Contest! The PRIZE POOL is open!

Get excited, guys! I'm going to be stepping up my contests. I'll do some flash-contests (like "The first person to comment wins!") and maybe some fun trivia/game contests. Should be a lot of fun. And to spread out the fun, I'll be doing a bunch of semi-frequent contests (instead of one big payday), so be sure to keep a close eye on Baseball Card Breakdown over these next couple months. (Yes, this is a shameless ploy to get my readership up! Subscribe today!)

The prize pool! Winner can pick out any two (2) cards from the below selection of a dozen or so cards. Again, so nobody skips over this part and ends up disappointed, let me stress that the winner doesn't get all of these cards, but I just want to give you some options so you don't end up with a card you don't really want. Hopefully the "prize pool" idea works out. I'll offer up a mix of vintage, refractors, autos, relics, and basically any card of some value that I can part with. Cards may be added and removed between contests, and obviously the cards that the previous winner picked won't be available next time around.. but the majority of the pool will likely be available from contest to contest, so if you don't win this time, you might still have a shot at the card(s) you've got your eye on. And if there's nothing in the pool that grabs you, check back next time, as I'll be mixing in additional cards for subsequent contests.

PRIZE POOL (winner picks 2):

Willie McCovey 1968 Topps -- Willie was recently featured in the new One Last Card series for his '81 Fleer card being his only true sunset/finale/tribute/whatever-you-wanna-call-it. The corners on this '68 card are a little fuzzy, but could be worse. Nice vintage card of a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Adrian Gonzalez 2013 Bowman Chrome Blue Refractor Rookie Reprint -- Shiny card turning back the clock with a reprint of his rookie card. He was the last great Padre (hopefully not last ever, but we'll just have to wait and see) and has since done well in Boston and currently in Los Angeles. I haven't made a Refraction Action of this card (a popular feature here where I create an animated baseball card pic), but I did do one from someone he was traded for.

Rich Butler (water card!) 1998 Flair Showcase Wave of the Future #11 -- What "pool" would be complete without water!? This plastic gimmick from the 90s is a crazy insert that has actual liquid water in it! Pretty cool. Look for another card from this insert set in a future Refraction Action coming to Baseball Card Breakdown shortly.

Adam Dunn 2007 Fleer Ultra Swing Kings Bat Relic -- This card contains a piece of wood that allegedly may have belonged to a bat that Cincinnati Red Adam Dunn swung in a baseball game once. Cool! Dunn has 440 career homers.. 2 or 3 more decent seasons and he might reach the esteemed 500 HR milestone.. wow.. maybe this bat piece was used to crank one of them?

Tim Lincecum 2013 Topps Chrome Purple Refractor #64 -- Pretty card. All rainbowy n' such. Tim has kinda sucked the past couple seasons, but led the league in strikeouts 3 straight years, 2008-2010, with 2 consecutive Cys in there. Props, homeskillet.

Bobby Grich 2004 Topps Retired Signature Edition Auto (encased) -- I talk about this set a lot. Have you ever gotten obsessive about a baseball card set? --like to the point where you search eBay multiple times per day for it? Well, that's the kind of hold this set has over me. It's loosened its grip on me in recent months, but I'm still a sucker for it and need to own all 76 autos. Someday they will be mine. This one's a dupe, so it's on the table. Bobby Grich was a 4-time Gold Glove winner who put up good offensive numbers too, especially in '81 when he won the HR title and led the league in SLG and OPS+ for the strike-shortened season.

Richie Allen 1969 Topps -- I showcased all my Dick Allen cards a while back. I need to make a follow-up post to that, because I've since crammed a dozen or so more Dicks into my collection. This particular card is a bit beat up (fuzzy corners, light creasing), but sweet vintage cardboard nonetheless.

Fred McGriff lot -- This counts as one pick, but you actually get an assortment of 5 McGriff cards, all from the overproduction era, so you probably already have them, but maybe not. [shrug] Fred was the subject of the first installment of One True Rookie, a series here where I look at guys in the 80s who only have 1 real rookie card.

Bill Madlock lot -- Again, this counts as one pick, but gets you an assortment of 5 "junk" cards from this 4-time batting champ.. all base cards from the mid/late 80s. Mad Dog was featured in a recent Refraction Action where I brought his '87 Sportsflics card to life, a la Dr. Frankenstein reanimating a dead body.

