The Return of the Top 10 Want List!

I'm a bit behind the times when it comes to pop culture. When I was in high school and college, I knew all the hottest songs and movies. Glee and the whole a Capella renaissance hit while I was still teaching in the US, but the movie Pitch Perfect came out in 2012. I'm just now finally watching it, as I write this post.

And I have to ask... is this movie for real? Are there universities in the US with four or five groups competing against each other? Do they gather in drained pools and have impromptu rumbles? Are there people so obsessed with a Capella singing that they make horrible puns like "a Ca-excuse me?" and "you're going to get pitch slapped" when they speak? Are intra-university competitions broadcast with color commentators? I get that the story is actually based on a non-fiction book, but... really? At least the movie is funny. It had some moments that made me laugh out loud.

I guess I'm getting old and out of touch with these younger kids. Before you know it, I'll be a grandpa.

So, baseball cards...

I used to have a top 10 wanted card list. I got rid of it when I redid my want list page, because it was just easier to leave the full lists up. Call me lazy.

But there are cards I've been looking for for some time now, and I thought it would be good to bring it back. You'll find the list in my sidebar on the right.

What's on the comeback of what I'm calling the Tricky 10? (By the way, I didn't exactly put much thought into the title, I picked the first thing that sounded remotely clever, and I hope nobody else has a list with such a name... but if your want list is called Tricky 10, tell me.) I hit up the list of sets I'm trying to build and found a good number of them where I needed only one card.

There are two cards from the Fans of the Game inserts that DLP (and later, Panini) issued. A couple cards from the 90s make the list, plus a CD card issued by Upper Deck and given away at a Yankees game in 1999. A wrestling card and a non-sport card. And all the cards have managed to remain pretty elusive!

There are plenty of other cards on my want lists though, including upcoming Buck Farmer singles!

Wallet Tony Plays in the Snow

It snowed on Friday! And while Tokyo doesn't get the awesome piles of white stuff that many other parts of Japan (and the rest of the world) receive, I always enjoy seeing everything blanketed in white. I hiked the Nakasendo trail on my last vacation, and there was plenty of snow out there, but I can always go for more.

I took this picture just as the snow turned to rain, so as you might imagine it didn't last long. But February is when the real snow came last year, so I have high hopes. The first year I was in Japan the first snow, similar to this, also came the last week of January.

How's Tony doing? He's actually in great shape. There's a small nick on a border from taking him out a few times, and the corners aren't crisp. There's a little bit of bending on one corner, but since my wallet doesn't get too rough and the pocket I put him in seems to be pretty well-built, the card is staying strong. I wanted to prop the card up in snow on the ledge, but there was no such luck.

2014 BBM Lions Legends

BBM has been quietly releasing sets in its "Legends" series now for quite some time. Each set contains a large number of retired players, generally focusing on a team's dynastic era. In the thirteen season span of 1982-1994, the Lions were the Pacific League's most powerful team. This set focuses on that era.

As NPB Card Guy mentioned, the Lions won 11 PL pennants and the Nippon Series eight times. I'd say that's pretty successful! This is the fourth (of five so far) in the series, and was released in late November.

 The base card design is the same as the other Legends sets. The light blue marble border/background is elegant but not distracting and the photo area is pretty large. The backs feature the usual biographical data, along with statistics for the player while he was with the team and his career; the write-up focuses on their contributions to the team during the era. Cards are numbered in the top right. The cards do have a black border at the bottom which my scanner can't pick up; on the back this contains the copyright information.

A full set has 81 cards; there are no subsets in this issue.  Two 27-card partial parallels of the base set were issued; gold foil signatures are numbered to 100, while a blue foil parallel is numbered to the player's jersey number (from 1 to 47 copies per).

The lone insert in this issue is 80's Best Nine, with nine cards. There is a parallel, serial numbered to 100 copies each, The parallel uses gold foil where the "80's Best Nine" text is.

There's a single autograph set with cards randomly inserted in the packs. There are 31 different cards, most with print runs around 100 copies each. This checklist is not the same as the foil signature set.

I like the look of the Legends sets, and like the Achievement sets it's a good series to continue.