The French are glad to die for love...

Oh, if only I had more time to spend with this post. I'll revisit it sometime and do the full concept I was thinking about.

Meanwhile, while Nicole Kidman does her take on a classic, I'll provide you with some related baseball card content!

Yesterday wasn't too bad of a day. The weather was nice and I was up relatively early, so I took my season pass and spent a couple hours at one of the local theme parks. If I was independently wealthy, I'd probably spend half my time traveling, half that time on roller coasters, and half my time with baseball cards. Traveling (and everything that goes with that - eating at new places, going to amusement parks, photography, discovering new and exciting things) and baseball card collecting are my two biggest interests. Anyway, I digress. After flipping upside down a few dozen times, it was getting hot and crowds were getting crowdier so I headed back home, but not before stopping at a Target to check out their baseball card stash.

Oh, how I wish the Targets nearest me were as well-stocked as this one. And oh, how I wish this one had Bowman Platinum. There was Heritage in several packaging formats, Gypsy Queen looseys, Topps 1 and 2 in various formats, and even some Ginter looseys. For the first time in the Bay Area, I saw a couple value boxes - they're smaller than the first time they were released. Knowing that I have plenty of Ginter on the way, being essentiallydone with Heritage and Topps 1, and wanting a pack fix, I figured it was best to go with some Topps 2. I grabbed one of the four-packs with a code card, and two rack packs.

I'll save you from the scans. I'm kind of lazy right now anyway. I knocked out 10 of my base card needs, one Kimball, and two 60 Years of Cards Your Mom Archived. That means I have a new large stack of extras - base and inserts. As I work through trades I'll check your want lists again.

In addition to the guaranteed Diamond Giveaway code, I pulled one from a rack pack.

What did I get?

For nearly two decades, Bill Robinson traveled a bit, playing for the Braves, Yankees, Phillies, Pirates, and Phillies again. His career highlight is winning a World Series championship as a player in this year, 1979, with this team, the Pirates. He would go on to coach with the Mets and Marlins, winning a World Series ring as a coach with each team (1986 and 2003, respectively). He also coached with the Yankees and Phillies, and managed in the Venezuelan League. He died in 2007 in his hotel room as a hitting coordinator for the Dodgers minor league system. Playing-wise, he wasn't great, a career .258 hitter with 166 home runs and 641 RBIs.

The die has been cast again! This time, Josh Beckett, obviously (I take it you can see his name in the screenshot). This makes my fourth die cut - I also have Martin Prado, Alex Rios, and Heath Bell. Within an hour of unlocking the Beckett I had a trade offer for someone wanting it in return for a second Rios. Yeah, I think that's a DECLINE. However, if anyone wants my Rios I'll trade it for pretty much any other die cut out there. I really want a black diamond card for my Zoo collection, but so far I've been shut out on trades. I've not really made any spectacular offers but I'm only asking for the scrubs like any player on the A's or Wandy Rodriguez (or even Alex Rios). I'm considering offering up Rios, Prado, and Bell for a black. What do you think?

More cards came in the mail these past few days. I'll play show and tell this weekend.