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Showing posts with the label Nomar Garciaparra

Art of art

I'll get to some baseball cards in a moment, but I want to address some other cards sent to me by Jason of The Writer's Journey . The first time I remember announcing what I wanted to be when I grew up was in fourth grade. I think it was some sort of class assignment, but what I recall clearly is that I said I wanted to be "an artist." That's right. Not a baseball player or football player like every other boy (perhaps even at that time I knew it was a pipe dream), but an artist. I even visualized myself with a palette and tubes of paint, wearing a beret and standing in front of an easel. It seemed weird to me even then, as if I was already questioning my decision. But art, in all of its forms, has always appealed to me and been in me. My family is filled with people who drew, played musical instruments and wrote. My grandmother wrote music and her ability to write was handed down to me, which was handed down to my daughter. And because I can write, other...

Break it down

I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the explanations behind people's blog names. But every once in awhile I puzzle about them for a minute or two. Baseball Card Breakdown is one of them. The name, I'm assuming, could mean a few different things: Having a "breakdown" over a certain set or card, "breaking down" a certain set or card by analysis, or even manipulating your cards in such a way so they appear to be dancing, thus "breaking it down," as in the parlance of certain early '90s rappers. Baseball Card Breakdown's Gavin does all these things, so that's living up to your blog name right there, and I'm sorry I was even confused for a second. After all, this night owl doesn't exactly live up to his blog title these days as I don't post in the middle of the night anymore (I save that for the set blogs). I received some cards from BCB recently and I'll do my best to break them down here. I can...

Direct from the discount box

OK, so when I wrote about how 1984 Donruss was the only Donruss set that mattered, you were all just humoring me? I know some of you like the set. I read the comments on that post . As for overrated sets, I consider well-loved sets like 1953 Topps, 1989 Upper Deck and 2011-12 Gypsy Queen absolutely overhyped. But I'm going to soften my inner crank (why do you think I abandoned Twitter?) and go with something more pleasant. Someone shopped for me at a card show! OK, he went directly to the discount boxes, but I wouldn't expect anyone to do anything else. Besides, carlsonjok from Cardboard Catastrophes sure knows how to pick the right cards out of those boxes. A 1962 Tommy Davis out of a discount box? Do you know what Tommy Davis did in 1962? He only accumulated 230 hits and set a Dodger record that still stands with 153 RBIs. This card is indisputable greatness. Al Ferrara seems mighty disturbed that John Purdin is not a real person, but (*gasp*) a PAINTING. ...

More thoughts, but no Sox

I'm moving on from the latest bipping to show some more cards I received from the first bipper . He gave me a whole bunch of good ones, so it's only fair. I know what you're thinking: this is going to be a trade post. Don't worry. Thorzul's dealing with the bipping monster he created. He's too busy to be bored. I appear to be one of the first beneficiaries of Adam's new card shop. And I'm quite jealous of someone who a) knows the card shop owner, and b) has a card shop in which both new and older cards appear to be available. At my card shop, you either buy new stuff, stuff from the last two years, or random junk wax packs from 1992. Now, I don't know if Adam got all the older cards from the card shop. But I'm going to pretend he did, so I can rag on my card shop some more and work myself into a worthless-card-shop-hating lather. Hey, everyone needs to vent. Here we go: This is one of the earlier "Old Guys on New Cards" sets. This i...