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Post by The Captain on Nov 6, 2022 10:29:01 GMT -5
Congrats to the Houston Astros winning the World Series, since they defeated the Phillthies and that's always a good thing, but I really had hoped that Dusty Baker never got a ring.
He was one of those "old school" guys who crapped all over analytics because those were generated by guys who went to college and "who didn't play the game" like he did. It was a travesty what he did to Mark Prior, burning out his arm by not managing pitch counts and just using him up. To note:
In 2003, Prior started 30 games and threw 100+ pitches in 26 of them. In his last six starts of that season, his lowest pitch count was 109, and he topped 124 in the rest of them, including three games over 130 pitches.
In 2004, Prior started 21 games and threw 100+ pitches in 10 of his final 11 games, including a high of 129 over 7.2 innings and 116 in just 6 innings; the only game where he didn't throw 100 pitches, he threw 89 in just 3 innings. Before that, he didn't top 100 pitches, but he had games where he threw 92 pitches in 5 innings, 99 pitches in 5 innings, 92 pitches in 4 innings, and 92 pitches in 4.1 innings.
In 2005, Prior started 27 games and threw 100+ pitches in 19 of them. He started the season throwing 92+ pitches in 8 straight games, when most teams are easing their pitchers into the year coming out of spring training. Prior had games of 106 in 6 innings, 107 pitches in 5 innings, 102 in 4.2 innings, 109 in 6.2 innings, 108 in 6 innings, 123 and 118 in 6 innings each in back to back games, 131 in 6.2 innings after those two, 122 in 6 innings, and 120 in 6 innings.
Prior pitched only 9 games for the Cubs in 2006 at the age of 25, then signed free agent contracts with San Diego (twice), Texas, New York Yankees, Boston, and Cincinnati over the course of the next 7 years, never throwing another pitch in the big leagues again.
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Post by The Captain on Nov 6, 2022 9:56:15 GMT -5
Depends on the book or series.
I have gone through my entire Captain America catalog and replaced everything that had a spine roll, missing/loose staple, water damage, etc. That is the pride and joy of my collection, and I treat it as such.
Some random Batman issue from the $1 bin? As long as all of the pages and panels are there (more of an issue with Marvel books and the Marvel Value Stamps) and the front and back covers aren't shredded, it can be rolled, stained, or otherwise. Those are books I buy to read, not to collect, and many of them stay in my possession for less than 90 days. I read them, then give them to my daughters to read, give them to some neighbor kid to read, or sell them at a flea market. Disposable enjoyment.
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Post by The Captain on Nov 6, 2022 9:45:21 GMT -5
All,
As a reminder, please be aware of the CCF’s rule about bad-mouthing other online communities and individuals.
As related to this thread, discussion and criticism of Mile High’s business practices (such as pricing, sales/discounts, etc.) is completely legitimate, even when done with sarcasm, as it affects the overall comic collecting market.
Also valid are discussions about Chuck’s acquisition and subsequent handling of the Mile High find, much in the same way that discussion of the Finger/Kane or Kirby/Lee situations are allowed when relevant to the topic.
However, we need to steer clear of attacks on Chuck as a person. So far, nothing has crossed that line, but some have skirted awfully close, so please be mindful.
Thanks, The Mod Squad
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Post by The Captain on Oct 30, 2022 19:55:11 GMT -5
Have these characters already appeared somewhere in the Marvel movies or tv shows? I didn't know Agatha Harkness had been in anything yet, for example. Scarlet Witch in the Avengers movies is the only one I remember seeing. Jimmy Woo was in the second Ant-Man movie, as well as in WandaVision.
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Post by The Captain on Oct 29, 2022 7:48:45 GMT -5
Growing up, one of my neighbors had a detached three-car garage, and he and his best friend/brother-in-law were always out there rebuilding and tinkering with their classic cars. Another neighbor had a workshop in his basement where he had every tool imaginable, and he was always building something, from bench to birdhouse. My wife has recently gotten back into her genealogy research and has spent almost every night the past two weeks pouring over old family documents, pictures, etc., looking for little scraps of information that she can take online and try to get more details on.
That got me to thinking that most people with hobbies have some kind of "project" they're working on at any given time, so I wanted to create a space where CCF members could share what they're currently doing as related to their comic collections. It can be anything from working on completing a run to reorganizing your collection to creating a new space for your books.
At present, my project is identifying all of the "key" books in my collection and making sure they have backing boards for them. For years, due to space-saving considerations, I haven't boarded my books (outside of obvious high-end things like Captain America #117, Tomb of Dracula #10 or Iron Man #55), choosing instead to bag two books together, back to back, for some stability. As time has gone by, especially with the influence of the MCU, books that were previously $1 bin fodder or sort-of key but not really, have gone up in value, and I want to make sure that I not only have them protected, but also that I know what I have that may be far more valuable than when I bought it.
