One of the best ways to distract yourself from jet-lag is... honestly I don't know. If I find one I'll let you know. But in the meantime I tried doing so by going to a baseball game.
I went to a SIY game the day before I went to Japan and the day after I came back from Japan. SIY knows me well. Too well. I'm scarred.
Autographs
This Jacob Sanford here is part of the 2019 Top Prospects set. A set that was released later than usual to accommodate for first overall pick Adley Rutschman. Only for said Rutschman to be promoted to Delmarva before the All Star Game anyway, making the whole thing pointless. But I digress.
Sanford's showing some nice power and contact this year since turning pro and it should be fun to see how big of a step he takes next year in Charleston.
Next up is an autograph from Kyle Stowers. Stowers was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the Competitive Balance Round B (CBB) of the 2019 MLB Player Draft. He's a corner outfielder with nice power for a left-handed hitter, with some solid speed and contact skills to boot. Although he's slowed down a bit here in August, the sky is still the limit with him and it should be interesting to see if he can crack the Orioles' top 10 prospects list next season.
Finally my last autograph was courtesy of hitting coach Ken Joyce. Mr. Joyce's coaching career spans decade and started in the 90's. He's been a coach in multiple orgs (professional and collegiate) and has experience out the ying yang. Hopefully he can help the SI Yanks really start to hit with some consistency as the season wraps up, as the team is in a competitive race for either a wild card or the playoffs.
The Game
The game itself yesterday was fine outside of the outcome. The Yankees lost to the Ironbirds 1-0 (BOX). Sucks. The pitching was great but the Yankees hitters just couldn't muster enough offense. It's especially worse because the Yankees are in a heated battle for the division (or a Wild Card spot), and Aberdeen is one of the teams they have to beat. Because Aberdeen is one of those teams in it for the division/playoff spot too. The only thing ideal about this game was that it clocked in at about 2 hours and 24 minutes. Efficient!
And that was my latest SIY game. The weather's starting to cool off and summer is ending. You can feel it in the air. Hmm, not too crazy about that.
Hello friends, I am tired again. I just came back from a quick trip to Japan. Unfortunately it wasn't the fun touristy type of trip where you cram a summer's worth of thrills and frills in a week, it was more of the family emergency variety. At the risk of spewing my problems onto you all like this is a blog or something, everything that could go wrong (outside of the flights to and back from Japan) did go wrong. I basically came back worried about both the short term and long term repercussions of my inability to get anything done during the week or so I was there.
It wasn't all doom and gloom though. This short little trip gave me just enough time to hit up the three surviving card shops in Nagoya, Japan. Which proved to be a nice distraction from what was going on in my family life. As well as one final stack of cards my 2011-self left for my current self to reclaim. You'll see the goods in future installments of 3 cards (which just got some more material), but in the meantime here's a preview.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).
So at the end of 2018 I was on a huge music kick. Most of my blogging material near the end of the year focused on music, that's a bonafide fact.
Here in August, 2019 I'm not in the same frame of mind as I was a few months ago. I've been putting in a lot of work/effort into my 3 cards posts and other such card related things. But I still did want to talk about CD's some more.
As the title of this post suggests it's about the CD's I brought over from Japan. I wish I could go over all of them but that would make for a bloated post that I have no interest in writing. So I'm just going to share my personal highlights.
The Killers' Hot Fuss
Getting reunited with one of my favorite albums ever is a treat. BTW, this is the Japanese edition which means that it comes with a cool alternative jacket and bonus tracks.
Most of The Hives' discography
I already had Lex Hives with me stateside, what I didn't have were the albums that preceded it.
Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited
This is the only new CD I bought during my time in Japan. Unfortunately the CD case got cracked on the way back (the CD itself is still fine though). Oh well. Adds character in my book.
N.W.A's The Best of N.W.A: The Strength of Street Knowledge
The first rap CD I ever bought. True story.
Gorillaz's Plastic Beach
Loved this album. Loved this whole concept. Love the physical model Gorillaz and the team behind them made for this thing. It's all so fucking cool.
