Angels of mine

I've mentioned before that sometimes when I receive trade packages featuring Dodgers, I'll get a random card or two of another team that often gets confused with the Dodgers.

Often times it's the Royals, since their uniforms look similar to the Dodgers. Less often it's a Blue Jay or a Met, two other teams that feature blue.

Within the last week, it's been something different. And I totally blame Upper Deck. Or, maybe Topps. Or maybe Major League Baseball. One of them.

Let me illustrate, in my usual roundabout, backward way:

BA Benny and his Big Buffet of Cards scooped a few cards off the buffet table, slapped them together with some macaroni salad, and mailed them off. ... OK, there was no macaroni salad. I'm just hungry. Anyway:

An emerald/kelly/neon green parallel of Big Brad.

One of my last '88 Score needs, only because Young is already in my Dodger binder.

Three of the finest from one of the finest years of Finest. 2003 Finest (and 2004 Finest) was mighty fine.

Two Collector's Choice debut dudes.

And this is where the package got random -- a Negro League star from Upper Deck Classics. Random but always appreciated.

A Sweet Lou from the recently christened Tron Set.

And -- totally unexpectedly -- an Angel, from 2010 Upper Deck.

"Hmmm," I thought. "I don't really like the Angels. That's kind of odd."

But, I didn't think any more of it, and I turned to the other package.

It was from Cliff of Capewood's Collections. Our annual Astros for Dodgers trade. I received:

A Card Your Mom Threw Out And Now You Aren't On Speaking Terms Anymore Because That Thing Is A Ton of Money Now.

A super smoking awesome Wal-Mart black parallel of The Man, Clayton Kershaw.

A less awesome card, but at least it's another Wal-Mart black card, since I've been avoiding those blasters religiously.

Another blaster parallel, this time the Target throwback version, of one of the best cards in the 2010 set.

A throwback parallel of the demoted Broxton.

The last 2010 Upper Deck card I needed to complete the Series 1 Dodger set. Still waiting anxiously for Series 2 ... heh.

A 2010 UD Biography card of the hurting Jeff Weaver.

My first card of the Dodgers' potential future closer, Kenley Jansen. Awesome.

A Fleer '01 Greats of the Game Garvey.

And ... um, uh, more 2010 Upper Deck Angels (scanned crookedly).

Again, I'm on record as not appreciating the Angels -- except when they play the Yankees.

But I think I know what happened here.

Pulling cards for trade partners is a very involved task. If you're anything like me, there are cards in various segments of the house. So you have a want list in hand that is not necessarily in sync with how you organize cards in one section of the house, which is not how you organize cards in another section of the house, which is not how you organize cards in another ... well, you get the idea.

And if you're looking for cards for more than one person (which I often am), then it gets to be an even longer exercise.

Time is at a premium, so you're looking for whatever time-saver you can. Fortunately, 2010 UD -- bless their little scheming hearts -- put the name of the team on the bottom right of the card for easy reference.

Unfortunately, it was not allowed to put the team nickname on the card.

So, that's how I ended up with Angels. Both the Angels and the Dodgers say "Los Angeles" and nothing more. When you're flying through cards, you don't always have time to admire the photo.

See what you've done, Upper Deck, er, Topps, er MLB -- whoever the heck is responsible??? You're screwing up trades!!!!

So, what am I going to do with the Angels?

I don't know. There aren't very many Angels collectors out there. I'll probably put them in the stack with the Giants and Pirates and other teams that I can't find traders for and watch them ... just sit there.

But you can bet I'll be ready for when that Kevin Jepsen super collector comes calling. Although, first he/she will have to explain to me who he is.