Sunday, May 2, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
2007 Upper Deck
For me, 2007 was pre-baseball card blogging. There were some blogs about but I didn't discover them until early 2008. So I didn't have a chance to see what others thought of this set, nor did I get a chance to express my opinion. At the time, I remember not being real impressed by the 2007 edition of Upper Deck, but I've been looking at a bunch of cards from the set over the last few days and I think it may be one of my favorite Upper Deck designs of the decade.
If I were a set collector I'd probably complain about the size of the set, 1,024 cards. This is smaller than the 2006, 1,200 card behemoth, but still a large set. I'm a team and individual player collector. A larger set should mean more Phillies and Astros in the base set.
Unlike most years of Upper Deck, this set had borders on the two long sides. Most years, the cards either had a border at the bottom of the card or no border at all. I think this border works well either in the vertical format.
Or in the horizontal format. There wasn't much foil on the front, just the logo and the player name. What is important about the foil is that you can easily read the player's name. In many Upper Deck sets, the foil player's name gets lost in the photograph. The team name and the player position are in the borders and are also easy to read.
I think they did a pretty good job of matching the photo to the orientation of the card. The photos are crisp and almost always well framed within the borders. Here are some of my favorite cards from the set.
Remember Travis Chick? Probably not. Chick's entire ML career consisted of 5 innings where he gave up 7 hits, 10 walks and had an ERA of 12.6. This card seems to have captured his entire career.
This is a great action shot. I think the set has a good mixture of on-field action and posed shots. There are also no subset cards, with the exception of checklist cards. These feature a player on the front and a team checklist on the back.
Izturis makes a dive back into first. A great player close-up.
Chipper making a throw across his body. I think this is another well framed shot.
This may be my favorite card in the set. Clearly Albert got a hold of one here. The pitcher doesn't even seem to have completed his follow through as he turns to watch the ball on its way outta here.
A little bit of catcher ballet.
There were were two cards of Phillies wearing green jerseys. A spring training game on St. Patrick's day perhaps?
If I were a set collector I'd probably complain about the size of the set, 1,024 cards. This is smaller than the 2006, 1,200 card behemoth, but still a large set. I'm a team and individual player collector. A larger set should mean more Phillies and Astros in the base set.
Unlike most years of Upper Deck, this set had borders on the two long sides. Most years, the cards either had a border at the bottom of the card or no border at all. I think this border works well either in the vertical format.
Or in the horizontal format. There wasn't much foil on the front, just the logo and the player name. What is important about the foil is that you can easily read the player's name. In many Upper Deck sets, the foil player's name gets lost in the photograph. The team name and the player position are in the borders and are also easy to read.
I think they did a pretty good job of matching the photo to the orientation of the card. The photos are crisp and almost always well framed within the borders. Here are some of my favorite cards from the set.
Remember Travis Chick? Probably not. Chick's entire ML career consisted of 5 innings where he gave up 7 hits, 10 walks and had an ERA of 12.6. This card seems to have captured his entire career.
This is a great action shot. I think the set has a good mixture of on-field action and posed shots. There are also no subset cards, with the exception of checklist cards. These feature a player on the front and a team checklist on the back.
Izturis makes a dive back into first. A great player close-up.
Chipper making a throw across his body. I think this is another well framed shot.
This may be my favorite card in the set. Clearly Albert got a hold of one here. The pitcher doesn't even seem to have completed his follow through as he turns to watch the ball on its way outta here.
A little bit of catcher ballet.
There were were two cards of Phillies wearing green jerseys. A spring training game on St. Patrick's day perhaps?
Monday, April 26, 2010
Amarillo Texas
I'm in Amarillo Texas today on business. Surely I can get a blog post out of this. Well I did but it's not as interesting as I'd hoped it would be. Amarillo is about as far from Houston as I can get and still be in Texas. How many major league players were born here?
Turns out, according to baseball-reference.com, none.
