A shiny kick in the pants

It's beautiful out today. I am mentioning it for posterity because it just might be the best weather day of the year. Then I can win some useless weather argument that always seems to spring up out of nowhere.

But I also want to mention it because even though I have to work today, it's a nice way to end the week. And to get in the spirit of things, after showing almost nothing but vintage all week (a result of both circumstance and mind-set), I am going to show some sparkly cards.

Joe M. is always good for some shiny items. This is part of the package that included the awesome Sandy Koufax Masterpieces box-topper. It's quite the shiny kick in the ass.

And to show how pleasant I am trying to be this Friday, I put a shiny Andruw Jones Heritage card at the top of the post. No Stay Puft Marshmallow Man jokes for me today. I'm high-roading it.

Shield your eyes. Shiny ahead.

But I'll start you off slow. It's an unshiny 2006 Bowman Heritage Chad Billingsley card, one of the few that I need to fill out the Dodger set. Joe has provided me with quite a few of these cards, including the shiny version of the Billingsley.

That is a whole mess of 2005 Donruss Champions, one of the more bizarre designs from a company that designed bizarrely. If I was 11 years old again, I'd be tempted to hack off the right side of each card and create my own "mini-cards." It would serve Donruss right.

The set is a mix of current Dodger players of the day (like Werth and Ishii), legends (Reese and Snider) and inexplicables (Al Oliver?)

Not exactly shiny, but very, very cool. It's a tribute to 1888 N184 Kimball Champions. Russell Martin's on a current 15-game hitting streak. He's on a bit of a comeback. I wouldn't say he's all the way back, but it's a lot better than '09.

Going all the way back to last year to one of those cereal box refractors. This is one I missed. But there are so many current Campanella and Robinson cards that I am always confused as to whether I have it or not. Try to find some Pete Reiser and Joe Black photos, Topps.

Almost nothing beats a chrome Mike Piazza card. As long he's in a Dodger uniform. I'm confident the Hall will listen to its heart and make Piazza a Dodger on the plaque. They don't want Lasorda boycotting the Hall do they?

This card is as shiny as it is outside right now. If it wasn't so foil-ish, I'd try to get it signed. It would look nice autographed.

Gray is the opposite of "shiny," I suppose. But the wild criss-cross colors of Upper Deck X balance things out. It's good to have a relic card of Penny to recognize his 32-13 record for L.A. over two seasons. I think he's doing OKish for St. Louis this year. I haven't been following.

Just for fun, here is Penny's 1998 Bowman card:

Wow. That is amusing. I think he'd have a hard time convincing a bat boy to drink a gallon of milk in an hour looking like that.

That's about as shiny as it gets. Topps Finest and sticker autos? That's energy-harnessing potential.

Not crazy at all about having Lastings share space with Kemp. This card apparently was made for rookie-mojo types. Maybe I can cut this one in half, too. (Settle, I'm not really going to do that).

Now this is a fantastic card from last year's SPx. It's awesome. It makes sense. And it's awesome again.

The card doesn't specify what uniform the jersey came from -- I'd be surprised if the top bit was from the Red Sox and the bottom bit was from the Dodgers. That would mean that UD executed this card perfectly, especially considering that both photos of Ramirez show him in his road uniform.

When the Dodgers play the Red Sox in interleague play this year, I hope I am far, far, FAR away. If I'm not, I plan to watch all available games between the two teams without sound. Mute will be my friend even more than it is now. I will do the same for when the Dodgers play the Yankees.

As for reading about the games, I don't know. I could have someone censor the articles before I read them. You know, cut out every mention of Manny or Joe Torre. There might not be anything left to the sports section. I don't know what I'll do about online articles. I sense a major media black-out coming up. That'll be interesting, since I kind of, you know, WORK in the media.

Joe, thanks again for the cards. Thanks for your new address. I'll be more than happy to send it to any trader who wants it. They just need to let me know.

OK, I've taken up too much of your time already on this pleasant day. Go out and enjoy. Enjoy the shiny.