Archive for April 2011
So I missed a day posting anything on the website and this is why. Lawrence, KS is a comfortable 75 minute drive from St. Joseph, MO so I decided to go see the Justin Townes Earle on a Thursday night. The Bottleneck in Lawrence is a great venue for the music I listen to which can be summed up this way as put by Matt at TruerSound:
Q: What kind of music do you listen to?
A: The kind of shit they play in bars.
The Bottleneck is a bar. It has several publicity photos on the wall of the now legendary names including Soundgarden, Wilco, Foo Fighters, Spoon, Cake and this list goes on a while. It is a roomy conformable venue for shows. It’s size is properly suited for an artist such as Justin Townes Earle.
I first heard Justin Townes Earle when he opened for Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit a few years ago at Knucklehead’s in Kansas City which is a horribly uncomfortable place to see a show by the way. I only knew that Justin was as he puts it; his father’s son. Son of Americana legend Steve Earle, he didn’t mention his father on that night but since has furthered himself as a legitimate performer in his own right. He made a believer out of me on that night, I now spin all his records so the Lawrence show was all but a must attend.
Earle came on stage about 10:10 and pounded through an 80 minute set spanning his three records. The new(and brilliant) Harlem River Blues was hit very hard by Earle, and appropriately so. I don’t have a complete setlist of the show but I can confirm the setlist contained among many others; South Georgia Sugar Babe, Midnight at the Movies, They Killed John Henry, Mama’s Eyes, Can’t Hardly Wait, Halfway to Jackson, Harlem River Blues, I Don’t Care, One More Night In Brooklyn, Learning To Cry, Ain’t Waitin’ Cadallac Blues and Racing In the Streets.
The songs from the new album were slowed from the album versions. They were simplified from the brilliant Jason Isbell guitar on the album and made to fit just Earle’s acoustic guitar and single violin accompaniment. Cadallac Blues, Racing In The Streets and Can’t Hardly wait were covers Earle mixed in throughout the evening. The last two songs composing Earle’s Encore that left the crowd happy and satisfied. An encore of songs written by Bruce Springsteen and Paul Westerberg will always get my approval. 
Earle was upfront about his thoughts on his father and his issues with as he put it “problems with chemical dependence and incarceration.” Both subjects can be summed up by Earle’s comment about what his father once said about him, something along the lines of: I’m a hard dog to keep under the porch.
The highlights of the evening for me were a great singalongs of “They Killed John Henry” and “Harlem River Blues.” Always great was hearing Earle’s brilliant reading of the Replacement’s “Can’t Hardly Wait.” Earle’s banter may have been the highlight of the evening. he was funny, charming and honest in his between-songs banter. The guy is a great performer and should have a future of many great albums and shows. My ears will likely be involved with each.
1991 Fleer makes its very yellow appearance felt again here today. I did a Billy Butler version first when I made the design, I posted the Rays new leadoff hitter Sam Fuld first however. This is a nice studio shot of Butler and I though it fit the card well. I don’t think the picture really fits with the original concept of pictures for 1991 Fleer but I’m not too concerned with that.
I wanted to post a Royal today because I have a couple things I would like to voice my opinion on regrading the Royals. First of all just a little catch up if you haven’t been paying attention. Robinson Tejada went on the DL today and Blake Wood was called up to replace him, it would appear Aaron Crow might be Joakim Soria’s setup man for a bit. The Royals are at the moment of this post 9-4! If you asked Royals fans, even optimistic ones before the season started if the Royals at any point would be 5 games above .500 they likely would have said no. A great start has been led by a great bullpen through 13 games who’s worst perfomer to this point is likely All-Star closer Joakim Soria.
Lets discuss Joakim Soria. Nick Scott of the great broken bat single podcast mentioned that something could be wrong. He mentioned maybe being fatigued as well as something being medically wrong. Soria struck out his third batter of the season tonight. He already has four saves and one win but only three strikeouts; that isn’t the Soria we have all come to love in KC.
He just doesn’t look…right so far. I really don’t think anything is wrong myself but tonight Aaron Crow started warming in the bullpen behind Joakim Soria, how often has that happened in the last three years? Not often when the Royals have the lead I’m sure.
