The 2012 State of The Phillies Room Address

2011 Topps Marquee #95

Inspired by President Obama's State of the Union Address last Tuesday night, I thought it would be appropriate to give my State of the Blog Address.  It won't be anywhere near as meaningful as the President's message, but here goes:

(Also, I'm an excellent list-maker, so I'm doing this in a list format.)

Blog Goals
1.  Continue to enjoy updating and posting on this blog.  This is an easy one.  As soon as maintaining this blog gets to be difficult or unenjoyable, I'm out of here.  I'm approaching my three-year blog anniversary at the end of March, and I can honestly say I still enjoy the nightly (or semi-nightly) ritual of writing about the Phillies, their baseball cards and my family (in no particular order).

2.  Continue the game summary posts.  I think this is an easy one too.  Doing a game summary post after each Phillies game reminds me of the good old days when I meticulously maintained Phillies scrapbooks with clippings of box scores and pictures from the newspapers that would land on our front step every morning.  It also allows me to feature a Phillies baseball card relevant to that day's game.

2011 Finest
Foundations #FF04

3.  Continue the Topps Phillies series.  Including the 2012 Topps set, I have 20 more posts to go in this series.  These are time-consuming posts to put together, but I've enjoyed the journey.

4.  Update my want lists.  Over the past year, I've been privy to the extensive, exhaustive Phillies baseball card checklists of Reader John and 14,000 Phillies.  I have no false illusions of replicating their impressive checklisting skills, but I'd like to update and add to my Phillies wantlists.  I have long ignored certain oddball issues and there's a gaping hole in my Phillies collection from 2003 to 2005.  Which leads me to . . .

Collecting Goals
1.  Continue to add vintage and oddball Phillies cards to my collection.  I've purchased, received through trade or inherited through the generosity of fellow collectors numerous older and oddball Phillies cards over the past year.  I'd like to continue to hunt down these oddly shaped/cut from food boxes/forgotten pieces of cardboard.  I also want to add to my growing vintage Phillies Bowman collection.  My Dad started off this collection several years ago and my Mom has graciously picked up the torch.

2011 Topps Triple
Threads #42

2.  Come to terms with my inability to collect every single 2012 Phillies parallel, relic or autograph card.  Even if I was a man of unlimited means, and I'm not, do I really need five different versions of Brad Lidge's Topps Heritage card?  Do I even need to attempt this pursuit?  No and no.  However, I like going after all the Phillies base cards and what I deem to be cool inserts.  I'll also add the occasional relic or autograph card to my collection, but it's been a while since I've spent more the $10 to $15 on a card that is less than 30 years old.  I'm OK with this.

3.  Attend one baseball card show.  I have no excuses.  My wife is a staunch supporter of me attending baseball card shows.  I fortunately have the ability to set aside a small amount of savings on a weekly basis to fund my outing.  There are at least seven months out of the year in which I most likely will not have to work over the weekend.  I have no excuses.

In addition to these goals, I'm going to continue to create my home-made Chachi cards, which will borrow the 1979 Topps design this year.

And in conclusion, thank you for continuing to visit The Phillies Room.  I sincerely appreciate your comments and your input.