where's the baseball?

A bit of a programming change to note for those readers who swing by here to check out my baseball-related musings…

Although I may include some stuff about baseball here from time to time, I expect that the majority of that sort of content will instead be funneled through the blog created in support of the new trading card business I have partnered into called Aardvark Trading Co.

Be sure to add “Cards in the Attic” to your RSS reader in order to keep up to date on all my published writings.

excitable boys

I’ve noticed a trend among the various baseball card bloggers I read and sometimes trade real cards with to be in the process of e-publishing their “dream” baseball cards now that we are in the middle of winter, and Spring Training seems so far away. I figured I’d toss one of my own out into cyberspace and see where it lands.

Keep in mind that this is a card that I WISH Topps or Upper Deck had/would produce, and against odds so astronomical they would make Carl Sagan’s head spin, I would somehow manage to pull this 1/1 card from a normal pack of baseball cards that I picked up at Target while standing in line to buy a bag of charcoal.



The irony that Topps would probably choose to portray one of the most colorful baseball players in the modern era in black and white isn’t lost on me. From a design standpoint, I think it “works.” Normally I would tend to steer as far away from a dark background as possible, but since this is a fantasy card, it would already be featuring a dual autograph in some beautiful copper-colored ink currently unknown to chemists at the Sharpie Corporation.

The choice of honoring Bill Lee was easy. There simply are not enough cards of the man who was pretty much kicked to the curb of major league baseball by the owners for his crime of being a free thinker. Sure, he was also a hell-raiser, but he wasn’t alone in that department. Including Warren Zevon on this card was also a no-brainer.

Lee was born some 27 days before Zevon. I’m sure Warren was aware of that fact, and was fine with it. After all, 2 + 7 = 9, and a nine is but three 3s, and Warren loved 3s as much as he embraced his OCD.

Both were living in California when Bill was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 1968. Lee made his major league debut on June 25, 1969- the same summer Warren broke away from his gig with the Everly Brothers by releasing his first solo album “Wanted Dead or Alive,” and having one of his compositions, “She Quit Me,” featured in the Academy Award-winning film “Midnight Cowboy.”

I’m not sure when the two first became friends, but it isn’t difficult to imagine Lee sitting around the Fenway Park clubhouse completely hopped up on painkillers listening to Zevon’s self-titled album which hit the music stores just days after Bill suffered a career-altering shoulder separation during a Red Sox-Yankees brawl on May 26, 1976.

The controversial Spaceman wasn’t shy about quoting Zevon lyrics to reporters whenever a good opportunity presented itself. Warren returned the favor by including the song “Bill Lee” as the ninth track (again with the 3s?) on his 1980 album “Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School.”

The “relic” portion of this dream card doesn’t feature a ticket stub or a fragment of a baseball jersey. Instead, it contains a portion of the label from a bottle of Oban single malt scotch whisky to commemorate the day in the early 1980s when Lee stopped by Zevon’s for a visit. Warren was currently on the wagon, attempting to dry out in an effort to extend his marriage, his career and possibly even his life, but when Lee arrived he decided to have just “one drink” to welcome his friend. Legend has it that the two partied like madmen for THREE straight days.

Lee’s major league career ended after the Montreal Expos released him in May of 1982 and every other team refused to even take a look at him, having decided that he was too much to handle. Meanwhile, having survived a drinking binge that nearly finished him, Warren gave up drinking that same summer and remained sober until he was diagnosed with lung cancer at the end of 2002.

In an interview in May of 2001, Bill Lee stated that he and the Mutineer still kept in touch- “on an ESP level.” There is no reason to believe that the two excitable boys haven’t maintained their special relationship even since Warren’s death.

kardiculture

In direct conflict to the popular myth that began sweeping across America in the mid 1980s, I’m here to tell you that baseball cards do not grow on trees. I suppose one might attempt the argument that trees are a necessary step in their production, but with recycling and the amazing things engineers are doing with plastics these days, you’d probably have to invest several bottles of Busch beer as part of the discussion before you would even get me to listen.

Heck, Topps has even been recycling their baseball card designs for years, apparently having run out of fresh ideas. And I’m not complaining either. Personally, I like the idea of reusing old card designs with modern players on them. I think it is a wonderful tribute to the original design(ers), and has somehow managed to introduce an element of fresh air into the trading card industry- not completely dissimilar to aerating the outfield grass in a 100-year-old ballpark.

