HE DRAWS BASEBALL CARDS

HOOOO-WEEE, GOT A BIG PILE OF CARDS FROM MARK, AKA IDRAWBASEBALLCARDS AKA STATS ON THE BACK AND INCLUDED IN THE PILE WAS A WHOLE SET OF ART CARDS

AN 80S RETROSPECTIVE WITH A CARD DESIGN FROM EVERY YEAR OF THE DECADE. THIS IS FANTASTIC AND I SHALL NOW POST THE SET WITH MY OWN PARTICULAR BRAND OF QUIPPY COMMENTARY. YOU'LL SEE THE OTHER CARDS IN A FEW MONTHS WHEN I GET AROUND TO POSTING IT. IF YOU'D LIKE YOUR OWN SET TO COMMENT UPON, YOU CAN GET IT HERE SUPER CHEAP

MAYBE THE GREATEST CHECKLIST CARD IN HISTORY. THE BEAUTIFUL MUG OF KENT TEKULVE AND A FANTASTIC CARD LIST. ROWLAND! MOOKIE! RICKEY RICKEY RICKEY!!! I THINK THIS SET WAS DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR ME. THERE'S SOME MYSTERIES IN HERE TOO, WHO IS THE GREATEST PITCHER? WHAT IF DONRUSS GOT GRIFFEY? GREAT SCOTT! IS THERE A CHRISTOPHER LLOYD CARD IN THIS SET? STAY TUNED AND FIND OUT

THE BACKS OF THE CARDS LOOK LIKE THIS. VERY PRE-WAR DESIGN HERE (PRE WORLD WAR ONE THAT IS), VERY SIMPLE AND ELEGANT. SWIRLY RIBBONS ARE HARD TO DRAW, I APPRECIATE THE ATTENTION TO DETAIL. AS YOU CAN SEE I WAS BLESSED WITH THE FIRST OF FIFTY SETS, I CAN MAKE SOME BIG COIN ON EBAY WITH THIS BUT I'LL NEVER DO IT

MARK OBVIOUSLY WATCHED THE GREAT DORKTOWN SERIES ON DAVE STIEB, HE EVEN HAS A CAMEO OF THE VILLAIN JACK MORRIS IN THE STANDS. I HIGHTLY RECOMMEND WATCHING THAT SERIES EVEN THOUGH IT'S LIKE FOUR HOURS LONG, ALL OF THE SECRET BASE DEEP DIVE VIDEOS ARE GREAT BUT THIS ONE IS EXCEPTIONAL. YOU'LL BE DRIVING UP TO COOPERSTOWN WITH A PITCHFORK AND VALUE PACK OF TORCHES BEFORE YOU'RE EVEN DONE WITH PART THREE. THE 1980 CARD OF DAVE IS A GREAT ONE, VERY GOOD CHOICE

BRAVES LEGEND ROWLAND OFFICE FROM HIS 1981 FLEER CARD. IT PAINS ME TO SAY AS A BRAVES FAN THAT THIS IS PROBABLY ROWLAND'S MOST ICONIC CARD AND THIS MIGHT BE THE BEST LOOKING VERSION OF IT. YOU NEED FOURTEEN UNIQUE ROWLAND OFFICE CARDS TO BREAK INTO THE TOP TEN COLLECTORS ON TCDB AND I'M WONDERING IF I'VE ACCUMULATED THAT MANY ON ACCIDENT NOW

1982 GIVES US A DONRUSS MOOKIE WITH BONUS INSPIRATIONAL MESSAGE. THIS CARD MEANS A LOT TO ME. I LOVE MOOKIE, I LOVE 1982 DONRUSS AND I LOVE DINOSAURS. IN A WEIRD COINCIDENCE, THIS IS MY CURRENT FANTASY BASEBALL NAME:

IF I BELIEVE IN MOOKIE, THEN SOMEWHERE, MOOKIE MUST BE BELIEVING IN ME. AND IF HE BELIEVES IN ME, THEN I CAN BELIEVE IN ME. THEN I CAN FINISH WRITING THE DOZENS OF POSTS IN MY DRAFT FOLDER

OR MAYBE I'M A DINOSAUR? NOT SURE HOW THAT WORKS

1983 BRINGS US FULL SURREALISM AS FRANK VIOLA TURNS INTO HIS NAMESAKE. I FORGOT FRANK WON 24 GAMES AND A CY YOUNG AWARD IN 88 AND WAS REWARDED BY GETTING TRADED TO THE METS. THAT'S A TERRIBLE FATE FOR SWEET MUSIC BUT IT MIGHT'VE HELPED THE TWINS WIN ANOTHER WORLD SERIES. AGAINST US 😡

