Winner of the forehead trials. Undeniably.

There's so much great about this card that it brings tears to our eyes. Not the least of which is that Mr. Forehead apparently did not think it important to dress in a baseball uniform for his Topps baseball card photo. Before we receive a slew of emails telling us that we are pitiable idiots for not realizing this is in fact a baseball uniform, we say, well, it doesn't look like one.

The entry is from Travis at punkrockpaint. I trust the rest of us agree that we should fold our cardboard tents and go home. In the meantime, we at the Corners will work on putting together an adequate prize.

Final call for fierce foreheads!

From Mark's Ephemera we received the following three cards. Do you like Brett Favre with a cheesehat forehead, nearly impaled by goal posts, and tiny helmet in foreground?:

"Behold my forehead."

His shininess:

The following three are from the great gcrl, beginning with Gibson:

Huh:

Yes, inset foreheads are acceptable:

From Alex, we celebrate this amazing hockey card forehead:

Here we took the liberty of finding a picture of a card dayf mentioned, thus breaking our own rule that we would prefer scans of cards that bloggers and readers actually own. He undoubtedly owns it, but this isn't dayf's own personal copy. Still. 1) rules are made to be broken and 2) LOOK AT THAT FOREHEAD. Do bald pates have an unfair advantage?

Here are entries from the insanely creative punkrockpaint:

wrinkly:

wrinkly and running:

proud:

We will provide a forehead poll shortly. Ouch, that sounds painful.

....and here are the cards from our original post:

From Shane D., Mr. Harrist happily models a perfect forehead, as its fierceness is enhanced to a degree that renders its size at least equal to home plate.

Also from Shane D., we have a Steve Howe. He often looks 12 years old on his baseball cards, but here his age has skyrocketed to roughly 19. Is it our imagination, or did old-style caps gargantuanize foreheads?

From Steve D., who doesn't have a blog but is willing to play, we have this card of Dave Stewart, whose forehead looks fierce enough--and then is helped along by his perfect "you talkin' to me?" expression.

Another fine Steve D. card: We can't rotate this because we're lame, but the sideways effect is OK because it makes Harold and his eyeblack look like a living emoticon. His forehead is certainly scrunched; the question is, would you call that a fierce scrunch or a worried scrunch?

This contribution from Pulitzer-Prize winning blogger (well he would be if they had Pulitzers for bbc blogs, which they oughta) Night Owl is impressive, and quite satisfying in ferocity, until you see N.O.'s second contribution:

The shine! The square footage! The forehead balancing the name circle!

Here's a contribution from Matthew G. of the classy Number 5 Type Collection. We'd say something about this one, but we're frightened and must hide under the dining room table.

This one from Bo is good because not only is the forehead in partial shadow, but there's something written under the lid of the cap. However, it's the following contribution that rocks, because of Bo's narrative for it:

"Darren Lewis grits his forehead"

Now that's good baseball card blog writing!

Last but certainly not least is this contribution from Paul:

Excellent not only regarding foreheads, but because this card could also qualify in other categories, such as: "tiny hats," "massive eyebrows," and "crooked yet impressive mustaches."

Thanks to all of you for participating. The poll will appear tomorrow Wednesday (just in case we get more contributions before then). Those too lazy to suggest cards will, perhaps, at least find the time to vote. ;)

Blogger challenge: Fierce Foreheads.

We challenge all readers, lurkers, and bloggers: send us a picture of your fiercest forehead baseball card--preferably one in your collection. We'll post them all and then have a community vote. We need to play more as a group, and since we can't flip 'em, we will post 'em instead.

Can you enter more than once? Of course, this isn't Moscow. What if there's a tie? There'll be two victims. We mean victors. What is the prize? The UNDYING ADMIRATION of the baseball card blog community and possibly something else based on your favorite team.

Let the ferocity begin!

Allen & Ginter blaster for you. UPDATE.

Packs five through eight have been added at the bottom of the post.

Remember, other than Mets, if you need or want any of these cards, just email us with your address, and we'll mail them out tomorry.

First pack:
6 Bumgarner
52 Floyd
64 Beckett
TDH43 Broxton
L0212 Cronos:

Pray tell, did Mr. Cronos hit his thumb with a hammer? You'd think the leader of the Titans would be a little more circumspect.
Also:
205 Keflezighi

Pack two:
TDH64 Hamilton
70 Votto
137 Zimmerman
146 Lee
313 Doumit

Pack three:
Uh-oh! We need to keep two from this pack, one for each kid--Jordin Sparks for the teen and a Chihuahua for Lucy. Ok?

