After taking my last final on the 8th, I went a little wild and made seven posts that day. I would've run out of ideas pretty quickly if I kept going at that pace. Since then, I've trimmed it down to two or three per day. (Once school starts again, I'll be lucky to make two posts a day.)
One month later and I'm already hopelessly hooked on blogging. (Which is a good thing!)
"Dime Boxes" has given me something productive to do during the days of my winter break. Last year, I just sat around and watched TV most of the time like any other teenager.
But more importantly, it's allowed me to express my affection for baseball cards in my own way. I don't have to write with any specific structure like a paper I'd have to write at school. I'm free to write whatever I like and what I think people will be most interested in. And I don't have to worry about getting a grade on it.
Much thanks as well to all my readers and followers thus far. I've been surprised by how many followers and great comments I've gotten on my posts in just one month!
Now you wanna see cards, right?
Wish granted. I recently bought a small lot of lower grade '70s-'80s cards on "The Bench". The whole lot cost me just $4, a great deal since I'm not a stickler for condition on my cards.
They came in the mail today. (Yay!) The following aren't all the cards I bought, but it's a good number of them.
I'll start with my favorite card in the lot, a 1977 Topps Oscar Gamble. I just recently started collecting Oscar Gamble. I'm not too sure how I wasn't already collecting him.
I've wanted this card for a while. The man with the major 'fro sits calmly at the plate, waiting for his next pitch in batting practice. It must've taken Gamble at least a half-hour each day to fit that giant 'fro into his baseball cap. I'm not sure how he did it at all.
More '77 Topps! There's new Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine in his brief stint as a Padre. Bobby V played in just 15 games for the Padres in '76. How did he manage to get a card in the '77 set?
John Lowenstein's mustache in that shot is a '70s 'stache if I've ever seen one. It must've taken Topps a long time to figure out where to put the facsimile autograph on this one. It's barely visible above Lowenstein's left shoulder.
Yes, more 1977 Topps! After an off year in '76, Dusty Baker rebounded to have arguably his finest season as a Dodger, batting .291 with 30 homers and 86 RBIs. He's got reason to smile.
Here's a pre-groovy glasses Steve Yeager. I've since learned about and appreciated Yeager's defensive prowess and his role as a Dodger fan-favorite, but the first time I heard of Yeager was from my dad who told me about the incident in where Yeager caught a piece of a broken bat in the neck in 1976. I can't believe he played at all in '77 after that, much less in 125 games.
More Dodgers.
The card on the left is a 1983 Donruss Candy Maldonado rookie. Candy's career got off to a slow start in Los Angeles, but a 1985 trade to the Giants made him a mainstay in the majors. He'd retire in 1995.
Night Owl inspired me to start collecting Ron Cey. This 1982 Topps card features a fine shot of "The Penguin" in a hitting pose. I wonder how many guys in the majors today still wear just the one batting glove? Most guys I see wear them on both hands or, in rare cases, none at all. I rarely see just one, though.
Here's a beat up '78 Topps Bruce Sutter, the forkball specialist. 1977 was Sutter's first outstanding year, as he'd strike out 129 batters in just 107 innings and post a 1.35 ERA, while also collecting 31 saves.
The Cubs traded him to St. Louis in 1980 for Leon Durham, Ken Reitz, and Ty Waller. Why? Who knows. It's the Cubs for goodness sake.
Lastly, here's a 1981 Donruss Mookie Wilson rookie. Surprisingly, I didn't know what his real name was. It's William Hayward Wilson.
I find it odd that Wilson is listed as a shortstop on this card. He never played a game at short in the minors. He never played a game at short in the majors. I'm guessing it must be just another of the various errors in 1981 Donruss.
Here's to a new month of baseball card blogging!
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