Cards from Marcus, Volume Like 138 or Something

I recently got a PWE in the mail from Marcus from all the way to the backstop... I believe it was Monday but I wouldn't swear to it. It took me a few days to get to posting the contents since I needed to first do writeups on some Coras I got from COMC and the 2013s from ECDG. I'm starting to get caught up; after this post I have a few weeks worth of Listia pickups to do a megapost of and then I can get to that Gwynnventory I've been meaning to do or a post about '93 Upper Deck since I'm trying to build that set. But more likely I'll just get more stuff in the mail and procrastinate those even longer, so let's focus on the here and now.

Above are two 2012 Topps parallels I didn't have. I love the photography on both of them; the Blanks base is on the short list of my all-time favorite cards. I really like how the Target Red border looks on Q's card; I prefer it to the WalMart Blue; it just pops.

Next up was an awesome A&G of Tony Gwynn. Anthony Keith Gwynn, Sr. to be more precise. And, as it asks, what's in that name? Maybe the back will shed some light.

...and it does. Imagine that.

Craig Breslow may very well be the smartest man to ever play the game. The lefty was called "the smartest man in baseball" by the Wall Street Journal in 2009 and named the smartest athlete in all of pro sports by The Sporting News the following year. After graduating from Yale with degrees in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, he was accepted to the prestigious NYU School of Medicine but decided to put it on the back burner and pursue pitching. He has since pitched 358 games in the majors, including 14 with the Padres in his rookie season of 2005. From there he spent time with the Red Sox, Indians, Twins, A's, and D-Bags; now he's back with Boston.

Poor Mark Prior. His comeback attempt with the Padres didn't work out, nor did subsequent tries with the Rangers, Yankees, and Red Sox. In fact, he hasn't pitched in the majors since making nine ugly starts for the Cubs in 2006. He's in camp with the Reds, signing a minor league deal earlier this month. Like always, I'll be rooting for him to make it back successfully. As for the card itself, I already had a copy so this one will go on my recently-deplenished doubles stack.

As always, I saved the best for last. Also as always, you know what that means:

Another Joey Cora card! His 1988 Score, number 420, to be specific. Like all of his cards, it's a thing of beauty. It will have a good home here, right between some other cards just like itself. Only a couple hundred thousand more copies of this one and I'll be set. Marcus has been a major contributor to my Cora collection; he always seems to include at least one in every envelope and for that I am forever grateful.

So, thanks again to Marcus! I'll have to get some cards headed his way before too long. As it stands now, there's at least one bubble mailer hanging out at his house waiting for him to get home from vacation. I actually mailed it the day before he wrote his post about getting ready to go on vacation, so it's been there for a while. It doesn't contain cards, so if he's reading this I'll just let him twist in the wind trying to guess what it does contain. Hint: You aren't going to guess it. Ever.