Give Me The Bad News First

So, as you may have heard, 2013 is starting to look a lot like 2012 as far as promising young starters getting hurt beyond hurt. Casey Kelly has been experiencing soreness in his pitching elbow and may very well have to undergo Tommy John surgery. It's getting past ridiculous at this point; fellow big-name young starters Cory Luebke and Joe Wieland aren't even back from their TJs yet... I don't really want to talk about it so I'm changing the subject.

Appropriately, I got the emerald Kelly card above from Emerald City Diamond Gems. He won a box from Topps on Twitter and shared the bounty with his readers. Along with that now bittersweet slab of shimmering cardstock, he sent along copies of each of the Padres in the base set. I had a few of them but he finished off the list and left me with a couple of doubles that I was able to pay forward.

Will Venable got a great photograph on his. Along with a Kelly, this was one of the first two 2013 Padres I got- the guy at my LCS gave them to me on the house when my pack came up Friarless. Ryan Braun and Alfonso Soriano are on that card along with Chase Headley but they don't matter.

Here are a couple more I already had a copy of. I got a four card lot of Series 1 Padres off of Listia around the same time so I was afforded the chance to pass one of each along with a Kelly and a Venable to someone who, like me a few days earlier, had none of them.

These two are where it gets really good. I'm a sucker for throwbacks and I'm an even bigger sucker for our throwbacks. Yonder Alonso has always reminded me of John Kruk to a certain degree, and even more so here wearing the same home uniform Krukky wore in his time with the Padres. These uniforms were selected in a fan poll to be worn in a game last season. They were officially billed by the team as the "1988 Mark Grant uniform" in honor of the then-pitcher turned beloved broadcaster.

The 1978 uniforms are one of the most iconic in sports history despite being worn for only one season. It's shown here on Cameron Maybin. And because you really wanted to know, Cam's number 24 was worn by Dave Wehrmeister that year.

Anthony Bass, like seemingly everybody else, had injury problems last season. He is- knock on wood- doing well so far this spring and is in the mix for a spot in the rotation. Hopefully Tommy Layne can make enough of a name for himself this season that Topps will get it right on his 2014 issue.

So, thanks again to Larry. I'm waiting on a couple of things I've bid on and when they get here I have an envelope heading your way. Best of luck to the M's when they're playing any of the other 28 teams.

Nick Strikes Again, Pt. I

There are few things as great as pulling a bubble mailer out of the mailbox, looking at the return address, and seeing that it's from Nick of Dime Boxes fame. He has repeatedly mailed me nothing but awesomeness. Odd thing is, we've never made a formal trade. I won his first contest and he sent me a slew of great Padres and some other assorted gems; I sent him back some cards I thought he'd like and a casual pattern emerged. This "non-trade" method of trading is definitely my favorite. The surprised joy of unexpected new cards is what I imagine Christmas must be like for kids whose mom isn't in some cult that thinks it's a pagan holiday so you get screwed out of presents and everyone in school thinks you're a weirdo. But anyway, as I was saying... envelopes from Nick are great and this one was no different.

Up top are two of the first I saw and two of my favorites. I have very few A&G cards and this one is nice. Topps managed to photoshop the new uniform on him correctly- unlike Carlos Quentin and Huston Street's Heritage issues- but he hasn't had the dreads since he shaved them of in May, 2011. Details. It's a good look, though. I wonder if he misses his dreads as much as I miss mine? ...That McCovey is a thing of beauty.

Next up are some oddballs. That Chase is my first Padre from the 2012 Triple Play set. I got a pack of them as an impulse buy this summer and I'm a fan. They're cheap and fun, which seems to fit the Triple Play mold. I looked up both of the players on the Old Judge cards; neither made the majors but Randy Curtis did get to AAA briefly for two organizations.

Everyone likes O-Pee-Chee, right? I love that split second right as you're about to put a card on the doubles stack and then you notice that it's not a Topps logo. I'm going to assume that everybody else stores OPC cards side-to-side with their Topps counterparts also.

I feel like '84 Topps are underrated. For as much as I like them, I didn't have very many before now. Of these, all but the Kennedy are new to me. I also enjoy the logo in place of an extra face shot on the manager card. My favorite of the bunch is Gwosdz, though. It's pronounced "Goosh"; his teammates called him "Eye Chart".

Camouflage! Of all the camo jerseys the Padres have worn, the original ones as shown here on Mark Kotsay his first time around are my favorites. The camo jersey on Yefri Carvajal is of the Fort Wayne Wizards, before they became the TinCaps.

Here are a few randoms I didn't have. I'm sure everybody reading this knows that Rick Wise had the greatest individual game ever so I'm not going to bother you with the details.

This hasn't even been half of what he sent. I'm going to make this a two-parter just in the interest of anyone who might happen to be reading this. I've been neglecting this blog for a while so this will help get me on a roll. Thanks, Nick; not only did you send me incredible cards, you got me blogging here again!