The Best of the Rest

It's Sunday... which means another few hours set aside in the day to sort cards and hammer out a blog post.

Today i'll be wrapping up Rod's (aka Padrographs) care packages... which arrived back at the start of summer.  I'm gonna start off with a 9-pocket page of Athletics:

Once upon a time, the A's were sitting in first place atop the AL West.  As of this morning, they have the 2nd worst record in baseball.  A lot of that has to do with the lack of quality starting pitching and a ton of injuries... including two of their brightest young stars:  Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson.

Both of these guys are out for the rest of the season, but I'll happily add their cards to my collection whenever I can.

Next up are some Padres inserts and parallels:

The A's were crazy to trade away Mason Miller... but I sure am glad that he landed in San Diego.  He's recorded 34 saves with a 0.90 ERA since his arrival.  That refractor of him wearing the City Connect jersey is right up there with the Swinging Friar card as my favorites.

Rod also sent me a bunch of Topps Now Padres.  Here's 90% of the 2024 Topps Now Opening Day Padres team set:

Robert Suarez was the only card missing, but I ran over to eBay and picked up a copy for $2 + tax & shipping.

He also sent me some 2023 and 2024 Topps Now Padres.  The card sitting in the #5 spot is a short print variation of Dylan Cease's no-hitter celebration.  I had heard about these variations before, but this is the first time owning one.

If you look carefully in the regular version of Cease's Topps Now card, you'll notice the Peter Seidler memorial patch on his jersey.  Rod sent me the gray version of this patch:

Peter Seidler Memorial Patch

He also included this 20th Anniversary of Petco Park patch:

Petco Park 20th Anniversary Patch

These two patches sent me on a wild goose chase to track down a few more patches for my baseball collection, but I'll share them in a future post.

He also included some memorabilia cards.  Here's my very first Trent Grisham relic:

2021 Topps Allen & Ginter Relic #AGA-TG

He had a few memorable walk-off home runs for the Padres during his tenure with the team.  I wonder if this piece of wood came from one of those bats.

Unfortunately Topps didn't bother including any information about whether or not this swatch of wood came from a game-used bat.  C'mon Topps... do better.

2004 Topps Clubhouse Career Legends Relic #CL-WM2 (#'d 044/141)

Twenty-two years ago, you at least assured collectors that this jersey swatch was worn by Willie Mays in an official MLB game:

But even this COA could be interpreted a variety of ways.  That being said... I'm not going to complain.  This is a freaking Willie Mays jersey card.  How often do you see one of these pop up in a care package?

I know that memorabilia cards aren't as popular as they once were, but I'm still a big fan.

Here's another one from Rod's collection:

Baseball Card Breakdown Custom Relic #BG-Relic-Bip (#'d 1/1)

This one was created by Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown:

As you can see, Gavin wrote a quality COA that states that the uniform swatch came from a pair of game-used pants worn by Brian Giles during the 2000 season with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Well that wraps up Rod's three care packages.  Thank you so much for all of the new additions to my Padres, A's, and autograph PC's.  And of course... I can't forget that sweet Willie Mays jersey card.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Accidentally Left Out

Friday's post celebrated The Collector's 10th Anniversary.  I didn't have time to open up the 1986 Topps rack pack he included in the care package.  Today we resolve that issue.  However before I show off the highlights from that pack, let's check out three lefties that were also part of the care package:

While organizing and sorting Chris's care package... I set these three cards to the side and accidentally left them out.  Then I read Jim's post about International Lefthanders Day and was reminded of the two lefties Chris had sent my way.  As a fellow lefty, I decided a few years ago to collect left-handed athletes.  Randy and Clayton are two of the greatest from my lifetime.  

2026 Topps #22

I was especially excited to see Kershaw's 2026 Topps card, because it shows off statistics from his entire MLB career.  Topps drops the ball a lot these days, but kudos to them for giving him and his fans a proper sunset card.

Okay, let's take a look at the contents of that 1986 Topps rack pack...

I'm pretty sure Chris chose this specific rack pack for me, because I need this Garvey for my set build:

1986 Topps Glossy All-Star #13

One card down.  One card to go:

When it comes to collecting, 1986 Topps holds a lot of nostalgic value to me.  One one hand it reminds me of stolen cards and the end of a childhood friendship.  But it also reminds me of a time when I'd open up packs of cards, look them over, and sort them in a variety of ways.

Sometimes I'd sit down and try to build the best team out of the cards pulled in my pack.  

