When all else fails, make a list

One of the rules I've fallen back on during my blogging career is this: when all else fails, make a list.

In case it hasn't been obvious throughout the history of this blog, I love lists. Something about collecting baseball cards just lends itself to ranking stuff and shifting it around -- maybe it's an extension of the whole sorting/organizing thing. Lists are an all-purpose blogging tool. When I have too much to say about something, I can make a list. When I have nothing to say about something, I can make a list. And in the case of 2020 Allen & Ginter, for better or worse, it's the latter. 

It's not that I don't like A&G. While I'm not nearly as passionate about this set as I once was, I still enjoy it, and I'm glad it's around. It's just that I can never find a lot to say about it. Usually, all I can muster is: here's what A&G looks like this year. Okay. Cool. So, when I somehow got lucky enough to find a few rack packs of 2020 A&G at Target the other day, my mind instantly told me: make a list!

And that, my dear friends, is why you're (unfortunately) stuck with another list from yours truly -- this time it's a list of my ten favorite pulls from last week's introduction to 2020 Allen & Ginter.

#10 -- 2020 Topps Allen & Ginter #67 Mookie Betts

Here's what 2020 A&G looks like...okay, cool.

Further thoughts, let's see...it's definitely been a long time since an A&G design has truly had an impact on me -- probably not since 2008 -- but I will say I like this year's look quite a bit more than any in recent memory. The shadowed paste-board effect is a fine touch. Not really enough to get me truly excited about, but an attention-grabber nonetheless.

Also, I'm still not quite used to seeing Mookie Betts on the Dodgers, which makes cards of him on the Dodgers weirdly thrilling to me, and thus the appearance of this card on the list.

#9 -- 2020 Topps Allen & Ginter "Reach for the Sky!" #RFTS-8 Willis Tower

Say what you want about this set, but there'll always be something in a pack of A&G you won't find anywhere else.

Granted, the non-baseball subjects in the 2020 base set are garbage, and generally off-putting (we've gone over this, Topps: more inanimate objects, less pop culture bros). But there's also an insert set devoted to skyscrapers, and I guarantee you won't see that again in 2020. Plus I was lucky enough to pull the grandest skyscraper from the land of grand skyscrapers here in Chicago.

Still, having lived in the general Chicago area my whole life, I can tell you that this is actually the Sears Tower, just like it's actually Sox Park or whatever else.

#8 -- 2020 Topps Allen & Ginter "Down on the Farm" #DF-CH Chicken

I've never quite understood why people are so appalled by the non-baseball bent of Allen & Ginter.

It's not like there aren't 3,429 other sets with all baseball players to be chasing these days -- is having one set with a card of a chicken so bad?

#7 -- 2020 Topps Allen & Ginter #107 Gary Carter

Topps hasn't really clubbed us over the head with Gary Carter cards (yet), so it's still a thrill to see him fall out of a pack of current stuff.

#6 -- 2020 Topps Allen & Ginter "Longball Lore" #LL-30 Stan Musial

A&G usually features one sizeable baseball-themed insert set each year, and it looks like these "Longball Lore" inserts got the call here in 2020.

I don't have a problem with the execution -- like these Longball Lores, said insert sets have generally been likeable -- it's just that, no matter what theme Topps seems to be going for, they seem to feature the same 50 players every single year.

#5 -- 2020 Topps Allen & Ginter #171 Hunter Pence

Hunter Pence announced his retirement recently, and I was genuinely sad about that -- I feel like he was one of the last true personalities in baseball.

I am, however, glad to have a card of his second -- and probably soon-to-be-forgotten -- 17-game stint with the Giants here in 2020, which instantly places it in my sunset collection.

#4 -- 2020 Topps Allen & Ginter "9 Ways to First" #M9WF-8 Catcher's Interference

These is the kind of quirky stuff that gets me nostalgic for the good ol' days of A&G -- a catcher's interference card!

I'm fascinated by these -- like most A&G insert sets, it'll probably take me 13 years to complete -- and I'm really glad I didn't get one of the boring ones, like a single or a walk (yawn!).

#3 -- 2020 Topps Allen & Ginter #51 Roberto Clemente

Not the most exciting Clemente card, but it's a Clemente card no less -- and that makes it awesome.

#2 -- 2020 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini #316 Billy Williams SP

For whatever reason, the rack pack that held this excellent Billy Williams contained 15 cards -- they're only supposed to have 14 --  so I'm gonna pretend this was the mysterious bonus card just to feel like I got away with something.

#1 -- 2020 Topps Allen & Ginter #325 Mark Grace SP

I'm torn here.

