Scott Crawford Trade Bait Card Draft Results

Scott Crawford had a card draft a few weeks ago that I participated in, but I just now got around to scanning the cards so here ya go. Luckily for you, Scott's holding another one real soon, so hop in on it if you can. Here's my picks ranked from last to first to build up the suspense.

#25 2005 Donruss Signature Series #154 Brandon McCarthy - Anibal Sanchez dual autograph

Yes, this was the last card I picked up in the draft, not the first. And this was five rounds after the draft was supposed to end to boot. I'm not sure if everyone just forgot this thing was out there or if a dual autograph card of two serviceable pitchers was just not anything anyone was interested in. I'm not sure who would actually specifically want to collect this card to be honest... Player collectors probably aren't thrilled by that other guy on the card no matter which other guy it is. Team collectors might go for it, but Brandon pitched for Texas and Oakland before signing with the Diamondbacks and Anibal is best known as a Marlin who just signed a ridiculous contact with Detroit this offseason. The card is a prime example of Panini/Donruss design so people with good taste will run far away from this card. Who cares, EET IZ SHIIIIIINY. And I had completely exhausted my short list of wanted cards by this point so why the hell not?

#24 2011 Topps Gold #US271 Eric O'Flaherty S/N 0891/2011

So, speaking about that list of cards I wanted out of this draft... Scott posted a gigantic list of cards in the draft a couple days in advance and in my laziness I waited until the last second to go over it. Unfortunately for me, I was working the day of the draft and I ended up working late that day so this was not so much an organized draft than a mad scramble. I knew to snag the Barves cards I knew I didn't have though and Eric O was on that list. O'Flaherty has been a shutdown lefty reliever since the Braves picked him up off of waivers and I'm hoping he has a couple more shutdown years left in his overworked arm.

#23 2011 Topps Heritage Chrome Green Refractor #C53 Chris Johnson

The card draft was just after the Justin Upton trade which is why I had a green refractor of CJ on my radar. Because otherwise, I might not have even picked this up in a dime box. Why the hell were there green refractors in 2011 Heritage again? I'm officially on Team Roadrunner as far as the Braves' third base job goes, but I won't mind if Chris grabs the job and runs with it.

#22 2012 Topps Gold #US311 Dan Uggla All-Star S/N 1532/2012

So. Dan Uggla. I'll admit that when the Braves signed him to that extension after trading for him, I was all for it. Uggla's a beast and the deal was more or less market value at the time. Well, the beast turned into a little annoying yappy dog last year. I know he ain't going anywhere with that contract so hopefully  Dan can keep his head above the Mendoza line and hit 25 homers this year. It's a gold card though, and I have hardly any 2012 cards period so what the heck.

#21 2011 Topps Blue Sparkly #18 Kevin Millwood S/N 19/60

What can I say, I like the sparkly. I don't know what this particular shade of sparkly is called but it's shiny and blue and features an ex-Brave that never should have been an ex. Kevin had a remarkably good career for someone who was mostly invisible after his no hitter. This was my first pick after Scott declared we were going into overtime and it was kind of a scramble to figure out what to get.

#20 1987 Topps Traded #70T Greg Maddux

Greg Maddux's first Topps card was chosen for what I thought would be my Mr. Irrelevant. I picked Greg before all those shiny serial numbered cards because IT'S GREG FRICKIN MADDUX. The card is off center and I already had one of these for my MadDog collection but IT'S GREG FRICKIN MADDUX. This card is going in my small pile of '87 Traded cards until I finally decide it will be too big a hassle to build the set and just buy a complete set at which point it will be a duplicate but I won't care that I have doubles because IT'S GREG FRICKIN MADDUX.

#19 2011 Topps Lineage '75 Mini #195 Chipper Jones

I'm almost certain I have this card but I wasn't 100% dead lock certain I had it so I got it. It's a '75 mini card though, how can you pass that up? I really need to get my Braves collection in order one of these decades.

