The Best of the Rest

It's Sunday... which means another few hours set aside in the day to sort cards and hammer out a blog post.

Today i'll be wrapping up Rod's (aka Padrographs) care packages... which arrived back at the start of summer.  I'm gonna start off with a 9-pocket page of Athletics:

Once upon a time, the A's were sitting in first place atop the AL West.  As of this morning, they have the 2nd worst record in baseball.  A lot of that has to do with the lack of quality starting pitching and a ton of injuries... including two of their brightest young stars:  Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson.

Both of these guys are out for the rest of the season, but I'll happily add their cards to my collection whenever I can.

Next up are some Padres inserts and parallels:

The A's were crazy to trade away Mason Miller... but I sure am glad that he landed in San Diego.  He's recorded 34 saves with a 0.90 ERA since his arrival.  That refractor of him wearing the City Connect jersey is right up there with the Swinging Friar card as my favorites.

Rod also sent me a bunch of Topps Now Padres.  Here's 90% of the 2024 Topps Now Opening Day Padres team set:

Robert Suarez was the only card missing, but I ran over to eBay and picked up a copy for $2 + tax & shipping.

He also sent me some 2023 and 2024 Topps Now Padres.  The card sitting in the #5 spot is a short print variation of Dylan Cease's no-hitter celebration.  I had heard about these variations before, but this is the first time owning one.

If you look carefully in the regular version of Cease's Topps Now card, you'll notice the Peter Seidler memorial patch on his jersey.  Rod sent me the gray version of this patch:

Peter Seidler Memorial Patch

He also included this 20th Anniversary of Petco Park patch:

Petco Park 20th Anniversary Patch

These two patches sent me on a wild goose chase to track down a few more patches for my baseball collection, but I'll share them in a future post.

He also included some memorabilia cards.  Here's my very first Trent Grisham relic:

2021 Topps Allen & Ginter Relic #AGA-TG

He had a few memorable walk-off home runs for the Padres during his tenure with the team.  I wonder if this piece of wood came from one of those bats.

Unfortunately Topps didn't bother including any information about whether or not this swatch of wood came from a game-used bat.  C'mon Topps... do better.

2004 Topps Clubhouse Career Legends Relic #CL-WM2 (#'d 044/141)

Twenty-two years ago, you at least assured collectors that this jersey swatch was worn by Willie Mays in an official MLB game:

But even this COA could be interpreted a variety of ways.  That being said... I'm not going to complain.  This is a freaking Willie Mays jersey card.  How often do you see one of these pop up in a care package?

I know that memorabilia cards aren't as popular as they once were, but I'm still a big fan.

Here's another one from Rod's collection:

Baseball Card Breakdown Custom Relic #BG-Relic-Bip (#'d 1/1)

This one was created by Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown:

As you can see, Gavin wrote a quality COA that states that the uniform swatch came from a pair of game-used pants worn by Brian Giles during the 2000 season with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Well that wraps up Rod's three care packages.  Thank you so much for all of the new additions to my Padres, A's, and autograph PC's.  And of course... I can't forget that sweet Willie Mays jersey card.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Accidentally Left Out

Friday's post celebrated The Collector's 10th Anniversary.  I didn't have time to open up the 1986 Topps rack pack he included in the care package.  Today we resolve that issue.  However before I show off the highlights from that pack, let's check out three lefties that were also part of the care package:

While organizing and sorting Chris's care package... I set these three cards to the side and accidentally left them out.  Then I read Jim's post about International Lefthanders Day and was reminded of the two lefties Chris had sent my way.  As a fellow lefty, I decided a few years ago to collect left-handed athletes.  Randy and Clayton are two of the greatest from my lifetime.  

2026 Topps #22

I was especially excited to see Kershaw's 2026 Topps card, because it shows off statistics from his entire MLB career.  Topps drops the ball a lot these days, but kudos to them for giving him and his fans a proper sunset card.

Okay, let's take a look at the contents of that 1986 Topps rack pack...

I'm pretty sure Chris chose this specific rack pack for me, because I need this Garvey for my set build:

1986 Topps Glossy All-Star #13

One card down.  One card to go:

When it comes to collecting, 1986 Topps holds a lot of nostalgic value to me.  One one hand it reminds me of stolen cards and the end of a childhood friendship.  But it also reminds me of a time when I'd open up packs of cards, look them over, and sort them in a variety of ways.

Sometimes I'd sit down and try to build the best team out of the cards pulled in my pack.  

