It's been a busy week or two, and things aren't going to slow down for another week or so.
Karen's birthday was a little over a week ago, and I was off work, so I decided to drive out to her work and pick up some lunch before I came. We tentatively had plans to go out with some friends when she got off, and the plan was to leave from her work. She had some work stuff to attend to, so she suggested that I hit up K n T's Sportscards in Ormond, and who was I to say no to her?
I dug mostly through the 10 cent bin, but did pull some mainly Tigers and Rays out of the dollar boxes. A 2022 Chrome Torkelson rookie, 2023 Chrome PrismFractor rookie of Jonathan Aranda, a Bryce Ranier rookie, and a 1968 Topps Red Sox rookie combo were some of the rookies I pulled. I found some numbered parallels of Rays from 2024 Topps, and with any luck, maybe I can find enough to finish the team sets for one of them. The Brujan was a mini that I believe was numbered to 100.
I managed to find a few Topps needs to add to my collection. They were mainly 1953 reprints, and surprisingly, some late '70's cards, which I didn't expect since I had that load of '70's cards from John a few weeks before.
I managed to find a bunch of Tigers in the dime bins. The Willie Hernandez was a fun card. I'll explain why in a little bit. The '94 Bowman Tony Clark rookie would've been a hot card in the late '90's. There were a number of '95 Collector's Choice Silver Signature parallels in the bins. Some random sets from the late '90's, mid '00's, and 2020's finish out the haul.
The 1985 Leaf Willie Hernandez card was interesting, because it mentions his Cy Young and MVP awards on the back behind the statistics. The only other time I have seen this was on a 1989 Donruss All-Star card of Ozzie Smith that notates that he received the most All-Star votes in 1988. I wonder if there are any other Donruss/Leaf cards like them.
I picked up the Selig card from the 2025 Prism set from a dime box. That marked my 3rd different Seig card, along with the Chronicles dupe. The dupe went to my friend Jim in DeLand, who is hoping to get a ttm autograph of the former commissioner. I have an autographed photo of Bud, but if Jim is successful, I might try the cards.
The Rays section was a bit more modern with some 2024 Heritage, and both 2024 and 2025 Prism making the majority of the bunch.
I found some cool cards of random guys I collect. Aardsma is the first MLB player alphabetically, and its a rare find to get one of his that I don't have. The Phil Clark minor league issue was very cool. I don't care what anyone thinks of Carl Everett, but he has some darn cool cards. I'll have to do a post with some of the cool photos and poses that are on his cards. Some people think he's a little nuts and a hothead, but I've got his autograph in person, and he was a great guy, and I can name you dozens of guys who are 'fan favorites' like Nelson Cruz and Yadier Molina who are more hot-headed than Carl. I found some 2025 Chrome cards of guys I collect like Bogaerts, Gilbert, Miller, Scherzer, and Taillon. The Andruw Jones card was the first one of its kind that I've seen, and I opened enough packs of 2006 Topps to where I would've pulled one. I was excited to get the Brooks Kieschnick card. He doesn't have many Brewers issues. I have a parallel of the Waechter card, but not the base, so I was glad it was sitting in the dime box for me to find.
Some random cool cards in the dime box included an SSP Golden Mirror Ryan Feltner card, the aforementioned Selig, a sticker of the Senior Professional Baseball League logo, and a few old Topps cards that didn't make it into sets with the Dykes and Craig cards. I thought the Brian Hunter card was a Tigers one, but it isn't, and will go into my Astros binder, as will the Roy Oswalt sticker. It was sticking to a Rocco Baldelli card from the same set. A few months ago, I traded with Tom from The Angels in Order, and gave him the 1995 Collector's Choice Trade-In Marquis Grissom to help complete his set. I managed to find the Grissom, and 3 of the 4 other cards needed to finish the trade-in redemption cards. Just need the Fernando Valenzuela. This won't be the only Collector's Choice card needed to complete a set. Stay tuned.
After hitting up K n T's, Karen wasn't feeling well, so we both just headed home. She enjoyed her birthday, though.
