Flowers, Fingers, and a First Round Pick

Summer break is over and a new school year begins.  I thought I'd wrap things up and kick things off with a wallet card post and a review of some care packages I recently received.

Let's start with the wallet card:

My 1986 Topps Gwynn is hanging out with my newly planted garden.  Someone told me that gardening would relieve some stress.  It didn't really work, but it didn't hurt either.  It's nice to see the results from a little work, a moderate amount of sweat, and a bunch of grime.

One thing that did take my mind off of lessons plans and professional development were a few generous care packages I received last week and the week before.

The first one involved a nice stack of 1985 Topps Woolworth All-Time Record Holders cards.  A few weeks ago, P-town Tom showed off a trade he made with Jay over at Card Hemorrhage that involved some of these 80's oddballs.  I left a comment on that post stating my desire to pick up one of these sets.  One thing led to another and voila... I now own thirty-one out of the forty-four cards thanks to Jay's generosity.

If you're not familiar with the cards I'm referring to, here's a sampling from the set:

     

The set highlights forty-four players and the all-time records they held back in 1985.  After flipping through these cards yesterday, I'm even more determined to purchase an entire set.  Don't worry Jay, these card won't go to waste.  Each of these cards will be added to my player binders, while the set I eventually purchase will be kept intact.

Here's a closer look at what the cards look like:

     

Fingers was obviously passed up by Mariano Rivera and a bunch of other guys and currently ranks 14th on the all-time saves list.  Mo holds the record for World Series saves as well.  He has 11 compared to Fingers' 6.

Eventually, I'd like to go through each card and see whether or not these guys still hold the all-time records.

Jay also sent several Japanese baseball players for my collection:

As well as some coins and an Oakland A's UD team logo hologram:

          

Next up is a pair of bingo prizes I received from John over at Johnny's Trading Spot:

     

     

Feast your eyes on a pair of 2017 Honus Bonus one of one's.  I've actually picked up a few of these scratch off cards over the past three years, but I think these are my first one of one's.  These aren't something I'd normally target, but I'm glad to give these two cards a proper home.

I mentioned P-town Tom earlier in this post.  Well... he also sent me a pair of cards for my 2017 Stadium Club set build:

     

     

A month ago, I needed one hundred sixty cards for this set.  I'm down to needing only fifty-one:

And rounding out this post is another card from the Pancake King:

     

Merrell was an Oakland A's first round pick in 2017 who was eventually traded to the Royals in exchange for Homer Bailey.  I hadn't heard of him before receiving this card, but that's the beauty of collecting cards.  You're always learning something new.

Okay... today is my first day back at work and this morning there's more professional development... and if things go as predicted, I should be learning something new right around the time this post is being published.

Thank you Jay, Johnny, Tom, and Wes for getting me to think about something outside of school related work.

Happy Monday and sayonara!