William Oliver 2013 Topps Chrome Refractor #BCP89 serial #'d 177/500 -- Yankees prospect.

Jeremy Moore 2013 Topps Chrome Refractor #BCP34 serial #'d 081/500 -- Dodgers prospect.

Custom Sketch Card -- I'll personally whip you up a "1/1" sketch card of any player of your choosing. I'm not a great artist, but I'll do my best to scribble something for you on thick cardstock that kinda looks like the player you want. You can see an example of my unimpressive artistic skills in the first (and so far only) Pose Master post, a series where I look at guys who pose in a similar way on most-- if not all-- of their cards.

Again, winner picks 2 of the above.

OK, THE CONTEST THIS TIME:
Let's kickoff Conestembver with a good ol' "everybody leave a comment and at the end of the week one of you will be randomly selected the winner" contest. Just leave a comment below stating your favorite team, and if you win, in addition to letting you pick from the prize pool, I'll also throw in a couple bonus cards from your team.

The Small print:
Deadline to enter is 11:59pm Pacific time Saturday 11/16/2013. Friday, 11/15/2013. Thursday, 11/14/2013 (Update: Sorry to keep shortening the duration but I'm anxious to get on to the next contest, plus most people enter within the first 2 or 3 days anyways.)
One entry per person.
Free shipping for US winners, but if you're not in the US and you win I'd appreciate a paypal'd buck or two toward the US postal service's oppressive international shipping costs.
I'll randomize at random.org twice (since this is my 2nd contest) to pick a winner.
To give more folks a chance at winning, you're not eligible if you've already won one of my contests in the past 3 months.
After I announce the winner, he or she (let's face it, most likely he) will be responsible for getting in touch with their address and telling me which cards from the pool they want, elsewise it'll be offered to the 2nd place finisher after 3 days if I don't hear from you.

Oh, and anyone who entered my first contest a couple months ago will automatically be entered in this one too, since I feel bad that prize wasn't very good. If you can't remember if you entered back then, go ahead and enter here to play it safe.. I won't penalize you or anything, but you still just get entered in the randomizer once.

Thanks and good luck!!

So...
What's your favorite team? Leave a comment and you'll be entered in this contest!

Refraction Action: Bill Madlock 1987 Sportsflics

Refraction Action is a regular feature here where I whip up a moving gif of a baseball card, usually a refractor (hence the name), but could also be any card that a still image can't quite do justice.

And in that latter category, I present to you my first attempt at capturing a Sportsflics card in action:

Here's Bill Madlock lacing one of his 2,008 career hits on his 1987 Sportsflics card. (BTW, only eleven men have won 4 or more batting titles. All are in the Hall of Fame except Mad Dog here.) You can look at the gif for a couple minutes and think, "Wow, he was really on fire that day! He must have a hundred hits and no sign of slowing down!" Watch long enough and you can probably have all his 2,008 lifetime hits covered.. or at least the 158 hits he got in 166 games as a Dodger near the end of his career. Is that Wrigley, with the brick wall behind him? I'm not great at identifying stadiums from pictures. The fact that the crowd seems to change makes me suspect these pictures might actually be taken from different at-bats.

Honestly, I never really liked liked Sportsflics or any other "lenticular" cards (is that what this technology is called?). They were expensive (to buy packs) but worthless (nobody wanted them). I only reluctantly added a Sportsflics card to my collection if it fell in my lap and featured a player I really collected. Otherwise, all they're really good for is scratching your fingernail on and pretending you're a funky DJ rapper scratching a vinyl record.

This particular lenticular composition above is the best type, though: 3 images from the same action.. Almost like a video clip. That's way better than cards like these that have just 2 images.. or 2 action images plus a headshot.. or the worst: images of 3 different players thrown arbitrarily onto the same Sportsflics card.

But give them some credit for trying something different, I guess, rather than the same ol' typical picture of a player on a piece of cardboard. But yeah, these don't do it for me, generally speaking. The first time you see one of these cards as a kid, you're impressed for a moment, but the novelty fades pretty quickly. Maybe if there was a Joe Morgan card featuring him at bat, and when you moved it, you saw his elbow flapping.. now that would be kinda cool. Or maybe a Kirk Gibson card where he pumps his fist after that big home run in '88. Some iconic movement like that. Maybe Rickey Henderson sliding into second? But most of these cards just feature a grainy-looking swing and sometimes a headshot. The backs were decent though (especially for 1987), featuring full-color and giving us a non-grainy look at the guy, plus full stats and a brief write-up.

