On The Docket: Dubbs vs. Topps, case # 9-020909

In the unlikely event that you've been following this blog (well, at least for the past week) you'll know I got royally hosed by the folks at Topps. Well, they will rue the day they crossed my path.

I finally got ahold of someone and found out options on how to get back the cards that I am owed. Simply write a letter explaining the situation, and include the serial number from the box along with the original sales receipt. 

Here's the letter I wrote (click to make bigger)

I will be sure to post any follow-up correspondence I receive from Topps. I was told to expect my cards within 2-4 business weeks, whatever that means. If it has anything to do with their redemption card response time, I may have already purchased a hobby box of '10 Topps Series 1 cards. 

Cartoons aren't just for Saturday morning

I just received a whole mess of Brewers cards from Spiff over at Texas Rangers Cards, and I assure him that his Rangers cards will be on the way shortly, just a bit behind on this side of the country. In breaking the '09 Topps box and dealing w/ the Topps folks on the phone in an attempt to get the cards from them that I was promised, I've fallen behind in posting. The only cards I had scanned and ready to go were these...I appologize ahead of time.

At some point last year i bought one of those repack boxes from Target, something like 30 packs of cards for $15 or so. Most of it, as I could tell through the clear, plastic case, was '88 and '89 topps wax, but there were a few of the '07 packs facing out, I suppose in an attempt to make the bundle of joy look that much more appealing. I just got back into cards last year, so there were absolutely zero '07 cards in my collection. I jumped on the opportunity. And since A Pack A Day has ignored my numerous requests at becoming a contributor, I have decided to just share those cards here. Most of the cards have found their way into my various sets already, or found their way to various homes across the country. I will share with you the last remaining "pack" that is together.

1992 Confex Baseball Enquirer I remember having one of these cards when I was a kid, but I think I got it in a bulk trade with a friend because I never bought a pack of these. It'd be interesting to see which one I had, hopefully it was the Bob Uecker card! Well, in case you haven't seen these before, they have a cartoon image of some anonymous baseball player, no team logo or names included (these were not MLB licensed, by the way). On the back was an interview that the Baseball Enquirer conducted with the pictured player, most often about some embarassing drug problem, behavioral excentricity, or play on words with their name. Here are a few from the pack I opened...

#1 Bo Jackson
Bo knows baseball...Bo knows football...Bo knows reading? When I was a kid I received Sports Illustrated for Kids magazine, and they used to have a pullout, foldout poster in each issue. I used to have the one w/ Bo Jackson on my wall, and the heading was "Readers have Clout". I didn't know what "clout" meant, and never bothered to ask my folks either. I just let the word confuse me, and wondered what it had to do with baseball. It wasn't until after watching the movie "The Sandlot" a million times that the reference (applied to the Babe) "The colossus of clout" struck me. Didn't help, but there was that word again.

By the way, Bo has a 165 average and bowls for "Guido's Auto Body".

#41 Chris Sabo
Maybe it was the Lakers dynasty that helped me fall in love with the Rec Specs - Kareem Abdul-Jabaar wore those things like a pro. I played baseketball when I was a kid, and I remember playing against some team in western Wisconsin that had a kid wearing these. As far as I recall, they didn't give him superpowers, as I was sure they gave Kareem.

I heart Google.

#25 George Brett
Perhaps the greatest emotional outburst in professional sports history. Pure emotion, cleary not premeditated, just raw emotion. The 'foreign substance' rule in baseball is still ambiguous and/or loosely enforced, because I see guys all the time with a whole bunch of crud on their bats that shouldn't be there, clearly more than the specified number of inches from the butt.

#29 Ozzie Smith

You see, the word "ouch!" on his hat is upside down, because he was always doing flips, so it would be...okay, nice and clever. Fuad from Family Guy comes to mind - "Is funny because is true".

2009 Topps Hobby Box Break #2

Alright, I've calmed down now.  My recent rage over yesterday's unfortunate break of the much anticipated hobby box of '09 Topps has subsided, and I've decided to channel my emotions into a calm and collected letter to the folks at Topps.  Well, just until Monday when their office is open again and I can actually speak with someone that will (I'm certain) address my concerns.

Anyhow, back to the box break. After kicking off the weekend last night w/ the opening of all 36 packs, the results are as follows:

• 248 base commons
• 36 crappy Toppstown cards
• 9 Turkey Red cards
• 8 Ring of Honor cards
• 5 Legends of the Game cards
• 5 numbered gold parallels
• 4 Topps Attax cards
• 1 short print variation card
  
• ***ZERO Relic / Auto cards***
• ***ZERO World Baseball Classic redemption cards***

As the wife puts it, I got "effin gyped".  I should count my blessings, perhaps. I pulled 5 numbered gold parallels instead of 4. And in speaking with the Topps folks on the phone last night, they assured me that on my deathbed I will receive total consciousness. So I got that goin for me. Which is nice. 

