Cards Brought to Me From Far Away

My Aunt who lives in Iowa recently came out to visit my dad and the rest of our family to celebrate my dad's birthday with all of us. When she came she brought with her the perfect thing to give to him along with myself.

Baseball cards. What else would it be?

She knows that my dad and I are avid Cubs and Red Sox collectors, so when she visited a card shop while on vacation, she went through what they had and pulled out a ton of cards of Red Sox and Cubs players.

In particular, there was a lot of Roger Clemens. I have to say that despite me being very against any players who used steroids getting into the Hall of Fame if one could get in it should be Clemens. He constantly proved himself throughout his time in Boston and only started using steroids after establishing himself as a potential Hall of Famer. It's unfortunate that his spectacular years in Boston, like his 1986 Cy Young and MVP year, will be overshadowed by the rumors of steroid use. Still, when the BBWAA cast their ballots early next year, don't be surprised to see Clemens' name on the ballot.

Another big part of this haul was Topps Heritage, specifically Heritage Cubs. These are just some of the many Heritage Cubs cards I received from 2 different years, 2013 and 2015. The fact that none of these 4 players are still on the Cubs is a perfect example of how much that team has changed and rebuilt themselves over the last few seasons. The names Ian Stewart and David DeJesus from just 4 years ago are gone and have been replaced by names of players who seem to be here to stay like Addison Russel and Anthony Rizzo. Still, the early 2010's Cubs cards bring back many memories and many people who say "remember him?" when looking at the cards.

But that wasn't it for the Cubs as I was able to get 2 cards from the early days of one of the most dominant pitchers ever, Greg Maddux. For those of you who don't know, Maddux is one of my favorite players to collect, and he's pretty high up there in terms of the card total. Last time I counted I had about 130 Maddux cards and these new ones will only add to that. I also much prefer the cards from the beginning of his career, because most of the cards made of him now show him on the Braves.

But by far the favorite cards I got were these 1995 Pinnacle Zenith Edition cards. They look absolutely sick with their bright gold color paired up with the black on top. 

I was able to get a card of Clemens in this set along with Shawnon Dunston and Jose Canseco on the Sox with the Dunston being my favorite, solely because I think the Cubs jersey goes better with the background. The first name is in a font that is similar to the background while the last name is in bright bold letters. It just seems like Pinnacle nearly perfected every element of this set, a set I am absolutely going to do some further research on after finishing this post.

And while the Zenith cards may have been my favorites, this 1990 Upper Deck Sammy Sosa rookie is the best card I got. This is my 2nd Sosa rookie and my favorite one I have. Don't worry, the dust you see in the picture is the case, not the card. Anyway, the card is a reminder of Sosa's good years before steroids like Roger Clemens' good years as well. Clemens played for the Red Sox, Sosa played for the Cubs. I should like these guys way more than I do. It's just that one dumb decision they both (probably) made that cost them their chance at the Hall of Fame as well as the respect of baseball fans.