My Horizontal Hero

Man, its the 28th of the month and I've only posted once this month.  My mind has been elsewhere.  New position at work, new schedule that goes with it, sick kids...blah blah blah

Awhile back I had some horizontal cards lying around.  So naturally I sent them off to Mark over at This Way to the Clubhouse.  I don't know if any of them were needed for his "Horizontal Heroes" frankenset, but I think that's one of the more fascinating frankenset ideas, so I sent them anyway.  

Well, he decided to send some cards back my way.

This is a card I've never seen.  2003 Upper Deck Standing O Troy Glaus.  It looks much better when you look at it straight, instead of slightly crooked like I scanned it.

Parallel Angels?  You're speaking my language.

I'm guessing these might be cards that missed the cut in the frankenset.  But I'll take them.  I still think the Slayer parallels are fantastic!

And they brought along some vertical cousins.

All in all, a pretty darn good PWE.  Thanks Mark.

Level 3

I think there are different levels of anticipation when you get a PWE or package in the mail. 

When you see something in the box from eBay or Just Commons, or some such, you think "good, its here".  You know what's in there cause you paid for it.

When you get a trade package, you think "alright!"  You sent off some cards you probably didn't need, or at least know that they'll be in a better home.  But the blogger community is always so generous that you know there's a surprise in there somewhere.

But the best packages are the surprises.  "Hey, I know that name, but I wasn't expecting anything".

Such was the case the other day when I opened my mailbox to a PWE from Mark over at This Way to the Clubhouse.

A couple of parallels of Jered Weaver.  Yes, I consider Opening Day to be a parallel.  I still can't really see the point of having OD and the base set.  Too similar.  But I'll always take OD Angels.

A couple more 2014 parallels.  I'm a self-professed parallel lover.  But even I can say that Topps is running the parallel idea into the ground.  On the other hand - Slayer parallel!  Love 'em.

Here's another Weaver, this one from Gypsy Queen.  You can't tell from the scan, but there's texture here, with the frame cut out for the picture.  I don't know enough about all the inserts/SPs from the different sets, but I'm assuming this is one of those.  Either way, its a pretty damn cool card.

And then the oddball of the package, not that the card is oddball, just different than the rest of the cards.  I've been rooting for Blyleven to make the HOF for years, so it was good to finally see him go in a couple of years ago.  Even as an Angel fan, I say look at that picture of him in the Twins uni.  What a great shot.

And Mark, yes I did need these.  Thank you sir.

This Way redux

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter.  I took my daughters up to visit my aunt on Friday and Saturday, then came back for Easter at my mom's house.  So a good family weekend.

Back in February, Mark over at This Way to the Clubhouse sent me some cards.  He included in that batch cards that go into my "Topps Base Angels" binder.  Welp, he decided to send along another batch.  And again he included some great cards from my time away from the hobby.

Some 1999 base cards.  Its funny to look at gold borders nowadays.  15 years ago nobody thought "Parallel?"  Washburn would still be around to give a homerun to Bonds in the 2002 World Series.

They didn't think that in 1998 either.  2002 was straight up orange.  Still not sure what I think of that.  3/4 of this group were prominent contributors to the Angels' World Series victory.  Dickson was busy being released by both the Devil Rays and (ironically) the Giants during 2002.

I just scanned these together because I find horizontal cards scanned sideways to be odd.  And yet, that's exactly how these will be displayed in the binder....

But there wasn't just Topps base cards included.

That is not a green border on Haren.  My scanner just decided that the gold foil (I think that's the right parallel) wasn't gold.  Kinda looks cool though, almost as good as the actual card.  I'm not sure what I think of Heritage parallels.  On the one hand, I'm a sucker for parallels.  On the other, they didn't even consider parallels in 1964.  They did consider parallels in 2010, and I think the gold looks particularly nice against the blue/red combo of the Angels.   And a Wally Joyner sticker?  Outstanding.

Thanks again Mark. 

This Way to my Mailbox

It was a good week at the mailbox here in the land of junk wax.  I got a few bubble mailers, including two on Monday.  What a great way to start the week.  Baseball Cards!

The first mailer came from Mark over at This Way to the Clubhouse.  (I can almost guarantee I'm not the first blogger to use this post title).    I saw a couple cards on his blog and asked about them. 

He sent me the Slayer parallel (yup, that's what I'm calling them, it makes sense to me, click the link.  I'll wait) of Garret Richards' 2014 card.  These things look better in person.  I'll trade the slime parallels and mustard parallels for these any day. 

Mark also sent along the Super Veteran insert of Albert Pujols.  This is still the only insert I have any interest in this year.  And this one happens to be an Angel (1/2 Angel?), so that's a win.

That's all I was really expecting.  But Mark didn't stop there.  He sent along a big stack of my 2014 base set needs.  I won't bother scanning them because a) everybody has seen them recently and b) I'm still mad at Topps for their collation this year (real or perceived.  Doesn't matter).

But Mark didn't stop there.

I made a comment to him about Topps base cards from the time I was away from the hobby.  I've decided to put together an album with just Topps base set Angels from 1961 to the present.  These will go right in there.

As will these.  My cousin (not technically my cousin, but my aunt is his godmother, and I've literally known him since I was born.  So, close enough) went to high school with Matt Walbeck.  Sat behind him on the bench of the baseball team too.

And parallels, sort of.  The emerald green from last year.  And I almost think of Opening Day as a parallel of the base set.  I mean they're kinda redundant.  But its an Angel, so I'm all for it.

Thanks again Mark.