Card Crazy

There is something about baseball cards that brings out the inner child in me. The cardboard collectibles rank up there with kickball games, Saturday morning cartoons, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and running under the sprinkler in the summer. All invoke blissful childhood memories. So whenever I see a pack of cards, feelings of nostalgia overwhelm me, especially old school varieties. It isn’t just the photographs that appeal to me. Baseball card layouts intrigue me. It doesn’t take an overly creative person to craft the cards but every edition is different. I think it would be fun to make baseball cards, but I really do not know if baseball card creator qualifies as a job title.
My baseball card collection is a sporadic compilation of brands, players and oddities ranging from the mid-1940’s through today. I couldn’t help myself when I passed the vending machine at my local grocery store and peeked into the cards for sale. The 75 cent tag next to A3 was most appealing. I followed my ball card impulse by inserting a one dollar bill into the machine. My chosen pack was labeled “1992 Premier Edition Donruss Triple Play”. The black sleeve glistened as I pulled it out from the bottom flap of the display and retrieved my quarter from the coin slot. In my hands was a terrific treasure. Inside my apartment, I unwrapped these 15 player cards:
Darren Lewis—San Francisco Giants
Lou Whitaker—Detroit Tigers
Royce Clayton—San Francisco Giants
Jack McDowell—Chicago Whitesox
Benito Santiago—San Diego Padres
Brian Harper—Minnesota Twins
Dave Magadan—New York Mets
Dave Stewart—Oakland A’s
Lenny Dykstra—Philadelphia Phillies
Milt Cuyler—Detroit Tigers
Doug Drabek—Pittsburgh Pirates
Juan Gonzalez—Texas Rangers
Jose Oquendo—St. Louis Cardinals
Bob Welch—Oakland A’s
Randy Johnson—Seattle Mariners
I could have done a lot better, but I’ll take what I can get. It ‘s weird how these cards are now 17 years old, yet the players are still very familiar to me. It’s fitting for me to be typing this on the new laptop computer I just purchased. A new pack of baseball cards is the perfect way to initiate my keyboard to my card crazy typing.
Parting points: Happy Birthday to former REM drummer, Bill Berry. Jamming and rocking out to REM’s “Out Of Time” album.