Went Bin Diving, Found God

 Simple "show and tell" post today.

Munetaka Murakami's been on absolute tear in the later half of April.

It's been great and fun for mostly two reasons.

Seeing Murakami thrive and demolish baseballs after a whole winter where his value was suppressed to nothing, and seeing a whole Chicago White Sox team and fanbase rejuvenated with hope after years of historically dogshit baseball.

There's still a lot of questions and concerns over the long haul about sustainability and contract extensions and whatnot, but time will tell us where that all goes anyway. In the moment I'm having lots of fun seeing Murakami sock dingers (tied for the MLB lead as of the time this post was being written), walk a lot and overturn calls with ABS.

So much so that I went bin diving at a card shop where I usually get trading cards (think Yu-Gi-Oh! and the like) from because they're one of the few that I knew had Dream Order cards.

As you can see I picked up 5 copies of the regular foils and 2 of the parallels. The foils were 39 JPY each (roughly 24 cents USD) and the parallels were 89 JPY each (roughly 56 cents USD).

I'll keep one parallel then probably distribute the rest as Zapping fodder.

Then inevitably say bye to the parallel I kept for myself later down the line when I get a Murakami card I want to keep that shows him in a Chicago White Sox uniform (preferably in one of those slick black jerseys or the red City Connect jersey).

Parallel

Because no offense to Murakami or the photographer but this picture is ass. It makes Murakami look huskier than he is, and even worse he's fielding. Also these cards warp like they're chrome cards from 2010.

But for now this will have to do because it was really cheap.

Which is more or less the whole reason I went to a gaming card shop and not a regular sports card shop.

A shop dedicated to sports cards would've seen the tear Murakami's on and added a comma to the price tags. The gaming card shop only see's slow-moving almost dead inventory, not helped by rumors that the Dream Order card game is probably discontinued. Although for me that makes these extra fun because that means they're neat cards from a short-lived baseball themed card game.

Dream Order's supposed replacement. Came free with a bag of chips.

Deals in the loony world of sports cards are hard to come by these days. Enough that I made this quick post when in years past I wouldn't have.

But when they happen, it's pretty fun and stress-free knowing I can't lose.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

Consume. Always Consume. Must Consume.

 Maybe it's just because of my habits as a consumer or the way my algorithms have been set up for me but I'm kind of thinking everything in the world is an ad.

I'm being sold on investments with unfavorable returns, a dentist with minimal wait times (citation needed), a car with 0% APR financing, etc...

I'm being sold on brands like Apple, Nike and Neymar.

I'm also being sold on ideas like the idea AI revolution is truly going to uproot and change the world like the internet did, or various political ideologies.

So to get away from the shitty mall that is the modern internet, I go outside for a walk and there's billboards everywhere telling me about a new soda or something.

Some days I talk with colleagues at work who tell me about a movie saw that they recommend, other days I talk with friends who tell me about a allergy medication that did wonders for them, every once in a while a family member recommends me a ramen shop.

AAAAhhhhhhhhh, even people who are in my personal life are pitching me bullshit.

Some of what I mentioned about could be classified as genuine interactions with other people and the outside world, but I'm so jaded now that word of mouth also feels like advertising.

I'm just so tired. Tired of all of it.

Is the human experience to solely be a consumer and taxpayer and nothing else?

Now look, I don't want this post to turn into some left wing critique of capitalism.

I'm merely questioning if there is more to life than money and goods/services/experiences we get in exchange for money.

Notice how I lumped experiences in because I know people will try to point to that. When the reality is that experiences can be exchanged for money like goods and services (it's kind of a mix of both and quickly becoming paywalled anyway, have you seen ticket prices for events recently?!).

Some people will inevitably try to say their family and close loved ones give their life a boost in quality but again, the ones in my life are all pitching me on bullshit. It can be as minor as an episode of a TV show I'll never watch but look under the surface and they're trying to communicate some kind of idea or experience that was transmitted to them via that TV show episode.

It's a pitch.

Not a sales pitch perse, but something my brain has to process in regards to thinking whether or not I want to buy into it, and I'm tired of having to look into each interaction with people with questionable ROIs in my life and weigh the pros and cons of what was communicated to me like I'm an investment banker.

Plus I'm lucky enough to have what folks would traditionally deem as "loved ones". Meanwhile there are millions of sad lonely broke people out there who've been banished from polite society for good reasons who think ChatGPT is their only friend. Think how under attack they are at all times given they're even more likely to think a sales pitch is genuine human interaction.

Is simply being Kenny not good enough? Do I have to be Kenny the consumer at all times? Can I be Kenny the human? What does being human even mean anymore? Did it ever mean anything at all? Do I still have to put effort to give life meaning for myself? Because that sounds hard and I'd rather watch Batman the Animated Series.

Thank you all for listening to my pitch that the human experience is consumerism on steroids.

Take care.

A One Card Wonder

 Despite being the person many of you associate with Sega Card Gen, I've never taken as much time as I really should've to talk about the cards. There's a lot of cool stuff to be explored with that short lived but still fascinating set. Like how it was originally licensed by Upper Deck in 2009 but Topps took over in 2010. But the issue is that the posts range between things that absolutely cannot be covered in a single blogpost, or are too short to be worth devoting a blogpost to.

Well the flip-side to the latter is that those are easier to write so let's do one today.

Enerio del Rosario is (as far as I can tell) someone who had their ONLY card showing them as a major leaguer in the 2012 Sega Card Gen set. He has a few MiLB cards but no rookie cards or anything of him in the show.

In concept that's cool but in practice I think that might be hell. Imagine wanting to secure a ton of copies of your only baseball card as a big leaguer for your friends, family and loved ones who're all proud to know you made it to the top but it was only printed once and distributed across the world and written in a language that you can't read.

Or at least that's what I'd think EdR's thoughts are on his card. Assuming he even knows it exists at all.

By 2012 EdR had already had a few cups of coffee as a big leaguer since he debuted in 2010. But he unfortunately fell into reliever purgatory and since Topps wasn't able to put a rookie card logo on him he never got a card in a flagship product.

Add to it, EdR would never return to the big leagues after the 2012 season (not performing very well on the 2012 Astros will do that to you) so that was the end of that.

EdR did play in the Mexican League in 2013 but his career ended not long after that. Considering he'd been a pro since 2005 it was more like he was a very late bloomer who got a few chances to see if he could really stick near the end of a window that was quickly slamming shut.

Personally I think that it's at least great that his inclusion in the Card Gen set means he did get something to be recognized as a big leaguer. It provides a rare example of a one card wonder in one of the most exclusive sets ever.

None of these players are EdR, but this gif is still peak 2012 Astros

Remember, the Astros in 2012 were tanking and bad. Gone were solid guys who made the team respectable like Hunter Pence and Michael Bourn. They were running out warm bodies seeing which ones were worth keeping when they reached their arb-years, punting on the season and trying to secure a high draft pick to add to their rebuild.

I don't want to be mean but he's admittedly the type of forgotten, overall not very impressive (resume-wise) player who exemplified the rebuilding Astros. If nothing else including him is a perfect point-in-time thing for any hardcore Astros fans who watched that era.

Though to Sega and Topps' credit their selections in the 2012 Astros team set also included Jose Altuve and JD Martinez who would be very key names in the league in the years to come.

I still have a copy of EdR for myself as it's in a special cellophane pack that was distributed to beginners who were new to the game for free, and I'm kinda glad. Because every time I look at it and my now-tidier Card Gen collection, I know this card serves multiple special purposes just because of what it is and who's on it.

Also the way the card sums him up as a "Decent middle reliever" is really funny to me.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.