Month: July 2020

The Quarantine Project

I never imagined that in July of 2020, I would still be talking about the quarantine life. I have officially had my hair cut twice in the front yard, haven’t eaten at a physical restaurant since March 6, haven’t been in a physical store other than Wal-Mart since March 17, and haven’t hugged a non-family member since Eric Tucker in Lowe’s on March 13. To be honest, if I had to hold on to one non-family hug for the rest of my life, it might as well be Eric.

I think one of the most insane things that I can say about my routine is that I went 8 consecutive days during a stretch without driving a vehicle. I drove a Kubota, but not a vehicle on a paved road. And I drive every day, multiple times a day in my normal life; so it’s been strange. The extent of my entertainment the last few months has been an occasional swim with family and, most recently, a kayaking trip on a deserted creek. There were four people on the creek that day and we all were together.

It’s been a weird time. It’s abnormal but has almost become normal. I have learned to live like this and not feel like I’m missing out on something. While the world has become even more complex, day to day life has become simpler; if that makes any sense. The one thing I have missed is going to the LCS, but I have certainly made up for that on eBay, Dave & Adam’s, and Steel City Collectibles. The money I have saved on gas with all of those non-driving days has been diverted to my card purchases. I’m not proud, but I’m honest.

I started a little project during this quarantine time; and that I am proud of. I have a lot of projects going on; the Dated Rookie Autograph Project, the 1991 Topps Project, the ongoing Ron Gant Project. So, why not add another? Mail days are fun and this one includes me filling in gaps in my collection that I never imagined possible when I was a kid. But it’s coming together now and I have enough of it going to be able to show some of it off. I call it the “Great Quarantine Rookie Project of 2020”. But the title is a bit fluid at this point.

The rookie card has long been the go-to item in collecting. When I started in the 80’s, that’s what we were searching for. The veterans were always nice to add but the rookies were the Kelly Kapowski’s of the hobby. And today, they still are but there are autographs, relics, 1/1’s, parallels, prizm, SP’s, prospects, 1st Edition’s, and everything in between. It has even become difficult to determine what a true RC is. So I went to my card Zen master for his definition.

According to Stephan Loeffler, also known as @JunkWaxTwins on Twitter, a true RC “should be a player’s first real card. That might’ve been easier to discern in the 50’s and 60’s, but nowadays with multiple releases and brands that’s not as simple an answer. This is why I love Upper Deck’s stance where there’s no cards until a player debuts on ice, whereas a future MLB player may be featured in several years prior – look at Bubba Starling! Nowadays, I think a player’s first card should be their first release in a “flagship” product. Series One Hockey, Series Two/Update Baseball, NBA Hoops/Prizm, what have you. So yes, 1985 Topps not 1987 Topps, 1952 Topps, 1996 SI For Kids Tiger over 2001 Upper Deck.”

With that being said, I have been somewhat liberal with this project. I have considered 1st issues, Rated Rookies, Rookie Cups, Traded/Updates, and even non-licensed cards as a part of the player’s rookie set. Some players only have one because they were rookies in the 1970’s; but the later we get, the more convoluted things tend to be. So instead of just talking about this, let’s actually look at what I’ve put together to get this going. The player’s full rookie sets may not be complete yet but we have it started.

Tony Fernandez

One of the first rookies I went after was that of the late Tony Fernandez. I was a big fan of Tony Fernandez back in the day because I was a shortstop myself. That’s also why I loved Ozzie Smith – but Tony flew a bit under the radar. He was a rookie in 1984 after a 15 game cup of coffee in 1983. While “flying under the radar”, he finished his 17 year career with a .288 career avg, 2,276 hits, was a 5x All-Star, 4x Gold Glove Winner, and World Series Champ in 1993. I have added the 1984 Donruss, Fleer, and Topps to the collection, with my personal favorite being the ’84 Donruss.

