The Sunday Sort: Patches, Planes, & The Professor

The past six Sundays, I've dedicated at least a couple of hours to sorting and scanning with the majority of the cards coming from fellow bloggers.  Sadly... after today I'm down one free Sunday.  After that, I head back into the classroom for my 29th year.

I'm hoping to continue to set aside part of every Sunday to work on hobby related stuff, but we'll have to see how things play out.  The start of every school year is usually very busy.

Anyways... let's get some of the highlight's from today's sort.

Let's start off with some Oakland Athletics that John over at Johnny's Trading Spot sent me last month:

2026 Topps Rainbow Foil #122

This card features two cool patches.  Lawrence Butler has a Las Vegas patch on his right sleeve, while Nick Kurtz features the Tower Bridge in Sacramento on his left sleeve.  I'm not exactly a patch collector, but this card motivated me to go out and purchase a pair of those tower patches for my Athletics PC.

2009 Topps Triple Threads Emerald #128 (#'d 31/50)

Back in the late 2000's, Cahill was considered one of the A's top prospects.  Unfortunately he only had one notable season with them before being sent off to Arizona.  Player aside... this autographed relic is a great looking card with OAKLAND being the center of attention.

1999 SP Authentic Chirography #EC

Whenever I think of Eric Chavez, "underrated" comes to mind.  He never played in the Midsummer Classic, yet he won six consecutive Gold Glove Awards and hit 20+ home runs in seven consecutive seasons with the A's.

John also tossed in a trio of O-Pee-Chee A's:

1984 O-Pee-Chee Baseball

One of these days, I'm going to sit down and build a bunch of team sets.  1980's O-Pee-Chee A's and Padres will be high on the priority list and these three cards will go toward the 1984 A's team set build.

Next up is this really cool Kurt Suzuki insert:

2020 Topps Archives Snapshots Walkoff Wires #WW-KS

This card commemorates Kurt Suzuki's three-run walk-off home run off Edwin Diaz back on 9/3/19.  The Nationals entered the bottom of the ninth trailing the New York Mets by six runs, but walked away winning 11-10.

Here are a few other Japanese guys for my collection:

And a few mascots:

2019 Topps Stickers #'s 210, 227, & 234

And a quartet of vintage airplane cards:

1957 Topps Planes of the World #15, 38, 53, & 60

My dad would have appreciated these cards.

He worked at Lockheed for a few years in the 60's on the SR-71 Blackbird.  I'm hoping Topps will one day produce another set of airplane trading cards and include the famous reconnaissance aircraft.

Rounding out John's care package was a giant stack of Greg Maddux cards.  Half were part of a Maddux Monday giveaway that I won.  The other half was a stack that John Sharp had won and passed along to me.  I picked four favorites from each stack:

Bo over at Baseball Cards Come to Life! also sent me a pair of Greg Maddux cards:

He also included a pair of Jackie Robinson cards and this Hank Greenberg for my Topps Glossy All-Stars project:

1985 Topps Glossy All-Stars #22

One card closer to completing this project.

And rounding out the Sunday Sort is a four-pack of NPB cards from Kenny over at Torren' Up Cards:

The top two cards are from this year's Calbee set.  Unfortunately, when I used Google Translate I didn't recognize either of these guys.  However the two shiny Dream Order cards featured familiar names.

The guy on the bottom-left is Kazuma Okamoto.  He's the starting third baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays.  Next to him is Teruaki Sato.  He is the starting third baseman for the Hanshin Tigers.  If you haven't heard of him, get ready.  There's a good chance he comes over to play in the states in the near future.

Thank you John, Bo, and Kenny for these generous care packages!  And thank you Mr. Sharp for donating your Maddux winnings to me.

I hope all of you had a great weekend.  Happy Sunday and sayonara! 

Quality Customs (& Customer Service)

A few weeks ago, Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown showed off some cards he purchased from a fellow custom card creator and retired blogger:  Mark @ Stats on the Back.

