Cards for a baseball-less day

I'm generally not fond of "cleaning out the draft folder" posts. First, I don't have a lot of "draft posts" going. I pick a topic and write it. There are no half-written posts anywhere in storage. Second, if the cards weren't good enough the first time I scanned them, what makes me think they'll be good enough now?

But desperate times call for lazy measures.

In case you haven't noticed, there's been no baseball since Tuesday. Baseball's postseason schedule is almost as irksome as the fact that the game's brass feels the need to speed up games, but won't touch advertisers or broadcast stations that do far more to lengthen games than anything players do on the field.

Oh, was that a tangent? Sorry.

So we baseball fans are forced to settle for hockey as a suitable alternative until Friday. Those starved for baseball need something to tide them over, and since I have little time to provide something of substance, I figured I'd turn to those scans that have been piling up. People desperate for baseball will take anything, right?

Heh.

So here are some random cards. I probably don't have a lot to say about them. But at least it's baseball.

What is Bill pondering? And how did he damage two of his fingers? These close-up '74 cards are some of the best kinds of '70s cards and deserve their own post. Probably what I was going for when I scanned this.

I am not a fan of 2007 Heritage or the set to which it pays tribute, 1958 Topps. But I refuse to let go of the above two cards because of the color schemes. These are two of the most 1950s-ish cards I have ever seen.

This is not something you want to see coming at you when you go down to the kitchen for a midnight snack.

Topps had a thing back in the day of flipping back the caps of players it thought might get traded, so the team logo wouldn't show. So now we have two players on the Tigers who ended up leading their team who apparently were each about to be traded. I guess this says something about the early '80s Tigers. Not sure what.

I was going to try to figure out what it says on the cover of the program ("something-Off") or wallow in the nerdiness of the Brewers fan, but I suddenly became overwhelmed by how bad-ass it is to walk around in a jacket with "Bones" on the back of it and ... AND ... it also being your name.

The Big Red Machine ... without Pete Rose ... or Johnny Bench ... or Tony Perez ... or Joe Morgan ...

Some people just can't smile ...

... and some can't stop.

I want to know what Twins fan paid to have this card created. I grew up during the era of the four-player rookie card (1974-78). It was endlessly frustrating to collect a team and be forced to include players from three other teams in your collection just because they were attached to the same card. How I wanted a 4-player rookie card of JUST Dodgers. How, Twins? HOW?

I'm calling the contrast between these two cards, "Power Corrupts".

I'm calling this one "Too Many Bats, Not Enough Fans".

The worst baseball uniforms EVER! ... no, no, NO ... EVER!!!!! EVER!!!! EVER, EVER, EVER!!!!

I have this dream that has been going on for a number of years now where I finally decide to rid myself of all Giants cards. I pile them up in distant field, pour the lighter fluid, light the match and then watch as they all deservedly burn.

But I will leave this card behind. I can't see any harm come to it.

Vince Coleman was a Royal. Kansas City always had speed.

I like this card -- and its twin, the 1974 Jerry Morales card -- because it escaped the airbrush. Very few 1970s traded players avoided the airbrush, but this one did. It's disconcerting, but I admire its elusiveness.

The best the mid-1980s Indians could do.

The best my mid-1990s fantasy team could do.

Mike Scioscia looks like he just saw the road runner fly past. Maybe it was Jarrod Dyson.

Here is something I never hear from early Upper Deck apologists. The fact that there were large full-color photos on the back for the first time meant that now there could be a debate over whether Upper Deck selected the right photo for the front of the card. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, it's just that now UD opened itself up for that particular criticism.

 There is no way he can see the pitch coming.

You have to be at the peak of badassdom to make a uniform like that look good. Rolling up the sleeves on his windbreaker is a nice touch.

No. This pose does not work if you're smiling.

Did you get mad when Jim Abbott became a Yankee? I did.

I've seen Jim Rice without a cap or helmet many times since he has retired, but I don't recall a single game of the many Red Sox games that I watched as a youngster in which Rice was without a head covering. I never knew that he had that much hair.

What did Steve Finley's mother think of this card?

Wow. Just. Wow. A Brewers collector needs to do an Ugg-tastic vote-off of Brewers cards, just to include this card.

Finally, I'll leave you with a big banana pitching in his old park, Dodger Stadium. This is what happens when you leave the Dodgers, Rick. You turn into a big banana.

So there. I just cleaned out a few cards from the draft folder, but even better, I gave you a little bit of baseball to stare at instead of the Colts and the Texans.

And even better, I got a few post ideas from pulling out those draft scans.

Enjoy the game ... tomorrow.