Birthday Cards Part 1

I reached out to Greg of Night Owl Cards recently to make a trade. After finalizing it over the weekend he and I both shipped each others cards and mine, unintentionally arrived today, one day after my birthday.

I was very pleased to get these cards so close to my birthday. It felt like I was getting extra birthday cards, and of some of my favorite current players like Xander Bogaerts.

I picked up 2 Bogaerts cards that I quickly realized that I needed for my Red Sox team sets. The 2016 Topps is pretty standard, but the 2016 Archives has to be one of my favorite cards of the set. The photographer captured the perfect moment to include on a baseball card, and at the perfect angle as well. You don't usually see many shots like this in sets, so it was nice to switch it up.

However, it wasn't just Xander, Greg sent me quite a few Dustin Pedroia cards from a wide range of years.

There were some from earlier on in his career. 

As well as a few from 2013, Boston's most recent World Championship season. This was back in Pedroia's prime, when he would hit 15-20 home runs, drive in 75 runs, and still hit around .300.

Unfortunately, injuries as well as age have caused the 2008 AL MVP to regress significantly. He played around 100 games in 2017 and hit less than 10 home runs. He's battled knee troubles all year, and was placed on the DL 3 separate times. However, he still has a few more years left in him.

And no matter what he does in the next few seasons, we'll always have his early years to look back on. The times when Pedroia was unstoppable and was at the same level as some of the best players in the game. The times when he helped the Red Sox reach, and win the Fall Classic.

The final player I got a card of from Greg was Anthony Rizzo. He's been my favorite Cub, even after Kris Bryant came along. His loyalty and dedication to the franchise through their rebuilding years is something I admire, as well as something I see a lot given the fact that my 2 favorite teams had a combined 194 years without a World Series Championship. I've seen these 2016 Wal-Mart holiday cards before, but I've never gotten one myself considering the Wal-Mart closest to me doesn't even sell baseball cards. Topps did a great job by turning the smoke into snowflakes. It almost makes up for the fact that this set was the worst in over 20 years.

But before getting all these cards, I got my own birthday cards on my birthday with my dad the day before.

To be continued...