The stuff he showed off was super impressive, so I visited Mark's online store and added a bunch of items to my cart.  Gavin had mentioned that he used a promotional code and received free shipping, but when I tried it... it didn't work.

No biggie.  When you want something bad enough, you're willing to pay for shipping.

The first item I added to my cart was this set of Beastie Boys cards:

When it comes to any Beastie Boys trading cards, I'm typically willing to open up my wallet as long as the item is reasonably priced.  This was definitely the big ticket item in my order, so $8 for this trio of customs was a no-brainer.

The rest of my order were singles picked out of his awesome dollar bins:

He has dollar bins for decades running from the 50's through the 80's, along with a special section of current stars.

I was very excited to see his interpretation of my all-time favorite baseball card:

I also picked up a few other cards for one of my friends and another card for myself that I'll share over the holidays.

But before I close out this post, I want to show off some generous bonus items that Mark included in the order.

First off, he included these two awesome cards:

One of my favorite cards in the 2009 Goodwin Champions set is the Ichiro Suzuki card.  The card on the left is Mark's version of this card.  The other card is so iconic... it needs no explanation.

If these two freebies weren't enough, he also refunded me the seven dollars I paid for shipping.  This was a surprise and a very kind gesture.  It's customer service like this that makes me want to head back over and place another order.

If you're interested in supporting Mark and purchasing some of his custom cards, click here.  I'm not sure if there's an expiration date, but if you spend $10 or more, feel free to try and use his FREE10 code to receive free shipping.

Well that wraps up today's post.  I just received my COMC order, another custom card purchase, and a pair of blogger care packages, so I've got lots of material for future posts.  Now I just need a little more free time.

Until then...

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

Challenge Accepted

Back in February, Chris over at Nachos Grande challenged himself to come up with a list of his favorite games with one tiny catch.  The names of these games had to start with the appropriate letter in the name of his blog.

A week later, he tweaked the rules and turned it into a Blog Bat-Around.  Here's the challenge...

Take the letters in your blog's title and pair each letter with a baseball player that you like.  Feel free to use either first or last names when pairing your letters.

I enjoyed reading several bloggers' response posts, but haven't had time to hammer out one myself.  Well... I've been slowly adding names and scans to this post and I'm finally ready to reveal my first BBA contribution of 2023.

However I tweaked things a little myself.  Since my card collection isn't only focused on baseball, I opened it up to all sports.  So sit back, relax, and see enjoy my response to The Alphabet Challenge...

T:  Tony Gwynn

1998 Paramount Fielder's Choice #14

Tony has been my favorite athlete for most of my card collecting history.  It's fitting that he kicks off this post.

H:  Rickey Henderson

1981 Fleer #574

Henderson was my favorite baseball player before Gwynn.  If only he hadn't gotten traded to the New York Yankees on December 5, 1984.

E:  Ed Reed

2002 Topps Chrome Refractor #208

There are two E's in my blog title.  One was a no-brainer.  The other was a tough call.

Ed came down to a last minute audible.  Eckersley was originally in this slot, but ultimately I swapped him out for one of the most exciting football players in the history of the game.  The other E that I considered was Eddie Jones of the Lakers.

C:  Steve Carlton

1983 Topps #70

Carlton was my favorite pitcher growing up and this card has been treasured for forty years.

H:  Tim Hardaway

1990 Fleer Rookie Sensation #8

Hideo Nomo was the first "H" person that came to mind, but I moved him into another slot during the final revision of this post.

Hardaway was one of my favorite non-Lakers from my childhood and I'm a little ashamed that he didn't come to mind until right before I published this post.

R:  Jackie Robinson

1997 All-Star Fan Fest Tribute to Jackie Robinson #5

I've had a deep admiration for Jackie Robinson for as long as I can remember.  I only wish that I had started collecting his cards before the late 2000's.

