THE TWELVE DAYS OF CARDMAS: LAUNDRY EDITION - DAY 9

SO FAR WE'VE SEEN SOME PRETTY HARD HITTING RELICS, SOME STUFF YOU MIGHT HAVE TO PAY SOME DECENT COIN TO PICK UP. TODAY'S IS JUST ONE I REALLY LOVE EVEN THOUGH YOU CAN PROBABLY PICK ONE UP PRETTY CHEAP

I HAVE NO IDEA WHY BUT WHEN I FIRST SAW THAT THERE WERE GAME USED CAP CARDS I ABOUT LOST MY MIND. THERE WERE ALREADY GAME USED UNIFORM CARDS APLENTY BY 2003 (AND PROBABLY SOME PREVIOUS CAP CARDS IF I'M BEING HONEST) BUT WHEN I FIRSTSAW THESE THINGS I WILL NOT LIE, I COVETED. PART OF IT WAS JUST THE DESIGN OF THE CARDS. BRIGHT, BRIGHT COLORS, DISEMBODIED FLOATY HEADS AND TRICKY DIE-CUTS ARE THREE THINGS I WHOLEHEARTEDLY LOVE ON CARDS AND THIS SET HIT THE TRIFECTA. I WAS ABLE TO PICK UP THE VINNY CASTILLA CARD PRETTY QUICKLY AFTER BUT THIS WAS THE CARD I REALLY REALLY WANTED AND IT TOOK ME A WHILE AND I PROBABLY PAID TOO MUCH BUT I GOT IT. SOMETHING ABOUT THIS CARD ACTIUVATES THE HAPPY CHEMICALS IN MY BRAIN, EVEN NOW I'VE JUST BEEN STARING AT THE CARD FOR LIKE FIFTEEN MIUTES INSTEAD OF WRITING THE POST. THE RED AND BLUE JUST LOOKS SO GOOD! I ALSO LOVE THE NAME OF THE SET 'MEN WITH HATS'. WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? IT IS A SAFETY DANCE REFERENCE TWENTY YEARS LATER? IT'S SO GOOFY. LOOKING ALL THIS STUFF UP I'M NOW FINDING AFTER THE FACT THAT THERE IS ALSO A TIM HUDSON CARD IN THE SET. IT LOOKS GOOD WITH THE SAME RED BORDER AND ANDRUW HERE BUT MAN, IF IT HAD A GREEN BORDER FOR THAT A'S CAP IT WOULD BE AN ALL TIME GREAT

UPPER DECK VINTAGE IS A WILD BRAND, REALIZING A RETRO CRAZE WAS UPON THE HOBBY UD JUST STRAIGHT UP YOINKED SOME CLASSIC TOPPS DESIGNS. THE BEST PART IS THEY PICKED THREE FANTASTIC DESIGNS TO STEAL, 1963, 1965 AND 1971. THEY DID IT IN FOOTBALL TOO WITH THE 1971 FOOTBALL DESIGN AND WITH SEVERAL DESIGNS IN HOCKEY. Y NO HOOPS UD?? I REMEMBER TOPPS GOT MAD AS HELL TOO, THEY WERE NOT AMUSED BY UPPER DECK COPYING THEIR HOMEWORK SO WELL. FLEER DID THE SAME THING AT THE SAME TIME BUT THEIR RIPOFFS LOOKED KINDA CHEESY. BY 2004 UPPER DECK BACKED OFF AND STARTED STEALING VINTAGE ODDBALL DESIGNS. THEY ALSO ADDED A BUNCH OF SHORT PRINTS AND INSANITY AND THERE WAS NO UPPER DECK VINTAGE IN 2005. IT WAS FUN WHILE IT LASTED THOUGH!

SPEAKING OF DISEMBODIED FLOATY HEADS, I HAVE BEEN PLACING THESE ON THE SCREENSHOT MOSTLY BASED ON HOW WELL THEY FIT THE PICTURE NOT BY HOW WELL THE PERSONALITY LINES UP WITH THE CHARACTER. DON'T THINK ABOUT IT TOO HARD OR YOU'LL GET THE IMAGE OF SHAQ HITTING ON ANDRUW JONES WHILE HE PLAYS BEETHOVEN ON A TOY PIANO STUCK IN YOUR HEAD AND NOBODY NEEDS THAT

Earflap Caps just in time for Christmas!