Good Charlotte's Good Morning Revival
I went through an embarrassingly long Good Charlotte craze back in my freshman year of high school. Though I don't regret it as much today since I still find the songs they made to be major earworms and good ones at that.
Three Days Grace's One-X
Three Days Grace were a post-grunge, alternative rock band and this album was right when they were at the peak of their popularity. Former lead singer Adam Gontier doles out his insecurities and his issues with drug addiction in a lot of the songs.
The Used's Artwork
Meant To Die was a real genuine banger for me when I first heard it.
Ya Boy's Rookie of the Year
Ya Boy is a rapper from San Francisco who's been on the hip hop scene for a while. He put a bunch of mixtapes in the mid-to-late 2000's and was seen as one of the west coast's best up and coming talents. This is his debut album and has features from several Bay Area acts of note like San Quinn, Messy Marv and E-40.
Clyde Carson's Bass Rock EP
Clyde Carson was/is a member of the Bay Area rap trio The Team, but he's also had some success as a solo rapper. If memory serves some of his songs got used for Hyphy Juice commercials.
I actually brought a few more back with me but they've either since been put into future trade packages or have been sold off. Sometimes I reminisce on my old CD collection, but then I remember that that pile of plastic was heavy and not nearly as easy to sell as it was to buy and thank Steve Jobs for bringing the world iTunes.
So those were a little infusion of my past self's CD collection into my current one.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).
So after my trip to Japan I brought back a big stack of cards. There were so many cards in that stack that I had no idea where to start when blogging about them. So instead of condensing them all into a big post (which most of you will only read a quarter of), I decided to blog about them at a rate of three cards at a time. Maybe some of them will make for interesting material, maybe they won't. Let's find out.
Card #1
Alright, starting off this edition will be a postcard sent to me a while ago from NPB Card Guy.
NPBCG obtained this postcard of Shigeru Sugishita's Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame plaque for me during his trip to Japan. I've talked about the God of Forkballs a lot (and will continue to do so) so my initial plan was to translate the plaque. But then I found that translating it word for word would be difficult because everything on here looks a big run-on sentence. So instead here's my best "paraphrase" of what the plaque says.
After venturing through Teikyo High (School) and Meiji University, (he) entered the Chunichi org in year 24 of the Showa Era (1949). With his unique forkball and fastball he dominated and became one of the best in an era of Professional Baseball (read: NPB). Especially in (Showa) 29 (1954) when he had a standout season that also led to his club's first title in which it won its first Central League championship and then the Japan Series championship. That accomplishment in itself is praise worthy. From (Showa) year 34 (1959) and onward he coached/managed for Chunichi, Daimai, Hanshin and Kyojin.
Oof, that was a lousy translation job on my part. Though the fact that I couldn't tell what some characters were didn't help.
Here's the back. It just says 1985 HoF Entrant Sugishita Shigeru-shi (Mr.) Relief
As well as that it's the Japanese HoF and also lists the address for the museum.
Thanks again for the card NPB Card Guy.
Card #2
Back to the Dragons team-exclusive cards. This Road to Victory kinda became a very apt name for this set as this was the year the Dragons look to win their first Nippon Series title since 1954. They instead got stomped by the Nippon Ham Fighters. Though they'd enact their revenge by winning it all in 2007 against those very same Fighters.
Oh right, these came out in 2006 BTW. This is different from the previous stadium goodies I showed in that it's basically just a regular card with your typical card back info (except for stats). This one goes more trivia facts like how his sign is a Virgo, how his favorite car is his BMW, how his blood type is A, among other trivia facts like his first game/hit/home run. Based on how all of these things were said to be as of March 1st (of 2006) and how there's a bit about what Araki himself expects from himself this season, these might've been pre-season goodies.
Card #3
Hitoki Iwase is the Japanese Mariano Rivera. He holds the record for most saves (among other stats) all time in the NPB after decades of dominance.
The back of this is more standard. Only unlike the last scratch-off card I showed (which was God-knows how long ago), this one made it so that if you got three Doalas and that day happened to be a Tuesday, you'd get a signed shikishi by a player. If you don't know what a shikishi is, I wrote a post about it a while ago. Meanwhile if you got three Doalas on a Thursday you'd get an iron-on patch. Hmmm, the gap between those two prizes seem very wide to me.
