It had to happen eventually, one of our blogging brethren just pulled one of the crazy hits that are driving the industry right now. And he pulled it out of a BLASTER. Watch the video to see for yourself (there is some bad language in there although you can't blame him) or you can cheat by checking out the posts here and here. In honor of the pull, here is one of my favorite goofball YouTube videos.

Man, I need this right now. There's too many horrible stressful annoying things going on right now. Three hours a week listening to the Dawgs on the radio is just what the doctor ordered. Man, I hope Larry is calling the game today. Damn, I need Larry to be calling the game today. The perfect combination of homerism and pessimism with a dash of Lady Luck added for flavor.

Here's a Bulldog card from my favorite football set, 1955 Topps All American. I wish I had bought up more of these instead of spending money on Upper Deck and Donruss crap through the years. I like pretty much everything about these cards. The large '50s style cards, the bright colors, the black & white action background, and best of all the awesome cartoony logo. The backs are pretty cool too, nice soothing blue ink and a huge illustrated trivia question that takes up a third of the card. Gotta love a '50s bathing beauty riding on a Rose parade float on the back of a trading card. Sinkwich is one of the University of Georgia's Heisman winners, so maybe posting this card to kick off the season will bring good luck to Knowshon or Stafford. This is going to be a tough season with our brutal schedule, but being ranked the preseason #1 means that our destiny is in our own hands for once. Bring on Georgia Southern!

... but I'm doing it anyway.

Announcing the 2008 Republican Nominee for Vice President of the United States:

Nope.
Sadly, no.
Oh thank the Lord Jesus no.

Yep.

So why am I posting this on a card blog after my last political post caused the closest thing to a flame war there has ever been on this site to break out? Well, equal time for one thing, but mostly because she's a





And because it gives me an excuse to post an autographed card of one of my favorite players - three time Stanley Cup Champion Joey Mullen, who grew up in New York, which is the state that Hillary Clinton represents as senator, and since Hillary is the reason Sarah Palin was chosen to be the nominee in the first place, the whole thing fits together nicely.

Let the flaming begin.

I have no earthly idea how the Veteran's committee works anymore, but ten nominees for 2009 will be voted on in December. The nominees are all players who started their careers in 1942 and earlier, so no joy for Ron Santo fans out there. Here are the 10:

Bill Dahlen
Wes Ferrell
Joe Gordon
Sherry Magee
Carl Mays
Allie Reynolds
Vern Stephens
Mickey Vernon
Bucky Walters
Deacon White

This is an extremely interesting group of players, I'm going to scrounge through my cards and try to do a profile of each in the next few months before the election. I have a '55 Bowman Allie Reynolds card sitting on my desk right now, so it shouldn't be too hard. The voting will be held on December 7th, and a maximum of four players will be elected. I wouldn't count on any of them getting in as it takes a 75% vote tally to be elected. A legitimate case can be made for all 10 players though.

In other Hall of Fame news, Falcons defensive end Claude Humphrey was nominated as a finalist by the seniors committee for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Claude has been a finalist for the Hall before, but did not get elected. Humphrey is on the ballot with Bullet Bob Hayes, who should have been in the Hall a long time ago. Even though I loathe the 2008 Falcons with the blazing fury of a billion suns, I still like the crappy teams of the 70's and '80 and will be rooting for Claude this winter.

Not even one. Not even a Bowman card.

He looks like a solid prospect though. Hopefully a silver lining of the Tim Hudson injury will be that Frank Wren will forget about trading the future for stopgaps this offseason and let the kids play for a year. Yeah, a repeat of the 1989 season would suck, but remember that Glavine, Smoltz, Justice, Lemke, Stanton and Mercker were cutting their teeth that year. Let's see what the kids can do and get ready for 2010.

