I really swear I'm still here

Guys sorry about the lack of posting in the last few months or so.  I'm graduating law school in the next few weeks as well as moving.  And then I'll be studying for the bar all summer and then moving again.  But I'll try to post a few things here and there, but they won't be too frequent.  Thanks to you all who still visit the blog even though I don't write anything.  Hopefully in August I'll be writing more frequently as things will have slowed down by then.

A Response to Gellman over at SCU

I started to write this as a comment to his post, but it got a little long and I thought that it was worthy of it's own post on my blog.  Concerning Gellman's comment about the negativity, or perceived negativity on his blog as well as others, including this one. I think that's because most of us who blog, at least regularly, remember when the hobby was "pure" or however we choose to view it, using your term of choice. And a lot of us left the hobby for some amount of time or didn't do any more than pick up a retail pack or blaster every now and then at Wal-Mart or Target. And when we came back with an enthusiasm to collect for whatever reason and go to a hobby shop, if we can find one, for the first time in 5-8 years and are inundated with product that costs hundreds of dollars per pack, gimmick cards, terms like "mojo" and how quickly cards are flipped for cash or other cards and the arrogance, sense of entitlement and flippant attitude of a lot of younger collectors (as well as older ones) it can be kind of a shock. 

Now to use SCU terms, I understand there's a First World and a Second World and get the purpose behind both. I'm mostly a First World collector, but I dabble a bit in the Second World. But there's so much that's wrong with both Worlds, that there's enough negativity to go around. We've gone from having enough cases of cards in the early 90's to have a case for every person in China to now trying to make the most limited, most expensive product ever available. And I think we're heading towards a happy medium right now. Like Gellman said, I think there is a conscious effort on the part of the manufacturers, or at least Upper Deck, to make their product better and make the collectors happy. And I think what most collectors are looking for are being able to get their money out of the product they buy. Of course this applies a lot more to Second World Collectors than First World, but both are looking to get value, be it financial, emotional, sentimental, whatever, from their cards. And I think we're heading towards that. Some of that credit has to go to the Bloggers, both big and small. While we as a blogging community may not be able to sit and dictate where product should go, we have seen that the higher ups in the industry do take notice, read the blogs (maybe even this one!) and even comment on them or do an interview or two. Where the blogs make the biggest difference is in transparency. If there were no blogs and all we saw were Beckett's video breaks, the Beckett message board, Topps Rip Parties and all the other propaganda being spewed by the conglomerates then I think all you would have is a bunch of disappointed sheep. But the community allows us to agree, differ and discuss all of the aspects of the hobby and if need be, take someone to task for it. If the major players in the hobby are all in collusion, then there needs to be a neutral voice out there, speaking what everyone is thinking and until the invention of the Internet, this wasn't possible or if it was, it was available to a very limited group of people. Now with mass media, everyone can have a voice. Even if some are less prolific than others, it still allows collectors of all types to be heard by another collector at least which will hopefully will lead to discussion of the hobby in whatever aspect is being touched upon. Unfortunately, that does often lend itself to more discussion about the negative than the positive.

There is a lot of negativity in and about collecting on the blogs these days, but there is some good as well. The problem is that the negativity is more fun to talk about, it's more newsworthy and gets more people riled up. When there's a good story about one of the blogger's kids getting a pack of cards and being completely content with that David Eckstein base card or bloggers helping out other bloggers unsolicited, it goes unnoticed. Yes, there's a lot wrong with the hobby, but there's a lot of good being done and it often gets overshadowed because it's a lot more fun to berate Topps for a gimmick base card that no one will ever pull than to find the positive in the simplicity that a pack of cards can bring.

Seriously I'm not dead

I've been in exam mode for awhile now.  They just started yesterday and I'll be done with them next Thursday.  So expect more posts after that.  and hopefully I'll have something about a new player collection I've started recently soon as well.

I'm not dead, but my bracket might be

Sorry bout the lack of posts.  Between school, other stuff and being in and out of town, it's been kind of hard to post.  But I'm still alive and kicking and hopefully will have some good stuff next week.

Chipper Jones: All-Star, MVP, AJC Blogger?

David O'Brien writes a great Braves blog for the AJC and I always enjoy reading his updates. He posted a blog about John Smoltz the other day and yesterday, Chipper Jones decided to get on the blog and post some comments. I really enjoyed this for a few reasons. #1 because he is talking just like a regular person and as someone who loves his team and loves that the fans love his team. #2 because the questions he answered were answered truthfully. He didn't play coy and beat around the bush or allude to things with cryptic sayings. To me, in the age where sports stars use a blog to push themselves or their agenda (I'm looking at you Curt Schilling and Gilbert Arenas), it was refreshing to see one who just wanted to shoot the bull with some fans and be excited with them about the upcoming season. And this is how he seems to be in real life as well. I finally got to meet the man at spring traning last year and he was chatty and funny and even talked about playing golf with Smoltz and Tiger and was ragging on Smoltz about his golf game. My favorite parts of Chipper's blogging are that he'll miss Shea Stadium because he owned the Mets there. Also the fact that he named one of kids Shea is hilarious. He said that resigning Tex right now looks 50/50 and that he's in a Braves uni for at least 2 more years, but he hopes to get an extension worked out before that happens. This just solidifies to me that he's one of my favorite players ever.