Wednesday, March 17, 2004
So, today I did one of my traditional March exercises. I had to go to Target to buy some blank CDs to burn songs from the four out-of-town bands that are playing Ho-Fest, my band's 4-night 3-CD release jamboree, for the press kits and to buy some shirts that my bandmate had seen that looked like Boy Scout shirts for our next costume. Anyway, I decided to splurge and buy my annual 1 pack of baseball cards.
Looking over the options, I realized that cards are made for someone different from me. Most were "packs" of 4 or 6 cards that offered special bonus platinum silver slugger edition cards or whatever. Others seemed to be "retro" and came with the gum in them. I never really liked the gum even as a kid. But I noticed the gum is now sugar-free, so good for Topps. The best bargain was the Topps Series 1 One 2004 MLB Cards with a plain generic red white and blue package. It was 12 cards for $1.99. With a Bonds-esque * saying "Packs with a relic card contain 10 cards." I didn't see why I should get less cards if one of them was Julio Franco, but oh well.
On the back of the package are all the odds for the different rare cards and there sure are a lot. The odds of getting a Sequentially Numbered Gold Parallel are 1:9 and for an Autograph from Group A are 1:15,610 and a Sequentially Numbered American Treasures Cut Signature is 1:213,120. There are perhaps a dozen other options. Like I said, cards are made for someone different from me. Let's open 'er up!!!
The first two cards are an ad for Topps and a card for the Topps of the Class "Students Work Hard, Get Cards." and... oh the deck is upside down. Flipping over, our first card is...
Lloyd McClendon. Boy, that's depressing. He has his arms spread out like a safe sign or like a fat albertross and his head is turned like he is watching himself on the scoreboard. Or maybe he is watching a replay. Lloyd is the lamest, by-the-book manager I've ever observed in frequency. It seems like every time the Pirates start a game with the lead-off man on, the next guy bunts. What a great thing for a pitcher struggling with control. 4-pitch walk? Hey let's give him an out. The back says, "Despite having no previous managerial experience beyond fall ball, Mac has guided the Pirates since 2001." That's the best they could come up with. Record 206-276. Apparently he is 10 for 16 in NLCS at-bats. Not mentioned here is how he hit 4 home runs in the Little League World Series which is the coolest thing he's ever done. Really, that would be the coolest thing for anyone. Next...
Rodney Choy Foo. Who the hell is this?? A second base prospect on the Indians. He's a Hawaiian guy who switch hits and plays all the skill infield positions. The stat card has OPS. But not OBP. Weird. It has SLG and BA and the counting stats. He walks a bit, has a very little pop, low batting average at A ball. Torey Lovullo is his manager. I thought that dude was still playing. Lovullo says, "you could pull out all his teeth, punch him in the face 10 times and still run him out there." A funny quote to take parts out of context. And on to...
Blake Hawksworth. Half-elf ranger, 5th level, Str 16 Int 12 Wis 14 Dex 16 Con 13 Cha 8. Actually, this is a prospect I've heard of. Cardinal pitcher, probably their best prospect, but they have a crap system so that's not a big accomplishment. He's from Vancouver though, so that's cool. Plus his name is cool. He K'd more than one guy an inning at Peoria last year with a 4:1 K:BB ratio and a 1.02 WHIP. They kept his innings down, it seems, 86.2. He is 21. We'll check back with him later. At the Laughing Dragon Inn. Next...
Clint Hurdle. Are you kidding me? Two stupid manager cards out of my first four?! At 141-161 he has bragging rights on Lloyd. Apparently he "helped make a 2003 Rockies team from which little was expected a respectable and dangerous unit." Hmm. Also, he "spent five-plus years as hitting coach for a Colorado team that consistently scored runs by the bushel." Nice job with that elevation, Coach! The rest of this pack better improve fast!
Future Stars! KC Royals Zack Greinke and Jimmy Gobble. OK that's cool. Wow, Greinke looks like he's 12. These guys are pretty comparable actually. Two first round draft pick teenage pitchers around 6'2.5" and 195. Gobble is two years older and throws portside though. They have similar K rates per 9. Gobble just has his AA stats there. I thought he made it up to the bigs last year. Yeah, I checked. 52.2 innings at KC. They chose not to include those stats for some reason. Greinke was both at A and AA last year. Gobble was born in Bristol, TN and now lives in Bristol, VA. Maybe they are on the border. Maybe he just wanted a town he could remember easily.
World Series Highlights: 1980 Mike Schmidt Wins World Series MVP Award. This is one of the first World Series I really remember. It is a metallic card and has a bunch of guys with big hair congratulating Schmidt maybe after a homer. Tug McGraw, Greg Luzinski, Del Unser... Ruben Amaro maybe? The back has the series stats. Schmidt hit .381 with 2 homers, 6 runs scored and 7 rbi. sHit King went 6 for 23 with 1 double, 1 rbi, 2 runs scored. Speaking of bad managers, BabBoone hit .412 with two doubles, Larry Bowa .375 with 1 double, and for the Royals Hurdle hit .417 and Hal McRae .375. The Phillies had 59 hits (.294 BA) but only 16 were for extra bases. Geez. That seems like a lot of singles. Still they outscored the Royals 26 to 22 in 6 games. Carlton won two games with a 2.40 ERA in 15 innings. Frank White killed the Royals... 2 singles in 25 at-bats. Willie Mays Aikens had 4 homers and a triple, batted .400 with 8 rbi! Quisenberry had three decisions, a win and two losses, no strikeouts in 10 innings and a 5.23 ERA. Ugh. Actually maybe I don't remember anything about this World Series.
