Back in Time

This post is a few months late.  I originally wanted to publish this back in early March when some of us shifted our clocks one hour forward for Daylight Saving Time.  

1989 Topps #70

The contents of this post feature two oddball Oakland A's items from the Junk Wax Era that have one thing in common.  They both keep track of time.

Let's flashback to 2016.  A local sports fan reached out to me and donated a few boxes of newspapers, books, media guides, pins, ticket stubs, cards, and other oddball items.  One of those oddball items was this San Francisco Examiner Dot Racing wristwatch:

According to the paperwork included with this watch, it was part of a special giveaway sponsored by the San Francisco Examiner and the Oakland Athletics:

He even tossed in the newspaper clipping that featured his name in the list of recent winners:

This watch is one of the most unique memorabilia items sitting in my Oakland A's collection.  I couldn't find another one on the internet.  But it's uniqueness isn't the thing that makes it special.  Dot Racing was part of every A's home game at the Coliseum for as long as I can remember and this watch will forever keep those memories fresh in my mind.

Back in December, I added another wristwatch to my Oakland A's collection:

1989 Nelsonic MLB Card Watch

Ryan (@ SumoMenkoMan) sent me this watch in his 2025 Holiday Haiku Advent Calendar.  Here's the haiku clue he wrote for it:

I couldn't find a lot of information on this watch, but I did find a checklist and other interesting facts in a Sport Card Info blog post.

Nelsonic used a similar image from McGwire's 1989 Topps card.  When compared side by side, it's easier to see the the differences:

At first glance, it looked like this was the same at-bat, but McGwire is wearing a black wristband in the watch photo... plus not all of the fans in the background match perfectly.  If I had better detective skills and more time, maybe I could narrow down when and where these pictures were taken.  But I don't.

Regardless... both of these items are fantastic additions to my Oakland A's collection.  Thank you Bruce and Ryan!  And sorry it took so long for me to sit down and hammer out this thank you post.  Time sure flies by.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

To Cut or Not to Cut

There's no shortage of Shohei collectibles out there for collectors to collect.  That's what happens when a once in a generation type of athlete comes along.  Unfortunately his collectibles are usually attached to high price tags.

But every now and then, they're part of generous care packages.  Today's post features two huge additions to my Shohei Ohtani PC.

The first one is a uncut rookie card from a box of 2018 Topps Big League:

Angus over at Dawg Day Cards sent me a large padded envelope back in December that I finally opened up over the weekend.  It was filled with a few nice additions to my collection that I'll share over a few posts.  

2018 Topps Big League Box Card #B3

My first thought was to cut the Ohtani out, but there's no way I could do it as cleanly as my photo editor.  So I ended up keeping it intact.  Here's a look at the other side of the box:

As soon as I saw this box, I knew it would pair perfectly with the large store display shown above that was part of Ryan's advent calendar.  I placed it with Ohtani's 2025 Topps flagship card to give you some perspective:

I'm still figuring out the best way to display this cool collectible.  I could hang it up in my classroom, but honestly I'd love to find some wall space for this in my office.  We'll see how things play out.

While I'm showing off new additions to the Ohtani collection, I figured I'd show off an action figure of him that has been hanging up in my office for a few years:

2021 Topps Big League Super 7 1959 Variation Figure

I still have a bunch of items from Ryan's advent calendar and Angus' care package.  I'll be sharing them here and there over the next few months, so stay tuned.  Thank you Ryan and Angus!

Here is today's question of the day:

When it comes to box bottom cards or uncut sheets of cards, do you tend to keep them intact or do you cut them out?

Although I have cut out cards, if the box bottom or uncut sheet is in good condition, I'll usually keep it intact.  In fact I have several boxes dedicated to storing oversized items like these.

That's it for today.  Happy Thursday and sayonara!

Snacks, Cards, and more Childhood Memories

This photo (found online) was taken sometime in 1986.  Unless you grew up in South San Jose... it probably doesn't do anything for you.  On the other hand, this photo takes me back to my middle school stomping grounds.

Sunrise Plaza is a strip mall that currently looks like this:

I'll still head over there whenever I'm craving a burrito from Chavez Supermarket or need a sporting good from Dick's.

But back in the mid 80's, it was the home to the UA Cinemas, Nova Arcade, and a local pharmacy.  That's where my friends and I would to buy snacks and packs of cards before watching a movie or hanging out in the arcade.

I hadn't thought about that pharmacy in years.  But a few weeks ago, Gregory over at Nine Pockets wrote a post about some Mario Lemieux cards that originally came with some candy.  One of the questions he asked his readers was if there were any stationary or drug stores with racks of candy in our areas when we were kids.  That immediately made me think of The Pharmacy.

