You get paid to do what?: Bob Oliver "Plays" "First Base"

Here we've got Bob Oliver in 1972 playing a little first base down in Margarittaville, where there are no bases but lots of palm trees. And something of a breeze, apparently, as well as the occasional falling coconut. Why else does he have on a windbreaker and a batting helmet?

This card just gives you the feeling baseball in the early '70s was a bit more relaxed than it is nowadays. I mean, there are posed action shots, and then there is the the revenge of the simulacrum. It's a stretch, but it's there. And then consider he's Darren Oliver's dad. Creepy, right? I mean, at what point are these dudes just poking fun at the fabric of the universe?

Best part about the back? The knowledge that Bruce Kison once held the record for most hit batters in the WS. Given he was renowned as a mean SOB on Pirates teams that had pitchers doing things like throwing no-hitters in acid and hitting the Big Red Machine batter-by-batter (OK---just Dock Ellis), that's not too surprising.

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!