Birthday Gifts from William! (Part 1)

A few months back, I received a big square box from William of Foul Bunt. This box was full of packing peanuts, cards, and an unexpected surprise (which I'll show in an upcoming post). The occasion was my birthday, just a few days after I got the box. Will had generously (as usual) said he would throw something extra in with his package. And he did! For this first post, the cards:

I think approximately seven people bought 2012 Panini Golden Age last year. Fortunately, Will was one of the seven. Could you say that Warren Spahn is being framed on this card? He doesn't seem too concerned about it.

Which one of you is the real John Smoltz?

Not all the cards I'm showing came from the same package. I've sort of accumulated stuff to do one mega-post on it all. No one else does that, do they? Oh, this is both the Error and Corrected version of John's 1990 Donruss MVP card.

Will sent several 1996 Topps Braves, including some that had the 1995 WS logo in corners. Was that the first time Topps played with those logo variations? only time? Any 1990s collectors care to enlighten me there? I like the logo, either way.

A Rays-uniformed BJ Upton. This card is numbered 247/999, and looks pretty sharp, but BJ still seems glum. Probably brooding over his .141 batting average. Ah well.

Question: I believe back in the late 90s and early 2000s, Chipper and Andruw Jones had their intials on the back of their jerseys, along with their last names. So, why this? I should probably know why the Upton brothers have no initials, but I don't. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Some 2012 Bowman. Remind me the difference between a "First-year Bowman card" and an RC-logo card, again? Oh, what the heck. Just enjoy the pictures, I guess.



Reynoso, who according to Wikipedia, was the last player on the Atlanta Braves to wear number 42 before it was retired, looks like the Mexican version of Greg Maddux. I think it's the mustache.

This was the last card I needed to finish my 2013 Topps Braves Series One set. Sorry it scanned poorly. Wait, actually...

This was the last card I needed to finish the set! Bazinga! This card scanned frightfully too, so I "borrowed" this image from Play at the Plate (maybe if I link to him seven times he'll forgive me):

The super-obvious guy in the red shirt is awesome/hilarious. Especially since the other guys you can see are just chilling. "Hey, let's watch Freeman make a sweet catch. We can stand up a minute and lean against this rail to do so." Meanwhile, red-shirt guy:



Awesome.

Thanks to William for the cards! Second post coming soon!

Some new Braves additions!

Braves are 2-0 after last night's win over the Phillies. Let the Upton era begin!

I welcome the start of the season as I try to forget about my horrible, no good, very bad bracket. I never do brackets, and after a pretty okay start (thank you, Oregon) I was feeling pretty high on mine. I then went on to pick a grand total of 0 correct Final Four teams. Darn Wichita State/Michigan/Syracuse! I take the blame for not picking Louisville.

One of the cool things about blogging is coming across new ones. I was recently able to make a small trade with Josh of one such blog, Pence, Nix, and Pierre. I hope that by seeing what I got you'll be motivated to help Josh add to his collections of, well, Pence, Nix, and (Juan) Pierre.

 A couple of horizontal shots. I still haven't received a Masterpiece card I didn't like.

These were some oddball issues I hadn't seen before. The one on the left is a 1990 Swell Satchel Paige. At first I wasn't sure how I didn't know Satchel was a Brave, but Google told me he wasn't a player but a coach in the 1960s.

Chipper Jones Twitter account continues to make news.

Another Dale Murphy card, and a colorful 1992 Topps Kids Steve Avery. The silhouettes in the background really make that card for me.

This is the back, depicting Steve's giant leap from high school to a major league ballpark, as well as a criminal with a handgun. Ah, the (relatively) politically incorrect '90s.

To close out with a bang, Josh also sent me my first Chipper Jones relic card! From  2011 Lineage, this is a sweet addition to the PC!

Thanks to Josh for the cards, and the trade!

Cards in Miniature from Community Gum!

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you willingly never posted a trade? I'm too scared to find out, but my hypothesis is that the cards you traded for would vanish. Anyway.

In the not-so-distant past, Jon of Community Gum busted a box of Topps Mini cards, which I believe (hypothesis again) only got into the hands of those who did like he did and ordered a box, or were members of the 5 Star Club. I have not seen these anywhere personally outside of CG's blog. If showing 'fashionably late' to blog posts is just your style, plenty of cards appear to be left.

The base cards are basically the Reader's Digest Condensed versions of 2012 Topps, but knowing how unlikely it was to get at these outside of the Gated Community of Gum, I bit and sent Jon some Maduxxes (Maddi)? See for yourself what I got back! (If you have the Chipper Jones card from this set by chance to send this-a-way, you will be rewarded.)

Scan chomped off the bottom of this card, but here's Tyler Pastornicky. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said in a recent interview Tyler may be the next "Martin Prado." Read: Utility guy. If he can hit decently enough, though, that'd be fine by me!

 Jonathan Venters rocking the high socks! Liking it.

At the time this card was scanned, Randall was a Brave. He's now a Diamondback by way of the Justin Upton trade.

The height discrepancy between Bourn and Jason Heyward behind him is funny. Not sure what to think about having BJ as a CF this year-maybe Frank Wren thought that two Uptons together can't both be terrible?

That is all-thank you Jon!