This is a blog about the annoyances of life and the little things that make us go, "STOP IT". Sports cards are one of my plentiful hobby addictions and it will also be one of the many items that are discussed on this blog. Feel free to leave your opinion and thoughts.
Welcome to another edition of "Chicken Scratch". This is where we take a look at an athlete's signature and give it a sharpie rating based on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being a lazy signature (a horse could sign better with a pen in it's mouth) and then a 5 being a signature of a nice crisp clean legible signature. On very rare occasions we also have a special reserved 6 sharpie salute for perfect signatures.
Today's star athlete signature is brought to you courtesy of Gabriel Arias who's the shortstop of the Cleveland Guardians. This card below I pulled from a blaster of Absolute baseball (from gamestop of all places - it was in the bargain bin) and I was rather most surprised to pull an actual autograph 3 piece jersey card and not just a single piece jersey card as my luck with blasters is not that great.
Let's take a look at some of his signature across other cards (not mine) since the Absolute autograph was on a sticker.
So it would seem that he really has to cram his signature style together when he's signing on small areas as opposed to larger signing areas. Some folks do that and some do not while others just make a straight line at times. Look at those loops in his signature when he has the space to write.
His "G" is very consistent and his "A" is as well across the signatures.
It would appear the "G" and "A" in his signature is consistent on a baseball as well.
The ball player appears to take a little time to make his signature appear legible with at least 2 letters. I could see the "G" but I would never guess that his name was Gabriel or his last name was Arias from the "A". Some athletes will take the time to make a nice crisp signature and others will just write out their signature in letters. IMO......Gabriel makes an effort in his signatures with emphasis in the first letters of his first and last name and then scribbles out the rest of his name For this reason....the Big Kahuna and the tribe feel that he will be the receiver of 2 sharpies for his efforts.
Welcome to what's left of the Big Kahuna's mind....since he was here last. I guess that I took a bit of a vacation in a way from the blog for a slight while......4 years almost.....yikes. I've had so many life changes (including loss of family members) during the pandemic that I just didn't feel like doing much of anything anymore including this blog. Losing 6 family members during the years of 2020 -2022 (including my father and step father) was a very emotional time for me and I became very withdrawn from a lot of things (long story short) especially with the way the world was at the time. I had to refocus my efforts on improving the quality of my life again so that I could begin to feel "normal" again and get back into life and get back into the things that made me chuckle and enjoy life no matter how small it was. Did I give up on my card collecting? No........heavens to betsy NO..........that's always the one thing that has been a form of therapy for me in weird kind of way......it's kind of hard to explain but reading the stats and the information on the cards has a bit of calming affect on me. Long story short.........I'm back to this blog......I'm here writing these random thoughts at 1:00am in the morning. I have a weird sense of humor (ADHD and few other mental quirks contribute to that) and enjoy posting about sports cards and insulting most politicians and laughing at memes. I still hate the Astros for cheating and I still loathe the New York Yankees. I love Italian food and I enjoy watching virgins being sacrificed into volcanoes. I still love watching Monty Python and Mel Brooks and funny fart vids. Sarcasm is my friend and I love life no matter how hard it throws the screwballs, sinkers, spit balls, fastballs, and knucklers my way. Adapt.......Change.......and overcome. That is how we survive.......and on some occasions.....a shot or two of whiskey.....Jim Beam Red Stag is my choice before bed (helps to calm my racing mind). A lot more to come...........I promise.
So to get things started I am going to share the YouTube channel I have started. Only a few vids but I'm working on it so bear with me.....it's all new to me so feedback is welcomed whether it's positive or negative.
Came home and watched a movie and went to bed forgetting about the rack pack.
I got up out of bed this morning and forgot about opening the rack pack from yesterday. So I opened the the first pack and pulled a Hunter Pence ice card. Opened the second pack and just regular old cards. Opened the third pack and then it released the good
my initial reaction was
and then I flipped it over and saw the numbering in the corner and
because this is what I saw
The moral of the story is.....it's always nice to pull a goodie like a 2014 Bowman Byron BuxtonTop 100 die cut refractor autograph serially numbered 01/24.
Here's an interesting ad on Craigslist for Allen Iverson. Not quite sure how he came up with the price that he's asking for but he just threw the ball off the court and caused a SERIOUS traveling violation on that price. You can find authentic Iverson auto's on FEEBAY for much cheaper. NOW DISCUSS!
Have a Allen iverson signed Philadelphia 76er's "yearbook" you buy at
the games saw them in 2001.. I have a certificate of authenticity with
it.. it has been kept in a plastic sleeve since I got it.. perfect
condition!
SERIOUS INQUIRES ONLY ..... CASH ONLY NO CHECKS OR WHATEVER ELSE!
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Welcome to another fun edition of "Chicken Scratch". Today we will be looking at the awesome and inspiring autograph of Maurice Ager. Let us gaze upon the painstaking effort and dedication of an autograph that is so well written that Socrates and Shakespeare themselves would be so inspired that they.....well.....here.....take a look at it for yourself. It's fast so look at it closely and quickly!
Did you see it? Look again!
