Making Argyled Plaschke jealous

As I mentioned in the last post, a blogger was trying to make me jealous while I was on vacation. This is a little bit like holding up a 100 dollar bill to LeBron James and saying, "lookie what I got!" He's going to laugh in your face. And then his bikinied groupies are going to laugh in your face.

But I understand it was a timing issue. How was Greg Z. supposed to know I was happily sunning myself when he was baiting me?

But I suppose I should return the favor, because that's what us guys do.

So here are some Clayton Kershaw cards I obtained just before I went on vacation. Kershaw is the lone Dodger who will get playing time in the All-Star Game tomorrow (because Dodger fans aren't ballot-stuffing losers like fans of another team I know). He's my favorite current player, and he's also one of Greg Z.'s two favorite players.

So, let's turn on the Jealous Meter and see how high we can get that baby to go.

I obtained eight Kershaw cards, one of which you already saw here. That card, the snazzy Bowman ice card at the top of the post, and this Bowman Platinum emerald green parallel are the only non-numbered Kershaws in the bunch.

Starting with the numbered cards now. Like '08 Baseball Heroes, the colored parallels are the only reason to collect '09 Piece of History. This aqua version of Kershaw's otherwise achingly boring base card from this set is terrific. It makes me want to go back on vacation.

This year's Bowman blue parallels are numbered to 500. Yet the ice parallels are not numbered at all. That makes no sense.

Chrome blue parallels continue to be the greatest creation of the last decade. This one didn't scan so well. It's much deeper in color and shinier -- but you know how pretty they are.

I've held off from obtaining this card for years, because I still resent Upper Deck's matching of rivals on baseball cards. It's spitting in the face of the team collector.

But now Jake Peavy is in the American League and I can handle him sharing a card with Kershaw. Also, the Kershaw swatch has a nice little stitch in it, which looks like it came from the uniform shoulder, or something similar (I actually don't want to think about it in too much detail).

This Topps Tribute parallel swatch goes nicely with my blue version of this card. Don't mind the specks and scanner dirt. It actually is as pristinely awesome as possible. It looks like a card you'd find at a motorcycle rally. All black and gold and bad-ass. Numbered to 50.

So, did I make anyone jealous?

I understand that Greg Z. has some bigger card issues to fry, so he's probably paying just as much attention to this as I was to him last week.

Speaking of that, here is my recommendation to vote for him for a Koufax autograph. Every Dodger blogger should have a Koufax auto. Leave it to Beckett to pit him against someone who sings Bieber songs. But combine Beckett, the internet and contests, and I wouldn't expect anything else.