Mr. Postman, Look and See - Is There a Griffey in That Bag for Me?

The fruits of blogging, hours of organizing thousands of old cards by team, then mailing all those cards are being felt over at the Junior Junkie today!

Jeff from 2x3 Heroes bombarded me with a 200-megaton hydrogen Griffey-bomb.

This WMG (weapon of mass Griffeyness) has irradiated the entire region with incomparable baseball skill, goatee-moustaches and general awesomeness.

Some of these I have never even seen before.  Lots of excellent additions to the collection.....

The Griffeys have landed

When I saw the card on the bottom right, I gasped aloud.  It's hard for any Griffey fan to look at this image.

I love that shot of Griffey giving daps....

Griffey played for the White Sox one time for like 45 minutes.  Still strange to me seeing him in a black cap and baggy jersey.

Both versions!  Woo-hoo!

Nick, this is the card I was telling you about on your cartoon card post....

Thanks so much for the giant stack of Griffeys, Jeff!  I could hardly wait to upload them to the blog.

Also, I got a PWE (my first ever!) from Dime Box Nick that contained the refracty version of this:

Regular banner + refractiness = Nick must have pulled this from a rack pack.

Everyone knows how awesome Nick is, so I don't have to tell you.  Thanks for thinking of me, man!  I've been chomping at the bit waiting to pull this card.  Looks great!

In closing, I'd like to share with you a little saying we have over here at the Junior Junkie:

Griffeys for me,

Griffeys for you.

I like Griffeys

in a big, brown shoe.

This saying has never rung truer than it does today. 

Now, my wife and I are going to strategically park a car filled with chairs and ice chests just off the Endymion parade route as it rolls tomorrow afternoon.  You Mardi Gras long enough, you learn a few tricks.....  I'll be reading tomorrow's baseball card blog posts from the neutral ground on Canal St., beer in hand.

Have a great weekend!

Willie You Can Drive My Car: Five Cards from 2006 Upper Deck

 

Willie You Can Drive My Car: Five Cards from 2006 Upper Deck

What is it about old dudes in warm-up suits that is just so damn cool?  When I turn 60, that's all I'm wearing.  Fanny packs, too.  Fashion be damned!

 

There's something so satisfying about big bricks of career stats on the backs of cards.

In my collection: 4

Griffey looks: star struck

Is this a good Griffey card?: Yes.  Upper Deck liked to use unconventional shots of Junior for his base set cards, and this is one of the greatest ever simply for his company in the photo.

The set: 2006 was one of the cleaner, less intrusive designs UD used in the 2000's.  This type of aesthetic shifts the focus from the design to the photography which was still very good in 2006.  Also, Upper Deck was still able to use the real team logo on their cards in '06 which helps.....

So, in case you couldn't tell (I don't blame you - I had to look it up), that guy in the club car is hall-of-famer Willie "Big Mac" McCovey.  That looks like Petco Park in San Diego in the backdrop.

Willie just celebrated his 75th birthday in January.  Happy birthday, Stretch!

McCovey played 1st base for the Giants, spent a few years with the Padres, then finished with the Giants having hit 521 homeruns in his 22-year career.

Griffey looks a little star struck to be meeting not just one of his heroes, but a man who played for a very long time with probably his biggest hero, Willie Mays.  When this picture was taken, Griffey was on the verge of surpassing McCovey on the all-time HR list. 

He did it in July 2005 and finished the season with 35 dingers for the Reds, having statistically what had been his best year yet with Cincinnati.  He also surpassed Mickey Mantle that same year.





This is one of the greatest checklists ever made, and I know something about checklists because I don't throw anything away.

Checklists used to be hella boring.  They tended to be scant, plain dealios with nothing but a list of numbers and names and blank boxes for checking.  If you pulled one, it was a rip-off because of what that card otherwise might have been - Ripken, Ozzie (Smith, not Canseco), Ron Kittle, Chuck Finley, or.......God forbid...... you know what?  I wont even say it.  I'm getting upset.

I mean, I can see how they may have been needed in the past when there were more set builders in the hobby and people needed checklists to see who they were missing or to help assemble teams, but slap a player on there, man!  Maybe a photo, make it a team sticker, something.  Throw me a bone.

But no temporary tattoos.  Those are less than worthless.

I don't know exactly when they first started putting players on checklists, but that changed the whole game.  Suddenly you felt like, "Well, at least I feel like I pulled something." 

I remember seeing illustrations of players on team checklists in '89 Upper Deck, then faded player photos hidden in the background of checklists in 1991 Ultra and 1993 Upper Deck (who went ahead and put the player name right there on the card).  I believe 1993 Leaf split the card down the middle, putting a photo of Carlos Baerga or someone on one side and the checklist on the other.

