V-Day Cardboard @ShowYourHits

For Valentine's Day, Shan picked up a couple of 2013 Jumbo rack packs!  I am not going to post all the cards here, but did want to share the hits:

Out of the two packs, I snagged two Indians players: Brett Myers and Lonnie Chisenhall. I also managed to grab a home-stater in Cliff Lee! Wahoo!! Each pack had three "Walmart-only" blue-bordered cards. Here, I scanned Alberto Cabrera, Johan Santana, and Carlos Beltran. You can see a couple "Chasing History" and "Making Their Mark" inserts as well.

I also managed to snag a gold Luke Gregerson (the only gold in the packs) and a couple minis: Josh Hamilton and Stephen Strasburg. The awesome outfielder from da 'Burgh, Andrew McCutchen, also chimed in with a "Players Choice" insert! The other three blue-borders include Jeanmar Gomez, Michael Pineda, and Juan Lagares.  Of course, the "Piece of Resistance" (as they say in the Lego movie) is a freakin' awesome die cut of Rickey Henderson (Cut to the Chase)! That one goes into my Non-Tribers collection for sure!

I don't know how YOUR Valentine's Day went, but as far as store-bought gifts go, cardboard tops my list!  Well, and chocolate... and Nutter Butter Bites cookies... But, yeah, cardboard is right up there!! Wahoo!!

*My apologies to Cap'n Canuck for the 5-day delay this will undoubtedly follow. :-)

A Night of Beckett Q&A

On February 12, 2014, I decided to chime in on Beckett media's "Chatter Up" with Chris Olds.

Here are the questions I posed:

• Which card set based on music (specific artists/groups, genres, whatever) was the WORST ever?
• Aside from Box Busters, what cool things can Beckett do with video and collecting? Vodcasts with special guests, etc?
• What's a non-sport wax set you'd like to see?
• Back when Topps was putting protective coating on their cards, did you keep the coating on or remove it? I always removed it.
• What's one sport you wish there were more wax product?

By far and away, the one with the most discussion was the one about video and collecting. Ultimately, it comes down to money and time. I believe a video-based hobby-related program is viable. I may start that as my own hobby - a hobby hobby, if you will.

What are your thoughts on the questions I asked? Feel free to reply below!

Registration is now OPEN!!

Registration for the 2014 Season Pack-A-Day break is now OPEN!!  If you want to participate in this year's break, just follow the link below and get signed up!

I am still working out the revamped drafts, rules, etc, but we can get folks signed up now!

I also need a name for this year's break, so feel free to chime in by replying to this post.

Remember: there is no cost to join and our friends to the north (that would be Canada) are welcome as well!

Oh, I know, I am still sending out packs from last season's break so you might feel hesitant to sign up this year. Well, don't. It's free, after all. And, everyone that took part last year who scored cards will get theirs, I promise you that!

Okay, enough stalling. Let's get ready to rumble:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/12Bgj5hQwZdtXEXHoPm9Be4lFlDf9ZNVtjvil-8Y4BV8/viewform

If you have any questions about the giveaway, leave a comment and I'll be happy to answer.

Thanks for playing along!!

The Cleveland team from "Block C"

On January 8, a seemingly innocuous tweet changed the face of the Indians forever:

"Indians changing primary logo to the block-C. No change to uniforms, Wahoo still on home cap, sleeves."


It is widely accepted that the Indians are named as an homage to one of the first Native American to play professional baseball, Louis Sockalexis. There are conflicting reports about this, though.


In any case, the Wahoo logo has caused controversy for decades. Over the past few seasons, there has been an obvious and blatant decline in the use of Chief Wahoo in official Indians ventures. I noticed it a couple years ago when everything seemed centered on the "I" script seen on uniforms:


Of course, the "I" stands for "Indians," and well, we can't have that in this day and age of political correctness. Likewise, we cannot have a cartoon version of a Native American representing a professional baseball team, now can we? (Note the undertones of sarcasm)


So, as the "Team formally known as the Indians" moves away from the logo and ultimately the name, the organization has been quietly pushing Wahoo out of the picture.  The tweet, though, is the first public admission to this move.


Supposedly, Wahoo will remain on certain items and in certain places. It is quite obvious, though, this will not last long. Soon, the mascot will be nothing but a footnote in a Wikipedia entry.  Soon to follow will be the name. The Atlanta Braves will also have to change their name and any logo references to Native Americans.


Instead of grabbing on to these last bastions of public honor, Native Americans are helping to write themselves out of American culture. Instead of embracing the fact that professional teams (Indians, Braves, Redskins, Blackhawks, et al) could be HELPING the Native American history, by tweaking the focus of those teams to positive lights instead of negative ones, today's world of "don't offend anyone" has poisoned those prospects. Soon, there will be no mention of, or connection to, Native Americans in the public eye.  Essentially, the arguments against these teams only serves to further sweep the rich and horrific history of those that were in America long before it was "discovered."


Specifically to the "Team from Cleveland," the organization has decided that the "Block C" will serve as the primary insignia for the team this year. We might as well join the A's and just call ourselves "The C's."  Nothing says "We're lucky to be average" like using a big letter "C" as your primary logo.


Seeing the writing on the wall, it will not be long before any references to "The Tribe" will be passe' and even the name of this blog will be chastised. I bet that before 2020, the "Team from Cleveland" will no longer be called the Indians. Instead, they will have some other name (probably some stupid inanimate object).


How long will it be before PETA forces teams to quit using animals as mascots?

Stale Community Gum #stalegum #communitygum

Last season, I opened more than 200 packs (probably closer to 300 "packs") of baseball cards for the "Tribecards from Outer Space" pack-a-day giveaway. Many of those packs had gum. For some reason, only  known to my subconscious, I saved nearly every piece of gum that came from any packs that had gum (and that I could actually save).  To refresh your memory, some of the packs dated back to 1978 and 1979.

Those packs had gum. And, yes, I saved it. Talk about your "Stale Gum!" And, since the giveaway was shared among 30+ hobbyists, I also submit this could be considered "Community Gum" as well.

I am not so bold to start slipping these bits of nastiness into participant packages. That's just not right. But, I could not let these fall into the trash bin without posting SOMETHING about them, seeing as how I saved them for some reason or another.

Looking at the photo, you can probably guess which pieces come circa the late 70's. Those would be the skinny little grey-ish pieces (concentrated on the left side). The unwrapped darker pieces (like in the upper-left corner) come from the 80's. Notice that some of the gum is actually double-stacked (again, upper-left corner). I guess if we had opened those back in the day, we would have been happy to see a bonus piece of gum in our pack. 30 years later, however, it's pretty gross.  In fact, all of it is gross.  Of course, baseball card gum has always been a little gross, hasn't it?

Could we open the wrapped gum and eat it? Maybe. One thing is for sure: gum has gotten longer, wider and thinner over the years.

I may have shared this with you before, but I can't remember, so I will share it again... When I was a kid, I would take the gum and break into little pieces. Then, I would stick those pieces randomly into an apple. I would try to spread things out so that I could get a bite of gum with almost every bite of apple. The result was something almost like eating a candy apple. I loved it. My friends just thought I was weird. Some things never change, I suppose.