On Thursday the 30th, DeLand High had a football game, and during halftime, they were honoring people elected into the DeLand High School Hall of Fame. Among those elected was Yankees reliever Luke Weaver. Jim's wife Paula was his 3rd grade teacher, and Luke's mother goes to their church, so Jim was almost positive I could get an autograph at some point. Kyler and I went to the game armed with some Weaver cards and a black sharpie. We found Jim and Paula before the game, and waited around to see if Weaver would come by. I was pointing out something on the scoreboard to Kyler, and Jim spotted Luke about 15 minutes before the game started. Paula got a picture with Luke, and then Jim introduced me, and Luke was kind enough to sign all of my cards. Kyler was distracted and more interested in the scoreboard, and after Luke left, was like 'who was that?', thinking I just handed my Luke Weaver cards to some random guy to draw on with marker. I told Kyler that it was Luke, and that it had happened so fast that I thought he realized what was going on. We'll have a chance to get some more autographs in a few days, so hopefully it will be a little more fun for him then.
Luke signed a USA jersey card, a 2017 Topps rookie, a 2018 Chrome Pink Refractor, a 2019 Topps Update, 2022 Topps, and 2025 Topps card. I'll have to go through my collection and try to see what year I am missing from having an autograph on a Topps card. It was nice to get a 2025 card done.
We stayed through halftime and watched Luke get his Hall of Fame plaque. DeLand won by almost 50, and stayed undefeated.
On Thursday, Stetson baseball has a fall game, and we hope to attend. Jim will be there as well. Kyler and I need 2 more autographs to complete the 2025 Stetson team set, just missing Angel Gomez and James Hays. Hays is on the roster, but the jury is still out on Gomez. When the card was issued, he had already left campus for the summer, and we're not sure if he transferred or what. Jim got me the 2 cards of Christian Pregent, who is now coaching for Stetson. A good guy to ask about Gomez would be Steve Trimper, Stetson's head coach. I made the custom of Trimper, and hope to get it signed on Thursday, as well as give Steve a few. Lastly, Don Robinson is a pitching coach for their opponent, so maybe we'll get a few of his signed. I really want to ask him if he ever received a 'Stargell Star' and what it was like being a teammate of Dave Dravecky in 1989 during his comeback season.
I recently got a complete 1998 Collector's Choice set on eBay. Not much to show as far as rookies or anything. I just really like the design, as well as getting more cards of players I followed in the late '90's and first cards of Rays and Diamondbacks.
The latest card purchases I made were 2 boxes? of 2025 Topps Holiday. Just to warn you, between my boxes and the one my brother-in-law got, many cards were off centered, had blurry names, and some chipping on the edges. I pulled a decent amount of Tigers, including big names like Jobe, Jung, and Skubal. The Rays were great, with a guy Kyler says we always pull, Junior Caminero, Yandy Diaz, Chandler Simpson in what his 2025 Update card will probably look like, and a Silver parallel of Shane McClanahan.
Many of the rookies were new guys who will be in 2025 Update. Guys like Drake Baldwin, Kristian Campbell, Cade Horton, Nick Kurtz, Marcelo Mayer, Cam Smith, and others.
The only Chrome I pulled was a Blue Wave of Zeby Matthews. Not sure if he is any good or not, but as a Tiger fan, I hope he isn't. If any bubble blowing collectors need that parallel of McCray, it is up for grabs.
The parallels were nice. A Light Blue Trout, holiday versions of Judge, Soto, 2 of Skenes (!), and back variations of Seager and Chisholm.
Those ones have snowflakes on the back instead of a logo.
The Suzuki relic was neat, since I got an Imanaga one a few months ago.
We finally got a date for hopefully the final surgery for Karen. December 8 (our anniversary). The date works out well for me, since the doctors want us to stay up in NJ for 2-3 weeks after in case any problems. That should put my return past Christmas, and with 2-3 days driving, it could put it past New Years. That just leaves 1 crazy holiday that I have to work during, and I'm ok with that. I might actually be in the Christmas spirit this year instead of the normal Scrooge I am dealing with all of the insane amount of bread/cookies/etc I have to bake. For me, it will be a time first, to help Karen out as she recovers from the surgery. Secondly, I’ll have some good time to relax and regain energy after a long tough year. I’ll have a good chance to make a bunch of customs. Maybe finish the 1976 set, go from the 2010 Topps set and see how close I can come to finishing a Topps Rays missing player run. Karen mentioned maybe going to New York City a few days before the surgery and celebrating our anniversary early, and that would be so exiting getting to take my girl to the biggest city in the world and seeing it with her. Hopefully the next 2 months will include lots of healing, favor, and baseball cards.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy