I Hate What People Have Done To The Word Ridiculous

I hate what people have done to the word ridiculous.

I use the word often.  Other people use the word often.  We are often ships passing in the night.  Ridiculous people have slowly changed what many people think the word ridiculous actually means.

Definition.

Sadly, many sports people misuse the word.  Take this video clip of my beloved Wolfpack playing basketball.  This is a really incredible lay-up.  The spin off the glass is spectacular.

It is not ridiculous.  It's ridiculous that the NC State team shown in the video had a deep and talented roster, but only managed to win five conference games.  

Sadly, it's not just sports people who no longer use the word correctly.  Last year I was having a discussion with people about Kelly Clarkson, and a work event relating to Kelly Clarkson.  The event was ridiculous.  Kelly Clarkson is ridiculous.  The response was ridiculously about how much people love a certain Kelly Clarkson video.  This is the worst video ever.  

The Princess Diaries?  Ridiculous.  

How does this relate to baseball cards?  

I have been on a quest to find cards of Southeast Missouri State alumni Joey Lucchesi over the past two years.  There have been many successful days where I have been able to convince people to trade or sell me their cards of the Padres starting pitcher.  I think this 2018 Bowman Chrome autograph is my favorite find so far.  

I have also been trying to track down a copy of his 2018 Topps Update autograph that is on a card with a 1983 Topps design.  I already have the "base" card, or non-autographed version that I posted at some point last fall.  Here is the card.

For the longest time, there was only one copy of the card for sale on Ebay.  It had a "Buy It Now" of $35 on it, but you could submit offers.  I tried several times.  I was always given this excuse repeatedly:

"Joey Lucchesi was the first player from the 2016 Draft to reach the Major Leagues.  I think the price is a ridiculously good deal.  He's going to be a good player." 

The price was stuck at $35.  Ridiculously good deal.  First player in the draft to reach the Majors.  

I completely ignored the card, the seller, and the whole ridiculous situation.  A 10-10 record later,  a year of space, and I found a copy of the card for $5.  An incredible deal.  Here is my scan, which is ridiculously crooked.  

Maybe ridiculous is too far, maybe more along the lines of slightly crooked.  I scanned the back of the card too.  I did a much better job.  

Oh, look at the fact under the stat line.  It's ridiculous that the Ebay seller from last year could not come up with a better reason for selling this card for $35.  

Hopefully people will use the word ridiculous in a more responsible way, or I am going to start using the word cockamamie in its place.  

No Joey Fuego?

I wrote a little bit a few weeks back about the disappearance of the nickname cards in the Triple Threads product.  Always a highlight for me during the year, the absence of the nicknames has made me a little less likely to collect these cards.  Just a refresher, but they looked like this:

So, after adding my Snell autograph, I went back and did a little work on a second player from Triple Threads trying to add a few cards of Padres pitcher Joey Lucchesi, or Joey Fuego to those who follow his career.  I like the nickname.  It's catchy.  I am also not sure it's very apt considering he is a lot of deception mixed in with some breaking pitches. 

I have followed Joey's career since he was at Southeast Missouri and have been collecting his cards since he was first drafted by the Padres.  He's not a player I would have guessed to appear in Triple Threads, but I am not going to complain. 

Here is the card. 

Yep, no Joey Fuego.  We have this gem instead.  Why did Topps pick this phrase for his Triple Threads card?  

There you go. 

Chris Sale, Jordan Zimmerman, Clayton Kershaw, and Joey Lucchesi. 

There are other Joey Lucchesi cards from Triple Threads.  One is above average, so I might have to find that card.  Maybe, maybe not. 

Random Envelopes

I spent the end of last week wrangling 80 some fifth graders around Washington D.C..  It's a cool field trip for my students, but leaves me feeling zapped for a few days afterwards.  I still like going, Washington is a fun place to hang around. 

My mail from the first half of the week and end of last week has piled up, so I am condensing it into one short post.  Three envelopes with four cards.  

Envelope 1.  

I did a lot with Anthony Banda cards last year.  He started out the 2018 season with the Durham Bulls, pitched briefly for the Rays, and ended the year on the D.L. after going through Tommy John surgery.  This Triple Threads card was one I was missing.  For some reason, his cards alternate between him being on the Rays and Diamondbacks.  Don't know why, it's just the way Topps rolls.  

Envelope 2.  

The white mark on the left is on the protective sleeve.  Lucchesi went to Southeast Missouri, which is where I went for my undergraduate degree.  It's a teacher's college that is about half way between St. Louis and Memphis.  Not exactly a powerhouse for cranking out professional athletes.  Lucchesi is amongst a small number.   I have been collecting his cards informally since last fall.  I am not going after anything super rare, just some nice looking cards.  I liked this black bordered Heritage card.  Sharp.  

