The case for MVP

The case for Javier Baez
https://youtu.be/Z1ZWOGGAOlo
176 H, 40 2B, 9 3B, 34 HR, 83 XBH, 111 RBI, 21 SB, .290 AVG, .326 OBP, .881 OPS

The case for Christian Yelich
187 H, 34 2B, 7 3B, 36 HR, 77 XBH, 110 RBI, 22 SB, .326 AVG, .402 OBP, 1.000OPS

Big BTRFS announcements

The big BTRFS announcements this week.  First, if you don't know what BTRFS is, then here is the definition:

BTRFS (pronounced as "butter fuss") is a file system based on the copy-on-write (COW) principle, initially designed at Oracle Corporation for use in Linux. It is a fairly new file stystem. The development of BTRFS began in 2007.  As of August 2014 the file system's on-disk format has been marked as stable, but coding and development continues.

Btrfs is intended to address the lack of pooling, snapshots, check-sums, and integral multi-device spanning in OS file systems.

The August 15th, 2018 BTRFS news can be summed up by this sentence:

Red Hat and Microsoft shun BTRFS, while ReactOS and SUSE Linux embrace this file system.

As of this week ReactOS (ReactOS.org) has announced that they support BTRFS and released developer issues of the OS with working BTRFS.  They have also released a YouTube video demonstrating BTRFS on ReactOS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ystmr5L9PU




The very same day, one year ago, Red Hat announced "Red Hat will not be moving Btrfs to a fully supported feature and it will be removed in a future major release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux."
Stating that hey did not see enough development for their taste.

Does Red Hat have better reason's for not supporting the FS? Filip Bystricky from Google and developer for android, wrote that the file system's “lack of native file-based encryption unfortunately makes it a nonstarter."
What about Microsoft? Microsoft Windows continues to ignore the file system and relies only on 3rd party drivers from open source community.

Cubs snap shot

Oops never published on the 29th of July. Doing so now, although these numbers have shifted a lot.

Every year at this time (since 2013) I do a snap shot of the Cubs at the end of July. The obvious Stars are Baez, Almora, and Rizzo. Bryant has been injured much of the season. The power hitters are Baez, Rizzo, and Schwarber. Schwarber happens to have the most walks and a .364 OBP, 3rd highest RBIs - so really should probably be ranked higher.

RK   Player       G    AB   R   H    2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  SO   AVG   OBP   SLG   OPS
1    Baez         103  383  65  113  27  6   21  79   14  100  .295  .326  .561  .887
2    Almora Jr.   98   310  50  96   21  1   4   30   18  55   .310  .346  .423  .769
3    Rizzo        95   361  44  95   17  1   15  69   44  53   .263  .360  .440  .800
4    Contreras    91   324  36  90   19  5   8   37   37  80   .278  .367  .441  .809
5    Heyward      89   314  54  87   16  3   7   44   32  39   .277  .344  .414  .758
6    Russell      94   326  48  86   19  1   5   34   34  74   .264  .335  .374  .709
7    Bryant       76   304  46  84   21  3   11  44   39  75   .276  .380  .474  .854
8    Zobrist      87   276  46  84   14  1   7   40   40  41   .304  .391  .438  .830
9    Schwarber    94   301  49  72   11  1   19  46   59  99   .239  .364  .472  .835
10   Happ         93   265  43  67   13  1   12  30   51  112  .253  .375  .445  .821
11   La Stella    84   117  14  32   5   0   0   17   12  16   .274  .341  .316  .657
12   Caratini     42   99   13  27   6   0   0   10   8   22   .273  .336  .333  .670
13   Bote         23   52   9   17   4   0   2   11   9   14   .327  .422  .519  .941

The Cubs sit in 1st place a game and half above the Brewers. Starting pitching has been their weekest link all season, but I would say there is somewhere between 87% and 95% chance they will make the playoffs again this year.

GEDXchange XML 1.2

I have updated/expanded GEDXchange XML to the newest level of 1.2.

Changes are updated Military and Baptism Elements.

Documentation can be found at:

http://mrgibson.com/table.html

Day 10 of yard work

The lights have been installed into the wall and the pergola has been mostly built. Click on the images to enlarge.

Day 9 of backyard work

New lumber arrived today and the wall is getting close to done.

