I keep thinking he is one of the experts they kept showing in Ken Burns' Baseball miniseries from the 1990s - the authority figures that look to be at least in their late 70s or older that share an anecdote about an old-timey player and/or talk about the good old days.
Through the last several years, things have been rough, with the Angels having underachieved despite high expectations - though with Mike Trout starring in center field for the Halos, it's hard to think things aren't going to get better.
Over the past 20 years or so, it's been a pretty good run - the Angels have developed some great talent, won a World Series in 2002 and were perennial contenders through through the late 2000's.
I wanted to try something a little different and used an insert card from another sport [football] to create a custom baseball card of San Diego Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez - I think the actual inserts correspond with colors from a particular NFL team.
I like the cards because they are die-cuts - a file folder graphic used on the original inserts with a faux paper clip going through the image used for the cards.
I'll have to go do some 'research' to see what if there was a 'theme' to the Specialists inserts - though I assume it was another run of the mill insert set.
Forget Joe Mauer, forget Albert Pujols, forget Vladdy Guerrero - if I was starting a 'Dream Team' right now, tennis star Maria Sharapova would be at the top of my list.
I like the 1989 Topps K-Mart Dream Team because the pink background on the stripe where her name is implies a more a feminine quality to the card - the cards sort of have a tacky look to them with a 'Dream Team' heading and the K-Mart logo.
Still, it isn't exactly a mainstream card - which makes it sort of unique for the purpose of generating this fantasy rendition.
Here is an update to an image I just put together - the font on player's name was off on the original rendition and I wanted to create a more faithful manipulation, so the card looks a little bit more authentic.
Brett Wallace is a slick hitting, particularly rotund prospect - who was recently traded from the Oakland Athletics to the Toronto Blue Jays for outfielder Michael Taylor.
Wallace was the key piece acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals in the Matt Holliday trade last July - but apparently Oakland's front office conceded Wallace was a guy who realistically has no shot at sticking at third base and was a future first baseman/designated hitter type.
However, it seems like a make or break year for Oakland first baseman Daric Barton to stick in the Major Leagues next year - with top prospect Chris Carter coming up from the minor leagues sooner than later.
I like the 1990 Score McDonald's because it is an oddball card - right now, I'm just trying to get the ball rolling and generate different 'make believe' trading cards of various players, so I can sharpen my skills.
Alex Avila had a pretty good debut season in the Major Leagues in 2009 - though it remains to be seen if he replicate his success, when given the opportunity to stick for a full season.
I don't particularly like the 1981 Topps design, but wanted to see if I create a 'card' of Avila - using a the graphics of a nearly 30-year old card release.
I've been dabbling with the idea of creating my own custom [or tribute] cards and while I'm a total newb, I hope to learn and gain some expertise - just to come up with unique images of trading cards, I'd never pull out of packs or find as singles anywhere, because they exist only in fantasy.
I didn't know how to really make these fantasy cards, though reading a tutorial on making your own baseball cards - inspired me to mess around on Photoshop and see what I can whip up on the fly.
I wanted create a Buster Posey card since he is probably going to be one of the top rookies in 2010, but he came up too late to have a 2009 MLBPA Rookie logo card produced - it is still a mystery, how any of the 2010 UD cards are going to look, especially if it is only licensed by the Players Association and not Major League Baseball.
For me, the most interesting aspect of custom/tribute cards is the ability to manipulate an original trading card design - it blew my mind to think custom/tribute cards using certain trading card designs were created by scratch.
With the most basic custom/tribute cards, all I really had to do was find an image/scan of a trading card - and change certain qualities on the original card, through an image editing program like Photoshop.
I can remove an original image on a trading card, but still retain the basic graphics as a template to layer onto a suitable image - before I do anything else, I have to make sure the image is proportional and not stretched.
It is kind of fun trying to cobble up something together - I'm not going to get every single thing right, but creating custom/tribute cards seems more fun than maybe simply consuming, purchasing, buying, picking up new cards.
The Posey 'card' is designed with the idea UD creates an insert set of 2010 rookies with the 1990 design and old school Star Rookie logo as a tribute [maybe as a potential 'Fat Pack' insert] - Posey's potential would definitely land him the No. 1 spot for 2010, if UD still had its Star Rookie subset after all these years.
Places of note -
Goose Joak
Custom Card Blog
Creating a Custom Retro Card
