Keep Hope Alive

This season has been a lot of fun.  Well... not the part about the A's leaving Oakland after this season.  That part sucks.  But ever since the All-Star break... the San Diego Padres have been really fun to follow.  A big part of that has to do with this guy:

2024 Bowman Prospects #BP-145

If you haven't heard about his clutch hitting, then click here and see this kid in action.  Not sure if he's gonna be able to keep it up... but if he does... he might just come from behind and steal the NL ROY Award away from Paul Skenes.

I'm pretty sure this is my very first Merrill card.  It was inside the shoebox I received from Reader X back in May.

2024 Topps #2

I was planning on hammering out a huge post summarizing the second half of the box, but due to lesson planning... there just aren't enough hours on Sundays.  So today's post will focus on the Padres... who walked it off against the New York Mets yesterday thanks to Mr. Merrill.  It feels like between him and Jurickson Profar... they're keeping Padres fans hope alive.

I can't stand the Padres City Connect jerseys, but I sure do miss seeing #22 playing for them.  Here's Soto wearing the Padres Sunday home game, camo jersey:

2024 Topps #50

I have some 2024 Topps super boxes waiting to be opened, but until I do... these are the only 2024 flagship cards currently in my collection.  Xavier sent a few other Series 1 guys... including:

2024 Topps #23

It'll interesting to see what happens to the Padres chemistry when this guy returns to the lineup.  I know some people don't like Tatis... but he's my favorite current Padre.  My all-time favorite Padre?  This guy:

2024 Topps 1989 Baseball #89B-73

2022 Topps Archives Background Variation #22

2023 Stadium Club #212

All three of these Gwynns were brand new to my collection.

Here's a look at a bunch of other Padres cards Xavier sent my way:

Thank you Xavier for all of these cards... especially the 2024 stuff.

The Padres hit the road this week and play the Cardinals and Tigers before heading back home to host the Rays and Giants.  The NL West race has been super tight so these next four series are super important.  Should be an exciting last month of baseball.

Can't exactly say the same thing about the Oakland Athletics.  In fact... with each passing game... it's one step closer to their end.  Definitely not looking forward to that.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Back in the Classroom Again

This was the first time since I started teaching that our district elected to start the school year on a Monday... and I've gotta say... I liked it.

Over the summer the district hired a full-time art teacher and our band teacher went from part-time to full-time, so there are seven more elective periods compared to last year.  That means this year class sizes are much more reasonable.

I know it's only been one week, but it looks like I have five solid classes.  I'm pretty excited about this group of kids.  Each year I have a few siblings of former students.  One of them hooked me up with a plate of spam musubi:

His mom is one of the PTSA parents and has a catering business.  I forgot to take a photo, but on the second day she hooked me up with a kalua pig plate lunch.  It was a very tasty way to kick off the school year.

This is my twenty-seventh year working in my district and after planning out my retirement... I've got anywhere from nine to eleven years left.  A lot of it will be based on my health (both mental and physical) and how stable I am financially.

In the meantime... let's check out some cards from the shoebox I received from Xavier back in May.  I picked out twenty-seven cards... one for each year that I've taught in my district.

Let's start off with nine Shohei Ohtanis:

As much as I don't want the Los Angeles Dodgers to win... I can't help but root for Ohtani.  I was super stoked to see him reach the 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases milestone last night.

2024 Topps Heritage #307

Last season he led the American League with forty-four home runs.  As of today, he's currently leading the National League with forty.

There's a pretty good chance he'll become the first 45/45 Club member.  Maybe he'll even reach the 50/50 milestone.

And from what I've read... his rehabilitation as a pitcher has been progressing very well and it's likely we'll see him back on the mound in 2025.

2023 Topps Archives Doubleheaders #89DH-5

And if the Baseball Gods are smiling down on us... both of these guys will stay healthy next season.

Xavier sent me a nice stack of other Japanese baseball players.  Here are three that stood out:

2023 Topps Chrome Sapphire #270

These Chrome Sapphire cards are always attractive... but they are even more attractive when the feature blue teams like the Dodgers or the Blue Jays.

2024 Topps Heritage Then & Now #TAN-1

Masataka Yoshida had a slow start to the 2024 MLB season... but the past two months he's been hitting really well.  I'm sure Red Sox fans would love to see him win an MVP Award or batting title like Fred Lynn did during his tenure in Boston.  Unfortunately Yoshida just turned thirty-one last month, so he's not getting any younger.  

2024 Topps Grand Gamers #GOG-25

Pretty sure this is my first 2024 Ichiro card.  The past month or so, I've been a little obsessed with putting together a Topps base card run of his.  As soon as I get a few more cards in the mail, I'll show my progress.

The final fifteen cards all feature the hero for USA's basketball team...

One of my beginning of the year traditions is polling my students on their favorite sports, sports teams, and athletes.

This year there are way less students interested in professional sports.  I'm guessing that class size numbers has something to do with it.  But in general, there seems to be less kids wearing jerseys or team memorabilia.