Click on the images to enlarge:

Day 8 of backyard work

Click on images to enlarge

Day 7 of yard work

click on images to see larger photos.

day 6 of yard work

click on images to see larger photos.

day 5 of yard work

click on images to see larger photos.

Day 4 of yard work

click on images to see larger photos.

Day 1-3 yard revamp

click on images to see larger photos.

MCU

How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) list of movies/shows in chronilogical order:

Phase One

 - Movie: Captain America: The First Avenger
 - TV   : Agent Carter (seasons one and two)
 - DVD  : Agent Carter (one-shot — Iron Man 3 DVD)
 - Movie: Iron Man
 - Movie: Iron Man 2
 - Movie: The Incredible Hulk
 - DVD  : The Consultant (one-shot — Thor DVD)
 - DVD  : A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Thor’s Hammer (one-shot Captain America: First Avenger DVD)
 - Movie: Thor
 - Movie: Avengers
 - DVD  : Item 47 (one-shot — Avengers DVD)

Phase Two

 - Movie: Iron Man 3
 - DVD  : All Hail the King (one-shot – Thor: The Dark World)
 - TV   : Agents of Shield (season one: episodes 1 — 7)    (ABC)
 - Movie: Thor: The Dark World
 - TV   : Agents of Shield (season one: episodes 8 — 16)   (ABC)
 - Movie: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
 - TV   : Agents of Shield (season one: episodes 17 — 22)  (ABC)
 - Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy
 - Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
 - TV   : Daredevil (season one)                           (NetFlix)
 - TV   : Agents of Shield (season two: episodes 1 — 19)   (ABC)
 - Movie: Avengers: Age of Ultron
 - TV   : Agents of Shield (season two: episodes 20 — 22)  (ABC)
 - Movie: Ant-Man
 - TV   : Jessica Jones (season one)                       (NetFlix)
 - TV   : Daredevil (season two)                           (NetFlix)
 - TV   : Agents of Shield (season three: episodes 1 — 19) (ABC)


Phase Three


 - Movie: Captain America: Civil War
 - TV   : Agents of Shield (season three: episodes 20 — 22)(ABC)
 - TV   : Luke Cage (season one)                           (NetFlix)
 - Movie: Doctor Strange
 - TV   : Agents of Shield (season four: episodes 1 — 8)   (ABC)
 - Web  : Agents of Shield: Slingshot (web series)
 - TV   : Agents of Shield (season four: episodes 9 — 22)  (ABC)
 - TV   : Iron Fist (season one)                           (NetFlix)
 - TV   : The Defenders (season one)                       (NetFlix)
 - Movie: Spider-Man: Homecoming
 - TV   : Inhumans (season one)                            (ABC)
 - TV   : The Punisher (season one)                        (NetFlix)
 - TV   : Runaways (season one)                            (Hulu)
 - Movie: Black Panther
 - TV   : Jessica Jones (season two)                       (NetFlix)
 - TV   : Agents of Shield (season five, episodes 1 — 14)  (ABC)

 - TV   : Cloak and Dagger (season one)                    (ABC)
 - Movie: Thor: Ragnarok
 - Movie: Avengers Infinity War


Phase Four..... to be continued
  
 

5k training

I'm going to start tracking my running via this blog

My short term goal is to run a 5 K in 35 minutes. that is a 11:15 mile:

Friday April 13th - trail - el gain 8 feet
  46:02 min - 2.88 mile(s)
  Avg 15:58 min - 1 mile

  365 Cal

---

Sunday April 15th - treadmill - incline 0
  13:15 min - 1.000 mile
  20:00 min - 1.427 mile(s)

  205 Cal

---

Monday April 16th  - treadmill - incline 0
  12:33 min - 1.000 mile
  20:00 min - 1.500 mile(s)
  27.40 min - 2.000 mile(s)
  29.58 min - 2.143 mile(s)

  292 Cal

Cubs have struck out NL-record 58 times through 1st 5 games

Here is my first whinny post of the season. The Cubs have struck out a NL-record 58 times through 1st 5 games.
Who are the strike-out problem players? Heyward. nope. Schwarber. Wrong.
Happ for 8 strike-outs, Contreras for 8, and Rizzo for 6. Rest of the hitters for 5 SOs each.

Worse, the Cubs have been blanked twice in those five games by sub-par teams.

You can't win games if the lead off hitter (Happ) can't get on base, even by a walk.

