All good things must come to an end... and tomorrow is the last day of Thanksgiving break. On Monday, I'm back in the classroom for three weeks... and then it's our holiday break. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.
This morning I spent a few more hours opening up care packages from fellow bloggers.
Let's start off with some Tony Gwynn cards from Nick over at Dime Boxes -- The Low-End Baseball Card Collector's Journey:
2002 UD Piece of History Tape Measure Heroes #TM12
This card immediately stood out to me, because Gwynn wasn't known for hitting the long ball. However it highlights arguably his most famous home run. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, click here.
I also thought this card was interesting:
1998 Bowman Minor League MVPs #MVP4
Gwynn never won the NL MVP Award. But in 1981... he won the inaugural Northwest League MVP Award. Never knew that until I took a closer look at the above insert.
I need to flip over cards more often. That's where I discovered Gwynn kicked his professional baseball career off by hitting twelve home runs in forty-two games. What happened to his power?
Nick also tossed in a trio of Oakland Athletics:
2022 Panini Capstone Rookie Materials #RM-KS
2022 Topps Chrome X-Fractor #148
2023 Topps Green Foil #340
1. When I hear the name Kevin Smith, I think of the guy who wrote and directed Clerks... not this guy.
2. Feels like Matt Olson has been with the Braves for a long time, but he was still on the A's three years ago.
3. Green foil parallels were made for A's cards.
The final two cards in Nick's package originated across the Pacific:
As for Darvish, he holds the MLB strikeout record among players born in Japan and he only needs 13 more wins to tie Hideo Nomo's win record.
However... who doesn't love Lamborghinis... especially pink ones with a unicorn nicknamed "Sparklefarts".
2013 Sega Card-Gen #J13-124
Did you know that Hiroki Kuroda has a lower career ERA in the MLB than fan favorites like Hideo Nomo, Masahiro Tanaka, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Kenta Maeda, and this guy:
2023 BBM Infinity #11
Moving along is another care package containing Japanese guys. Only this time the focus is on race car drivers.
Back at the start of the school year, Raymond over at Rebel Random Ramblings emailed me to let me know he had some cool items for my Japanese athlete collection. He wasn't lying.
Let's start off with the cards:
2024 Parkside NTT IndyCar Premier #57
2024 Parkside NTT IndyCar Premier #101
Takuma Sato is the only Asian driver to ever win the Indianapolis 500... and he did it twice (in 2017 and 2020).
Next up are some "hero cards":
Takeshi Kimura
Marino Sato
Hiroshi Koizumi
If you're wondering what "hero cards" are... then you're in luck, because Rebel Coyote broke it down for me. They are cards that teams and drivers distribute to fans. These are larger than standard size cards. Each one measures approximately 6" x 8.25".
My two favorite are these Toyota Gazoo Racing team cards:
Ryo Hirakawa
Kamui Kobayashi
Three years ago (right before Matt Olson was traded to the Atlanta Braves)... I purchased a Toyota GR Supra. I've been collecting Hot Wheels of this car... but I'm still waiting for a trading card to be made. For now... these two "hero cards" are nice placeholders.
A few of these "hero cards" appear to be signed... but Raymond didn't mention anything about autographs in his note. So they may or may not be facsimile signatures.
The final two "hero cards" are super sized (8.5" x 11") and don't feature Japanese drivers:
Slade Stewart & Andy Lee
Sam Shi
Rounding things out are a stack of cards that (former blogger) Wes (aka jaybarkerfan) sent me. Let's kick things off with a Kurt Suzuki four-pack:
Wes included Ichiro cards ranging from 2001 all the way to 2015. Plus there was a serial numbered Kaz Matsui and a Tsuyoshi Shinjo rookie card tossed into the mix.
Every time someone sends me some cards of Zuk... it reminds me that I need to make time to add my collection of his cards to TCDB. I'd love to see where I rank among their members.
Next up are a huge lot of Ichiro Suzuki cards:
The highlight of this care package was the card featured at the start of this post:
This card is AWESOME on so many levels...
2008 Topps Target Back to School #TB6
#1: I love the 2008 Topps flagship design. It's in my Top 10 of all-time.
#2: Mariner Moose is Ichiro's co-star. Mascot cards rule!
#3: It features a candid photo of the pair hanging out in the dugout.
#4: You don't see these cards very often.
They were only inserted into these specially marked Fairfield packs sold at Target... probably right around the start of the school year. I would have loved it had my parents bought me cards to lure me back into the classroom.
I guess in a sense... these bloggers have essentially done that for me... as I head back to school on Monday.
Thank you Dime Box Nick, Rebel Coyote, and jaybarkerfan for these generous care packages. I'm sorry it took so long for me to crack them open and appreciate. But honestly... the timing couldn't have been better.
Happy Saturday and sayonara!
10 comments:
Glad you enjoyed them! Happy I could pass the BBM Darvish on to you - accidentally ordered two of those on COMC!
Just theee more weeks until the next break! Awesome care packages for sure!!
Those are some sweet cards. Hey, I wouldn't mind a pink Lambo...
I forgot to mention that I sent you an email regarding the Pokemon cards.
3 weeks....easy peazy. You can do it! :) Love the moose!
Glad you received them. They are actual driver signed autographs. You should have seen how quickly they sign and pass out it along leaving plenty on the table. A paddock/pit pass is a must for any auto race fan attending. I know its required at FIA World Endurance Championship races to obtain the hero cards and it lasts 45 minutes. In Indycar they will have a 45 minute to a hour autograph signing depending on where they race. The drivers usually distribute one person fan. When the autograph signing is over its a free for all as grab as you can once the drivers left the table. I obtain nice stuff from the signings
That Ichiro/Moose card is legendary 🙌
Ichiro and Moose card is awesome!
It seems like there was a few years there where the Moose was appearing on a lot of cards, but I don't recall seeing any new ones in recent years.
nick - thanks again. love bbm and sega card-gen cards.
sumomenkoman - one more week of work! super stoked! just gotta finish up some christmas shopping
ginko-5 - i'd love a lambo too. except no way i could afford the annual registration and insurance on a car like that :D
ginko-5 - thanks for the pokemon cards. i think they came this week. got a pwe on thursday, but haven't opened it yet
johnnys trading spot - one more week! this week is actually pretty chill. i've got the kids wrapping up a project... and we have a few holiday activities relax and unwind on the final friday
rebel coyote - wow. that's really cool that these drivers take care of their fans. more sports should adopt this philosophy. truly appreciate the care package.
xavier higgins - i was super stoked to add that card to the collection. can't remember where i first saw it, but it was recently. honestly never thought i'd own a copy
matt - i know. love it so much. one of my favorite ichiro cards in the collection
jon - topps would release mascot cards on an annual basis in their opening day product. but with the end of opening day, you don't see mascots as often. i think heritage minor league might contain mascot cards
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