the mojo hit was a mini numbered to 25. I did get probably my favorite pack of the year though out of it. My favorite baseball pack that is. Let's take a quick look, shall we?

Chicken man! Off to a good start with a Hall of Famer. Since I am a child of the '80s and never actively rooted for any of Wade's teams I have good memories of the guy.

MELVIN! I love me some BJ. Yeah I know, he's hit under the Mendoza line almost all year long and has watched more third strike fastballs down the middle than Leonard Maltin has watched movies but I don't care. He's OUR high priced underperforming free agent signing and I'll support him until the bitter end.

 BIG MAC! Two Barves in a roooooooow! I am enjoying every single Brian McCann at bat this year as much as I possibly can. With Evan Gattis asserting himself and newly called up Christian Bethancourt almost ready for The Show the only way Mac'll be in a Braves uni next year is if the NL gets the DH and cheapass Liberty Media ups the payroll $30 million.

Yeah, fuckin' Cody Ross. I said it was my favorite pack, not the perfect pack.

PEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I've wanted this card since 2007. Topps went and weirded it up with blank backs and black lights but who cares I have a mini of the greatest football player EVER. Love love love love LOVE this card.

Finish off the pack with REGGIE. In an A's uniform so I don't have to feel bad about being a fan of Reggie as a Yankee. And I am a HUGE fan of Reggie as a Yankee. Three home runs in one World Series game beeyotches. Only four players have done that and Reggie was the skinniest one to do it.

Not a bad little pack there, eh? Still haven't gotten my Abe Vigoda card though. Dang it Topps!

Welcome Back Mac

 words not necessary

Trade Posts - The Last Refuge of a Desperate Man

Not gonna lie, I have writer's block. I have about 30 posts in the draft folder with images already uploaded, but when I open one up my fingers clench up and I end up typing like thi,.x;.lvzcx/..s fdju. I also have artist's block. I have enough ideas floating around in my brain to keep me busy for months but when I look at a canvas or a sketch card or a sketch book I get The Fear. All of a sudden when I pick up a paintbrush I turn into Dr. Gonzo in Bazooko Circus. Reading? Ha! I've been stuck on chapter two of "The Catcher Was A Spy" for two weeks. I can't write OR read. That's not all, I have cooking block. I let half a package of chicken rot in the fridge while the only food I was able to prepare was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Now we're out of peanut butter. And jelly. I need to lose weight anyway. But that's not happening because I haven't been exercising either. Walker's block? I have a pile of piles of cards that need to be packaged and mailed too so I'm also having trader's block. I don't know who is getting most of the cards because I'm not organized. I wouldn't say I have organizer's block because I've never been organized ever even for five minutes. That's not a block, that's a pathology. Tomorrow's Valentine's Day. I don't wanna even know what kinda block I'll end up getting for that. I am a total blockhead. What to do?

TRADE POSTS!!!

You can always fall back on a good trade post. And I have a bunch of packages I haven't posted yet. Mainly because I haven't posted many trade packages in the past year. This one is from reader Edgar, who sent this package a few months ago and who recently won my Supa Bowel contest and whose football cards are still sitting on my desk. I received a whole slopton of shiny cards from Edgar including these three:

Diamond Shiny Michael Bourn. The package was mostly Diamond Shinies, and luckily Bourn was one of them. I have high hopes that Michael will not be the second coming of Kenny Lofton this season. It would be nice if he was still around in 2013 too, but with Boras as his agent I don't have high hopes.

OrangeRedFractor Brian McCann. Retail Chromy Rack Packagery. These suckers remind me so much of the old Kelloggs 3D cards when they're scanned what with the hyper-focused front image and the fuzzy blurry background. Just without the spiffy lenticular technology. Blogger seems to think 'lenticular' is not a word and suggests 'testicular' instead. That's right, Kellogg's 3D cards have balls.*

Finally, here's a shiny rookie card of Captain Marvel Jr. Or is it Fab Five Freddie? Is it even a rookie card since it's a parallel? Is that even a rookie card rule anymore? Would you really want the non-refactor version over the shiny one? Yeah, I know, you want the autographed version. THAT'S NOT AN OPTION. Will Freddie avoid the sophomore slump this season or will I be drinking really heavily** this summer? Can't it be both? SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Good stuff from Edgar, time to get that package mailed...

*You know truly understand the depraved depths of my writer's block. Hoo boy.
**No drinker's block yet, thank goodness.

FREE THE DIE CUTS!

Unfreed Die-Cuts since you can't see them worth crap in the viddy:

My favorite related video to this one:

Nomnomnom!

Atlanta_Chris on Talking Chop

There's been a lot of baseball card posts on the Braves blog Talking Chop lately. They've all been (obviously) about Braves cards and they've all been very well written. I finally decided to figure out who's been writing them and it turns out to be Chris Mays from Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz. Better known as the guy who grabs the Braves in every group break 14 seconds after they are posted. His post on 5 Brian McCann cards to get is brilliant and I definitely recommend checking it out if you are a Big Mac fan. I second all five choices as fantastic McCann cards although I'd personally go with the blue refractor instead of the green. That's just how I roll. Keep up the good work, Chris!

9 cards from two racks

Yay! Target has A&G! Booo! They don't have blasters! Here's 9 cards from the first two racks I snagged. Why 9? That's how many cards fit on the scanner.

Kalamazoo. Just Kalamazoo.

Dude masters fire and he's only 24 out of 26 cards. If card #26 is Michael Eisner, I'm giving up collecting cards as a hobby and taking up cross-stitch instead. That's some mighty fine flocculence there...

