A Very Ranger Christmas

Over the past two months, I have been the fortunate recipient of cards from Rob/Spiff at Texas Rangers Cards. Being that I'm really bad at reading comprehension and, occasionally, at clicking through links, it took me literally until TODAY to discover Rob's very comprehensive want list site at Spiff's World.

So, despite admonishing me "No Return Needed", I'm going to try to put something together.

The second package from Rob was yet another large stack of Brewers cards. These have been great to get because it means less typing on my Want List Pages (now complete from 1970 through 1990!). Here are the highlights from the Ranger Christmas speetacular:

A 1990 Bowman Jim Gantner. I am using this card to remind ya'll that were loading up on cards in the early 1990s that a few of us sat that time in the hobby out. Instead of collecting baseball cards, I was learning marching band drill at Vanderbilt.

Ted Williams set card of Cecil Cooper from 1993. I'm not sure if I like this card yet. Coop rightfully does not get as much recognition as either of his Hall of Fame teammates Robin Yount and Paul Molitor. Yet, I think I'd prefer this card if it had just one photo on the front.

Big Rob Deer. He was always a very intense man as a player.

The Ignitor.

These four Sheets cards were cool to get. I like the Bazooka cards, but I have yet to understand why card companies think selling to kids means an apparent dumbing down of cards. Most kids are dying to grow up fast, and emphasizing their being kids will make them ignore you. It might work to get a 5-year-old into cards to have cartoony graphics and fonts, but the 10-year-olds will stay away from the Kids stuff.

Yes, there were a lot of 1990 Bowman in this package. That's a good thing, because I think that Robin Yount might have been my only card from that set before this Spiffying up.

I have read a fair number of people complaining about the Upper Deck Baseball Heroes parallels and sets generally. I guess I haven't gotten into those enough to hate them. I'm sure I will.

Greg Vaughn was everything he was advertised to be. It's too bad that the Brewers traded him away just as he started hitting fifty home runs. It couldn't have been that he was using PEDs, right? I mean, read the Mitchell Report (written by the law firm at which I have worked for the past 9 years, DLA Piper) -- it has plenty of former Brewers in it (aside from the obvious current perpetrator of course). But DLA Piper...that's a story for another time.

I'm certain that Spiff would like to see big Prince back on the All-Star team this coming year. From my perspective, I'd like Fielder to rebound from the injuries. I hate seeing guys miss parts of their prime for any reason.

The only player for whom I have any minor league cards in my collection is Cal Eldred. Now I have two Cal Eldred minor league cards.

I have had a Chrome version of this card for several months, so it threw me off to find out that I needed the Heritage base card. My memory works in such a way that I tend to remember photos and sites pretty well, so often times I purchase cards based off what I recall having or not having. It works about 85% of the time at avoiding duplicates.

Apparently, it fails 15% of the time with endless parallels.

A Rickie Weeks Ultra Gold Brought to you by Old Spice or Fleer or something like that. At some point, I'm going to start remembering all these parallels.

Black borders are good. 1971 -- good. 1985 Donruss -- good.

Finally, despite being on a Bazooka card, I cannot tell you whether he is Forever Blowing Bubbles like fans of West Ham United.

Rob/Spiff, thank you very much for the two great packages. I'm glad that I finally came across where your want lists are too, so that hopefully I'll be able to send you some packages after the new year. May you and your family have a Very Ranger Christmas!

Then again, after all the injuries the Rangers had last year, let me amend that: May you and your family have a very SAFE and Happy Holiday season and a joyous New Year!