One Last Card: Willie McCovey

One Last Card is a new feature at Baseball Card Breakdown debuting right here, right now! Think of it as a companion piece to One True Rookie, another reoccurring series here. But instead of only one major card company putting out a rookie card for a particular player, these are instances where only one company put out a true final card for a guy. Some collectors poetically refer to these last cards as "sunset" cards or "finale" cards.

Some guidelines to being considered a "one last card" here:
- We're focused on the years 1981-1991, since before 1981, there was essentially only Topps, and by the early 90s there were too many various sets to really keep track of.
- We're not talking special "tribute" cards or any "post-career" cards. Only regular base cards issued the year after the player's final season. As such, the cards should feature full career stats on the back.

I like looking at how the yearly checklists for Topps, Donruss, and Fleer varied in the 80s. So posts like these identifying outliers are right up my alley. And I love final cards of great players. Flipping over a card and seeing complete career stats is just a very satisfying feeling!

While "One True Rookie" subjects are dominated by Donruss, expect to see Fleer reign supreme in "One Last Card" posts. Fleer was always comfortable with putting out a card for a guy even if he announced his retirement during/after the previous season. They didn't give a crap if he wasn't going to be active by the time their set came out. Perhaps it was a tip of the cap to a great player, or just adding another potential future Hall of Famer to bolster their checklist.

This was in stark contrast to Topps, a company so bent on putting out a "current" product that they would often butcher photographs with airbrushing jobs on their cards that looked straight out of a freshman art class, just to have a guy pictured in the team uniform that he switched to late in the year or during the offseason. And if a guy retired or was released the previous year, chances are he wouldn't be included in the Topps set. A lot of guys fell victim to this and never got their "farewell card". Dick Allen in an A's uniform? Didn't happen, according to Topps. Harmon Killebrew as a Royal? All in your imagination, apparently. I could go on for a while. A notable exception is Mickey Mantle's 1969 Topps card (he announced his retirement during spring training that year; He probably wouldn't have been included had he retired a bit sooner.) While I guess I see the point in trying to put out a set that matches up with opening day rosters, it can't help but feel like a snub when these greats get left out. It makes more sense to me that a baseball card set should be like documentation of what happened the previous year, not what's happening RIGHT NOW. But things being the way they are, it's somewhat rare for a flagship Topps card to feature complete career stats on the back. It's a big reason why I'm drawn to "oldies" sets like Topps Retired (2003-2005) and the retired players included in Topps Archives. Love the complete stats on the back!

While Topps' philosophy wasn't to look back on the previous year (special postseason or highlights subsets notwithstanding), Fleer definitely leaned that way when it came to their player selection, as we'll see with this "One Final Card" series. It's a bummer that Fleer wasn't around to put out farewell cards to those guys Topps ignored back in the 70s.

For this inaugural One Last Card post, we're starting at the start, with the first modern era Fleer set, 1981. When the courts ruled in early 1981 that Donruss and Fleer were legally allowed to put out baseball cards, the companies scrambled to put their product together. The cards featured basic designs and often unimpressive photography (Fleer the worse offender than Donruss). To fill out the sets, some star players were given multiple base cards (Reggie Jackson has 3 different 1981 Donruss base cards, for example). I suppose this isn't much different than Topps including separate "All-Star" or "In Action" cards. While Fleer wasn't above this (they put out 2 Reggies), they tended to stretch out their checklist a bit more. A prime example of this is the fact that they were the only one of the big 3 card companies to issue Willie McCovey a card in 1981.

1981 Fleer #434

McCovey's major league career began in 1959 when he broke in with San Francisco and won NL Rookie of the Year despite playing in only 52 games up top all season. His terrific .354 average that year would turn out to be a fluke, as he only cracked .300 once more in his career. Instead, he developed into a feared slugger, teaming with Willie Mays to give the Giants teams of the 60s a potent Willie-filled lineup.

In likely his most remembered plate appearance, McCovey hit a rocket which was snagged by Bobby Richardson for the final out in the 1962 World Series with the Giants threatening in the 9th, giving the Yankees the championship. A shot at redemption in 1971, Stretch hit .429 with a couple homers in the NLCS, but San Francisco wasn't able to get past Roberto Clemente and the Pirates, who went on to win the Series that year. It would be his last postseason experience.

