My Yankee Stadium Goodbye

I had this long ass post about how much I hate the Yankees ready to go, but really I am just glad to get rid of this awful plethora of Yankee love that has been choking me since the beginning of the season. Bring on the wrecking balls so I dont have to sit through any more 13 minute epics on sportscenter every hour, and so I dont have to see any more Yankee loads blown all over MLB.com each time I check the Twins score. There are more important things going on - forget this meaningless bullshit.

All-Star game

Used to be that the All-Star game marked the halfway point of the Baseball season, however, now with the lopsided schedules and overseas games, it falls well into the second half of the season statistically. Take my favorite team, the California (err...sorry, Los Angeles) Angels [of Anaheim]: entering the break they have already played 95 games, which appears to be the average for MLB teams this season. Sorry, I know I wasn't a math major, but half of 162 is 81, not 97.

While that's not a big deal, instead of being a nifty exhibition games that's usually at least fun to watch, for the past several years the MLB All-Star game "means something", because the winning league gets home field advantage for the World Series. Yeah, that's a bunch of bull-shit. Instead of going by a meaningless game played sometime during the second half of the season, perhaps MLB should give home-field advantage to the team that actually, I dunno, had a better record going into the World Series?

As a kid, you love the All-Star game, it's the annual fun event where your "dream teams" duke it out for bragging rights. Well, that's how it appears to you when you're a child anyway. Unfortunately as you grow older the veil of childhood is lifted slowly but surely. You discover that your heroes are actually human beings with foibles and faults (just read Wax Heaven to see how one man's boyhood hero has repeatedly failed him as an adult). You also discover that professional sports are no longer "games" and sometimes they aren't much fun.

To-wit: Does the All-Star game even FEATURE the best players in the league at the time? And has it ever? Sure, some years the voters will get it right, but most of the time the fan-voting is nothing more than a thinly veiled popularity contest to see who's fans can stuff the ballots the most. A fan can now vote 25 times online, not to mention you can still vote with the silly punch out chads at stadiums. At least the fan-voting is supplemented with a media-vote, and the teams themselves select the pitchers, but still, it's a pretty silly method for choosing "All-Stars." I won't bother getting into the sheer number of travesties revolving selections, and I also won't comment on the stupidity of each and every team being represented on the field, I'll leave that for others to blog about, and I'm sure they will.

I'd also like to know whatever happened to "All-Star Cards"? In older card sets, in addition to their regular card, usually each All-Star got a special second card commemorating their All-Star selection. Most of the time these cards were not worth as much as their regular issue, which can work in your favor if you're fan of HOFers from the 50's and 60's who's regular issues you cannot afford. I kind of miss the All-Star cards, in the way that you miss your first girlfriend or your first car. These aren't the latest and greatest foil refractor autographed serial numbered issue, but they were often rather nice. In fact, Topps on a regular basis used to print up glossy inserts of the All-Star team for use in their rack-packs (and you could also order a complete set through the mail). I can't remember the last time I saw a real "All-Star" card.

Oh well, I'll still tune into the game, after all, there are no other sporting events tonight worth watching.

EDIT: I apologize for the title of this post - something's wacky with my browser.

Chipper Jones Injured

The MLB leader in batting average found one of the funnier ways to hurt himself today, during BP before tonight's Angels/Braves tilt he hit a ball straight up which bounced off the top of the cage and hit him in the eye. Official report Here .

He's being taken for X-rays and we'll know more later.

It's actually not that funny after all, I saw the footage and it looks nasty. I honestly hope he's OK, since he's hitting .414, and it's been an AWFUL long time since anyone flirted with .400. Can you imagine the special inserts that the big two would come up with if he did manage the rare feat? Topps would probably do a 400+ card set featuring every one of his at-bats, complete with a gold, silver and 1/1 platinum parallel set.

2008 MLB Draft: Welcome to MN, Mr. Hicks...

With the 14th pick in the 2008 MLB draft, the Minnesota Twins select the same guy they picked last year, so to speak? Aaron Hicks, a HS outfielder from CA, is a guy most known for his arm strength, speed, and defensive ability. One thing he is not known for is power. What a surprise right?

Last year with Ben Revere, all name jokes aside, the Twins got a gap hitter who is faster than hell. This year, they drafted Hicks, who has a lot of the same tools that Revere has. The plus is that he is over 4 feet tall, unlike Mr Tiny - but that may work against him as he only weighs 170 lbs.

Either way, I have been studying Twins draft picks for the last few years and it seems like a lot of them never went anywhere. Although common for the draft, its kind of shocking that your first rounder wasnt a sure bet for the show.

Good luck Mr. Hicks, you probably will need it.

A Cut Above III: Craziest Thing Ever Created

This auction is probably the craziest thing I have ever laid eyes on.

eBay Auction Ridiculosity

When this gets taken down, here is a picture just so you know how fucking unbelievable this thing is:



Here is a list of the cuts that are included:
Babe Ruth
Ty Cobb
Cy Young
Lou Gherig
Rogers Hornsby
Ted Williams
Pie Traynor
Honus Wagner
Roy Campanella

Yeah, try and digest that. Holy fuck. But 57k is a little much, Id rather have a Mercedes.

Monogamy Sucks

Exclusive contracts suck in every way shape and form. Basically it prevents companies from releasing non-base cards of a player that has an exclusive contract with another company. For the company that has the contracts, it makes them money because collectors of that player will have to buy the respective products if they want the big hits. Now, not everyone is approached for exclusivity, just the bigger name guys. If you have obtained a lot of contracts, it really hurts your competitors - more than we care to accept.


Finding a non-UD Jordan auto is like finding Santa Claus - not possible.

Surprisingly, exclusivity is the biggest problem facing the Basketball card industry, in my opinion. Lebron, Jordan, Durant, and Kobe are all UD exclusives, meaning that anyone else is basically fucked when it comes to making Basketball products. Because of this fact, I will never touch a Topps basketball product because UD has all the big pulls on their side. UD has also signed a handful of the 2007-08 rookies like Horford and company, making it pretty much impossible to make any money busting a Topps product. Topps does have Oden, but that alone didn’t sway me once during the whole season. My analogy for this is like being able to date Jessica Alba, but you cant touch her - ever.


No touchy.

What's funny is that Topps Basketball is still releasing high end products like Triple Threads and Eschelon, even though I cant see a reason for anyone to take a chance on them. You know how they lure collectors in? They put thousands of "1/1s" in every case (as said before, thanks for ruining it Topps).

Baseball has exclusives too - all huge name guys as well, signed by guess who. Jeter, Griffey, Ichiro, and a few others are all UD property. Griffey has been with UD since they came on board, and he still shows no sign of breaking that. The only good thing is that baseball still has other guys that people want. The biggest thing that sucks for baseball collectors is that pretty much every HOF player has an exclusive contract which prevents a lot of collectors from getting some of their favorite guys. Biggest examples: Hank Aaron and Sandy Koufax. Both were DLP exclusives when they did baseball, and when they went the way of the Dodo, the contracts didn’t expire. That meant for Sandy, we had to wait for 2007 products before we had autos again. Hank Aaron will be under contract indefinitely with DLP and they arent giving him up, meaning no new Aaron autos from now on.

The only sport that doesn’t allow exclusives is the NFL (THANK THE FUCKING LORD.) Although All Day has a marketing deal with DLP, he can still sign for UD and Topps, which he does frequently. Same goes for Favre, Manning, and others. The only thing you cant do is put them on the display of your product. One of the reasons that football cards are such a competive market is because everyone signs for everyone. Collectors have more products to choose from, and normally designs/specs/collations are more thought out because of it. WE ALL BENEFIT.

So when Topps stops prodcuing Basketball, thank the exclusive contract for ending them. I think its fucking ridiculous, but again, the companies making the money don’t really care about us. They only think what is best for them. Thanks again for that, guys.

My only religious holiday: OPENING DAY!

Its here! Its here! Thank the lord! Too bad this opening day has become a slosh of opening delays. Either way, I am f*ing pumped to see the new Twins in action (during the only period of the year I am happy we have a dome). This almighty pump-ed-ness will, with out a doubt, wear off within a half an inning as Livan Hernandez gives up a five spot to the wicked Angels lineup. (UPDATE: TWINS WIN?!?)



Joe and Justin celebrate making it through spring training with no injuries - SCORE!

ON TO SPORTS CARD GOINGS ON

Last friday, amongst the pickle that UD football had gotten themselves into, UD baseball debuted their version of Premier for 2008.

This year we get the normal patch and jersey subsets with some new autos and fake patches. The designs for the relic cards are a step up from last year, but when you add the auto to the already busy patch and jersey card, it looks like the player has it tatooed on his face most of the time. See below (Lets play "Where's Waldo - Autograph Version") :



The MLB logos are new, and I like the cards - a lot. Buuuuuutttttt, there are no autos, something Ive yearned for on an MLB logo card ever since the logo cards of all logo cards in Ultimate 2006. CMON UPPER DECK - PULL YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR ASSES!!

Lastly, we have the omnious "PREMIER CARD", where there is an auto side and a memorabilia side. Each features three players, but honestly, I couldnt care less unless those players are Pujols, Ripkien, and Jeter. The card looks okay, but it is just overkill in my opinion. I guess they havent learned their lessons with the duals out of exquisite being worth nothing, and the duals out of premier last year being worth nothing..... you get my point.

As with most UD overpriced crap, I will only be buying singles to avoid giving UD my money, and to avoid the $270+ price tag. Yeesh, and I thought Black was overpriced!

My grade: B-