Tim Carroll is not your regular artist. Rather than relying on an easel, palette, paintbrush and canvas his favorite medium is baseball cards. He’s also been known to use such items as rubber stamps, fake $100 bills, and black socks. His artwork usually portrays sports figures but he’s also done pieces on Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln.
Two of the cards he produced artwork of are cards that I mentioned in my blog on Rookie Cards. Neither of which are cards I own sadly. One is, of course, Mickey Mantle’s 1952 Topps card and the other is Ken Griffey Jr.’s 1989 Upper Deck RC. As with all of his pieces replicating famous cards, these are made by cutting up thousands of old, baseball cards and pasting them onto the canvas. Somehow Tim Carroll has the vision to know how to do this in a way that his final product comes out looking eerily like the card he’s going for.

If anyone thinks it’s a shame that he’s ruining old cards you can let your mind rest. These are cards produced in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Cards which neither have value nor can be expected to appreciate due to the volume at which they were produced. In fact, the only way they might appreciate is if more people start destroying them.

When it comes to sports, Carroll doesn’t only focus on baseball. (He is like this blog in that regard. Mostly baseball but can branch into anything.) He has done Joe Namath, Jerry Rice, and Muhammad Ali.

Some of his artwork is commissioned but most is the product of inspiration. If you have a project you would like to talk to him abut undertaking you can reach him at timcarrollart@yahoo.com. He clearly takes a lot of pride in his work and if I could afford it I’d commission an Eric Davis piece. I just don’t know what card I would want to replicate.

So Marcus Jordan wore Nikes instead of Adidas basketball shoes in the University of Central Florida’s game against St. Leo University on Thursday. Adidas responded by canceling their 3 million dollar endorsement deal with UCF. Personally I think it’s the right move by Marcus. His dad and Nike have always had a great relationship and their Air Jordan shoe has been extremely profitable for years now. The shoe itself is legend. How could anyone expect the son of Mr. Air Jordan himself to wear the rival basketball shoe? These two don’t have a Prince and Cecil Fielder relationship. Marcus Jordan wants to wear the shoe that bears his fathers name. I think this he has that right. And to those who think he’s hurting his program, well let’s get something straight. Marcus was told when he was being recruited that he would be allowed to wear Nikes. It wasn’t until he arrived that he began being pressured to wear Adidas. So the program got what was coming to them.

Kind of as an aside here, but when I read blogs I want to read about facts interjected with opinion. When I read mainstream, conventional news I want straight facts. I’m not alone in this right? Well look at how this article ends:

The fact that UCF put Marcus ahead of the entire team, allowing him to bend the rules and ultimately cost the school some hefty losses in funding sets a very dangerous precedent.

Hopefully his father Michael Jordan has a good week gambling and will offer to pay back the school all the money his son just lost them.

Uhhhh are you serious? That ending would be perfectly fine in a blog, but I didn’t think this was a blog. Then again the article is credited to an author named “Julie”. No last name. So what is this? The mainstream media’s response to the blogosphere? A sort of in between? I wouldn’t mind an “in between” if it involved someone breaking news and then providing the reader with an opinion and if it were open about the fact that it was taking more of an opinionated, bloggish approach. This looks like a newspaper article. But maybe it is a blog. A search of “The Cleveland Leader” on wikipedia takes you to “The Plain Dealer (newspaper)”. But after a quick scan of The Cleveland Leader website I don’t see anything about The Plain Dealer, so at this point I’m just confused. Anyone care to clear this up for me?

Oh no! the Yankees won the World Series! That was my expected reaction, and I still would have greatly preferred to see the Phillies win over the Evil Empire. But, I think the better team won here. I think we saw some great baseball from both sides and I think the fans won in this World Series. Here’s why I say that.

• Chase Utley of “Boo? F*ck You” lore – 5 HR – 1.048 SLG – 1.448 OPS

• Derek Jeter – .407 BA – Just another great series for Jeter and even though I dislike the Yankees I enjoy seeing Jeter excel.

• Cliff Lee – Complete Game 1 with no Earned Runs – Great game 5 marred by the 8th inning when he was ridden too long.

• Hideki Matsui – .615 BA which was good for the third highest in WS history behind some guy you may know, Babe Ruth who hit .625 in 1928 and that incredible athlete we all know and love Billy Hatcher who hit a whopping .750 for my favorite team from a given year, the 1990 Cincinnati Reds – 8 RBI, 6 of which came in the final game.

