Bob Uecker autograph

Congrats to the Red Sox on bringing home the 2018 World Series championship trophy. I was rooting for them to beat LA, though out of the final four, I had been hoping for the Brewers to win it all.

Milwaukee's terrific 2018 season just drove home how much of a national treasure Bob Uecker is. I wanted to pick up a certified auto card of his, but dang gumit, there are none! It's a tragedy he doesn't have any pack-certified auto cards out there. Not sure if the card companies haven't bothered asking, or if he just turns down all inquiries. Seems like a great way to make a chunk of change signing your name over and over for a few hours, but if he's not interested, fair enough.

Apart from his playing-days cards, he's only got a handful of oddballs out there and a pair of reprints in 2001 Topps Archives. Not many cards and no certified autos.

So anyways, that means it's time for me to take matters into my own hands. I kept an eye on eBay and ended up winning a beautiful slabbed Beckett-certified signed index card. But since index cards are boring, it was up to me to spice it up with a custom overlay. My time to shine!

Since it was a 3x5" index card and came in a big slab, I had more room to work with compared to a standard baseball card. And so I wanted to take advantage of that and hit a few major aspects of his career. At the upper corners you've got a couple photos from his days as a cut-up backup catcher, borrowed from baseball cards. Anchoring the bottom is a recent shot of him as broadcaster for the Brewers, flanked by his best-known acting roles, Indians broadcaster Harry Doyle in Major League on the left and George Owens in Mr. Belvedere on the right. Gotta admit I watched a lot of that sitcom as a kid in the mid 80s before I cared about baseball, so I had to even squeeze Mr. Belvedere himself (Christopher Hewett) into the mix. If I really wanted to go nuts, I could have included photos from his time messing around with WWF wrestlers, or one of his many times chatting with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show, or even his memorable beer ads.

Here's a clearer shot of it outside of the sleeve.

For scale, here's the undressed index card along with the rest of my collection of "Mr. Baseball" which is really just the two aforementioned '01 Archives reprints plus the only vintage card I've got from him, plucked from my 1965 Topps complete set. One of these days, I'll focus on picking up more of his cards, most importantly his '64 Topps, which I need for my in-progress setbuild.

I'm very happy with how this turned out. He's one of baseball's all-time classic characters. Just a very funny and interesting guy. Here's an informative little article I found called 17 things you might not know about Bob Uecker.

Definitely gonna have to display this badboy for a while! Gives me a big smile everytime see it.

Thanks for swinging by.

Refraction Action: Dave Parker 1991 Denny's Hologram

Today's featured card isn't a true refractor, but rather a hologram card from Denny's. I remember when these Grand Slam cards were really hot for a few weeks back then. They'd sell at the local card shop for like $10-15, which is a lot for a freebee oddball! (I also remember when 1990 Post Cereal cards inexplicably commanded like $15-20 a pop for a moment there.. LOL. Oh, early 90s card values..) Now you can get them for a hair above postage cost.

Here's Dave Parker during his brief tenure in Milwaukee near the end of his career (by the time this card hit stores restaurant tables, he was already gone, moved on to Anaheim). And yep, I did in fact get this card from Denny's. I talked my family into going specifically so I could get a card. I believe this is the only 1991 Denny's card I have, but I've also got a couple from 1992 (Bonds and Paul O'Neill) which are very similar.

I still need to experiment a bit trying to find the best way to take pictures of holograms. As far as movement here, the "fireworks" in the background dance around a bit, but that's about it.

Cobra had a terrific career and I hope the veteran's committee votes him into the Hall in his lifetime. Hit .290, 2712 hits, 339 homers, lots of leading the league in offensive categories in his prime, had a cannon in the outfield, and won a couple World Series rings.

Here is the card with backgrounds outside my front door.

Looks like something out of the "Enter Sandman" video.

And hey, here's some bonus movin' baseball card action:

Again, not really a refractor, but a Chrome card looks nice in the light, too. (--though, yeah, this gif didn't turn out very good, sorry.) This is a 2003 Topps Retired Signature Edition Dave Parker auto. While my main goal right now is completing the 2004 set, it's been quiet lately, with the cards left that I need not popping up for sale (at least at a reasonable price), so my signed cardboard addiction has occasionally turned to the 2003 set for a fix. I don't think I'm gonna complete that set (I read there are something like 130+ autos in that set, as opposed to 76 in the 2004 set). But yeah, if I see a player I like at a reasonable price, I may throw a bid at it. And that's how I picked up this Dave Parker recently. His big signature can't even be contained on the card.. love it.

This has been another edition of Refractin' Action. See ya next time!