Homer at the Bat, autographed

One of my first big "collecting projects" after returning to the hobby as an adult was picking up an autograph of each of the "Springfield Nine"-- that is, all nine MLB stars who guested in the classic "Homer at the Bat" episode of The Simpsons. (And one of my first big "blogging projects" was the "Simpsons fortnight" series spotlighting those 9 players.)

I've recently expanded that goal to now also include an autograph from the entire cast of the episode, not just the ballplayers.

The episode premiered 30 years ago today (2/20/1992), and so I figured it would be a good day for this post (and work as a deadline for myself to get everything together).

Ok, here we go, signatures from the complete cast of "Homer at the Bat":

Updated my cardroom display shelf with the cast for the episode, in order of the end credits.

Let's take a closer look.

Kicking things off with the Simpsons family. Homer and Lisa are from 2000 Inkworks The Simpsons 10th Anniversary, while the 4-quadrant design is from 2001 Inkworks Simpsons Mania. Julie Kavner doesn't have much in the way of certified autos on the market-- she's not included in either official auto card insert set-- so I got crafty with a signed piece of paper that I made a custom overlay for. The auto seems fully legit with some backstory but I think I'll do a separate post for my Simpsons customs one of these days and not go into them much now. 

Maggie Roswell is another one where I had to resort to custom assistance because she doesn't seem to have any real autograph cards out there. And the signed piece of paper I acquired for her just so happens to also have Tim Conway's signature on it. (Seems the original autograph hunter made it to the set of The Tim Conway Show, a variety show from 1980 that featured Maggie Roswell in the main cast.) Did my best making an overlay for awkwardly positioned autographs, but again, I'll talk more about the customs another time. In the episode, Maggie voices the nurse who's concerned about Griffey's gigantism and the woman Canseco helps whose house is on fire. 

The only scene with Ms. Krabappel was cut from the episode, though Marcia Wallace still got listed in the credits. Since I'm using the end credits as my "checklist" for the project, she's in. I have a few additional Simpsons autos that aren't included here because the voice actors aren't in the cast list for this episode (such as Pamela Hayden [Milhouse appears briefly but doesn't speak], Tress MacNeille [Mrs. Skinner appears briefly but doesn't speak], and Russi Taylor.)

Love my custom Boggs TTM auto, though I have been meaning to re-do my old Simpsons customs.. kinda give them the "digitally remastered" treatment. They were some of the first custom cards I ever made, and I've gotten better at it since then.

I think that 2004 Retired refractor is my only Jose Canseco autograph, on loan from that setbuild. And I need to upgrade my Clemens auto to one that isn't a stickergraph. I've got a custom overlay spicing up this drab Prizm auto. I know both Canseco and Clemens sign for a fee, and have been meaning to one day print up Simpsons customs to try to get signed, similar to the Boggs. Maybe someday I'll get around to that.

Pulled the Griffey (redemption) personally, so that's cool. I need to upgrade my 2004 Retired Mattingly refractor to one with a bolder signature and preferably ungraded. I also have a horizontal auto from him I was going to use, but didn't quite fit in the display.

Strawberry is another one of my customs I got signed, this one acquired with help from a guy involved with a signing held at Dave & Adam's Card World a few years back.

If you'd like to revisit the aforementioned Simpsons Fortnight posts from back in 2014 where I feature each player a bit more in depth and make a pair of customs for them, here are the links (in reverse order because that was easiest to copy and paste):

• The Simpsons Fortnight, Day 9: Darryl Strawberry h... 
• The Simpsons Fortnight, Day 8: Ozzie Smith visits ... 
• The Simpsons Fortnight, Day 7: Mike Scioscia pulls... 
• The Simpsons Fortnight, Day 6: Steve Sax goes to j... 
• The Simpsons Fortnight, Day 5: Don Mattingly shave...
• The Simpsons Fortnight, Day 4: Ken Griffey, Jr and...
• The Simpsons Fortnight, Day 3: Roger Clemens cluck...
• The Simpsons Fortnight, Day 2: Jose Canseco out of...
• The Simpsons Fortnight, Day 1: Wade Boggs gets pun...  

Finally, Terry Cashman, the man behind the 1981 song "Talkin' Baseball", which he himself spoofs as "Talkin' Softball" over the closing credits. Again, not much in the way of certified autographs on the market, but when this signed, PSA slabbed Rookies App custom popped up at a solid price, I knew it was just what I needed to knock a tricky name off my "cast list auto card" project. I think it was the last piece I needed, though printing out the Kavner and Roswell overlays last week was what completed the project.

