OH… MY… GOD!!!!!!!!!!

I had a post ready to go in preparation for the completion of my second trade with Shane from Shoebox Legends.  All I had to do was fill in what he sent and add the links and it’d be ready to go.  But now that I have the package he sent, just… whoa!!!!

First of all, here is the background of this trade: He pulled a beautiful Spectrum Carlos Zambrano jersey #’d to /15 over on A Pack A Day awhile back, but had no use for it himself, so he said make an offer if you want it.  So I did, and he accepted.  What it basically ended up being was two ’05 Heritage Jed Lowries (regular & mohagany), and an Allen & Ginter Jason Varitek jersey for the Big Z.

I also threw in most of the Red Sox that had built back up after our last trade, as well as most of the two packs of Goudey I had bought between the trade being accepted and actually sending it out.  Finally, I sent out the only two worthwhile packs remaining in Target’s bargain bin along too.

Anyway, this is just incredible.  I can’t even wait to try and get some scans to put up before I post this.  Here is what my dawg, my boy, my man Shane hooked me up with.

Packs- If I am accepted, I will post these on A Pack A Day.

1992 Stadium Club Hockey- Man I do loves me some Stadium Club, and I do enjoy the occasional Hockey pack.

1986 Major League Leaders Baseball

2005 Upper Deck All-Star Classics Baseball

Cubs Singles-

Top Case (Top To Bottom)-

1993 Fleer Ultra- This here is on of my all-time favorite sets.  It just oozes class.

Candy Maldonado, Greg Hibbard, Mike Harkey (a personal fave from my youth), Jose Guzman, Randy Myers, Dan Plesac (showing *hopefully* proper bunting technique on the back of the card), Rey Sanchez (ah, there’s a name from my younger dayz *le sigh*), Tommy Shields (your guess is quite possibly better than mine), Jose Viscaino (bittersweet memories of lost youth), Matt Walbeck Rookie, Willie Wilson

And the rest (still in order)

2008 SP Legendary Cuts Alfonso Soriano (I approve this design), 1986 Major League Leaders Ryne Sandberg (oh my yes), 1991 Upper Deck (The first cards I ever received) “MVP Lineup” Ryno, Hawk, and Taco Bell, 1992 Score Bob Scanlon, 2007 Topps Heritage Rich Hill

Second Case (Top to Bottom)-

2008 Topps Alfonso Soriano, 2008 Upper Deck Ted Lilly, 1987 Topps Rafael Palmiero (w/ sweet nonsensically rainbow-hued Future Stars insignia), 2001 Topps Stars Eric Young (not this guy), 2001 Leaf Rookies & Stars Fred McGriff (I liked him long before he came to the Cubs), 2001 Fleer Premium Kerry Wood, 2001 Upper Deck MVP Bill Mueller (this design is straight up swank), 1994 Topps (another of my all-time favorite set designs) Shawn Boskie and Dan Plesac, 1994 Score Steve Buechele (picture is indescribable, something for the ladies of dinged corners to dissect I think), Jose Viscaino (another fascinating pic), and Eddie Zambrano Rookie Prospect

Sandwiched Between the Cases

1977 Topps Larry Biitner and 2006 Bowman Heritage Derrek Lee mini

I’m pretty sure I have none of these cards, and I know for a fact the only two that I could even possibly have already are the Topps Soriano and UD Lilly.

The Crown Jewel–

2008 Upper Deck Spectrum Carlos Zambrano Game-Used Jersey (w/ Pinstripe) SS-CZ #’d/15

…

And now for the holy s*** moment.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this…

The Reason I Almost Fainted-

2005 Upper Deck Vladimir Guerrero UD Game Patch GP-VG

OH… MY… GOD.  This is just incredible.  Above and beyond anything I could have ever hoped for.  Was there a nice hit in one of those packs of Hockey?  I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but thank you thank you thank you 745,121 times THANK YOU!  Shane Diaz you are an awesome man.