O:  Shaquille O'Neal

1999-00 Skybox E-X E-Xceptional #12XC

Not gonna lie... it feels weird having O'neal in this post when he isn't even in my Top 5 Los Angeles Lakers of all-time.  But he's in the Top 10.

N:  Hideo Nomo

1996 Upper Deck V.J. Lovero Showcase #VJ2

Nomo was the first Japanese athlete I can remember actively collecting.  Sorry Lynn Sakata.

I:  Ichiro Suzuki

2008 UD Masterpieces #81

When I returned to the hobby in 2008, Ichiro was one of the first baseball players I started chasing.  Fifteen years later, I'm just as excited to add a new card of his to my binder as I was back then.

C:  Steve Caballero

2019 Goodwin Champions 3D Lenticular #LB-SC

There's an outside chance I'm overlooking another athlete out there whose name starts with a "C"... but Caballero came to me early and I didn't even bother thinking about anyone else.

L:  Steve Largent

1990 Action Packed #254

The third or fourth no-brainer on this list.  Largent is my favorite football player of all-time.

E:  Earvin "Magic" Johnson

1986-87 Fleer #53

The Showtime Lakers were the reason I became a Lakers fan in the 80's.  They were super fun to watch... and Earvin was a huge part of that.  

S:  Kurt Suzuki

2012 Sega Card-Gen #J12-129

I'm sure glad there was an "S" in the title of my blog, otherwise I might have to rename it:  The Khronicles of Fuji.  Heck... I'm debating changing it for Kobe.

O:  Shohei Ohtani

2018 SI for Kids #735

Yup.  I'm definitely on the Ohtani bandwagon and I'm crossing my fingers he'll be a San Diego Padre in 2024.  I'd rather see him in an Oakland jersey, but we know that won't be happening in my lifetime.

F:  Brett Favre

1997 Green Bay Packers Police #4

Favre was my favorite football player throughout the 90's and most of the 2000's.  And over the past few years, he's reclaimed the title of being my all-time favorite Green Bay Packer.

F:  Jeff Friesen

2000-01 Topps Chrome Refractors #124

My all-time favorite San Jose Shark doesn't qualify for this post, but Friesen is a nice consolation prize as he's easily in the Top 5.

I thought about using Fernando Tatis Jr. and Mr. Fuji, but I've already picked eight baseball players for this post and Mr. Fuji was never considered my favorite wrestler.

U:  Kanako Urai (Asuka)

2018 Topps WWE Women's Divison Champions #WC-15

On the other hand, Asuka is the only wrestler I really follow these days and her real name happens to fill the only letter I was seriously struggling with.

Before Urai... I was gonna use either Bob Uecker or The Undertaker.  Both of these guys would have been a huge stretch.

J:  Michael Jordan

1999-00 UD MVP Sample #S1

Jordan is one of my favorite player collections... even if I rarely write about it.  He's also another consolation prize since I'm not able to use my all-time favorite basketball player:  Kobe Bryant.

I:  Arturs Irbe

1995-96 Parkhurst Goal Patrol #10

This post literally took me several weeks to write... and over that time Irbe was the only "I" name I considered.  I'm sure there's another athlete I'm overlooking, so if you think of any... leave them down in the comment section below.

Heck... if you there were any athletes you thought I'd use for this Blog Bat-Around that I missed, let me know.

Here are four that I wanted to use, but couldn't because their names don't fit my blog title:

1.  Kobe Bryant

2.  Greg Maddux

3.  Patrick Marleau

4.  Kristi Yamaguchi

And here are a few other athletes that were candidates that were eventually cut from the list:

1.  Fernando Tatis Jr.

2.  Eddie Jones

3.  Byron Scott

4.  Joe Sakic

5.  Devin Setoguchi

6.  Aaron Rodgers

7.  James Lofton

8.  Russell Wilson

9.  Ricky Steamboat

Alright... I'm pretty confident that I left a few of my favorites out.  If you think of any, let me know in the comments.

Thank you Chris for kicking off this BBA!  Sorry it took so long for me to write this post.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!