Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Secret Santa Haiku

Merry Christmas!  I hope all of you are enjoying quality time with your families, baseball cards, or better yet... both.

I don't envision myself spending any time with my collection today, since I'll be hanging out with my parents, siblings, nieces, and nephews.  But yesterday, I was able to sneak away and open up the package my Secret Santa sent me.


Inside of the Christmas card, my Secret Santa revealed himself with this haiku.  There's only one card blogger who creatively utilizes the 5 syllable, 7 syllable, 5 syllable poem on a regular basis... and that's Matt over at Diamond Jesters.

Along with his haiku, he also included this Eric Chavez bat card:

2004 Studio Masterstrokes Bats #MS-18 (#'d 010/200)

This bat card marks the 36th Eric Chavez relic card in my collection.  I haven't actually checked, but I gotta imagine he's in the running with Rickey Henderson and Kurt Suzuki for largest player collection among my Oakland Athletics.


Eric Chavez is one of the greatest Oakland Athletics to never make an all-star team.  From 2001 to 2006, he won six straight Gold Glove Awards, had four 100+ RBI seasons, and hit at least 22 home runs each season.  Unfortunately the second half of his career was marred by injuries and it didn't help that he ended up signing with the New York Yankees.

However... now that he's retired... I don't hold that against him.

Okay moving on to the rest of my Secret Santa gift...

2007 Heritage Felt Logo Box Topper

This oversized piece of felt is truly beautiful and has already found a home in my office.

Matt also sent a team bag filled with cards:


Half are for for my Athletics PC, while the other half are San Francisco Giants for my students.  In addition to these cards, Matt also sent my students four sheets of stickers:


And rounding out the awesome Secret Santa care package is this 2018 Donruss Optic value pack:


Here's a 9-pocket page highlighting the pack:


Thank you Matt!  I hope you and your family are having a very merry Christmas... like I am with my nieces and nephews:


Merry Christmas and sayonara!

17 comments:

Matt said...

Merry Christmas Fuji! I'm glad you like d it!

Adam said...

Merry Christmas Fuji!

Coast To Posts said...

Merry Christmas Fuji!!

Jon said...

I never knew that Heritage did felt box toppers! You can never go wrong with an item that features the old Philadelphia logo.

Brian said...

I can't believe Chavez was never named to the All-Star team, I thought he was the A's best position player for a good portion of their early 2000s playoff teams. Merry Christmas!

Angus said...

Merry Christmas!

JediJeff said...

Ummmm......why do you all (well, most all) have weapons in your hands?

RAZ said...

The fencepost that gal on the right is holding caught my eye. I spent much of my youth pounding fenceposts into the ground on the family farm.

CaptKirk42 said...

Nice S Santa haul. Great Heritage Felt Logo.

The Lost Collector said...

Merry Christmas Fuji!

SumoMenkoMan said...

メリークリスマス!

Nick said...

Merry Christmas, Mr. Fuji!

Matt said...

Merry Christmas!

Ana Lu said...

Now that's a family photo! =D

Fuji said...

My Christmas was truly very merry. Hope all of yours was too!

Matt - Thanks again for the awesome Secret Santa package.

Jon - I'm a big fan of the old school elephant logo too.

Brian - Defensively he's one of the greatest infielders in Oakland Athletics history. This year people were constantly comparing Matt Chapman to him.

JediJeff - I bought them all Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Santa Cruz (Skateboard) Screaming Hand t-shirts. They were posing like the turtles.

Raz - That's my niece. The fencepost is a makeshift bo staff (she's suppose to be Donatello TMNT).

SumoMenkoMan -明けましておめでとうございます

Ana Lu - It was nice to see all of them hanging out... now that they're all growing up and three are in college.

Big Tone said...

Kind of late to the party but Merry X-Mas Fuji,and a Happy New Year!

Fuji said...

Thank you! Hope you and your family had a merry Christmas... and a Happy New Year!