It was the best of times, and it was...well that's about it. The summer of 1998 was fucking great. Or at least that's how I remember it. I was just reminded of this after starting the aptly named Summer of '98 by Mike Lupica. More on this later tonight when I have the time...but at least in my recollections, 1998 r0x0r'd.

I haven't really focused on my collection too much up to this point, so I'm going to start out with what I plan to call the "Scrub Alert." Hopefully it will be a regular feature. It will feature someone whose autograph I have that turned out to be a less than spectacular player.

This week, that player is Junior Brignac. Along with his white brother Reid, who is now a much more highly touted prospect than he ever was, Junior is in the exclusive club of players whose names I honestly dont' know how to pronounce. The autos on a 2000 Bowman and looks pretty good. However, I don't have it scanned just yet, but it looks like this one from ebay except w/ an auto. Apparently, Brignac went back to school at Cal and played a couple seasons of football as a QB/WR, with little success, and certainly not an NFL career. No idea where he is now.

2007 MWP Awards

So I was browsing baseball-reference.com today, and I was marveling at the stats of some long time major leaguers. I was looking at guys like Kevin Millar, Mike Lieberthal, Damion Easley, Raul Ibanez. They're among the "active leaders" in home-runs, each well over 100, and they're going to be featured in the late 2080's version of the late 1980's Pacific Greats. Just a thought. But this got me to thinking. These players were extremely valuable throughout their career. Never amazing, but always useful, always valuable. Who, then, would be their worthless counterparts? Thus, the first (possibly annual) Most Worthless Player Awards. These are based mostly on 2007 performance, but also just on general worthlessness. Also, no glass-bodied guys will be included (no matter how much I am tempted to include Carl Pavano. Dictionary.com's definition of worthless includes the entry "14. Something like Carl Pavano. Piece of shit."), though some of them were on the DL at some time during the season. Here goes.

C-You could argue that any of 3 current and former Reds catchers deserves this spot (David Ross, Javier Valentin, Jason LaRue) and I'm giving it to LaRue. I know, he was injured, but Holy God, he was awful. My felt my muscles atrophy while watching him. And I'm a huge fan too. Great signer, IP and TTM, and a nice guy. I watched him leg out his first triple in person. He was possibly faster than Gabby Hartnett, but my honest guess is that he was not.

1B-This is easy. Richie Sexson. I lol'd.

2B-In the position of the scrub, I nominate this scrub, my surprise pick. Dustin Pedroia. He was perhaps the most massively overrated player that I have ever witnessed. Even Jacoby Ellsbury and his Tyner-esque power can't match his ludicrous hype. Congrats Dustin! You're Marty Barrett! You suck! No stats will be given here as he was theoretically good, but damn, I hate you Pedroia. Seriously though, Ray Durham gets this. Worst starter in baseball last year without a doubt. .218 BA and limited range. I believe he had the lowest BA of any player with 400+ AB's. Barely at that Mendoza Line. At best a backup DH to finish his career.

SS- I've always sort of liked Juan Uribe, the short chubby guy who made himself into a solid power hitting middle infielder. But wow. He's a bad defender, obviously doesn't work out in the offseason, and swings at everything. Plus he has no speed. Not to mention he joined the Stephen Jackson club a few years back, supposedly shooting at someone in the DR.

3B-Wes Helms. 5 hr's for a guy signed for his decent power stroke. Sucks.

OF-Andruw Jones. Do I have to explain this one? I'll give him this. He is probably the fleetest obese person in the world. At the Obesity Olympics, Andruw Jones wins the 100 meter dash. But, the fact remains that he actually is obese. And playing CF. Really, really shallow. And hitting .222. With an obp of .311. So yes. He wins not only the OF position, but the MWP award of 2007.

My Life as a Collecting Virgin

I obviously have way too much time on my hands today, but here goes my third post in about as many hours. The start of baseball season has once again piqued my interest in both collecting and the game itself. To start out, I was just remembering my first experience with card collecting. It was I'd say August '98, I was a chubby, cherubic ten year old at a neighbors birthday party, and as party favors, I received 3 packs of '98 Topps. I pulled Barry Larkin and Chris Stynes, and a love affair began. I started buying packs here and there, and in these days of naive youth, I have to admit I even bought a few of those random cards packaged in unopenable plastic that you kind find in the checkout aisles of Wal-Mart (don't judge, I pulled an A-Rod electric diamond rookie in one of those bastards). My TTM obsession began a few months later, with the help of the internet. Joe Boever popped my TTM collection cherry, with a crisply signed 1990 Donruss. I got his address from an internet white pages. I began in full force in 2000, and my collection exploded. The majority of my successes are still from this between 00-01. However, I had a very rough 2002 Spring Training, got a bit disillusioned, and took a break from collecting, TTM and otherwise, for about 3 years. I started collecting again with a vengeance during my Christmas break of 2005. I found a great trading site, thebenchtrading.com, and it really kickstarted my interest again. My requests have tailed off significantly of late, as I'm away at college, but seeing I'm coming home for good this summer, I can't foresee any reason why I can't retake my position among the collecting elite. Not that I've ever been in the collecting elite, or ever will be, but that sounded cool in my head

I can has winning season, plz?

So, the first week of the 2008 season is nearing an end, and we've seen great performances from the Royals and Nats, a phenomenal debut from Johnny Cueto, and another laughable start out of the gate from Justin Morneau, killing my fantasy teams. Here's to a season of unparalleled parity and competitiveness in baseball,-
Addison

First Post

I signed up for this blog well over a year ago, and I still haven't made a post. Until now. Hopefully I'll make up for my laziness over the next several months. My goal for the summer is to send out a solid 500 TTM requests, a number that I haven't even approached for probably 6 or 7 years now. The semi-real world of college and work is a truly a bitch. I'm also going for a 75% success rate, perhaps a bit of a stretch, but with the internet as my guide, I should be able to filter out most non-signers. I'll be chronicling my successes here as they come in but all scans will be on my site, apkster.googlepages.com, so check them out there. But for now, back to SNY's Mets classics, what a great game. Does anyone else find it hard to remember when Mike Hampton was consistently healthy?