BWAHAHAHAHA

How did I ever miss this?

That is awesome!

Great News!

So, it seems like a done deal that the Yankees have traded with the Cubs for Alfonso Soriano. This is great news for a number of reasons:

1. Now every day will be Old Timer's Day at Yankee Stadium
2. It will help the Yankees lock up the one category where they lead the league: number of players eligible for Social Security.
3. His .287 OBP is a whole .002 improvement over current Yankee leftfielder Vernon Wells.
4. He provides a vital link back to the Casey Stengel era Yankees.  He can teach the under 35 set how the Bombers won back in the day!
5. He and Andy Pettitte can combine forces and buy Metamucil in bulk.
6. He'll have a better chance in NY of getting signed up to appear in a Cialis commercial.
7. In 2004, the Yankees traded him to the Rangers for A-Rod.  Now that he is back *and* A-Rod is still around, it should be blindingly obvious NY won that trade!
8. With Curtis Granderson out of the lineup, the Yankees don't strike out nearly enough.

Insane, Redux

About a year ago, I posted about a Nabisco All Star Legends card of Paul Blair that sold on EBay for $68.33.

At the time, I thought that was nuts.  I never saw another one come available until earlier this week when one showed up on EBay.  I have been watching it carefully and set myself up ready to bid on it as the seconds wound down on the auction.  I was prepared to go as high as $25 for this card.  I never got to bid since, with about 10 seconds to go, it shot past my upper limit.  How much did it go for?

Check it out for yourself.

$105.83.  I am sorry, but no. I have purchased a NM 1962 Willie Mays for less than that.  I got a really nice 1954 Jackie Robinson for about that same amount.  There is no way I would pay anywhere near that much for this card.

I am just going to have to accept that this card, like the Topps Venezuelans, will never be part of my Paul Blair player collection.

Do Not Want

Now if the Yankees sign A.J. Pierzynski, my 2013 season will be completely ruined.  It is bad enough that the Yankees are stuck getting little commensurate return out of their contracts with A-Rod and Mark Tiexiera.  But, I am really getting annoyed with their tendency to fill out the roster with over-the-hill once-stars.  Granted, I like the Ichiro signing. But, beyond that, I am not sure they got much return from such scrap heap picks.  I may rant more about the Yankees in the future, but for right now I am just going to sulk.

WAIT! THIS JUST IN!  YOUKILIS HAS RESPONDED TO ME!

Need I say more? We're going to give this yutz the equivalent of over 20% of the Oakland A's payroll? 

A Setback

My quest to get as many of my 1963 Fleer cards autographed seemed to take a leap forward recently when I found a number of events and sent 4 cards off in the mail to be signed.  Three were to be signed at two different events this weekend, and the fourth at another in two weeks.  Alas, after a good run of success, the Post Office seems to have finally managed to foil my plans.  See for yourself:

My package seems to be stuck in limbo in Kearny, NJ.  The deadline was actually Wednesday for this signing. I'll keep an eye on the tracking and see if it gets delivered today and see if I can convince the company hosting the signing to include me.  But, at this point I am not hopeful of making it in.  Unfortunately, this was a signing with two different players I needed.

Who were they?  Bill Mazeroski and Bob Gibson.  Yes, I am pretty ticked.

Synchronicity

Some of you may not know who Nate Silver is.  Nate is most well known as a statistician that does analysis of political polls and uses the information to forecast election results.   His blog at the New York Times is called Five Thirty Eight, referencing the total number of electoral votes in the US Presidency race. Silver is also a sabermetrician.

I am not much interested in sabermetrics.  To be sure, I think they have their place, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to learn more about them. 

Now, that said, please read this Michael Gerson column in yesterday's Washington Post about Nate's political forecasting.  That is basically the same column written by any number of crusty old sportswriters about sabermetrics, just applied to political science. Amirite?

 
If you haven't, go and vote today.  It is one of our most important civic duties.

That is all.

Y U NO TELL ME?

Why didn't any of you tell me this set existed?

Must collect.......must have.......

Just Shoot Me

At 8 PM

I had an odd thought today. Growing up in Upstate New York, we didn't have air conditioning until my senior year in high school.  It is days like today that kinda make we wish I still lived there.

My Life is Boring

Whomever had my cell phone number before I did apparently leads a more interesting life than I do.

In Which I.....Hey! Look! A Bird!

Has it already been over a week since I last posted?

Why, yes, it has.

I swear I sometimes think I suffer from adult attention deficit disorder. I have made no secret of my desire to cut down on the number of sets I am working on. While I did manage to not start another set when I finished 1976 Topps, I have been far less disciplined when it comes to the 2004 Fleer Greats of the Game set. When I started out putting that set together over a year ago, my main goal was to finish the 145 card base set, which I did in fairly short order. Subsequent to that, though, I decided to put together the various insert sets (Glory of Their Time, Battery Mates and Forever {insert various teams}). I've made pretty good progress on those inserts, too. With some focus, I can probably finish them before the end of the year. I thought that would be it for me, even though there is a blue bordered parallel set and an auto set. I wasn't going to bother with them.

