30 for 30: One Year Late on a Blog Bat Around

Another day, another blog bat around. Gotta catch up somehow, huh?

I saw this one on several blogs early this year, but the first one I saw was over at Too Many Grandersons, so he gets the credit. The concept: the player who first comes to mind when thinking of each team.

How I made this list: I simply found a list of MLB teams, and as I typed each team's name, I added in the name of the player who first came to mind. Then, I went back and filled in the logic. And then, the images.

1. Atlanta Braves - Greg Maddux - my favorite player during the Braves dynasty, Maddux just defines the team for me.
2. Miami Marlins - Ichiro - while Ichiro will be most remembered as a Mariner, the Marlins are on the list first, and his name came to mind the fastest. And after all this, nobody else has come to mind... ahh, Miguel Cabrera. And Giancarlo Stanton. There we go. Perhaps I should have said Charlie Hough? Why did his name not come to mind for so long?
3. New York Mets - Nolan Ryan - this list has several players with the "wrong" team... but that might say more about the team than the player. After Ryan, Casey Stengel came to mind. Um... David Wright?
4. Philadelphia Phillies - Roy Halladay - I hated the Phillies in the 1990s: John Kruk, Lenny Dykstra, etc. But Halladay wasn't a part of that nasty team in my mind. 
5. Washington Nationals - Bryce Harper - Why? I hate this guy. But he was the biggest player in the District of Columbia until he decided he wanted a cheesesteak. Stephen Strasburg...
6. Chicago Cubs - Anthony Rizzo - he's such a fun player to watch, and it's probably only a matter of time before I add him to my player collections. I'm sure the Cubs have had other good, memorable players, right?
7. Cincinnati Reds - Pete Rose - I dislike Pete Rose the man, but I respect Pete Rose the player. Barry Larkin was pretty cool, but Rob Dibble can choke on a baseball.
8. Milwaukee Brewers - Hank Aaron - because Maddux. Wow, I can't think of another Brewer. Oh, Yount. He played in Milwaukee, right?
9. Pittsburgh Pirates - Andrew McCutchen - just an amazing player, and someone else who might end up a PC. There's also Clemente, of course.
10. St. Louis Cardinals - Mark McGwire - Since he finished his career here and had his most PED'd season here, it makes sense, I guess. Stan Musial is next in my head.
11. Arizona Diamondbacks - Luis Gonzalez - because Randy Johnson just didn't come to mind first.
    
12. Colarado Rockies - Larry Walker - I was in high school when the Rockies came into existence, so this makes a lot of sense. Really, many of the 1980s/1990s names should be very obvious. Nolan Arenado is the second name that pops into my head.
13. Los Angeles Dodgers - Sandy Koufax - I can't think of a more iconic player on the LA Dodgers. If this had said Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson, naturally. Then there's Clayton Kershaw.
14. San Diego Padres - Tony Gwynn - one of my favorite players since I was a child.
15. San Francisco Giants - Barry Bonds - the guy who overshadows any other modern player in San Francisco. Thinking back to my childhood, Dave Dravecky, Kevin Mitchell, and Will Clark. And there's Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Orlando Cepeda...
    
16. Baltimore Orioles - Cal Ripken Jr. - I would argue that Ripken is the most famous Oriole regular ever. Brooks Robinson is also in my mind. Manny Machado? Boy, I hate that guy. Great glove, horrible personality.
17. Boston Red Sox - Babe Ruth - The Sox came before the Yankees, and Ruth came to mind first. Amazing. Johnny Damon. Curt Schilling. Pedro Martinez. Fenway Park.
18. New York Yankees - Joe DiMaggio - it's only after returning here, and running through all the other 17 teams, that Mickey Mantle comes to mind. I could probably ramble off 30 different historical Yankees players. Ah, Jeter. A-Rod. Whitey Ford. Reggie Jackson. Dave Winfield. I should stop here.
19. Tampa Bay Rays - Wade Boggs - probably because I had the Red Sox just two teams before, Boggs came to mind for the Rays. I remember seeing him in a Rays jersey and how weird those colors looked on him. I guess Evan Longoria?
    