Mike Greenwell

Mike “The Gator” Greenwell was cool before Big Papi and Pedro Martinez were making the Red Sox a perennial power. While being overshadowed by Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens, Greenwell played 12 productive seasons and finished his career as a .303 hitter. He hit some home runs (130), stole some bases (80), and knocked in some runs (726). He was a 2x All-Star and a Silver Slugger Winner but I think his career was much better than that would indicate. He hit over .300 seven times in those 12 years! I have added his 1987 Donruss, Donruss “The Rookies”, Fleer, Topps, and Toys R Us.

Bo Jackson

I have tons of Bo Jackson RC’s, from baseball to football. But while perusing eBay, I stumbled upon this 1986 Southern League Future Star from his days with the Memphis Chicks. This card just called my name and was one of the quickest “Buy Now’s” I’ve ever snatched up. I absolutely LOVE this card!

Dave Justice

While we are discussing minor league cards, I picked up this Dave Justice ProCards from his time with the Richmond Braves. I can’t own enough Dave Justice cards but I was actually missing this in my PC.

Willie McGee

Another “under the radar” guy was Willie McGee. Again, it’s a little difficult to fly under the radar as a 4x All-Star, League MVP (1985), and World Series Champ (1982). On top of that, he won two batting titles, though one is questioned by some. The first was strong as he finished 1985 with a .353 average. The questionable one was in 1990, when he won the National League Batting Title while finishing the season in the American League. He hit .335 with the Cards but then hit .274 with the A’s. The .335 stuck as the National League Lead. The new PC RC’s now include the 1983 Donruss, Fleer, O-Pee-Chee, and Topps. I love the ’83 Donruss!

Kevin Mitchell

In the “forgotten player” department, Kevin Mitchell shines as a former MVP (1989), 2x All-Star, and 1986 World Series Champ. While he was a masher, with seasons of 47, 35, and 30 Home Runs, he also hit for average; finishing his 13 year career with a .284 average. His most famous moment, for me, came when he caught a flyball barehanded against the St Louis Cardinals. The batter, ironically, was Ozzie Smith. I picked up his 1986 Donruss “The Rookies”, Fleer Update, Topps Traded, and 1987 Toys R Us. It is really hard to beat that Toys R Us design!

Eddie Murray

One of the more iconic RC’s of the 1970’s is the great Topps Card for Eddie Murray. Murray is my first Hall of Famer in the project and also won Rookie of the Year in 1977, hitting 27 Home Runs while batting .283. He played 21 solid years and hit 25+ Home Runs twelve times, knocked in 100+ six times, and hit .300+ seven times. This is a must have in every collection!

Dave Parker

Another must have, in my opinion, is The Cobra’s 1974 Topps. Dave Parker is a legend in baseball history and a member of the “We Are Family” Pirates of 1979. Parker played 19 years and hit 339 Home Runs, knocked in 1,493 runs, and finished up with a .290 batting avg. He was a 7x All-Star, 2x World Series Champ, the NL MVP in 1978, a 3x Gold Glove Winner, 3x Silver Slugger Winner, and 2x NL Batting Champ. The Cobra was the dude and adding this RC was sweet!

Dave Winfield

While the 1979 Ozzie Smith is my favorite Padres RC of all time, I finally added a RC of Dave Winfield from 1974. It isn’t in the greatest condition but I’m perfectly fine with that. Winfield’s accolades are tremendous. He eclipsed 3,000 hits, almost had 500 Home Runs (465), and knocked in 1,833 runs. He was a 12x All-Star, 7x Gold Glove Winner, 6x Silver Slugger Winner, and a World Series Champ in 1992. He won the Roberto Clemente Award in 1994 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001 with almost 85% of the vote (First Ballot). This one is a keeper!

John Elway

I am not just sticking to baseball with this project. And the first RC I had to add was John Elway. It is an iconic card and he’s an iconic player. The 1984 Topps is a card I have seen a million times but never actually owned it until recently. I’m not going to go on and on about Elway’s stats because I think most everyone knows just how good he was!

