One More Batch of Cardboard TTM

Aloha, everybody, 

Welcome to ATBATT 2018. I'm lucky and blessed enough to open the year's posts with a small backlog of trade packages to present. 

Right before the close of the year, I featured a bunch of cards that came to me from Paul's TTM Autograph Blog. Paul, being a generous man, actually sent two separate packages to me. Today, we'll be checking out that second batch. 

The first couple of cards represent a side story for Dodger fans. It's "the changing of the guard". One big reason the boys in blue made it to the Fall Classic was the fact the Dodgers got younger. 

This card marks the power-hitting duo (from a few years back) of young Joc Pederson and Adrian Gonzalez. It's a good representation of the Dodgers turning a page on aging veterans, and moving toward a younger core. 

Andre Ethier, the longest tenured Dodger, will be probabbly moving on as well. I've long been a fan of Captain Clutch, so this blue-bordered beauty is very welcome. 

Manager Dave Roberts blew World Series opportunities when he kept Ethier mostly on the bench against the Astros, despite Ethier almost always getting a hit (including a PH home run) whenever he got a chance. 

Paul also dropped some new Nomos into my lap...

I love these cards that show Nomo just peeking over the top...

 Here's another angle...

Press Proof alert! These always take me back to my early collecting days. I was always ripping packs with the hope of catching one of these.

And now, World Series pitching hero, Kenta Maeda about to be sucked down into shiny, colorful quicksand...

Any and all Kenley Jansens happily accepted...

Closing out this pitching-heavy package is one of my favorite Dodger southpaws, on All-Star cardboard. I'm thinking that's Wrigley ivy behind him...

THANKS for the two great packages, Paul! I'm lucky the dealers around you are stocking a whole lotta Dodgers these days, and I'm very happy that you thought of sharing that with me. 

Aloha! 

JBF Delivers a Cross-Country Body Blow

Aloha, everybody, 

Several of us received cardboard bombardments from the most generous collector I know. None other than my brother from way down south, good ol' Wes, of JBF fame. 

Wes sent me a big cube o' cards filled with cardboard goodness. The cards were packed in such a way that goodness was sprinkled about. Inserts, limited edition cards, relics and autos popped out from among Dodgers base cards that filled out team sets. As fun as it was to get those first glimpses of cardboard gold in my initial flip through the cards, its true glory slowly revealed itself as I sorted out what I had. 

As usual with Wes' slammings, it's going to take a couple of posts to show off the highlights. I'm so jazzed by said highlights, I don't even know what to start off with, so in no particular order, we'll get started with INSERTS and LIMITED EDITIONS...

First up are a couple of 2017 Chrome Refractors - real beauts...

Here's a green refractor, numbered 23/99...

Up next are a couple of cards that may be among the last issued to Andre Ethier as a Dodger. The blue is numbered 32/500...

...and the orange is #62/250...

This gold Manny is # 32/50. The photo is from Hanley's early days as a Dodger. It's a great photo, but looks like he's gonna be missing or fouling it off just underneath.

Here's a seemingly simple card, but I dig the caption "Robbed in Right", and the great shot of the ball nested securely in Puig's glove. 

Finally, a 2015 Chrome Farm's Finest miiiiinnnniiiiiiiiiiii of World Series hero, Joc Pederson...

We're just getting started folks. This is just the first wave of blows from ol' Wes. Stay tuned for more! Lots more. 

Aloha! 

Breaking Down Cards With a Whole Lotta Words

Aloha, everybody, 

My humble little collection has been blessed these days by the arrivals of PWE's and packages full of cardboard goodness. This of course means my humble little blog is blessed with plenty for me to show off and write about. 

Gavin, the custom card artist and master blogger behind Baseball Card Breakdown, recently sent over a surprise PWE, and he asked if I could follow up my 100 words post with 75 words about the cards he sent me. 

I'm sorry, Gavin, my good friend, but squeezing my usual long-winded-posts into just 100 words was pretty difficult for me. Cutting an additional 25 words off and giving justice to what you sent to me just isn't in the cards (as we say). 

Heck, I've probably already written close to 100 words and I haven't even shown a single card yet. So let's fix that right quick...

Bam! Leading off is a beautiful Topps Chrome third-year card of the longest tenured Dodger, Captain Clutch. 