Anyhoo, over the years they evolved into desireable cards.  They come with multipliers and in parallel sets, they feature some cool photography, and some of them are even listed cards.

I feel like the checklist above is one of the greats, a culmination of all the progress checklists have made in the last few decades.  Great, full-color photography on both sides, an excellent blurb, great ballpark information, and more of a team roster than a "checklist."  Just a great card all-around.

Now that I think about it, perhaps it's time for a checklist post.  Gears are turning....  And if there's anyone you know who collects checklists, I have a brick of them I have no desire to hold onto.



America,  F*** YEAH!



This card makes me want to pick up a Lee Greenwood CD and a sixer of tall boys.  Look at those freakin' numbers!  4-4, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 17-0 USA?!?  I mean, yeah, against South Africa, but come on.  That's a little league score.  Ten run rule, man.....

The U.S. would be eliminated in Round 2 with losses to South Korea, Mexico, and eventual champions Japan.  That's what we get for running up the score, I guess.

Diggin' that uniform, though.  Very Olympical.

THAT is a highlight, my friend.  Two clutch come-from-behind homeruns in one game against division rivals.  You gotta love a healthy Griffey.  And is that a blurry Adam Dunn on deck?

The back of this card is assembled in the newspaper style which we've seen before and which I like, but the front is very unique - see why?  It shows an action shot of the patented Griffey swing in mid-stroke, but from the back. 

You hardly ever see that angle - and it is good.  No bulging, performance-enhanced biceps - just a natural and his bat, kicking some Cardinal ass all over the field and in their own house (no offense - I like the Cards).

This is Griffey's "Future Stars" card.  Because after 17 years, 1500 RBI and 500 homeruns, I'm starting to think that this guy might have a future in baseball.

It is shiny and refractory, and it comes in other colors (green and purple, I think), limited and serial-numbered for your drooling pleasure.  This is the only color I have, and I guess I do kinda want them all.

But for the record, it should have been call "Current Huge Stars."

I am leaving you now and walking down the street to St. Charles Avenue where the Krewes of Babylon, Muses and Chaos and about to roll.  They will throw many beads, I will drink many beers and jello shots.  Wish me luck, baseball card people! 

And Happy Mardi Gras!!!

My First Card Show in 15 Years

It's Superbowl weekend in New Orleans - and someone decided to have a card show at the airport Days Inn in Kenner.  Admission: $1.00

Let's ride.

I hightailed it over there around 2:00pm, $22 burning a hole in my pocket, sporting my Rated Rookie t-shirt, a hard case full of patch cards in my satch, and a Beckett.  Mama didn't raise no fool.

Everywhere there was football stuff, mostly 49ers and Ravens cards and Superbowl memorabilia, signs advertising Kaepernick rookies and Baltimore mini-helmets.

The problem here was that while the hotel was fully booked with people from the intended markets, they were all out enjoying the city (Saturday was beautiful).  So, it was me, the 8 guys selling cards, and 3 other dudes.

And I still managed to not win the drawing.

Anyway, walking around this card show asking for Ken Griffey Jr stuff was like trying to order a Shirley Temple at Oktoberfest.  I just felt silly.  But the people were nice, and I tried to spend a little something at every table that made a semi-reasonable effort at salesmanship (two didn't).

One of the sellers was a nice old guy with four tables full of vintage cards.  I definitely spent the most money with him.  In the way of Griffeys he only had a single 1989 Upper Deck rookie, but he was such a pleasure to talk to I searched for lots of other stuff to buy.  Here's Don "the Sphinx" Mossi.  I love Mossi cards.  It's a unique look, you've got to admit, and his later cards are downright famous for Mossi's unmistakeable mug.  This is his rookie card - it was expensive at $6, but it had to be mine!

This Waitkus is a tough find.  It's been on my want list for a while because of the deranged girlfriend story on the back.  He was also a heck of a baseman.  I snagged this one for $2.

The guy was a huge Musial fan, and this card was just so cool I had to take it home.  Tommy Davis' squint is also pretty sweet.

 

I bought this card because Rusty Staub graduated from my high school in NOLA.  My Dad met him once when he was eleven and got his autograph.  He didn't have any paper, so Mr. Staub etched his signature into my Dad's 1962 Championship little league football trophy.

The statue broke when we were preparing to evacuate for Hurricane Isaac.  Don't tell him.

 

I wanted a McCovey for an upcoming Griffey card post, and I figured a '72 would be appropriate what with the minis from the Topps set sparking so many differing opinions.  I think it's a cool-looking set.  And McCovey is the man.

