The FoC 100th Post Celebratory Review and Beardstravaganza

Wow, one hundred posts. I guess this is a milestone and should be approached in a completely over-the-top fashion thusly. I can honestly say that when I started this in January of Aught-Nine, I imagined that I'd have a hundred posts knocked out much, much sooner. Oh, well; it's finally picking up steam and I have no complaints about the journey. Before I get into links and statistics, let's take a moment to pay our respects to Beard Month with eight completely generic nineties-style 'stache/goat combos: The well trimmed goatee was pretty much a career-long mainstay for all of these guys except for Benes. He spent most of his time in San Diego naked-faced, adopting the look only toward the end of his Padres tenure when it was getting trendy. When it first started appearing on his face is when we should have known he was turning evil and would soon become a member of our hated northern rivals. These next four Pads were nowhere near as decisive; they are pictured in a state of limbo, exhibiting the lazy look favored by George Michael and sdsuaztec4 (nope, I'm still not anywhere near done with this post):

Although this is the one hundredth post, more than a hundred cards are depicted. Including the fourteen in this post, 138 to be exact. This is the part where I get my Wonko on and have some fun breaking down numbers that nobody else is even remotely interested in:

• 3 guest posts
• 16 Tony Gwynn posts, 33 cards (24%)
• 10 cards of Padres pictured with other teams (Abner, Furmaniak, Gaudin, Sut, Jerry Hairy x2, Cora x2, C. Gwynn & B. Giles) (7%)
• 7 non Padres sharing a card with a Padre (Edgar Martinez, A-Rod, Brett Butler & Will Clark w/ Tony, Matt Holliday w/ Adrian & J.R. House and Juan Castro with Ben Davis) (5%)
• Two Dodgers (Butler, C. Gwynn) are pictured, albeit with all references to filthy Dodgerdom obscured.
• 19 players pictured more than once, led by Tony's 33; Klesko & Adrian have 6 & 5 respectively; Broke, Joey, Abner & Briles have 3 apiece.
• This month has far and away been the most prolific, with 29 posts to date showcasing 45 cards, including 23 Tonys in 14 posts. Tied for second are February & April of this year with 12 each.
• Two back to back posts in February are tied for the most comments with 7.
• 63 posts are tied with zero comments.
• My friend Shane a.k.a. Shizzle a.k.a. Sheezy is mentioned, inferred to or referenced on 6 occasions.
• Aside from the two Abners Steve sent with his post, there has been 1 reader contribution.
• 4 logoless oddball cards are depicted
• 1 post doesn't have a card- it's the most important post of them all.
• Gaslamp Ball is mentioned, linked or alluded to more times than can be counted.
• Heath Bell has been mentioned the most times without being profiled

Well, I think that just about puts a bow on it. I'd like to use this part to thank everybody who has read, commented on, retweeted, linked, contributed to or had anything whatsoever to do with these first hundred posts. As always, feedback, submissions, suggestions and anything else you can come up with are more than welcome. Thanks once again.

The Klesko Facial Hair Chronicles, Volume 2: Chopgoat

I love how he has such a serious face in this picture because nobody looking at it could possibly do the same. It reminds me of the classic Ozzie chopstache, just with a circle goat instead of just a lip warmer. My friend Shane has rocked this look before and I ridiculed him as well, although this was clearly a case of "haters gon' hate" as anyone who has seen my meager collection of sparse face pubes can attest.

Here's Some Filler ('06 UD Ben Johnson)

Shane: "That's a cool card. Too bad he never did anything for you guys."

Me: "Never did anything? HE GOT US HEATH BELL!!!"

He's A Friar Now, Damn It!

I'm getting ready to run out the door but I thought I'd toss something up here really quick. I'm gonna go hang out with Shane and watch the rest of the Cubs - Pirates game which is now tied 6 to 6 in the 6th. Spooky!

Have fun... I promise I'll have a legitimate entry up here soon.

It's Been A Minute

The last few days, I've been going through my friend Sheezy's collection, pulling out the Padres. So far it's taken a few days and I've pulled gems like this autographed Krukkie that I didn't already have and 75 Tony Gwynns.

I garnered thirty-some new Kleskos and my friend Bobby suggested that I do a post on his many facial hair styles, so there's that.

Needless to say, I have absolutely zero excuse for not updating now.

CY & I: Cub Busters

Part II of the Joey lovefest will have to wait another day; I'm at my sister's house watching her kids so I don't have access to my pics of his cards. Here's a little something to tide you over:
My friend Shane and I have a pretty good system; whenever I pull any Cubbie cards, they go straight to him and whenever he gets any Friars on cardboard such as the '09 Signature Stars CY to your left, your pal TTG's collection gets a little bigger. Despite being a fan of the hapless Northsiders, Sheezy and his delightfully depraved fiance Tara are two of the greatest people you'll ever meet. I'm pretty sure they think as highly of me, seeing as how I am their beautiful daughter Aubrie's godfather- hell, they even entrusted me with naming her!

Back to baseball, Shane and I are like any other red-blooded set of friends in that we root for the other's team when it doesn't affect ours but talk mess like crazy any chance we get. Case in point: the Christmas before last, I bought him a Cubs jersey with #84 on the back. After he opened and examined it, he said something to the effect of "Sweet, you put the year I was born on it!" Now, I know when he was born but between the time of me buying it and him saying that, that fact never occured to me once and I told him as much. He thought about it for a second before the light bulb went off and he said "Oh, fuck you, Joe! At first I wanted to wear this every single day; now I want to set it on fire!" Score one for me.

Just to make this even remotely about CY, I will say that one of my all-time favorite images is the one of him about to punch former Friar Derrek Lee in his fear-stricken face.