PS: After a “buggy” start to today, things just keeps getting better & better.  I got down to the office this morning to pick up this package of improbable greatness.  And while I was writing this post (and the reason I still haven’t finished it until now going on 7pm), Jacky Muffin came back!!!!  Eleventy billion hearts. ❤

Until our next,

Me

Is Nick Swisher a Mini Adam Dunn?

Is Nick Swisher mini Adam Dunn?  Lets take a look at the similarities shall we?

Swish’s career stats (5 seasons)- .244 BA, .354 OBP, .451 SLG, 104 HR, 324 RBI, 342 BB, 538 K, 112 OPS+

So Nick’s average season is .244-.354-.451-21-65 w/ 68 walks and 108 strikeouts… His OPS is .805

Dunn’s career stats (8 seasons)- .247 BA, .381 OBP, .518 SLG, 278 HR, 672 RBI, 796 BB, 1255 K, 130 OPS+

So Adam’s season average is .247-.381-.518-35-84 w/ 100 walks and 157 strikeouts… His OPS is .899

There you have it.  Both strike out a lot and have pretty bad averages below .250, but draw a bunch of walks to have an inordinately high on base percentage.  Nick doesn’t have Dunn-level power (which is easily over 9000), but is pretty respectable in his own right.  Looking at the stats and their actual physical statures… It’s almost like a Pokemon evolution.

Nick Swisher evolved to… Adam Dunn!

I clearly have too much time on my hands, but I think it’s a fair comparison and justifiable to call Swishy “mini Adam Dunn”, though probably not to his face.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.

PS: What does OPS+ even mean?

News & Notes

My mind and heart have been elsewhere, so here’s what’s up (what’s up!!).

The cards for Bailey from The Nennth Inning have been ready to go for awhile.  They’ve been sitting on top of my computer monitor for close to two weeks waiting for my lazy arse to get to the post office.  The ones for Dinged Corners are a different story.  The sheer number of cards I’m sending will take too many of the little 25 cent cases I usually use to send out trades in, so I’m trying to come up with a better alternative.  I’ll figure it out and get them sent out by the end of November 2009… probably. >.>

The Brewers are beginning to annoy me.

I hate to admit it, but I’m starting to be interested in all the political BS this year.  And is it just me, or has business picked up steam later than usual this year?  It might just be the fact I haven’t really been watching much TV for quite awhile.

Speaking of which, I’m getting really tempted to dump my digital cable.  I really dispize Comcast for f***ing me around on my bill the first several months after they took over… but, the music and sports available in the high numbers, as well as WWE 24/7 and anime network, won’t let me from drop more than $7 or so worth of programming.  I have got to find a better (or at least comparable and cheaper) alternative to Comcast’s internet service though.  Read my lips Comcast… your internet service is NOT worth $35 a month.

I have all my stuff from September’s “money I shouldn’t have spent on eBay but did anyway” all here, but I’ve decided it’s better to hold off on dedicating any time or a post to them until I can do up some scans, or get a Photobucket or some such to at least link to or something.  If nothing else, my personal collection received a nicer than usual upgrade, for less than I usually spend on eBay.  I stayed pretty focused for once.  Hopefully that post will be up in the very near future.

I haven’t been eating much… since this spring really, and lately I’ve been having a hard time keeping down stuff, particularly outside my normal faves.  I’ve got a lower than normal appetite nowadays anyway.  I only eat a normal amount of food a couple times a week at most usually, just eating one big meal or snacking throughout the day this summer and into the fall.  All I’ve eaten, and felt like eating, in the last 24 hours is a 99 cent bag of chips and a Fudge Round, a third of a big tomato, and a little hunk of some kind of meat, a small amount of which I couldn’t keep down.  I haven’t eaten in at least 16 hours and I’m not very hungry, except for maybe something relatively simple like a bag of popcorn or some other similarly simple snack food.  Should I be concerned about this?

Sleeping has been a problem too.  Why do I have such messed up and disturbing dreams when I miss my meds for a day or two?  I am a vivid dreamer, but missing a day or two should not be causing such messed up ones.  That’s not what they are for.  How can a mood stabilizer (such as it is) do that, when such dreams were relatively rare before I started them three years or so ago?

