The BIG Announcement and Garfoose Giveaway

I've hinted at it in emails but here it goes: the compa is 12 weeks pregnant! We refer to the little guy/gal as "Blueberry" in homage to Vida Blue (OK, maybe not really), and Blue's expected date of arrival is mid-September.

So, if I owe you a trade package that I haven't sent PLEASE check in. I'm increasingly excited/forgetful owing to the news, so it's nothing personal.

Anyway, I grabbed this to celebrate:

Being a literary sort, I thought a customized, signed, and Garfoosed copy of Out of My League would be an appropriate way to bring Blue into the world. If you aren't familiar with Dirk Hayhurst or his literary endeavors, I suggest you check them out. The above, The Bullpen Gospels, and the "cut chapters" from these, Wild Pitches, are well worth the read. His website and blog are also pretty cool. Seriously, literature and baseball together, what more could Blue want?

Well, as part of the auction I won I received these:

On left we have a signed A&G with Hayhurst dressed as the Garfoose, on the left a signed promo card for the book. I'll be giving these (and other cool things) away to celebrate! 

So, I'll have to get a judge but: to enter the first "Here Comes Blue Contest," leave a comment in the comments section and tell me your best advice for new fathers/mothers. It can be serious, it can be funny, whatever you like. Promote it on Twitter/your blogs, whatever you are cool with. Contest closes in one week.

The winner (whomever the judge selects!) gets his/her pick of the cards above. The other is then a prize in the next "Here Comes Blue Contest"!

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

(Sadly, "Pumpsie Green" has already been eliminated from the pool of potential names)

Blue Skies Ahead

Vida Blue says "D@#! right." After Captain Canuck sent me this awesome 3D Blue, Daddy D dig some digging around in the vastness of his secret bb card warehouse and produced this gem. 99% of all the vintage goodness I post comes from him, and he doles it out in packages with cryptic messages from which I have to divine why different given cards are special. After he saw Capt'n Canuck's card, he sent me this one along with a 3D Fergie Jenkins from the same year simply because these cards kick ass. Well, they are no Sportsflicks (ha ha), but they are pretty awesome. The 70's are often overlooked in terms of bb cards and design, mostly because they followed the 50s and 60s, but as a decade cards from the 70s definitely have their own thing going on, and it's pretty good.

Which leads me to today. I'm in a good mood: end of the semester (thank you sweet lord Jebus), and I can honestly say that, having spent the last few months settling in, I love my job. I mean, I dig teaching. From the BS excuses about missing assignments to watching students learn more about themselves, their culture, and other cultures, I really dig it. Kinda like Mr. Blue up there looks like he feels about baseball. And yes, I'm aware of the issues that ended his career early, but let a man have his moment. It's currently -20 where I live (seriously) but life is pretty alright at the moment.

I'm off to spend the rest of the night relaxing and sipping some Templeton Rye (any thoughts on how to trade whiskey endorsements for free product I'm all ears----that stuff is good). Have a great one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Trading Post: Canadian Blue

A while back I'd gotten news of a mid-70's 3D Vida Blue being available...after some correspondence with Captain Canuck over at Waxaholic, the card has arrived. Check this out:

This card is one of the straight up gems of my Blue collection, which I'll try to get up ASAP. The scan of the card completely flattens out the technology here, so you're not going to get a good sense of what this looks like in person. For starters, the background is awesome, a really well done, interesting shot of the stadium behind Blue. There's no one else there, and the park is empty. We get the foul pole marking the distance out towards where there's a break in the out bowl and we get nothing but sky beyond, all of which conspires to make Blue loom that much larger in the foreground. And let's not forget: back in the day, Blue was HUGE. Even though his career was derailed by drug abuse, he was an effective pitcher until he retired.

Other Blues: a 1986 Topps.

