It's not that difficult to make a baseball card

I have this habit of announcing in the comments of other folks' blogs that I want a certain card and then forgetting that I said anything. Then, later, the card arrives in my mailbox and I marvel over how thoughtful the person was to tailor the cards they sent to my specific tastes without me even saying anything.

Of course, I did say something. I just don't remember it because I'm at an age in which brain cells melt away literally every second. I can see my future as an elderly person and much of it consists of someone saying to me "you SAID that already!" Can't wait for that.

Anyway, this happened when I opened a package from Ryan G. at This Card Is Cool. It contained lots of stuff I like, including some Lineage '75 minis that I showed already. One of the other cool items were some "More Tales of the Game" cards from last year's Topps Update set.

I've already said how much I love the Tales of the Game set and the sequel, More Tales of the Game. I'm trying to finish off the sequel in my usual "oh, am I collecting that?" sort of way. And Ryan sent me three cards for my half-assed project, at least a couple of which I believe I told him I wanted immediately before losing another brain cell.

The card featured here interests me because Joel Youngblood was one of those players that I thought was cool for no reason at all. It started out that I thought he was related to former L.A. Rams defenders Jack Youngblood and Jim Youngblood. I also thought that Jack and Jim were related, too. Turns out, Jack is not related to Jim, nor is he related to Joel, and Jim is not related to Joel either. Another childhood belief shattered. They couldn't just stop with breaking the news to me about the giant bunny busting into everyone's house and hiding eggs and candy.

But after I learned that Youngblood was just a regular Joel, not a member of a legendary pro sports family, he caught my attention for playing for two different teams on the same day, and getting a hit for each team. Now that was totally legit and tremendous -- if only because the feat showed that he was obviously so jacked to join his new team.

So it's great to have a card commemorating Aug. 4, 1982, which I thought was so fantastic back when it happened.

As for the photos on the card, well, it's a pretty pedestrian move. The bloggers who make their own cards aren't lagging behind Topps, that's for sure. This is what Topps did for this card:

It took this 1983 card, background and all ...

... and combined it with this 1981 card ...

To get this card ...

See? Not that difficult.

Here are the two other Tales cards that I received from Ryan. I didn't know that Spahn started an All-Star Game in three different decades. As for Strasburg, he doesn't belong in the set.

I've already completed the first Tales set. I'll have to see how close this gets me to More Tales completion.

But before that, how about turning this write-up entirely into a trade post? As if you didn't know I was headed in that direction anyway.

The rest of the cards sent by Ryan:

These 4-in-1 Goudey cards are normally an annoyance for player collectors, as well as team collectors, if your favorite team shares space with players from teams that don't matter. But this card is the best of the best. Four players, all from the best team ever, framed in the best team ever's color. Very nice.

These cards have been out for almost a year now and I still don't know what that design is that replaces the team logo on the diamond parallels. Is that a diamond? A star? By the way, it appears to move when you tilt the card. Is that supposed to happen? Am I getting freaked out for no reason?

A liquorfractor of the departed Jamey Carroll. At least the tagger, Ryan Roberts, is camouflaged in the picture.

BAM! A short-print liquorfractor of Jackie running into a wall of kaleidoscope glass. Odd photo. Cool card. Very cool card.

This card is cool, Ryan.

And, there, I got all of these posted before you jetted to Japan.

You are going to Japan, right? I tend to forget things.