2018 Collective Awards

Last year this show was cut short due to disinterest in current products.  This year wouldn't be much different, so the writers (me) chose to expand the categories into other areas.  This may turn into a review of my collecting and blogging year.

First up, the award for Best Thing About 2018 cards.  The list of candidates wasn't huge for Product of the Year, so we generalized.

The winning answer is "Consistency".  Which means that this year's stuff wasn't much different from last year, and it didn't totally suck.  Stadium Club was good enough to dive into, A&G was pretty decent too, and flagship had a nice base set.  Maybe it should be "Predictable", since those are the products that I forecast at the beginning of the year as being the only promising options for me, at least.

One of my major points of contention has been the lack of creativity in (Topps') insert sets.  I boycotted all the flagship inserts since they didn't show any originality at all and discontinued a couple good ideas that had spanned multiple production years.  I figured out where all the talent went though.  The Totality Of Exclusive Innovation Award went to the Allen & Ginter team.

Apparently, there are completely separate creative teams that work on flagship and Allen & Ginter.  And the A&G people have an exclusive contract for all the innovation that was promised with exclusive contracts.  Ideas like Baseball Equipment, Superstitions, Exotic Sports, and even the star-laden World Talent and Fantasy Goldmine inserts explored some distinctive aspect of the game instead of just recycling ways to say "This star player is amazing 'cause he did this or that."

Moving on, the next, much more prestigious award goes to the Blogger Trader Of The Year.

Congratulations to P-Town Tom!  Among several worthy blogger candidates, he had the most assaults on my critical wants.  There are several posts where he killed a set or knocked off one of my most elusive singles.

Along those lines, we present the trophy for Blogger Commenter Of The Year.

With kudos to Jon and Night Owl, who probably ranked 2nd and 3rd, our winner is Fuji.  He appears the most on my blog and so many others.  Can't say enough about what he does to further the blogging cause.

On the Flip Side, it's the award for my Most Viewed Post.

I figured this would be one of the many offerings of a beautiful woman's image, but it actually turned out to be my burning question about when the next actual paper reference book documenting all the cardboard issued before 1980 would be published.  Who's Cataloguing The New Stuff? soared off the charts in readership numbers.  Not sure where that one got linked besides the blogroll and fellow supporters, but it went crazy.  Haven't had three crooked numbers since.

Continuing that theme, My Most Popular Series award goes to...

The Cardboard OCD series.  I wrote these tutorials about my little habits and preferences with the idea that they'd be good for a laugh and maybe give a fellow collector a little tip to make their collecting better.  Must have worked out, because the reader numbers were pretty decent - even compared to the Leading Ladies customs.  The comments were up too.  The best posts are those that prompt interaction with others to tell how they do things.

Now on to the cardboard happenings of 2018.  The next statue will be in honor of the Best New Shop Owner.

New Orleans native Bruce came to town this year and set up shop in central Frederick.  He handles as much autographed memorabilia as he does cards, but it's all good stuff.  PrimeTime Sports Collectibles has been open since September or so.  It's so nice to have a local shop again.  He's still building his inventory of singles, but has plenty of game-used, autographs, new wax, etc.

Staying in the favorite merchant category, next we have the Shop That Became The New Clio Award.  (Pronounced kly-o).  This is a tribute to the shop in Michigan with the most sheer volume of stuff that appeals to a set builder and player collector like me.  They just have tons and tons to choose from (and dig out).  I found one kinda like that a lot closer:

The newest incarnation is the booth run by Kevin and his Dad at Rocky Ridge Collectibles between Hagerstown, MD and State Line, PA.  I found it via YouTube video.  They have a huge inventory that is organized to some degree into sports, years, sets, products, etc.  I've been twice and still haven't gone through it all.  And I spent the better part of two days in there.  Didn't even walk around the rest of the store yet.  I'll be back soon!

Let's turn to the merchandise itself.  The big idea is to show cards.  Here are some categories that revealed themselves as the loot poured in.

Set That Signifies That I've Taken It Up Another Level goes to 1950 Bowman.

This set kinda landed in my lap.  A friend's neighbor needed some cash and had a batch of these to sell.  I looked 'em up on eBay and made an offer.  That started me out.  Then I was suprised to find that I could add singles for much less than I anticipated.  There are several white whales in the set, but overall, it's really doable.  I've been working my way back through the 60's and did '59 last year, but never thought I'd go back this far this soon.

