Back again, with a super package!

Well, another long gap in posting.  Those of you who don't need to hear stories, the cards are below the asterisks.

For the few of you who stayed up here with me, you might know that one of the things that made me stop blogging years ago was some health issues.  They dogged me for a few years, sapped my energy and just generally made my life tough.  But I got better. Life is good.  Well, a couple of weeks ago, I had some of the old symptoms popping up.  That did not make me happy.  So long story short, after a lot of doctors visits and a short stay in the hospital, we think that things are behind me.  Again.  I hope we are right.  Sorry for the lack of details, but I don't want to get into it, and I am not in any mortal danger or anything.

So there you have it. I was a bad blogger, but there are reasons. I was able to summon up enough energy to leave a few comments around, and participate in Johnny's bingo night, but I am waaay behind on reading the blogs.  So I have read a lot of posts today, trying to catch up.

And I even sent out a card that I had promised someone a while back today! I bet they were wondering where it got off to, but it is on the way!

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 A while back, I shot some basketball cards over to Jon of Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts.  And right before my health scare, I received a return package, and boy, it did not disappoint!  Jon, like many of you who have been so generous with me, really hit all areas of my want lists.  First up, a new record for the most 2001 Archives reserve cards from one blogger!  This beats the previous record set by Julie at A Cracked Bat.  Jon sent 14!!  I only scanned 12 here, so lazy.  I am making real progrss on this set, thanks mostly to Jon and Julie.

Next up some Cuts and Colors!!  All wonderful, but my favorites are all on the 2nd row.  The Hitting Machines Caminiti is a perfect 90s die cut.  The Mondesi is from a set I had never seen, and is pretty slick and clean looking.  And a refractor of a HOFer??  Awesome!

Next up, some old timers done the Diamond Kings way.  Hard to argue with these, given the name of the blog...  The Bill Dickey (lower right) kind of looks like William Shatner to me.  

Jon even hit another of my mini-collections, relics of older players who are somewhat forgotten.  Not that Gullett is 'forgotten', but he definitely fits the collection and is a welcome addition.  He looks so young!

Next up, an extremely awesome Slick Watts card!!  Jon saw my earlier post about my Slick Watts RC and thought I might like this too.  And boy was he right!  This card has it all.  It's ridiculously oversized, so it is hard to store.  Jon provided a super sized top loader though, so it isn't too bad.  I'm really happy with this one.

Here it is next to another card Jon sent, a sweet Gail Goodrich.  Super sized!

And back to baseball, here are a couple of Trout beauties!!  I especially like the mini, and I am not even that big of a fan of minis.  Quality cards.

By now, you are probably realizing the scope of this package.  It has everything!!  Even a Mark McGwire game used base card!!  What, Timo Perez?  Yeah, he is on there too, but this will always be a McGwire card to me.  I pity any Timo super collectors out there who can't have this because all the McGwire collectors gobbled them up.

So the game this card commemorates is game 2 of the 2000 NLCS.  It was a good game too!  Rick Ankiel started for the Cardinals, but only got 2/3 of an inning before getting pulled.  he gave up 2 runs on 1 hit and 3 walks.  Ankiel had finished 2nd in the ROY balloting, and was looking good.  But he lost the ability to find the zone, and pretty much dropped off the face of the earth as a pitcher.  He came back as an outfielder a couple of years later and was able to add 7 or 8 years to his career.

Timo lead off for the Mets and went one for five.  McGwire pinch hit and walked.  So if the base on the card is 1st base, then they both would have touched it!

Jon also made 2 more additions to sets in an active build phase for me.  The Hoyt FINISHES the 69 Topps Deckle set!  Yes, I had the Mays, Clemente and both of the rare SSP variations.  But the Hoyt had eluded me.  No more!  The Arod is not as momentous, but edges me closer to completing the Lords of the Diamond set.

And last but not least, this 1933 Goudey Indian Gum card of Pushmataha was part of a very generous giveaway Jon had on his blog.  I will take anything this old no questions asked at any time!!

Jon, I really appreciate the cards, they were all awesome additions to my collections!!