This has to be one of the most laziest autographs in all of sports today. And you know Topps just accepts whatever is given to them. I would think that someone would make him resign the stickers but then it would mean redemptions and then you'd probably be waiting 2 years for the autos to come back in to Topps. But before that happens you would be issued a replacement autograph and it would probably be an autograph of one of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball scouts. There is just no excuse for this autograph. On the bright side of this tragedy he did manage to at least get the letter A in his last name to be clearly visible.
On this nineteenthday in the month of April and in the year of our Lord 2013, We the Collective Mind Hive at E.A. (we are not the company who has been voted "worst company" two years in a row by The Consumerist) have decided to spread cheer and wealth across the land in hopes of making men merry enough to dance even more with their wives, act giddy like little school girls, spray "HAIR NET" hairspray on their chest hairs and spread the word across the land that their is hope and a gift offering that will make men proud to have hair sprayed stiff chest hairs and that their sons and daughters will be as happy as lemmings jumping off the cliffs to their unknowingly demise. Cats will eat dogs and birds will eat snails. Women will be so overjoyed that they will form unions dedicated to making men lower on the food chain and.......
WTH?!?!?!
I really need to adjust my meds!
Here are the guidelines for the gift/giveaway offering:
1. Sign your first name once to the comment box
2. Inside the comment box leave the name of who you think will be the rookie of the year in both the MLB American and National League in 2013.
3. The offering shall end on MAY 1. You must be listed by 11:59pm on May 1 to be eligible.
4. Only enter once.......or you will be sacrificed into Mt. Wannahakalugi!
5. Spread the good word with a Holy Hand Message.
5. Random.org will be picking the winner. Afterwards I will then be picking my nose.
So what are the prizes you ask? Well......I'll give you a few hints over the next few days:
"First shalt thou shall be signatures and cloth. Then, shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once
the number three, being the third number, be reached, then you shall have found your answer."
In this lovely edition of "Chicken Scratch", we are looking at the autograph of Oakland A's Pitcher Jarrod Parker. Jarrod was drafted 9th by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first round of the 2007 MLB Draft and then was traded to the Oakland A's in December 2011.
When you observe his rookie card from 2008 Bowman Chrome you can clearly see on this card
that he signed, "his" version of his full name on the card . Although his name cannot be fully recognized by his signature, for the most part you can make out the "J" and the "P".
The card that you're looking at for this edition of "CS" is from 2013 Topps Baseball series one "Chasing the Dream" insert. Allow your eyes to gaze upon the signature. Now, move ahead five years later after the Bowman Chrome card and his autograph seems to have a bit of change in its presentation.
This may be in part due to a limited amount of signing space because of the type of sticker that is used for signing or he's getting older and has signed his name a hundred thousand times and does not care what it looks like.
Once again another "on card" version of his autograph:
Honestly this card almost looks like it was signed in Japanese to a degree almost. You can make out the "J" and not a whole lot of other letters. It almost looks like the initials of HVE or HVX. Either way it's hard to make out his name.
My LCS (Denny's Cards and Creations) now has a $5.00 autograph box. There was dozens of certified autographs from the year 1998 and up in it with some of them being first round picks who would never be heard from again after one season. Some of them were career long minor league players. There were even a few semi star players as well as I got closer to the end of the box. Then when I got to the end of the stack and it was the last card I was surprised to have found this little guy:
This guy was at the end of the line or so it seems like it's been that way for Russell Wilson for most of his life. Everybody told him he wouldn't make it in the NFL as an undersized third-round pick, (5ft11", 208lbs). I would say he made some pretty bold statements in the way that he played in his rookie year. Russell was very efficient!
This card is the 2012 Press Pass Fanfare Autos and it's #90/199.
Here is the top 5 cards that I would like to put into my personal collection for the year 2013.
1. A Ken Griffey Jr autographed card. I had one at one point and time but I lost it in the fire.
2. A David Wright autographed card. This is one auto that I have not pulled yet and I've always hoped that I would! It seems to be eluding me and it's getting nerve racking!
3. An Avery Brooks autographed card. I was a big fan of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and I loved seeing Avery as Captain Sisko.
4. A Mark Messier autographed card. While I was so delighted to get Wayne Gretzky's autograph in person after a game at MSG I was kind of hoping I could snag Mark's as well. Unfortunately I just missed him by like 4 seconds.
5. A Magic Johnson autographed card. He is my favorite NBA player and my favorite LA LAKERS player! I wish I still had the pair of Lakers colored Converse Weapon sneakers. Loved em!
and finally a special card that I need to get for someone I love dearly:
A John Kruk autographed card. Actually what I would like to do is to find out where I could send a picture to him and see if I could get it signed and personalized to Kathy, my fiance who is a Phillies fan. Her Pap and her used to watch the Phillies games a lot when she was growing up and John Kruk was both their favorite player. I though it would be something to cheer her up and bring back back some good memories for her. She deserves it!
For this lovely edition of Chicken Scratch I have decided to look at one of the autographs of NY Mets outfielder "Captain" Kirk Nieuwenhuis.
