Back On The Record

First post of the month!

Where has they time gone?  I've been away from the keyboard for almost a full, calendar month and I have certainly missed a lot in the meantime.  After all, while I was gone, the entirety of Spring Training came and went, rosters were set, and the first few games of the 2019 season of Major League Baseball were played.  Thankfully, during my absence, no new Cubs players were added to the active roster; otherwise, I would have missed those Cubs All-Time Roster Collection changes, as well.  That's not even to mention the slate of new card products that have found their way to store shelves during my leave of absence (Opening Day, Donruss, Gypsy Queen, etc.).  In short, I've missed a lot.

The reasons for my disappearance are many and I won't go too deep into the weeds on that topic here. Suffice it to say that some general apathy and some major changes in my personal life have kept me from wanting to write about such relatively trivial things as baseball cards.  However, the moodiness has passed and emo Tony Burbs is back in the shadows.  It's time to fire up the desktop and bang out a quick post about... vinyl records???

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That's right, I collect much more than baseball cards.  For my entire life, I have been a fervent collector - it's just that the targets of my affection have constantly changed.  Rocks and bottle caps gave way to Pokemon cards and Beanie Babies.  Die-cast NASCAR models sucked up much of my teenage budget while I spent most of my early adulthood tracking down cool band t-shirts.  Needless to say, my shelves and walls have been lined with countless different types of kick knacks over the years.

While my passions constantly morph and evolve across the years, there have been a few steady and consistent collecting targets that have stuck in my craw.  One in baseball/trading cards, which is made evident by the nearly 800 posts that compile this blog - with some lulls here and there, I've been stashing Cubs cards since the mid-90's.  Another passion that has sucked up my time and hard-earned money, for more than a decade now, is vinyl.  I'm not talking about bizarre BDSM stuff or Funko Pop Figures... I'm alluding to the world of LP's, 45's, turntables, and styluses.

My vinyl collection, as of this week - those baskets are jam-packed with 45's.

Since I purchased my first record player from a local garage sale, circa 2008, and repaired it with rubber bands, super glue, and dogged stubborness, I've been trying to build up my music catalog the old fashioned way.  My musical tastes have always skewed older, which is what got my foot in the door initially, but a deep need to collect has since led me to pursue this avenue.  It is much more fun to track down gatefold albums than collecting viruses on torrent sites, cheap CD's, or Spotify playlists.  In fact, I've even alluded to this side project on my blog in the past.

Now, I know what you're saying - this is a blog about baseball and it's associated trading cards (and sometimes football, hockey, or track and field cards)... why are you bringing this up on Wrigley Roster Jenga?  What does this have to do with America's pastime?

I'm glad that you asked.

Last week, a close friend of mine dug an old suitcase out of her storage unit and found that it contained a wild and messy array of forgotten records.  The musty old container had been given to her years and years ago by an old associate and hadn't been touched since.  Since my social circle is much more aware of my vinyl collecting habits than my baseball card ones, she generously offered to let me sift through and take whatever I wanted before she passed them on to Goodwill.  When I got that text message, I nearly lept up and ran through the front door without even stopping to put on my Converse.  Isn't that sort of message any collector's wet dream?

As expected much of the mish-mash was shattered due to extremely poor storage (suitcases aren't exactly tailored for the needs of a musical library) and warped from being non-temperature controlled environment for a prolonged period of time - I wish that I had thought to take a picture of the mess.  Furthermore, most of the albums were put into this case haphazardly, leading to the rug being pulled out from under me with several sleeves of major albums turning up empty.  Not every rock that comes out of a mine can be diamond and, thankfully, this prospector was eventually able to turn up more than just pyrite:

While there was no "butcher cover" of Yesterday and Today hiding out in the pile, there were several quality discs to be uncovered.  Some of my favorite classic rocks acts and a pair of top notch movie soundtracks was an exceptional haul, especially considering how they had been stored.  Sure, that J. Geils Band cover "stinks;" however all of these artifacts were in surprisingly good shape and (I have since confirmed) play without nary an issue.  Not bad for a free excavation!

