What What WHAAAAAAT???

FRENCHY'S A MET?!?!!?!?!?!

...

Half the female population of Atlanta just committed suicide.

This made me laugh...

...and now I feel bad.

So earlier today Buster Olney threw out a rumor that the Braves were looking at Brad Penny. This makes absolutely no sense since a) the Braves just kicked a guy whose number will soon be retired to the curb because they have too many starting pitchers and b) Penny makes $5mil which the Braves can't afford. A trade for Penny would make no sense at all unless two or three other deals went down at the same time and multiple dominoes falling blockbuster deals like that just don't happen outside of fantasy sports. The rumor has already been debunked by Mark Bowman anyway.

So of course any time the Braves are mentioned in trade rumors, good 'ol Frenchy is mentioned. It's amazing how badly the tide has turned on Jeff. Even the announcers for the Gwinnett Braves are talking about how he's likely to be traded during the broadcast. So much for hometown hero. Shysterballer Craig Calterra came out with this quip that made me literally LOL:

Normally I'd counsel against bringing in a seventh starter, but since this is supposed to be for Francoeur, you could put Penny in right field and it would still be a net upgrade.

Hell, Francoeur for Bill James' belly button lint would be an upgrade.

Upon reading this, I burst out laughing and then felt bad because The Natural has now fallen to the level of belly button lint. I don't think even Michael Vick fell as fast and as hard as Jeff. Someone out there say a prayer for poor Jeff in his time of need... or at least pray for his swing.

Surprise Package from Todd

I got a package out of nowhere in the mail yesterday from Royals fan Todd. Three cards were in the bubble mailer:

2008 Allen & Ginter Flag of Peru

I haven't got a flag card in a while, I now have 39 out of 50 in the set. It's a really nice set, but I can never seem to win any off eBay and it's impossible to find them in card shops.

2008 Allen & Ginter Jeff Francoeur Autograph

This is very cool as I'm trying to get all the Braves jerseys and relic cards for 2008 A&G. The only one I'm missing now is Mark Teixeira. That guy's always being difficult. It's not technically a Braves card, but I'm also trying to hunt down Casey Kotchman.

2005 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Andruw Jones Bat/Cap/Patch relic #10/15

This here is just nuts. This looks a lot better in person than in the scan. I need to find my screwdriver and scan it without the case. As far as relic cards go, this one is designed pretty well. Decent picture of Andruw and the relics fit in well. Lots of variety too, I don't think I had a Braves cap relic card before now.

Good stuff from Todd totally out of the blue. I'm going to be digging for Royals cards this weekend now. I think I have a Royals patch card somewhere...Thanks Todd!

Card Of the Week 3/03/08

Once again, there's no way I'm going to get to this tonight. I'll deliver the full monty tomorrow (maybe, tomorrow's schedule is looking awful too...) and in the meantime let's just say I've been drooling over this card ever since I saw it in the pre-sell checklist. And it's now mine. MINE ALL MINE!

Ha! Wednesday! That's only mostly terribly late.

So what's this here then. Why it's another of Topps' Trading Card History with absolutely no history on the back of the thing. As on many of the other cards, it only says "1941 Baseball Card" on the back, likely because rival Upper Deck used the design in an impossible to get boxtopper insert numbered to 15 copies each. That's 1500 total cards for the entire 100-card set. Meh. If they had made a seperate retail only insert with a different color ink on the back I'd still be buying Goudey blasters but oh well. Upper Deck didn't really need my money anyway. Here's a copy of the Upper Deck version that I ganked off eBay for comparison:

So what is it? It's the 1941 Double Play design. Double Play was put out by the same company who did the Play Ball set from 1939-1941. Upper Deck did a couple homage products to that set a few years ago. The 2003 set was great, the 2004 version is one of the worst trading card sets of all time. But let's save that for later. But we'll save that for later.

Double play cards are very simple. Each card has two players on the front with a blank back. The front has a large sepia colored photo for each player with the name, stats and card number underneath. The photos are a portrait or action shot, with the layout of the portrait cards being horizontal and the Action shots being vertical, like the card above. Each card has two numbers on it, one for each player. This can cause problems, as seen below:

These cards were often cut up into individual cards. This pretty much negates most of the value but hey, a vintage card is a vintage card. The set is 150 players (or 75 cards) in size and the cards numbered 101-150 are more scarce than the low series. The set has a lot of stars in it, including DiMaggio, Ted Williams and the first card of Pee Wee Reese. 1941 is a significant year for trading cards as those are the last major sets released before the war would curtail such luxuries. A lot of these cards ended up in paper drives as well which is a reason why a lot of pre war cards (especially 1941 cards) are so scarce. These cards don't have the high profile as some of its fellow 30's era gum cards and are fairly affordable. Expect to pay several hundred dollars for a Williams or DiMaggio, but an acceptable copy of a common can be found for well under 20 bucks. Tiptons like the one above are even cheaper. Wanna see some? Here's a gallery thanks to the work of Dan Austin.

This card made the cut as Card of the Week for the very same reason my first Card of the Week did. When I first saw the sell sheet for 2008 Topps I looked over the checklist, saw the Tex and Frenchy card and flipped out. I've wanted it since then and I snagged it in a lot of these History cards on the Bay. Mark and Jeff will be anchoring the lineup this year and it's neat seeing them on this old style card, like Ted Williams and Joe Cronin from the original set. Let's cross our fingers and hope they can hit like Ted and Joe this year.

Great Awesome Fantastic Jeff Francoeur Interview

If Jeff Francoeur comes anywhere near the high goals he's set for himself he will be a first ballot Hall of Famer. And it sounds like he is working his ass off to meet those goals. This interview has gotten me more exited about this season than anything else I've read all year. Forget about Tex. Tex is gone after this year. I have accepted that fact and made peace with it. Lock up the Lilburn Flash now. Make Frenchy happy and watch as he ends up with his number on the outfield wall. Do it, Frank.