Tales from the repack rack pack

I am resorting to blogging about the cards that are simply sitting in front of me this week. Pick up a handful and find something to say. This is a result of having very little time and very few ideas.

I expect this trend to continue through the end of the week. So I apologize for any unusually brief posts or posts that seem rather ... um ... shallow in nature. This will not be a week in which you say, "gosh darn it, that night owl made me think again." Not that I ever expect you to say that.

So, I'm turning to the repack rack pack that I bought along with the Topps Series 2 blister pack that I showed over the weekend.

I seem to be the lone blogger fascinated by these particular rack packs. But fortunately, I have a blog where I can show them without getting shouted down, like I usually do when there's a topic that only I like.

Here are some of the cards pulled from that rack pack:

I am interested in any card from 1999 Topps because it was a year in which I did not buy a single pack of cards. I have never seen these draft pick cards before. I believe Matt Belisle is a Rockie now.

I have seen this '81 Donruss card of Reggie a number of times, but this is the first time I've owned it. I still don't know what he's doing in the photo. Reclining on second base with a picnic lunch?

Both of these cards emerged from the packaging on the same day that I posted Sundberg's 1975 Topps card on my other blog. I am cowering in a closet right now over the synchronicity of it all.

Blogging about cards of players who are depicted in uniforms other than those with which the collector associates (mercy, is that even proper English?) is a popular hobby. I've thought about turning it into a post, but still haven't gotten around to it.

Dwight Gooden actually had a couple decent years with the Indians.

However, this one is very, very strange. Dave Stieb as a Chicago White Sox pitcher? Stieb pitched all of four games for the White Sox in 1993.

You might think that these are two regular '81 Donruss Red Sox. But this was still during the period in which I was required to surrender any Red Sox I received to my brother. So any new Boston card between 1975-82  is fascinating.

You have probably heard how baseball players are just "regular guys" in terms of their physical make-up. I heard Paul O'Neill discussing this recently when talking about Dustin Pedroia. And, when you compare them with basketball and football players, yes, baseball players are definitely not freaks.

But look at this card of Dave Winfield. Good god, how did he ever get around on a pitch? He was some amazing athlete. Makes sense that he was a multiple-sport star.

Final card. I love this card. It sums up 1960s baseball, ballplayers and collecting better than anything. Such a fun little '60s card.

But something made me do a double-take. I knew I had seen this photo before.

Then I found it. On the 1969 Topps card. Of course! Topps reused a bunch of pix between '68 and '69.

That must've been some joke Tillman heard. Laughing two years straight.