Someone sent me an article several years ago about a fellow who used to work for Topps. He went on about how people he met thought it would be an amazing score- landing a job with a baseball card company, let alone the granddaddy of them all. However, in (his) reality, it turned out to be just another job. I didn’t buy it when I read the article, and I’m not convinced now.

As long as I can remember, I’ve always thought it would be super to be the person who designs cards, or takes the photos of the players that end up on cards, or sits in meetings and lobbies for things such as the immediate discontinuation of including stick of crap chewing gum with the cards. Perhaps if I had moved to New York after high school, enrolled in an art school, and began applying for internships with Topps 25 years ago, I would have ended up working for them. But I didn’t. Besides, maybe robots perform all the work there now.

I do still have the dream of one day having one of my photographs used on a baseball card. And it isn’t unusual for me to spend several hours during a winter evening working on a new baseball card design while listening to old Gordon Lightfoot tunes. I’ll hash out a design and print a couple copies to get autographed in the spring and to add to my portfolio in the event that anyone (any minor league baseball club, for instance) would ever give me an opportunity to design their team set.

Generally, the only people who see my work are the players featured on the cards and a few of the autograph collectors. I’ve decided that it can’t hurt for me to put some of my ideas online in the event that the right person needing that sort of service might happen by and give me a shot. Worst case, someone decides to flatter me by stealing my ideas.

So here’s my work in progress for my dream team set for the 2008 Albuquerque Isotopes:



The key element in my design includes LOTS of white real estate for player autographs. Another thing I’m trying to do is create a desire for the card collector to really think of the set as a team set, as opposed to a stack of cards of guys simply wearing the same uniform- a rare concept in the modern age of free agency when players move about from team to team with the frequency of migratory workers. My intention is that the image of the baseball stadium in the background will serve to force people to assemble the “puzzle,” and possibly even make them come up with interesting ways of displaying the set once they get all of the cards autographed.



Once the team sets their roster at the end of Spring Training, I will be able to decide which players I want to include in the final version. Until then, all I can really do is tweak the layout and do some research to find a printer willing to run a few sets for me at a reasonable rate. Maybe I’ll have my resume printed on the backs of the cards, and ship sets off to Topps, Just Minors, Upper Deck and MultiAd. At the very least, they are unique.

the gift of the junkie

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 660 times… that one of the, if not THE, coolest things about collecting baseball cards is the “trade.” Whether putting together the deal that ultimately adds a highly prized 1974 Cookie Rojas card to your collection, or finally obtaining that elusive card to complete a set you’ve been working on seemingly forever, it is all good fun! A satisfying trade never fails to transport me back in time to the Ray Bradbury moments of my youth- lazy, hot summer afternoons spent on the front porch of our house trading baseball cards with my buddies.

With that in mind, I am pleased to report that the final card I need to complete my base set of the 2007 Allen & Ginter cards is in the works as the result of the generosity of one of the more interesting baseball card bloggers- Cardboard Junkie! I dare say that if the Junkie’s kind-hearted gesture had been portrayed in a movie 100 years ago it would have been enough to make William Sydney Porter leave the theater early in search of a good bar.

I’ve been a fan of the Cardboard Junkie for quite a while now. It is one of the few blogs I check on a daily basis- if for no other reason that to see what “new” oddball cards he has obtained as part of his Allen & Ginter type set quest. I’d say that collecting cards that were originally printed and distributed in the late 1800s is a noble project- definitely for someone much braver than myself!

In honor of finishing the set, I think I should mention that my favorite card has to be no. 201 Freddy Sanchez.



In my opinion, this is clearly the best-looking card in the set, and in no way suggests that I am a huge Freddy Sanchez fan. I simply prefer the color, pose and card orientation over everything else in the set. Based solely on those criteria, runners up would be no. 204 Alex Gordon, no. 311 David Ross and no. 261 Torii Hunter- with a special nod going to card no. 239 author Fyodor Dostoevsky. The last one is total creepshow!

I don’t have the heart to ask the Junkie when he plans on picking up an original Allen & Ginter cigarette package to complete his monumental undertaking, but it should prove to be an interesting entry when he gets around to it.

