Oddball Mail Day!

I love oddball items. Things that are hard to get, tough to find, or require attendance at a special event to get. Don't get me wrong--they are frustrating as all get out if you weren't lucky enough to be at the game/event/cereal box...well, you get the idea. All I can say, is thank goodness for the internet.

Through the virtues of the internet, people have come to know me as somebody who likes Curtis Granderson, and the Detroit Tigers, despite my best attempts to keep it a secret. On occasion, others will send me emails or packages, out of the goodness of their hearts, full of tips and goodies. One of these people is the blogger Core Contrarian. A midwesterner, he happens to be a Tigers fan himself, and was in attendance at a game a few weeks ago where they handed out packs of playing cards at the door. Within one day of the game I had an email asking if I would like them. After much convincing, I reluctantly agreed to take them off his hands.

I'm kidding of course. Oddball cards! But I really didn't know what to expect:

The box, with this year's worthy replacement to the successful "Who's Your Tiger" campaign (how else do you think I became such a Granderson fan?!)

The first card, and the second told me that these were going to be sweet:


Cool. Guess what number Curtis gets?

But number 8 of course. He is a centerfielder after all.

Let's not forget the King of Hearts, renowned for his flowery personality:


These cards are really great. Each number 2-9 is the player in that position. Same picture on each, different suits. Numbers 10 and the Jack are pitchers or Sheffield, Queen is Comerica Park, King is Leyland and Aces are Kaline and Willie Horton. This is an outstanding set, the pictures are great and it is a lot of fun.

Now, the question is, how do I display them? I can't keep them in the box, but I don't want to put them all in pages--that's 54 slots! I think that I'll pull the Grandersons out to display individually in my Granderson Binder, and then stack the same player cards on top of one another in a single binder pocket. Let me know if somebody can come up with a better idea though.

So there we go, oddball cards that aren't baseball cards per se, but fun nonetheless. Hey, not everything can come from a pack of mootown snackers. Thank you very much to the Core Contrarian for generously thinking of me and sending me an item that would have been nearly impossible for me to get otherwise! To everyone else, read his blog! It's really good and covers all of baseball.