Again, I can hear you all out there screaming at your smart phones - "what does any of this have to do with baseball?!"

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Alright, alright - I'm getting there, I promise.  Patience is a virtue.

Anyway, those six LP's weren't the only albums I walked away with that day.  In fact, they weren't even the stars of the show, in my eyes.  Rather, it was a set of three folk albums that really caught my attention:

Steve Goodman was a Chicago-based folk musician who, while big in the Windy City, never really got his due in the national spotlight.  He's one of those types who was "your favorite artist's favorite artist."  Mr. Goodman penned some hits for the likes of Arlo Guthrie (City of New Orleans) and David Allen Coe (You Never Even Called Me By My Name) and released on album on the Asylum label (the one in middle, here) but just never really broke through to the mainstream himself as a performer.  Thus, to see these relatively obscure releases show up in such an unexpected place was enough to make me do a little happy dance... once I was safely in my own home for no one else to see.

In Chicago, Steve Goodman is a legend and there are two very good reasons for that... besides his apparent and prodigious talent.  One of which is the ubiquitous victory anthem that is played after every single Cubs win at Wrigley Field, "Go Cubs Go."  This earworm was penned by Mr. Goodman when WGN came a-calling for a peppy number to open up their broadcasts with in the mid-80's.  Of course, since then, it's become inseparable from the franchise.  But, that song is not to be found on any of these three recordings.

The second reason for Steve Goodman's enduring presence can be found on his Affordable Art album, which is the album furthest left in the image above.

Affordable Art was released on Steve Goodman's very own record label, Red Pajamas, in March of 1983.  In fact, it was the only the second album to be pressed with that label and it would continue to serve as Steve's personal home for new releases for the rest of his career (and after his passing).  After splitting with Asylum in 1980, Steve decided he was done with the national recording scene, moved his base back to Chicago, and started Red Pajamas so that he could play the game his own way.  This was likely related to his health, but we'll get to that.

This live recording is a fair representation of Steve's club shows at the time, with serious, heart-felt folk compositions (i.e. "Old Smoothies," a tale about the deep love of his grandparents) mixed with a fair amount of Dr. Demento-approved goofiness (i.e. "Vegematic," about a guy who falls asleep in front of his TV and dreams of ordering a bevy of infomercial product).  There's even a duet with his old friend and fellow Illinois native, John Prine, with the latter's "Souvenirs."  Affordable Art truly encapsulates what it must have been like to catch Goodman on stage at the Earl of Old Town on a Saturday night - lively, humorous, emotional, and certainly an experience to remember.

As you should be able to deduce from my praise-filled review, when you spin this disc at 33 1/3 RPM, your ears will be blessed with plenty of high quality tune-age.  That being acknowledged, there's one track found on side two that still stands head and shoulders above the rest.  In fact, it's that second big reason why Mr. Goodman's voice is still omnipresent in the Windy City today:

The third track on the B-side of this album was yet another tune about Steve's favorite baseball club, appropriately set up by a rousing take on the story of Katie Casey.  This one might not be as well-known as his "rah-rah" anthem, but it leaves a much deeper emotional impact.

Goodman often firmly planted his tongue in his cheek while writing songs and "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" is no exception.  Penned in 1982, this acoustic number tells the tale of a Northside fan, on his death bed, relaying to his friends and family his miserable fanhood and the plans for his ideal, "doubleheader" funeral.  It's enough to make any long-suffering Cubs fan giggle and nod their head in  slightly-pained agreement.  If you haven't heard it before, I highly suggest you stop reading right now and give it a listen.  Don't worry - I'll wait for you.  Just click on the embedded video file below:

I think you'll agree, not only is it a good Cubs song, it's just a plain good song about baseball, sports, and the loyalty we sports fans have to our chosen clubs.  It becomes even more poignant when you learn that Steve Goodman was actually dying when he wrote the number - he'd long been suffering from leukemia and knew he was fighting a losing battle.  The disease would tragically take his life just a couple of years later, in 1984, and Affordable Art would be the last album released before his death.  On top of that, his passing occurred just days before his beloved "Lovable Losers" would clinch their first playoff berth in 39 years.  Life is just plain cruel sometimes.

