2013 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions John Barrymore

John Barrymore, the grandfather of actress Drew Barrymore, was a pretty big actor in the first half of the 20th century. Upper Deck included a card of Barrymore in it's 2013 Goodwin Champions set. I got it in a blaster box I bought last week. I had bought a hobby box of this product last year and liked it. I'm about halfway through the blaster and no duplicates yet.

Anyway, here's that Barrymore card.

I'm pretty sure all these cards are paintings based on photographs. I thought there was something funny about Barrymore's right hand in this painting. It looked like it was missing a cigarette.

Google image search is a wonderful thing. It didn't take long to find the original photo.

 Sure enough, one cigarette excised. The artist did something funny with the face of the guy just behind Barrymore's left shoulder.

Trade with the Night Owl

A few months ago, Greg at The Night Owl blog, published this card to his Twitter feed.

2004 Bowman Chrome Autographs #338 Jason Hirsh

He's a guy most of you haven't heard of but it's an Astro card with an on-card auto. I didn't have any of the auto cards from this set.  So we arranged a trade. I sent him this cool card:

2013 Topps Chrome Chrome Connections Die Cuts Matt Kemp

and two 2014 A&G Dodgers for the Hirsh and 2 2014 A&G Phillies.

Hirsh didn't have much of a career but no one can say he wasn't a gamer. After spending the 2006 season with the Astros, he ended up with the Rockies in 2007 and 2008. In his first start of 2007, J. J. Hardy hit a line drive off Hirsh's right shin. Hirsch retrieved the ball and threw Hardy out at first. He also pitched 6 more innings and won the game. That doesn't sound too unusual except the the ball off his shin broke his leg. After the 2008 season he spent the rest of his career, until 2013, in the minors trying to recover from various injuries.

In addition to the cards mentioned, I threw in a bunch of Dodger cards I didn't need and he threw in Phillies cards. One of the problems with making a blind trade like this is that I have a lot of Phillies cards and in any random selection of Phillies cards, I'm bound to have some of them. Greg, of course, has the same problem. I hope I sent him something he needed. Of what he sent, I needed 17 cards.  Here are some highlights.

1992 Score 100 Rising Stars #72 Pat Combs

I have what I think is a pretty complete list of 1990's Phillies. But this card wasn't on it.

2006 Topps #139 Jason Michaels

I also have a pretty good list of Phillies cards from 2000-2005. After that, I'm still working on it. But I know I didn't have this card. I think, however, that this is the only 2006 Topps Phillies card I needed.

2009 O-Pee-Chee #235 Feliz Perez

There is nothing too exciting about a 2009 O-Pee-Chee card but this card illustrates the value of these sorts of trades to me. I didn't know I needed this card but eventually I would. have How do you obtain a card like this except through a trade? Or maybe a card show. I think trolling eBay would be worthless.

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter #165 Chase Utley

 Can't go wrong with this card.

2011 Topps Lineage #169 Cliff Lee

I bought 2 blasters of this product. One of them had horribly miss-cut cards. Plus, I think they are unattractive. But, of course, I still need the Phillies.

2011 Topps Lineage 1975 Mini #131 Carlos Lee

I kind of like the minis. I believe Cliff and Carlos are not related.

2012 Triple Play #63 Ryan Howard

Howard has been one of my favorite Phillies for the past 6-7 years but he's having such a bad year in 2014, that was been benched for few games recently.

2013 Topps Opening Day #217 Carlos Ruiz

Greg sent 5 cards from this set I needed. Here's a funny thing that happens often while I'm working with my cards and watching the Phillies on TV. As I was uploading this card, there was a pop-up at the plate which Ruiz had to make a long run for but dropped the ball. Right behind him was Howard.

2013 Topps Opening Day Mascots Phillie Phanatic

Who doesn't like the Phanatic? That was a rhetorical question.

Here are the two 2014 Topps Allen & Ginter Phillies that were a part of the trade.

 

Movie Review - Lucy

If you've seen any of the trailers for this, you know it's not a remake of "I Love Lucy" with Scarlett Johansson.

If you've seen all the trailers, you've practically seen the whole movie. The running time is just 89 minutes.

The movie is kind of fun. Especially if you like to see an attractive white girl gun down a herd of Chinese gangsters. There are a lot of them and they all go down.

