Images are back

Huzzah! No more black circles with lines through them. That was a big step one on the way to rebloggery. Of course, there's also that who "time" issue, but this was a hurdle that I wasn't excited to overcome. Turns out it was easier than I thought.

Anyway, Images. Woo!

Also woo:

-The Tigers are in first place
-Michigan football starts tomorrow

Someday, like some hypothetical magic future date on which I am all of a sudden confident in initiating a jinx-free discussion of the Tigers playoff chances, blogging will continue. Topics to discuss: the Tigers playoff chances; the Tigers in the playoffs, hypothetically; Fister; The Tigers post-2011 outlook.

Also, 2011 baseball cards, a summary.

Sounds good, I can't wait.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Sorry folks, the blog is going under construction for a while. Some things, images and galleries in particular, might appear or disappear or be broken etc. For this I am very sorry. The hope is that the end result is a much better site for everyone.

Now the bad news. It is no secret that my blogging here has been a little, um, sluggish for the last few months. This is a function of my life going from a normal, acceptable pace, to a crazy, full-time job + grad school + damn, this recession must actually be long gone because work is chaos + and I'm exhausted in my free time pace.

I am not shutting down the site. I am not stopping with the blogging. Things are just UNDER CONSTRUCTION for a while. Pardon the mess, especially because I'm a notoriously slow worker.

Updates and Bullets

Sorry for the radio silence everyone, my semester has been wrapping up--I have one last paper due Friday--and has left me with very, very little time to do anything that isn't directly related to work or school. This should turn around in the next week or two as I try to ease back into things.

In the meantime, I haven't been living under a rock. Quick bullet thoughts, ho!

• RIP Harmon Killebrew
This has been the big news, after his announcement that he was entering hospice care just last week. I saw him at an Autograph show in Baltimore a couple years ago and he seemed like a nice guy. That last half of the sentence sounds like the understatement of all time based on articles I've read about him since. Also, he had one of the nicest signatures in all of baseball.
• The Tigers are...good? I contemplated putting a post together to this point after their 40th game as they sat on a sweet 7 game win streak. Of course, there was that 7 game losing streak earlier, but that's in the past, obvs. It seems like the Tigers are, in fact, kind of good, but I expect them to play uneven, frustrating baseball for the entirety of this season as they seek a playoff spot. The best news for the Tigers is the apparent badness of the Twins.
• Benoit needs to be de-leveraged. He cannot be the 8th inning guy anymore. The Tigers need to Joe Nathan him pronto to see if he can get back on track.
• The Tigers starting rotation is money. Verlander and Scherzer are better than I thought they would be prior to the season. Porcello has pitched very well, and I have been impressed with Brad Penny in his last few starts. I don't really like Phil Coke, but maybe I'm just a grump. I wouldn't mind seeing him shift back to the bullpen to be replaced by one of the prospects. If the Tigers can sustain their starting pitching at even 80% of this level, they will be in the playoff hunt right to the end.
• Indians, man. They're not bad. Really, it's the former Indians that I'm interested in, right VMart and Jhonny? They've been excellent for the Tigers this year.
• Please don't slump Brennan Boesch
• On Cards: I think that I like Gypsy Queen but don't love it. It may be the first set to have the distinction of mini cards that look worse than the base. 2011 Bowman is ugly (what else is new) and has a crappy Tigers checklist. The more I look at it, the more I like 2011 Topps. Could go down as one of the best designed and executed sets in a long time. Diamond Parallels are money, and I hope they continue the Black Diamond redemptions into S2
• I have Baltimore City Jury Duty on Monday. I will be live tweeting my experience up until the point it becomes illegal for me to do so. Just FYI.

I hope to expand on some of these thoughts in future posts, and you know that I have the entirety of 2011 card galleries to catch up on. That's what summer is for, right?

I'm back baby

Sort of.  I'm officially back on US soil, but am still operating with my phone as primary computer.  Regularish posting should resume this week...just in time for the start of the season!

For those of you that have hung in there, thanks.

Not Yet

Sorry folks, some things came up tonight and I can't post my best discontinued set of the last 10 years. Keep an eye out tomorrow. In the meantime, I still want to hear your thoughts. What was your favorite product that card companies stopped making?

Going Toppsless

I have nothing against 2011 Topps--in fact, all indications are that I am going to like it very much. It also seems that everyone in the world has been talking about it for days, to the point where, less than a week after its official release all card blog readers know everything there is to know about 2011 Topps.

So, to help balance the world out, this blog is going (2011) Toppsless for the next week. The good thing is, I've actually had quite a few nice card packages come across my desk, so there should be some good stuff to fill the void.


I'm not going completely Toppsless, I'm just not posting on the 2011 version. Everything prior to this year is still fair game.

Fits and Starts

Boy, it sure was nice doing all that posting during my week off--reminiscent of days gone by, I'm afraid. Unfortunately, as has been the case for the last few months, this blog will be moving forward in fits and starts. I'll try to make posts as regular as possible--we're probably looking at something every couple days, but I'm about to experience a severe time crunch with the start of the spring semester at the end of the month and a ton of work obligations.