So lat week I bought a blaster of Goudey. Not too surprising, I've been snapping up blasters like mad since Allen & Ginter and Goudey hit the shelves. I ripped the thing in my car after a meeting at work, quickly shuffled through the cards and picked out all the minis and short prints to add to the Goudey binder. The rest of the cards ended up getting left in the car for about a week. I left the window open during a rainstorm one of those days, but luckily the cards didn't get soggy. I finally rescued the packs and started sorting the base card so I could fill in the holes in my set and I found this:


This is the second autograph I've pulled from Goudey this year and both times I sloughed it off like it was a crappy common. I'm not the only one who is not immediately noticing the signature either, but I still feel like I'm slipping. I must give Upper Deck credit though, they have made the autographs search proof at least. If you can't tell that they are an auto when you open the pack and are staring directly at the card, there ain't no way pack searchers will be able to find 'em with the wrapper sealed.

I'm pretty amazed by my luck this year, I only pulled one signature card from last year's Goudey and that was from a hobby pack. I'm having ridiculous luck with Rangers cards too, I've pulled Marlon Byrd and David Murphy from Goudey and Ian Kinsler out of my box of Allen & Ginter. Maybe a Hamilton autograph is in my future... I'm sure there's some jealous collectors in Dallas at any rate. I think I need to make sure I check the backs of all my Goudeys from now on before chucking them in a common pile.

Speaking of autographs, I have a few weeks worth of posts queued up over on Auto-Matic for the People. So if you abandoned it due to my infrequent postings, you'll be pleased to know there will be posts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at least through September. I might even throw in the occasional post on a Thursday if I'm in a good mood...

It's pretty much a done deal that Mark Kotsay is getting shipped off the the Red Sox. Good for Mark, since he lands in the middle of a playoff run, and good for us as we get to try out all the rookie outfielders in our system so see if one can take over in center next year. No word on what prospect we would get from Boston, but it will be an improvement over simply losing him to free agency in the offseason. Meanwhile Joey Devine is averaging over a strikeout per inning and has an 0.83 ERA as a set up man for the A's. Ouch. At least we got to see a Braves player hit for the cycle out of the deal.

And why not?




I didn't realize this was a bat when I bought it, I was kind of hoping it was a snip of one of the Padres' camo unis.







No reason, just felt like showing off a bunch of Braves and Goudeys.

Think of this as the Olympics Closing Ceremony on Cardboard Junkie. I've posted several times about Crystl Bustos lately and it prompted me to go out and see if she had any cards manufactured. As it turns out, there are several USA Softball team sets out there and I managed to find a seller on The Bay that had several of them plus combined shipping! So in honor of her 6 home runs and her Silver Medal performance during the Beijing Olympics, I present you all the Bustos Cards a ten dollar bill will buy:


I think this is technically her rookie card, although I've never read of Roox before. This card is extremely glossy and has a nice pic of Crystl fielding at shortstop.

I'm not sure if this is from a box set or if it was an insert in UD packs, but this was the closest thing I could find to a mainstream card of Bustos. I'm pretty sure Crystl is the second from the left on the podium.


This card is from the 2007 Team set and it has the look and feel of a modern minor league set. This is my favorite of the bunch, I like the flag motif and the great photos on the front and back.


This is from this year's team set with can be bought at the USA Softball official store. I'm pretty tempted to pick up a team set meself actually. Crystl is obviously admiring one of her tape measure homers on the front of the card.

Even though Team USA lost a heartbreaker in the finals, it ironically might end up saving the sport. One reason the Euro-dorks in the IOC cited for discontinuing it as an Olympic sport is that It was an American sport that America would dominate. Team Japan took care of that idea. Dinged Corners links to a fantastic New York Times article on Crystl (so good I printed it out, and I'm very stingy with my ink) if you're interested in learning more about Softball's Babe Ruth. I've got my fingers crossed that Topps finally puts Crystl in their 2009 Allen & Ginter set.