I have high hopes for Ethier this year. It may be Andre's last year in Dodger blue, but he's currently sidelined with a sore back, so we'll see how that goes. 

Moving from the oldest Dodger to the newest one, it's a couple of cards of Logan Forsythe as a Padre...

That's a great double play of Forsythe RCs in base and cognac diamond versions. (I wonder if I sent any of these over to Gavin before, and they've now come full circle back to me.) 

It's been a while since I received any diamond parralels. I'd forgotten just how cool they look in hand. 

Here's another shot of cognac. 

Javy was a favorite of mine, but the Dodgers DFA'd him. After bouncing around a couple of clubs, he recently signed with his former manager, Damn Mattingly over in Miami. Good luck, Javy!

Gav wasn't finished with the diamonds. Here's a sweet Ethier...

Man, these cards are beauts! I sent a bunch of these diamonds away some time ago to someone who was collecting these parallels. Seeing them again, I'm gaining a new appreciation for them. 

Finally, not cardboard diamond, but a player who was a diamond when he was with the Dodgers. 

Like a diamond, he took time to change from a lump of coal to something appreciated and coveted. 

You see, Juan Uribe came over to the Dodgers from the Giants. Lots of us hated to see a former Giant join our favorite team, and to top things off, he kinda sucked at first. 

Eventually Uribe found his stroke and filled out the Dodger home whites quite well. I loved to see his great friendship with Hyun-Jin Ryu. 

One of his biggest games was when he shrugged off Damn Mattingly's galactically STUPID call for a bunt and blasted a two-run home run to kill the Braves and send the Dodgers to the NLCS. 

This Uribe card is my favorite of the bunch. He went from a hated Giant to a beloved Dodger, and I just don't have enough Uribe Dodger cards. 

It's such a cool card, let's see it again. Check out that cool powder blue Brooklyn throwback uni, and spot-on swing. 

Beautiful and awesome, just like the PWE. THANKS, Gav. 

Ummm...how many words was that? 

Aloha! 

I'm Fashionably Late to the Topps 2016 Party

Aloha, everybody, 

It took a long time, but I finally made it to Target, and today I got my hands on my first packs of 2016 Topps flagship. 

Just about everyone in the blogosphere has opined on the aesthetics of the product, and since I agree with most of your critiques, I won't be repeating those praises and criticisms here. 

There is one place where I want to add my perspective to the discussion, and I'll be mentioning that soon enough. Let's take a look at my first card of the year...

*Meh* On the bright side, Matt's trade pile just grew by one. 

This was my first in-hand look at the white noise that Topps added to the design of the cards. OK, that's my nomination for what to call this 2016 design - the White Noise set. 

Second up for 2016...

A damn Yankee. Welp, at least Zippy Zappy's trade pile has grown by one. 

Will the third card bring forth the ol' Dodgers charm? 

Bingo! Captain Clutch in what may well be his final Topps Dodger card. I'm glad to have it.

Lots of you out there have been calling that white background stuff clouds, fog and smoke. It looks to me like Topps has returned to the roots of baseball cards in a subliminal attempt to lure America's youth into collecting. 

Long ago, baseball cards were found in cigarette packages and were referred to as tobacco cards. In a stroke of daring marketing, Topps is alluding to vaping with that suggested smoke surrounding the players. They figure the kids will see all that vape smoke and think baseball is a cool, youthful sport. Genius? Or cynical marketing ploy? Time will tell.

How about some horizontal action? (lol) For anyone completing subsets, these are all yours...

 

Then I spied this card, which got my heart going for a half second...

I thought it was one of those buybacks. I know there's some backlash out there against the buybacks, but if I pulled a 1962 Roger Maris, that would be quite alright with me. Stamp, shmamp.

Alas, it was from some kind of reprint subset that is called Berger's Best. Bah! 

Here are the rest of the "highlights" from the packs, in no particular order...

It's another Dodger! Hey kids, let's vape with the Dodgers! 

 Who's collecting this Perspectives subset? 

Finally, a Wrigley Field card that has sparked an idea in my head. I don't make customs, but if I did ( ahem - Gavin), I wonder what a custom would look like that commemorates that Dodgers vs Cubs fans rhubharb that I covered in my past Baseball Bengals post? That might be a fun one. 

There's my first dive into the pool of 2016 baseball. A decent couple of packs, and I'm looking forward to many more. 

