Dodging Big Boxes

I like to think that I am a generally positive person.  The way I look at it, if I can't find the silver linings or look at the glass at half full, who else is going to do so?  Misery loves company and I do my best not to provide that emotion any companionship... for the most part.  I'm not a completely blind optimist, even though I've been a Cubs fan since long before they were good.  For instance, there is one specific situation that will always bring out my inner "doom and gloom:"  Shopping.

You can ask my wife, who has banished me from accompanying her on trips to the local big box retailers n the past.  Small shops don't bother me much, but the Targets, Meijers, KMarts, etc. of the world light the fuse of a tightly packed powder keg that is my suppressed frustration.  It seems like every time I let my guard down and meekly make my way to one of these purveyors of chaos, little spawns of Satan run laps around the store in mid-temper tantrum or some territorial cart-pusher wants to play chicken in the aisle-way.  Or, like just week at Mariano's, the vast (yet still somehow jam-packed) parking lot becomes a Mad Max-esque demolition derby and my poor Kia Soul has a giant red bullseye on the driver's door.  In short, if I can possibly avoid them, I will always gladly avoid these lawless wastelands, as if my mental health depends on it (and it very well might).

That's why everyone's favorite Night Owl is my new hero:

Kris Bryant received his very own insert set in Flagship this year.  Aside from the fact that player-centric inserts can get boring quite quickly and Kris' 2017 season (while still quite good) wasn't necessarily deserving of such a spotlight, there was one big wrinkle - it was a Walmart exclusive.  Boo, hiss!  "Wally World" may very well be the pinnacle of superstore anarchy.

Thus, I quickly wrote this set off, even though the ivy-bordered design immediately caught my eye.  Somehow, Night Owl must have sensed my predicament and flew into my mailbox to save the day:

As someone who I believe shares that same antipathy towards Sam Walton's multi-national palace of torture, I can't thank Greg for biting the bullet and taking the fall.  I can only hope the rack packs or blasters of 2018 Flagship he braved the gauntlet to obtain produced some above-average Dodger cardboard to make it worth his troubles.

Greg was generous enough to send three "Sparkles" chasers my way, 1/10th of the checklist.  As much as I love the brick and ivy, the sampling generously forwarded my way by Greg has sufficiently whet my appetite; as I feared, the set (without any indication what is being highlighted on the front) get repetitive.  Nevertheless, I'm thrilled to have a sampling in my collection.

The retail madness didn't end there though.  Oh no - the Night Owl was just getting started on my shopping list.

A couple of months back, our favorite strigiform was blessed with a large assortment of the all-time Dodgers set ( I shouldn't have to explain to you why that would pique his interest).  These perforated sheets of thin cardstock purported to contain a card of every person to ever suit up in Dodger blue, from since franchise joined the National League in 1890 through the year of it's release in 1990; the one hundred year anniversary is the cardboard anniversary, after all.*  These sheets were given out before certain games at Chavez Ravine or were available with purchases at my wife's favorite place on earth, Target, the company which sponsored the massive checklist.

Obviously, the days of having to brave the ubiquitous bullseye and it's throngs of basic white girls (sorry, honey) in order to gather these cards have long since passed, but Greg is still doing me a massive favor in sending a few doubles my way.  After all, the Cubs and the Dodgers have a fair amount of player crossover in their long histories and, with such a deep checklist, the Target set contains many obscure players that are desperately needed for my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection.

While I always prefer cards which depict our heroes in the proper shade of blue, my options are extremely limited on guys like Dwain Sloat here.  Better known as "Lefty," his MLB career lasted all of nine games (1948-49) between Brooklyn and Chicago.  Outside of a pair of uber-rare Cuban issues, this under-sized oddball is the hurler's only appearance on pasteboard.

Admittedly, I did pretty much beg Greg to send me his doubles shortly after his original post went live - these bad boys don't show up in my neck of the woods very often and, outside of the Conlon Collection, it is the set that has proven to be the biggest boon to my CATRC binder.  Thankfully, Greg was kind enough to dump duplicates of fringe and forgotten players like Bob Logan and Ad Gumbert upon me and I couldn't be happier about it.

Logan initially came up with the Dodgers in 1935, getting into two games before beginning the life of a baseball nomad.  Eventually, he ended up in the Windy City, pitching in 18 games with the Northsiders, with most of his Big League action coming as a part of the 1935 NL pennant winners.  Gumbert's Chicago tenure came in two separate stints (1888-89, 91-92), winning 58 games for Cap Anson's White Stockings and Colts (as the club was then known).  He also spent time with the Brooklyn Grooms in '95 and '96, as his career was winding down.

As we go further back in time, images get more and more difficult to come by.  Therefore, without any proper baseball photographs to chose from, the set's designers opted to showcase these dapper gentlemen in a different sort of suit.

Jack Doscher started one game for the 1903 Cubs (giving up 5 runs in 3 innings) and that game made up his entire Second City tenure.  Later that same year, he signed with Brooklyn, where he made brief cameos in the Bigs for the next four seasons.  With that being the extent of his career, it should come as no surprise that Jack never appeared on a contemporaneous tobacco card, but it is a shame that his only baseball card features an image from his twilight years, long after he hung up his baseball uniform for the last time.  Doc Casey is the first position player in this batch and had himself a decade long career as a starting third baseman; thus, his lack of baseball apparel is a more curious case.

Finally, we have my favorite of the whole bunch - infielder, Jimmy Canavan.  Of course, Jimmy manned the dirt for both the Dodgers and the Cubs during the late 19th-century; however, that said, the reason this single is my fav is actually because he's shown with an entirely different club.  Mr. Canavan is modeling the gloriously thick, horizontal stripes of the Omaha Omahogs of the Western Association.  There's a throwback uniform I'd love to see on the diamond again; you just don't see duds like that anymore!

Also of note, is the fact that this posed-action shot was lifted from an original Goodwin card from the late 1880's.  I suppose that copyright has long since expired.

All told, I ended up with six entirely new faces for my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection from Greg's Target doubles - being more than a decade into this collecting goal and with pretty much everyone since the Topps era began already represented, such large one-time boosts as this are extremely rare these days.  Not to mention the unexpected bonus of the Kris Bryant inserts - Mr. Night Owl, you are the real MVP. 

Thank goodness our favorite bird-themed, Dodger collector saved me a dreaded trip to the hellscape that is the parking lot of a superstore.  Even just uttering the names of such locations makes my blood boil, my skin crawl, and my car's insurance premiums start to rise.  Surely I can't be the only one who feels this way about big boxers and the crowds that they attract?  This does't even cover the rampant pack-searchers found in the card aisle of such retail establishments.  Do you have any horror stories about their ilk?  Please feel free to share in the comments section below.

Meanwhile, my wife just texted me that a trip to Sam's Club is on tap this weekend.  Uh oh....