Shiny Objects and Loud Noises

I have self diagnosed attention deficit disorder.  I'm being serious.  I'm the guy who has a very difficult time focusing on one thing for more than a few minutes.

Part of the problem is that I'll be focusing on something, then I'll see something else and it'll trigger a memory.  Within a few minutes, a variety of things are bouncing around inside of my head... except for the original thing I was thinking about.

It's a good thing teachers use lesson plans.  Without them... I'd probably end up teaching something different to each of my five periods.

The same thing applies to the blog.  A few weeks ago, I attended my first Oakland A's game of the season and had planned on recapping my experience on here.  Unfortunately... I got side tracked and the thought never crossed my mind until this afternoon when I opened up a package from Night Owl and saw this card:

It immediately reminded me of the Oakland A's Hall of Fame mascot race that took place at the game...

Which by the way... happened to be won by the Rickey Henderson mascot.  Normally you'd have a one out of three shot of picking the winner.  However on this particular day, it happened to be the 25th anniversary of Rickey breaking Lou Brock's record... so the majority of the crowd predicted #24 would come from behind and win the race.

Unfortunately... the Athletics didn't win the game.  They lost 2-1 after allowing only two hits to the Houston Astros.  One of those happened to be a leadoff home run by Jose Altuve.  The A's did manage to put together a small rally in the bottom of the 7th when they cut the lead in half, but left runners stranded on the corners to end the inning.

The A's really could have used Danny Valencia's bat that day.  At the time he was right in the middle of his stint on the DL.  He has since returned to the lineup and given the Athletics a nice boost to their offense.

Regardless of the loss... my cousin and I had a great time.  She really came through with some nice seats.  In fact it was the first time in years that I've sat behind home plate, which turned out to be a blessing because it was pretty hot that day and we pretty much spent the entire game in the shade.

Ever since I was a little kid, I've been more of a bleachers kind of guy.  I grew up watching guys like #21 and #42 out in centerfield:

It basically comes down to money.  I'd rather spend $20 on a bleacher seat and have $30 to spend on nachos, sausages, pretzels, and sodas... than spend $50 with a better view of the field.  If you know me well enough, you'd know that I'm still going to drop $30 on beverages and food.

While we're on the topic of money... you won't believe how much we spent on parking that day.  Forty dollars!  Yup.  Forty flippin' dollars.

Some genius thought it was a good idea to have the A's and Golden State Warriors play simultaneously next door to each other.  I'm pretty sure that's the most I've ever spent on parking at a sporting event.

Steve... here are the socks!

Anyways... I better wrap up this post before I get sidetracked anymore and start talking about the accident we saw on the freeway on the drive up or the cool socks they handed out to fans at the game.

Thanks Greg for sending me the awesome Dennis Eckersley card and all of the other cards featured in this post.  I'll get some more Dodgers together for you in the near future... assuming I don't get distracted by shiny objects or loud noises.

Happy Friday and sayonara!

Livin' The Dream

Bases are loaded.  Two outs.  Bottom of the ninth.  Your team is losing by three and you're at the plate facing a two and two count.  The pitcher winds up and delivers...

Isn't this what every little leaguer dreams of?  A walk off grand slam?

When I was a kid... I simulated that scenario in my yard about as often as I  struck out the final batter in the 7th game of the World Series.

 

Seeing Khris Davis live out my childhood dream last night is easily the highlight of the 2016 Oakland A's season.  Topps even included it on their Topps Now checklist... which I guess means he's officially made it.

To top it off... this is his first official Oakland A's card which means it'll be worth a wee bit more in the long run.  Not really... but I'm an A's fan... so I've got to exaggerate to make myself feel better.

The question is... do I go out and actually purchase this card?  It's only $9.99 with free shipping.  I'm guessing that there aren't a lot of Khris Davis fans out there and the A's aren't exactly a big market team, so this might translate into a fairly low print run.

On the other hand... It's $9.99 for card of a guy who's batting a little over the Mendoza Line and is probably only here in Oakland on a short term basis.

The verdict?  Head over to COMC and drop $9.99 on cards I really want.

First up...

1996 Leaf Signature Series Bronze Auto #NNO

Let's kick things off with another guy who has hit a walk off grand slam.  Unfortunately he did this as a member of the New York Yankees.  Oh well.  At least this card gets me one step closer to completing the team set I'm currently building.  The damage to my wallet?  $3.50.

2015 Topps High Tek Auto #HT-JPK

The other card I grabbed this afternoon was this on-card autograph of Joe Panik for $6.46.  I've been wanting to add an affordable autograph of him to my collection for awhile now.  Back in 2012 my friend and I went to a San Jose Giants game when he was there.  Several people mentioned his name as he had been the Giants first round draft pick the year prior.  That night he went 0 for 3 with a fielding error.  But the name stuck with me until he finally reached the Bigs in 2014.  So far he hasn't hit any walk off grand slams... but he's been pretty solid for them.

Well... that's it for today.  I wanted to write up a post about ESPN's Barry Melrose and his comments about San Jose Sharks fans, but I'll keep things positive and save that for another day.

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

State of Uncertainty

Part of being an avid baseball fan is picking a favorite player, then cheering for him.  Well... at least that's how I do it.  Since I discovered this hobby... I have always found joy in targeting and collecting cards of that said player.