Well that's the first six cards. I'll dive into the rest in a few days!
Looking over the options, I realized that cards are made for someone different from me. Most were "packs" of 4 or 6 cards that offered special bonus platinum silver slugger edition cards or whatever. Others seemed to be "retro" and came with the gum in them. I never really liked the gum even as a kid. But I noticed the gum is now sugar-free, so good for Topps. The best bargain was the Topps Series 1 One 2004 MLB Cards with a plain generic red white and blue package. It was 12 cards for $1.99. With a Bonds-esque * saying "Packs with a relic card contain 10 cards." I didn't see why I should get less cards if one of them was Julio Franco, but oh well.
On the back of the package are all the odds for the different rare cards and there sure are a lot. The odds of getting a Sequentially Numbered Gold Parallel are 1:9 and for an Autograph from Group A are 1:15,610 and a Sequentially Numbered American Treasures Cut Signature is 1:213,120. There are perhaps a dozen other options. Like I said, cards are made for someone different from me. Let's open 'er up!!!
The first two cards are an ad for Topps and a card for the Topps of the Class "Students Work Hard, Get Cards." and... oh the deck is upside down. Flipping over, our first card is...
Lloyd McClendon. Boy, that's depressing. He has his arms spread out like a safe sign or like a fat albertross and his head is turned like he is watching himself on the scoreboard. Or maybe he is watching a replay. Lloyd is the lamest, by-the-book manager I've ever observed in frequency. It seems like every time the Pirates start a game with the lead-off man on, the next guy bunts. What a great thing for a pitcher struggling with control. 4-pitch walk? Hey let's give him an out. The back says, "Despite having no previous managerial experience beyond fall ball, Mac has guided the Pirates since 2001." That's the best they could come up with. Record 206-276. Apparently he is 10 for 16 in NLCS at-bats. Not mentioned here is how he hit 4 home runs in the Little League World Series which is the coolest thing he's ever done. Really, that would be the coolest thing for anyone. Next...
Rodney Choy Foo. Who the hell is this?? A second base prospect on the Indians. He's a Hawaiian guy who switch hits and plays all the skill infield positions. The stat card has OPS. But not OBP. Weird. It has SLG and BA and the counting stats. He walks a bit, has a very little pop, low batting average at A ball. Torey Lovullo is his manager. I thought that dude was still playing. Lovullo says, "you could pull out all his teeth, punch him in the face 10 times and still run him out there." A funny quote to take parts out of context. And on to...
Blake Hawksworth. Half-elf ranger, 5th level, Str 16 Int 12 Wis 14 Dex 16 Con 13 Cha 8. Actually, this is a prospect I've heard of. Cardinal pitcher, probably their best prospect, but they have a crap system so that's not a big accomplishment. He's from Vancouver though, so that's cool. Plus his name is cool. He K'd more than one guy an inning at Peoria last year with a 4:1 K:BB ratio and a 1.02 WHIP. They kept his innings down, it seems, 86.2. He is 21. We'll check back with him later. At the Laughing Dragon Inn. Next...
Clint Hurdle. Are you kidding me? Two stupid manager cards out of my first four?! At 141-161 he has bragging rights on Lloyd. Apparently he "helped make a 2003 Rockies team from which little was expected a respectable and dangerous unit." Hmm. Also, he "spent five-plus years as hitting coach for a Colorado team that consistently scored runs by the bushel." Nice job with that elevation, Coach! The rest of this pack better improve fast!
Future Stars! KC Royals Zack Greinke and Jimmy Gobble. OK that's cool. Wow, Greinke looks like he's 12. These guys are pretty comparable actually. Two first round draft pick teenage pitchers around 6'2.5" and 195. Gobble is two years older and throws portside though. They have similar K rates per 9. Gobble just has his AA stats there. I thought he made it up to the bigs last year. Yeah, I checked. 52.2 innings at KC. They chose not to include those stats for some reason. Greinke was both at A and AA last year. Gobble was born in Bristol, TN and now lives in Bristol, VA. Maybe they are on the border. Maybe he just wanted a town he could remember easily.
World Series Highlights: 1980 Mike Schmidt Wins World Series MVP Award. This is one of the first World Series I really remember. It is a metallic card and has a bunch of guys with big hair congratulating Schmidt maybe after a homer. Tug McGraw, Greg Luzinski, Del Unser... Ruben Amaro maybe? The back has the series stats. Schmidt hit .381 with 2 homers, 6 runs scored and 7 rbi. sHit King went 6 for 23 with 1 double, 1 rbi, 2 runs scored. Speaking of bad managers, BabBoone hit .412 with two doubles, Larry Bowa .375 with 1 double, and for the Royals Hurdle hit .417 and Hal McRae .375. The Phillies had 59 hits (.294 BA) but only 16 were for extra bases. Geez. That seems like a lot of singles. Still they outscored the Royals 26 to 22 in 6 games. Carlton won two games with a 2.40 ERA in 15 innings. Frank White killed the Royals... 2 singles in 25 at-bats. Willie Mays Aikens had 4 homers and a triple, batted .400 with 8 rbi! Quisenberry had three decisions, a win and two losses, no strikeouts in 10 innings and a 5.23 ERA. Ugh. Actually maybe I don't remember anything about this World Series.
Well that's the first six cards. I'll dive into the rest in a few days!
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