20. Toronto Blue Jays - Joe Carter - the Blue Jays beat the Braves in the '93 World Series. The Jays also have that jerk Bautista. Ugh. Next team.
21. Chicago White Sox - Frank Thomas - The Big Hurt was a superstar when I was most into collecting. Who else played in Chicago? Um... umm... wow. That's bad. Uhh. Shoeless Joe Jackson.
22. Cleveland Indians - Joe Carter - I just realized that he came up twice. Jim Thome actually popped into my head earlier, but when I was writing this list Carter was the first name in my mind. Bob Feller?
23. Detroit Tigers - Buck Farmer - while Lou Whitaker, Justin Verlander, Cecil Fielder, and Miguel Cabrera are much bigger names, Buck was my student when he was in high school, so he'll probably always be the first to come to mind when I think of the Tigers now.
    
24. Kansas City Royals - George Brett - Yount and Brett got their 3000th hits in 1992, and while I can't think of another Royal right now (ouch) Brett will probably be the most iconic Royal in my mind for a long time. Hal McRae was a Royal, right? Paul Molitor!
25. Minnesota Twins - Kirby Puckett - If I didn't think of Puckett with the Twins, that would probably be a sin. How many times did I hear about Puckett playing the ball off of the hefty bag in right field of the Metrodome? Harmon Killebrew also comes to mind.
26. Houston Astros - Jose Altuve - another one of my favorite players, I can't think of the Astros without thinking of him. Beyond that, Jeff Bagwell, Roger Clemens, and of course Nolan Ryan.
    
27. Los Angeles Angels - Albert Pujols - it is odd to me that I didn't think of Pujols playing with the Cardinals, but by the time I got to LA he was the first name out of my memory bank. Dave Winfield played for the Angels, too, right? Gene Autry was an Angel... sort of. And Nolan Ryan, Reggie Jackson. Mike Trout?! That took a long time to remember.
28. Oakland Athletics - Jose Canseco - my first favorite player, where he was playing when I first got into baseball. Dave Stewart, Dennis Eckersley, and does anyone else remember Terry Steinbach? Walt Weiss! Wow, the 1990ish A's dynasty.
29. Seattle Mariners - Ken Griffey Jr. - are you surprised? There's also Felix Hernandez, A-Rod, Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner.
    
30. Texas Rangers - Nolan Ryan - he's the second guy to end up on this list twice, and this time it wasn't subconciously. Ryan was just so dominating, even in his twilight seasons. Juan Gonzalez is the second name to come to mind... and from there we're about done.

And with that, this list is complete!

Until next time...

BBA/Question Revival: My Trading Card Bucket List

Do you remember 43Things? It was a social networking website created about 15 years ago where people would post their life goals. You could have up to 43 active goals, and you could mark completed goals and write reviews of your experiences. Other people could have the same goal as you, so conversations were shared among all users.

Thanks to the Wayback Machine, I can see that I first joined the site in 2007, and one of my first goals was to visit Japan. How about that? And back in 2007, I had two goals on there related to trading cards: to sell my old baseball cards, and to make a trading card set from my photos.

Well, twelve years later, I've done neither of those. I still have all my extra old baseball cards taking up space in my storage unit. And I have yet to make a trading card set from my photos, though I've made some mock-ups, a few of which have been published on this blog.

Thanks to a post by Fuji, though, I'm inspired to revisit the concept of a bucket list. I set goals for myself every year, so why not set some lifetime goals?

Fuji's idea was inspired by Cardboard History writer Billy. But I saw Fuji's post first. And both of those were made last summer. Looking at Billy's list, many of them are unattainable or simply dreams for the future. To each their own, but my bucket list is about things I can do.

So, similar to Fuji's post, let's first look at some impossible dreams. Like Fuji, I'll include my guess as to how slim a chance I have at completing these.

1. Complete my type collection. Chance of success: 0%

My type collection spans the entirety of baseball history, and the entirety of the baseball world. Every set, insert set, and parallel set. MiLB seems the most possible - almost all of the sets were created in my lifetime, and while they are oddballs, they aren't impossible to find. But in total I'd need about 65,000 cards (of which I have 17,000 or so) for MLB, MiLB, and Japan, plus cards issued in other countries like Australia, Korea, and the Netherlands. And just in the MLB list, there are several sets with only one card, with a print run of only one. Not to mention the expense of locating all the cards I need.

2. Complete an entire set run of Topps from 1951 to present. Chance of success: 1%

Infinitely more possible, but still unbelievably expensive, is the dream of having a complete run of Topps sets. I have a pretty good start: all of the sets from 1978-2019 are under my belt, and I have the 1973 set. So what's left? Every set that costs more than a Benjamin, basically. Unless there's an unlikely bottoming out of the market when all the Boomers die (sorry, it's just the truth, I'm not trying to offend here), or I win a big lottery jackpot, I am never finishing this goal. It would be nice to at least have all of the sets from 1971 to present. (Don't get me started on Calbee.)

