Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  First and foremost... it means a week off from work.  I enjoy my job, have really good classes this semester and a very cool principal, and am blessed to work with people I consider friends.  But... a week off is a week off... and I love it.

2024 Topps Now #760

The second best thing is the holiday itself which involves family, friends, football, and a feast.  My oldest brother and his wife hosted it again.  That's the brother that took me to ball games when I was a kid... and the one who went with me to the final game at the Coliseum.  

Topps created cards honoring the event and I made sure to preorder them on eBay for a few bucks each.  But before I get to the other two cards from that game, I want to show off five cards my other brother recently gave me:

Everyone in my family knows that I collect cards... so when these arrived in the mail (possibly as part of a donation inquiry), he set them aside for me.  I don't specialize in military trading cards... but they were a gift from him, so they'll be treasured.

Unfortunately, he hasn't been feeling well since our trip to Hawaii... so he missed the family gathering today.  But we're planning on getting together again for Christmas.

Okay... here are the other two Topps Now cards from September 26th:

2024 Topps Now #762

If you're wondering how Topps could have produced 762 different Topps Now cards for one MLB season... it's because they create cards like this one which honors Mason Miller for throwing the fastest pitch by an A's pitcher during the Statcast Era.  Unfortunately the photo on this card isn't related to 103.8mph pitch.  It was captured after the A's recorded the final out of the game.

I'm not complaining though... because it's another card for a very special collection.  The third and final card features Rickey Henderson and Dave Stewart:

2024 Topps Now #761

These two Oakland A's legends tossed out the ceremonial first pitch.  My first memories of attending baseball games was going with my oldest brother to the Coliseum to watch Rickey Henderson.  I'm truly thankful to have two brothers and a sister that are all still a big part of my life.

I'm also very grateful for all of you who have taken the time to read and comment on my blog posts.  Reading and responding to your comments is arguably my favorite thing about being a part of our blogosphere.

A very close second would be the care packages that we exchange.  The past two days, I've been focusing on opening up, scanning, and organizing a bunch of them in hopes of getting around to including them in this Thanksgiving post.

First up are some Dave Stewart cards from Tom over at The Angels, In Order:

Back in early October, he showed off some 1988 Classic Travel Edition cards... including the Stewart.  I mentioned that I've been thinking about starting a collection of his cards.  Thanks to Tom... I'm off to a healthy start.

Next up is a prize package from Brendan a.k.a. Elliptical Man over at The View from the Third Floor.  He sent me some Pokemon cards that I'll be passing along to my students:

For every student that is interested in sports cards... there are five students interested in Pokemon cards.

I also won a set of 1994 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes over at S.R. '75 Cards:

Stuart started his card blog over the summer and in that short amount of time, he's shown off some really cool cards in his collection.  If you haven't done so already, please check it out.

He also held a contest in September and October... and my pick was the Last Card Standing... which meant I got to choose between a 1991 Pacific Senior League set or the black bordered beauty shown above.  The plan is to show off this set in a little more detail in a future post.

Stuart also tossed in a 1987 Hygrade All-Time Greats starter set:

Along with these singles for my PC's:

Stuart's blog might be new, but I've been reading about him for years over at The Collective Mind.  Stuart and Greg are buddies... and last month Greg sent me some Rickey Hendersons:

He also tossed in this really cool Tyler Lockett rookie relic card:

2015 Topps Platinum Rookie Relics #PRR-TL

Did you know that Lockett is #2 on the Seattle Seahawks all-time record list for receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns?

But the highlight of his care package was this awesome card:

2021 Topps Archives Movie Posters Cards #MPC-10

The Swingin' A's were playing together... just a few years before I started attending games.

But they're one of my favorite things to collect.

I will round out my Thanksgiving post with some cards from the other Greg in our blogosphere:

When it comes to card blog popularity, there's Night Owl Cards at the top... and everyone else fighting for second place.  He's also published a bunch of articles for Beckett... so within our hobby, he's kind of a celebrity.

So I'm very grateful that I'm on his radar for cards like this:

2024 Topps Independence Day #647 (#'d 43/76)

I realize we're eight months away from July... but this is my very first Independence Day parallel.

Thank you Tom, Brendan, Stuart, Greg, and Greg for these generous gifts and prize packages.  And thanks again to all of you who have stuck around to read this holiday post.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by family, friends, or both.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!