• Alex Rodriguez – For the first time since 1999 A-Rod failed to appear in the All- Star game. Yet he wins his first World Series. In the steroid era, I may lose respect for a guy who doped but I won’t wish the worst on him, and it’s nice to see him finally get a ring.

• Mariano Rivera – I love the Sandman in the postseason, except for the fact that I hate him. He is always cementing his legacy and it’s awesome to watch. 5 1/3 IP with no earned runs and two more saves. Brilliant as always. I feel like I’m watching history any time he’s pitching in the World Series.

• Overall pitching performances – This series was a great exhibition of high performance pitchers doing what they’re paid to do. Burnett had a great game 2, Sabathia was quite good, Damaso Marte pitched 2 2/3 innings with no hits and no walks, Chan Ho Park pitched 3 1/3 innings with no earned runs.

So, sure the Yankees won this one. I’m not going to fail to see that we had a great World Series just because that one aspect of it went wrong.

I’m the last person that would ever stand up and demand the silencing or censoring of criticism. When you pretend to be a journalist sometimes, you simply can’t think that way.

But if my buddies on facebook were using my wall to give me shit and tear me down, they wouldn’t be around for long. Facebook is supposed to be like the therapist’s couch—a safe place where you can communicate to an audience that really doesn’t give a damn.

Unless of course, your name is Kevin Durant.

KD, as he will be henceforth referred to, has one of the best Twitter streams around. He’s candid and personable. These tweets are replicated on his facebook page, and the comments come in droves. Negativity isn’t a surprise, but it shouldn’t be a given either. If I were him, I wouldn’t put up with it.

That OT loss to the Lakers had to be draining as hell, emotionally and physically. Then, he takes on a bigger burden of responsibility than he needs to because he understands who he is and what he means to the Thunder and the NBA, and it turns into a platform on which to ridicule him. If it doesn’t seem fair, it’s because it’s not.

This is fair. This is cruel but fair. Wang’s comment is pointless and mean, and Talbert’s is worse. I don’t care if that is the approved version of the N-word,  it’s the same, intolerable word.

You can rip KD on the Thunder website, on any given sports story and on this blog or any other. But he, and other celebrities bold enough to put themselves on facebook and Twitter without hiding behind a P.R. buffoon should have the same expectation of support that you and I have.

I won my first “true” 1/1 on eBay yesterday. The card is a 2008 Topps Triple Threads Josh Anderson with an autograph, 2 games used jersey swatches and a patch piece. Serial numbered 1/1 of course. I just recently started my Josh Anderson PC and it has been growing pretty quickly. I haven’t found a lot of competition and was surprised that I was forced to pay $32 for this card.

Although I’m obviously excited about this card and it will be a cornerstone of my Josh Anderson I’ve got to say that it’s not quite as cool as the concept. If you told me when I was 11 years old that there would be a baseball card made and only one of it existed, and I would come to be the only one in the world who owned it, well I would’ve thought that I was gonna be rich someday. I would’ve thought “Wow, someday I’ll own the world’s most exclusive and sought after card!”

Due to the current nature of the hobby and the saturation of cards serial numbered 1/1, owning such a rare card is basically just a really nice thing. It’s something to be happy about and something you can show off to other collector’s but acquiring it is not a breathtaking achievement. The only question is… Is this a bad thing? It has certainly KILLED off the notion that a completionist can come in and collect his player and get every card of that guy ever made. That idea is dead. (Now watch some wealthy dude prove me wrong just for the sake of it). So those completionists are (or were) pretty distraught. It has changed the face of collecting a player. I personally do not think it is a change for the worse. Because of this we will never be done collecting our players. There is always that 1/1 out there, and not only that but probably 250 different cards serial numbered to 25 or less but mmore than 1. Obviously that number will vary widely depending on the stature of who you are pursuing, but the point is the same. The completionist is done because of the 1/1. The 1/1 is regarded with much less reverence than one might expect because of the quantities of different 1/1’s. Two negatives to be sure. But I think it’s all worth it, because if 1/1’s were as rare as they “ought” to be, I would certainly never own one. Now I do. And there are a whole lot more I can still get.

