Broken Down By Baseball Cards

Prior to yesterday I had roughly nine scheduled posts ready to go. Then I got a PWE from Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown, which threw a monkey wrench into the whole operation and made me move all of them back by having one of those cards that you need to just drop everything and blog about right away inside.

BOOM!!!
Okay I was wrong, there wasn't just ONE card inside that I dropped the other posts for, there were two.

BOOM x2!!!

Man, Gavin's really outdone himself here. When I first saw these I got super excited. So excited that I only noticed one (the Padres one) and tweeted about that before opening the rest of the envelope and seeing that there was another Yankees one too lmao.

These are magnificent. My favorite player on one my favorite sets/product lines ever. If I ever meet Torrens again you bet I'm going to get these signed. These are just so amazing. Only "issue" I have is that Gavin only gave Luis five/six stars. He's clearly an eight star player and deserves his rare foil parallel too.

Luckily the backs (which are based on the 2009 SCG motif) rectify that minor error by listing him at eight stars there. Except for speed and power (LUIIIIISSSSSSSSSSS has 10 speed and 11 power), those other statistics are fairly accurate.

You know, I used to joke that Gavin's customs are better than Panini/Donruss' post-Topps-license-exclusivity cards, but after getting these I think that's more of an insult to Gavin's work than a complement. I mean, these cards are fabulous. Panini ain't got shit on these. Heck, not even Topps can compete.

Especially not against this one. You all know how much I talked shit about the rookie card Topps dished out for Topps last year. Well Gavin won't make the mistakes that the people at Topps made. He knows what's up. He knows that an exciting play at the plate (even if it is the post-Buster Posey type) makes for better cards. He also knows that these are exactly the types of quirky unique photographs the real Sega Card Gens would've opted for too (RIP SCG).

There were other cards in the PWE too but they're of the prospect variety and have been added to the huge Yankees prospect post I mentioned I started working on a while ago. This post is/was all about the Card Genified Torrens.

This is so fucking cool. I owe Gavin big time. I'll start by not calling him Garvin to tease him anymore.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

Teacher Appreciation Week

If Twitter hashtags are to be believed, it's Teacher Appreciation Week.

I'm not in the education workforce but I know plenty of people who are. One of my exes is currently a teacher, I've got a few friends in the field too, many of my trading partners on here are known to be teachers, and a few of my friends on Twitter are also teachers. Further reinforcing the rule that you need to be a teacher or lawyer to be a baseball blogger (note, I hope I can break that mold one day if I manage to make it in the field I'm trying to enter).

Even though I'm not a teacher, I do have a general idea of what it takes to get to being a teacher and how the rewards greatly outweigh the benefits. Or at least they do in New York City. For any teachers out there feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but my limited understanding of the road to teaching is kind of like this...

You go through college majoring in education and one other subject, then near the end your college career you begin to log long hours of fieldwork (internships?) to get used to the grind of teaching on a daily basis and constantly coming up with lesson plans using the time you have when you're not teaching (which is basically whenever you're not sleeping).

Then you graduate with loads of debt on your shoulders along with a temporary teaching license. Then you're given a certain amount of time to go after a permanent one. The requirements for which include getting a masters and gaining several years worth of experience in a real school. All while likely getting paid jack shit. Good luck with that.

After that I'd assume you start looking for a school that'll actually hire you and possibly give you tenure/benefits/a pension etc... But chances are you're going to see that the only jobs available are charter schools with high turnover rates because those schools happen to be bad places to work. Then the rest of your career begins and you either leave teaching and opt for a more administrative role a few years in because of sheer burnout, or you stay behind because you're the weirdo who actually has an odd sense of pride, love and passion in what you do.

And after (hopefully?) decades of teaching, you'll grow old while probably still being in college loan debt with absolutely nothing in terms of post-retirement savings, and a pension that probably won't pay out when you want/need it to.

This is also omitting the stresses of the job itself which includes (but isn't limited to) having to deal with demon spawn, the parents of said demon spawn who really show that the apples don't fall far from the tree, the demands of an education system that relies far too much on standardized testing, shrinking budgets and the myriad of ways violence can erupt in a school-zone.