Ok, the Olympics are over, the medal counts are in. Your guesses are reprinted below and I can see right off the bat that BenTheHen totally nailed USA winning 110 medals. Good job Ben! Next time tell me about your blog so I can link it on the sidebar. Send me an e-mail Ben, and let me know where I can ship your prize of 36 assorted Olympics cards from the sets I've featured the past couple of weeks, one for each gold medal the US won. I'll check the rest of the guesses and if anyone else nailed their pick I'll send out a consolation prize. You have to agree that predicting the US medal count on the dot is worthy of first prize.

As for the bonus questions:

Usain Bolt won the 100 meter dash and has not yet been pounced upon by Dick Pound for using teh eeeeebil drugses.

Crystl Bustos hit 6 homers in their silver medal run.

And the game I saw in 1996? USA vs. Cuba baseball at Atlanta-Fulton county stadium. Cuba beat the pants off them and went on to win the gold.

One more thing folks, I never got around to posting my 1996 Upper Deck Olympics cards. If you want to see them even though the Olympics are over, post a message telling me so. If you are sick of the Olympics and want me to save it for the 2010 winter games, also post a message.

Thanks for playing!

Samuel Tan said... u.s. 6 medals

Alec said... lithuania 1 medal

thehamiltonian said... Canada: 10 medals (I am a realist).

Captain Canuck said... Australia - 50

William Noetling said... United States = 89

--David said... USA - 32 medals

mmosley said... Jamaica - 6 medals

desert plume said... China 149 medals

BenTheHen said... United States - 110 Medals

deal said... I'll take Thailand and 9 Medals.

MMayes said... USA (never pick anyone else) 102

Nathan said... Australia - 37 medals

Thorzul said... I'm going to be a little more optimistic for Team Canada and predict 12 medals.

Motherscratcher said... Great Britain - 29 medals

anthony said... Russia with 47 medals.

ManOfSteal said...China with 55 medals

madding said... Italy, 31 medals

Especially when I am trying to finish something for work that was already really late last week.

But never mind that, did you ever notice how much this famous portrait of Frederick Douglass:

looks a little bit like an angry Redd Foxx?

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, I'm comin' to join ya honey!

They were both geniuses, so why not? Ok, so I'm just weird. And I need sleep. Maybe I'll get some after I watch some Sanford & Son.



Bring me another pitcher of that Shangri-la, and look here waiter... hold the garbage.

The Braves are done. The only race they are in is the race to keep from having the worst record in the league. Eighty percent of the opening day pitching staff is out for the year. Francoeur has gone from the Golden Child who rejected a multi-year deal in the offseason to being the subject of a trade rumor to send him to Kansas City. There was at least one good storyline going for Braves fans to help them to get through the rest of the season, Chipper Jones' amazing hitting performance and his attempt to win the batting title.


So of course the shitty Braves pitching staff goes into St. Louis, gives up EIGHT hits to Albert Pujols and now Chipper is in second place. Dammit.

This post has been intimidating me for over a week and I've decided I'm just going to attack it in phases and bump it up to the top on each update. I was surprised by a huge package waiting at my door one afternoon. And I mean huge, when the mailman dropped it off there was a loud clunk on the porch. When I opened it up, I found a ton of swag from Dinged Corners. A whole bunch of cards and some other stuff too. If I sat down and tried to do this post all at once it would take a long weekend, so instead I'm going to chip away at it a little at a time. I'll start with the excellent packing job:

The cards came in two bricks packed inside ziploc bags sealed with masking tape. While Joe Collectors would be horrified that hermetically sealed triple thick magnetic loaders were not used, everything was packed tightly and got to my door fine. This brick has a Mark Lemke rookie card on top.

Here's Fancy Packin' brick 2. Chipper Jones peeks out from behind the tape. Patricia and Lucy may not realize it, but masking tape is the best to use when shipping cards. Anyone who has received cards in the mail has had some come in with the cards in top loaders and the top loaders taped together with scotch tape. When you try to get that tape off the top loaders what happens? That's right, the sticky grabs on tight to the plastic and you now have a stickyloader. You can either chuck the stickyloader, spend 20 minutes trying to unsticky it or put your favorite card inside it and paste it to your cat. Masking tape holds everything together just as tight, but also actually comes off. I was able to dismantle this package lickety split, thanks to the judicious use of masking tape.

