Feeding the Habit: 7/20/2013

Last Saturday's Card Night was a long affair, in tandem with the Dodgers four-hour, ten-inning win in D.C. So, grab a cold beverage and pull up a chair. Let's play...

My wife, Cathy, reads this blog sporadically (mainly when I remind her that it's a contractual obligation to humor me). I don't plan to remind her to read every post, though. Case in point, this post, in which I reveal that I recently bought a couple of 5000-card boxes full of junk wax treasure from a dude I found on Craigslist. It was a good deal. I mean, I've seen those green, paper thin things with pictures of presidents on them tons of times. They don't compare to baseball cards. For example...

1993 Bowman Mike Mussina BAL #633
1993 Bowman Mike Piazza LAD #646

There was a small stack (maybe about 50-60 cards) of '93 Bowman in there. I had very few of these cards already, so gems like the Moose and Mike above are exactly what the Card Night doctor ordered. (He also ordered some other stuff from eBay, but that's for a later post. Don't tell my wife!) By the way, isn't Moose & Mike the name of some sports talk show? It's gotta be, somewhere, right?

1993 Bowman Alex Gonzalez TOR #603

I'm not usually a fan of this specific photo cropping choice, but in the context of this card design, I give Alex Gonzalez the MAP Award (most aesthetically pleasing) from this bunch o' Bowmans.

Next up I continued to dig through the '93 Fleer Final Edition set. Bottom line, you usually get a pretty boring photo on the front, and then flip over to the back to enjoy the candy-colored treat. There are a few sets where the backs are better than the fronts, and they're mostly sets that I ignored back in the day for that reason. But, just because the back is better, don't mean it ain't a good thing. Enough words. Lots of pictures. See you in a bit...

1993 Fleer Final Edition Gary Sheffield FLA #F-71
1993 Fleer Final Edition Joe Girardi COL #F-31
1993 Fleer Final Edition Kirk Gibson DET #F-209
1993 Fleer Final Edition Norm Charlton SEA #F-266

Meh. Now the backs.

See what I mean? Or is it just me.

I found two packs of '12 Bowman Platinum on the clearance shelf at Rite-Aid, I I figured it was okay to spend three bucks for eight shiny cards. But, as usual, they left me confused.

2012 Bowman Platinum Prospects Oscar Taveras STL #BPP51
2012 Bowman Platinum Joe Mauer MIN #2

These two cards looked exactly the same to me when I was holding them in my hand. I still don't know if they're actually different types of cards, or if the light from the scanner was just hitting them at different angles. Is one a refractor, or something? Those things have been around for, what, about twenty years? And I still have no idea what a refractor is or how to identify one. I was heartened to read recently that Greg, the Night Owl, had initially misdiagnosed the shiny malady afflicting some of his Dodgers cards. So I don't feel so bad. Can anyone help me identify what I'm looking at here?

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Reggie Jackson NYY #122
2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Black Stan Musial STL #162

Per usual, it was the retired players who highlighted the experience of opening a pack of '08 UD Heroes. And another Cardinal great graced the repack portion of this night's habit food.

1992 Action Packed All-Star Gallery Curt Flood STL #72
1988 Fleer Glossy Lou Whitaker DET #75

What is that look on Sweet Lou Whitaker's face? Is he thinking, "I'll bet you're gonna put this picture on a really crappy looking card, aren't you, Fleer?" Yes, Lou. They did.

And now, a Playing With My Cards dilemma...

1994 Upper Deck Fun Pack Foldouts Ken Griffey Jr. SEA #224
1994 Upper Deck Fun Pack Foldouts Barry Bonds SFG #225

Now, if I were gonna be true to my name, I'd bust these things open and play with 'em. But I'm a wuss. It's not an investment thing (obviously, since they aren't worth anything). It's an aesthetics thing. I just want them to be able to stay flat. It's a real conundrum. Anybody think I should open 'em up?

Let's wrap this up with some minor league fun, starting with a repack find.

1990 Best Amalio Carreno Reading Phillies #140

A couple of weeks ago we had a chance to enjoy Joe Carter's sweet blue and white striped tutleneck, which coordinated nicely with his Blue Jays uniform. What do we think of Amalio Carreno's choice of a pink turtleneck under his maroon uniform? It works in this context. It's bush league.

I got a taste of minor league goofiness, so I wanted more. I opened a pack of '92 UD Minors and I got a couple of nice-looking cards of pitchers.

1992 Upper Deck Minors Mo Sanford Nashville Sounds #253

1992 Upper Deck Minors Jose Martinez Binghamton Mets #242

I usually don't like backgrounds that are busy with other people. But I really like the way the umpire is framed by Martinez's pitching arm, while the shortstop stands comfortably in the angle formed by his push-off leg. I have no idea who Jose Martinez is. Digging into photo composition my way of appreciating this card.

But it's goofiness we're really looking for in minor league cards. Let's see what we've got...

1992 Upper Deck Minors Mark Anthony Charleston Rainbows #125

He's playing for the Rainbows, so that's always a good start. We see Anthony busting out of the box and sucking in air on the front. Then we get to see the results of his sprint to first on the back. Probably more cool than goofy. Let's try again.

1992 Upper Deck Minors Luis Ortiz Lynchburg Red Sox #114

Ah, that's better. Outside of the 1976 White Sox, you don't see a lot of baseball players in shorts. This qualifies as goofy. A grown man in shorts... Wait a minute, I wear shorts to work every day. Might have to rethink that.

Thanks for playing.