Easy as Pi.

If you know the words, sing along...

3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974
94459230781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651328230

Not enough for you?

You can always go look at my breakdown of the classic Topps American Pie sets.  As for me, I am going to have a nice big slice of cherry pie for breakfast.

Dispatch From My Bed While I Recover.

       Last Wednesday, I left on a five day excursion for a little well earned R&R.  Most people (wisely) go south for such Spring Break-esque getaways, but me?  I went north to Boston - this breathtaking picture was taken the day after I got there.  But there was a method to my madness, it being the week before St. Patrick's Day and me being 12.5% Irish, I saw some great old friends, took in some local culture and followed the perfect vacation pattern of eat, drink, sleep, eat, drink, sleep, eat drink, sleep.  Not being 23 anymore, this has left me exhausted.

I did get to snap this photo Saturday afternoon after I dropped off a friend at the airport:

I have driven by this sign a million times but only on a traffic free March afternoon did I get to finally capture it on my camera phone.  This has always been a dream of mine.  I think I need to dream bigger. 

I did not stay for the actual amateur night of St. Patrick's Day because, much like Mardi Gras or New Year's Eve, it only brings out the idiots, the tourists, and the people who cannot hold their liquor and then get behind the wheel of their car.  No thanks.  I got home Sunday night to a pile of mail stuffed in the box, the most exciting of which was a cardboard flat from Topps:

I assume this is from their new fulfillment center since I have never gotten one like this.

Inside was a nice treat:

I had gone on a little eBay Triple Thread shopping spree back in January and one of the things I picked up was a redemption for this card.  Nice that it only took them two months and not over a year like last time.  With the season fast approaching, it looks like Zack Wheeler here is going to be a key piece that needs to fall into place if the Mets can even hope to contend.  When I am feeling up to it, I will expand on my whole array of feelings regarding the Mets up coming season.  I will also show you all the goodies I picked up in Boston.  For now, I just need to lay here very still and rest.  My goodness, I am old.

Freedom.

       As every media outlet in the universe has no doubt let you know, today is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

You will be inundated with remembrances, retrospectives, theories, and conspiracies about every aspect of this event.  As I have said before, I do not want to lament anyone's death, I would rather celebrate how they lived.  And boy, did JFK live.  Plus, what gets lost most of all in the canonization of the man and the lunatic myth-making of his death is all the actual stuff he did.  I think if you asked the average American about any of the legislation his presidency passed, most would give you a look akin to a dog being shown a card trick.

        One thing JFK actually did was set the standard for the current Presidential Medal of Freedom. This is the highest civilian award in the United States.  Earlier this week, President Obama awarded this year's recipients and one of them was Mr. Cub Ernie Banks.  He is the ninth Major League baseball player to receive this medal.  As a change of pace today, let's look at all those winners, shall we?

Ernie Banks 2013

Poor Ernie not only never got to play in the postseason, he had to receive his medal from a White Sox fan...he probably deserved better than that. 

Stan Musial 2011

Musial was in the navy in WWII (as you can see in the card in the middle first row) and you would be hard pressed to find a better ambassador for baseball than The Man. 

Buck O'Neil 2006

OK, I take that back, Buck O'Neil might be the best ambassador for baseball ever.  He played in the Negro Leagues from 1937 until basically the Negro Leagues stopped being a thing.  He then was a scout for the Cubs (and helped them sign the aforementioned Ernie Banks) and was even the first African-American coach in the majors.  But Buck O'Neil became an icon late in life thanks to Ken Burns' documentary series Baseball.  If a 20+ hour film can have a star, Buck was it.  His knowledge and enthusiasm for baseball permeate the whole project and every moment he is on the screen is a joy. 

Frank Robinson 2005

Frank Robinson is simply the most underrated baseball player of all time.  His numbers somehow get lost in the shuffle, even though they are gargantuan.  He also was the first African American manager in the majors when he took the reins of the Indians in 1975.  Plus, if you ever want to ask a tricky trivia question, hit them with "Who was the first black manager in the National League?" because the answer is also Frank Robinson.

Roberto Clemente 2003

I have covered Roberto Clemente before on this blog.  If you don't understand why Roberto would get this award, you don't understand either.

Hank Aaron 2002

For all the scrutiny today's athletes say they have to endure, did any man have to put up with more nonsense while just trying to play a game than Hank Aaron?  And given those circumstances, could he have acted more humble and classy?  I think not.  America owes a huge apology to Hank Aaron and I like to think this award was part of that.