Anyway, coming from a long line of Cubs fans, this poignant tune has long been an important one to my family.  In fact, I've wrote about it on this blog before, when I re-discovered the cassette tape my beloved, late uncle used to make a bootleg copy of the song decades ago.

Of course, to come across such a significant and treasured song/album in such a random place ranks among the greatest finds in the history of my vinyl collection, even higher than that time I found an original edition of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in the dollar bin of a thrift shop!  Seeing as most of Goodman's albums were released on his regional label, these "oddballs" don't turn up all too often.  Furthermore, being in the Chicagoland market, the album that contains "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" has only been seen by my eyes with premium pricing.  I cannot believe that I was able to get it (and two further albums of Steve's work that I can't wait to get acquainted with) for free and out of a friend's random music trunk, of all places.

All in all, this was certainly one of the best experiences in my decade of collecting vinyl.  I'd love to share more stories about this passion of mine, but the vast majority of them have no tidy tie-in with the normal subject matter of Wrigley Roster Jenga.  Perhaps I should strongly consider starting a second blog that focusing on my music collection.  I don't know... I've already been neglecting this one for nearly a month... maybe.  What do you think?

Also, I just have to ask, are there any other card collectors out there reading this who also collect records?  If not, are there any other non-sports related passions upon which you build a collection around?  I'm curious to know - please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below!

Anyway, WRJ is back in business and hopefully the motivation sticks around.  I've already got a full slate of topics that I want to discuss, including an absolutely incredible and unexpected gift from P-Town Tom and the entrance of my lovely wife into the blogosphere.  Stay tuned.

In the meantime, here's hoping the old "doormats of the National League" can bounce back after last night's deflating loss in Texas.  Go Cubs Go!

Garage Sale Day Gives Me Wings!

First of all, can I just say, "damn Yankees!"  What an ugly series that was for the Cubs - a blown save  one strike away from victory, a blow out, and a tough-to-swallow 18-inning loss.  It all mounted to a series sweep at the hands of former mate Starlin Castro and the evil empire.  Not to mention, the bullpen has been absolutely shredded by the super-duper long extra-inning affair, Brett Anderson's implosion as the fifth starter, and a plethora of short outings by the rest of the starting rotation.  Needless to say, it certainly wasn't a good weekend for the Cubs.

On the other hand, despite the three-day beating my favorite team endured, I had myself a pretty darn good weekend.  After all, the sun was shining, the rain stayed away, the birds were chirping and my absolute favorite day of the year just so happened to be this past Saturday.

That would be the community wide Garage Sale Day that my hometown holds every year.  As a kid, most of the rest of the neighborhood youths would count down the days until the arrival of Santa Claus and Christmas or eagerly cross off boxes on their calendar in anticipation of their next, upcoming birthday.  However, like usual, I was the odd one in my neighborhood; the day that I could not wait for, year in and year out, was the day when the fee for holding a garage sale was temporarily waived for the morning/afternoon and families across the town would open their garages to sell their used goods and trinkets.

Beanie babies, action figures, Hot Wheels cars... all of my favorite collectibles available for just pennies on the dollar.  Plus, you just never knew what you were going to find, courtesy of these random households.  It was like a day-long treasure hunt!

That enthusiasm has yet to die down, though my focus has shifted from vintage Transformers to cheap furniture, records and, of course, baseball cards and memorabilia.  Thus, after rushing through my morning workout and breakfast, my wife and I jumped in our car and began to peruse the neighborhood for good deals; luckily, she's as big of a fan of secondhand shopping as I am!  Last year, I was astounded to uncover a Keith Magnuson autographed card for three bucks - there was no way I was missing out on a minute of this event.

For what should be obvious reasons, the sign seen in the image above immediately caught my attention.  While I wasn't in the market for any more Cubs t-shirts (lord knows I have enough), where there's smoke there's fire - by that, I mean that if they have some type of sports memorabilia, it's quite likely that they will have other kinds.

And I wasn't wrong!

