Your Mom Threw It Out, My Mom Got It Back

The blogosphere has been inundated by Million Card Giveaway posts, but one more won't hurt. After posting my 14 card haul on the first day of card unlocking mania, I came across one last code card. As I read post after post I noticed a common phrase showing up time and again.

"Everyone and their mom is doing it."

Well, that got my gears spinning and I wondered just how many moms were actually participating in this madness. In what may go down in card blogging history as a first, I had my mom actually redeem a card for me. So now when you read that everyone and their mom is doing it, you can know that at least one mom is doing it and with pretty good results.

Unlocking this card was my mom's shot at redemption. Although she'll never admit to it, she's one of those mothers that Topps is warning us all about. A mom that at one time threw cards out. Sure, she'll tell you that I misplaced the boxes or that she hasn't gone near that crap in years, but I know the truth. My retirement fund aka "that box of junk commons from the 80's" currently resides in a landfill somewhere in Southern California.

So just what did my mom unlock? Was she able to reverse karma and nail down the '52 Mantle? Not quite, but I did get a rookie card of a Rookie of the Year winner. You can keep your '52 Mantle, that bum never won the ROY.


Read 'em and weep.

1965 Orioles Rookie Stars featuring John Miller and 1965 AL Rookie of the Year Curt Blefary.

Not too bad for a reformed card thrower outer. A special thank you to the woman who raised me for participating in this highly unnecessary, but productive event.

Go Halos!

Million Card Giveaway Results

Not since the great Billy Ripken F#@* Face fiasco of 1989 has there been this much buzz about obtaining commons. Not that I'm scoffing. I was right there with the rest of the obsessives reloading the Topps site over and over waiting for my chance to complete a 1987 Topps set merely through these redemptions.

So what were my results? We'll count down in reverse chronological order. For those of you tired of looking at commons from the last 20 years, scroll down a bit.

14. 2008 Jamie Moyer


13. 2005 Cleveland Indians Team Card


12. 2005 Oscar Viarreal


11. 1999 Andy Pettite


10. 1993 Cris Colon


9. 1987 Ozzie Smith


8. 1987 Rod Scurry


7. 1987 Joe Hesketh


6. 1985 Dave Von Ohlen


5. 1985 Gary Redus


4. 1975 Dave LaRoche


3. 1971 Steve Hargan


2. 1960 Bob Oldis


1. 1956 "Bud" Podbielan


Not the most amazing haul and certainly no huge scores, but I was pretty excited to see a couple of cards from the 70s show up, so then seeing a 1960 and a 1956 were just awesome. 1956 Topps is easily on of my favorite baseball card sets ever, so getting a card, even of a very marginal player, is pretty sweet.

Go Halos!