3. Have a relic or autograph card from all of my favorite celebrities. Chance of success: 5%

It's a matter of logistics here. There are some celebrities who will probably never have an autograph or relic card made of them. Some will have cut signatures, or there's the chance for in-person or through-the-mail autographs. But there are some who I just can't get on cardboard. That said, there aren't that many celebrities I don't have something for already. Perhaps it's just a matter of time.

4. Have 100% of wanted sets on my non-sport set list. Chance of success: 15%

I mentioned this collection yesterday. It would take around 600 sets to finish this off. Not all of them are expensive, and if I visited a good non-sports card shop I could probably come home with a big stack of sets I just haven't bothered with yet. But there are some rare oddball sets I've discovered but never got my hands on, plus the vintage sets which are extremely difficult to track down and pricey. I do regret not keeping all of those Garbage Pail Kids stickers I had in the 1980s.

5. Complete my archive collection. Chance of success: 0.01%

Let's finish with another impossibility. There are major league players out there who never received a card. Conlon Collection certainly helped with many of them, but there are countless others whose careers are but a couple lines in a stat book or a few pieces of data on MLB's website. Even having a card for every player who ever received one is virtually impossible, as I just can't afford those vintage cards. Reprint sets have been a big help, and NPB Card Guy provided me with a bunch of old reprints (T206!) to get the ball rolling. There have been 19,489 players to take the field according to my records. Yes, through 2019; Kyle Zimmer is sitting right there in front of me. It would take an amazing effort by a trading card company (and dozens of series) to issue a 20,000 card set. Plus all the subsets and inserts and autographs and relics to keep people buying packs and boxes.

Now how about the realistic bucket list goals?

1. Finish every set on my want list. Chance of success: 75%

If I exclude all of those vintage Topps flagship sets, I need less than 100 sets. Some cards are expensive, but I only see three actual cards which are pretty unattainable. As I continue to chip away at the list, more sets get added, but those modern sets are much easier to complete than those more than 15 years old.

2. Have 25% of cards for every year in my MLB type collection. Chance of success: 50%

Over the last few years, I've made it a goal to have 25% or 50% of cards for each year in my type collection, working all the way back to 1978. I don't have over 25% for any year prior to 1978 except for 1951 for some reason (four out of 13, 31%). But I am close for every year between 1951 and 1978. And then there are cards from the pre-Topps eras. In all, I need about 250 vintage cards to reach this goal, and many, many more (less expensive) modern cards (2016-2019). The vintage cards won't be that cheap, but it'll be a nice challenge. The real challenge is the 19th century cards!

3. Complete my player collections. Chance of success: 75%

The few base cards, figurines, and single autograph (Masahiro Tanaka) I need are easily attainable. But (excluding 1/1s) I need five Buck Farmer rare cards, a bunch of Charlie Hough and Bobby Cox oddballs, and plenty of Jose Altuve and Michael Jordan inserts.

4. Create my own trading card set(s). Chance of success: 99%

If this is so easy, why is it here? It's been a goal of mine for over a decade, yet I still haven't made it happen. I've made some big progress toward meeting this goal, and perhaps I'll see it through in the near future. There are tons of ideas in my head.

And a quick thought, here: what items might have been on my bucket list when I was a young collector? Owning my own card shop (I had a "card shop" in my bedroom when I was in high school... and my best friend was my only customer), owning a card company (which I suppose #4 is the evolution of), having my own professional baseball card (I got those "card" photos when I played Little League, but I dreamed of being on the Braves), and open up a baseball card museum (blogging has been my way of living out this dream). 

I'll probably have more on this in the future, but this post is already long enough.

So, until next time...

The Disappearance of Ryan/Reviving A Blog Bat Around

Once again, the blog went on hiatus. My last post was back at the end of March, and my absence certainly wasn't planned. A lot has been going on, some good and some bad. I was fighting some infections and had a bunch of doctoral visits, basically every week (sometimes every day) for about about five to six months. My first MRI, my first CT scan, my first IV... No worries, though. I'm fine now, and I don't think it was ever very serious. Just a very big inconvenience with some pain.