Until I did. I found a lot of 7 of the blue parallels on EBay and won it. So, now, alluvasudden, I have 16 of the blue parallels and an Ebay saved search to keep my eye out for more. I am still only looking for multi-card lots, but that isn't the point, I am looking for more of those cards! With time and patience, I should be able to work that set to completion. No biggie, right? It isn't like I am going to try and work on the auto cards from that set. Sure, I have a few from the boxes I broke, but that is a 109 card set and some, like Stan Musial and Yogi Berra, don't come cheap. So, I will forgo chasing those.

Yeah.

In my defense, I started out seeing if I could snag them on the cheap. And in most cases, I have. But, once the bug bites, perspective is lost. Some of the cards, like the Al Kaline and Don Newcombe, I paid upwards of $15 for. So, now I have 21 out of the 109 cards and am keeping my eye out for more. I am still going to try to get them on the cheap. I am currently only bidding on cards that are auctioned with a starting price of 99 cents, and have passed a lot by without a second look. Surely, I have the will power to not get the bug to finish the set.  With Stan Musial cards going for around $75, there is no way I will get that stupid.

No sir, not a chance.  Not gonna happen.  No way. No how.  Nope.

Card Show Haul - Ooopsie!

I made a few mistake purchases at the show a couple weekends ago. Who doesn't, amirite? Luckily, it was only three cards and they were all from the discount boxes.

I bought this Jay Austin auto card because I thought he was one of the hot prospects in the Yankee organization. Alas, that prospect is Tyler Austin, who is tearing up the South Atlantic League with Charleston after a .354/.418/.579 year last year in rookie ball and low A. Jay Austin? In the Astros system, but on the DL with a broken hand and hasn't played yet in 2012. Interesting side note: this is my second Jay Austin auto card. I managed to acquire the first in a group break over at Crinkly Wrappers last year. I think it was in one of the rounds of the break where I picked near the end and didn't have a lot to choose from. Hopefully, this kid will turn into something and I can make my fortune on the two auto cards.

No idea whatsoever why I bought this. None. Anybody want it?

This little oddball was bought with Chris over at Nachos Grande in mind. Unfortunately, after I got home I realized he actually collects Barry Larkin, not Ken Griffey. So, anybody want this?

Next up: 1961 Fleer.

Card Show Haul - Miscellaneous Pickups

Since it seems to be the trend out in the blogosphere, I spent a little time pawing through the discount boxes at the show I went to a couple weekends ago. I didn't have much in mind other than to find some things that I liked and maybe find some trade bait.

Three sepia parallels from 2010 Triple Threads. I really like Triple Threads designs and have picked up some of these base cards previously. I don't like Triple Threads enough to actually buy it off the shelf, but I'll be happy to grab cards out of the discount boxes. I particularly like the Berra card with the bat in motion.

2004 Topps Tribute Cool Papa Bell. I just like it. It also reminds me that I wanted to do some reading about the old Negro Leagues.

1975 SSPC card 616 - Willie Mays. I like the simplicity of the SSPC cards, although the backs are kinda phoned in (IMO.) At some point, I'd like to actually put the set together. But, I have too many sets that I am in the process of building now. Perhaps after I finish the Topps 1970s sets, I'll loop back and work on this and the next set.

1979 TCMA 1950s Ernie Banks and Willie Mays. As I said a moment ago, this is another set I would like to work on at some point. I like the simple front and the back is almost identical to that of 1952 Topps.

1973 Juan Marichal. It is in pretty good shape and given that I'll probably work on 1973 in earnest next year, it was a bargain at 50 cents.

1969 Topps Deckle Edge Ron Santo. A neat little card that is part of a 33 card insert set (actually 35, since cards 11 and 22 come in two versions with different players.) I am not sure if the 69 Deckles were the first modern insert set or not, but they are surprisingly affordable. This one was found in a dollar box. I've added these cards to the list of sets I'd like to work on...........some day.

1965 Dodgers Rookie Star card. There was one seller with a huge box of cards from the early to mid 1960s for a dollar apiece. I bought this on the hope that Night Owl needed it (he did.) But, even if he didn't need it, I would be happy to have it. That "picture" of John Purdin is freaky, isn't it? Al Ferrara is all, like, "Dude?!?!!?!? WTF!??!!?!??"

This is another card picked up with Night Owl in mind. He probably has it already, but this card is so awful, so terribly bad, that I couldn't not buy it. I mean, WTH? Did Upper Deck do a whole series of cards of players dressed up like 1930s gangsters, or is it just this card? Either way, this is definitely on my list of worst cards ever.

Up next: a few discount box mistakes.

Insane!

The following Paul Blair card popped up on EBay the other day. I had never seen it before, so I decided to try and snag it.


Now, I can buy Paul Blair autographed cards all day long for $5 to $15. Further, other cards from this set, of bigger stars, have a Beckett book between $15 and $25. So, I figured my max bid would be around $8 and that ought to be enough to win the auction.

Was I ever wrong. Last night, about 3 hours before the auction closed, I went to check out where it was at and put my bid in. Imagine my surprise when I found that the bidding was already over $26. Even though it was an apparently rare card; one that I had never known existed until a few days ago, that was too rich for my blood. Well, if that wasn't shocking enough, this morning I checked to see what the final bid was. I was amazed to see that it ended up selling for $68.33.


