We Now Interrupt Your Regular Hobby Card Talk... With a Story

Today, billions of people flick on the TV, and sit in front of a "Fox 5" or "CBS 2" News show. The typical suspects seen on the screen nowadays are fire, the tragic earthquake/tsunami in Japan, an attempt at changing our world, and Charlie Sheen. It's a rarity when you actually find something, you know, not depressing on today's news. But it's the sad truth. Millions of people are unemployed, disease takes away thousands of lives regularly, natural disasters often occur, and people hurt other people just because they think they're superior to them.

Well, I want to tell you and share to you that there's always a dream to chase, no matter how poor, destroyed, or corrupted our world is. Maybe this situation doesn't compare to the severity of the examples I previously mentioned, but it's much nicer to read about then a man charged with murder or the future possibilities of nuclear bombings.

About a year ago now, I came home from school in tears. I tell myself that I'm a tough guy, and I feel weird when I do cry, but this was so natural to me. Ever since I was about 8 years old, I started to follow and play baseball. It became my life. Just take a look at my room, and if you find something that isn't furniture that is not sports related, it would be a major surprise. After I began my baseball career in 3rd grade, after I moved to a new school, I was caught on for life. I played in that same town league for 3 years, until it folded when more and more kids decided leaving America's Pastime for Lacrosse was a great idea. I joined another league and learned more about the game then I ever had. I wasn't the best player, but I was up there at least.

When I was in 7th grade, I decided to try out for my school modified baseball team in the spring. The coach was a young guy who taught at another school and apparently had quite a bit of knowledge of baseball. I played my heart out as I always try to do, but it wasn't enough. I didn't get past 1st cuts. I joined the same town league I was in the past year, and had a very good season. My team even finished in 2nd and I made a lot of new friends! But with school, I quickly developed a bit of a grudge on the coach. I felt like I didn't deserve to get cut, and while I don't try to be cocky, I always am confident in my ability.

So, as I was saying, about a year ago I came home more upset than I may have ever been in my life. I called mom and dad earlier that day, so when I got home, mom was right there for me, as well as dad when he got home from work. I had just been cut, by the same coach, for the 2nd year in a row. You may remember my angry rant post that had been removed shortly after I posted it, but I followed up with a more mellow post concerning the fact that I had been cut again. It was a complete shock to me and my friends that I was cut, and my dad emailed the coach asking what I did wrong. He said I wasn't hitting and fielding well enough and provided one or two suggestions to improve the next year. A huge grudge began to form on the coach, and I did not want to even look at the players on the team that year. It was a complete let down, and killed my confidence.

As I did the past 2 years, I joined my town league again and improved even more. I read through all of your comments and suggestions as to how to improve and worked extremely hard that season. Our team did really well again and I had a fun year even without making the school team.

Going into 2011, I decided that it was right for me to give it another shot. This year however, I added a new weapon to my arsenal, and decided to pitch. I had last pitched in 6th grade, so I'm pretty unexperienced to say the least, but I threw hard and when I focused I had great control. I figured it would give me more of a chance to make the team, and I was going to do anything I could to make it. However, the JV coach had left for another school, so the coaching slot was open. Four coaches were interviewed in late February, and the job went to, of course, the same coach who had cut me in the past 2 years. My confidence started to completely shatter, but I kept my composure and tried to be as positive as I could be about the team. I attended all of the pitcher/catcher open gym events the school had, and tryouts suddenly appeared right in front of my eyes.

I gave the tryouts a different approach this year, by basically removing the coach from my head and just playing the game I know and love. I threw well on the mound and in the infield, batted well enough, and ran like my pants were on fire. That's where running on the track team came into play! The coach came up to me during one of the open gyms, patted me on the back, and told me he was glad I returned to try again. After that day of tryouts, he came up to me again and said I did exactly what he said I needed to improve on, and he was really impressed with my play. My confidence rose to new heights, and I went through the next days having a great time playing baseball!

But today, was the big day. Yesterday, coach explained that cuts may not appear, but a good 4 or 5 players would have to be on a practice squad. Before he said that, I was confident because only a complete jerk would praise you like that and then cut you after, and I wanted to think that he wasn't a jerk. No matter what I thought, all of those thoughts didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was the slip of paper in front of the athletic director's office that told me how my future would play out.

My entire morning was in slow motion today, and it was awful hard to pay attention in class. Of course I ended up with a test just minutes before the slip was revealed, so that was extremely hard to focus on, but I got through it. I went to my next class, and right after that, on my way to the list before I got to lunch, my friend Mike ran up behind me and said to me and my friend Schuyler, "Guess who's not on the practice squad? All 3 of us!" He brought me over to prove it, and I was shocked. Finally, after years of waiting, it was my time to show that coach that all along I deserved to be on those teams, and to bring my school as far as I can personally bring it! It was a sigh of relief and a time to celebrate in my mind, except for the fact that I still had more classes after lunch. I went to practice tonight, and officially became a member of the team!

