A Dozen Packs Down and This One is Completely Mutant...

I have 81 points up to this point and I am ready to rip pack #12, aka the halfway point in this 2011 Gint-A-Cuffs box. This pack was pretty crazy, mutant really. I have never heard of a short print hot pack, but if such a thing exists, this is it… Anyway, here is my 12th pack…

I will start with a favorite player of mine, not my “Favorite Player”, but a fave nonetheless… I’m talking about card #138 of Cubs pitcher Matt Garza. This dude pitched the first and only no-hitter in Tampa Bay Rays history and they traded him the very next season. Thanks to the WGN Superstation, I have got to see Garza pitch quite a bit this year. I think he is a better pitcher than his 6-8 record indicates. The Cubs are giving Garza even less run support than the Rays did… Garza currently has a career LOW 3.68 ERA and 157 strikeouts in 151 innings. No points, but I ain’t worried…

The next 3 cards didn’t yield me any points either, but just you wait… Featured here are card #94 of Josh Rodriguez, #84 of Gregory Infante and card #167 of Adam LaRoche.
Things start to get a little odd with the next few cards. The 5th card out of the pack is card #330 of Yankees Ace CC Sabathia. I lose a point because CC is a stupid Yankee, but I gain 2 points cuz it is a short print. I still get 1 point total from this card and I am not done with the short print goodness.
Next up is card #345 of current Brewers Ace Zack Greinke. Another freaking short print and they came back to back! I don’t get the Yankees penalty on this one, just 2 points for being a short print. Not too shabby…
I am still in shock that I got 2 short prints consecutively… One of a current Brew Crew hurler, one of a past… But wait, there is more!
A Home Town Heroes card of EVERYONE’S Favorite Player Jon Lester. Like Raymond, everybody loves Jon Lester and I get a total of 3 points for this piece of cardboard and I am not finished cuz there is one mini left in the pack…
This particular mini is card #327 of David DeJesus. Another freakin’ short print, but this one is an even tougher pull… The regular short prints are 1 in two packs and I got two in one, but the mini SP is 1 in 13 packs, so this could be my one and only in this box…. Plus 3 points for the Troll, woo hoo!
Even losing a point for CC being a stupid Yankee I still come away with 9 points for this pack… Everything except for the SP base cards are up for trade…

If you are collecting the set I have noticed that I have a dupe of SP card #323 of Orlando Hudson. If anyone needs it, let me know… First reader to respond in the comments AND read this awesome post from everyone’s favorite nocturnal birdy blogger can have it – no strings attached… You should probably mention something about the Night Owl post in the comments to indicate that you read it… I am sure you did. If you wasted your time reading my silly posts and you aren’t reading the Night Owl on a daily basis, you aren’t making the best use of your time… Just saying…

Thanks for reading. After twelve packs I have 90 points. If I stay on this pace I will not be the 2011 Gint-A-Cuffs champion, BUT I think things will be getting better, so look out Nachos Grande, the Troll is coming!!! Go Rays! Troll out.

Wow, I Just Realized That I Had Giants Cards on BOTH My Blogs...

Never thought that would happen... I am trying to be a good loser, but I don't wanna lose all of my readers... I am off to vote and then work. I hope everyone has VOTED today... Oh, speaking of voting (again with the smooth segue), don't forget to vote your choice for the prize in my pending 100,000 hits contest. If you vote Bacon, that will be the prize, but that would be one greasy envelope in your mailbox. Just saying...

To end the trend of all Giants on every blog, here is the Captain Pee Wee Reese sliding in safe in 1993 Topps style...

It will be Giants Week on the Nitty Gritty. Since I don't have any vintage Willie Mays or Monte Irvin cards, Willie McCovey kicked it off. Please check it out... Tomorrow, it could be anybody... Well, anyone out of the 8 different vintage Giants I own that aren't Willie McCovey...

To try and offset the Giants domination I plan to post a Night Owl trade on Thursday and maybe a few from my all too small Wade Davis PC. Both are on the scanner right now... troll out.

