Today is the absolute nadir of the sports calendar for me. There are two major U.S. professional sports events happening today and I have always had zero interest in both of them.
I often say today is the black hole on the sports calendar. I usually don't bother turning on the TV on this day, maybe I'll look around for a hockey game or find an old baseball game on youtube to watch. But mostly what I'll do is look forward to baseball and miss football.
With the weather outside (lake effect!) and no live sports of interest, it's a perfect time for blogging. I'm doing posts for both my blogs today, which is a rarity these days. Neither take a lot of effort though. Here I'm going through the latest gets from Diamond Jesters' Time Travel Trade series.
This time I added six cards, none are major chases for me, just some fun cards. So let's see why I picked up what I did.
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2001 Topps Archives, Warren Spahn
Here is where that Archives set makes perfect sense to me. When am I ever going to own a 1952 Topps Warren Spahn? Never! Might as well get the next-best thing. He's also a Buffalo native and I should fill a few binder pages with those guys.
1997 Fleer Kevin Ritz
I've mentioned my failed period of fantasy baseball participation before. It happened in the mid-1990s, around 1993-96. I like to have cards of the players on those teams to remind me never to be tempted to try fantasy sports again. Most of the Kevin Ritz cards I own are of him as a Tiger. But he "played for me" as a Rockie. (Yeah, I know, why was I drafting Rockies pitchers?).
1995 Skybox Lois & Clark "Belle Curve" insert
A brief detour into nonsports, because a pretty girl has been spotted! I never watched this show, nor am I a fan of the "etched foil era," but Teri Hatcher burned up the screen in whatever she was in. I'll add this in with the others.
1990 Post Pedro Guerrero
My brain draws an imaginary line between food-issue sets from the '70s and '80s and those that came afterward. It shouldn't do that. The early '90s food-issue sets are pretty much an extension of the 1980s and should get just as much love. Not the most attractive unlicensed set but it's interesting to see Guerrero dressed all in red. I was sad when the Dodgers dealt him.
1984 O-Pee-Chee Terry Kennedy
I almost always snap-up every OPC card offered on the Time Travel board as soon as they're posted. But I hold off if it's not one of those showing two different teams, just in case someone else is interested in them. This one sat there for too long, it be mine now.
1959 Topps Gene Woodling
I got lucky and hopped on Matt's post early, which meant this card was available. I'm not collecting the '59 Topps set, but it's among my favorites of the '50s and in the top 20 of Topps flagship sets for me. Gene Woodling was a solid player who doesn't get much mention outside of his Yankees days. Also the well-loved-but-not-too-well-loved condition fits right in with the few other '59s I have.
I'll be sending off my part of the Time Travel trade this week. This series is about the closest thing to what I used to see on the blogs when I was first blogging. It's a cool way to casually add some cards without a lot of commitment or cash.
Comments
I did catch the Stadium Series hockey game from the Meadowlands today, and the Penguins game just ended. The Pens retired Jaromir Jagr's number 68 tonight.
I did love the simplicity of those cereal and other insert sets. Remember loving raising bran at the time and still have cool looking cards of nba stars like Pippen in their college uniforms.
The 1959 set is very nice, has full stats lines on backs including many minor league lines. Not that difficult to put together if you have some dough. The highs aren't crazy priced like the early 1960s sets. Ended up getting close to filling it but then saving for kids college took precedence. This was the first set with highlight cards from baseball past (Baseball Thrills).