CHICKEN SCRATCH: Who in the world signed my card?

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.

Holy Moses..........what a heck of time..........Life can be fun

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.

MY WALLET HERTZ

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtBysvufcAl33pa9kwavPsg

 

And we also have an Instagram page as well :

MY WALLET HERTZ

https://www.instagram.com/my_wallet_hertz/

Oh and I had a little fun pulling a 1/1 from a 2022 Bowman Chrome Baseball hobby box this year. 

Great way to start the year imo.

CHICKEN SCRATCH: Blake Snell

Blake Ashton Snell is a MLB pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays who made his MLB debut on April 23, 2016 and managed to compile a 6-8 record in his first year with an ERA of 3.54 and amassed 98 strikeouts. Blake was drafted by Tampa Bay in the first round of the 2011 MLB draft.

This is Blake's 2011 Bowman Chrome prospect rookie auto which I obtained opening one box after another during the "great hunt" for Bryce Harper rookie autograph cards. Blake's signature is very legible and you can make out all of the letters in his first name and his last name without any eye strain effort. I like how he makes both of the L's in his last name the same size as the "S". It's a very clean autograph and it's very well balanced and the signature does not dance all over the place.

For his efforts Blake receives 5/5 sharpies!!!!!

 

 Big Kahuna approved

ALL HAIL THE GOAT!!!

The Big Kahuna has come down from the mountain to spread the word across the land and to share thoughts on the upcoming 2016 MLB World Series and will now finish up sacrificing virgins to address the masses:

 The Big Kahuna Speaks now.......(silence you fools):

"For I have had a dream....and in this dream there was a vision.....a vision of Babe Ruth. He stood there (while eating a hot dog with one hand and holding a 40oz in the other) and spoke so firmly at me these following words (while chunks of hot dog buns were being spewed upon me from him speaking)":

"Here in the afterlife Big Kahuna we know how things will turn out. Ty Cobb was going to tell you these words but unfortunately he's still stuck in hell reliving every day that he beat up the one arm fan in the bleachers by being beaten up by a pack of one arm horned demons with barb-wired baseball bats so they sent me instead to share these words of wisdom with you.":

Babe pulls a paper out of his pants pocket and the paper has scribble on it. Babe puts his hand into his other pocket and pulls out 2 hot dogs and begins to chow down.

"Sorry but these hot dogs are so good and I was hungry."

"Wait a minute Big Kahuna. Before I share these words with you I need another hot dog and a rub down."

(Big Kahuna waiting patiently)

 "Just a minute Big Kahuna.....Oh this is soooooooogood. I gotta have dessert too you know."

TMZ BREAKING NEWS STORY: The Big Kahuna grows impatient and decides to shave the top portion of his head while he's waiting on Babe Ruth's spirit to finish eating!

"For crying out loud RUTH....your balls are foul so get on with it!"

"Ok Big Kahuna. I've got my milk and a "cookie" for later (gotta feed the crabs too you know). Ok where was I....oh yeah....the message. This is what I am to share with you:

Babe shows me a picture that is on the paper:

"The great and powerful Chicago Cubs goat will sit back in silence and watch as the world series unfolds. He had been tasked with the job of keeping the Chicago Cubs baseball team unbalanced and sad for many years and was ultimately created to deprive the Cubs of ever winning another World Series championship. But the goat is puzzled. He is bothered by how well the team is playing this year. He wonders if he should let them get so far and then pop up like a big surprise in one of the many forms he likes to present himself in.......in a form of a...... say oh I dunno..... like when he popped up in the form of Steve Bartman perhaps. The goat was pondering and pondering and thinking and the goat thought perhaps this year he will take a vacation instead and allow the team to share in the joy of winning a championship because he knows that the people of Chicago deserve a champion team. But then the goat looks at how Cleveland is playing this year and is impressed with how they are on fire right now and knows that they are worthy of a World Championship as well. The goat takes a deeper look into his feelings and has sympathy for the people of Cleveland because he knows that the Cleveland Browns will NEVER EVER win a championship and bring glory to the masses. The goat then realizes that the Cleveland Cavaliers won a championship this year and it has already brought some happiness to the people of Cleveland. Then the goat realizes that the people of Chicago are still suffering from the White Sox failing to bring a championship to the windy city and the Blackhawks failing to win the Stanley Cup and this makes the goat think, "perhaps this year will finally be the year that the Chicago Cubs shall be allowed to win a world series."