#18 2005 Playoff Prime Cuts #92 Nolan Ryan S/N 390/399

So for my first dozen picks or so I had a somewhat loose but effective game plan. The second half of my draft was a mess. It resembled my Fantasy Football drafts more than I care to admit. Take this card here. I don't really collect Nolan Ryan cards specifically. I also don't really care for Donruss/Panini products although this is a decent looking design for Playoff. The thing is, there are TONS of rabid Ryan collectors out there and this one is serial numbered and it's not utterly vulgar so..... what the hell I grabbed it. No clue what I'll end up doing with it but it's nifty at least.

#17 2007 Sport Kings No. 26 Maurice Richard

Anyone else remember when Sport Kings first came out and it was a huge deal and every card was in its own toploader straight out of the box and there were all kinds of huge stars in it and a one pack box sold for over $400 a pop and when you sold off enough plasma to buy one your big hit was an Amanda Beard autograph? No one? Just me, eh? Well, I always loved the concept of the set even if I didn't love the scarcity and the price and I always wanted to get my hands on one of the cards just to have. I would have preferred Dominique Wilkins or even Gordie Howe if I were to get a hockey player but Rocket Richard fell in my lap and I have to say I'm happy with it even if I'm too chicken to break the seal and paw at the card with my grubby mitts.

#16 1979-1980 #25 Topps Artis Gilmore

Fact you may or may not have known about me. My favorite non-Hawk basketball player is Artis Gilmore. By far. He might be my favorite basketball player period. And yes, my love affair started with the Fro, but it goes beyond that. Artis was an absolute beast at center. Rebounded everything, blocked shots like mad and had a ridiculous shooting percentage in the paint. My favorite sports poster ever is the one where he is taking a shot at the Omni over a hapless Steve Hawes. If/when I ever get my shizz together and post a list of players I am actively collecting Artis will be #1 on the Basketball list.

#15 2012 Topps Prime 9 HRL-1 Hank Aaron

Shiny! And Hanky! And from 2012 so I don't even know how these things were distributed let alone have one in my collection! Topps needs to give up on the flagship and Bowman and Heritage and the rest of that nonsense and just make nothing but finest/chrome refractors forever.

#14 2011 Allen & Ginter Endangered Animal mini AP13 African Wild Dog

Scott put a whole bunch of Allen & Ginter minis in the draft and other than this one I think they were all ignored. (which means they are still available for the next draft so scroll up and click) I checked on the minis, I really did, but I either had or didn't need all of the base minis. The insert minis were more complicated since I don't have a handle on what I have/need of those things or even if I'm actively collecting them anymore. I did want to get at least one mini though and I couldn't pass up the cute little poochie woochies! Ok, so they're not that cute and if I stumbled upon a pack of 'em they'd probably rip out my throat in seconds. They're almost extinct so I'm probably safe for the time being.

#13 2003 SP Authentic Golf #126 Carin Koch S/N 1205/1999

I... well, I still am not sure why I picked this card. Because it's autographed I guess? And there needs to be more women on trading cards? Especially women who are wearing more clothes than just a bikini? I dunno, it just looked cool. It's not something you see every day at least.

#12 1981-82 Topps #East 101 Larry Bird In Action

Larry Bird annoyed the living crap out of me when he was playing the game and the second he retired and no longer murdered the Hawks all the time I liked him all of a sudden. I also really really really like old vintagey hoops cards so I hadda get Bird shooting while Wes Unseld looks on.

#11 2007 Goudey No. 43 Grady Sizemore relic

One of my goals for the year is to finally figure out what I am and am not actually collecting. I'm doing ok weeding out some stuff I'm not collecting but figuring out what I am going to focus on has been a little more difficult. I have decided that the 2007 Goudey set is one that I will be focusing on. I have a large chunk of it already, I love the design and it seems that everyone has forgotten about it so I can probably scrounge a good portion of it cheap. I've always had a kinda sorta maybe idea about even going for the complete relic set. The die-cut G just amuses me. That may not happen but I added a Grady to my collection at least.

#10 2007 Goudey No. 256 Brooks Robinson Heads Up no cartoon

See? Told ya I'm collecting this set. I wouldn't just pick a random short print from a set I 'm not collecting for my #10 overall pick now would I? I love these cartoony heads up cards. I wish the original Goudeys weren't so hard to find.