Early in the movie, Lucy is just a hard-partying American college girl going to school in Taipei. Who doesn't speak Chinese. It's just one of the many things in this movie that don't make a whole lot of sense. Why did this movie start in Taipei? Who knows, except to give many exterior shots of Taipei 101.

Morgan Freeman, attempting to be the intellectual ground of this movie, spends the first part of the movie giving a lecture on Evolution 101, to a bunch of scientists (they all look too old to be students), in Paris. The climax of this lecture is the blatantly untrue statement that humans use only 10% of their brainpower. All kinds of wonderful things would happen if we could only get up to 20% of 40%. A genius from the audience asks, "Professor, what if it were 100%?". Professor Morgan looks thoughtful and says, wistfully,  "We don't know".

So as you know, the Chinese gangsters stuff a plastic bag of some pretty blue crystals, into Lucy's abdomen and give her a passport and a plane ticket to Paris. There are 4-5 guys who get the same treatment and get sent to other places. Since Lucy is the only woman in the group she gets some special treatment and a couple kicks to the stomach for not appreciating it. With much GC pyrotechnics, the blue crystals leak from the bag and into her bloodstream.
From this point on, Scarlett Johansson manages to keep the same expression on her face as in the poster above. No matter what is going on. And a lot goes on. Lucy crawls around on the ceiling, she shoots a bunch of guys, she digs a bullet out of her shoulder with her fingers, she forces a surgeon at gunpoint to remove the bag, she shoots some more people, practically disintegrates on an airplane, and steals a police car (and the policeman) in Paris and drives through a lot of picturesque locales at top speed leaving a trial of destruction behind.

Why does the movie end in Paris? Just a guess, the director, Luc Besson, was born there. And we get some fine shots of the Eiffel Tower.

Anyway, she eventually meets up with Professor Morgan, gives up her secret and, in a scene that reminded me of the end of "2001: A Space Odyssey" reaches a higher plane of existence. We know this because she sends a text: "I am everywhere".

The only other Luc Besson movie I've ever seen is "The Fifth Element" which is a movie I absolutely love. "Lucy" is not nearly as much fun but it's a wild ride. Don't pay too much attention to the details, just hold on.

2013 Topps Allen and Ginter $11.98 blaster

I know we're all agog over 2014 Allen and Ginter but I found a 2013 blaster at Walmart the other day for only $11.98. Since I only had bought a couple of blasters last year I snatched it up. I'd have bought 2 if there had been another one on the shelf.

Of the 47 cards in the box, I needed 37 of them. So was there anything special?

Well, there was this:

Looks like I could have gotten this card on eBay for about 10 bucks, so already I'm ahead.

Some other highlights:

The 6th grader in me still loves to get a card with a pretty girl on it.

I don't have many post-career cards featuring Fergie.

This card reminds me of an old stupid joke. A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says, "Hey, why the long face"?

You can never go wrong with a Nolan Ryan card.

The only Phillie in the box. It will go nicely with the full sized Lee.

 Remember learning about the giant Red Spot on Jupiter? Apparently, it's now the Big Blue Spot. This is the exact same picture from the Jupiter Wikipedia page, only colored blue for some reason. By the way, this is a composite photo made from images from the Cassini spacecraft.

An insert mini I didn't have. At first I though this was a joke, or part of the 2013 code contest, but the place has a Wikipedia entry.

And finally:

I now have 2 of these. According to Beckett.com, this is an uncorrected error (UER) card but they also list (with a picture) the same card with the biographical text you expect on the back. What kills me about this is not only is the text missing, it says "Text Missing" on the back. baseballcardpedia.com does not explicitly mention this card. For card #130 it just says "Pel?"

Song of the Week - First We Take Manhattan by Leonard Cohen

Don't forget your monkey and your plywood violin.

2014 Panini Golden Age - Very tiny look

I really liked 2013 Panini Golden Age and bought a hobby box of it. With Topps Allen and Ginter hobby boxes being out of reach ($110 and up on eBay), I decided to get another hobby box of Panini Golden Age this year. Before I decided I bought a couple of Phillies cards to see them in person. I did three posts on the 2013 set last year and they were some of my more popular posts. You can see them here, here, and here.

2014 Panini Golden Age #114 Steve Carlton

Although superficially similar to last year's set, the design has some significant changes. The picture area is circular this year versus a vertically oriented oval shape last year. Last year's backs are very similar.

