What I've been up to.

In case you're wondering what I've been up to lately, and why this site hasn't been updated in a while, I've been doing some free lance writing for Sports Collector's Daily.

For the uninitiated, it's probably the best Hobby news site on the planet.

For now, I writing previews of soon-to-be-released card sets. Check 'em out...

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball

2012 Topps Heritage Baseball

2012 Topps UFC Knockout

And yes, I did compare Opening Day to Richard Nixon.

Hey Panini, Want to Make a LeBron James Football Card? For Reals?

Instead of a fake Miami Dolphins card that you'll never be able to legally produce, how about this?



Just a thought.

Oakland Coliseum Mystery Humper... Found?

First off, this post is definitely NSFW. If you have kids, or are at work reading this, stop now and go someplace else now. Or go read about pony cartoons.

Now, for some background, read this article on Deadspin about the couple in the bleachers getting it on during an Oakland A's game in 1997.

OK, so you're all up-to-date on where this might be leading? Good.

Because I think I found our mystery reverse-cowgirler, and you can thank my encyclopedic knowledge of mid-90s baseball cards. Say hello to former Phillies prospect...



The backstory DOES check out. He was a first-round pick of the Phillies in '92 and was one of the club's top prospects in the mid-90s. He played with Scott Rolen on the 1995 and '96 Reading Phillies, so it stands to reason that they might have been roommates. And by the time this video was taken, McConnell was already out of baseball due to injuries; so he probably had some free time on his hands.

But come on, the eyebrows and sideburns are a dead giveaway.

2011 Topps Updates: No Gimmicks Required.

2011 Topps Updates Baseball should be on the shelves at your LCS and/or mass-market retail outlet by now, and with it are the inevitable gimmicks. I mean, this is Topps. Surely they won't allow the third series of their flagship brand be released without doing something stupid, right?

So what's it going to be for this year's Update?

Is it going to be something like a squirrel, Joba Chamberlain listed "accidentally" as a Houston Astro, or a fake rookie card of Jacoby Ellsbury like they did in 2007?

How about purposely printing Evan Longoria, Jay Bruce, and Kosuke Fukudome's cards upside-down, like they did in 2008?

Stephen Strasburg hit with a shaving cream pie? Man, that's so 2010.

This year's gimmick is...

Nothing.

Yes, there are another 25 unannounced "Legend Variations." But other than that, there are no gimmicks in 2011 Topps Updates Baseball. At least none that have surfaced on eBay.

They even got rid of the Twinks!

Maybe the Topps product development team is finally getting it. Maybe they realize that their flagship brand needs no artificial inducement, gimmick, or other chicanery for collectors to buy it, and that Topps Updates is good enough to sell on its own.

If so, that would truly be "game changing."

Topps' Stupid "John Henry" Gimmick Card: Fixed.

Now this is more like it.

Topps Outdoes Itself Again.

I'd like to be a fly on the wall in the product development meetings. Seriously, how does Topps come up with stuff this stupid?



I'd imagine the conversation went a little something like this...

"Hmmm... I got a great idea! Let's make fake `Relic' cards of fictional characters, and randomly insert them into our premiere $100/pack relic-themed baseball card product. And on top of that, let's not bother telling anyone about it until AFTER the dumb schmucks who buy this garbage spend their money and discover our latest gimmick!"

Panini... SAVE US!!!!