I acknowledge I need to be taking something, even the small difference what I’m on makes in my mood helps, and for some reason they have the effect of helping me sleep a bit better, or at least a little more normal, albiet in a way that doesn’t feel “normal”.  I only seem to do the staying up 24-36 hours thing about once a week on them, compared to *most of the time* and only being able to sleep 3-5 hours when I actually do sleep when taking nothing.  I’m clearly not stable and always seem to be just a moment from snapping, especially when most everyone around me knows the buttons to push to make it happen, and push them with straight up impunity.  I should be on something, but… I dunno.

I wonder if just being able to sleep properly would soothe the monster in me just as well as the small positive effect given by what I’m taking now.  And I mean *ideally* without the effect of screwed up dreams and the unnatural lethargic feeling that goes along with the aforementioned side effect of this particular med’s sleepymaking.  Is there some other med(s), or mayhaps something more natural, out there that will help me out in a less problematic way?

And *FINALLY*, I was distracted for awhile with video games and I’m still feeling the gamer in me, but I’m falling back into the funk related to the “Arizona Ominous” post again.  I’d really love to be able to speak on it in more detail, but I just can’t.  All I can do is be vague in regard to the whole situation like that post was.  Suffice to say it’s really buggin’ the heck outta me though.

Until our next,

Me

No Focus!

Yeah, that sums it up.  I’m pretty much broke… I’ve been under $10 for the rest of the month since about the 20th, so baseball cards and blogging about them have fallen off the radar for the second half of this month.  I haven’t even read anybody else’s for almost a week.  This has been replaced, for the moment, by another of my many random loves: old school video games.

The recent triumphant return of Vixy from RockmanPM (to celebrate Mega/Rock Man 9) has kind of psyched me up again after a summer of not playing much (and by that I mean, not playing at all), and snapped me out of the previous post’s funk and overall lack of energy to do anything, for now.

As well, a friend of mine from 411mania has wanted me to try and get on there ever since I decided to end my tenure recapping a (mind-numbingly schizophrenic) wrestling show on a wrestling satire website this summer.  So the other day I took my sorry, not mention rusty, gaming skills and started beta testing my idea for an old school games column highlighting all the great games I missed growing up, using forgotten NES gem StarTropics.  After 8 hours and 45 minutes, I’m just starting the fifth chapter (of I think seven).  The idea I had for the column is turning into a muddy mess, so I thought I’d drop a few thoughts on the game here though if nothing comes of it.

First of all, StarTropics stars Mike Jones, star high school pitcher from Seattle, as he attempts to rescue his archaeologist uncle from an evil alien.  The game draws a lot of comparisons to the original Legend of Zelda, but I don’t really see it THAT much.  I mean yeah, it’s exploring dungeons and stuff, but… it just feels different.  For one thing, there is lots of jumping in the game.  And as such, the perspective is a little different, to speak nothing of the gameplay mechanics.  The dungeons also push the story along, ridonkulous as the scenarios can be.

StarTropics came out in 1990, a few years after LoZ, so the graphics are, in the dungeons at least, much improved.  Control is kinda sluggish, but you get used to it quick enough.  Also, starting each chapter with only your original three hearts is kind of annoying.  The third dungeon of the looooong chapter 3 was particularly brutal and took many tries and tested my already suspect mental health.  It was just a pain, but satisfying when finally completed.

Overall though, whatever complaints I have are relatively minor.  I would definitely recommend picking up StarTropics on the Wii’s Virtual Console, if you haven’t already.  It’s a good, lengthy, and challenging game, especially for the only 500 Wii Point ($5) price tag.