Back to some music for today. Also back to some recommendations from my friends in high school.
Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion
As far as indie stuff went this was a lot easier to get into for me when I was a dumb stoner in high school. Though the crushing length of these songs would kill me.
Favorite Song on Merriweather Post Pavillion: Daily Routine
Arcade Fire's Funeral
As a high school kid this kinda flew over my head. Then one day I sat down to read into the lyrics and I found that I enjoyed this album a lot. It's as indie-rock as they came in the mid-2000's so this was spared from being paired up with some sort of gizmo in a commercial.
Another band my friend moved on from immediately. The songs on this are often short and don't overstay their welcome. It's a neat and concise album. I'd recommend it for sure.
Keane's a British band that my indie-rock listening/Pitchfork reading friend liked but then dropped like a rock not long after. Somehow I ended up with two of their albums. There's some good stuff in here but I wouldn't exactly call anything on these two as being... distinct.
Favorite Song on Perfect Symmetry: Better Than This
Favorite Song on Under The Iron Sea: Crystal Ball
Franz Ferdinand's You Could Have It So Much Better
Back in the day "Take Me Out" and "Do You Wanna" were two of my favorite songs. Then I realized that the rest of this band's discography is painfully mediocre.
Kanye West's The College Dropout, Graduation & My Dark Twisted Beautiful Fantasy
Three of Kanye West's greatest albums ever. Regardless what you think of Kanye as a person (trust me, I know), dude's never really made what I'd consider to be a bad album. All of these are pretty amazing albums that really broke through and set the wheels in motion for more neurotic, introspective narratives in hip hop. Which I'll happily take.
Thanks to the internet KOHH blew up in a big way, even among American hip hop heads, back in 2017. He was initially described as the Japanese Chief Keef but over time he's shown that he's a lot more (in that there's no American rapper like him). He's released five albums and they're all pretty good.
Favorite Song on Monochrome: No Sleep (couldn't find a YouTube video)
Favorite Song on 梔子: 飛行機
The Chemical Brothers' We Are The Night
Hell yes. Now this album is extremely my shit. Very upbeat, lots of fun electronica abound.
Back in high school I thought this album was boring. Fast forward to today and I think it's slow and just not for me. Is that better? I don't know. What I do know is that I'm done giving this album chances.
Favorite Song on Veckatimest: None.
New Order's Get Ready & International
Get Ready is New Order's first album released in the 21st century while International is a compilation. So yeah we're not exactly dealing with the albums that made them such big deals in the 80's and 90's, but there's some nice stuff here too.
Favorite Song on Get Ready: 60 Miles An Hour
Favorite Song on International: Regret (note, it's hard to pick just one but damn is the groove on this fucking tight)
The Enemy's We'll LiveAndDie In These Towns
The Enemy were a UK rock band that made some really enjoyable melancholy songs on this album.
Sufjan Stevens' Come On Feel The Illinoise! & The Age Of Adz
I'm torn on how to feel about Stevens' music. I like a lot of it. I also don't care for the rest. I guess that's natural, but for whatever reason the gap between his good stuff and stuff I don't find as good is really wide in my mind. I don't know, I think I'm just not the type of listener who can handle albums with long songs.
Hey a Japanese rock band. Well sort've. This is Lands, a temporary band that was made exclusively to promote the Japanese film "Bandage" which features a fictional band. The vocalist is former Japanese idol Jin Akanishi (formerly of the boy band KAT-TUN), and pretty much all of the songs are produced by Takeshi Kobayashi (a producer/lyricist/composer/everything) who was tasked with making songs for the movie. It's pretty experimental and I kind of like it. I certainly liked it more than most of Akanishi's work with KAT-TUN and a lot more than his solo work after KAT-TUN.
Favorite Song on Olympos: Bandage (the groove is a killer)
The Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin
My first introduction to The Flaming Lips was off of the song they had on the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie soundtrack. Don't laugh, that soundtrack had some legitimately good acts on it and some songs that have stuck around (mostly as memes). My friend heard me list the Flaming Lips as one of the bands on this CD and said "you need to listen to their albums" and told me to start with this. The lazy bum that I am never bothered to venture forward.
