Old age

Today was not a good day for baseball cards connecting me with my youth.

Today all baseball cards did was remind me of how old I'm getting.

I thought I had an idea for a decent post. I came up with it a few days ago. I went about preparing for the post today, finding the right cards, scanning them and then beginning to write.

I had written a few paragraphs, and two of the card images were already up, when something in my brain said, "better check to see if you haven't written something about this before."

There was no nagging feeling really. But I've done this blog so long that it's just a generally good practice. There are only so many ideas out there.

So I did a little blog search and, sure enough, I had written about that same topic ... FOUR MONTHS AGO!!! It wasn't even two years ago or some distant writing that I could justify having forgotten. It was in March, for bleeping bleep!

The memory is not what it used to be.

So with about 15 percent of the post written, I erased it all. I returned the cards back to their binder and started to pull cards for a different post (that's right, folks. I did not give up for the night. I'm a professional -- or something). While pulling cards, I came across a card that featured something that I thought could make a quick and interesting post.

This was the card:

At first I was drawn to the wire hanging behind Bordi. You don't see a lot of wires on baseball cards. But then, in the distance, I thought for sure I saw water. I thought I saw a lake on a baseball card! Certainly those were ships or other water-like structures in the distance!

I began to wonder why I had never heard of the Orioles' spring training site in the 1980s being near a body of water. That certainly seemed unique.

Just to be sure, I checked a few other '86 Orioles cards.

Yeah, sure, in the left corner behind Dwyer, that could be part of the lake.

And to the right of Young's arms, there's more water with some trees in the distance on the horizon. Right?

I just wanted to check some 1987 Topps Orioles to get some confirmation. Maybe this was public knowledge and I was late to the party again.

Unfortunately, the Tippy Martinez card let me know that what I thought I saw was just my imagination. An optical illusion. It's pretty clear in the background, both to the left and right of Martinez, that what I thought was a body of water is just a blue outfield wall.

Heh.

First my memory, now my vision. I'm really getting to be an old son-of-a-gun, huh?

But those of you laughing, suspend your knowledge of the O's spring training site back then (I believe it was Miami Stadium?). Doesn't that now look like water to the left of Traber?

Maybe I just have lakes and summer on the mind.

Since Rich Bordi doesn't feature a lake on his baseball card, the only card I have that shows a body of water that I know of, is this card:

And my guess is there was some backdrop hijinks going on with this card:

Meanwhile, I just installed a magnifying glass app on my phone because I can't take trying to read the tiny copyright dates on the backs of baseball cards with my regular naked vision anymore.

Old age is the best.