Brian from Collecting Cutch recently sent me over this awesome quad relic featuring 4 all-time Padres greats. Love it! It's diecut and has a Mount Rushmore motif going on. Gwynn, Winfield, Ozzie, and Garvey. Hard to argue with any of those choices. Bummer Garvey couldn't have joined the other 3 in Cooperstown, but he fell short in the recent Modern Era vote. Lame.
I collect all these guys, though when it comes to sorting this card, I think Tony pretty much always takes priority for any multi-player cards he's featured on, so it'll go in the Gwynn PC.
2016 Panini Pantheon Metropolis Monuments. It's numbered 90/99. I'm tempted to draw in little "SD" logos on their caps.. only on the penny sleeve, of course.
Big thanks, man!
Another nice card was also included in the package, a contest win, but I'll save that one for another post still in the works.
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12 Days of Christmas Cards & Beermas - Day 3
Speaking of San Diego, Padrographs Rod got the extra contest entries available in yesterday's post when he correctly pointed out that Adam Jones, Don Larsen, and Kevin Mitchell all went to high school in San Diego. Congrats, Rod!
Oh, cool.. I didn't know what Day 3's Beermas beer would be when I started drafting this post, but coincidentally, it's from a San Diego brewery.
The card is the second consecutive Archives Signature Christmas Eve auto in this series of blog posts. Good ol' Charlie Hayes. He doesn't have anything to do with San Diego, though, so he kind of ruins the theme of this post. lol. My lasting memory of him is celebrating after catching the popup that ended the 1996 World Series. That's a great defining moment of an otherwise respectable-but-unremarkable career. Squinting now at the gold stamp on the card, looks like this was from 2017's "Postseason Edition" of the product, which makes sense. The card is a 1994 Topps Stadium Club Golden Rainbow parallel, I believe. Looks like you can score an error against Hayes for the C in his signature falling off the card, but I'm not too concerned with that, I just like the 12/24 numbering. And it was cheap, with my winning bid being less than the shipping fee. Gotta feel for whoever paid probably around $60 to open the 1-card box and ended up with this. But hey, it's found a loving home now, so the story has a happy ending, I guess.
And the backs. The beer is City of the Dead by Modern Times Beer. 7.5% ABV. Though I'm originally from San Diego, I'm not all that familiar with Modern Times. Looking forward to it, though. Strangely, while I'm not a coffee drinker, I really like beers with a rich coffee taste to them. Throw in some chocolate flavors and then you've really got something. Check back for my thoughts on it after I drink it later tonight. UPDATE: This was really good. Very smooth. Rich, but not too heavy. Definitely a strong coffee flavor.
That'll do it for this post. I can't think of any "contest bonus entry" question right now, but I will say I intend to award a bonus entry to anyone who commented on all 12 posts in this series once we wrap things up. Hell, you might even earn a consolation PWE even if you don't win the grand prize. So don't be shy!
Got any fun plans for the weekend?
Back in the day (2013), Marcus from all the way to the backstop was the first blogger I ever traded with. He doesn't blog as often these days, but he's still active on Twitter. A little while back he tweeted out some highlights from some 2017 Heritage High Number he had ripped, and I inquired about the availability of a couple cards. He gave me the greenlight, and I sent him a modest PWE with a couple special customs as the focal point. A couple days ago he hit me back, with not just those couple cards I asked about, but a bunch more great cards too.
Wowie wow wow-wow! I confess to being very susceptible to "rookie mania" going back to my childhood days of chasing Kevin Maas and Keith Mitchell cards in the early 90s. And even now as a grow-ass man, I will unapologetically ask for your available Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger cards, despite the Yankees and Dodgers being among my least-favorite teams. Not only did Marcus send me my first via-trade Judge card, but he sent me three of them! If anybody needs the extra Archive base card in trade, let me know. And I believe this is my first #'d Bellinger card (/999), which is pretty cool. These guys are the presumptive ROY winners, with really the only question being if they'll be unanimous winners or not. The BBWAA Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Awards will be announced Monday, Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. ET.
The 2 cards I asked Marcus about were the Bellinger and this Trea Turner, everything else was an awesome surprise.
Looks like Marcus ripped a couple blasters of 2017 Archives. Good stuff.
I recently counted up my Bryce Harper cards and it was comfortably over 100, though I will definitely drag my feet in moving him from my "high priority" wantlist into the "Hundred Card Club" section. Dude is only 25 years, 25 days old. Younger than Aaron Judge! If he stays health and plays till he's 40.. wow, he'll have some incredible career stats.
Some Bowmans and Strasburgs.
And the cards keep coming. Even a Star Wars card. I don't know who Rose is, but I'll take it!
Big thanks, Marcus! That really was an incredible return package for my dinky PWE. I owe ya one.
Ok, I know "Rocktober" is over, but my injured finger hindered me from getting to a few things near the end of the month that I wanted to, so you may see a couple posts creeping out here in November. And heck, it's my blog, so I can sneak in some music content once in a while, right?
Marcus and I are connected not just for our devotion to the San Diego Padres, but we also share a love for San Diego's favorite rock band Rocket From The Crypt. I figured I'd show off some of my RFTC stuff piggybacking with the cards Marcus sent.
I got this SLAMM magazine signed by frontman John "Speedo" Reis at an in-store appearance at the record store Off The Record in San Diego on 6/2/98. My buddy Doug and I arrived late and missed the first half of the live performance, but got to briefly meet him afterwards and get his autograph. At the time we thought it was funny that he signed on his forehead, though in hindsight, it's a great place to sign to make it visible.
Here's a promo mini poster for their excellent 1996 album Scream, Dracula, Scream.
Here are a couple setlists and a pick. The one on the left is from 12/8/99 and the one on the right is from 11/23/99, both at the Casbah in San Diego. I've been lucky enough to see them live a dozen times, which as far as I can figure is the most times I've ever seen one band. They always put on a great show.
Here're my RFTC CDs. I jettisoned my least-favorite album (1998's RFTC) in a recent CDs+cards deal as I work on majorly slimming down my CD collection, but I might have to hang onto most of these. Or maybe I'll send them to Marcus so he can have extra copies to keep in his car. Group Sounds is the import version with 3 bonus tracks.
And here's a CD/DVD release of their final show on Halloween 2005 (until they eventually reunited several years later, and are still somewhat active with an occasional little tour). I was front-row center for this show, even sang along in one song when Speedo stuck the mic in my face. It was actually a tough experience for me because in the middle of the show I cut my hand open on some broken glass from the opening band. Lost a lot of blood! But yeah, it was a memorable night.
Anyways, there's some of my cool Rocket From The Crypt stuff. Have a great weekend, everybody.
