First Pitch: Nanao

Shit, I forgot that I had to do more posts on these First Pitch cards lol.

This card came into my possession a good five years ago thanks to Ryan from This Card Is Cool. It focuses on the time Japanese model/actress Nanao threw the first pitch at the Tokyo Dome in 2010.

Nanao (born Nanao Arai) has been in the modeling business for basically the last decade. Going as far back as when she was a freshman in high school. She did modeling on and off during most of her college years, and then focused on her career around the team she graduated. Her agency started having her do a little bit of acting by appearing in a few commercials, and after she switched to another talent agency she started getting airtime on various TV shows which led to even bigger gigs in movies and radio. The 29 year old model/actress' career looks to still be going strong here in 2017. As she starts to enter her 30's, she's apparently reinvented her career a bit to be this sort of evil-witchy character (mainly from playing a cartoon villain on some Power Rangers-esque show). Or like some cold seductress? I don't know. Whatever she's doing seems to be working quite well for her.

The back features a close up of Nanao's face from the shot on the front, the date of the pitch, some personal information, and a blurb about the pitch.

2010 First Pitch
>March 31st >Nipoon Ham VS Orix
>Tokyo Dome

Nanao [Model]
Born 1988. 10. 28
172cm
From: Saitama Prefecture
Blood Type: O

At this point I should probably start specifying what blood type the people I blog about are (assuming that info is out there at all). You all seem to get a kick out of it.

As for the first pitch commemorated on the card, I can't find any footage of it. At best there are a few photographs of it online, but the card described it as being a ball. That said, I think the card speaks for itself lol. She was scantily clad since this was basically right around her Race Queen era (oh yeah she was a race track girl and was even voted as the best Race Track Queen in 2009) and selling her sex appeal. Was the pitch any good? I wouldn't know, and at the time I doubt anyone was really focusing on that. The best the card can say is that she had good form. Take that for what it's worth.

Interestingly enough she just threw the first pitch again earlier this year, this time with more clothes to allow people (read: men) to focus and actually film it. Looks like it was a decent first pitch.

Alright, two First Pitches down, a few more to go.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

A Modern Statement

Yesterday I visited the MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art. Mainly because I've been trying to grow my appreciation for the fine arts. I've done so in the past by looking at really old pieces of art. Like Greek, Roman, Byzantine Empire era art that gravitated towards sculptures and 3D figures that I'm not sure aren't cursed because they're supposed to be buried underground as part of the tombs they were made for. But the MoMA offers a nice palette change in the form of something more modern.

When I think of modern artistry I tend to think of names like Jackson Pollock and a ton of abstract art that was made in America and France. Well the MoMA had plenty of stuff like that.

If works like One: Number 31, 1950 is up your alley I'm sure you'll like what MoMA has to offer.

At the risk of sounding like a traditionalist, abstract art is something I've yet to really get. Call me philistine but a lot of the time I really find myself struggling to get more than the raw emotion the colors convey. I'm just left in this awkward position where I'm not sure what to think about the artwork and I'm even more unsure of what that says about me.

That said, I'd prefer that whatever I look at not be spoon fed to me either. Thinking a little more about art and what the thoughts say about you and the world is good.

Giorgio de Chirico (Photo Source)

My favorite part of the museum may have been the works by Giorgio de Chirico. He's described his own works as being "metaphysical" and they have their place in art history as the precursors to surrealism.

MoMA describes de Chirico's works as being mysterious and I agree. I stopped and starred at these works for a good while because they were all in this wonderful zone between the familiar and yet different.

His most famous work is probably The Nostalgia of the Infinite. I'm a sucker for works like this. The lighting, the shapes, the shadows, the colors, everything. The tower in the painting is the Mole Antonelliana (located in Turin, Italy), but not knowing that didn't really matter to me when I first saw it. You could very easily swap out the tower with any number of towers located across the entire world and feel some sort of connection with it. I did and I still felt that it was a nice dream-like part of the day where the sun is just at the right angle where everything looks golden. It's also fun to speculate what the two figures may be. Could they be lovers? Brothers? Sisters? Elders? Friends? Who knows? Not even the sky is the limit in a dream.