Aklo is a half-Japanese/half-Mexican rapper whose stuff is pretty tight. Night crisp flows and usually accompanied by nice beats.
Favorite Song on The Arrival: RGTO (Feat. SALU, H. TEFLON, K DUB & SHINE)
Okay I think that FINALLY wraps up the albums I got from my main high school era music buddies. They gave me a mountain of good music that took me forever to get through (I'm still trying to get through all that indie rock!). So with that...
Everyone Else
It's not like the rest of my friends/classmates didn't like music. It's just that they weren't hitting up record stores like I was every other day. But they gave me some interesting recommendations too.
Kaiser Chiefs' Yours Truly Angry Mob
RUBY RUBY RUBY RUBY
DO YA DO YA DO YA DO YA
Favorite Song on Yours Truly, Angry Mob: Ruby (duh)
Dope's American Apathy
This is an album that left me stunned. And I don't mean that in a "they're so artsy that I don't know how to react" way. More like how I'm flummoxed at how I can say I've heard a nu-metal cover of "F*** the Police" now.
Drunken Tiger is Korean hip hop group that often credited as pioneers in the Korean hip hop scene and are responsible for really bringing genre into the Korean market. This album didn't spare any expenses as it has a lot of notable names including the God MC himself, Rakim, as well as Japanese rapper ZEEBRA somehow. It's a two disc set and pretty fun, even though I can't understand the language at all.
Favorite Song on Feel Good Side: Jet Pack (Korean Version)
Favorite Song on Feel Hood Side: Monster (English Version)
And that was about it.
I've really come to regret taking my indie rock listening friend for granted. Dude was trying to lay a solid foundation for my essential "what white people in Portland listen to" playlist, and I didn't appreciate much (if any) of it at the time. The fact that a lot of this still isn't jiving with me kinda says that either some of this is really not for me, or that I just need to give it a few more dedicated listens. Gonna do that with a few of these albums for sure.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).
Yesterday was the first Staten Island home game in a while, so I decided to go and see if I could finish up my team set.
Did I get everybody I needed? Well...
Autographs
My first autograph came from infield prospect Andres Chaparro. The Venezuelan catcher-turned-third baseman has been reduced to more of a bench role as the cast of infielders in the middle infield rotate in and out around him but he's made the most of his limited opportunities. Defensively he's really solid and his strong arm (reminder, he was a catcher once) is a marvel to behold.
The right handed Anderson Muñoz was back in the rotation yesterday and started the game. He went 3.2 IP and allowed zero runs, 2 walks and got one strikeout. Not bad for a guy who keeps getting yanked back and forth between the rotation and the bullpen.
Next up is Yankees outfielder Evan Alexander. Alexander was a 19th round pick out of high school back in 2016. He played baseball and football in high school before switching to baseball full time with the Yankees. In most of the games I've seen him play he's often playing really solid defense. Hopefully his bat can develop further and catch up to his glove.
Mitchell Robinson hails from Canada and has also been among a rotating cast of middle infielders. Often he platoons with Chaparro at third.
Matt Pita is a back-up infielder of sorts (it's hard to get 2B reps when you've got Ezequiel Duran on your team). Pita was the Yankees' 12 round draft pick in the 2018 MLB Player Draft. He's a polished college bat from the Virginia Military Institute and can be a solid option at second.
Last time I showed off a ticket stub signed by Alfredo Garcia. This time I have an actual card. I actually broke my own rule and bought a card where the shipping cost me more than the card itself. The benefit of course was that it arrived in my hands quickly and I was able to get ink on it immediately. Garcia was the lone pick-up the Yankees made at this year's trade deadline and though it's unsure how many starts/reps Garcia is going to get this season, he was super nice and I appreciated him signing this card and making my purchase worth it.
Next up is Carlos Narvaez, the man who has been tasked with being the everyday catcher in Staten Island this year. Narvaez is steady and has definitely made himself known as minor league catching depth in the Yankees org but what his ceiling is and if he can reach whatever that ceiling is remains to be seen. For whatever it's worth he has had a nice year so the first real indications might come once he tackles the full season leagues.