This trade post has a soundtrack by Lucy's Fur Coat, a 90s alt rock band from San Diego who put out a couple pretty good albums, but never quite hit it big. I now think the line in the song above is "stuck inside my sapphire dream" but I always heard it as "step inside my sapphire dream" and I've long thought that'd make a good title for a post if anyone ever sent me a sapphire parallel. Well, it finally happened!
These cards are all from an excellent package I received from P-town Tom over at Waiting 'til Next Year last week.
That's a beautiful Yangervis Solarte, my first card from the 2016 Topps Chrome sapphire parallel set that I think was an online-only thing, only available as a super expensive complete set, right? And there's also my first ever relic of Gavin Cecchini.. very cool!
The Lucy's Fur Coat song "El Cajon" is probably the best song written about my hometown. --ok, it's the only one that comes to mind. But it's a good one.
The Giles Brothers also hail from El Cajon. Happy to get these two PC additions.
Here's a song about smoking weed.
And to go with the drugs song, here are a bunch of players from back in the day when drug testing wasn't as prevalent as it is today. Mantle was no stranger to popping greenies, Caminiti rode the PED train hard in the late 90s, and I bet most of these guys from the 60s and 70s puffed on a doobie once in a while. (Sorry if I'm reaching to pair songs to groups of cards, there aren't a ton of quality LFC videos on YouTube.)
Here's a full show filmed at my favorite venue in San Diego, the Casbah. I never actually saw Lucy's Fur Coat live, unfortunately. They were broken up during the heyday of my concert-going days, and after they reunited, I never got around to seeing them. Bummer. The singer is known for his crazy dancing, evident in the first minute of that video. This show features several of my favorite songs that I wasn't able to otherwise work into this post, so if you dig any of the other videos, you might want to check it out.
Marquis Mania! I'm due for posting an update to my long-term goal of amassing 1000 copies of this card. Each one helps, and this trio is very much appreciated! I actually have a big stack waiting to be paged. It'll take me a long time to get through them all, just like it'd take a long time to get through that live video (79 minutes).
Here's a song called "Stretched Out".
Brooks Kieschnick always needed to keep stretched out during a game, as he was a true two-way player, sometimes being called on off the bench, other times being called on out of the pen.
Here's a song called "Water Gun".
Kids play with squirt guns, and here are some kids.. or young men, at least. Looks like Tom (a huge Cubs fan) had a couple sweet Kris Bryant dupes to share. Hey, tough loss in Game 1 last night. Best of luck evening things up tonight!
The Vogelmoster got off to an inauspicious start to his major league career in Seattle, with just a lone single to show for 13 plate appearances at the end of the season. Let's hope he cranks it up in 2017.
Manuel Margot was a bit better, hitting .243 in 10 games for the Padres. Happy to add this 2016 Heritage Minors card to my small but growing collection of his cards.
"Treasure Hands" might be Lucy's Fur Coat's most popular song. I remember it got pretty good airplay on 91X, San Diego's alternative station, back in the day.
Treasure typically sparkles. And so does this treasure trove of sparkly 2011 Topps parallels. Some good ones in here, such as a Zach Britton RC, plus big names Pujols, Pedroia, and Beltran.
I'm now at 19.94% complete with this parallel frankenset. Coincidentally 1994 was the year Lucy's Fur Coat's debut album came out, the one with "Treasure Hands" on it. Neat!
Well, I hope ya'll checked out at least a song or two and enjoyed this musical trade post. Shoutout to Tony L. for being a master of the format.
Thanks again to P-town Tom for the awesome cards. While he said he wasn't looking for anything in return, just trying to clear out his tradebox, I've got a couple Kerry Woods and some Cubs customs that I'll send over soon.
Oh, one last thing I hadn't thought of till now, the name Lucy's Fur Coat is a play on "Lucifer's Goat". Goat? Crap, did I just jinx the Cubbies?! Nah, I ain't afraid of no goat! Go Cubs!
This is a post I've been meaning to write since I first decided to start my own blog, but here we are nearly two years later and I'm just finally doing it. (Much of this was drafted [drunk late one night, alone in a darkened room] a few months ago, btw.)
But yep, I went to school with a kid who turned out to be a MLB all-star. And it wasn't just a passing moment, but we were actually in school together from 1st grade all the way through community college!
There have been 7 graduates from my high school to play in the major leagues (Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, California representing!) I've managed to obtain at least a couple cards from them all. I'm tipping my cap to each of them in this recurringGuys From Granite series. We're counting them down in ascending order by career games played, working our way to the most successful GHHS Eagle. This is part 6 of 7. Marcus Giles
I'm the kid whose pumpkin is wearing a cowboy hat and big, bushy mustache. Marcus is the kid in vertical stripes. See that ribbon on my pumpkin's hat? I won something! You probably can't tell, but I'm wearing a Padres shirt. But Marcus would be the one to actually become a Padre. Meanwhile, I went on to work at the vertical stripe factory. How ironic!
My earliest memories of Marcus Giles are of a popular, athletic kid. We went to elementary school together (Meridian Elementary in El Cajon, CA), though I don't remember spending much time with him until 4th grade, when we were both in in Ms. Bassett's class, then 5th grade in Mr. Pedrazzi's class. Mr. Pedrazzi was probably the best teacher I ever had in my life, and I'd wager that Marcus would tell you the same. He was just a genuinely great guy who always saw the best in everyone. Everyday in his class made you feel like you won a contest. And, in fact, he did run several contests. I remember one contest where I won a golden (gold plated) bottle opener from Peru. I also remember when Marcus won a slingshot. It was a pretty bad-ass slingshot. Mr. Pedrazzi was sure to stress to Marcus to be careful and not hurt anybody/thing with it. Man, I was jealous of that slingshot! I'm sure that wouldn't fly in today's cultural climate: giving a kid a legit slingshot. But Mr. Pedrazzi respected his students and they rose to the occasion. I remember a "storytime" book he read us which was way above a 4th grader's typical fare.. about a guy who gets lost on a hike or something, and gets hunted by some other guy. I still remember the graphic details of the protagonist's tongue splitting from dehydration, as he barely drug himself from the desert back to civilization. Gross! But so cool that our teacher would read us that story! He knew it was a bit above us, but he challenged us to rise to the occasion. And I for one will always thank him for that.
I can't remember if Mr. Pedrazzi's class was included, but there was a program at my elementary school called "It's Funner To Be A Runner", which was just a little added physical fitness aspect to the curriculum that had the kids in those classes run a few laps every week. This was back before the "America's kids are too fat" epidemic really hit, and I think it helped all of us in the school be in decent shape for the rest of our lives. Did it help Marcus become a major league ballplayer? Maybe!
8th Grade (1992). Funny enough, I'm still Facebook friends with the two guys on the bottom.
In junior high (Montgomery Middle School), I don't really have a lot of memories of Marcus. Can't remember having any classes with him or hearing much about him. He kinda flew under the radar for those three years, I guess.