Of course I didn't get everything. At least not right away. The Song of Love above is something that requires further views for me. I think a smarter approach might be to ask myself questions that a professor I had many years ago said I should ask myself when looking at art.

"How does it make you feel?"

Initial Gut Reaction: WTF?!
Second Reaction: A sense of breakage
Third Reaction: Oh shit, there's a train! YEAH!
Fourth Reaction: How is this a song? Let alone about love? Hmm...

"What do you like most about it?"

Well the train is great. I like how de Chirico incorporated a train into pretty much most of his works of art. The things I said I liked about the Nostalgia of the Infinite is very much true here too. The angles, the lighting, the shapes, the shadows. The fact that it's set in the outdoors and that you can see de Chirico's take on arches.

"Do you find anything disturbing?"

The glove that's nailed to the wall. It wasn't until I did some research for this post that I discovered that rubber gloves have been around since the late 19th century. The disembodied Greek statue head doesn't bother as me as much (since most Greek sculptures are broken today), but I wonder what exactly is the significance of the glove and the head. The ball too.

"Do you sense a prevailing mood or tone?"

All of de Chirico's works are melancholy, so yeah that works. There's this somber sadness to it. I've read that de Chirico's works sometimes reflected the anxiousness and fear that consumed Europe during World War I. I wouldn't be surprised if this one was one of them.
Note: According to the MoMA's official site, it appears as though the artwork is meant to symbolize a war torn Europe.

"How do the colors affect you?"

The shading on the colors seems to really reinforce the melancholy state de Chirico may have been(?) going for. But they're never so dark that the dream like state feels like a nightmare. It's just in that right zone where a dream could shift from being a good dream to a weird dream where your deepest fears and insecurities are there, but the best parts of you are there too. Despite that, the way that this appears to have the darkest shades of various colors out of all of the de Chirico works I saw at MoMA suggests to me that it was meant to be even more sadder than the rest. Like there's a stark contrast in my opinion between the almost golden public space before the tower and just this dark green ball at similar points in the painting.

Hmm, see, this is why I'm the kind of guy who needs to take it slow and look at each work of art carefully. I don't know how other museum goers are managing to figure everything out with just one glance and then moving onto the next thing plastered onto the wall :P.

As much as I'd love to also talk about de Chirico's other works (The Anxious Journey there is another one I really like), I think I'll end it here.

The point is that I had a pretty good time at the MoMA and I hope that I can continue to build on my appreciation of art.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

A Steiner Experience

During my time as an autograph hound collector, one of the things I never really did was go to a signing event where Steiner Sports was involved. Or at least not directly.

Steiner Sports, for those who don't know, is one of the biggest names in the sports memorabilia industry. They have thousands of items from some of the biggest names in sports available for sale, and often do autograph signing events with those very same athletes. They've got/earned a reputation as the company that can be relied upon to sell authentic items and signatures, but they're also really expensive.

For the most part Steiner hosts their signing events at their official store at a mall in New Jersey. That's fine but as a guy who can't get to that mall that easily, I tend to ignore their events.

But Steiner knows it's audience (a consumer base that focuses primarily on sports teams located in New York City), so they do occasionally have events in the city which works better for me.

Which brings me to last night. At a small sports bar that's a few blocks away from Madison Square Garden, there was a Steiner signing event going on. I went.

Woof. I'm glad I did.

The signer was J. T. Miller, a left wing for the New York Rangers. I toiled over what card to get signed (the Young Guns card I ordered never arrived) and I decided to go with his base card from the most recent Upper Deck flagship set. The ink's a bit hard to see on the scan but in person the bronze looks better. This was one of those tricky cards where blue was obviously not going to work so I had to use another color. Some suggested gold but my gold sharpie went MIA and my silver sharpie went dead, so bronze it was! Although in retrospect black would've worked too in the area he signed.