Besides, I need to mind my own business and concentrate on completing the 2006 set, and there’s still that unfinished 1975 Topps set staring at me from across my office with an expression similar to that of a photo of a kid on the side of a milk carton.

bill lee

Yes, this is same fella Warren Zevon recorded a song about.

I really don’t write letters to current or former baseball players and ask them for an autograph. However, after recently reading Bill Lee’s The Wrong Stuff and watching “Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey,” the documentary about Bill and his trips to Cuba to play baseball, I decided it would be a shame to not have one of his cards autographed in my collection.

So I sent Bill a letter along with one of my Archaeology Rocks t-shirts, and asked him to sign his card from the 1972 Topps set. Several weeks later, he sent it back… signed beautifully with a blue Sharpie.



Even if you don’t happen to follow baseball, Bill Lee is a person worthy of your attention. The fact that the “Spaceman” includes “EARTH” in his signature should be enough to make you want to Google him and find out what that is all about. There are so many interesting things about this man that I wouldn’t even attempt to summarize his character in a blog entry.

You’ll have to excuse me now so I can begin reading Have Glove Will Travel.

Fred Raymer

Frederick Charles Raymer was born on November 12, 1875 in Leavenworth, Kansas. At the age of 19, Fred found himself in Albuquerque working as a fireman for the Atlantic & Pacific Railway, and playing shortstop for the Albuquerque Browns Base Ball Club. I haven’t determined how long he lived in the Duke City, but I have a feeling that it wasn’t for very long.



Raymer got his chance to play in the big leagues on April 24, 1901 at the age of 25 when he served as a utility infielder for the Chicago Orphans. After committing 42 errors out of 215 opportunities in 119 games, Fred wouldn’t see big league action again for 2 full seasons. Quite likely, Raymer simply wasn’t cut out to play the hot corner. That said, Raymer did start a triple play for the Orphans on June 14, 1901 in a game they lost to the New York Giants.

The Boston Beaneaters took a chance on Raymer in 1904 by making him their second baseman for 114 of their 153 games. Fred hit the only home run of his major league baseball career that magical season.

Raymer played 136 games for the Beaneaters in 1905, including single starts at first base and in the outfield. After flying out in the top of the second inning of the first game of a double header against New York, Raymer was allowed to “courtesy run” for teammate Rip Cannell who had ironically ripped his leg open while stealing second base with Raymer in the batter’s box. It was reported that Raymer was stranded at 2nd base, and Cannell retuned to his defensive position when the Beaneaters took to the field at the bottom of the inning. Weird, huh?

Raymer’s career major league baseball offensive stats include 301 hits, 95 runs and 101 RBIs with a .218 batting average. Fred swiped exactly 50 bases without being caught a single time. Interestingly enough, the young speedster also never grounded into a double play.

Although Raymer played in his final major league game on October 7, 1905, he obviously continued to play professional ball in the minor leagues as confirmed by these intriguing tobacco cards from 1910 and 1911.

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Raymer passed away in Los Angeles on June 11, 1957. He was reportedly cremated- perhaps in honor of his days spent shoveling coal into the furnaces of steam locomotives.

the scratching post

You may find it difficult to believe that I’ve had requests from readers to include my helper from the recent bathroom renovation project in more entries. On the other hand, perhaps you wouldn’t.

All I am prepared to say on the matter is that I will try.

Unfortunately it will be difficult to include Kancun in any discussions about baseball because she never goes to any games. Also, she isn’t allowed into my office where I keep my baseball cards. It isn’t that she doesn’t “like” baseball, mind you, but rather due to the fact that we are complete opposites when it comes to the proper methods for handling memorabilia.

just like "old days"

A most unexpected thing happened during my quest to rebuild a set of 75 Topps baseball cards. After reading my blog, a buddy from the old stomping grounds in the west-central portion of the Land of Lincoln Logs sent me all his duplicate cards hoping they would help out. I’m completely stoked knowing that one-sixth of the set that I will compile will have once lived in the very same gas station candy display case where I used to buy my cards.

Amazingly, the cards don’t appear to have seen the light of day since the Bicentennial!



