It’s Just Old Hits
I need a quick break from the reality of full-time Dad-ing and job hunting, so let’s talk about some cards, shall we? I decided to grab one of the ‘drafts’* from the queue, so these cards have only been in my collection a few days shy of a year at this point.
* I had been dumping scans into drafts and writing the copy later. There are only about 50** in the folder, hah!
** That, of course, doesn’t include anything post-June, so there are a lot more posts owed.
These beauties come from TCDB buddy Pat M. (itsjustoldcardboard), who hit me with a whopper of a trade proposal, such that I couldn’t turn it down. We’ve conducted several more trades after this one as well.
The Boone is from 2009 Heritage, and is his only Astros card that I know of – that means I need to track down another copy to get him to sign. The Berkman features unfortunate BP gear, much to my dismay.
Then there was this short-print of former NL ROY Jason Jennings. I still remember when we traded for him prior to the 2007 season and having a “huh?” moment. Let’s just say that he didn’t work out in Houston. This card works for my collection, though, because it is one of the black back parallels! Sweet.
How about some Pirates content? This lovely black bordered mini of Joe Musgrove hails from 2017. I wasn’t keen on the frame for this set, but these really work for the black and gold filigree minis. Joe was of course part of the Gerrit Cole deal, and I’d say that even with him gone that worked out quite well for us. I did get to catch Joe in Houston in 2019, however, when the Pirates came to town. Pat also sent this Maz from the great 2008 UD Masterpieces set. I’m a big fan of those, particularly the framed versions.
Alright, are you ready for the big guns to come out? Well, these 2007 Topps Rookie 52 Edition autographs from Mark McLemore might not scream “big guns” to you, but I felt it was pretty cool to snatch the regular and red ink versions at once. Not only was this a two-fer, but also it checked a name off my Astro-graph needs, and that’s always appreciated.
How about a Clubhouse Collection relic from 2019 Heritage, featuring a blue swatch of the delightful José Altuve’s uniform? I was pretty surprised when I saw this in the trade offering. While my side of the swap was much smaller, it held several surprises. I sent Pat around 150 cards, mostly recent Heritage and Allen & Ginter base, and was very pleased with my return.
Ok, are you ready for the biggest piece of the haul?
Oh, and I meant biggest in the literal sense as well. This big ol’ boxloader auto-relic of 2015 AL Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel was a phenomenal addition. The sig is nice and big, the swatch is from the sizing stitches in the jersey, and yes indeed, if you inspected the fine print you’ll notice that it’s numbered 5 of 5. This one was a real thrill. So thanks for the bit of joy, Pat – both in the moment and in memory.
Great Keuchel. Ginter usually has some really nice autograph and relic cards.