The Never-Ending School Year and Retail Baseball Cards

My last school year ended midday on a Thursday afternoon last month. It was my last day at the school I have worked at for the past ten years. It was time for something different and new challenges. More importantly, something a little closer to my house. 

After moving a minivan load of books over to my new school, I went home to start my summer vacation. I was really tired at the end of the day, so I think I ended up going to bed around 9. A few hours later my alarm went off. I woke up, took a shower and got dressed, and drove into work. 

It was Friday. The first day of my new school year and my new school.  

My summer vacation was measured in hours this year rather than days or weeks. My last actual vacation day was on April 14th, which is a long time ago for someone who has worked the same schedule for the past 15 years. I teach for roughly nine weeks starting at the end of July and take three weeks off at the end. Multiply the schedule times four and you've got a complete school year.  

I am about to enter my fifth straight month of teaching with no significant break, which is a lot in my world. Even if you are on a traditional calendar, it's only four months between the beginning of the first day and Thanksgiving break.  

It has been a long time.    

There are a lot of little things I have been doing to cope with the extended workload. I have been trying to get more sleep, packing some good lunches, and getting extra fresh air. In addition, I have also been trying to be intentional about setting aside time to work on my baseball cards. Some of that time has been spent sorting out cards......

I am mostly trying to organize my single cards that are not attached to a set, or find the last few cards needed to complete some of the more recent near-sets that I have assembled. I have also been working on building a few new sets, and also opening up some retail packs. My most recent goal has been to complete the Topps Series 2 set.  It feels like a throwback to childhood when I bought a few packs of cards and spent a chunk of the spring and summer trying to assemble a complete set of Topps cards. 

I have been helped out along the way by a few Target gift cards which I received at the end of last year. It also doesn't hurt that my new school is located in the middle of a large retail area. Think of a large box store and there is probably one within five to ten minutes of my classroom.  

Here are two of the retail blaster boxes that I have picked up over the past few months.  

 

I thought I would share out a few of my favorite cards I picked up along the way.  

I had originally set out to collect Topps Series 2 with retail packs slowly over the first quarter of the year. I reached the goal in half a quarter, but was greatly aided by having two students at my previous school gift me retail blasters on the way out the door.  I used my gift certificates to buy two more Series 2 retail boxes. I have purchased one Topps Series 2 Blaster with my own money.  

Five boxes of Topps Series 2, one small COMC order, and I am done.  

My favorite card out of the base set is the Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina combo card. 

They have only been playing together since 2006. Not sure why it took this long for Wainwright and Molina to appear on a baseball card together before this year. I know I am really bias, but I hate that there is a checklist on the back. 

Yes, Blake Snell is card 414, but give me some information about Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright. If nothing else, just give me a photo of the Carlos Beltran strikeout at the end of the 2006 National League Championship Series.  

Moving on.

The Topps Series 2 boxes all come with a batting helmet card. They look a lot like the 2007 Sweet Spot autograph cards, but the helmet is made out of metal rather than plastic.  I pulled two different Cubs batting helmets.  

These are actually really nice for manufactured relics. There is a Goldschmidt and Arenado card in this set, so I am going to go ahead and add those to my Ebay watch list. They will be sitting there until I can find them for a few dollars.  

I also pulled a Joey Votto Home Field Advantage card.  

I love the plate of chili in the bottom corner. I don't eat chili, but it's the sort of local food reference that Topps should have put onto the Yadier Molina card. I needed some toasted raviolis or cans of mass-produced beer.  

More cards, but only the highlights.    

I bought a few packs of Donruss. Please, do not repeat my mistake. They are terrible, but I did get a Matt Manning autograph. If Matt Manning's arm does not fall off, I think he will be a good pitcher. Unfortunately, Matt Manning's arm is half-way off already.  

That's quite the signature.  

I also bought a few packs of Topps Gallery.  

This set is not nearly as good as it was in the 1990s, but I did land an autograph of Giants catching prospect Joey Bart. Pretty good pull for a retail pack of cards.  

