30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Care Packages Aplenty

When I was a kid... one of my favorite pastimes was sorting my baseball cards.  Sometimes I'd sort them by team.  Other times I'd sort them by player.  Heck... I even sorted them by position.  It would drive my mom nuts having my cards scattered all over the floor.

Two weeks ago... I decided to overhaul a bunch of my 5,000 count boxes.  It started off with me attempting to build prize packages for my 1,000th post contest.  But it's sort of snowballed into insanity.  I literally have cards and boxes everywhere.  It's turned into a very stressful project and I finally understand how my mom felt.

I don't want to even think about the number of hours I've spent sifting through cards these past couple of weeks.  But today I decided to take the day off and relax.  I watched some television, ran some errands, grabbed lunch with a friend, took a nap, and finally got around to opening some packages that were buried on my desk.

Matthew, Brett, and Mark... I apologize in advance for the delay.  As crazy as this sounds... I held off to opening your mail, because I had too many cards scattered around.  The cards you sent were better off in their envelopes than being thrown into the chaos of cardboard sprinkled across my office.

However... today I made sure to give each package my full attention and the cards were immediately introduced to their new home.  With that being said, let's show off the goodies.

I'll kick things off with three cards Matthew (Bob Walk the Plank) sent earlier in the week...


Earlier in the year, Eric Sogard came within 15 minutes of being the Face of the MLB.  Today he's batting .186 and splitting time with Nick Punto.  But that's okay... I still can't get enough of "Nerd Power".

Ten years ago, Akinori Otsuka finished in 3rd place for the National League Rookie of the Year Award voting.  Kazuo Matsui finished 6th.  Today neither are playing in the MLB, but both have found nice homes in my collection.  Thanks Matthew!

Next up is a package from Brett... better known as ucffans on Card Collectors World Forum.


He sent me some new Pat Falloons for my Sharks PC, along with several new additions to my Japanese athlete binder.  I absolutely love the 2004 Topps Hideo Nomo card.  It's one of my favorite photos of him captured on cardboard.


Thanks Brett!  This package was indeed more fun to open than bills.

And finishing things off this evening is a package from Mr. Hoyle:


He sent me a pair of fully loaded envelopes filled with Packers, Athletics, and Expos.  As soon as I saw his name, I instantly thought "vintage".  And guess what... that's what he sent.  I love me some 70's Topps action shots and that's exactly what Marcol delivers.  However the crown jewel of these packages is the 1973 Kellogg's Joe Rudi.  There's no lenticular 3D technology used on this card.  But that's okay... because it's vintage, it's Kellogg's, and it's Joe Rudi!

Thanks Mark!

All three of you guys helped me take my mind off of the clutter that currently fills my office.  As soon as I'm finished cleaning and building those contest prize packages, I'lll make sure to send some stuff out to you guys.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

6 comments:

Tony L. said...

Chester Marcol has a bizarre, tragic, and uplifting (all at once) back story too. His family came to the US from Poland after his father committed suicide. Marcol became an alcoholic and actually lost his job with the Packers as a result. He himself tried to commit suicide by drinking acid (and he still has problems in his esophagus as a result today). He went to rehab, and now he is actually a substance abuse counselor. His book, "Alive and Kicking: My Journey Through Football, Addiction and Life" is an intriguing story about all this.

Mark Hoyle said...

Vintage it is.... I thought you might like the Rudi

BobWalkthePlank said...

Glad you liked the cards!

Fuji said...

Wow. Thanks for sharing. This story is really interesting. I might have to track down a copy.

Fuji said...

Thanks Mark. Love me some Kellogg's... They're Great!

Fuji said...

Nerd Power! Thanks again buddy.