One new development this year was obtaining several sets that you could say combined set building and player collecting.  Most Fun Oddballs go to the multiple Cal Ripken sets that started with one and blossomed into a whole binder's worth. 

Cal Jr. is a unique player in that there are so many tribute sets to him that no one else has.  And they span several years instead of just being confined to the moment of his milestone.  His career has become an institution of its own, complete with official logo.

 

Speaking of boxes and sets, I'll throw in a modest winner for Box Break How It Ought To Be.

I didn't actually buy an unopened box of this stuff, but it was confirmed by many sources.  Not flashy or high end, but Topps did it right.  2018 Topps Opening Day yielded a complete set per single box.  Any smaller set like this should be crafted this way.  And I was able to snag most of the inserts in one shot relatively cheap too.  Simple, painless, and won't haunt my want lists for the next several years.  In gratitude, I won't go into them naming an insert in the main flagship set the same as this product....

The reverse was also true, when we discovered the Worst Collated Boxes Of All Time.

During the time when my trading buddy Stuart was here, we found several boxes of 1992 Ultimate World League football cards for five dollars or less.  Unfortunately, even after four boxes at 100 card apiece, we couldn't finish his set (three cards left after several boxes previously opened) and collate another for me - only about 3/4 of a set - from 400 cards.  (I ended up buying them on SportLots.)  Complete sets are only 200 cards.  This is probably why they were one and done.  Not to mention that the league folded too.

Another adventure into minor leagues happened when, in the same SportLots buy that finished the World League sets, I found the Coolest New Player Collection.

With a name like Pookie Bernstine, how can I resist?  The tough part is that all his cards are from the minor leagues.  But I will prevail!

And rounding out the presentations tonight, the last award is not for something I started, but something I finished.  Coolest Non-Sports Set Completed in 2018 is the 1969-70 Topps Man On The Moon set.

Thanks again to Stuart for putting the capper on this one when he went back into a shop we were visiting in the summer.  This was the last card that I didn't have, though technically my set is a mixture of the two years' issue.  I hope to expand the Apollo & Space binder in the coming year as well.

Homeward Bound is an appropriate card, as that is where we are headed.  Good night everyone, and my all your want lists shrink farther than ever in 2019!

Yearly Goals Assessment

It's always fun to see what's changed over the last year, especially when you write down what you'd like to do at the beginning like a lot of us bloggers do.  I'm not the biggest go-getter goal setter, but I'm interested to see how I did.

It's a goal post.  Ba-dum-pum.

2018 Goal #1 - Keep a steady blogging pace.  Well, I topped last year's number (146) with 160 this time out.  I was a blogging machine until a couple hitches in June and July, and would have made it pretty good if it weren't for a lull in mid-to-late November - the "dog days" of blogging.  I finished out strong and the first of the year makes it easy to finally get a backlog of posts ready to go.  Goal #1 - Accomplished.

2018 Goal #2 - Be more positive and creative in my posts.  I think I did OK on this one, but not great.  There weren't as many rants that I can recall, but I didn't come up with too many really original ideas either.  In tallying up my posts for 2018, the overwhelming majority were Loot/Trade posts (53) which is pretty much the point of a card blog - to show cards.  (And of course, there was no shortage of incoming cardboard around here!).
The next highest categories were experience posts (Things I did and How I Do Things) and commentary posts, including the OCD series.  These two almost overlap, but they comprised 38 posts all together.  Again, not too many negative essays, but more things like the renovations to my card room, product reviews, and how I make lists, arrange and decorate binders etc. 
The rest were game-in-real-life and Baseball History types of things, blogger participation (Bat Arounds and common topics among us), and posts that showed gorgeous women.  A couple goofy things sprinkled in here and there, and that was really it.  I only created one single custom except for the Leading Ladies.  Gotta ramp it up this year.    Goal #2 - Accomplished, though not spectacularly.

2018 Goal #3 - Clean Up and Put All The Stuff Away!  At the beginning of 2018, I had piles and piles of purchases, box breaks, and supplies all over the card room (and beyond).  I have since straightened it up - mostly because I added new furniture in April and basically had to evacuate the room.  So now it looks like this:

 

Early 2018 on the left, Dec 2018 on the right.

 

 

It's a whole different bunch of stuff on the sorting desk, but the volume is almost the same.  I had all my player collection cards that needed to be added to binders spread out on the whole desk, but had to pick them up.  In the meantime, I had to put more incoming set stuff on the cabinet.

