2022 Gavins update

Time for my annual post checking in with ballplayers named Gavin.

We've got a new one to add to the MLB Gavins, now up to a total of 5 guys.

MLB Gavin debuts:
2004 - Gavin Floyd
2016 - Gavin Cecchini
2019 - Gavin Lux
2021 - Gavin Sheets
2022 - Gavin Hollowell

A relief pitcher with Colorado, Gavin Ernest Hollowell saw action in 6 games near the end of the '22 season after a strong showing in Double-A this year. He has no mainstream cards so far, only a couple minor league issues (neither of which I own, sadly), but maybe he'll get some RCs next year. A reliever on the Rockies who went 0-2 with a 7.71 ERA in his first year is unlikely to interest most collectors, but I'll have to keep an eye out to get him some representation in my collection.

Congrats, Mr. Hollowell, on becoming baseball's 5th Gavin! Best of luck with your career.

Over in the AL, Gavin Sheets was a regular on the White Sox, playing in 124 games and breaking the single season home run record by a guy named Gavin with 15. He had previously set the mark in 2021 with 11.

Gavin Lux had the best season of his young career, helping the Dodgers to another trip to the playoffs before being eliminated by San Diego. Lux still hasn't quite lived up to the 1st-rounder hype, but seems to be making strides, and tied Brandon Nimmo with 7 triples to lead the league.

Doesn't look like Gavin Cecchini played anywhere in 2022, likely signaling the end of the former first-rounder's playing career. He had been with the Angel's organization in 2021. Wishing Mr. Cecchini all the best in the next chapter of his life.

As for minor leaguers named Gavin, there are a lot these days so I'll just focus on a few familiar or notable guys.

Gavin LaValley just put together the best numbers of his pro career in 2022, however it was for the independent Sioux Falls Canaries. Perhaps his .324 batting average and 20 homers in 87 games will garner interest and get him back to affiliated ball next year. Good luck, Gavin!

Fine young Gavins to watch include Guardians farmhand Gavin Williams. Drafted in 2021's first round, he's got lots of cards out there thanks to being included in 2021 Bowman Draft and some various Leaf and Panini products. I recently added one, above, my first new "autoGav" in a while. He's been pitching pretty well so far on the farm.

Gavin Cross was the Royal's #1 draft pick in '22 (9th overall), so I'd expect him to start getting some Bowman cards and the like soon. He already has a bunch of Team USA cards. The outfielder out of Virginia Tech has gotten his career off to a good start in the low minors. (It's still early, but Gavin Sheet's Gavin home run record may eventually be challenged.)

Gavin Stupienski (cousin to a former cardblogger!) played 20 games with the Royals' Double-A team. Glad to see he's still doing his thing.

Grant Gavin doesn't really count, being a Grant as he is, but he's in the Padres org, so that's a plus. Mr. Gavin put up an ERA of 4.82 between AA and AAA, which is high for him. Hopefully he's able to get it together next year and get called up, but we'll see.

Turning to football...

Gavin Heslop, a DB out of Stony Brook, got into 3 games with the Seahawks in 2021, becoming only the second guy named Gavin to play in the NFL. He was briefly with the New York Giants this year, but didn't make it into any games and is currently a free agent. Doesn't look like he has any cardboard on the market, unfortunately, with nothing found on TCDB or eBay.

And sad news to report regarding the first Gavin to ever play in the NFL. Gavin Escobar, who had recently become a firefighter after stepping away from the gridiron, tragically lost his life in a rock climbing accident on September 28, 2022. RIP, Mr. Escobar.

Here's a card that doesn't obscure his face under a helmet. In addition to sharing a first name, we both attended SDSU. Football cards don't make up much of my collection, percentage-wise, but he might be my biggest PC in that sport, or at least close to it, receiving plenty of help from blogger buddies over the past decade. He seemed like a good dude. Heartbreaking that his life was cut short.

card show carnage

Kind of a rough card show for me today. I left my house around 9:30 and was home about 11.. which might be my briefest card show experience to date.

I shouldn't complain too much, since I picked up a few decent cards, plus I know not everybody has easy access to a monthly card show, but I left feeling unsatisfied. A big part of it was there were so many people flocked around the good dealers that it was hard to check out all the bins I wanted to. But the most painful part was I had my eye on a couple boxes of off-condition vintage that a dealer was getting rid of really cheap. Without laboring over the story too much, the boxes got swiped out from under me due to a moment's hesitation. It was pretty crushing, but I guess that's how card shows go sometimes.