2014 Panini Golden Age #80 Robin Roberts

I'll do a couple of posts when I get my hobby box.

Cards with guest stars

One of my favorite baseball card photos are those which feature a guest star player who can be identified. The best ones are plays, generally at 2nd or home base. Here's a few of my favorites from 2013 and 2014.

2013 Topps # 302 Aaron Hill

Hill exclusively played 2nd base for the D-Backs in 2012. Here he is making an acrobatic play against guest star Yadier Molina of the Cardinals. Molina is clearly out but was Hill able to make the throw to 1st to complete the double play?

2013 Topps #570 Devin Mesoraco

This card could have easily been a Soriano card rather than a Mesoraco card. The catcher clearly has the ball in his glove. He also appears to be blocking the plate. If I understand the new rules this year, this is now illegal.

2013 Topps #179 Robert Andino

Assuming that Andino got a foot on the bag, guest star Victoriano is out. This is one of those cards which with some luck and some detection work it's possible to date the play. The Phillies only played the Orioles in Baltimore once in 2012. In the 3-game series, Victorino was on base a lot. He was forced at second and out in a double play in the game of June 9th and forced out in the game of June 10. Based on a close reading of the play-by play on baseball-reference.com, I believe this play was on the 9th.

2013 Topps #4 Yadier Molina

Molina was a guest star on card #302 and has a guest star on his own card, his battery mate Adam Wainwright.

2013 Topps Update #65 Ryan Roberts

I also like photos where the baseball is in flight, like leaving the pitcher's hand or coming off the bat, or like this card, coming out of a fielder's hand. The card combines two of my favorite elements, a flying ball and a recognizable guest star, Tyler Greene of the White Sox.

2014 Topps #210 Jose Altuve

Another two-fer card, featuring an Astro (I'm still collecting them even though they're terrible) and a player I collect, Mike Trout, as a guest star. Too bad the baseball is out of frame.

2014 Topps #360 Russell Martin

Guest star Chase Utley tied up weirdly with catcher Martin. I always wonder if I should include cards like this (cards with a recognizable Phillie on them, like this or the Victorino card above) in with my Phillies cards. I don't.

2014 Topps Blue Walmart #411 Topps Blue Walmart

B. J. or Justin? They both play for the Braves. Easy enough question to answer; B. J. wears #2. Justin wears #8.

2014 Topps #46 Kolten Wong

Guest star Daniel Murphy of the Mets. Wong only played in 23 games in 2013 so this is another card, if you were sufficiently motivated, which I am not, you could probably date the play.

2014 Topps Allen and Ginter - the Mini cards

As usual, Allen and Ginter is full on mini card parallels and mini card inserts. Here's what I pulled from the 2 blasters and 3 rack-packs I bought last week.

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini #93 Willie Mays

First you have your regular mini card parallels. There is a small design change on the front. The player name is moved from the far right of the card to a position under the team name. The backs look just like the full sized cards.

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini A and G Back #182 Starling Marte

Instead of player information, the backs have the A&G logo. The appearance of the logo changes every year.

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Black #66 Roger Clemens

In the early years, the Black parallels featured a solid black border. Recently they've had a black pattern. This is the first post-career Clemens card I've seen. It's about time, he retired in 2007.

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Flag Back Yu Darvish

I think this is a new parallel. It is hand-numbered to 25 and is the best card I pulled from the 2 blasters I bought. Note that the card does not have a number. The regular Darvish card is #117.

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Larger Than Life #10 Hiawatha

There are 13 of these. I kind of like the idea of a card called Mini Larger Than Life. I pulled one of these.

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Little Lions #8 Russian Blue

Seriously, kittens? Does the cat on the card look like it has a "striking silver-blue coat" to you? Look up Russian Blue on Google image search and every image looks something like this:

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Where Nature Ends #21 Giotto Di Bondone

 I only pulled one of these so I'm not sure what the name of the insert is supposed to mean.  This is an example of what I call a Wikipedia card. You usually see these in A&G and Upper Deck Goodwin Champions. It's where the picture on the card is the same picture used to illustrate the Wikipedia article about the subject. Here's the picture from Giotto Di Bondone's Wikipedia article.

I'll grant it may not be the exact same photograph.

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini World's Deadliest Predators #16 Piranha

Yikes!  I was lucky enough to pull 2 of this insert. The other one features the Brazilian Wandering Spider, which I'll be having nightmares about tonight.