Happy Fake Opening Day

Even if it is a crummy interleague game I guess it's still real baseball.

I'd normally also include an Astros card, but Topps doesn't put Astros cards in their products anymore.

It's go time

The season starts right about now. Assuming it doesn't rain. Why isn't the opening series held in a southern city again? I actually got a taste of big league action a couple of days ago. Took a ton of pictures. Then lost my phone and all of said pictures. I am a schlemiel.

Oh well. Play ball!

Braving the Storms

Ok, there's supposed to be hail and tornadoes and monsoons and frogs dropping from the sky any minute, but I've got free field level tickets to tonight's home opener and quite frankly I can't afford a blaster of First Edition right now, so if I miss this game it might be a year or two before I can go again. I wish it would stop thundering though. I'm heading out, wish me luck. Hopefully this guy:

will get a chance to pitch and this guy:

will be in the lineup tonight. Look for me in section 121, row 10 assuming I don't drown on the way there.

(Cards thanks to Dinged Corners. More from them will be posted soon)

2009 OPENING DAY

If it were the Rays and Red Sox, I'd probably be playing Mario Kart or watching Venture Brothers DVDs tonight, but it's not. It's Braves and Phillies. I'm a bit geeked up. I've hit the preset button for Project 9-6-1 about a dozen times to see if the pregame show had come on yet. It's not on as I begin this post, so there's some time to write something before I go park in front of the TV for tonight's festivities. First though, this great news arrived today:

21, 41, 44, 35, 3, 42 and...


Greg Maddux's number will be retired on July 17th. Awesome. Someone needs to start working on a statue for the plaza.

If you're looking for a season preview or predictions from me, I don't exactly have any. I did a sort of preview for Phungo but I didn't plan out anything and time is kinda up. I'll do predictions off the cuff for you though. Now that Sully has predicted the Reds in the World Series, I'm not as afraid of being completely wrong anymore. For you gamblers out there (and I don't mean high-end case rippers) you may do very well to short all these stocks.

Division winners:

NL East: Phillies.

NL Central: Anyone but the Cubs. That includes Pirates. Let's say St. Louis.

NL West: Dodgers

AL East: Rays

AL Central: Twins

AL West: A's

NL Wildcard: Giants

AL Wildcard: Red Sox

World Series: Phillies over Twins in 6

Braves record: 88-74 2nd in NL East

NL MVP: Manny Ramirez, Dodgers

AL MVP: Josh Hamilton, Rangers

NL Cy Young: Roy Oswalt, Astros

AL Cy Young: Francisco Liriano, Twins

NL Rookie of the Year: Tommy Hanson, Braves

AL Rookie of the Year, David Price, Rays

There's absolutely no research or analysis behind these picks, I'm just going with my gut. If I hit 25% accuracy on any of these I'll be thrilled. Here's also some Braves-related predictions inspired by some cards I recently received from fellow bloggers that have not been acknowledged on the blog as of yet.

Javy will have a good year for the Bravos. Let's say 15-8, 3.35 ERA, 200 Ks. The Braves will then strike while the iron is hot and trade him in the offseason.

Brian McCann will be the Team MVP in '09. He will also win an actual MVP before his contract with the Braves is up. This card came from Thorzul.

Smoltz will make a start for the Red Sox and get bombed. He'll then move to the 'pen and pitch in a playoff game. I'm still pissed at Smoltz, but I have to thank him for one thing: thanks to his offseason antics I have completely forgiven Tom Glavine. I love ya Tommy, you may have signed with the Mets but at least you didn't talk shit about the Braves single every day you were on their roster. As for Smoltzie, if he can manage to shut his damn mouth at some point this season, maybe one day in the far distant future I'll forgive him too. As for now, I'll be rooting for North Carolina tomorrow just to stick it to the Bearded One. I got this card in a prize pack from Gritz at Project '62.

Interleague: Braves will be utterly ruined in interleague once again. Boston Twice, Yankees, at Baltimore who owns us for some reason and Toronto. We'll win five games out of the lot and two of them will be against Toronto. This card came from Chris Reed, I'm pretty sure I sent him something already but if I didn't, please shoot me an e-mail.

One of the Braves' biggest strengths will be their bench. There's a ton of depth in the system, especially in starting pitching. I don't mind if Chipper only plays 120 games because I trust Infante and Prado to be an adequate Plan B for the games while he's taking a breather. Omar came from Jack Plumstead, who will be getting a package of Sox as soon as I replenish my supply of the rouge hose. I'll also be doing a series of football sticker posts as soon as I can figure out when the season is.