I should have taken a picture - this house was a vintage sports cards gold mine.  This person clearly sets up at card shows, though I don't recall seeing him at any of the local shows that I have attended - he had a couple of display cases of Cubs/White Sox/Bears/Blackhawks goodies from throughout the last 60 years, boxes full of All-Star laden grab bags, and a bunch of unopened product from the 80's/90's. I could have easily blown my entire GS Day budget at this one stop and spent the entire day gabbing with the seller, but the thrill of the treasure hunt was calling my name... or maybe it was my wife... I don't know.

In the end, after much hemming and hawing, I decided to limit myself to the two, vibrant, crisp-cornered, '59 Topps that you see above, which just so happens to be my favorite vintage set.

The contemplative Bill Henry is his only Cubs card and, thus, serves as a highly desired "Cubgrade" to the '67 Giants single in my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection binder.  The longtime, Major League reliever spent two seasons with the Cubbies (1958-59), near the beginning of his 16-year run, appearing in 109 games with 2.75 ERA as one of the only valuable arms in their woeful 50's bullpens.

In drafting this post, I've discovered that Mr. Henry turns out to be an interesting character.  For instance, he did not play baseball in high school and instead made a name on the sandlots as a softball star. Furthermore, long after his playing days, in 2007, his death was reported by a Florida newspaper.  However, he was still very much alive and, as it turned out, the man who had died had stolen the identity of the former professional athlete decades ago...  the dead man's own wife didn't even know better.  Instead of getting angry, the real Bill Henry phoned the grieving widow and offered his condolences - “I just hoped maybe it helped him in his career,” he said.

The other card I purchased featured Bob Will and I thought that it too would be a coveted Cubgrade.  Unfortunately, my scrambled mind got the names "Bob Will" and "Lee Walls" switched up and it didn't help that both men played the outfield during the same era.  So, if anyone has a stray Lee Walls from '59 available for swapping, I'd love to talk trade.

While the sad trombone music played in my head when I opened my binder and noticed to mix-up, I still can't be too upset about acquiring a 58-year old piece of cardboard in such pristine shape.  It gets extra bonus points for displaying the hats with white piping that the Cubs briefly employed in the preceding season.

Not a bad way to kick of the Garage Sale Day festivities, eh?  Unfortunately, that was the only location where I was fortunate enough to come across trading cards.  That said, there were still plenty of cool treasures to uncover, including one more purchase related to our nation's pastime:

The local storage locker place got in on the resale fun and filled their lot and building to the brim with unclaimed and unpaid for goods - they're loss is my gain.  Among the forgotten items for sale, there were several cardboard boxes that were filled to the brim with books of all sorts, many of which were related to Chicago sports.  Priced at a quarter a pop, I just couldn't help but pick up the above novelty - an account of the Cubs' 1989 season, told through the eyes of NL Rookie of the Year, Jerome Walton.

"The Boys of Zimmer" surprised everyone and won the NL East title that year, partly on the strength of the flashes in the pan that were Walton and Dwight Smith.  The team has long been a fascination of mine, owing to the fact that I was also born during that 1989 season and I absolutely wore out my VHS copy of their season recap that I bought from the local video store as a teen.

As far as this hastily put together (no doubt to capitalize on the surrounding hype) semi-biography goes, it's interesting to go back and read the optimism expressed in this youth movement and the confidence that Walton was just beginning a star-studded career.  Well, it didn't quite work out that way and it would take nine more years before that Cubs even made the postseason again.

As with most sports "biographies," the middle of the book contained a compendium of pictures from the subject's life.  My favorite of these snapshots was the image you see of Mr. Walton asking Santa Claus for a Cubs World Series win.  Mr. Claus did finally deliver on that request, it just took 27 years longer than Jerome wanted.

 That did it for my sports-themed purchases on the 2017 edition of Garage Sale Day; however, there were still a few other odds n' end finds that I couldn't help but pull the trigger on, like records:

That same storage unit sale had a nice stack of 45's to go through and I gladly took a few of them home with me, including the 5th Dimension single that you see here.  I've never seen the musical hair, but "Medley: Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" is a phenomenal track with some tight vocal harmonies that truly make your hairs stand on end.  This was my favorite find from this stack of wax.


