Not Finished Yet

On Tuesday, Dennis @ Too Many Verlanders and Tom @ The Angels in Order left comments about the Los Angeles Angels hiring Kurt Suzuki as their manager.  Reader X followed up their comments saying he was "looking forward to the forthcoming Kurt Suzuki post in honor of his managerial status".

Well I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and do this by showing off Zuk's complete Topps base card run:

2004 Topps Traded & Rookies #T87

The Oakland A's drafted Kurt Suzuki in the 2nd Round of the 2004 MLB Amateur Draft after he helped Cal State Fullerton win their fourth College World Series championship (more on that later).

2007 Topps Update & Highlights #UH176

The A's called him up in 2007 and he became their starting catcher in 2008.

2008 Topps #226

2009 Topps #622

2010 Topps #285

2011 Topps #79

2012 Topps #309

After the A's signed Suzuki to a four year extension in the summer of 2010, I was stoked.  I hoped that this was the start of a beautiful career where he might become the next Athletic to spend his entire career in Oakland.

Unfortunately, he struggled to put up the same kind of numbers at the plate as he had in 2008 and 2009, so in the summer of 2012, they shipped him off to Washington...

2013 Topps #208

The Nationals would send him back the following summer and once again I hoped he'd stick around and end his career in Oakland.  Nope.

2014 Topps #104

2014 Topps Update #US-230

That off-season he signed with the Minnesota Twins and ended up making his lone MLB All-Star Game appearance that summer.

2015 Topps #373

2016 Topps #208

In January of 2017, he signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Braves...

2017 Topps #27

2017 Topps Update #US207

Two of his finest seasons at the plate were with the Braves.  In fact, he hit a career high, nineteen home runs in 2017 while splitting time with Tyler Flowers.

2018 Topps #608

This card plays an important role in this post for a couple of reasons, but before we discuss them... let's check out the rest of Kurt Suzuki's Topps base card run:

2019 Topps #654

2020 Topps #89

He would return to the Washington Nationals after the 2018 season and win a World Series ring with them in 2019.

He'd sign a contract with the Los Angeles Angels in 2021 and wrap up his sixteen MLB season career there.

2021 Topps #571

2022 Topps #171

On October 4th, 2022... Phil Nevin honored Zuk by allowing him to catch the first pitch in his final MLB game in front of a (far from) sold out crowd at the Oakland Coliseum where he kicked off his career.  I wasn't in attendance, but just watching this video of him hugging his teammates and waving to the fans gives me goosebumps.

Now he starts the next chapter of his MLB career.  Although he's managing a division rival, I wish him nothing but success.  While we wait to see how his one year managerial contract with the Angels pans out, let's get back to his cardboard.

First, let's take another look at his 2018 card:

Until this morning, I had assumed that this was his regular base card.  However while scanning all of these images, I noticed that it's actually one of those factory team set cards.  It's a little hard to tell by looking from the front, but it's pretty obvious if you turn the card over:

2018 Topps Atlanta Braves #AB-15

Although I can't say for sure, I'm pretty confident that John over at Johnny's Trading Spot sent this to me in one of his care packages.

Surprisingly, I don't have a copy of Suzuki's 2018 Topps base card, yet I have his factory team set card and this one-of-one superfractor:

2018 Topps Chrome Sapphire Edition Superfractor #608

This awesome card was sent to me back in 2020 by Brian over at Collecting Cutch.  

It's the first and only pack pulled superfractor I have ever owned and it's one of my favorite cards in the Kurt Suzuki collection.

I figured I'd wrap up this tribute to him with a few more of my favorite cards since he's one of my all-time favorite players.

2007 Sweet Spot Signatures Bat Barrel Black Silver Ink #SS-KS

Kurt Suzuki reached the MLB right about the same time I returned to the hobby.  I was drawn back by super cool autographs like this bat barrel signature.  The bat might not be game used, but I loved that Upper Deck switched things up and had players sign slabs of wood like this.

That year, Upper Deck also released their first UD Masterpieces baseball card set.  This is one of my favorite product lines of the 2000's.

In 2012, AJ over at The Lost Collector sent me this original sketch card:

This card sat in a screwdown holder for years in my office.

But in an effort to keep it from fading or getting discolored, I have since moved it into a top loader where it sits with the rest of my Suzuki PC.

Remember I mentioned the 2004 College World Series earlier in the post?  Well check these out...

2004 College World Series Tickets

A fellow A's fan and card collector sent me these two tickets back in 2015.  I don't think these were for either of the championship games, but they're still a cool piece of history and part of the collection.

I have tons of cool cards from Kurt's career... many of which were sent by fellow bloggers.  But a few were purchased.  One of my biggest purchases involving Zuk was for these six cards:

2007 SP Authentic By The Letter Rookie Signatures #125

Upper Deck sure produced some sweet stuff back in the 2000's.  They had players sign manufactured (not game-used) jersey letters which they embedded into cards to create beautiful collectibles.  Here's a closer look at one of them:

Just like the sketch card and World Series tickets, these were once on display in my office.  However to protect the ink from fading, I have since moved them into a box with the other items.

But this morning, I took them out and admired them in an effort to honor the new Los Angeles Angels manager.

His playing career might be over, but just like my Topps base card run... he's not finished yet.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!