Current Royals manager Trey Hillman was born here in 1963. Although he played three years in the minors (1985-1987) he never made it to the bigs.
If Victor Black makes it to the majors, he'll be the first Amarillo player to do so.
Black was the #1 draft pick for the Pirates in 2009. He played in single A ball last year, posting a 1-2 record with 1 save in 13 games. He doesn't seem to have any stats so far in 2010.
Turns out, according to baseball-reference.com, none.Current Royals manager Trey Hillman was born here in 1963. Although he played three years in the minors (1985-1987) he never made it to the bigs.
If Victor Black makes it to the majors, he'll be the first Amarillo player to do so.
Black was the #1 draft pick for the Pirates in 2009. He played in single A ball last year, posting a 1-2 record with 1 save in 13 games. He doesn't seem to have any stats so far in 2010.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Song of the Week - Elevation of Love by Esbjorn Svensson Trio
It's another lazy post. My daughter brought this home from the library one day and said I should listen. She was right. Her taste in music surprises me sometimes. I don't know anything about these guys but this is a great album. Nice listening for a Sunday afternoon.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Thursday Night at the Movies - Kick Ass
As those of you more hip than I am know, this movie is based on a comic book of the same name. I haven't clue as to how well the movie follows the comic books but I hear that the comic is violent and profane. So is the movie.
Not to say that it wasn't entertaining. It is. It's by no means a perfect movie. It bounces from being a teen-age romantic comedy to a campy farce to an ultra-violent bloodbath and back again, somewhat disconcertingly. It doesn't miss too many origin story cliches (although that is part of the point, I think). I would not take the whole family to see this, unless you've got a family of serial killers who swear like sailors. It has a well deserved R rating. The trailers and TV ads are misleading, playing up the comedy aspects.
Nicholas Cage plays Big Daddy. It wasn't clear from the trailer I saw that he's even in the movie. There is nothing comedic about his character. Chloe Moretz plays his 11-year old killing machine daughter. Not many laughs from her either. We'll be seeing more of her in the future, I'm sure, although I hope she doesn't turn into the next Lindsey Lohan. The kids are all unknowns (at least to me) and are serviceable as teenagers and provide most of the humor. 20-year-old Aaron Johnson plays the Kick Ass character with the right amount of bravado and terror. He's been acting since he was 11. We'll next see him playing a young John Lennon in a movie called Nowhere Boy.
If you're old enough to get into an R rated movie, I'd say go and see it. If you don't like violence or profanity, take a pass. You've been warned.
Not to say that it wasn't entertaining. It is. It's by no means a perfect movie. It bounces from being a teen-age romantic comedy to a campy farce to an ultra-violent bloodbath and back again, somewhat disconcertingly. It doesn't miss too many origin story cliches (although that is part of the point, I think). I would not take the whole family to see this, unless you've got a family of serial killers who swear like sailors. It has a well deserved R rating. The trailers and TV ads are misleading, playing up the comedy aspects.Nicholas Cage plays Big Daddy. It wasn't clear from the trailer I saw that he's even in the movie. There is nothing comedic about his character. Chloe Moretz plays his 11-year old killing machine daughter. Not many laughs from her either. We'll be seeing more of her in the future, I'm sure, although I hope she doesn't turn into the next Lindsey Lohan. The kids are all unknowns (at least to me) and are serviceable as teenagers and provide most of the humor. 20-year-old Aaron Johnson plays the Kick Ass character with the right amount of bravado and terror. He's been acting since he was 11. We'll next see him playing a young John Lennon in a movie called Nowhere Boy.
If you're old enough to get into an R rated movie, I'd say go and see it. If you don't like violence or profanity, take a pass. You've been warned.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Art of Bunting
Bunting is an important part of the game but by my observation there are far fewer baseball cards featuring a bunt than any other kind of plate appearance. Bunting situations come up in many games, where a player is asked to give himself up to advance a runner. And of course, some players are known to bunt for a hit, sometimes to keep a hitting streak alive. Here are some of my favorite cards featuring bunting.