The question at hand Big Kahuna is will the goat be turned into a sandwich specialty at Slyman's restuarant by the Indians so that they can end their amazing season on a feast of World Championship champagne and BBQ goat or will the Cubs finally be freed from this everlasting curse of World Series Championship denial and proudly drink from their highly hoisted bottles of championship champagne and serve the Indians up like a specialty sandwich from Au Cheval and end the years of misery and finally put the "goat" in the pasture for good."

The Babe folds up his piece of paper and puts it back into his pocket and then snaps his fingers and in the blink of an eye, the Babe and myself are staring at a kitchen table with cereal on it. The Babe sits down and begins........AGAIN..........EATING!

It is at this moment I awaken from my dream and I come to realize that in my hand was a spoon and the paper from which the Babe had spoken from.

SO, it is now on this very day in the year of YOUR LORD (that's me), I will decree to you......the people (my peeps), the followers of mine (my worshipers), to the masses among us..............IT IS ON THIS VERY DAY THAT I WILL DECLARE the winner of the 2016 MLB World Championship series (In 5 games) is going to be ............................................................................................................................................................

 "OH MY GOD......he did not say that"

 

"Yep.....the Chicago Cubs hope and dreams of a world series title for this year .............. and it's gone"

Because here's your winner folks

RICKY "Wild Thing" Vaughn and the Tribe will be the winners.

The "TRIBE" has spoken and the word is decreed (funny we just noticed that we're the tribe too-see it's predestined to happen!).

Big Kahuna

"It's on like DONKEY KONG, CLEVELAND INDIANS!"

The Toronto Blue Jays will be playing the Cleveland Indians for the ALCS and I am really excited for this series for two reasons:

1. The Toronto Blue Jays are playing.
2. The Cleveland Indians are playing and not the NY Yankees or the Boston Red Sox or the Kansas City Royals will be playing. Cleveland's last appearance in the world series was in 1997 and they have a shot at possibly returning to it. However, their last few trips in the playoffs have not been so great as they lost to Boston in the ALCS in 2007 and lost in the wild card game to Tampa Bay in 2013. Change is good though and I'm glad to see another team that has struggled over the years in the playoffs.

I was hoping that I would get to see a NY Mets / Toronto Blue Jays world series match-up (Bucket List item) but thanks to the San Fran Giants, that will not be happening this year. Toronto being in the playoffs is kind of the bright spot for me right now in "my sports world" as the Mets are out of the world series. The NY Giants are playing "pee wee" style football and Odell Beckham is slowly turning into this prima donna:@terrellowens

Eli Manning is thinking about Christmas and is giving away the team possessions. It's only preseason right now for the NY Rangers and I'm hoping that Oscar Lindberg (new pc player) can have a good second year. Henrik Lundqvist was impressive again last year and I hope he can obtain his 12th straight 20 wins season.

Nobody beats "the wiz"- Saturday Swings edition

2016 Diamond Kings Elements of Royalty Ozzie Smith Auto jersey #7/10

So what good cards have you pulled lately? Here's what my cold hands have been pulling......

My heart bleeds blue..........

Well......it appears that the world series for 2015 is set. The #%@^!&* Kansas City Royals against the New York Mets. While I have no doubt that this is going to be a very interesting world series, honestly I was hoping for a Toronto Blue Jays vs NY Mets world series as those are both of my favorite baseball teams. I've always been a die hard Blue Jays and a die hard Mets fan since I was 9 years old and I grew up in the middle of Pennsylvania and with the area I lived in, you're either a Pirates fan or a Phillies fan. I didn't really like either of those teams. It was the players that got my attention of both of the teams that I liked and one of those ball players that stood out to me was a Mets player named, "Mookie Wilson."