10 facts as a collector

Seven Facts about me as a collector

- Fact 1. As a kid, I Started Collecting baseball cards in 1977.

In 1982, I was making a habit of collecting cards.

In 1989, I started purchasing cards in bulk.

In the mid 90s I stopped for a while and picked it backup up in 2007.

I'm not the usual collector.

- Fact 2. I buy locally, don't do much anymore with eBay.
  Why?
  I have two nice card shops where I live.
  Plus there are many private sellers around.
  Normally I see better prices, no shipping, I see the product. I just enjoy it more going in person to shows and shops.

  So like most collectors today, I don't have "mail day"

- Fact 3. I only have 15 K cards.  Most collectors who have been collecting as long as I have, well have many more.
  In fact, I'm looking at getting rid of many of my excess cards so that I can stay in that range.


- Fact 4. I don't use binders.
  Why?
  I don't trust them.  When I was a teenager, I used them.
  But they hang, bend, and are heavy. Plus they don't really protect the cards.

- Fact 5. I don't slab any of my cards.
  Why?
  It's not important to me.  I have never been into this hobby for investment or profit.

- Fact 6. I catalog and file all cards.  If they are not filed, they are hanging on walls on display
  Why?
  I want to enjoy my cards.  I want to know exactly what I have and be able to find them, view them,
  why have them.  I simply want to be able to enjoy them.

- Fact 7.  I'm not a very focused collector.   Other than collecting Cubs, HoFs, certain sets, years,
Cardinals, White Sox, Red Sox, All-Stars .... well you get the picture.

- Fact 8.  I was a huge Cardinals fan until Andre Dawson and Ryne Sandberg played together on the Cubs.  I was forever converted.  As a cardinals fan in the 70s, I was even trading many of my Cubs baseball cards to other kids.

- Fact 9.  No one else in my family like baseball or baseball cards like I do.

- Fact 10. I wrote all my collecting software myself.  Why, so I could have a product that could do what I wanted, display data in a way I wanted.

Revisiting my baseball card room

Another short post on my card room. I do have my new card cabinet in full use now. Still wish I had a better one, but for the money it is much better than many of the other options. 99% of everything on display is still Cubs based. I made this new video on YouTube for the blog to show what the room looks like as of today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=357zh_zMCYQ

Cubs and Cardinals autographed

I made a video today re-highlighting my Cubs and Cardinals autographed photos and baseball cards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riUwZT_JLN8

Here is a photo I did not put into my video:


Bill Buckner signing group Cubs photo.

took all 36 packs

I had to open all 36 packs of Topps 1988 Big Series 1 cards to obtain every card in the series. Have a ton of extra cards I don't need now. And even though I have not cataloged 100% of the cards of Series 1 (all 252 of them), I have started on Series 2.

I have made another video blog here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpoDFepruTQ

My cataloging effort of this set can be found here:
here http://mrgibson.com/baseball4.php?year=1988&seri=Big&bran=Topps

Despite all my complaining, if I get the full set for $5, I will be pleased. I will be up for trading my excess cards from this set for other holes in my collection.

Still working on 88 Big cards

Yes, I'm still opening and cataloging Topps 1988 Big cards. I have a long way to go.

How is the set so far? Probably the worst distribution of cards that I have ever seen. For example, I opened an entire case of Series 1. Some players kept coming up, over, and over, and over. Some players did not show in the entire case. Of the whole case, I only opened one Ryne Sandberg. If I had not at least got that card, I was going to be horribly upset. The worst part is that after opening all these cards, not a single #2 Milt Thompson card. But I need 8 Cal Ripkens?

Made another bulk purchase for $5 again. Although I did not get as many cards for $5....(for example, more than 2400 cards), I did get 756 Topps 1988 "Big" unopened cards for $5. Still a good deal in my humble opinion. I also did something different, I made a video of me opening some of this cards. 

Watch video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oH-2pu1l34

Once again, not a very good video, but I'm going to give this a shot with video blogs. Hopefully my video will get better. :)


As for the 1988 Topps Big cards, I love them.  I never knew these cards existed in 1988.  I did know of the 1989 Topps Big cards though.  I purchased many packs of them because I loved them.  That said, I think I like the 88`s more than the 89`s.  So I'm glad I made this purchase.

I have given dealing shout-outs before when I have like purchases, so I'm giving Busted Wax a shout-out for the good deal.