Another house had countless boxes strewn about their driveway which contained nothing but LP's - when I saw it, I almost began to salivate, subconsciously.  It appeared as though they had bought out a closing record shop with intent of selling on the second hand market - sadly, what was left about at their garage sale was almost assuredly the rejects.  After half an hour of digging through no-name dance remixes and the nadir of disco music, I was able to salvage one record of note:

"Video Killed the Radio Star" is a song that I will absolutely never skip when in it comes on and a tune that is near and dear to my heart as a former radio disc jockey.  However, I must admit, I've never even heard so much as a snippet of another song by the new wave group, the Buggles.  For a dollar, I was more than happy to rectify that fact.

I haven't put it on the turntable yet, but here's hoping that the rest of the album is at least half as good as it's most iconic single.

With that, it's time for me to reveal my favorite find from my own, personal Christmas.   It has absolutely nothing to do with any of my collecting habits, but it's something that I've irrationally desired for a long, long time:

Yup, for five bucks I purchased myself a full-size, Red Bull cooler - the same kind that you see at gas stations or bars.  I simply could not help myself.  *Please disregard the uncontrollable weeds*

Back when I was in college, while in the middle of a long run through the local neighborhood, I came across a stray one of these in a ditch.  I though to myself, "that would look awfully nice in a college apartment and I sure could use a cooler."  Plus, Red Bull is one of my favorite vices and I've always been attracted to their can design.  However, there was no way I'd be able to run with it and when I came back with my car, an hour or so later, some enterprising young fellow had beaten me to the punch.  I was thoroughly disappointed.

Now, six years later, I've finally righted the wrong.  After a little TLC, this piece is going to be a great conversation starter when the wife and I host parties and will eventually move into my "man cave," when we get the space.  My better half long ago resigned herself to the fact that I'm a giant man-child and has even suggested we turn it into a kegerator.  I knew I choose wisely.

 Here's something I definitely WON'T be doing with my prize.

That man-child can officially decree that Garage Sale Day 2017 was as an absolute success.  I was able to pick up some precious few vintage baseball cards, an intriguing book, some new additions to my vinyl collection and a giant Red Bull cooler.  Yea... I may be older, but Garage Sale Day still definitely brings out the kid in me.  Does anyone else's community put on such town-wide garage sale festivities?  If so, do you partake?  Have you ever found anything super cool?  Please feel free to tell your tale in the comment section below.

In the meantime, I'll just be over here in the corner, polishing my new cooler.

Hey, Hey - What a Thrift Shop Find!

I love my baseball cards to death; however, they definitely aren't the only thing that I collect.

I've been a collector since the day that I first entered into this realm of existence.  It started with accumulating super balls from vending machines, buttons from discarded clothing, and bottle caps from abandoned campsites in the forest preserve.  Throughout the course of my childhood, I diverted my parents' funds into yo-yo's, lapel pins, Transformers action figures, "Livestrong" style wrist bands, racing die-casts, hats, wrist-watches and just about anything else that one can imagine.  God bless my parents for putting up with my mini-hoarder tendencies.

However, as an adult, my collecting has been parsed down into two main avenues.  One is obviously baseball/trading cards - after all, I do have an entire blog dedicated to that pursuit.  The other one is record collecting, which naturally branches off of my passion for music, especially rock music which predates the mid-90's.

It's rare that these two pursuits should overlap - rare, but more than never.  A few weeks back, those two worlds came crashing together, in the form of one of my treasured white whales:

Ever since I bought my first turn-table from a garage sale, around a decade ago, took it home and "restored" it with (literally) rubber bands and paperclips, the Cubs Power album that you see above is an artifact that I've chased and chased.  From overpriced antique shops, to expensive record shops, a reasonably price copy of this black circle eluded me at every corner for many moons.  Although, about three years ago, I did finally track down a copy at a local garage sale; however, the vinyl was scratched, while the sleeve and jacket were heavily warped and water damaged.  Definitely not going to cut it.

Thus, after all this time and effort, I was ecstatic when I saw the almost pristine copy that you see above buried in the dollar record bin at the local Goodwill.  Hot damn - I couldn't lay the money down fast enough!

