Thursday, January 16, 2025

A Tribute to Bob Uecker

     I just found out a few moments ago that Bob Uecke passed away at the age of 90. 

    Uecker played in the MLB for parts of six seasons as a catcher, batting .200/.293/.287 in 731 At-Bats. He won the World Series with the Cardinals in 1964.

    Uecker then moved to color commentary with the Brewers in 1971. He was known for his phrase, "Get up! Get up! Get outta here! Gone!" He provided commentary for the Brewers for over 50 years, and was inducted to the National Radio Hall of Fame over 20 years ago.

    Bob Uecker also had a career in television, appearing in multiple commercials and TV shows, and even received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

    Uecker had some amazing quotes about the game of baseball, one of my favorites being, "The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up."

    Bob Uecker was so essential to the game of baseball. He deserves the nickname Mr. Baseball in the fullest.

    I'm afraid that I don't know very much about Bob Uecker and his career and legacy, due to being a little bit too young. But I do know that he helped shape baseball across his years in the league, as a player, broadcaster, and friendly personality. Rest in peace Bob. We'll miss you.






Monday, January 13, 2025

The First Card Shop Trip of 2025

     Due to some forseeable expenses coming up this year, I'm not really going to be able to spend as much money on cards. That doesn't mean that I'm going to hit the card shop less than usual -- I'm just going to have to spend less money there.

    The first of my trips to the LCS in 2025 came a couple days ago, on the eleventh. While I didn't spend as much money there as I may usually have, this wasn't really due to expenses; there were errands to be run, which limited time to pick through boxes and really look at cards.

    I had a few objectives with the card store trip, these being a couple birthday gifts. Once presents were through, then I could have some real fun picking through boxes for a few minutes before continuing the rest of the errands on the agenda.

    By now I'm probably boring y'all to death, so I'll just get down to the cards acquired (not including the birthday gifts, of course).



    The quarter boxes did well, yielding some chrome and a few refractors. Could you not tell that I like shiny? The Woodruff is my favorite card in the small stack. If I had more time to spend, I probably would have liked to sit down and find some more goodies, but as they say, tempus fugit.



    Another Merrill for my PC, in the form of a Bowman Chrome rookie. This card was in the dollar box; it may have been a little bit much, but whatever. It's great to get another Merrill pickup, and it's a goal of mine to come away with another Merrill card with each visit to the card store. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get the card out of its penny sleeve yet (which is why the image is blurred), and don't want to damage the actual card.




    This card made me the most happy of them all. I didn't actually buy the card - in fact, it had been sitting on a shelf since my last birthday, which was forever ago. I've been waiting to post it on the blog until I got the proper protection for it, which was found with this trip to the LCS. The card is from the 2024 Topps -  Postseason Performance Relic Gold set (thank you TCDB), and is numbered 16/25. I considered getting it graded, but opted not to. The grading process costs too much money, and the card probably wouldn't get an amazing grade, having been pulled from a hanger box from Amazon. Nonetheless, it remains a favorite in my collection.






    I got the pack of Comic Ball cards for 50 cents. I liked the 1990 Comic Ball set I received for Christmas a year or two back, so it was worth less than a dollar to pick up this 12-card pack from the 1992 set. 



         

    I love the use of major-leaguers on these cards -- Ken Griffey Jr. and Jim Abbott are visible on these ones. These are always fun cards to have. However, there were three dupes in this pack (cards 22, 128, and 134) which I am happy to give away to whoever wants to claim one in the comments.






    And, as promised, I finished out the trip with a pack of hockey cards (Upper Deck MVP). My collection has gotten a few nice little boosts these past few weeks, and I was hoping to get a few more here. The pack wasn't opened until the night before the publication of this post.




    I was surprised that I recognized more than half the names on the cards. Most notably was Brent Burns, who was once described to me as 'Santa Claus without teeth.' The other big name for me was Thatcher Demko. I think the design and coloration of the cards goes really well with the sport they represent. This was a nice eight-card addition to my still slowly progressing hockey collection.



    That'll wrap up the entirity of the first LCS visit of the new year! The whole deal cost me $10, which I'm more than happy to pay with my new card budget. 

    It was crowded in the store, which is good because I like to see small businesses succeed. It looks like they'll be expanding pretty soon, which is awesome.

    Thank y'all for reading, have a great start to the week, and happy collecting!

Friday, January 10, 2025

2025 Topps is out: A Breakdown

     Well, I'm a day late. Thanks to Topps Cards That Never Were for bringing this to my attention yesterday.

    

    The 2025 Topps flagship design has officially been publicized. Let's take a look, shall we?




    My first thought is 'Confound it, I shouldn't have had a white background for this post!' All cosmetics aside, this design is very interesting.