Here's my starting nine:

Since this was a rack pack with forty-nine cards, I decided to only use regular base cards (no subsets) to build my squad.  If you're wondering why I used Jose Cruz in center when he spent most of his career patrolling left... it's because Oglivie had dibs on that position.

1986 Topps #583

I considered putting Al Bumbry in centerfield, but ultimately I'd rather have Cruz out there playing out of position.

However like Kershaw... Bumbry gets to be in the spotlight today, because his 1986 Topps card is his sunset card.  Here's a look at his career stats:

Bumbry is a huge fan favorite among Baltimore Orioles fans, but this card captures his lone season in San Diego.

I'll wrap things up with Al's manager in 1985 and a few other familiar names from the rack pack:

Thanks again Chris for this generous care package.  It was cool to see some sunsets.  And this rack pack took me back to my middle school days in more than one way.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Wrapping Things Up

Time flies when you're having fun.  This summer was pretty awesome.  Busy, but awesome.

It was only the third summer in my twenty-eight years of teaching that I didn't work and there's a good chance I won't be teaching summer school again.  As much as I enjoy the extra paychecks, I enjoyed the free time to focus on other things a wee bit more.

Last summer, I read two of Alan Gratz's books.  This summer, I read one more:

Allies by Alan Gratz

Gratz is popular among young adult readers interested in historical fiction.  This particular book looks at the events of D-Day from the three different perspectives.  It was a really enjoyable read that constantly had me looking up facts about that day.

Summer is also the perfect time to binge watch a favorite show from the past.  This year I decided to rewatch the 2004 version of Battlestar Galactica.  I already mentioned this a few weeks ago, but I look forward to showing off my celebrity crush whenever I can:

2016 Baseball Card Breakdown

Pretty Girls Custom #1

Ten years ago, Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown produced a set of custom cards featuring nine pretty ladies.  He held a contest where the winner would receive a complete set.  As a bonus, the winner would get to pick a lady to be included in the set.  I won and chose Grace Park.

I also went on several short trips this summer.  Here are some wallet card shots I took to document those road trips:

Carnelian Bay, Lake Tahoe

Back in July, my brothers and I took a trip up to Lake Tahoe to visit my mother.  It was a gorgeous day and we were surprised that there weren't more people up there escaping the Central Valley heat.

When we got back to Sacramento, we stopped off at Whitey's Jolly Kone:

This place was packed, but the fresh peach milkshake was delicious.

Later in the month, my friend and I headed back to our regular vacation spot:

Pismo Beach

If this looks familiar, it's because we've stayed there three or four times since Christmas.

Morro Bay

I was hoping to get a good shot of Morro Rock, but the fog was rolling in when we were there for lunch.  We actually planned to drive down again, but we scrapped that idea and started going into our classrooms.

Speaking of classrooms, one of my co-workers gave me a bunch of San Francisco Giants stadium giveaways:

I only kept a few of the items, which I might show off in a future post when I decide where to display them.  The rest were offered up to other teachers.

Alright... let's wrap up the final post of my summer break with seventeen new Gwynns that Rod (aka Padrographs) sent me:

2012 Panini Cooperstown High Praise #10

2013 Pinnacle Clear Vision #CV68

2015 Finest Generations #FG-36

2015 Stadium Club #265

2019 Topps 1984 All-Stars #84AS-TG

2019 Topps Gallery #197

2019 Topps A&G Gold Mini #77

2020 Topps Decade of Dominance #DOD-11

2021 Topps Update Cards That Never Were #CNW-12

2022 Topps Chrome Silver Pack Mojo #T87C-36

2023 Chrome Platinum Anniversary Green Wave #442 (#'d 25/99)

2024 Topps Big League #TBL-18

It's not often I receive a Gwynn card serial numbered to 99 in a care package.  Rod ended up sending me a few.

2025 Topps 1990 Silver Pack Chrome #T90C-58

2025 Topps 1990 Silver Pack Chrome Aqua Refractor #T90C-58 (#'d 050/199)

2025 Topps 1990 Silver Pack Chrome Green Refractor #T90C-58 (#'d 21/99)

2025 Topps Call to the Hall Blue #CTH-21 (#'d 005/150)

2025 Topps Call to the Hall Green #CTH-21 (#'d 21/99)

Thank you Rod for all of these new additions to my Gwynn PC.  I still have one more post covering some of the other items you sent.  That should be published next weekend.

And thank you to all of you who took the time to read this post.  Some of you might be wondering when I'll be shipping out my care packages.  I haven't forgotten about them.  I just haven't finished building them.  Every time I remind myself to work on them, I get distracted.  But I'm giving myself through Labor Day weekend to build them.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!