Monday, February 26, 2018

Nights of sorting cards for new cabinet

I have not much to blog about other than I have spent days sorting through 15 thousand baseball cards. With the purchase of my new cabinet, came a lot of work. I now have a way of sorting cards more effectively. I took tonight off so I'm blogging about it and having TV night with the wife. The Hello Kitty with the Cubs shirt in the photo is an addition from the kids. Not sure how I feel about having that in my card room. lol

I have been going through the contents of every box. Slowing down the process is the fact I have less than 9 thousand card cataloged. What I did have cataloged was not cataloged in any means other than random.


I did finalize the contents of the drawers as the following (basically most of my favorite small collections):

Cubs and Cardinals Rankings

MLBN’s Top 100 Players and Sports Illustrated Top 100 lists are out. Currently Cubs only have 5 Cubs players in both of the lists. A total of 8 Cubs players make a list. Cardinals only have 4 players to make top 100 for either list. Even worse for the Cardinals; the poor Cardinals don't even have any top #25 players. This is why the "experts" are claiming the Cubs will trample the Cardinals this year. I have some opinions and the season will say if I'm right or wrong, but I believe that Willson Contreras should be a little better in the rankings for both lists.
I'm guessing the gap between Kris and Anthony is due to projections based on age.


Here are the Cubs and Cardinals rankings:

Rankings
AVG  SI   MLB   Player            Team
#6   #3   #8    Kris Bryant       Cubs
#23  #23  #23   Anthony Rizzo     Cubs
-top 26-50
#38  #45  #32   Marcell Ozuna     Cardinals
-top 51-100
#60  #53  #67   Yu Darvish        Cubs
#55  #51  #59   Tommy Phram       Cardinals
#61  #49  #73   Carlos Martinez   Cardinals
#69  #72  #66   Kyle Hendricks    Cubs
#75  #91  #58   Willson Contreras Cubs
#77  #92  #62   Matt Carpenter    Cardinals

-Players that did not make both lists:
​---  #70  ---   Jon Lester        Cubs
---  #80  ---   Jose Quintana     Cubs
---  ---  #95   Kyle Schwarber    Cubs

Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame players

Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame players

At least 1 item Name Years in collection Pete Alexander 1918-1926 Cap Anson 1876-1897 Yes Richie Ashburn 1960-1961 Ernie Banks 1953-1971 Yes Roger Bresnahan 1900, 1913-1915 Lou Brock 1961-1964 Yes Mordecai Brown 1904-1912, 1916 Yes Frank Chance 1898-1912 John Clarkson 1884-1887 Kiki Cuyler 1928-1935 Andre Dawson 1987-1992 Yes Dizzy Dean 1938-1941 Hugh Duffy 1888-1889 Dennis Eckersley 1984-1986 Yes Johnny Evers 1902-1913 Jimmie Foxx 1942, 1944 Goose Gossage 1988 Yes Clark Griffith 1893-1900 Burleigh Grimes 1932-1933 Gabby Hartnett 1922-1940 Yes Billy Herman 1931-1941 Yes Rogers Hornsby 1929-1932 Monte Irvin 1956 Fergie Jenkins 1966-1973,1982-1983 Yes George Kelly 1930 King Kelly 1880-1886 Ralph Kiner 1953-1954 Chuck Klein 1934-1936 Tony LaRussa 1973 Yes Tony Lazzeri 1938 Fred Lindstrom 1935 Greg Maddux 1986-1992, 2004-2006 Yes Rabbit Maranville 1925 Robin Roberts 1966 Ryne Sandberg 1982-1997 Yes Ron Santo 1960-1974 Yes Al Spalding 1876-1878 Bruce Sutter 1976-80 Yes Joe Tinker 1902-1912, 1916 Rube Waddell 1901 Deacon White 1876 Hoyt Wilhelm 1970 Billy Williams 1959-1974 Yes Hack Wilson 1926-1931 Yes Gabby Hartnett Fergie Jenkins Bruce Sutter Greg Maddux

Cap Anson Ernie Banks Billy Williams Lou Brock Mordecai Brown Ron Santo Andre Dawson Ryne Sandberg

baseball card storage

After months of looking at stores and on the web, I have discovered that no one sells reasonable storage for baseball cards that are not cardboard/wood/steel boxes to stick in a closet.  Ok. I can't say no one. Unless you are willing to spend literally thousands of dollars. I'm not willing 2 to 10 K of my money! With as many collectors out there, I find the fact there are no real options amazing. I have decided to try a CD storage cabinet.  This 40" tall cabinet cost less than $300.  Top loaders are 3" wide.  The drawers are 5" wide, so there is wasted space.  Each drawer will hold at least 150 top loaders x 24 drawers = 3750 cards. So that is not many, but it is better than sticking cards in cardboard boxes in the closet.

