State of Affairs: People Have Feelings in 2012

 1. While I have avoided the PSU scandal (which it is) like the plague, I am not in any way surprised at the reports that have come out. Anyone involved should be more than ashamed (but I believe in Karma), and I apologize to PSU grads and players for all of the ignorant people that lump you together. That just sucks.

2. Kobe needs to shut the eff up. The idea that the 2012 "team" would beat the Dream Team is simply laughable. Lebron, Kobe, KD, and...dude, do you want me to run down the DT Roster again?! I don't care how good you are as an individual (which each of the above players is, without question), but that is just what you are, and what you care about. The individual. I am not saying that a few of the Dream Team didn't have egos and larger-than-life perceptions of themselves, but that was not what they were known for. They were all the very best at their positions. Unselfish, team players who weren't movie stars. They were ALL STARS.

3. Topps Update

I bought a hobby box and landed this sucker. (#661 a) Sold it for 180 the next day. this was a perfect situation for me, not being a base topps rc collector (with few exceptions after 1975, I could care less, for real)

but I knew that this was coming out in a factory set

 hmmm. Not my bag. No auto, topps flagship "SSP"s are stupid. I have an Ozzie Smith from 2011 that is the only SP I've kept and that is only because it is an exceptionally beautiful card.

#661 b and c below

Bowman Chrome AUTOS came out well, some of my favorites (bogaerts is currently prohibitively expensive, but I said that about Posey's bochro auto too...)

And finish with a great cubs fail.

Peterson

Physics Lesson: Probability Says No.

Ebay, I call nannies on this seller. This dude has four Bryce Harper Green Foil RC Autos for sale...okay. not familiar, but they look legit.
 You have a print run of #313, #314, #315 AND #316 ALL out 350 you say? Dandy...
Who the hell left the back door open at the plant?
who does this seller work for?
the seller has 3000+ positive feedback.
these are the things that keep me up during the day.


sneaking feeling they were redemptions? would Topps send out sequentially numbered autos to some Retail-nut?
Peterson

Topps Tier One :High Ends

I have been watching some of the stuff coming out of these amazingly expensive boxes with less aplomb than a box of fleer mystique. That was when I found out about the "return" of the bat knob insert. I absolutely love these pieces. They are so personal and directly experiential for the jaded relic-collector. I never understood buttons AT ALL.

This relic, I would walk a mile for...and I just had knee surgery.

Speaking of knee surgery:

Hopefully I will clean out some old posts I have been saving.

Hit me up with any requests in comments for this weekend.

Do you want me to research available Bat-Knob cards?

your call. I am trapped in my throne and have already watched baseball tonight, SC and read the news.

"Fan Favorite" indeed: Youk Traded During Game

The youkah was definitely one of my personal Boston Fan Favorites. I've watched him grind through games and have flashes of brilliance. He's a smart guy on the field, and versatile. To bad he switched sox.
The card above is one of the best autos from the set, and, in my opinion, the best photo of all of them. Heritage gold.

     Wjile I was watching Kevin's last game, he was taken out mid-seventh(?) and made a tip of the cap to the fans, then Bobby V (whom I always knew was evil) chased him down and sent him out for a curtain call. DURING the game. It was shyte. It made me feel like his bags were packed and Bobby was cottling him with his tail between his legs, "you want to get a shower before your flight Youk? "Can I get your bags?"

strike 2, Bobby.
Peterson

Morency!: Exquisite?

dammit man. you still have yet to be out (under?) done.
oi.
-peterson

Don't Get Me Wrong: 2012 Heritage, I Ain't Complaining

First, NO I did not pull this. That would be too good of a post for this mediocre blog. I just wanted to throw out there some of the questions I am asking as Topps continues its reign over the MLB card market.

