Dang it, guys.. I did it again! I accidentally went out of order with this set. I jumped to #8 Michael Jordan in the previous installment, skipping over #7 Bo Jackson. Wasn't on purpose, but I guess I was swept up in The Last Dance hype, lol. I suppose card number doesn't really matter much unless you're working on the set, or maybe a frankenset, or maybe you're one of the very few collectors who collect certain numbers, like the No. 5 Collector guy and how Tom at Angels In Order likes cards that are #444. But for most of us, card number is rarely something we worry much about. But I still feel like a bad set-blogger for the taboo faux pas of going out of order. I have not yet made such a mistake on my 1991 MusiCards blog, thankfully.
Not the best likeness of Bo, but overall a neat two-sport card. Funny how I was just talking in my latest post (editor's note: the first part of this post was drafted a while back; I've posted a few times since) about the White Sox rehauling their uniforms several times over the years until finally finding a fit with colors most equated in sports to the NFL Raiders. This card shows both for ya. I never thought about it, but it sure is funny that 1991, the year they switched to those uniforms, was the year they signed Bo after he had recently retired from football. Having a former Raiders hero on the squad really must've helped embolden and validate their gutsy uniform decision. I don't know about you guys, but at my middle school around '91-92, the new black White Sox stuff was considered the coolest. Probably also because popular rappers wore it sometimes. I never had a Sox hat (which still fills me with a gentle wave of regret to this day), though I did have a black White Sox shirt back then which I wore when I needed to impress the ladies. Worked every time. Nah, I'm just kidding. But I thought I looked cool, at least. I think I've even posted an awkward-age photo of me wearing it in an older post but I don't think I'll dig it out this time.
Some nightmare fuel on the back with a demonic clown playing guitar. Yikes! But seriously, I wonder if Bo kept up practicing guitar? Talented guy like that could do damn near anything he set his mind to, so I bet he could learn to really shred if he worked at it.
Anyways, now time for the randomness.
Isn't this a cool painting? Looks like a fun night at the Sugar Shack.
Speaking of sugar, I'm a dessert guy. I've got a sweet tooth and the curiosity to hunt for new dessert ideas to blow my mind. One I found that I will highly recommend is eating chocolate pudding not with a spoon but with nutty buddies. Oh man, that's heaven!
Another good one: sandwich of butterscotch pudding between a couple snickerdoodles, with fresh strawberries on the side. Very nice!
What the hell is this? I think it's a Twinkie dipped in the last of the butterscotch pudding with some strawberries thrown in for good measure. Yeah, this was fine. But let's be honest, these 3 desserts I've shown here are in descending order and this was the least best.
Shadow box tribute to my amazing pup Annie Lou who left us last year. Features a dual auto and some game-used memorabilia (collar and her favorite toy). Turned out pretty well.
The wild bunnies who've been enjoying free reign of our backyard in the months since Annie's passing have been a godsend to us, providing the cuteness needed to help keep our hearts from turning to dust given the events of 2020. But the backyard has a new ruler on the horizon, with Dog #3 less than a week away from joining our household. Pretty excited about it. Stay tuned.
Ladybugs are cool too. Snapped this nice close-up a week or so back.
This baby ladybug was found inside on the wall of my wife's home office, but I successfully rehomed it to the overgrown garden. Seemed to be pretty happy to have leaves to crawl around on instead of a boring wall.
No luck on the TTM request I sent to Mark McGwire a couple springs ago, but here's a version of it with a facsimile auto. Maybe someday!
Here's a McGwire mashup ("bash up") I made in photoshop (this is not a real photo). 1987 Topps meets 1991 Fleer Pro Visions for a Project 2020-style "art card".
I thought this was a fun one! Would love to see Topps and Panini (or Upper Deck) come together to offer a special card or set of cards along these lines with proceeds going to charity... covid, BLM, or something. But that's just me pie-in-the-skying over here on my computer relaxing at the end of a stressful Q2 at work.
And here's a dumb gif I made of Bert Blyleven's 1975 Topps card. LOL
Can't remember if I shared this here yet or not, but here's another dumb thing I made for Twitter recently.. brings us back to Bo, tying up the post nicely. It's a 3-way mashup of cards: 1971 Topps Nolan Ryan, 1986 Topps Traded Bo Jackson, and 1990 Classic "Nolan Knows Bo".. all in one crazy image.
