Happy to Walk the Plank

About a month ago, I was one of the winners of a birthday contest at Bob Walk the Plank. Matt promised me that he was putting something special together to add something to my collection beyond a few new Pedro Martinez cards. When the package arrived, I was blown away with the contents, and his generosity. It has take me too long to chronicle the package with a post, but that's how long it took to adequately document everything!

Matt chose to go in a completely different direction. The package I received was from Gypsy Oak (which was a bit confusing until I saw the "From Matt" written on the back). I was somewhat familiar with their art pieces from seeing them on other blogs and social media. But, nothing prepared me for what would come out of the envelope. Ready to check it out for yourself?

Let's see what's inside!

This is a fun label I could put on my very own beer, if I was the type of collector who actually used things like that. (My unopened jars of salsa would clearly say otherwise.) It's certainly unique, and I love the amount of detail that went into this item featuring XX.

According to the backs, these are a few studio created samples of the Gypsy Oak Baseball Art Cards. They're very similar to standard baseball cards in size and thickness. I love the different style on the Cy Young card. 

I can't find anything like these cards on the Gypsy Oak website. So, I'm not sure what they're called. The back isn't much help, with a paisley playing card type feel to it. But, I'm not going to complain about a great couple cards, especially the one of The Kid. (It's just now really bothering me that I didn't scan these in numerical order left to right.)

Here we have three cards calling themselves Helman Art Stamps. These cards are about the size of a T206, but much thinner stock, and have have perforated edges to really sell the "stamp" feel to them. I also love how the tobacco era design works with the player selection, especially Williams in his San Diego uniform. Imagine the outfield this trio would make with Ted in left, Speaker in center, and Hooper in right. Hall of Famers all of them.

More old time feel with these great cards. They call  themselves Colgan's Chips Base-Ball Pictures. They're again about the size of a T206, but approaching relic card thickness. This makes them very sturdy, and wonderfully attractive. Again the style, size, and player selection makes these cards feel like you stepped back in time. Smoky Joe Wood is a player who has too few cards, so it was great to see him included here. Hard to imagine many pitchers will have a season as good as his was in 1912.

As the front of this card clearly says, this is a wood engraving, and it shows. The picture doesn't do this card justice. Again, we're talking about relic card thickness, but all wood. The engraving is so well done, that I don't mind the guy on the right being included on a Red Sox card.

Here we have an uncut strip of micro cards. Each one is about the size of a quarter. It's a fun collection of Red Sox legends, ranging the century plus of Red Sox baseball from Cy Young to David Ortiz. Of course, I love the addition of the great Pedro Martinez!

Speaking of Pedro, Matt clearly knew of my affinity for the greatest pitcher to ever take the mound. The package included several great Pedro items, including these two cards. They're standard card size, but as thick as a relic card because, well, can't you see the relic? The Dodgers version has a 1992 penny in it. Of course, 1992 was the year Pedro made his Major League debut in Los Angeles. The Boston card has a 2004 penny in it. Pedro did something cool in 2004, you may remember.

Last, but certainly not least, we have these two 4x6 art prints of the one and only Pedro. I love how the two styles are completely different, but still capture the essence of Pedro. Incredible.

Clearly Matt went above and beyond with this prize package. I was thrilled to be able to add so many unique items to my Red Sox collection.

Thanks Matt!

I Prefer My Nachos Grande

The internet is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? Oh, sure it’s mostly used these days for misinformation campaigns. But, every once in a while its goodness shines though. Such as the other day when I received a tweet from Chris over at Nachos Grande. He was spending some time going through blogger’s want lists, and he had found some cards off mine. All he needed was an address, and the cards would be on their way.

Does it get any better than that?

It wasn’t much longer before an envelope arrived with a handful of cards to add to my collection. Which cards were in there? I’m glad you asked!