It started with Rickey Henderson.  Then came Tony Gwynn.  Greg Maddux.  Ichiro Suzuki.  Kurt Suzuki.  But the past few years... I've been left without a bonafide favorite player.  Sure the two Suzukis are still playing, but let's be honest... there hasn't been a lot to cheer about lately... and it doesn't help that neither play for teams I support.

I'm in the process of picking an Oakland Athletic or San Diego Padres player to pass the torch to... but there's not a lot of stability in either of these franchises and the last thing I want to do is pick a short term favorite player.

So where does that leave me?  Well... if there's a bright side to this predicament... it's that I'm able to focus on my all-time favorite players collections.

Last month, I set out to do just that.  Some of you may have already seen my latest Tony Gwynn PC addition.  Today I'm going to show off another key addition... but this time it's not Mr. Padre.

Back in 1987, the Chicago Cubs and David Berg Sausage Company teamed up and produced a twenty-six card set that was handed out to fans on July 29th, 1987.  On the mound that night was a twenty-one year old pitcher who would one day retire as one of the greatest pitchers of his generation:

Unfortunately... Maddux struggled that afternoon giving up six hits and allowing four earned runs in only three innings against the Montreal Expos.  I'm sure Cubs fans would normally be perturbed with their starting pitcher's performance.  Luckily... they were too distracted by these awesome stadium giveaways.

The key card in the set (at least for me) is the rookie card of The Professor.  It's technically not an official rookie card, since it wasn't distributed in packs.  But it's still one of his first cards featuring him as a major leaguer.

I'm a big fan of the simple, yet beautiful design... as well as the action shot that didn't leave Maddux with any cropped off limbs.  Plus the production numbers for this set is probably a fraction of what the card manufacturers produced when they made his other rookie cards.

Another card I picked up was Maddux's first Kenner Starting Lineup card:

These days you can find sealed SLU figures of your favorite players for about the price of a Starbucks beverage.  However a handful of figures have actually held their value over the years.  The 1989 Greg Maddux is one of those pieces.

Hopefully I'll own one of these figures one day.  Until then... this card will have to hold me over.  I found it in an inexpensive eBay lot last month.  Like the stadium giveaway, this card is a well designed oddball issue that features a great action shot.  Too bad they cropped out his right leg. 

Well that's it for today.  I have a few other Maddux cards I picked up... but I'll share them in another post.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Back to School

I collect sports memorabilia for a variety of reasons.  It's a way to show my fandom for certain players and franchises.  It gives me an opportunity to let my OCD run wild with a variety of ways to sort, organize, and repeat if necessary.  It allows me to own pieces of sports history.  And it gives me an opportunity to relive childhood memories.

Two weeks ago, I received a package from Brett over at Cooperstown Exit 3:16 and it contained a variety of items that were bits and pieces of my life.

Tonight... I share them with you.

Let's start things off with this book:

When I was in elementary school, I loved taking the weekly class trips to the school library and picking out two new books to read.  One of my favorite things to check out were sports books like this one you see above.  It even has that unique library binding and the special hard cover you typically find in school libraries.

I never actually read this book, because it was published in 1991 and by that time I was a freshman in college.  However I read it from cover to cover last night and enjoyed the photos and oversized font.

By the time I was in the 3rd grade, I had moved on to chapter books like Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing and Charley and the Chocolate Factory.  These days kids are blessed with great sports authors like Matt Christopher, Gail Herman, and Dan Gutman who write stories like this:

I haven't read this book yet... but I'm looking forward to reading it in the near future.  After that... it will be added to my classroom library next year so my middle schoolers can enjoy it as well.

Up next is this Brett Favre pencil bag:

One of my favorite parts of the school year is at the start.  I loved going school supply shopping with my mom and my list always included one of these.  I'd shove pencils, pens, erasers, protractors, and hand held pencil sharpeners into them.  It was kind of like my very own man-purse.

I don't remember them making ones of football players when I was in school, but if they did I would have purchased one with Lynn Dickey or Dave Krieg on it.

Taking a break from sports for a moment, let's check out this classic 45 from former Commodores lead singer... Lionel Richie:

My mom loved this song and there's a good chance that my family own this 45 back in the day.  For those who aren't familiar with Lionel... here's his #1 hit, All Night Long:

Right around this time that the United States Football League was founded and the Bay Area was represented by the Oakland Invaders:

I don't remember actually cheering or supporting the franchise, but this disc Brett sent is now on display in my office.

Let's keep moving along my personal timeline.  When 1987 Donruss baseball was released, I had entered my freshman year of high school.  That's really when I made the transition from off and on collector... to full-time baseball card investor.  I spent most of my allowance on busting boxes of 1987 Topps.

But every now and then, I'd splurge and buy some Donruss.  Brett sent me an empty box of the product.  Normally I wouldn't be interested in an empty box, but back in the mid 80's they included cards on the box bottoms.  Here's who appeared on the 1987 boxes:

High school seemed to fly by and in the spring of 1990, I graduated.  A few months earlier, MC Hammer released his third album... Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em:

I was a huge fan of this album and it wouldn't surprise me if I owned this cassette tape as well as the CD.  In fact, I still have one of his songs on my iTunes playlists:

Rounding out Brett's package were a few Oakland Athletics baseball cards.  One of them brought back some great memories.  On September 22, 2013... the Oakland Athletics beat the Minnesota Twins at home to become the AL West Division Champions:

Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers would eventually end their celebration, but I still wear my WE OWN THE WEST shirt from time to time.

Thank you Brett for this generous and unique package of stuff!  It brought back a lot of fine memories.  Happy Saturday and sayonara!