1984 TOPPS RICKEY MADE WITH LINES! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THIS STYLE OF ART IS CALLED. IT'S ABSTRACT BUT NOT REALLY DE STIJL ABSTRACT AND 'LINE ART' DOESN'T QUITE CUT IT EITHER. WHATEVER IT IS IT'S AMAZING AND IT'S PROBABLY MY FAVORITE IN THE BUNCH

MIKE SCOTT IS ANOTHER 80S PITCHER THAT EVERYONE HAS FORGOTTEN ABOUT HOW GOOD THEY WERE. 86 WINS, OVER A THOUSAND STRIKEOUTS AND AN ERA UNDER 3.00 FROM 1985 TO 1989.  AND DON'T FORGET THE CY YOUNG WIN. THIS IS THE CARD I THINK OF WHEN I HEAR THE NAME MIKE SCOTT, ODDLY ENOUGH. IT'S MORE ICONIC THAN I THOUGHT

WOOOO! A BARVE! I FRIGGIN LOVE 1986 TOPPS AND I'M VERY HAPPY THAT DALE MADE THE CUT AMONG ALL THE EXCELLENT CARDS IN THAT SET. THE HAND DRAWN TEAM LETTERING LOOKS AMAZING I WANT AN ENTIRE SET WITH THAT LETTERING. NO PLAYERS, JUST LETTERING

1987 TOPPS IS OVERRATED! YOU SCREAM INTO THE VOID AND THEN THE VOID REMINDS YOU THAT THE 1987 TOPPS BO JACKSON EXISTS AND YOU HAVE TO RETHINK YOUR LIFE CHOICES. IT IS KINDA OVERRATED BUT THERE CERTAINLY ARE QUITE A FEW HELLA GOOD CARDS IN THERE. THE ONLY THING THAT CAN MAKE THE BO JACKSON CARD BETTER IS A FUTURE STARS RAINBOW AND THE COOL BO ROYALS LOGO

THIS IS A GOOD QUESTION: WHAT IF DONRUSS HAD JUMPED THE GUN AND PUT GRIFFEY JR IN THEIR 1988 SET? IT WOULD BE A PRETTY BOLD CHOICE SINCE HE HAD ONLY PLAYED IN BELLINGHAM IN 1987. IT PROBABLY WOULDN'T HAVE CAUSED THE HOBBY FREAKOUTS THAT HAPPENED IN 1989 SINCE GRIFFEY ONLY GOT TO DOUBLE-A IN 1988. BUT IT WOULD HAVE REALLY STUCK IT TO UPPER DECK WHICH MIGHT'VE TORN APART THE FABRIC OF THE KNOWN UNIVERSE, SO I APPROVE. I LIKE 1988 DONRUSS' FUNKY BORDERS, THIS IS A GOOD LOOKIN CARD

LAST CARD IS THE 1989 TOPPS FRED HALL OF FAMER MCGRIFF WITH ANOTHER CAMEO APPEARANCE IN THE STANDS OF MCGRUFF THE CRIME DOG. I'M STILL OVER THE MOON THAT FRED FINALLY GOT INTO THE HALL AND I'M VERY HAPPY HE MADE THE 80'S CUT. 1989 TOPPS HAS GROWN ON ME OVER THE YEARS, PROBABLY BECAUSE THERE'S NO ICONIC GRIFFEY OR NAUGHTY WORDS TO CAUSE IT TO GET OVEREXPOSED. YES I KNOW JUNIOR'S IN THE TRADED SET, WHEN'S THE LAST TIME SOME INFLUENCER POSTED A GRADED ONE OF THOSE ON THE SOCIAL MEDIAS

WHAT A LOVELY SET, IT MAKES ME WANT TO GO DIGGING THROUGH ALL MY JUNK WAX DOUBLES LOOKING FOR TREASURES. SADLY DUE TO SLOTH AND PROCRASTINATION I HAVE BURNED THROUGH MY TWO WEEK POST BUFFER AND I NEED TO WRITE MOAR POSTS INSTEAD. THE ACTUAL CARDS CARDS FROM MARK WILL BE UP SOONER OR LATER AND MIGHT BE SEVERAL POSTS SINCE HE SENT ME A TON OF EM. IN THE MEANTIME YOU CAN LISTEN TO MARK'S PODCAST OR GO BUY YOUR OWN COOL ART SETS

Sketch Card #17 - Pony'd

I'm over 3 months behind on the sketch cards and I'm drawing like a fiend right now so I should probably get a postin'. A major theme in my pony-drawing portfolio is turning unsuspecting hapless schmoes into ponies again their will.