In high school, however, he definitely couldn't be missed. He was hot shit, no denying. Not only did he tear it up on the baseball team, but he was the star running back on the football team. Definitely one of the coolest kids at school. My high school yearbooks are just littered with photos of Marcus.
Typewriters?! What is this, the 60s?! Something cool I just now noticed about this picture is his shirt. His older brother Brian played for the Kinston Indians (Class Adv A) in 1991; obviously he gave the shirt to Marcus. Awwwww.
I don't remember having much H.S. classes with Marcus. In fact, I think the only one was a P.E. class, probably sophomore or junior year. Of course he was a super athlete back then, usually found in the weight room after school. He was never a towering guy, but always packed a lot of power into his modest stature. For a few weeks in P.E. I was on a 3-man basketball team with Marcus and a pudgy, nerdy kid. We were actually a pretty formidable team. The nerdy kid could actually handle himself ok on the court. Basically the nerdy guy would inbound to me, I would pass to Marcus, and Marcus would score. It was a winning combination! We really tore it up in P.E. class that year. A year later, the nerdy kid would die when he fell asleep driving home from a school band trip to Disneyland. It was really sad. He was a good guy.
Anyways, I was pretty much a dork in school. Not cool enough to be a popular kid, but not smart enough to hang out with the nerds. Not a headbanger, not a pothead.. just a normal, average dork. My one saving grace with popularity was I was a standout on the track team. It was enough to get me a few extra headnods in the halls, though not enough to get me laid or anything. But yeah, I was able to make friends with a lot of jocks who also ran track. Some of the big defensive guys on the football team also threw shotput in the offseason, for example. Marcus didn't run track (I think track season was during the same time as baseball), but the school's second-string running (Wade) back did. Wade was a decent guy, but every once in a while would prove to be kind of a dick.
Not to brag, but for a couple years there, I was the track team's star sprinter. Since I was the fastest kid in school, eventually the football coach called me into his office and persuaded me to try out for the football team. I lasted maybe 2 practices. It was too much work for me. And while I could run, I couldn't catch a football for shit. Plus I topped out at 5'8", 145 lbs, so I would be crushed if I actually tried to run the ball in a real high school football game. But whatever, it was a good experience at least giving it a shot. I remember once in sprints, when I was out of shape and not used to running in cleats, Wade beat me and was so goddamn proud of himself, bragging to anyone who would listen that he beat Gavin in a race. Even in defeat, it was humbling that the backup RB was to ecstatic to have bested me. In all our time together on the track team, I don't think he ever even came close. So I was ok with giving him that.
But enough of me being cocky about my past glory days on the high school track team.. back to Marcus Giles! His brother Brian Giles was a few years older than us, but he was actually around Granite Hills are that time too, but I'll save taking about Brian till the next Guys From Granite post (Spoiler alert: He's #1 on the countdown!)
These past couple pics are both from my freshman yearbook (1993). I didn't even bother venturing into my other 3 HS yearbooks. Tons of pics of him throughout them.
But yeah, Marcus was very popular in high school. He was definitely a typical jock, though. Granite's previous running back, Jay Johnson (whom I had known from the track team my freshman year) was a really bright, friendly guy. Marcus on the other hand, was more of your typical party-guy, skate-by-academically type jock. Not to say he was a dick, but just a typical jock. Nothing wrong with that. While he was always cool with me, I have an acquaintance who claims Marcus bullied him back in elementary school. I guess he was the type to sometimes tease less-cool kids a little, but he was never too over the top about it.
After graduation, we both ended up at local Grossmont Community College. In my case, I was too lazy and afraid of "real college", so I took the easy way out after high school. In Marcus' case, I guess his grades weren't good enough to get into a 4-year college, even with his baseball and football success (I would have assumed he'd get some good scholarship offers).
But he was just in junior college for maybe a year before he signed with the Braves. He was way down in the 53rd round of the 1996 amateur draft. That seems crazy to me, but I guess his size detracted some scouts.
The local East County San Diego newspaper, The Californian, would publish stats of local minor leaguers on Sundays. Jim Tatum was one guy in particular I would remember following, from nearby Santee, CA, He always seemed to be tearing it up in the minors, but was sub-Mendoza in his limited time in The Show.
And I'd remember following Marcus' success in the minors thanks to that section in the paper. He'd be cranking .350 consistently with good power and speed but for whatever reason not advance up the ladder very quickly and it was just crazy to me. I guess maybe he needed work on his fielding or something?
Finally he got called up in April 2001, and had a couple decent years splitting his time between Atlanta and AAA. In 2003 he had his break-out season and made the All-Star team. It was so surreal for me watching the national telecast of the lineup introductions and see my old classmate tipping his cap to a roaring stadium. "I know that guy! I went to school with him! My locker in the locker room was just a few lockers down from him!" Crazy.
He had a couple more quality years for the Braves, then leveled off a bit in 2006. Before the 2007 season, the Padres signed him as a free agent. What a glorious moment that was! Local hero come home. Teaming up with his big brother Brian, San Diego would be unstoppable with the hometown Giles Brothers powering their lineup! It was like something out of a storybook. It was his time to shine!
But his homecoming would not go as well as he or us other San Diegans had dreamt. Marcus sputtered to a .229 average with just 4 home runs on the year and was released promptly after the season. In the following years he would sign minor league deals with the Rockies, Dodgers, and Phillies.. but not make it through spring training with any of them, eventually retiring.
I'm not sure what Marcus has been up to since, but I wish him the best. Married with kids and still living in El Cajon, last I heard. It's super cool that a kid I went to school with played baseball in the major leagues just like Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, or whoever else you want to name. So cool! While his career only lasted 7 years, at least he had a pretty impressive peak, making the All-Star team and twice getting MVP votes. His 2 career post-season home runs must've been exhilarating experiences, I'm sure. When I got back into card collecting in 2012 after a hiatus of nearly two decades, one of my first buys was a 50-card eBay lot of Marcus Giles cards. I'm probably nearing 100 different cards at the point. Since this post is already very long, I'll save showing off that PC for another day.
I've heard some baseball fans suggest that he was likely a juicer, and his drop-off might be correlated to getting clean once baseball started cracking down, but I couldn't say. I can just tell you that he was always a torque-pact little weight room rat since he was a kid. But of course, back in the late 90s/early 00s, it seems like everybody was doing it, so it wouldn't shock me if I learned Marcus took a trip on the PED train. Some suggest he was just really lucky in his peak years.
Makes me wish I would have done more with my life, honestly. Maybe had I spent more time in the weight room, or on the field taking grounders, or in the batting cage working on my swing.. maybe I'd have been right there with him. But instead I'd just some nobody to collects cards of a guy I went to school with. Kind of a bummer when you look at it that way. But no, I've got a pretty good life, all things considered. And collecting his baseball cards is a neat way of paying tribute to our collective past.
