Something Cool and Yellow

Night Owl said it best in his blog post yesterday: "Just about anything good that happens this month I consider a birthday gift."

Like Night Owl, my birthday was earlier this month, and I'm lumping together all of the good things that happen in July as a gift from the cosmos. I've received several card packages over the last few weeks from fellow bloggers and readers, and though I doubt many (if any) had my birthday in mind, I've decided to consider them all birthday gifts anyway.

Earlier this week a bubble mailer arrived, and I knew it to be an intentional birthday gift. After all, my dad is the one who sent it.

Whoooooooooooooo!

A 1959 Topps Sandy Koufax. It's the first Sandy Koufax card from his playing days in my collection (though he is featured on the 1966 NL K Leaders card #226 with Cloninger and Drysdale which I also have). Still, this is the first proper Koufax card I get to call my own. 

My dad and I had a conversation about possible birthday gifts a couple of weeks ago, and this card happened to make its way into our talk. Little did I know it'd be in my hands just a few days later.

The card is in pretty good shape, with the borders being the big knock against it. I'm not a condition snob, so it does not bug me at all. 

And the last thing I'll do is complain about owning a Sandy Koufax card. 

I'm not sure why the back scanned so dark, but here it is. 

It's strange to see Koufax's numbers so mediocre. This is still early in his career, but a 4.20 career ERA certainly doesn't seem right. Koufax was still a couple of years away from his first otherworldy season, and ended his career with a stellar 2.76 ERA. 

I absolutely love the cartoon here, though there are at least a few hitting coaches that might take exception with this guy's approach at the plate. Most glaring is his hand position--now I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure holding them together on the bat doesn't lead to much success. FWOOOSH. 

2020 has been a terrible year so far, though July has had it's moments. 

Baseball is back. I took some vacation. And now I added a Koufax to the collection. 

Not bad birthday gifts at all. 

Thanks, Dad!