30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Peaks and Valleys

Yesterday, I woke up as giddy as a little kid on Christmas morning.  It was the start of a three day weekend and after reading and commenting on some blogs, I hopped out of bed, completed my daily routine, and headed out the door to the Sunnyvale Farmer's Market.

Once there, I bought fresh cherries, apricots, and pluots... which all tasted sweet and delicious.  I also picked up baked potatoes for me, my friend, and her mom... as well as had Starbucks for the first time since the shelter in place order.

Life was good.

I came home and immediately started working on opening up the team bags sent to me by Michael aka Spiegel83 (author of Nomo's Sushi Plate).


Most of you know my feelings on sorting cards, but I actually enjoyed putting them into player stacks.  After the dust had settled, he had sent me a few hundred Japanese baseball players for my collection.  If you look at the above sort, you'll notice there are thirty-nine different players represented.

Life was great.

After sorting them into stacks, I started sifting through my binders which are sorted alphabetically by player to see which ones I needed.  Usually... I'm excited when I can add a few new cards to these binders.  However by the time I reached Daisuke Matsuzaka, I had added around forty.  Yeah... that's pretty flippin' awesome.  Here are some of the highlights:

 


 


What wasn't awesome was the terrible headache that started coming on around 11am... and was full blown by 1:30pm.  I had to suspend operations and lay down.

Life sucked.  I'm 99% confident... it's allergies.

Fast forward fifteen hours... and I woke up at 4:30am this morning with a dull headache still lingering from yesterday.

Life still sucked.  I tried to go back to sleep, but by 5-something, I realized that it wasn't going to happen, so I started catching up on reading and commenting on blogs.



By 9am... the headache had subsided.

Life was okay.  So I headed back into the office and finished adding the other new additions to the binders.  I took a more accurate count today... and there were twenty-two new additions.  That's approximately sixty to seventy new cards for my Japanese PCWowza.


Life was good again.  In addition to them, he also sent me some Tony Gwynn, Greg Maddux, and Frank Thomas cards for my player collections.  Plus a Greg Smith autograph for my A's PC:


And over 100 San Francisco Giants for my students.  But there's one I set aside for me:


I couldn't help it.  This card is going into my newly started Golden Gate Bridge PC.

Life is great again!  Thanks for the very generous care package Michael!  I'll start putting together a package of Nomo's, Kemps, Piazza's, and Ethier's for you.

Okay... time to pop another Benadryl.  I don't want things to take a turn and suddenly suck again.  Happy Sunday and sayonara!

24 comments:

Spiegel83 said...

Kinda jealous you farmer's market is open. Are flea markets back open in Norcal?

Great read, Fujisan. I'm sorry I gave you so many cards that it caused a headache. Hahaha.

I look forward to your return package and for the next swap we make.

GTT said...

Hope life continues to be great!

The Diamond King said...

Glad you are feeling better!

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

Oh man, I had back to back days of Bendryl this past week too. Those things after a couple of hours knock me out.

Bo said...

Golden Gate Bridge PC? Hmmm . . . .

The Lost Collector said...

Do you like receiving cards of Japanese-born players? Good note to have when I’m looking for stuff to send you.

The Angels In Order said...

Great stuff.

Jeff B - Wax Pack Wonders said...

Very cool stuff. I started getting allergy shots about a year and a half ago for chronic/year round allergies and they help a lot!

Zippy Zappy said...

お大事に。

Nachos Grande said...

Very cool indeed (the cards, not the headaches). I also suffer from frequent headaches though I have never been able to definitively nail down the root issue.

bbcardz said...

I'm glad you're feeling better. Those are some really nice pickups, congrats. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

gcrl said...

Big stacks! Glad you were able to get out and about. Hope the benadryl does the trick.

Nick said...

I recently swung a trade with Mr. Spiegel as well and, given all the great cards he sent you, I can't wait to see what shows up at my door! (Glad you're feeling better, too!)

Jongudmund said...

Thank you for taking the time to comment on my blog. That's a nice Tony Gwynn card you got there!

acrackedbat said...

glad your headache is better! I take benadryl occasionally to ensure a good nights' sleep. Zyrtec is my go-to for allergies, which I take 5 days out of 7. Have a great holiday!

Chris said...

It's a tough time for allergies, I hope you're feeling better. These are some really nice cards. And the Farmer's Market sounds like fun. I hope I can get out to one this summer.

Big Tone said...