    The team name coming across the left-hand side of the card looks pretty nice, but when you acquire a few hundred of them, I think it might get a little bit annoying and difficult to read. The bottom of the card looks good, with everything you need, except the position. Now, there is a little circle on the diamond showing what posisiton the player is, but I never would have noticed that had Night Owl not pointed it out. I think I can live with it, even though there's plenty of space for a written-out position.

    The color scheme is perfect. By far the best part of the card. Topps literally could not have done better on that.




    Overall, it's not my favorite design, but it's pretty good. I think that behind 2024 Topps, this is probably the best design since at least 2018 Topps. 

    I'll do a better analysis once I get a first-hand taste of 2025 Topps. Perhaps I was being too hard on the design just because its predecessor was legendary. It's really a decent design, most definitely one not to complain about. Topps has picked up the slack on decent designs the past two years (I wish they'd slow down the pace on the near 20 parallels and the ton of inserts coming out this year). 

    Well, thanks for reading my analysis, have a great rest of the week (hold on just one more day) and happy collecting.

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Personal Thoughts on a Prospect

     I wrote his scouting report on another blog about a week ago, and I liked it, so I'm doing it again.



    This is Brandon Sproat, a minor league starting pitcher in the New York Mets organization. He was drafted in 2022 at the age of 21. The end of the 2024 season saw a brief stint of his in AAA.

    My first intrigue of this player came from a YouTube video I had seen claiming that he threw a pitch 135 miles an hour. What they did to that video I don't know, but my brief research led me to the discovery that he throws in the upper-90s, occasionally hitting 100. It's not to say that 100 is unimpressive, but 135? Come on guys.

    


    Brandon Sproat was born on September 17th, 2000, in Pensacola, Florida. He pitched for the Florida Gators (obviously), and went 19-8 with a 4.27 ERA in his four seasons with the team. 

    Sproat made his professional debut in 2024, starting in high-A. He needed only 25 1/3 innings with a 1.07 ERA to gain a promotion. Sproat didn't slow down in AA either, posting a 2.45 ERA across 62 1/3 innings and striking out 11.1 batters per nine innings.

    


    He finally reached trouble with his promotion to AAA. In seven starts and 28 2/3 innings in Syracuse, Brandon Sproat went 1-2 with an ERA of 7.53. 

    All in all, Sproat's first minor league season looked pretty good - in 116 1/3 innings his record was 7-4, and he had a 3.40 ERA. Obviously he'll need to prove himself in AAA before being able to move on to the majors, but he looks like he can be a threat to major league hitters in the future.



    Research on how effecitve Sproat's secondary pitches are took me to Baseball Savant:

The 6-foot-3 right-hander can touch triple-digits, as he's done a few times on the pro side, and he'll typically sit in the 95-97 mph range. He'll get some armside run on the heater too, so batters have to worry about more than just the velocity. His upper-80s changeup shows decent enough separation and good fade to give him another weapon that's worked in both college and the pros. He'll show a mid-80s slider and an upper-80s cutter -- two different pitches with varying amounts of horizontal break that have given upper-level hitters fits. There is also a 78-81 mph curveball that ranks behind the rest of the group in usage.




    The scouting report also speaks of Sproat's high walk rate, something that absolutely must be dialed down a bit in order for him to be good at the next level. 

    He'll be in his age 24 season in 2025, so he has time. However, I would like to see him pitch either in 2025 or 2026, while he's still young and fresh. Sproat is ranked #40 on MLB's top prospect list. According to the website, his estimated time of arrival in the big leagues is this coming season, so maybe we will get a taste of Sproat in the near future.




    The whole reason I first found interest in Brandon Sproat is due to the ridiculous video I saw, but in the end, it caused me to learn about a prospect I had never heard of, so it's a pretty good outcome.

    I'm definitely paying attention to Brandon Sproat as 2025 progresses, and would be stoked to see a call-up sometime early in the year. After all, these young prospects always interest me.

    Thank y'all for reading my little scouting report, have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting! 

Monday, January 6, 2025

I've Been Attacked by Sharks!

     No, I wasn't swimming in the Pacific Ocean; or the Atlantic. No, I was getting a PWE from Fuji. I opened it on January 2nd (much too cold to be swimming). 


    

    Things are starting well with a 2019 Topps Jacob deGrom card. I really hope that he has a healthy 2025 season, so the Rangers can make another playoff run. I think they'll be in trouble if Deggy can't stay healthy (pardon the odd nickname). Fun fact: 2019 was the year I started collecting baseball cards. I had some before, but that year really got me started.





    Fuji gives me a boost to my recently-started hockey collection by adding 17 cards from my favorite team (and an 18th of a guy who played for my favorite team). He added in a bunch of OPCs as well, which is great. 
    Fuji informed me that Pat Falloon was the early 1990s version of my favorite player, Macklin Celebrini. Falloon was the first player to be drafted by the Sharks, in 1992. He was drafted second overall in San Jose's maiden season.