When you look at this autograph you can easily make out the "K" in his first name and the "N" in his last name. He even added his jersey number which is clearly legible. As for the rest of the letters........good luck on figuring that one out. In his first name you have a "K" and it looks like an "A" almost at first glance. Take a second glance and you might even see, "HA".
Here's another version of his "younger" autograph:
As for the last name portion.....well......the "N" is visible and the rest of it ends on a long loop. It could also be possibly going "NS" as well. Not really sure what he's communicating but it looks like, "HA NL". Maybe he's saying, "HA! I play in the National League." All I know is he's barely getting 2 sharpies for his poor penmanship!
Manny Machado was to be reviewed but this is what I get from Topps:
Eventually when we get the card from Topps (if it ever comes) it will be reviewed and then displayed. Until then here is a funny picture of something odd:
So I finally was able to see some shots of the "ever so secretive" 2012 SP SIGNATURE baseball edition and make sure you have this nearby:
(not the cat but the toilet)
Here's the first shot of a sample of $225.00 box of cat crap looks like:
Wow.......sticker auto's....why we've never seen them before. Geeze, so much thought was put into this card design.
A card that just has autographs with names and lame dates on it. No reference to what position they played. It looks like a label off of a bottle of generic steak sauce. "Here ya go son.....put some of this Seattle Focus sauce on yer burger and it will taste even more watery!"
This is one of the chase cards you could pull and this is a US patch flag of Maury Wills. Well that says a lot about where he played or what position he played. Basically it's just saying, "he's a guy that has a USA patch" if that much even.
Folks..........this is what Upper Deck is doing to you when you buy this product:
In other words.......save yourself and take that $225.00 you have and go somewhere else with it. Save it, invest it stock, spend it on a AMISH hooker named Ulga, donate it to scientific genetic mutation research, pickup a ticket to a couple of rock concerts, or just buy some "special brownies" from that surfer dude down the street. I would suggest that you seriously skip this product and get something that is of better quality.
but wait........there's more
So I decided to look at the comments on UD's Facebook page to see if they had any reviews of the 2012 Signature series and there was rather some shockingly positive feedback by some people. I decided it was time to give an honest negative review about the product and I posted it on their comment section along with everyone else's comments and people were starting to agree with me. There was a few people that thought the cards looked awful and those comments were left on. However after a while I checked on it and some were deleted. My review had mentioned that I could not and would not support this product and I listed the reasons why and people were agreeing with me on it left and right and was liking it. Well this must've caught the attention of the UD FACEBOOK POLICE because they deleted my comments/review shortly after a while and folks started complaining. So what did I do........that's right folks........I re-posted it AGAIN. Once again there was many likes and more people agreeing with what I said about it with one guy even commenting about it being a sticker dump product. Then I heard sirens go by me again as the UD FACEBOOK POLICE struck again and removed my comment and a few other negative comments. No one it seems was allowed to leave a negative comment regarding 2012 SP SIGNATURE. So I posted a comment on how it was unfair of them to censor people and that if they can't handle a little criticism about their "SO FREAKIN GLORIOUS PRODUCT" then it's definitely not worth buying. I have not checked to see if they deleted that comment but they probably did as well.
Hello folks! Ryan filling in here with another edition of Lasso-graphs. Tim has been working ungodly hours and asked me if I could fill in a little for him.
For the next person that I chose to examine I know that Tim had pulled this particular card out of a box of Bowman Chrome baseball the day before it was announced that Sammy Solis will undergo Tommy John ligament replacement surgery. I never heard Tim curse so many times about prospecting and his luck at pulling bad prospects. All I could think was (using the Simpson's Nelson voice)......ha ha!
Let's see how bad this guy makes "swirlies" in his name shall we:
Look at all those lasso's flying all over the place. It looks like the initials of "Sg81" or "Sj8l". It looks like his signature is done in one fluid motion. "Loops, loops, everywhere a loop" on this card.
In the madness of the boxes of card products that I was buying I decided to take a chance on a box of 2011 Topps Precision football from my LCS and I have to say that the boxes I have been opening from my LCS have had NY GIANTS players in them left and right and this box was no disappointment by any means.
The first "hit" card that we pulled was of NY Giants rookie wide receiver Jerrel Jernigan. Now I'm pretty stroked about this "hit" because it's a Giants player and it's a jersey autograph as well. The only thing I thought Topps could've done was have the card hard signed instead of putting a crooked sticker auto on the card.
My next big "hit" that I pulled was of a retired legend and a first for my autograph collection: EARL CAMPBELL (I will confess that I am also a bit of a Houston Oilers fan also which also makes me a Tennessee Titans fan as well). What I love about this autograph is that it's clearly legible!
Like I said before in one of my previous posts, "Jon Baldwin" is haunting me. Here is another autographed jumbo relic serially numbered 25/25 that I pulled of Jon. I can hear the mojo'ers in the background screaming, " OMG- It's a 3 colored patch EBAY 1/1 ". Oh yeah....it is another sticker auto.
In my final pack that I opened I managed to pull this "autographed hit": Marcell Dareus. The really nice thing about this card is that it's a hard signed copy. No sticker is needed. No sticker is applied. I love how his signature is signed "MD".