Mike Rozier

Here is one that may be a bit of a surprise to some but as a Falcons fan; Mike Rozier makes a lot of sense. Rozier started his pro career in the USFL with the Pittsburgh Maulers (1st Overall), after putting up 4,780 yards and 49 touchdowns at Nebraska, where he would win the 1983 Heisman Trophy. He would only put up 4,462 yards in 7 seasons in the NFL but he was one of the few bright spots on the early 90’s Falcons teams. I love the look of USFL cards and this one is awesome!

Patrick Ewing

The last card in this post will be one of the coolest. The 1986 Star Patrick Ewing is a beauty! I know people love the 1986-87 Fleer set, but let’s be honest; this one is superior. First, it is closer to being a true rookie. Second, it is what 1991 Fleer wish it had been with that yellow. And lastly, just look at it! I love the Star set and will add cards whenever I find them at a reasonable price. I’m thrilled to add this one.

So what do you think about this Quarantine Project? It may seem a little simple but it’s really fun. I am picking up rookies of players that I don’t own. Yeah, I already had the ’87 Topps Greenwell, but the Toys R Us? Starting this project is how I ended up with the sweet Memphis Chicks Bo Jackson! I’ll continue to scour the web for unique and fun rookies of players that may not be everybody’s particular PC. I’ll pick up some legends along the way, like Elway and Winfield, but I’m really excited about finding some of the lesser known rookie cards, like Mike Rozier.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

J-Dub

Take A Couple Cards and Call Me In The Morning

There is a lot of hate in the world today. Welcome to 2020, right? I understand that some of the feelings we are seeing play out are valid and some are outlandish. So I am not really here to justify or choose sides in the many battles that are raging in society today. I’ve already made my “statement” on Facebook and Twitter so I’m not going to re-hash it all over again. That’s not the point of this post.

But let’s pretend for a moment that the Book of Revelation is playing out in front of us. I know that some of you are thinking as you read this, “Pretend??” The reason I word it that way is that I understand that there are people reading this that practice different religions and some that don’t practice at all. But Revelation is my reference point for what is happening right now. So for the purposes of this look at “what the hell is going on”, it seems fair. It feels like the end, right?

We are in the middle of a pandemic that has pitted neighbor against neighbor over things like conspiracy theories, whether you should wear a mask or not, whether numbers are being manipulated, and where it all came from. People are being labeled unjustly, attacked unprovoked, and just being overall assholes to each other. Each side is intolerant of the other and brags about being tolerant. I’ll say this – I know people personally affected by the virus and my heart breaks for them, so I am taking it seriously.

We are having 15 second video clips shoved into our eyeballs like we’re in a Tool video; while at the same time being forced to pick a side almost immediately. I’m guilty of it myself. I judge things based on optics sometimes without understanding how we got from “Point A” to “Point B”. That’s the nature of society here in 2020. And it downright sucks. And that means that I suck too. I’m not preaching to anyone. I’m venting.

We are dealing with Saharan Dust overtaking the sky. We are seeing locusts travel over entire oceans to invade Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, South Asia, and South America. Locusts = Revelation, if you catch my drift. We have had earthquakes, murder hornets, wildfires, lockdowns, market crashes, sports season cancellations, Olympic postponements, and cities being torn apart. All of this while we are scared to go the grocery store to get bread because we might bring home a deadly virus to the rest of our family. It’s only July folks.

Here is where I am going with this, and yes, there will be pictures of baseball cards in a moment. In a time when everything around us is burning; instead of reaching out to our neighbor to offer comfort, we are looking for yet another reason to “cancel” them. Instead of texting someone a funny Snapchat video to make them laugh, we are posting a video of a shopper yelling about American Rights over a medical mask.

Instead of reaching out to someone and reminding them of some positive impact they had on our lives, we are reaching out to remind them of something they said in 2005 that may or may not actually be offensive and discounting the last 15 years of their actual lives that may have been spent helping others. Mind you, wrong is wrong and right is right; but finding someone’s low point in life and measuring them by that alone is not how this is all supposed to work.