So it's really just as congested as it was.  Just with different stuff.

 

The couch is a lot better.  Only a couple bobbleheads I got for Christmas on there.

The other catch is that most of what was on the desk in January was moved into the other room in a big foam tray/box.  And it's mostly still sitting there.

So Goal #3 - Deferred.

Goal #4 - Complete the 1960, 1970, and 1972 Topps sets.  This one was a win!  In July at the Chantilly show, I finally killed all three.  This allowed me to start on 1964 Topps in earnest and start on '68 and '57.  Goal #4 - Accomplished!

2018 Goal #5 - Ramp Up The Trades With My Original Group & Keep Up The Blogger Trading.  Got this one half right anyway.  I'm pretty sure I made more trades with fellow bloggers than I did with my Yahoo! group friends.  My most wanted list took multiple beatings from my kindred composers.  I did get in a few trades with the other guys, most of which I don't post on here.  This goal is still in progress.  Goal #5 - ½ Accomplished.

2018 Goal #6 - Knock Out A Lot Of Old Want Lists. I made a backup to my site pages and stored it on my work computer in January last year.  Looking now at my Baseball page side by side with the current version, there are a lot of sets that aren't there any more, but the majority of them were down to a few cards and were the ones I posted on my most wanted list.
That would be fine, but the catch is that I've added just as many new sets this year as I have taken off.  And most of the other listings haven't changed much.  Some that were Have lists are now Needs with names by the numbers, but the whole thing is basically the same length.
Goal #6 - Accomplished But Negated.

That should be plenty to think about this year.  I'm not sure at this point whether I'll make it to Cleveland for the National.  I liked it the first time a few years ago, and would love to meet a few of the other bloggers and traders I deal with.  I'm also on the verge of just stopping the collection of certain sports and narrowing my focus a bit.  (Mostly because my house won't hold it all for much longer.)  At least it seems like the dog doesn't like to chew cardboard....

I didn't end up going to the National in Cleveland, but I do plan on making Chicago again.  I've missed the last couple, so it will be good to hit one again.
As for restricting my collecting, that didn't happen either.  I finally added a couple hockey sets - both new and vintage, and a couple vintage on the football side too.  I alleviated the storage problem with the new shelves, which are about full already....

 

I just have to clean up a bit and there will still be room there.  And I do have room for bigger boxes again, so some consolidation is in order soon.  After my birthday in a week or so, things will settle down and I'll get into the cardboard swing again over in that room.  The dog didn't work out, so that isn't an issue.

2018 was a great year for collecting and blogging.  It was rather "meh.." for just about everything else.  My job is fine, and my friends are still around, but not much else went on, really.  Except for my Capitals winning the championship, the other sports (including fantasy) continually disappointed.  I've always been more of a fan of cards than the actual sports they portray, but this year made that rift a lot wider.

Looking forward to more activity in 2019 - the cardboard kind and otherwise....

My Version Of The Sheep Quiz

Josh at Royals & Randoms put up a contest called Baseball Sheep 2018 asking for the most generic answers to 20 baseball or card related questions.  The questions were so varied and interesting, I preserved my answers and will add my own preferred responses as well.

My little twist to his photo too!

1) What is the best Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium with a roof?

Common Answer: Minute Maid Park     My own answer: Miller Park

Had to look up which ones had roofs.  Figured the most common answer would be the best team.  Astros are hot these days.  My choices were the six parks with retractable roofs.  Not sure if there are others that qualify.  The others are:

• Rogers Centre in Toronto - too much blue and the place looks spooky on tv, not warm and welcoming.  
• Chase Field in Arizona - Not bad, but a bit too symmetrical - not much personality at first glance.  Though they have a pool.
• Safeco Field in Seattle - Kinda cool, too, but it's the Mariners.  <yawn>.
• Marlins Park in Miami - Some neat features, but garish colors and empty seats.  All I can think of is those idiots that do nothing but whistle loudly the whole game.
• Miller Park in Milwaukee - My choice since they have fun stuff like the sliding board for Bernie Brewer and the Sausage races.

 2) Name an Alou.

Common Answer: Felipe - shoulda said Moises     My own answer: Felipe

Old school gets in the way and I pick the oldest one.  I'm sure all the young guys think of Moises first.

3) What is the best baseball card product with no MLB team logos?