Baseball-Reference.com gives a stat for sacrifice bunts but I don't think they have any statistics on how many bunt singles a player has. In his career, Alomar laid down 148 sac bunts, amounting to 1.4% of his plate appearances.
This is probably more of a swinging bunt rather than a straight sacrifice. Biggio was known for bunting for hits. He put down 101 sac bunts, 0.8% of his plate appearances.
Brett Butler is known for bunting for hits and I have more cards of Butler bunting than of any other player. As for sac bunts, he had 147, 1.5% of his plate appearances, just ahead of Alomar.
Here's another card featuring Butler bunting.
I wouldn't say that Crawford was known for bunting but I like this card. 0.6% of his plate appearances resulted in sac bunts.
My recollection is that Lenny bunted a lot but only 0.5% (25 total) of his plate appearances were sac bunts. Of course, Dykstra was generally a lead off guy and wouldn't be asked to sacrifice too often.
Clearly Ken Griffey wasn't being paid to sacrifice bunt. He has only 8 in his long career. A sac fly was more expected, with 101, 0.9% of his plate appearances.
I don't get to see Ichiro play much but my impression is that he gets a lot of bunt singles. Not may sacrifices however, only 24 or 0.4% of his plate appearances.
The only cards I have of a pitcher bunting are of Greg Maddox. Of course, most pitcher cards feature the player doing what he does best, which is pitch. Maddox has 180 sac bunts during his career, a full 10% of his plate appearances. By contrast, he only has 2 sac flies. I wonder how those happened.
Considering that he's in a batting cage, I'd guess that McGee was practicing bunting on this card.
Mouton looks pretty desperate in this photo. He must be trying to bunt against a guy with a 100 mph fastball.
Here's another guy who wasn't being paid to bunt. He only has 17 sac bunts in his career and I'll bet he didn't try for a bunt hit very often. So this is a rare photo of Sosa. He only has 17 sac bunts against 78 sac flies.
Baseball-Reference.com gives a stat for sacrifice bunts but I don't think they have any statistics on how many bunt singles a player has. In his career, Alomar laid down 148 sac bunts, amounting to 1.4% of his plate appearances.
This is probably more of a swinging bunt rather than a straight sacrifice. Biggio was known for bunting for hits. He put down 101 sac bunts, 0.8% of his plate appearances.
Brett Butler is known for bunting for hits and I have more cards of Butler bunting than of any other player. As for sac bunts, he had 147, 1.5% of his plate appearances, just ahead of Alomar.
Here's another card featuring Butler bunting.
I wouldn't say that Crawford was known for bunting but I like this card. 0.6% of his plate appearances resulted in sac bunts.
My recollection is that Lenny bunted a lot but only 0.5% (25 total) of his plate appearances were sac bunts. Of course, Dykstra was generally a lead off guy and wouldn't be asked to sacrifice too often.
Clearly Ken Griffey wasn't being paid to sacrifice bunt. He has only 8 in his long career. A sac fly was more expected, with 101, 0.9% of his plate appearances.
I don't get to see Ichiro play much but my impression is that he gets a lot of bunt singles. Not may sacrifices however, only 24 or 0.4% of his plate appearances.
The only cards I have of a pitcher bunting are of Greg Maddox. Of course, most pitcher cards feature the player doing what he does best, which is pitch. Maddox has 180 sac bunts during his career, a full 10% of his plate appearances. By contrast, he only has 2 sac flies. I wonder how those happened.
Considering that he's in a batting cage, I'd guess that McGee was practicing bunting on this card.
Mouton looks pretty desperate in this photo. He must be trying to bunt against a guy with a 100 mph fastball. 
