Please Mr. Postman (A trade post) -- All Carew, all the time

As I've mentioned before on this blog, I'm a big collector of pre-overproduction era HOFers.

I recently saw that Kevin, author of the fantastic blog "The Diamond King", was giving away a small lot of Rod Carew cards. (Judging from a couple of the comments he's left on some of my posts, Kevin is also a fan of the dime boxes.)

Naturally, I jumped on them, mainly for two reasons:

1) I love free cards. (Who doesn't?)

2) Rod Carew is one of my favorite HOFers. While seeing the longball is indeed a treat, I've always loved watching singles hitters at the plate.

I'm not old enough to have seen Carew play in person, but I like to think that I'm witnessing a Carew-like hitter in Ichiro in today's game.

I was excited to see that the Carews arrived in the mail today, but Kevin really went above and beyond what I was expecting to see in the package. (You'll see why in a bit.)

Almost all the cards were from Carew's tenure with the Angels in the early and mid '80s.

While Fleer isn't exactly known for their photography (especially in their early days), Carew's '81 Fleer issue is arguably my favorite Angels issue of his.

I love the mountains in the background (along with some hints of snow, I believe) along with the clear blue sky. Probably my favorite card to come out of Fleer's initial set.

I was pleased to find a couple '85 Donruss cards of Carew that I didn't already have out of the package from Kevin.

The one on the left commemorates Carew's 3,000th hit, which he collected on August 4, 1985. It just happened to be the same exact day that Tom Seaver earned his 300th career victory.

I've always liked these 1983 Topps "Super Veteran" cards.

It's neat to see the contrast between a player's rookie photo and a current one. I especially like Joe Morgan's "Super Veteran" issue, which has a picture of him with the Colt .45s on the left.

I have no idea what set this card comes from.

But I like it, headband and all.

Now, let's take a look at the undisputed "crown jewel" of the package. My eyes widened in excitement when I first saw it. I had to double-check and make sure it was the real thing...

...and it was.

An actual 1969 Topps Rod Carew! Just his second-ever solo card. Way back when he was still listed as a second baseman.

I still can't believe that Kevin was gracious enough to include this one. He advertised the lot as mainly "early to mid '80s Topps, Fleer, and Donruss" cards, which I would've been more than happy with.

No mention of anything like this.

So, Kevin, I wholeheartedly thank you for the great Carew cards, especially for this amazing 1969 Topps issue!

It will be a card I cherish for a long time.