CC Highlights: This Gift from???

First up don't forget to renew or sign on for the CCC/SMG June Group Break. SMG is doing the honors this time.

I am a total jerk. Total jerk. Work has been killing me for oh....about 2 months now and I've had my head up my a@@ about it. The group break yesterday was a great way to relax and reconnect with some cards.

Today I began the arduous task of packing up all those cards, addressing them, and getting them out. I have a stack of supplies I use for trades, etc., and among the things I save is cardboard inserts packing to reuse later.

Now, being an idiot I didn't see that one of them said "Open me." So I opened it some months after I was supposed to. This was inside:

Oh good Lord. The back says this is a "Fan pack standee" and it is very, very cool. For the moment I'm leaving it in 2D card form. The design is busy, but the photo is CC running at 100 mph, so there is a nice balance between design and photo that you just don't see every day. Even the blurry stands contribute to the feel of speed. Very, very well conveyed. 

And I'm such a jerk I'm not sure who to thank! Whoever you are, sir or madam, please leave a comment and take your praise!

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

With Leather: CC Sweet Spot from SMG

First, several great teams (Angels, A's, Pirates, Diamondbacks, Reds) are still available. And if you haven't paid up, don't forget the monies!
So, Sewing Machine Guy is who bipped me with all those Goudey CCs that I customized and, er, then passed along to others. The truth is, the group break was also his idea, and as a group join it kicks ass to be doing it.

Well, apparently he went to a show and came across this:

He picked it up and we hammered out a trade for it. It's slightly dinged and I have yet to figure out how to open those new fangled Sweet Spot cases (hence the tape in the scan), but this card is awesome and I REALLY appreciate SMG picking it up and sending it my way. I'm now just a bat barrel short of a having three versions of CC Sweet Spot autos (ball, glove, bat barrel).

One things I don't get: the stadium in the card looks to be Wrigley Field at sunset. I've got nothing against Wrigley (it's amazing; thanks again Daddy D!) or sunsets (on the one hand they are overrated, on the other without the sun we'd all be dead), but CC plays in a dome. Moreover the stands are full, never happens at the Trop. AND, if that is Wrigley, it looks like the sunset is actually fallout from a nuclear winter. How else could you explain the absence of the famous rooftops behind the OF stands? Just strikes me as weird.

Have a good one everybody and good night Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Hat Trick: Cards from Our Friend under the Bridge

A while back I sent Troll a slabbed CC auto, and in his words "he'd been looking to get me back." After this package I'm in the position of looking to even up the score.

I know a lot of folks are ambivalent about the manu-patches, and in a lot of contexts I'm right there with them. That said, these hat patch logo cards are pretty sweet. I don't feel that the overall effect is quite as canned as with the letter patches, and the team logo is pretty badass. I even think the design is well-done given the amount of info they manage to get on the card in a limited amount of space. A+ and badass, great addition to the CC stash. Many thanks Troll!

Then we've got this SWEET Pumpsie Green. I know Green is a significant player for a lot of reasons, but my favorite this about him is that he and Gene Conley were partners in crime in one of the better modern baseball stories out there. Whatever the details of the actual story, I like the idea of Green and Conley wandering the earth, going from bar to bar trying to get to Jerusalem.

The card itself is everything you could ask for out of early '60s Topps. A recently traded player with no hat (Pumpsie moved from the Red Sox to the Mets), and a horribly airbrushed inset action shot. Speaking of hat logos, the "NY" on Pumpsies lid looks to weigh about 15 lbs or so.

And finally, a small selection of the other goodness Troll sent up my way:

Freds, Jeffs, and Jonnys, all new and going straight into the PC.

Many thanks again, Troll! Keep your eyes peeled tomorrow for a very special "Catchers Finding Jesus."

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

CC HIghlights: 2005 UD Origins Old Judge Auto

I don't ever recall seeing these one sale (not that I was looking) but this a really awesome card, auto or no. The green background may throw you a bit because at first it looks like a relic from the original set of gunsmoke, but Daddy D sent over the Jeff Niemann (non-auto) from this set and I really dug it.

The card is on fairly hefty stock, so it feels like a card should. The auto is on card, and is really well incorporated into the overall design. The sepia-toned photo is a little on the small side, but it a) fits in with the overall feel of the design and the card and b) the pared-down size is a legitimate gesture towards   "real" tobacco cards.

Like any other player collector, I wouldn't mind acquiring some of the higher end autos of the player I collect, but frankly I find a lot of them to be garish products whose prices reflect contrived scarcity. When I can get a card like this for MUCH cheaper and still have money left over to eat, my choice is pretty much made for me.

Have a good one and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

CC Highlights: 2009 Topps Unique Insert

Topps Unique has taken a lot of heat from folks around, and deservedly so. The CC base card is a bit on the ridiculous side. However, this insert subset card is great.

Negro League throwback uniform from the Jacksonville Redcaps. For me, what makes the card great is the shot of the other player (second baseman?) in the background. Topps seems to be going for some kind of "baseball cards from the future" feel for this set, but including a bit more context for the image of CC in the foreground solidifies the nostalgic impulse of the throwback unis. The contrast between CC (full color) and the anonymous player (b & w) is really nice, and the fuzziness of the other guy recalls older photos of ball players we've all seen.

For comparison's sake, here's the base card:

It's funny and has its charm, but the photo is overrun by the design. Moreover, for a guy best known for making a game-saving catch in the 2009 AS game who should have won a Gold Glove this year, this card makes CC look like, to borrow a phrase used to criticize Yogi Berra's play in the OF, "a man putting up a pup tent in a high wind." Not good.

Have a good one and good night Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!