The Collective Troll got ponified back in September. I'm not sure at the moment but if he wasn't the first to get transmogrified by me into a man-horse he was dang close. Why would I do such a nefarious thing? I just think the "X is now pony. What do?" meme is friggin' hilarious. Seriously, I'm laughing at it right now and it's making it hard to tpye.  Marck isn't the only Mark to become Pony.

Mark over at Stats on the Back also got a blast from the Pony Ray.  I basically did a piss take on his blog header (an actual 1973 Topps cartoon) and turned him into a bubble blowing workhorse. Poor guy has a foal to feed and I've gone and made him a pony.  Oh well, gotta expect disaster to hit when you're a Met fan. As usual, I did a little preliminary sketch to try to figure things out:

Glasses on ponies ain't easy. Their eyes are half of their dang head which makes things awkward. After doing this, I did it again on the actual card and ended up erasing  way too much. This is important later. For some reason I'm obsessed with doing Sharpie Art on these glossy decoy cards people send me but I never quite like how it comes out. I'm not comfortable with my lines yet, I guess. Here's the black and white version:

Lettering is shaky as usual, I smudged up the bubble and the Sharpie decided it didn't want to cooperate on the bottom border and I had to dig up the Marks-a-Lot to get the bkack I wanted but the pony turned out pretty ok in my opinion. Even the glasses! I decided I wanted to color it with the '73 back ink colors but I wasn't entirely sure what color to use. After rummaging through my kids' marker box I found some candidates and did a test on a security decoy card:

I ended up using the color on the top right. The only problem is the color didn't really want to go down evenly so I ended up doing a couple of passes to try to smooth it out. Even then, drops of color globbed together whenever I picked up the marker so I tried to push them towards a border. This is why there's a dark spot at the tip of the hoof. Even worse, the parts where I erased had enough of the gloss removed so the ink soaked in through to the paper underneath when I took a second pass. This is why Pony Mark looks like he has acne on his chin. I couldn't figure out what the heck to put on the back so I found an old sports page in the basement and got some Mod Podge and...

Stats on the back, naturally. The Mets even won! That should take the sting of abruptly switching species away for a bit. (who am I kidding, everyone wants to be a pony) Oh, and Tom, it was about 11 hours before I posted a Met Pony, so the Under is a winner. What's the over/under of when someone posts the date of this box score?

Another non-Bip

Although I wouldn't blame Mark from Stats on the Back for Bipping me. I did a bad thing. I'll let Mark tell you about that though.

We did make an actual trade, Cards for Parker's Birth Year Set for this lil' beauty:

Do I need any more Turkey Red cards after this? Probably not, but I'll get 'em anyway. Mark is known for sending really weird and esoteric schtuff too (I still have an oddball box that he sent me last year that I'm trying to figure out how to display properly) and included in the package was this:

That there is a 1972 Atlanta All-Star Game decal. I have no clue where he found the thing but it goes nicely with my All-Star pennant and program. I'll have to quit throwing '69 NLCS programs into bonfires and send one Mark's way one of these days. Always Earth friendly, Mark's package had this on it:

Recycle kiddos! Especially when the address label is really cool! You all should recognize that if you've been keeping up with the blogs in the sidebar. I said I'm only posting one card from non-Bipping packages (Hanson was the reason for the trade so that doesn't count) and I'm going to keep doing that. I couldn't decide between an oddball Chipper Jones and a cool Mark Lemke though. As always, I am the master of compromise:

Murph Variation from a Met Fan

Got this in the mail the other day, totally out of the blue from Stats on the Back. Maybe because I helped him with his Allen & Ginter project, maybe just for the halibut. Who knows? It was one 'variation' card, with a note:

OH DEAR HEAVENLY JEEBUS WHAT DID THAT MET FAN DO TO DEFILE POOR MURPH???

I was almost afraid to look...

Huh. Just a nice normal 1986 O-Pee-Chee Murphy card, totally undefiled. Not even mildly blasphemed. I really like the '86 Topps set and this is a nice card of the two time MVP who hit the crap out of the ball without taking anything stronger than an aspirin to enhance his performance. The O-Pee-Chee logo clipping his hat is odd though. So what's the variation? I flipped the card over:

GUM-USED RELIC CARD!

Brilliant! Anyone who has ever opened n old O-Pee-Chee pack knows what's going on here. Old gum. Permanently fused to the card. Never to be completely separated. Awesome. If I had the money to burn, I'd send this puppy to PSA to get slabbed.

1986 OPC Dale Murphy With Gum: PSA 10 1/2. Population: ONE.

Awwww yeah.