The patch

I went and bought myself a 2009 Topps blaster today. Don't worry, I didn't go to Wal-Mart. Nothing but white-bordered cards for me. As God intended them to be.

I landed a bunch of regular old cards that I needed in my bid to complete Series 1, as well as one of these patchy thingies that come with every blaster this year.

I have mentioned this a couple of times, but not on this particular blog: I do not understand patch cards.

I know some collectors eat this stuff up. And some other collectors who don't eat this stuff up like these particular ones because they're replicas of logos from actual events, in this case the 1985 All-Star Game in Minneapolis (the only All-Star Game to take place on my birthday, by the way). And I will say that they're better than those inexplicable letter patch cards in which you can spell out names or sayings or curse words or whatever the heck people do with them.

I don't have anything against patch cards. Their appearance is not taking the place of another card. It's just that they're not my thing. Patches stray too close to the memorabilia side, and I've never been interested in collecting pins or pennants or any of that stuff.

Plus it reminds me of things you see at craft fairs. I've already annoyed people who like patch cards, so I might as well tick off another group of people and say, I loathe craft fairs. I've been to enough of them because there are quite a few people in my family that enjoy them. But I think it's the only place on this planet that I've been to where I cannot find one thing that interests me. And I am entertained very easily. (Did you know at one time the craze among the crafty fair types was to make cow dolls and dress them up in clothes? Really. They did this. And people think my hobby is strange).

Patch cards don't say "baseball" to me. They say, "mom, knit me something and put '1985 All-Star Game' on it."

And that's another thing. Why patches? Where did that come from? And if patches, then what? Here are few other things that feature letters that you can start incorporating in cards instead of something like, oh, ballplayers:

1. License plates.
2. Road signs
3. Eye charts
4. Refrigerator magnets
5. Chalkboards (don't like the letter featured? Just erase it and write in a new one)

The patches in blasters are part of a 50-card patch set and only certain players are featured. But one of the things I noticed with this particular card is Ripken didn't have a heck of a lot to do with the outcome of this particular game. He went 1-for-3 in a 6-1 American League loss. Didn't drive in a run. Nothing very memorable.

This won't be the last '09 blaster I will buy so I will end up with a few more of these things. If it's Dodger-related (there appear to be five of those) then I suppose I'll keep it, but it will fall under the heading of "Oh, I guess I have to."

Meanwhile, I will be sending this Ripken/Twins card to reader Greg, who is an Orioles fan and sent me some cards that I received today. I hope he doesn't feel the way that I do about patch cards.

Greg sent me some modern-type cards that I do appreciate, because they feature CHROME.

I can't turn down a 2008 Topps Shiny. Especially a card of Andre Ethier. And it's refractionary, too.

And this is my first blue refractor of a Dodger, albeit a former one. The Dodgers were meant to be featured on blue refractors, so this one was a long time coming.

And here is my first copper refractor, wasted on Hefty Hefty Jones. I hope the Rangers get more out of him than the Dodgers did.

Greg also sent me the last five state flag cards I needed to complete the '08 Allen & Ginter subset.

So now it's on to completing the last remaining thing I care about in the Allen & Ginter set.

The World's Greatest Victories. This card of the Spartans' valiant stand also came from Greg. I still need a few more to finish things off.

Thanks, Greg. I'll be sending off some Orioles. And one, terrific patch card. I did a great sell job on that, didn't I?