Luis Ernesto (Montiel) (NOT Lois or Louis) Aparicio here has been hanging around 2012 releases in his O's uni. He won 2 gold gloves, and went to two All-Star Games with Bird on it. But he equally went to 2 All-Star Games with Boston ...His 9th in MVP voting with Baltimore in '66 was nothing to scoff at. In fact, he was in the top 30 of vote-getters Three seperate times in Bal'mer. I love it personally and am working on getting a signed piece of my own, but I wonder what all the Chisox fans feel about this. POTUS might have an opinion. What's yours? I am just so used to the old sox uni on him...the one in which he collected

1 ROY

6 All-Star Appearances

7 Gold Gloves

top 25 MVP votes 6 times

love,

and birds

Peterson

Bowman Chrome Appeal: I'll Revisit This...

You've heard the story. "I'm not buying cards because I am getting married in August", or some rendition of that ilk. Well, Bowman continues to bring me back. After what I considered a mediocre design in 2011 is followed by some really sharp lines (like I like em). The autos are nothing to get nuts about right now, unless you are a serious prospector, which I am not anymore as of last year. I believe that I have a collection of 2006-2011 bochro to net me a few scores down the line with the right RCs and Autos that I have amassed. I mean, I pulled a Gio Gonzalez auto rc in the only box of 2004 bochro I ever broke and was like..."shit, who knows". but I liked the sig a lot. I kept it, and now he is leading an attention-getting (even mine) machine in the Washington Nationals. I collect Ian Desmond because I have a soft spot for the short stop. But now we come to a time when I have been in Virginia long enough, and things are evolving without me in Milwaukee, that it only stands to reason that I must choose eventually between the Birds (my very first team and games 84-88) and the Nats, who are light-years closer traffic-wise, and have what I cannot be convinced is not a bright future.
Here is a shout out to some of my favorite Bowman Chrome RC autos:

 

Simply The Best: Look Closely

Like a fox, this guy's sig is slick as I don't know what. Lefty kind starts from the "sheffield liner". but this guy hits so many pleasing transitions in this auto, I can't stop looking at it. I've heard that rick is kind of a dick, but who cares. as for the UNC/DUKE debate, I've been to both campus', seen shows in both towns, still can't care. sorry. just look back at the above diagram of Rick's rebound on the left, deek, turn, pick n' roll, then take it to the hole, strutting back to center court for some love from the crowd...

MCA NO!!!: God Bless you and Thank You Adam

 The first music tape I ever owned was the Beastie Boys-Liscenced to Ill in 1986. That was the beginning of being cool. It was the powell-peralta, perma-skinned knees, hair over the eyes, "surfer" tan and the boombox. The grey beast barely mobile, with chrome accents that was too loud for anyone in the neighborhood except me and my boys.

Adam, we knew you had cancer in 2009. I tried to deny it, and without it being in my face all the time (unlike with my parents' losing battle), I was able to deny it.

damn the passage of time and it's unyeilding entropic interference.

I am so unhappy right now.

Note on Junior Seau and others lost along the way this week:

Also, props to all those leaving us in time. Junior was a blow yesterday, but I never lived in Cali and never liked the chargers. I knew he was one of the best, but that was about it. He really killed it during the years I was not watching football. I am sorry for his loss as well, but this one hits me where it hurts...pre-puberty.

Peterson

Bruins/Caps Reverb: Echos of Lesser Minds

I can say I am not enjoying some of this playoffs action, but I do have one thing I"ll ask.

You want to know who's team I'm on?

Not these racist schmucks in Gloucester, MA and Franklin Pierce College.

GO CAPS.

      

GO JOEL.

It shouldn't just be "part of the territory", but you handle it like a chamion

 ...much like the Kung-Fu Panda of the roughneck skating set...love this guy.

As for me, the jury is still out on the whole "twitterverse" thing. I have an account, but am not sure if I am self-absorbed enough to use it like the adults that I know do. It seems that the kids in the highschool that I teach in use it as a simple way for groups of friends to communicate and share inside jokes. Good stuff, often creative. I just can't stomach anyone using the forum to just unzip and piss hate into thier "friends'" feeds. (lesson!)

damn I hate racists,

Peterson

Orioles Fever: I Feel A Bit Warm...and Retro-Avian

When I was a kid, the very first MLB game that I went to was the Baltimore Orioles vs. the New York Yankees at Memorial Stadium in June 1984. It was a seminal moment of my childhood. Away from the game, and without a tv most of the time, I turned to the 1986 topps set to keep the game alive on the carpet, organizing positions, teams and stars into piles that reset with a new schema everytime I felt like thinking about baseball.