Chipper. Like I said, 120 games. Also 25 homers, 90 RBI and a .350 average. 120 games with an 1.000 OPS is just fine with me. Card courtesy of Dinged Corners, who have sent more cards to me than I have to them. I shall attempt to even the trade imbalance shortly.

Here's a Sweet Spot Chipper from Adam E. at Thoughts and Sox. I have a package waiting to go to the post office for him and that doesn't even count the vintage cards from his want list I'm looking for. I've already talked about Chipper, so let's discuss my worst fear about the 2009 season. Mike Gonzalez breaks down. Sorano gets hurt. Moylan gets forced into the closer's role and wilts. We blow a bunch of saves in a closer by committee debacle, then trade Freddie Freeman for Kevin Gregg just to get a warm body in the closer's role. Something screwed up always happens during the season and I think this is the most likely scenario that trainwrecks the season (and possibly the future). Yes, I still have Danny Kolb nightmares.

But now is not the time to dwell on such things. For at least a few more hours, all the records are 0-0. The season is all dreamy potential and no stark reality. The bunting is up, the game is on ESPN and all eyes are on Philadelphia. Now is the time for


Play ball!

Thoughts on the Opening Game Broadcast.

I didn't live blog it, but I did take notes to share for posterity. It's my life, I'll waste it how I please.

Pregame:
George Will? Ok, we get it. It's an election year. Thanks ESPN, I never would have noticed if not for you.
National Anthem - Wow, what a voice. I wasn't expecting that.
First Pitch - They're all really saying Boooo-ush.

First inning:
First pitch - strike. First batter - strikeout. 1-2-3 for the Nats n the first.
The Braves really need to work on their fielding apparently. ugh.
The exact moment when I hit the mute button on the ESPN broadcast and turned on Pete and Chip on the radio: Bottom of the first, third batter.
Argh. Kearns with the RBI. Joe's gonna be frisky today.

Second Inning:
Jeez, it's the Austin Kearns show tonight. Nails McCann trying for the double. McCann funs about as fast as me...
1-2-3 inning for Hudson, who is back in the groove.
Oh, ESPN? I little hint for you:
WE DON'T GIVE A CRAP ABOUT JOE MORGAN'S THIRTY YEAR OLD HIGHLIGHTS. STOP SHOWING THEM.

Third inning:
Kearns is everywhere!
ARGH caught stealing. What was Earl Weaver saying about goddamn little fleas on the basepaths...
The exact moment when I turned off the TV completely: Top of the third, second batter.
Woot! Escobar with the 360 spin move! another 1-2-3 inning.

Fourth Inning:
Ok, non stop Bush or no, I'm turning on the TV for Chipper's at bat...
CHIPPER HOMERUN MICKEYFICKEYS!!!1
ok, tv's right back off...
Ok, why the hell is Teddy Roosevelt made to look like an ass during every president race? That franchise will never have a winning season until they start respecting the T.R. Ya hear that Nationals, I curse Thee, vile blasphemers!
Some more nice D for the bravos - Huddy's on a roll.

Fifth inning:
Ok, it looks like it's safe to watch the game on TV again since they are actually pointing the cameras at the field mostly.
Boot, Bunt, and..... nothing.
ESPN recycles their Presidential first pitch graphic again.
OK, the speedy rat commercial is strange enough, but it's REALLY strange without sound. Anyone else notice the rat humping the guy's leg?
13 straight outs for Hudson!

Sixth Inning:
Peter Gammons wants to make sweet, sweet love to Chipper by the fire.
Hey, a Willie Harris sighting!
Aaaaand Peter jinxed Chipper with his premature Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Dammit.
Sixth inning and I can already tell it's going to be one of those games... Brilliant pitching, hard-luck 1 run loss. I've seen this too many times.

Seventh inning:
Yep, everyone's forgotten how to hit - Diaz is aiming for the fences.
While the radio broadcasts "Take Me Out To The Ballgame", ESPN shows a Pharma and Jack Daniels commercial.
19 straight for Huddy - He's in the zone

Eighth inning:
Burger King!
ARGH can someone please get Tim off the hook?!?
Ohman in the game, does his LOOGY work and gets out.
Moylan looks good in set up duty.