Chris made a nice dent in my 2011 Gypsy Queen needs. I like the look of GQ this year. It has a classic elegance without getting too frilly about it. These three guys run the spectrum of fan favorites. Youkilis was beloved when he was in Boston, and most considered his time here too short. But, when you need to make room for the great Will Middlebrooks, sacrifices need to be made. David Ortiz, of course, practically spent his entire career in Boston, and people are still hoping for at least one more season to be added on. Crawford, on the other hand, couldn’t be run out of town fast enough for most fans. While I never understood the vile, most fans were pleased that 2011 was Crawford’s only full season in Boston.

More variety! Lester was a complex player. He went from being ridiculed for wondering why he wasn’t the ace of the staff, to being the most important piece of any pitching staff in baseball history. All without having his performance changing. It was all about perception. I guess a ring will do that for you sometimes. Speaking of rings, Speaker has a couple of those himself. I’ve always felt sorry for Speaker. He was from the wrong time. A player of his talents should be revered in Boston. There should be statues of him everywhere. But, he played before there was even video of him. He can’t have his number retired…he didn’t wear one. His greatness is lost to history a bit.

Finally, Chris included these great 2008 Allen and Ginter needs. Wait. What’s that? Cespedes wasn’t on the Red Sox in 2008? He wouldn’t play for the Sox until 2014? Did A&G use an old design to predict the future? Nope. These are custom cards created by Chris’s pal Ryan. I can’t underestimate how great these cards are in person. They’ll look fantastic next to their 2008 friends in my binder.

So, a huge thank you to Chris. The cards are much appreciated. And, even though they weren’t required, a return package is on its way to you. Hope you like it.

Thanks again!

Red Sox All-Ring Team

I’m not sure how the topic came up. But, at some point recently, a buddy of mine and I started wondering what the Red Sox all ring winning team would be. You know, it’s one of those tangents people get on during discussions sometimes. I thought it might be fun to see what that team might look like.

The first question that needs to be answered before starting an exercise like this is, what qualifies someone to be on the team?  I think the original topic was something along the lines of best World Series performers. But, does that mean the players who performed the best during the World Series? Is that a lifetime award? What about Someone like Manny Ramirez who had one great World Series as part of an amazing career. Does he lose out to someone like Jacoby Ellsbury who had two World Series trips to star in? What about Jake Peavy? A wonderful pitcher with a long career, who didn’t have the best trip to the Series.

So, I decided to just go with career. Overall. The best players to ever win a ring with the Sox. The all-ring team. Maybe one day I’ll try an all-World Series Championship team. But, that’s for another time.

So, who do I think is the best team you can make up of players who won a ring by playing in a World Series game with the champion Red Sox? I’m glad you asked.

OK. You didn’t ask. But here’s my answer anyway.

DH: David Ortiz. Let’s start with the easy one. He’s the only DH to play for a World Series champion Red Sox team. He might later be the only full-time DH in the Hall of Fame. End of discussion.

C: Jason Varitek. Not much more difficult. But, there’s at least some competition. Sort of. I don’t think TEK would be scared of Saltalamacchia or Sam Agnew. But, they’re there.

1B: Kevin Youkilis. The Red Sox have had a surprising lack of depth at first on their World Series winners. As much as I want to go with Stuffy McInnis for comedic value alone, it has to be one of the modern guys. So, is it Youk or Napoli? I think it’s safe to say that Youkilis had the better career. Barely. So far.

2B: Dustin Pedroia. I promise you, the early championship teams had some good players. But, best I can tell Pedroia is the only World Champion Red Sox second baseman with an MVP award on his shelf. 

SS: Orlando Cabrera. Seriuosly, how did the Red Sox win eight titles but still have their best shortstop be Cabrera? But, it’s not Drew or Lugo. (Maybe one day this will be Bogaerts?) And, no offense to Everett Scott, but how he won three rings with the Sox is beyond me. So, I go with OC.

