A Ranger or perhaps a Cub.

Love the miscuts. My first real year for cards was 1973 when I was thrilled to realize I'd gotten maybe 10% of Willie Mays.

I don't have any posts about '76 Cubs cards, but compare the color scheme in this 1976 Rangers card:

http://cardboardgods.baseballtoaster.com/archives/609790.html

2 Here's a '76 Cubs card:
http://www.flapa.com/baseball/cards/MTrillo76Topps_206.jpg

Garry sure did have his mind on other things -- like what he would be doing when he was no longer a Cardboard God. Smart man. (He also might be suffering from a bit of post-traumatic stress disorder -- Maddox served a year in Vietnam while in the minors)

"The Minister of Defense" (an apt nickname for a Cardboard God) has been a prominent member of the Philadelphia community since his retirement. He is CEO of an office furniture company and is involved with youth charities. He also still serves as an outfield instructor for the Phillies in spring training (although you wouldn't have known if you saw Wednesday's game against the Braves). Maddox, despite making an error in the 1978 NCLS against the Dodgers which cost the Phillies the series, has always been well respected and a fan favorite here in Philadelphia.

Gary Matthews, aka "Sarge", is a commentator on Phillies TV broadcasts. Let's just say Sarge is a work in progress.

I thought every pack of baseball cards included a harsh reminder of the indifference - even scorn - of the gods. It was a thin pink plank, dusted with white powder, that enticed you a few times into believing that maybe this time it would be gum. But when you bit it, it shattered into sharp splinters that might soften eventually, but would never quite resolve themselves into anything like gum.

4 : Yeah, Maddox could go and get 'em in the outfield. What a hilarious 2/3 to 1/3 mixture of blistering speed and lumbering slowness they had in the outfield with Maddox, Bake McBride, and Greg Luzinski.

Funny that Gary Mathews ended up in Garry Maddox's town. They were always meant to be in proximity to one another, I guess. Sarge never played for the Phillies, did he?

5 : That gum offered pain, followed by about a tenth of a second of enjoyment, followed by lingering disappointment. Still, some of the joy went out of life when they started selling packs without them. You know, when baseball cards became "investments." On that note, here's an item in today's news:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-wagnercard&prov=ap&type=lgns

6 I completely agree. The "gum" was an essential part of the experience, even if you just threw it on the ground to see it shatter.

A year or two ago I bought a pack of "classic" cards. They were wrapped in waxy paper, and designed much like old style cards. They even had cheesy, overexposed pictures (though the deliberate ovreexposure was a bit off; it missed the brilliant, otherworldly glare common to the old cards).

That pack came complete with a powdery pink wafer - except that it was wrapped in plastic (so as not to sully the investment, I suppose), and it was soft and chewy. They missed the point entirely.

Garry Maddox is, I suspect, the only ex-ballplayer to serve on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve.

http://www.philadelphiafed.org/media/newsreleases/010807b.html

Sarge replaced "The Bull" in the 1981 season and played with Maddox for three seasons.

To describe Luzinski as lumbering is quite kind (although he was my favorite player when I was growing up). Unlike Maddox and his error in 1978 many Phillies fans have not quite forgiven Luzinski (or manager Danny Ozark for that matter) for the dropped fly ball in the 1977 NLCS game 3 against the Dodgers off the bat of Manny Mota.

Like Sarge, Bull has also returned to Philadelphia with "Bull's BBQ" at Citizen's Bank Park.

Oh by the way Maddox lost the afro and muttonchops.

I started collecting cards in 1974, and I also confused Giant teammates Garry Maddox & Gary Matthews. I also wondered why Maddox spelled his first name with two Rs and Sarge with only one, although perhaps he made up for it by having two Ts in his surname. I once heard a commentator remark that "Two thirds of the earth's surface is covered by water, and the other third by Garry Maddox." At the time, I thought that was one of the coolest quotes I had ever heard.

I was always a big Garry Maddox fan. The first Phillie I (vaguely) knew about was Willie Montanez. Then in 1975 they traded Montanez to the Giants for Maddox, and (as usual) the Philly sportswriters and fans mocked the decision mercilessly. But my older brother (who at the time I considered Eternally Right About All Things) assured me that Maddox was faster, stronger, a better hitter, and a better fielder. I see that he betted .291 that year, and .330 the next, so I guess my instantaneous switch in allegiance from Montanez to Maddox had some justification, though I also see that Montanez batted .305 and then .317, so maybe the whole thing was a wash. I do see that, after the Phils traded him, Montanez played for seven different teams in eight years, before winding up with them again in Aug-Sept 1982, after which he retired. You sometimes wonder why some players are traded year after year - probably some clubhouse secret that know one wants to reveal, like that they're a grade-A jerk and not good enough to keep in spite of it. Maddox meanwhile stayed with the Phillies until his own retirement in 86,

Anyway, Garry Maddox was a joy to watch in the outfield. Eight straight gold gloves. He had a super-wide batting stance and a reputation as a first-ball hitter, which I see comes through in the stats: never more than 42 walks in a season, and usually less than 20. He gave off an air of dignity and calm, quiet grace. Sort of like the rest of the team, actually, which is one theory as to why they only won one series - just not enough fire, until Rose came along. But give me the Secretary of Defense ove Charlie Two-Bit Hustler every time.

The gum was never about the taste. It was about the smell.

The gum smell was a layer of magic coated on every card. When they stopped making baseball cards that smelled like gum, the cards lost all their magic. They became printed cardboard rectangles instead of Cardboard Gods.

12 Excellent, Ken. You're absolutely right, and I wouldn't have put my finger on that.

The gum itself was about texture, mostly unpleasant; it had no taste. But the smell on the cards was indelible.

Eric! You're forgetting about Mercury, the Cardboard God who assumed the form of Herb Washington. He is or was on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,

http://www.flint.lib.mi.us/hallfame/99/washington99.shtml

FUCK YEAH! MUTTONCHOPS!

Longtime Met announcer and Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner once said of Maddox's defensive prowess, "Two-thirds of the Earth is covered by water, the other third by Gary Maddox."

And yes, muttonchops are admirable. Quite admirable. You must have more muttonchop cards somewhere, Josh.

15 : "You must have more muttonchop cards somewhere, Josh."

Nobody outmuttonchopped this guy:

http://cardboardgods.baseballtoaster.com/archives/706693.html

Check out the hat. It looks like it's superimposed or pasted on the photo. If it's real, Maddox doesn't take three steps without it falling off. Then again, maybe the afro is tucked so tight into the wool that Maddox could stick his head out of a moving car and the cap still wouldn't fly off.

Perhaps I'm thinking about this too much.