I'm not going away, but things might be a little unpredictable around here for a while.

Just thought you should know.

Year In Review

The year is almost up, and I think that calls for some reflection. I've got the week off (YAY!) which means I have a little extra time to put up some year in review posts. I couldn't decide how to tackle all the things I want to say in one post, so I'm going to split them up.

So, starting this evening and extending through the weekend (yes, I know that is in the new year) I'll be posting about 2010 and looking forward to 2011. Here's a taste of what to expect:

• Topps the Monopolist: How'd They Do?
• The Best and Worst of 2010's Card Sets
• 2010 Rookies
• 2010 Michigan Alumni
• 5 Best Cards of 2010
• 5 Best Cards of 2010 (Autograph & Relic Edition)
• 5 Worst Cards of 2010
• State of the Blog

Now, I won't necessarily attack these in order, and there may be some changes, but this is what you can expect in the days ahead. Enjoy!

For The Record

I'm still around but have been so busy with a combination of work and school that a one sentence post is all that I can muster. Ok, two sentences: I will try to get back to normal when things settle down, hopefully within a week or two.

ChchchchChanges

Things are looking a little different around here. What you're seeing is Grand Cards 2.0 Beta, which upgrades me to a template that isn't woefully obsolete to the point where my "Followers" disappear and everything is just crotchety and old. There is also a header, which I think I like, but may be tweaked still.

This is a work in progress, but for the moment I'll claim "Upgrade" on this and theatrically dust off my hands to indicate that my work here is done. "Beta" label will be removed once I make tweaks here or there.

Reader comments/critiques would be much appreciated.

A Checklist Per Day

I'm not going to say that this isn't a stupid idea. Note the current scenario:

1. A blog to which I am struggling to post as frequently as I would like
2. A work schedule that, in three month segments dating back a year, looks like this: slow, manageable, busy, utter chaos
3. Entering a graduate school program while still dealing with (2) full time and (1) as a hobby.
4. All that other stuff that you need to deal with in life.

But screw it, am I right? You only live once*

Anyway, here is the plan. Every day, from here until I am done, I will compile a complete checklist of Detroit Tigers from a particular set. The goal is to end up with a full checklist of all Tigers cards ever made. This should take me about a year to complete, give or take.

The caveat is that I will not be posting these checklists every day. Rather, I will put them together in my publicly-available google-docs spreadsheets. Then, over time, I will gradually convert them into the "Gallery Checklists" that you've all come to know and love.

This is a horrible idea for all the aforementioned reasons. It's also a great idea. It provides structure, eliminates that pressing weight of trying to do this but finding the task too daunting (b/c its too big), and lets me use this blog as a commitment device. We'll just have to see if it works and I can stick to it, and I think I'll be able to, honestly. Heck, I've already finished 1950, so let's just keep this train a'rolling.

After all, it's just one checklist per day.

*note how sad it is that I am equating "living" to the compilation of baseball card checklists.

Programming Note

It's (almost) officially Labor Day weekend. Get away from your computers, get out of the house, BBQ, stay safe if facing hurricane conditions and come away refreshed and pleased with a 1-0 Michigan team for the first time in what feels like forever and/or a Tigers team that after burning through pitching like wildfire in yesterday's 13-inning win, rally to play some great ball against the Royals this weekend. Please (especially the first one).

Enjoy the holiday. I may or may not be active on twitter, in case you're dying to get little kernels of GrandCards wisdom. The blog is almost certainly shut down until Monday.

The Grand Scheme Is Suspended

On Hiatus Usually the titles I choose for "The Grand Scheme" are oblique references to something related to the Tigers or card collecting or what have you. This time it is much more literal. For the time being, I'm going to hold off on producing new "Grand Scheme" posts. This will come as a major disappointment to some of you, including my lovely wife who, in addition to helping me sort and pack the thousands of cards from my giveaway, has told me that "The Grand Scheme" posts are by far her favorite on the site. And although her vote counts for like, 10,000 votes on this sort of thing, my vote counts for like, 10,005. Sorry, babe. Barring some modicum of reader sentiment towards me keeping the Grand Scheme right now, I'm putting them on hold.

But Dan, no! Whhhhhhhhy?

For one, they take a lot of time to put together. A lot of internet scouring and reading and quote selection and such as. In the last month or so, my work schedule has gotten increasingly hectic and I just haven't had the time to devote to these as I would have wanted. Also, in a month I'll be starting Grad School, and with work showing no signs of slowing down I'm expecting a major time crunch.

For two, this baseball season is killing me. The Grand Schemes are fun because they allow me to comment on the Tigers, collecting and the baseball season in general by recapping what's going on in the greater scheme of things (get it?). But with the Tigers' season sinking fast, there's not a whole lot more of analysis and commentary that I can give other than "They're fucked." And although I can perhaps suggest ways that they could un-fuck themselves, or prevent said fuckage in the future, I fear that my comments will come off as the negative, profanity laden, and/or holier-than-thou rants that the internet is known for, and that I don't like reading. No thanks. I've already sworn more in this paragraph than I have in the last three months of published posts. Think of the children.