Now, you might be asking yourself, "what exactly is this Cubs Power LP?"  Well, please allow me to explain:  in 1969, when the Cubs looked well on their way to their first World Series berth in 25 years, the franchise wanted to capitalize on their newfound glory and popularity.  Naturally, just like the Chicago Bears would do a couple of decades later, they decided to cut a record.

The Cubs had just recently had a new fight song written for them, a little ditty called "Hey, Hey, Holy Mackeral," and thus needed to commit the catchy jingle to wax.  Rather than settle for a 45 rpm single (which is also floating around out there), they also put out a long-player with the tune, a special message to the fans, recordings of the famed Bleacher Bums' (seen on the back) chants, a few additional baseball-themed songs, and more.  Now, this Cubs-themed album certainly didn't make it's way onto the Billboard charts, but it sure did light up the local rankers and radio stations.

The project was released on local Chicago label, Quill Records, which made it's name on quality recordings of mid-western garage rockers like Shadows of Knight, the Del-Vetts, the Riddles, teh Skunks, et al.  Cub Power was a little bit left of center for the label, but it quickly became a top seller.

Now, after all of these years, I finally have myself a playable copy of the regional disc - oh happy days!  Please allow me to share these wonderful sounds with the baseball card blogosphere:

Here's a look at the track listing, via the label, for side one of Cub Power - subtitled "A Day at the Ballgame."  We kick of the production with a spoken word introduction by Cubs broadcaster Jack Brickhouse and a few esteemed veteran leaders of the 1969 Chicago Cubs:  Ernie Banks, Randy Hundley and the captain, Ron Santo.  From there, the track blends seemlessly into a recording of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," as (supposedly) performed by the entire 25-man roster.

If you feel so inclined, you may listen to those first two tracks below, courtesy of my shaky cell phone footage.  I had to borrow my sister's record player as, unfortunately, my surround sound set up is currently in storage while the wife and I find our next residence.  Figures - I finally track down my white whale record and my player is in moth balls.

As for the rest of the a-side, reliever Dick Selma leads the yellow, hard-hatted Bleacher Bums in cheers.  During the regular season, Selma would take a towel and lead the chorus from the bullpen, much like a conductor would lead an orchestra.  Furthermore, we also get an additional "Salute to the Fans" from other esteemed members of the Chicago Cubs, like Fergie Jenkins, Billy Williams and broadcaster Lou Boudreau.  However, if you want to hear these sweet sounds, you'll have to track down a copy yourself - I can't spoil it all!

At this point, the needle has reached the label - it's time to flip over to side two:

Side two is the more musical portion of the LP, featuring the song stylings of the more musically inclined members of the team.  As noted at the top of the faded blue label, Opening Day hero Willie Smith, backup catcher Gene Oliver, and the unrelated utility-man Nate Oliver lend vocal assistance to the studio musicians billed as "The Bleacher Bum Eight."  Of course, manager Leo Durocher stubbornly refused to play his bench players, so we know these guys had time to hit the studio.

Here, things kick off with the main event:  "Hey, Hey, Holy Mackeral" gets things going on the b-side.  This song was the "Go Cubs Go" of it's day and still remains popular among Cubs fans.  The title and chorus is a blending of the catchphrases of the team's play-by-play men.  WGN TV man Jack Brickhouse would exclaim "hey, hey," while, on the radio side, Vince Lloyd was known for uttering "holy mackeral" whenever the Cubs did something exciting.

On the next song, Nate and Willie ditch Gene and go out on their own with "Pennant Feeling," a parody of the Righteous Brothers' all-time classic "You've Lost That Loving Feeling."  However, instead of singing about lost love, the Cub backups are belting about how they plan to bring that pennant fever feeling back to Chicago.  Of course, we all know how that ultimately turned out.  Think of it like a much more reserved version of the braggadocious "Superbowl Shuffle." 

