The Rated Rabbi Sports Card Podcast

While I'm caught in the spin cycle of the 5 Stages of Grief after the 49ers lost the Super Bowl again, I ponder the real possibility that I'm getting too old for this sh*t. We also apply to card collecting the William Faulkner expression "Kill your darlings." To Faulkner, tremendous artistic expression demanded the courage to edit out everything that doesn't serve the highest purpose of the work. I've been taking this approach to my collection for the past year. During Super Bowl week, I sold off 12 of the 19 Nick Bosas in my PC. Since one of the cards I sold was Bosa's National Treasures true RPA /99, we also explore the RPA aesthetic and have some fun with Brock Purdy's 2022 Flawless RPA /15. Plus, we talk Pedro Guerrero, John Tudor and the 1986-1987 Fleer All-Star Team inserts, gorgeous junk wax gems to this very day.

Further musings on the pursuit of consistency in card collecting and my decision to sell off 14 of the 20 cards in my Nick Bosa PC. Also, we remember pitchers Johnny Sain and Bobby Shantz, two of the only six pitchers to strike out the side in the All-Star Game, and look at a marvelous piece of forgotten cardboard: the 1955 Bowman card of Bobby and Billy Shantz Brothers.

Are you consistent in your life? Are you consistent in your approach to card collecting? And, if you recognize a contradiction in your approach, do you seek to reconcile it? I noticed one in my personal collection: Because Nick Bosa is my favorite player, playing my favorite position, on my favorite team, and because of their relative affordability, my Bosa PC had grown to 20 cards. Most of them are Golds /10. With the 49ers in the Super Bowl, I decided right now was the time to sell 14 of them off. Plus, lots of love for Reggie Jackson (even though I confuse his 1973 and 1974 cards!), especially late-career Angel Reggie. We also give love to The Naked Gun and Zucker Brothers muse, Leslie Nielson.

Surprise! We've got a double episode for you this week, all thanks to making a decision to flow downstream. In this one, we remember the release of the Apple MacIntosh as well as that time Steve Jobs screwed Steve Wozniak out of a bonus for creating the Atari 2600 classic Breakout. We also dabble in "Just Say No," reminiscing about First Lady Nancy Reagan's battle cry, her appearance on Diff'rent Stokes (as well as the Diff'rent Stokes curse), and the pop culture celebrities and athletes who tried to keep us off drugs while getting high themselves. Plus, we expose head Keebler Elf, E.L. Keebler, who simultaneously urged us to "just say no" while profiting enormously off teenagers with the munchies. All this and a full box of Cheez-Its, a package of Fudge Stripes, and half a package of Vienna Fingers as we watch the King of Late Night, David Letterman, with none other than Tone Loc.

This is a true story about sacred responsibility. It is also a true story about why I collect cards.

Like Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit, the surest way to get a kid to do something he's not supposed to do is to tell him not to do it. Likewise, nothing made me want something more than hearing the Siren's song of, "parental discretion advised" or seeing the "Parental Advisory Explicit Content" sticker on a CD. In this episode, we revisit parental warnings, Phillies relief pitcher Al Holland, The Fall Guy (with theme song!), and Heather Thomas (with pink bikini hot tub poster!). Fantasies of her get us to Zapped! and 80s Teen Sex Comedies, the non-alcoholic beer of porn. Plus, we spend a minute on "Money on the Side," a tv movie starring Jamie Lee Curtis about housewives-turned-hookers. Ah, the Eighties. No wonder I am the way I am. Parental discretion advised.

I come to card collecting, to the hobby, and to this podcast for refuge. For sanctuary. For shelter. My goal is to tell evergreen stories, but I risk it here to talk about Israel balancing its need to be loved by the West and feared by the Middle East. I ask you to maintain moral clarity, because sympathetic emotions will be fleeting as Israel fights back against its darkest day since the Yom Kippur War broke out on October 6, 1973. Not only did war begin that day, I turned three-years-old and the NLCS (Mets-Reds) and ALCS (Athletics-Orioles) both began as well. As part of a resume that earned him the distinction of being the dominant pitcher in the American League during the Seventies, in the opener Jim Palmer threw a complete game shutout and struck out 12 against the A's. Plus, a brief dive into Palmer's Jockey career. Somehow, I promise you, all this connects to the 1984 All-Star Game. I'm passing out bags of Bamba as we get ready for the latest episode.

I was influenced by Eddie Murphy. Best Defense turned out to be the worst movie ever done in the history of anything. We give Don Drysdale respect. Drysdale on "The Brady Bunch" and "Greatest American Hero." The connection between "Greatest American Hero" and the presidential assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. Last, the connection between something touching found among Don Drysdale's personal belongings after he died in a Montreal Hotel Room and the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. All this and an Alabama Slammer on the latest episode. Make mine a double.

What we leave behind and collecting as a spiritual practice. What card symbolizes "Baseball Cards" to you? Please talk me out of doing a 1983-1987 Donruss Rated Rookie run. All this and a can of Slice soda on the newest episode of the Rated Rabbi Sports Card Podcast.

Giving up vs. giving over and the 1952 Topps Willie Mays. Adopting the fantasy baseball "Stars and Scrubs" strategy to card collecting. Fun with pack odds. It is impossible for me to think about Mike Schmidt without thinking about George Brett, and impossible for me to think about George Brett without thinking about Mike Schmidt. Who is John Hilton? And me still clumsily trying to process Rod Beck's early demise. All this and a 4-pack of California Coolers.