Top 20 Movies In Cardboard - Final Chapter

Hey everybody,

Here's the final three films from the epic ATBATT series: Movies As Cardboard...

3. RESERVOIR DOGS
I figure everyone has already seen this Tarentino study of the ill-fated Serpico wannabe,Tim Roth,  as he infiltrates Steve Buscemi and Harvey Keitel's gang of LA thieves.  The problem is, although the gang looks great on paper, these guys ultimately fail in every way possible.

"Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie?  Or are you gonna bite?"

 

Presenting a schedule.  I've been collecting Dodgers schedules since the 90's.  Here we have the Dodgers' version of Reservoir Dogs.  One would think with an incredible four straight ROY (which eventually became five in a row!) we woulda had a better run and caught a pennant or two.  Apparently we didn't have enough juicers on the roster to compete in the juicy NL West. 


2. A FEW GOOD MEN
Fantastic courtroom movie!

"You don't have to wear a patch on your arm to have honor." 

Speaking of juicers, here we have 2 Home Run Icons whose records have been "broken" by questionable men using questionable methods.  As I searched my binder for the right card to pair up with the title "A Few Good Men", this one jumped right out at me.

Maris earned his record in a race between two guys ON THE SAME TEAM - at the center of Baseball's universe at the time...and most of New York wanted Mantle, rather than Maris, to break the Babe's record.   In Aaron's circumstance, as he chased the ghost of the Babe, he also had to contend with very real death threats and piles of racist mail.

McGwire and Bonds, on the other hand, dealt with an adoring public gleefully cheering them on every game, loving sports reporters, and in McGwire's case, being dealt a few too many groovers down the pipe as he got closer to Maris' record, and Sosa got closer to him.

1. THE MATRIX
Did this movie absolutely blow your mind like it did mine ?

"Dodge this."

"Oops, you mean I'm not supposed to take the red pill AND the blue one?"

 

Finally, a card that reminds us of one of the best scenes in The Matrix; the shootout on the rooftop when Neo amazingly contorts his body in order to dodge bullets. 

It's my pleasure to close out the countdown with Hideo Nomo, one of my all-time favorite Dodgers. He was nicknamed The Tornado for good reason.  Nomo had a wind up that twisted and bent his body in ways American batters had never before seen. 

The photo on the card above is not a pick off throw to third, and it's not shot from a weird angle.  This is the view batters had from home plate.  Nomo wound up like a corkscrew and said, "Hit this."  Not many could, and on one rainy night in the batter's heaven that is Colorado, nobody did.

THANKS for reading! 

Topps 2013 Hits My Walmart, And I Hit A Hit!

Hey everybody,

So I heard Topps 2013 was hitting the stores, and I decided to stop by my local walmart and grab a quick pack.  I probably won't chase the set, but I was excited for some new product hitting the shelves - which also, by the way, usually means discounts for remaining 2012 stuff.

I bought a jumbo 2013 pack  (and a discounted 2012 pack) - got to ripping as soon as I got home, and was pleasantly surprised!  I don't know how the collating is gonna play out over the long haul, but I was pretty happy with what I pulled today.

I know lots of bloggers are gonna pack rip and write proper reviews of the product.  That's not my intent here, as you other guys do a much better job than me of breaking down the details o' the cardboard.  I have no idea of whether or not Topps used the same shade of blue in the actual cards as they showed in previews. As Clint once said, "A man's got to know his limitations."

However, since I'm dropping quotes, I'll drop one more; as Lux Interior once sang, "I don't know about art, but I know what I like." - and there was lots to like in the cards I pulled...

Here's the first of the inserts I pulled.  These Chasing History cards have a very nice bluish mirror (refractor?) finish. These are seeded 1:4

Walmart jumbo packs each have 3 blue border cards.  My cardboard luck was running hot today, so I managed to pull a Dodger!  Not a bad photo.

I almost never pull Dodger cards, but besides the blue card, I also pulled a base version of a Dodger. 

Since the Card Gods were with me today, I pulled a second Chasing History card, and it's a guy I collect!

Speaking of pulling cards from guys I collect, here's a nice one - a '72 miiiiiiiinnnnnnniiiiii Kershaw! Awesome! These are also seeded 1:4
 

 

You want inserts? We got inserts! Here comes another -Calling Cards - Seeded 1:8

I'm presuming this is one of the emerald foils.  These are very nice looking.  Shiny and sparkly beauty.  Seeded 1:6


We're not done yet...I also hit an auto :)

Here we have one of the Chasing The Dream Autos.  Apparently this insert set is made up of the young guns in the game today.  There are 20 players on the checklist (Dee Gordon is the Dodger's representative in the set), and Cardpedia has no info on the seeding for these.  It's a secret?
 

Finally, I pulled this baby.  An invitation to play in Topps' Million Dollar Chase game.  I'm unsure exactly how this works, but apparently I get to pick a (different?) player every day during the season.  As long as the players I pick keep getting hits, I keep building a hitting streak.  This eventually leads to prizes.  Sounds like fun.

None of these cards alone would take our cynical, jaded breaths away, but taken as a whole, I'm pretty darn stoked about my first pack of 2013 Topps.

THANKS for reading!