Oh the Times, they are a Changin'

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Hey guys, Drew back here. I hope you all enjoyed my take on which members of the Hall of Fame are overrated on Tuesday. It sparked more debate than any of my prior Ten for Tuesday posts, which is exactly what I had hoped for. The entire purpose of the weekly series is to inspire debate among my readers, and I've had a lot of fun putting the projects together; it certainly gives me something to look forward to.

If you read my blog, I'm going to assume you read Night Owl Cards as well. If you don't, you would be doing yourself a disservice. Greg is twice the writer I'll ever be, and I know I've improved from my days as a teenager in this community. He created his blog in 2008, around the same time I did. We have witnessed countless people phasing in and out of the hobby; more blogs disappearing by the day. But we've both (he especially) been able to maintain our interest in not only the hobby itself but in writing as well throughout the course of almost seven full years.

Last Sunday, Greg wrote about something that has peaked my interest ever since. He said that only two players in the Dodgers' 2008 Topps set have remained with the team up until now; Clayton Kershaw and Andre Ethier. From there, I was influenced into figuring out how many players have stayed with the same team since the birth of this blog. I technically started with Weebly in the summer of 2008, until I carried over my posts to Blogger that winter, but I will refer to the summer as the beginning point of this timeline.

This is what I was able to come up with:

American League

Baltimore Orioles - Adam Jones
Boston Red Sox - David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Clay Buchholz
New York Yankees - Alex Rodriguez, Brett Gardner*
Tampa Bay Rays - Evan Longoria*
Toronto Blue Jays - Jose Bautista

Chicago White Sox - John Danks, Alexei Ramirez*
Cleveland Indians - None
Detroit Tigers - Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander
Kansas City Royals - Alex Gordon, Luke Hochevar
Minnesota Twins - Joe Mauer, Glen Perkins

Houston Astros - None
Los Angeles Angels - Jered Weaver, Erick Aybar
Oakland Athletics - None
Seattle Mariners - Felix Hernandez
Texas Rangers - Matt Harrison*

* = Rookie in 2008

Total: 20 Players

National League

Atlanta Braves - None
Miami Marlins - None
New York Mets - David Wright, Daniel Murphy*, Jon Niese*, Bobby Parnell*
Philadelphia Phillies - Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Cole Hamels, Carlos Ruiz
Washington Nationals - Ryan Zimmerman

Chicago Cubs - None
Cincinnati Reds - Johnny Cueto*, Jay Bruce*, Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, Homer Bailey
Milwaukee Brewers - Ryan Braun
Pittsburgh Pirates - None
St. Louis Cardinals - Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jaime Garcia*

Arizona Diamondbacks - None
Colorado Rockies - Troy Tulowitzki, Jorge de la Rosa
Los Angeles Dodgers - Andre Ethier, Clayton Kershaw*, A.J. Ellis*
San Diego Padres - Will Venable*
San Francisco Giants - Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Sergio Romo

* = Rookie in 2008

Total: 27 Players

47 Players. 13 of which, rookies. We aren't even talking about a decade of time passing by, and only 47 Major League players have stayed on their respective teams. There are 30 teams in the league, with 25 men on each team's Active Roster. That alone makes 750 total players, not to mention all of those who have been called up and sent down within that period. Only 36 of the 47 listed have played their entire professional career with one organization. It was Miguel Cabrera's first year after being traded from the Marlins to the Tigers in 2008. Alex Rodriguez's name wasn't completely obliterated, and he came off of a 2007 MVP Award and enormous contract extension. Tim Lincecum was on his way to his first of two Cy Young Awards. That old, washed up Phillies team we see today won the World Series. Oh, how times have changed.

No wonder why baseball is no longer the powerhouse it once was compared to other sports. Ever since the dawn of free agency in baseball in the 1970's, players have constantly been on the move. One of my best friends has always followed the game, but after missing most of the news from the past offseason, he was so confused from all of the player movement. How are kids supposed to grow up and love a particular team in a day of age where baseball rosters change as frequently as college rosters?

Growing up, I always wanted the newest pinstripe jersey of whoever the Yankees would sign over each winter. Looking back, a majority of those jerseys were of players who made pit stops in New York before traveling elsewhere, which meant I constantly had to get to know a new team and buy new jerseys. I know it's part of what you sign up for being a Yankees fan in particular, especially ever since the late George Steinbrenner took the helm in 1973. But clearly, my Bombers aren't the only team that makes you feel like the new kid at school every Opening Day.

It's difficult to think of a way to go about fixing this dilemma. It appears that the business revolving around the game is in too deep, and that it would take a substantial amount of energy and effort to market players who are always in flux. With the Core Four retired, Alex Rodriguez is now the longest tenured Yankee, and I have to be honest, it can be boring to root for them at times. My favorite players now come from all over the league, because I have since learned not to grow too attached to anyone on my own team in fear of losing them to the next team willing to cough up hundreds of millions of dollars on them. My huge Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher collections now collecting dust can attest to this fear, without question.

It's really sad. I love watching old documentaries and hearing about those "classic" teams; the ones where people could rattle off the entire Dodgers and Yankees rosters, position by position; without worrying about accidentally naming someone who is no longer a part of the organization. But, they make me jealous. Very jealous.

I know it's an old school opinion and approach to a game that is trying so hard to adapt to newer technology and innovations; but I still wish something could be done. At least we've had Yadier Molina and Chase Utley to count on being donned in red.

What do you all think? Has free agency negatively affected your interest in your team?

See Ya!

Pointless Pieces of Cardboard Part 4- The UD Ballpark Edition

Hey guys, Drew back here. I've been so caught up with school work lately that it's been hard to find time to find time for cards. When I do at this point, I make a ton of custom cards. I've so many of late, because I don't find any of this years Topps offerings exciting enough to buy a lot of. I haven't done one of these posts in a while, so I was looking around on Check Out My Cards and I found a few worth showing.