Ninth Inning:
Ok, somone PLEASE get Tim off the hook!!!
CHIPPER TOTALLY ROBBED. Rauch didn't even see that ball coming at him.
Tex misses a homer by a foot! Double for Teixeira.
Prado runs for Tex? Who's gonna play 1st base in the bottom of the inning?
Frenchy advances the runner. Last chance people...
HA! PASSED BALL LO DOOKIE tie game.
Big Mac does nothin'.
Moylan back in for the Braves. Prado playing first?
Moylan mows 'em down.
Milledge gets his uniform dirty.
Invader Zim...
Ends it.
GAH

At least the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie was on after the game.

The Competitors

I was going to post the winner of this morning's contest in the Eastern Hemisphere, but the game is being replayed on ESPN and I didn't want to spoil it for the 99% of America who missed it the first time.

Card of the week 3/24/08

Opening day is just a few hours away. The MLB marketing geniuses put the opening series in Japan this year, resulting in a 6am opening pitch. By the time many of you read this post, the game will already be over and the jet-lagged A's and Red Sox will be resting up for the second game of their series. I understand why they're opening up the season in Japan. It's a great marketing opportunity, Japan loves baseball, it kinda had to be a regular season series to get any publicity (how many people watched the Dodgers/Padres series in China, hmmm?) and Bud wants to really push the international flavor of the game in preparation for next year's World Baseball Classic. I understand it all, but it just doesn't feel like Opening day, ya know?

First of all, 6:00 AM. 6:00 AM. I love baseball, but I love sleep too. And that's 6:00 AM for the Sawks fans, the poor left coast schmoes who root for the Athletics have to be up at 3:00 AM to watch their team. I guess ESPN or whoever is televising it will have a replay at some point (or maybe MLB expects us to all have insomnia or a TiVo or both) but watching a rerun of opening day just doesn't have the same oomph. I'll probably have some sleep-deprived brain cells die off, but I'll be watching at least some of it. It's got a couple of interesting teams in the game. The Sox have their World Series Championship lineup pretty much intact. The A's still have some good young players in the lineup despite the fire sale. Boston is pitching hometown (or home country, rather) here Dice-K in the opener. Blanton, Harden and Houston are solid pitchers when healthy and it will be intriguing to see if that lineup can gel when half the team got traded. Hopefully it will be intriguing enough to keep me from nodding off.

Still, as interesting as the matchup is, isn't opening day supposed to be featuring the Reds, not the Red Sox? And in Cincinnati, not Tokyo? I know, they haven't had opening day in Cinci for years, but it still galls me a bit. At least open up with a National League game, not those whippersnapper American Leaguers. Those Johnny come latelys weren't even formed until the 20th century. Then they get the DH, win a bunch of All Star Games and all of a sudden they're hot stuff. Bah. And don't get me started on having to check my Fantasy lineup this early... I'm still combing the waiver wires for players that might have a starting job out of Spring Training. Heck, there are still Spring Training games GOING ON. Nope, it just doesn't feel right. Opening day should be a national holiday, not a 6:00 AM wake up call.

That's why I chose this card to be this week's Card of the Week. Yep, a stinking checklist. An Opening Day checklist. See how that ties in? It's also an ugly checklist. Well, an ugly set to be exact. Gaudy red borders for no reason at all. Just because. Notice that the design team took so much care in selecting just the right colors for the set that they chose a red that clashes with the red border for the little circles for the B, S, B and L in Baseball. The blue don't look so hot, either. That's not all, the printing process got gooped up a bit and there's splotches on the card that smear the print and almost obscure Jason Bay, Josh Beckett and Jack Cust on the list. Now, that might just be a little glitch, printer errors do happen even in this day of high quality control. One thing that is not an error is where I pulled this card from the pack. Most readers out there have ripped enough Topps to know that the Checklists are usually filler inserts in the packs, kind of like the Top of the Class or Rookie Cup ads. The checklists can still be annoying, especially after you've pulled a half-dozen of each one, but they don't count against you towards the number of cards in the pack so who cares. Well, this checklist was not a filler. It replaced a regular card in the pack. It's printed on the same stock as the rest of the set, so I'm guessing it was on purpose and not just a pack that was short one card. In a pack with only 6 cards to begin with, getting shafted on one card isn't very fun.

So we have a disappointing opening day game and a disappointing Opening Day card. Luckily there is a remedy for the opening day game blues. The Braves play the Nationals Sunday night in the Nat's new home park. It will be all alone on the schedule, there will be fanfare and bunting and the President throwing out the first ball. History will be made. Will Chipper Jones get the first hit in the new stadium? Will Ryan Zimmerman hit the first homer? Can the Nats christen the stadium with a win? That's a real opening day game, and you won't have to drink an extra pot of coffee at work the next day either just to stay awake.