After getting Narvaez I got the other catcher in this year's team set, Carlos Gallardo. Gallardo is one of the many backup catchers behind Narvaez and he's either warming up the bullpen, or getting ready to enter the game himself as a late-game replacement.
Catcher-turned-defensive coach Tyson Blaser has been with the Yankees since 2011. His playing career unfortunately came to an end in 2014 but he's reemerged as a defensive coach and is often seen helping the catchers prep for games.
Teuris Olivares (his name is spelt wrong on the card) is another guy who worked his ass off in the minors as a player but then transitioned into coaching. The Dominicano hustled from rookie-ball to triple-A with the Yankees and even played in indy ball, but unfortunately he never got a taste of the big leagues, but he's still employed by the Yankees and a few of the players he's coached have made it to the majors now.
My last (but not least) autograph yesterday was courtesy of Abismael Villaman. Villaman is a left hander from the Dominican Republic. Earlier on in the season he was a reliever but since then the team has shifted to having him start and have really started stretching out his innings. A lefty with his repertoire should be interesting going forward.
And those were the autographs. I didn't get everyone I needed, plus I realized that the NYPL top prospects set had just come out, so there's another two cards I need signed. Yay. Oh well, there's still enough time.
The Game
The Yankees lost 11 to 4 against the Brooklyn Cyclones (BOX). Moving on.
Unfortunately yesterday was one of those "get the autographs and then leave" games as I had personal matters to tend to.
All in all it was a fun little haul for me. I managed to knock out most of the team set, plus I got Alfredo Garcia.
This trip was very worth it.
Also quick note, notice how the Garcia card here is a design that's obviously inspired by the ToppsNow motif.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).
Yesterday I went to a Staten Island Yankees game. My original plan was focus more on the Mahoning Valley Scrappers (CLE affiliate) but, uh, my plans changed real quick.
Autographs
Before we get to the autographs let's just get straight to the point. The 2019 Staten Island Yankees team sets came out. IN EARLY AUGUST! I was blindsided by this development. Obviously this means the chase is on.
The first autograph I got from this set was from Isaiah Pasteur. I blogged about Pasteur a little while ago when I got his Charleston card signed. Not much has changed. He's still kind of stuck in a fourth outfield role now that Pat DeMarco is up in Staten Island. We'll see what happens with him long term. Hope things get better for his playing time situation though (hopefully not at the expense of someone else though).
My second autograph is courtesy of Jacob Sanford. Sanford's a guy I've wanted an autograph of for a while because before a few other notable 2019 draftees came by, Sanford was the most notable prospect on the SI Yankees. He was the Yankees' third round draft pick and so far he's looked to be very capable and solid. He's got power and enough potential to make it easy to see him as an everyday outfielder going forward.
My third autograph is courtesy of Ezequiel Duran, one of my personal favorites. In a lineup that's been decimated by promotions and injuries, Duran's remained as one of the few bright spots for the 2019 Staten Island Yankees. He's still in sleeper territory but I think a big year in Charleston next year could open A LOT of eyes. His development thus far has been slow but steady.
My fourth autograph is courtesy of Juan De Leon. De Leon was part of the big 2014 International Free Agent haul. While that IFA class has not lived up to what we all hoped it would amount to, De Leon represents part of the late bloomers. The guys who are just starting to find a groove and have one last chance to show what they've got. So far De Leon's taken his chances and run with him. Hope he can make up for lost time quickly.
My fifth autograph is courtesy of Alfredo Garcia. Those of you who are either old or dorks (or both) will likely associate that name with a film where the character Alfredo Garcia in the title is dead. For the rest of us Garcia is the newest/only trade acquisition the Yankees made this past trade deadline. Garcia came over from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for Joe Harvey in a strict "roster spot saving" maneuver. Garcia is a southpaw who seems rather nice.
My sixth autograph is courtesy of Marcus Evey. Evey was the Yankees' 20th rounder in the 2018 MLB Player Draft. Armed with a fastball, curveball and slider, he's spent all of his time in the Yankees' bullpen this season. He's done well. Even in the outings he's had where he's had to eat up more than just an inning.