So there you have it, an autograph for every voice in Homer at the Bat. That was a fun project to put together!

mid December card revue

It's that time of year when free time and energy are in short supply. But I want to blog, so I'll try to keep it short and post some cards I've been meaning to give a moment in the spotlight.

I've had a little PC going for Tim Anderson for a few years now, but apparently I hadn't thumbed through my White Sox tradeables in even longer, because when I finally did the other day (looking for cards for a trade offer that fell flat), I found a bunch of his cards that I didn't realize I had, including these above highlights. While having a well-organized collection is nice, I'm sure, it's also fun to occasionally stumble upon cards you forgot you had.

-o-

And speaking of forgetting about certain cards, when I posted my Yu Darvish PC last month, I neglected to include my lone 1/1 of him. I used to occasionally pull the trigger on the "blank back" gimmicks that Topps Vault sells on eBay.

Nothing too exciting, but hey, I can truthfully say I own a Yu Darvish 1/1. I looked it up, and this set me back $5.97 in a big Topps Vault order that also included similar 2017 Holiday blank backs for Christian Yelich and Dinelson Lamet, along with old signed Topps contracts for Matt Ginter and Marcus Giles. While Topps Vault still sells blank back cards like this for newer sets, looks like their supply of contracts has dried up, as it's been a while since I've seen the account offer any for sale. (To read more about these contracts, check my big post from 2015.)

-o-

Check out these awesome customs I got from Gregory at the Nine Pockets blog! Love 'em! Thanks for the generosity, Greg! If you missed out on the giveaway, he sells them at a very fair price too.

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Shiny parallels from Topps Pristine and All-Time Fan Favorites are super cool. It might be anachronistic, to use a fancy word, but I love refractors of old timers who played before shiny cards were a thing. (Well ok, Charlie Hough pitched so long, he actually made it into the refractor era and was included in the inaugural refractor class of '93 Finest [and also had a '94 Finest card]) But yeah, sometimes I take a look at what's available and might pull the trigger if one catches my eye for a decent price like the above did. The Bucky is a gold die-cut refractor, though calling it die-cut just because they gave it slightly bumpy edges feels like a stretch.

-o-

And one last shiny old-timer to close out the post...

Looks like a previous owner was so proud of this Bert Blyleven 2003 Topps Retired refractor auto that they displayed it in the sun for too long, and the signature is now considerably faded. But hey, it wasn't too pricey so I figured I'd take a flier on it. I hear Bert is a dependable TTM signer (with fee), so I'm planning to send this in for a new coat of ink and hope he's gracious enough to fulfill the odd request. But I'll wait until the new year when the post office settles down from the holiday surge. For now my question is: should I try to get off the remnants of the original auto? A little rubbing alcohol maybe? I should probably do a test run on a Chrome "junk auto" first to make sure it doesn't otherwise damage the card.

Nice career. The year this card came out, Bert received 29.2% of the vote for his Hall of Fame candidacy. He eventually made it to the magic number of votes in 2011.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your December isn't stressing you out too much!

Gettin' crafty: Repurposed Classic gameboard display

Earlier in the year, I posted about a 1991 Classic baseball trivia board game I bought for the cards and mentioned I had intentions to turn the gameboard into a wall display. Well, I finally got around to that and it turned out pretty good!

Here ya go. As you can see, it's built to field a 9-card team. I've currently got the Springfield Nine out there. Matching players to positions makes the most sense with this layout, but hell, you could throw 9 random Reggie Jackson cards in there or whatever. If the baseball gods smile upon me and San Diego finally wins the World Series someday, I'd likely put the Padres' championship starting lineup in there.

Cards are held in place by magnet stickers-- cheap on eBay or Amazon-- each with one on the board and one on the toploader, making them super easy to remove and swap out cards, yet they stick well enough to where I wasn't able to just shake them off, even with a pretty good jolt. I had considered using velcro, but am happy with the sleeker, quieter choice of magnets.

Here's a look at the board sans cards before I put it up.

Drilled a hole in centerfield (welp, still the infield, but working with the space allowed) and screwed it into the wall. Thought about putting another screw at catcher, but instead just a piece of blue tape underneath was sufficient to anchor the bottom and keep it level.

