The Absolutely True Story Of A Contest Win

Daniel from It's Like Having My Own Card Shop celebrated 10 years of blogging over the summer. To celebrate, he held one of the most creative contests ever. To win, you had to flex your creative muscle and write on one of numerous topics. I managed to post 3 entries:

The Worst Card Ever Made

The Absolutely True Story Of Mike Perez

The Greatest Card Ever Made

My time-travel bending story about Mike Perez was one of 3 winners! (Oh, and you should seriously go check out the other two winners - they are over at Cards As I See Them and Baseball Cards Come To Life!) Daniel had 3 amazing prizes to give, and when the dust settled I received this beauty:

Another Hall of Fame player's rookie card gets added to the list! Daniel added some extra cards too. He managed to put a dent in my So Close! page:

The Baines was the last one needed for the 1990 Fleer All-Star Team insert set, and these six other cards mean I only need two more to complete the 1994 Post Cereal set (Mark Grace and Ken Griffey Jr if you were curious). Daniel also included some great Red Sox cards:

Lots of good stuff - Fleer Traditions, parallels, and even a serial numbered Mike Napoli! I also have to give a shou-tout for the Joe Hesketh card - he's a native Western New Yorker like me! Thanks Daniel!

Going back to that Eddie Murray rookie, I made a surprising realization as I was adding the card to my TCDB collection. I'm only 84 cards away from completing the 1978 Topps set! I knew I was up there, but never really realized how close I was! The Murray rookie is easily the main card from that set too, so I'm not even looking at any difficult needed cards either. I'm not ready to make this a high priority yet, but now that I know how close I am, it's definitely something I'll keep in the back of my mind with future trades and purchases. If anyone is interested, here's what's missing:

1 Lou Brock RB
9 Doug DeCinces
13 Art Howe RC
26 Richie Hebner
30 George Hendrick
38 Willie Montanez
40 Carl Yastrzemski AS
44 Toby Harrah
48 Don Baylor
58 Bob Forsch
65 Ken Singleton
67 Claudell Washington
72 Andre Dawson ASR
76 Steve Ontiveros
80 Ken Griffey Sr.
86 Dave Tomlin
108 Von Joshua
119 Denny Martinez
123 Manny Trillo
124 Dave Rozema RC, ASR
135 Ron Guidry
143 Keith Hernandez
148 Andre Thornton
150 Bobby Bonds
152 Ivan DeJesus RC
160 Jim Palmer AS
161 Bob Boone
167 Tim Foli
170 Lou Brock
171 Pat Zachry
181 Ken Forsch
191 Rodney Scott RC
226 Joe Ferguson
252 Steve Swisher
255 Jerry Reuss
262 Rudy May
267 Doug Ault ASR
283 Omar Moreno
291 Gary Ross
292 Gene Richards
298 Tony Armas
308 Jim Rooker
313 Andy Etchebarren
335 Bucky Dent
336 Steve Busby
339 Mario Guerrero
346 Larry Biittner
367 Rick Dempsey
370 Rusty Staub
375 Tommy John
380 Ted Simmons
381 Philadelphia Phillies TC, CL
403 Bud Harrelson
410 Bill Madlock
418 Tony Muser
419 Jerry Garvin RC, ASR
420 Greg Luzinski AS
427 Mario Soto RC
450 Tom Seaver
455 Bill Robinson
469 Rick Cerone
473 Bill Buckner
496 Jim Clancy RC
541 Larry Cox
550 John Mayberry
564 Mick Kelleher
570 Dave Kingman
575 Pat Dobson
585 Woodie Fryman
590 Bobby Murcer
591 George Zeber RC
605 Rick Rhoden
614 Joe Wallis
616 Pat Kelly
624 Gary Alexander ASR
627 Dave Johnson
635 Joe Rudi
660 Jason Thompson
671 Gary Lavelle
674 Ray Knight RC
680 Vida Blue
686 Gaylord Perry
688 George Mitterwald
712 Bobby Valentine

*****CONTEST PLUG*****

Next week is the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness Week, and you know what that means! It's time to head over to Collecting Cutch and partake of his Save Second Base extravaganza! Check out this post now and predict who you think will hit the first double of the World Series! The prize is just awesome!