Okay, so onto the cards. As I've mentioned before I'm attempting (key word) to spend less money on baseball cards this year, so we're going to stretch this box out. That means, 2 packs at a time.

PACKs 1 - 2

Nothing spectacular here, but I did get one card that will be going out in the mail to Phoenix AZ for some spring training TTM action...

#108 Alcides Escobar RC

Whenever the Brewers decide that Rickie Weeks isn't worth his paycheck, they will shuffle around the infield a bit, and either this guy or Hernan Irrabaren will come up to take Weeks' place.  Don't look to see this guy before Mat Gamel though, who will most likely be called up once again this year to fill in for a slumping Bill Hall.  You could see Escobar, but it will be Irrabaren that get's the call to give Weeks a game or two off.

#142 Brad Penny

#315 Hiroki Kuroda

#313 Jamey Carroll

#167 Aaron Harang

#245 Pat Burrell

He's in a Phil's uniform, but that's okay - I'm sure he'll have just as much fun in Tampa Bay playing for the Devil Rays as their DH. I have much respect for this guy after he hit 2 HRs and slugged .750 against my Brewers in the '08 NLDS.

#58 Travis Snider RC

#25 Jon Lester

#TR21 Garret Andersen 

#145 Alex Gordon

I'm glad the Royals went back to the cooler-than-ice baby blue alternates last year, they make for much better photos and take fans' minds off of the fact that they didn't get a new ballpark, just renovations to make the "couple times a year" fans think they had.  Interesting on the back: the "Six Degrees of Mickey Mantle" (which I've noticed on a bunch of cards so far):  "Gordon was a 1st-rounder from the Univ. of Nebraska as was Darin Erstad who plays with Miguel Tejada who played with Tim Raines who played with Stan Bahnsen who played with Mickey Mantle". Cool. 

#237 Aaron Cunningham

#156 Carlos Pena

#8 Terry Francona (no mouth full of chaw)

Topps Attax!

#53 Jonathan Sanchez

#14 Jon Rauch

There are some great photos in this set, and some even greater photos of players with tattoos. I've seen two different Josh Hamilton cards so far, and one of them w/ Saltalamachia shows his kickass tats.  But back to Rauch. Like him better w/ short (or no) hair, and you can see his neck tat. He's got roman numerals going down his back that mark his wedding day, along with a few other sick ink action. I can't wait to share the Hamilton card with you.

#130 Vladimir Guerrero

#97 Willie Harris

#274 Alex Hinshaw - who, apparently "...vaporized Big League lefty batters by fanning 30% of those he faced".  Kudos, Alex.

So that's the first couple of packs. Mother, sorry I didn't show you the one Tribesman in this group, but I'll make sure I include some more in the future, and perhaps a card or two involving a young mister Garko and Sizemore?

Did you get my Relic?

I'm going to make this short and sweet, because I'm afraid the more words that issue forth from my...fingers...the more they will resemble the four-letter sort that Sr. Ann Martina told me not to use in grade school.

I finished opening my Hobby Box of 2009 Topps Series 1 tonight, and NO RELIC OR AUTO.  NOR did I geat a WBC Redemption card. 

So...if you opened your "1 relic or auto per box on average" box and received 2 relic or auto cards, and/or 2 WBC redemption cards...let me know, and you can have my address so you can send them to me.

F*** you, Topps. I'm officially done buying your sh*t product.

Seriously, I have waited this long in my life to spend the money on a hobby box that has just been released, and this is what I get.

And to spit in my face, they gave me a f***ing Eric Gagne card. In a Brewers uniform. I'm going to throw up and smash things now.

You Can't Spell "Weeks" without 2 E's and a K.

"This is going to be his breakout year!"

The cry heard from every Brewers fan this time each year. At least that's how it's been for the past few seasons, as Spring approaches and the budding prospect of a prospect finally budding draw nearer. Of course I'm talking about Rickie Weeks, who, in this humble author's opinion, is the most overpaid second baseman in baseball.

On Thursday the Brewers and Weeks came to terms on a one-year, $2.45 Million contract, with an additional $100,000 bonus for reaching a certain plate appearance number (Weeks has been prone to injury as of late). In my opinion, this is a lot of money for a guy who has yet to produce numbers consistent on both sides of the mound. When he is hot, he's red hot. But for the past two seasons, he has had the lowest fielding percentage (.976, .975) of all NL second baseman. In 2008 he also led the league in errors at second base (15). Last year he had a .234 avg, good enough for 17th among all MLB second baseman. He was 3rd on the list, however, for MLB second basemen when it came to strikeouts. With 112 hits, he had nearly half as many as the league leading second baseman Dustin Pedroia.

