2014 Press Pass National Redline Intensity Set

I've been absent from the blog and the online card world for the last week or more. There are many reasons for that, but most of it has to do with a feeling of lethargy that hits me every time I sit down to write a blog post. I guess that is a sign that it's time for a break. I've still got 20 or 30 posts sitting in the queue, a bunch of scans in my photo folder waiting to become posts in the queue, and a bunch of cards sitting in stacks waiting to be scanned so I can process the photos and place them in queued posts. It feels a lot like work. The other thing that has been keeping me from posting is OOTP 16, the baseball simulation game. I always want to just play one more month, or just until the All-Star break, or just until the trade deadline, or just until Hall of Fame voting results are announced. It's a real problem. If you are a baseball fan and have a tendency to get absorbed in virtual worlds, stay far away from OOTP 16.

This is one of those shiny card sets that scans poorly, looking muddy and highlighting only the debris on your scanner bed. It's a 5-card Press Pass Redline Intensity set that was available at the 2014 National convention. I didn't attend the National in 2014 (or in any other year), but I needed to add a couple of dollars to my order at Dave & Adam's a few months back to qualify for free shipping, and this fit the bill. The cards feature a black and white portrait of the driver in the upper 2/3 of the card, and a color photo of them in their helmets in the lower 1/3 of the card. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a pretty good run in the Auto Club 400 last week, starting 17th and finishing in 6th place. This week in the STP 500 he had a much rougher go of it, starting in 14th place but wrecking and breaking his shifter lever off and finally taking 36th place. The bad showing dropped him to 9th in the overall points standings for the season.

I like Jeff Gordon, but I don't really track his race finishes or his place in the standings. I don't pay much attention at all to Jimmie Johnson. Danica Patrick did okay at the Auto Club 400, starting in 22nd and climbing a couple of spots over the course of the race to finish in 19th. She did really well in the STP 500, starting in 16th and finishing inside the Top 10 with a 7th-place run. That finish moved her up several spots to 16th in the overall points. Tony Stewart has struggled this year. He started the Auto Club 400 in 20th and finished in 14th, and then in the STP 500 he started well in 6th but fell to 20th by the end of the race. He is currently 32nd in the overall standings. The other driver I follow is Josh Wise, who doesn't appear in this set. In the Auto Club 400 he started in 35th and finished in 36th, and in the STP 500 he started in 31st and finished in 30th place. He is 35th in overall points for the year.