The reason I liked "Mookie" so much was because I really liked his style of batting (he was a switch hitter) and honestly in 1983 who else ever really heard of a guy with the first name of "Mookie." I thought at the time maybe he didn't like to be called, "Bill" or "William" as that was his first name. But truly though, another reason I liked Mookie was because like most other kids at that age, Mookie played center field just like I did on my little league ball team and I used to think I could be like Mookie. It was then at that point and time in my life, in the very beginning of the summer time of 1983 that I decided I was going to follow Mookie Wilson and the NY Mets and I have never looked backed.

I can remember when the time came I had decided I was going to tell my mother who my favorite baseball team was and when I did finally tell her she didn't try to persuade me to switch to another team or even have me like her own favorite team (New York Yankees). She just simply said to me, "follow your favorite player and the team that you like and stay dedicated to the team whether they win or lose. Especially if that favorite player goes to another team. Well that was painless and simple coming from Mom I thought to myself. Surely Dad is going to probably say the same thing I thought at the time. Then it came time for me to tell the Old Man who I liked and I remember it exactly how it happened as he was sitting on the end of the couch reading the newspaper (The Daily Item). I remember telling him that I remembered when we both talked about liking baseball and what teams there were and that I decided on a team I was going to follow. I told him that I liked the NY Mets. He slowly lowered the newspaper onto his lap and he just gave me that weird vibey far off stare (the same kind of stare that cats have after they get done licking their butt). You have to understand that my Dad was a Phillies fan......all the way to the bone! So, after a long two minute far off stare (which seemed like eternity), he asks me who it was that I liked from the team and I told him, "Mookie." Now at this point I can remember him looking at me with one of those really head piercing brown eyed stares and then he raised his hand and then pulled his pack of Viceroy cigarettes from out of his rolled up shirt sleeve (he always kept his cigarette packs in his left sleeve rolled up) and took out a cigarette and lit one up in front of me. He still didn't say anything at this point and what seemed like forever he finally broke the silence and said spoke after the first long drag on his cigarette. He looks at me and tells me, "Mike Schmidt is a better ballplayer than Mookie will ever be and that I should be a Phillies fan and try to support the local fans and not the fan folks that live in another state. If that's who you're going to pick (he does a long drag on the cigarette at this point-(they say kids never notice what their parents do-hogwash!) then you have to realize that people will pick on you for that so just remember to ignore them the same way that I ignore who your mom likes.....those damn Yankees (he says in a yelling voice loud enough for mom to hear)." My Father took a long drag again and then just gave me that crazy eyed stare again and picked up the newspaper and resumed reading it. As I started to walk away into the dinning room on the way to the kitchen I heard him say to me from behind the newspaper, "You know the Mets are not that good of a ball team son!" I simply replied as I was walking into the kitchen, "Love you Dad!" Needless to say his so called "advice" that he was giving to me was advice that I didn't quite care about or understand all that much but it seemed to have made him bothered and for that last very strange reason I liked it. I knew my Father didn't like who I picked and thus began the latter stage of a child's life that every parent dreads..........the rebellious years (que star wars music)!

The funny thing is that's the only time that I can recall my Father ever saying anything at all to me about my selection of sports teams. Perhaps at that time maybe I had broken the old man's heart and crushed the hopes and dreams he may have had of me being a Phillies fan like him and that I was robbing him of that tradition of passing down the father's "like of teams" to the son so to speak. I often wondered if Dad ever knew that even though I was liking the Mets, I was silently rooting along with him for the Phillies the very few times we would sit together and watch the Phillies play on tv. I remember the last game we had watched together was shortly before my parents divorce on my tenth birthday and during the game Mike Schmidt had just crushed a home-run ball into the upper deck of veterans stadium and I turned toward Dad and all I said to him was, "I bet Mike Schmidt is probably the best 3rd base baseball player in baseball." He looked at me with that infamous "far off stare" for about five to ten seconds and then he just simply smiled. He didn't question me or make any movements. He didn't say anything else during the game we were watching together. He was just sitting there on his chair, smiling. 

