It's The Little Things

Baseball is all about the little things. A Saturday afternoon game on Network TV so that I can watch my team halfway across the country. A 5'9 rookie turning a slow roller into a gorgeous double play with skill unlike anyone in Detroit has seen since the days of Tram & Lou. A short left field with a huge wall that turns a routine fly ball into a leaping catch at the wall. The cumulative effect of bad pitches and bad decisions and bad luck leaving Tigers fans dejected and angry, and Red Sox fan euphoric, even though they know in their heart of hearts that David Ortiz's bat speed has slowed to the point where he needs to be sitting on a pitch to drive it. Baseball's greatness is contained within the little things.

So too with collecting, although I mean it much more literally. I've received a lot of good mail recently, but nothing quite makes me smile like the little things. I'll start things off with a bang:

2008 Allen & Ginter #373 Justin Verlander Mini

2008 Allen & Ginter #387 Miguel Cabrera Mini

It took being shipped from Taiwan, but they're here. Two of the three Tigers "extended minis" from 2008 Allen & Ginter. As I find myself more and more drawn towards mini cards, the extended set was something that I just couldn't ignore. It makes me kind of wish that all cards were mini cards...

Like, what if all those cards you had from the 80s, looked like this:

1989 Topps Mini Leaders #53 Gary Pettis

1987 Topps Mini Leaders #53 Kirk Gibson

Seriously, how much better would that have been. Or the early 90s, when Upper Deck blew us all out of the water with holograms and such? Why weren't we captivated by these:

1991 Topps Cracker Jack #26 Alan Trammell

I had totally forgotten that there used to be cards in Cracker Jacks. They are so small. You can fit 4 to one regular sized card. In fact, I'm a little disappointed that nobody has come up with a 36-sleeve card holding page. I would totally get one. Unfortunately, because the scale is still basically the same as a regular card, it's hard to tell just how small it is. Here's some help:



That's the cracker jack on the far right with an 80s era Topps mini next to it. A full size card is the Gibson in the middle, next to what I can only describe as the Biggest Donruss Card I've ever seen. Of Sparky Anderson. Probably explaining how important the little things are in baseball.

The A&G minis come courtesy of my diligent eBay bargain hunting. The Pettis comes from Rhubarb Runner and the rest come from Cards on Cards, who provided me with a package rich with 80s and 90s goodness including minis galore and a bunch of other cards that I didn't have. Thanks so much to both of you!