by Matt | Oct 23, 2013 | Aggravation, Baseball, Personal, Red Sox
With Game 1 of the World Series starting in mere hours, I had a few things I wanted to get off my chest.
For starters, the reaction of most in the baseball community thus far has been that this series isn’t unique, or interesting. Most people couldn’t have picked two less interesting teams to be playing in the fall classic. Clearly, I’m going to disagree with that entire notion, but I also realize that I “have a horse in this race”, so my thoughts towards it are going to be a bit skewed.
I myself would have preferred a Dodgers or Pirates vs. Red Sox World Series. I think those more historic match-ups would have been more interesting. But, interesting to who? Does the St. Louis fan base deserve a title shot less than Los Angeles or Pittsburgh or Atlanta? Numbers wise, there are less fans of the Pirates nation wide than there are of the Cardinals. Does that discount what they did this season? Of course not.
That’s also the entire point of playoffs; to determine finalists. So, when people say “this World Series is going to suck, I’m not watching it”, simply because their team isn’t in it, it’s doing a disservice to the entire sport. If you’re a fan of baseball, in general, you should enjoy at least a little bit of this series. These are the two best and/or luckiest teams in baseball, for October of 2013, whichever way you choose to look at it. There may have been better teams in June, or August, but this is October. There are great players on both sides. Exciting line ups, great hitters, remarkable closers. This should be very interesting to watch. It’s ok to “not like” the teams playing, but you should be able to at least appreciate the talent on both sides for what it is.
So, don’t give me this Debby Downer crap about how this series will suck, I’m tired of it. You don’t like the teams? Fine. But don’t tell me it will be “bad baseball”, because that’s just a flat out lie.
I also have a huge issue with cocky ass Red Sox fans. Yeah, you heard me. I have issues with my own team’s fan base. Every pink beard I see in the stands makes me want to hit people. Every idiot who thinks “we deserve this” and “this is our year” is incredibly misguided. These are the fans that jumped on board in 2004, NOT the fans that were crying in 2003. I’m old enough to have watched several “curse filled” self-destructions, several post-season endings that didn’t go our way, and to remember the pain of each and every one of them. Most people won’t understand it, but bonding through shared grief is a real thing. I remember watching in ’86 and wondering why my dad, my uncle, and my neighbors were so upset. Now I understand. I saw it and felt it first hand.
That didn’t get wiped away in 2004. For all we know, as Red Sox fans, 2004 and 2007 were complete freak accidents, but ones that went our way for a change. It could very well be another 86 years before we raise another World Series banner. ANY Red Sox fan that tells you otherwise doesn’t understand their history. Any cocky, sideways hat wearing, fake beard buying, douche-canoe from Gloucester, MA that says “We got this, this is our year” is a fucking idiot. On behalf of true Red Sox fans, I apologize for “those” people. If that’s the impression you’ve received online or in person, please disregard anything they said.
I also have to take issue with major sports media. Apparently they didn’t get the match up they wanted, so outside of Boston based media, I’ve yet to actually hear any coverage of the World Series. An entire two hours of sports radio/tv this morning, on THE major network for such things, was devoted to college football happening THIS SATURDAY. There were analysts, experts, call in guests, all talking about Oregon football. Fuck you. No, seriously, fuck you. That’s ridiculous. I’m sorry, it is. I don’t know anything else to call it. We’re on the eve of a major sporting event and it’s being entirely ignored. That says something about the state of the game and it’s relationship to national media. We are so far removed from “America’s Pastime” now, we should really just stop using that expression.
I’m so glad I live in a society were I can get BETTING numbers from nationally syndicated hosts, but can’t get a single thought on the World Series with the exception of the commercials for it on the same exact station. Sadly, it’s not just radio, the TV coverage is even worse. The single saving grace is that this is Tim McPumpkinhead’s last year. I’m sure they’ll find someone equally aggravating to replace him, but at the very least they won’t be unabashingly obvious Cardinals fans. They’ve almost over-compensated this year. They were making things up, Madden style, during the ALCS, just to have something to fill the dead air with. I swear I heard one of them say “the team the scores the most runs usually wins”.
I digress. All this is merely pent up anxiety over all sorts of things, both baseball and non-baseball related. I’ll save the non-baseball for another time.
In the end, I’m going to enjoy watching this series. Win or lose, the Red Sox have proven that with hardwork, and copious amounts of facial hair, you can recover from a fairly dismal season. They’ve exceeded all preseason expectations, and for that I’m already considering this a successful year.
I hope you all enjoy watching it. I hope, even if you don’t have a team in the series, that you can find something to root for, even if it’s merely baseball itself.
I don’t make predictions, they’re always wrong, but I know my team is hard working, scrappy, and very very clutch, I hope that’s enough to bring another one home.