That's it for this ignorable shitpost. See ya next time!
If you'll indulge me one more "I'm sad about my awesome dog who recently died unexpectedly" post, I'll get it out of my system and don't plan on mentioning the unfortunate situation again. This is kind of a downer post (more of a eulogy, really) and I don't blame you if you skip it.
But yeah, it's been a rough couple of weeks for me and my wife. We had been thinking Annie just had a minor digestive issue to work through-- the vet originally suggested we try switching her to a different kind of dog food-- but nope, it turned out to be some serious shit and before we knew it we were kneeling on the floor tearfully telling her we loved her as the vet put her out of her suffering for good. Just devastating.
The fellow bloggers I've met in person can attest the fact that I'm not much for social graces. I'm an introverted homebody who'd rather spend a weekend watching movies and playing old school video games than going out and doing stuff with people. But if my wife said, "We're invited to a party this weekend.. and it's dog-friendly, so Annie can come too," then I'd be much more willing to go. Yeah, I'll admit I'm generally not a big fan of interacting humans, but dogs are more my speed.
Annie was great at making friends. And always a terrific buffer for awkward me when dealing with people. Hell, an argument could be made that she was my best friend. Loved hanging out with her. Something like going on a hike wouldn't hardly interest me at all, unless Annie was going too, in which case, yes. She was a happy pup and my mission in life was to keep her as happy as she could possibly be, as she was a sweetie who deserved that.
Man, she was so sweet. She had problems with her teeth and had to have several of them removed a couple years ago. To keep her remaining teeth healthy, we needed to brush her teeth on a near-daily basis. At first we used a doggie toothbrush, but it quickly became apparent that using our fingers was more efficient. And while Annie wasn't a big fan of it and could have chomped off our fingers in one bite if she wanted, she was a sweetie and reluctantly let us jam our fingers in her mouth and rub doggie toothpaste around her teeth. I'd often tell her, "I'm sorry, buddy-- I know this sucks, but it'll help keep your chompers working strong for ya when you're an elderly pooch." It's heartbreaking that she never got to that point (Hell, had I known she'd pass away at 7, I wouldn't have bothered with all the teeth-brushing and saved us both the unpleasantness!).
I hope you never had to have a pet make an extended stay at the emergency vet, as not only is it super stressful worrying about them, but it's also very expensive. She was at DoveLewis, Portland's only 24-hour emergency vet, for 5 days. The bill crept past 5 figures. And while we had pet insurance for her (which we got after our pervious dog, the saint Lucy, got cancer and left us far too soon-- and at an expense of several thousand dollars) that should hopefully cover about half of it, that's still a lot of money. Had Annie stuck it out for an extended period of time, we were ready to drain our savings if it meant there was a chance she'd possibly get back to her previous quality of life. I was all ready to give up buying new cards, even starting to think about selling off much of my collection, that's how much she meant to me. But thankfully (?) it didn't come to that and her health took a turn for the worse to where throwing more money at it to keep her zombified for hopefully another few days (and a one-in-a-million shot she'd recover) didn't make sense.
But still it was a lot of money, and so I've been trying to watch my spending. But then a few days after she passed, a card popped up on eBay I had to jump at. I love Topps Retired refractors and I search for them multiple times per day. This particular time I was at a low point and thinking how nice it would be if a Retired refractor I needed popped up at a reasonable price, and the Cardboard Gods showed sympathy for me and this one appeared with a very fair buy-it-now price...
This 2003 Topps Retired Joe Morgan refractor auto will always have special significance to me for being the first card I bought after Annie left us. I don't know if I can link her up to Joe Morgan much other than they're both kind souls who never gave much thought to advanced metrics. I never really collected Joe Morgan much, but always respected him as a player. And I always liked listening to him and Jon Miller back during their ESPN Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts in the 90s and 00s. And yeah, I think this is a beautiful card!
Check out the shoulder. I've seen this happen before. Looks like there was originally a Reds logo that got photoshopped out (why?), though the "holofoil lines" (or whatever you call them) must have been traced before that happened, as they've left a shadow that shows up when the light hits it. Sort of like how Annie is gone, though in a way she's still here with us in our hearts (--yeah yeah, I'm grasping at straws here trying to to link my dead dog to this baseball card I bought, but give me a break-- my dog died.)