The guy was impeccably organized.  Doesn't somebody collect these things?

When they have the show again next month, I'll bring your want list, Night Owl.  Unless you finished it already.

These were $2.  Face value for a set from 1987!  Just mass produced enough to maintain it's value to within a penny.  I couldn't pass it up.  Super glossy, solid checklist.  Plus, free gum.

I bought 2 packs of 2013 Topps, but this pack of Panini Golden Age was far cooler.  Something about cards with hot chicks - I'm going to have to start actively collecting those....

This is a wrestling program from 1980.  The event it was made for featured a match that included Jesse "The Body" Ventura, a fact I didn't know when I bought this thing.  Those pants......

Some great Ozzie's (Smith, not Canseco) turning DP's on the likes of Eric Karros and Craig Biggio.  That's not my first flip card of his, but I couldn't pass it up.  These came from a quarter box, along with a lot a what you're about to see.  I grabbed some duplicates of one of these for a certain blogger who like double-play cards.

That Beckham is the best tongue shot I have ever seen.  But all cards pale in comparison to Ron "Specs" Kittle (no one called him that).

Some Klesko pre-rookies, one of the best Brett Butler pics ever, a wacky-fitting hat on Barry, and Stan the Man for a quarter.  Plus if you don't like Dan Wilson, I don't want to know you.

A nice addition to the president collection.

A very cool-looking card for a quarter.

LSU legends Pistol Pete and Y.A. Tittle.  Also, I was in a few classes with Michael Clayton back at LSU.  Neat seeing him on a card....

That guy's name is D'Brickashaw Ferguson.   Keep saying it to yourself, and eventually you'll want one too.  D'Brickashaw.  These are the guys Key & Peele were talking about.

JaMarcus has expressed an interest in returning to the NFL this coming year, so get in on the ground floor people!  'Cuz when he's not sippin' sizzurp, he's somewhere being terrible at football....!

Morten Andersen is a legend.

Finally, right?  Only three of these are new to my collection, but for 25 cents each, it was a no-brainer.  Here's hoping there will be more Griffeys next month.
 

I'm leaving you with a 1938 "Horrors of War" card.  The guy with all those vintage cards had a stack of these.  This was the goriest one.  I love how this was made right before Pearl Harbor and the U.S.'s entrance into WWII.

Coming soon - an actual Griffey post.  I swear!

Trade With Cards on Cards

Kerry over at Cards on Cards and I swapped some stuff.  I think he's in cleanup mode because he also sent me a criz-azy number of Saints football cards.  Plus he's doing that Basketball card giveaway thing, and I joined up for the Hornets.  Dude is shelling out more cardboard than a.....
 

In exchange I sent him a hairy man-stack of Cardinals, Ozzie (Smith not Canseco), Tim Lincecum, Larry Walker, Troy Tulowitski and whatever else I had of the players on his list.  But enough about me......

These are proof that New Orleans can host a Superbowl and not screw the whole thing up.  I assure you, every local within eyeshot of that power outage slapped their foreheads all at once.  Yeah, it's true.  We may be a third-world country, but we know how to party....

All these guys are legends in this town.  They never won a super bowl (with the Saints, at least), or even a playoff game (most of them), but we love these guys.  It was great seeing them in card form.

These two especially brought a smile to my face.  Jim Mora was an institution here.  Check this out if you have 2.5 minutes:

That's Ron Swoboda.  He still does sports in New Orleans.  I once met Hoda Kotb when I worked at the mall here.  I told her that if she married him, her name would be Hoda Swoboda (not kidding).

Anyway, baseball cards, eh? 

That '87 Topps mini is a killer.  And that Donruss on the top showing Griffey chunking the deuce is also pretty baddass.

I must say that any card showing my guy in a White Sox uniform is a little off-putting, but it's a Griffey, so it's still arguably the best card ever made.

That's not even all he sent me - just a smattering of choice examples.

They will each have a place of honor within the sacred binders of Griffeyhood where their Griffeyness will remain unspoiled and acid-free.

Thanks for all the cardboard, Kerry!  I've already started putting aside more stuff for ya!

A Box of 2013 Topps and the Griffeys it Contained

This will be my last 2013 Topps post, but apparently you are not yet sick of reading about 2013 Topps because here you are.

Happy Thursday night, everybody.

36 packs - Is there a Griffey in there somewhere?

I sprung for a big ol' box of Topps today, mostly to support the only card shop in New Orleans, but also to improve my chances of finally pulling a Griffey so I can write about it.

The shop owner told me I am the first person in the city to buy 2013 Topps as he just got it in today.  Apparently he's not aware of Walmart or Target. 