It's almost like an update of the card above, but without the other half of the stadium behind him on the right the card doesn't have the same imposing feel as the one above. Here Blue's coming off and 8-8, 4.47 ERA season, which is nowhere near as imposing as the kind of nasty stuff he brought in the early-mid 1970's. However, seems like a 4.47 ERA these days will get you CY Young consideration in the AL, so I guess it's not that bad. Still, even the man himself isn't quite as intense. Blue at twilight.

But then the following year we had this:

No glove, no other accouterments of baseball, just Blue in his Giants uni, arms crossed, looking rather self-satisfied. And why not? In '86 he went 10-10 with a 3.27 ERA, a nice bounce back season after the previous year. I read that he went into retirement only because he'd tested positive for drug use, and rather than face a suspension and the disgrace that goes with such things decided to go away quietly. Now, coming off a year like he had in '86 it's obvious that he still had something left in the tank. Compared to some of the users out there today....make of that what you will.

Then we have a Fleer sticker of Msr. Blue:

This card is awesome. It screams 1980s, big hair, and sweatbands the size of one's forearms. It make the glove look almost like a giant, oversized plastic prop, or something off of photoshop disasters.

And finally, a 1980 BK card.

Gotta score the regular Topps for comparison, but I'll start by saying that if BK still did old school baseball cards they'd get more of my money. As in, I'd eat there, which is something I haven't done since...well...about 1980. This has to be a spring training portrait, but it looks like he's in CO or something with huge, rolling hills in the background. All in all a solid card, especially for a collaboration between burger people and Topps. And nothing like BK's later efforts, which are a sad, pale rendition of what could have been.

Thanks again for the Blues, Captain! Hope you enjoyed the Braves I sent.

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

Why so Blue? Cards from GCRL

Today I was chatting with the dishwasher repairman (very cool guy) when my wife comes in with a package. I see it's from GCRL, but obviously have to wait. And wait some more as we go get plants for the garden. 5 hours later this is one of the awesome cards in the package, which included several '76 and '73 needs, Crawford, and a 1977 Blue.

Vida Blue is one of the more under appreciated pitchers from the early '70s. His lifetime stats compare favorably with the HOFer Catfish Hunter, though I'm not sure whether that says more about how good Blue was or how dubious Catfish's election was. Maybe a little of both. 

His finest year was 1971, when he won both the Cy Young and the MVP, finishing 24-8 with 24 complete games, a 1.82 ERA, and a 0.95 WHIP. Those stats are insane for anyone in any era.

On a personal level, he's also one of the guys my dad followed when I was growing up. Vintage was so tough to get in my region when I was a kid, and when I was 10 I once let a guy pay me for 3 solid days worth of yard work in 1971 Topps. I used the opportunity to pick up a very poor condition 1971 Vida Blue (among other cards). My parents were furious (justifiably so, I guess) and now that I'm older I can really appreciate how shrewd that cat was: going by high book value he let me pick out $100 worth of poor, poor condition cards from his doubles (excluding "stars" like Reggie Jackson and Nolan Ryan) that were worth significantly less than $100 then and now. 

Anyway, I couldn't have been more excited to take the Blue home and show it to my dad (also scored the Blyleven RC---$50 BV!!!). Which leads me to another story: growing up I lived pretty far away Atlanta, but we managed to get to the Atl every other summer or so for a game. In '86 the Giants were in town, and my dad walked me down near the left field foul line to try for any autos. Sure enough, I got Vida Blue to sign a brand new baseball from the Braves clubhouse store. It's one of the best memories I have of being a kid, if only because I vaguely remember my dad being in absolute awe of the man putting his name on the ball. I mean, it's one thing for your parents to have "heroes" and to talk about them, but seeing one's parents standing in front of those same heroes produces a strange kind of vertigo, almost like you get a glimpse of your parent as a child.

Years ago I retraced the faded signature on the ball, (how didn't UD see that coming with the SweetSpot autos? have they ever seen a signature on a baseball fade?) but the last time I was home I noticed it was once again a shadow of itself. Getting cards like this 1972 Vida Blue is even better, because it allows you to tracing the memory itself.

Many thanks GCRL! 

And don't forget the Cy giveaway! Only 48 hours left.