Everything Is Better With Bacon! - A Nickname Post

More people read the Night Owl’s comments than read my blog. It is a fact. It makes sense. He runs a great blog and EVERYBODY reads it and comments. I read his comments too. I had planned on boycotting him after the brutal bipping he issued me (on my 400th post no less) but his blog is too good. I just make a really angry face while I read it. Anyway, this week he wrote a Pulitzer worthy post on nicknames. I made the comment that my nickname is Bacon. Since that comment, most of my messages have been addressed to Bacon. The Owl is all powerful (pOWLerful). It’s okay. All of my actual friends call me Bacon. It’s time my virtual friends did as well. It is honestly difficult pulling off all of my different names. I write a lot of emails (300 per day at least). For school I use my real name (top secret). For work I use my real name (still top secret). As a writer I have a pen name. As a photographer I have a different lens name. As a writer of fiction I use a totally different name. For roller derby I am known as Side of Bacon, or Bacon for short. My record label is called Bacon Towne Records (yes, that is my neck). I go by Marck Bacontowne or Bacon. I have bacon related tattoos and now have bacon inspired clothing and accessories. Still, within the blog-o-sphere, I have always been Troll (and I have never recieved any Troll gifts...) Then again, everything is not always better with Troll. This year for Christmas I got a bunch of gifts that were Bacon related. I wonder if the Night Owl gets Owl themed presents. Do they have owl-flavored dental floss? I am sure that gummie owls exist and there are likely Owl-aids and Owl banks...Do your readers send you these things along with Ron Cey cards? I will say that of all of my bacon presents the bacon Band-Aids have been the most useful. I am waiting for a special occasion to take the dental floss for a spin. The bacon air freshener was in my car and I actually carry the bacon wallet. The bacon sculpture is awesome because someone made it for me and I love the piggy banks (we have 100 piggy banks easily), but my favorite is the Patron Saint of Bacon figure. I will take it out of the box and show some better pics one day. Apparently it is Saint Anthony who is bacon’s patron saint. There is a sticker on the box that states “Bless your bacon” and Saint Anthony is holding a skillet with 2 strips of bacon in it. It comes with a prayer and further states on the back of the box that “Saint Anthony is the protector of pigs, hermits, gravediggers and epileptics” The prayer is supposed to assist in the enjoyment of quality bacon (no one needs assistance, but..) It reads “Oh wondrous Saint Anthony, please bless me with an abundance of quality bacon and grant me the patience and timing to properly fry each glorious strip, Amen”. Is there an Owl prayer? Do I have you beat there? Anyway, I love these useless takers of space. My house is a delightfully cluttered mess. The wife and I are both VERY busy people and we have no young children living with us. Just her and I, the dog and Sally Cat and we don’t mind. I LOVE my palace of clutter. Someday I will post pictures. Our house is raised and the whole first level is a garage, but we have an indoor staircase which is decorated in old school punk rock show flyers. We collect street signs and will hang anything on the wall. There is no bare wall space in the casa de Troll. No empty shelf space either. If there were, that is where the next stack of cards would land. Anyway, this is my nickname post. I had to copy cat that insomniac owl. It’s what I do. Anybody else have a nickname with corresponding knick-knacks? If anyone needs me I will be at Tropicana Field hanging with the 2010 American League leading Tampa Bay Rays! I hope they can hang onto first place for a while. We will see. The team hasn’t posted a list of who is attending and signing. I do know that they are charging 20 bucks for an all-day autograph wristband, but all of the proceeds go to Haiti Relief. I believe it is still free for kids. Esther Gin N Juice will be joining me. I gave her a whole stack of cards to hang on to. Carlos Pena is her top priority. Esther Gin N Juice is a nickname, but it is less knick-knackable than Bacon with its duel meaning. That is all, enjoy the wonders of bacon! It makes EVERYTHING BETTER! Oh, to the reader who sent me the Jonny Gomes statue and didn’t include a letter: THANK YOU!!! I LOVE IT! If there are any country music fans out there who know who Adrian Ray is, he will be at our bout on Sunday. You never know who you are gonna see at a Bradentucky Bombers event… Thanks for the fodder Owl, I bow to the power of your words... Everyone else, please tell me your nicknames! Who knows, there might be a small prize involved... Go Rays! Go Bombers! Troll out.

A Fairly Bizarro Card of the Day!

