For a moment, I think about the idea of the Oakland Athletics not existing anymore - where a team destined for Las Vegas for 2028, will be playing their games in Sacramento for the next three seasons.
With Henderson just passing [R.I.P.] at the age of 65, maybe it makes it a hurt so much more where a fan base in Oakland has not only lost a team at the end of 2024 - but also an all-around guy lionized as a larger than life figure both on the field and as a character of the game.
I realized that Fernandez had 1984 Donruss #44 RC and 1990 Leaf #66 cards that I did not have in-hand - I needed to hold off sending out to him until I was able to get the two particular cards.
I ended up picking up the cards online and once received, sent them off along with an oddball Dodgers issue I pulled apart from a perforated sheet and a 1991 Upper Deck #242 - it looked like the responses from 'El Sid' were quick and I got my cards back signed in a week.
More often that not, I get sidetracked and stick digging around more bulk / value box material - where I just like picking through cards I can actually thumb through.
At a card show date, I was digging through a dollar or '6 for $5' box off one seller - I ended up grabbing about 18 cards, none probably older than 1995, but fun to take ownership of like the following cards.
I thought I had picked up a Joyner card from the set a couple of years ago - but it turned out to be from another BYU themed set put out by the same company.
However, there might renewed interest in the loose cards I find in the wild - where the illusion of motion kind of amuse me.
I remembering leaving a copy of a 1991 Topps Archives The Ultimate 1953 Set Eleanor Engle #332 - a card I could have instantly made a keeper for curiosity sake, where it pictured a woman who once signed a pro contract in baseball.
Go figure I did find a copy of the Engle card somewhere, so I wasn't about to look for now - though the seller had some newer, current year material this time around, thumbing through the junk wax era material time forgot ends up being an exercise in futility.
As is, finding a 1992 Allan Kaye's Sports Cards News Magazine Multi-Sport Jim Abbott #23 oddball was an excuse - to see if I could find enough cards to make at least a $5.00 purchase.
Maybe it's about trying to fill idle time while at a card show, but despite the relative quality of any particular box or price point - I'll be digging and digging, where after finding that one card, it's like a challenge to put together a 'lil keeper stack.
I don't know what compelled me to move over to the other sport portion of the quarter boxes put out - but it paid off when I found a copy of this card.
Regardless of value and the idea I could go into eBay or other online source to pick up one lousy copy - this became one of those scratch the itch cards in recent years.
I ended up finding one more copy and made both keepers since I could not believe I found it like I did - it's fun when a card in my memory banks somewhere as a 'want' could be found just sitting in some quarter box at a card show.
This find wasn't on the same level as finding the Curry - but it was also a card I was aware of where Jordan makes a cameo.
I do not not want the countless basic Michael Jordan cards printed over the decades - I just want the ones where he is making cameos on other players' cards.
Pack one
#US35 Jonatan Clase RC
#US40 Nate Pearson
Pack two
#US328 Ramón Urías - Holiday parallel
#US72 Colton Cowser - Rookie Debut subset
#US215 Adam Frazier
#US7 Alan Trejo
#US3 Tyler Nevin
#US256 Alec Burleson
#US15 Reynaldo López
#US84 Graham Pauley RC
#US179 Mason Black
#US224 Carlos Santana
#US268 Naoyuki Uwasawa RC - Royal Blue parallel
#ASG-19 Corbin Burnes - 2024 All-Star Game insert
#SMLB-63 Cody Bellinger - Stars of MLB insert
Pack three
#US257 Joey Ortiz
#US350 Elly De La Cruz - Rookie Debut subset
Pack four
#US223 Junior Caminero - Rookie Debut subset; Holiday parallel
#US31 Brandon Crawford
#US221 Andy Pages RC
#US37 Kyle McCann RC
#US214 Kevin Pillar
#US182 Matt Moore
#US196 Blake Treinen
Pack five
#US274 Matt Thaiss
#US172 Colin Holderman
#US100 Paul Skenes RC - go figure, maybe the best 'base' card and there is a blemish on the top.
#US288 Paul Skenes - Rookie Debut subset
#US331 Cody Bradford
#US210 Jackson Merrill RC
#US150 Tyler Black - Rookie Debut subset
#US169 Jackson Merrill - Rookie Debut subset
#US5 Mitchell Parker RC
#US125 Jordan Westburg - Rookie Debut subset; Rainbow Foil parallel
#ASG-21 Garrett Crochet - All-Star Game insert
#SMLB-61 Juan Soto - Stars of MLB insert
Pack six
#US308 Fernando Cruz - Holiday parallel
#US260 Luke Raley
#US53 Randy Rodríguez RC
#US323 Jon Singleton
#US247 Eugenio Suárez
#US121 Ryne Stanek
#US50 Jackson Holliday RC
#US117 Eddie Rosario
#US315 David Bañuelos RC / Matt Krook RC - Rookie Combos subset
#US90 Adam Duvall
#US227 Chandler Seagle RC / Mason McCoy RC - Rookie Combos subset
#US156 Jack Leiter RC
#SMLB-78 Anthony Rizzo - Stars of MLB insert
Pack seven
#US92 Tyler Rogers
#US336 Addison Barger RC
#US340 Gavin Stone
#US176 Lucas Giolito
#US226 Michael Lorenzen
#US192 Colt Keith - Rookie Debut subset
#US327 Dinelson Lamet
#US334 Mookie Betts - Season Highlights
#US310 Oliver Dunn RC
#US28 Mitch Spence RC
#89US-7 Darryl Strawberry - 1989 Topps Baseball insert
#SMLB-72 Curtis Mead - Stars of MLB insert
I would normally stay away from breaking Donruss baseball in any form - where the 2024 Donruss base cards in particular look to be bland and boring at first glance, where it's not particularly appealing.