Common Answer: Donruss     My own answer: Hometown Heroes / Cooperstown

I picked the most generic non-logo set I could think of.  I would have said HH or Coopy.  I bet Golden Age gets some individual votes too, but it's less baseball-centric.

Ooh, I bet some people said "None."


4) What city without a MLB team most needs one?

Common Answer: Montreal       My own answer: No real opinion

I figure most will say Montreal since they had one before, and are the second most populated city north of the border besided #1 Toronto.

The only geographic gap I can see is that there's not much between Cincinnati and Atlanta.  You have Louisville, Nashville, Charlotte, Memphis, and all the way down to New Orleans.  A lot of these places have teams in other sports, so I'm not sure how much they'd want baseball too.  But Louisville seems like a natural baseball town I would guess.  Other than that, is Vancouver or Edmonton too into hockey?

I think it's more of a question of where MLB would like to go than which city wants them so bad.  I could be wrong, though.  Since DC got the Nats, I'm happy with the status quo.  I think they should swap Milwaukee and Houston to their "proper" leagues though.


5) Budget: How much money (in cash) should you take to a card show?

Common Answer: $100       My own answer: $200-500 depending on the size of the show.

A hundred may be over the limit for a lot of collectors.  I am blessed with plentiful fundage and no matrimonial supervision, so I tend to go to shows and just start tossing $20's at people.  But if it's a decent show, and you collect a lot of stuff like I do, ya gotta be prepared.  I'll take out $200-300 for a decent size show like Chantilly, and more for a week at the National.


6) What is the most unusual name for an active MLB player?

Common Answer: Roughned Odor       My own answer: Various

I figured his was the weirdest choice out of many.  Xander Bogaerts,  Ender Inciarte, Scooter Gennett, Yoán Moncada, Avisail Garcia, Eugenio Suárez, Yuli Guirriel, Shohei Ohtani, Yasiel Puig, Yasmani Grandal, Odúbel Herrera, Yangervis Solarte, the list goes on and on.


7) Who is the best MLB Mascot?

Common Answer: Phillie Phanatic      
My own answer: Phanatic with shout-outs to Oriole Bird or San Diego Chicken

I'm going on comedic value alone here.  Plus a little hometown bias.  I figured a lot of people would say Mr. Met or other homers, but the Phanatic is a lot more entertaining and original than that.  The Chicken is king, but now retired or at least outdated(?).  Best as in favorite - I'd say O's Bird.  Funniest - have to give it to Philly.


8) Who is the best bunter in MLB history?

Common Answer: Eddie Collins      
My own answer: Ichiro or someone that you know better than me

I looked up the Baseball Reference chart on Sacrifice Hit leaders and saw Collins was #1.  That's what I think a lot of us will do.  But some who follow (and remeber little things like this) about the game much better than I do will have someone more recent in mind.


9) How many "hits" (autograph or relic cards) do you expect to receive in a hobby box of cards?

Common Answer: 2       My own answer: Two or none.

The average mid- to low-range product (call it "flagship") SHOULD contain two hits.  Nowadays, regular hobby boxes only have one.  And sometimes that isn't even true.  I think two is a nice balance for $50 or more per box.  Especially since after market prices on average "hit" singles are in the single digits pretty consistently.


10) What is the best professional baseball team name that is no longer in use?

Common Answer: Expos       My own answer: Various

Again, the Montreal sympathy vote should rate high.  I like the Cleveland Spiders.  Perusing the names of other aliases, there are also the NY Gothams, Brooklyn Superbas, St. Louis Perfectos, and the politically incorrect Houston Colt .45's.


11) What is the most-useful statistic or measurement to use for evaluating how good a baseball player is?

Common Answer: WAR      
My own answer: Card number, All-Star appearances, LL card appearances.

I'm not a stat guy.  I glance at the backs of cards, but I don't remember stuff from the fine print.  I can't tell you who won the World Series for any given year, the MVPs, the league leaders, the all-time leaders in any category except the most obvious.

They say that WAR is the stat they're looking for here.  I'll take their word for it.


12) Name any baseball player with the initials "J.M."

Common Answer: Joe Morgan (J.D. Martinez)       My own answer: Various

I said Joe Morgan as the old school answer.  The younger set will probably say JD Martinez, since he killed it this past season.