As a Cubs fan, I'm not supposed to like cards of Mark Grace on the Diamondbacks. But I kinda like this card of Mark Grace on the Diamondbacks. Grace is a top-tier player collection of mine, and he's basically been ignored by card companies since he retired. Plus the few post-career cards he does have almost all show him with the Cubs (rightfully so, of course). 

So not only was I thrilled to see Grace pop up in the short-printed portion of 2020 A&G's checklist (SPs which feature all sorts of strange names like Darin Erstad and Jermaine Dye this year), but a small part of me was actually glad to see him in a Diamondbacks uniform. Being a card collector is weird sometimes.

That's 2020 A&G for you, and that was way more fun to write than any A&G post I've done in a long time -- guess this whole list thing does come in handy after all.

Big collections, small rooms

Lately I've had the feeling that my room is getting smaller.

This, of course, isn't true: my collections are simply getting bigger, that's all. But as I've gotten older I've felt more and more like my room is basically a storage unit for my baseball cards and books that I happen to sleep in. I had 90(!) binders of cards at last count, and though I've never inventoried my books, I know I own at least a few hundred (certainly doesn't help that I've worked with books for the last five years of my life).

I like to think most of my collections are well-organized, but I've never quite gotten the storage part down. Most of my card binders are crammed into bookshelves (ironically) and with the passage of time, they've started to overflow. There's a few binders sitting on top of both of my bookshelves, another couple binders stashed into a random cranny next to my nightstand, another couple in a gap by my bed, etc., etc. So you can see why I think my room's shrinking.

The logical solution here would be to stop accumulating cards, and really start to focus on a narrower scope of collecting instead of forcing my binders to balloon into oblivion with the inevitable end of my room caving in on itself. 

But is that what I'm really gonna do? HELL NO!

I get too much enjoyment out of watching my collection grow and expand to do such a thing. A point in favor of this recently came in the form of a gargantuan box o' cards I received from reader Michael W., who doesn't have a blog as far as I know but is on Twitter (@ugxtall88). Mike's been sending my stuff for a while now, but I really think he outdid himself here -- it seriously took me an entire night to go through everything he picked out for me. This was easily one of the best trade packages I've gotten in 2020...if not one of the best in my blogging history. I think you'll see why soon enough.

In addition to a stack of new mini-collection hits, Mike even sent me a card...of himself(!), as you might've noticed at the top of this post -- I've checked off many boxes in my blogging days, but I can't say I have a card of myself (yet...).

The binders that contain some of my bigger player collections seem to get bigger and overflow way quicker than the others.

I recently expanded to a fifth Cubs binder -- the first team to receive such an honor -- much thanks in part to the 400+ Mark Grace cards I've somehow managed to hoard.

 

Mike mentioned in the note that came with this box that he'd opened an entire box of 1999 Skybox Thunder, kept a few of the cards, and generously bequeathed the rest of his pulls to me!

You can thank me later for not showing the pasty-white-guy lyrics on the backs (though cringe if you must), but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how awesome those cereal-box inserts are.

These seem to come up in every trade post I write: random cards that didn't quite fit anywhere else, but can't help but show.

You can probably count the number of those purple Toys 'r' Us parallels I own on one hand, and I miss the days when Topps would make a card like that Carl Everett.

A major turning point in the saga of my room caving in on me was when I discovered the greatness of oddballs -- they're responsible for the growth of my binders just as much as anything else.

Unlike the way I collected in my youth, I don't necessarily have to be actively collecting a player to enjoy and cherish an oddball of said player.

Chipper Jones isn't high on my player collection projects, but I absolutely love that minor league oddball from Mike -- also the Reggie Jackson is the first NASCAR card I've voluntarily welcomed into my collection.

Canadian cards, cereal cards, Coca-Cola cards...

...hologram cards, Mootown Snackers cards, Kraft Cheese cards -- oh the oddball greatness!

Despite what my scanner is trying to tell you, these laminate legends are actually really cool in person and nothing like the B-movie horror villain lookalikes seen here.

National Packtime cards rule for many reasons, perhaps mostly because, although some of the designs mimic actual '95 releases, some of them were never again seen on baseball cards (like that alternate-universe Pinnacle look). 

Later Kellogg's obviously can't light a candle to the legendary '70s sets, but that doesn't mean these aren't cool -- I never bring these up when I mention Kellogg's, and I kinda feel bad about that.

Love the Drake.

I rarely see one Hostess card in trade packages, much less the whole stack Mike sent me.

(Also, how did I not notice the perfection of a Hostess card of a guy named Cookie until now?)

As I said, this wasn't just an ordinary trade package -- it was an entire huge box that arrived on my doorstep one afternoon, and Mike certainly made the most of the space with a few larger items.

The only thing better than box bottoms are box bottoms I get to cut out!

