In the Nick of Time

In the past few months I've done a little trading, sent out a few PWEs, knocked out some want list needs, and of course was the fortunate winner of the Night Owl's well-loved '76-'77s. But I had never enjoyed anything quite like the trade package I received from Nick of Dime Boxes this week. And it came at a perfect time.

Anyone who's been inexplicably paying attention to my ramblings here knows that I'm at a bit of an early crossroads with this blog. It's a good thing. I'm doing whatever it takes to make sure I don't get into the kind of rut that makes this a chore instead of fun. And Nick's trade package is exactly the kind of Random fun that I'm all about.

The part of the trade that we discussed was a swap of well-worn '70s Topps fabulosity. And Nick was incredibly generous with this. Highlights include a pair of Hall of Famers from '73:

1973 Topps Billy Williams CHC #200
1973 Topps Reggie Jackson OAK #255

I don't have many Billy Williams cards. In fact, this might now be my oldest card of his, which is a bit odd. So I'm really happy to have it. And I've always been fascinated by the Reggie card. He was the AL MVP in '73, so this card would pop up on retrospective cards, like the '75 Topps MVPs or the 1982 K-Mart set. Every time I saw it, I thought it was one of the stranger cards I've seen, with that weird distorted look on his face while he makes an action-blurred throw. It's great to have the actual card in my collection now.

1973 Topps Jim Kaat MIN #530
1978 Topps Jim Kaat PHI #715

Also got a couple of great cards of one of my all-time favorites, Jim "Kitty" Kaat. You've gotta love the '73, given that it came out the year that the DH was introduced in the American League, and that Kaat was one of the better hitting pitchers in the game.

1976 Topps Doc Ellis PIT #528
1975 Topps Graig Nettles NYY #160

Unlike the vintage that I sent to Nick, quite a few of these were actually in pretty great condition. In fact, the Nettles may be the best-looking '75 Topps card in my collection now. And Doc Ellis is always a blast. Gotta love a guy who can throw a no-hitter on acid.

I also got a '77 Boog Powell, just in case it doesn't pop up in Night Owl's boxes. If it does, I'll be able to pay one forward to somebody. The best card from the vintage portion of the trade I'm holding back for the next post, which will introduce my favorite new mini-collection.

As great of those cards are, it was the rest of the package that really lit up my night. These were the "extras," cards that Nick picked out to send because he thought I'd enjoy them. (Boy, was he right!) As with the package I'd sent him, the extras made up the majority of the trade package. (We even managed to send each other the same card: the great '93 UD Casey Candaele, leaping for a line drive at Wrigley.) I'd never received anything like this before. It was like getting a large repack, only one that was custom made to appeal to my particular tastes. I know you veterans out there have probably become jaded about this type of thing, but this was nirvana to me.

I've often mentioned the all-too-common hole I have in my collection (Topps base sets excluded) from about 1997 to about 2006. I love getting my hands on cards from this era, and Nick certainly hit it on the sweet spot there. He started things of with a pack or two worth of '03 Donruss and '06 Fleer, which are both sets that I really like. And there were some great cards, especially of pitchers, including a rookie K-Rod, Chan Ho Park, and Juan Cruz in action with a great splayed-fingers grip on what appears to be a palmball.

Then Nick started hitting me with cards that showed that he knows what I like. There were a few Dodgers cards I didn't have, some terrific '93 UDs, including Hard Hittin' Mark Whiten with his helmet on backward, some '80s OPC with team variations from the Topps sets, some really great Pacific Legends cards, some managers, some '03 Ultras... I mean, things I dug just kept coming at me! It was so much friggin' fun! It's hard not to show all of the cards, but I'll try to stick to a few highlights in view of the fact that you might have other things going on in your life...

1998 Donruss Darryl Kile HOU #3

I'm usually not a huge fan of post-game celebration cards because they can be monotonous and uninteresting. That's so not the case here. I probably spent more time staring at this card than at any other here. The thing that kept coming to mind for me was Busby Berkeley.

