This is going to be a pretty long post, but bear with me. I want to start off and say RIP, Fay Vincent. I really wasn't following baseball when he was the head of the game, as I started really watching games in 1993 and 1994, but I wished I could've watched the sport when he ruled over it. A true baseball fan, he called out Selig, Manfred, and others, and truly wanted to see labor peace in the sport, and for all teams to be competitive.
I was reading up on the collusion that happened in the late '80's, and came upon Peter Ueberroth's wikipedia page. It mentioned how he said owners were 'damned fools' to lose money in order to win a World Series title. It was guys like him who have screwed this game and prodded owners to not spend money on payroll (I'm talking about you, $tu $ternberg!!!). Vincent came in after Giamatti passed away (another true baseball fan), and banned $teinbrenner, made the decision to suspend the World Series after the earthquake in 1989, then picked the correct time to resume it. He stopped the league from going on strike in the 1990 preseason, banned Steve Howe, and had some good plans for realignment before he was ousted by the owners. While I don't agree with his thoughts about banning the DH, I agree with just about everything else he did or was planning to do. I knew I had to add his card to my SportLots box. It arrived just a day or two before Mr. Vincent's death, and I was really bummed, because I was going to try to mail it to him and ask for an autograph. Perhaps I'll add the certified autograph version to my collection soon. RIP, Mr. Vincent.
I recently got 2 packages from Rod of the Padrographs blog. Many bloggers have been posting about Rod lately, as he opened a bunch of blasters during the holiday season and distributed the non-keepers to team/player collectors around the blogosphere. I was lucky enough to get the Rays and Marlins.
A week or so later, I got another package from Rod with more Rays and Marlins.
A number of cards I needed, as I haven't purchased any Bowman other than a pack or two, and absolutely no Bowman Draft from this year. Same with Chrome Sonic and Donruss (save a blaster). Hopefully the Rays rookies from Bowman Draft pan out.
Here's where it gets good. More Juniors. A '24 Topps insert, and not one, but TWO '24 Topps Update parallels!! Blue shimmer and gold! The '24 Archives Morel is the first Rays card of him that I got. One last Junior with the Trading Card Day card.
One last photo with some refractors, and random cards. The bottom card is a film cell card, my first of that kind I've ever got. Very cool. Also got another DeJong card with the '24 Topps Paul DeJong, my first White Sox card of him. Thanks, Rod, for the awesome cards!
Coming back to Mike Alstott, I collect him, and have a few cards and a bobblehead. I did a trade on TCDB, where I got rid of 4 Heritage Yankee$, including some Jeters, and practically stole 20 or so '70' Topps cards from another member, including a few Hall of Famers. Any time I can dump Yankee$ on someone and get cards I need is a big win for me. I got my batch of the trade, and when I opened it up, there was a ticket with Alstott on it included in the package. When I looked at the ticket closer, I realized it was a ticket from the first game at Raymond James Stadium. What a cool pickup!!
A few weeks ago, Tom from The Angels in Order held a giveaway. I chose a 2014 Topps green parallel of fellow Type 1 diabetic Mark Lowe, a '63 Topps Tony Gonzalez that I needed, and a 2000 Fleer Gamers Jose Canseco that finished that Rays set. Thanks for the cool cards, Tom. I hope to get settled and back in a routine in a few weeks and maybe get some cards in a pile for a giveaway. Stay tuned.
So that Sportlots order came in, and I didn't know what I was in for. I assumed it would be in a box, and I would just pick the cards out of it. I didn't know that it was just a package that had probably a hundred envelopes, small packages, and bubble mailers. I had to open each one, work around the tape, take the cards out of toploaders, and after about 2 hours of doing that, I could finally organize and catalogue 900 or so cards. I kind of feel like you should get a little bit of a discount for doing all of that work.
The bulk of the order was singles to finish my 1980 Topps, 1981 Topps Traded, 1995 Topps SpectraLight/CyberStats, 2001 Topps, 2001 Topps Traded, 2002 Topps, 2002 Topps Traded, 2003 Topps, 2005 Topps, 2007 Topps, 2007 Topps Update, 2008 Topps, and 2016 Topps Update sets. While i thought I finished each of those sets, I still came up missing a few from some sets. Probably because my paper list must've somehow got off from my TCDB wantlist. Anyways, what I am missing is:
1980 Topps
63 Bob Stanley
221 Joe Cannon
710 Graig Nettles
2001 Topps
93 Brian Buchanan
169 Pete Harnisch
594 Troy O'Leary
2001 Topps Traded
124 Willie Randolph '76 Traded reprint
2002 Topps
566 Shane Reynolds
2002 Topps Traded
8 Brian L. Hunter SP (willing to take a Chrome version that isn't an SP)
188 Eric Cyr
2016 Topps Update
254 David Ortiz All-Star
I have a credit from Sportlots, so perhaps I'll try to finish off everything with that.
The favorite players were highlighted by a number of my newest favorite, Dan Boone. I got a good bunch of Nick Fortes cards, including some parallels of his 2024 Topps card.
Including the Sportlots cards, I have the base, All-Star, Aqua, Easter Bunny, Rainbow, Silver Ice, and Yellow? 2024 Topps Nick Fortes cards.