Hope you feel better ,Fuji. Nice assortment of cards. The two that stand out to me are the Fukudome and that awesome baby blue 1990 DONRUSS Maddux . Two guys who started their careers In Chicago and then moved on. Odd seeing Fukudome In an Indians jersey.

SumoMenkoMan said...

Cool cards, but not cool headaches. Hope you get better soon. My brother went to a card show this past weekend so things are opening up. Get well soon.

Commishbob said...

Hope your headache has gone for good. My wife gets allergy headaches so I can sympathize.

We went out to eat on Sunday for the first times in months. Felt weird not just hopping out to grab a bag to take home. The place was one we've been to before and I knew they would have a nice outside set-up. Table far apart and everyone wearing a mask. It was fun.

Oh, and I hit a Starbucks on Friday for the first time in months as well. Hooray for Iced Americanos!!

Sean said...

Sounds like an up and down day, glad it ended on a high though! Hope the headaches go away.

Elliptical Man said...

Well, the headaches don't seem fun. That's an interesting idea for a collection though. I was going to ask if you have a Sadaharu Oh, but apparently all his cards were in obscure releases.

Fuji said...

spiegel83 - honestly not sure. on mother's day, i attempted to go to one of the flea markets and they were open... but rumor has it that only their produce section. i did see a few non-produce vendors through the gate, but less than five and very spread out. the line was so long, i turned around and left.

gtt - it was up and down again yesterday. but in general... i can't complain.

the diamond king - thanks. opening up your prize package helped. i'll write up a thank you post sometimes this week

johnnys trading spot - yeah... that stuff makes me tired too. but i'll take it over the itchy throat and eyes any day of the week

bo - lol. it's nothing official. i just like collecting cards that feature the golden gate bridge

the lost collector - i collect both. japanese born players and japanese-americans.

the angels in order - yeah... michael hooked it up

jeff b - my friend gets them too and she says it works. i just can't stand needles, but i might eventually need to see a doctor.

zippy zappy - arigatōgozaimashita

nachos grande - i'm not 100% certain it's allergies... but i'm pretty sure, because it coincides with the itchy throat and eyes... which are definitely allergies

bbcardz - thanks. it was a roller coaster of a ride. hope so cal is much cooler than it is up here in the bay area. it's so hot!

gcrl - it helps. i also take a generic brand of zyrtec which helps

nick - yeah... the stack of japanese baseball players was very impressive. it was even more impressive that i didn't have a lot of them

jongudmund - of course. thanks for taking the time to comment on mine. as for the gwynn, i still remember ripping open packs of 1992 fleer in hopes of pulling those all-star inserts.

acrackedbat - i use zyrtec too. well... a target knockoff. it usually keeps me in check... but when my allergies are extra bad, it's no bueno. benadryl is just my next level drug.

chris - yeah, they're really good about spacing out the vendors and the people are good about giving everyone space. but everyone is touching the produce, so you've gotta scrub them when you get home ;D

big tone - i didn't even realize he played in cleveland. as for the maddux, i was very happy to cross that one off the list.

sumomenkoman - nice to hear card shows are reopening. not sure i'm ready to go to them, but it's good that collectors have the option. hope he found some cool stuff

commishbob - nope. i woke up with it yesterday... and today. although i took benadryl last night and it allowed me to sleep in to 6 today. glad you and the family were able to get out there and eat. it's nice to see things slowly working its way back to normal.

sean - they haven't gone away, but normally they only come on in the middle of the night. once i get up and start moving around, they disappear except on rare occasions like saturday.

elliptical man - headaches suck. as for oh... i do own a few cards of him that fellow bloggers have generously sent me.

Comatoad said...

Love that Beck card. I'm working on a post about those 1998 Metal Universe cards myself, Padres-style, of course. Speaking of Beck, a friend and I had a beer with him in 2003, when he was pitching or the Iowa Cubs. He lived in a motor home outside the stadium, and we just happened to be tailgating next to it when he came out after the game. After talking to him, he ran in, grabbed a Coors Light, and came out and sat with us. He was one hell of a guy. RIP.

The Snorting Bull said...

I see a stack of So Taguchi cards. He's one of my all-time favorite Japanese players. Great defensive player, and an awesome personality. One of my favorite moments from the 2006 Cardinals World Series run was him going yard off of Billy Wagner in Game 2 of the NLCS to put the Cardinals ahead. Felt like a turning point in that series.