Encased cards are no problem either. Just throw a magnet into the protective sleeve. I should mention that magnets can differ in strength, so if you try this at home, obviously test how strong the magnets you're using are before trying it out with good cards. Weak magnets could present a problem.

Adding a horizontal card into the mix works too, but requires a different toploader with the magnet rotated 90° so that the magnetic poles line up with the board or whatever. Score a point for velcro in this instance. Thick cards would need thick top-loaders, too. But with enough toploaders and magnets, you could have pretty much any combination of cards in your display. If you're low on supplies, you could try just jamming the magnet behind the card in the top-loader instead of sticking it to the back, but I'd be wary of damaging the card that way. Another method would be like with the above graded card and just put the toploader in a team bag with a magnet in it.

It's a nice touch to my little cardroom that I've been working on since moving into our new house a few months ago. Between shelves and stuff Tetris'd in there, this was one of the few bare spots on the walls in the room. The area doesn't get direct sunlight, so I shouldn't have to worry about cards fading, though I probably still wouldn't put out high-dollar cards for too long, same as with any display. 

You could add a 10th spot in the dugout for a DH or manager if you wanted, though I'm content with this layout for now. If I wanted this to be a team-centric display, I might stick a round '89 Upper Deck hologram sticker or maybe old Fleer sticker over the opposing league's on-deck circle-- so like if I was doing a Padres board, I'd slap a Padres sticker over the AL logo.

But yeah, it's a fun, "living" display that barely cost anything to put together since I already had the board. I'm looking forward to trying it with different combinations of cards. If it starts to feel stale, just swap in some fresh cards.

What do you think, sirs?

ignorable filler post: 1991 Cardboard Dreams #4: Wayne Gretzky

Whoopsie-doodle, the last card I did in this series was #5 (Canseco and Madonna, from back in February.. those innocent, carefree days of yore). Nobody noticed, so I think I got away with it. But today we backtrack to #4, which is a very good hockey playing man.

What do you think of this headshot likeness? I mean, you can tell who it's supposed to be, so I'd say it's good by those standards. I'm seeing a little Dolph Lundgren in there too. As for the action shot, I probably wouldn't have guessed that was Gretzk' unless maybe I noticed the uniform and guessed from there. Squint your eyes and it might resemble a Penguin.. like Sidney Crosby or something? Oh whom I kidding, I am a poser (poseur) hockey fan. I don't know a puck from my pecker!

Yet...

I went out and bought a Gordie Howe autograph card. Check this mother out! Big, horizontal on-card signature! Limited edition! Hawaii! (Oh man, I'm glad we squeezed in that Hawaiian vacation right before things started going sideways. We're still coasting off that high to get us through these days.) I love this card! I just wanted a Gordie Howe autograph so bad! He was "Woodrow" on that one episode of The Simpsons where Bart catfishes Ms. Krabappel!

Hey.. Speaking of Edna!..

I also recently scored this card! Full disclosure, it is not in-hand yet, but should be arriving very soon. I really hope the auto looks better in person and it's just a weird glare shown in the photo.
Love and miss the late Marcia Wallace.. so great!

Anyways, back to hockey...

I just dig hockey superstars and like to score good hockey cards for my collection once in a while. I assume it might be something like how maybe a guy who doesn't follow baseball much would still get a thrill out of owning an autograph from Hank Aaron or Willie Mays, ya know?

My hockey collection has no right to be this good! Yet here we are!

I'll probably target a Jagr next, but no rush.

As with all these Cardboard Dreamers, it's the back doodle that always seems to steal the show with its endearing bizarreness that looks like it was drawn by a 6th grader on their binder divider tab page. The fun facts they share on the back are often quite interesting too!

• A Google search for "most money ever paid for a baseball card" says it's still a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner, but now the record is $3.12 million. Damn inflation. lol

I don't think it's Wayne's Wagner that scored that top sale, though, was it?.. I remember hearing there was some controversy about his being trimmed before he bought it. But pretty sure he sold it years back regardless.

• The Toronto Argonauts of the CFL are still around.. the franchise going on.. [checks notes] 146 years?‽‽! Holy crap! The CFL is seriously that old? That must be hooligans screwing around on Wikipedia with April Fools jokes that haven't been corrected yet because there's no way Canadians were playing football back when Lincoln was freeing the slaves!

