Some More Birthday Cards
July 1st, 2010 by slangon

So I wound up going out after work yesterday and it was closer to 8:30 by the time I got home. When I did arrive home I was psyched to see a cardboard box about the size of a hobby box of 2010 Allen & Ginter cards in between my outside door and inside door. I was further psyched to see an envelope about the size of some cards I recently won on eBay in my mailbox. If my mailman was around right then, I might’ve kissed him. Or at least bought him a beer. I was insanely excited to rip into that box of Ginter, but I decided to hold off until I finish up with all the cards my wife was cool enough to hook me up with for my birthday. Oddly enough, I just recently got done reading Junky by William S. Burroughs and I swear seeing that pristine box of Allen & Ginter cards sitting there made me feel very much the way Burroughs describes it when he needs a shot. Does that mean I have a problem?

So the plan is, today I’ll knock out the cereal box, tomorrow the blaster, and then I’ll start the Gint-A-Cuffs festivities over the weekend (hopefully).

I’m not going to bother listing out all 55 cards that came in the cereal box, like I did with the rack pack. Rather, I’ll just hit some highlights.

Like most folks, I like my baseball cards with plenty of action. One of my favorite varieties of baseball action is the take-out slide. It’s mean, it’s aggressive, it makes for good baseball. Seems to me Delwyn did a pretty good job of avoiding DeRosa and I would venture to say he probably turned that double play.

Pretty much every game that’s broadcast on SNY, which is the Mets cable channel, they feature a text poll where they ask whatever question, provide 3 or 4 choices and ask the fans to text their answer and later in the game reveal the results of the poll. It’s just another one of those inane time fillers that they squeeze into a ball game just so they have one more thing someone can sponsor (I think it’s officially called the AT&T Text Poll). Anyway, the question the other day was how many games do you think Ubaldo Jimenez will end up winning? Under 20, 20-24 or over 25. I personally would love to see him win over 25, assuming that he’s not scheduled to face the Mets for the rest of the year.

Occasionally I enjoy posting cards that make me angry. Bronson Arroyo and his stupid high, straight, Rockette-style leg kick makes me angry. Kudos to the Topps photographer for doing an outstanding job at catching that leg kick at the pinnacle of the action to piss me off in the most effective way possible.

One of the little games I like to play in my head when I’m looking at baseball cards is trying to imagine what the players reaction to seeing his own baseball card would be. Obviously this little game isn’t as fun when the shot is actually a really cool, high intensity shot, more along the lines of the Delwyn Young card above. It’s much more fun to imagine what they were thinking when they saw that Topps decided to sum up their season with a photo of them dropping down a sacrifice bunt.

I was having a lot of trouble wrapping my brain around exactly what the hell is going on with this statue. Whatever the hell is going on on the leg of (I’m guessing that’s) Al Kaline was really throwing me off. I thought it was some weird multiple exposure type idea, where they would have one statue that depicts several stages of motion, if that makes any sense. I feel like I’m not doing a good job of conveying what I initially envisioned. Needless to say, that’s just a photo of four separate and distinct statues shot in a way that they all line up with each other in a really confusing manner.

Here’s the Sultan of Swat, thrust back into his role as slugging outfielder. I find it a little strange that he holds hit bat straight up in the air on his follow-through. Then again, who am I to argue? I’ve hit exactly 714 less Major League home runs than Babe did. And my minor league record is nothing to write home about either.

Rickey must’ve been laughing to Rickey when Rickey saw that Topps was trying to compare someone else’s base stealing prowess with that of Rickey. Rickey doesn’t mean to dog on B.J. Upton or anything. Rickey knows he’s a good young player with lots of speed, but Rickey means, c’mon… it’s Rickey.

I’ve mentioned before how I’m not a huge fan of the whole Your Mom Threw Out Your Baseball Cards, Whaaaa Insert set, mostly because I’d much rather have the original of the card than some shiney plasticy reproduction of it. Sometimes, though, the original is just such a good looking card that I don’t mind it.

This is another really good looking example of a Turkey Red, and once again it’s of an old-time player. I feel like all the various Topps inserts look better when they have old-time players on them rather than contemporary guys. Does that make me ageist?

Nice. Another code card. I fared slightly better with Mr. Yastrzemski than I did with Mr. Mantle yesterday.

As everybody knows, pretty much the only reason that anyone buys these cereal boxes as opposed to any of the other ways you can buy Topps flagship cards these days is to get these Legends Chrome Refractor cards. Personally, although I by no means dislike them, I’m not super into them. Actually now that I think about it, I realize I’m not super into chrome or refractor cards in general. Like I say, I don’t dislike them, I just never feel compelled to go out of my way to get them. That being said, when I was looking at the checklist of the possible refractors I could’ve gotten out of this box, I was pretty pleased with Warren. As a side note, I know that as a Mets fan I’m supposed to hate all things Braves, but that Indian head patch on his jersey sleeve is freaking awesome looking.

So that’s my cereal box. Some pretty cool cards. I did slightly better with crossing cards off my checklist with this than I did with that rack pack. That one I got 3 cards out of 36 that I needed. This box I ended up with 12 out of 55 that I needed, so that was a little better. This is always the part of chasing a set that I hate, when you have enough of the set done that any time you buy a pack, you end up with almost all doubles. Looks like it’s time to quit buying and start trading, eh? After I finish up posting the blaster box that I still have, I’ll update my wantlist and tradelist and see what’s what.

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