Ted Williams 1991

I snarkily celebrated Teddy Ballgame recently but really, to be honest, there is no way to overstate Williams' credentials as an American Badass: Maybe the greatest hitter of all time.  Maybe the greatest fly fisherman of all time.  Flew combat missions in two different wars.  Used his Hall of Fame speech as a call to have Negro League players enshrined.  I mean, John Wayne based his voice and cadence after him for crying out loud.  What is more American than that?

Jackie Robinson 1984

That it took until 1984 to give Jackie Robinson this honor is kind of outrageous, don't you think?  Shouldn't he have been on the short list, like, the very first year? 

Joe DiMaggio 1977

It proves that people were always kinda overestimating the value of Joe DiMaggio as he was the first baseball player to receive the Medal of Freedom.  That said, you have to remember that sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  Dividing The Myth, The Man, and The Player out of Joe D is almost impossible, so you kinda just have to go with it - and it seems history and pop culture always have when it comes to him.  Plus, you gotta figure since he was married to Marilyn Monroe for a short time, he and JFK had a lot more in common than we'd all care to think about. 

Revolution #9.

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Everyone of them knew that as time went by
They'd get a little bit older and a little bit slower.

Your father's giving it diddly-dee
District was leaving, intended to die, Ottoman
Long gone through.

They may stop the funding
Place your bets
The original
Afraid she'll die
Great colors for the season.

Who's to know?
Who wants to know?
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9.

I've missed all of that
It makes me a few days late
Compared with, like, wow!
And weird stuff like that.

A man without terrors from beard to false
As the headmaster reported to my son
He really can try, as they do, to find function
(Tell what he was saying
(and his voice was low and his hive high)
And his eyes were low
Alright!

Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9
(Industry allows financial imbalance)
Number 9

Thrusting it between his shoulder blades
The Watusi, the Twist
Eldorado.

Take this, brother, may it serve you well.

Another Trade With Robert of $30 A Week Habit.

       My collecting habits have been well chronicled on this blog, as have my buying habits.  Which is to say, my habits are consistently inconsistent.  I go to shows and dive into dime boxes.  I buy and sell on ebay.  I have a new love of the junk on listia.  I am the king of the impulse buy at K-Mart and Target. What happens to all these cards is they get neatly sorted into piles.  I think that is the zen part of this hobby for me.  I sit on my couch in front of a little card table in a yogi position with my legs folded under each other (no joke) and break all these cards that come into my collection into piles of what goes, what stays, what I need, what others need, etc. etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

       I read so many different card blogs and it is hard to say why some folks get piles and some don't.  Maybe it's because he has a hook or because he has so many interests, but Robert from $30 a Week Habit gets such a pile.  My excess Blue Jays, Maple Leafs, and Topps serial numbered cards all get thrown together and when the pile gets too big or I get tired of looking at them, I compare and contrast what he needs (or might need) and out the door they go.  It is an inelegant solution but it seems to make me seem altruistic.  Sometimes I even remember the actual cards we agreed to trade.  Lucky for me, Robert is always ready to reciprocate:

That Darryl Strawberry is from this years Archives and it is a beaut. The mini Ted Williams I asked for a long while ago and only remembered that I had when I saw it.  The Topps Gold Nieuwenhuis is a great picture of a player that has proven you can't steal first base enough that I don't think the Mets will call him back up no matter how well he fields.  The shiny Jose Bautista was on my wantlist - yay! someone reads my wantlists - because I want to make a player page of him (3 down 6 to go).  He also included a nice shiny numbered autographed Devils rookie card...because, hockey!

Finally, the Chrome Heritage David Wright (always appreciated) is a nice contrast to the 1964 Topps Joe Gibbon, the actual card we had agreed to trade.  He bought it for his set not realizing it had the added Heritage parallel stamp on it.  I wanted one of those because I have been integrating one into the Topps pages since they started inserting those things in 2008 with the 1959 set.  I sent him one, sans foil, from that '64 page he needed: the John Roseboro (a player whose most famous hit with a bat did not involve a ball).  And as always, Robert included a nice little note to remind me who sent the cards...as always the man is unflappably polite.  Thanks Robert!

***

Want to get a pile too?  Really the best way is to be a team collector since I have boxes and boxes of cards all sorted into teams.  If you have stuff from my wantlists, send me an email and let's get cracking. 

Mail Call: Instant Gratification.

       When I was a kid, somewhere I heard the old adage that you never know until you ask and picked up the old positive affirmation that if you ask, all someone can say is 'no'.  This makes me one of the most annoying kinds of human beings: the kind that asks a lot of questions.  I think my point got lost in all that, I guess what I am saying is, I am not shy about asking for things, not that I am an insistent pest.  Sorry, my intros are rusty.  

