Sentimental Stieb

What's better than adding a gem mint, pack pulled Dave Stieb rookie card to my hometown collection?  How about a Dave Stieb rookie card pulled back in 1980 by the legendary Night Owl:

1980 Topps #77

A few weeks ago, Greg opened up a pack of 1980 Topps and pulled a really clean copy of this card... which ended up being an upgrade for his set.

He generously sent me the one he pulled back in 1980... which in my opinion is way cooler.  It's like owning a piece of card collecting history.

Kind of like owning one of those PSA cards from Dmitri Young's collection:

PSA Photo

I've always been jealous of Greg's memory.  His ability to remember cards he pulled forty-plus years ago is very, very impressive.  I'm even more jealous that Greg kept so many cards from his childhood.  Most of the cards from my youth were sold in 2001 when I sold off my collection to buy my place.  I kept a handful of cards, but there's only one that I distinctively remember pulling myself and it's buried in a box somewhere.

Anyways... getting back to Stieb... he went to the same high school as me.  And according to The Baseball Cube, he's one of only two players from OGHS who went on to play in The Show.  Mike Brown is the other guy...

COMC Photo

Anyone have an extra 1981 TCMA Holyoke Millers card of Mike Brown laying around?

Greg also sent me another San Jose related card:

1993-94 Parkhurst #183

Pat Falloon wasn't born in San Jose, but he was the first player drafted in San Jose Sharks franchise history.  Although he didn't become the superstar many Sharks fans had hoped for, he did have a solid NHL career.

Before we get to the rest of the cards Greg sent, I wanted to show off one more San Jose related item:

A long time ago... I had a student who would do this really funny impersonation of a nail salon worker.  Eventually I found out she was actually impersonating Anjelah Johnson:

A few weeks ago, one of my friends mentioned that Johnson was born and raised in San Jose.  So I hit the internet, found her website, and purchased a signed 8x10 for $10 (+ shipping).

Okay... back to the rest of the cards in Night Owl's care package...

2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Zip Code #16

2013 Panini Heroes State #16

Out of all of the Panini baseball card sets produced over the past decade, Hometown Heroes is my favorite.  When I saw this Zip Code parallel, I got a little excited.  I figured it featured the player's hometown zip code... which meant that if I picked up the Dave Stieb from this set, it would feature a San Jose zip code...

COMC Photo

However it's actually the zip code for the stadium the player played in.  Oh well... wishful thinking.

One of these days I'm going to add my Kurt Suzuki collection to TCDB.  The current leaderboard looks like this:

I'm confident I'll be able to crack the Top 5, but in order to take over the top spot I'm going to need all the help I can get.  That's why I was very happy to add this card to the collection:

2021 Topps Factory Set Foilboard #571 (#'d 036/790)

According to Baseballcardpedia, Topps inserted a five card pack of foilboard parallels into each of the Walmart factory set.  When you take into consideration that there are 660 cards in the 2021 Topps factory set, collectors have a 1:132 chance of pulling any particular card from these special packs.  The fact that there are 790 copies of each card means that Topps produced a ton of factory sets last year.

The final two cards in Night Owl's care package were a Christmas Kershaw and Wacky Jackson:

2020 Topps Holiday #82

Clayton Kershaw is one of my favorite pitchers... and I was very happy to see him resign with the Dodgers.  Hopefully he'll end up being one of those rare "one franchise" hall of famers.

2007 Wacky Packages Series 6 #64

As for the Michael Jackson zombie card, I'm guessing Greg knows I appreciate the wax pack parodies from Wacky Packages.  On the other hand, maybe he know's I'm a fan of The King of Pop.

Thank you Greg for the generous PWE.  The Stieb has been added to the card blogger section in my Sports Card Smorgasbord binder right next to this card:

1989 Bill Pucko Niagara Falls Rapids #29

As for the rest of you...

Do you still have a bunch of the cards from your childhood?

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

TWIB: A Sad Pattern, Paper Rulers, More Pink, and TTM's

This Week in Blogging was designed to recap hobby related posts around our hobby blogosphere that stood out to me during the week.  It's been a great way for me to showcase fellow bloggers while incorporating cards from my own collection.  So far, I've gotta say it's been a pretty big success.  The interaction with other collectors in the comment section is usually strong and ultimately that's my favorite part of blogging.