Oh man, speaking of deceased actors I love a bunch and miss greatly.. John Candy! Wow, I hadn't heard about him co-owning a sports team with Gretzky and another guy. Spaceballs, Stripes, Plains Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck. SCTV. So much good stuff!

Anyways, the 3 guys owned the team from February 25, 1991 – May 5, 1994. The split was Bruce McNall (60%), John Candy (20%), and Wayne Gretzky (20%).

Oh man, remember Rocket Ismail? They signed him for a huge contract-- we're talking T206 Wagner territory!-- and then the team won it all in 1991. That must've been a thrill for Bruce, Wayne, and my man John Candy.

I honestly have no idea what an Argonaut is. Is it like an arrogant astronaut?!

Here is a cool song by Frank Black called "At the End of the World" which might seem like it's fitting for these times, but is actually written about John Candy.


Cool song, right? It was a b-side to the "Headache" single.

Oh man, I've really been neglecting my MusiCards blog! I haven't posted there since before the dark times. Gotta start cranking out posts there again soon.

Candy sadly passed away in 1994, shortly after he sold his stake in the team.

• The last bullet-point on the card talks about Gretzky's records total. Wiki says, At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 61 NHL records: 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, and 6 All-Star records.

Yep, he was pretty good!

But I think I've achieved a sports accomplishment that not even The Great One could dream of...

The other day I was playing Wii Sports Resort - Island Flyover subgame.. an old favorite game of mine when I just want to chill out and fly around like I'm Roy Halladay (RIP, the psycho son-of-a-gun). It's really fun. Sometimes I like to challenge myself to pull off trick moves just for fun (Not like you score points for it or nothin'), and the latest thing I managed to pull off was landing my plane in a swimming pool. It's tough because it's a small pool and you need to time your landing just right or you'll crash. But yeah, after a few attempts, I managed to just barely splashdown safely with a cut engine for a minute or two just hanging out with the kids at the pool. Pretty cool, right?! LOL

Have a great weekend, everybody! To help raise some good vibes, check out the first completed page of what I hope will one day be a decent-sized Thumbs-Up Binder! Yeah, a couple photos are reused, so it's not perfect-- but still! Nine different cards with a thumbs-up! 👍

Muppet Babies and Me

I loved Muppet Babies as a kid. Maybe never my #1 favorite cartoon at the time, but at least in the top 5 for much of my childhood. I would love to watch thru it again as an adult, but doesn't seem to be streaming anywhere yet. Disney+ has a recent reboot available.. but it's all CGI and pales in comparison to the real deal in my eyes. But I was able to catch an old episode on YouTube the other day. That got me reading the Wikipedia entry for the show, and now I'm going to squeeze a post out of it.. specifically seeing how many voice actors from the show I have an autograph from.



Voice cast

Greg Berg – Baby Fozzie, Baby Scooter, Dr. Julius Strangepork (archive footage, ep. 107)

Do I have his autograph?

No.

Barbara Billingsley – Nanny

Do I have her autograph?

No.

Dave Coulier (1986–1991) – Baby Animal, Baby Bunsen, Baby Bean Bunny, Baby Janice, Uncle Statler and Waldorf

Do I have his autograph?

Yes!

Katie Leigh – Baby Rowlf, Mrs. Mitchell

Do I have her autograph?

No.

Howie Mandel (1984–1985) – Baby Skeeter, Baby Animal, Baby Bunsen

Do I have his autograph?

No.

Laurie O'Brien – Baby Piggy, Captain Black Wig

Do I have her autograph?

No.

Russi Taylor – Baby Gonzo, Baby Robin, Aunt Fanny, and Camilla (occasionally)

Editor's Note: I'm just now learning Russi died last year. Aw man, I'm sorry to hear that.. loved her!

Do I have her autograph?

Yes!

Frank Welker – Baby Kermit, Baby Beaker, Baby Skeeter (1986–1991), Camilla

Do I have his autograph?

Yes!

Additional voices and performances

Bob Bergen – Link Hogthrob (archive footage, ep. 107)
Peter Cullen – Smoggy the Bear (ep. 33), Football-Playing Bear (ep. 33)
Pat Fraley – Announcer
Jim Henson – Kermit the Frog (archive footage, ep. 45), Dr. Teeth (archive footage, ep. 61)
Tress MacNeille – Skater Kat
Hal Rayle – Miss Piggy (archive footage, ep. 107)

Do I have any of these people's autograph?