Which brings me to Envelope 3.  Related to envelope 2.  There are two cards.  

Who is Kelvin Anderson?  I actually had someone offer to send me some cards of him a month ago after I posted a Lucchesi card.  He is another professional athlete from Southeast Missouri.  We missed each other in school by a year, but he was a really good player on a really bad team.  I would be surprised if the Indians, now the Redhawks, won 10 games in the 4 years I was in college.  

"The Earthquake", he is from New Madrid like the fault line, had eight consecutive seasons with more than 1,000 yards rushing in the CFL.  Anderson also won the CFL Grey Cup twice.  Two years ago he was elected into the Canadian Football League Hall of Fame.  

Finally, this gem.  

What is this card company?  They make cards of players from Southeast Missouri in a Southeast Missouri uniform?  They are playing Austin Peay in this picture, which might be one of the few Ohio Valley schools that Southeast Missouri has been able to compete with over the years.  Not really a good thing. 

There are copies of this card for $1.50 on Ebay, and there are 7.750 copies.  Not very rare, nor really in demand for a guy in a Hall of Fame.  Still really cool to find out a little bit more about his cards. 

On a side note, the football team has been better of late.  They made the playoffs last year, and won a game in the first round.  They also played Kansas a few years back.....

and came within a touchdown of the Jayhawks.  I mean it's Kansas, but still.  

College Cards

I spent last week working on some cards of players who share a college with me.  I have two degrees from two different school, and managed to find a card from each school.  The idea of finding a card of a player from NC State is not all that surprising, but the whole Southeast Missouri State thing is a rarity.  Throw in the fact that one of these cards was an exchange, which never seem to actually pan out in my world, and I did not even know of the other's existence before this month.  

Let's start with the NC State player, who is also a prime Cardinals prospect.  

Andrew Knizner was drafted out of NC State a few years ago.  The infielder, turned catcher, was a good college player, but was a bit of a mess defensively before entering the Minors.  While in Raleigh, Knizner was switched from third base to catcher literally before the start of a game.  He's been a bit of a project on defense, but apparently has improved.  The Cardinals always have some catcher in waiting behind Yadier Molina, but Yadier never seems to slow down.  I am not sure if the team is serious this time, or if Knizner will end up playing somewhere else.  Meaning either a different position, or in a different town.  

I am not a big fan of Leaf cards, but this is the only Knizner autograph that is out there.  The card also uses a picture of Knizner from college.  The red looks good on a Cardinals card, but check out the sleeves on the jersey.  Check out the sleeves on the catcher's jersey in this picture....

The mask and chest protector are different in this picture, but this is Knizner from college.  Sleeveless jersey, red stripe on the side of the pants.  Pretty cool that Knizner's first Cardinals autograph also has him wearing an NC State jersey.  

Next.  

This was an exchange card from Bowman Chrome last year.  I never count on these to actually show up anymore.  This one showed up.  

Lucchesi went to Southeast Missouri State a few years back.  It has been awhile since there has been a player from that school in the Majors.  In the past twenty years there have been a total of four players from the small teacher's college: Lucchesi, Justin Christian, Shae Simmons, and Kerry Robinson.  Not a lot there.  The fact that Lucchesi played an entire Major League season pretty much makes him the greatest player to ever come out of Southeast Missouri.  

The school even gets a shout out on the back of this card.  

Lucchesi has a good stuff, and the card does a good job of describing the pitches he throws, but there are also a lot of arms and legs in his delivery.  This does not do his pitching motion justice, but I think he is definitely a hard player to hit against....

especially for lefties.  Last year he struck out slightly more than one-third of the left-handed batters that he faced.  I think he's going to be around for awhile.  

Before we go, y'all know I hate those Topps stickers on the exchange cards.  That's no way to enjoy a baseball card.  I want to see the card, not a giant white sticker.  

That's better.  I should have taken it out of the top loader too, which always shows every scratch and scuff mark on cards with reflective surfaces.  For another day though....

Vacation Day Mail

My work schedule used to have me work on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  As a person who is employed as an upper elementary school teacher, it was really hard to be productive on this day.  Many students would miss school, and those that showed up were rightfully distracted.  Admittedly, as the adult in the room it was hard to work that Wednesday.

Fortunately, things have changed and all the feelings of Wednesday have now been shifted to Tuesdays.  Although, I feel a little bit more focused.  Especially since I have given up going anywhere on Thanksgiving.  It's my own five day vacation in the middle of the quarter.

