I'll take your sympathy

(If you haven't read yesterday's post, maybe take a look at it. I mean, come on, how often do you get a chance to share cards with a former major leaguer and get his comments on them?)

2019 has been a rough year, I'll admit.

But it's also been an active year, full of some good stuff, too, and because of that, it's difficult for me to remember that I'm supposed to be upset and miserable all the time.

Yeah, I'm still sad that my folks are gone. Yeah, I'm still mad the Dodgers aren't down 3-2 to the Astros right now. But, I don't know, it's just not in my personality to feel perpetually mopey, I guess. And I think it's human nature to forget the bad memories and hold on to the good ones.

So, sometimes I need to be reminded of my unfortunate luck this year.

The latest time was with a surprise package from R.C., who has sent me many wonderful vintage-themed card packages before. The accompanying note brought up my run of misfortune and how, maybe, some of these cards would help.

*Looks at the cards*

Hell, yeah, they'll help!

I'll take your sympathy!

It was a very Kellogg's-heavy package, which is just about the best kind of card package these days. The '76 Reggie Jackson brings my want list for that Kellogg's set down to the first three cards (all short-prints), plus Rose and Bench.

But R.C. did not stop at the one Kellogg's set that has most of my focus.

He added a need from my low-key completion quest from 1983 Kellogg's.

And, of course, I'm pretty much interested in everything Kellogg's from 1970-83 and R.C. knew that.

1982.

1980.

1979.

1978.

1977.

1975.

1974.

1973.

1972.

Wooo! Throw in the '81 Brett at the top of the post and every Kellogg's set from my point of interest is represented except for 1970 and 71! Jackpot!!!

Of course Kellogg's is only half of my '70s oddball completion wish list. It happens to be the one I'm most interested in because cereal was more prominent in my household as a kid than junk food cakes, but we cannot forget about Hostess cards!

R.C. didn't.

Those are one each from 1975, 1976, 1977 and 1978!

The Reuschel card is interesting in that I never knew anyone to call him "Rickey".

Also, on the back, Hostess can't even figure out how to spell it:

Ricky lost an "e" somewhere in our travels to the card back.

The Zisk card is actually a Twinkie card, which were not packaged in panels of three, but just one -- one Twinkie-stained card.

Twinkie cards have the black stripe on the back. I have very few of these.

So that was mostly it for the oddballs from the package. But R.C. had to throw in a well-known '80s variation that I knew nothing about back when I was living in the '80s.

These look like common-variety cards that I have already, but once again, you need to turn over your cards.

They are all tiffany parallels! Good stuff. Not good enough to overcome Cey in that dorky Cubs pullover, but still fun.

Since we're living in the '80s, let's see a few more from that decade, all needs.

The Nolan Ryan makes me realize I will try to complete 1982 Donruss one day ... The '83 Donruss Chicken means I'm just that '82 Donruss Chicken away from the 82-83-84 trifecta ... The Greg Maddux Fleer Traded card is my first rookie-ish Maddux. It's about time.

R.C. sent a few '70s Topps cards but since I've completed just about all of those sets, the best I could do were upgrades or save the cards for other bloggers.

This '78 Reuschel, however, proved useful.

There are still cards like this lurking in my complete '78 Topps set. I just rarely think to upgrade them.

Now we're at the '60s and the '60s cards that came out of the package were a goldmine:

I always say that the '60s is my black hole collecting period, especially now that so many collectors have sent me cards from the '90s.

But it's looking so much stronger with '60s cards like this. The binder I have dedicated to just '60s cards is starting to strut its stuff.

There were even a few '50s cards in the package, including this beautiful 1959 Carl Erskine card, which puts my version of the card to shame:

 This one looks fresh out of the pack, too:

R.C. also sent me an upgrade from the set I've been trying to complete for actually decades.

I've upgraded this card twice already but now I think I'm done. It's a great specimen.

How about a "just because" '54 Bowman of Minnie Minoso???? What? Wow!

This is my second '54 Bowman Coach Billy Herman card. I just wanted to say that.

That's R.C., just throwing 1950 Bowman cards around! This is noted 1950s Cubs pitcher Bob Rush.

There were several other vintage cards that I'm not showing so collectors may be surprised by future packages that I send.

Meanwhile, there were a few more modern items with all those vintage buddies.

These are from the popular 2001 Fleer Greats Of The Game set. I know autograph collectors love these things (although a lot of the subjects here would be impossible to get autographs from). It's cool seeing the Negro League logos.

Finally, I suppose this was inevitable in a package from a former government official from the Chicago area. I don't care about political cards at all and I'm so glad after receiving this. I was not aware of how obnoxious this set was -- apparently 50 different cards of the same Barack photo and design and logo just with a different state listed? Yikes.

So, that's the end of quite a happy package of baseball cards that were almost all right up my alley.

I wouldn't say they chased the blues away because I really wasn't all that blue. But it does mean a lot that people reach out when they know a fellow collector is going through a rough stretch.

And for the record: Vintage is the best way to show you care.