ROYGBIV – Oranger

Baseball cards are wonderful things with a ton of variety.  Some of that variety is from different manufacturers that employ techniques intended to set themselves apart from their competition.  Some of that variety is from the same company attempting different product lines with themes intended to catch unique sub-sections of the collectors out there.  Some, really most, is from forced diversity in the form of parallels.  An array of colors and/or printing techniques with assigned rarities designed to entice collectors (I hope).

Each year, it seems like more and more variations are added to the production line, which is odd, because just about every color of the rainbow has been covered.  Not all of them work on cardboard, but that doesn’t stop companies from trying.

In “honor” of these attempts, I wanted to create a short series going through that rainbow.  A lot of focus in my past blog posts have been on the rarer parallels, or ones that compliment the uniforms, but I have a bunch of cards with all kinds of colors and so why not celebrate the ROYGBIV aspect of collecting, right?

The first part of this series was back in August.  Now we’re on to part two after a lengthy delay, because I finally found the song I wanted to show off.  I didn’t spend a lot of time actually physically looking for the song. Most of the time was spent searching my memories and trying to avoid going with the more obvious “Orange Crush” from R.E.M.

For red, I picked a song that was a little personal to me and wanted to try to continue that here.  Here’s the crazy part, though. I don’t know if I can keep it up past this post and I might abandon the song thing altogether.

Anyway, transporting myself back to college again. One summer, a friend of mine made a mix-CD that he passed around to his friends as a little end-of-summer thing. I don’t remember all the songs from it anymore, but I do remember that there was quite a bit that I didn’t already know, including this one.  So, why did it take me so long to find the song?  Why not go back to the CD?  Well, I might have the case with the liner back at my parents house, but the CD itself was stolen along with my car many years ago.

Still, memories of the song have remained and I finally tracked it down.  Eggtooth by the band Oranger has such an infectious opening synth keyboard and goes into what I would describe as a mix between 90’s alt and 60’s rock, but you might disagree.  Anyway, it’s the kind of song that would have me playing some air piano while walking to class while people walking past me stared at me in disgust. Or admiration. Take your pick.

Well, hit play if you’re so inclined and join me in checking out the range of oranges at our collecting disposal.

Like a traffic cone

Fair warning: A lot of these are going to be Bowman.  This is the most neon of those, more than what shows in the scan, and I kind of dig it.

Like a dirty traffic cone

It’s better than these burnt orange that come off as brown or gold in the scans.

Like a mis-produced traffic cone

Up until more recently, there really haven’t been many sets that have tried using orange as a parallel color, and honestly that’s a good thing.

Like the same set of traffic cones because it is the same set

Even though I like the neon from above, it’s still an abrasive color and doesn’t mesh well with a lot of teams.

Like another orange thing

Here’s the last of the Bowman’s I’m showing and you can see that it switched to a different shade, one that’s a little brighter and more obvious. I mean, if you “have to” go for it, then go for it.

#/199

Of course, chrome cards changed the game a bit. They are breeding grounds for new and ever expanding arrays of colors.  This particular card goes through a few different shades all on its own.

#/99 found at NSCC

Orange works best when it’s shiny.  It matters less that the colors don’t match your favorite team (and trust me it doesn’t match your favorite team). The tire treads are a different story.  I don’t need a monster truck rally in the background.

Almost matches that Reds jersey

So, this is what orange looks like with a pronounced curl.  It’s bending the light even more so it comes off as red, but I promise this is one of those terrible retail rack pack exclusive things that are still a thing, except they’re pink now.

Not so curly

Here’s a better look at an orange refractor.  Also the best shade of the three.  It shouldn’t work with the purple, but again, the shiny makes things better.

It doesn’t even fit the gem motif very well

I’m not as keen about seeing orange in the higher end products.  These shouldn’t have endless parallels, and I’d much prefer they stick to the basics if only so I did’t have such large rainbows to collect.

This thing is very thick

This last card is badass, but that’s because it’s thick acetate with an on-card auto.  The orange ring is the worst part of it, because it’s like someone left a can of orange crush sitting on it.

Damn, maybe I should have used that song after all.