Chipz and dip into my COMC order

After being distracted by holiday stuff, it's now time to resume unpacking my Black Friday COMC order.

I've said it before but I hate Topps Chipz. They really botched what could have been a fun product. The colored parallels were way too tough to pull. If they would have been more generous with the red and blue chips, guys could have actually used them for playing poker. I'm not even a card player, but that would have been pretty cool. But instead it was white chip after white chip, with an occasional metal parallel or glow-in-the-dark parallel. Don't even get me started on the glow-in-the-dark parallels! Instead of making the actual plastic chip glow-in-the-dark (which would have been awesome.. I'd have gone after the complete set!), they cheaped out and only put a teeny-tiny bit of glowing behind the player's head. Terrible! I'm so glad this product died after 3 pathetic years.
All that said, I was compelled to actually own some of the near-mythical color parallels, so I found the cheapest examples I could find of guys I collect. The black Matt Kemp also allegedly glows in the dark a bit. I suppose it's nice of COMC to treat these like coins and put them in those little cardboard holders which make them slightly less of a pain to store.

1990 Topps TV is a mysterious (to me, at least) overproduction-era set that I've heard about here and there, but never actually had an in-person encounter with. So like with the colored Chipz, I wanted to get some representation in my collection, and hunted down the cheapest available cards of any dudes I collect, settling on Howard Johnson and Kevin Maas here for about a buck combined.

Flipping these over, I was confused how they were both numbered 53 in a series of 66, and had somewhat different back designs. Turns out there was a main "All-Star set" (where the Hojo is from), but some teams (like the Yankees) also had a separate Team Set (where the Maas is from). It's my understanding these sets were sold on the home shopping network or something like that, hence the name Topps TV. Or actually, from googling it just now, per baseballcardpedia.com:

Topps TV are a series of six different 66-card sets produced by Topps in 1990 and available via a special TV offer. There were six different sets made: All-Stars, Cardinals, Cubs, Mets, Red Sox and Yankees. The five team sets were only marketed in the respective team's local TV market; while the All-Stars set was available nationwide. Collectors living anywhere in the country could, theoretically, order any of the sets. Distribution: Factory sets. Available through a "1-800" number.

Interesting. I looked for the commercial on YouTube but didn't see it up there. I wonder if it was just a quick ad or more of an infomercial.

Here's another oddity from the junk era (forgive me for using the hobby slur). I also wanted to add some more 1991 Topps Operation Desert Shield cards to my collection. I previously only had the Bip, I think. You know the deal, I searched by cheapest-first and looked for dudes I collect. Ended up with a couple of the Springfield Nine and Hendu, each costing me a buck or two.

Lastly for today, a short-term stop trio of Kevin Mitchell cards. I don't really PC him, but for whatever reason was compelled to track down a card of his from each team he played for. (This was likely around the time I scored the 12/24 card of his and was reading up on him more.) The Giants, Reds, and Mets are the main teams he's known for, of course. As far as partial-season stints, Red Sox (27 games), Indians (20 games), and A's (51 games) are represented here. There's also the Padres (which I know I have a card of) and the Mariners. Pretty sure I had a Seattle Mitchell card at one point, but may have traded it away over the years.. so I may have to rectify that at some point to complete this mini-goal of mine.

That's all for now. Thanks for checking it all out.

10 Years and a PWE

This lovely lady has been putting up with my shit for a solid decade now, if you can believe that! I'm a lucky fella to have her in my life.

(Just a photo thing I whipped up for Facebook.. figured I'd throw it on the blog too since it turned out kinda nice.)

Speaking of longevity, howbout Minnie Miñoso, huh?

First MLB at-bat 4/19/1949, last MLB at-bat 10/5/1980. And Mike Scioscia has been in the game a damn long time too, debuting in 1980 and still at it today as the Angels manager. I'm sure he and Minnie have got a century in the game between them, all told.

These cards all come from Chris the Collector, via our first trade, a swap of PWEs.

Some current guys on retro designs. Fine looking cards, these.

A couple 2016 Bunt cards.

Lastly.. Rod Beck, a card for my 2011 Topps parallel frankenset, and a Corey Seager insert.