The problem with Weeks is he's an amazing baseball player. Yes, this is a problem. So many times, a guy with huge potential fails to live up to expectations, only to be released or traded to another team where he finally comes to fruition. I am afraid this is going to be the case with Weeks. The guy has speed (19 SB in '08) power (14 HR, 10th among 2B) and baserunning ability. He just hasn't produced numbers that the Brewers need, and certainly not numbers that would rank him among leadoff hitters league-wide. Hopefully this will be his "breakout" year though. We're hoping. I guess Milwaukee pretty much said the same thing by only negotiating out this next season. Rickie, you're officially on the clock.

With pitchers and catchers reporting to Maryvale next Friday, the offseason is quickly coming to a close. Brewers fans have seen players come and go, and have seen a number of deals signed (Prince Fielder, Mike Cameron, Jason Kendall, J.J. Hardy, and now Rickie Weeks). I am still waiting for the most important signing, however, and that is of RF Corey Hart.

My sister-in-law, I believe, would leave my brother is Corey showed up at their front door some day. Maybe it's the tattoos, maybe it's the slight southern drawl, or maybe it's the fact that as a right fielder he had 23 stolen bases last year, showcasing surprising speed for a man of 6'6''. Last season Corey became the first player in Brewers history to have back-to-back 20/20 seasons. This year he'll begin his 3rd season as a starter for the Crew, and as long as he stays healthy, he'll top his numbers from last year. His .268 avg leaves something to be desired, and his .300 obp is near the bottom of the league rankings. With last year's 3rd Base Coach-turned-interim manager Dale Sveum moving into his new position as Brewers hitting coach, i'd expect to see Corey's average jump a good 20-25 points as he learns a little bit from Sveum's "school of patience". Look for Corey's numbers to be around .295/.340/115 this season.

I've been sitting here, trying to figure out what the hell the Brewers are doing with Corey. He's the last one on the team to get signed, as it stands right now the Crew will be meeting him at an arbitration hearing. I hope it doesn't get to that point, though, and I don't think it will. Owner Mark Attanasio has made a committment to this organization, and he said his wallet doesn't have a ceiling (we're not talking Steinbrenner numbers here, but much more than we saw during the Selig regime). The Brewers, having signed everyone else for '09, now know exactly how much money they have to work with. With the departure of Sheets, Sabathia, and Gagne, Milwaukee has (had) an extra cool $25 million laying around, and even w/ the signings of Braun, Hardy, Fielder and Weeks, there is extra money to give Corey at least $3 million for the '09 season, and sometime during the spring or early summer I could imagine seeing a 5 year deal worth around $25 million or so. This will keep Braun, Hardy, and Hart together for the next 5 years, and Bill Hall and Prince Fielder for the next two years. With Cameron and Kendall likely departing after the '09 season, this leaves pitching (which is an annual concern for the Crew) and catching a hole for the '10 season. But that's a long time away. Let's just get busy signing Corey.

In related news, because Ben Sheets has remained unsigned (after a failed physical w/ the Texas Rangers last week revealing serious problems with his elbow) it look slike MLB may hold the Brewers to the fire and force them to pay for Sheets' surgery, which will sideline him for the entire season should he decided to go through with it. I don't foresee any club signing Sheets to a 2-year contract for about $20-30 million or so, just to have him sit out the first year entirely and have next season be a doubt at all. So, even after his contract has expired, Sheets is still costing us money. What do the 2008 NLDS and the 2009 season have in common? We're paying for Ben Sheets and getting absolutely no use out of him. Lovely.

2009 Topps Hobby Box Break #1

My birthday present arrived, two days ahead of the scheduled delivery date...so with tonight being class and tomorrow being work, I'll somehow find a way to wait until the weekend to dig into the box of '09 Topps...

Well, I'll open just a couple packs tonight, and try to post from work tomorrow...let's see how successful I am in my plan of spreading this bad boy out over the course of a couple weeks...

Shame on You, New York Mets

Today is Super Bowl Sunday, and because I am an honest man and a man with strong convictions, I will not blaspheme this day by writing about baseball cards. Yes, it was only 11 years ago that my beloved Green Bay Packers were playing in their second Super Bowl in a row, and perhaps I still have some sentiment in my heart from that day, and it's crushing defeat at the hands of John Elway, the Denver Broncos, and the 5 or 6 officials that the NFL assigned to the game to ensure John Elway could retire with at least 1 Super Bowl ring on his finger. But I'm not bitter.