Y Helo Thar!


Cards from 2008

8 Bowman:
4 Mark Teixeira
9 Andruw Jones
109 Tim Hudson
114 Kelly Johnson
129 Yunel Escobar
189 Jeff Francouer
BP2 Jamie Richmond
BCP2 Jamie Richmond

I think I'm done with Bowman for the year now that I have the Braves.

8 Upper Deck
42 Chuck James
49 Willie Harris
409 Tom Glavine
410 Kelly Johnson
411 CHIPPER
413 Jeff Francoeur
416 Tyler Yates
761 Andruw Jones Checklist

Tyler was traded to the Pirates back in March, but is shown as a Brave for some reason. Now that I've decided to abandon Topps to build the Upper Deck base set this year, I should probably put together a want list sooner or later.

6 Topps Series 2
338 Matt Diaz
454 Mike Hampton
488 Mike Gonzalez
500 CHIPPER
612 Kelly Johnson
YR111 Willie Harris

I still haven't touched that half a box of Topps since the Johan travesty was announced. Yes, I hold grudges. These cards are going straight to the team set binder. The Willie Harris card is nice, he's having a good year with the Nationals.

2 Topps Heritage
218 Rafael Soriano
HTCP4 Luke Hochevar T205

Lucy is well aware of my love for mini cards apparently. I have the Luke card already though. I still need #7 and 14 though if there are any Hochevar fans out there...

Cards from 2007

Andruw Jones cards
Opening Day (with Martin Prado) #114
Goudey #9 (red)
Turkey Red #32
Ultra Faces of the Game #GF-AJ

I don't understand what happened to Andruw this year. While I'm glad that the Braves didn't end up on the hook for his contract, I take no joy in his collapse this year. Hopefully he'll be able to come back from this next year and save his Hall of Fame chances. I got two cards of 'Druw I didn't have yet (Opening Day, Ultra) and two great looking cards.

Brian McCann cards
Bowman Heritage #69
Goudey #195 (Red)
Topps Update #UH252

At least Big Mac is having a good year for the Bravos. I was scared to death that Victorino had murdered him in that collision at the plate, but he's come back strong. McCann is my #2 favorite after Chipper so all of these cards are great to me. The Updates & Highlights card fills a hole in that set as well.

Bowman Prospects cards:
Bowman Heritage Matt Young #BHP74
Bowman Chrome Freddie Freeman #BDPP12
Bowman Chrome Jason Heyward #BDPP54 (AAAAAH!)

At 25 years old and in Double-A Matt Young isn't much of a prospect, but he set a record with 11 straight hits in 11 at bats this year. This is the second Heyward card I was sent by P & L, so the freakout was slightly less than last time. He's one of the best prospects in the system though so I'll take Chrome rookies any day. Freddie Freeman could be just as good though, He's tearing it up at Triple-A Rome, and in his spare time he's a super hero.

I've got to run right now, but I'll update the following categories when I get time:

Assorted Topps products

Intermission 0ne - Souvenirs

Assorted Upper Deck products

Assorted Fleer products

Assorted Donruss products

Intermission Two - Possibly Icky

Score products

Non-baseball cards

Assorted Weirdness

The Serial Numbered One

WOW. These Olympic games have been full of upsets. In the other medal game, USA beat Japan for the bronze.

No, I don't have any pictures for the post. It's Saturday, I don't want to do anything right now.

No, I didn't sign up for the text message.

Yes, I did laugh my ass off when Something Awful ordered him pizza.

And yes, if CNN is wrong, I have my Hillary cards scanned and ready to go.

