Jimmy Key, 1998 Fleer Tradition #230

With my various maladies over the past month, it seems like I've been to Target to pick up a prescription twice per week. I was there again on Monday to get a refill of allergy meds, and I gave in to temptation and bought a four-dollar Fairfield repack. It's almost defensible when you consider that one of the cards displayed in the front of the package was a black-bordered parallel Adam Jones from last year's Topps Heritage. Sure, there was the usual melange of junk wax, mostly 1986-1989 Topps that will be added to the mountain in my spare room closet. But there were a few other curios that helped me to justify the expenditure, including a 1999 Topps Finest Dmitri Young, a 1999 Skybox Premium Fred McGriff (in Devil Rays gear!), a 1986 Sportflics Brian Downing, and of course this Jimmy Key card, which is new to my collection. I'm a sap when it comes to unconventional card photos, and you don't see guys charting pitches on cardboard very often. At least I assume that's what the veteran lefty is doing. He could be trying to beat Mike Mussina at the New York Times crossword puzzle, or writing a letter to his ma. Anyway, between this card and the black-bordered Jonesy I got two more O's than I probably would have if I'd spent my money on a retail pack of 2013 Topps product. At least that's what I'm telling myself.