Yes!

And there you have it! I own a total of 4 autograph cards of the voice talent behind Muppet Babies. Pretty cool!

Thanks for reading and my best to everybody in these nutty times we live in.

1990 Simpsons 2019 set + customs

My favorite tv shows have been a priority for adding to my collection so far in 2020. That's not worded very well, but what it means is you can expect to see a few posts dedicated to cards featuring The Simpsons and Mystery Science Theater 3000 on the blog coming up. And here's one such post now. Just a quick one.

Topps put out a Throwback Thursday set last December featuring the 1990 Simpsons design with players who guested in the classic "Homer At the Bat" episode. I think it's well established that it's an all-time favorite of mine, so I had to pick up a set. (I missed the window to order from Topps due to holiday distractions, but found one on eBay for a few bucks more.)

The set from Topps is only 6 cards, though, per most #TBT on-demand sets, leaving out 3 members of the Springfield 9. Luckily I'm no stranger to making custom cards, so I was able to fill in the gaps and create this beautiful completed page you see above!

Eh, I didn't get the coloring perfect on my customs, but close enough.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Glow-in-the-dark spotlight: 1993 Skybox Simpsons

The Simpsons card set that SkyBox put out in 1993 seems like a fun product. Fellow cardblogger Mario A. recently named it the best of '93.

While the Simpsons is an all-time favorite TV show of mine, I've never messed much with the cards they put out in the 90s and early 00s. Maybe 2020 is the year I get around to building those sets.

But at least I've now completed a tiny niche that most interested me: the glowing inserts from the 1993 SkyBox set. There are 4 unnumbered, untitled cards each marked on the back as "Your Genuine Bart Simpson Glow-in-the-Dark Happy Card". Let's take a look.

Here they are in the light.

Here they are in the dark. I think the TV one is the best.

The backs are all the same except for the color of the Bart drawing.

Anyhoo, I love the Simpsons. I'm one of the crazy die-hards who still watch the new episodes and don't think they're all that bad, generally. Sure, they can't hold a candle to the glory years of the show, but still better than most stuff on TV today. Now that we've got Disney+ we've been hitting a few of the classics. I own the first 14 seasons on DVD, but it's convenient to be able to get an episode playing without leaving the sofa. Sure hope Disney fixes the aspect ratio on the old episodes though-- they zoom in and stretch it to create a fake "widescreen" presentation while cutting off the top and bottom of the picture. Not cool.

Oh hey, don't forget to check out the LIST OF KNOWN GLOW-IN-THE-DARK TRADING CARDS to learn about the other fascinating glow-in-the-dark cards that are out there.

I'm getting over a nasty stomach flu (rough way to ring in the new year!), so sorry if I'm not bringing my A-game today, lol.

Sort of adding a Harry Shearer auto to my Simpsons collection

I bought a lot of CDs back in the 90s and built up a big music collection. But as the millenium dawned, I was picking up less and less CDs, gravitating more towards mp3s, and later towards streaming. I've probably only bought 3 or 4 CDs in the past decade.

--Or at least up until just recently when I picked up a few autographs from Newbury Comics, who run a lot of promos direct with the artists-- basically, when you buy a CD, you get a bonus signed item from the band-- so I consider these essentially "certified autographs" since they're from a known legit source, not picked up on the secondary market. The prices on these offers are decent-- basically what I remember paying for a new CD back in the day, mostly around $15-- so I picked up a few (enough to qualify for free shipping). Here's the first one I wanted to show off...

Derek Smalls is a fictional character who plays bass for the fictional band Spinal Tap. While I think This is Spinal Tap is a classic film, what really made me jump at this was the fact that Derek Smalls is Harry Shearer, and I thought it'd be cool to add to my very small collection of The Simpsons related autographs. Harry of course is the voice of Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Dr. Hibbert, Lenny, Otto, Rainier Wolfcastle, Scratchy, Kang, the Vin Scully-inspired baseball broadcaster, and more.

As you can see, it's signed in character (as Derek Smalls), but it's still an authentic autograph from Harry Shearer-- close enough for me! This autographed sheet came with a sealed CD of Derek Smalls' new solo album, Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing)...

I gave it a listen and it's pretty good. If you like the music of Spinal Tap, well obviously this is in that same vane.. hard rock songs with cheeky lyrics.

Again, not exactly Simpsons, but I'll happily take it and shoehorn it into that part of my collection.