Although I'm excited to work with my eighth graders, saying goodbye to my seventh graders is always tough. I'll see a high percentage of them next year, but there's a sort of "end of the innocence" thing that takes place during those 12 months. A lot of them have stopped by the past few days to tell me about their new electives, but it's only a matter of time before they become "hellos" in the hallways around campus.
So while my mind is still fixated on goodbyes, I figured this would be the perfect time to salute Adrian Beltre who provided years of entertainment to baseball fans both on and off the field. Personally, I didn't really start appreciating him until a few years ago, but his twenty-one season career left him with some serious numbers:
3,166 Hits
477 Home Runs
4x MLB All-Star
4 Silver Slugger Awards
5 Gold Glove Awards
2 Platinum Glove Awards
2014 Lou Gehrig Award Winner
Sitting within my collection, I found all of the pieces I needed to build myself a Adrian Beltre Sports Card Trifecta...
Autograph: 1999 Bowman Autographs #BA37
Okay. I lied. This card is one of my latest Beltre purchases. If you read my post from Tuesday, then you know how much I enjoy on-card, pack pulled autographs from the 90's. I'm especially fond of the ones that were tough pulls. This card meets all three of these things.
The 1999 Bowman autographs came in three tiers: blue (1:162 packs), silver (1:485 packs), and gold (1:1,194 packs). There are five gold autographs in the set. Beltre is one of them.
Rookie Card: 1997 Bowman Chrome #182
Beltre only has three different rookie cards. Gotta admire the simpler times... although I'm not sure anyone would classify the mid 90's hobby scene as simple. Anyways... out of his three rookie cards, this one is probably his most popular.
A few weeks ago, this card was selling for a little under $100 on eBay. However the past two weeks have seen a huge spike in sales. Since January 20th, four have sold in the $122 to $137 range.
I purchased mine back for $5.38 on COMC in 2011. Who says baseball cards aren't a good investment?
Memorabilia Card: 2013 Archives 1960 Topps Relic #60R-AB
I could have sworn that I had a bunch of Beltre jersey cards, but I was only able to find a handful. This is my favorite out of the lot. 1960 Topps has always been one of my favorite designs, although Beltre doesn't seem to be amused by this card.
I'm going to miss all of his different facial expressions... especially the ones that involved Elvis Andrus. Those two seemed to have this awesome chemistry... similar to the one I had with my seventh graders.
Enjoy your retirement Adrian! Happy Thursday and sayonara!
Extra Innings
Since I took the time to scan all of my Beltre autographs, I figured now would be the time to show them off:
And here's my second favorite Beltre autographed card in my collection:
1998 Donruss Signature Series Millenium Marks #NNO
Another 90's autograph. Only this time this card was pulled from one of those "autograph per pack" products. It's also interesting to see how his signature has evolved over the years.
16 comments:
Only three rookie cards. Those are simpler times!
I just said good-bye to my co-workers of almost six years, so I was immediately drawn to the title of this post.
Beltre is one of those are stars whose autograph got better over time. The Old Judge card looks like a cut signature from a president, and his sig stays consistent in the Texas cards. Very nice group here!
Nice Beltre stash you have there. I only have one Beltre auto still in my collection (a dual UD auto with King Felix that they are both wearing Seattle uniforms).
Beltre was so incredibly underrated during his earlier years. It's crazy that his first ASG wasn't until his age 31 season.
Hello! Beltre's an all-time great player and baseball person. All around nice guy with great stats. Thanks for showing his cards. Goodbye.
Great collection of a great player!
Its the end of term at my university too (just had finals) and I'm saying goodbye to students right now too (a lot of exchange students who just come here for one term), had some good ones this year! So I know how you feel.
Nice Beltres! I lived near Seattle in the mid-00s and remember watching him play then, a great player.
Beltre's great career kind of snuck up on me. I wasn't following the game during his Dodgers and Mariners days. It wasn't until he was in the Series with the Rangers that I became aware of him.
Those signed cards are pretty sweet.
Wow, nice colllection. His auto changed a bit from his 1990s cards to his more recent cards.
'90s weren't simpler card times. Ive lost track of how many rookie cards Hideo Nomo has. It's in double-digits though. That's the kind of madness that created the rookie card logo.
My sad good bye was to Griffey when he stepped away.
As for the cards, as always, 90's cards rule over stuff from today.
Impressive collection of autographs! I love the Donruss Signature cards. Great set!
It still amazes me that when he signed a one year contract with Boston, he was regarded as a good but not great player who almost disappeared in Seattle. Since then he's been amazing. Signing with Texas was the best move he ever made. Now that we've had the first unanimous Hall of Fame inductee, there's no excuse for not unanimously electing any of the slam dunk guys like Beltre.
Great showcase. Always tough to see the end of players we have enjoyed for such a long time. I love that their careers are represented in card form and can always be relived through the photos and stats.
p-town tom - i miss those days. these days... not only do you have 10+ rookie cards to choose from, you also have pre-rookie cards too.
chris - pretty sure his texas rangers autographs were from the past few years. if i ever have to leave my site, i think saying goodbye to my friends will be even hard than to my students.
collecting cutch - he definitely flew under the radar for a lot of years. the fact that i was able to get a psa 10 rookie card for less than $6 shows that. i'm gonna try and pick up a mariners autograph of him.
peter k steinberg - hey there. yeah he is. no problem. sayonara.
dennis - thanks!
sean - that's awesome. hope you have a great second term with your new students
commishbob - he totally snuck up on me as well. i really started paying attention to him after seeing those videos of him and andrus messing with each other
sumomenkoman - yeah. i'm always surprised this doesn't happen more often. my signature has evolved a lot since the 90's. it doesn't help that i have different signatures. one for work, one for letters and stuff, and one for signing checks.
night owl - lol. very true. card companies tried to capitalize on nomo and he was put in just about every product out there.
sport card collectors - i'm expecially fond of 90's autographs and inserts (especially the ones that were hard to pull)
the lost collector - me too. that product is especially awesome for collectors who enjoy signatures of role players
matt - his days in arlington will definitely help him get into cooperstown. that's the era i'll remember him most by
forestrydave - great point. his career spanned three decades and although i'll always remember him for his early years with the dodgers and final years with the rangers, his trading card will definitely fill in the gaps.
That is an impressive Beltre auto collection. I've never seen that style of Bowman auto before. Certainly looks 90s in the best way.
Thanks. Like ever decade... the 90's has its strengths and weaknesses. But personally... 90's autographs are second to none.
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