For the last year-plus, my Wednesday workload has been what used to be the job of 4-5 people.
That meant that virtually my entire day was devoted to the job, even the so-called "off-hours" of the day. And many weeks work tasks bled into Tuesday, too. Writing a blog post on Wednesday was usually impossible.
However, finally, after wondering how long I would put up with this, yet another downsizing has meant that I'm getting my Wednesdays back. Beginning next week, Wednesday will be just like any other day of the work week.
I'm really happy about this, even though I have to get through this Wednesday first. As a bit of a pre-celebration with (checks clock) very little time, I'm squeezing in a short post. I received some cards yesterday from a stack sale over on Bluesky. After directing some of the cards to fellow collectors' stacks, I have eight cards left for my collection that I will count down.
Nothing exciting -- except to me, of course. Here they are.
8. Max Muncy, 2020 Topps Home Run Challenge (Series 1)
Obviously, if I'm hoping to win a trip to the 2021 Home Run Derby, I'm way late. But this card is simply a Dodger card to me -- and not very exciting. And why is there a Muncy HRC card in Series 1 and Series 2?
7. Cody Bellinger, 2021 Panini Prizm Red, White & Blue prizm parallel
The design for '21 Prizm looks like if you press in on the left and right tabs at the same time, the card will open from the bottom. No such luck. But this card brought me within five cards of Cody Bellinger being just the sixth player in my collection with at least 500 cards.
6. Raul Mondesi/Tim Salmon, 1996 Pinnacle Summit, Above and Beyond parallel
Thank goodness for stack sales, the only way I would obtain a card like this, as I'm almost never looking for late '90s Dodgers. If you need reasons for that, then one would be putting two players from two different teams on the same card. The other would be calling this parallel "Above and Beyond" instead of something like "golden splatters," which would make identifying 30 years later much easier.
5. Walker Buehler, 2020 Panini Prizm Red, White and Blue parallel
Essentially the same card as the earlier Bellinger, but I like the rounded design used by 2020 more than the angular one in 2021.
4. Joe Kelly, 2024 Topps rainbow foil parallel
Kelly falls nicely into the list of Different Drum Relievers in Dodgers history, guys like Mike Marshall and Roger McDowell.
Stuff like the difference between the 2024 Series 1 rainbow foil parallels (with black borders) and the Series 2 rainbow foil parallels (the silverish borders) seems like a sign that Topps is doing more than it can handle.
3. Raul Mondesi, 1997 Leaf Warning Track insert
Nice. Embossing all over this insert -- the distance marker, the warning track logo, even the top of the fence. I had never seen one of these before. Someone from the '90s would say "well that's because it's numbered out of 3500").
2. A Daring Damsel (Kate Jackson/Sabrina Duncan), 1977 Topps Charlie's Angels
Vintage doesn't show up often with this particular stack sale, and nonsports vintage is a plus. Charlie's Angels is truly an oddball, a set that features plenty of traditional back-of-the-card elements on the front. But the Angels overshadow all that -- and the obvious wear on this card.
1. Willie Mays, 2022 Topps Heritage, Baseball Flashbacks insert
An easy pick for No. 1. As Heritage has gotten into the 1970s, I've been more and more interested in the insert sets that feature '70s players in '70s uniforms -- or, in this case, a '50s and '60s player doing his best to hang on in the '70s. I won't turn down a Willie Mays Mets card.
And that's a nice, quiet eight to add to my collection on a very busy, busy day that hopefully is the last of its kind for good.
Maybe this will even result in me posting in the middle of the week again.
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