Jonathan Tanner (J. T.) Miller was drafted by the New York Rangers in the first round of the 2011 NHL Player Draft (15th overall). He made his NHL debut a year later but the spent most of the time after that being yo-yo'd up and down between the NHL and AHL (the minors). He did get some playoff experience during his time in the minors and during the 2012-13 season. Miller was up in the big leagues for good by the 2014-15 season and he's been a regular since. Miller's had his fair share of highlights this season and has largely been his usual productive self (he's really good). Which helps since he's due to be a restricted free agent at the end of the season. Whether or not the Rangers keep Miller around remains to be seen (especially with the rest of the impending free agents coming up), but he's making it difficult for Rangers management in a good way.

Back to the signing event, after I met Miller and got his signature, one of the people at his table (probably the rep from Steiner) put the little sticker there on the back. This is to help identify how the item is legitimate on Steiner's database.

This piece of paper was given out to tell us how we can access our certificate of authenticity. Basically you go the website, then type in the code on the hologram sticker.

Boom, there's your online Certificate of Authenticity with the date the item was authenticated and everything.

All in all it was a fairly fun experience. Can't say that I've ever attended a signing event at a bar before (the other patrons must've been really confused) but I can say that I have now. In addition to saying I've gone to a Steiner signing and most importantly of all, that I've gotten an in person autograph of a hockey player now. Although Steiner did live up to their reputation of being pricey, I'm pretty sure my hobby budget is all but spent for the rest of the month and probably January too.

So big thanks to Mr. Miller for the awesome autograph, and good luck tonight against the Anaheim Ducks.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

2017 IP Auto Count: 64

Blast From The Past

Most of you are familiar with my origin story. If you aren't, I blogged about it in detail here.

Long story short, I officially started in 2011. However, it's not like prior to 2011 I never had any baseball cards. I did. I got a handful of NPB cards from my uncle who took me to Dragons games when I was younger. As for my MLB cards I'm not sure how I acquired them (probably as part of random gifts from birthday presents or something), but I did remember having some as a kid. The ones I remember the most are from the following four sets.

One was 2005 Topps Hot Button Baseball. Back in the mid-2000's card companies were still trying to market cards towards kids so there was this set of cards that allowed you to play a video game on some crappy piece of plastic. The first card I pulled from my only pack? Alex Rodriguez.

Another one was 2006 Upper Deck Baseball. Simply because this was the only baseball card commercial I ever saw as a kid. Also because a little Zippy Zappy pulled both a Hideki Matsui base card and Ichiro Suzuki base card from the same pack once. You bet I was excited as heck!

The third was 2005 Topps Series Two. I actually remember how I got this, one of my parents picked up a loose pack for me at CVS and I pulled three Yankees in the pack. The only player of note was Jorge Posada. This one must've been special to me because I think that's the moment where I decided to be an official Yankees fan. Good grief, imagine if I had pulled three Mets (shudders!).

And finally is the brand/product that was very likely the VERY FIRST pack of baseball cards I ever opened, 2004 Upper Deck Power Up. Another mid-2000's set geared towards kids that had a very distinct feature.

The players all had enlarged heads.

I'm still not sure what the reasoning behind this is (bobblehead motif?), but it's an interesting design choice nonetheless. It's the kind that just leaves an impression on you for being so weird. The Posada base above did not come from the few packs of this I remember opening. I'm not sure who I pulled (they've all disappeared) but I think one of them was a Red Sox era Pedro Martinez. Blarg.

In addition to the green base card above there were four parallels. Orange (rare), purple (ultra rare), red (super rare) and blue (mega rare), none of these parallels were numbered.

The backs looked like this. As a set geared towards kids they kept the stats simple (and VERY minimal) while focusing more on the fun facts and the disembodied head.

This is one of the Shining Through inserts. It's very glossy and it's a pink-ish purple-ish color. I remember calling it the medicine color because the hue reminded me of some gross tasting cold medicine I had to drink as a kid. Grape flavor my ass. This insert was not the one I pulled, at the time I pulled a Scott Rolen and a very young Miguel Cabrera.

The back looked like this, this time with more stats, some actual personal info, and a little blurb on the player. All written in a font that wouldn't look out of place on the Rugrats. The portrait picture there is where the disembodied came head from.