Let's take a look....

If you're wondering what base cards I got out of that box, I'm gonna go ahead and guess all of them.  I have a huge stack of base cards to go through.  When pulling cards for this post I must have grabbed 80 that were scan-worthy, but I decided to narrow down as most of you have already seen all the best base cards on other blogs.  You know what's up.  And the fact remains that there is no Griffey in the base set, so really, what's the point here?

In all honesty, the set is excellent.  Clean, nice photography, good smell.  No complaints.

 

 

I got zero pinks nor did I pull any camos.  This was disappointing, but not surprising judging by the stated odds.  I look forward to seeing those other designs.  In the meantime, it's sparkly spinach.

I'm trying to get everyone to call this sparkly spinach, by the way.
 

If I bring this back to the card shop for one week in February, I get more cards.  I haven't seen one of these yet, so this was a surprise.  Go ahead and borrow my scan to get your own set for free (don't).

And, of course, lots of these that I can't use yet.  Come on with the redemption site, Topps!  I need a Griffey relic!  A bat knob or a contact lens or some old, uneaten spaghetti.  Some dental floss.  Something.

Finally!  Some of those cool die-cuts.  And they're all refractors, too!  These are beautiful cards and exciting pulls. Neato.

These are extra thick for NO REASON except to fool you into thinking you got a better card.  Plus I got Mariano Rivera (?).  I am wholly against this set.

I really like these, and I'm glad there are 50 of them.  I hope to pull the Griffey from a pack someday, but trades are good, too.....  

A quick word about this insert - It seems the versions you get depend on how you buy your packs.  Here is what I've gleaned from observation and reading everyone's blog posts:

1 - Regular/silver banner versions are the only kind that come in hobby and blaster packs but are not exclusive to them. 

2 - Refractor/silver banner versions come exclusively in rack packs, two per pack.

3 - Refractor/gold banner versions come exclusively in hanger boxes, four per box.

I could very well be way off, but from what I've seen, I think I'm pretty close.  I assume the president of Topps Ryan O'Hara reads this blog.  Or perhaps Douglas Kruep, general manager of U.S. sports and entertainment for the company.  Am I close, gentlemen?

This also means that there are three versions of every player (unless there is a regular/gold banner version, in which case there would be four).  Means more Griffeys for me to find.  Well played, Topps.  Looks like I'll be buying your stuff all year long to secure my Griffey fix.

These are little and plentiful.  I like them OK.  I've always loved this design.  Glad to see it on minis.

The Calling Card inserts are a little ho-hum, but the backs are pretty cool.  So, here's only the backs.
 

This is one of those inserts that looks like a subset, and it doesn't feel like a good pull (hee hee).  Seems like a boring subset from the late 90's.  And I already have two of the Trout, both from blasters.  Not terribly rare or super interesting.  Pretty meh overall.

I have never seen one of these in my life, so I was not really excited at all.  Each box is supposed to contain one auto or relic card, so when I pulled this I gave it a quick read then set it aside and continued busting packs for my auto or relic.  With three packs remaining I realized "Oh, maybe that was it."  Yep, that was it.

yaaaay. :-|

I feel a little guilty not being more excited, what with the card's flamboyant cursive looking so jubilant and happy for me.

But really, what should I do with it?  Should I redeem it or sell it on eBay to recoup some of the cost of the box while Cabrera is hot?  I checked - these are going for around 40 bucks.  He's not a PC of mine, so I really don't care, but at the same time I've never had a "relic" card before and I'm curious.

Better sleep on it.
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Oh, and one more thing:

YYYYYEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

This $3 Griffey got me more excited than any triple crown relic that didn't depict Griffey ever could.  Frickin' A, man.  Box worth it.

This is Cut to the Chase #2, which is really #1 because, let's cut to the chase, Topps forgot to put a #1.  I even appreciate how the text on the back kind of "cuts to the chase" by setting up the failure sitch in moderate detail, then jumping straight to the player's success with little/no detail.  It's very Seinfeldian yada yada yada.

Like if someone told you "So, these aliens landed with a plan to conquer us using an army comprised of the zombies of our own dead..............but nope."

"Well, you certain cut to the chase there, but at least the Earth is safe."

(Bonus points if you know the movie for which that is the plot.)

The Darvish and Schmidt also did this with their text, but to a lesser extent than the Griffey.

Griffey looks young.  This picture is 20 years old, and Junior was very much in his prime then.  I wouldn't even mention how young he looks on this card if it wasn't a series 2013.  He just looks like he could knock the skin off of the approaching ball, all Sandlot-style, if he wanted to.

Dude, is Griffey ever the freakin' man or what?