The Big Spill

I try to be an organized person. Yesterday was not a good day for organization, as a couple of clumsy moments by yours truly conspired to topple over a bunch of stacks of cards that I had arranged neatly. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, but this particular calamity involved all of the unsorted stacks of cards that I've received in trades in recent weeks and have yet to blog about. One of the things about the trading process is that I'm a firm believer in giving each person that sends me cards their proper due on the blog, whether its their first trade or eighteenth trade with me. What happened yesterday, with stacks and stacks of cards falling all over themselves in a jumbled mess made me really grumpy for most of the day.

So with apologies to the rest of the bloggers and readers who have sent me cards lately, I am singling out two particulars: The Junior Junkie (who is responsible for the 3rd Bass card) and Thorzul Will Rule. Tonight's post is about what they sent me. I think. I still know who sent me cards and when they sent them, and I have a pretty good idea of who sent what. Thorzul, TJ and a couple of others (who I'll talk about tomorrow) had cards that were the most, well, jumbled. For this reason, I'm discarding my usual format and doing a couple of combined trade post. The rest of the week will be Big Spill Week, and then hopefully things will return to normalcy around here as I figure out a better system for storing my unsorted stuff.

A lot of card designs worked in patriotic elements in the early '00s because of tragic events in this country, and a lot of them end up looking rather cheesy. This one works well to my eyes, however.

Great photo here. I should mention that Thorzul's lot of cards was an unique sort of group break, where he was able to purchase a big lot of cards that represented some sort of '90s baseball card investor's shattered hopes and dreams. Brian Jordan was a fine player and an athletic curiosity, as he's one of the few to play at a high level in both the NFL and MLB. He just wasn't a superstar.

Seriously, there were a ton of Brian Jordan cards. He came to prominence in a stretch of really horrible Cardinals baseball - basically the Joe Torre pre-Yankees managerial era. La Russa would arrive and quickly turn the team into a contender, but Jordan eventually moved on and would make his only All-Star apperance in another uniform.

No, this card isn't made of a blinding radioactive ooze, but it sure looks that way.

I read a really sad (and scary) article today about Chris Duncan's battle with brain cancer. I had no idea of the extent of what he has been going through. He retired from the game at a young age due to some crazy injuries, and then developed a very serious brain tumor not long after his mother did. I think this one is from The Junior Junkie.

I have no idea who sent this to me. Help!

I get a lot of J.D. Drew cards. This is not one of the better looking designs that I've seen. Drew doesn't really evoke a lot of emotions for me anymore, but I know the one thing I'm feeling when I look at this card. It's not good.

On the other hand, I really like this Pacific Aurora design. I can't say the same about other Aurora cards I've mentioned recently.

The Thorzul package was full of Ray Lankford as well. Lankford was an even better player than Brian Jordan. Heck, he is one of the best outfielders that the franchise has ever seen, and that includes a lot of great players. He was just never Phenomenal with a capital P. Like Jordan, he also had just one All-Star appearance to his name, though he put up several outstanding seasons. Those outstanding seasons just happened to come in the shadows of the steroid monsters who were hitting 40-70 HRs a year in comparison to his "pedestrian" 30-something HRs.

Random '70s card alert! Speaking of lousy Cardinals teams, I hear the '70s were a lost decade for my favorite franchise.

So, my apologies, once again - I'll get this mess sorted out. And if you don't hear from me for awhile, it means the cards have collapsed on my body and have finally taken over my residence. Send help... or... beer. Yeah, that'll fix it!