I opened a pack of cards today, for the first time in more than two months.

It felt good, even if the biggest card in the pack was a Yankee:

I also got this card, which I already had. Heath Bell's slide from the bullpen was, to me, the iconic image of last year's All-Star game. In a (sadly rare) case of getting-it-right from Topps, they managed to immortalise the image, which is great.


Yoenis Cespedes didn't take long to show he belonged today. I'm sure it's too late for him to be included in 2012 Series 2, we'll probably have to wait until the Update Series for his rookie card. By then it might be worthless.

It's been a rough couple of months here at RGB Manor. Financially speaking, things weren't going too flash. I won't bore you with the details. Suffice to say, I didn't really have the funds to purchase any 2012 cards, and rather than read about all the sick pulls you all were getting, and feeling like I was missing out, I just withdrew from the blogging community.

I also didn't feel like writing about old cards. I had three jumbo packs of 2011 Update just sitting on my shelf, unopened. I didn't want to touch them because I didn't know when I would be able to purchase any more cards, and I didn't want to use up what little I had. Strange, I know, but I blame my grandfather, who grew up during the Great Depression, for passing that particular little mental viewpoint on to me.

It may not be the Great Depression, but the Great Recession sure hit hard. We moved back down from up north with only one guaranteed income (my wife's). We thought it wouldn't be too hard for me to find a job, but that turned out to be untrue. Apparently, at least 35 other teachers were looking for full-time employment down here. I know, because every time I applied for a job and got knocked back, I got the same story: "You had a very strong application, and we appreciate the time you put into it, but there were 35 other applicants for the same position."

Teacher shortage, my ass.

Sure, I picked up some relief teaching, but it wasn't consistent (as substitute teaching is wont to be). And while I did get a job teaching phys ed, and it was a great little school, it was only one day a week. Not enough to bring in. I also got a weekend job at a gas station. It's not like I earned rest on the weekend, anyway. We could use the money.

But today is opening day. The Mariners are 1-0. And Ichiro leads the majors in batting, with a crisp .800 mark. So all is right with the world.

Not only that, but I got a good little piece of news today. Along with a full-time job. I'll be teaching science to students from Grades 1 to 7, starting next term. Plus, I have relief teaching lined up for the rest of this term. I finally feel like a real teacher again.

The box of 2012 Topps has been ordered, and it is making its way to RGB Manor as we speak.

Ahh, the magic of Opening Day.

First, the good news - I will definitely reveal the contents of my patch card in this post. Sorry about the deception yesterday but hey - it was April 1st.

Now, the bad news - the patch card has already been claimed.

There weren't near as many cards in the final five packs worth posting about. In fact, there were seven. None of them were base cards, so I only added the one to my set, leaving me 20 cards short (for now). Heck, even both of the Diamond Duos cards that I pulled were duplicates!

Here's the cards I did get that I'm keeping. And I'm being generous when I say there were seven cards because one of them is a ToppsTown card. But it's Aroldis Chapman. Might as well show you that first, since the cat's now out of the bag:

Two Kimball mini cards also spilled out of the back. I could have sworn that I already had the Starlin Castro card, but it turns out I didn't. Not that it matters, I'm not collecting the set, except for PC and team purposes.


Two parallel cards: a Jose Guillen gold parallel and a Jon Jay diamond parallel. Both are available - please make me an offer!



Here's some cards that will definitely be sticking around - 60 Years cards for Roy Campanella (1953) and Reginald Martinez Jackson (1970). I never get tired of looking at young Reggie. A fresh-face youngster who probably didn't even know what aviator sunglasses looked like. He looks skinnier than a straw, never mind being the straw that stirs the drink.



Finally, the patch card. Some of you would love to have pulled this card. But you can probably understand why I wasn't too excited:


Matt Holliday on a Cardinals patch card. Oh well, at least it wasn't an Astros card.

Like I said, the card has already been claimed. After I put up my updated 2011 want list, Richard from Dawgbones - A Phillies Phan e-mailed me to let me know that he had some cards to send. He also mentioned that if the (as yet unveiled) patch card belonged to one of the teams he collected, he had a Ichiro 1969 Seattle Pilots patch card to swap for it.

