And you thought he'd be the last one

No, it's not Rickey. Stay with me now.

In my continuing pursuit of the complete 1984 Donruss set, I am down to needing just 39 cards. That is most excellent. But you know what that also means.

Yup, I'm left with a bunch of stars and rookies to find.

Including:

Cal Ripken Jr.
Nolan Ryan
Mike Schmidt
Ozzie Smith
Joe Carter rookie
George Brett
Gary Carter
Reggie Jackson
Darryl Strawberry rookie
Ryne Sandberg
Wade Boggs
Paul Molitor

Quite a bit of firepower there, huh?

Now, I have no doubt that I'll eventually have all of these car ...

Wait, what?

I'm missing someone on that list?

No, I think I've got them all. Those are all the big stars and rookies that I still need. I'm not including some of the Diamond Kings, but I'm not as worried about those. They're just paintings you know and who cares about ...

What?

No, I'm telling you that's all of the big cards in that set. Anything you don't see in the list, I have already.

Yes. I've listed everyone.

Do I have what?

Who?

Don, who?

Oh, that guy. You're wondering if I have that card. Well, let me rummage around here for a moment.

Let's see ...

Hmmmm ... nope. Uh, wait, here it ... no, that's not it. Let's see, I think I might ...

...

...

Oh, here it is:

Yup. Got it. I told you.

You thought this would be the last card that I would need to complete the set, didn't you?

The great and glorious Don Mattingly rookie that the rookie card crowd salivates over. Let us all bow down. (Personally, I think the 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson is a bigger deal). You're saying there's no way anyone would be willing to give that card up for less than 25 of your finest beef cattle.

Well, I gots the card and I never owned me no beef cattle.

The card of the Dodgers' manager came to me from Josh at Royals and Randoms. I sent him a mess of Royals (I would've sent more but my computer hesitates around Zistle for some reason), and he sent me some really cool cards in response.

They basically cover the range of my collecting interests.

Besides the Mattingly and Henderson cards, there was another key '84 Donruss need.

It's Mr. Jockey. One of his final cards issued during his career. Yet Donruss still gives you only five years of stats. Bad Donruss.

Moving onto another set that I am collecting that does give you full player stats. I also received three cards from Josh for the 1972 Topps cause.

These aren't just any '72 Topps. All three are high numbers and Cloninger and Hennigan are the sky high numbers that I'll be chasing when I'm 80. I sure do appreciate them. I'd appreciate them more if I knew what the "5" meant on Knowles' card.

Another set I am chasing. A '75 miiiiiiiiinnnnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! I don't even care if it's a Yankee. Too much batting cage for me to be upset.

But I know you Dodger fans probably want to see some Dodgers by now. I've gone two whole posts without a Dodger card. That's long enough I think.

So here are the Dodgers that Josh sent:

I always welcome a Clayton Kershaw card. Please think of me when you pull a Kershaw card. Here we have Upper Deck celebrating Kershaw stopping a "losing streak at two."

This is a personal pet peeve of mine that I have mentioned many times at work. Losing two games in a row is not a "streak." A "two-game losing streak" sounds pathetic, and the Associated Press does it all the time, especially with NBA write-ups. When a team loses four or five in a row, then you can start talking about "losing streaks." But a "two-game losing streak"? Don't make it sound worse than it is.

Wow, where'd they put the rest of Adrian? He sure looks scrawny in this photo. This is a Stadium Club card from 1998. One of about 4,000 cards of Beltre from '98.

Sure do wish Beltre was still with the Dodgers. Not that I don't have confidence in Juan Uribe. Nothing but complete confidence. Yup, super sure that he's the answer to L.A.'s third base needs. Why must you doubt everything?

This is one of my favorite Willie Davis cards. It was at this point that fans figured he had reached his star potential. He never performed as spectacularly as people expected, but for a 12-year period, he was pretty darn good.

Now that I've received this card, I should just get the '65 Topps Koufax and then all the rest of my '65 Dodger needs will fall into line. Easy, right?

Here is the card that touched off the trade with Josh. A Chad Billingsley relic from '08 Baseball Heroes. I like the relics from Baseball Heroes, although I wish they made the backgrounds all the same color for the relics.

Billingsley's going to have a terrific season in 2012. Just you wait. I said the same thing about Matt Kemp before last year. So I've got a one-prediction winning streak going!

Josh sent me such cool cards that I've got something else to send him in the next week or so. I think he'll like it.

No, it's not beef cattle.