Big box o' fun, part 1

So, the cool kids have been excavating up a storm the last two days, finding packs of 2009 Heritage, unearthing whole blasters of black parallel cards, setting off on searches for gray-back parallels and discovering '09 Upper Deck fat packs.

Even though I can't play with the cool kids -- the area where I live doesn't allow it -- I get all giddy watching others find the snazzy stuff. I can't help but hit the few, scattered places that sell cards even though they disappoint me time and again. Hobby shop? Too expensive. Big box store #1? Topps blasters I've seen before. Big box store #2? Loose packs. And some weird-shaped $9.99 boxes of 2007 Topps. Huh? Big box store #3? Topps '09 cereal boxes.

But the cereal boxes are news around here, even if it's a week or two later than everyone else has seen them. So I picked one up. Ted Williams of course. I can't choose Ruth or Mantle over Teddy Ballgame. I'd get disowned. The boxes are pretty cool and I got some cards I needed, but other than continuing my staggering streak of pulling Cal Ripken inserts (all but the Legends card are spoken for), there was nothing special.

In the old days, that would be the end of it. I'd go back to seeing what better things everyone else got.

But not anymore. Thanks to Tribe Cards, I have a big box o' card fun to keep me warm and toasty. In yet another display of amazing card philanthropy, Dave sent me around 600 cards. Just because I asked. That's something else.

Most of what he sent were Dodgers, because that's the greatest team there is. But I also volunteered to be surprised. (I did this while ducking down with my hands covering my head. I've seen all the Sandy Alomars Dave has). And I was quite pleasantly surprised. Lots of great cards from teams that aren't quite as great as the Dodgers.

I'm saving the Dodgers for part 2, but I scanned a few of the other cards to show. These are just a few that interested me. There are many more nice ones that may be subjects of future posts.

I'll start with the Mountain Man because it's alarming how much this guy follows me. I'm almost convinced that Helton is spying on me and each card that I receive from him picks up traces of my DNA that are then mysteriously transported back to him for analysis by secretive government agencies based in Colorado. It's the only explanation for why I get so many Todd Helton cards.

Tom Browning is a guy I shouldn't really like because he no-hit the Dodgers. He's in that category with Dennis Martinez and John Candelaria. But Browning is interesting to me because he spent his junior and senior years in high school in a small city fairly close to me. It's odd because he was born in Wyoming and has lived in Kentucky for quite awhile. His family obviously moved around a lot.

Four great cards of my favorite Topps set of the 1990s. One day I will put the 1995 set on my want list and collect the entire ever-loving thing.

A cool Masterpieces card of Fisk's famous home run. I think it'd be cooler if we didn't have to stare at Fisk's backside. I really prefer to see faces, but this gives the card a certain uniqueness.

The moment from the '75 World Series is my first memory of a baseball play on television. I don't know if I was up to see the event or if it was a replay shortly after the game, but it's the first time I remember seeing baseball on TV (that wasn't Bugs Bunny anyway).

A pretty nice Topps Gallery card of Senators great Bucky Harris, who is only six wins ahead of Joe Torre on the all-time manager victory list. Harris is sixth and Torre is seventh.

Lastly, a great 1971 Topps card of Curt Flood. His final card. It's been awhile since I've landed a '71 card and this is one I don't have, which means it's a great day in my world.

This is the one card out of the hundreds that David sent that made my heart jump and made me stop and stare at it, look at the back, and marvel over its greatness for awhile. His stats line for 1970 simply lists 0 games played, 0 at bats, 0 runs, 0 hits, etc. No mention that Flood sat out the entire 1970 season after demanding that he be declared a free agent, kicking off what we know today as an everyday fact of baseball. Instead the back of the card happily declares that he hit .620 in American Legion ball in 1955. Whoopee!

This card is really what it's all about. It really made me feel like one of the cool kids. Hey guys, look what I got! I got a 1971 Curt Flood! Isn't it cool?

Also, one other thing that's cool:

It's the back of the '52 Satchel Paige night card created by PunkRockPaint. Click on the image to read the text. It's great. You'll also notice that Paige, like Flood, had an uneventful most recent season.

And you'll notice, it's card No. 408. Hmmmmm.