Gone to Twitter

I've been doing this blog since early 2008 and I'm afraid I'm just tired of doing it. But I still want to show off cards I get so I plan to post cards on Twitter. In fact I've already started.

If you want to follow me on Twitter I'm at @capewood.

Thanks.

Mike Schmidt - The Wall

I'll get back to the 30-day Baseball Card Challenge on Monday, but first this...

A few days ago I saw the movie "Pink Floyd The Wall" on TV. I wasn't buying a lot of records in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and although I'd been a fan of Pink Floyd in the early 1970s, I'd completely missed their 1978 album "The Wall". And somehow, I didn't know that there's been a movie made.

So anyway, a few minutes into the movie there's a riot at a concert and as the rioters are being rounded up by the police, this flashes across the screen.

What a surprise, to me, at least.

30 Day Baseball Card Challenge Day 13

Day 13: One of your favorite cards from the 1990s

1993 Upper Deck #755

An impossible task to look through my 1990s cards. So again I decided to narrow down to a favorite set and pick from there. 1993 Upper Deck is a set I didn't used to like, but in recent years I've come to appreciate. So here's a player I collect signing autographs for kids.

30 Day Baseball Card Challenge Day 12

Day 12: One of your favorite cards from the 1980s

1985 Topps #703

I have at least 6,000 cards from the 1980s so this was a daunting task. I decided to narrow it down to 1985, since that's the first year I started collecting. I further narrowed it down to 1985 Topps cards (in those days I only bought Topps) that I didn't have any acquisition data on. Which narrowed it down quite a bit. I'm going to arbitrary declare that this is the first baseball card I ever acquired.  And therefore, one of my favorites. Plus it's George Brett.

30 Day Baseball Card Challenge Day 11

Day 11: One of your favorite cards from the 1970s

1978 Topps #210

I was following the Phillies closely in the 1970s and beyond but I wasn't collecting baseball cards. I have nearly all the Topps Phillies cards from the 1979s however, and a few of other players as well. I'm going with this one because it just says "1970s" to me.

30 Day Baseball Card Challenge Day 10

Day 10: One of your favorite cards from the 1960s

1960 Topps #138

I'm going with this beat up old Art Mahaffey rookie card. I don't remember where or how I got it. I'm a big baseball fan now, but when I was a kid (I was 8 years old the summer of 1960), I wasn't much of a fan. But I can remember that I was somehow aware of Art Mahaffey. He played 6 years with the Phillies, 1960-1965, compiling a 58-60 record. He was somehow an All-Star in 1961 (when he was 11-19) and again in 1962 with a bit more respectable record of 19-14. He was 12-9 in 1964, the year the Phillies blew a big lead in September and lost the National League pennant (which to be truthful, I hardly remember).

So this might not be my absolute favorite card that I own from the 1960s, but I have a story to tell about it so it's my choice. And really, without a story, what's the point of picking any particular card?

30 Day Baseball Card Challenge Day 9

Day 9: One of your favorite cards from the 1950s

I'm going to restrict this to cards from the 1950s that I actually own. There are only 49 of them and most are Phillies. Looking through them, it was no contest.

1958 Topps #230 Richie Ashburn

I got this card in 2007, paid $7.80 for it on eBay. It's in pretty good shape and is a great looking card from a great looking set.

I grew up listening to baseball on the radio and for most of that time, Richie Ashburn was the Phillies color man. I don't really remember him as a player but I loved him doing Phillies games. He worked as a Phillies broadcaster from 1963 to 1997. He was planning to retire after the 1997 season but he died of a heart attack, at age 70, in his hotel room after broadcasting a Mets-Phillies game on September 9, 1997.

A fact we didn't know until he passed is that Ashburn and my father, who also loved Ashburn, were born in the same day.