A Pleasant Surprise

My first year of collecting baseball cards was two years ago in 2013. I started out with the Topps Series 1 buying a couple blaster packs from K-Mart (yes K-Mart I live in a small town and it is close to my house) before buying my first jumbo box. My next boxes that I bought were the 2013 Panini Team USA series. I pulled a Joey Gallo autograph was one of my two autos and then I pulled a couple relics. I did trade one of the relics to The Snorting Bull, but I do not remember that card. Being Team USA I wasn't sure who they were and more or less stored them away in my relic box and somewhat forgotten.

Well last night putting my Curtis Granderson card away I happened to flip past this Michael Conforto card that I pulled. A little background on Conforto he was a 10th overall pick in 2014 First Year Player Draft to the New York Mets. He made his debut this summer on July 24th. I remember hearing his name when he was called up. He put together a good half season for the Mets. In 56 games he hit .270/.335/.506 with 9 home runs and 26 RBIs. Needless to say I was pretty happy to see that I had pulled this card two years ago and it is still in my collection.

#MyCardMonday: Curtis Granderson

Sticking with the same game plan as last week I will pick a player who has been playing well during the playoffs for #MyCardMonday. This week I figured I would showcase one of my favorite former Detroit Tigers, Curtis Granderson. Drafted in 2002 by the Tigers, Granderson made his debut in 2004 and played for them until the off season following the 2009 season. During his time in Detroit Grandy would post a career OPS+ of 114 with a slash line of .272/.344/.484. He was involved in the trade with the Yankees and Diamondback that brought the Tigers Austin Jackson and Max Scherzer. During his 4 seasons as Yankee he would show off his power with 115 home runs. Last season he signed with the New York Mets and has been a huge contributor to them in their World Series push this season.

Grandy has done it all this post season. So far he is 9 for 24 with 3 runs and 7 RBIs. He has also stolen 3 bases for the Mets. Last night he flashed the leather with robbing Chris Coghlan of a home run.

#MYCARDMONDAY

A quick post for #MyCardMonday I thought I would go with someone who is currently playing for a playoff team. I have a trend of going with a relic or an autograph and thought I would switch it up with a gold parallel #/50 from the 2014 Bowman Chrome set. George Springer of the Houston Astros is coming off his second season where he hit .276/.367/.459 with 16 home runs and 41 RBIs this season. Currently the Astros won the AL Wildcard game against the New York Yankees where Springer went 1-4 with a double. Next up the Astros are taking on the Kansas City Royals as of right now (3:51 pm on 10/12) the Astos lead the Royals 5-2. If the Astros can hold on and win the game they will advance to the ALCS.

#MyCardMonday

With the regular season wrapping up this past weekend the Detroit Tigers did end on a high note. They beat the Chicago White Sox 6-0 with only giving up 3 hits, the young guys looked good with their hustle on Sunday, and Miguel Cabrera claimed his 4th batting title in 5 years.

In honor of Miggy winning another batting title I figured I would share another one of his cards for #MyCardMonday. This bat relic comes from the 2013 Topps Tier One set. This is my one and only bat relic that I have of Miggy and thought it was fitting for today.

Even the back of the card is pretty cool talking about Miggy's Triple Crown season of 2012 when he drove in 139 runs. The team had produced 726 runs that season. He drove in 19.15 percent of the runs that year which is the highest for a player whose team made the playoffs that year. He broke Johnny Bench of the Reds 1970 record of 19.10 percent.