Back on the Keyboard

Last month, I published only eleven posts on this blog which was the third lowest monthly total in over six years.  I wish I could say it was "writer's block" or "lack of material", but that just wasn't the case.

In fact I have a plethora of scans that have been piling up over the course of two to three years.  Some of them are from eBay purchases.  Others are from card shows or flea market purchases.  However... one thing I've always made sure to manage are the generous care packages that people have sent me over the years.

Until now.

Over the past five weeks, I've received four packages that have been sitting on my desk in my office with the four eBay purchases I've made since Christmas.  Yesterday I took the day off to run a few errands and spend some time with my brother.  It also allowed me to open up all of my packages, scan images, and finally share them on this blog.

Let's start things off with this autograph of Iolana Akau that Comatoad sent me way back in December:

2014 Bowman Chrome Autograph #CPA-IA

Akau is twenty-one year old catcher in the Oakland A's farm system who like Kurt Suzuki was born and raised in Hawaii.  He spent last season with the Stockton Ports, so there's a good chance I watched him play when they were in town to face the San Jose Giants.

I did a little research on Akau and discovered that he played in the 2008 Little League World Series.  In the championship game, he hit a home run (at the 1:00 mark in the video) and made a diving catch (at the 1:25 mark) to help West Waipahu take home the title against Mexico that year.

Next up is a package from Woody over at CCW.  He sent over a nice stack of Oakland A's and San Diego Padres inserts and parallels:

He also included this beautiful, shiny, on-card autograph of R.J. Alvarez:

2015 Topps Chrome Purple Refractor Auto #AR-RAZ

Unfortunately Alvarez struggled during his only season with the Athletics, but the Texas Rangers have invited him to Spring Training this year.  Maybe he'll resurrect his career with them.

My favorite card in Woody's care package was this Tony Gwynn jersey card:

2003 Sweet Spot Classic Memorabilia #SJ-TG

This is the 68th memorabilia card and the latest addition to my Tony Gwynn collection.  At this point, I've picked up most of the affordable copies out there, so now I'm lucky if I add two or three new relics to my Gwynn PC every year or so.

The third package was sent to me by Mr. Miller over at Johnny's Trading Spot.  He sent me two nice stacks of Oakland A's cards including a few 80's Fleer and arguably the greatest action shot out of the 2002 Topps set:

He also sent me this cool throwback from the 90's:

1995 Stadium Club Ring Leaders Phone Card

Remember in the mid 90's when phone cards were the rage?  I kinda miss those days.

And rounding things out was a care package from Julie over at A Cracked Bat.

She sent over a nice stack of 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen minis along with a variety of other inserts and parallels.  One of my favorites is the 2005 Helmar card of Jiro Noguchi who is a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

2015 Bowman Chrome Auto #BCAR-KG

Julie also hooked me up with my second Kendall Graveman autograph.  Wanna guess who sent me my first Graveman autograph?  If you guessed "Julie", you're a rockstar.

Thank you Duff, Woody, Johnny, and Julie for the generous care packages!  I apologize for taking so long to write up this post... but I've learned something from this experience and it's time to get back on the keyboard and start blogging on a more regular basis again.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!