Aloha! 

It's The Baseball Bengals!

Aloha, everybody,

How about those Bengals? They managed to snatch defeat from the hands of victory because a couple of players let their emotions get the best of them. 

Baseball players can become emotional as well. Some wear their emotions on their sleeves, causing meltdowns, eruptions and confrontations that everyone can see, affecting the outcomes of games, and sometimes, their careers and reputations. 

Today's post isn't meant to be a comprehensive list of these players. It's limited by my memory, my artistic license with the definition of a Baseball Bengal, and of course, by the cards in my collection. 

First up is the original Baseball Bengal. In yesterday's AFC playoff game, Bengal Vontaze Burflict laid out the Steeler's Mike Brown with a vicious head shot. The Georgia Peach earned a reputation for physically punishing opponents as well. 

Cobb was rumored to sharpen his spikes and use them as weapons against opposing players, and he didn't have any qualms about going into the stands to mix it up against the fans. 

Good ol' Billy Martin didn't mind a good dust up himself. He had numerous fights on and off the field, and he was supposedly traded away from the Yankees as a result of a drunken barroom brawl. 

As a manger, he regularly displayed his emotions for all to see, once engaging in a dugout shoving match with Reggie Jackson after yanking Reggie from the field in the middle of an inning. His numerous firings and re-hirings as Yankees manager became a running punch line for comedians. 

Brett wasn't exactly a hothead, but he does qualify as a Bengal because of his famous eruption after the umpires erased one of his home runs because they determined he had too much pine tar on his bat. 

Joss pitched two no-hitters and one perfect game. There's really nothing that points to him as an emotional powderkeg, but with a nickname like "the human hairpin", and that ever-lovin' mug that just seethes with, "Go'wan, I dare ya!", I figured I'd give him an honorary membership.

The next two players had one memorable clash that left impressions on both of their careers...

Robin Ventura made the mistake of charging the mound and challenging Ryan.  It was a young, star third baseman against a 46-year old. The Express promptly headlocked Ventura and mercilessly pummeled him. 

Andre Ethier has a well-earned reputation of letting his emotions get the best of him. A couple of seasons back, a photo went viral of Ethier shooting double middle fingers to the press, and he regularly overreacts when he feels pitchers are throwing at him, or umpires are cheating him on the strike zone.

Most recently, he went on a dugout shouting tirade against his manager Don Mattingly, in the middle of a playoff game against the Mets. 

However, no Dodger was a bigger Baseball Bengal than Milton Bradley. I know I have Bradley's Dodger cards around here somewhere, but I can't find anything quickly, so this will have to do...

Here's Milton in one of his numerous meltdowns; this time he's emptying a bag of baseballs on the field. Unfortunately for Bradley, he was such a Bengal that he had these outbursts with every team he played for, and he eventually wore out his MLB welcome. 

Finally, we have a Dodger who went Bengal at Wrigley Field, back in 2000.

 The confines may be friendly, but not all Cubs fans are. Someone snatched Kreuter's cap off of his head, which led him to blow his other top, and go into the stands. Numerous other Dodgers went Bengal as well, causing a near-riot. 

 I watched this game on TV, but I couldn't find any video of it. If you didn't see the game, you can imagine what a mess it was. In the end, 19 Dodgers were suspended - and Kreuter never did get his hat back. 

In honor of the Baseball Bengals, the Clash will take us out with White Riot! 

Aloha!

Did My Tweet Inspire Matt Kemp?

Last night saw the first game of a three-game series between the Dodgers and Giants, in a battle for the top of the NL West. The Dodgers came into Frisco holding a slim 2-game lead, so this weekend series was going to be very important. 

Game One was horrible for Dodger fans, as the evil Giants beat us 9-0. It was a rough punch to the face.

That meant everything was going to be ramped up even further for tonight's game.  As Tommy Lasorda always said, every Dodger was going to have to get on the same side of the rope and pull. I did my part for the Blue and sent out this tweet to Matt Kemp...

 Dodger Nation was mad! Dodger Nation needed revenge! We needed some get back! Tonight called for:

Of course I don't know if Mr. Kemp read my tweet, but it sure seemed like he did, as he led the Dodgers in an absolute Frisco Bay booty-whuppin'. 