One of the best purchases of my life was buying a stack of uncut Baseball Card Magazine panels at a card show a couple years ago, and Mike gave me a chance to flash back to that joy with, yes, another uncut panel!

These have, of course, since been sliced up and distributed into my overflowing binders, because in the end I just get way more enjoyment out of individual cards than possible display pieces.

Probably the first time I've ever received a newspaper article in a trade package, but it's obvious why Mike threw this in for me -- here's a printed throwback to a weird time in baseball history, the short-lived "Turn Ahead the Clock" days!

The caption mentions that these jerseys were an imagined look at what baseball uniforms might look like in 2021 -- we've still got a year to make that happen.

Whoa, full-panel Burger King oddballs!

(Looks like I'm only about 35 years too late for that sweet Croissanwich deal.)

Much like the aforementioned Burger King cards, I own a few of those '80s Star singles but I'd never seen them still intact in full panels until Mike came along.

I'm always on the hunt for cards from these sets because some of 'em feature stuff you're not gonna see on a baseball card anywhere else -- like Dale Murphy getting bear-hugged by the Phillie Phanatic!

In the end, however, it wasn't your standard stack of binder-inflating baseball cards that delivered the real gut punch from Mike's box -- it was, of course, this real, actual signed photo of HOYT (and friend).

Hoyt and Joltin' Joe's respective careers just missed crossing paths -- DiMaggio's last season was 1951, and Hoyt made his debut in '52 -- but they must've buddied up at some point later in their lives because they look quite friendly here. I've never been a collector of 8x10s or anything of that ilk but Hoyt is certainly gonna have to be one of the exceptions to that rule, because this is the first signed photo of his I own and it's absolutely incredible. It's the kind of thing that makes me regret the years I just kinda shrugged off ever owning one.

As you can probably see, in the battle of Mike vs. my binders, my binders obviously didn't stand a chance -- so I'll just be here waiting for my room to collapse on me, 'cause I'm not giving any of this stuff up.

The year of the online dime box

Obviously, 2020 hasn't been a prolific year for dime boxes.

I was able to make it to a card show back in February (seems like a long time ago) before the pandemic  shut everything down. To date, that's the only real dime boxing I've been able to do this year. Even though a few of the shows in the deeper suburbs around me have opened up again, I've made a pact with myself not to attend any for the remainder of the year. I miss card shows more than ever, but I still don't think we're anywhere near the point where they should be starting again -- and I know I'm not personally comfortable going to one.

All this insanity, of course, has made me all the more thankful for the angelic emergence of the Online Dime Box here in the maddening year of 2020.

The Online Dime Box (aka baseballcardstore.ca) has been a hit around the blogosphere, and while it took some trials and tribulations to get used to the site itself, I placed my first magical order from them over the summer and was instantly hooked.

It didn't take long for the dime box itch to strike again, and so I recently received my second stack of cards from the Online Dime Box a couple weeks ago, an order that was every bit as fun as the first. Better yet, they've since instituted a program a la COMC where you can build up purchases over time and have them shipped whenever you want, so what you'll see in this post is actually a culmination of a few different trips to the dime box.

As I mentioned the last time, the company itself is based in New York, but the site has a Canadian domain name...

...which I guess explains why they have so much glorious OPC!

These haven't exactly been common fodder in my dime box experiences, so finding a few dozen of 'em in one easy swoop -- including new pieces for top player collections like Jim Abbott and Mark Grace -- is an unexpected treat.

One of the cons of online dime boxing is that it's a lot harder to find mini-collection cards -- most of the cards on the site don't have pictures, which means I have to do a lot of cross-referencing with TCDB and COMC.

Nevertheless, I was able to score at least a few new themed hits this time around (yes, that Whitaker is another OPC).

Cards for some of the newer additions I've made to my player collection pantheon -- with a windup like that, I should've been collecting Dontrelle Willis a long time ago.

I'll take Cards I Can't Believe I Didn't Have Already for $500, Alex.

Cool dudes from sets I miss.

Cool dudes from sets I don't miss and/or never cared about in the first place.

Simply looking up the keyword "mini" in the site's inventory has become an especially prolific search for me.

In the end, I came up with sets from Cracker Jack to Bowman Heritage, and guys from Fernando Valenzuela to Greg Louganis(!).

If you've read this blog at all, you know I always enjoy seeing legends in not-so-legendary uniforms.

I collect all these guys, and while I don't know if I can classify any of them as obscure, the main trajectory of their playing careers have little to do with why they're in my binders.

Micah Owings was a pitcher who hit better than he pitched, Philip Humber sprinkled a perfect game into an otherwise lackluster career, Kevin Millar's probably more known as a TV personality, and Randall Simon, of course, saved himself from an otherwise unremarkable career by disrupting a sausage race in a particularly memorable way.

