Quite a few months ago I received another large package from Duane at Democratic Roadkill. This is probably the 2nd or 3rd time that we have traded. He always sends me a huge collection of cards, most of them Allen and Ginter. This time was no different; as you can see from the above photo he obliterated my want lists for the 2011 A&G set. Duane usually sends over some cool, random Mets cards from vintage to present, but I'm going to focus on the A&G stuff this time out.
If you didn't already know, Duane is quite the Ginteraholic. More so than me. I thought I could out Ginter him, but nobody can out Ginter the master. From what I can tell from his blog he is basically putting together master sets of all the Allen and Ginter offerings and doing a much better job than I. He's been showing off his rip card collections as of late.
Most people are probably sick of 2012 and 2013 A&G, but this is 2011 A&G so maybe you guys will like the rediscovery.
Anyway, here we go:
Here's a video of Tim "Livewire" Shieff for you to get an idea of what this guy does. I watched it with the sound off, so it could have language that is NSFW. The sound does matter unless you can hear his ankles shattering. At least I'm assuming they're shattering, my ankles and knees hurt just from watching the video.
A few examples of the short prints that Duane sent over. Vermillion is the only person that I haven't heard of.
I didn't realize that Brett Anderson was an Okie. Both his and Matt Holliday's dads were both OSU baseball coaches. This is Bedlam week in Oklahoma; the rivalry game between OU and OSU so these cards fit my mindset this week. With the way OU is playing on offense (badly!) and they way OSU is playing on defense (pretty good) this could be crappy end to the football season for us Okies, I might have to avoid the internet for a while and seek solace in my trading cards.
The Animals in Peril mini set is nice. A little depressing I guess, but informational. Who knows, maybe a baseball card collector can some how turn the tide and help out some of these animals. Maybe influence a young person to go into agriculture?
The sketch cards are always nice. I like them because I have an interest in art and drawing myself. The Twins card is a little odd in that it is a drawing of a drawing.
The David Wright card commemorates his being the youngest Met to reach 1,000 career hits. This game was played on 4.27.2010. According to the internet this was a game with the Dodgers and the Mets actually won the game! With a 79-83 record maybe that should have been the highlight instead.
The Texas flag on Cliff Lee's jersey looks odd in black and white. The hat logo also looks out of place in B&W. I guess the artist wanted to bring more focus to the player's faces. The rest of the drawing isn't completely desaturated; the red piping on the catcher's gear is present. It just seems like those logos would really make the whole drawing stand out more.
The one thing I like about these Worlds Most Mysterious minis from 2011 is that they continue the design on the back. I don't know much about design terminology, so let me show you what I'm talking about.
The World's most Mysterious Figures have this name plate, right?
....and Topps continued the same style of nameplate on the back of the card and just elongated it to hold the text and they added some curly q's. I think the correct term is strikes or keys, but I usually call them curly q's. But it's still the same basic shape.
I don't think they usually do that even for A&G. Since I haven't bought a lot of 2012 or 2013 A&G maybe they do now. I just found it interesting at the time. Up to this point I'm pretty sure the inserts all had a different border on the fronts and backs.
Some people might call that laziness; I call it continuity.
One insert set that I really liked was the Step Right Up set. From what I can remember reading on the blogs a lot of people really liked this set. It's colorful and who doesn't like a circus?
The subject matter is cool, but the design of the card fronts is what really drew me in. The background/border is really cool. The font on the bottom is nice. I'm no font nerd, but it actually reminds me of the Oklahoma font that I've seen online. I'm sure their are many variations of fonts and they all have different names, but that's what I've always heard it called.
A blogging legend makes an appearance on the Portraits in Penultimate set: Mr. Mike Gellner.
I'm spacing out on what the name of his blog was. I'm pretty sure it was named after his kid (the little dude in the photo).
Thanks for the cards, Duane. If you all have a chance go over and check out the dude's want list/trade list and help a guy out!
Thanks for reading!