We have 2 Type 1 diabetics next to each other with Joe Jiannetti and Jason Johnson. The card of Johnson is the first one I know of to show an insulin pump on it (the black thing on his belt). The Patrick Mazeika is the first jersey card of him that I own. The Tony Saunders '98 Topps card is a big one. I had every version of his 1998 Topps card besides that one. Rainbow completed.
Base version (with a TTM autograph), Inaugual Devil Rays, Inaugural Diamondbacks, Minted in Cooperstown, Chrome, and Chrome Refractor.
I decided to pick up some 1998 rays parallels and higher end sets. More Inaugural Diamondbacks and Minted in Cooperstown cards. '98 Topps Chrome and '98 Gallery as well. I picked up a few parallels of my favorite ballpark, Tropicana Field. I hope to attend a game there again. I added a few Randy Arozarena rookies. It sucks pulling cards of him as a Mariner. I don't collect him officially, but I have a ton of rookies, including these '20 Update versions.
The 2 newest Raymond cards, and a 2024 Topps Chrome X-Fractor of Caminero. A few key rookies from my setbuilds were the '81 Traded Raines, '01 Traded Justin Morneau, and '03 Cole Hamels. An interesting sunset card is the 2001 Topps Traded Roberto Kelly. He finished his final season in 2000, and although he signed with Colorado and hoped to make the majors in 2001, he never did, making this a rare Traded sunset card that is also a zero year card. Better grab this one, Nick!! The United We Stand card was cool for me, as I was so close to finishing the subset, but never seen a picture of this card until now. I picked up a '99 Upper Deck checklist of Travis Lee because it highlights the first Arizona Diamondbacks Home Run. The 2003 Topps and 2005 Topps postseason highlights cards are some highlights as well, as they basically show teams sending the Yankee$ home.
Overall, it was a fun time going through that Sportlots box. Now that I know how it works, I will be able to make better decisions on the site. Hopefully I can finish the list above and get a complete Topps run from 1980 to 2002.
New Jersey came and went. The doctor wants her to do a stent trial in Jacksonville at Mayo Clinic. He said basically that he can't help the top of Karen's trachea because it is too narrow, but he might be able to help the bottom. The stent trial will have them place a custom made stent in the bottom of the trachea, and if it helps her breathing after 2 weeks or so, they will be confident that the mesh surgery will be successful. If that is the case, we'll probably go back to NJ a few weeks later to have the stent taken out and the mesh put in.
We were kind of tired on the day we wanted to go to NYC, so we just hung out at the hotel. We ate at a pizza place, a local bar, a diner, and were able to go to an escape room (got about halfway through). Maybe we'll visit NYC this spring if the stent trial is successful. We're expecting to hear from Mayo any time, and I figure a few weeks and we'll have the stent trial. A little disappointing for me, as I was hoping he would go straight to the mesh surgery, but just got to keep my head up and know that it's just maybe 2 surgeries away, and then maybe Karen's breathing will get back to normal, I won't have to take on so much, her mom will feel like she's not needed and will start seriously looking for other living options, and I can have the life I dreamed of (or just a normal one with the wife, kid, house, and minimal health problems).
I'm almost done putting new cards into binders for the National League teams. I got a few binders, so perhaps it will be enough to finish the AL. I have so many projects going on right now, and I want to do something with all of them, but it might be more productive to just devote time to one.
My brother-in-law and I have a comedy band called 'The Younger Griffin'. We've been recording some music using A1 programs to put music to the vocals and lyrics. There are a few songs we could put out with that band. We do some serious songs under the band name 'Resiliency from Obscurity'. I have 10 or 12 songs that I could contribute to this band, and they are good. Good to where I've just played parts of them on the piano at church before the service starts, and people have said they were the perfect feeling, and have asked me what song I was playing a few different times. I really want to record the piano parts to the songs, sing the basic melody, and send a copy of the piano music, and one of the piano music and vocals to my Resiliency partner. He can record his (better) vocals on them, add the AI additional instruments to them, and we can release them to the world, and these songs that have been in my head for the past 20 or 25 years can finally get out there and maybe make a difference in someone's life.
Besides that, I need to get those AL binders done so I can just get my cards organized. I realize that is a neverending battle, but if I can just get my loose cards down to 1 or 2 monster boxes, it will just help me be more organized, and I can just add newer 2025 cards to the back of the binders and keep the cards going into the monster boxes to a minimum.
I have custom cards I want to make. I want to finish the Rays Topps run (currently have 1998, 1999, and 2000 finished). I have someone wanting me to try to do some 1975 Topps customs, and I need to finish making missing player checklist for a few sets (2023 and 2024 for sure, maybe 2022 and 2021).
Just a lot of projects/hobbies that I want to do, but not much time. I could also add my oddball Allen/Ginter cards and my duplicate cards to TCDB and try to trade like crazy. I feel like the music and AL binders should take priority, with the music needing to be #1, but I think the binders will end up being what I work on until it's finished. I think UltraPro will be my best friend for a while.
Tons of cards and stuff happening. Story of my life. Glad I'm getting such cool cards.
Thanks for taking the time to check out my latest post.
-Jeremy
I've building a stack of cards for you.
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