I'm sick of cardboard...well in a way

Good day to you all, I just wanted to follow up on a comment that I had made last Friday on the Night Owl blog, after he had mentioned about how the number of hits increase when he mentions the words "sick" and "cardboard". 

Here's what I wrote:

Smart ass comment of the day.



If you get major hits on the words "sick" and "cardboard", imaging the insanity (shameless plug) you would get if you titled a post "I'm sick of cardboard"

Needless to say, I also made a spelling error (imaging instead of imagine).

Well it actually was a poor attempt at humor (something which I tend to achieve quite a lot), so instead of letting it go, I decided to make a post for myself about the "sick of cardboard" phrase.  Put up or shut up, right??

You ever look at the piles of cardboard on your desk/sorting area and just say !@#$!.   I've done that a couple of times lately.  Largely due to the fact that I've become a bit lazy when it comes to putting cards away on a timely basis.   Yes, it's my own fault for sure. 

Then I sit there and look at what I've obtained over the past few months.  1000+ Blue Jays cards added to my collection.  Serial insanity moving along at a great pace.  My auto/jersey card pile is beginning to grow.  My collection is finally starting to take some shape, meaning I have a quite a few cards for myself, and there's a decent pile of cards that I also have for trades.

Sometimes, you just gotta take a closer look at what you have, and the world gets a little better.  Case in point:

Rivals the Dee Gordon card of 2011, no?  I'm still trying to figure out who that is trying to take him out on the double play.

Then, this card comes across my desk from an envelope from the Topps Diamond Giveaway:

1968 Topps # 284

Naturally, since I did not know the name, I checked out his stats on baseball reference.com.  One of the first columns I always look at when doing research on the site is the far right column, which displays MVP votes, Gold Gloves, Cy Young awards, etc.   I notice for Mr. Briggs that under the 1973 season he was 26th in MVP voting.  I think to myself, all right, let's check out the stats because to get MVP votes, he must have had a decent season.  Here's his stat line.

142 GP, 120 Hits in 488 AB for a .246 Avg.  18 HR, 57 RBI, 15 SB.  OPS of .787. 

Really, MVP votes? He actually received 6 points in the MVP balloting.  I see a lot of other names in the top 20 that I expect to be there.   Reggie Jackson won the MVP that year, and other names such as Sal Bando, Rod Carew, Jim Palmer, Catfish Hunter and Frank Robinson all are on the list. 

If you take a look at the list, you will see that 1973 was definitely a pitchers year.  6 20-game winners, only 2 hitters with 30+ HR's, (Jackson led the AL with 32), and after Rod Carew's .350 batting average, the next best hitter was at .306.  Not much for offense that year I would say.

Those two cards themselves made for some entertainment value for sure.  I just have to remember how to look at them. 

I learned something today.  The words "sick" and "cardboard" shouldn't be used in the same sentence.

Thanks for reading, Robert