Clutter

I absolutely love my card desk. I've loved it from the moment it arrived. It's useful, it's functional and it keeps the peace.

It never lets me down and is always faithful.

But, I regret to inform you that outside forces are bringing it down. It's not performing its duties as well as it once did. I'm starting to lose things and I get this feeling that certain people are looking at it in that "will you please pull the roll-top thingy DOWN so we don't have to see all that clutter?"

The problem is that the roll-top thingy won't come down because of all the clutter.

Now there are a few suspects to blame for my desk's sudden inefficiency, but the real source of this problem is basically a good thing: baseball is back.

The return of baseball means a lot of things: going to games, watching games on TV, following your favorite players, snagging autographs, great weather, great food, all that stuff. But it also can mean stupid stuff like this "Face of Major League Baseball" nonsense. You talk about clutter, take a look at my Twitter timeline. It's as vacant as that gal in the back of math class with the ... um ... nice smile.

It also means useless promotions like this Million Dollar Chase time-waster from Topps. I've only been made aware that people are actually participating in this recently. That means someone probably wants these clutter-inducing cards. I have seven of them. Come and get them.

My desk thanks you profusely.

If you want to participate in a worthwhile online card activity where you have a very real shot at winning cards, go to Crackin' Wax and participate in his 2013 Heritage BoBuBingo game. I've played it and it's a good time. And it won't make you a slave to Topps' website.

Of course, the return of baseball means new baseball cards. This gets people all excited about collecting again, excited about trading and excited about actually doing things with cards. I'm excited about this stuff all the time, but some people need the "new" to stay excited.

My desk is fully aware of this phenomenon because I have been trying for two months to catch up with trades. I'm now about 2-3 weeks behind and trying very hard to not slip even further behind, which is very difficult because I feel like the subject of one of those old cartoons where the "Inbox" is always stacked higher than the "Outbox."

Therefore, I have no choice to feature a bunch of random transactions here on this post -- for my desk's sanity. Think of the poor guy. He works so hard.

First, I will finish off the cards that John of Johngy's Beat sent me. Along with the 1992 Dodger gold cards, he added a stack of 1977 Topps needs.

This package appeared right after another group of '77s arrived in my mailbox, and only a couple of cards emerged as wants after the dust settled. The Leading Firemen card was one of them.

"Scoop" was the other. I count about 25 bats in this photo. And at least five folding chairs. What a fun card.

The rest of the '77s will come in very handy. They are already packed and waiting at the station for a new destination.

This rain-forest parallel arrived from 30-Year-Old Cardboard. Brian's gift of Brandon League makes me wonder if I can get all of the Series 1 Dodger emerald parallels by St. Patrick's Day, and then show them all off on March 17th.

Probably not. But it would be a goal if I had any cash at this time.

The acquisition of 2013 inserts and parallels is still great fun. I like doing this through trades rather than just buying them all at once. I received this '72 mini of Gonzalez (WAIT! Is that sparkle shortprint!!! *gasp, wheeeeez*) from ARPSmith's Sports Obsession in that same package that include all that late '50s Dodger goodness. This card just got a little overshadowed.

He also sent this panoramic parallel of Ted Lilly, which someone so accurately on the MLB Network the other day said still "looks like he's 12."

THIS Ted Lilly parallel came from Fantastic Catch. The card was a total surprise and it's also my first gold parallel Dodger from this year's set. Not as fun as the red, blue and green, but we must accumulate.

Weston also sent this gold parallel of Chad Billingsley from his "official" rookie card. It's another year of hoping Billingsley can achieve great things for an entire year. We know how that goes.

More parallel, this time from @jmkoenig. Yup, another Twitter trade. I managed this before all the "Face of MLB" nonsense -- you know, back when people could get things done on there.

I also received what I guess you would call the "base" Koufax Chasing History insert? Oh, this is an ugly, ugly path you're taking, Topps.

Here is shiny Clayton from the Topps Archives set from last year. Bout time it's mine.

And to finish things off in style, I present a 1957 Topps card of The Barber, Sal Maglie.

Yes, Maglie was also a Dodger, Giant fans.

Maglie is a key figure in the town where I had my first newspaper gig, Niagara Falls. I covered a minor league baseball team in the stadium named after him. Maglie was very ill at the time and didn't make public appearances (he would die a couple years later). But everyone talked about him.

It's great to have a Dodger card of his.

I'd like to say that it's great to finally have a somewhat cleared-off desk, but I'm not even close.

I count 10 trade packages to go. And 15-20 packages to send. And cards to file and cards to add to binders and lists everywhere and paper -- what's with all the paper? And why do I still have this mini-basketball on my desk? I have no room for this thing.

Baseball's back.

Go Dodgers.