I won’t even be able to call this a “review” of this movie. When you’re gushing about something it’s hard to feel like you’re giving an objective opinion. Spike Jonze take’s Maurice Sendak’s simple children’s book and brings it to life with characters that look exactly like they’ve come out of the page. Then you hear them speak, and for those of you who grew up reading the book their soft voices may not seem quite right. But as the characters develop and the story progresses you come to realize it’s flawless. These Wild Things represent the hurt, depression, sadness, loneliness and feelings of insignificance we all sometimes feel.

Our hero Max knows all of these feelings and he just wants to make everyone “O-K”. The Wild Things feel depressed and lost and are just searching for someone to make it right. I hate spoilers and won’t say too much about the actual story, but the emotion captured in the movie is real. Every person who dares to believe they’re human has to feel something while watching these characters learn about life and about who they are.

I came in with high hopes but my expectations were tempered by the fact that Where The Wild Things Are is a very short story. I wasn’t sure how a full length feature film could be made based on the book, without a terrible dismemberment of the simplicity of the story. But Spike Jonze accomplished that. This movie has no goofy plot twists and no gimmicky hooks to keep one riveted. It was pure, simple perfection and it’s greatness cannot be overstated. Every one of us has a little bit of Max in us and it’s comforting to find that we’re not alone.

A link to this auction was posted on Pat Neshek’s forum. The item is supposed to be a game-used, corked bat used by Brewers legend and Hall of Famer Robin Yount. I for one won’t pass any sort of judgement based on this one piece of evidence suggesting Yount was a “cheater”. For one, even though they have very good reason to believe the bat was used by Yount extensively, it’s still not like they took the bat right out of his hands and caught him red-handed. I don’t know much about the process of corking a bat, but theoretically couldn’t it have been done after he retired the bat? I’m not saying I think that’s the case either. I’m just saying their are too many possibilities to brand Yount a cheater.

I’ll include the text in it’s entirety due to the fact that this is from an auction site and the page may expire.

This is a 1983-85 Robin Yount Louisville Slugger Professional Model Game Used Corked Bat. This bat dates to the 1983-85 period based on the Louisville Slugger centerbrand period, and the Louisville Slugger factory records, which indicate that Yount ordered the P72C 35″ no finish model bat during the entire 1983-85 centerbrand period. There are several orders of this model bat, made by Baseball Promotions, but based on the distinct ball marks and grain separation present along the top of the barrel, this bat has been attributed to one of the orders, which was sent to Yount himself. This P72C (Cupped Barrel) model bat currently weighs 34.4 ounces and measures 35 inches in length.

This bat exhibits heavy use with ball marks present on all sides of the barrel, but the majority of use visible along the top of the barrel as evidenced by the compressed grains. Blue ball marks, black bat rack marks adorn the barrel of this bat. Yount’s jersey number, 19, appears in black marker on both the knob and barrel end of the bat. The very interesting part of this bat, and what makes it special is the apparent corking, a trait banned by MLB rules, visible inside of the cupped barrel end, which slightly distorts the jersey number 19. The knob of this bat also has 1992 written on it in red ink, which indicates the date that this bat was obtained by a local Milwaukee collector.

Yount was a lifelong Brewer beginning his career with the Brewers in 1974, only a season after being drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers out of High School. Young ended up playing 20 years for the Milwaukee Brewers organization racking up 3,142 and 251 Home Runs during his career while hitting .285. Yount obtained many accolades during his career including 3 All-Star Game Selections, 1 Golden Glove Award, 3 Silver Slugger Awards, 2-time American League MVP, and an American League Championship. He was a first ballot Hall of Fame selection in 1999 with 77.5% of the vote. He now appears in the Hall of Cooperstown along with some of other greatest in Major League Baseball history.

This bat grades out at the MEARS A9 grade with five points for the base grade, three points for heavy use, one point for the documented uniform number on the knob, and no point deductions.

This should be a reminder to everyone that cheating in baseball has been around since baseball began. Guys hid baseballs in tall outfield grass to “get to the ball” quicker. Guys ran from first to third when the ump wasn’t looking. Guys were taking greenies in the 70s.That’s not to say that the steroid era is ok for the game and it’s not to say that we should give up on baseball and it’s history of cheating. It’s just to say, it is what it is. Take it or leave it. Certainly everyone who can should do their part to stop cheaters from being successful, but we shouldn’t demonize cheaters. This whole steroid era shouldn’t be looked at as a dark age for baseball. It’s an era with an ugly side. But some wonderful baseball has also been played over the last 15 years. A lot of fond memories come from players who were on PEDs. Sadly we’ll probably find out that some of those memories from clean players… aren’t from clean players at all. It is what it is. We can hate it, we can fight it. But we shouldn’t let it change our perception of the game of baseball.

