Old Hoss 100..

Once again, I need to apologize for being away so long. This time I have a better excuse. Well, maybe not better, but at least it is baseball card related. I have spent the last couple months finishing my first baseball card set. The amount of work was a little overwhelming. I only made 84 sets, but designing, printing, cutting, boxing, and shipping took most of my free time over the course of two months. After printing and shipping costs, I made a tidy profit. I calculated my hourly wage at 55 cents an hour. While that is less than most prisoners earn making liscense plates, I earned mine doing something I love.



I really enjoy making fake baseball cards, so I took the (not so big) leap to making "real" cards. The inspiration for the set was the amazing writings of America's foremost, undead, Base Ball Hall-of-Famer, Chas. "Old Hoss" Radbourn. If there are any of you that are not familiar with the twitter legend @oldhossradbourn, you really are missing the boat. Consistently hilarious and insightful, Old Hoss tweets like he lived (lives?). He is able to squeeze social commentary, profanity, and insights about the modern version of America's pastime into 140 characters. Simply amazing.

A couple of months ago, ESPN released a list of their top 100 baseball players. Never one to miss an opportunity to tell it like it is (was?), Old Hoss provided his unique perspective for each choice. Over the course of 48 hours, he had burned through the "top 100" like Sherman's march to the sea.

A few of my favorite tweets:

#88: "Pop" Anson. __________________ The space above that line is white, just like the game that filthy racist insisted we play.

#83: M. McGwire. Would be ranked higher but angered all the scribes when the fellatio they gave him in 1998 gave them oral cancer in 2005.

#68: J. Bagwell. It is nigh time to acknowledge the unspoken truth: while batting he looked like a defecating monkey.

#32: B. Gibson. A man of epic stature, endurance, and mean-ness who failed to fire one right through T. McCarver's face.

#31: C. Ripken. Shockingly rude of him not to catch Cal Ripken's Disease and pass away before breaking L. Gehrig's streak.

#11: H. Gehrig. True story: pummeled W. Pipp half to death with a shovel then stoically submitted his application for the open job at 1B.

Reading the backs of baseball cards has always been one of my favorite things. Turning these priceless gems into baseball cards had to be done. I decided to let the quotes speak for themselves. The only "stats" on the backs of the cards are his tweets.



I wanted to give my customers a little something extra, so I made some special short printed cards. Several people have asked for a complete checklist, so I figured there is no better place to post it than here at the World (Wide Web) Famous Baseball Card Blog.

There are twenty five "Not Quite" Top 100 player cards (each hand-numbered to 10 copies), but those are listed on the checklists included with the set. The unlisted short printed cards are as follows:

Old Hoss Quotables - (Hand-numbered to 5)
1. The Scribes
2. J. Morris
3. M. Miller
4. M. Trout
5. M. Cabrera
6. MVP
7. E. Tate
8. Balls
9. Champagne
10. Hitters
11. A. Chapman
12. L.W. Jones
13. J. Kruk
14. Trades
15. The Enemy
16. The Law
17. J. Profar
18. Fan Fest
19. M. Kelly
20. The DL
21. Injury
22. C. Arthur



Short Print Checklist - Alternate photos or card backs (Hand-numbered to 5)
2. W. Mays
35. Secretariat
41. P. Martinez
55. R. Jackson
60B. O. Smith
60C. O. Smith
60D. O. Smith
65. E. Murray
72. B. Blyleven
73. R. Alomar
74. B. Larkin

 

 

The only really tedious aspect of the sets was the boxing process. Sorting and boxing up the cards wasn't much fun. (That might explain the disarray of my own collection of cards.) I designed, cut, and assembled my own boxes. Here are a couple of pictures of my "assembly line."

 

The cards facing up were miscut at the printer. I had to have quite a few reprinted.

 

I had a blast making these cards. I wish I would have saved one for myself.

 

If you missed out on getting a set of these, I'll make sure to post about the next set HERE first. It worked so well last time, I am proud to say that I'll be working with @oldhossradbourn again. We have started working on the set, and plan to formally announce the set around opening day of the Base Ball season. I promise it will be spectacular.