This Robin Yount rookie card, one of the “key cards” of the set, is a shiny example of the great condition of the entire windfall. If you ever have a chance to check out my cards, be sure to ask to see a few of the cards from the Toastmaster Collection.

I suppose the moral of this entry is that sometimes… it pays to blog!

(So you’d like to see YOUR name mentioned here in my blog but don’t feel like sending me a stack of 75 Topps baseball cards? Well, I’m also going to be working on the 1974 set…)

big gun

Next item on the auction block is this SWEET Albert Pujols minor league card. I got this thing autographed before an Arizona Fall League game in 2000, not long before Albert made is smashing appearance on the Major League Baseball scene.



I’m hoping this will help generate a fair amount of ca$h for my 75 Topps reacquisition fund. One of the things that make this particular card rare is the fact that he signed it “Jose A. Pujols.” Today, you would be pretty lucky to get an “A Puj” on your card.

Also, when I handed Albert the card before the game I asked him how he was doing. He replied that he was doing good, but then began complaining that his hat was too tight. The memory of that odd remark still makes me laugh today.

At any rate, it should prove interesting to see how much this goes for.

quest for the best

Some 23 years ago, I did the unfathomable. I sold my baseball card collection. Well, most of it anyway. I kept the handful of cards that I had gotten autographed, and the five cards that I had identified as being my favorites. But the rest of the 40,000+ cards I had accumulated were sold to an insurance agent for only $350. It still makes me sick to think about how I allowed him to rip me off, but I really needed the cash for food while I was in college. At least I lived to learn.

Interestingly, the fella who bought my cards was arrested several years later for breaking into his clients’ homes and stealing their valuables while they were on vacation.

The vast majority of my cards were purchased one pack at a time from Mr. Burcham’s candy display case at the Sunoco gas station on Main Street in Toulon, Illinois. I traded with buddies to build complete sets and even managed to squirrel away a few unopened packs each year. Those alone would have been worth a small fortune today. I also traded “new” cards to older kids who no longer bought cards, but where still interested in collecting cards of players from their favorite teams.

My wife recently asked me how I got my hands on money when I was a kid. I would use money I received for my birthday, and would go around the neighborhood offering to shovel snow, rake leaves, or performing other odd jobs to raise baseball card funds.

I clearly remember the afternoon that Bob Bent caught me smashing pop bottles against the side of a shelter in the “city” park. Bob made me pick up the glass and carry it to a nearby trashcan. After I dumped the glass, Bob pulled a couple of whole bottles out of the trash and handed them to me. Then he marched me across the street and into the grocery store. As if out of some Hollywood movie, the storeowner gave me a nickel for each bottle. I was stunned! My first lesson in economics was as complete as it had been unexpected. I wondered why they didn’t teach us interesting stuff like that in school. Real life was much more exciting. As it turns out, that was the day that I began walking around looking for “stuff.” After that, I began finding money on a regular basis.

At any rate, I’ve been kicking myself in the ass since the day I sold my cards. With that in mind, I’ve decided that the thing I need to do is to begin recollecting the cards of my youth. And what better way to get started than by working on my favorite set… the 1975 Topps MLB cards? Rather than buying a set outright, I imagine I will go about it by picking up small lots and actually building the set myself. To quote Bruce Springsteen, “That’s where the fun is.”



Given the high cost of such an undertaking, I’ve also decided that the best approach would be to sell items of less personal significance than those I am interested in acquiring. Thus, I have listed my first item for sale on eBay in nearly two years… a complete 84-card set of Disabled American Veterans major league baseball cards.

While waiting to see how much fundage that set will bring (if anything), I will pull out the small stack of 75 Topps cards that I already have and work on creating a checklist to add to my updated baseball cards “want list.”

old is new once again

It is difficult to wrap my head around the notion that summer is gone and that the regular baseball season has ended. But I see the trees turning yellow and dropping their leaves, indicating it is time for us to bundle up and prepare for the singing of the plump lady.

Since the playoffs start today, I need to announce my post-season predictions. Bad news for Tigers and Padres fans… I’m picking your teams for the World Series- with Detroit winning in seven games.

I recently picked up a pack of the 2006 Topps “Allen & Ginter” baseball cards. I’m not sure what I was expecting when I opened it, other than I thought it was a neat idea to attempt to recreate some of the magic of the first real baseball cards that were available with tobacco products way back in 1887 (before many of you were born). These cards totally blew my mind!