Here are the lesser, puny, mewling shadows of cards, so very unchihuahua, included in the Chi-Sparks pack:
TDH20 Sabathia
31 Montero mini (Ginter guy back)
49 Mejia
171 Young
268 Kilby

Pack Four:

Sacagawea looking...old? Our daughter pronounces this 'Sah KAH jah way ya' and it sound right. Is it my imagination or does Mr. Dunn bear a slight resemblance to her?
Also:
2 E. Cabrera
TDH1 Utley
338 Liriano
347 O. Cabrera mini

Pack Five:
THD59 Pence
MM10 Brachiosaurus:

7 Howard
147 Guzman
154 Francisco
287 Brees

Pack Six:
101 Buehrle
170 Gonzalez
246 Sito mini
270 Poser:

TDH24 Votto
Checklist Two
332 Nolasco

Pack Seven
148 Donovan
224 Stewart
265 Morales
TDH75 Rivera
286 Revolving Door

Crack the Code :(

Pack Eight

54 Hawk

71 Pence mini (Ginter back)

256 Porcello

269 Burnett

344 Holland

TDH62 Youkilis

So...hmm. Hmm. Er. We like the chihuahua and the revolving door!

We're baaaaaaaack. Also: who is the face of your team? Also: free cards!

So! I picked this up on eBay for a song for our daughter Lucy, 10, because she now loves David Wright more than baseball or even the Mets. However, as she becomes more aware of how our world works, she said today, "I hope he doesn't quit the Mets" because they are doing poorly and behaving thuggishly.

There is a heartbreaking notion: what would we do if David Wright goes to another team, ever? It's almost as unthinkable as Derek Jeter leaving the Yankees. The players who are the "face of a team," such as Ichiro on the Mariners, upturn the entire baseball world if they flee. Don't flee, David! Who is the face of your favorite team?

By the way: shortly--this evening--we're going to open a pathetic little blaster of Allen & Ginter. When we do so, please feel free to email us if you need any of the cards, as we won't keep any except Metropolitans...and only certain Mets at that. Just include your address in the email and we'll mail it or them off to you tomorrow, Thursday! A way of saying "hi, we're back."

Checking in! and a Topps 2010 Series Two pack.

We're almost back--three more projects, two more weeks of school, and we'll have days off again! Today for the first time in forever we had to run an errand (done expertly fast, between classes, at Target, our PBOS* of baseball cards) and we picked up a single pack of 2010 Topps Series  2. We are always determined to find something to like on at least three cards in a 12pack, no matter how stinky the assortment might be. This pack is a pleasing tentative return to Cardboardville because we found one card we loved. It is good to experience a flash of that hopeful, gee whiz feeling when looking through a pack. Here he is:

This is a mockup, correct? This card doesn't actually exist, no? Normally we'd google and find the answer but don't have time right now. Anyhow, on the back of the "Vintage Legends" series my only quibble is maybe Topps could explain what it's doing. As in, "this is a mockup," or "we did a reprint of this card because it was one of the most sought-after or toughest to get" or "this was a popular bike spoke card" or whatever. A little card history about the cards themselves, Topps, when you go all vintage on us, along with baseball history, would be sweet. Do you agree? Aren't we about cards as much as baseball?

Then there was this:

which we like because it is a classic midair moment, and because it contains seven human limbs but only one baseball cap.

This one is good too, because it contains two baseball players, ten spectators, and a fellow's rear end. Our guess is he has just delivered his buddy a $14 hot dog and would like to wiggle back into his seat. Can you imagine being immortalized in this manner on a baseball card? It would not be ideal.

Anyhow, we're looking forward to getting some more cards and getting back into the mix come August. See you soon!

*pathetic but only source

Players and specs. And a question!

Quick note: It turns out that starting a new job and taking three classes on your two days off makes it a little difficult to post. That's why we've been so, um, low-profile lately. We fully intend to revive in August so please don't give up on us!