McCovey had an excellent 3-year peak from 1968-1970, leading the NL in SLG, OPS, and OPS+ three straight years. His numbers are even more impressive taking into consideration the lower offensive stats of the second deadball era of the late 60s. His best season was back in the summer of '69, when he won the MVP award thanks to 45 home runs, 126 RBI, and a .320 average. He was also MVP of the All-Star Game that year.

After his numbers started to decline in the early 70s, San Francisco traded McCovey to San Diego after the 1973 season. In nearly 3 years in the brown and yellow, he put up decent numbers (er, by Padres' standards), but a far cry from his prime years. Still, he was the first real superstar to suit up for San Diego, and ultimately became the first former Padre to be enshrined in Cooperstown.

Oakland bought his contract for the '76 stretch run, but Willie couldn't adjust to the American League in those few weeks and mustered just 5 hits (all singles) in 11 games. After being released by the A's, the Giants invited him to spring training and he signed back with SF as a free agent (Topps airbrushed him into a familiar SF uniform for their 1977 set, so he was never featured on a baseball card as an Athletic, airbrushed or otherwise).

McCovey delivered a solid 1977 season, winning the NL Comeback Player of the Year Award, but it would be his last impressive year. He was able to reach the 500 home run milestone the next season, but his production was down. By the time the 1980 season rolled around, Willie was a bench player, but he entered the elite "Four Decades" club, having played major league baseball in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. In 48 games that year, he tacked a lone home run onto his career total before playing his final game at age 42 (The only other players to homer in 4 different decades are Ted Williams, Rickey Henderson, and Omar Vizquel). In that final game, the last game before the All-Star break, July 6, 1980, Willie hit a pinch-hit RBI sac fly off Rick Sutcliffe in a win over the Dodgers.

Retiring in the middle of the previous season, Topps stuck to their usual protocol and didn't give McCovey a card in their 1981 set. Donruss didn't bother including him in their inaugural set either. But luckily for true sunset card fans such as myself, Fleer included him in their 1981 set, giving collectors a chance to admire his complete career stats on the back.

Pretty cool. Nowadays of course you've got sites like the excellent baseball-reference.com with extensive numbers at your fingertips (link to Willie's page), but back then it wasn't so easy. I suppose the card has an uncorrected error, since it claims to list McCovey's "Complete Major and Minor League Batting Record", though his minor league stats aren't actually included. (That would have made for some very tiny text!)

McCovey made the Hall of Fame on the first ballot. Among the impressive stats not included on the back of his one last card are his .374 on base percentage, .515 slugging percentage, and 18 grand slams.

 

As far as later baseball card tributes, Donruss issued their first McCovey card in 1986, a "highlight" insert commemorating his HOF induction. As with most well-known modern era HOFers, he went on to be included in countless post-career sets/subsets/inserts in the 00s, though it seems like it took Topps a while to get on the bandwagon.

 

No doubt an incredible ballplayer. Were it not for nagging injuries throughout his career, and his managers platooning him for his first few years, it's easy to imagine him reaching the 600 HR mark, joining Aaron, Ruth, and Mays as the only pre-steroids era guys to hit that milestone. Still though, 521 is a heck of a number. Props to Fleer for putting out the final card of Willie McCovey's playing career.

Refraction Action: Casey Kelly 2013 Topps Xfractor

Here's an Xfractor (right? Who can keep track of the various parallel names?) of Casey Kelly from Chase the Sea Turtle, a.k.a. 2013 Topps (So help me god, 2014 Topps better not have the word "chase" printed on them anywhere.. and that includes Utley and Headley. They really drove the whole "chase/chasing" thing into the ground this year. And this comes from a guy who bought but a single solitary pack of the stuff.) I guess this card is from Topps Chrome, if you want to get technical.

The gif turned out pretty decent, I'd say.. Fun to stare at for a bit. That vortex behind Kelly's head on the right is especially hypnotic.