Arizona Ominous

Some time ago (a good 3-4 years), I thought I would go to Arizona to get my head right when I left my hometown, or as I like to call it, god forsaken hellhole.  It’s not a bad place here, just terrible for me.  Anyway, at some point I made a good friend elsewhere.  She convinced me when I leave I should move to where she is.  I still intend to go there, but recent events have Arizona on my radar again.  Perhaps AZ is somewhere I need to be.  I can’t say why, but it’s eating away at me.  Yeah, I think I’m one word away from packing up a few things and being on my way.  Am I crazy, how far would I go?

Straight Out My Mailbox

This here’s Bailey from the Nennth Inning‘s end of a trade wit’ me for six cards from the 2008 Allen Ginter base set and three Tim Lincecums.  There will be more though, I found all my Giants cards, and only my lone Fred Lewis I particularly care to keep.  I’ll send your cards out soon I swear!

Anyway, here is what I received:

2007 BowChro- Ichiro refractor, David Ortiz, Alfonso Soriano, Mitch Atkins Prospect, “Good Ol'” J.R. Mathes Prospect, and two Ryan Norwood Prospects

2008 A&G David Ortiz & Ginter Back Mini Hanley Ramirez

Do you still want the World Leader since you are selling off your minis on eBay?  I only ask because… I’m not entirely sure where it is.

In other news, my Gail Kim event used mat card came today.  Scans are as always, pending.

Big Z No-Hitter Thoughts

So, yesterday I heard Skip Bayless say there should be an asterisk by Carlos Zambrano’s no-hitter.  I understand where he’s coming from, even being the huge Cub fan that I am.  It really wasn’t fair to play the games in Milwaukee, and the away uniform protest by the Astros was… warranted.  The problem is this though…

While deciding to play the two games at Miller Park in Milwaukee was pretty shady on Commisioner Selig’s part, the problem is that the Houston Astros were primed to be no-hit ANYWHERE outside the state of Texas.  Their hearts were clearly not in the game, as I believe it was Hunter Pence suggested on Cold Pizza (which will NEVER be First Take to me).  They could have played in Atlanta as Dayf mentioned being under consideration.  They could have played in my idea of Kansas City, even if the Royals were at home at the time, which I don’t know for sure.  KC is about as close to right in between Chi-Town and Hous-uhh… Town, as it gets.  Hell, they could have played at Gerald Field from Hey Arnold!, but the Astros’ hearts would still be back home staring down the hurricane.  Their one hit in game two proves that.

And pretty much no matter where they went outside of Texas, the Cubs fans would still be outnumbering the Astros fans at least 60/40.  There are Cubs fans literally everywhere in this country, and I think the majority of them are legit, and not bandwagon jumpers, though I’m positive there are plenty of them too.  Regardless, no matter where the Cubs go in recent years, the crowds seem to be made up of no less than 30% Cubs fans.  No way a neutral site outside of Texas will produce a crowd with a Houston Astros bias, unless about 10,000-15,000 Astros fans are flown in for the games.

Even though the Commish (who is only an Interleague Play and World Baseball Classic above George W. on the competence scale of people in positions of power) couldn’t have chosen a worse place for the games to be played, I could still see the no-hitter happening just about anywhere.  No matter where they played, the Astros hearts never left the state of Texas, and they weren’t going to get a pro-Houston crowd regardless of where they went in this country.

As they say, it is what it is, and what it is was a no win situation that the Astros were put in.  Everything possible seemed to be working against them, including the league itself.  The Cubs just happened to be in the right place at the right time to capatalize and did so spectacularly.  It’s unfortunate, but if the Astros are strong enough mentally, they can use this whole situation as motivation for their wild card push.

Trade w/ Dinged Corners

Here is the lot I received from Dinged Corners, in it’s entirety (unless some went missing when all the cards on top of my monitor fell this afternoon), broken down into specific categories.  I’ll try and add the pics if I can ever get them transferred from my brother’s digital camera.

Along with a lot for the Nennth Inning (what I received will be my next post), and a ridiculously belated birthday present for a good friend, your lot will be sent hopefully this Friday or Saturday, ladies.  Sorry for the delay, I think I picked out a pretty decent lot, and there be plenty left for another trade on another day.