On the downside... there is one pattern that has started to take shape.  It's actually a pattern many of you have pointed out in your posts.  It seems like every time we turn around we're reading about fans saying their goodbyes to favorite athletes or celebrities.

This will be the sixth post in the series... and it will include the fourth tribute to a baseball hall of famer who has passed away recently.  If you include Gale Sayers, it's the fifth tribute in six weeks.  I don't plan on switching up the format, since "death" is a part of "life" and this blog's goal is to document what is going on with me and the hobby, but hopefully this will be the last one for the near future...

#1:  Chairman of the Board

1977 TCMA Renata Galasso #25

Yesterday SumoMenkoMan texted me the sad news about Whitey Ford towards the beginning of my second period class.  I didn't immediately see the message, but when I had the opportunity to look I was deeply saddened and had to walk away from the computer to collect my thoughts.  Luckily the students didn't notice and I continued with my lesson.

Ford is one of only a handful of New York Yankees that I've gone out of my way to collect, which is why I'm planning a more elaborate tribute for him on Tuesday.  Please stay tuned.

#2:  The Logo

On Wednesday, CinciCuse Bill over at Bill's Baseball Card Blog wrote a post highlighting some of the greatest athletes to ever wear #44 on their jersey.  I thought it'd be a great time to show off this blog inspired purchase I made back in June:

1969-70 Topps Rulers #2

Back in 1969, Topps inserted these paper rulers into packs of their basketball cards.  I wasn't familiar with these inserts, but knew I wanted one for my collection after seeing the bright colors and cartoon drawings of the athlete.

Unfortunately... I can't find the original post that inspired this addition to my Los Angeles Lakers collection.

Update:  Jon (A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts) pointed out that it was CaptKirk42's post who opened my eyes to these rulers.  Thanks Jon and CaptKirk42!

#3:  Nah Nah Hey Hey Good Bye

1975 Topps #466

The A's did it again.  They failed to make it to the ALCS.  The San Diego Padres were bounced too.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays, and the Houston Astros move on to the next round.  Let's go Braves and Rays!

#4:  Pretty in Pink

Pink has overtaken the blogosphere and we owe it all to Collecting Cutch.  His mission is to raise awareness of breast cancer (leading cause of death for females in the United States) to card collectors and I'd say he's been pretty darn successful.

On Thursday, The Commish showed off his five favorite pink cards on his blog:  The Five Tool Collector.  His 1958 Topps Bobby Layne reminded me of my 1959 Topps Bart Starr:

1959 Topps #23

I know that I've shown this card off before, but I truly love it because it reminds me of my mother.

#5:  TTM Overload

1980 Topps #77

If you've ever wondered what it's like to be an athlete who receives TTM requests, I'd encourage you to read Rebel Coyote's post from last Sunday.

His post focused on a photograph of packages sent to Dave Stieb with autographs requests.  I've always wanted to own a signed copy of his 1980 Topps rookie card, but I won't be sending a TTM request to him anytime soon.

Well that's it for today.  Hope you enjoyed this edition of This Week in Blogging.  I couldn't really think of any questions for this post... however as usual... I always look forward to reading and responding to your comments.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Extending an Olive Branch

Once upon a time, I was as big a fan of the Allen and Ginter product line as just about any other collector out there.  Each year, I looked forward to seeing the combination of baseball players, pop culture icons, historical figures, and other athletes were on the checklist.

But the past few years, I've grown less and less interested.  There's truth to the saying... "there is too much of a good thing".  I love spaghetti and filet mignon... but I don't want to eat it everyday.

If it were up to me, I'd put Allen and Ginter on a cycle and release it once every three to five years... along with products like Topps Gallery, Tek, Fire, Gold Label, and Gypsy Queen.  The same could be applied to their higher priced line of products like Tier One, Museum Collection, Triple Threads, Five Star, Inception, and Tribute.  That way Topps would have extra time to develop these products and not produce cards that seem rushed and stale, while collectors could grow to miss and crave them.

I know it's not going to happen.  Topps is in the business to make money and in order to do that, they need to push out products faster than rabbits.

Plus there are enough collectors who crave Allen and Ginter.  However... I wanted to share my personal thoughts on the hobby topic and the popular product line.

Just in case my opinion annoys fans of this product, I'll extend an olive branch and share some of my favorite minis that I've recently added to my collection.  

The first four minis have one thing in common...