I'm not going to get to the baker's dozen card from the 1996 ACOG Olympic set tonight. I've been chilling out filling up binders with new gets, searching my doubles for stuff off of people's wantlists and I'm about to settle in on a gaming session. I do feel compelled to post at least one Olympic card tonight, so I have chosen this monstrosity:


Actually this is a rather famous poster from the 1972 Munich Olympics and it has a very Picasso-y feel to it although I'm not sure who the artist is.You have to admit it's a perfect example of early '70s pretentious art. This is supposed to represent an aspect of the Spirit of the Games, but... I don't know man, it looks like a crazed mutant monster thingy that wants to violate me, crush my bones and eat my soul. I'm totally bewildered by what this thing is supposed to mean. Are those black splotches supposed to be a chopped up map of Europe? Why the rainbow of Olympic ring colors between the beast's ArmLegs? I guess the 1 2 3 steps are a medal podium, but it just makes me think that the Beast is about to attack a grade school.

Ugh, I can't look at this anymore. Off to play some games on my night off. Nice cards from this set will be up tomorrow, with a grand finale of 1996 Upper Deck Olympic cards to close out the Olympics on the blog.

It's Friday and I feel like some Vintage. Here's a few cards from the golden years of large sized Topps cards that have been augmented by enterprising collectors to provide a little 'added value'. Some of the edits were helpful, others... not so much.


The previous owner of this card helpfully documents Jack's 1954 trade to Detroit.


Now what's the best way of remembering what year a card is from? Write it on the front, of course! However, that lowers the grade signifigantly, so make sure you erase it before selling the card.


This card was owned by a man after my own heart. It's not enough to denote that McGhee plays the outfield, Ed's a left fielder, dangit.


This guy had 1 Charlie Bishop card, so he wrote 1 right under the Elephant logo. The card was worth 100 dollars, so he wrote 100 on the top in between the two photos. The guy was also completely insane so he cut off all the borders. Borders are evil. No borders!!


This one makes me mad. Frank Thomas is a great player, a nice guy and a card collector. I don't understand why he was given the Frankenstein treatment. Stitches on the eyeball are just plain wrong. I do, however, heartily approve of the goatee.

The Atlanta Olympic Committee licensed a very artistic Olympic set to sell during the '96 games. I ripped a pack here if you want to check it out. These weren't very popular as it was not a traditional sports set filled with athletes and it had to go up against a star filled Upper Deck Olympic set. There's one cool thing about the set though and that is the dufex inserts that could be found.

There were dufex cards of the official Olympic posters of 20 summer and winter games inserted at one in nine packs. I didn't pull one of them, but you can see a sample of them in this eBay auction. They look really nice and I have to admit the action is tempting me badly.

There were also dufex cards of 12 of the torches used in the games. These were somewhat difficult to find at one in every 25 packs, but I managed to get lucky and find this in one of the packs I snapped up out of the clearance bin. Here's the dufex torch card I previewed over here. It's a really neat looking card, although they reversed the negative on this one. It's tough to see in the scan but the writing on the rim of the torch is reversed.


The best insert in my opinion was the once per pack logo "Fun Caps". The POG fad was more or less over by '96 but they put them in this set anyway. I good choice as far as I'm concerned, the metallic dufex gives them a great 3-D look that makes them look like little gold medals. I only have 5 of the 20 POGs, but I'd love to collect the set. Here are the five I have:

This one is from the 1936 Winter games in. Garmisch, Germany. The dufex didn't capture much detail from the logo, but it looks neat.


This one from the 1936 Games in Berlin is the best looking of the bunch. The colums and multiple athletes pop out nicely in the dufex technology. There's a neat zooming effect on the athlete when you move the POG.

This coat of arms logo from Melbourne 1956 is really busy but looks great. I like the kangaroo poking out of the middle ring on top.

I think this POG showing the 1964 Innsbruck emblem would have been more effective had they left off the writing around the edge.


This is a strange one, since they didn't use the official 1976 Montreal logo, but instead used the Olympic Stadium and Montreal Tower. This is odd as the Tower was not completed until 1987 and was not seen at the games at all.

One of these days I'm going to find a box of this stuff and get a whole mess of POGs. There were cards in this set too, I'll show off some of them tomorrow. A warning though - there are some strange cards in this set.