This refractor comes to you courtesy of J. Meeks at My Cardboard Habit. I'm not even talking about a trade.. he just generously offered some refractors he didn't have use for up for grabs on his blog to whoever wanted them. I called the Padres.. and since he only had one Pad (above), he even threw in a few Giants too. Nice, I'll take 'em! I very much appreciate the kind gesture. Everyone should check out his blog (though I'm sure anyone reading this already knows it well). He's trying to get a big 2013 Triple Threads group break going, so sign up if you're interested.
Thanks again, Judson!

As for Casey Kelly up there, his 2013 was lost to Tommy John surgery. Let's hope he's able to bounce back and give the Padres at least some value from when they gave traded away Adrian Gonzalez a few years back.

(p.s. I've decided to change the name of Refractin' Action to Refraction Action. It rhymes better. And man, oh, man, I loves me a good rhyme. All the time.)

The Greatest Gavins of All-Time

My name is Gavin.

Growing up, I was pretty much the only Gavin on earth. At least that's how it seemed. I never went to school with any other Gavins, or really ever came across another Gavin anywhere. Once every couple years I'd see somebody named Gavin in the credits of a movie or something, and my eyes would perk up: "He's named like my name!," as Homer Simpson would later eloquently identify.

There was Gavin MacLeod, the actor who played the captain on the Love Boat, but I think that was the only famous Gavin when I was a kid. Later, the 90s gave us Gavin Rossdale, lead singer of the band Bush (a Nirvana wannabe from England) who's since had a more-lasting legacy as Gwen Stefani's husband. And more recently, another musician, Gavin DeGraw has had some success, though I've never knowingly listened to his music (I think it would be categorized as "young adult contemporary").

According to Wikipedia, there are less than 40 notable Gavins ever to exist, as of this moment in history. And not many of those are American.

I always liked having a somewhat obscure name. Sure, it was harder to find novelty mini license plates and stuff with my name on them, but it was a small price to pay for being the only Gavin in town. Some people even thought my name was downright weird.. something they'd never heard before. One stupid bully called me "gavel" like that was an insult. Whatever. Another jerk called me "guava".. oh, so mean! (rolls eyes). And English-as-a-second-language folks often mispronounce it "GAY vin" (which comes out sounding like a subtle insult, though I'm pretty sure they don't mean anything by it), instead of correctly as in My name is Gavin; a good time is what I'm havin' (one of my go-to freestyle raps). On rare occasions, Gavin is used for a girl's name, but this is very much frowned upon.. in fact, googling its feminine usage, the first result was quite amusing in the outrage people had. Damn right. My to-be mother-in-law sometimes has trouble spelling my name, and I've been given Christmas gifts addressed to "Gaven", bless her heart. But these days, most people are at least familiar with the name. It's been a somewhat popular baby name for the past decade or so, meaning in the coming years there will likely be a bunch of Gavins out there making names for themselves (no pun intended).

Honestly, I've had a tendency to be a bit competitive and defensive about being Gavin. I would hate for somebody with my name to become really popular. You Mikes and Chris's out there probably don't get this. But imagine your name was Chipper. Then all of a sudden Chipper Jones bursts onto the scene and steals your name. Bad example since Chipper is a nickname, not a given name, but you get my point. Generally speaking, namesaked people don't like to be outshined by one person.

Reeling this post into the topic of baseball, the first Gavin to break into the majors was Gavin Floyd, getting called up in 2004. In fact, according to baseball-reference, through 2013, he's still the only Gavin ever to play in the bigs. He'll never be enshrined in Cooperstown, but I'd say he's a lock for the Hall of Fame For Guys Named Gavin, if such a place is ever built. Going back to my competitive nature, I'm kinda glad Mr. Floyd isn't a superstar. But since he's just a decent player, I will fully support him. I guess I collect him too, so please trade me your spare Gavin Floyd cards. I don't have many. I have one I got from a Mystery Binder (getting that card kind of planted the seed for this post), and then I just recently got a second card of him for 15 cents in my inaugural Just Commons order. While I was at it, I also added a card to my cart from each of the other Gavins I could find in stock.

Not easy to pick my favorite Bush song (they've got a few I like, but none I love).. went with this.

Now let's breakdown these ballplayers.. the All-Time Greatest Gavins. (Note that this list only includes guys I own cards of, so apologies to the lesser-known minor leaguers I haven't scored cards of yet.) For added fun, let's count them down in order from least-best to most-best.