Next up, a box of USA Baseball cards. I do not love the regular MLB cards of Panini, but ruining the USA Baseball card set is too far.  

Athlete Development Program?

National Team Development Program?  

What happened to the College National Team?  

According to the internet, the guy on the left is a freshman in high school. Not college, high school. Pretty wild having baseball cards, but not being able to drive.  The guy on the right is a senior in high school and committed to play college baseball at Alabama. At least he can drive himself to school.  

My two relic cards.

Yes, they are both in high school as well. 

The player on the left is a sophomore in high school.  

The player on the right is a junior in high school and committed to play at UCLA in college.  

Still wild to think that Panini is making baseball cards of high school kids.  

In ten years, one of these guys is going to be working an office job and give out his Panini baseball cards rather than a business card. 

Did I mention that my new classroom has a view of a Walgreens?

It came in handy the one day. Horrible headache. I just walked across the street and picked up some Advil and a few packs of Gypsy Queen. Felt much better afterwards.  

Gypsy Queen was decent. Similar to Gallery, this product has seen better days. I pulled a Jose Devers autograph out of a pack. Any retail autograph is a win.  

That brings me to my last retail product, which is easily the best.  

This is from the 2021 Topps Chrome Anniversary set. Which was it released in the middle of 2022?  I don't know. Do we need another set that borrows the design from the 1952 Topps set? Yes, we do if this is what the cards are going to look like.  

Here are my shiny, wavy, and colored cards I pulled out of my box.  

This is where my post veers from a bunch of cards that I pulled out of retail packs and into a future project.  

I really like this set and had contemplated printing off a checklist and tracking down all the cards. However, it has 700 cards and feels like it would take a ton of time and money to assemble. Instead, I am going to track down some of the Cardinals and Durham Bulls players in the set.  

My first former Bulls player arrived in the mail a few days back...... 

The autographs are not exactly cheap, but there are only three Cardinals and three Rays autographs. Well, I am now down to two Rays autographs. I think that Dylan Carlson and Scott Rolen are the two most difficult and expensive.  

Anyway, that was a fun post on retail baseball cards. I still have a few more weeks until I get a few weeks off. Maybe there will be another retail baseball card post or two along the way.  

The Bulls Collection of Players Named Lowe.

A few years back the Durham Bulls, really the Rays, had two players with the last name Lowe.  

There was Nate Lowe.  

Who is now on the Rangers.  

There was also Brandon Lowe.  

Who is now the Rays starting second baseman.  

The Bulls did not field a team last year due to the pandemic, so they did not have a chance to put a player with the last name Lowe on the field.  Naturally, when the 2021 season started the name Lowe reappeared on the roster.  This time it's outfielder Jose Lowe.  

He is leading the International League in slugging.  I am not calling it Triple-A East, or whatever Rob Manfred renamed the league.  

He's been a good player and is way more affordable than Wander Franco or Vidal Brujan.  

So, here is the card.  

This is one of those cards that Topps rushed to produce.  Yes, it is clearly airbrushed, but the metal bleachers in the background are a clear giveaway that this is a picture from a high school baseball game of some sort.  I think it would actually be cooler if the parents/spectators in the background were in lawn chairs.  

Whoever is behind his left shoulder is not even watching the game.  

There are not many Josh Lowe cards out there.  Like many other prospects on the Rays, they get the first Bowman card and then they are ignored until they are suddenly playing well in the Majors.  It's the same thing that happened to the two other Lowes, although Nate was not a serious prospect.  

A Heard of Bulls, A College of Cardinals, And Carter Kieboom

I picked up a bunch of 2020 Topps cards a few weeks back on Twitter.  I do not buy or trade a ton of cards there, but I saw a good deal on a Mike Brosseau Stadium Club autograph and ended up with a few other good cards in the process.  

A Heard of Bulls.  

Here is the Brosseau autograph.  

