In another example of how blogging takes over your life, I have been asleep in my living room chair for at least two hours. It must have been a tough week because I sure am sleepy. I finally woke up and staggered toward the kitchen to get a drink and my wife asks me if I'm going to give in and go to bed. I looked at her with a frown and concern and said, "I haven't written my blog yet!"

I bought baseball cards today. I can't remember the last time I did that. It was probably a similar lark a couple of years ago because I know there are some cards in the second drawer of my dresser that I promised my wife I'd go through. A promise long forgotten months ago until just now. Anyway, I was driving around with my little girl looking at old houses (what can I say, it's one of the things we like to do). To reward her for being such a good and patient, I promised her we'd stop at a store she likes to buy a doll or a book or something. While checking out her doll, stuffed animal and book (yes, I am soft), I saw a box of Topps cards on the counter for sale. I remember that the last time I bought some, there were eighteen to a pack and the pack cost $25 or something. Well, maybe not that much but it seemed so. Today, each pack had six cards and cost a little over a dollar. I bought five packs.

A true fan only considers Topps a true baseball card. Topps was the only one for years and the only one that stayed true with all the stats on the back of the card. Fleer rhymed with sneer and Donruss rhymed with truss and who can remember what the other companies were named because they didn't matter. I repeat: a true fan only considers Topps a true baseball card.

Opening a pack of baseball cards is always a sacred thing. The pack is perfect until it is open. An unopened pack still contains hopes and expectations. To open a pack is to break its purity but a necessary step to find out if there was treasure or dross inside. I once bought 20 unopened Topps packs from Ebay that were twenty years old. That was twenty years of purity. I could have kept them that way and preserved their worth, but I was too weak and had to see what was inside.

Most of the time, a pack is pretty disappointing. For every semi-star like Jeff Conine, you have four or five Robert Ficks. A Barry Bonds is just not in the cards (pun accidental but fun) unless its a gimmick card which doesn't have his stats. There is another truism: A true baseball card not only has to be Topps but has to have either statistics on the back or be a checklist. The rest are gimmick cards.

My childhood was filled with baseball and Topps baseball cards were no exception. The packs were about the price of a candy bar back then if I remember right. We would buy a few at a time whenever we could. My brother and I faithfully filled out the checklists for the cards we had. We didn't know the future value of the cards at the time so our cards would be stored in big boxes and loose. Of course we put the cards in our bicycle tires. I was a very good baseball card flipper. Flipping was the game of flipping a card against a wall at the same time as one or more kids. The card that landed closest to the wall picked up all the other cards. It was a cheap way to pick up some good cards.

I have the typical American sad story of going away to college only to have mom throw away my boxes of cards while I'm gone. Why do moms have such brain cramps? Only moms who are true baseball fans (ours was not) would not consider such silly notions. She saved the matchboxes though so at least she didn't totally fail me. When I think of the potential wealth of the cards in the lost box, I cringe. I know without doubt that I had at least a dozen Nolan Ryan/Jerry Koosman rookie cards...worth around $1000 a piece last I looked (although the value has been going down every year and the value might be much less now). I had Willie Mays cards along with most of the cards of the past greats. I never could get a Mickey Mantle card...probably because I wanted one too badly. I can picture in my head cards of Willie Stargell, Willie McCovey, Mike Schmidt, Tom Seaver, Frank Robinson and many, many more. But they are all gone. At least I can replace the entertainment value by finding the stats on ESPN.com.

I bought five packs today. The wrapping said they were "Opening Day - 2003" cards. That was exciting since a wonderful new season is a pregnant pause away. It's time to be excited again! Opening the packs proved to reveal cards that were glossier than packs of old. The colors are exciting and patriotic--red, white and blue. The Topps trademark logo is on the top left corner of the face of the card. The players are in their typical position of hitting, pitching, fielding or just standing in the field. They aren't posed like in the old days. The backs are vintage Topps with Ht., Wt., Throws, Bats, Drafted, Acq., Born and Home information on the top of the card under the player's name. If the player has played less than fifteen years, there are all the stats and then text about some facts concerning the player. The player who has been around for more than fifteen years are the best because the stats take up all the page.

Something was amiss today. Out of thirty possible cards, seventeen were really good cards. There were: Eric Chavez, Jeff Bagwell, Chipper Jones (yuck), Nomar Garciaparra, Kerry Wood, Craid Biggio (who only needs 705 hits for 3000), Eric Gagne, Brian Giles, Larry Walker, Todd Helton, Manny Ramirez, Carlos Delgado, Roger Clemens (bonus!), Ivan Rodriguez Curt Schilling and Alfonso Soriano!

For the first time in my Topps baseball card buying experience, I feel like I forgot to genuflect when I entered the church. Are they playing with me? I think I'll drown out my confusion by going to read all these great stats.