A Baseball Fan’s Super Bowl Sunday

I’m a baseball guy to the core, so the fact that today was Super Bowl XLVI held no real significance to me. But what to do on a day when everyone is inside watching football? Why, go out, of course. I hopped a cross-town bus and headed for the Marina District, where I had lunch with one of my baseball cronies. I’m a card guy, too, so I went to my favorite hobby dealer to see if he had received any of the newly-released 2012 Topps cards, and he had!

Some people get nervous when their team is in the Super Bowl, right Susan? Others get nervous when it comes time to pick out baseball card packs. I’m in the latter group. I’ve been down this road so many times before that by now I know what to do, and asked Lee, the charming young woman behind the counter, to pick six packs for me. I turned my back to ease the agony of the moment, and when it was all over gladly handed over my VISA card, signed the receipt and went on my way.

Talk about a great day to go shopping! I ducked into SEE Eyewear on Union Street, where three people were available to assist me. From there, I stopped at the Real Food Market on Fillmore, where I rubbed elbows with the other ladies who were out doing their shopping. Then with my baseball cards and groceries in hand, I grabbed the 28 bus and headed home. The trip took half its usual time, because the roads were almost deserted. Once home, I turned on the TV to see how much time was left in the second quarter; about four minutes. This meant at least ten minutes in real-time, so I  did a few things around the house until 5:00 pm PST when the half-time show, featuring Madonna, got underway.

So I turned on the TV and watched Madonna. She’s a great artist, dancer and singer whose time-tested performances provided comfort and safety for network executives who fear a repeat of Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction during Super Bowl XXXVIII’s half-time show. This resulted in an unscheduled, guest appearance by one of Ms. Jackson’s breasts, which is not your usual Super Bowl fare. The NFL has taken no chances since that incident, and has featured more mature performers such as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Prince. The Material Girl put on an uptempo, melodic and colorful show. When she sang “I’m sexy and I know it,” I wasn’t about to disagree. Thirteen minutes later it was over all too soon, so I shut off the TV.

Now for some serious entertainment. Yep, it’s the Main Event of the day! I’m going to open my baseball card packs. OK, don’t go away. I’ll be right back.

WHOA! What a haul. I owe Lee one big favor for picking out some great packs for me. The Topps 2012 cards are beautiful. The color is sharp, the images clear and the layout simple and uncluttered. The biggest prize of the day was a Willie Mays”Retired Rings” card that featured the top of a golden ring that’s engraved with his #24 on it. The ring is recessed from the surface of the very thick card that looks like it will hold up nicely as the years unfold. The lower left reads 154/736, so there’s only another 735 of these beautiful cards rattling around.

At 5:30 pm I turned on ABC World News. I find the race to select the Republican Presidential nominee very interesting so paid close attention to the report of  Governor Romney’s victory in the Nevada primary, as well as Speaker Gingrich’s statement that he will press on. After a few minutes of other news I realized I had seen about as much reality as I could handle, and decided maybe the rest of America had the right idea by watching something super on the TV after all.

So I switched to the Puppy Bowl. I’ll be doggone if I’m going to miss this entertainment! I barked with glee as these highly conditioned athletes ran across the field, completely oblivious to the game they were supposedly playing. These little guys played their tails off, too; there was no whimpering. I felt like they were pawing their way into my heart; I’m going to have to get a dog soon. In a way, this event was perfect for me, since the puppies and I share roughly the same amount of football knowledge. After awhile, I lowered the volume but kept the contest on in the background while I greedily rifled through the rest of my cards.

Stars galore! Troy Tulowitzki. Josh Hamilton. Ryan Braun. Chase Utley. Roy Halladay. Matt Kemp. Promising young players such as Dee Gordon, Freddie Freeman and Desmond Jennings. Golden Futures Mike Stanton, Brandon Belt, Eric Hosmer, Dustin Ackley and Mike Moustakas. A bunch of Golden Moments cards for retired Hall of Famers such as Red Schoendienst, Ryne Sandberg and Willie McCovey as well as current stars James Shields and Felix Hernandez. Several Golden Greats were on hand including Mickey Mantle, Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax and Tom Seaver. Since it doesn’t get any better than Tom Terrific for me, I’ll stop with him.

At 6:25 pm, it was time to make my dinner. I switched to the MLB network which was showing a program on the “Top 10 Shortstops Right Now” and headed into the kitchen. Troy Tulowitzki was ranked # 1, and I agree.

Dinner was over so at 7:05 pm, so I turned on the TV to see who won the Super Bowl.

The Giants won the game! How about that Susan? I mean Champ! My sister Susan is a huge New York Giants football fan. I’m at a loss to explain how that happened. My own flesh and blood! Nonetheless, I’m happy for her, and for me. I had a great Super Bowl Sunday, and I’m getting a bonus to boot! Thanks, Susan, for my new Giants SB XLVI Champions t-shirt. The one from SB XLII has gotten a lot of wear, and I’m ready for the next one. That’ll be an XXL, please.

Maybe football isn’t so bad after all.