#4 Greatest Gavin : Gavin Osteen

Osteen played from 1989 till 2002, with many years spent in AAA, but he was never able to break through to the show. He usually put up decent/average numbers and ended up with a very middle-of-the-road lifetime farm record of 78-79 with a 3.97 ERA. He has a few minor league cards out there (this one seems to be the most common.. I even owned it back in the early 90s.. my first Gavin), but as far as I can tell, Osteen never got on a major league card. He's got a write-up over at The Greatest 21 Days blog with more info on this career.


#3 Greatest Gavin : Gavin Baugh

Baugh (on the right) only played professionally for 5 years, putting up disappointing numbers and never making it past A ball.. and we're talking about an expansion franchise here!-- early 90s Marlins-- so you know he really sucked. But hey, the guy somehow got on a major league baseball card! Not many people can say that! That's enough to bump him past Osteen, despite Osteen's much more respectable career. Baugh's last name is kinda close to mine, too, so he gets the award for "closest name to my name, any person living or dead, that I've ever heard of." If only Bill Buckner's first name was Gavin, he'd take the award. There's apparently never been a pro baseball player with my last name, btw. I'm guessing rookie card-mate Pat Leahy here didn't have much of a career either, since this card cost me just 12 cents.


#2 Greatest Gavin: Gavin Cecchini

Cecchini wins the "Gavin most likely to succeed" award. He was the Mets' 1st pick (12th overall) in the 2012 amateur draft. He spent 2013 in the low minors, not exactly tearing it up, but doing ok. While his offensive numbers haven't been that impressive, as a shortstop, I suppose his meal ticket is defense. We'll have to wait and see if he ever amounts to anything. With a little luck, he could be challenging for the Greatest Gavin crown in a few years. Being a first round pick, he's already got lots of baseball cards, some of which are even pricey.. serial numbered and/or autographed, refractorized, what-have-you. This one was his cheapest available (65 cents), so I grabbed it.


And the #1 Greatest Gavin of All-Time, As Far As Professional Baseball Is Concerned:
Gavin Floyd

No surprise here, seeing as Floyd is the only Gavin to play major league baseball. The 4th overall pick in the ill-fated year of 2001, Floyd got called up to the Phillies 3 years later. After being traded to the White Sox with Gio Gonzalez for Freddy Garcia, he established himself as a solid backend-of-the-rotation starter in 2008, going 17-8 with an ERA of 3.84. He hasn't matched those stats since, but consistently put up roughly "league average" numbers for the next few years, with an occasional gem mixed in. An elbow injury led to a poor start to 2013, ultimately requiring Tommy John surgery that took him out for the year after just 5 starts, and will keep him off the mound for much-- possibly all-- of 2014. He's a free agent now, so we'll see if he's able to make a comeback or if his career is finished at 30. His lifetime record stands at an even 70-70 with a 4.48 ERA in 199 games.. Average numbers for a baseball player, but outstanding numbers for a guy named Gavin.


Honorable Mentions:

• Former All-Star pitcher Scott Erickson's middle name is Gavin, as is his early 90s Twins teammate Derek Parks, a backup catcher who got into 45 games up top. These are the only two players baseball-reference finds with Gavin as their middle name. What are the odds?! In the history of major league baseball, only two players have ever had the middle name Gavin, and they just happened to be on the same team at the same time! I wonder if the battery-mates bonded over their shared middle name. I bet they high-fived over it. "Your middle name is Gavin, too?! Right on!! [slap]"
• As far as close-but-no-cigar names, HOF old-timer Pud Galvin and probable future HOFer Tom Galvine have an extra letter or two cluttering up an otherwise fine last name. I don't think there have been any Garvins to play baseball, and god-willing, there never will be.
• The only other active minor leaguer with Gavin somewhere in his name besides Cecchini is Frendy Gavin, a pitcher deep down in the Cardinals system.
• A few other Gavins played in the minors but they didn't do much and I don't own any of their cards, so they're not included in this post. If you have cards of any other person named Gavin (or more cards from these featured Gavins), I'd probably be down for a trade. Heck, let's go ahead and list the lesser known minor league Gavins: Gavin Bangs, Gavin Barrett, Gavin Brooks, Gavin Brown, Gavin Concepcion, Gavin Dickey, Gavin Dlouhy, Gavin Edmondson, Gavin Edmonson, Gavin Fingleson, Gavin Forbis, David Gavin, Thomas Gavin, Gavin Hanson, Gavin Hare, Gavin Jackson, Gavin Long, Gavin Marshall, Gavin McCourt, Gavin Monjaras, Gavin Ng, Gavin Russo, Gavin Saladino, Gavin Wright.
• In the NFL, there's a touted rookie on the Dallas Cowboys named Gavin Escobar.. he's got lots of cards out there, including some fancy/pricey ones. He also went to my alma mater SDSU, so that's bonus points in my book. I should get a couple of his cards someday. A backup tight end, it's doubtful he'll ever make a big impression in the league, but we'll see.
• As far as other Gavins in US pro sports (i.e., Gavins with trading cards).. There was a football player in the 60s named Chuck Gavin. And there's a poker player named Gavin Smith (Yes, poker players get their own trading cards now, apparently). There was a hockey rookie named Gavin Morgan about a decade ago, and a guy named Gavin Kirk in the mid 70s, but doesn't look like either guy had much of a career on the ice. Stewart Gavin, another NHL player, played for several years in the 80s and early 90s.
• Oh, and there's a "Thanks Gavin" Garbage Pail Kid which is a dumb play on Thanksgiving.