I just don't see the value there. I will grant that seller has a reputation for posting inflated book values, but he only listed it at a BV of $25. He is also fairly well known for shill bidding and one of the initial bids does have all the hallmarks of being a shill. But, I don't see any clear evidence that the later, higher bids were shilled. I guess there must just be some folks out there that are willing to fork over a pile of green for this card. SMH.

GEICO.....

So easy, even Jayson Werth can do it.

No Excuses Any More

I guess since I am on hiatus from card collecting, I don't have any excuses for avoiding my chores, now do I?

Crud

So, I worked a trade this week for a Topps Chrome Hector Noesi autographed card. Noesi was generally solid, if unspectacular, during his rookie campaign with the Yankees this year. Now, I am not a prospector and I am (at the moment) forswearing any modern products to focus on vintage. But see, I liked the kid and reports were that the Yankees did too. So, why not trade off some stuff that didn't fit in my collection for his auto card?

Alack and alas, before the card even arrives, the Yankees up and trade him away. News hit the wire that New York traded Hector and Jesus Montero (the centerpiece of the deal) to Seattle for Michael Pineda and 18 year old pitching prospect Jose Campos.



Ah, well. Any Mariners fans out there?

Trade with Napkin Doon - Plus an Outtake

I just completed a trade with the oddly named Napkin Doon (you never can tell about them Arkansans. But, at least he only has one first name and isn't known as Napkin Ray Bob Doon or some such nonsense.) Anyhoo, as I have mentioned earlier I didn't have any luck turning a Topps Diamond Die Cut Tom Seaver into anything I actually wanted, so I ended up trading it for a die-cut Adrian Beltre that Nap needed. In exchange, I got a dozen 2001 Heritage cards I needed. I am pretty stoked about getting another good size chunk of that set knocked off.

Most of the cards were of guys who didn't have any noteworthy MLB experience like this guy:


Aah, the joys of set collecting! But there were some good players mixed in, too.



Although he was forgettable in the off-season, Lohse pitched solidly in 2011 for the World Champion Cardinals.




I'm glad the Yankees resigned Freddy for 2012. He, along with Bartolo Colon, really filled in the rotation beyond expectations with Phil Hughes being on the disabled list and A.J. Burnett being very inconsistent.

I want to stop for a moment and let another piece of my life intrude here. As some of you may know, I enjoy doing some amateur photography. I'll never make my living at it, but I have taken some pictures I am proud of. One of the things I like is looking at other people's photographs and trying to understand both their vision and technique. This has given me the chance to meet other photographers that I might never come across in my life. One guy was actually did some work for the Anaheim Angels once upon a time. I had the great experience of seeing some of the outtakes from the studio sessions. In an amazing coinky-dink one of those "lost photos" was of a player who's card was among those Nap sent me. Check it out:

The Gill Man - Evolution, Part 1

Here is a random 2004 GOTG card to act as a reference point:



I started with this image cropped to the correct proportions:


The first step was to adjust the image background to be visible but faded. The first thing I did was use the Photoshop quick selection tool to select everything in the image except the Gill Man. Once that was accomplished, I added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. When you add an adjustment layer after making a selection, that layer only changes the area selected. With that layer, I cranked up the lightness, with the following result.



I left more detail in the image background than the real GOTG cards had, since the image was so iconic and I really wanted to have the heroine recognizable. Of course, the model card above had a more sepia tone to it. Luckily, the hue and saturation adjustment allows the image to be colorized. So, I clicked the colorize box, then adjusted the hue into the yellow range. At this point, I also softened the edges of the selection and added an embossing effect to bring in the shadow around The Gill Man. That took a lot of trial and error and I didn't do it in a way to save the intermediate step. So, all of the changes in this paragraph led to this result:



The next step was to add the border. This was fairly simple. I opened a real GOTG card image, scaled it up to the same size as my base image, then selected the border and hit Control-C to copy the selection. I went back to the Gill Man image, pasted it on.


This is where one of the weaknesses of my effort is noticeable. The border was at a different level of detail resolution which is blatantly obvious when you zoom in.


Next, I added the Fleer logo, and embellishment at the bottom, by using the lasso tool to select it on a real GOTG card then drop it into a new layer on my image.


Then I added a layer mask and used the pencil tool to mask out all the white space around the logo so the underlying image shows through:


I wasn't real happy how the logo looked at this point. So I cranked up the intensity of the red channel on the crown and lowered the brightness on the script to make it pop better:


The last part to complete the card front was to add text, which is a fairly simple thing to do. I had to make one change here. On the real cards, the text is in silver foil. But, that would not show up well in a digital image, so I decided to put the text in black. Also,the layout of the card led to a problem. Where the text went on top of the Gill Man, it disappeared:


To resolve this, I determined the "base" color of the card, since it wasn't pure white and dropped a solid layer of that color down over the top of the card. I then added a layer mask and basically brought the complete underlying image back in except for a one pixel border around the text where it crosses over the Gill Man's legs, so it can be more visible.


And that was it. The front of the card.