Hitting the wall

 

Sometimes the ideas just aren't there when discussing cards that I received from someone. Making these trade posts "readable" is what I do, but, damn, occasionally the brain stalls out.

That's the case today (well, the last 48 hours, really, I try to plan ahead), so let's immerse ourselves in the card instead. That's what some of you want me to do all the time anyway, right?

(Note to reader: I am writing this entire post on the new Blogger layout because the "revert to legacy Blogger" link has apparently disappeared forever, so if you see formatting issues or see the post end abruptly as I rage-quit my laptop, you'll know why).

This Shawn Green "Warning Track" Donruss card was the star of the envelope sent to me by Daniel of It's Like Having My Own Card Shop. He recently and generously offered to send out cards to card bloggers based on their specific requests. I would never say, "I would like a card with a bit of wall in it, please," but Daniel seems to know my unspoken card thoughts.

(My goodness, new Blogger is annoying, why isn't there enough space between paragraphs?)

Cards that contain bits of material from items that are not a uniform are wonderfully weird. Some are thrown on there with absolutely no attachment to the player. But Donruss tries mightily to make the connection between Green and the wall by specifically using a piece of wall over which Green hit a home run!

OK, so Green never touched the wall. He didn't slam into it either. The ball he hit didn't even strike the wall (because that wouldn't be a home run, would it?). But Donruss is really trying here, really, really efforting, and I can respect that.

Donruss gives the date of the home run -- August 2, 2000 -- and tells you which stadium witnessed the feat.

The piece of wall is from a stadium that no longer exists, Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Donruss actually shows a picture of the wall that gave up the swatch for this card. Don't concern yourself with the ballpark workers who desperately repatched the wall to cover all the spots where scraps were removed for baseball cards. The Pirates moved from Three Rivers to PNC Park in 2001 so Pittsburgh's old park was in "everything must go" mode.

The phrase "game-used wall" makes about as much sense as saying the discarded plastic beer cups littered in the stands are "game-used," but I suppose this card is all about wall not words.

Notice that the home run was JACKED.

No further detail on the particulars on this home run. But heading to handy retrosheet.org, Green hit his 18th home run of the year in the first inning against the Pirates on that Aug. 2, a three-run shot as the first three batters in the game reached base in a four-run inning. Starting pitcher Jose Silva (there's a name I don't remember at all), gave up the homer and lasted just two innings in an 11-5 Dodgers victory.

I'm not much of a relic collector, as you know, so the vast majority of the relics I own are the typical white or gray jersey swatches or bat pieces.

I'm happy with those but it's nice to get a little something different -- it's worth a blog post anyway -- from a cap or shoe or pile of dirt.

I just went through the relics I own and less than 10 of them feature an item that is not a jersey or bat, so, yup, this is something special -- unusual anyway.

Daniel added a couple of other needs to the envelope. That Matt Kemp Bowman Chrome card from 2011 sat on my Nebulous 9 list for much longer than I expected. As for Kaz, I've never been much for stamped parallels but I can't argue with a card numbered to 50.

OK, I guess I found something to say.

Now I only hope that it's readable.

(Bring back legacy Blogger!)