First the bad news...I am under the pump at work. Absolutely slammed. So no more posts from me until Thursday night, I'm afraid.

Now the good news...we, as a staff, voted to eliminate student work portfolios as an assessment tool, effective next term. So no more cramming a term's worth of work into a binder, running around, chasing after half-completed assignments from the little dears. We'll be sending work home every couple of weeks, which will greatly improve my sanity and sleeping patterns.

I'm still sitting on nine packs of unopened 2010 cards. I've opened one at a time occasionally as a little treat to myself for getting work done. The highlight so far has been an Ichiro. The lowlight is this Toppstown cards in every pack, which apparently count as one of the eight cards. I call shenanigans and I still haven't figured out what Toppstown is.

Well, the various check marks in the various boxes on the report cards have been filled in, so I figure it's time for a brief reward, then back to the grind. But let's open my first pack of 2010 Topps.

I'm excited, because this is the first current pack of baseball cards that I have opened since some '91 Topps, unless you count those O-Pee-Chee Premiers I still have no recollection opening. So it's kind of a big deal to me. It'll probably be as big a let down as the 1990 Topps pack I opened for A Pack to be Named Later.

Anyway, here's what we've got. 8 cards, no bubblegum to ruin the cards. That reminds me, I need to by some toploaders, apparently. Wonder if there's any hobby shops in town...

115 - Gordon Beckham (Wow! Right on top, a highly touted young player for one of my favorite teams. I'm liking things so far.)
182 - Coco Crisp (Oh well, we can't have everything.)
204 - Checklist 2 of 5 (Elvis Andrus and Ian Kinsler)
311 - Jose Valverde (Blech...Astros)
Bob Gibson 1959 Yo Mamma Card (with original back)
PP9 - Bob Gibson Peak Performer Card (miscut)
Some card with Adam Dunn for something called ToppsTown (what the hell is that?)
164 - Carlos Carrasco (RC)

Well, the Beckham was definitely a win. No parallels, the closest thing was the Gibson Yo Mamma with the original back, which told me that his nickname was Hoot (like I didn't know that already) and that he was optioned back to Omaha from the Cards in 1959. The checklist I could have done without, and Valverde was disappointing because I, well, hate the Astros.

The Beckham pull means the Sox will be the first team I preview, when I finally get the chance. Which probably means Thursday night.

Twelve packs of 2010 Series 1 cards were waiting for me in my mailbox when I got home today. Unfortunately, I have to cook dinner. But I'll be opening up the first couple packs later on tonight to see what I've "won."

Wow, three days without a post. Sorry about that. As a teacher, and with the end of the term coming up and reports and conferences and stuff to do, it can get a bit hectic. Thorzul knows what I'm talking about.

Anyway, I'm still waiting on the Topps Series 1 packs to arrive from Victoria. To give you some idea of the geography, it's like being in southern California and waiting for something to come regular first-class mail from Florida. Only the infrastructure in Australia isn't as robust as it is in America.

I'm thinking they'll come in the mail today. I also bet that they won't deliver them, and instead leave me a note saying to come to the post office to pick the package up because it won't fit in the mailbox. This will be tricky because, as I said, I've got parent/teacher conferences after school all this week and next. Oh, and the post offices aren't open on Saturdays. I probably should have timed this better.

When I do get the cards, you can bet I'll be posting my finds on the blog. I'll also be doing my own season preview for each of the five teams we cover here. (I say that like I have some kind of news-gathering organisation).

Can't wait - in two weeks, it'll be Easter break, and I'll have two weeks off to watch baseball and...well, that's about it.

I loved this Jayson Stark story about Jamie Moyer, and how, at age 47, he has no desire to slow down or even think about retiring. That inspired me to dig through and find the oldest Jamie Moyer card in my collection, his 1987 Topps card:

 A couple of things struck me about this card. First, the 1987 Topps was the first complete set that I owned (received it as a Christmas present that year). And there's still a guy pitching in the big leagues who had a card in that set! It's funny, because I don't really remember Jamie Moyer back then. Probably because he was a young guy pitching for the Cubs, and I tried to avoid the Cubs at all costs, unless they were playing the Reds on WGN.

Secondly, the 1987 card holds special significance, because, as Stark points out in his column, 1987 was the last time a team had such a geriatric pitcher in their starting rotation (the Indians and 48-year-old Phil Niekro, in case you're wondering). I don't think that 1987 Jamie Moyer looked at Phil Niekro that season and thought he'd be in the same place, 23 years later. But I could be wrong.

Finally, here's the back of Moyer's 1987 card. It looks a bit, well, incomplete compared to what we know now. No Mariners, no Orioles, no Phils:
How about that factoid! Johnny Vander Meer, eat your heart out.

Dayf's post about the Topps Transmogifier being constantly stuck on 1980s cards got me thinking. Given the Million Card Giveaway's slogan is "win back the cards your mother threw out," and since a lot of us seemed to begin collecting in the 1980s, is the transmogifier sensing this somehow and spitting about a bunch of '87 Topps wood grain finish cards because those are the ones our hypothetical mothers would have hypothetically tossed? (you know, if we hadn't obsessively catalogued every card and kept them under lock and key)

To test my theory, when I signed up for my account on the website, I put in my dad's birthday. I'm now expecting to get a bunch of 1950s cards. I'll let you all know when I unlock the Mantle.

I must say it's been fun flipping through the box of assorted commons. My memories of my collection consisted of Topps, some Score, and a few Upper Deck. But, as it turns out, there's a bunch more in there. Stuff that, quite frankly, I can't remember buying, and not sure exactly why I would have, given some of my card-buying prejudices. But there's some good stuff. Take this one, for instance:

I love this card. And I'm not a fan of Donruss, at all. Their main selling point, as near as I can tell, is that you get to find out players' middle names. But this card all kinds of fun. For example:

• It says "Ken Griffey, Sr." Which of course, implies there's a Ken Griffey Jr.
• Senior is a Mariner on this card, and he made history by being a Mariner and playing on the same team as his son.
• He's wearing one of those early-'90s pre-Lou Piniella Mariners jerseys that I just loved.
• It's an action shot. If I didn't know any better, I'd say a 40-year-old man was stealing a base.

See, I had totally forgotten about this card. And maybe next time, I won't wait 15 years to look through my collection.