Money In the Mail!

So, is everyone over my further breakdown of the Yovani Gallardo contract situation? I hope so. I personally enjoy thinking about issues like those when contemplating baseball cards and baseball generally. 

In many respects, rotisserie baseball and fantasy football replaced card collecting as my sports hobby for many of those years that I stayed away from collecting. As a matter of fact, this fall is the first time since 1991 that I did not draft my own fantasy football team. As I just realized, I've played fantasy football for well over half of my life.

My fantasy baseball team this year suffered immediately from a terrible auction, followed by a general malaise about the team I'd gotten anyway. I pretty much tanked this year, picked up injured aces like Matt Harvey, and called it a year early in May. 

So, unlike many years, this year will not feature me getting a check in the mail for winning a fantasy baseball league.

Making up for that, though was a package I got late last week from Matt at Bob Walk the Plank. If there is such an award as "Most Active Blogger-Trader of the Year," Matt would win it hands down for 2014. I mean, how many of us would have surgery and sit there on the sofa buying things on eBay for our fellow bloggers?

Okay, a few of us would do that. Matt is definitely one of them. I was the beneficiary of one of his purchases recently.  And it featured money.

First, though, even though he's going out and buying stuff for me, he felt like he needed to write a note of apology for the condition of the card!

No, Matt -- it's not your bad on that. The card is awesome. I mean, where else would I get this card? Seriously.

It's Shaun Marcum, it's serial numbered 5 of 5, and this card is worth at least $0.25. Now, personally, I question why Topps would think it to be a good idea to put a Missouri quarter anywhere near a Brewers card -- no matter where Marcum grew up or went to college, it just seems like bad karma to me.

Taking into account what's happened to Marcum since this card was issued, he might agree with this assessment. This is a 2013 Gypsy Queen card, and it was issued early last season. By that point, Marcum had signed with the Mets.  In 14 games (12 starts) with the Mets in 2013, Marcum won one game, lost 10, had a 5.29 ERA (though a 3.64 FIP) and allowed 85 hits in 78-1/3 innings.  Then, on July 15, 2013, he underwent surgery on his pitching shoulder, ending his season. 

The Mets came to an injury settlement with him on July 23. He signed a minor league deal with the Indians in December of 2013. Then, in May of this year, Marcum was shut down for a while in extended spring training to let his shoulder heal more. He's pitched a grand total of 9 games in the minor leagues this year for the Indians. He has a 1-0 record, started one game, pitched 17-1/3 innings, and might be able to put his career back on track for perhaps one or two more seasons now that he is 32 years old. I hope for his sake he can do that.

Matt, thank you very much for this card -- you know that condition on something like this matters to a lot of folks. Of course I like nice cards. But I like cards that fellow bloggers send me -- no matter the condition -- much more!  Oh, and watch your mailbox.

Thanks again, and thanks to everyone who's reading and commenting.  I appreciate y'all.