The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge: Day #27

Tony, the wonderful writer of the “Off Hiatus Baseball” blog, started a fun activity based off the “30-Day Music Challenge” that Twitter users were taking. The list of challenges looks like this:

Today, we’ll continue with Challenge #27: A favorite oddball card from 1990 or later. 

Let's just get right to it.

Take a look at those!

Yes, I know. I was supposed to pick "a" favorite card, and here I am showing three uncut sheets. So, fine, if I have to pick one...I'll take the World Champions card in the middle. Happy now?

I honestly have no idea how I came to own these cards. As such, I don't know much about them. There are three total sheets of perforated cards. I assume they were given out at McDonald's following the historic 2004 series. I, obviously, have left the cards as full sheets. That does make storage a bit difficult. But, I like the look of them as a sheet.

The actual cards are pretty sweet too. Glossy and a nice sturdy stock. I really like the color photo superimposed over the black and white picture of Fenway Park. Player selection is great too, with all the favorites from the team represented.

But what about the one card I picked? Is there a better oddball card out there? The World Championship celebration right there for the enjoyment. It's a nicely cropped picture, too, so the excitement just fills the whole frame. The red border really makes it all pop. Really the only thing missing is a logo on the front other than the Red Sox one. Not sure why the Golden Arches don't make an appearance. That would have really upped the oddball quotient.

But, I can't complain. It's just a glorious card (set). I can't imagine any other card being my favorite oddball from this time period.

Can you?

The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge: Day #2

Tony, the wonderful writer of the “Off Hiatus Baseball” blog, started a fun activity based off the “30-Day Music Challenge” that Twitter users were taking. The list of challenges looks like this:

Today, we have Challenge #2: A card with more than one player on it.

Here I am on my second challenge, and I'm wondering if I'm the wrong person to be doing these. Oh, don't get me wrong. They're fun, and I can't wait to do them all. But, I think I take things a little too seriously.

I'm not generally a person who answers "favorite" questions very well. Favorite color? Well, I like some shades of red. But, a good deep blue is wonderful. Or a dark forest green. They all have good sides. Favorite Pixar movie? Well, Toy Story 3 and Cars made me cry, but Up made me laugh. Wall-E was powerful, and Bugs Life was just fun.

So, it was with this attitude that I went into this challenge. A card i liked with more than one player. "A" card. Not, "A dozen cards that all have redeeming qualities." So, I grabbed my binders, and started flipping. After a while, I had several candidates and was analyzing the pros and cons of each, while wondering if there was one I had forgotten somewhere that was even better.

Finally I told myself to just stop it. This was supposed to be a fun post, not a doctoral thesis. So, I went back to the first card that came to mind.

Frankly, this should have been pretty obvious all along.

This is the team card from the 2004 Topps Red Sox World Champions set. Really, is there a better card in all the world? This card has it all. It had the scoreboard in the background thanking the team for breaking the curse. It has the Foil on the top of the card declaring the team the 2004 World Champions. Then it goes ahead and pictures every freakin' member of that 2004 team. (give or take)

So, if I'm going to pick a card with more than one player on it, it really has to be this one. It's the card of the team that changed everything as a Red Sox fan. The players on this card changed the world.

Not many cards can say that.