Hard To Say Goodbye

I'm not going anywhere, but another fellow blogger is. Andy of the fantastic blogs 88 Topps Cards and 78 Topps Cards is calling it quits.

It happens to all of us eventually. Real life intrudes and takes priority. Andy will still be making contributions to the Baseball Reference Stat Of The Day site.

I, for one, will miss starting off the morning with one of Andy's blogs. Andy has been a big supporter of this site and has been very generous with card contributions and his time. I have to take this opportunity to thank him properly for all the time and effort that he put into his blogs.

Some of the most challenging contests in the blogging community were put together by Andy. I believe I even won one of them. His sites featured the most comprehensive studies of the 1988 and the 1978 Topps card sets. I can't imagine how any further information can be squeezed out of each set.

Hopefully, Andy will come back periodically (when some time frees up) and finish off the 1978 Topps Cards blog. It's off to a wonderful start. I will keep it in the blog roll and hopefully it will one day be bumped up to the top again.

I would also like to thank Andy for his contributions to Things Done To Cards. If you ever feel the muse strike you, please feel free to make a post. Thanks for all the wonderful memories.

A Trade Back With Andy

Little did I know that when I won a contest, that a card I would receive in a pack would garner so much attention from the contest giver.

Confused?

You won't be after this episode of Soap.

Wait.

Wrong line.

Anyway...

I received one of those Yankee Stadium Legacy cards in a pack of 2008 Upper Deck Series 2 that Andy threw in as a bonus. The card was of Don Mattingly. Well, that just happens to be something that Andy collects. Don Mattingly cards, not Yankee Stadium Legacy cards unless they feature Don Mattingly.

Everybody got that? Good.

So to entice me to trade the card back, Andy suggests a Yankee Stadium Legacy card of Babe Ruth featuring a White Sox game. That's something I collect. I said OK to the swap and the next thing I know, I get another e-mail from Andy. How about a 1985 Leaf Harold Baines card thrown in as well?

I already had one card, but that was part of a team set. I didn't have one for my Baines collection, so I agreed to that. This was the first envelope I opened on Monday. Like I mentioned before, I was sick. This really brightened my day.

I will be mailing your cards out when the post office opens in the morning. I couldn't get to it earlier because I really couldn't move out of my room. But I'm feeling much better now.

Thanks, Andy. You always go above and beyond.

88 Topps Contest Winnings

Technically, this package came Friday. My weekend was so swamped that I even missed a day in posting the White Sox Photoshop Cards. Um, let's call it a holiday reprieve. Or a break from the Pythonesque tone this blog has taken in the last few days. Sorry, I popped in my Monty Python DVDs over the weekend to wind down. Now, everybody will suffer from that slight indiscretion.

After I confirmed that I had won, I posted this. What was in the package, surprised even me. I got everything from this post, except the paperback book, which was won by dayf.

- Cards 551-650 of the 1988 Topps set.
- The 1988 Topps style George Bell Fan Favorites card.
- A pack of 1984 Topps
- A pack of 1988 Sportflics
- The contents of a rack pack of 1987 Donruss
- The contents of a rack pack of 1990 Fleer

All of the previous packs were opened on A Pack A Day.

There were two bonus packs included in the mighty haul of childhood era wax. A pack of 2007 Topps Opening Day and a pack of 2008 Upper Deck Series 2. Plus there were a smattering of random White Sox cards.

The pack of 2007 Topps Opening Day.

106 - Brian McCann - Braves
23 - C.C. Sabathia - Indians
166 - Jerry Owens - White Sox
51 - Jered Weaver - Angels
125 - Jeff Francoeur - Braves
OD Puzzle 2 - Adam Dunn - Reds

Not too bad. I even got a White Sox card in there!

The pack of 2008 Upper Deck Series 2

492 - Justin Verlander - Tigers
422 - Nick Markakis - Orioles
659 - Chris Duncan - Cardinals
YSL5191 - Don Mattingly (Indians 10 - Yankees 5)
611 - So Taguchi - Cardinals
639 - Daniel Ortmeier - Giants
782 - Brian Roberts SH - Orioles
775 - Troy Tulowitzki CL - Rockies

Not too shabby either!

The smattering of White Sox cards.

2008 Topps
86 - Scott Podsednik
284 - Lance Broadway
296 - Paul Konerko
420 - Nick Swisher
508 - John Danks

2008 Upper Deck
286 - Juan Uribe

2008 Goudey
43 - Jermaine Dye

2008 Spectrum
22 - Jermaine Dye

2008 Topps Heritage Black Back
94 - White Sox Team

2008 A Piece Of History
108 - Lance Broadway

2008 Topps Chrome Refractor
64 - Mark Buehrle

That was quite a package! There were some nice surprises in there. With the 1984 Alfredo Griffin card, I am one year closer to reclaiming the card that started it all for me, the 1983 Topps Alfredo Griffin.

Like I've mentioned before, Andy puts on some of the most imaginative contests. Even if I wouldn't have won with my team of Daves, I had fun looking for the best team featuring one name. Thanks, Andy! Awesome contest! Awesome prize package!

I won? Thanks dayf!

Recently, there was a contest at 88 Topps Cards that dayf won. He only wanted part of the fabulous prize package, so he left the cards. While, I was sure that I had the majority of the cards offered, I loved the challenge of fielding a team of one name.

So, I accepted the offer of the contest and searched to field my team. After a few searches that left me a few players short, I hit upon the right name for my team.