None of these fit snugly into anything I collect, but that didn't stop me from saving them from dime box obscurity (has it ever?).

There's even a little latest-and-greatest flavor to the Online Dime Box, which has been a treat since card shows are where I used to take care of less-pressing needs from sets like Donruss Optic and Bowman Platinum.

Unbridled randomness is a cornerstone of any good dime box.

Almost enough bells and whistles for you not to notice that none of these cards have logos.

Almost.

I've never understood why some people don't like horizontal cards.

I enjoy the mixture of verticals and horizontals in my binders, and some photos (like the Hawkins, for example) just wouldn't work as well as plain ol' vertical baseball cards.

I'd say a good 98 percent of the Online Dime Box's inventory is composed of base cards, but I did manage to find a few scarce inserts and parallels in the stacks.

(And no, I don't know what's going on with that Swinging Friar card, either.)

Here's something I can't say about many dime boxes -- I found a card I needed for my Negro Leagues collection!

I think part of the reason this year's been so strange is that, while the pandemic has obviously had a huge impact on the general everyday workings of the world, it's also negated a lot of the pleasures we used to look to when things got a little too crazy or out of control. A lot of the things we used to mark on our calendars just aren't there anymore. Things like card shows. Things like dime boxes. 

But at least I know a nice virtual trip through some dime cards is always waiting for me, which is enough for me to decree 2020 as The Year of the Online Dime Box.

It's not easy watching your favorites get old

I was watching a Rockies-Dodgers game the other night when, to my surprise, Matt Kemp stepped up to the plate...in a Rockies uniform.

I've been a fan of Kemp's for a while now -- mostly thanks to a particularly touching interaction he had with a fan few years back -- but I honestly forgot he was even still in baseball. The Rockies picking him up after the Marlins let him go earlier this season. Matt Kemp's 35 now, and even though he came out of nowhere to be an All-Star in 2018, his best days looked way behind him when I saw him hit the other night. He looked less agile, slightly pudgier, and just generally over-the-hill. And even though, in reality, he's only seven years older than I am, Matt Kemp just plain looked old. 

It didn't really affect me at the time, but the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if this was a marker of something larger.

Kemp struck out in the at-bat I watched, and looked awful doing it.

If there's a silver lining here, it's that Kemp did wind up hitting a game-winning two-run homer against his old team later that game (though I was in bed when it happened). But still, the image of him walking back to the dugout after an easy strikeout, looking older and nothing like the Matt Kemp I remember, has stuck with me in the days since.

It's true -- I guess I'm at the point now where I'm starting to see some of the players I grew up watching get old, chewed up and spit out by the baseball machine.

Part of the beauty of baseball cards is that they offer permanent reminders of the heydays of our favorite players, as is the case with the smattering of prime-era Kemps I recently received from ex-blogger and current Twitterer Michael S. -- you veteran bloggers might remember him as Spiegel from "Nomo's Sushi Platter."

I traded with Michael a lot in my earlier blogging days -- it was great to see him reach out to me on Twitter and, better yet, offer to send me some cards! The two pages I've shown here were just a fraction of all the Kemps he sent me over two separate packages, most of which were new to me.

(Also, I didn't even notice he sent me two different copies of that numbered Triple Threads Kemp -- maybe I should consider cornering the market on those.)

Michael slipped in some side orders with the main course of Kemps -- here's a few adds to my new Mo Vaughn collection.

I've always liked Mo Vaughn, and I vaguely remember his last years with the Mets, but for whatever reason it took until last year for me to really start hoarding his cards.

A bunch of fine adds to some of my more tenured player collections.

Sadly, I have no memories of Tony Gwynn as a player -- I bet people slightly older than myself went through a similar version of my Matt Kemp experience watching Mr. Padre get older.

Gwynn's quickly blossomed into one of my larger player collections, and while I've never put much effort into chasing these '80s Fleer minis, I'm thrilled to add them to the binders.

A fine helping of Cubs -- all-time greats and colossal busts alike.

Michael even found a few new mini-collection hits for me -- I darn near missed the busted bat Juan Samuel's flinging away there.

As the players wander into the past, so does the game itself, in some ways -- given today's rules, I doubt we'll see another card quite as violent as this one ever again.

Being a baseball fan is mostly a joy, but the emotions of the game often wander past the simple limits of watching your favorite team win or lose. Sometimes the game gets tied up in us, tells us something about ourselves. For his sake, I hope Matt Kemp plays as long as he wants to, and as well as he can for whatever team gives him a job. He deserves that.

But it'll never be easy to watch my favorite players get old, because it means I'm not too far behind.