Although there were only 10 baseball cards included in the 1887 set that also included six other sports, Topps has issued a set of 350 cards (318 ballplayers including reprints of the original 10 cards, 7 non-sport superstars and 25 historical figures including the likes of Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne). In addition to the normal “base set,” Topps has also produced a variety of parallel sets including mini cards that mimic of the original cards that measured only 2.75 by 1.5 inches (pictured below).




Not only is the artwork inspiring, but the white backgrounds and non-glossy finishes are ideal for autograph collectors. These gorgeous cards are perfect for baseball fans that have an appreciation for history. Topps hit this one completely out of the park! Although I’ve only opened the single pack, I can already tell that this set is going to compete with my all-time favorite… the 1975 Topps set. I think it would have been an interesting experiment if Topps had slipped a single cigarette into every pack similar to when they used to include “bubble gum.” Of course, maybe that’s one reason I don’t work for Topps.

Oh, so speaking of baseball and history, I was recently honored by being named an associate producer of research for a documentary about the history of baseball in Albuquerque. The production is scheduled for airing on PBS in the summer of 2007-ideally the week of the minor league all-star game that is being held at Isotopes Park. Needless to say, I’m stoked to get to the library and history museum to make the dust fly while working on my contribution. I’m sure to be writing more about that as it happens.

Similarly, I just received confirmation that a number of my still photographs of Isotopes utility infielder Tony Schrager will appear in an independent documentary about minor league baseball. According to Tony Okun, the film’s producer/director, the target date for completion of that project is September 2008. I urge you to bookmark oh! show productions’ website and monitor it for news about the movie.

I won’t include any of those photos here, so you’ll have to watch the movie to see them. However, I can’t help including this photo I snapped of Tony signing autographs for little leaguers prior to an Isotopes game back in August. You can’t make out much of Schrager, but the expression on this kid’s face is fantastic!

signature of the times

So I’m in the process of getting my baseball cards all prepared to take to Arizona next week where I will be checking out some Arizona Fall League action. Not only will this trip allow me one final taste of baseball before the harsh reality of winter sets in, but will also provide opportunities to get autographs of some of the most highly regarded talents who are only a few steps away from waking up in the major leagues.

With baseball still on the brain, I have a couple of other related items I feel worth mentioning.

I just received a very nice letter from Minnesota Twins pitching prospect Pat Neshek. Pat sent me a few autographed cards to complete a trade I had mentioned in a previous entry entitled art-O-graphs. He also mentioned that he had added a link to my website from his On The Road website. Pat’s site is such a great source I guess I should add a link to it on the baseball portion of my site and drive some traffic his direction.



Another strange thing happened late this week. I opened a package from Just Minors and discovered that they had mistakenly sent my recent order to my old address, and had sent me an entire set of preview cards and an Aubry Huff autographed card to compensate for any inconvenience I may have suffered. Now THAT is quality customer service my friend! Even before that I would have stated that Just produces some of the best baseball cards on the market- especially if you are looking to acquire autographs of future stars BEFORE they get famous.

art-O-graphs

Someone recently asked me when the baseball season will be over. Although the major league season extends well into October for the play-offs and World Series, the season ended locally on September 5th when the Isotopes failed to qualify for postseason action.

I will take advantage of the “down time” known as winter to deal with the baseball cards I got autographed this summer, and reorganize the cards I had pulled but failed to get signed for any of a number of reasons. Oftentimes, I will pull cards of a player who is on the roster of a visiting team several days before they come to town, then he will get traded, injured, or pro(de)moted within that particular organization, and not make the trip. Sometimes players will simply refuse to sign their cards. As unbelievable as that may seem, it is completely true. Sometimes I fail to get a card signed because I do not recognize a player in time to request an autograph before he climbs into the van that shuttles teams to/from their hotel and the airport.

