You may have heard. The Syracuse Orange were bounced from the NCAA tournament last night.
This means only one thing to me. The winter sports season is officially over. And life begins to return to normal.
This week I enjoyed my first back-to-back off days in over a month. I spent the first day detoxifying. Didn't leave the house. I spent the second day desperately trying to catch up on what I neglected over the previous four weeks. I'm still woefully behind.
On the trading/sending out packages front, I'm slowly returning to speed. I sent out a smattering at the end of last week. I sent out a few more yesterday. I sent out a few more today. And I botched the zip code with one (Sorry, Project '62. I'll try again tomorrow). See? Out of practice.
I'd like to get to the point where I send packages to people out of the blue. But that seems so far into the future. I've received several out-of-the-blue packages from others recently, and I wish I could be in the same blissful state as those folks are.
Here are some of the recent surprises. The first cards are from Roger of I Don't Know ... 3rd Base! In keeping with his blog title, "I don't know" what I did to deserve these cards. But I certainly appreciate it.
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This is a 2008 Timeline Dodger card that I needed. Only four cards left on the Timeline want list! As for the official count on my 2008 Chin-Lung Hu cards, it is now up to 30. My 2009 Hu cards? Two.
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An '07 Chrome card of Juan Pierre photoshopped into a Dodger jersey. He may be photoshopped into a White Sox jersey at some point this card season. I hope Topps does a better job than they did on this card.
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A white refractor of Derek Lowe, positioned in the same pose that is burned into my brain since it is on so many cards. Speaking of which, until recently I never knew there were white refractors in '07 Topps Chrome. Completely oblivious to the logo on the front, I thought these were some chrome parallel of Opening Day cards. I'm glad that wasn't the case, because Opening Day Chrome kind of blew my mind.
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These three cards are from Joe L. of Cobb and Halladay. They complete my Dodger wants for last year's Heritage High Numbers set.
Only one of the players -- Sherrill -- remains with the Dodgers, which reflects the transient nature of the folks in the High Numbers set. It's not much of an update set, really, because it seems like a quarter of the players in the set leave their featured team as quickly as they arrive. I think they should call it the Topps Heritage Fleeting set. The caption could say, "They're Here and They're Gone! Collect Them Quick! NOW! ... Too Late. He's a Brewer."
The last batch of out-of-the-blue cards are some from Jim of gcrl and the O-Pee-Chee blog.
Jim is one of the few bloggers who regularly sends me night cards. I appreciate that and those cards have been scanned for future use.
But the main reason for the package was this card:
That's because it is an O-Pee-Chee!!!! I saw it on Jim's blog, and I immediately wanted a card of one of my favorite super-sub Dodgers.
This is where it pays to read your blogs. Jim had an extra and sent it along. Now I have a card of Hatcher, looking like he's about 50, blasting the Oakland A's in 1988.
But that's not all. Jim sent a 1970 OPC of Bill Sudakis, one of the "sluggers" of the 1969 Dodger team. His 14 homers were second on the team. Andy Kosco had an impressive 19.
And here's a 1970 OPC of future Dodger Andy Messersmith. He's one of my favorite Dodgers to collect, although I don't really seek out his non-Dodger cards.
The OPC cards almost look like they were attached to something and had to be separated, as if they were an insert in a magazine.
Thanks for the surprises guys. I'm looking forward to getting back into the trading scene once again. Maybe I can surprise a few folks, too.
Comments
Well, at least on weekdays.