By the time the late 80's rolled around, a card shop called National Pastime opened up in the shopping center.

A few years later the shop moved right down the street from my house.  It's currently a nail salon, but that's a photo of the actual address where the card shop was located.  I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to work at my LCS back then.

Anyways... today I figured I'd share another present from Ryan's advent calendar that is directly related to snacks and cards.

However let's kick things off with a cardboard appetizer involving two Nolan Ryan food issues:

1986 Drake's Big Hitters #33

I don't remember eating any Drake's baked goods, but they seem to similar to Hostess products which I ate all the time as a kid.

1991 Jumbo California Seeds #20

Sunflower seeds were a staple for me and my Little League teammates back in the 80's.  By the time Jumbo was inserting these cards into their packages of seeds, I had hung up my cleats.  But I picked up this card somewhere along the way.

Why am I featuring cards of Nolan Ryan?  Well he celebrated his 79th birthday yesterday and he happens to be one of SumoMenkoMan's favorite baseball players.

Okay... let's get to the advent calendar portion of the post.  Here's the haiku hint that Ryan wrote:

The 25th present in the advent calendar was a large box of rice crackers:

The box contained twenty individually wrapped packages that had a pack of cards attached to each one:

I opened them up, dumped the rice crackers into a bag, and separated the packs from the bags:

There were two different packages available:

Each came with a single pack attached to the back:

Here's a closer look at the front and back of one of those packs:

I cracked open the first five packs.  Each contained one baseball card and an advertisement card.  The baseball cards are made out of acetate or something similar:

Here's a peek at the card backs:

I love that there are so many snacks in Japan that are sold with trading cards.  Personally, I wish we'd see more modern food issues here in North America.

What about you?

Would you be more likely to purchase your favorite snacks if they came with trading cards?

There's no doubt in my mind that I'd seek out more snacks at the grocery store if they came with cards.  Heck... a few years ago I bought a box of cereal mainly because it contained an uncut sheet of MLS cards.

That's it for today.  Thank you Gregory for inspiring this post... and thank you Ryan for providing the snacks and cards.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Calm Before the Storm

Collecting sports cards can be relaxing.  Rooting for sports teams can be quite the opposite.  Today's a big day for one of my favorite teams and I've been stressing out about it for the past week.

I figured I'd try to distract myself this morning, but catching up with a pair of items from Ryan's advent calendar that could be classified as relaxing or calming.

Let's start with the helpful hint that he wrote:

This was one of the most obvious haikus from his package.  It refers to this miniature bonsai tree:

The planting portion was super simple and took less than a minute to complete.  Now the waiting game begins.  I'm planning on taking the pot into my classroom.  Maybe watching it grow will help some of my 8th graders relax too.

The other "calming" present was building block related.  Here's his haiku:

And here's the gift:

It's one of those blind bags that contains one "Space Collection" build.  Here's the one I received:

Building block sets are often pretty therapeutic, but this little sucker was a challenging build due to its small size.  Here's a photo that shows the size compared to the mini bonsai planter, a Lego mini-figure, and a Kenner SLU:

The astronaut will accompany the bonsai pot and join the other Lego builds I have displayed in my classroom.

While on the topic of building blocks, I wanted to show off one more Christmas related gift before discussing the storm that quickly approaching.

My friend's mom gave me this awesome Lego set:

2024 Lego Star Wars #75375

I've thought about buying the midi-scale Millennium Falcon for over a year, but I just never got around to doing it.  So I was blown away to see that this was waiting for me under their tree.  Unfortunately, I haven't had time to build it... but as soon as I do... I'll show you guys what it looks like.

Okay... now let's get to the sports section of this post.  In a couple of hours, the Seattle Seahawks will host the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game.  Division games always stress me out.  Division games that involve the winner moving on to the Super Bowl is next level.

On one hand, I haven't been as impressed with the Seahawks defense since these guys:

2014 Prizm Red, White, & Blue #200

On the other hand, I'm not quite as confident in the Seahawks offense as I have been in the past.  I'm predicting a close game... but honestly have no idea who wins this game.  I've watched a ton of analysis and prediction videos... and I feel like even the experts are pretty torn.

At this point the only thing to do is sit back, watch the game, and see how things play out.  Let's go Hawks!

Here are today's questions of the day...

Do you ever get stressed out over your favorite sports teams?

Out of the four remaining football teams, are you rooting for any of them?

If so, who?

Happy Sunday and sayonara!