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If I applied myself

First, this:


That's right! Just as Bo promised in the comments, the Rob Picciolo card that I discovered missing has arrived direct from Baseball Cards Come To Life, and the 1982 Topps set is complete again!

The ceremonial registering and placing of the Picciolo card in the '82 Topps binder will take place tonight. There will be cake and punch. You're all invited. Also, the first person to arrive gets a free 1982 Topps John Verhoeven card.

OK, that's out of the way.

Now, this:


This outstanding tribute to the 1975 Hostess set, my favorite current player and my childhood was created by Gavin at Baseball Card Breakdown, of course. It's a very faithful re-creation of that first Hostess set (I appreciate the lack of pseudo cake stains). In fact, here is a card from that set to compare:


How about that, huh? Just some slight alterations, on par with what Topps does with its Archives set. Gavin, because he's always complete, carried out the re-creation to the back, too:


That's the way they looked in '75!

Of course, whenever I see homemade cards such as these, I think the same thing I always do: "I could do that ... if I had the time."

What I actually mean is: "I could do that ... if I applied myself."

If you want to do it, you'll do it, right?

Custom baseball card-making is something I know I could do. I did plenty of it when I was a kid. But the desire to purchase the items necessary and squeeze it into my schedule just isn't there. Priorities, you know.

So, custom-card making falls into a pile of those other activities that I know I could do well ... if I applied myself. Activities like:

Musician
Singer
Song-writing
Skiing
Comedian
Game-show contestant
Travel guide
Writer for Sports Illustrated/New York Times
Chef
Tennis player
Repairman/contractor
Cartoonist
Card dealer
Author

Sadly, I am unlikely to apply myself in any of those things (except, maybe, author) in the future. I'm not 20 anymore and the ability to apply isn't as strong as it once was.

So, instead, lets take a look at more cards Gavin sent, because I can apply myself when it comes to scanning and commenting on cards.


The Dodgers found out what this former part-time Mets player could do once he applied himself. He's now on pace to have his greatest season and has downright carried the Dodgers through a few games recently.



Frankie Montas is showing you the ball in both silver and gold accents. He hasn't shown you the ball on the field this year though. He (along with Zach Lee) is merely the Dodgers' rookie card logo for 2016 that Topps wedges into every product. I wish they'd stop doing this. They know Bowman exists, right?


Nobody really needs a J.D. Drew card numbered to /25 (don't get excited, it's not a Christmas card). But we team collectors have modest standards.


This is kind of amazing. I own four Dodgers cards from 2014 Panini Classics. I have no want list for the set, because who would put up a want list for this stuff? Gavin sends six cards and I need all six. Spooky.

(P.S.: It's too bad the design is so off-putting because that Robinson photo is fantastic).


Back to Stadium Club and the set from last year. I'll have a post about this set real soon so nothing more to see here.


This is an '82 Topps sticker, and I'm trying to remember whether I sent this to Gavin and he sent it back. It seems like something I'd do (but I don't know if it's something Gavin would do). I'm also extra suspicious because of my Padres page in my '82 sticker book:


It is complete. The Padres are one of just two teams for which I have all of the stickers (the Pirates are the other). So I have absolutely no use for Luis Salazar. And we don't stick Padres on random objects around here. I don't need anybody getting ideas.

Who wants it?


All of the cards were wrapped in a Japanese newspaper featuring a photo of Kenta Maeda. Pretty cool. I have no idea what anything else is on the page.

I could apply myself and learn Japanese.

But learning foreign languages is nothing I could ever do well.

I think I'll just apply myself to card-sorting tonight.

Comments

Zippy Zappy said…
A rough translation of the Maeda headline would be: Maeken, two consecutive scoreless outings (I assume they were outings because the headline got cut off). Followed but a sub header about how Maeken has adjusted to shorter waits between starts (i.e. going from a 7 man rotation to a 5 man rotation). On the page (at least as far as the scan is concerned) are stats of other Japanese major leaguers, a tidbit about Japanese soccer in the J1 league and at the very bottom some stuff about ping pong.
Some great cards from Gavin.
defgav said…
Glad you like!
Crap, just now noticing that Kershaw is the only one of my few Hostess-style customs that I messed up the name, not in caps. Consider it an uncorrected error for now. I made lots of little errors here and there, but I figure at least that kinda keeps in the spirit of the originals.
Anonymous said…
Yay! '82 Topps!
Michael Ott said…
Please don't keep us all in suspense! What's happening in the world of ping pong??
Fuji said…
Once upon a time, I really wanted to create custom cards.. so I applied myself. I failed. I tried again and failed again. These days... I just sit back and appreciate all of the cool customs bloggers like Gavin makes.
Community Gum said…
I would love to see your old custom cards if they still exist. I used to make those as a young kid with my brother and cousin. This post re-confirmed an idea I had to use some of my past songs paired with cards.