Here's another guy who wasn't being paid to bunt. He only has 17 sac bunts in his career and I'll bet he didn't try for a bunt hit very often. So this is a rare photo of Sosa. He only has 17 sac bunts against 78 sac flies.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Song of the Week - A Sorta Fairytale by Tori Amos
It was getting down to the wire for me to pick a song for this week and then this Tori Amos song cycled up on iTunes. This song is from her 2002 album Scarlet's Walk. I really like Tori and I really like this song but this is one creepy video. I guess I got the meaning at the end (two people meet and become whole) but there was no clue until the last few seconds as to what the message was supposed to be. But it is a great song.
On my way up north, up on the Ventura
I pulled back the hood and I was talking to you
And I knew then it would be a life long thing
But I didn't know that we, we could break a silver lining
And I'm so sad
Like a good book I can't put this day back
A sorta fairytale with you
A sorta fairytale with you
Things you said that day up on the one-oh-one
The girl had come undone, I tried to downplay it
With a bet about us, you said that you'd take it
As long as I could, I could not erase it
And I'm so sad
Like a good book I can't put this day back
A sorta fairytale with you
A sorta fairytale with you
And I ride along side
And I rode along side you then
And I rode along side
Till you lost me there in the open road
And I rode along side
Till the honey spread itself so thin
For me to break your bread
For me to take your word
I had to steal it
And I'm so sad
Like a good book I can't put this day back
A sorta fairytale with you
A sorta fairytale with you
I could pick back up whenever I feel
Down New Mexico way
Something about the open road
I knew that he was
Looking for some Indian blood
And find a little in you
Find a little in me
We may be on this road
But we're just impostors in this country you know
So we go along and we said we'd fake it
Feel better with Oliver Stone
Till I almost smacked him
Seemed right that night
I don't know what takes hold
Out there in the desert cold
These guys think they must
Try and just get over on us
And I'm so sad
like a good book I can't put this day back
A sorta fairytale with you
A sorta fairytale with you
And I was riding by
Riding along side
For a while till you lost me
And I was riding by
Riding along till you lost me
Till you lost me in the rear view
You lost me I said
Way up north I took my day
All in all was a pretty nice day
And I put the hood right back where
You could taste heaven perfectly
Feel out the summer breeze
Didn't know when we'd be back
And I, I don't, didn't think
We'd end up like, like this
On my way up north, up on the Ventura
I pulled back the hood and I was talking to you
And I knew then it would be a life long thing
But I didn't know that we, we could break a silver lining
And I'm so sad
Like a good book I can't put this day back
A sorta fairytale with you
A sorta fairytale with you
Things you said that day up on the one-oh-one
The girl had come undone, I tried to downplay it
With a bet about us, you said that you'd take it
As long as I could, I could not erase it
And I'm so sad
Like a good book I can't put this day back
A sorta fairytale with you
A sorta fairytale with you
And I ride along side
And I rode along side you then
And I rode along side
Till you lost me there in the open road
And I rode along side
Till the honey spread itself so thin
For me to break your bread
For me to take your word
I had to steal it
And I'm so sad
Like a good book I can't put this day back
A sorta fairytale with you
A sorta fairytale with you
I could pick back up whenever I feel
Down New Mexico way
Something about the open road
I knew that he was
Looking for some Indian blood
And find a little in you
Find a little in me
We may be on this road
But we're just impostors in this country you know
So we go along and we said we'd fake it
Feel better with Oliver Stone
Till I almost smacked him
Seemed right that night
I don't know what takes hold
Out there in the desert cold
These guys think they must
Try and just get over on us
And I'm so sad
like a good book I can't put this day back
A sorta fairytale with you
A sorta fairytale with you
And I was riding by
Riding along side
For a while till you lost me
And I was riding by
Riding along till you lost me
Till you lost me in the rear view
You lost me I said
Way up north I took my day
All in all was a pretty nice day
And I put the hood right back where
You could taste heaven perfectly
Feel out the summer breeze
Didn't know when we'd be back
And I, I don't, didn't think
We'd end up like, like this
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