Other-

First of all, we have a note, with a small drawing of a pitcher and a Cubs logo.  If there is ever a set of sports card blogger cards made, Patricia and Lucy’s signatures can be taken from this note for an ultra rare dual cut signature card of them.  They are the biggest superstars in our blogosphere this side of the Wax Heaven, after all.  That sounds way better and less historically significant document-destroying than a cut President’s signature to me.  And it’s at least better than a monster truck “autograph” (unless it’s Grave Digger). 🙂

1991-92 (I think) Skybox Chicago Bulls logo-  I was never really a Bulls fan, but this card is from quite possibly my favorite set of cards of all-time, in any sport.

Rock, Papi, Hanley, & Vlad-

These are some of the individual players I collect, of which there was one of each.

1994 Collector’s Choice Tim Raines

2006 Fleer Ultra Home Run Kings David Ortiz

2007 Fleer Hanley Ramirez

2008 Allen & Ginter Vlad Guerrero

Ken Griffey Jr-

My Griffey Collection has been close to doubled, I do believe.

1990 Fleer- Ah, the original.  This card is of Ken Griffey Sr, aka Ken Classic.  The rest are of The Kid.

1992 Fleer

1994 Score- Oh my, this… is so epic.  This card features Griffey… laying down a bunt.  How awesome is that?

2000 Upper Deck Opening Day 2K- An insert.  Post-2K has not been kind to our guy.

2006 Upper Deck National Baseball Card Day

2007 Topps Opening Day

2007 Topps Heritage

2008 Topps

Cubs-

The ’80s-

1981 Topps Mike Tyson (Going by the back the back of the card, he had much more power in the ring. ;P) & Mike Vail

1986 Topps Jim Frey & Steve Lake

1987 Topps Leon “Bull” Durham

1988 Fleer (Update?) Vance Law

1988 Topps Lee Smith

1988 Topps American Baseball Rick Sutcliff- I need cards 68 73 75 80 82 and 86 for the other six Strike factors.  Gotta catch ’em all.  For more on these lil buggers, see this.

1989 Fleer SuperStar Specials Will Clark/Rafael Palmeiro

1989 Score Darrin Jackson

1989 Topps Pat Perry & Scott Sanderson

The 90s-

1990 Score Paul Kilguss (Green) & Pat Perry (Red)

1990 Topps Pat Perry

1990 Topps K-Mart Jerome Walton- I had a giant 3ft tall bear when I was little, that was named after Jerome Walton.  They need to make glossy cards like this nowadays.

1991 Leaf Heath(cliff) Slocumb

1991 Score Rck Sutcliffe

1993 Fleer Doug Dascenzo- I always thought his nose was ginormous when I was little.

1993 Topps Mike Morgan- In 11 major league seasons starting in 1978, Mike had already played for the A’s, Yankees, Blue Jays, Mariners, Orioles and Dodgers before making it to the Cubs and having a huge year in ’92 (16-8 2.55).

1994 Collector’s Choice Kevin Roberson

1995 Collector’s Choice Special Edition Randy Myers- One of the many great closers to play for the Cubs.

1998 Skybox Thunder Lance Johnson

The 21st Century!1111-

Mark Prior- 2003 Flair (beautiful card), 2003 Upper Deck First Pitch, 2005 Fleer, 2006 Fleer

Derrek Lee- 2004 MLB Showdown, 2006 Fleer Tradition, 2007 Fleer Ultra, 2008 Upper Deck

2008 Upper Deck- Jason Marquis, Jacque Jones, the aforementioned D-Lee, Matt Murton (x2), and Jon Lieber

Other- 2007 Fleer Juan Pierre, 2008 Bowman Felix Pie, 2008 Topps Sean Marshall

Inserts-

2000 Upper Deck Opening Day 2K Sammy Sosa

2007 Upper Deck First Edition Juan Pierre Gold Parallel and Leading Off

2005 Donruss Zenith Positions Randy Johnson/Mark Prior/Roger Clemens- Uhh, one of these things is not like the others.  Oh well, at least the dufex is pretty shiny.

