A Selfish Post

The older I get... the more I treasure the telephone conversations I have with my mother.  There's a pretty standard routine.  I ask her how they're doing health wise.  She asks me about work.  I ask her if the slot machines have been kind to her and my father.  She asks me if I've spoken to my brothers.  I ask her how everyone in Hawaii is doing.  The we'll wrap things up... "tell Dad I said hello" and a pair of "love you's".

However... every now and then, I'll luck out and she'll share a story from her childhood.  And yesterday was one of those days.

Back in January my mother's cousin, Evelyn Kawamoto, passed away at the age of 83.  I don't think I ever had the pleasure of meeting her, but I vaguely remember my mom talking about her a few times.  

While driving home from work, I had the pleasure of listening to my mom reminisce about her childhood and her cousin. 

Evelyn and my mom grew up just around the corner from each other in Honolulu.  They attended the same elementary school... although my mother is two years younger than her.  When they got a little older, they started swimming at the local parks and recreation pool together.  A few years later, they had the honor of swimming under Soichi Sakamoto at the Hawaii Swim Club.

That's where Evelyn's swimming career really took off.  At the age of 17, she broke the national records for the 300m Individual Medley and 200m breaststroke.

In 1952 she represented the United States at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.  She won two bronze medals.  One as a member of the 4x100m freestyle relay.  The other in 400m freestyle.

Later on down the road, she married fellow swimmer and Olympic medalist, Fred Konno and eventually became a teacher.  My mother hasn't seen or talked to Evelyn in decades, but within our fifteen minute telephone conversation... I could tell that she was saddened by the loss of her cousin... yet experienced spurts of happiness through reminiscing about the good old days.

I completely understand that.  It's the very same reason I started this blog.

I apologize for another non-baseball post.  I realize that talking about swimming probably isn't as popular as the World Baseball Classic.  However... this was something I really wanted to document for myself.

The good news is tomorrow I'll be attending the GTSM Sports Memorabilia Show at the Santa Clara Convention Center, so hopefully I'll have some new sports cards to write about this weekend or in the very near future.

Until then...

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

A Blast From My Past

I was hoping to get out and walk around the flea market this past weekend, but it rained just enough to convince me that vendors weren't going to be out there.  So I ventured over to Walmart for the first time in 2017 and pick up some household items like garbage bags, Q-tips, and some snacks utilizing a pair of gift cards I received for Christmas from students.

I went around the store a few times trying to get in as many steps as possible and on my final pass through the toy section I stopped by the Legos to see what Star Wars sets they had.

Like a lot of little kids, I grew up with my fair share of Lego sets and over the past few years, I have purchased a handful of them in hopes of one day finding the time to build them.  But like everything else, they were set aside and eventually tucked away.

But as soon as I saw Yoda's Jedi Starfighter sitting on the store shelf, I promised myself that if I bought it... I had to build it.  The one condition was I could only do it after I cleaned my desk:

Well... Sunday night I found time to scan and sort some cards, then file them away.  Some of these cards had been sitting on my desk since January.  Yesterday at work... I couldn't stop thinking about going home and building my first Lego set in decades.

When I finally settled down after dinner last night, I opened the box and pulled out the contents which were three bags of pieces and one instruction manual.  As a kid, I didn't read instruction manuals.  I just built.  However after looking at one bag, I knew there was no way I'd be able to do this without step by step instructions... which is what Lego provides in their fully illustrated manuals.

There are only 262 pieces, which doesn't sound like much... but believe it or not... this project took me a little over an hour to complete.  I'm not sure what the average build time is... but I'm guessing it took me longer than most Lego enthusiasts.

Although I was confused a few times... this little project was by no means stressful.  In fact, I found it kind of relaxing.  Like sorting baseball cards on the family room floor, it helped take my mind off of other things going on in life.

The only major downside to this purchase is the price.  When completed... Yoda's Starfighter is barely larger than a Bic Mac carton.  That seems kind of expensive, but I'm pretty sure this isn't news to anyone who has purchased them before.

Outside of that, I was very happy with the overall design and especially with the two minifigures.  Yoda has a cool rubber head, which is a lot more accurate than the one on my keychain.  Now the only remaining issue is figuring out a place and a way to display it.

By the way, I also picked up Lego set #75173 Luke's Landspeeder, so the next time I'm feeling overwhelmed at work... I'll have something to look forward to working on when I get home.

Well... that's it for today.  I apologize if you were hoping to read a sports card post.  Don't worry... I'll get back to those on Thursday.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Sorting Old-School Style

When I was a kid, I'd wake up early on Saturday mornings, sit myself down in front of the television, and watch cartoons.  After a few years, I added sorting cards on the floor to the routine.

Due to a sensitive back, these days I typically organize my sports cards sitting down at my office desk.  However... every now and then... a big project requires me to spread out and get comfortable on my family room floor.

Today was one of those days.

The story actually begins earlier in the week.  Some of you might remember the time one of my readers reached out to me and offered to hook me up with some supplies and non-sport sets.  Well... this past Wednesday, I finally had the opportunity to pay him back with some Hawaiian food from one of my favorite restaurants in San Jose's Japantown.