Here's my starting nine:

Since this was a rack pack with forty-nine cards, I decided to only use regular base cards (no subsets) to build my squad.  If you're wondering why I used Jose Cruz in center when he spent most of his career patrolling left... it's because Oglivie had dibs on that position.

1986 Topps #583

I considered putting Al Bumbry in centerfield, but ultimately I'd rather have Cruz out there playing out of position.

However like Kershaw... Bumbry gets to be in the spotlight today, because his 1986 Topps card is his sunset card.  Here's a look at his career stats:

Bumbry is a huge fan favorite among Baltimore Orioles fans, but this card captures his lone season in San Diego.

I'll wrap things up with Al's manager in 1985 and a few other familiar names from the rack pack:

Thanks again Chris for this generous care package.  It was cool to see some sunsets.  And this rack pack took me back to my middle school days in more than one way.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

It's a Celebration Sensation!

School trumps sports cards... especially at the start of the school year.  There just aren't enough hours in the day.  So if you see a blog post published here during the work week, there's a pretty good chance I wrote the post over the weekend and scheduled it.

Not this one.  Today we're celebrating a special occasion.  It's Chris The Collector's 10th Anniversary... which he celebrated by busting open boxes and building special gift packages for supporters of his blog.  I was fortunate to be one of the recipients.

The padded envelope he sent included several team bags stuffed with cards and packs.  It took me just under two hours to sort and scan, so without further ado...

Let's start things off with a nice stack of A's cards:

He was able to get his hands on some popular products like Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary.

As you can see, he sent me singles from each of the first three sets in the product line.  As much as I love these cards, the Rickey Henderson 1955 Rails and Sails insert is my favorite card in the lot.

2010 Sportkings Series D #180

I was also excited to see this uncirculated Gwynn card.  Technically I already own this card, but this particular copy is still in the original top loader pulled from the pack.  In other words... I'm considering this to be a variation and keeping it.

He also sent me some nice shiny cards for my two favorite football team collections:

Plus four San Jose Sharks:

Thornton, Pavelski, Couture, and Burns are 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th on the Sharks all-time points leader board.  Anyone know who's #1?

He also sent me a four pack of Japanese baseball players, including the very popular Munetaka Murakami:

I don't write about them often, but for decades the Los Angeles Lakers were my favorite basketball team.  This guy was a big reason I became a fan:

1981-82 Topps #20

Kareem would go on to play eight more seasons with the Lakers and score over 12,000 more points than depicted on the back of this trading card:

This is arguably the coolest card in his anniversary package.  It's kind of hard to see, but this card has a wax stain on the front.  Back in the 80's, I would have been bummed to pull this card out of a pack.  Four decades later, I consider it to be an under-appreciated parallel.

Speaking of parallels, check out this color-matched Elway for my Stanford PC:

2024 Prizm Draft Picks Ruby Wave #37

And here's my latest addition to my Ray Lewis PC:

2025 Donruss Optic Light It Up #17

He also tossed in a pair of Joe Montana cards:

2009 Topps National Chicle Mini #C46

2024 Topps Chrome 1974 Refractor #74TF-18

These may or may not have been intended for my students, but both went into the Montana section of my hall of fame binder.

Rounding out the gift package were three unopened packs.  The first two will be added to my rainy day pack stash:

1991 Stadium Club 2nd Series Pack

2025 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary Hobby Pack

Back in 1991, this Stadium Club pack would have been a very hot commodity... as collectors were ripping into them in hopes of pulling Jeff Bagwell or Phil Plantier rookie cards.  Today... the 2025 Chrome Platinum Anniversary is the much hotter product.

Chris also included this 1986 Topps rack pack:

1986 Topps Rack Pack

It may seem like just a random pack, but he sent this specific pack to help me get one step closer to completing my 1986 Topps Glossy All-Star set:

Okay... technically I haven't opened it up.  Like I stated earlier in the post... my free time during the week is limited.  But don't worry... I'm going to tear into this pack on Sunday and when I do... I'll show off the highlights.

And after reading Jim's post this morning, I realized that I accidentally left out some left-handed pitchers.  Sorry about that Chris.  Don't have time to scan them before getting ready for work, so I'll show them off on Sunday with the Garvey.

Until then...

Happy anniversary Chris!  And thank you for this very generous giveaway.  Although I think it's sad that you made the decision to retire from collecting cards at the end of the year... I understand that we all must make big decisions that are best for ourselves and our families.  I'm glad that you plan on keeping your blog alive... as I always look forward to reading the different series you written.

Happy Friday and sayonara!