I've been using the website Key Collector Comics as a guide (the unpaid version of it, as I don't see the need to unlock any of the features beyond the paywall, such as alerts when a book is anticipated to jump in price due to a TV/movie casting announcement or rumor that push everyone out into the shops to speculate). Every few days, I pick a series or two, go through their list of "key" books, identify which ones are worth more than $10 in mid-grade condition, then get to bagging and boarding those books alone, without their previous companion on the backside.
So, what is everyone else working on?
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Post by The Captain on Oct 29, 2022 7:30:36 GMT -5
My mom passed away this morning. She was 91 and the most beautiful woman I ever knew. George, so sorry to hear this. I can't imagine what you're going through right now. May you find peace and comfort during your grief.
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Post by The Captain on Oct 28, 2022 14:36:25 GMT -5
My daughters, both of whom are in the “gifted” program at our school were complaining this week (end of the first quarter) that they are’t breezing through their classes this year, which made me think of this quote from Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) on Community:
“The funny thing about being smart is that you can get through most of life without ever having to do any work.“
Truer words have never been spoken.
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Post by The Captain on Oct 28, 2022 14:27:18 GMT -5
I don’t actually enjoy horror movies. Seen all the Universal classics, seen all of the “modern” classics (Omen, Exorcist, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Hellraiser), but after the 80s, when things took a decided turn to shock and gore, like Saw and Hostel (both of which I watched and was disgusted by), I haven’t seen a “new” horror film in at least a decade.
I did enjoy Cabin in the Woods, although it’s more akin to the “modern” classics than the current gorefests.
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Post by The Captain on Oct 28, 2022 5:54:32 GMT -5
My Portland Trail Blazers have started the season with two victories! Any other NBA fans here? I used to keep an eye on the NBA back in the 90s but was never a big fan. These days, I couldn’t name anyone in the league beyond the biggest stars, and that’s only because they are the ones who get all the press. I sometimes see that some guy I’ve never heard of signed a $20MM+ AAV contract and I wonder who he is and where he came from, because I stopped paying attention to college basketball about 15 years ago as well. That said, hope your Blazers have a great season!!
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Post by The Captain on Oct 28, 2022 5:51:13 GMT -5
Former Sox super-utility player Brock Holt officially announced his retirement today. Brock was always fun to watch. -M For a guy who was a throw-in on the Joel Hanrahan/ Mark Melancon trade, he made a pretty good career for himself, considering the three throw-ins going from Boston to Pittsburgh never amounted to anything.
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Post by The Captain on Oct 28, 2022 5:32:12 GMT -5
Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Mephisto! 🤘🖤 My daughters and I are big Supernatural fans, but they both hate John Winchester, so when I told them JDM was going to be Mephisto, my younger one responded with a dry “I always knew he was the Devil”. That got a good chuckle out of me. They have some strong new folks coming in on this (Morgan, Moretz, Smits), so as long as the writing holds up, this has a lot of promise.
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Post by The Captain on Oct 27, 2022 9:44:14 GMT -5
Still, Gunn is a hack who turned superhero films into big-budgeted sitcoms, failing to recognize the essence of the superhero concept at its best. Thankfully, Black Adam was produced long before this deal, so it had a strong, serious story to tell, and was not derailed by having superheroes act like they're mooning for audiences of that 30-minute time-slot every week. Why does everything have to be serious? Would a “grim and gritty” Elongated Man movie or show capture the essence of the character? What about Deadpool, She-Hulk, or Harley Quinn, removing the fourth-wall breaking aspect so they can just be carbon copies of everything else that has already been done. GotG works as it does because it literally has a talking raccoon-type creature, a sentient tree, and other misfit characters that wouldn’t seem “right” if they’d tried to play it straight. Same with Ms Marvel and She-Hulk. There has to be space within a universe for various kinds of stories with different tones or it just all seems the same after a while.
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Post by The Captain on Oct 26, 2022 8:57:03 GMT -5
That looks terrible. I want to watch it twice.
(Bonus points to anyone who gets that reference without Googling it).
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Post by The Captain on Oct 22, 2022 10:47:55 GMT -5
Back when I did participate in the contest, if something didn't immediately spring to mind from my own collection, I usually wouldn't post something. Once in a long while, I would Google the prompt, which would typically bring up a cover that actually WAS in my collection, just not one that came to me right away.
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Post by The Captain on Oct 14, 2022 10:26:36 GMT -5
Yeah, I loved the reveal that Kevin Feige was actually a robot. That said, while I loved the homage of the classic Incredible Hulk opening I wish there had been an actual conclusion. I definitely agreed with Jen that the typical Marvel 3rd act cgi-action fest wouldn't have been totally satisfactory but they didn't actually give us an ending in its place as we never saw the court case at the end. The court case is immaterial. We knew what the outcome of it was going to be, and the story was about Jen's journey and character development, not the resolution of a plotline. The true conclusion of the series was Jen's answer to the second question that the reporter asked her on the steps to the courthouse.
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