So that's my story of going to school with a guy who ended up playing big league baseball.
Cheers, Marcus! You're a heck of an athlete and it was very cool watching your career. [HT] As a post-script (nothing to do with baseball/cards, but this is a pretty long post, so really, who's even still reading at this point?), I'd now like to list off some of the girls I had a crush on in school. I'd like to point out, should they ever stumble on this post, perhaps over-weight and through a messy divorce or two, that all these years later, I'm happily married (to my first and only wife), living in a nice house, with a dog, job, car, and no debt, and a healthy BMI. While I may have been somewhat of a loser in school, and definitely not the most successful guy in the world today, I ended up pretty ok. Steph@nie Eulette (sp?) - 4th grade.. my first real crush. She teased me a bit, but I think she liked me, kinda. Tiff@ny Stores - 5th grade.. man, she was so pretty! Smart, too. She ended up going to a different middle school, though just before elementary school ended, she told my best friend that she liked me, but by then it was too late. I kicked myself for a long time over that one. Had MySpace or Facebook been invented back then, who knows. But as the case was, she was gone forever. C@rina Rider - 6th grade.. yowza.. you know what I mean? Developed early. Becky J0slin - freshman year.. man, she was great. Always dated older (motorcycle-riding) guys, though, and frequently came to school in casts that caused people to raise an eyebrow. Where the dudes beating her? Hope not. She was into sports and played hard, so probably just sports injuries. Jennifer C@meron - sophomore year.. Check that last name? She was actually the cousin of Kirk Cameron (Growing Pains) and Candace Cameron (Full House), but I just liked her because she was pretty and seemed nice. I came close to asking her to prom, but pussied out. Out of my league for sure. J@cquita Street- junior year.. this was a really cute "bad girl" I had a crush on.. Then a decade later, I found her on MySpace and hit on her a little and we actually went on a date! It was perhaps the most surreal experience of my life. We weren't at all compatible and the date was pretty much a disaster, but still! Crazy! J@ckie Thompson - senior year.. she was really cool and creative. She had a Porno For Pyros logo on her backpack and I thought that was just the most bad-ass thing ever. Sara (forgot her last name) Green? - community college.. oh man. Should have at least tried asking her out. Seemed really cool. J0y Stuber - SDSU.. geez, she was just the cutest! So tiny and sweet! I don't think we would have much in common or anything, but I kicked myself for a while for not at least asking her to a movie or something. Man, I was too shy. Oh well. My high school girl friend was pretty cool. But man, has she gotten fat! I just had to laugh when she found me on MySpace years later, seemingly trying to rekindle something between us. Yeah, maybe if you hadn't broken up with me back then you wouldn't have wound up as an abused morbidly-obese single mom of 2 kids scraping to make ends meet by cutting hair. And then there was the pseudo-girlfriend I was obsessed with for a year after college (another over-weight single mom alcoholic). It wasn't until I started things up with my now-wife till that girl was like "yeah, maybe this could work." Suck it! You had yo' chance. And what was that other girl's name? Heidi, I think. That was short but intense. Came close to "running off together" but cooler heads prevailed. Whatever. There have been other girls I've liked, but those are the ones I was really hung up on for a time. Everything happens for a reason and I ended up with the right woman for me. Happily ever after, the end. So that's gonna wrap up this Wonder Years trip down memory lane (slash getting some pent up "I'm married now, bitches!" angst out of my system that's been brewing for 20-something years). I'm sorry for coming off as a bitter jerk here. (I've had a few drinks.) I truly wish all these women well wherever they are today. Um, so.. did you go to school with anybody famous? Any notable baseball players? What girls did you have a crush on? LOL Guys From Granite countdown 8. Preface (minor leaguers) 7. Mike Reinbach 6. John Barnes 5. Chris Jones 4. Tom Fordham 3. Shane Spencer 2. Marcus Giles 1. (coming soon)
There have been 7 graduates from my high school to play in the major leagues (Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, California representing!) I've managed to obtain at least a couple cards from them all. I'm tipping my cap to each of them in this recurringGuys From Granite series. We're counting them down in ascending order by career games played, working our way to the most successful GHHS Eagle. This is part 3 of 7.
CHRIS JONES
Chris Jones is a very popular name. There have been several guys named Chris Jones to make a name for themselves in the world, but the ballplayer who went to Granite Hills was a white guy who played in the 80s, not to be confused with the better-known Chris Jones who played in the 90s, or the minor leaguer currently pitching in the Orioles organization.
Christopher Dale Jones was born in 1957 in Los Angeles. He went from Granite Hills to Grossmont College (Community College) to San Diego State, a path I myself would follow a couple decades later (I wonder if he also went to my middle school and elementary school?) Grossmont College is often ranked among the best community colleges in the nation, if I recall, and much cheaper than a 4-year university (I can remember paying just $11 per credit in the 90s, though those days are long gone now), so it makes sense to knock out a few general courses there before moving on to the big time.
Anyways, Chris was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 25th round of the 1979 amateur draft. He had been drafted by the Orioles a couple years earlier, but didn't sign. Chris was a left-handed outfielder known for his defense. Speed was a big part of his game, swiping 40 stolen bases in 1980 (A ball) and 37 in 1981 (AA). Looks like he missed a lot of time in '82 and '83, likely to injuries, but bounced back for strong seasons in '84 and '85 with AAA Tucson.
Chris was called up to action in Houston in the middle of the 1985 season, picking up 5 hits in 25 at-bats with the Astros. He was mostly used as a late-inning defensive replacement or pinch runner, as evidenced by his appearing in 31 games, yet with only 28 plate appearances to show for it. Nolan Ryan was the winning pitcher in Chris' debut. That must've been cool to have Nolan Ryan as a teammate.
The Astros cut him loose after the season, however, and he wound up with the Giants. He only got into 3 games with San Francisco in 1986, with a lone at-bat. In his final MLB game-- a win over his former team-- he pinch-ran for Bob Melvin and got his only stolen base in the bigs. So I guess that's ending on a high note, at least. He was at AAA Phoenix for most of 1986 (.291) and all of 1987 (.257) before calling it a career.
Not sure where life lead him after hanging up his cleats. Chris was a bit before my time and I wasn't familiar with him until researching guys from Granite, so I don't have any personal memories or anecdotes about him. But it's pretty cool he made the majors, even if his career was shortlived.