Other choices include Joe Magrane ('87 to '96), Jim Mahoney ('59 to '65), John Maine ('04 to '13),  Jim Maloney ('60 to '71), Jeff Manto ('90 to 2000), Jerry Manuel ('75 to '82), Juan Marichal ('60 to '75), Jake Marisnick ('13 to now), Jason Marquis ('00 to '15), J.C. Martin ('59 to '72), Justin Masterson ('08 to '15), Jeff Mathis ('05 to now), Jon Matlack ('71 to '83), Joe Mauer ('04 to '18), Jack McDowell ('87 to '99), John McGraw (NYG Mgr.), Jose Mesa ('87 to '07), John Milner ('71 to '82), Johnny Mize ('36 to '53), Jose Molina ('99 to '14), John Montefusco ('74 to '86), Jerry Morales ('69 to '83), Justin Morneau ('03 to '16), Jack Morris ('77 to '94), Jason Motte ('08 to '17), Jamie Moyer ('86 to '12!), and Jerry Mumphrey ('74 to '88).

Whew, just killed my evening looking through the whole "M" list on BB Reference.


13) What is the best baseball movie ever?

Common Answer: Field Of Dreams, Sandlot, Bad News Bears     
My own answer: Field Of Dreams

 Gotta be FoD.  Though the Sandlot is hot right now since Archives.  And the others aren't as serious.


14) Most people consider Mariano Rivera to be the best relief pitcher ever. Who would you say is the SECOND-BEST reliever?

Common Answer: Trevor Hoffman       My own answer: Bruce Sutter

Hoffman is second on the all-time Saves list, so he is the obvious choice.  I didn't see Hoffman a lot, so I lean more towards guys like Lee Smith (congrats!), Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersley.  Sutter is one of my PC guys, so he gets my nod.


15) Who is the most over-rated current MLB player?

Common Answer: Aaron Judge       My own answer: Any Yankee or Red Sox star

I figure with all the hype usually associated with Yankee stars, plus his regression and injury this past season, Judge will be the most common answer.  My Orioles bias leads me to him or any of the other over-hyped guys on the Yankees or Red Sox.  The networks only talk about them and Mike Trout most of the time - and Trout actually lives up to it.

The Hype Machine

16) What is the best food item to get at the ballpark?

Common Answer: Hot Dog       My own answer: Soft Pretzels and Hot Dogs

Dogs are the default baseball food.  It's in the song, with apple pie (which would be too messy to sell there), and Chevrolets.  My default meal at the game is a dog and a pretzel.  No mustard on either one.  My guts are too sensitive for much of the more exotic things they offer these days, so I keep it simple (and cheaper).


17) On an average day, how many minutes does a normal collector spend reading about sports cards (blogs/forums/social media/etc.)?

Common Answer: 60       My own answer: Several times a day in 15 to 30 minute spurts.

I'm always perusing blogs during work hours.  If I had access to my cards or scans I would probably post too.  I check the blogroll site for new postings a couple times a day.  I'm not on social media of any kind, so it's limited to blogs, dealer sites, and sites like Cardboard Connection, TCDB, etc.  I hope I didn't overshoot the nice even 60 minutes.


18) Vin Scully has retired. :-( Who will take up his mantle as the best current MLB broadcaster? 

Common Answer: Marty Brennaman     
My own answer: Marty, because other choices are limited.

Marty is about the only "classic" announcer I see on the list of current broadcasters.  I might have picked Ken Harrelson, but he left too, and Bob Uecker is all but retired as well.  I think he's OK, but there's a lot of people that don't like Bob Costas.  I refuse to say Joe Buck.


19) For years there have been rumors about MLB contracting a team. If they would do that, which team should be eliminated?

Common Answer: Marlins, Padres, Rays       My own answer: Marlins, for sure.

The teams I listed in the Common spot are consistently non-competitive.  But I'd say everyone but the Marlins has decent fan bases.  The echoes of silence at Marlins Park are deafening.  They couldn't draw a full crowd if they put centerfold chicks on the field and gave away beer for free.  Move 'em to Montreal or somewhere where people are interested.

20) What is the best song that a player could use as his batting walk-up music?

Common Answer: Enter Sandman       My own answer: Sandman or anything else metal

That's the only one I know by heart.  I'm sure there are other R&B, rap, or pop tunes that guys use.  I couldn't tell you any of them.  So I'm going with what I like.  Metal is just way more badass than that other stuff.  Mic drop.