Today someone asked us: who was the first player to wear glasses in a Major League game? Bruce Markusen of Bronx Banter/Baseball Toaster answered this question in 2008:

"The first major leaguer to wear glasses during a major league game was 19th century workhorse Will 'Woop-La' White, who completed 394 out of 401 starts in his career. (I wonder what his pitch counts were like.) In 1877, White wore a pair of eyeglasses for the Boston Red Sox Stockings, who were then a National League franchise. [Does anyone out there have a photo or a card of Woop La?] After White finished donning the spectacles for Boston, no other major leaguer would sport glasses for another 38 years. In 1915, pitcher Lee "Specs" Meadows cracked the 20th century glasses barrier with the Cardinals. Like White, Meadows was a very good pitcher, a winner of 188 games over a 15-year career.

Up until 1921, only pitchers dared wear glasses during games. That changed when George 'Specs' Toporcer became the first position player to make the transition. A singles-hitting middle infielder who played for the Cardinals, Toporcer wore glasses for the balance of his eight-year career in St. Louis."

Do you have any other insights about spec-wearin' players? Since both Lucy (our daughter the card collector) and moi have been known to sport spectacles, we have another urgent question. We'll print it embiggened for everyone who might be nearsighted:

What's the best baseball card ever made of a player wearing glasses?

Hey hey Boo Boo.

As noted earlier, after recently starting a new job as an NPS Park Ranger, it's become necessary for me to apply every waking moment to planning tours, studying the park's interpretive themes and scads of procedures--and this does not allow for much Non-Blitzed Time right now.

This crunch should diminish after adapting, one hopes, but in the meantime here are my two encounters with park visitors this week that relate to baseball. Because New Yorkers are a rare commodity out here, when they do appear we find each other. For instance, yesterday I said to one woman, "Flushing?" and she knew this remark had nothing to do with the water closet. "Bayside!" she replied.

Shortly thereafter, a Mets-hat wearing gentleman told me that his family had at least one family member in attendance at every Mets game at Shea Stadium over the past ten years. When I asked him his assessment of Citi Field, he said that neither he nor anyone in his clan had been there yet. (For quite the opposite stance, see Paul's Random Stuff for a cool Citi Field tour.)

Then a gentleman who had RVed himself, his wife, and four lovely children all the way from Port St. Lucie, Florida said he stopped watching baseball in 1994 because of the strike and had never gone back. Even though he lives in the spring training home of the Mets!

Both of these statements point to a truthiness we'd rather not contemplate. :(

On a happier Metnote, look at this spectacular card we received from the kind and insanely generous Gentleman David at Tribecards (for whom we compiled a small package that should, at our current rate of speed, be mailed out no later than 2012):

It's shiiiiny!

We wonder if a modest stick of dynamite might liberate Mr. Wright from his lucite lockdown.

The baseball night we missed but will still remember.

Yesterday was an exceptionally beautiful evening for baseball at Isotopes Park, but we couldn't make it to the game. AND it was Baseball Card Night! First one we've had to miss in three years! So imagine our surprise coming home today to find a bubble envelope that included this little stack:

2010 Albuquerque Isotopes baseball cards!

Said stack featured favorite players in high-gloss glory:

...and the rest of the gang (yes we know Josh Towers was released today; he was having control problems. But we still like the dude).

So rather than feel blue over what we missed, we were happy that we know someone nice enough even to think of us on card night! The kind person also included this small wonder in that bubblelope:

National Parks Collection Trading Cards! 

Are these kind of stunning?

Uh-oh.

Thank you, Kris!

We lack the oxymoron Met.

We face a deafening silence when it comes to Angel Pagan. O heavy lightness.

How can this be? Well, it just is. Mr. Inside-the-Park Homerun (thanks pete27) and Triple Play In the Same Game is a card collection area in which we are sadly lacking. We will start by seeking this 2002 Bowman Heritage, which is a nice-looking hunk. Of cardboard, that is.

When we realized that we don't have any Angel Pagan cards other than 2010 Topps, we came upon this impressive site, The Amazing Shea Stadium Autograph Project, in which handmade Shea Stadium cards are sent TTM to Mets who played from 1964-2008. That's where we came upon this post about Mr. Pagan. This is a nifty way to collect your team and not always rely on the evildoer card companies. We'll add Amazing Shea to our blogroll when we can fix the mysterious glitch that isn't allowing us to add anything new to Sonically Sealed. Has anyone else had this adding-to-the-blogroll problem?

This is another sweet card, posted in October 2008 by great Mets fan Paul's Random Stuff:

And it looks from the evidence as if Mr. Pagan is not averse to signing TTM. This one is from Sports Autos TTM, and reveals quite an alarming decline in penmanship:

As we fix these card omissions, in the meantime, Mr. Pagan, we know you'll continue to hustle.