#9 1986-1987 Fleer #5 Julius Erving Sticker

When I was a wee little tiny Junkie, just learning about the Ways of Sport, there were five players that I distinctly remember knowing about and being in awe of before I even gave a crap about sports at all. Those players were: Babe Ruth, Mohammed Ali, Pele, Richard Petty (yes, I grew up in the South) and this guy right here, Doctor J. He's a basketball player? AND a Doctor? And he can dunk?? Like THAT??? My tiny little brain couldn't handle all the awesome. I still love the Doctor to this day. I already have this sticker but I needed another one. You know, to stick on my Trapper Keeper or whatever.

#8 1981-82 Topps #30 Julius Erving

I just said I'm in awe of the guy, I'm not going to pass up a vintage base card of him.

#7 2011 Topps #US152 Julio Teheran RC

Of the Big Three braves pitching prospects from the past few years Julio is the last man standing. Aroydis Vizcaino went to the Cubs in the Paul Maholm & Reed Johnson trade. Randall Delgado just went to the Diamondbacks for Justin Upton. That leaves Julio and the 5th starter spot which is his to lose this spring training. Of course with the Braves' prospect pitcher pipeline, Sean Gilmartin and  J.R. Graham have already popped up to take Randall and Aroydis' place to push Teheran. Julio has looked electric in winter ball though, so I'm feeling good about his 2013 season. 2011 Updates and Traded or Whatever was the point where I completely stopped caring about Topps Flagship so I have very little of that set and less chance of getting more anytime soon thanks Mike Trout. So I snagged me a Julio while I could.

#6 2012 Topps Inception #65 Matt Ryan S/N 226/252

Matty Ice! Or as he's known in the playoffs, Matty Melt. I think I've bought maybe two packs of football cards since 2010 but I still like the Falcons (when they're not holding the city hostage to build them a billion dollar stadium to replace the one they held the city hostage over just twenty friggin years ago) so I nabbed a serial numbered parallel (? I think) from a set I've never heard of before.

#5 2011 Score #351 Julio Jones RC

Like I said, I have almost no recent football cards and I'm pretty sure this is my first Julio Jones rookie. While I initially bitched and moaned about trading a bunch of draft picks for ANOTHER friggin wide receiver when our defense is in a shambles, I have to admit Julio is an amazing receiver. And our defense is still a goddamn mess. Fix the damn defense and MAYBE the city'll renovate the Georgia Dome. Don't like it? Then move to Los Angeles and take the stinkin' Hawks with you ya bloody birds.

#4 2011 Topps Heritage Minor League #16 Bryce Harper

Yeah, yeah, I know. That's a clown pick, bro. What was I thinking? I HATE Bryce Harper and his stupid face and that dumb eye black and that ridiculous haircut and the essence of Pure Bro that oozes out of his stinking pores and how the hell did the lousy Gnats end up getting good so quick and graaaah I hates him. Why in the world did I blow my #4 pick on this card? The thing is... I hate Michael Jordan and Barry Bonds and LeBron James too but if I can find a decent card of theirs for cheap that I can stash away for a rainy day I do it. You'd do it too, don't fib.

#3 1996 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion #156 Chipper Jones

I'm certain I have this card already stashed in my giant Chipper box that is in desperate need of cataloging. I'm also certain that there was no way I could pass up on this super shiny Gold Medallion card from his rookie year. SO SHINY.

#2 2007 Donruss Americana Private Signings #21 William Fichtner S/N 63/100

You know how in every actual sports draft there's always one team early in the draft that does something so completely off the wall that it confuses the hell out of the other teams so much that it causes them to react to it and ultimately changes the tone of the draft? Pretty sure that's what I ended up doing here. There were two Donruss Americana autographs in the draft list. This guy here and one other. The other card featured someone I had never heard of before but was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I couldn't quite make out the name on this one when I saw it and asked for clarification on who this guy was in the chat before the draft. Turns out William was in The Dark Knight and I decided Batman > Buffy so I put him on my short list of draft picks. I took it with my second pick and the Buffy auto went soon after. Turns out one of the other guys in the draft married a Buffy fan. Good thing I checked IMDB so no one was disappointed.