Ryno-

1987 Topps

1989 Topps All-Star

1995 Collector’s Choice Silver Signature

Hawk-

1988 Donruss MVP

1991 Fleer w/ Ryno

First Year/Prospects/Rookies/Draft Picks-

1994 Topps John Ratliff 1993 Draft Pick

2005 Topps Updates & Highlights Buck Coats First Year

2007 Bowman Heritage Prospects Alfred George “J.R.” (wait, what?) Mathes, Walter Ryan Norwood, and Samuel Babson Fuld

2008 TriSt*r Projections Larry Suarez- Huh, what’s this?  Holy s***!  He’s only 14?!?!?!?!  It says “Born: 12/21/93″… that’s gotta be a typo right?  No wonder he struggled to a 1-4 record in nine starts with the AZL Cubs in 2007, dude was freakin’ 13!!  I think it’s pretty impressive a kid that hasn’t likely even reached puberty yet got one in the win column at all, to be honest.  Holy Rookie of the Year!

Wow, on that note, I’m outta here.  More cards straight out my mailbox to come tomorrow.

Shoutouts #1

Just write something, it doesn’t matter what.  Maybe you won’t keep it, but you should at least write something every day.  So that is what I am trying to do now.  Quite honestly… I have no reason not to, and I should have been for a LONG time now.  No deep thoughts or intelligent talking points are coming to mind.  I’m just killing time because I’ve got nothing better to do right now.  So just write something.  I guess I can do a few shoutouts, say hey.

This shoutout right here goes to Patricia and Lucy from Dinged Corners– Thanks for the awesome lot of cards, I may have already sent out my end of the trade, if not for the fact that I’m still not sure what to send.  I don’t know how to quantify it, such a cool and random (heh, kinda like me) lot.  I’ll figure it out, get ’em up, and move ’em out.  Hopefully this will be soon.

This shoutout is for Bailey at The Nennth Inning– For somehow finally making me come back to my own blog.  I don’t know why, I’d been thinking about it for awhile, but you pushed me back over the top.  Maybe it just was seeing a cool new blog.  Whatever the reason, I’m back, and now y’all are stuck with me.  Ha!

Oh yeah, I should be able to get your cards sent out today.  They’ll at least get packed up and be ready for shipping on Monday, if nothing else.

This shoutout goes out to my Jacky Muffin– Are you okay?  I’ve been worried about you.  The way you left, it just… didn’t seem like you.  Whatever is goin’ on, please let me know.  Still my homepage, won’t be giving up or letting go until I know, and even then… I dunno.

This shoutout is meant for Ace– You f***ing douchebag.  Like it’s not already enough of a breach of trust to post an im convo online, but then to leave out parts to make the other person look bad.  Wtf is your damage, dude?

Finally we come to a shoutout meant for Derek– The cards still aren’t out man, but they will be soon.  I still haven’t seen those episodes of Gurren Lagann either.  How can I be any good when I can’t even manage that much, especially with all the prodding on the latter.

Hopefully this isn’t too much of a waste of space.  I had to say something, and this is the best I could come up with.  I guess if one of the above gets the message, than it’s cool right?  I’m still tired, so I might go back to sleep or something.  Getting up before the sun… is just not something I’m okay with.

Rainy Days and Cloudy Skies

Rainy days and cloudy skies

Are some of my closest friends

Rarely do I feel so alive

When I feel the rain on my skin

It purifies, and takes away my pain

A better touch I haven’t felt

The rain’s gentle caress

It feels so good that I could melt

I don’t need the sun to shine

To feel good inside

The cloudy skies protect my eyes

From the sun’s harsh rays

Hide me out from brighter days

Afraid to embrace the warmth

I’m so used to the somber greys

Should I change my ways

Is it already too late

To let go of my self-hate

It’s lonely but peaceful standing out here

Embracing my friend the rain

Is this how I’m supposed to feel

Standing under the cloudy skies

Is this the only way I can feel alive

… Wow, that was really amazingly bad.  Oh well.