I got a package in the mail from Night Owl HQ yesterday.  Because we are constantly shuffling things back and forth, I have no idea if this is in response to stuff I sent or if I now owe him stuff.  Either way, I have a pile for him.  This particular package was full of wonderful things:

You can't really see it in the scan, but trust me, the Harvey and Dickey cards are quite shiny.  The Wright card is a manu-patch card, but this one works nicely, good colors, very fancy intricate patch.  I used to hate these cards, but I have grown to not only accept them but enjoy the ones that look very good.  I still think they are confusing and ruin the value of actual game-used pieces, but I guess we have also learned those "actual game-used" pieces aren't worth the paper their disclaimers are printed on.  The bottom three cards are the ones I was sort of addressing my awful opening paragraph.  Night Owl recently posted about the new Topps Archives packs he picked up.  I requested he set those cards aside for me and we could work out compensation.  He told me that not only did he have a package ready to go out to me, he would put these inside.  The package got here in two days; in the world of blog transactions, that is the very definition of instant gratification.

In my last post, I snarkily addressed Topps' photo choices on vintage/retro cards.  The cards on this scan perfectly illustrate my point.  On the Gypsy Queen Gooden, that is a picture I am certain I have seen before but it is now in painting form, so I suppose that makes it better (as long as they don't use the same picture next year).  The Archives Gooden is not only a photo I have never seen before, it is a damn nice one - full of nuance and intensity (please do this more, Topps).  Conversely, the Seaver is a photo that has been used so many times, I could probably make an entire page of cards using it. The Ted Williams photo has also been used ad nauseum, but it is so iconic, you can almost forgive it here.  Almost.  Also, I can give the Williams card a slight pass because there are no doubt far fewer images of him in the Topps vault than of Seaver.  Plus, since he is dead, I am sure they have to okay the use of his pictures through his licensing company, which I am certain adds a layer of annoyance.  *steps down off his soapbox*

Night Owl not only sent that pile of Mets goodness, he has been perusing my want list:

Those 2010 Upper Deck now complete my page of these cards.  I hope I never have to mention this set again.  The next row has not one but two Rookie All-Stars I can scratch off the list, a pair of parallels at that.  The Opening Day Tavaras card has been especially elusive for me for such a recent card.  I wanted that one greatly because his Topps base card omitted the trophy, and that little cup is the whole point of the collection.  Night Owl's love of 1975 minis is well documented, so for him to give up a couple is surprising.  I have this vision of him in my head hoarding them by the thousands in a bunker under his house.  The Nomo will go on my 1997 Upper Deck page, one that has also been difficult to fill (odd, too, that N.O. would give up a Nomo card).  I never bought any of that set and for some reason I also never see them around.  Four down, five to go. 

Also from the want list:

Three Mets of varying importance, from nothing to everything.  I am praying that a stint in the minors will do Ike some good, considering I could hit .165 in the majors.  The 1964 design this year on the Heritage seems to really do the modern player justice.  They just look good to me, better than the last few years, at least.  And I do so prefer the old school trophy on these cards. 

Final batch from Night Owl:

The top three cards finish my Mets Topps set from 2013 Series 1.  I am slightly disappointed the Opening Day set has white borders, I was so hoping they would give it a green border to differentiate it from the flagship set.  I think the abstract ball field design cries out for green - and not the crazy shiny Emerald pattern they used as a parallel, but a nice muted kelly green.  As always, Night Owl wisely includes a little note in his package.  Each and every one of these cards is of use to me, in case you were wondering.  Thanks Greg!

Also in the mail was an odd thing for me, Yankees cards:

I realized I did not own a single Robinson Cano card and I have a feeling he is not going to be on the Yankees next year, so I won't have to automatically hate him, so when I saw a very cheap lot of 11 cards, I snagged it on eBay. That is a rare sight indeed, a current Yankee with his own 9-pocket page.

I was on a roll and scanned all the cards I got in the mail Tuesday, so here are the rest:

Those top three cards are a lot from Listia I picked up literally for nothing.  I got it just for the Reggie Bush, the other two will end up in a box to be forgotten.  I am slowly but surely becoming a user of that site.  The bottom two are the other 2 Cano cards, which I might actually list on Listia since I have no need for them (unless someone wants them).  The last card there in the middle is a mini refractor of Zack Wheeler.  The Mets have threatened to actually let him pitch in the majors next week, I'll believe it when I see it.  But I figure I should grab his cards now while I can.  I am not sure what the purpose of making that card mini is, though, but I do like the shiny.  Shiny > mini.

Ask and ye shall receive! I think that is what I was going for with the opening.  Sheesh, my brain is so sluggish and tired lately.