That being said... Steph Curry is by far the most popular athlete among my students.  Thirteen students voted for him.  Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey were next in line with seven votes each.  Lebron James was the only other athlete to receive multiple votes (3).

Sadly... not a single baseball player was listed as a favorite athlete and only one student said baseball was their favorite sport.

However there were four students (all female) who listed the San Francisco Giants as their favorite team.  I have always had the students take this survey on paper.  But I'm thinking of using a Google Form next year to keep track of responses.  It'd be interesting to see how things change over the years.

I have several more years in the classroom before I can retire, so that's plenty of time to gather information on which sports and athletes are popular among middle school students.

Thank you Xavier for hooking me up with all of these cards.  I'll share highlights from the other half of the shoebox on Monday.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #164: Finest Find of the Year

Picture the perfect Saturday.  Does yours involve family?  Friends?  Food?  Cards?  Sports?

This past Saturday may not have been perfect, but it was close.  The day started out with a trip to the flea market, a card show, and a delicious lunch with a childhood friend.  And ended with the A's and Padres winning... and the Diamondbacks and Dodgers losing.  Plus there was a short, but much needed nap tossed into the mix.  Arguably the best Saturday of the 2024 summer.

Today's post focuses on what I picked up at the Branham Flea Market.  This monthly flea market takes place in a local high school's parking lot and probably averages 50 to 70 vendors.  My favorite thing about this particular flea market is that there always seems to be a few first-time vendors who came out in an effort to clear out their personal belongings.

All three of my purchases were from people I had never seen before and two of them seemed to be doing some summer cleaning...

Purchase #1:   Oakland A's Stuff  $10

About halfway through the flea market, I came across a guy with a bunch of Oakland A's memorabilia on a table.  We started chatting about the A's leaving Oakland and he showed off a few of his items.  Two things really caught my eye.  He had one of those plastic batting helmets from the 80's that was still in the original packaging for $15.

Ultimately I put it back on the table and settled for this instead...

1979 Oakland A's Scorebook

The guy had six or seven game programs and scorebooks from the late 70's and early 80's.  This one is from 1979 and had five ticket stubs stapled to the cover:

This is the year that Rickey Henderson made his MLB debut.  Unfortunately all five of these games were from the pre-Rickey era... although the last one took place only six days before.

Purchase #2:  1993-94 Finest Basketball Set  $20

Back in 1993, I was on a break from the hobby.  It was probably a good thing, because I was in college and there was no way I could afford Topps Finest baseball or basketball.

Even when I was on the outside looking in, I knew both of these products were popular, hard to find, and very expensive.  In 1994, I returned to collecting (thanks to the 1994 NBA Draft class) and this set was way out of my budget.

1993-94 Finest #1

Over the years, I really wanted to add the Michael Jordan to my collection... but I just couldn't justify spending $30 to $50 for a base card from the middle of his career.

That's why I was super stoked to pick up the entire set for less than the price of a Topps Series 2 blaster.

The vendor who sold me it bought a large collection from an estate sale, pulled out the stuff he wanted, and was selling the rest to recoup his money.  As expected, he was trying to dump a lot of Junk Wax Era sets and singles with prices ranging from outrageously overpriced to a deal like this set.

1993-94 Finest #189

At the time of purchase, I wasn't 100% sure the set was complete.  The Jordan and the Penny rookie card were in top loaders, but the rest of the cards weren't in order.  The $20 price tag was worth the risk and it paid off.

1993-94 Finest #3

1993-94 Finest #212

I eventually sat down, sorted the cards, gave each one a brand new penny sleeve, and put them into a new 400ct. box.  This might just be my favorite flea market purchase of the year.

However since the Jordan is part of the set... I still need to find a copy for my player collection.

Purchase #3:  Dollar Bin Cards  $3

The final purchase was from one of those "garage sale" vendors.  This family had everything ranging from dvd's to used clothes to kitchen appliances to unwanted toys.  On the ground were three 3,000ct. boxes filled with cards from the late 80's and early 90's.

I quickly glanced at them and almost walked away... when I noticed this black bordered card:

1985 Topps #251

This Warren Moon rookie card is pretty beat up, but it was enough to catch my attention.  The guy was looking to sell everything, but after telling him I probably would only want a few cards he told me I could have whatever I wanted for a buck a piece.

After digging through his boxes for about ten minutes, I added these two cards to the stack:

1990 Score #697

I'm a sucker for this Bo and will always fork over a buck to add it to the binder.

1998-99 Topps Chrome Season's Best Refractor #SB12

The other card I found was this Kevin Garnett refractor.  We currently live in an era where refractors seemed to be pulled in every other pack.  This card came from an era where collectors appreciated the refractor when they pulled one.

Well that wraps up my latest trip to the flea market.  Not a lot of quantity... but very happy with the quality.

The card show I went to right after this was exactly the opposite: quantity over quality.  But I'll save that for another post.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!