A Trade with Mets Cardboard

Some days, the inspiration to write comes easily. On those days, it feels as though I could post four or five times in a day and it would all make sense.

Today is not one of those days. 

I went to Georgia's Homecoming game against Missouri yesterday. It was a defensive struggle of a game -- two good defenses squaring off against two very troubled offenses. The same Georgia defense that gave up 38 points in back-to-back weeks (and yes, apologists for the defense can point out that 14 points against Alabama did not come against the defense, but, yeah, what about that brutally horrible game against Tennessee?) held Mizzou's "offense" to just 6 points while Georgia's "offense" put up 9 points in 5 red-zone opportunities.  

Three of those points came on an opening drive for Missouri that started on the half-yard line thanks to a Greyson Lambert interception on the first play of the game from scrimmage -- a play on which Lambert stared down tight end Jeb Blazevich, noted that Jeb was bracketed with double coverage, and then threw the ball anyway.  Only Malcolm Mitchell's TD-saving tackle -- followed by a fantastic defensive stand -- held Mizzou to a field goal on that drive.

Back to struggling to write, though.  Thing is, that game started at 7:45 PM in Athens -- a 70-mile drive -- and ended around 11 PM.  A 20-minute walk to the car and a fairly brisk 90-minute drive back to Atlanta, and I was home at around 12:45 AM...then couldn't get to sleep until nearly 2 AM.

So, today, while many folks cast aspersions on the "here's what I got" posts, I'm putting up a "here's what I got" post.  I made a trade with Justin from Mets Cardboard. Like many collectors, he has his collection posted on Zistle -- man, I should really get my Zistle updated... -- so I was able to put together a pretty good package of things he needed in exchange for some great cards that I needed.  

Here are the highlights.  

As you would expect from a Mets collector, Justin had some extra Gary Carter cards laying around. As my Carter collection (now up to 231 cards) is a bit lacking in the late 1980s/early 1990s junk wax era, I got a few cards here to fill those gaps:

I am embarrassed to note that I did not have the 1990 Topps card in my collection before this package arrived.  Truly shocking.  But that play-at-the-plate Carter with Fred McGriff sliding in from the 1993 Topps set -- Carter's sunset card, since he retired in 1992 -- is one of his best action photos.  Before this, most of Carter's cards tended either to be posed photos of Carter smiling or of him at the plate.  But, for his last card, it's as if Topps remembered Carter is a catcher who was a great hitter rather than just being a great hitter.

I also received some post-Brewers Paul Molitor cards that I did not have in my collection:

Paul Molitor had such a sweet swing. Most scouts will tell you that left-handed hitters are far more likely to have a quiet, picturesque swing that hitting coaches would want to teach. Molitor had one of those swings, but from the right side of the plate.  He always stayed on the pitches, and he was rarely completely fooled.

Another player who was a very good hitter -- though nowhere near as good, obviously -- was Jeff Cirillo.

There is good and bad to having been away from card collecting for nearly 25 years. The good is that there are plenty of cards on my want lists that are incredibly common cards for other collectors to send to me in trade.  The bad is that sometimes, those common cards can be tough to find because no one bothers to put a 2006 Topps Updates and Highlights Jeff Cirillo on eBay for someone to buy for a penny.  Heck, no one even puts one on Listia.

Finally, I was also the recipient of two cards from the 1990s of two players from the 1950s and 1960s:

When life brings you a Mathews and a Spahn, you gratefully take those cards in and get excited for the fact that new cards of these two players get made all the time.  It really is a good thing.

Now, that is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the cards that I received.  But, as I said, when inspiration is lacking, sometimes it's just a good thing to get up a basic "thank you" post.  

So, thanks for the great cards, Justin, and good luck to your Mets in the NLCS!