My main topic on this post is the April 14th game against the Mariners. The game was called after 8 1/2 innings due to rain. The Royals got a win with Bruce Chen getting credit for a complete 8 inning game in which he looked really good against a really bad team. I mention the fact that the Mariners are bad because that is what this post is about.
I don’t know exactly how long the umpires waited to call the game in Kansas City on the 14th but it wasn’t too awful long. I’m glad, the Royals won and the bullpen got a little extra rest. I contest that if it were the Red Sox or Yankees in town on that night, the Royals bullpen would not have gotten that rest. I think Major League Baseball wouldn’t let that game be shortened if one of the “marquee” teams would have been losing to the consistantly bad Kansas City Royals.
The Seattle Mariners get cheated out of a long shot to rebound from being down four runs is not a big deal. If the Yankees were down four runs in that situation, the end of that game would have been played. It is not right but I truly believe that statement is true. Call it an East Coast bias or whatever but the I know that the rain passed and I believe the end of that game could have been played that night. If there were a chance that Derek Jeter would have came up with the tying run on, the umpires/Major League Baseball wouldn’t have denied him that chance.
Derek Lowe has been around a while. He is not an “ace” type of pitcher but has been consistent and reliable over the years. Lowe was of course a Red Sox and a Dodger which brings me to my lasting memory of his career. He was a member of the first Red Sox championship team in around a century and went to LA the next season. On a Dodger off-day, he traveled to Boston for a ring ceremony for the championship. He walks onto the field at Fenway Park wearing a Red Sox jersey! He was a Dodger at the time. This caused quite a stir. Many people panned Lowe’s loyalty to his current team. I wasn’t one of them. I thought it was a great and bold thing to do. In my mind, that is Derek Lowe’s legacy.
Kyle Drabek looks like the real deal. He is a much hyped prospect and is getting his shot this year. He is a second generation major league pitcher. His father Doug Drabek was quite a good pitcher in his own right. So Kyle is with the Blue Jays and has three starts under his belt this year and has compiled a spiffy 1.93 ERA in those three games. He is off to a great start.
What I would like to talk about has nothing to do with his performance. Look at the picture of Drabek, do you notice anything… odd? How many major league pitchers have you ever seen with a single digit number on their uniform? I can think of one, David Wells, who I believe wore #3 because of his fascination with Babe Ruth. I was thinking I saw a pitcher wearing #9 a couple years ago but I can’t remember who it was. It is rare, I know that for a fact.
If anyone know any other pitchers with a single digit uniform number, especially active pitchers, I would love to hear who they are. Anybody who finds one can pick my next custom card to do (card type and player) and I will do my best to produce it.
Today gets two nice landscape shots, one of Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon and one of Royals opening day starter Luke Hochevar. I talk about the Royals a lot on this site so there is not much to say about Hochevar for me. I don’t think he is an “ace” or he ever will be. I think he could be a solid 3-4 starting pitcher for several years.
Jonathan Papelbon is an incredibly animated player, I’m sure we remember his dance in the playoffs a couple years ago. He is a front line closer, one of the best in the league. He has put together a great track record and fantastic ERA and saves numbers. The best part about Papelbon is he beats the Yankees a lot. This card actually displays him about to close the door on the Yankees on April 8th. The Red Sox won, I checked. I consider anyone who is an enemy of the Yankees a friend of mine. I will cheer for Papelbon anytime he isn’t pitching against the Royals.
This one is for the Cubbies! Starlin Castro just missed making my sample set so he gets in early on the second wave of cards. Castro is of course one of the young stars for the Chicago Cubs. He was a rookie last year in a fantastic cast of first year players. He had a good enough season to be in the NL Rookie of the Year voting consideration. Casey Coleman is a young starting pitcher for the Cubs. His major league numbers are good in a small sampling, he has a winning record and has managed to keep his ERA at a respectable level at 4.34. He is a third generation major league player, one of only two in baseball history.
This is the big premiere. I have made several “tribute” cards to other sets and now I have decided to start posting my own. I have been mulling over ideas for the last couple weeks and I found a design that I really like. It will be called “Just Fair.” I am posting a sample size of starter cards. 2 horizontal cards and 2 vertical cards. Each card is a little different design as you can see. These will be the four variations in the base set, which player gets which format will depend strictly on the picture and which design fits it best.