My seventh autograph is courtesy of Daniel Ramos. Ramos was signed by the Yankees as a non-drafted international free agent back in 2013. The Dominican righty looked to be a big force in the Charleston bullpen in 2018 before injuries slowed him down and pretty much made 2018 a lost year. Hopefully he's shown the FO that he's made big strides this year coming back from injuries.
My eighth autograph is courtesy of Justin Wilson. Wilson was the Yankees' 23rd rounder in the 2018 MLB Player Draft. Despite that low-ish round he was seen as an interesting arm coming out of Vanderbilt. The righthander from Tennessee's track record in college was a bit empty due to his collegiate career being derailed by Tommy John surgery, but hopefully he can build up a substantive and impressive track record with the Yankees going forward.
My ninth autograph is courtesy of Wellington Diaz. Diaz is back in the rotation after being shuffled about to and from the bullpen after an influx of starters descended upon the Yankees' roster. The guy is capable of getting a ton of K's, but is also liable to give up a few walks. Should be interesting to see his development as he goes to the higher levels.
My 10th autograph is courtesy of Austin Gardner. Gardner was the Yankees' ninth rounder in the 2017 MLB Player Draft. In college he was a "lots of K's, few walks" type of reliever and that's remained the same in the pros. He's strictly a reliever but once he gets going I can easily see him going from Charleston to Trenton in one single year.
My 11th autograph is courtesy of Bryan Blanton. Blanton was the Yankees' 21st rounder in the 2017 MLB Player Draft. He also fits the bill of a RHRP who throws pretty hard and gets lots of K's.
My 12th autograph is courtesy of Barrett Loseke. Loseke was the Yankees' 17st rounder in the 2018 MLB Player Draft. Kind of the same deal. RHRP with gas and gets lots of K's.
My 13th autograph is courtesy of T.J. Sikkema. Sikkema was the Yankees' 1st round (or more like the sandwiched between the 1st and 2nd round) pick. Sikkema was drafted using the pick the Yankees got from the Cincinnati Reds in the Sonny Gray deal. Sikkema is armed with a low 90's fastball, a slider and a changeup and projects to be anywhere between a back-of-the-rotation starter and a lefty specialist in the pen. Should be interesting to see his development. I know some folks who are really high on Sikkema.
My 14th and last autograph yesterday was courtesy of David Adams. Adams was the Yankees' third rounder from the 2008 MLB Player Draft. More importantly he's the manager for the Yankees this year. He kinda makes me wonder how many of the guys I really like but just might not cut it to be MLB regulars will one day end up in a coaching capacity.
And those were my autographs for yesterday. Yes 14. That seems like a lot, but considering how my careeer(blarg) best is somewhere in the 20's, that's nothing. Anyway, now begins plotting to get the rest done as well as the ones who've already been promoted/demoted to Charleston/Pulaski via TTM.
The Game
The game itself was rather enjoyable. It was a brisk 2 hour and 46 minute (UNDER 3 HOURS!) game and boy did I enjoy it. For one thing the Scrappers sent out Ethan Hankins. Hankins was the Clevelands' first rounder in 2018 and someone I got an autograph of last month. Seeing him in action was great. Seeing him take on faves like Duran and Sanford was even sweeter. Hankins went about three innings then the bullpen took over. Coincidentally after that Duran started going and had two hits (one of which was a double). In all the Yankees won 3-2 after solid pitching and solid hitting saved the day (BOX). Nice to see the team win a game for once rather than the opposite.
Anything Else?
In a previous game I went to, one of the planned giveaways was a Scooter bobblehead promoting fitness. Unfortunately the shipment never arrived in time for that so those of us that would've gotten one got vouchers instead. Yesterday I redeemed the voucher and got the bobblehead.
Love it. Scooter's so cute.
And that was my latest SIY game. I am tired. I am writing this at 1:45 AM (EST) on August 3rd. But I am triumphant. Now to scan the cards and get this shit ready to be published by my insane 6:30 AM EST deadline. Only to see that this post'll only get like seven views by 11 AM because people have better shit to do on the weekends.
Big thanks to the players who signed for me and as always thank you (the readers) for stopping by :).
