Finding another (Red Sox) friend on TCDB

I've come across - and traded with - a bunch of bloggers on TCDB. While my experience on the site has been overwhelmingly positive, it's still nice to know the person on the other end is a trusted friend.

In this deal, I didn't even know it was Matt of Diamond Jesters until I saw his shipping address and recognized the name. Oops! I shipped him off a few Red Sox for a single card:

I don't know why, but I like this Stanton next to the Marlins logo. I'm guessing it was from his return to Miami and his dugout press conference. I like the smile on his face. While Stanton has had a hard time staying on the field, all indications are that he's been very happy to be a Yankee, and has been a great teammate. He's always smiling, and this card captures that well.

Not wanting to send just one card, Matt also included a few HOFers for my son's binder:

That is probably the first Simmons I've set aside. I honestly had no idea who Ted Simmons despite all my years of collecting, but alas, I'll add him to the binder. 

There were a few others for the binder too!

Thanks, Matt! See you around on TCDB.

8!

Back in 2011, I started blogging as a young pup. Later that year, my son was born. It's hard to believe I've been writing this thing longer than he has been alive.

Today, my little dude turns 8. He just tore through the Pokemon card box we got him as his "big" gift.

Over the years, many of you have been incredibly generous sending him cards. While I've been bad at keeping up the "Joey's Cards" tab on my blog, I hope everyone knows that all the cards sent to him have been designated as such, kept in a binder, or in the instance of Jeter, kept with my most special cards.

Thank you to all who have been nice enough to throw something into trade packages for him. It's truly appreciated, and will always be part of the collection I keep for him. He won't have access to these cards until he's much older, since I'm worried he'll trade one now for some Pokemon GX something or other.

Here is a sampling of what you all have sent over the years, highlighted by the Jeter zapping from ZZ a long time ago!

And a few TTMs!

Being supportive of a new hobby

In the last couple of months, my son has picked up collecting Pokemon cards.

It's not just him. It's his entire second grade class. Boys. Girls. All of them walk to school clutching a binder that doesn't include schoolwork, yet includes pages and pages of Pokemon.

I gotta say, props to Pokemon for being able to appeal to kids. This isn't an indictment on sports cards. I think we all know that fewer and fewer kids collect and that this is a "grown ups hobby," despite what the hobby puppeteers say on Twitter about how packed with kids card shows are or when that kid who works for Topps pops up on Twitter. Had to hide Tweets from that account, I won't lie.

My son is more into Pokemon cards than anything I've ever seen him show an interest in. He talks about them 24/7, in the same way I did about cards when I was younger. I get home from work, and he doesn't even greet me. He just says "Dad, you won't believe this trade I made today" and then he goes on to say a bunch of things I don't understand.

It actually reminds me of being younger and showing my dad a stack of Fleer cards, and they'd put in a "Flair preview" and I remember him holding it and going, "wow, this is how cards are now. Aren't they nice?" in response to the imagery and cardstock and design. I appreciated that.

While I selfishly wish it was something I relate to a bit more, I do appreciate his enthusiasm and dedication. I had never seen him stick to a hobby for this long. He spends hours pouring over and organizing his binder. He has a digital collection on the online game (something again, shunned by sports card collectors...GASP digital cards!), and he watches YouTube videos of people opening packs.

It's been a bit challenging for me to not try and put my imprint on his collecting. I've found myself sometimes saying "want a pack of baseball cards too?" when we're at Target and he's having a hard time deciding what sort of Pokemon pack to buy. I've tried giving him trade advice, such as "it's ok to trade three dupes for one card you want in return." As a parent, it'a always natural to try and push your kid into what interests YOU. Would I rather come home and him show me the Aaron Judge card he just traded for? Yes, but that's because it's something I can relate to. But I'm trying to refrain.

Being a parent is often about letting your kid find their own path and interests, and supporting them along the way.

Sometimes my wife and I roll our eyes at how nerdy it all seems, but then I always try and take a step back and remember that I, a grown man, collect baseball cards. So maybe I'm the real nerd. Just because it's sports doesn't make it less nerdy. We're all nerds, and I think we know that.

I'm just happy he's found something he's passionate about, for now. It's going to make Christmas shopping quite a bit easier, that's for sure.

This post is to remind myself to remain supportive. Maybe it'll turn into sports card collecting. Maybe he'll grow out of it next year and his binders will collect dust. Whatever it is, I enjoy seeing his passion for his new hobby, and the fact that it's helping me grow as a parent by not trying to steer him one way or another, and letting him collect the way he wants to.

And regardless of my effort, I don't think I'll ever understand the names of the characters or how to play or what card is what.

Put me in, Coach Tom

Our resident hobby high school baseball coach, P-Town Tom, hit me up with a nice care package the other day. Tom is a very thoughtful guy, and tends to always check off multiple boxes when sending a package. This one was no different, as he hit three areas of my collection in one swoop:

• Tino Martinez
• Phil Rizzuto
• HOFers for my son

Let's start with the Tinos. I needed this Flair! It's a pretty awesome card, even though this set was confusing with the Class/Row/Seat designation. Just a fancy way to say "parallel."

I also enjoyed this SPx Power Explosion card, even if it is a dupe for me.

Next up, the Rizzutos! This TCMA is awesome, and I love the classic top-step-of-the-dugout shot.

I also thought this Topps Gallery was very classy looking, and even thought the scripted font design element looked a bit like this:

While I've been bad about showcasing and keeping up with my son's HOF binder, I do still actively add to it, and will make sure these cards are added:

While certainly not known for his time with the Mets, the Ashburn is a great addition to the binder!