Cards
Despite his major league service, this Chris Jones never got a baseball card from one of the big 3 companies of the time. He does have a few minor league cards and a couple major league postcards, however. With so many different athletes named "Chris Jones" it's a pain to search for his cards. But I believe this to be a somewhat complete checklist:
x 1982 Tucson Toros TCMA #2 Chris Jones
x 1983 Tucson Toros TCMA #19 Chris Jones
x 1984 Tucson Toros Cramer #52 Chris Jones
o 1985 Astros Postcards #12 Chris Jones
x 1985 Tucson Toros Cramer #51 Chris Jones
x 1986 Phoenix Firebirds ProCards #12 Chris Jones
o 1987 Astros 1983-85 Postcard Rerelease #13 Chris Jones
x 1987 Phoenix Firebirds ProCards #78 Chris Jones
o 1988 San Diego State Aztecs All-Time Greats #10 Chris Jones
o 1989 San Diego State All-Time Greats #9 Chris Jones
Here are scans of the cards I have.
This one above is my favorite.. nice picture, good design, and ridiculous back, with the Budweiser ad, and the warning to not get caught in a pickle with your car.
[HT] Poor "Cris"(?) couldn't get out of Arizona.. going from Tucson to Phoenix. At least that's somewhat close to his home in San Diego. I made the trip from San Diego to Tucson a few times in the 80s, too. It's a long drive, but you can make it in a day. I was just a kid, but my mom's old college roommate lived there with her two sons who were just a bit younger than me and we'd visit them for a few days once every 2 or 3 years. Had some great times with Nick and Ben.. Super Mario 3, G.I. Joes, getting into trouble as boys do. The only baseball card I ever stole was from one of their friends, but that's a shameful story for another day (it wasn't that bad).
If you have any cards (or postcards) of this guy not pictured here, feel free to get in touch with me about a trade. Thanks!
Autograph
Nope.
Chris Jones is the only major leaguer from my high school I've yet to acquire an autograph from. Of course it's hard to search, since Chris Jones is a popular name and the search results are always for the other Chris Joneses. But I'll try to keep an eye out. If you can help me out with his auto, or perhaps have a line on a mailing address for former major leaguer Chris Dale Jones b. 1957 that I could try for a TTM, please let me know.
Fake cards
Hey, before we wrap up this post, let's go ahead and crudely photoshop up some Chris D. Jones cards that never were...
Ha, these are definitely not my best Photoshop work, but I was rushing to whip them up before work this morning. I couldn't find any pics of him in a major league uniform, so made due with butchering his minor league card photos.
Thanks for reading. Next time on "Guys from Granite" we'll take a look at the only Granite Hills Eagle to ever pitch in the bigs.
I've mentioned here in the past that I don't have much interest in baseball these days. I might as well get a post out of telling the story of how I became a baseball card blogger who doesn't really follow baseball. Just a warning that this is long and rambling. Rambling about my childhood and how baseball cards fit in. It also gets a little depressing, since I talk about what it's like to be a Padres fan (Let me remind you I didn't name this blog Baseball Card Breakdown for nothing!). If that interests you, read on. Otherwise, see you back here next time!
Possibly the happiest moment of my entire life.
Song to listen to while you read? Here's the official "end of summer" anthem.
I was born in the city of San Diego in the late '70s and grew up in El Cajon, essentially a suburb in East County San Diego. In elementary school, I was more into playing with G.I. Joe action figures and NES than I ever was with sports. I never played Little League or any organized pee-wee sports. One Christmas, a family friend gave me a football as a gift, and I was legitimately upset about it. Like, "What the hell am I supposed to do with this?!" An only-child raised by a single mom, I didn't really have a father-figure or older brother pushing me toward athletic pursuits, or sitting me down explaining rules while we watched a game on TV and thereby instilling a love of the sport in me.
The Padres barely registered with me, even during their great 1984 season when they won the pennant. I was a fan in a loose sense of the word, and I recognized the names Tony Gwynn and Steve Garvey, but that's about the extent of my baseball knowledge until 1990 when baseball cards were the "in" thing for a while at my middle school. Suddenly, everybody seemed to bring a binder or small stack of cards to school to show off and trade, usually 1990 Topps ("the 'radical' ones") or Donruss ("the red ones").
Me in a Padres shirt, 3rd or 4th grade. "Lifelong Padres fan" proof! Don't remember who the girl is or why we're getting our photo taken together at school.
I had maybe a dozen cards in my toy collection that I had passively amassed over my youth. I brought them to school one day so I could be like the cool kids. There were a few Padres cards from 1986, as well as 4 or 5 older A's cards that I had gotten from my friend William years earlier (not sure why they were all A's). They were kinda neat. William must've liked them too, because he had written his name on the backs.
William, the card defacer
Dustin Engle was one of the coolest of the cool kids.. that lucky combination of really smart, good looking, and athletic. He checked out my cards, and offered to buy one from me. He informed me that the writing on the back hurt the value of the card, but he'd graciously give me $5 for it anyways. However, he only had some change on him at the time, so it added up to about a $1.37 down payment. Dork that I was, I was dumbstruck that Dustin the cool kid wanted something I had, so I agreed to the deal without a second thought. He was a good student and one of the "goody-goody" cool kids (as opposed to the "swear and listen to naughty music" cool kids), I guess you'd call it preppy. But yeah, I trusted him and gave up the card in question for a few nickels and dimes in return.
Here's what I still have from my original childhood collection, before I really started collecting.
As you've probably guessed, it was a very desirable card I let slip away. Yep, a Rickey Henderson rookie card. Even with "William" scrawled in pen on the back, that's a damn awesome card to own as a 6th grader in 1990, when baseball card popularity and values were arguably at their all-time peak. Once word got out of my lop-sided deal and I learned of the blunder, I felt quite the fool. To make matters worse, Dustin never even gave me the rest of the money he promised me. Damn you, Dustin! I hope you google yourself one day and find this page and are so overwhelmed with guilt that you offer some gesture of kindness to make things right. I tried to find him on Facebook just now so I could hopefully smirk at how fat and bald he's gotten or his ugly wife or anything, but couldn't find a match, and I'm sure he's still in great shape and runs a successful company and has a hot wife with a couple awesome kids, because that's the Dustin Engle way and guys like that always get everything they want.
If you know this son of a bitch, tell him he owes me money.
But let's try to put that bitterness aside and continue with the story of my life as a baseball fan / baseball card collector. Despite the rude introduction to the hobby, I was intrigued by it. I had a classmate named Troy Sheets who was a really cool guy, but not the sharpest knife in the drawer. His locker was right next to mine in PE and he always had difficulty opening it. He would ask me to open his locker for him everyday, and he'd "pay" me by giving me a random baseball card or two, such as a '90 Topps Howard Johnson. Thus began my active collecting of baseball cards. I quickly took to it and started buying packs and learning about the players. I was lucky in that a card shop popped up just a couple blocks from my home. Good ol' PB's Baseball Cards next to Long's. I spent many-a afternoon slowly browsing the cards behind the glass and in the dime boxes.
