Mailday Post: Night Owl Cards

You all may have noticed by now that I like to lead with music videos for my posts.  It's because I love music.  I've always liked music a lot, but in the years I was not collecting cards, music served as my collecting methadone -- hearing music new to me or just relistening again was like collecting in some respects.  I also replaced cards with trying different foods or wines too. 

All of those were just collections of a sort. I still like to partake in all of those pursuits from time to time, and now I've added cards back to the mix.  

In "honor" of the fact that this package came from the Night Owl based on me begging for an orange parallel 2014 Topps Series 2 card, I wanted to pick out an orange song.  I thought about using "Orange Crush" by R.E.M., but I've already used "So. Central Rain" by them.  I thought about using "Orange Blossom Special" by Johnny Cash, but, to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of that song.

Instead, let's get aggressive...very aggressive.  Seminal punk band Agent Orange came out of Orange County in 1979 and were known for mixing surf music with punk to give more of a speed metal sound.  Their music became associated with skateboarding and, in fact, their song "Bloodstains" appeared on a Tony Hawk video game.  Saying all that makes me sound cooler and more knowledgeable than I really am, since I cribbed all that from Wikipedia.

I don't know if Greg likes punk music or not, but here's the cards he sent to me nonetheless.

This is the orange card that started it all.  Rumor has it that the day this photo was taken was "get an autograph from Marco Estrada if you've hit a home run off him" day in Spring Training.  I don't know what Estrada's deal is this year, but he is giving up dingers at an alarming rate -- 2.3 per 9 innings through the games of July 2.  He's always been a bit tater-prone, but this is getting ridiculous.

This one sort of surprised me.  I was not expecting a Rick Dempsey autograph -- or, for that matter, a full-bleed photo card -- from the Night Owl.  I guess the fact that it is a day game may be a mitigating factor?  Still, it's an awesome card from one of the clown princes of baseball from my childhood.

A Bowman Aramis Ramirez and a Shaun Marcum Bowman Chrome? Yes, please.

The great thing about collecting certain sets is that you can get two or three of them in trades or as part of packages dropped in your mailbox, and it is still a good thing.  This Carlos Gomez went into my player collection; the one I got in the box I bought goes into my team set.  And still, I need another for my Archives set!

This package closes with a flying Ax Mullet in sparkling blue Opening Day parallel form.  I'm hopeful for his sake that he can get his control back and stop walking 6 guys for every 9 innings he pitches -- which is always the bugaboo for guys like Axford, it seems.

Thanks very much, Night Owl, for the great cards.  Of course, I now have to scour your want lists again to try to find some cards you might actually need -- but then again, that's half the fun of trading!