Tom threw in a few other Yanks for me, highlighted by this UC3 Mattingly. Great shot of Donnie hustling and playing the game hard, as he always did.

Thanks for thinking of me, Coach!

TTM Success: Larry Walker

Yesterday I got home from work and found a PWE waiting for me. I thought it might have been my second spring training success. Although it wasn't from spring training, it was from Florida:

Former NL MVP Larry Walker signed two cards - one for me, and one for my son, Joey. I love that he wrote "swing hard" on Joey's. He'll be starting tee-ball next month and while I don't know if it's the soundest advice, it's hard to argue with Larry Walker.

I hope Walker ends up in the Hall of Fame, although he'll need to make up a ton of ground in the next two years. Still, he was one of the game's premier sluggers while I was growing up, so it was hard to turn down the chance at his autograph.

Thanks, Mr. Walker!

A Judge RC for Joey

I recently told a former colleague of mine that a pre-bedtime ritual for myself and my six-year-old are for him to take a stack of cards and read me the stats on the back.

A few days later, I got a text from this same person saying he remembered me saying that Joey likes to look at cards, and that he had a few packs in his office gathering dust. He asked for my address and said he'd send them along.

On Friday they arrived.

There were two clear cellophane packs of 2017 Topps with six cards each, a pack of 2017 Donruss football, and a pack of 1990-91 Skybox basketball (which were already opened).

I didn't expect the baseball packs to contain much given they were a sampler of some sorts. I have no idea where they might have been given out.

I opened the first pack, and as you'd expect, not much there. However, all usable cards for our nightly stat sessions.

In the second pack, tucked in the middle was this:

Nice! One of the 2017 card of the year: the Aaron Judge Topps flagship rookie card. Cool! I pulled it aside and put it in a top loader within Joey's cards in my collection. He'll get it back one day, of course.

I don't know much about 2017 football cards, but I think this was the best card in the football pack. Watson was having a great season before tearing his ACL.

In the opened basketball pack, I did get one card to add to Joey's HOF collection. It's funny, but I definitely busted a box of these as a kid, as 1990-91 Skybox and Hoops were both like $10 a box later in the '90s. Basketball equivalent of baseball junk wax, I guess.

All-in-all, not bad, and definitely appreciate the cards from my former colleague.

A special card experience

Last night was one of my coolest experiences ever with cards.

I got home from work at about 8pm, just as the Yankees and Astros were about to start. Anxious to get the game on, I planned to quickly kiss each kid goodnight and get to a TV.

When I got to my son’s room, he asked for a “moving card” (Sportflix) because he had a good day at school. Instead, I asked him if he wanted one of the 30-card Dollar Tree repacks my mom gave him over the weekend (she gave him two of them on Sunday). He said yes.

Instead of just flipping through, he got to the first card, a Mike Pelfrey 2010 Topps, and asked how many home runs he had. I told him that he was a pitcher, and it might be easier to find how many strike outs he had. I showed him where to find that on the back of the card. For the next 15 minutes or so, we went through each of the 30 cards. Based on the picture, I’d have him guess if he was a hitter or pitcher. If he was a hitter, he’d find the “HR” column on the back and tell me how many career home runs he had. If he was a pitcher, he’d find the “SO” on the back and tell me how many strike outs.

It's been apparent for a while that my son has been fond of numbers and has taken to math at an early age. Out of the blue he’ll tell me that ten 100s equal one thousand and things like that. Not bad for a five-year-old, right? While he’s getting frustrated sounding out letters and words lately, numbers definitely come easier to him. Therefore, I shouldn’t act surprised that he’s enjoying looking at the backs of baseball cards, just like many of us did as youngsters.

I missed the top of the first inning because I was sitting in my kid’s bed looking at the backs of baseball cards with him. That experience was definitely more important and memorable than any inning of any Playoff game I’ll ever watch.

Cards from Twitter

It's always surprising when someone reaches out via email or Twitter and wants to send me (or my son) some cards. This happened recently on Twitter, when Jonathan from @ABucnCaniac sent me a DM offering to send a few HOFers for Joey.

It was very generous and appreciated. Here are the cards I've added to Joey's HOF binder. I still have to ingrain it in my brain that Biggio is a HOFer.

 

Jonathan also included a few Yankees for me, including this Jeter insert. I better snag it for myself before I have to add a bunch of Jeters to the HOF binder in a few years.

Thanks so much, Jonathan. Go give him a follow at @ABucnCaniac.

Repacks do grow on (Dollar) Trees

Yesterday, I showed off the unexpected Andre Dawson/Vlad Guerrero insert I pulled in a Dollar Tree 30-card repack. I bought seven of the packs, and here are a few more highlights that are a lot more what you’d tradionally expect to get in this type of product.

First off, the best “window card” – the card showing through on the packaging – was a 2016 Bowman Masahiro Tanaka. While this is a dupe for me, it’s a lot easier of a choice for me to snag this card versus someone I’ve never heard of.

This Wil Myers card was also a window card, and I also received this same card in another pack.

There were a few Dodger cards through, and these were two of the cooler ones. The Crawford is one of the foil variations, which isn’t a terrible thing.

Glossy! Nearly each pack had a 1988 Fleer, and each was the glossy version.

A few cards from a time I didn’t collect, and didn’t recognize either card’s design. The Rollins is from 2007 Topps.

Gum stains were plentiful as well. If this were more recent Heritage, these would be worth something.

Diecuts in a repack are cool!

 

Lastly, HOFers! Unlike Fairfield repacks, these don’t guarantee X number of HOFers in each pack. However, there was no shortage. I’ll add these to my son’s HOF binder.