You may remember my mentioning that I went through a serious classic movies phase recently. Among my favorite experiences with that were the Busby Berkeley musicals, particularly his big three from 1933: 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933, and Footlight Parade (from which that is an enticing sample above). If you have any inclination to check out this kind of thing, I can't recommend these highly enough. And this card is a Busby Berkeley musical come to baseball life. Dig it!

2001 Upper Deck Hall of Famers Nolan Ryan Hall of Records CAL #82

I love this card. I mean, just look at it. But it also pisses me off. It's not Ryan's fault. It's friggin' Roger Clemens. You want to admire the accomplishments of the players who achieved the most impressive numbers in baseball history. But when you see the name of a cheater on these lists, it just turns the experience sour. I'm used to having that feeling when I pull one of his cards (or a Bonds, or a Sosa, or a Palmeiro, etc.). But to have one of them taint a great card like this, of someone else... that's just a real bummer. Still love the card, though.

Some of the best-looking cards were Topps cards, which is no surprise. I won't show them now because most of them will be featured prominently at Top of the Topps someday. (No, it's not dead, just resting.) But here's a superb example of one of the better-looking, not to mention enjoyable, insert sets that I've seen from Fleer:

2006 Fleer Greats of the Game Nickname Greats Joe Pepitone CHC #NG-JP

If that's not fun, I don't know what is.

As things were winding down, Nick hit me with a couple of mini-player collections. That's meant as mini-collections of a player, not collections of a mini-player. But in the case of the first guy, either would be accurate. And it would be tough to come up with a player I appreciate more than David Eckstein. Easily one of my favorite non-Dodgers of all time.

2004 Upper Deck Vintage David Eckstein ANA #276
2003 Donruss Diamond Kings David Eckstein ANA #4

Nick hit me with four Ecksteins followed by three Matt Kemps, including the great 2012 Topps Heritage. In one of the more ridiculous and sad ironies, my collection is almost completely devoid of Heritage before this season's lackluster effort. So, another smile-inducing card. My face was starting to hurt by this point!

Nick then managed to satisfy my sweet tooth for WBC cards, including a great friggin' Dodger...

2009 Bowman Chrome Draft WBC Prospects Chunhua Dong China #BDPW10
2009 Bowman Chrome WBC Prospects Refractors Kenley Jansen Netherlands #BCW35

I think I got those descriptions right. Nothing confuses me more than Bowman and its various chrome/refractor parallels. But I'm not confused about how much I loved getting these. I have a particular soft spot for Asian baseball cards, and you don't see much from China. Plus the dude's name is Dong! That's a card that can be appreciated on many levels, both high and low. But the Kenley Jansen, Netherlands' catcher card is flingin' flangin' fab! A real "holy crap!" moment when I saw that one.

But here was most amazing part about this package, to me:

I've been hanging out on eBay a lot lately (a bit too much, probably). I've managed to land some fabulous fun at prices ranging from great to... well, "I really wanted it, so it's worth it." One of the things I've enjoyed doing is trolling for individual 99-cent, free-shipping, cards. Most of them are overpriced, even at that. But sometimes I just can't resist.

One such case occurred on Friday, when I saw a great Satchel Paige card that was an awesome fit for my favorite new mini-collection (which I'll be formally introducing shortly). So I snagged the card with a smile for 99 cents. Only to see that smile turn to a frown on Saturday when I received a message from the seller telling me that he'd refunded my money because he didn't still have the card and had accidentally listed it. Bummer.

Of course, you know where this is going, as improbable as it may seem.

2001 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts Satchel Paige CLE #51

Yup. The exact card that I'd purchased the day before, only to find it unavailable the next day, magically appeared in my hands that very night, thanks to Nick channeling the power of Random. I love these friggin' little pieces of cardboard. I love this blog thing. And I love being engaged in all of this fun with great people like Nick, who made my day/week/month with his incredibly fun, thoughtful and generous package. Thanks, Nick!