This was my favorite insert though, these stickers. You had the Power Up! logo, a nameplate, a team logo (which was huge for young me for some reason), the disembodied head and the bobblehead. I pulled one of these back in the day of Ichiro Suzuki. Young me was thrilled! Also young me was stupid and immediately put the stickers on the little tupperware box he was using to store baseball cards at the time (all 30 of them lol). Older me wonders where it went.

The back of the sticker insert looked like this and now I can address the big elephant in the room that I've been avoiding. What's with those points?

Apparently all of these cards have an allotted amount of points. The base cards are worth 10 points each, the orange parallels are worth 100 points, the purple parallels are worth 250 points, the red parallels are worth 500 points, and the blue parallels are worth 1,000 points. The Shining Through inserts were worth 50 points. Chances are some of you have seem them on the cards themselves.

You may have also noticed the nine digit code on the right hand side of the cards (below the Upper Deck logo). You apparently went to a part of the Upper Deck website where you were able to input those codes and create a team. You can partially see what the page for Power Up! looked like on WayBack Machine here. The team with the most points in a given period of time were able to win prizes (I'm guessing it was either a free song on iTunes or a Ken Griffey Jr. autograph).

Basically all you really needed to do to win was to have nine of those blue parallels. Good luck with that though, Baseballcardpedia put their odds of being pulled at 1:240 packs, which in turn means that the blues were only inserted in one out of every 10 boxes (each box had 24 packs each). Damn. They're still rare as shit now because there are only like two or three of them up on eBay. Mostly going for way more than any sane person would offer.

In doing research for this post I discovered two interesting things about Power Up! That they made a Power Up! set for football, and that there was a "kit" released where you got a special binder to store the cards that came with one pack and two sticker cards. Don't get excited though, the binder doesn't look like your typical three ring-nine pocket binder, it looks like something specially made just for this in which you can only see one card in full and the rest are hidden in pockets. I am seriously debating whether to pick one up for myself TBH.

I never did the online challenge (I was just a bit too young to start wasting my time online back then), but if I had I imagine that I'd have a lot of fun and be really disappointed everytime my team lost because some rich kid (or a grown adult?) had their parents buy them entire boxes of this stuff.

Huh, funny how a lot of the products that meant something to me have been game oriented. Power Up!, Hot Button Baseball, Konami Powerful, Topps Attax, and of course...

Anyway, thanks for joining me on this post where I was actually able to dive back into my childhood for once. I thought that was just reserved for people who were actually collectors as kids but I guess not.

As always thanks for stopping by :).

Take care.

Super Duper Size

So when I blogged about the 5x7 Topps cards of Luis Torrens I acquired, I received a comment from Once A Cub who told me that Topps also sold 10x14 sized posters of the 2017 flagship cards.

Naturally I was crushed. For one thing, who the hell wants a 10x14 card? For another thing, those fuckers are expensive.

And being the idiot that I am I bought one.

The Black Friday sale allowed me to get the base card above for half off (which was later made up by shipping fees and state taxes).

The base version is limited to 99 copies and actually handwritten on the lower left hand corner.

The back is blank. And in a way I'm disappointed. I often ignore backs because Topps sure doesn't care about them, but in this case I would've liked to see them print the back too.

And naturally I put the 10x14 with it's brethren, in order you can see the 10x14, the 5x7, the standard size and the mini. Unfortunately I don't have the mini base yet so the blue parallel will have to be the placeholder for now.

I've talked shit about the card a lot this post but it was all worth it to see what these different sizes look all together.

There is another parallel of this 10x14, a gold 1/1. I did briefly think of getting it but it's price (even at 50% off) is insane. Like, seriously, I have a limit for how much I'm willing to spend on a card if it's not autographed, let alone if it's hard as shit to store. And that's before we get to the opportunity cost.

Still though, if I weren't so burnt out by parallels and these varying sizes I'd totally be all in on a revival of Topps Micro so that the mini has a card to hold. Oh no, I just gave Topps an idea didn't I? What have I done?!

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).