Baseball Cards, etc.

It had been a long time since I'd bought a baseball card, some years I guess, but I started poking around on ebay and I found some cards I'd always wanted, and for cheap. The first card I bought was one that I'd lusted after when I was about twelve years old: 1995 Leaf Heading for the Hall Cal Ripken, Jr. I was ecstatic to find the card. I wanted to go back in time and high five the fat little kid me.

For starters, this card is really rad looking, as it's designed to look like a genuine Hall of Fame plaque in Cooperstown, which is pretty cool. Also, back in 1995, the rounded top edge of these cards really seemed as badass as wizardry. The idea of a card being more that a rectangular piece of paper just seemed downright incredible to me. On top of all of its resplendent beauty, this card was serial numbered and limited to only 5000 copies. It was among the first cards to be issued in such a way, and this was another aspect of it that made it desirable to me.

On September 6, 1995, Ripken played his 2,131st game, breaking Lou Gehrig's record streak for consecutive games played. That alone assured Ripken would have a real plaque in the Hall, but he'd had a great career all along. This card, along with all of his others, went through the roof in value after his accomplishment. At its peak, it was selling for $160, an unimaginable sum for a kid.

Well, it took me years, but I finally landed one: number 3,093 of 5,000. It seems like nothing ever gets cheaper, but this card had gone down in value just a little bit. I picked it up for a measly $3.99.

Look At It

Here are some cool things to check out.

1) An interview with Amy Hempel from 2006 in The Atlantic. I really like the term "miniaturist" for her work.

2) I saw this short film a few years ago called Delusions in Modern Primitivism that I found really interesting and couldn't find on google until just the other day. I flipped to the movie a little ways in and didn't realize it was a mockumentary. I've got it coming from Netflix soon, and I'm looking forward to watching it again. A clip from the movie is available here.

3) The other day I came across an article in The New Yorker that I found both fascinating and depressing. It's about a guy--Cameron Todd Willingham--who was executed in Texas some years ago for supposedly being responsible for killing his kids by setting fire to his home. Prior to Willingham's execution, an investigation by one of the pre-eminent minds in arson cases--Dr. Gerald Hurst--brought up many questions about how the initial investigation had been conducted and the conclusions that were ultimately made by police. However, Hurst's work was ignored and Willingham was wrongly put to death.

4) Studs Terkel's Hard Times is a fascinating oral history of the Great Depression that is certainly relevant to our current financial problems. I haven't had a chance to listen to the recordings available via the above link, but I found the book very interesting.

5) If you haven't ever listened to Bonnie "Prince" Billy (aka Will Oldham), do yourself a favor and pick up the album "I See a Darkness." It's a sparse and haunting record with some of the most honest and lovely lyrics. Even the snooty and pompous critics at Pitchfork gave it a 10/10.