Most of my friends and family members aren't into collecting, so it was nice to get out, eat, drink, and talk about cards with Pete.

After dinner, he gave me a giant box filled with auction guides and hobby magazines.  I'm not sure if you've ever flipped through an auction guide before, but they're filled with interesting information on a variety of sports memorabilia along with tons of high quality photographs.  One of these days, I'll share some of the scans I took.

He also gave me two more boxes of supplies, a binder of Comic Ball cards, and a 3,200ct. monster box.

Today... I spent almost seven hours sifting, sorting, and scanning through the stuff he gave me.  That's not a typo.  Seven hours.  I was able to watch a bunch of Star Wars Rebels episodes as well as a few episodes of Elementary.

What did I do for seven hours?  Well... I started by going through all of the cards, deciding what I wanted to keep and what I was going to take into my classroom.

There were close to 700 baseball, football, and basketball inserts/parallels/rookie cards that I slipped into penny sleeves or put into my binder collections.  In addition to that there were two different football sets, a Tiger Woods set, and a bunch of 90's basketball inserts sets included in the monster box.

He must have busted a box of 1986 Donruss baseball, because there was more than half of a row dedicated to the stuff.

Before this morning, I needed 134 cards for my set.  Thanks to Pete, I'm down to the final 43:

There was also a nice stack of 2000 Fleer Greats of the Game football cards.  The cards are so nice, I decided to build this set too:

If you look at who's missing... I'm sure you can figure out Pete's favorite football team.

And remember that binder of Comic Ball cards?

Almost the entire set was in there.  It was only missing three base cards and three holograms.  At first, I thought about finding a student who likes Looney Toons and hooking them up.  But after flipping through the binder, I decided to keep it and try to finish it off myself.  Who knows... maybe I'll chase down the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th series too.

Last, but certainly not least... there's this 5x7 box topper of Hideki Irabu.  I had never seen this set before, but from what I found on the internet... this card was included in special boxes of 1997 Fleer Ultra which were made for distribution in Asia.  Maybe one day... I'll actively chase down the other two box toppers in this set.

Thank you Pete for these awesome additions to the collection!  It was fun hanging out and talking sports.  See you in a couple weeks at the GTSM show.

Everyone else... I hope all of you are enjoying your weekend.  I appreciate all of the kind comments people left on my anniversary post.  As usual...

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

The Magnificent Seven

Back on March 2nd, 2010... I decided to start this blog in hopes of interacting with others who share the same collecting interests while documenting the hobby I have loved since I was a little kid.  Seven years later, I'm still here and along the way I've made hundreds of trades, read and replied to thousands of comments, and have even met a few of you in person.

Time sure flies by when you're having fun.

Today I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has taken the time to check out this blog... and especially those who have reached out to me by either leaving a comment or sending me an email.  The camaraderie among us is truly what motivates me to continue writing.

And since this blog is mainly me writing about the sports cards I love, I decided to show off seven athletes who wore #7 on their jerseys while playing the sport they loved in honor of these past seven years.

Without further adieu... here are my Magnificent Seven:

MLB: Mickey Mantle

1964 Topps Giants

Can't have a list of sevens without this guy on it.  I'm pretty sure this is my only vintage Mantle... but it's a beauty.  This set is one of my favorite vintage oddball sets.  

MLB: Ivan Rodriguez

1991 Score Traded #82T

A few weeks ago, I showed off my Ivan Rodriguez trifecta and mentioned my interest in this card.  1991 Score baseball isn't winning any popularity contests... but the reddish-purple borders goes well with that great action shot of Pudge.


MLB: Craig Bigio

2013 Tribute Autographs #TA-CB

On card autographs are cool.  On card autographs of hall of famers are cooler.  On card autographs of hall of fame players who spend their entire career with one franchise are the coolest.


MLB: Joe Mauer

2014 Topps Five Star Autographs #FSA-JM

Assuming Mauer stays with the Minnesota Twins his entire career and eventually gets elected into Cooperstown... see the Biggio comment above.

NFL: John Elway

1999 Finest Leading Indicators #L6

Elway is the Mickey Mantle of the NFL and like The Commerce Comet... I don't own a lot of cards featuring The Duke of Denver.  I did manage to find this cool insert, which features heat sensitive ink sitting in one of my binders.

NFL: Boomer Esiason

2012 Crown Royale Silhouette Materials #7

Boomer is one of the bigger football names in my Lefty PC.  He's not quite Elway... but he's a lot better than Todd Marinovich.

NHL:  Igor Larionov

Rounding out the Magnificent Seven is Igor Larionov.  I thought about including Nate Archibald, but when it came down to it... it didn't seem right leaving a San Jose Sharks player off of this list.  Brad Stuart wore #7 for Team Teal for eight  seasons, but The Professor is one of only four Sharks to be elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Well... that's it for today.  Thanks again to everyone who has ever taken the time to read my writing.  You're truly magnificent.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!