Well, I was planning on making this card available for one of the four patch cards I care about - the two Ichiros ('69 Pilots and '91 Mariners), Felix Hernandez ('82 Mariners) and Tim Lincecum ('62 Giants). Now, here's Richard offering one of those very cards for it! All we need is a match.

Of course, those of you who follow Richard's blog know that, like me, he collects five teams. And they are the Phillies, Yankees, Diamondbacks, Twins and Red Sox. Not the Cardinals. Bummer.

However...he also has some, shall we say...esoteric collections as well. And one of those is players who wear #7 or #17 on their uniform. Hey - Matt Holliday wears #7!

And thus, the seeds of a trade have been sown. I hope you enjoy the picture of somebody else's card.

When I left my old school, they gave me a $50 Amazon gift certificate as a going away present. I thought about getting the complete collection of Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, but, come on, this is me we're talking about here. I spent in on the 2011 Baseball Prospectus and a blaster of 2011 Topps instead. You know, the one that comes with the manu-patch in each box.

What better way to celebrate Opening Day than by opening some cards while watching baseball? This is part one of a two-part post.

After breaking my jumbo box, I was about 20 cards short (actually, 21). Well, now I'm exactly 20 cards short because the first five packs yielded one card I needed. That's about at the odds, when you think about it. There were roughly 25 base cards in those five packs, and with 95% of the set collected, you'd think 95% of those cards would be dupes. Anyway, this is that card.



I'm not going to show all the cards, just the ones that I didn't have before. So it's mostly going to be inserts. Two hot rookies from last year trying to avoid sophomore slumps. Can you read the categories on the cards? They're laughable examples of Bill James's "We can form a group" theory from his book Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame? (I liked its original title, The Politics of Glory)


Another Card Your Mom Threw Out 60 Years of Topps card. The power of Yount compels you!





And now, a bunch of insert cards I have no interest in collecting, so they're up for grabs. Of course the diamond shiny card is Neil Walker. The preponderance of parallel Pittsburgh Pirates in my portfolio is perturbing.


Okay, I have to say, 2011 Topps Series 1 is probably my favorite set of all time, if only because of the number of special cards I pulled out of it. First Sandy Koufax in the jumbo box, and in this blaster, the original Hebrew Hammer (sorry Ryan Braun). The Greenberg parallel is a significant upgrade over Miguel Cabrera (the "real" card #150).


How can I top that? I can't really. So here's the patch card:


April Fool! We'll save that for part two.

This is one of the better days to be a baseball fan in Australia because there actually multiple games on television. Usually, between the three Fox Sports channels and ESPN, I can count on a game every night. Now that ESPN2 has reached our shores, hopefully that will mean even more baseball to watch.

Opening Day, however, means three games in a row, from 1:00 through to about 11:00 or so. I can't get too excited about the first game, the Tigers at the Yankees, but when it's the first game that actually means something in six months, I'll even give the Yankees a chance. Just this once.

The night game is the Dodgers vs. the Giants, and that's something I am looking forward to, with Tim Lincecum taking the mound. Which Timmy Jim will show up - the August version or the September model?

But the best thing about this young season, already, is that since Major League Baseball seems to be treating both Thursday and Friday as two separate Opening Days, that means we get to do it all over again tomorrow. Three more games back-to-back-to-back. Sure, I'm stuck watching the Astros in one and the Sawx in another, but six games on TV in two days?

Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

This kind of snuck up on me. Usually, of course, Opening Day is on the same day as the NCAA National Championship game, aka THE BEST DAY OF SPORTS FOR THE WHOLE YEAR. But this year, Major League Baseball decided to stuff things around. I'm not sure why.

This season, I plan on offering more insight and analysis. I welcome your comments and responses, as always. I leave you with, what else? Some cards from the Topps Opening Day set, which is usually available before Opening Day. Go figure.

Whoever your team is, good luck this year. And smile - because right now, your team is in first place!