Great bunch of cards! Big thanks, Chris. I hope this trade is our first of many, and we're still swapping cards a decade from now.

The Simpsons custom set for Homer at the Bat

A couple years ago, I did a blog series called The Simpsons Fortnight where each day I posted about a player who guested on the classic "Homer at the Bat" episode of The Simpsons (it ended up not lasting the full fortnight I had originally planned, but I did cover all 9 players from the episode). Each post featured a couple junk-era custom jpg's using images from the show. This was back before I was making hardcopy customs, though a while later with the help from a guy I knew, I did make a limited run of magnet cards featuring some (not all) of the virtual Simpsons cards I had whipped up.

Anyways, now that I've gotten the hang of printing out customs, I had been meaning to make hardcopy customs out of these designs. And so that's what I did!

The autographed Simpsons cards from my recent Wade Boggs-centered contest were easily the most popular of the 3 designs I made, based on the response in the comments. It was no surprise when both contest winners chose that one. (That means I still have a couple each of the Cheers card and the Always Sunny card available for trade, BTW.)

The other catalyst for this project came from negotiating a trade with a reader named Josh, who had a couple nice cards I was interested in, and to seal the deal, he inquired about a set of my Simpsons customs. So I've spent a few hours over the past fortnight cleaning up those original digital customs from 2014, as well as creating backs for them, and making them a physical reality.

So without further ado, I present to you The 2016 Baseball Card Breakdown Simpsons "Homer at the Bat" Custom Card Set!

Wade Boggs cards from The Simpsons

Jose Canseco cards from The Simpsons

Roger Clemens cards from The Simpsons

Ken Griffey, Jr cards from The Simpsons

Don Mattingly cards from The Simpsons

Steve Sax cards from The Simpsons

Mike Scioscia cards from The Simpsons

Ozzie Smith cards from The Simpsons

Darryl Strawberry cards from The Simpsons

Cool stuff, huh?

As with most of my customs, these are up for trade. Drop me an email if interested.
(Sorry, but these are not for sale. It's just too much of a headache from a legal standpoint.)

And if you missed out on the original blog series (it didn't get much traffic at the time), here are links to all 9 posts:

Wade Boggs

Jose Canseco

Roger Clemens

Ken Griffey, Jr.

Don Mattingly

Steve Sax

Mike Scioscia

Ozzie Smith 

Darryl Strawberry

Trade Roundup: 2x3 Dimeboxes

Some nice cardboard surprises showed up earlier this week in a couple envelopes.

First up is Jedi Jeff from 2x3 Heroes, kindly dropping dupes from his 1964 Topps setbuild on me.

I think the highlight has to be the Jesus Alou RC, though there's some other good stuff in there too and it's all much appreciated. Thanks to this lot, I've now passed the ¼ complete point in the set. Always nice to hit a milestone like that. Thanks, Jeff!


The other PWE I got was courtesy of Nick from the Dimeboxes blog. You know you're in for a treat when Nick drops some cards on you!

Some old-timer favorites of mine.

I love Rod Beck. Even in a Giants uniform.

A nice selection of Padres. Don't think I've seen that Caminiti before. I've been after that "zero year" Mike Scioscia for a while. He was with the Padres for spring training of 1993, but injured himself and never made it into an official game with the club. Then we've got a swell Marcus Giles, cardsphere favorite Oscar Azócar, and bright spot on this season's team, Yangervis Solarte. That's my first card from this year's Heritage High Numbers.

Lastly, Nick gave me a couple liquorfractors to put toward my frankenset of 2011 Topps parallels. Cone-cup enthusiast Sam Deduno pitched in just 2 games total with the Padres. This season he got into 9 games with the Astros, so he's got a chance to be part of a championship team with a little luck, though he's not on the playoff roster but instead on the DL.

Big thanks for the cards, Nick! And thanks again to Jeff. And thanks to you for reading. Have a great weekend, everybody.

The Simpsons Fortnight, Day 7: Mike Scioscia pulls his weight

The Simpsons episode "Homer at the Bat" first aired February 20, 1992. It's one of the best episodes of probably my all-time favorite show. In the off-chance you don't have it near-memorized, it's well worth the couple bucks to watch. I had originally planned to do this over a week, but couldn't cram it all in. So over a fortnight (a fancy word for "2 weeks" which I learned from-- you guessed it-- The Simpsons), we're celebrating the show by spotlighting the big leaguers who guested in "Homer at the Bat" and other episodes.