Topps Cubs 1963-1965

My lean years of Chicago Cubs baseball card collecting is 1963-1965. At the time of writing this - between all three years, I only have 11 cards. I do have Ron Santo, Ernie Banks, and Lou Brock stuck in there though. All three years were very important in the fact that they influenced may years of baseball card designs to come. 1963 Topps influenced 1983 Topps and many others. 1963 Fleer influenced 1973 Topps and many others. 1964's simple design influenced many, many years including 1986 Topps.

1963 Ron Santo Fleer

1963 Topps

1964 Lou Brokc Topps


1964 Topps Ernie Banks

DB ID   Name Photo   Brand   Team       Year  Series    Collection #
c01477  Dick Ellsworth  Topps   Chi Cubs   1963  Standard  399
d01844  Andre Rodgers   Topps   Chi Cubs   1963  Standard  193
d01845  Ron Santo       Fleer   Chi Cubs   1963  Standard  032 
d01847  Don Landrum     Topps   Chi Cubs   1963  Standard  113 
e00048  Bob Buhl        Topps   Chi Cubs   1963  Standard  175

a00010  Ernie Banks     Topps   Chi Cubs   1964  Standard  055
c01482  Bob Buhl        Topps   Chi Cubs   1964  Standard  096
c01483  Steve Boros     Topps   Chi Cubs   1964  Standard  131
d01842  Ken Aspromonte  Topps   Chi Cubs   1964  Standard  252 
d01846  Lou Brock       Topps   Chi Cubs   1964  Standard  029

d01843  Dick Bertell    Topps   Chi Cubs   1965  Standard  027

Topps 1966 - 1967

1966 was not a horrible year for Topps, but not a 'pretty' one either.  The orange trim for the Chicago Cubs cards just feels odd for me.




My largest collection of 60s baseball cards are the 1967.  Fourty-one total cards. A favorite year of mine because of the simplicity and photography. So many of the cards are photographs of players with a cloudless blue sky. So I have nicked named the set - "the blue sky set".  I posted about the 1967 set in 2016.  That posts sums it up.

http://mrgibson.com/viewcomments.php?post="414"

DB ID Name            Brand   Team      Year  Series    Collection # 
c00093 Glenn Beckert   Topps   Chi Cubs  1966  Standard  232
c00266 Ed Bailey       Topps   Chi Cubs  1966  Standard  246
c00267 George Altman   Topps   Chi Cubs  1966  Standard  146
c00268 Bob Humphreys   Topps   Chi Cubs  1966  Standard  342
c00269 Bob Buhl        Topps   Chi Cubs  1966  Standard  185
c00270 Ty Cline        Topps   Chi Cubs  1966  Standard  306
d01231 Bob Hendley     Topps   Chi Cubs  1966  Standard  082
e00050 Jim Steward     Topps   Chi Cubs  1966  Standard  063
e00051 Bill Faul       Topps   Chi Cubs  1966  Standard  322
e00052 Don Landrum     Topps   Chi Cubs  1966  Standard  043

a01125 Glenn Beckert   Topps   Chi Cubs  1967  Standard  296
a01211 Bob Hendley     Topps   Chi Cubs  1967  Standard  256
a01212 Calvin Koonce   Topps   Chi Cubs  1967  Standard  171
a01225 Bill Hands      Topps   Chi Cubs  1967  Standard  016
a01226 Arnold Earley   Topps   Chi Cubs  1967  Standard  388
a01227 Byron Browne    Topps   Chi Cubs  1967  Standard  439
a01230 Adolfo Phillips Topps   Chi Cubs  1967  Standard  148
c01486 Jim Stewart     Topps   Chi Cubs  1967  Standard  124
c01487 Randy Hundley   Topps   Chi Cubs  1967  Standard  106
c01499 Ray Culp        Topps   Chi Cubs  1967  Standard  168
e00042 Billy Williams  Topps   Chi Cubs  1967  Standard  315