more about Cardboard Gods and Josh Wilker
Since 2006, Cardboard Gods has been providing the finest in whiny self-absorption, hackneyed nihilism, and pitifully desperate supplication in an ongoing attempt to hang on to a shoebox full of decaying baseball cards for dear life.
See also:
Benchwarmer: The Book
Cardboard Gods: The Book
Click here to go to the Cardboard Gods facebook fan page and follow Josh on twitter @Josh_Wilker.
Cardboard Gods 
Yo Josh:
My mom met who I think was your dad (stepdad?) in the Lebanon bus stop. In conversation your book Cardboard Gods came up and she relayed the information to me.
Good luck with the book, I will read it when it comes out.
eastxxrandolph: Thanks for checking in, and for the good wishes. You’re from East Randolph?
As kids, we would have contests to find the ugliest ballplayer picture. My submission was always Jim Essian from the White Sox. Andy Etchebarren from the Orioles got a lot of votes too. This could be a possible blog.
andre108: According to Bill James book, The Historical Baseball Abstract, pitcher Don Mossi may be the ugliest player in baseball history. He’s kind of the Babe Ruth of ugly players.
Josh, congratulations on the book – saw the article in SI. Your writing is terrific.
In the ugly category, definitely Don Mossi. I still remember the 1966 Mossi card. Still gives me the creeps.
Josh,Great book really enjoyed it.I just turned 50 so I was collecting baseball cards from the 1967-1975 timeframe.I may have quit collecting cards but never stopped following baseball.It is amazing how some of players names came back to me after reading your book.Brings back alot of memories of players long forgotten.Outstanding writing style.
Tom Chevalier
Burlington,Vermont
Thanks very much, Tom!
Thanks for your precious book, Josh. I’m from Italy and I grew up collecting soccer cards. I still have some of them somewhere in my parents house, and they bring me back memories the same way. Tiny pieces of our past, when everything was a marvel…
Thanks, Dario. That’s cool to hear that the same magic was at work with soccer cards. There’s a great riff on a soccer card in Nick Hornby’s excellent memoir Fever Pitch.
I picked up your book last night from the “New” shelf at the library. My life has taken me in the direction of soccer lately, but your book hit me in the veritable emotional gut, because every few years I look at my tupperware totes of aging baseball cards and I think to myself “I’m going to sell those things. I really need the money.” I just can’t seem to get around to it.
One of my favorite ChiSox cards from the late 70s was Rusty Kuntz. We got what seemed like hours of pre-adolescent humor out of his name and his supposed lack of big-league skills. The icing on the cake was that I think he was on the same team as Dick Allen at one point. Our young potty-humor brains went bonkers over that.
There is one hockey card site you should consider adding to your “adventures in cardboard” links. Though there hasn’t been many entries in the past few years, the older entries make up for that. I especially like their “Worst Ever Hockey Cards” section.
After stumbling across your site a few days ago I decided to buy your book “Cardboard Goods” online – just waiting for it to arrive.
looks like I forgot to mention the name of the hockey card blog it’s “Get High on Hockey” http://highonhockey.blogspot.ca/