Coming Soon...to a Topps Baseball Card Blog Near You...

(Warning: If you, or someone you know, is familiar with Phineas and Ferb, this next imagined monologue is going to sound awfully familiar).

Dr. Doofenshmirtz: Ah Perry the Platypus. So nice of you to walk into my trap. Now take a look at my newest evil creation that will help me take over the entire Tri-State area...



Behold:


The Topps Baseball Card Randomizer-inator!!!

(cue sound fx: record player scratching as it's being turned off suddenly)

Okay, so I didn't invent this (I think the guy at Wrigley Wax has one for his Random Cubs cards segments). But now I have one.

What does it do? And what does it mean?

Well, the goal of this blog was to share my cards with the rest of the world, and I feel that I haven't done that great of a job. So starting next year, as long as I can stand it, and along with all the other things I have in store for this humble, little blog, I will do a featured Topps baseball card of the day.

Yes, I know that some other blogs already do this sort of thing. The difference is that I'm not focusing on one set, nor am I focusing on one team. I'm going to attempt to focus on one Topps card from 1951-2009 every day in 2010 (actually, this will start on Monday, December 28). As you can see, this MS Excel spreadsheet, with the help of the Random function and VLOOKUP formulas, is designed to pick seven cards (six cards from 1976-2009, one card from 1951-1975). And whatever comes up will be the card I pull from my binders (or online) and will write a brief summary about the subject on the card (even if it winds up being a checklist). Think of this concept like Sam Beckett's Quantum Leap experiment, traveling through more amost 60 years of Topps cards...


...without having to jump into the bodies and lives of other people.

For example, if I were to use the spreadsheet above as an example, I would focus on the following seven cards, one day at a time, next week:

• Monday, 2005 Topps U & H #244 Craig Tatum
• Tuesday, 1993 Topps #500 Jose Canseco
• Wednesday, 2000 Topps #358 Kevin Young
• Thursday, 1981 Topps #177 Rick Peters
• Friday, 1987 Topps #50 Dave Smith
• Saturday, 2005 Topps #202 Kyle Lohse
• Sunday (called Retro Sunday), 1958 Topps #308 Norm Siebern

I should have the cards from Monday to Saturday in my collection somewhere (if you haven't figured it out by now, I have EVERY basic Topps baseball card from 1976 to 2009). The Sunday card will be a bit tricky, but I'm sure I can find an image of it somewhere online. Why the retro cutoff at 1975? I was born in 1976, so every card highlighted in the Retro Sunday feature would be older than me (well technically, so would the 1976 cards, but...just play along will you???).

So hang on tight as my journey through the Hobby kicks into overdrive. This should be interesting.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

P.S. And if this doesn't work, I will blame a certain semi-aquatic mammal for foiling my plans. Him, and that paperclip guy that's in the middle of my spreadsheet. jba