So the opening day problem has been solved, so what to do with our crummy little checklist? Why, the only thing that should be done with crummy little checklists:

Now that felt pretty good. That felt real good actually. I kinda want to go out and buy a couple more packs now so I can check off a few more boxes. Maybe I'll do that for opening day.

Update: Apparently Jeff Schultz agrees.

Where in the world is Upper Deck?

Butt ugly Topps Opening Day is live, making 4 different products out for Eisner's crew, but Upper Deck has still only released... Upper Deck. What exactly are they waiting for? Are they hoping Topps uses up its allotted number of sets for the year by pushing out ugly crap like Opening Day and Bowman, while they lurk in the weeds waiting to have the market all to themselves so they can release their own ugly crap? There are hushed rumors of Fleer in the air, but I think UD drowned that company in the tub finally. I could be wrong though and I'd rather see a nice pack of Fleer on the market than that nightmare Opening Day set. It's just too dang red. And it's not good 1990 Donruss red, it's 1992 Triple Play 'make your eyes bleed' red. I'm a Georgia Bulldog fan and even we wear black every once in a while. Yecch. Too much red. And I still don't know what the heck a flapper card is. Topps killed off Bowman Heritage but kept this? Every day I'm one day closer to being a Vintage-only collector.

2008 Topps Opening Day

Another brand new sell sheet is out, this time Topps Opening Day. You can check it out here (warning: pdf file) and download the checklist and product information sheet here (#22 and 23 under the baseball section). If you liked last year's Opening Day, you'll probably like this one too.

Once again, it is 99 cents for 6 cards. The design is just like every other Opening Day product, a color variation on the Topps base set. The sell sheet is a bit confusing though, I can't tell if it has a red border with white piping around the photo or vice versa. I think the white border card is the serial numbered parallel though after zooming in on the pdf. These also have gold instead of silver foil. I would have thought the world had enough bright red borders for at least a century after 1990 Donruss, but what do I know. The design flaws that are causing the most gnashing of teeth are still evident in this sell sheet. The borders are still much wider than they need to be, and the Topps logo not only eats a chunk out of the photo, but the Opening Day logo does as well. I like the Topps base design, but the red borders here seem to be a bit much.

Once again there is a serial numbered parallel card in the Hobby packs. Each card in the set is numbered out of 2008 and has the date of opening day stamped on it. Last year's hobby packs had them one per pack if I remember correctly. Last year's puzzle insert set returns with a 28 card set dropping at 12 per box. There's also a brand new insert set called 'flappers'. According to the sheet they are "Individual cards that "transform" into multiple cards". I have absolutely no idea what these could possibly be, and they look like your run of the mill insert card by the picture on the sheet. The only card I ever know that could transform into multiple cards was the '80-81 Topps basketball set, and I was told they weren't worth anything if you ripped them apart at the perforations. There are 18 of them, two per box, so buy a box and have one to transform and one to keep pristine. There are also autograph cards and press plates. before you scoff at the idea of finding press plates in a dollar pack, the only press plate I've ever pulled was from a box of Topps Total, so it can be done. Granted, Total had 4 times as many cards in the set, but that's not the point. The autograph set features 9 rookies and has a red border that fades into a blue border on the bottom, making them by far the nicest looking cards in the entire set. Here's the auto checklist for you prospectors out there:

Jeff Baker
Jason Bartlett
John Buck
Kevin Gregg
Anthony Lerew (hooray, a Brave!)
Glen Perkins
John Rheinecker
Nate Schierholtz
Jason Botts

The checklist is fairly typical. 195 veteran cards that are loaded with stars and 25 of the rookies they are allowed to put in a set before the season starts. 65 of the veteran cards are previews of series two, including a Mark Teixeira card that I absolutely have to have. Topps put Tex in a hideously ugly sweatshirt in his first card as a Brave in Updates & Highlights and I'm despondent that crappy looking card is the only one I have of him in a Brave uni. Sadly, Mascot cards are no longer on the checklist, which is a damn shame. I'd much rather have a Phillie Phanatic than another useless Jose Vidro card. At six cards a pack, even with a small set size you'll still have to bust two boxes for a chance at a complete set. The set quite frankly probably isn't worth anyone's time, but it will probably be very tempting since it's release date of March 10th will be smack in the middle of spring training games. I've got a box of old Opening Day cards in the basement as testament of how hard that temptation is to resist.

You see anything flapping on this thing?