I remember a bunch of people going nuts over these during the World Series, so why not spread the word. The earflap caps worn during the World Series are going to go on sale soon. They will first go on sale at the Phillies' team store at Citizens Bank Park and will be available at mlb.com and neweracaps.com around the 15th. These will be perfect for the Braves' chilly opening day game in Philadelphia. A hat tip goes to the Hardball Times for giving me something to put on my Christmas list.

Card of the Week 09/09/08

By an overwhelming margin, Hal Brown has been deemed worthy of Card of the Week Honors. Big Hat Hal got as many votes as all the others combined. And yeah, that amazing hat was the reason I chose Hal for the competition in the first place. So who is Hal?

Skinny Brown was a knuckleballer who pitched 14 years in the bigs. You all know how much I love knuckleballers. Hal, a chunky kid, got his nickname from his loving parents. For a knuckleballer, Hal had remarkable control. He only threw 37 wild pitches in his career. For comparison, Joe Niekro once threw 21 in one year. Unfortunately, a big part of a knuckler's effectiveness is in not knowing quite where the hell that ball is going. Hal was never a great pitcher but he could be an solid bottom of the rotation starter. Hal made his debut with the White Sox before being traded to the Red Sox in a deal for Vern Stephens. Hal had a good year with the Sox in '53 but ended up back in the Pacific Coast League. He had his best years with Baltimore, going 62-48 while pitcheing both in the rotation and out of the pen. After a couple of games with the 1962 Champion New York Yankees ( I wonder if Hal got a ring?) he finished off his career with the expansion Houston Colt .45s. His record doesn't show it due to pitching on some bad clubs - The Colts in particular sabotaged his numbers - but Skinny was really a very effective pitcher. He even led the league in WHIP in 1960! What kind of knuckleball pitcher does that?

None of you care about that though, you want to know what the heck is up with that hat? I can't explain it. Hal doesn't appear to have an overly huge noggin and his other Topps cards don't feature any precariously perched trucker hats. I have a feeling this is the work of an especially inspired artist. Note the masterful use of shadow to conceal the hairline so it appears that Hal's forehead just keeps going... and going... If that hat went any higher he'd be a driving instructor from Remulac. He'd definitely be the greatest knuckleballer from France. The taxicab ears and stern expression only add to the effect. Other than some of Mike Piazza's recent releases, I've never seen anyone working the high hat any better than Hal.

The back is pretty interesting in its own right. That huge baseball with TOPPS and the card number is a huge reason why I love the '53 set. That right there is the undisputed King of all card numbers. In the top left corner where it's easily seen and it's nice and big so you can actually read it. With my family history of nearsightedness and glaucoma, that is definitely appreciated. Heck, in 30 years this might be the only set I'll still be able to sort. I'm also fond of the facsimile autograph obscuring the biography. That's an interesting design choice right there. A card that can be enjoyed by people wearing bifocals. Look at it from far away and you see his signature. Squint real close and you can read about his record at Seattle and Roanoke. This is definitely a set friendly to the vision impaired. The best though are these dugout quizzes. A trivia question and a cartoon... pure bliss. it was so revolutionary at the time, that Jefferson Burdick described the set in his American Card Catalog as the one with the quiz. This card has a nice crazy bull rampaging on the pack. I can imagine Hal with that steely look in his eye taking down that bull in no time flat without the hat falling off at all.

The reason I have this card at all is because I got frustrated trying to find Allen & Ginter and Goudey inserts on the Bay. First of all, I don't really know which ones I want to collect yet. Minis? Leaders? Airplanes? Berk Ross? Sharks? Cabinets? There's too much stuff to collect and not enough money to outbid everyone else. So I found some vintage Goudeys while looking for not so vintage Goudeys, and one thing led to another and now I'm focused back on the Vintage stuff which is where I should have been focused in the first place. This card of Hal has eluded me for a very long time and is one of the few common cards I still needed for the set. I picked it up along with George Kell to knock the number of cards for the set I need to 54. Considering I've all but given up on finding the Jackie, Mickey, Satchel and Mays cards in my price range, that puts me at 50 cards to go. The best part is that now that I have Hal I get to experience...

The Joy of the Completed Page

13 pages down out of 35. Seven of those 35 are from the tough high series so I'm doing pretty good. Thanks Skinny, you finished off a page and became this week's Card of the Week.