Wow

That's foreshadowing.

OK? All right.

First, I wanted to do this post late last night after work. But my independently-minded scanner had other plans. And not wanting to stay up the rest of the night trying to convince my scanner that it's in his/her best interest to scan when I ask it to, I went to bed.

This morning, I flipped on the scanner. First scanning try. Scanned like a dream. (*Sigh*). I hope the scanner likes curbs, because it's going to be kicked to one some day soon.

Secondly, my 10 straight days of work has been cut down to 7 straight days. Someone at work actually took note that I was starting to look pasty and offered to help. I know some of you were looking forward to my posts degenerating into mindless incoherence around day 9 or 10, but it's not going to happen. Well, not because I'm exhausted anyway.

All right, now onto the "wow."

I have received some pretty great cards since I started blogging and been the recipient of some super generous packages. Some of the stuff from Max or Joe or Tribe Cards has made me drool with gratitude. And I have tried to broadcast times when people have been so generous that they actually took the time to tailor their cards/gifts to my specific wants. I'm thinking of John sending '75 minis from England, and especially of this Hershiser item that blew me away.

All cards that I receive are tremendously appreciated. But only a very few actually make me say, out loud, "wow." (I'm still working my way up to "awesome," guys).

A card package yesterday got a "wow" out of me.

Most of you know that my favorite player is Ron Cey. But he is not just my favorite player. He is my favorite player of all-time, of any era, past or present, whatever sport or pastime you want to name. He is it. He's the only player that has ever been featured on a poster on my wall. He is featured on the only card that permanently inhabits my sidebar on the blog. He is the subject of my favorite card of all-time.

There are other players that I like and collect: Orel Hershiser, Hideo Nomo, Clayton Kershaw, Sandy, Jackie, Fernando, etc., but they finish miles behind Cey.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched the replay of Game 4 of the 1978 NLCS, the Dodgers' clinching game over the Phillies. Cey was amazing in that game (another player that I thought was amazing in that game, which totally floored me: Terry Forster. Yeah, the goo guy). It was as if he could do anything, all on those little penguin legs. And, he scored the game-winning run. I forgot how happy I was watching him race plateward. And all those little kid feelings of watching your hero do something great came rushing back.

So, it is important to me that I obtain every Ron Cey Dodger card that I can find. And some of you have sent me Cey cards, which really hit the mark. They're at a higher level than other cards that I receive.

But one of you hit one level higher.

(Insert Emeril Lagasse trademark exclamation here).

That is Ron Cey's rookie card, the origin of that Topps Archive card at the top of the post, and it was sent to me by the one and only Collective Troll.

He sent me a bunch of other cool cards that I'll get to sometime later, but I wanted to feature this one by itself because it is one of the major key cards if you're collecting Ron Cey.

I was leafing through the cards Marck sent, trying to determine why he sent me all these fine vintage cards -- Dodgers and some cool '81 Topps that I need for my set -- when I came across the Cey rookie.

"That's cool," I thought. "A '72 rookie stars card. Oh, look, it must be some archive type card. There's Ron Cey. It's an archive of his rookie card, see he's in the middle there, just like on his rook ..."

(Wait a minute, that's not an archive card. That's his actual rookie card).

Cue outloud exclamation: "Wow."

Everyone thinks that Cey's rookie card is his 1973 Topps card, the one he shares with Mike Schmidt, which costs a bundle and I never even hope to own because I hate throwing down that much cash on a single card. (My wife would hate it, too. And my daughter, and my dog ...).

But that's not his rookie card. I HAVE CEY'S ROOKIE CARD. And some day maybe I'll get that '73 card featuring Cey (and Schmidt, and the Padres' Dave Hilton). But today, and for the next few days, I don't care, because:

I HAVE CEY'S ROOKIE CARD.

Wow. And awesome.