A couple people shared this video with me on Twitter in their condolences, and it is pretty great for anyone who finds themselves in this sad situation.
I knew the first time I saw Miss Hailey that this was going to hurt. Because every relationship always does in one fashion or another. Every relationship you have with anyone or anything you love will eventually end in tears. But it is the deal we make, it is the agreement we accept, and it is the opportunity I would never turn down. You can avoid the pain and tears of losing a loved one....all you have to do is never love. I choose the pain and tears. But Dr. Seuss was right: "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
That's a long, productive career. Wish Annie could have stuck around for even half of that timespan. I figured once she hit 10 years old, it'd be time to really spoil her and cherish every day with her, though we never even got that far. That'll haunt me, but I know we still gave her a wonderful life and even if she only made it to 7, I'm sure a lot of other dogs out there would happily trade places with her to get all the treats and fun adventures she got in those few years.
Oh hey, both Joe and Annie were born in September and they both took a lot of walks!
We'll take some time to mourn, but probably next Spring we'll get a new pup. But it's going to be a sad winter here, as my wife and I are still shellshocked over losing our sweet girl. Plus my wife's family cat died last year, so now we've got no cute fuzzy creatures to cuddle. :(
A live shot of Lucy Lou, our first dog, from doggie heaven.
Man, Lucy was the best. It was heartbreaking we got less than 2 years with her before cancer took her down. We really thought our karma would bounce back with the next dog, and while Annie was awesome, her career was cut short, to put it in sports terms. Both Hall of Famers, no doubt, but hopefully dog #3 comes through with longevity to rival the likes of Julio Franco and Bartolo Colon.
I'm a little worried though. Lucy and Annie were both very good girls who didn't chew what they weren't supposed to (--ok, once when Annie was a tiny pupper, she chewed up one of my plastic gloworm toys [guess she loved glow-in-the-dark stuff as much as me], but that's the only time I can think of that she chewed something that wasn't one of her own toys). Bringing a new dog into the house scares me for my card collection. Annie would often curiously sniff my cards, but never chew them. Such a good girl! I could trust her with a Trout rookie and not give it a second thought. I can only hope my next dog rocks at least somewhat close to that level.
Love you, Annie Lou!
Ok, I think I've now said all I needed to say about my dear departed dog. Thanks for letting me get that out. Regular baseball card content to resume going forward.
I've been kicking this around for over a year now, but my big glow-in-the-dark cards post is finally finished. I ended up making it a "page" instead of a "post" just so that it'll be easier for me to keep it updated. I intend to update it as needed with new info. I know it might not be as interesting to everybody as it is to me, but I love glow in the dark cards!
Please check it out... LIST OF GLOW-IN-THE-DARK CARDS
(Sorry to make you make an extra click, but I think it'll be worth it. Lots of fun stuff there.)
My sweet pooch Annie Lou got real sick real fast and we had to put her down on yesterday. Probably the hardest day of my life. My wife and I don't have kids, but Annie was the closest we had, with the 3 of us being a tight family unit. We're just devastated to suddenly lose her at only 7 years old, but Annie packed a lot of happy wiggles into that time, so we need to focus on the happy times. She was the sweetest girl in the world. I only saw her being the slightest bit aggressive ONCE and that was while protecting a smaller pup buddy of hers. She only wanted everybody to be happy, spreading smiles and smooches everywhere she went. Love her so much.
Anyways, Annie loved chasing the laser pointer, much like cats. And so with that same fascination of lights in the dark, I'd like to dedicate my big glow-in-the-dark cards page in Annie's memory.
Chances are I'll be posting less often for the next little while, though I'll try not to make it a full-on "hiatus". Thanks as always for reading.
I wanted an on-card Padres auto from Dave Winfield and ended up scoring this one. It's pretty cool.
Goose Gossage has a lot of similarities with Dave Winfield:
- Spent the lion's share of their careers with the Yankees.
- Put in some time quality in San Diego.
- Won a World Championship once.
- Bounced around with a few different teams near the end of their careers.
- Formidable facial hair.
- Hall of Famer
Goose here is my 50th 2003 Topps Retired auto. There are 70 left in the set for me to track down. Snatched this one up recently for a fair price. It's not a refractor, but still.
Tough times at Baseball Card Breakdown HQ as our official mascot and licensed card-sniffer Annie Lou is currently at the emergency vet and in rough shape. Please send her some good vibes.