    I really like the backs of the O-Pee-Chee cards. The color scheme is perfect. I also like Paul Fenton's facial expression -- also perfect, as if the puck is flying at his face at 120 mph.


    I don't know very much about hockey, but my hockey-fanatic friends started a fantasy hockey league and needed an extra player; and they played fantasy baseball with us, so why not? Since fantasy started I've been paying attention to the Sharks and Macklin Celebrini (who I just traded for), and learning more about the game, which is just so fun to watch. While I can't say the team (neither mine nor San Jose's) is doing all too well, Macklin has been just fine.

    Thank you for the cards Fuji! deGrom will go into my PC, and maybe Falloon will find himself in the PC in the near future (depending on how many of his cards I can get my hands on).

    Thank you all for reading, have a great start to the week and stay warm out there, and happy collecting!

Saturday, January 4, 2025

Christmas Cards From The Diamond King

    I receiced a PWE from the Diamond King's Christmas giveaway. I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- the members of the card blogosphere are extremely generous (I have another PWE to post on later). 



    Han Solo was the card I requested from the Diamond King. I have a few Star Wars cards, and Han makes for a very nice addition. Harrison Ford is in so many good movies, from Star Wars to Indiana Jones to The Fugitive.... anyway, back to the cards.

    

    Han Solo was already a nice card, but he threw in more than just that. I also found that he sent me two PC players. 


    I've never seen the UK edition card before. This is card #75 of the 220-card UK set. There doesn't seem to be much of a difference to the card design other than the Union Jack on the upper left-hand side of the card. While researching this particular card, I found that there are multiple international versions of the cards, but I don't know how many (I only saw UK and Japan, and was too lazy to look any further).


    And we finish things up with the reigning World Series MVP. Oh, I really like this card. This is the first Chrome-Strokes card I've ever owned. 2024 Chrome-Strokes is only 25 cards, so maybe I'll try and complete it sometime in the future. Haha, I say these things, but I'll probably never actually get down to it. I prefer to dig through quarter and dollar boxes at the card store. We'll see how it ends up going. 

 

    A big thanks to the Diamond King for some more great cards! And thank y'all for reading, have a great weekend, and happy collecting!

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Sweet Goodbyes to 2024

    At the time of publication, it is only 2025 in about than half the country. Apologies to all those who are still in 2024. Please come back in a few hours and then check this post out....or you can do it now. I mean, I don't care.

    Well that year went by fast. But it was a memorable one, for me at least. For one, my blog started up in January of 2024 (my first blogoversary is coming up). I also got the job of tutoring Latin, which has been wonderful. I've learned a lot of things about card-blogging and life in general, which makes for a worthwhile year. And I'm one year wiser too 🤣 just to name a few  things. 

    If I were to review how the year went from a card-blogging perspective, I likely wouldn't get anywhere, due to lack of material. I'll likely post less than 118 times in 2025 though, because I don't think I'll be adding that many posts worth of cards to my collection. I just don't want to spend a ton of money on cards right now.  

    I don't have a ton to say on the subject of the new year, and am going to be occupied for most of the day, so I'll keep this pretty brief: With the new year comes some New Year's resolutions. I've never really made a resolution at the start of the new year, but as always, I've got some goals. 

    I will have a resolution for this blog though, and that will be to better the quality of my posts. Of course, I'm never going to abandon the bad humor and writing style of the blog -- otherwise it'd be less fun. But I'd like to get better posting material and maybe fix up the writing style a little bit. At times I feel like y'all would be rolling your eyes at what I post. I love to write, whether it be blogging or otherwise, so I'm always in it to improve in that regard. As far as my collection is concerned, I don't know how it will progress in 2025, and I don't really have too many goals, other than the new Topps base set, and completing that Denny's Holograms set I've spoken of on a previous post. Considering the amount I focus on that though, it may take a little while.

    And happy birthday to Dallas Keuchel! C'mon, it's the first post of the new year, I've got to add a card in here somewhere, or else I'd have an existential crisis. Even a regular, boring old base card. 2021 was an interesting design, not my favorite.

    Speaking of base cards, I'm excited to see what the 2025 Topps base set looks like. They really outdid themselves in 2024, and I hope they don't disappoint in 2025, although it'll be difficult to beat the design from what is now last year. I saw an educated prediction of the design from Topps Cards that Never Were, which, if correct, would make an interesting one.  I'm also excited for the new Bowman set, seeing as how I'm one of those weird guys who's a fan of Bowman (I take it it's not very popular). 

    That'll about do it for the first post of 2025! This new year is going to be a very interesting one. Then again, is any year not interesting? Who all stayed/is staying up until midnight tonight? It's always hard for me to do it, but I usually can (last year was easy because it was cold and I was sick). Anyway, thank you, as always, for reading my blog, take care, and happy collecting! I hope y'all have a great 2025. I'm gonna go listen to some U2.