But let's put on a positive face and check out some of the cards I brought home. This post will be bookended by a couple cards that ran me $20 for the pair, and then everything in the middle was 50¢ each.

Gotta love a vintage Hank Aaron. Wasn't a steal or anything, but a solid pickup.

Hard to pass up any cheap pre-war vintage. Took a flyer on this old-looking bird card. Looking it up, seems it's 1933 Dwight's Soda Useful Birds of America Sixth Series #14 Rose-Breasted Grosbeak. Not in perfect condition, though the junk in its beak is supposed to be there... must've been on its way to build a nest. (UPDATE: I've have been corrected! It's more likely a potato bug in its mouth about to be chomped down. Oh, the carnage!)

Looks like it's worth a few bucks, so it was a good buy for 50¢.

Some of today's big names.

A pair of numbered Heritage parallels from last year.

Bartolo /100, Ortiz /149, and Gavin Cecchini /499.

Some shiny young dudes.

record scratch---oh wow, looks like my find of the day is that Carter Kieboom mega box mojo refractor. Turns out it's the "white jersey" photo variation SP (as opposed to the base version featuring a red jersey) and goes for around $20 according to COMC. Nice! Got lucky there. Perhaps I should start feeling better about how I made out today.

Also, COMC is telling me that Yordan Alvarez is a $10 card. Now I regret leaving the other 2 copies I came across near it. Hmm.. is it too late for me to go back to the show? LOL. They might still be there as I type.

COMC also has the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. listed at $16. Yeah, looks like these 3 were my shrewdest purchases of the day.

Then I bumped into Padrographs Rod and he had a couple things for me...

Sweet!.. I was looking for this 2019 AAF card to effectively wrap up my Gavin Escobar PC.

Honestly, '88 Topps might be my least favorite set ever-- way overproduced... drab, dark backs-- but I have a long-term goal to get all the main sets from that era, so it's nice to check this one off. Rod wound up with a 1988 factory set he didn't need, and was kind enough to pass it off to me. Thanks, Rod! I appreciate it.

And my last pickup to feature from today...

I had been wanting Stan Musial's "Topps Rookie" for a while, so I was happy to score this one. Musial wasn't under contract with Topps for most of his career until finally showing up in 1958 with this All-Star card.

So there are the highlights (also grabbed a few more cards that either weren't interesting enough to show or are already set aside for trader buddies). While it was a somewhat frustrating experience in the moment, I feel ok about my haul now. And I only spent $30, which is on the low end for my card show expenditures, so it's all good.

Dennis trade post

Seems like trading has been drying up for me on the cardsphere, without much action lately (and no nibbles on my latest trade bait post). But it's nice to still occasionally receive unexpected cards from a trader buddy, like this recent package from Dennis at TMV.

I sure do love 2004 Topps Chrome black refractors! I needed this Armando Benitez, and am now at 170/487 in my foolish quest for a parallel set.

Pretty sure I've already got these Super Giles Bros., but I appreciate the thought. (Correction: I did need the Brian!)

A funky-shaped addition to my Michael Sam collection.

The rest of the mailing was a nice bunch of Gavins. That golden Cecchini looks good. I wonder how he's been doing this season. [Looks up his numbers.] Welp, he apparently hasn't played at all in 2019 yet. Back in January, he was DFA'd to clear a spot on the Mets' 40-man roster. He then cleared waivers and was outrighted to the minor leagues. I can't find any news stories on it, but he apparently got injured or something, as again, I'm not seeing any 2019 stats for him anywhere. Hmm. That's a bummer.

And a bunch of Gavin Escobar hits. Last we heard from him, he was with the San Diego Fleet of the AAF, but was placed on injured reserve not long before the league folded during its inaugural season.

I haven't counted, but I'm confident I've got more Escobar autos in my card collection than any other player by a decent margin. So that coupled with his disappointing professional career makes it hard for me to get too excited about his cards anymore, but I really like the look of this shiny auto/relic.

Thanks, Dennis! I'll get a return out to you soon.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

The Wesening

Wes is the best. Here are cards he sent me the other day, some from his "going out in a blaze of glory" mega break and some not.