#1 1974 Topps #456 David Mark Winfield MFRC

Yep. It's beat all to hell. Creases everywhere. All four corners are soft. Really bad shape. But it's a Dave Winfield Mother F$#&ing Rookie Card and it's the entire reason I pulled the trigger on the card draft in the first place. If I had not gotten this card I would have been Sad. I had the second overall pick though and Dave was mine all mine.

Along with these cards there was a little pile of extras Scott threw in as a bonus including some I would have taken in the draft over quite a few of these cards. Maybe one day I'll show some of 'em off. Not a bad deal at all for the price of a blaster. Would anyone be interested if I hosted one of these things this summer?

Coming Soon To A Blog Near You

Or... What I Did On My Vacation

I Love 2013 Topps

I don't love it enough to actually write a post about it, even though I have had card scans ready for weeks now. I don't love it enough to spring for a box of it, even though prices are starting to fall precipitously. I don't even love it enough to build the set. I have a pile of base cards that I'm trading/giving away if you need 'em for a set. I don't love the parallels. The Emerald is not as nice as the sparkly twinkly ones from a couple years ago. I would like to get a pink one just for giggles, but those are numbered to 50 or something so I'm not going out of my way. I'm not crazy about the inserts either. They are a hell of a lot better than the ones from last year but other than the fantastic Die-Cut set I'm not overly impressed with any of them. Except one. One I love. Love love. Deep and spiritual love, not anything paltry or cheap or disgusting.

I friggin love the 1972 Topps minis.

I wants them all.

Here's one-fifth of the set just because I has them and I want to show them off.

 i loves them all my pressssioussss

Alan Longmuir in the back of a limo

Well, just when the hell SHOULD I post this???

I don't know why the hell this is in my collection, but it's staying in my collection.

It's been a while since I posted ponies

tl;dr version of this long ass post: I vent and ramble on about ponies in a cryptic manner so as not to offend the spoiler nazis and if you don't care about ponies, you need to close the tab now. Not even kidding, run far away while you can. No? Well, you've been warned.

Well, this season has been... interesting. I've been holding my tongue for a while but the season finale is today and I may as well put this out here now. So, what's happened with Season Three of My Little Pony? It's past 1am, I'm insomniacking again and I'm kind of incoherent so I'll just give you a bullet list summing up my thoughts on Season 3.