Mini-Collecting: The Turtleneck Collection

I've learned a lot about how to enjoy Playing With My Cards in just a few short months of blogging. I knew I liked Topps cards. I knew I liked my Dodgers. But it has only been recently that I've started to understand that the things that excite me the most as a collector are Random in nature. I'm capitalizing Random because that's the new paradigm around these parts. Just as I'm becoming less rigid in my ideas about collecting, I'm becoming less serious and regimented in my ideas about blogging. I'd set myself up to churn out preconceived posts, whether they were interesting or not. No more. From now on, if something's on this screen, under the heading of Playing With My Cards, it's going to be because it's friggin' fun, damn it!

I have to give a serious nod of thanks to Nick, of Dime Boxes, for helping to open my eyes to a different way to have fun collecting baseball cards. And I have to apologize to him, too. Because, though I had no intention of doing so, I just can't help but blatantly rip off his collecting habit of amassing mini-collections. When I was recently digging through a box '94 Collector's Choice that I got from a guy on Craigslist, which included a bunch of duplicates, the most fun I had was trying to spot cards that I could send to him for his collections: pitchers hitting, guys being interviewed, arguments with umpires, etc.

This wasn't a way that I'd collected myself, though. I've always been completist and a Dodgers collector. But, since starting this blog, I've come to realize that I gravitate toward certain types of cards. And I don't mean certain teams, players or sets. I mean cards that share specific characteristics. So, why fight it? On top of everything else, I've become a mini-collector.

I have a couple that I've started, which I'll be yapping about in the coming days. The first one, fittingly, came about Randomly in the course of my first month with this blog. In one of the few truly Random posts here, I couldn't help but share my inexplicable fascination with Joe Carter's fabulous turtleneck on his 1998 Donruss card. Later, I pulled a card out of a repack of minor leaguer Amalio Carreno sporting a pink turtleneck under his maroon jersey. Random.

But this was the card that sealed the deal:

1991 Topps Traded Wax Steve Finley HOU #42T

When I saw this pop out of a pack on a Card Night, I just knew that, without trying, I had found myself with a mini-collection on my hands. I collect cards of baseball players wearing turtleneck sweaters. If that isn't Random, I don't know what is...

Breaking the Habit to Save the Baby, or, Triumph of the Random

I'll warn you, I have a history of starting things, and really getting into them... and then not seeing them through to the end. In fact, just before getting back to focusing on baseball cards and starting this blog, I went through an old movies phase.

No, you don't understand. I don't mean that I just enjoyed watching a few old movies. I mean that I restricted myself to movies that came out no later than 1939. And I created a huge database to record those viewing habits, cross-referencing the actors and directors, tracking down pictures for even the most obscure extras. And I read books about the history of motion pictures. And I attended a five-and-a-half-hour screening of the French silent movie, Napoleon, with live orchestral accompaniment. And I didn't watch a few movies, or even a bunch of movies, but an insane number of movies. This obsession lasted thirteen months. Unbelievably, from a baseball perspective, I started this at the beginning of October, 2011, so this coincided with two post seasons. (Though it should be noted that I missed, per usual, not a single inning of playoff baseball.) In those thirteen months, I watched 875 films. That includes a fair number of 20-minute comedy shorts, and a lot of movies lasted just over an hour in those days. But, however you slice it, 876 films in thirteen months is, well, a bit insane.

And that's what I'm warning you about, here. I thought about almost nothing but classic movies for over a year, and then, one night, right smack in the middle of another three-hour French silent movie, I was done. Completely. Couldn't watch another minute. Right now I have no interest, zero, in watching an old movie. I'm like Forrest Gump running back and forth across America until I simply don't feel like doing it anymore.

