First, I want to say that if you missed it in all the Topps Series 1 madness, please take a look at my proposed group break. I’d love some more feedback before I buy the boxes. Link is here.
This blog has been nothing but contests for the past month. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but a truly good blog needs some variety. Now that all of that craziness has all but died down (remember we still have our YouTube oriented Donruss Basketball contest going on), we can focus our attentions on our regularly scheduled broadcast.
For me, that means I have a massive backlog of trade posts that I want to get to. I know that some bloggers aren’t too keen on them, but I like reading other peoples’ trades and I like giving traders their proper respects. While I have about 10 different trades to get to eventually, I’m also going to be sprinkling in more episodes of the regular features I started a couple months ago and doing other fun things to keep it from being all trades all the time around here.
I feel like I’m re-introducing the blog. Hi. I’m Jon. I write about cards with my friend Andy. Sometimes it’s funny. This is…Community Gum!
Reader Steve D. already knows who I am. I’m the guy that took forever to post this trade that came in a month ago. I’m the guy that traded with him once before quite successfully. While I have since quietly abandoned the idea of collecting pitchers batting, he was still able find a few things to send my way in exchange for of the 1997 Fleer Yankees I got in my box.
"What was that?"
Appropriate that he’s pitching in Wrigley. This card confuses me a little bit. The back of the card only gives his away stats, which makes me think that there may be a “home” version, too. My list, compiled from Beckett’s website doesn’t list any variations. Can anyone confirm or deny? It very well could just be a quirk of this set. It’s also confusing because there’s a stat on the back that I’ve never seen on a card before. BSRN. I’m assuming it has something to do with Baserunners? Probably by 9 inning game. To give you an idea of what I’m looking at without scanning the back because I’m too lazy to, the last three years show 6.71, 10.63, and 8.23 as the number. The stat must not have caught on, because even search engines came up with nothing. The internet fails again. By the way, through 1997, Maddux had a 91-48 record with a 2.52 ERA, 38 CG, 844Ks in 169 games. Oh, and he won 10 or more away games in 5 of those years.
From looking scared to looking scary
I sent the Jeter Soaring Stars, so in return I get the Maddux. Works for me! It’s a dark, shiny card, so it was bound to scan poorly. Just like the night sky in Chicago, you may be able to find a couple stars if you look hard enough. To be honest, even with the card in hand, it’s tough to make out the shiny parts. There’s a parallel version of this fine mid-90s Fleer insert and I have no idea what might be different about it. This one seems plenty fancy in its own right.
It would be cooler if Spahnie was looking up towards Greg instead of longingly remembering the sandwich he ate for lunch
A Chromie insert! There isn’t even a non-Chrome version of this card. How often does that happen anymore? It’s tough to tell but the background looks like molten lava, or possibly stale bundt cake. Perhaps that’s the “Past” part. I don’t know a whole lot about Spahn, to be honest, but it seems like a decent comparison. Both are control pitchers with a bunch of high win totals every year that played for the Braves franchise. I’ll buy into that a lot more than some of the Legendary Lineage combos we saw last year. This little shiny gem looks 10x better than those disasters ever would.
And there you have it. Short, but very sweet. Thanks again to Steve for another great trade!
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