So for now, "The Grand Scheme" goes on the back burner. I envision bringing it back when life settles down--the offseason seems an appropriate time for this--and doing so at a scheduled regular interval. In the meantime, everything else about the blog will continue as normal. Seeing as how I average .0001 comments per Grand Scheme post, I'm guessing that most of you won't even notice the difference.

Chchchchanges Also, it appears as though this blog is a wee bit antiquated. I was clued into this when I noticed that my "google followers" gadget in the sidebar stopped working because my template was too old and crotchety. I'll consider this the wake-up call to do the blog re-design that I've wanted to do for over a year. This means that I may or may not actually do a blog redesign, but know that I really want to. On the docket: New (but similar) template. New "Grand Cards" logo. A Grand Cards banner. Additional functionality, but probably not much because I don't know a whole lot about the internet so I'll just take what I can get. These things should update the look and feel of the blog so that it will only be a little bit outdated instead of a lot-a-bit.

Checklists and Galleries To-be-expanded. This is probably a bad idea, since I'm behind on 2010 checklists and galleries, but I'm in the process of putting together comprehensive by-year checklists. This is a by-product of receiving a ton of cards from the 80s for which I have no checklists at all. So, I'll be putting these together, posting them in the "checklists" section, and then doing galleries if and when I complete a team set of these older cards. Then I'll start filling in with internet-gleaned galleries.


And that's really it, I'm hitting the pause button on "The Grand Scheme," continuing everything else as normal and hoping that life can slow down to the point where I can catch back up to it. We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

On The Road Again

Hey folks, I'm about to head out of town for a bit and I wanted to let you know that posts will be sporadic, at best. A few notes:

• Contest cards have been shipped to people who sent me their addresses with three exceptions: one to Canada and two that were too big for the envelopes I had left. They'll be in the post as soon as I get back, I promise.
• The Tigers are in first place at the half-way point...somehow. Rosenberg struggles to explain it and Henning proffers suggestions for what improvements the team will make.
• The All-Star game is next week. Expect Miguel Cabrera to come up big--in both the game and the Home Run Derby
• The Tigers start a crucial series against the reeling Twins tonight. The division is looking more and more like it will be a three-team race down to the wire.

Everybody enjoy your weekends--I'll be basking in the non-100 degree heat of Northern Michigan--and enjoy the All Star Break!

Kinks

I did a little tweak of my blog template to upgrade some of the functionality of the photo galleries. Specifically, instead of the thumbnails in the galleries opening to a new page (the picasaweb page), they are now Lightboxed for immediate opening and maximum awesomeness.

However, I haven't retroactively updated the links in my old posts to account for this, so clicking on the pictures opens up a lightbox that searches for the image forever. I'll try to improve this, especially for 2010 posts, but in might take me a while given work's current craziness.

Apologies.

Programming Note

Busy, busy, busy day today--probably nothing going up here.

However, Grand Galleries for Bowman and National Chicle are in the offing, and a Tigers Gallery for National Chicle is pretty much ready to go. That will more or less catch me up on all the releases prior to Topps Series 2 next week.

Also, in Tigers news Max Scherzer killed it in AAA yesterday and the Mudhens are slated to face Stephen Strasburg in his penultimate minor league start on Monday.

Have a good Friday everyone!

PPD

Grand Cards blogging has been postponed due to unseasonably nice weather in Baltimore. Blog posts will be rescheduled at the next available date when sitting behind a computer feels acceptable. Until then, if there is any bit of sunshine and/or warmth where you are, I recommend taking advantage while it lasts.

Programming Note

I'm officially dug out of a billion feet of snow and the road that I'm parked on is (finally) plowed--for the first time since the first storm hit last weekend.  All of this means that I can actually leave my house and get to the office tomorrow.  It also means that I have an absurd amount of work to do.  Anyway, posting will likely be sparse for the next 24-48 hours as life reasserts itself.

Holiday Programming Note

You know the drill--9 hour drive back to Michigan, Christmas etc. I'll actually be gone until January 4th, but I'm sure there will be plenty of downtime to allow for ample posting. After all, the blog was originally started while I was on this break last year! Safe travels and happy holidays to everyone!

Programming Note

Yes, I'm still here and I have lots to say.

However, tomorrow at 7am I need to catch a plane to Hawaii so that I can run a marathon there this weekend. Inevitable radio silence will result. This also meant that packing and the general getting of stuff together tonight made real writing impossible. No matter--that's what long plane rides are for, right?

In the next couple days, a multi-part series will examine the Granderson trade and what it means for the Tigers, and for this blog, so please stay tuned. Until I return, I recommend browsing through the summary on Bless You Boys which brings you reactions from across the web.

I've got to run, but I just wanted to let you all know that I'm ok and not hanging from the rafters of my basement...swatting a lightbulb to make me feel better.