And I did get a couple weeks of vacation in there, seeing some baseball games in the BCL independent league (I'll eventually do a post on that) and taking a trip to Shanghai. I have been collecting this whole time, and lots of post ideas have come and gone in my head. I've been working on the road all year, which I love, but that makes it much harder to manage my collection.

I also was playing Pokemon Go. Boy that game can take up a lot of time. Sure, I got a lot of exercise walking around, but it ate up more time than I'd like to admit. But that's gone - I quit cold turkey a couple months ago and haven't gone back since. So what have I been doing with my new-found time? Catching up. I've been knocking tasks off my goals for the year and working on some other projects I've had in mind as well. And there's still much more to do - I have five years of pictures from travels to go through and possibly start posting back on my other blog. And there's a lot of things at home I need to do to finish getting my collection back in order and some clutter to clear out. 

But for now, I'm back! And while I've been absent from the blog, a few "bat arounds" and other post inspirations have popped up. (Yes, I have been silently lurking in the shadows, reading your blogs.) So perhaps I'll tackle those first.

Today, I'll answer the question posed by Dan over at It's like having my own Card Shop... back in July of.. last year.

He asks: If you could only keep 5 of your collections or projects, what would you keep?

And then he lists 13 of his collections. It's a tough question, and I could cheat as such:

1. My player collection
2. My set collection
3. My type collection
4. My theme collection
5. My non-sport set collection

Yup. That just about covers it... and covers everything!

But that's cheating. So let's look at all that overall and pare it down to some more manageable descriptions.

1. My Type Collection.

When I returned to collecting after college, the first collection I started was my type collection, and I consider it the base of my entire collection. It's massive - if it was complete (which it is far from being) it would be about 65,000 cards, including MLB, MiLB, and foreign cards. It's the best way for me to try to collect everything, and not have to collect everything.

2. My Single Cards Collection.

It's now over 500 cards, and it has mostly relics and/or autographs from my favorite players and celebrities. It, on its own, is the most appropriate tribute to the pop culture side of my life. It's not comprehensive, because many of my favorite celebrities don't have attainable relics or autographs. But it is my collection of my favorite cards. There isn't that much value there, though - many of the hits are the cheapest I could find. Add in the Japanese singles to get me near 1000 cards, though many of those aren't hits. 

3. My Players Collection.

Now up to 36 players, it's fairly simplistic. Just the main Topps flagship cards for each player, each year - no subset cards other than rookie combo cards - plus one bat relic, one jersey relic, an autograph, and one figure or bobblehead. There are a few exceptions to this rule; a few super collections or semi-super collections are mixed in for various reasons.

Some people who replied to this question specified certain players. While I consider all of the players part of one collection, if each player counted as one collection, I'd have to keep my Buck Farmer collection. He was my former student, after all. The other players' hits could be folded in to the Single Cards Collection with the others.

4. Sets.

I think if I had to focus on one type of set, it would be the themes. While the first sets I collected when I returned were ones that I thought looked cool, I've come to realize that having 20 cards of that design isn't much better than the one already in the type collection. And I enjoy my collection of flagship sets and the designs of the throwback sets I have. But again, the art sets and sets with topics are much more interesting to flip through. How many sets would this be? I don't know - there are a bunch of smaller insert sets and subsets to go along with the "full-size" Diamond Kings and Topps Gallery issues.

5. Non-Sport Sets.

My non-sport checklist hasn't been properly updated in several years. While I didn't collect baseball cards for about five years, I did chase non-sport sets during that time frame, and I continued the collection while I was living in the US. Thanks to good timing and stingy shopping, I've amassed some 600+ sets. Some are more important to me than others, and to say that everything in that collection must be kept is probably insane. Sure, I want to keep everything. But I don't have to. So with just a few exceptions, I would probably part with all of the single-subject sets, like the TV series and movie sets. Instead, I'd keep compilation sets - Americana, Disney Treasures, James Bond Connoisseur. And possibly some individual cards from other sets.

Honestly, if absolutely necessary, I could get rid of all of my sets - baseball and non-baseball. I've enjoyed collecting them, but they are the biggest space-hoarder in my collection. And something I've been playing around with is making my own custom card sets - I could have fun making my own topical sets for baseball and non-sports subjects alike.

If you paid any attention to my original list, you might have noticed that my themed collections didn't even make the cut above. Some are superfluous, while others could be replaced with custom cards to make them more personal.

So when push comes to shove, my type collection, player collection, and singles collection are the most important. That doesn't mean I'm giving up the rest!

Until next time...