I've been so into this baseball card blogging thing that it's been more important than sleep. But I can feel the warning signs of that Forrest Gump moment coming on. I've painted myself into a bit of a corner. I love Feeding the Habit. But the habit is starting to rule the kingdom. There are a lot of different fun and random things I want to do on this blog. But the way I've started things, I've been feeling like there are things I have to do first. And those feelings of necessity and obligation are the precursors to moving on to something else. I've seen the symptoms. My posts have become less frequent. Top of the Topps has nearly ground to a halt.

But I don't want this to end. So this is an intervention, of sorts. A declaration. I want to keep doing this. I want it to be fun. I want to be able to do what I want here, not what I feel like I have to do. So, consider this a bit of a reboot. I'm still going to be Feeding the Habit. But only if I feel like it. If I get behind by a couple of weeks, I'm not going to feel obligated to catch up. If I want to share something I got tonight, it's not going to matter that I haven't posted about something from last week. I know that probably sounds obvious to you, and a little ridiculous. But these are the kinds of things I have to remind myself about.

It's gonna be fun. I promise. I'm gonna keep the "I Was There" posts rolling. I'll throw a card into the PWMD Set whenever I feel like it, whether it's been 15 minutes since the last one or 15 days. I'll keep Feeding the Habit, but in a far more random fashion. In fact, Random is going to the my mantra. I don't want to keep doing the same thing over and over. I want to take this in any unanticipated direction that may present itself. I just hope you stick it out with me. Because I'd love for things to become a little more interactive and fun. And I don't want to suddenly feel the need to move on to something else.

Can I get a "Run Forrest, Run"?

Feeding the Habit: 8/3/2013

Friday, Card Night #2 of a four-day weekend. Let's play...

First up, the new stuff. From one of those three-card '13 Bowman bonus purple packs I got a Jonathan Schoop (pronounced Scope, as I learned during the WBC). A pack of '13 Topps series two netted Big Papi and King Albert, plus an emerald Posey MVP, and a gold Jay Bruce. Okay, not bad.

Now let's hop into the trading card time machine. First stop, last year, and a pack of Topps Pro Debut. This one was actually kinda fun, mostly because of some of the cool names I might never hear from again: Cheslor Cuthbert, Telvin Nash, Dean Green, Justice French, and...

2012 Topps Pro Debut Xander Bogaerts Greenville Drive #84
2012 Topps Pro Debut Devin Shines Ogden Raptors #212

Well, I've heard of Bogaerts. Like a million other kids, he's supposed to be a star someday, right? We'll see. Hadn't heard of Devin yet, though I remember his dad, Razor. He only played in 68 games over four seasons with the Expos in the mid-1980s. But with a name like Razor Shines, you're gonna be remembered. And I really dig Devin's card. Nice action shot, in an unmistakably Dodgers minor league uniform, with a cute little carnivorous dinosaur logo. This one's a keeper, whether he ever shines in the show or not.

Coupla Hall of Famers highlighted a jumbo pack of '92 UD:

1992 Upper Deck Rickey Henderson Grand Theft OAK #782

Like many things, these artwork type o' cards have grown on me over time. My eyes glazed over and I rushed to the next "normal" card as a kid. As an adult, different means interesting. And this one's really nicely done.

1992 Upper Deck Gary Carter LAD #267

The Gary Carter card makes me sad, though. Of course, it's great to see him in a Dodgers uniform. But he looks so forlorn. And he's relegated to warming up the pitcher on the back of the card. He seems to be looking right at us, saying, "This is what I've been reduced to." Not my favorite Dodgers card.

1994 Panini Stickers Omar Vizquel SEA #124
1992 Fleer All-Stars Cal Ripken Jr. BAL #20

At 35 cents a pack, I figured why not pick up ten packs of these '94 Panini Stickers? Four packs into busting 'em, I have my answer. This Vizquel is the best thing I've seen 24 stickers into the proceedings. It's a nice, uncluttered design. And I like green borders. But the photo choices are boring. They all look the same. The Ripken was the first insert I've come across while busting packs from my box of '92 Fleer. Kind of a weird-looking card, with Cal shoved to left to accommodate his balding hatless head. Nice hit, though.