Other times you can try to catch players and managers and ask them for an autograph include right outside the clubhouse either several hours prior to game time, or up to a couple of hours following a game. I’ve found that it is a good idea to avoid hanging around outside after a game if the team gets beaten badly. Sometimes you can recognize players out and about around town, but that is normally pretty difficult. Every once in a while, teams will schedule official autograph signings. This is a great way to get started collecting. Ballplayers often make appearances at baseball card shows, but I don’t have it in me to pay someone for an autograph. I would NEVER purchase an autograph via eBay as I prefer to get my cards signed in person. That said, another popular method of getting cards signed is to mail them to the appropriate stadium addressed attention to the player you want, and include a nice and brief note thanking them for their time. Be sure to include a self-addressed stamped envelope for them to return your cards, and be patient, as some players will wait to the end of the season to answer their fan mail.

I ended up getting just over 300 cards signed this season. Without question, my favorite one is this 2002 Topps Harmon Killebrew card (no. RB-HK) near the end of the season. Not only is Mr. Killebrew a Hall of Famer, but is also a genuinely all around great guy!



You may not realize it, but there is an entire subculture of baseball fans that are completely addicted to the sport of autograph collecting. Albuquerque has a group of about a dozen “hard core” collectors. Although you may notice a larger crowd of people hanging around the dugouts before and after games trying to get players to sign for them, it is this main core of fans for which collecting is truly an art. These guys estimate that they get between 1,000 and 3,000 cards signed per year. Most of them do not ask to have duplicate cards autographed, but it does happen.



Many of these collectors are as interesting to talk to as are the baseball players themselves. Most of them will arrive at the ballpark at least a half hour before the game starts. That’s normally when cards are traded, and discussion topics include what players (if any) got called up or sent down overnight, who everyone still needs to get autographs of, and rumors about when team sets are due to be released. It is also safe to expect that out of this group of a dozen collectors, you will see at least four different rosters printed out for the same team before the first game of a series. By the end of a homestand, most of the chatter revolves around the best autographs people have gotten, or how much of an asshole George Brett is.

Everyone has their own system of organizing the cards they hope to get autographed that day. (I tend to keep mine in alphabetic order sorted by the last names of the players. However, if I am attending the game as a fan and the visiting team has their numbers displayed on the front of their uniforms, I will reorganize my cards into numeric order.) Everyone has their favorite writing implement(s). Probably 90 percent prefer a blue Sharpie for cards, there’s always the odd duck who prefers black Sharpie, or is always trying out some new metallic pen that invariably sucks.

Unfortunately, I believe the team’s front office personnel misunderstand these collectors. Although they assume these guys are hounding players for autographs, then turning around and selling them on eBay, I honestly don’t think this is the case MOST of the time. Sure, some do it, but most of these guys are simply nuts about the game, and enjoy meeting the players and getting their autograph. How can you tell when you meet one of these guys? Simply look for the telltale Sharpie marks on their hands!



Speaking of Sharpies, it is a good idea to always carry an extra old Sharpie to GIVE to kids who ask to borrow yours to get their hat, glove, or program signed. Nothing ruins a Sharpie faster than the bill of a baseball cap.

My favorite baseball cards have always been those that feature a photo of a player in the act of signing an autograph for a fan. I have yet to see a baseball card of a player signing a huge contract, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.



I recently discovered a very interesting website maintained by Pat Neshek, a pitcher for the New Britain Rock Cats (Double A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins) who is into collecting autographs. His site contains a message board where people can discuss what players are great at giving autographs, and which ones you might as well forget about. Neshek also displays a bunch of kool proof shots, or photographs of himself in the act of signing autographs. I can’t decide which one I like better- the one of him signing next to a van with the Hostess Twinkie logo on the side (ps #5), the photo of him signing a baseball while jumping on a trampoline (ps #9), or the picture of him signing a shoe while pumping gas (ps #23). Neshek has a very unique signature; one that I’d like to add to my collection before he tires of signing. Pat’s website also has a fabulous feature he calls “Grapher of the Month.” These are the guys I'm talking about! Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Neshek’s website is that he will give away his game tickets to fans who trade him autographed cards of other players. What an insanely beautiful concept!

I realize that I already mentioned that I prefer to get my signatures in person. However, I think in Pat’s case I will make an exception. Unfortunately, I don’t have any of his cards, so I’m going to send him a team logo card for the Quad City River Bandits (where he pitched in 2003), and duplicate Matt Erickson and Andy Pratt cards I have signed in hopes that he will trade me a couple of his.