All in all, this parody definitely isn't making Weird Al Yankovic jealous; but, it is a fun, kitschy piece that warrants at least one listen:

The last song that I'm going to offer up on this blog post is an ode to our nation's pastime.  For this one, Gene pops back up - clearly Willie and Nate realized that they just couldn't make it without their third member.  "Baseball, Baseball" is a tune that sings the praises of green grass, spring weather, and the excitement of a home run robbery catch.  It's not exactly "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," but it's sung by actual baseball players.  So, it's got that going for it.

Unfortunately, my phone ran out of storage about a third of the way through the recording, so this is truly more of a preview and a full listen.  My apologies - my phone is just too filled up with pictures of baseball cards for future posts.  Whoopsie.

The album concludes with another recording of "Hey, Hey, Holy Mackeral;" however, this one is an instrumental version.  Just like with one-hit wonders, anytime you can't generate enough content to fill an album or both sides of a single, make sure to include a instrumental version of your big hit on the b-side.  Either that, or an extended dance remix.  Just ask Rockwell, he'll tell you.

With that, we've skimmed through all of Cub Power - I hope you enjoyed your cursory listen.

In conclusion, this piece of fascinating baseball memorabilia, centered around my favorite team, makes an excellent addition to my "other" collection.  I'm supremely pleased to finally call this album my own and truly surprised that it showed up in a discount bin, in such great shape, at my local thrift store.  Seeing as it appeals to collectors of baseball ephemera, indie/regional records, and albums in general, it appeals to a lot of different markets.  With that in mind, I've seen it priced for over fifty bucks and never less than twenty... clearly, someone didn't know what they had.

At any rate, it looks great in my milk crate, along with my other latest addition.

Nevermind another white whale of mine that I thought I might have to "nevermind" the search.  Now, if only I could track down Never Mind the Bollocks...  Perhaps I should start up a blog centered around my record collecting adventures too?

Eh, maybe someday.  For now, I'll just bask in the glory and the sweet, sweet sounds of my latest 33 1/3 RPM finds.

Greek Gods, Rock Gods and Garden Tools

You never know what you'll find in storage.

The other day, I recovered some pieces of my collection which I had long forgotten about.  I guess that's what happens when you put a large chunk of your belongings in the shed - out of sight, out of mind and all that.

Good thing I get bored pretty easily and rummaging is one of my favorite hobbies!

While waiting on my girlfriend to get home from work, I decided that I was going to look for some stuff that I had packed away way back when I moved to my college apartment in twenty aught nine.  While I didn't find most of that stuff (more on that later), I did find some other cool, lost trinkets:

For instance, this TCMA reprint of a 19th century tobacco card was nestled in a box where I had emptied my old junk drawer.  As I recall, I received this oddball as part of a larger Christmas gift of baseball cards; but, at that time, I had no use for over-sized inconveniences like this and proceeded to stash it away in the same place I kept my electrical tape and pens.

I was such a grateful teenager.

It's a shame too, because William "Adonis" Terry is a guy I've long been trying to locate for my CATRC - his unique nickname caught my attention while perusing the all-time roster and that's really all it takes.  Little did I know, I already had him hidden away; all because I couldn't be bothered with anything that didn't fit in a nine-pocket page.

Short-sighted me should not have limited myself because until I rediscovered this gem, I was aware of only two modern cards of the man: this Target Dodger piece from GCRL's Sunday spotlight and an Ars Longa art card.

Not a lot of wiggle room there.  Also, neither is standard size.  Stupid younger Tony.

As you can see, the back features a detailed biographical write-up and one can infer that this came from a tribute set to the 1890 Brooklyn Bridegrooms; a significant team for being the first NL entry for what would become the Dodgers.  As you can see, they wont he pennant right away.

Terry had been with the club since their very first campaign (1884), when they were known as the Atlantics of the American Association.  Most of his tenure was spent as the second or third starting pitcher; but after their championship in 1890, he was running out of steam.

After a few seasons with the NL Orioles and Pirates, Terry closed out his career with four mediocre to disastrous seasons for the Chicago Colts.  In one 1896 contest, Terry gave up FOUR homers to Ed Delahanty; remember, this is the Deadball era!  By 1897, he had pitched his last big league game.

Typical Cubs.

That said, his peers must have thought William was a pretty damn good looking chap, seeing as Adonis, in Greek mythology, is a Phoenician demi-god of beauty and desire.