Wrapping things up, here's the best of the repack fare from this Card Night:

2003 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic Catfish Hunter OAK #12
2002 Topps Topps Ten Paul Lo Duca LAD #94

Knew I was landing the Catfish 'cuz it was visible in the pack. I'm a sucker for those tank-top and sleeves jerseys, whatever they're called. The Lo Duca was a nice hit, from a Topps set that I'd not seen before. Kind of an odd concept, featuring players who finished in the top ten in various statistical categories. Particularly weird that they're making such a big deal of his third place finish in strikeout-to-walks ratio. You don't often see things shouting out "I'm Number #3!"

Feeding the Habit: 8/2/2013

Still playing catch-up. This is from Thursday, beginning a long four-day Card Night weekend. Without further delay, let's play...

Let's start with the repack fun this time. These are from a Super Jumbo Pack (Baseball Only):

2000 Fleer Tradition Pedro Martinez BOS #159
1994 Pinnacle Chipper Jones RP ATL #236

The Chipper was on top. Unfortunately, it's suffering from some kind of permanent dandruff. Nice goofy-looking young Chipper shot on the back. I was thrilled to get the Fleer Tradition Pedro. I am, perhaps surprisingly, a Pedro fan. I was actually kinda bummed when he came back with the Phillies instead of the Dodgers. Though, of course, he'd already taken his place on the all-time Dodgers roster by arriving in the bigs to join his brother, Ramon. I also happen to love this Fleer set, probably because it's a shameless '50s Topps ripoff, and it's on the real-deal card stock.

1998 Pinnacle Edgar Renteria FLA #95
1998 Pinnacle Tim Salmon ANA #51
1998 Pinnacle Jim Edmonds ANA #87

Just about anything from the period around the turn of the century, other than Topps flagship base sets, is likely to be new to me. And these Pinnacles were no exception. These were the only three in the pack, and they're all winners. For some reason, I'm a fan of ballplayers in cold-weather gear. And the two Angels are awesome, too. Great photography, and unobtrusive shininess. I'm gonna have to track down more cards from this set.

Now on to liberating cards from their original packaging...

1992 MegaCards Babe Ruth Collection #59

Here are the biggest stars in the game taking the time to work on their bats, sanding them and compressing the wood with a bone. Can you imagine A-Rod doing something like this? Today, if a player gets a brand new bat (among his dozens) with a slight flaw, he discards it without a second thought.

Opening a pack of '92 Fleer gave me a case of déjà vue...

1992 Fleer Sid Bream ATL #354
1992 Fleer Paul O'Neill CIN #415
1992 Fleer Mark Grace CHC #381
1992 Fleer Kevin Ward SDP #623

If you like pictures of hitters leaving the batter's box and dropping their bats during day games at Wrigley Field, this set is for you. Believe me, it isn't just this pack. The photographer must have had a pretty sweet gig. Set the camera up on a tripod in April, go pull a Ferris Bueller for six months, and come back to find that the job is done.

2007 Upper Deck Future Stars Ichiro Suzuki SEA #83

This is from a ridiculous four-card pack I got in one of those multi-pack boxes. I really don't understand this set. All four players were veterans. So I guess "Future Stars" refers to stars on a "futuristic" card design. You will often find that the future is interpreted as being a cluttered mess. That might not be too far from the truth. But that doesn't mean it's a pleasant option for a card design. The green is the only redeeming quality. Only Ichiro somehow manages to look reasonably good in this context.

Another bad design, though with a great concept, comes from '92 Triple Play. I hated cards geared toward kids when I was a kid. Love 'em as an adult.