Brand New is probably my all-time favorite band. Their only competition if from Taking Back Sunday and their last CD was pretty watered down. When I first heard The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me I wasn’t too blown away. I didn’t even go out and buy the CD. Then I went to their show. It was amazing and I regretted not being more familiar with their new stuff. After that show I listened to Brand New for probably 6 weeks straight. Fast forward a few years and out comes Daisy. I actually tried to buy this the day it came out. But I went to Target and apparently it’s not being sold in stores like Target or Wal-Mart. So I finally gave in and bought the CD today on iTunes. I wanted the actual CD but they are playing Saturday and I’m not going to make the mistake I made last time.

So I’ve listened to Daisy a few times today and nothing really jumps out at me. A lot of the sounds we’re familiar with from the last Brand New CD, a little more screaming, the usual biblical references and definitely not watered-down. But I’m not hearing much in the way of melodic music. Not only that but a few of the songs have annoying intros and outros. At the beginning of Vices and end of Noro, for instance, we hear a woman singing reminiscent of the scene in Saving Private Ryan before the Germans attack a paratrooper outpost in the town of Ramelle in an attempt to capture a bridge over the Merderet River. It works for the movie. Works great. On this CD it’s annoying to the point of frustrating. I just want to hear Vices. Am I supposed to sing along to that? It’s distracting and difficult to skip. Then at the end of Noro I just want to get to the next song.

At The Bottom is the only song that jumps out as song that you don’t need time to appreciate. It’s immediately fun and catchy and you can imagine it’d be great in concert. The other songs tend to drag a little bit. However, no band can make a dragging song sound great better than Brand New can. So, I’m hoping that with a little exposure these other songs will start standing out more. Only after more time would I go as far as to say that I don’t like the CD. But I am kind of disappointed.

The Cleveland Indians are taking the same approach to rebuilding as the Washington Nationals took before the 2007 season. Manny Acta will be manning the helm for 2010 and the Indians were so excited to acquire him and his 158-252 record that they didn’t even go ahead with their scheduled interview of Don Mattingly. To add to the craziness the Astros tried to get Acta but (to my relief) he turned down their offer.

So I must be missing something. I don’t know much about Acta other than that he hasn’t been able to win at the big league level. I suppose you could say he hasn’t had the tools but the Nationals were a collection of major league players (with players like Adam Dunn, Ryan Zimmerman and Austin Kearns). 26-61 with any group of major leaguers is a poor showing. I figure he must be quite the salesman and he knows how to market himself. Also that article mentioned that he’s bilingual and he’s into sabermetrics. Those make for two nice bulletin points on a resume but apparently don’t translate into a winner.

Normally a random story about a recent murder wouldn’t show up on this blog. But this is too awful to be ignored. Not only does this guy, Ofelio Antonio Otero, shoot his 17 year old son, but the kid is trying to run away when he is gunned down.

Otero then began arguing with 17-year-old Ignacio A. Otero about the game, as he began loading his gun, authorities said.

“The son then proceeds to try and knock the gun away and then he runs away,” Silva said.

As the teen was running, the father allegedly fired one shot, striking his son in the neck, before fleeing the apartment on foot, police said.

For some reason I don’t see this getting the press that a lot of murders get. But I don’t understand why not. Media outlets love a good bloody story, but this one lacks a pretty, white, female victim so I’m thinking it won’t have the legs that it would if it weren’t lacking in that department.

That aside, I just don’t understand how the guy not only shoots his son. But this wasn’t even in the middle of a struggle. The kid was running for his life and this sick bastard shoots him in the neck. That’s sickening. I recently read that a study has come out showing how getting rid of the death penalty could “save US millions“. For a second I was actually intrigued. But this is a stark reminder that not everything should come down to dollars. This guy needs to die. Reform the death penalty system if we need to save money. Or I bet someone could do a study to find “millions of ways to save US millions!” Ways that cut irresponsible spending as opposed to cutting out an important financial burden.

Sadly I’m probably just dreaming. Irresponsible spending is here to stay. If you don’t believe me take a trip with me. The National Debt Road Trip.