2009 Upper Deck Ballpark has a nice clean design. It's pretty expensive, but 7 times out of 10 you'll get something worth talking about. Unfortunately, it suffers from "Whattheheckaretheseplayersalldoingonthesamecarditis". Here are a few examples:

First of all, since when is Hank Blalock a star? Since when is he able to be on the same card as Prince Fielder?

Oh, I know this one, 2 old guys that shouldn't have been playing at that age. Two future Hall of Famers if you think Delgado is worthy. These AL and NL stars sure have a lot in common to be sharing the same card!

Yeah, I'm just as clueless as you are.

For the sake of shortening the post, I'll move to the quads. Please know that I can find 15-20 other dual jersey cards that have no meaning to exist. I mean, if they are on the same card or are stars at the same position, or have comparable statistics, go ahead! But a pitcher from the AL and a hitter from the NL? Huh?

Ok, so we have a Pirates pitcher displayed in the wrong uniform, an Indians pitcher, a Braves second baseman, and a Yankees middle reliever! What the heck is up with this set? What is Upper Deck smoking?

Oh this one makes lots of sense. A Rays starting pitcher, Red Sox closer, Diamondbacks outfielder, and an Astros outfielder! How can you be excited about these cards?

Angels outfielder, Mariners pitcher in the wrong uniform, Athletics outfielder, and an Orioles pitcher. Just because you are Upper Deck and you have sucked collectors into collecting every product of yours does not mean you can put these awful groups of players on the same cards!

Again for the sake of space, we'll see Exhibit C, the 6 swatch cards.

Way to poorly execute a good idea. This is one card. 3 swatches on one side, 3 swatches on the other side. We have Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett displayed in Marlins uniforms for some odd reason, Jason Bay in a Red Sox uniform, Rich Hill (again), Aubrey Huff, and Luke Scott. I've given up on further comments, this is sad.

I'm sure your eyes are all burning up enough, so I'll stop there. I can't see how the demand of these cards can possibly be high! Sure, there are some gorgeous cards, like the quad jersey of Yogi Berra, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Robinson Cano that I own, one of my favorite cards in my collection. But, for all you that are wondering, THIS IS WHY THEY LOST THEIR LICENSE!!! Putting 6 random players on a card has no meaning, no value in my mind, and no fun.

I normally like to have a positive attitude about my hobby, but this is just something that's gone too far. I opened a tin of 2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic baseball for my birthday on July 24th, if you may remember. I pulled 2 base, 2 plain jerseys, and an expired redemption of a Harold Baines autograph. I emailed Upper Deck a few days later. They forgot about me, and I emailed them again in early October. They responded telling me to wait 8-12 MORE WEEKS! Their Customer Service is terrible, and their quality isn't much better. I sure miss the mass amount of products per year, but I don't miss things like this.

Feel free to chime in. See Ya!

Is the Card Industry a Joke?

Hey guys, Drew back here. I had a big science test planned for today, but we had a 2 hour delay so the test was re-scheduled. I was studying all of yesterday after school. Even though most of the computer issues were solved, we had a few more technical difficulties and hopefully after re-starting the computer they will be gone. Nothing major, except YouTube and iTunes and other media players are flipping out and won't play videos or music!

Today's post was to just clearly talk about the recent card industry, and the problems with it. As you probably all know by now, Upper Deck was recently sued by the MLB for using their logos without a trading card license. Talk about stupid. It's almost as idiotic as this guy:

Their 3 most recent products all have used MLB logos without the MLB's consent. 2009 Ultimate Collection, 2009 Signature Stars, and 2010 Upper Deck flagship. 2009 Ultimate has lived up to the expectations, and only a few different hits can suck in the product. No offense to any O's fans (I know a few) but Nick Markakis and Kojo Uehara autographs do not pay for a box like this. People aren't happy when they see a penny sleeve, which guarantees a 6 or 8 swatch relic card, which really means something. There are some nasty looking patches in the product but MLB had to come in and ruin the fun by stomping on all of the cards and sueing like crazy. So a recall could happen, and all of the boxes would be gone. That shoots up the value of all the other cards pulled already, and would lead to some massive prices. But I highly doubt that would happen.

2009 Signature Stars looks like a major disappointment. Wait, I never heard of it until it was released. So I guess it just plain old SUCKED! They covered the front and everything with veterans and stars, but almost every hit you pull is a Team USA relic card. Talk about sucking. Mr. Scott recently did a break of this, and he really didn't feel excited with the pulls he had I can tell. I wouldn't mind this product going back to Upper Deck though.

2010 Upper Deck is just starting to hit eBay, and they also show full logos. The base design looks fairly decent and some of the other cards look ok, and you can tell they put a tiny amount of effort using pictures without logos. I probably will buy it, or just trade for an awesome card like this:

This card of the captain looks awesome, and I definitely will have this card in the next few months. If I don't pull it, somebody will, and I want you to offer it to me. You will, and you know it. Getting back to the issues that are Upper Deck....

WHY IN THE WORLD DO YOU GO AGAINST THE MLB!!!!! YOU GUYS ARE IDIOTS!!!! SUCK IT UP AND DEAL WITH THE FACT THAT YOU CAN'T PUT A LITTLE LOGO ON THE HAT AND USE SOME BRAIN CELLS TO THINK OF SOMETHING THAT WOULD LOOK GREAT WITHOUT THEM!!!!

My rant is officially over (for now), please feel free to express your thoughts on the aggressiveness of Upper Deck.

See Ya. for now. Until next time. Drew