Great Art. Well, Mostly Great.

Virtual school is wearing me down.  I didn't think I was that tired on Friday night, but I spent all of yesterday sitting around resting.  Maybe it was the combination of virtual school and the fact that my own children required a trip to the emergency room (dislocated elbow) and we had a pet pass away (Rita The Betta Fish) this week.  

Elbow is back in place.  We now own Alexander (Hamilton) the Betta Fish.  

Anyway, I am well-rested and ready to do more school work today.  Also write about some baseball cards.  

This is my second Project 2020 post in a row.  These cards have gotten to be pretty inexpensive.  I spent a little time the other week circling back and trying to pick up a few more cards that weren't Mark McGwire or Bob Gibson.  I think I did pretty well here, until you get to the McGwire card.  

First, is a Roberto Clemente card from Sophia Chang.  

She definitely has a similar pattern on her cards with the bubble letters, quotes, and backgrounds made up of small baseball/player related items.  I like that she keeps some of the elements from the original card, like the player photo of Clemente.  

The home run quote at the bottom is a little suspect, but I like the overall appearance of the card.  Clemente was not really a home run hitter, more of a line drive/slash hitter with speed.  Great defender.  Maybe a quote about those skills would fit better.  

"I Was Born To Play Baseball" is a good, but I would have considered using the quote that the Pirates have hanging in the tunnel in between their locker room and dugout.  I like this one better..... 

That's a little thing.  I am being picky.  

Overall, really good looking card.  

This is the back of the card, which has the artist bio on Sophia Chang.  I really like her baseball cards, I would put her second behind Efdot with the artist on the Project 2020 cards.  

Speaking of Efdot, here is my second card for the post.  This is really good art work.  

The small circle in the corner and border are trademarks of all his cards.  I like that he blended in the football, basketball, baseball, tennis, and golf ball on the lower right side of the border.  Those were the other sports he played at different points.  You've also got a Kansas City Monarchs logo in his name, which is done in UCLA colors.  There is also a faint Army color pin on the right side of jersey. 

There is a lot here.  It feels like one of those Highlights magazines hidden picture pages, but you can step back and appreciate the entire picture if you don't want to find all the little hidden things inside.  Those Highlights pages are garbage if you ignore the small pictures hidden inside.  

Back of the card.  Overall, this is very well done.  

Which brings me to my last card. Mr. Cartoon's recreation of the 1987 Topps Mark McGwire rookie card.  How did we get here?  I was buying two cards, and the seller told me he'd throw in a McGwire card for next to nothing.  I said sure without even searching the card.  I appreciate the generosity, but I am here for the art this morning.  So, I will just say that I see why this was practically a give-away.    

If you don't know what the 1987 Topps McGwire rookie card looks like, this isn't it.  

I see there is an A's logo, kind of.  You've also got a picture of McGwire.  Those are the two similarities between the two cards.  

How bad is this card?

My 10 year old has a small collection of cards.  He's picky about who he puts into his box of cards.  I was recently given an Andrew Knizner card because he's a back-up catcher.   I was also given an Edwin Diaz card because everyone knows he's terrible.  Tyler Chatwood.  Nobody says anything nice about him.  

I offered him this McGwire card.  His first reaction?  "Is this a team checklist?  I don't collect those"  

Vernon Wells has better artwork, but seems fair.  

Artist bio.  Sigh.  I see.