I dig this shiny Carlos Beltran auto enough to give it top billing. He's got a case for the Hall, as a formidable hitter and one of the best center fielders of the era. This card from 2005 actually features him from his brief stint in Houston in 2004, though I like it because it brings to mind his sunset season in 2017 when he returned to the Astros and capped off his career with a World Series championship.

Another Astros hit I can use.

Nice autos and/or patches for my Pride PC. Hope we see more openly gay active football and baseball players before long. These guys never had much impact on the field and are retired now, so not exactly a Jackie Robinson-like situation with either of them, but still important baby steps.

Sweet Maddog Maddux relic, and a one from Gavin Escobar too. Looks like Escobar joined the San Diego Fleet of the newly-formed Alliance of American Football. I'm hoping he has more success there than he did in the NFL. Topps is putting out AAF cards, so perhaps I'll have more cards of his to chase down (in addition to his millions of rookie year cards.)

Some nice Padres cards here, with numbered Trevors and a couple vintage stars.

I believe the jersey drawing card folds out to reveal Tony Gwynn (he's on the back), but it's sealed by a sticker.

Ooh, a 1/1 cut auto of an old school Hall of Famer. Between the featured Panini card and the unapologetically pruned Hall of Fame postcard, it's not the best looking "card" by any stretch, but I'm still very happy to have ended up with this Billy Herman from Wes' big box break extravaganza.

William Jennings Bryan Herman (July 7, 1909 – September 5, 1992) was an American second baseman and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) during the 1930s and 1940s. Known for his stellar defense and consistent batting, Herman still holds many National League (NL) defensive records for second basemen and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975. [wiki]

And I didn't realize it till just now, but relevant to my hometown interests, he suited up as a coach for the Padres, 1978–79, which means I should probably PC him since I've got a stated collecting focus of HOFers who suited up for San Diego ("Pads in the Hall" minicollection), and that also includes managers/coaches as well as PCL Padres.

Here are some Cubs hits available for trade. The plate is Ryan Dempster.

Here are some Astros (and sorta an A's) hits that don't really fit my collection either.

I'm not much for horror and have never watched any American Horror Story, so perhaps someone could trade me a little something for this relic?


Note: We're about to the halfway point in this epic haul, and from here on out it's 100% ladies, so if that doesn't interest you (or you have co-workers or family members around you who might not appreciate dozens of scantily clad ladies on your screen), see ya next time!

I've always liked Selma Blair alright, so this wardrobe card was a fun surprise.

Another nice relic.

I love Jaime Bergman, best known to me as "BJ Cummings" in Son of the Beach, one of my all-time favorite silly TV shows. I actually already had this auto, so that one's up for grabs. (Actually, this signature looks a bit different than my other one, so I might hang onto it as an unofficial variation) The bikini swatch is a sweet add, though that might be the tiniest relic piece in my collection now.

Pretty girls.

That top right card wasn't accidentally shown twice, but rather it's a dupe.

Some more favorites here.

I think Wes must've tripled (or more) my collection of Benchwarmer autos with this lot.

Looking good.

Why, hello.

And it goes on.

I'm pretty much out of things to say.

Looks like one of these should have gone to the Angels slot, lol.

Jessica sort of has a Kristen Bell look.

Happy Holidays!

Seems like I'm a Scarlett Keegan supercollector thanks to all the cards of hers Wes gave me. Looking her up, she's of Irish descent and was Playboy's Playmate of the Month for September 2004.

Yet more of Scarlett Keegan!

A few of these specific cards were actually pulled by me a couple years back (the Sherry Goggin 17/25 was especially familiar), then traded to Wes back when such cards were on his wantlist. As we all know, he has since drastically narrowed down his collecting focus, and must've decided to jettison the gist of his girlie cards, and I was a lucky recipient.

Many of the cards shown in the latter half of this post are available for trading, so please don't be shy to broach me about a deal if something(s) catches your eye. (I don't need every girlie card ever made.. I try to only hang onto specific ladies that strike my fancy.)

Here's one last keeper to go out on. Michelle Baena is a woman I specifically collect somewhat thanks to her and I sharing a 12/24 birthday. Seems fitting to get her auto on a Christmas-themed card!

Wes, again, thanks so much for everything. Sad to see you stepping back from the hobby/cardsphere, but gotta follow your heart. I'll continue to keep an eye out for stuff for you, and will be forever on-call for any custom card needs you may have.