Now is the time we should be looking at ourselves and not someone else. Now is when we need to make amends for the things we may have done wrong, instead of looking for wrong in others. Now is the time to listen when we need to listen, and talk when we need to talk. We need to reach back to the part of ourselves that only knew how to love. We have an innate ability to care for people around us. Sometimes we just choose not to do that. It hurts like hell, but we keep doing it.

The reason I love baseball cards so much is because they remind me of that time of my life when the world around me was a little friendlier. Some of it was naivety, but I didn’t dwell on the negative in people. If you didn’t enjoy the things I enjoyed, I just went to another part of the playground. I found people with common interests. I wasn’t miserable because I liked shooting marbles and someone didn’t. I found someone who enjoyed it. I didn’t care what race, sex, or persuasion they were.

We didn’t have to walk around with fake smiles when we were 10-12. We were one group for the most part and we all had our own personalities that made us unique. We naturally gravitated towards others that shared common interests and we avoided those that would conflict with our happiness. We don’t do that anymore; we embrace the conflict. We sort of thrive on it.

Baseball cards provide that outlet for me to escape back to innocence. When I see a baseball card from 1990, I don’t see some overproduced, worthless piece of cardboard like some do in the hobby. More times than not, I see something well beyond the card. I see a moment in time. I see a friend that traded me the card or was a part of my life when I first stuck it in a binder. I smell a classroom where we looked at the cards. I hear a voice telling me they would trade me all of their Kevin Maas rookies for a Ken Griffey Jr. That’s a rough voice to hear.

As is a big topic of debate on the Twitters in 2020, I don’t look at baseball cards as investments. I look at them as tiny snapshots from the timeline of my life. Cards from 2020 will be a snapshot too; I just may not ever get that film developed. Yeah, I sell cards to make money to buy more but I have been in the hobby long enough to know that a card is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, right Ben? But cards are not currency for me. They are like looking at an old yearbook.

What do you see here, besides one of the greatest 1987 Topps Baseball Cards ever made? I see a card that was the first card in my binder when I was in 7th grade. And when I was in 7th grade, I had my first school dance, my first real girlfriend, and some of the best friends of my youth. One of my friends, Joel, would walk home from school the same way I would because of where our parents worked. My cousin, Adam, would walk the same way because his mom worked at the ambulance service. We would go to a store called Shiver’s (no relation) and stock up on Now-n-Later’s, Sunkist, and one of those big pickles that were kept in jars at the counter. Good times!

Here is one of the cooler cards from 1988, the great Tom Lasorda. This card reminds me of times at my Uncle Speedy’s house. My uncle was our baseball coach growing up and we would spend days practicing at his house with all the team equipment, nights at the fields (dominating), and then our off time playing RBI and RBI 3. My uncle was an old school baseball player and fan and this card always makes me think of those days.

Here is a gem. This is a .10 cent card all day long but what a memory it stokes. We used to go to Lake Eufaula almost every weekend when I was a kid. Also, when I was a kid, I didn’t necessarily mind my parents. We would stop at a Costco type grocery store and load up on groceries before the weekend and I would occasionally talk my parents into letting me have some packs of cards. This particular time, I got the cards, but was told I couldn’t open them until we got to the lake. I tried to sneak a peek by breaking the back wrapper and was caught. I lost the packs until we got back from the lake. The card I saw was this Hershiser All-Star!

Here is one of my favorite rookies from 1989. Sure, Ken Griffey Jr. was the big one but I searched for Sheff every time I opened packs. There was a kid in my school that said he was a distant cousin to Dwight Gooden. So when I found out the Sheffield was Gooden’s nephew, I held on to this dream that one day I would get them all signed. Autographed baseball cards were hard to come by back then unless you went to games frequently or paid at a card show. This would have been my first auto but it never actually happened. I still have that dream when I see this card!

