Archives swap

What, you expected Ginter? Aaaaaaaah screw Ginter. I don't have the scratch for a hobby box and my blaster was a complete waste of time. I just picked up the Braves team set and a bunch of inserts anyway.

Instead, I've got a bunch of Archives cards received from Tom In Peoria. I don't know why I call him Tom In Peoria every time I mention him, I just do. If he moves to Bloomington I'm kinda screwed. But anyway, we're both working on the Archives set so I sent him some stuff, and he sent me some stuff. Included in the package was a bunch of base cards I needed but as we all know base cards are meaningless. Topps has worked very hard attempting to train us to believe this and I think we should all acknowledge their efforts. Instead I shall show off the sick mojo hitz I received.

Here's a 2012 Topps Archives short print of Terry Pendleton and an original 1992 Terry Pendleton card. QUICK! Which is the original card???

THREE

TWO

ONE

ZERO!!!!!

Gooooood night... a ding ding ding ding ding. Did ya guess? I didn't until I looked at the back and have at least 20 of these '92 Pendletons lying around. This either means that Topps did a crack job of mimicking the original designs or my memory is starting to go.

Here's a '58 Combo Card of Mike Schmidt and Roy Halladay. I traded a '58 Combo of Ryne Sandberg and Starlin Castro for this one. Why would I want a Phailies card in my collection? Because I'm a fan of Mike Schmidt and there are no Braves to be found in Archives insert sets. Well, no. Actually there is a Deckle Edge Orlando Cepeda card. That's it. I guess no one out there wanted a Hank Aaron/Chipper Jones combo. OH WAIT EVERYONE IN THE UNIVERSE WANTS THAT. Thanks, Topps.

Here's a cloth card of Reggie Jackson. If there's one insert set I kinda want to collect it's this one. These look (and feel) really sharp. Reggie got in a bit of hot water last week over some comments about certain Hall of Very Good players and A-Roid. I think the Steinbrenner kids even revoked his executive washroom privileges so now Reggie has to piss in the troughs at Yankee stadium like the rest of the peasants. So Reggie said some mean things and now everyone is mad at him. Here's the thing I don't understand:

REGGIE'S AN ASSHOLE.

HE'S ALWAYS BEEN AN ASSHOLE.

THAT'S WHY WE LOVE HIM.

Seriously, the guy's been a jerk his entire life. He hit three home runs in a World Series game for the New York Yankees. He's earned the right to be a complete jerk! Baseball needs villains and he's on the level of The Joker as far as top-tier villains go. Cesar Romero + Jack Nicholson + Heath Ledger = Reggie Jackson levels of coolness. So he said something rude, THAT WHAT HE DO. It's like getting pissed off at Gilbert Gottfried for making an offensive joke. That's his special niche in the universe, what's he supposed to do? I still love ya, Reggie. You stay Reggie. The world needs more Reggie.

Ok, here's the jewel of the lot:

Big Frank Howard autograph. I love random autographs of vintage stars and this is a nice addition to the collection. Frank is one of those awesome underrated '60s stars that no one seems to talk about anymore. Frank was good for mashing monster home runs back in the day. He won the Rookie of the Year award with the Dodgers but had some of his best years with the Senators. I actually have a 1970 Topps Frank Howard pinup up on my wall right now. I picked it up in a card show last year for a buck, but I accidentally tore it. So I decided, what the heck? and pinned the thing right up through the wall like nature intended. Nice to have a sig of Hondo in my collection now. Thanks Tom!