Of pocket knives, postal carriers, and ... oh, yeah, baseball cards

I'm not on speaking terms with my mail carrier. Not that he knows this yet, but the next time we see each other face-to-face, which happens about, oh, every four months, I am going to give him the silent staredown.

Until today, I had not receive mail in three days. Sunday and Monday, of course, there was no mail. On Saturday, we had a wicked snowstorm in which we received a foot-and-a-half of snow between 4-10 a.m. We received no mail that day, too. Whatever happened to that saying, "neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night ..."? I guess "wicked snowstorm" isn't on the list, huh?

So, I was anxiously awaiting the mail today because I knew there were some cards on the way. I did receive three packages, which is fantastic. But I know my mail carrier is holding out on me. The mail load was probably quite heavy after no mail on Saturday (I received a number of other articles of mail today, as well -- bills, magazines, investment notices informing me that my retirement and college savings plans are going in the toilet), and I'm wondering if they only delivered half today and are going to deliver the rest tomorrow.

(By the way, what I am suggesting here probably shocks and appalls any postal carrier reading this. Either that, or they're saying, "Hey, night owl is on to us!")

Anyway, the mail was also late, so I took the three card packages with me to open in the car as I waited to pick up my daughter after school. And I must say, I have never been so grateful for a pocket knife as I've been since I've started trading through the mail.

For years I watched my father wave his pocket knife around proudly, slicing at any paper product in his way. Christmas is a pocket knife festival. Every piece of wrapping paper is carefully pulled from its package with artful precision. The rest of us used to rip him for this while we ripped into our packages haphazardly and knife-free. And for years I couldn't understand the need for a pocket knife. I'm not the kind of person that carries much with me anyway.

But then I received a pocket knife from my wife a couple of years ago. It took awhile for me to warm up to it. But now I'm finding reasons to use it everywhere. You should've seen my knife dexterity as I waited in the car. It was Ginsu-worthy. It was as if I had a roast turkey ready to carve in the passenger seat.

But what I was opening with that knife was better than any turkey. They were cards from Brian of 30-Year-Old Cardboard, John of Old School Breaks, and Andy of the dearly departed 1978 Topps Blog (which I'm still hoping re-emerges at some point in the future).

I'll start with Brian first. He was sending out some of the cards he received in a contest he recently won. As you know, Brian collects a limited amount of players -- Fergie Jenkins, Andre Dawson, Dave Winfield, etc. -- which leaves him with a lot of extra cards. He was nice enough to send me close to 20 Dodgers.

Since most of the cards were from the late '80s, early '90s, I had many of them already. I still appreciate any and all Dodgers. I'm just not going to show them here, because in posts like this I like to show only cards that I didn't already have. One of the cards he sent was the 1989 Kirk Gibson Bazooka card, which leads off the post.

I also received this 2007 Fleer mini card of Brad Penny, the brand new Red Sox fourth starter, if he holds up. I think these mini cards have a specific name, but I don't know what it is.

And here's a nice card of Eric Karros. I do like 1994 Score.

Up next are the cards that I received from John for winning a quickie contest that he threw. I barely beat out Flash of Dropped Third Strike with the answer. I'm quite proud of that. I was quick enough to beat out someone named Flash! How about that? Maybe I need a speedy nickname like that, too.

John sent some very cool cards. I'm showing almost all of them because they're new to my collection.

This is one of those Distinguished Service subsets from 2007 Topps. I have a few of these cards, but hadn't seen the whole set until JayBee of bdj610's Topps Baseball Card Blog displayed all of them. I saw the Snider card, and I believe I uttered an audible, "ooooooh." Now I have the card! Thanks, John.

This is a 1997 Leaf Fractal Matrix card of Darren Dreifort. I have no idea what a Fractal Matrix is. I just like saying it over and over. Fractal Matrix. Fractal Matrix. Fractal Matrix. It's fun! And it's very '90s.

Here is a 1977 Topps Elias Sosa. I've mentioned this before, but I love receiving 1977 Topps. My '77 Topps cards are beaten up very badly. I've upgraded my '75 cards and a lot of my '76 and '78 cards. But all of my '77 cards are neglected. Someday I'll start caring for this set.

Sosa is perhaps best known for giving up the second of Reggie Jackson's three home runs in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series. At least, that's how he's best known by me.

I'm saving the best from John for last. Normally, I don't go for gimmicky cards, but this 1996 Studio Stained Glass Stars card of Hideo Nomo is tremendous. I've been admiring the Beam Team cards from Stadium Club that have been featured on other people's blogs. I haven't been lucky enough to find one of those cards. But I guess Beam Team wasn't the first for these kinds of cards.

When I showed this card to my daughter, she couldn't help but say, "Wow. That is so cool." That is usually the complete opposite of what she says when I show her a baseball card. But she quickly corrected herself by immediately talking about horses.

Moving on to Andy, who is doing the streamlining thing and shipping out many of his 1971, 1973 and 1978 cards. He sent me some 1971 and 1973 Dodgers, which is awesome.

This is a duplicate, but I've always liked this card. It's a horizontal shot and it's a nice early '70s view of Dodger Stadium. And it's Wes Parker holding on Greg Luzinski, I believe, at first. If it is in fact Luzinski, I don't think you have to hold him, Wes. He's not going anywhere.

I also received my third 1973 Tommy John card. Getting duplicates of cards that go this far back is very cool. But the John card is not as cool as this:

Andy sent two 1971 Von Joshua cards (as well as a '71 Joe Moeller). I now have FOUR 1971 Von Joshua cards. The concept of having that many extra cards of a set that is 38 years old would have blown my mind three years ago. It still staggers me.

But what is extra nice about what Andy sent is the three 1978 cards that he had set aside for me. Bruce Bochte, George Mitterwald and Lou Piniella were the last three cards I needed to complete the set.

Thanks a bunch, Andy! The set is officially complete. Now I can work on the '78 upgrades!

Many thanks to Andy, John and Brian for being so generous. I know there are other card packages coming. If only my mailman will give up the goods.