My Father has never said anything else ever about my selection of my favorite sports teams in the last 32 years since that day I expressed to him who I liked in terms of a baseball team. Of course he's never really discussed it with me since then and I have never really asked him about it. My Father and I have never really spoken all that much after the divorce. Oh we've talked a time or two every 10 years and I've always left the door open in hopes of a reconciliation. It's a relationship that is broken and to this very day is still unfortunately broken. Perhaps though one day my Father and I can make it to a Phillies/Mets ball game and just simply enjoy a seventh inning stretch together. And it doesn't really matter who wins or who loses but know this.......my heart bleeds blue for the Mets, but silently I would be rooting for the Phillies. 

ON DECK: How I became a Blue Jays fan 

Patch card? Says it's a patch card.......Oh Topps.....you fooled me again.

In the hobby world of jersey and patch memorabilia cards, it's always fun to pull or find a low serially numbered patch card. According to some of the manufacturers these patch cards are supposed to have a piece of a jersey number or piece of the name plate or even a piece of the team emblem on them. Some examples of this would be something like this:

or a beauty like this

another fine looking specimen

As beautiful as some of these cards may turn out to be it just so happens every now and then you do get some blunders and stinkers when it comes to pulling these low serially numbered "supposed patch" cards like this 2011 Topps Finest football Bilal Powell card that I pulled that says, "player worn patch" right on the card and it's serially numbered 19/25

What I did get was a plain old jersey swatch. The exposed white on the side of the "patch" window is due to the crooked piece of jersey exposing the sliver of a jersey number or letter.  Somebody in quality control made an oops there. Let's look at another example of a card missing some quality patch materials.

 This was a card that I pulled from out of 2011 Topps Supreme. Adrian Peterson and Maurice Jones-Drew autographed and serially numbered 3/5 game used relic card. Now can you picture this for a minute and visualize with me that would it not be more appropriate for these low numbered cards (especially the Peterson) to specifically have patch pieces instead of just a plain old jersey swatch? However when something is this low numbered I feel it would look ten times better with a piece of patch emblem. Now the yellow swatch could be from the neck line as that is about the only visible yellow that I know of on the vikings jersey and that's cool in its own way in terms of collectible pieces.

If we look at this 2011 Topps Supreme 4 player jersey card serially numbered 9/25 it also another victim of the plain old jersey swatch.

Then we have something like this card:

A 2011 Topps Finest Stevan Ridley rookie autograph player worn patch card serially numbered 354/599. It's just a blue solid patch and I'm not 100% sure but I don't think it's jersey material as it's too heavy of a fabric from the feel of it.

Here's a good example of rather well used patch piece.


While it may be only limited to 49 copies there is some quality patch material that was used in the making of this card. Notice how the patch piece is also more than a "inch cube" of material and almost goes the length of the card and seems to be of multiple colors as well.

Here's another example of a color patch limited to 99 copies:









Sometimes with these patch cards you get the elastic bands from the sleeves or necklines like these cards:







  and my hats off to PANINI for pulling off these cards

You're getting the whole top of the jersey tie!

The manufacturers sometimes need to take a step back and look at how they're producing these cards. No company is exempt from having blunders and mistakes happening in the production/application process.  What it all really comes down to is what you want for your own personal collection and for your own personal amusement. 

Terrible Tuesdays: WHAT WERE THEY THINKING???

We are starting something new here on E.A. and it will be called, "Terrible Tuesdays." It's where we take a picture from a bad action shot on a photo or sports card and simply ask YOU, "what were they thinking?"

Here's are first one:

 

Did this guy stick his finger in a electrical socket? 

LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS AND YOUR OPINIONS DOWN BELOW!

George "Boomer" Scott (March 23, 1944 - July 28, 2013)

 

George "Boomer" Scott (March 23, 1944-July 28, 2013)

George was a 3x All-Star and 8 Gold Gloves first baseman who spent most of his 14-year career with the Boston Red Sox and Milwaukee Brewers. George had also played for the Kansas City Royals and the New York Yankees. He was known to have worn his batting helmet at first base and playing ball with a big sense of humor. May you find peace in the arms of the Angels George.