• I desperately needed Ponies in October to deaden the sting of the baseball playoffs and distract me from the stupid election last year. The Season Premiere date was the first weekend after the election, on November 10th. Thanks for nothing, Hub.
• Despite being a two-part episode with a brand new villain and new songs and a heroic quest in a long lost Empire of Equestria the major topic of discussion after the episode aired was Nickelodeon's Gak.
• While it's the worst of the two-part episode it's still really dang good. There are a couple of songs and a few great moments. It suffers from a villain who doesn't do a whole hell of a lot and having the misfortune of being the first episode after the brilliant Season 2 finale. 
• And when I say the villain does not do a lot, I mean he is pretty much the Darth Maul of the series. Cool, menacing character who is simply not given enough screen time and doesn't do much other than be defeated when he does show up.
• Episode 3, despite focusing on the pony that alternates with the one at the top of this post as my favorite on the show, in my opinion is easily the SINGLE WORST EPISODE OF THE ENTIRE FRANCHISE.
• Yes, I am including all previous generations and I am saying it is worse than the episode from G3.5 that gave us this and I'm not even kidding.
• And it's not even the entire episode that sucks, most of it is good. It's the last 5 minutes where things get completely horrifying. So bad it damn near put me off the show. If you know what I'm talking about and think I'm crazy, we can discuss it later. I utterly loathe the ending, however, and no one will be able to sway me from this opinion ever. 
• The following week we got a Cutie Mark Crusaders episode which was so good it redeemed the season for me. Brand new character, good story with good jokes and nifty references told well and there was even a ridiculously catchy song in there to boot. One of my favorites of the season. 
• Episode 5 featured my favorite minor character. If episode 4 had sucked, I never would have watched it because I was somewhat terrified that the show would ruin said character. Luckily, that episode was good and this episode was perfect. I can already say with some confidence that no matter what happens today, this will be my favorite episode from Season 3. 
• If you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, the episode list is here for your reference, and honestly maybe you need to skip this post unless you want to get sucked into the whole Pony Madness debacle. 
• Up next was another CMC episode, this time finally giving focus to our favorite filly Pegasus. This was another excellent episode with a completely unexpected appearance from another of my favorite minor characters. 
• I'm really ambivalent about episode 7. On one hand it was excellent at adding real depth to one of the main characters on the show. On the other hand it so thoroughly butchered the ending that it overshadowed the moral of the story. 
• The problem with the ending wouldn't have been so bad had the script to the original ending that was ultimately cut not been leaked. This would have been a perfect ending for that story and was not used for God knows what reason, ultimately highlighting every single problem the episode had. 
• Again, this is all my opinion here, but literally two seconds of screen time turned what was an unsteady but pretty good episode into a sloppy mess. Which I wouldn't have even known if the alternate ending had not been leaked. 
• About this time I started to get a bad feeling that Hasbro was about to put an end to the series. This is not the case, as Season 4 is definitely in production, but the combination of a short 13-episode season to hit the 65 needed for syndication along with seeing an episode that neatly wrapped up the destiny of a main character gave me that feeling that this season was it. Wrong as I was, it still lessened my enjoyment of the show from this point on. 
• The next episode featured a long-neglected main character, had some neat gags, another odd but catchy song and had lots of cameos from previous episodes. Pretty darn good episode. 
• It was also SAD AS HELL if you read between the lines. While a popular pastime within the fandom, I do not watch ponies so I can have feels. I want funny cute ponies being nice to each other while acting ridiculous. No feels. I can read bad fanfic if I want feels. 
• Yes, I'm a 40 year old man publicly using the word 'feels'. Seriously, this is not the right post for you if you are questioning this. There are over 9000 blogs in that sidebar, pick one and come back tomorrow for more silly things about trading cards. 
• Episode 9. This episode sucked. But it was a Spike episode and they always suck. There were some really good gags, but the overall plot of the episode was such an old, overused trope that it probably wouldn't have worked even if it had not been a sucky Spike episode. 
• I've been trying to avoid spoilers here but I HAVE to get this off my chest.
• The antagonist in episode 9 is a pack of ravenous Timber Wolves, magical creatures made of wood. 
• Apparently old, dead, brittle, dry discarded wood such as you would find on the floor of your average enchanted forest. 
• Spike is a dragon. 
• Who motherbucking breathes FIRE.
• WHAT WAS THE FRIGGING PROBLEM HERE?!?!??!!??!!!
• After this episode there was a two week hiatus until the next one. Since the Spike episode was instantly forgettable, I got to dwell on the sadness of the previous one for a month before there was new pony. 
• Episode 10. Utterly Brilliant. Like Ep. 5, this could have been screwed up so horrendously but it was executed perfectly. The pony at the top of this post was awesome as usual. John De Lancie reprised his role and was magnificent. The script was tight and excellent. It was also written by the same guy who did my least favorite episode this season so that was a nice surprise. In the long run it may ultimately end up turning out to be my favorite from this season.
• Episodes 11 and 12 are pretty clever actually. They show the events of a single day from the perspectives of different characters. The plots aren't intricately intertwined or anything but they do share a couple of scenes. Kinda neat for a show whose entire existence ultimately depends on how many plastic pony toys it sells. 
• One half of this defacto two-part episode is another Spike episode. Surprise! This episode doesn't suck! That's because it's not actually a Spike episode at all, he gets the spotlight for about 17 seconds before the Cutie Mark Crusaders come to bail him out.
• The CMC are the big winners this season. Every episode where they play a major role is excellent. If Hasbro decides that they need to sell more fillies and decree that Season 4 will focus solely on them, I won't even mind that much. 
• That won't happen though, because there's a new toy coming out that costs fifty smackers that will be driving the marketing for the forseeable future. I'll talk about that in a minute. 
• Episode 12 has yet another threadbare overused trope for a plot, but in this case it pulls it off well. The jokes are good, there's some good character growth, a certain pony who was woefully neglected this season has a small but significant role and Hasbro got to show off their new toy line and pretty pink princess pony one more time. All in all, a solid episode. 
• Despite the fact that most episodes this season have been very good (and if you take away the endings of two episodes, they are all good except the obligatory lousy Spike ep) the fanbase has been in a completely insane uproar for the past two weeks solid. This is due to a number of factors all converging at the same time:
• Bronies were rightfully worried that the series would end once it hit enough episodes for syndication. The airwaves are littered with cult shows that were cut off before their time and cartoons are almost always cut off at this point. While evidence for a season 4 was pretty overwhelming at this point, it wasn't formally announced until this week, and that was in a magazine article. So to start off, we already have some existential angst amongst the fandom.
• Next, a bunch of episodes were purged from YouTube. This was no big deal as it happens every so often. The fact that YouTube is now selling episodes on a special pay channel makes it even more obvious. Unfortunately some fan parodies were purged along with the actual episodes by the copyright bots. Anger ensued.
• Lots of fan-made pony games are out there, fulling a vast void that was only recently filled by a cute but unplayable Farmville clone that popped up late last year. There was a very slick pony fighting style game that was in development for almost 2 years that was just about to be ready. In a move that should have been quite obvious, a cease and desist was ordered and the game was shut down. Many fans are absolutely incensed about this, even though it should have been painfully obvious that Hasbro was never ever going to let this game see the light of day.
• A spin off series was announced. Basically the ponies travel through a magic portal and become human high-school age girls. The art looks pretty much like your average cartoon targeting little girls. So of course the fanbase who defied conventional wisdom and enthusiastically embraced a cartoon that is essentially an advertisement for toys for little girls, immediately decried this move as the Worst Thing Ever and refuse to give the show even the slightest chance of succeeding. 
• These things pale in comparison to the last thing that is "rustling jimmies" in the parlance of our times. Something happens in today's episode that has come as a bit of a shock to many people. This video sums the whole mess up pretty well:

