Redleg Relics

One of the boxes that’s been gathering dust on my scanner is my birthday gift from my brother. Well, the dust stops here!

He usually puts together quite the assortment of cards from my wantlists (including most of the ’89 Upper Deck needs I had), some novelty treats he thinks I’ll enjoy (such as cards from a WCW Nitro set this year), and some relics that I would never think to hunt out on my own, but would have hunted down had I thought to look for them, if that makes sense. 

Here’s an example:

If I have this right, it’s a 2004 Donruss World Series Blue Material Fabric card, but I was well out of the loop in 2004. Davey was one of my favorites when I was a kid, an unheralded connection to the Big Red Machine of the 70’s and a little bit of hope for something great in the 80’s.  That never really came, but boy was he fun to watch and hear about on the radio.  Even if he couldn’t do a back flip. 

In fact, Davey is most certainly one of the better shortstops not currently in the Hall of Fame (along with Barry Larkin), and while his numbers aren’t as spectacular as some of the offensive minded shortstops of today, his numbers do compare favorably with guys like Pee Wee Reese and Ozzie Smith who already have their plaques in Cooperstown.  You should read Hall of Fame writer Hal McCoy make his case since he had the pleasure of watching him play much more than I did.  Concepcion’s quote about his 950 career RBI’s is priceless.

Here’s another guy I would think to collect relics of, but my brother sent my both a jersey swatch and the bat relic shown, which is featured because it looks so nice in person.  In fact, I took this one out of the plastic sleeve to show it to my son, and one I explained to him what he was touching, he wanted me to take all the relics out so he could feel them, too.  I eventually let him feel a Sandy McCarthy jersey card as well, and he seemed very impressed. 

I was always hopeful that Casey would win the World Series, first with the Reds and then with the Tigers or the Red Sox.  Even though Cincinnati wasn’t always a great team for the tenure of “the Mayor,” there was always a certain amount of pride I took from the fact that my favorite team featured the most well liked guy in baseball. Casey talked to everyone that reached first base, and against some of those Reds teams he must have made a lot of friends. 

When Griffey announced his retirement (or shortly before), I realized that I didn’t have any relics or autographs of his in my collection, and as both a Reds fan and a baseball fan I knew I would need to remedy this at some point. I didn’t mention this thought to anyone at all, so finding this card was quite a treat.  ‘That’s one card down,’ I thought. ‘Now all I need is the autograph.’

Next card, please.

Problem solved. I’m not sure how my brother knew of my plans, but I do know I’m going to start thinking of some other cards I feel I should be collecting and see what happens next year.  With only three cards left, I’ve been thinking I should finish off that ’89 Upper Deck set sooner than not…

So thanks, brother, for the birthday gift.  Yours should be on its way soon.