Diagnosis: All-Star Break Withdrawal Symptoms Present

July is a month filled with many contradictions.  It is national ice cream month and national pickle month.  It is hot in most of the United States and Europe, and it is cold in San Francisco and Australia.  It is a time of constancy in baseball as teams have established baselines of performance and also a time of change in baseball as the trade deadline approaches.

Then, there is both the brightness and the blight of the MLB All-Star Week.  It is a brightness because of the event itself.  Regardless of the home field advantage conundrum and interleague play, there's always something fun about seeing the players in different caps and uniforms on the field. The first five innings are always a fun time....then comes the darkness (like Chase Utley's 2015 season, there's the tie-in to the picture you were all waiting for).

The last 4 innings are a roster parade, barely resembling a baseball game, but then comes the worst part.  There are two days without baseball afterwards!  When did this change happen? It was bad enough that the Wednesday after the all-star game was a veritable black hole of fan listlessness.  It has spread to another day to torture the obsessed baseball fan.

I could feel myself going through withdrawal.  My hands were shaking, and my eyes were constantly engaged on the scoreboard, hoping that one of the games on the schedule would go live.   It was not to be.  Some other symptoms that I exhibited during these days:

1. Starting saying "it's a long drive to...." whenever I got in the car.
2. Laid out a home set of clothes and away set of clothes for myself before going to work, depending on which site I was going to.
3. Drew the Phillies logo on the wall using finger paint.
4. When I ordered frozen yogurt, I got 9 pieces of each topping.
5. Played  catch with a dog wearing a glove
6. Found tree branches on the ground and carved them into bats of various sizes.
7.  Every time I took a walk, I would count to 90 and then begin again, keeping track of the number of runs I would score on the walk.

I'm just going to say that I was relieved when Friday came, and the summer routine returned.

The Topps Online Giveaways of 2012: Result!

With the newest online event right around the corner in the form of the Million Dollar Chase, I figured it would be a good idea to get the cards that I unlocked from the 2012 Topps online code programs.  I ended up with 2 cards from my codes, and then someone offered me a 2 for 1 trade, which I obviously took.

Therefore, behold the die-cut moments of Phillies wonders.  Also, these cards are immense.  They wouldn't even slide under a door. They are also refractory in the best way possible

Roy Halladay: He's the ace of the present.  The hopes and dreams of a 2nd wild card (does that sound pessimistic?) rest on the recovery of his various maladies from dos mil doce.   I think he's already joined the pantheon of Phillies pitchers, though he made it to the team too late in his career to really move up the this imaginary ladder I'm thinking about.  Golden Moment: He pitched 6 or more innings in 63 straight road starts, the longest streak since Walter Johnson.

Steve Carlton: This guy is at the top of the list I was thinking of.  He's also one of the few Phillies pitchers to pitch with them for more than 10 years.  The awards, accolades, and strikeouts speak for themselves though.  If I had to pick one player to become a supercollector of, it would probably be Steve Carlton, but I think I have to up my obsessive quotient by a few more hundredfold.  Golden Moment:  He was the all-time MLB strikeout leader at the end of the 1983 season.

Chase Utley  When healthy, he's still a top 5 second basemen in the game, but there's the question that's still around.  Golden Moment:  Had a streak of 20 consecutive stolen bases entering 2012, his career high was 27 in a row from 2008-2010.

Tony Romo:  He's not a Phillie....at least I got a card from the football card site.....for trade.

I won the Phillies, but I'm not counting on a million dollars....let's examine the reasons why later.

Sterling....a question...a rare midweek thought...

As someone who normally operates, in the so-called "first world" collecting arena, I am baffled by some of the prices for the Bowman Sterling brand.  Prospect autos are all the rage, especially in the last 3 years, in which there has been a stellar or near-stellar class to pursue. 

Shown above is one of the few Bowman Sterling cards that I possess.  It´s a single swatch jersey relic.  It comes out of a $50 per pack product.   It is luminous, but is otherwise lacking in anything else that would suggest it´s from a premium, high-end brand.

But past is prologue....at least as Bowman Sterling is concerned.  Until the past couple years, it was single relics like these and autographs on shiny stickers.  It was a visual mess to say the least.  (I was not a fan to put it mildly.)

These past couple years, the on-card auto content has at least been increased, so that there is more connection.  There also is less emphasis on the relic portion of the checklist content.  It seems a smorgasbord of prospect autos is what to expect judging from the box breaks I have seen.

Questions for those who prospect....
-Are there checklist elements in this set that are more desirable than other sets?
-Since this is the last release of the year, who missed the cut in other prospect-centric sets?
-Would you rate the appeal of these prospect autos over Bowman Chrome and Topps Chrome?
-Isn´t this now just a high-end version of Bowman Platinum?
-Is there a continuity element to collecting it from year to year?

I want to understand more about the Bowman Sterling phenomenon.

Chase Utley Day was Yesterday

On that one time date
The 23rd of May
Was duly proclaimed
Chase Utley Day

With the team offense
Boggled and dismayed
With junkball lefties
Putting them away

For 46 games
The pivots sway
Did not produce runs
Or brighten the day

Valdez had no range
Orr had no sparkling play
Martinez was glad
To be in the majors to stay

Utley's knee languished
By Clearwater bay
Preventing his debut
To be continually delayed

The  fanbase rejoiced
Just as passionates may
On the news of his coming
He was heard to say

"3 runs or less?
That is absurd! I say.
This will not occur
On my return day." 