Kemp didn't finish the game, as he fouled a pitch off his foot and left early, but he did some serious damage in Toy Car Stadium. Kemp had two doubles and a single, scored three runs and knocked in three more.  

For icing on top the Dodgers' big dish of baseball revenge, he threw out Angel Pagan at home plate, while in the midst of blowing a bubble with his gum! 

 The Bison may not know karate - but he sure knows ca-ray-zaayyy!!

 I shoulda known everything was going to be just fine in Dodgerlandia because of the way the day began.  I woke up to this wonderful box (not package - BOX!) in the mail....

 This was easily the BIGGEST haul of cards I've EVER received. More on this windfall of Dodger Blue in a later post. I'm still sorting these babies! 

Tonight may have been wonderful for the Dodgers, but I suspect not everyone in Blue was thrilled. Poor Andre Ethier went missing yet again. In a 17-0 blowout, Ethier still couldn't get in the game! Say what?

It was 17-0 and scrub time. Guys named Bernadina were playing for the Dodgers, but Ethier was still collecting splinters.

Did the guy get Mattingly's daughter pregnant? Did he feed chocolate to Ned Colletti's dog? He's getting the serious Al Davis vs. Marcus Allen treatment. 

You heard it here first - he may get left off of the playoff roster.

Sure, 17-0 makes an exciting headline, but I suspect what's happening with Ethier is the real story. 

Damn Mattingly Takes Off The Gloves

Wow, did I really see what I saw on last night's post-game interview?  Did I really read what I read all over today's sports pages and blogs?  I've been a Dodger fan a mighty long time, and I don't EVER remember hearing or reading the Dodger's manager saying...and I quote, 

"We're just not that good." 

That's quite a statement - out loud - to the press - in L.A.!! But it hadda be said.

USATSI

Regular readers here know I'm not a big Mattingly backer, not in the least, but I'm giving credit to the skipper on this one. 

 Mattingly is what they call a "players" coach. I get it, he's empathetic because he was a player too.  Some don't like his easy going attitude, and fault him for not showing more aggression.  Oh, it's there alright, but not like a Billy Martin aggression. Mattingly is apparently a passive aggressive manager.

Although he's clearly frustrated (as are all in the Dodger Nation) with the state of the ballclub, yesterdays's press conferences were not irrational, purging-of-emotions tirades.  They were a calculated move - albeit, a desperate Hail Mary  - to light a fire under the Dodgers' collective rear ends before the season slips away. He just called his players out publicly, and it's a tactic he's used before.

  Last year at this time the Dodgers were in the same whirlpool of suckiness they're swirling in today.  He used this same tactic to call out the team generally and Andre Ethier particularly for not playing with enough "GRIT".  

I'm not saying that tactic caused the team's miracle turnaround from the cellar to the penthouse, as it took a perfect storm of circumstances to arise in order for that to happen.  I'm just not discounting it outright as a factor. If anything, it planted the seeds for his calling bullshite on the team's lack of heart and poor play so far this season.

Mattingly held closed clubhouse meetings, personal meetings, team-wide meetings and did pretty much everything he can do to inspire the team - all to no avail.  

Prima dona Matt Kemp has done his share to let everyone know it's all about him and the Gap.  Other players are feeling uncomfortable. Team leaders haven't fixed things. Rookies are posting notes about togetherness on clubhouse walls and open air arguments are taking place in the dugout as the midway point of the season is fast approaching. It was definitely time for a Hail Mary play by somebody. 

So Mattingly showed his frustration-furrowed face, called out the troops for not being good enough, and pointed the press in the direction of his players. "Go ask them why we suck."  He's using a backdoor to challenge them to prove themselves as athletes and men.

It was a brilliantly calculated move because today is an off day for the team.  Mattingly dropped his bomb in a way that everyone would feel shock in the clubhouse last night, and then feel the awe when away from the ballpark and alone with themselves today.

The second prong of Mattingly's play involves the Dodgers starting a road trip away from the prying eyes, microphones and tweets of a good chunk of the L.A. press. They'll be away from the comforts of home and in enemy territory.  What better time for a group to come together?

Heck, Mattingly even pulled the Tommy Lasorda card and used Tommy's analogy about the strength of a team all pulling together on the same side of the rope. 

I gotta admit, just for that, Mattingly scored some points with me. But I'm not really the one that matters here.  The question is, how will the Dodgers react?