Hoyle's Heroes

Excited for the baseball playoffs? I am. Should be a lot of good matchups. Here's hoping an underdog like Pittsburgh or Kansas City can pull off an upset. The only team I'll be rooting against is St. Louis (no offense, Cardinals fans), though I'd also be sad to see the Giants win it all (but at least I'd be happy for ex-Padres Peavy and Bochy, who still have a place in my heart despite turning to the dark side after being driven out of San Diego.) (UPDATE: Wait, Pat Neshek is currently on the Cardinals? Oh, ok, I guess there's somebody to root for there, too.) But as long as those 2 teams get knocked out, somebody's gonna win a Championship who hasn't for quite a long time. And that's what I like to see.

Another thing I like to see is cards in my mail box. The generous Mr. Hoyle hit me with a couple sweet PWEs yesterday.

I was just lamenting last week that I've had zero luck adding any of the unnumbered team checklists to my 1973 Topps setbuild. It seems the similar 1974 versions of these facsimile team auto cards are way more common than 1973. But Hoyle came through with 6 of the former for me! That's 25% down right there.

...plus a couple base 73s to boot.

He also delivered with a few 1971 high-numbers, many of which are in impressive condition...

While I'm not worrying about condition in my 71 setbuild, I still have to appreciate a crisp vintage black border, such as the Ron Hunt up there.

In addition to help with the two vintage sets I'm working on, Mr. Hoyle spiced up the envelopes with some other goodies, too.

Love that Hostess Yaz! Must've been a dupe (or trip') for a Red Sox fan to part with that beauty. A couple big names from Classic are nice, too. And I love the randomness of a Hulk Hogan card!

You're the best, Mark! Thank you very much, yet again. And as always, I'll get some Red Sox cards together for you soon.