3B: Jimmy Collins. Welcome to the team 1903 champs! Honestly, someone like Mike Lowell could make a pretty strong argument. But, Collins is in the Hall of Fame, so I don’t care to think about it anymore.

OF: Manny Ramirez, Tris Speaker, Babe Ruth. Basically Ruth and Speaker might be more obvious choices than anyone but Ortiz. The only possible reason you’d have to exclude either of them is if you argue over the selection rules. Ruth played in three World Series with the Red Sox, but only played in the outfield in one of them…in two games. So, he’d be the closest to not making it, but only on a technicality. The only question with Ramirez is if a Hall of Famer like Harry Hooper would beat out a non-Hall of Famer. But, it’s hard to argue against Ramirez’s career numbers. He gets the spot.

SP: Cy Young, Pedro Martinez. That’s it. I’ll have Young go games 1,3,4,5,7 and Pedro go games 2 and 6. Sound like a plan? Honestly, I narrowed it down to a top ten. From there, as much as I want to include Babe Ruth, his career as a pitcher wasn’t quite long enough. (Although, if it was based solely on performance in the World Series itself, he’d be an automatic inclusion.) Same with Smoky Joe Wood. If this was based solely on time with the Red Sox, he’d be hard to ignore. He was THAT good in 1912. Jake Peavy has that Cy Young, but not sure he really had enough of a career other than that. Lackey never even won the Cy Young. Curt Schilling has to be on the team. He’s the closest of the bunch to being a Hall of Famer. So, that leaves me with Tim Wakefield, Josh Beckett, and Jon Lester for two spots. So, I’m dropping Lester because his career is just too short. Final answer: Cy Young, Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, Josh Beckett.

CL: Jonathan Papelbon. Can I use Cy Young here? I really wanted to go with Keith Foulke here. But, I think Papelbon has had a more sustained career as a closer. You really can’t go wrong with either one, though.

So, there’s my team.

Who makes it on yours?

Tris Speaker, By: Timothy M. Gay

As the back of the book states, “Tris Speaker tells the story of one

of baseball’s true legends, offering an honest look at Speaker’s roughshod, frontier-forged personality.” And that really sums it up. All too forgotten in the annals of baseball history, this book hopes to bring the greatness of Tris Speaker to a new generation. Speaker wasn’t extreme enough in his personality to warrant much publicity through the years. He was a partier, but not like Babe Ruth. He was a bigot, but not like Ty Cobb. He had some gambling issues, but not like the Black Sox. He was the sixth man elected to the Hall-of-Fame, but just missed the first class and the history that went with it. He just missed getting the press coverage. This book hopes to rectify that.

I’ll admit. I didn’t know much about Tris Speaker. I knew he was the guy in the Red Sox media guide who had 35 assists in a season for the Sox. Twice. I remember wondering why people didn’t just stop running on the guy after a while. Then, I saw that due to the dead ball era, he played a very shallow centerfield. He got some of those assists by being the pivot man on 5-8-3 double plays. So, I sort of chalked him up to being a dead-ball gimmick. This book certainly opened my eyes. Tris Speaker was a fantastic player. How he doesn’t have a statue outside Fenway Park is beyond me. It’s a definite must read for any Red Sox fan. The book does have a couple issues. Gay tends to bounce around a little with his narrative. He’ll tell you something’s coming and then tell you about it later. (Much like one of those tabloid television shows) So, it was sometimes tricky to remember that the stuff only happened once. He also tended to go off on tangents. I assume that was because there just isn’t much information left on Tris Speaker. He couldn’t interview anyone who was alive when Speaker played. There’s not a lot of video. So, sometimes Gay had to wander where the information took him, even if a paragraph was more about Smokey Joe Wood than Tris Speaker. But, in the end, none of that mattered. This book affected me in a way that was unexpected. I find myself wanting to tell everyone I see what a great player Speaker was. I’m certainly telling everyone reading this review to read the book.

Rating: 4 bases