"In these difficult economic times ..."

I haven't lost my job. Not yet.

It's just that I heard news today that no employee wants to hear from their company. It makes workers skittish. To make matters worse, I heard it on my day off. That completely killed the enjoyment of a day I had waited for all week.

Everyone knows that newspapers are going through some tough times. Some of them are disappearing. I'm not sure where all this will lead. A lot of people think this is merely the progression of people receiving their news from other outlets, in other forms. I believe it's more than that. And, losing the printed word in its newsprint form -- if it ever comes to that -- will have ramifications for generations to come. And a lot of them won't be good.

But that's a post for another time.

I was in the mood for a pick-me-up today for another reason. My daughter was sick and missed four days of school this week. Our week had been turned upside down caring for her. Today, we were finally getting back to normal, and I wanted to hit the card aisle for the first time in almost two weeks.

Unfortunately, I didn't pull much of anything. Not a single Dodger in a jumbo pack and three other regular packs. Not even a double.

So, once again, I'm turning to the blogging community to cheer me up. And you never let me down. I'll probably be relying on you even more in days to come, because I probably won't be throwing money at cards as much anymore.

First, I'll feature something I received from John of Johngy's Beat. I call it "Orsulak Strikes Back."

One of the cards is the first one I received from Max, which completed my 1986 Topps set. But when I received that card, John had already sent his three Orsulak cards. They arrived in the mail a couple of days ago. So now, after whining about not being able to find a single card of the guy, I now have more cards of Orsulak than just about any other in the set (there might be a Dodger or two in the sixes or sevens).

But getting the three Orsulak cards in the mail just made me laugh. Thanks John!

The next three cards are from Steve of The Easy Life. I sent him a few cards and he responded quickly with some key ones.

This is some 20th anniversary card of Clayton Kershaw from Upper Deck. Apparently it's a hobby-issue subset. I'm not familiar with hobby UD, so I'm not sure. But I love a card of Kershaw.

Steve also sent some '09 Heritage Dodgers, including this "Rookie Star" card of Scott Elbert. In Topps' world, a left-handed reliever who has been sent down qualifies as a "Rookie Star."

Here's a jersey card of Manny, which is most kind of Stephen. This is my first relic card of Ramirez. Topps probably could have represented Manny's uniform jersey better if they had wrinkled it up and threw on some pine tar and a couple grass stains. But I guess that wouldn't be aesthetically pleasing now would it?

Thanks guys. All it takes is a few cards to cheer me up. Now go out and buy a newspaper and check out those boxscores. Support your local sportswriters.