Hooray! Retail Checklists! Now I have five more cards to chase for this set. Well, four now.

A card in every garage, a chicken in every pot and a Chipper in every pack.

Topps is really pushing the evolution theme in this product. Two words for ya: BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE. You have no idea what that is, but you vaguely remember having to memorize it for a biology class in middle school.

Yay! My first double for 2011!

The Ginterization of this photo did a neat thing to the ball Clayton is tossing. I've been stating at it for an hour. It looks like something out of a Rene Magritte painting.

Fuzzy Monkey! It was with this card I realized that Topps put the Ginter football pebbles texture on the Ascent of Man cards. It distracts a bit from the monkey butt, I think.

BIG MAC ATTACK. Two Braves and two cards from insert sets I'm collecting in two racks. Not too bad. Now hurry up and deliver the blasters already. Target still has plenty of 2010 blasters, though. C/MON TARGET, DON'T FORCE ME TO DIG THROUGH LOOSEYS

In play, run(s)

BIG

MAC

ATTACK

In other news, I have three out of the five Gypsy Queen Brave short prints pulled out of packs because I am a lucky bastige.

So, um... all you guys voting for Yadier Molina and Buster Posey... Howzabout some Mac love this year???

Baseball Card Detectivery

So yesterday I posted this card of Mac:

I wondered aloud who was in the background behind Brian (probably Chipper) and Laurens actually found the actual photo used from Getty Images. According to the description, this photo was taken during the August 4, 2010 game against the Mets at Turner Field and that McCann was throwing out a runner on the play. I dug up the box score of that game and looked to see if there were any plays where Mac thre out a runner. In the 4th inning Mike Pelfrey bunted Luis Castillo over to second base and was thrown out by McCann. I don't think that starting pitcher Kris Medlen would run toward the line on a bunt in front of the plate so most likely that's Chipper back there coming up to defend the bunt. Mystery solved! 

Speaking of Medlen, according to the box score he was replaced by Mike Dunn after this batter so this means the photo on this card is the last play made before he blew out his elbow and was shut down for Tommy John surgery. Aaaaaaaand now I'm sad. Meds is progressing in in rehab though so I'll just have to wait until August or so to enjoy this card. 

(and yes detectivery is a real word)

2011 Braves Team set - Mac

One more of these and then I promise I'll do something productive with my life.  Check out Big Mac in the tools of ignorance:

Whodat behind Mac? Izzat Chippah? No really, someone tell me who that is behind McCann. It kinda looks like Chipper but it out of focus and I scanned it in jpg format so it's even more blurry and my eyes suck anyway so I got no clue. Aw heck with it. LOOKIT MAC IN THE CATCHER'S GEAR!!!

Shiny Battery

Too wiped out for a real post tonight, so here's a couple of shinies sent to me from Night Owl.

Purple Hanson pitches

to Bronze McCann

Both numbered to 599 for some reason. Bronze... Purple... I guess Topps has to mix it up every once in a while. Thanks Owlie.

Thorzul Cann Cann Cann

I recently got my swag from Thorzul's annual Trade Me Anything festivities. Along with the J-Hey, Eddie and Cha-Cha cards was a small pile of unloved Turkeys, some of which were horribly miscut. How the hell has Topps' quality control gone so far down the tubes this year? Miscut Turkey Red? Really?

Anyway, along with the Topps Update was three mystery cards. Cards straight out of nowhere. What were they? These:

Now why in the world would Thorzul do such a thing?



Ah, that's why. Because he Cann.

Also: WTF??

Game one of the 2010 World Series will be played in Turner Field

THANKS TO THE 2010 ALL STAR GAME MVP

THIS TIME IT COUNTS

MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC!!!

MAAAAAAAAAAAC!!!

THIS IS WHY YOU PEOPLE NEED TO VOTE HIM IN AS A STARTER

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.

Four more packages inna mail

Kids been barfing ALL WEEK. .

So I've, um, gotten a little behind in my posting. Here's four packages getting the one card treatment. Each one has a special theme involved, so they will be getting their own post eventually. Once the projectile vomiting stops.

Greg Maddux Double Header Mini Jersey

This came from Jim right here in the ATL. Jim sent a whole lot of cards from a a set I'm building and incuded a couple of 'mini' jersey cards. Both were actually from sets that just happened to be mini sized. This here is Fleer's valiant but awkward attempt to rip off the 1955 Topps Double Header set. All the photos were computerizedto look like they were painted (by a robot, but painted) and the cards were the same size as the originals. Unfortunately they didn't make the entire set double folders and the resulting base cards look a bit odd. I like the Maddog, even if that jersey piece has him squished over to the left.

2009 Brian McCann A&G mini

Matt G. (who has a blog, I just can't remember what it is) dumped a bunch of "evil Braves" among other things in this package. He was 99% sure I had this card, but I DIDN'T SO NYAAAAAH. This one went right into the A&G mini binder, deposing a 2008 Gary Sheffield in the process.

1996 Pinnacle Christie Brinkley Collection Chipper Jones

What's better than a Chipper card? A Chipper and Chrstie Brinkley card. CHEWING GUM. This one is from Madding at Cards on Cards in a recent A&G SP swap.

2009 Bowman Blue Chipper Jones

This one came from Steve at The Easy Life. Steve did a Bad Bad Thing. that is all I have to say about that. While I hate Bowman now thanks to Topps screwing up the brand beyond repair, a Chipper parallel numbered to 500 overcomes all hate.

Thanks guys, I'll be posting and sending once I clean up all the yuck on the walls...