6 in 30: better late than never

Exactly one week ago Dinged Corners offered up a challenge that many of you tackled quickly. For me, since I am "slow", have been called "a dollar short and a day late" many a time in my past, and just got busy with cleaning, organizing, and redecorating my home (it is for sale now and today was the first Open House)I am just getting to this challenge today.

But nonetheless here goes. The challenge was to pick a binder and find six cards in that binder that made you "happy" in 30 seconds. For those of you who did this, I don't have to tell you that 30 seconds goes quick.

My first challenge was to pick what binder. I could have easily picked my almost complete Topps 1970 binder, or any of my Chicago Cubs binders or my newest binder with the 1995 Cardtoon set or even the 1991 binder I put together for my daughter. All of which would have made for finding six "happy" cards easy. No instead I choose a binder I don't look at much; a miscellaneous binder of stars and set out to find six "happy" cards quickly.

For me, one of the first words I think of when someone says "happy" is smile. So I set out to quickly find six cards that had a smile. Here are my six "happy" (smiling) cards:

Bo Jackson; 1991 Upper Deck # 744

Kirby Puckett, 1993 Topps # 200

Ken Griffey Sr., 1988 Donruss # 202

Frank Thomas, 1993 Leaf Hotshots # 77

Barry Bonds, 1992 Upper Deck # 134
Ozzie Smith, 1990 Post # 6 of 30

So there you have it, my 6 in 30 "happy" cards . . . a nice challenge . . . better late than never.

Bonds as a Cub

Yes Bobby Bonds, the father of the "famous" Bonds (as in Barry) played for the Cubs. His official last year in the majors was 1981 and he was in a Cub uniform. He played in only 45 games for the Cubs in 1981, hit 6 HR's, batted .215 and struckout 44 times.

While Bobby made a name for himself as a San Fransisco Giant in the late sixties and early seventies he actually played for seven other teams during his 14 year career. One of the best power and speed combination players; Bobby was actually the second player ever to reach 300 HR's and 300 stolen bases (Willie Mays was the first).I found this card (1982 Fleer # 588) in the bargain bin (20 for $ 1.00) at a flea market this past weekend and could not pass it up. The other nineteen cards I found were also cards I needed, wanted or liked but none compare to having Bobby Bonds in a Cubs uniform. Nothing exciting about this card except for the traditional blue Cub hat which does not match his pants (I wonder what uniform he was actually wearing ?).

Bobby Bonds passed away in 2003 but will always be one of the more exciting players I was able to see play growing up . . . and was a Cubbie, albeit for a very short time.

Duplicate Initials: B.B.

The second letter of the alphabet and my second entry of my "irregular special feature" called Duplicate Initials must highlight the letter B, or in this case B.B. as the players initials.

Many of you might have already thought of "stars" Bobby Bonds or Barry Bonds or Bert Blyleven. There is also Bob Boone, Bob Brenly, Bob Bailey and Bobby Bonilla. There's Bill Bene and Billy Beane and so many others from various decades. "B.B." is not uncommon . . .

My choice is a player who "starred" for the Cubs yet came to into the League as a Dodger and came to "fame" as a Red Sox (or should I say Red Sock). None other than Bill Buckner !

I like this 1970 card, since I am 92 % of the way to complete the 1970 set, but more importantly for this blog post, Buckners card represents a double Duplicate Initial with Jack Jenkins appearing with him.

So there you go . . . my second in my simple series of Duplicate Initials. Next entry will be C.C. . . .who is your favorite C.C. . . . who will I "feature" ?