This was the best day ever!!!  “I GOT THE NEW CARDS!”, used to generate excitement.  NOTE: I’ve included utility man Chris Burke’s card as proof, nobody, to my knowledge, has posted his, who cares, card.  I remember getting together with friends, for an extended lunch at a local restaurant, to look at the new cards.  Whoever got the cards first would call the others and quick arrangements would be made to get together.  Out of town managers would call me on the phone, I’d patiently tell them, nope he didn’t get a B, sometimes patiently for the 3rd time.  There was even a time when people would drive to Lancaster, the APBA Mecca, to get the cards, hot off the press.  While we never went to that extreme, I can remember ordering through the Newton Lumber Company in Ohio, somebody from there drove to Lancaster, picked up orders, and shipped them out quicker than the APBA Game company could.  We’d even pay $25 for an express shipping, to get them one or two days sooner.  I remember even splitting up my order, because getting just the cards, would get them to me quicker, and then I’d place another order for just the XBs (the extra six to ten players per team).  In addition to seeing what each player got for hitting cards, and pitching & fielding ratings, it was also the first time we’d know which players were carded.  Sometimes a late season trade would mean a player would not get a card, even though he’d played alot.  Oh, YEAH BABY, this was like your birthday & Christmas, all rolled into one!  There was not a better day!

But that was then, this is now.  Things change, not necessarily for the better.  I got the cards six days ago.  I put the XBs onto their appropriate teams, no more tearing apart perforated cards, they’re not printed in black to be cut apart (for the really old timers), they look like any other cards.  The team envelopes now say, Junior & Senior Circuit, rather than American & National League, and there are no team names, only cities, because of some type of MLB licensing agreement.  There the new cards sit, on my desk, in their team envelopes, we get a “league” set of cards used for official Illowa APBA League play, so these cards will never be used.  Now a days, in this overnight, computer world, information is much more hard to keep under wraps.  First of all, there are the predictions.  Then there is an online chat, where all the numbers & grades are posted, this was done long before I got the cards!

But I still order the new cards because I believe my buying a set helps the APBA Game Company.  And even though I know the stuff printed on the cards from checking my computer screen, I still get a thrill when the mailman comes, and I can yell, “I GOT THE NEW CARDS!”

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