But really, when you do a card search for "Gavin", about 95% of the results are either of Floyd, Cecchini, or Escobar. So, one established guy and a couple recently drafted prospects (one MLB, one NFL). So in conclusion, it looks like for the foreseeable future, Gavin Floyd will reign atop the list of All-Time Sports Gavin Greats. Congrats, Gavin! And best of luck to all other Gavins out there!

Kids In The Hall had an annoying character named Gavin.. apparently a Dodger fan.

Let me now invite you to leave a comment. Tell me about any other Gavins you know. And/or: Who is the best player who shares your name?

Scary Baseball Cards & Super Creeps

It's Halloweentime again.

This post is not for the timid. I cannot be held responsible for any nightmares and lingering mental health issues that may develop for anyone who continues reading this blog post. You've been warned.

Here are some absolutely ghoulish baseball cards.

Holy God! How was this ghastly spectre ever allowed on a ballfield? When he pulled a pitcher, he'd literally pull the pitcher limb from limb, and drain the blood right there on the mound. It gave the fans a thrill at first, but ownership quickly tired of it and fired him. By "fired" I mean they performed a séance in the manger's office and he turned to dust at midnight.

This freakish beast impersonated Gaylord Perry for 6 years before the real Gaylord was able to convince the front office of the deception. Similar to Billy Gardner, this monster-man would routinely rip the arms off opposing batters, then use the arm for a bat next time he came to the plate. He had a respectable lifetime average of .253 until the commissioner's office officially banned the use of flesh bats in 1970. The real Gaylord was able to subdue the monster by smothering it with gel made of holy water and pine tar, a trick he discovered during one of his many late nights studying ancient books on the occult, searching for the creature's weakness. From that point on, Gaylord never took the mound without an emergency stash of the mixture.

This is the visual definition of terror. Just try to shake this image from your mind. You won't be able to. You will now routinely wake up in the middle of the night, jolted out of your slumber by the vivid memory of this picture haunting all your dreams forever.

On the topic of demonic powers, some of you disturbingly-observant readers may have noticed that the background image I've been using for the past few months prominently features 2 baseball cards: one of the Cardinals and one of the Red Sox. As you can imagine, my blood ran cold and my hair turned white and stood on end when these exact 2 teams later went on to meet in the World Series. Were dark forces behind this prophecy being fulfilled? Absolutely yes. No doubt about it. (UPDATE EDIT: And notice how the Red Sox card is on top?? I take full responsibility for the championship they just won moments ago.)

Adding to the eeriness, the two other cards you can almost make out are of the Tigers and Pirates, respectively. I essentially cursed each team to lose in the playoffs, and I feel horrible about that. I must learn how to harness this power that I possess. I apologize for my irresponsibility. I'm not certain where the Padres cap fits in with all this, but I'm pretty sure I either just ensured the dawning of a multi-championship San Diego dynasty, or cursed them to never make the postseason again for the lifetime of the franchise. Smart money is on the latter.

Finally, this has nothing to do with baseball cards, but here's a little animated short I put together a few years back. It's sort of creepy, in a silly way, featuring an evil balloon and a scared porcupine. I'm always looking for an excuse to share it, so here it is. I did everything here, including the music. My life's artistic triumphs are few, but this is a good one, by my modest standards, I think.