1990 was a big card collecting year for me. I was also 13 years old, so a pivotal year personally as well. I didn’t know who this rookie was when I pulled this but I would find out in a big way in 1992. After the Braves made their improbable worst to first run in 1991, we made the playoffs again in 1992. Backs to the wall in Game 7, Frankie Cabrera stepped to the plate and delivered the most famous hit of my lifetime. My entire family would gather to watch the games at my house and I can still hear the screams in that living room as we erupted! I would trade just about anything to go back and watch that game. My grandmother was there, her sister, my aunts and uncles. There are three people that were there that night that are no longer with us and when I think of them, that night always comes to mind.

Speaking of my grandmother, this card is one I have talked about many times. It still deserves a mention every time I write a nostalgic post like this. Instead of the boring old candy that we would get from everybody else at Halloween, my GaGa surprised me in 1990 with a couple of packs of Fleer. You could not get much bigger than Canseco and McGwire in 1990. When I pulled this, it was a huge hit! I think it was worth about $3 in Beckett back then. You can have all the candy corn you want; leave me the McGwire! I simply can’t see this card and not think of my GaGa. I miss her so much.

1990 Leaf was one of those crazy sets that caught fire and was like chasing 2019-2020 Prizm Basketball. There were actually a couple of months where every single card had an up arrow beside it in Beckett. Two of my best friends, Jim and Russ, had the full set in a binder. Leaf always makes me think of those brothers and the good times we had. We played ball, went to the lake together, watched Mike Tyson knock out Peter McNeely in 89 seconds, and watched The Dirty Birds make it to the Super Bowl! Leaf will always take me back to those times.

The first full set I ever owned was 1990 Topps and Topps Traded. My parents got me this for Christmas that year. They were always top notch with the Christmas gifts. I got plenty of cards, a Nintendo, race tracks, and every other big Christmas toy of the time. This set will always be about me and my parents. I had it made in 1990 and I really couldn’t have asked for better parents. I didn’t realize it at the time but I was so fortunate to have loving parents that always wanted the best for me. Love you Mom and Dad!

Is there a better collection of Diamond Kings than those from 1992 and 1993? I loved Donruss so much back then. And the Big Hurt was my favorite player that didn’t play in Atlanta. My Uncle Greg was a huge Auburn fan and it made liking Frank a little difficult during football season but this card always reminds me of when I was 15 years old and my uncle was one of my heroes. He isn’t that much older than me and I was able to see him play high school baseball in the mid 80’s, travel with him to play softball in the 90’s, and spend most of the 2000’s arguing over Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon. I was a Stewart guy and you know they didn’t get along real well! But me and Greg did, and this card makes me think of him.

1995 was one of the last years I actively collected before my “hiatus” that we all take during our teens. I was dating Mrs. Dub in 1995 and it was one of the best years of my life! I eventually married Mrs. Dub and we’ve been hitched for 19 years. Aside from the year, there is Griffey. He was just about everybody’s favorite player from the 90’s and I got to watch him play in person just one time; in Atlanta when he was with the Reds. Mrs. Dub and I had seats in the outfield but we moved behind the plate at the end of the game as the crowd thinned out. We got behind home plate just in time to see Griffey lace a line drive into right center field. I can still see that swing and is the only time I’ve ever cheered when an opponent got a hit in Atlanta. Yes, a baseball card reminds me of my wife. And I am proud of it!

See, in spite of all the horrors and shenanigans going on in this world, baseball cards give me a chance to get away. I forgot all about how agitated I was at the beginning. All I want is for us to treat each other kindly. All of the memories I talked about here were fun, light-hearted times that seem so hard to find these days. It’s not hard to think about some good times with old friends or family and try to smile for a minute. It is a lot more fun than bludgeoning each other on social media just to have a brief moment to say “I’m right!”

But based on today’s social media situation, you’ll either enjoy this post or you will try to “cancel” me. Hopefully, you’ll just enjoy!

J-Dub