Torre! Torre! Torre!

This card threw me a little, although it shouldn't have since I was collecting in 2008 and fully aware of how insane it was that year.

I received the card from Mark at This Way To The Clubhouse. I had to turn it over to determine the set. The "LA14" makes me reasonably certain it's from the team set, those cards you find in blister packs hanging from racks at Walmart. Emphasis on YOU. The only ones I find are Yankees or the occasional Mets (and one really odd time, Angels).

I'm sure I knew about the card back in '08, but had since forgotten about it. That's not necessarily a bad thing as if I had known about it I would've been plagued with the knowledge that there were three totally different 2008 Topps Joe Torre cards to obtain.

The regular base set version.

The "limited edition" team set version.

And the "regular" team set version.

I don't think there's ever a reason to have three distinct manager cards with the same design put out by the same company, unless they're paralleled up with chrome or a different colored border or something.

Even then it's probably not a good idea.

But that's how wacky 2008 was. I'm a little surprised I survived the year with all my collecting faculties intact. Perhaps I didn't and no one has told me.

Fortunately, Mark sent me a few other cards to pull me out of that bad flashback.

Now that Ethier has arrived, the 2012 Dodger base set is complete. If this was 1979, my work would be done. I suppose it could still be done in 2012, but I have a collector's brain to convince.

Mark hoped that one of the Ramon Martinez cards he sent me filled a want. Unfortunately, he wasn't around when Thorzul launched a pre-bipping era bomb of Martinez cards upon my residence back in '09. So I'm pretty much set on Ramons these days.

I am always impressed by minty fresh, sharp-cornered pre-1983 cards. How in the world did they do it?

This is the card that touched off the whole deal. A '94 Mother's Cookies Piazza. Just a great card.

With all the Piazza collectors that there are, I often feel deprived of Piazza cards. This is a ridiculous feeling to have and I really should slap myself, especially after looking at my list of about 300 Piazza cards. I know Piazza has an embarrassment of cards, but shame on me for complaining.

Thanks for the cards, Clubhouse! I finally got to the post office today with your package. Someone even let me cut in front of them, even with me juggling six packages of cards and a few envelopes, too.