Just Commons vs. COMC

I've talked about my exercise in self-restraint of not purchasing any cards for the rest of the year. I made an exception for 2004 Topps Retired autos. And I recently caved in and bought some more cards. At least it wasn't eBay, though. The site Just Commons has apparently been around for a few years, but it seems like the blogosphere has really been buzzing about it the past few weeks. I had to get in on the action. I threw 47 cards in my cart, most for around $0.08-.0.30 a pop. I splurged on one relatively-pricey card ($6), but otherwise everything was under a buck each, and my total was under $15. Very happy to fill in a bunch of holes in my player collections on the cheap. (About half the cards were Bill Madlock.. nearly completing my Mad Dog standard base collection.)

I'm sure I'll be back for another order before long. So now my card acquiring avenues include eBay, Listia, COMC, Just Commons, and in theory, trades. (I'm hoping my new "Desperate Dozen" card-specific wantlist on the sidebar will help drum up a trade or two. And I still need to get around to posting some "trade bait" posts.)

As for pros and cons, COMC shows you what the cards look like, which is a definite edge over Just Commons, which doesn't feature card images. So if you're picky about condition/centering, COMC gets the nod. Plus, if you're a team collector, you need to be careful not to accidentally get a card of a player on a different team, like Dodger fan GCRL did when a Sheffield he bought turned out to be a Yankee card.

And COMC has a bigger inventory, generally speaking, including all sportscards, not just baseball. While Just Commons is named that for a reason, there are in fact some non-commons too. But don't expect to find many vintage cards, especially of star players. But the site is well-stocked for 80s, 90s, 00's, and today. It seems like the way the site operates is the guy (guys?) behind the site break cases of cards and buy big lots, putting the hits on eBay and the "misses" on Just Commons. Sounds like a good idea to me.

It's not uncommon for Just Commons to be out of stock on a card even though it'll be listed as available and the site will allow you to purchase it. Of the 47 cards I ordered, one ('81 Donruss Gaylord Perry) was sold out and I got my 15 cents refunded when the order shipped. It took about a week from the day I ordered to the day the cards showed up. Pretty decent.

I have to give the nod to COMC when it comes to accuracy, though. I've never gotten a "wrong card" from COMC, but there were a couple mistakes in my Just Commons order. I ordered 1985 Donruss #200 (Bill Madlock), but instead received 1984 Donruss #200 (Manny Sarmiento), and I ordered 1985 Fleer #468 (Bill Madlock) but received 1984 Fleer #468 (Nick Esasky). So looks like whoever pulled the order was off by a year in the box he or she grabbed for these 2 cards, and just looked at card number, not player name. I probably won't bother pestering them about it since these are just 15 cent cards, but yeah, it's a bit of an annoyance.

And for price, it's Just Commons by a wide margin.. cards are roughly about half the price of COMC on average. Plus US shipping is free at Just Commons for orders over $10. COMC used to have a deal similar to that, but now has a $3 flat shipping cost.

There's another site called Sportslots that many people seem to like for buying their singles. I haven't ordered from that site yet, but it seems to basically split the difference between COMC and Just Commons in most areas.

So yeah, I'm happy to have let JC into my life (wait, I'm talking about Just Commons, here, not getting religious). Many of these newly acquired cards will be featured in upcoming posts here at the Breakdown.

Here's the pricey $6 card I bought:

A Tony Gwynn 1983 Donruss rookie card. (At first I thought that Rudolph dot at the tip of his nose was a defect in this particular card, but a Google image search seems to indicate all copies have it.) His Topps rookie was one of the first "expensive" cards I bought when I was a young San Diegan. Earlier this year, I got a Fleer rookie off Listia. And I had won a Donruss rookie off Listia, too.. BUT the seller flaked out and never sent the card. Bummer. But now I've finally achieved the Gwynn Rookie Card Trifecta. It feels good.

I also picked up 3 early cards of the only man who could possibly have even a whisper of a chance at challenging Tony for the title of Mr. Padre.

Trevor was coming up just as I was leaving the hobby back around '93, and I never happened to get any of his cards back then. Since I started back up collecting a couple years ago, I've been playing catch-up building a PC for him, as any self-respecting Padres fan card collector certainly does. These few pre-San Diego rookie-ish issues here definitely help it shape up.