I'm not sure what to think of this year's Stadium Club.  I usually like this product, but I also usually buy a few packs at some point during the year.  I am convinced that there are zero packs of baseball cards at retail stores in all of the Raleigh area.  For the moment, I have a Mike Brosseau autograph.  That's a good start.  

I am a big fan of combined shipping, so I always ask about Rays who were on the Durham Bulls and Cardinals when I buy an inexpensive card.  Here are my other former Bulls players:  

I already have one of the Lowe autographs, but these are really great cards.  I couldn't pass one of these up for a low price.  Lowe is having a great season too.  

I also received a pair of Brendan McKay 1985 Topps cards.  He's out for the season with an arm injury, but I am hoping that he can make it back at some point in 2021.  McKay is a two way player, not sure that will last long, but it is fun for the moment.  

Last former Durham Bulls card....

Meadows is a pretty good young player.  He's having a bad year, but I am still hopeful.  I really like these sepia parallels.  I know they are not serial numbered or tough pulls, but they always are pretty eye appealing to me.  

A College of Cardinals 

All three of these cards are pretty simple, but I like the looks of each of them.  I got two sepia cards and a base of Miles Mikolas.  I don't really collect these three players, but they might some of the few 2020 Cardinals cards in my collection.  

The last card in the group was Carter Kieboom.  Always love a throw-in card.  

Can You Spare 10 Minutes For A Blog Post?

It won't actually take you 10 minutes to read this blog post.  

The question in the title is actually directed at myself.  

We are 11 days into September and this is my second post of the month.  I meant to make a few other posts somewhere along the way, but virtual learning feels a lot like my first year of teaching.  Everything takes a little longer.  There are plenty of things that I start, stop, and re-do throughout the week.  It's very time consuming.  

Throw in a wife who is also virtual teaching and two kids, and there have not been much time for me to sit down and crank out a blog post.  Honestly, there have been nights where I have had a free fifteen minutes to type something up, but would you want to sit in front of a computer at your house after spending eight hours doing that at work?  

Not me.  

I have decided to spare 10 minutes of my evening to type up a post.  My wife and daughter are watching Aladdin and my son is talking my ear off about the Cincinnati Reds in anticipation of watching tonight's Cardinals game.  So far, I have learned that Freddy Galvis has the best hair-do in the National League Central.  

Since it's been awhile, I am doing three cards that I was excited about adding to my collection. 

First up, is a Brandon Lowe autograph out of Topps Big League.  

Brandon Lowe is having a pretty good season for the Rays.  Getting a little more attention with baseball card folk, but his cards have stayed reasonable.  I have barely touched any 2020 cards over the summer, so it's nice to go back and get some of these sets that came out awhile ago.  

The same seller also had a pretty inexpensive Lowe jersey card.  That's so 2004.  

I love these cards with the MLB Authentication stickers.  Always willing to jump down that rabbit hole, halfway expecting it to be from a game where the player sat on the bench.  The answer with Brandon Lowe?  

Brandon Lowe left the bench.  Even had a hit.  

Huzzah.  

Last card for this post.  

I have been waiting for this moment for awhile.  

Kirby Yates was on the Durham Bulls for three years from 2013 to 2015.  He was a decent Triple A player, but definitely fell into that category of being more of a fan favorite than a serious prospect.  He did make the International League All-Star Game, but had an ERA of nearly 8 when the Rays called him up to the Majors.  Yates bounced around a bit with the Yankees and Angels before he ended up the Padres.  

He's been incredible in San Diego.  

Last year he had an ERA of 1.19 with 109 strikeouts in 60 innings.  Made the All-Star team too.  I heard he was getting a few certified autographs this year.  Happy to finally have on in the collection.  

A 10 Minute Break

It's the end of the school year, and there was so much to do last week.  The hardest part was going into my classroom, packing up my stuff for the end of the year, and also having to pack up all of my students' materials.  Luckily, I had taken down most of the things that were hanging on the walls of my room, and my students have bins with the majority of their materials inside.  Made it a little easier to organize.  No desks. 