These are samples of four different players from four different teams. I had to include a Royal and my favorite player that has never put on a KC uniform, Jim Thome. The design is in the early enough stages that I could still change it a little. I think it is very solid overall.
Notes about the design:
Black border: The last decision for me was a black border or white border, I went with the black border because the foul pole in the card shows up much better. I imagine at some point I will post some of the white “variants.” The black is taken form possibly my favorite Topps set, 1971.
Name block: The name block is simple and is a little like1993 Donruss, another set I really like. The two tone color scheme really separates it and makes it readable.
Foul pole: The foul pole was an idea I had when thinking of what other sets had done. A baseball has been used a ton of times and occasionally bats have been used. The closest to this is 1989 Upper Deck that had a baseline on the side of the card, a brilliant idea in my opinion but I always thought the baseline looked a little too cartoony.
Big picture: Keep It Simple Stupid; I like a big picture of a player, that is after all why the card is interesting. I maximized my picture area by slimming down the border to a minimum width and keeping the name block floating as opposed to docking it against any of the sides, this allows the picture to surround it and seem much larger. Also notice the netting on the foul pole is transparent like it should be. This allows the picture to be seen through the netting on the foul pole, possibly my favorite part about the card design.
Logo: I designed a quick logo for my “Just Fair ’11” set because this is something Donruss and Fleer always did and Topps has done since the late ’70s. I chose a color to match the foul pole on the oppisite side of the card and outlined it in black to keep it readable. I went with a script font to make it seem modern. The year is somewhat separated from the name so if I decide to produce anther set next year, I can simply change the year and go. I would of course vary the design somehow as well.
I would love to have feedback on the design or the set. If there are any players you would like to see in the set, post a comment and I will make them a priority.
This is the final card of my 2011 Topps spring training Royals set. Patrick Keating is just another great arm in the Royals organization. I believe he is currently in AA Northwest Arkansas. He is a rarity in the Royals organization in the fact that he is right handed. The system is full of left handed pitchers and a couple righties will have to be in the rotation as well. This could mean a future spot for guys like Hochevar, Aaron Crow and Patrick Keating.
This set is now done and I am moving on to my next project; my first original custom set. I will start posting the cards soon.
I really like Matt Treanor after watching him play a few games for the Royals. Would I want him to catch every day for the Royals? Probably not. He does appear to be a great guy to have on the club. I really wanted to see Lucas May get a shot to platoon with Brayan Pena to start the year though. Instead May is at AAA Omaha and the Royals had to risk losing him in order to add Treanor.
Treanor is a light hitting defensive catcher. He was drafted way back in 1994, by the Royals ironically enough. He spent ten seasons in the minor leagues before ever getting to the show. The Royals wanted a veteran catcher to catch the younger starters in the rotation so they purchased Treanor’s contract. He was in spring training camp in a Royals uniform for two games before starting on opening day. I was extrememly glad to add him to my spring training set and he is the entire reason for my “update” set. The update set is almost over, there will be no more, I promise, after tomorrow. I will post the last card then.
Yes, 1980 Donruss; the set that never was.
Jonathan Broxton was on a highlight last night so I decided to feature him today. The most interesting part of this post however is that the card design is 1980 Donruss, a set that doesn’t exist. Apparently this is a legitimate design. Donruss released two sample cards in 1980 of Reggie Jackson and George Brett. The court ruling that allowed Donruss to release a set didn’t conclude until time for the 1981 set. But this awful design is left behind.
The card is terrible in my opinion. I found it to be even worse when searching for a picture of Broxton to put in the design. The top ribbon is so big that it covered part of Broxton in the first several photos I picked out. Even this picture doesn’t comfortably fit. So I will deem 1980 Donruss a set that thankfully never was produced.
So I missed a day posting anything on the website and this is why. Lawrence, KS is a comfortable 75 minute drive from St. Joseph, MO so I decided to go see the Justin Townes Earle on a Thursday night. The Bottleneck in Lawrence is a great venue for the music I listen to which can be summed up this way as put by Matt at TruerSound:
A Hair Off Square 