two in the hand beats whatever is in the bush

i was excited to be included in rod's recent spate of mailings as he always sends some fun items. no poster this time, but he did include a couple of "twinographs" for me

that's twins lifer and two-time world series champion randy bush who signed a pair of cards for rod or some other person at some point in time.

there was another auto included, this one of a minnesota wild player on a 2008-09 o-pee-chee card

i must admit i wasn't paying much attention to the nhl at this point of stephane veilleux's career. i'm more engaged these days, making it to two or three games a year.

the cards rod sent gave me a chance to appreciate the three twins' multiplayer/checklist cards from 2025 topps

as well as byron buxton's indivicual card in base and holiday format

buck is not the only twin shown airborne in the 2025 topps set, as local kid matt wallner

is also catching some air. it's nice to see the flowers behind the outfield wall on a card.

buxton is still my favorite non-dodger, so it was cool to receive this relic card from 2025 topps holiday

of course, buxton flies because torii hunter also flew, and this 2004 topps clubhouse card of the latter

was equally appreciated!

2005 topps design has always looked good in black, and having brooks lee's 2025 topps archives card in black foil parallel fashion

makes me happy.

one more twin card that caught my eye was this 2025 bowman kyle debarge chrome prospects insert

i have to believe that, at some point, his walkup song has been or will be "rhythm of the night".

there was one dodger included in the mailing, and it was this 2025 bowman draft eduardo quintero card

quintero is a 6'-1" outfielder who hit 19 homers last year split between a and high-a ball. he's only 20 so plenty of time for him to progress.

finally, my favorite item in the package was this 1991 topps custom fernando valenzuela card

fernando as an angel is high on my list of cards i really want topps to produce in an archives release or even this year's flagship insert set. here's the back:

there aren't too many color photos of fernando as an angel, and i hadn't seen the one used here before. of course, i had taken my own shot at creating one of these cards a while back, but i don't recall doing a back, probably because it would look just like the back of his actual 1991 topps card, with a few slight changes.

thank you very much rod! always a pleasure to receive cards from you!