Yes, my classroom was in a trailer this year. 

This afternoon I am finishing up my report cards, and doing all sorts of paperwork.  I am not a huge fan of paperwork, but everyone has to do it.  I am jumping through the hoop, but needed to take a few minutes to do something else.

Let me share a few cards that I picked up this week.  Small additions, but happy with each of these cards. 

 My first card is a Bowman's Best autographed card of Yankees prospect T.J. Sikkema.  He's one of my sleeper prospects.  I have never seen him pitch in person, but he played at Mizzou in college and had an ERA under 2 pitching in the SEC his junior year.  That's really good, and it's in a really tough college league.  The Yankees picked him at the end of the first round last year, and he made four starts in A Ball before the end of the summer.  His ERA was under 1 in A Ball, and he averaged more than a strikeout an inning. 

This was a $3 card. 

Next. 

I like this Bowman card of White Sox prospect Andrew Vaughn.  The 1989 Bowman design caught my eye.  I saw him play while he was in college at Cal.  Vaughn played at least one year for USA Baseball, maybe it was two.  The scratches are on the sleeve.  

Next.  

I have already posted a few Brandon Lowe cards in the last two or three weeks.  This is from Topps Tribute.  Nice card, thick card stock.  

Next.  

I was not a big fan of Will Clark back in the 1980s, but Clark ended up on the Cardinals at the end of his career.  He played great.  The Cardinals made it to the National League Championship Series that season.  I have long since forgiven Will for being upset about Jose Oquendo kicking him in the crotch for sliding hard into second base.  

Anyway, this is a really nice card.  I am not collecting all of the 1985 Topps reprints, but I am trying to find most of the players connected to the Cardinals or Durham Bulls.  

Last card.   

At times, I am bothered by the mash-up of older players and modern baseball cards.  Al Kaline is well done on this Triple Threads card.  This was in the package with the Will Clark card.  I always appreciate a free baseball card, especially one this nice.  

Baseball Card Cover Songs Part 3

Topps has always dabbled in pop culture and non-sport cards.  Some of their more recent customer direct products have borrowed designs from these sets.  Obviously, I was a baseball only collector the majority of my life.  No chance that I bought any packs of this product......

The 1985 Cyndi Lauper set. 

I am not even really a fan of her music outside of that song from the movie Goonies.  That was a decent track. 

The design of the cards are everything you'd imagine them to be.  I didn't have one in my collection, so I had to borrow a picture from COMC.  

Would I buy a card because it borrowed the design from a Cyndi Lauper set?  

No.  

Would I buy a card of a player I really liked even if it borrowed the design from a Cyndi Lauper set?  

Yes.  

Like all Throwback Thursday cards, this was sold with a small set of cards on the Topps website.  I did not really care about most of the players on the checklist, so I just picked up a single card of Rays infielder Brandon Lowe.  He was one of the better Durham Bulls players over the last five years.  

This is the card.  

Very true to the design of the original card.  

The back of the card.  

Lowe actually has a second Throwback Thursday card that borrows from the 1984-1985 NHL Hockey card set.  I picked up this card too.  I do not have many hockey cards, and certainly not any from the 1984-1985 set.  A friend helped with a scan of a Bernie Federko card.  

Nice looking design.  

Here is the Lowe card that borrows this design.  

Good looking card.  

Between the two new Brandon Lowe cards, I like the NHL borrowed design much better.  Feels and looks like a 1980s baseball card.  I like the small portrait photo in the corner with the larger action photo above.  Feels like it fits in well with the 1983 and 1984 Topps designs.  

The back was not quite what I expected it to be.....

I sat and looked at this for a few minutes.  I think that I am just used to the landscape set up on the back of the Topps baseball cards, and that is what I was expecting here.  I guess there are a few less stats on the back of a hockey card.  

Here is the original card back.  

I like how they switched out the hockey stick for a baseball bat.  Would have been a cool touch to include the biographical information on the remake card, but that's a small thing.