A baseball Bark Box and an eBay blaster's worth

I've talked about Bark Box here before, which is a company that sends out a monthly grab-bag of dog goodies. My in-laws got it for us (--well, for our dog) a couple Christmases ago and renewed it for another year. There's usually a loose theme to each box, and this month it's a baseball theme, so I figured I'd work it into a blog post.

They use a few different sized boxes, but this is the standard size they seem to go with most often, and I'm always happy when this one shows up because I use these particular badboys for storing my cards. I'll cut off most of the flap to use as a divider, and it's a great size for two rows of cards large enough to accommodate top-loaders and the like.

They included this oversized baseball card with a cutout in the middle so your dog can have a card. It's obviously inspired by 1965 Topps, a great choice. If you've got a tiny dog, you can put their face in it, but if you've got a medium/big dog like mine, you just gotta hold it up in front of them. I took a few photos with Annie and this one turned out the best. She's lucky she's around to pose for it, seeing as yesterday she got a little over-excited to go to doggy daycare and slipped out of her collar and dashed across the street, with a driver slamming on the brakes to come within inches of hitting her. She's usually a good girl, but occasionally goes nuts and pulls shit like that. The Mrs. and I were quite upset with her, but she's a cutie, so it's hard to stay mad at her for too long. Looks like she'll be wearing the dreaded gentle leader (harness that goes on the snout) while going to daycare from now on.

Here's a better look at the card. I might end up using this as a "box topper" for my '65 Topps setbuild.

Here's a mitt chew toy. Annie used to tear up her toys, sometimes in mere minutes, but as she's gotten older (she's 3), she seems to have gotten more gentle with them and they last longer. So now she's got a ton of toys, with a couple more coming each month via Bark Box. We should really toss or give away some of the old, neglected ones.

Anyways, the cards I'm showing off in this post are a few autos I got in a combined-shipping order from an eBay seller for a few cents under the price of a blaster. Since this toy is called the Yogi Barka Mitt, I've paired it with a Yankee. Jacob Lindgren, a 2nd round pick in 2014, is projected to be a solid major league reliever soon. This 2015 Topps Chrome purple refractor is numbered /250.

Next up we've got a Leaf clear Gavin Lux auto. This was only $1.99 + shipping and the catalyst for me placing this combined order. I've got a pretty decent Lux collection going now, and hopefully the kid will go on to a nice professional career, though he's still in high school. Since he's just a "pup" I've paired him here with a bag of treats from House of Pups. As you can see, I've torn these open moments before snapping the photo. Annie gobbled it down quickly, but she pretty much loves all treats, so it's no surprise. These are kinda cool in that they look like baseballs, a nuance that is likely lost on her canine brain, but a human baseball fan can appreciate.

Now here's a 2014 Bowman Chrome refractor auto /500 of Edwin Moreno, a 22-year old Padres prospect out of the Dominican Republic. His stats generally haven't been great so far, but he hit .308 in A ball last year, so who knows.. might make something of himself one day. At $3.99 it sounded like a good deal, as Bowman Chrome Refractor Autos are like the gold standard for prospect cards. Plus I like the Padres. These "Sliders" dog biscuits might be stretching the baseball theme, but sure, there definitely is sliding in the game of baseball, so it counts. (update: And as Johnny reminded me, a slider is also a type of pitch. Duh.)

Here's a photo of my dirty kitchen rug with a duck treat stick and a 2015 Bowman's Best Cole Tucker auto. Maybe you recall I pulled a printing plate of this guy from a box of 2015 Pro Debut a while back? Well, since I'll eventually be sending that off to Matthew Scott (who by the way has now been mentioned in 3 straight posts on my blog!), I figured I'd throw a cheap auto of him in my cart so he'll at least still have some representation in my collection. As for the treat, I'm sure Annie will chomp this down quickly, though personally ducks are one of my favorite animals, so I avoid eating them or buying duck meat products as best I can. Seriously, they can walk, swim, and fly! That's the triple crown of bodily movement! Respect, ducks. Respect. Plus ducks are cool. They just chill and don't bother nobody. Geese on the other hand, fuck them, they're assholes. Eat all the goose meat you want. And I'm not sure what this treat has to do with baseball other than I suppose sticks of dried meat look vaguely like bats.

Finally, here's a 2015 Bowman Chrome Prime Positions auto of Robert Stephenson, a top pitching prospect with the Reds. He made his ML debut earlier this month and has been good so far, winning both his starts, with an ERA of 3.00. So yeah, I went ahead and threw a cheap auto of his into the order with no additional shipping cost. The toy here is a stuffed hamburger that comes apart in sections thanks to velcro. Kinda cool, though I'd say a hot dog would fit better in the baseball theme. But whatever, close enough. It's all the same to a dog anyway.. soft and squeaky.

So there you have it.. some dog goodies for the pooch and some card goodies for me, all under a baseball umbrella.

Thanks for checking it out and we'll see ya next time!

Oh, and sad to hear about the passing of Prince. He was pretty damn cool and I like a bunch of his songs. I would link a YouTube video here (probably "7" -- great song), but he was a bit overprotective of his music, so there don't seem to be many videos to choose from online, unfortunately.