Birthday Gifts From Jet

I apologize for unintentionally taking a week off from the blog this past week.  Long story short, I was called out to do a major project for work and I was unable to get to scanning and blogging cards.  Add in that I was not in the mood to blog about recent Chris Davis acquisitions on Friday and then being out of town for the Carolina Panther game this weekend, I got a much deserved break.

Also, Sunday was my birthday.  I have received a few birthday packages from some friends and the first of which that I'll show is what I got from my buddy, Jet, from Instagram.

Jet hooked me up with a few cards that would help with my set needs, like the above 1959 Topps Steve Korcheck.

I helped Jet recently with upgrading the Rube Walker in his 1954 set and in return, he sent me the card that was being upgraded.  Pretty nice card that I'll likely hold onto until I try the 1954 set.

The big pieces from his birthday package were these two 1948 Bowman cards that I needed for my set.  The above card is #42 in the set, Ray Poat.  Poat (b. 1917 - d. 1990) played in the majors from 1942 to 1944 and 1947 to 1949 for the Indians, Giants and Pirates.  He was 22-30 over his career with a 4.55 ERA and 178 strikeouts.

The other '48 Bowman was card #13, Willard Marshall.  Marshall (b. 1921 - d. 2000), a Richmond native, played at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.  I thought that was a pretty cool tidbit of information there.  He played in the majors from 1942 and 1946 to 1955 for the Giants, Braves, Reds and White Sox.  He had 1,160 hits, 130 home runs and a lifetime average of .274.  He was a three-time All Star and finished as high as 16th in the NL MVP voting (1947).  Not a bad career at all!

Those two cards knock my 1948 needs down to 15 cards.  I have completed 69% of the set and already have most of the major rookie cards out of the way, except for the Rizzuto.  I'll have to start being diligent in looking for one of those.

Thanks so much for the gifts, Jet.  The best part of the package, of course, was the birthday card and notes that Jet included.  I always love getting notes and letters and what he wrote was really great.  I definitely appreciate having such a good friend.