Awkward stage. Note the Padres shirt.
And obviously, with getting into baseball cards comes getting into baseball itself. I was very interested in knowing who was hot and who was not. I wanted to know whose cards I should be going after. I would study the Sports section of the newspaper. Sundays, they'd have a full page of player stats that I would practically memorize. There was a while there where I basically knew every player in the bigs and at least had a rough idea of everyone's stats, often with a mental count of their home runs, wins, saves, etc. I watched a ton of baseball on TV, too, regardless of the teams playing. I just loved the game! Braves games on TBS, Cubs and White Sox on WGN, Dodgers and Angels on KTLA, various teams on ESPN, and of course Padres on KUSI. My wardrobe soon included several shirts and hats with MLB team logos.. not just Padres stuff, either, but a wide range of teams: A's, Braves, Dodgers, White Sox, Yankees, and probably others I'm forgetting. I was definitely a baseball fan, as opposed to just being a San Diego Padres fan.
My best friend Doug, circa 1991.
I even got into playing baseball, sort of. Nearly every weekend, my friend Doug and I would go out to the dirt field of our old elementary school and hit fly balls to each other. This continued for years. Like any kid in my situation, I entertained dreams of being a baseball player when I grew up. Sadly, I always seemed to miss sign-ups for Little League and other youth baseball programs. And when high school came around, the try-outs for the team always seemed to be like a secret and I never heard about it till they had passed. It was very frustrating for me.
Is the Don Henley song over yet? Here's another great sad summery song.
I gave it one last shot in community college, signing up for the baseball team. But the crotchety old coach sent me home the first day without even giving me a chance to step out on the diamond. Man, that's a painful moment in my life.. easily one of my lowest low points. The crushing death of a dream in an instant. But in hindsight, I never would have made it as a baseball player, even had I gotten a fair shot. Topping out at 5'8", 145 lbs., I'm pretty much too small to be considered a viable pro athlete. As far as the 5 Tools, all I had was speed. At least I did have some personal success with sports on the track. I set a couple short-distance records at my middle school, and was the top sprinter at my high school for a couple years, helping lead the track team to a conference championship.
Sorry for shamelessly posting a picture of my awards, but when am I ever going to have a better opportunity to take this photo and share it? Never. So here it is. Now back into the box with them. ...Hell, let's overindulge on the self-indulgence and post another angle!
Forgive me, but while I'm reliving my glory days here, let me scan a newspaper clipping from the time we won the championship on the final event of the season, my greatest sports moment.
This was the hardest I ever pushed myself. I woke up that night in pain and vomiting, my body was freaking out. I was a short-distance sprinter, so to sprint an entire lap killed me. But I stepped up and started the relay with by-far my best 440 time ever and we did it.
Ok, sorry for that embarrassing display of self-indulgence. You gotta give me that one; It's all I have when it comes to triumphant sports memories. Back to baseball cards. The first guy I really focused on collecting was Reggie Jackson. He had already retired by that point, but I liked him for whatever reason.. probably because he was one of the few guys I knew of, even before getting into baseball. I loved the first Naked Gun movie he had a part in. Everybody liked Reggie f'king Jackson, right? In my close group of friends, Doug collected Tony Gwynn (an easy choice for a San Diego kid) and my friend Chris collected Darryl Strawberry (which was a little odd, since Darryl was on the decline by that point, but you gotta admit he was a pretty exciting player in the 80s.) I also really liked Vince Coleman (he was fast.. like me!!) and Garry Templeton (yeah, this one doesn't make a lot of sense.. other than the San Diego connection, of course.. I believe he was the longest-tenured Padre at the time. I was sad when they finally got rid of him. Honestly, I think a big part of why I liked him was that "Garry Templeton" is just a cool sounding name, haha).
Reggie collection
It's funny how I don't really collect any of these guys anymore. I've kept my Reggie collection through the years, and in fact a jewel of my collection is still my 1969 Topps Reggie Jackson RC. My mom bought it for me at the card shop for a silly price like $375, and I had to pay her back with chores and my allowance for several months. A similar-condition card could probably be found on eBay for around $40 these days, so it's a bittersweet piece of my collection, but of course I still cherish it. I think I just got burnt out on collecting Reggie cards. He has a ton, and more just keep coming out every year with various retro sets and inserts. So yeah, I'll passively collect his cards, and hope to complete his vintage base cards at some point, but it's not a priority collecting goal.
As for Vince Coleman and Garry Templeton, well, I later realized that they simply weren't that good apart from a couple nice seasons early in their careers, plus they were not the best "team players" from a personality standpoint. And like most San Diego fans, it's hard to not hold a grudge against Garry Templeton for being who the Padres got by trading away a young Ozzie Smith. Still hurts.
So where was I? Oh yeah, my collecting continued in full force into 1991 and 1992, with most of my allowance going towards cards. I think I was a typical collector, with a wide range of players I collected and sets I'd try to complete. I don't think I ever successfully completed a set, sadly. I bought factory sets of 1990 Score and 1989 Topps, but that was it as far as full sets I had, plus some smaller sets like 1991 Topps Traded. I was also really into minor league cards, trying to find the next sleeper breakout star, as well as old cards of guys before they made it. My best pull was a Frank Thomas AA card, sadly very off-center. My friend Chris stole it from me once, but I got it back when I noticed it in his collection.. it was easy to recognize because it was so off-center. He also stole my 1990 Leaf Steve Avery card, but I suspect he sold it to PB's before I got it back (Yeah, I guess Chris wasn't a great friend at the time, but we eventually became tight and he's one of my closest friends to this day.) I overpaid for some '80s minor league team sets from a card shop in the mall.. one set where the top guy was Kelly Gruber, another Danny Jackson, and another was Kal Daniels. Sadly, all these guys' careers dwindled the moment I bought their expensive minor league team sets. I remember almost buying a Barry Bonds minor league team set, but it was just a bit out of my price range. I was kicking myself in the following years when he was the perennial NL MVP.. but the sting subsided when he fell from grace and his cards lost their value.
My local card shop had a good price on 1982 Topps wax packs, so I bought many over a period of several months. Normally, I'd stick with current product, but it was fun to shell out for "vintage" packs sometimes. I still vividly remember my most glorious rip of all-time. I was crossing Jamacha Blvd walking home from PB's, opening a pack of '82 Topps and there was a fresh Cal Ripken Jr RC smiling at me. Such a happy day! And this was before the baseball card values plummeted thanks to falling popularity and the rise of the internet and eBay making cards so easy to obtain. I don't remember exactly what Beckett said that card was worth at the time, but for all I cared, I could retire off the thing.
My best hit.