Dave.

I was surprised at how many really good players I was able to find. It never even dawned on me just how many Dave's were in baseball, at different positions, on 1988 Topps cards. Had the entire 792 cards been up, I probably would have been able to field a few different teams, but the parameters of the contest limited us to work with only what had been posted.

Here is my team of Daves.

Starting pitcher = Dave Stewart
Relief pitcher = Dave Cone
Closer = Dave Smith
C = Dave Valle
1B = Dave Bergman
2B = Dave Concepcion
3B = Dave Magadan
SS = Dave Anderson
OF = Dave Henderson
OF = Dave Winfield
OF = Dave Parker

And as an uncredited bonus:
MGR = Dave Johnson

Andy puts on some of the most imaginative contests. By winning with a team of Daves, it gives me a chance to post this!

A Gift Of Fan Favorites

The bloggers that I have run into have generally been very supportive and generous with their time and collection. I haven't run into one wacko in this community, at least in a negative way. There are some wackos here and there, but they are the good kind. So far, everyone has been wonderful.

I love to check out as many sites as I can in a day. I'll check them out throughout the day and leave comments when I feel it appropriate. It could be support, a story, a correction, supplemental information, or whatever pops into my brain.

One of the sites that I frequent is 88 Topps. This is of particular interest to me because I had stopped collecting baseball cards for a brief period in time. The first year I didn't collect was 1988. I have many in my collection now, but it's still somewhat fresh to me, since I didn't collect it the year it came out.

I even remember seeing a Mad magazine cover with the 1988 Topps design on it. I thought to myself that it was a good design and if there was a card that looked like that, I would probably pick up a few packs. I had no idea, until 1990, that the design was the 1988 Topps card.

I had made a comment on a 2003 All-Time Fan Favorites card of Steve Lyons that was posted on the site. It was in the design of the 1988 Topps series. I had no clue to the card's existence. I stopped collecting in early 1994 and started back full time in 2007, so 1993 until 2006 still hold a lot of surprises to me. I was aware of the Harold Baines card from that set, but nothing else.

Within seconds of that comment, Andy contacted me about it. Would I be interested in that card and am I missing any other White Sox cards from that set? After a half second, I thought, "Hell yeah! I'd like that card". I responded back that I would be interested in that card and from looking at the set listing, I was also lacking the Aparicio card.

True to form, I get an instant reply back. Wasn't I forgetting about the Baines card in the set? Another e-mail off to Andy insisted that I hadn't forgot about it. I already had a couple of them, so I didn't technically need the card. I asked what Andy wanted in return. Andy wanted nothing more than for me to keep reading the blog. A class act all the way.

Flipping through the mail today, I saw the long white envelope with Andy's address on it. I got very excited. I hadn't expected anything this soon. I figured next week sometime. I opened the envelope and was met by another white envelope, this time folded. I opened the second envelope up and was greeted by two sweet looking cards, each in their own toploader.

Thank you, Andy! Your generous nature is inspiring and you continue to amaze me with your envelopes full of goodies. These cards have found a good home.

88 Topps Contest

One of Andy's latest contests over at 88 Topps was pretty easy to win. All you had to do was link to him, which I already had done prior to the contest. All you had to do was provide proof that the link was on your site. Then, pick out five cards from the O-Pee-Chee set. The only stipulation was that you could only pick one card from a certain list of star players. I could do that.

After much thought and debate, I decided to go with Harold Baines, Ivan Calderon, Dan Pasqua's Yankee card proclaiming him "now with White Sox", Greg Walker and Ozzie Guillen. Then a terrible thought entered my mind. What if one of those cards is already taken? That would be a tragedy if I were to end up with say a Royals card of Bo Jackson in place of Harold Baines.

I included an elaborate alternative list that I sent along. If Baines was gone, send Fisk. If one of the others were gone, send in Richard Dotson or Ken Williams. Basically, I included all the White Sox cards in my alternate list. I had the foolish thought that the 1988 White Sox O-Pee-Chee cards were a hot commodity. Yes, I am delusional.

Andy's envelope arrived in the mail today. It looked huge. The first thought I had were that these five cards were well protected. I opened the bubble envelope to find two taped envelopes inside. Huh? I was curious, to say the least.

I opened the first envelope to find my first five choices. Behind those cards were the rest of my alternate list. Like I said, I was delusional in thinking there would be a big call for 1988 White Sox Canadian baseball cards. They arrived on the perfect day. My Canadian relatives are flying into O'Hare today. I can show them a complete set of White Sox Canadian cards.

I was puzzled as to the contents of the second envelope. I tore it open carefully and saw a 1985 Topps card of Roy Smalley. I was going through the stack of cards and card after card of a different 1985 Topps White Sox player was appearing before my eyes. It seemed like a wonderful dream. Then, like a nightmare, the trap card of Cubs infielder Rich Hebner popped up somewhere in the middle. It even had TRAP CARD! written on the front.

I wonder if Andy is a fan of Sox Or No Sox? Hmmm. I got a smile and a chuckle out of that. But wait, there's even more! A 1981 Fleer Harold Baines rookie! A 2007 Turkey Red Jim Thome! A 2007 Goudey Green Joe Crede! I think I just went into Sox card overload.

Thank you, Andy, for the bountiful White Sox card stash! I was certainly not expecting anything like this. It was a welcome sight in the mailbox. After cleaning all morning, this was a nice reward for finishing. Thank you for brightening my day!