1992 Donruss Triple Play Sandy Alomar CLE #227
1992 Donruss Triple Play Lance Parrish Little Hotshots CAL #234
1992 Donruss Triple Play Jim Abbott CAL #204

Lance Parrish, pre-mustache, is cool. And I love that they just come right out and tell the kids about Abbott's missing hand. Naturally, it's not something you're gonna bring up every year on the guy's Topps cards. Nor should it be. Let his performance speak for itself. But in this set for kids, it's a fabulous thing. It certainly has shock value to draw a kid's interest. And it gets across the simple message of perseverance and overcoming obstacles that Abbott's career represented.

1992 Score Pinnacle Steve Avery/Jack Morris The Idols #585

When I first saw this card, I thought it was great! The two had just battled each other the year before in one of the greatest World Series game sevens in history, and the story of Smoltz growing up in Detroit and idolizing Morris was well known. But... wait a minute... Smoltz isn't a lefty. That's Steve Avery, who apparently also grew up in Michigan idolizing Jack Morris. Okay. Cool, I guess. But nowhere near as cool as the Smoltz/Morris story, given the context. What an odd choice, and a missed opportunity.

I Was There: Bulldog Beats M's in '95 ALCS

This is Part II of a series (and a contest) that was introduced here.

1995 ALCS Game #2, Cleveland Indians @ Seattle Mariners, Kingdome, 10/11/1995: Bulldog Beats M's

There had been no post-season baseball in 1994. Plus I avoided a too-soon and too-wrong marriage, breaking up with my girlfriend and moving back in with my grandparents in Southern Oregon. I made the most of my freedom in '95, especially from a baseball perspective. I was not one of those to show my displeasure about the strike by avoiding the game when it returned. On the contrary, I appreciated its return so much that 1995 would be my biggest year as a fan in attendance. But most of the story (a multi-state, multi-country, eastern baseball tour) will have to wait for another time.

I don't live close to Seattle, by east-coast standards. The 900 round-trip miles that I drove that October would be enough to catch a game in Boston, Queens, the Bronx, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. And I slept in my car at a rest stop to save cash. Ah, to be young again. It was certainly worth the hassle, though. This was the first time I had the chance to attend post-season baseball. And I was in the company of some seriously delirious fans.

This was the year that saved baseball in Seattle, the year when the Mariners would "Refuse to Lose," surging late as the Angels faded. The two teams ended the regular season in a tie, setting up a memorable one-game playoff for the division championship, which Randy Johnson won with a complete-game three-hitter. The magic continued in the first-ever (regularly-scheduled) Division Series, as Seattle rallied from down 0-2 to beat the Yankees in the five-game series and advance to the ALCS.

The Mariners had taken game one of the ALCS the previous night in improbable fashion, with rookie Bob Wolcott besting the veteran Dennis Martinez, 3-2. So as I arrived in Seattle, Mariners fans were riding an unprecedented high. The Kingdome that night was, without question, the loudest place I have ever been, and probably will ever be, in my life. I'm not sure how many people there were in that building who, like me, were rooting for the Indians, but it can't have been many. Of course, I wasn't so much rooting for the Indians as I was rooting for my favorite player of all time, Orel Hershiser.

The Bulldog was definitely in his element. Already established as one of the best big-game pitchers in baseball history, Hershiser weathered the hurricane of M's fans to hold the Mariners to just one run on four hits in his eight innings of work. The only blemish on his record was a sixth-inning leadoff homer by Ken Griffey, Jr., which was a fun thing to see. But another young slugger, Manny Ramirez, hit two homers of his own as the Indians built a comfortable lead. Jay Buhner added a solo homer in the bottom of the ninth against Jose Mesa, but Cleveland held on for a 5-2 win to even the series.

Hershiser would also win game five, and series MVP honors, as the Indians would advance to the World Series to face the Braves. The Bulldog would split two decisions head-to-head with Greg Maddux in the Fall Classic, with the Braves winning the only championship of their '90s dynasty.