I bought a fair amount of packs in 1993, but my interest was fading. By then, I was in high school, and collecting baseball cards simply wasn't as cool as it used to be in middle school. My free time and disposable income turned to music, as I turned from collecting cards to collecting CDs. I began playing guitar and dreaming of starting a band. Plus, that year I got my first couple of girlfriends. So, yeah, girls trump pretty much everything, especially as a teenage boy.
Music was my life in high school. But we still liked baseball. Note Doug's Gwynn plaque behind me.
I packed up my card collection in a big box that a file cabinet came in, and stuck it in the garage where it stayed for over a decade. My mom would bug me every once in a while ("So are you going to get rid of your baseball cards yet?"), but I couldn't bare to part with them. Even though I wasn't actively collecting cards, I was still a baseball fan, particularly of the Padres. The players' strike of '94 soured me on the game a little, but I bounced back pretty easily. The 1996 season was a big thrill, with the Padres making the post season for the first time since 1984. Loved those guys. In the NLDS, they were swept by the Cardinals and broke my heart hard. Then 1997 saw the Pads back in the cellar, but I stuck with them. Then 1998 was probably the most magical season I ever followed. I watched nearly every pitch on TV that year, and somebody always came up with a clutch hit. It seemed winning that year was their destiny. They rolled all the way to the World Series. But their luck ran out and the Yankees swept them. And again, my heart was broken. Hard.
Still, though, I was a diehard fan, and continued to follow the team and watch most televised games, through both the good years and the bad. The Padres made the playoffs back-to-back in 2005 and 2006. St. Louis bested them both times, and I got used to the Cardinals breaking my heart.
Here's something else to listen to. One of my favorite sad songs.
But if I had to pinpoint the moment when baseball broke my heart to the point where I stopped caring, it was September 29, 2007. I can't bare to write it myself, so I'll quote Wikipedia:
Late in the 2007 season, the San Diego Padres were in Milwaukee attempting to clinch a playoff berth. CloserTrevor Hoffman was one out away from sending the Padres to the playoffs, but the tying run was on second base. Gwynn Jr. pinch-hit for Bill Hall against his dad's former team, and dramatically tied the game with a triple. The Padres would go on to lose the game as well as the season finale on the next day, opening the door for the Colorado Rockies to force a one-game playoff with San Diego. The Rockies defeated the Padres in a wild contest, keeping them out of the postseason.
How could you?!
That triple just crushed me. The fact that it was hit by the offspring of Mr. Padre Tony Gwynn himself was just too cruelly ironic for me to handle. I don't think I watched any Padres telecasts the following year, and even if I may have caught a game or two on days when I had absolutely nothing else going on, my heart wasn't in it.
I moved from San Diego to Portland just before the 2009 season. I haven't had cable since I've been here, and don't have the interest or energy to try to find games streaming online, so I haven't watched a full baseball game since 2008, probably. The few pitches I've seen the past few years have been at bars and restaurants that had a muted game on TV, and a few innings of an Angels game at a motel once a few months ago.
As for the Padres, I kept tabs on them online during 2010 when they were surprisingly decent and were in the race most of the year. But then when they faded down the stretch and Adrian Gonzalez was traded to Boston after the season, my emotional ties with the team (which were already hanging on by a thread) were effectively cut entirely. Gun to my head, I might be able to name one or two guys currently on the team. I'll still occasionally read a game recap article online if a headline catches my eye, and I read a lot of baseball card blogs that sort of keep me up on current happenings. The Padres-focused All The Way To The Backstop blog, in particular, has been indirectly educating me on the current state of the team.
But still, I don't feel like I'm missing out by not following baseball much anymore. When I read about exciting things, like last year with Mike Trout having an amazing rookie season, and Miguel Cabrera winning the triple crown, and this year with Yasiel Puig igniting the Dodgers from being written off early in the season into the playoff race.. it's cool (and the card collector in me wants their rookies and certified autos), but I still feel pretty detached from it all.
Now, let's say next year the Padres call up a Puig-like rookie who spurs the team to some wins, and get career years from couple veterans, and they actually are in the hunt. Of course I'd be rooting for them and probably try to catch some playoff games on TV somewhere (at the risk of being labeled a fair-weather fan). But the thing is, even if they defied the odds and won the World Series, it would not be like it would have been had they won it all in '96 or '98 or '05 or '06 or '07. They're just not "my team" anymore. San Diego is no longer my home. My hometown team never won a championship and never will. I know some "long distance fans" make it work, but not me.
I was a diehard Padres fan from 1990 through 2007.. and yeah, "diehard".. it was hard, but my fandom died. Now? Well, they're always gonna be the team I want to win over everyone else. But it doesn't feel right to say I'm a "big fan" of the team today when I could only name one or two guys on the roster. They feel more like an ex-girlfriend to me now.. "still friends" but not at all the same.
Me making a funny face in a Chargers shirt, mid '80s. "Lifelong Chargers fan" proof!
To a lesser extent, this all could also be said about the San Diego Chargers. While I never loved football quite as much as baseball, I followed the team with varying degrees of closeness for many years, particularly during the LaDainian Tomlinson era (2001-2009), and similar to the Padres, they teased me a few times but could never deliver a championship. Shit, all I needed was one! Just one glorious moment. I used to know a certain Reds fan. You could give him shit about how the Reds were sucking, and he'd just shrug it off and say, "Well, I'll always have 1990 when they won it all." God, I wish I had that! Just once. One World Series. One Super Bowl. Something to cling to throughout it all. A shining moment to remember when times are tough. But nope, never. Nothing. I'm sure Yankees and Cardinals fans wouldn't have missed one little WS title since they already both have a bunch under their belt. But nope, that's not how the sports gods had it play out. San Diego couldn't catch a break, not even once.
Let's look at other cities/teams in a championship drought.
Cubs fans? Hey, the White Sox won it all a few years back, and the Bears won the Super Bowl in the mid '80s, right? At least your city got that. Oh, and don't forget about Jordan and all the NBA titles for the Bulls. So I'm not shedding any tears for Chicago fans.
Texas? Yeah, the Rangers and Astros franchises outdate the Padres, and they haven't won a WS either. But hey, at least the Cowboys have won 5 Super Bowls. Plus the Mavericks won the NBA Finals in 2011, the Rockets won a couple times in the '90s, and the Spurs win a lot, too. So yeah, no sympathy for Lone Star State sports fans.
Milwaukee? Yeah, the Brewers suck, but at least you got the nearby Packers and their Super Bowl wins. The Milwaukee Braves won it all by beating the Yanks in 1957, and the Bucks won an NBA championship in '71.
Cleveland? Well, granted you'd have to go all the way back to 1948 for the last time the Indians won the Series, but at least it happened!
San Diego? NOTHING. NEVER. Pretty beaches and nice weather, sure, but as far as proud moments in major professional sports, the trophy case is empty. Just cobwebs and dust. And now that I've moved away and lost most of my interest in current sports, I'm destined to be a lifelong hapless loser fan.