Polanco joined in
Cole's  outing was not gray
As a ten run barrage
Signaled the new way.

Hail the return! Hail!
The Phillies proclaimed
Good feelings all around
For it was Chase Utley Day

What can I say? I'm a hopeful fan these days....

My Favorite Relic Card Purchase of 2010

I haven't done a retrospective of 2010, mostly because my mind has not yet advanced past August. Speaking of which, if your body and mind were separated along two different planes among the space-time continuum, how would you be able to distinguish when and where you were? Your mind (i.e. consciousness) would "see" your body and your body would look back at your mind from the past....so which one would be in the present?

Also, if the past were rooted in the future, would Bowman Heritage come before the original Bowman? Can there be a heritage from a past which has not yet existed? Are sepia tones really reminiscent of a past time or is that the color that happens when color fades and oxidizes away?

This Chase Utley is a bat relic from the 2006 Bowman Heritage. It is also the white parallel type of a relic and is #d to 49. When you see this card, you know of the shadows of the past, represented by the ghostly Bowman Heritage logo and the shadow thrown by the brim of Utley's past. When you hold this card, you're reminded of a simpler time, when the only color from a summer's evening was from a baseball cap and grass stains. Before foil stamping, before metallic coloring, there is and always will be cardboard, wood, and a piece of greatness in the ballplayer in all of us. Let Utley show you the way.

Happy Vacation Day Card

This is a great Utley relic card. I think it's the favorite one I have.

And to vacation I go for 2 weeks!

Expect a steady dose of the GintaCuffs when I'm away.

Happy dog days of summer, everyone!

In Dire Straits: Phillies Edition

Today, came the announcement that Chase Utley had thumb surgery and will probably not return for 8 weeks, which basically means September in baseball time. Utley's been known to have superhuman healing powers before (see hip surgery from a couple years ago: projected healing time of 8 months vs. actual healing time of 6 months), but the thumb is an stubborn, slow-healing appendage (I'm speaking from my own experience here).

From a pessimist's point of view, this is a possibly team-debilitating injury. Granted, Utley was not playing up to his previous high levels, but he was still the best hitting 2B in the NL (Cano surpassed him in the AL the year) and definitely the best fielding 2B (by many metrics). And in a normal situation, Polanco would cover at 2B. And there's the rub, this is not a normal situation; the injury demons have also accursed Placido Polanco.

He has been afflicted with a sore elbow since April 21, and as a result, has been subjected to extended rest since shorter periods of rest did not lead to healing. This now leaves two key positions on the diamond (2B and 3B) and in the lineup (2nd and 3rd) woefully undermanned.

Here are the potential replacements with some comments:

Gregg Dobbs: He can only play against right handed pitchers and even then he has become a below-average hitter. Combine that with a below average glove at 3B, and you have a non-viable replacement.

Wilson Valdez:31 year old utility man who has a good glove reputation (not sure if it's true or not). Definitely does not hit for power (though 2 HRs in 3 games belie that fact) nor average.

Juan Castro: Much older utility man with undeserved good glove reputation. Does not have enough range to be an above-average shortstop nor arm strength for a 3B. He has less than a .500 OPS this year...um, not good.

Brian Bocock: Minor league utility man who had a .470 OPS in AAA. I'm not sure how he will contribute.

As you can see not one of them can lay claim as being at least an average major league starter. I'm afraid that the Phillies have reached a turning point for the season with the aforementioned injuries ( and this does not include the losses of Ruiz, Happ, Durbin, Bastardo, Madson, long stretches without Rollins) unless someone on the team steps up large. Maybe we'll find out the inner workings of the mind of Dane Sardinha or maybe Jaime Moyer is the guru they were searching for.

Catching Up: 2008 Upper Deck Premier Group Break

I'm finally getting around to scanning cards again. It's a more time consuming exercise than I care to remember.

This is from yet another group break hosted by the esteemed Mr. I Am Joe Collector. This one happened, I believe, two months ago.

2008 Upper Deck Premier (as in awesome, not as in the first showing of a movie) is another high end brand with thick cards and attitude exemplified by Exquisite, UD Black, and the like. This was a break based on hit order with each slot getting a memorabilia or auto card. I also lucked into getting a base card.


Here is the card:

A Chase Utley/Delmon Young dual patch card numbered out of 25. The card is really striking. The dark marbleized background serves as the backdrop for the patches to take center stage. I'm thrilled because it's of one of my favorite players on my favorite team. The choice by Upper Deck to pair Utley with Delmon Young is puzzling since he is neither a second baseman, in the NL, or an all-star. He also wasn't on the Rays at the time of the 2008 World Series. It doesn't matter because Young's patch contribution completes the card vision.

Here's the base card of Jeff Francoeur. I really like base cards from these high end sets. They're almost like the forgotten collectible. Limited in number and really easy to discard.

I don't remember what other people received, so I can't comment on the intense goodness of the set in general. However, I am pleased with what I received in the break.