Of the Surreal Seven, even though it's a Championship Series contest, this is probably the least "famous" individual game. So it's not surprising that nobody guessed that I was at this one, to which I'd assigned the highest difficulty level points. Therefore, we still have no contest standings. Don't worry, we do have a couple of Carnacs out there. But we'll have to wait until the action shifts to the east coast before our contestants start tasting a little success. Will that happen next week? Tune in for the next installment of "I Was There" to find out.

Early Bird's Night Owl Haul: Pack #11

What's this? Find out here.

My poor counting skills have us back on track. I'd grabbed 11 cards for an earlier "pack." This time I managed to grab just nine, so we're back to multiples of ten. You can sleep soundly now. Until I wake you up with my Jim Rice rant...

1977 Topps Jim Rice BOS #60

Rocky Colavito is not in the Hall of Fame. Frank Howard? Not in the Hall. Jack Clark isn't either. I'm not sure any of them got a ton of support for inclusion. How about Gil Hodges? Whether you agree or not, I think you get my point. I'm going to do something here that I usually find annoying, but in this case I can't help it:

Player A: 2,446 H, 385 HR, 1,384 RBI, 1,470 R, .370 OBP, 127 OPS+
Player B: 2,452 H, 382 HR, 1,451 RBI, 1,249 R, .352 OBP, 128 OPS+

Pretty darn close. For the record, these numbers were put up for the same team, in the same stadium, over essentially the same period of time. Player A played a few more years, owing to the fact that he was the better athlete. Player A was an eight-time Gold Glove Award winner in right field, known for having one of the better throwing arms in the game. Player B, Jim Rice, was a poor left fielder who served as a DH in over a quarter of his big-league games. Player A, Dwight Evans, a contemporary of Rice in just about every way imaginable, was the better player. Yet 10.4% was his highest Hall of Fame vote total. How did this happen? Jim Rice had a couple of really big power years early in his career and created an aura of intimidation before slowly fading from productive to counterproductive. Dwight Evans just played good baseball, and kept getting better year after year. I don't know what you value, but Dewy makes my Hall. Rice has to buy a ticket to get through the door.

1977 Topps Phil Niekro ATL #615

Here's a Hall of Famer I can get behind. Of course, I'm a sucker for pitchers who carve out long careers. I'd say 24 seasons through the age of 48 qualifies.

1977 Topps Tommy Harper BAL #414
1977 Topps Larry Bowa PHI #310
1977 Topps Dan Spillner SDP #182
1977 Topps Biff Pocoroba ATL #594
1977 Topps Don Sutton LAD #620

Vin Scully begins the fifth inning of the games he calls by telling a story related to Dodgers history on that particular date. Last night was the anniversary of the franchise retiring Don Sutton's number 20, and Vin used the occasion to remind us that, for a franchise that can boast Nap Rucker, Dazzy Vance, Don Newcombe, Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela and Orel Hershiser, Don Sutton is the all-time Dodgers leader in innings pitched, wins, shutouts and strikeouts. It should also be noted that this was the second copy of this vintage card of a Hall of Famer that I received by mail from a blogger within my first days of blogging. How cool is that!?

1977 Topps Montreal Expos/Dick Williams MG #647

Here's another honorary Cooperstown resident, manager Dick Williams. I wonder if they did that airbrush job on a larger picture and reduced it, or if the airbrush artist had to work with a magnifying glass. I wish I could hop into a time machine and be privy to all of the steps involved with producing one of these vintage Topps sets. You know it was a completely different ballgame than the predominantly board-room and outsourcing process that's likely to be today's modus operandi. I say we storm the citadel and run the show old-school. Who's with me?

1977 Topps Bob Boone PHI #545

We can dream. And, speaking of dreaming, this cartoon (from Larry Bowa's card) provides the perfect opportunity for confused childhood daydreaming...

Until you figure out that he became an umpire after his playing days, this cartoon presents a great mental picture of a pitcher who's calling his own balls and strikes. Well, let's be honest: strikes.