Yeah, yeah, who won the giveaway ...

I'm going to announce the winner of the 500,000 hits giveaway in this post. I know that means everyone will scroll right to the bottom and ignore my words, but I'm used to being ignored.

I grabbed a couple of rack packs of 2013 Topps just because the set is so gosh darn lovable (and I need more trade bait). I didn't get anything spectacular, although at this stage of the game everything is spectacular.

I did pull the following card, for which I am forever grateful:

It may seem like it's the same as the Mays card above -- except for the fact that one is a stinkin' Giant in an ugly uniform and the other is a glorioius Dodger -- but they're not the same.

The first thing I noticed is the Kemp card was extraordinarily shiny. I moved it around for a couple of minutes (I'm sure everyone in the house thought I was weird), and I wondered if it was the light or if the card was extra shiny.

After pulling another Chasing History insert ...

... I noticed that -- yeah -- the Kemp card is definitely shinier. And, if you look closely at the scans, you can see that the Kemp card has a white banner where it says "chasing history," and the Mays and Santana cards have a silver banner (It's a lot more apparent in person).

And then it dawned on me: "This must have been what they were talking about when they said that some inserts have parallels, too."

By "they" I mean the cool kids in the hobby. You know, the ones up on everything in the set before it's even released. I'm not that cool. I just can't keep up. So I muddle through, half hearing something without really absorbing it. Then, a couple days later, I'm opening a rack pack saying, "golly, that's really shiny."

Don't run to me for your information. Really.

Anyway, even though I'm very, very, very happy I have the Kemp insert parallel -- because there's no way on any planet in the solar system that I am chasing insert parallels -- this is just another example of why I'll probably never complete a modern card set again.

Let's turn the card over to the back, shall we?

The most mentioned item on the backs, by far, is the "Career Chase" line that compares one stat of the player's to the all-time record. It seems whimsical at first until you read it over and over on every card. Then it gets dumb.

Cardboard Junkie was pointing out that on some of the cards the numbers are all screwed up. He had a bunch of examples, too.

I haven't had time to study the backs all that carefully.

But I did notice one thing. Each of the "chase" lines mentions the career leader. Nolan Ryan for strikeouts. Mariano Rivera for saves. Barry Bonds for home runs, Sam Crawford for triples, etc. In each case, the all-time leaders are mentioned. Except for one.

Topps doesn't mention the career hits leader.

The career hits leader, of course, is Pete Rose. But he's not mentioned in any of the career chase hits lines that I've seen.

I'm sure this is probably because Topps doesn't have a licensing agreement with Rose. He's tied up with Leaf or something, right? Again, you'll have to ask one of the cool kids.

But how sad is that? Forget about making a card with his signature or a card period. Forget about showing a picture of him. But you can't even mention his name?

That's screwed up.

If it were me, I wouldn't have done the "career chase" thing if it I wasn't going to be able to mention Pete Rose's name. (I wouldn't have done the career chase thing anyway, because it's stupid, but that's just me).

I hope I'm making assumptions, but I'm sure that's what it is.

Anyway, let's steer it to something happy.

It's time to award somebody 36 cards.

Here are the goodies one more time:

There were 74 people who entered the contest. I assumed that if you commented then you were entering, unless you specifically mentioned that you didn't want to be in the contest.

I gave the evil randomizer the requisite three spins, and here be the winner:

It's gcrl!

Good to see a fellow Dodger fan win. And he just sent me a package, too. (But that didn't affect the outcome! NOC is a reputable establishment. I have to fill out paperwork and everything).

Jim, I'm sure you have the Dodger cards in the prize package already. But I also know you'll put them to good use -- as well as the other cards, too.

Thanks for playing everyone.

And, thanks all for reading and listening to my carrying on.

Keep having fun in this hobby.

Because it's always fun.

Even when I'm bagging on Topps, it's still a hoot.