Do you see the resemblance?

Image courtesy of George Kibler on Pinterest

Meanwhile, Terry wasn't the only Cubs-related baseball card I found stashed away.  These guys were tucked in the corner of the same box, amongst some old junk wax:

Excepting Kieschnick, none of these guys had anything to do with Chicago when I put them away. Now, they can all find spots in my Cubs player collections.

Although, the only one the elicits any positive memories is Manny Ramirez for the wonderful job he has done as a mentor for the young Wrigley talent.  Just saying Edwin Jackson's name makes me want to cuss out the nearest TV set out of habit.

It wasn't just Cubs stuff that I found though:

A couple of old, stadium give-away team sets for the local minor league baseball team.  I've been working on acquiring a complete run of these, so they fill some gaps in that collection; which I'll have to spotlight on this blog at some point.

The Windy City Thunderbolts are based out of Crestwood, IL and have been around since 2004 and play in the independent Frontier League.  Some notable names for the franchise have been then-future White Sox Dylan Axelrod, former Cub Billy Petrick and former Cub prospect Bo Flowers.

One quick note about Mr. Crosland there on the left (2005 team set).  I always remember this guy because during one game that I attended, he missed a pitch on a Ruthian homerun cut and the bat went flying into the crowd on the third base side, where it cracked a friend of mine's father in the face.  It did some pretty heavy damage and he had to spend some time in the hospital.

Im fairly certain that is not what Jason wanted to be the lasting memory of his baseball career.

The weather here in the Chicago area has been pretty bipolar; but, I certainly wasn't expecting any snow when I started exploring the shed!

This Diamonds in the Rough insert was a card that I begged my grandfather to buy me during a foray to our LCS.  Since this was in the mid-90s, this was one of the fancy, expensive cards on display for a stupid amount of money.  But, what kid doesn't love shiny things, especially when they have the cool hologram thing going on too.

I eventually won out, but if I just waited 20 years, I could have bought it myself for spare change.  I was an impatient little bugger.

That was it for baseball goodies in the box, but that doesn't mean there weren't more cards:

I literally have no clue where these came from; I have no recollection of buying/trading/conjuring them up with sorcery whatsoever.  They must have come with some repack that I bought way back when.

However, I thoroughly enjoy most of Kiss' body of work and these are some pretty nifty cards.  I especially love the poster design featuring the art from their debut album on the top left.  I've always thought about starting a music based card collection; so, if I do, these will certainly be a part of it.

Favorite Kiss song?  I think it has to be Plaster Caster - a deep track from 1977's Love Gun:

If you are unfamiliar with the Plaster Casters, they're an interesting bunch alright.

Speaking of music though, I also recovered this masterpiece from the "lost forever" shed:

An immaculate, vinyl copy of the legendary Simon & Garfunkel's comeback concert!  I grew up with a heavy dose of Paul Simon's solo work and discovered his work with Art when I was in college.  I had no idea that this was in there.

This has made for a fine addition to my record collection and I've already spun it at least 5 times.

This particular cut will always bring me goosebumps:

Oh, one more thing - the whole reason I was even in the shed to begin with was to try and locate my old auto racing card collection.  NASCAR used to be my sport of choice during my junior high years and the Indy 500 an event that is near and dear to my heart.  So, I thought maybe I should resurrect that collection.

I was unable to find most of them, except for this tiny snap case:

As you can see, I re-purposed the case.  The card on top is for a local weekend warrior who raced for a long time in the short track levels of the sport; a cool little rarity.

After all of that, I was able to locate most of the cards in the closet under my stairs the next day.

I would have been mad; but, as you can plainly see, the foray through the shed was immensely rewarding for me.  On another day, I plan to showoff this grouping of cards on the blog.  Much like my CATRC, my collecting goal is to get as many cards of different racers as I can.

I mean - because the massive piles of boxes with forgotten memorabilia already hidden in the shed weren't evidence enough that I need to bring in MORE stuff.

Anybody else uncover any forgotten treasures in their shed/attic/basement/buried pirate treasure chest?