Care Packages

In the week before I left for the beaches of the Florida Panhandle -- Miramar Beach, to be exact -- I received four care packages from fellow bloggers and/or commenters that I scanned in but never got around to talking about.  I didn't get to talk about them because of that "work beckons" post.  That work was looking at some contracts related to a little move that you might have heard about some.  Since those contracts had to be done ASAP (obviously), my alter ego life as a baseball card blogger took a back seat.

That's not to diminish what I got from the four gentlemen I am thanking tonight, however, since their contributions to my well being run pretty high on the scale of importance to me.  Frankly, I enjoy this blogging stuff more than work.  I wish it paid as well.

Anyway, let's get this rolling.

The song above is called "There She Goes" by Pete Doherty's pseudo-swing band, Babyshambles.  At one point, the lyrics are:

Oh There she goes / A little Heartache
There she goes / A little Pain
Make no mistake / she sheds her skin like a snake
You're going to walk the plank again,
Walk the plank again my lord now

Of course, that means in baseball card blogger land that I got a package from Matt at Bob Walk the Plank. Matt comments here nearly every time I write something, and to me the comments are nearly as good as making trades -- I love feedback.  So I almost feel bad when I get something in the mail from him because I feel like I already owe him!  Despite that, he sent me a great package of cards:

Jeromy Burnitz SP Authentic Fabric

Jean Segura Topps Heritage Relic 

Wily Peralta Topps Tier One On the Rise Autograph SN 317/399

This includes my first Jeromy Burnitz relic, my first Topps Tier One card, and a Jean Segura relic card that is just super cool and goes to my team collection.  Matt and his buddies take part in a monthly box break, so they always seem to have great hits to share with their fellow collectors -- and these are no exception.

Thank you very much, Matt!

Next up to introduce a care package is a great song called "Home Is Where the Heart Is" by seminal English "post-punk" band from Manchester called The Chameleons (we here in the US would add "UK" after their name).  If you like New Order or The Smiths, you probably like The Chameleons UK.  Anyway, the relevant lyrics here are:

According to Hoyle
All cards on the table
Reactions cool
The world unstable

Now, it's unfair to Mark Hoyle to say that my reaction was cool to the cards that he sent me, whether they are all on the table or not.  Indeed, I've already moved them to my Brewers collection binder so they are not on the table.  They were on my scanner for a minute though:

As I have put together my Topps team sets, I'm noticing a few of things.  First, I treated my Brewers cards pretty badly.  I lugged them to games in hopes of getting autographs.  I did that by taking them in stacks that either I put in my pocket or kept in my hands and shuffled through them constantly to find the next guy signing.  In any case, that means that I do not have as many cards of the Brewers as I do of other teams in decent condition -- or that I have gotten them autographed and need a clean version for my team sets.  

Thanks to Mark, though, I am closing in quickly on these team sets from the 1970s.  You have been a major help, and I hope that you don't mind yet another reference to "according to Hoyle" to use as a way to introduce these cards.

Thank you very much, Mark!

Going with classic Zeppelin -- "Communication Breakdown" -- to introduce a couple of cards from Gavin at Baseball Card Breakdown is a no-brainer.  He ripped a pack of 2014 Bowman and picked up a Brewers prospect mini, and of course I wanted it.  He also threw in a couple of other cards:

I thought I was getting a wedding invitation from Gavin too, considering the card he sent with these cards:

Alas, it's only an invitation to his blog:

Thank you very much, Gavin, as always!

Okay, this last one is a bit different of an intro:

That's the school fight song for Auburn University, imaginatively named "War Eagle." If you aren't familiar with Auburn, they have an eagle named Nova for a live mascot, they call themselves the Plainsmen, and their official nickname is "Tigers."  They have an identity crisis.

That said, why would I put that up?  Because Auburn University is where the immortal Coot Veal apparently attended college, where he played basketball (seriously?) with Vince Dooley.  I know it was the early 1950s, but that's a strange combination -- the football quarterback and the baseball pitcher playing basketball together.  

Anyway, that's a long introduction to a huge package of cards that I got from Coot Veal and the Vealtones a/k/a Dhoff.  Here's as much as I scanned (and there were more!):

WOW.  It's as if Dustin has been hoarding Brewers cards waiting for someone like me to come along and take them off his hands.  It's an impressive stash, seriously.  I even left out the Paul Molitor on other teams cards that still go into the player collection...it was truly a haul.

Dustin, seriously, thank you very much!

And thank you to all of you who read this and comment.