The product feels so off-brand, but the assorted shiny parallels end up teasing some fool's gold finds - where I relented to pick up a couple of value packs where my curiosity got the best of me.
I figured out at least a couple of things that may end up more as footnotes - where "that's kind of interesting."
1.) There was a distinct pattern of collation where a run of cards pulled were in numerical order - so within a smaller set, maybe the chances were pretty good I end up pulling a duplicate run of cards out of two ‘random’ packs.
2.) There are active MLB players sprinkled in - where presumably Panini did individual card deals with certain MLB players' marketing agents, but obviously nothing with the MLBPA that covers all their players.
3.) I pulled the same types of inserts in my two packs - a serial #'d Optic Green Velocity parallel, a Green Laser parallel and a Red and Blue parallel.
2003 Topps Postseason Highlights Gold Troy Glaus #721 - Serial #’d 1128/2003 - Angels Top 100 fuel; now I might need the regular card to pair this with.
1998 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr's Hot List Roger Clemens #17 - I wanted this card at some point, actually picked up a copy but that might be MIA or counted in my cheat sheet leaderboards for my decade / binder stars collections.
1998 Topps Jeff Montgomery #184 - not as showy as his 1995 Topps Stadium Club card #266, where he is posed in front of a fire truck, the one-time closer from the 1990s is posed with a fire extinguisher.
1998 Topps Jim Edmonds #75 - I have the Minted in Cooperstown version in my Angels all-time Top 100 cheap-azz keepers collection, so I figured I'd pair it with the base card, even though the Minted in Cooperstown is really separate set and not a parallel.
1989 Score Paul Gibson (Hand on Crotch in Background) #595 - x2 - I made claims on a couple of copies posted and I actually got both cards; I found the MIA copy I once lost years ago and put in one of my all-time Top 100 cheap-azz keepers collection, but the copy I got from a last year [from the same seller go figure] might still be bundled with an MIA purchase I have not sorted further.
1998 Fleer Tradition Golden Memories Hideki Irabu #316 - this was a freebie claim, but ends up being subset rather than a real insert; it's hard to think not to dwell on the idea that Irabu was a sore disappointment, but he was a human interest story as well, where he might not have gotten resolution in his life.
2023 Topps Finest Flashbacks Finest Phenoms Masataka Yoshida #55 - I grabbed this rookie year card, where it teases a retro design.
1996 Upper Deck Juan Guzman #474 - I don't know whether I had a copy of this card, but claimed it because it's a big glove card.
1998 Fleer Tradition '63 Vintage '63 Jay Buhner #54 - a game face Buhner with a wad in his cheeks looks a little dejected as he throws his batting gloves to someone; maybe he just ended an inning like he struck out.
1998 Upper Deck Jamey Wright #82 - Pitchers hitting
1998 Upper Deck Armando Reynoso #167 - I'm not sure whether this goes into my men at work collection, where the pitcher working on laying down a bunt or in my pitchers hitting collection; this would not count as a bunt card since it's not a game action card.
2003 Topps Chrome Scott Spiezio #407 - I might be looking to make the random Angels card keepers, where maybe I want to come up with enough cards for certain guys to make a page for or to use as needed for a regional loose card project.
2005 Topps Total Adrian Gonzalez #249 - Stadium card
2023 Choice Portland Sea Dogs Niko Kavadas Card #14 - he made his MLB debut a day after I claimed this minor league team set card.
1998 Upper Deck Todd Worrell #113 - I'm not sure what to do with a card like this where Lee Smith makes a cameo; the two may have been junk wax era contemporaries, they might have been teammates at one point.
Smith is the one eventually inducted in the Hall of Fame so maybe it's a bonus baby card - even if it could be a star-on-star cameo card.
1988 Mother's Cookies Oakland Athletics Stadium Giveaway Matt Young #21 of 28 - he is a lefty, but he is having fun with a righthander's glove, posted in a fielding position.
1996 Fleer Jim Edmonds #46 - the random Angels bulk card for my player collection.
2003 Topps Bazooka Bobby Kielty #137 - Hats-off; National anthem
2003 Upper Deck MVP Mike Lieberthal #304 - Retro uniform
2003 Upper Deck Victory Bobby Abreu #68 - Retro uniform
2012 Topps Adron Chambers RC #90 - this has a cut on the surface
1998 Fleer Tradition Kevin Brown #27 - the same image was used for his 1998 Fleer Tradition '63 Vintage '63 insert; this looks like the uncropped, horizontal image of Brown sliding headfirst into a base.
1998 Fleer Tradition Jay Buhner #68 - the same image was used for his 1998 Fleer Tradition '63 Vintage '63 insert.
1999 Pacific Crown Collection Orlando Palmeiro #8 - a dependable, fourth outfielder type from the mid 1990s through the early 2000s, I want to be able to add a card of his to an Angels all-time Top 100 cheap-azz keepers collection.
1998 Fleer Tradition Alan Benes #141 - Pitchers hitting
1999 Pacific Crown Collection Norberto Martin #6 - needed a card of Martin for my Angels Opening Day starters collection.
1998 Fleer Tradition '63 Vintage '63 Jason Dickson #1 - Pitchers hitting
1981 TCMA The 1960's Billy Martin (Black Back; No MLB logo) #1981-364 - just an old-timey looking card from a retro, tribute set from the early 1980s.
1999 Topps Stadium Club Bruce Smith #89 - this might be UV era bulk fodder from a long time ago, but I grabbed this NFL card because of the great action shot of Smith taking quarterback Steve Young to the ground.
2021 Super Products Pieces of the Past George Washington #3 - I may bite on cards of no-context non-sport subjects on a whim.