Celebrating a Kaline Trifecta, Sort of

Last post, I showed off the cardboard gifts my little sis got for me for passing my tests and becoming a doctoral candidate. Well, I had to get myself a present, too, something I'd really been wanting. And it's now one of my favorite cards in the collection.

My first Kaline auto. Pretty sweet, right? And I picked it up off eBay for less than $20. It took me a long time to settle on this auto, and I'm glad I did. There's a lot of gray in this, but it feels vintagey rather than drab. And it's a sticker auto, but you can barely tell, even in person. They worked the sticker into the card design so well, placed into the border, that you only notice the rainbow glare when you tilt it. And you have to love Kaline's completely legible signature.

So, with this card, I'm going to go ahead and claim trifecta. I don't have his official rookie card, and it might take a Pulitzer or MacArthur grant to justify that expense. And that's a long shot for this writer, for any writer. So, here's the other two-thirds of my semi-trifecta:

This was a gift from the awesome little sister. My "rookie" card.

I got this in a trade with Carl Crawford cards.

Oh, and what the hell, I'll throw a manupatch in to make it a quad-fecta, or whatever we're calling them in. This one came from a contest at Play at the Plate.

And, one more time: