Do over

This is a trade post I've written over and over again. And it's never made it past "draft."

I usually don't have that much trouble writing a post. I'm always reading about bloggers leaving half-finished posts in "draft," and that never happens to me. I mean, I have writer's block and all that, but once I start writing, there's nothing that stops me from hitting the bright orange "publish post" button. I'm committed 100 percent. I'm like my dog chasing a squirrel. I may never hit my mark, but there's no way I'll quit now.

But on this one I just couldn't get moving. I'd try one angle, and another one and all of them stunk.

And then I thought about what I would've done three years ago at this time.

I would've just posted all the cards I received and never thought anything about it again. Themes? Foreshadowing? Plot Twists? These were baseball cards, right?

So that's what I'm gonna do here. It's time to get all 2008 on you and show some cards I got from Tom of The Angels, In Order.

Sorry, Tom, no fancy stuff today. Just cards.

Let's start with the bush leagues.

Nobody calls the minors the bush leagues anymore. I don't know why. Too many connotations, I guess. But this card package was full of players from the bushes.

I matched up two Braulio Castillo cards and didn't even realize it. You can't tell me that wasn't meant to be.

Mike Devereaux, apparently back before he decided to add a "U" to the back end of his last name.

Kiki Jones. Trying to look tough. Even though he's got a flowering plant on his shoulder, a grapefruit on his cap and ... um ... Kiki for a first name.

This card was a puzzler. I have no tolerance for Yankee cards unless they're in a set I'm trying to complete. So you can imagine how I feel about getting minor league Yankee cards.

But the raging cannons above my head grew quiet when I turned the card over.

Yup, that's a picture of Gerald again. But the rest of the card is TODD Williams, a Caucasian ex-Dodger pitcher who played for Albuquerque at the time. That is wild.

I have no idea what do with this card.

Jeremy? This is new. I've been trying to pronounce "Koyie" all these years.

Tom sent several Leaf Preferred Dodgers, and then he did something I really appreciate:

He labeled the gold parallel so I wouldn't miss it. And I WOULD miss it. It'd be sitting in my dupes box for years, crying out "I'm a GOLD parallel! Really! I'm GOLD! Somebody please listen!"

That was a good deed, Tom.

Paul Lo Duca waving to the teenage girls in the stands.

OK, that was mean. But he makes me think mean stuff. Sorry.

There are too many players on the Tigers that prevent me from believing they're a realistic World Series team. Brad Penny is one of them. But he was a pretty damn fine Dodger.

So if Ethier honestly is on his way out next year who are the Dodgers going to get for him? And if you say Ryan Theriot or Juan Uribe I'm never trading with you again.

The nationwide Derek Lowe "I suck" tour continues. Next stop? Houston? Baltimore? Pittsburgh?

I must show every Nomo card that I previously did not own. This is Nomo card No. 339. And, no, I don't know how many of those cards feature his butt prominently, like this one does.

The grand finale. Some unlicensed terrificness of a rookie Mike Piazza from 1992 or 1993. I have no idea what this card is -- it seems very Broder-like -- but I sure do love it.

Tom sent a whole bunch of other cards. So many, in fact, that I dug into the Angels archive and found a second package to send him.

And then I tried like mad to figure out a nifty way to post the cards he sent.

But sometimes you just have to keep it simple.

It only took four "do over" posts to realize that.