While reading one of my favorite blogs, Night Owl cards on Thursday morning he had a story about his All-Time Dodgers Nine, The Bizarro edition. I love All-Time teams and spend a whole of time thinking about them when I should be doing other things. Naturally I was sucked in and had to read it. He picked his All-Time worst hitters, position by position, to wear the Dodgers blue. This team was based on stats from one particular season. There weren’t a ton of surprises. Sandy Koufax who is arguably the Dodgers greatest pitcher ever was the starting pitcher on the team. I think he is the only one who made his all time best and worst teams respectively. It was based on his 1957 season when he was hitless in 27 trips to the plate. Not so good Sandy. Some of the players I could have predicted prior to reading, like Andruw Jones and his horrific season in 2008 where he batted .158. Franklin Stubbs made the team. I didn’t remember him being that bad, but I didn’t remember him being that great either. The middle infield was made up of two of my favorite guys-DeLino DeShields and Zoilo Versalles who admittedly had horrible years for the Dodgers. One of the names stood out to me though. It was outfielder Ron Fairly. Fairly’s MLB career lasted 21 seasons, over 3 decades. He broke in with the Dodgers in 1958 as a teenager. In 1959, in his rookie season, he hit .238 with 4 homers and 23 RBI, but was named to the Topps All Rookie team. He went to 4 World Series’ with the Dodgers and won 3 of them. He spent 12 seasons in Dodger Blue and hit a fairly (hah!) respectable .260 over that time, he also swatted 90 of his 183 career homers in a Dodgers uniform.
He remained with the Dodgers until 1969 when he was traded to the Expos to bring back Maury Wills and also Manny Mota. It was a good trade for the Dodgers, but it didn’t work out too bad for Montreal either. Fairly was an All Star for them in ’73 and he averaged 15 homers a year over his 5 seasons spent there. Still the question remains of how Fairly is on the Night Owls All Time Bizarro team. The Night Owl is seldom wrong, if ever, but Fairly couldn’t have been that bad and still remained a Dodger for 12 seasons could he? Did he have family in the front office? I couldn’t answer that question during my 5 minutes of research, I did find however that he was fairly (ha again!) well liked and respected in the clubhouse over his tenure. He was generally regarded as a decent outfielder who could play all 3 spots, plus first base on occasion. His best season as a Dodger came in 1961 when he was 22 years old. He batted .322 with 10 homers and 48 RBI. In fact, the back of the card on his 1962 Topps card #375 (which is today’s card of the day!) says:
“Ron started his career in the minors in 1958 and by the end of that season he was playing with the Dodgers. The good hitting outfielder is rated as one of the game’s future stars by baseball experts. A talented ball-player, Ron can handle himself well at first base, too”
Surely those words aren’t referring to the worst hitting outfielder in Dodgers history? The year prior he did hit .108, which is pretty awful, but he only played in 14 games. Perhaps the year that Mr. Owl is referring to is 1967 when he hit a meager .220? He did manage 10 homers and 55 RBI that year, but the following year, in 1968 his average rose (a little) but his run production dropped off considerably. In ’68 he batted .234 with just 4 homers and 43 RBI. Not great Mr. Fairly. Given the rich history of great hitting Dodgers outfielders, I suppose Ron Fairly is a fairly (ha once again!) good candidate for your All Time Bizarro Team Mr. Owl. I do think that Fairly does deserve a little bit of love from you based on his performance in the ’65 World Series though. He hit .379 with 2 homers and 6 RBI. If not for Koufax’ amazing pitching, Fairly could have made a fairly (this is too easy) good case for Series MVP. Okay, question answered. Yes, Fairly was a solid Dodger for 12 seasons, but his years at the plate in ’67 and ’68 are deserved of his Bizarro status. I think it might be more bizarre that after those off years in the late 60’s he became an All Star for the first time in ’73 after 16 seasons in the league. 19 seasons after his start he played for the Toronto Blue Jays during their inaugural season in 1977 and led the team in doubles, homers and runs batted in. He was also the Blue Jays first All Star. He struck out as a pinch hitter in his lone at bat.
Bizarro he may be, but it was his great year in ’61 however, makes him deserving of Collective Troll Card of the Day status. It’s a fairly good deal don’t ya think? Let’s take another look at the back of the card, shall we? Topps couldn’t resist either, it reads “Ron fares well” and mentions his numbers with Spokane of the PCL in 1960 when he hit .303 with 100 RBI.
That’s that. It’s still a fairly interesting card in my book and one of the few 1962s that I own. For those concerned, in his 21 year career Fairly batted .266 with 1010 hits and a career on base percentage of .360. He was twice an All Star and 3 times a World Champion. He also played in 2,442 games which is 63rd all time. His 1052 walks puts him in the top 100 All Time (91st) and he was walked intentionally an amazing 129 times over his career. He was also hit by a pitch 40 times over the years. I imagine he was fairly sore… Okay, I think I’ve gone too far! What one more. You had a very long and fairly successful career. Thanks for the memories, most were fairly good! After his lengthy playing career ended, Ron Fairly worked as a broadcaster for the Giants, Angels and Mariners. Since this post got so long I decided to add a few of my other Fairly cards, too. Ron had 21 regular issue Topps cards to represent his 21-year major league career. Shown also are his first (1959, card #125) and his last (1979, card #580) and for good measure, one in between (1969 card #120). I think if nothing else you could say that Ron had a fairly consistent career. He stuck around the majors for 21 years, averaged nearly 100 hits per year in around 350 at-bats and according to the back of his cards he weight never varied more than 5 pounds and he went from a wispy outfielder to a cagey DH. That is impressive to me. Thanks for the fodder Night Owl, I think this turned into a fairly decent post. Someday this post might be the answer to a contest question so you may want to take note of how many times I used (abused) fairly as an adjective! I love this hobby! Troll out.