Tim Stoddard, 1981 Donruss #475

Although I'm settled into my new house and it even looks like a domesticated human lives there, I still have some kinks to iron out. I didn't get the cable/Internet situation ironed out until today, and the install won't actually take place until next Tuesday. So I've been Macgyvering it for the last week or so, scanning a few cards at a time and saving them on a thumb drive until I can mooch off a loved one and upload to the 'net. This process is further deemed necessary by my travel itinerary this week, as I am flying out to San Diego on Thursday to spend a weekend with some friends. I will fly back in to BWI late next Monday evening. Do you know what that means?

Theme week!

I hereby dub the next eight days Eighties Week, featuring eight choice cards from the decade of my birth. We'll kick it off with a card that's quintessentially 1980s. Donruss and Fleer broke the baseball card monopoly previously held by Topps in 1981, but they still had some catching up to do. Their cards were riddled with typographical errors, the card stock was cheap, and many of the photos were blurry, off-center, bizarrely composed. I've heard the massive Tim Stoddard referred to as "Bigfoot", and the quality of this picture certainly is reminiscent of the grainy, dark shots that are often offered up as proof of the existence of his namesake. All you can see is his ample backside and the profile of his face, as though the photographer was eavesdropping on the pitcher. He seemed to be cloaked in late-afternoon shadows. Based on the dirt and the chalk line, he's probably warming up on a bullpen mound in foul territory. Unusual, but not pretty.