So yeah, that's been the past few weeks in the life of a pony fan except not as uproariously funny. And yes, that is going to be the new toy I mentioned earlier, brand new wings and all.  Today's episode was written by my favorite writer on the series so it will probably be excellent and all the uproar will be replaced by applause come 11:00am today. Ok, maybe there will be some complaining about the long wait until next season. There seems to be a lot of complaining right now which is the prime reason why this post is a hell of a lot more negative than I would have liked. Ponies are awesome, but a small but vocal part of the fanbase is not making things very fun at the moment.

 As you can tell, I'm kinda ready for baseball. Don't worry, ponies won't be leaving the blog forever, there's still a comic series to get us through the long offseason and Enterplay Series 2 hits stores in April. Dang, I still need to find the last card to complete my Series 1 set, don't I?

UPDATE: Everything's going to be just fine.

Inappropriate Star Trek Card Theater

AT DA CLUB

AFTER DRINKING 42 PAN GALACTIC GARGLE BLASTERS AND FAILING MISERABLY IN AN ATTEMPT TO BEAM UP TROI, RIKER GOES BACK TO THE HOTEL ALONE LATER THAT NIGHT 

 MEANWHILE, BACK AT DA CLUB 

WORF GETS ALL DA WIMMINS

I knew I should have stuck to Scotch tonight

Oldy Moldy Mailday Video

I got you a 2013 Topps Series One Rack Pack to video...

But I opened it.

Here's a video mailday from @grogg on Twitter instead. Go sign up for Twitter and stalk him, it'll be worth your while. Or just watch the video. Or not. Totally up to you, I'm not your boss.



For the tl;dw crowd here's some highlights/spoilers.

And the biggun':

I now have no excuse to not finish up my '80s Topps sets anymore.