Instead, today I'm going to write about something that should be recieving more coverage than it currently is. I refer to the new stadium that the New York Mets will be moving to this April, which has the current name of "Citi Field". 

In case you've been in a nuclear fallout shelter for the past year, you are fully aware that we are in the middle of an economic recession. People everywhere are losing their jobs, forclosing on their home mortgages, and falling further and further into debt. My father lost his job just over a week ago, and I myself may be staring the neverland of unemployment square in the face in a month or two. Time will tell.  

I did not major in business or economics in college, nor was I ever forced to take a class in either of those disciplines, so I don't claim to be an expert. I do know, however, that if banks stop giving people money in the form of loans, they cannot buy houses or fund their businesses at affordable rates. If this happens, people have to close their small businesses, or not buy a house, or perhaps be forces to get a loan with an interest rate that will force them into certain financial hardship. Again, I don't understand the world of finance too well but I do understand cause and effect.

When this happens, the world of credit "freezes": nobody will lend money, nobody can borrow money, and so people stop spending money. When people no longer spend money on things like new clothes, gourmet coffee, or baseball cards, vendors of these items no longer have the same profit margin as before. Because of this, they are forced to cut overhead costs in an attempt to maintain some semblance of a "positive" or "black" profit margin.  The easiest way to cut overhead cost is to reduce your workforce, and so people like my father (who just lost his job w/ Wells Fargo) are given a pink piece of paper and a severence package.  Now this unemployed person must pay his rising mortgage and auto loan costs with the paycheck he no longer recieves.

In an ettempt to reverse this trend, and "unfreeze" the credit world, major banks and lenders such as JP Morgan - Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, etc. have asked the federal governent for assistance, federal funds, tax dollars, in order to right the ship and reverse this process.  The federal bailout package that was passed at the end of President Bush's presidency gave money to a number or large financial institutions, one of them being Citigroup.  In fact, Citi recieved nearly $45 Billion worth of federal funds as part of the bailout plan.

As you may know, the New York Mets have closed the doors to historic Shea Stadium (which, had you not had the opportunity to visit while it was open for business, you hadn't missed much. I will say however, that while I was in college I had the opportunity to attend a game at Shea between the Mets and Yankees, the "subway series", and saw a Yankees fan wearing a pink dress, adorned on the back with the number "31" and the name "PIAZZA". Classic.)  This season the Mets will move into their new home, "Citi Field", built in the shadows of Shea Stadium (i.e. the parking lot that used to be the outfield view, classy).  

Let us connect these two subjects then, the Mets new stadium and current state of the American economy.  As we know, naming rights for major stadiums and ballparks can get pretty expensive, and three years ago Citigroup paid a reported $400 Million for naming rights to the Mets new facility for 20 years.  Three years ago, when unemployment was around 5% (as opposed to the 7.2% we have today) this went unnoticed, and it wasn't a problem. Perhaps a little absurd, but not anything that a random guy from Wisconsin should be worried about.

Today, however, this is  something that I take issue with.  Many companies have applied to the government for some aid, and rightly so.  As long as their executives aren't throwing $400,000 bailout parties, I don't have a problem with it. Ford Motor Company hasn't taken a penny from the government, so I have no problem with them or the fine folks in Detroit. But if a company has taken federal funds to help right their ships, and they turn around to spend $400 Million on essentially what amounts to nothing but major advertising,  I believe this is entirely wrong.  Citigroup should take action and cancel their deal with the New York Mets.  

They have not, however. In fact, neither have the New York Mets taken any action whatsoever to address this situation. This deal has caught the attention of our legislature, however, and a few members of Congress are currently pushing for the Obama administration to either force Citigroup out of their deal with the Mets, or end and take away any and all federal funds Citi has received as part of the bailout.

Shame on you, New York Mets organization.  Perhaps its the big city, empirical mentality that has changed the way they look at the world, and blurred their concept of reality. Maybe it's easy for me to take issue here because it's not my team. I assure you, however, should Miller Brewing Co. take any money from the goverment I would be the first to speak up if the Milwaukee Brewers at all hesitated in dropping Miller as their naming sponsor.  In todays world of professional sports, I understand that it's all about the almighty dollar and putting butts in seats. But at some point, a man's conscience has to speak louder than his wallet. And if his doesn't, someone else does. Apparently the Mets fans all still have their jobs, and are current on all of their bills, because they haven't made enough of an uproar over this situation. If they had, we've have heard about it already, and there would be a different name on the front of their new stadium.