The View From Wisconsin

Boy, I didn't know I'd already hit 500 posts. Time flies, I guess. That's only about 6-7 posts a month since I started this blog.

Ah well... on to other things:

• I can state categorically as an expert on the subject that it is not a good idea to spend too much time in close quarters with evil. That may sound a little cryptic, but given my occupation and how I've felt during my two days off this week, it fits. I'm not going to go into whats and whys on here, but suffice to say I haven't had a good week.
  
• I did, however, get that brief respite from drudgery with the return of baseball cards. It actually made me dust off my 1982 Topps set (the one that I don't think I'll ever complete, thanks to Cal Ripken). I also realized something when I was going through the cards: boy, I was an idiot when it came to not keeping all my cards; the quality of the printing presses back in '82 was lousy, and so many cards were off-center and misprinted.
  
• On that subject: is Topps doing some sort of "black foil" parallel this year, or is it a misprint that a couple of cards I pulled from a 55-card box had? If you haven't seen this year's Topps product, the team script logo is in the lower left-hand corner of the card, with the player's name in black with a foil border in the lower right-hand corner. A couple of cards had no apparent foil border around the name (which made it hard to see who the player was).
  
• I do like the Million Card Giveaway, but why do I keep getting cards from an older set that I've already completed? Namely, the 1985 Topps set?
  
• In a bit of an anarchist way, I like how Upper Deck did their non-sanctioned baseball card set this year. It actually makes the cards and such better, though it's annoying that all of the photos don't show the entire name of the team, nor does it give out complete names of the ballparks, either.
  

After having a lousy night at work, then not being able to get to sleep (and overindulging a bit while doing so), I thought I was going to have a lousy mid-week.

And then I realized that today was the four most beautiful words in the English language:


Oh, sure, my guys won't be showing up to Maryvale until Sunday, but still...

And, to ease my pain a bit, I was reminded of the joy of the new baseball season by my overriding passion:


Of course, I had to get a pack of the "UNAUTHORIZED" Upper Deck cards. (I'm such a non-conformist.)