I do the exact same thing now, although I now keep a "keeper" pile, a "new" (usually already-owned cards I am revisiting) a "time to sell?" pile and a "time to sell" pile. If I were to break it down, the stacks change on a semi-regular basis. It is a cathartic activity in which I have full control over the manipulation of single packets of information (or "quanta" if you wanna get quantum physical). This makes me "happy"...searching the web for my favorite card designs and writing in this blog are the other vectors that I have adopted in order to cut down on any purchases I may want to make. (in case you didn't notice, I still really miss UD)

I know that some of us can follow, or root for, one team their whole life. I have moved far too many times to have that luxury. Let's quickly go over my timeline

1. Memorial Stadium, Baltimore 1984-88, 5 games, Lived in Phoenix, MD

Baseball fascinates me. my young mind was already skewing the way of Bill James, counting and comparing. I will never forget the characters from those years. Sheets, Wiggins, Tippy, Dempsey. I lived not far up the street from Gary Roenicke and used to play with his kids once in a while. It seemed so normal to be a bird fan. (Important note: I did not follow wins and losses yet, and with the Birds in my backyard, I didn't think much about playoffs...just missed that)

2. Yankee Stadium, NY, NY 1988-1994, 8 games, Lived in South CT and then North NJ

Dad and I had some exceptional times heading in to the bronx. I will certainly never forget walking out in the upper deck behind homeplate as my intro to the best looking stadium I have ever been to.

3. Baseball Hiatus, 1994-2002 Strike, puberty, etc.

4. The Fox Hole, Osterville, MA 2002-2003, (Fenway, Boston, MA/MASN)

  watched every single Sox game while bartending my ass off after college. (Fell easily back into baseball culture of   pure team adoration-begin reading box scores in the paper again, no money to attend game at fenway).

5.Miller Park, Milwaukee, WI 2004-2005, 21 games

After taking a job in environmental politics in Milwaukee, the culture of my father's hometown baseball was intoxicating and Miller park remains the most welcoming park I have ever attended. The young brewers became "My Team".

6. the Diamond, Richmond, VA, 2000-2008, 20+ games

Home of the Richmond Braves until 2008, and a shoddy concrete mini-beast. My mother moved to Richmond with my sisters shortly before she passed, and this became home during my last years in college. I returned after both MA and WI to live with my sisters and assist in a new life with just the three of us in our new family. I got to see them win the International League Champioinship. I attended the last opening day and the last Braves game before we literally lost them due to simple yet massive neglect on behalf of the regions governing bodies. It was too late though, MiLB had me for good. I got to see quite a few current A-Braves tear it up in RVA. The first auto card I ever pulled was an Escobar the week before he arrived in Richmond, only to dominate all categories until being called up.

7. The Diamond, Richmond, VA, 2009-present 8 games

The Connecticut Defenders get a major refit as they arrive as the Richmond Flying Squirrels just before their parent organization the SF Giants won the chamionship, and Buster hit the big time. Now I like the Giants a lot too, as I get to see some of their youngest talent before it blossoms or wilts.

7. Camden Yards, Baltimore, MD 2009-present 2 games

My father got to go to Camden Yards on a business trip the year that it opened, and raved about it until he passed in 1998. We had planned to go to a game there, and that is part of the reason it took me so long to attend a game there. I adore the Baltimore baseball culture and it is more vibrant now than ever.

It means a lot to me (an many of us) that everyone ever involved in the game of baseball has their own web of involvement and experiences that coincide on the field and in box scores and, for our purposes here at SH&H, through the unique written styles of individual signatures.

Peterson

Morency!?

Last Chace Saloon: Get A Gander

 The following is a portion of cards that absolutely must go. They are pic'd, and prepped for thebay. Before they head that way I want to celebrate a few cards that I have had for a while, and just a couple that I either wish I could keep, or don't care a lick about. If you absolutely must have something you see, I am accepting very reasonable offers on them individually, but don't be afraid to contact me about multiple cards. I take paypal or MO.

cheers,

peterson