Marty Brown, 1990 Donruss The Rookies #39

Today was an interesting day to end a very busy weekend. I drove an hour and a half to a Christmas party/housewarming for Boothe and Molly, good friends of mine who were married in May. This was the third straight day of partying for me, following another friend's 35th birthday celebration on Friday night and a family holiday gathering yesterday afternoon/early evening. Needless to say, I am very relieved that I was able to get two weeks off for Christmas and New Year's, which enables me to stay at home and recharge my batteries for the next few days. Anyway, the drive was lengthy but uneventful, and I even passed Prince George's County Stadium, home of the Bowie Baysox (AA affiliate of the Orioles).

It was also the first time that I have seen most of my closest friends from college in the past few months, including my former roommate Mikey. As he was leaving at the end of the night, he unceremoniously pointed to Boothe and myself and asked, "groomsman?". We'd been drafted into the wedding party for his August nuptials. It was expected, but nonetheless an honor. Mikey also let me know that he had some boxes of cards for me. For some reason, any mail that is addressed to our old apartment forwards to him now. It's possible that the post office just gave up on me after my second move of the summer, I suppose.

So I went out to Mikey's car and grabbed my bounty. First there was a bubble mailer with a few cards from Steve of White Sox Cards, including a minor league issue of Jack Voigt from his Hagerstown Suns days. Then there were two small boxes taped steadfastly together, which I waited until just now to open. They came from Mark of Stats on the Back, a blog that I need to take more time to read in 2009. The boxes were packed with a variety of Orioles from the 1980s and 1990s, a wide range of Cal Ripkens and Eddie Murrays and Mike Mussinas and plenty of more localized heroes, but also some true Missing Persons like the Marty Brown card you see above. For those interested in his stats (including Mark, most likely), Mr. Brown had all of 61 at-bats in the majors, and just 15 with the Orioles. His .200 average with the 1990 O's boosted his final career mark to .180.

It's always fun to get a few unexpected packages from readers and/or fellow bloggers; I might just have to send out a couple of my own over the break.