2016 Allen and Ginter Subways and Streetcars #SS-5

2011 Allen and Ginter Uninvited Guests #UG7

2016 Allen and Ginter U.S. Mayors #USM-3

2011 Allen and Ginter Uninvited Guests #UG8

They all relate to the Bay Area.  I've never personally met Mayor Liccardo, but I have visited Alcatraz, the Winchester Mystery House, and ridden a cable car before.

Next up are a pair of sumo cards:

2018 Allen and Ginter Exotic Sports #MES-6

2017 Allen and Ginter World's Dudes #WD-9

Both of these were added to my Japanese collection along with these two non-sport minis:

2010 Allen and Ginter National Animals #NA30

2013 Allen and Ginter Heavy Hangs the Head #HHH-EM

And rounding out the acquisitions are two human rights advocates who have stood up for equality...

2009 Allen and Ginter National Heroes #NH10

2016 Allen and Ginter Laureates of Peace #LP-6

All of these were part of two Sportlots purchases and most were only 18¢, although the Malala Yuosafzai did set me back a full 98¢.

A huge shout out goes to Chris over Nachos Grande, because his contest opened my eyes to several of these insert sets and motivated me to track them down.

Speaking of contests... The Bucs Stop Here is hosting a contest over on his blog.  It's pretty simple to enter.  All you need to do is write down your 2020 MLB season predictions and/or promote his contest on your blog.  Interested?  Click here.  Actually here.

And rounding out this post are some cards I won in a contest over at Chavez Ravining:

2017 Allen and Ginter Relics #FSRA-TAN

2018 Allen and Ginter Relics #FSRA-SSI

2019 Allen and Ginter Relics #FSRA-DC

First up are some more Allen and Ginter.  Only this time around, they're standard sized relics.  Have to admit, I'm not familiar with any of these people.  

But thanks to the internet, I learned that Tom Anderson was a co-founder of MySpace, Steve Simeone is a comedian who was once crowned Philadelphia's Funniest Person, and Daneille Colby is a reality television personality who has a lot of tattoos.

Alex, who runs Chavez Ravining also sent me some cards for my PC's:

This prize package was actually delivered a while back, but on Thursday he sent me another package containing a bunch of Clayton Kershaw cards:

Plus a huge stack of 2017 Stadium Club cards for my set build:

The fifty-plus cards pushed me past the 70% completion mark.  After updating my wantlist, I'm down to needing only eighty-one cards for the set.

Two weeks ago, I didn't remember this set build and was 160 cards away from completion.  However thanks to Alex and Bob, my wantlist has been cut in half.  Eighty-one cards is still a challenge.  And I'm not quite ready to go out and spend 18¢ for each single over on Sportlots, but I've added a search for 2017 Stadium Club lots on eBay.  We'll see how that works out for me.

Thanks Chris for refreshing my memory on some really cool minis that slipped my mind over the years.  And thank you Alex for the generous prize package and for putting a huge dent in my forgotten set build.

Okay peeps... it's your turn.

How big of an Allen and Ginter fan/collector are you?

Leave your thoughts in the comment section below... and then head over to The Bucs Stop Here for your chance at winning a 2020 Bowman and/or 2020 Topps Series 2 pack(s).

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

Nothing like waking up to find out your favorite baseball team won on a walk-off grand slam on Opening Day.

When I fell asleep, the A's had taken their first lead of the game in the bottom of the 8th.  I completely missed Jason Castro's 9th inning home run that tied things up... and of course Matt Olson's home run.  

You know it's a pretty cool event when Jomboy breaks it down the following morning:

Nice way to kick off the season for A's fans.  Here are a few Olson autographs to celebrate the special occasion:

2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Indigo Autograph #GQA-MO

2018 Topps Inception Rookie and Emerging Stars Auto #RES-MO

2015 Bowman's Best of 2015 Autographs #B15-MO

As for the Angels pitcher, I feel bad that his first pitch of the season resulted in this.  And to make things worse, Jomboy screwed up his name.  It's actually Hoby Milner, not Hoby Miller.  How do I know?  Well... I recognized his name, because I pulled his autograph back in 2012 out of one of those Team USA sets.

2011 Topps Team USA Autograph #USA-A14

Actually now that I know he's made it to The Show, I'll quietly be rooting for him whenever he's not facing the A's or Padres.  Only on the next time around, it'll be a positive highlight and Jomboy will get his name right.

And yes... I did notice the lack of social distancing at home plate.  Tsk.  Tsk.