Sadly ironic for me, among the very few major North American cities that can rival San Diego's futility with pro sports championships are Portland (one NBA title back in 1977; never had a MLB or NFL team) and Seattle (NBA championship from the SuperSonics back in 1979). Fittingly, living in Portland now, the closest MLB team in my vicinity is the Mariners, the closest NFL team the Seahawks (and the SuperSonics have long since left town and changed their name). So even if I were to stretch the definition of "local sports team" and adopt Seattle teams as my own (as a few Portlanders do), it wouldn't get me anywhere. Zero World Series appearances and zero Super Bowl wins for Seattle, with none appearing to be anywhere close on the horizon.
Here in Portland, there aren't many major sports teams, and even if they won, it'd be neat, but wouldn't mean much to me personally. Trail Blazers? Couldn't name a single player now that Greg Oden is gone. Oregon Ducks? I've never given a shit about college sports and don't think I'm gonna start now (though it was cool when they got to the championship game a year or two ago.. but of course, I must've jinxed them and they lost it.) The Timbers are pretty popular here, but there's no way I could ever care about soccer. Maybe if the Timbers got to the World Cup-- I'm sure that's theoretically impossible, as its not the same league or anything-- but still, that impossible situation is what it would take for me to even consider watching a soccer game. There are the Winterhawks, a sub-NHL hockey team, but I was never much into hockey, either. There used to be a minor league baseball team in Portland (Beavers, a Padres affiliate), but I never saw them and they've since moved to Tucson a couple years ago. Now there's another one in the suburb of Hillsboro (Hops, a Diamondbacks affiliate), but I haven't been to a game.. Maybe one of these days. The Padrographs blog was talking about getting a bunch of autographs at a game the other day (of the visiting Padres affiliate) and that sounded pretty fun. But yeah, I could never become a hardcore fan of the team. My sports fanatic days are behind me. I know it's a "never say never" kind of world and who knows, a decade or two from now may find me in a different situation. But I'm not going to have that one victorious moment as a fan to remember forever. Just lots of heartbreak.
Ok, sorry for going to a dark place there. Let's shift this back to baseball cards. Before I moved to Portland, I finally gave in and sold over 90% of my collection on Craigslist for a fraction of the allowance I put into it from 1990-1993. They weren't doing me much good and it's not like I could realistically move that huge box up with me. I filled a men's shoebox-sized box with a few favorites, but the vast majority went to some guy who wasn't even a true collector, but somebody who just wanted to turn around and make a profit on eBay or whatever. Oh well.
Once I finally got a steady job, I made the occasional minor splurge on a neat baseball card on eBay. I got a 1973 Topps Roberto Clemente for a few bucks (classic final card of a legendary hero). Then a 1974 Topps Willie McCovey (greats who suited up for the Padres always appealed to me). In Fall 2012, I dove in back into card collecting full-on by buying a blaster of 2012 Topps Archives (I like this product as it mixes old timers I know with current guys), and I also got into "trading" cards on Listia. Soon I started spending real money on eBay adding cards to my collection, including a couple vintage Mickey Mantle cards, a 200-card lot of 1969 Topps (including the Mantle), and getting obsessed with the 2004 Topps Retired Signature Edition set, which appealed to me with the old timers I was familiar with, featuring full stats on the back, and certified autographs (I hadn't really cared much about autos until this point).
I've always been the sentimental/nostalgic type, as you've probably gathered from all the old photos I've posted above. I'm Facebook friends with a few guys I've known since elementary school (still good friends with Doug). I still play NES games from time to time, my favorites being Bionic Commando and Maniac Mansion. I have lots of music on my iPod that a man my age should be embarrassed by, including children's songs I loved as a kid (Sesame Street, Raffi) and cheesy pop I listened to back before getting into "cool" music (Forever Your Girl by Paula Abdul is still one of my all-time favorite albums, for example). I still have a few toys I've owned since the '80s, including some G.I. Joe guys and a tub of Legos. My all-time favorite movies are the same today as they were 25 years ago (Star Wars trilogy, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, The Goonies). So it makes sense that baseball card collecting still interests me even though I'm not much of a sports fan anymore. I guess it's sort of a Peter Pan complex where I'm just holding onto my childhood as long as I can. Whatever the reason, the fact is I still get a lot of enjoyment out of baseball cards.
Ready for another song? Here's one of my favorites.
So anyways, I discovered the baseball card blogosphere last year and eventually started this here blog a few months ago in June of 2013. And here I am now. I still focus on vintage guys, late 60s through early 90s, but occasionally add modern cards into my collection, too. I love the feeling of ripping into a pack of cards, but I rarely buy packs these days. Since getting back into collecting, I've had terrible luck pulling any "hits", as I've documented on this blog in the past few months, so that's kind of soured me on spending much more money on packs. And as far as current products coming out, most new sets don't appeal to me, and not being familiar with a majority of today's players usually makes new stuff rather uninteresting to me. So instead I'll just occasionally pick up cards on eBay, COMC, or Listia. I miss the thrill of opening a new pack, but like with the Padres, my heart can only break so many times until it gets to the point where I just can't care anymore.
And there you have the long explanation of how I became a baseball card blogger who doesn't really follow a team or rip new packs when they come out. This seems to be a rarity, but I doubt I'm the only one who's in it for the nostalgia and doesn't concern himself much with the current state of the game/hobby.
April 2013, outside the Goonies house in Astoria, OR. I still often wear a Padres hat (vintage, not throwback), but don't try talking to me about the current team.
So yep, that's pretty much my life story up to this point, as least as far as baseball and baseball card collecting is concerned. I hope it wasn't too depressing. Send me a nice trade package if you wanna cheer me up.. LOL. Anyways, thanks for reading my self-indulgent ramblings, the 2 or 3 of you who made it to the end. :) Give yourself an extra pat on the back if you actually listened to all 4 songs in this post, for you are a true hero!
Hey, I could tie this post together and end on a happy note. I finally got another Rickey Henderson rookie card a few months ago. I found a great deal on Listia. It was a "Get it Now" for 2000 credits, coincidentally not too far off from the equivalent of the $1.37 I foolishly sold my first copy for. Must've been some karma I was due. The card is one of my favorites and means a lot to me. This one might not be in perfect condition, but at least there's nobody's name scribbled on the back.
2018 Update: Wow, a lot has changed in the few years since I wrote this post. My Padres fandom was gradually awoken, and now I'm at least somewhat familiar with the current 40-man roster. Sure, they still break my heart, but I guess I'm used to it. I watch a few baseball games per year (mostly Padres) thanks to mlb.tv. Whereas I used to focus on retired/HOF players, these days I also collect a bunch of active guys.