Go Sox!
by Matt | Oct 18, 2013 | Cards, Red Sox
I just wrote an entire 500 word rant about how much Update sucks, but it’s kind of beating a dead horse, so I deleted it. The level of gimmicky crap has reached such levels that I’m just choosing to ignore it now. I’ll continue on collecting the things I actually find interesting, of which, I have several new things to show off.
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by Matt | Sep 30, 2013 | Baseball, Cards, Personal
When I started collecting cards again a couple years ago, I deeply regretted not having the cards from my childhood. I think that’s a fairly common occurrence amongst collectors. It’s the traditional “cards your Mom threw out” scenario. My father, when I was born, bought a Topps factory set for me to have when I was older. My grandfather collected “stuff”, and my Dad was (and still is) a baseball nut, so cards just sort of made sense to them. Neither one of them collected cards specifically though. My grandfather actually set aside a coin collection as well, something I was never really interested in. I still have it and I found it the other day. It’s mostly silver eagles and liberty silver dollars. Anyway, the Topps factory set lived in the closet for the longest time and eventually made it’s way to my shelf when I was 7 or 8.
I had started buying the occasional pack of cards from the corner store (good ol’ Cumberland Farms) but I was keeping them in a shoebox and not really caring about them beyond the fact that Rodger Clemons or Ellis Burks or Wade Boggs were on them. I bought cards up until Upper Deck was introduced and their premium price was just too much for a kid who was busy with other things. So, eventually that shoebox disappeared, along with the factory sets.
When I moved away for college, everything was boxed up and put in the attic, childhood memories and teenage randomness a like. Later, after college, and when I moved to Texas, most of that ended up coming with me. A couple years ago, when the collecting bug bit again, I remembered having all those cards when I was a kid. I climbed up into the attic and started going through boxes I hadn’t touched in years. The shoebox was gone, as were most of my cards. I found a tiny wooden box that I stuffed cards in that must have been over looked in a Motherly clean-out. I had a small sampling of what were probably my last cards, a bunch of ’92 Donruss and Upper Deck. I also found a single blue binder that contained a complete set of 1987 Topps. That’s all I had left. Like I said, that’s hardly a unique story.
I always told myself that my collection, going forward, wasn’t as much for me, as it was for me and my kids, or their kids, or who knows. Something about all those missing years bothered me though. That was MY childhood, and it was gone. I felt like I missed out on something, and I regretted not collecting, not holding on to those cards, and not having them now. So, it became my secondary mission to replace those missing years, just for me. While everyone else was throwing out 80’s junk wax, I wanted it.
I told all this to a friend of mine who likes to haunt local estate sales and auctions and over the past year or two he’s managed to find me some complete sets for basically nothing. I have complete sets of 1984, 1985, my original 1987 set, and 1989. That was all I had up until this weekend.
This weekend I found a seller on ebay who was clearing out a whole bunch of stuff. I only bought team sets, since that’s all I really wanted anyway. If I want the important rookies from the 70’s and 80’s who weren’t Red Sox, I’ll pick them up one at a time if I ever feel the need (which I don’t). So, for $0.99 a piece, I picked up 1978, 79, 80, 81, 82, 88, 90, 92 and 1993.
I replaced a good chunk of my childhood card memories for less than $10. I don’t know whether that’s sad and pathetic, or completely awesome. I’m leaning towards awesome.
It feels good to cross all that off my checklist in one big swoop. I know this post doesn’t have any images, and that’s because the cards as still on their way, but it doesn’t really need to. It’s more about the story anyway. I might scan them when they get here, I might not. I am going to go through them and enjoy the memories though, and that’s just between me and the cardboard.
Thanks for reading.
by Matt | Sep 13, 2013 | Baseball, Red Sox
That just goes to show you where my mind is at the moment. I didn’t even notice that my two Tier 1 Silver Ink autos are actually different photos. My Brock Holt 7/10 and 10/10 show him fielding and batting (respectively).
Go figure. lol.
I kind of like that there are photo variations. It makes it seems like an extra bit of added rarity (5 of each, maybe?). I have no idea if they alternated numbers/photos or if it was random. I did notice that the base autos (/399) had two different photos, but that lower numbers (sub /200) seemed to be one photo and higher numbers seemed to be the other. I completely missed the fact that the silver ink alternated photos as well. So, yeah, that just sorta worked out nicely all by itself.
Have a good weekend everybody!
by Matt | Sep 10, 2013 | Baseball
That’s a lie. There’s way more than a couple. We’re trying to teach our daughter the differences between “a few”, “a couple” and “both”, which admittedly, are hard concepts for a 2 year old to grasp, but it’s just funny to see her count out 7 Skittles and then ask if she can have “both” of them. So, here’s just “a couple” cards, all 35 of them.
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by Matt | Sep 5, 2013 | Baseball, Cards
Time to catch up on some want lists. These are mostly for me and my organizational skills (or lack thereof), but if you happen to have any of these, I’d love to talk to you about a trade.
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