I started my vacation by attending a basketball game last night.

My Wolfpack ended up winning pretty handily.  Today, I am onto other things that do not involve work.  A little time spent playing with the kids, a little cleaning before the in-laws get into town, and now I have moved onto working on some cards.

Usually when I get cards in the mail they actually sit on my desk for a few days before I actually get a chance to scan them,  write something about the cards, and post them.  Just the way things are, many other things come before write blog posts about baseball cards.  For today though, I am setting all the grown-up things aside.

Bloggers do mail day posts all the time.  I have not made one of these posts in literally three years.  I will take a break from teaching my son about Oregon Trail on Dos Box.

Let's do it.   Three packages.  First one.

Picked up a Topps Gold Label Anthony Banda autograph.  He's been my Durham Bulls player that I have spent the year collecting.  Topps put him in a Rays uniform for this card, which has been an on going back and forth this year with cards featuring him as a Diamondback.  Banda was traded to the Rays last spring, not sure why he is not a Ray on every card.  I have another Banda card on the way, released after this one, he's a Diamondback.  Quality.

Second package.  

There have not been a ton of Joey Lucchesi cards this year, probably because he plays for the Padres.  The rookie pitcher went to Southeast Missouri State, which is where I happened to go to college for my undergraduate degree.  It's a small teachers college about halfway between St. Louis and Memphis.  Needless to say, there have not been many alumni to reach the Major Leagues.  I have been following him for awhile, fun to see him finally get a few cards.

I cannot keep track of all the variations in this Topps products these days, but this is one of the Chrome Pack cards from this year's Update set.  Nice looking card.

Third package.  Two cards.  Same player.

More Lucchesi.   The top card is a pink refractor which are very common in the Topps Chrome Update product.  The bottom card is a gold refractor, which is serial numbered out of 50.  A little tougher find, but neither is very expensive.

That's it for the mail, unless someone is willing to pay my toll road bill from the state of North Carolina.

Stand Alone Redhawk

I spend a lot of time writing about college baseball players from NC State, as well as a few others that I get to see from opposing ACC schools and at USA Baseball during the summer.  Rarely do I get a chance to write about a baseball player from Southeast Missouri, which is the other college that I attended long ago in the late 1990s.  

It's a small teachers college located in Cape Girardeau, Missouri that is roughly halfway between St. Louis and Memphis.  Yes, the sports teams are Division I, they play in the Ohio Valley Conference with Murray State, Austin Peay, Belmont, and many others.  There have only been a handful of players from the school to reach the Majors.

The two of the more recent and notable players from the school were Shae Simmons.....

and Kerry Robinson.  

There is finally another former Redhawk who has made it the Majors.  In fact, since Shae Simmons was released in the middle of the summer by the Cubs, there is only one former Redhawk playing in the Majors at the moment.  I would have done a spot on him earlier in the year, but it took a long time for him to get an actual baseball card.

Meet Padres pitcher Joey Lucchesi.

There is a lot going on in that motion, but it has worked well for him this year.  He currently has 8 wins and should get at minimum of one more start before the end of the season.  Lucchesi missed a little bit of time this season, but his numbers have been solid.  He has an ERA in the 3.50 neighborhood and is averaging almost 10 strikeouts per inning.  

I ended up picking up one of the three or four cards of Lucchesi that have all suddenly appeared during the past month.  Don't worry, I will end up with the others too.  

This is from Panini Illusions.  

You know I don't really keep track of Panini, so I am not sure what else there is in this set.  Looks sort of like the late 1990s Flair cards with the logos airbrushed off the uniforms.

Regardless, I am happy to finally add a card of Joey Lucchesi to my collection.  After all, there have been ten players from Southeast Missouri State to reach the Majors and Joey Lucchesi is already the best pitcher to have come from the school, and probably will be the player with the best resume shortly.

For example, the most wins by any former Redhawk in the Majors, prior to Lucchesi, was Shae Simmons with 1.  Not sure how you pitch in three different seasons and only get one win, but it happened.  Lucchesi's first game pitched with at the beginning of April, by the middle of the month he had passed Simmons with two wins.  He also has 131 strikeouts, which is also the most.  If he sticks around for awhile, he will probably even pass by many of the position players in offensive stats outside of Kerry Robinson.

He has even already past Shae Simmons and Kerry Robinson in terms of WAR.

It's nice to see another former Redhawk with some staying power reach the Majors.  When it is all said and done Joey Lucchesi will likely stand alone as the greatest player to have ever come from Southeast Missouri.