Hmm... now that I type all of this out, I think the picture I painted of the teaching profession is a lot more grim than it actually is. But this is my perception of what the teaching life is like based on a). what my ex went/is going through and b). articles on the Washington Post/New York Times/Atlantic that make teaching seem like one of the shittiest job ever.

What I can say as an undeniable fact is that I could never be a teacher. Not full time at least. I'd be the guy who'd just drudge through reluctantly for five years before giving up and publishing a book about child psychology hoping the royalties can pay for my morning coffee.

What is also an undeniable fact is that I have a huge appreciation for teachers who are really good at at what they do. Even moreso after I found out what had to go into them reaching the jobs they're in now. It is a tough ass job that's also extremely important, and I tip my hat off to those that choose to stay with it.

They deserve a lot more credit and respect than just during the span of a week, and they damn sure deserve a lot more in terms of wages and benefits. I'm not the first to utter that opinion and I won't be the last either because life is terrible.

Still though, shout outs to Fuji, Tom and everybody else in teaching. You're great.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

Farewell

This has all been one of the wildest and funnest journeys I could've hoped for as a card collector and as a baseball fan in general.

It seems like it all happened in an instant, but it also seems like it happened across a lifetime. Both are probably true, especially when looked at through the benefit of hindsight.

Nonetheless, the end eventually comes for all of us. Even the very best and brightest are not immune from the passing of time. But in the end, what matters is how the ride to the end turned out to be. In my opinion, it was a lot of fun. I'm hope it was for all of you too.

I am of course talking about how Ichiro Suzuki officially announced that he is joining the Seattle Mariners' front office for the rest of the 2018 season. Effectively ending his playing career for the time being.

This is something that I always knew was going to happen, but it still seems way to surreal to me to actually acknowledge that Ichiro's playing career may potentially be over.

I worded the last two sentences like it's only temporary because I'm holding onto the last grain of hope that he's not officially retired (he's not). There is a possibility he decides to pick up a bat and glove again next year (especially for the Mariners vs Oakland Athletics series in Japan), and given how the Mariners have jack shit in terms of a farmsystem or even serviceable outfield depth he's not going to have much of a problem finding a roster spot.

Still though, assuming that this is the end of the road for Ichiro, it does hit me a bit harder than I thought it would. It hit me even harder than Big Hirok or A-Rod deciding to retire.

Partly because Ichiro was one of THE first public figures I ever knew about. I was about seven when he came stateside and became a baseball sensation. He's been a pretty significant figure for pretty much all of my life.

There was always something really comforting about Ichiro. His consistency. Both as a player (at least until 2011) and as a big figure in my world.

I was the little Japanese-American kid in NYC casually watching a sport I wouldn't give a shit about for another decade, just to see Ichiro be heralded as this super great. I was the Americanized teenager who just moved to Japan to get in touch with his motherland/culture, only to see how much of a big deal he was to that entire country. I was the 20-something college kid who came back to America with a newfound respect for baseball, and aware of it's place in both American and Japanese society, to see that Ichiro was A). a Yankee now (YAY!) and B). so much greater than I thought he was when I finally started looking at him through the proper context, as a baseball player.

Basically, he's been somewhere in my world for my entire conscious life. Even before I became the sports lover I am now. This new era in his life will alter the way he's there, but I hope he'll continue to be there forever regardless.

Other Japanese players would come into the picture later and I love(d) them all too, but Ichiro was always at the top for me. Even if I never really devoted a collection to him. I still won't though. For me Ichiro's always been the figure that I don't need to collect or chase. He's so ubiquitous that he I can just appreciate him from a distance with no problem. He just enters my world at random.

He's an all time great, and I'll leave the pieces about what he achieved on the baseball diamond (both here and in Japan) to more competent people. All I can really say in that regard is that he leaves behind one of the greatest legacies in baseball ever. We should all consider ourselves fortunate to have witnessed it first hand.

So let us now begin the very last Ichi-Meter, the countdown for his Cooperstown inauguration (as a Yankee).

イチローさんお疲れ様でした！

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

Ichiro Forever.