Ugliest Card Nominees

I've been trying to think of a submission for Baseball Every Night's Ugly Card Contest.  I figured there's got to be a couple cards that just make me think "Egad, that's hideous!" at first glance.  My first criteria would be horrible designs.  Trouble is, if I hate the design of a set, I'm not going to collect it, so I won't have any.  So I went to my tradeables box and started in the early 90's, since that's the most likely source of hideousness by default.   I came up with three candidates.  Here they are in order from least to most terrible.

#3 - 1995 Score #115 Bud Black

Not one of my favorite designs in the first place, mostly because of the default 90's teal color plowing through the basepath dirt contrasted by the violet blue namestrip.  A ghastly combination.  And then the photograph is rather unique, but almost obscures the featured player completely.  It's a lot worse in hand - the scan emphasizes the focus on the face.  A few feet to the right would have framed it a lot better without losing the intended depth.


#2 - 1998 Pacific Aurora Pennant Fever Red Mo Vaughn.

Now I generally like Pacific in all their foily over the top gaudiness, but these are just bizarre.  This is actually an insert set - and a parallel one at that - of an unusual base set.

This is the base product.  Interesting concept, but the position line is way too big, as is the city text.  Thin those out and expand the action pic and you might have something.

But back to Mo.  The regular inserts are actually gold or bronze (can't really tell from the scans on TCDB).  This red parallel series keeps the random colored stripes through the middle of the background echo picture (the what? - I'll show you) but washes it all in blood red.

See here, I've outlined the embossed "echo picture", which I define as a second image identical to the featured picture.  They are almost always identical and totally redundant.  It's OK, but lazy to put the same image of a player on the back as the front, but I really hate echo pictures on the fronts of cards, especially when they're distorted.

 

   

 

But that's the least of the APF's design woes - where does the blue and yellow come from?  That isn't Boston's colors, nor do all of Boston's (or any team's) players have the same colors in this set.  Plus, what is the purpose of the team-lettered stripe?  No idea.  But it looks awful against the uniform and the red background.  Not to mention the Player's Association logo which jumped up front for some reason too....

The back doesn't help much either.  The scheme changes to green.

At least the angle of the gold band (complete with Windows logos at each end...???) is at the same angle as the useless color band on the front.  The logos repeat.  Bonus points for readable text, though.

#1 - 2012 Topps Classic Walk-offs #CW-3 Johnny Bench  Or pretty much all of them.

I finished my master-ish set of 2012 Topps a while after they came out.  I've never added these inserts.  This is Topps' most blatant example of starting with the auto-relic hit and working backwards (quickly and lazily) by subtraction to get the base insert.  I reviewed the 2012 inserts and offered my upgrades to their designs.

All of these have at least two echo pictures.  A few have three.  THREE!  The same image re-cropped and shown three times on one card.  I have to pause to compose myself.  Not sure whether to laugh, cry or scream.  Then in Bench's case, the team logo, which occupies the space reserved for the relic swatch, is (accurately) plain white.  Therefore the only color on the whole card is on one quarter of the total area.  Stuck between the parallel lines that make it look like those sliding chalkboard panels that move in front of each other in older school buildings.  the bottom picture on the right 2/3 of the front is faded so that the signature that you didn't get will show better.  Or remind you that you didn't pull the signed version.

I had to make an improved version again.

Ahh, much better.

I visualized my "ugliest card" to be something with a lot more gaudy foil against sickening color combinations with a badly cropped photo, but this will do.  These are the cards that I can think of the quickest that I can't stand the most.  A couple times I've seen them cheap, and considered finishing the master set just for the sake of completism, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.  Maybe if I find the whole set in a dime box at a show somewhere down the line.

Post In Five Minutes ... Or Not

Daniel at It's Like Having My Own Card Shop started a Five Minute Post challenge.

How much can you write in five minutes?

You've almost got to have it all thought out, scanned, drafted, and set in your mind ahead of time.  Can you really get a quality post done in five minutes or less?

Nah, c'mon man.  That's not enough time to write something good.

You've got to take some time to come up with a strong idea!

Don't just cop out with a This Day In History or some hot chick's birthday.

Although chicks are always nice...

Hey! This is a baseball card blog, put up some cards!

Relax kid!  He's been doing that all along!

This is stretching way past five minutes.

 Yeah, but I kinda like it...

I don't know, man.  Seems like nothing but a lot of random cards strung together like a conversation.

Hey, it worked didn't it? It's all good!

YEAH!  YOU DID IT!

Uh, that took way longer than five minutes though....

I'm just sad that it's over...