What I got at the 'National'

Yes, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Hey, Night Owl, bird brain, the National isn't until this weekend. How can you get stuff at the National when it hasn't happened yet?"

And I have one word to say to you all-knowing, always-correct, perfect people out there: relax. I'm going somewhere with this. Settle. And enjoy the ride.

The truth is, I won't be going to the National, otherwise known as "As Close to Paradise as You Can Get While Still Standing in Cleveland." I'd love to see all the wonderful cards on display during the biggest collectibles show on earth, but I just can't. Something about having to work and being broke and the usual drawbacks to adulthood.

Fortunately, I've already had my "National." It arrived in a big box from Joe. You remember Joe, don't you? Well, he wasn't finished sending cards. He sent a ton more and, honestly, the selection was almost as good as what you'd find at the National Sports Collectors Convention.

So, let's see what I got at the National. It's quite impressive:

First, a bunch of 2008 Triple Threads, those oddly-textured, numbered cards with the pink backgrounds. Kind of weird, but Joe's got a bunch of them, and who am I to say no? Just for the record, I like the top row a lot better than the bottom row.

You're going to see a lot of Hideo Nomo in this post. But none of the cards will feature Nomo's head as prominently as this one does.

See? Here's Nomo again, during the early days of chrome. Even the odd look of chrome then (way back in 1996) isn't enough to keep Nomo from the righteous task of signing for fans.

And here's a whole bunch more Dodgers from the '96 Topps Chrome set. You see, Joe didn't send just a player or two from sets. He sent a large chunk from a bunch of them.

See? That's a bunch of 2004 Fleer Tradition that I received. Sometimes you get sick of lining up things nice and neat on the scanner (my scanner is actually near ground level, so the lining up process is a major pain). Throwing them nilly-willy is such a relief.

Back to some single cards. This is The Captain, "Pee Wee," on a numbered Legendary Cuts card. It's typically fancy.

This card sends my brain into overload. You mean to tell me this is a Retro set, but you put a "Futurama" heading on it? So you're going back in time and forward in time at the same time? No wonder Beltre's wearing a towel on his head. You blew his mind.

Joe didn't send me this card. I want to display it just to demonstrate the confusion I feel on almost a daily basis collecting modern cards. This is a Ring of Honor card from 2008 celebrating the 1955 champions.

And here's the card Joe sent. It's a 2009 Ring of Honor card celebrating the 1955 champions. Basically the same, except for slight color changes and the Brooklyn cap logo in the bottom left corner. My question is: what? Why? OK, that's two questions.

More Nomo! Yay! The card on the left is some sort of card game. I received several of these cards.

Now, we get into a bunch of 2006 Bowman Heritage. This is prospect Jamie Hoffman, who was called up to the majors earlier this season.

And here is a whole mess more from the team set. It makes me want to add 2006 Bowman Heritage to my want list (just the Dodgers of course). I'll get to it someday.

But I'm not stopping with regular, base Bowman Heritage. Here are a bunch of shiny variation cards (shininess on a set that pays tribute to 1949 Bowman is very, very, VERY odd).

And, of course, we have the minis (but not exactly scanned mini. My mini-mizer is on the blink). I really like the Clayton Kershaw mini, and Joe must have known, because he sent me three of them.

And, of course, practically the whole team set of minis. I think I have some of these already, but that's cool. They sure look nice all lined up.

The 2004 Cracker Jack cards are some of my favorites. I thought I'd show Lima Time nice and big, just to remember that great playoff performance of his.

And there's the mini Lima, with his larger teammates. 2004 wasn't that long ago, but all these guys are long gone from the Dodgers.

I'll stay with the modern retro sets with a peek at Rafael Furcal on 2006 Turkey Red. What odd poses they used back in the day.

And here are a few more. The 2006 Turkey Red cards are so dark. I think that's why TR didn't appeal to me because everything was somber. Topps made the adjustment with the insert set this year, and it looks so much better.

You may think Joe only deals in modern cards. Well, that's not necessarily true. He sent this 1978 Topps card of the NLCS from 1977. I appreciate it because my copy of the card was knocked around by a 12-year-old (namely, me).

And Joe threw in just about the rest of the team set, just to be safe. I may need a few of these for upgrading purposes.

Remember when the 1992 Leaf black variations were so hard to find? Yeah, I don't remember that either. I never found any Leaf in my neighborhood.

One of the Dodgers' future stars. Now that it's close to the trading deadline, guys like this are mentioned in all those speculative stories (that rarely end up being right).

These two will always be paired together when talk turns to the Dodgers and steroids. Too bad.

You thought I was done with Nomo? NEVER!

Here are some little Fleer doubleheader cards, that I know pay tribute to some past set, but I only vaguely recall what it is.

The little gimmick to these is you've got a card of Victor Alvarez here. But then you open it up ...

And it's a card of David Ross. So Alvarez was actually using Ross' legs in the earlier card. Kind of odd.

And for no particular reason, other than to get this post done with, I'll end it with an autographed card of James McDonald. Me likey.

So, that is what I got at my own little "National." To those National attendees, I'd like to see you do any better. And don't tell me you're going to get that stupid "Jackie Robinson as a Giant" card. Because I don't talk to people like that.

Joe, many thanks again. I've got my act together (sort of), and a package will be on its way to you.

There's only one word for a package like this: Awesome.