Player:

before The Simpsons appearance

Now, Mike Scioscia was a fine catcher. But unless you're a diehard Dodgers fan, he probably doesn't pop into your head when you think of baseball's premiere catchers. So his selection for the Power Plant softball team might seem a little out of place. But when you think about it, in 1991 when the writers/producers were assembling their "Springfield Nine" dream team, Carlton Fisk and Gary Carter were pretty much in the twilight of their careers. (Fisk apparently was asked, but declined.) The next gen of catching studs, Mike Piazza and Ivan Rodriguez, were just coming up. So Scioscia was as good a choice as any. I would argue Benito Santiago was the hottest catcher at the time, but perhaps his thick Puerto Rican accent was a hinderance to selecting him for voice-over work.

But anyways, back to Mike Scioscia! Like our previously featured player, Steve Sax, Scioscia was also a part of the 1981 WS Champs Dodger squad, and was still around for their return triumph in 1988. His best year with the bat was probably 1985, when he hit .296 and even got a few MVP votes. He was an All-Star in '89 and '90.

Homer at the Bat

On the show, Scioscia takes his new job at the nuclear power plant seriously, unlike the other ringers, and really gets into doing his part. Unfortunately, he ends up getting radiation poisoning from the hazardous materials he (mis)handles, and ends up missing the big game in the hospital.

Classic line:

   Dr. Hibbert:  Mike, try to lift your arm.

   Mike Scioscia: Can't... lift... arm... or... speak... at... normal... rate...

after The Simpsons appearance

Scioscia only lasted one more season after the episode aired, finishing his entire major league career with the Dodgers. He signed with the Padres for the 1993 season, but a torn rotator cuff in spring training spelled the end of his playing days (though he briefly attempted a comeback with the Rangers in '94).

He would later go into coaching, and add a 3rd World Series title to his resumé by managing the Angels to a Championship in 2002.

Scioscia later became the first (so far only) member of the Springfield Nine to make a return appearance to The Simpsons, correct me if I'm wrong. In the episode “MoneyBart” (October 10, 2010, 22nd Season), Mike shows up and helps Lisa with some coaching tips as she attempts to manage Bart’s Little League team.

Highlights from my Collection:

My goal of collecting a certified signature of every member of the Springfield Nine lead me to this fine card recently. The Griffey auto that we saw a few days ago is from the same set. It's currently the only Scioscia keeper in my collection, though someday I'd like to add the 81 Topps rookie that he shares with Fernando.

Random Filler:

Fun fact: When Smithers recruits Scioscia while he's hunting, he asks, "How do you like working for the Dodgers?" It's the only time in "Homer at the Bat" that a MLB team is mentioned by name. No MLB logos appear in the episode either.

And speaking of identifiable teams, the softball team doesn't seem to have a nickname, only known as "The Springfield Nuclear Power Plant Softball Team." The logo on the cap is Smilin' Joe Fission, the plant's mascot. (But the softball team shouldn't be confused with the Springfield Isotopes, a minor league team featured in some other episodes who share the same mascot.)

Mr. Burns wears an old uniform that says "Zephyrs" on it, but it seems to be a very old outfit he pulled out of his closet for the occasion.

The Zephyrs are apparently just an old-sounding team the writers came up with. As far as an actual baseball club with that name, the Zephyrs are a minor league team that's been around since 1901 (though they didn't start using that name till 1985, named after a famous passenger train, and were previously known as the Blues or Bears.) Other sports teams with the nickname Zephyrs include the Muskegon Zephyrs (a minor league hockey team, 1960–1965) and the Chicago Zephyrs (basketball team, 1962-1963, now the Washington Wizards). Seems the writers just thought Zephyrs sounded like a good old-tyme team name, possibly from way back when Burns played high school ball. According to the DVD commentary, they had also thought of using the name Spiders, but there might've been legal implications had they gone with a real team such as that.

See you tomorrow for the next Simpsons spotlight! Next up, The Wizard.