I'm not sure about you, but seeing as though there is a 2,000+ mile stretch of winter weather from deep in the heart of Texas extending to most of the original 13 colonies I'm going to assume you're ready for spring. I would definitely place myself in that lot.
My school district is 1-to-1, which means each student has their own school provided Chromebook. With that being said part of me thought we had seen our last Snow Days.
Last spring we were remote for the last nine weeks of the school year. So, naturally, I thought we would just have a remote day when Old Man Winter paid us a chilly visit.
Enter Covid-19. Our state board of education gifted each school district five remote planning days for teachers. These days give us teacher folk a day's worth planning when a surprise arises, which can really be a blessing. Additionally these days are also non-attendance days for students, which I'm sure they also feel is a blessing! LOL
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| I'm going to miss Yu! |
Too much blowing snow? Well, kids, you take the day off and the teachers will use one of the banked remote planning days.
It's not exactly a Snow Day so to speak, but I'm sure the kids aren't arguing with the decision. I'm sure someday down the road we'll all just go remote when the weather is all surly, but in the meantime I guess this is the plan.
We'll have a "normal" school year again. We will. I'm staying positive! But, put me down in the column for "Normal can't come soon enough."
It's probably time to acknowledge the baseball cards inserted throughout my weather and school related ramblings. A big shoutout to Nick, of Dime Boxes lore, for his generous contribution to my player collections and Cubs collection in general. Nick always seems to have a stack of Cubs on the ready to head down I-55 at a moment's notice. Thanks, Nick!
Nick, myself, The Lost Collector, and Torren Up Cards are all celebrating our 10th blogging anniversary sometime this year. (I'm sure there's someone else I've forgotten. Sorry!) It's not 70 years, ala Topps, but it's still pretty impressive.
This card came in the penny sleeve to the right. Wait, what? I don't think the photo of the front does it justice, because I took the picture head on. Here's a shot of the back at an angle.
Trust me, this is not a "chrome" version of this 1962 Topps Ron Santo. I'm not sure where Nick finds these things, but his packages always find a way to surprise me.
Here's another shocker for me. Kerry Wood and Rod Beck are two of my favorite pitchers of all time. I also love cards that show pitching grips. I actually have a folder dedicated to this little niche type of card. One of these cards is a first for my collection though. Behold:
This is my first Mother's Cookies card. This may not be a big deal for those of you who call the west coast home, but to find one of these in the midwest is pretty rare! Pure awesomeness! The card of "Shooter" goes straight to the binder!
Kellogh's 3-D Super Stars for the win! I'm trying to decided which vintage set I'm next going to build. Currently I'm very much like a kindergartener who has walks into Baskin Robbins 31-flavors. Tooooo many great options! Kellogg's wasn't on my radar until Nick threw a Kong into the package. Thanks, Nick! It's like you just added Cookies N' Cream to the menu! 😄
Have you seen the new minor league structure? I'm digging the realignment, but I'm sorry it had to come at the expense of so many fanbases losing their MLB affiliation. A couple of former Midwest League teams are now homes to college prospect teams and one will try their luck at being an independent franchise.
I'm glad the minor league players were given a bit of a raise to their annual wages, but in my opinion it's not enough. It's a start, but it's hardly above minimum wage when you break it down.
What I'm most excited about is the idea that the South Bend Cubs will be visiting my local Peoria Chiefs at least once every season. When Covid is out of the equation I'm hoping it's two or three times a season. Plus, the Chiefs moved up slightly from Low-A to High-A.
Also, the Iowa Cubs are coming east to play their away games. I could see myself taking a weekend in the summer to watch them play in Louisville or Indianapolis. I get excited just thinking about it... an actual road trip to watch baseball
in person!
How about this Ernie Banks Dover reprint? Apparently Topps gave Dover "kind permission" to reprint the card. I'm not saying Topps isn't "kind" any longer, but I don't see anyway they grant an outside company this type of leniency in the future.
Ooooh! Brooks Kieschnick autograph mojo! Very cool indeed! What do you think about that signature? I can make out maybe three letters, but he does a good job with the first letters and it's actually kind of pretty. The back end of "Kieschnick" actually reminds me of Ichiro's auto a bit. No?
Vogey Voges! That's my guy right there! I'm a little worried about his playing time in Milwaukee now the DH is off the table for 2021. MLB wanted the DH
and the players association wanted the DH, but they couldn't agree on other matters so here we are. No DH.
(It honestly makes me sick to my stomach thinking about the negotiating of the next CBA after this season.)
Thanks again to Nick for a wonderful batch of cards and thanks to you, the readers, for listening to some of the randomness in my head.
Stay warm out there!
Our school district is also 1-1 with Chromebooks and, as you feared, went the e-learning route. Didn't know about the planning days granted, since we IT guys aren't privy to that sort of thing. I wonder why we didn't go that route? Seems like the way to go in my opinion. Either way though, I don't have much to do!
ReplyDeleteOn the MiLB realignment, I think the new structure makes tons more sense. But sooooo many teams getting the axe is an absolute tragedy. Hopefully independent baseball and college summer leagues can serve as the orphanages for all these locales. Speaking as a father who wants to foster a love for the game with his new son, I don't know what I'd do if our local team went away. I certainly can't afford (money and time) to take him to Wrigley more than once or twice a year. All this time trying to "save" baseball with gimmicks and I feel like they've cut the sport off at the knees.
Also, ramblings aside, awesome cards! Nick always delivers. That laminated Santo is fascinating. Some enterprising young lad just trying to protect his treasure.
The laminated Santo originated with me. I wrote about it here:
ReplyDeletehttps://nightowlcards.blogspot.com/2020/08/things-done-to-cards.html
It's pretty weird that someone would do that.
The realignment of the minors is pretty sad, but here in Upstate New York, the depletion of New York teams already happened years and years ago. My town lost their NY-P team in 1998 and other upstate teams followed in losing theirs (or had already lost them).
I'm totally ready for "normal". That's pretty cool that your district gave you five planning days. On Wednesdays we have only one 45 minute period... and the rest of the day is set aside for professional development, staff meetings, and planning. The morning is PD, then we get lunch. Staff meetings run from 12:30 to 1:30 (usually longer) and then the rest of the day is set aside for planning and grading (which is never enough time). Like I said... I'm totally ready for "normal".
ReplyDeleteA victory for snow days and no DH! Two bits of good news.
ReplyDeleteLots of good randomness there. Definitely ready for spring! But hey, some pitchers and catchers report today. That's a good sign!
ReplyDeleteFor the longest time those Dover reprints have been of absolute no interest to me, but in recent years I've started to warm on them some. I don't know if I'll still ever go out of my way to collect them, but at least I don't actively dislike them anymore.
ReplyDeleteMan the cards in this post are epic. What a grouping. From laminated to exquisite (the Banks'). Wowsers. Hope you were able to make a snowman.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed everything, my friend! This has certainly been one of the snowiest weeks I can remember. Driving to and from work has been a nightmare.
ReplyDeleteI'm especially glad you liked that Mother's Rod Beck. I know it's not a Cubs card but I figured you'd give it a good home!