Mucking Around

I'm trying to avoid the cliched pitfalls here by not apologizing for the lack of recent posts and not offering up excuses like "life got in the way" when I don't try to explain why it's been so long since I delivered images of baseball cards and related musings about each to the internet. I'm not going to do it. I will say that this space is due for a bit of an overhaul, cosmetically speaking, much as how my collecting interests are about to get a lot more focused. Let's just say that my original intent for starting this blog will become crystal clear in the near future.

This post features images of cards received from a JABOs group break back in April (or was it late March?) I ended up with a discarded wrapper from the 1978 O-Pee-Chee set, which I was happy to see. I have never opened a baseball pack older than 1981, though that could conceivably change sometime this year. I ended up with a couple of "pack fresh" OPC cards from both 1977 and 1978. I may trade them off if I manage to find actual card collecting fans of the Giants and/or White Sox.

I've probably stared at this card at least a dozen times. I've probably posted an image of it three times over. It just fascinates me that Topps was able to nail the horizontally-oriented photo that was deemed Stadium Club worthy, yet the snapshot shows Lankford was horribly fooled on the pitch he's swinging at or he beat the ball straight into the ground. Either way, it's a little embarrassing.

I can remember the exact place, time and circumstance where I witnessed Rick Ankiel's very public pitching meltdown. It still strikes me as tremendously sad, which is pretty silly considering the billions of young men who never get a chance to throw baseballs as hard and/or crazy as they can for millions of dollars.

I guess I chose to scan this because Ben Johnson once played for the Portland Beavers. I had no idea at the time that he had gone through the Cardinals system.

This R-Class (whatever that means) set design seems like it probably came from the Upper Deck reject pile. Do card companies ever hold contests asking loyal fans to design their next set(s)? I imagine that this would be a pretty popular thing.

I've probably posted an image of this card on this blog in the past, too, but it's Ozzie and I ended up with four copies of this... so what the hell. This should serve as a reminder to everyone reading this that I have many thousands of Cardinals dupes that could surely use a good home.

Ah, 1989 Bowman. On the surface, it seemed like a tribute to one of the original oddball sized sets in cheap junk wax form, but this is also the starting point for Bowman becoming "Home of the Rookie Card". This also means the first appearances on cardboard of completely insignificant players you're not likely to ever hear from again, like poor Don Heinkel. Sorry about that, Don.