My message to all of you, young or old, athletic or not, whoever you could be, is to never, ever, give up! In middle/high school, it's so difficult to keep going with something after you fail to meet the expectations. You overhear people saying you suck at things, and you become the center of all jokes. But if you love what you're doing the way I love baseball, you can't let any of that affect you. Anyone has a chance at anything at any given time, but you need to work towards it to get to your goal! You just need to fight on, and if you do that I guarantee to you that a moment like this will happen to you. And if you don't think it's worth it, trust me, it is. I've never been happier in my life! Proof?

Excuse me for my pajama shirt, it's pretty late, and I need to get some good sleep so I can be all ready to go at practice tomorrow night!

Before I end this post, I want to thank all of my friends and family for helping me through the struggles I faced in the past with baseball. I could not have had the confidence to continue my dreams without you! That goes for all of you bloggers too out there! You aren't just friends, your like a second family to me, and with all the advice you've given me, I can't leave without even touching on how much of an impact you've all made on my life. Thank you so much everyone!

And to everyone that has trouble making a team or event, KEEP YOUR HEAD UP!

See Ya!

Outstanding Gift from a Craigslist Dealer!

Hey guys, Drew back here. Dad has been on an awesome roll lately with Craigslist, and this is just the next installment of what we've found now. A month or so ago I posted some of the highlights from a large box of cards given to me by my dad. A little while later, that same seller decided to ask my dad if I would be interested in more of her now deceased father's collection! Dad was shocked from the offer and told me about it, and I was really excited! He came home just a few days ago with an enormous tub full of binders and various bits and pieces from the man's collection. It's going to be so hard to put all of it in one post, so for your sake I'll just post a few of the pictures from the binders:

One of the binders contained most of if not all of the 1990 Upper Deck set. Early Upper Deck was very nice, and some of the top rookies from this set are Tino Martinez, Juan Gonzalez, Sammy Sosa, Deion Sanders, and Robin Ventura. I wish the binder could've been 1989 Upper Deck so I would have a chance at landing my 2nd Griffey Jr. rookie from the historical set, but hey, you can't be mad when you got the cards as almost a gift!

The next binder contained a variety of some sorts. It started with some 1992 McDonalds cards, the best being a rookie card of Jeff Bagwell. Next were some 1992 Pinnacle, followed by the shown Pacific card set of Tom Seaver.

After some 1991 Upper Deck, I found these sweet painting cards from 1990 Pro Set football! Boy do I love that Namath card!

I never saw these 1991 Score football cards on the right side of the binder, and I was pretty impressed. They certainly looked pretty cool! The binder ended with more various baseball cards from that time, my favorite being a 1989 Topps Griffey rookie card. I could never have enough of those!

In the following binder, we discovered a lot more football, including the Collect a Books above. However, my favorite card on the page is definitely the Daryl Strawberry book card, the lone baseball player on the page.

After the flip book cards came a ton of the stylish and mind blowing 1991 Pro Line portraits cards. Those cards definitely describe how awful the fashion statement was back in the early 90's, with basic sweatshirts, sweet shades, short shorts, jump suits, and zebra pants. Some basketball cards followed, as well as some more baseball as always.

Binder #4 had pretty much the entire 1989 Topps set, featuring the best of the junk wax era, with rookies of Gary Sheffield, Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr., John Smoltz, Craig Biggio, Jim Abbott, and of course, the big bust, Gregg Jeffries. I'm not sure if I own this set but I probably do.

The next binder contained mostly all 1990's basketball cards, but among the Michael Jordan's and Larry Birds were these 8 1971-1972 Topps basketball cards. None of the players were incredible from my understanding with the exception of Billy Cunningham, but they are by far the oldest basketball cards I own so that's pretty cool.

As the binders continued, more and more baseball arose. In this one we found cards from 1991 Line Drive, a minor league brand, early 1980's Topps cards, 1988 Bowman, the 1988 Topps Super Star mini cards shown above, 1985 Topps, 1986 Topps, 1987 K-Mart cards, 1988 KayBee, and 1989 Ames. It was a mix of all of them and it's pretty cool. I bet I'm close to having every 1980's set existing.

The last big binder was pretty much the entire 1989 Donruss set including the famous Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card, and pretty much the entire 1989 Bowman set as well, again featuring Griffey's rookie card. But there was more than just binders stock piled with 80's cards.

Also assorted below the binders at the bottom of the tub were these 1989 Topps big cards. I'ved never seen them before but they're pretty nice I have to say. The problem as always with these, though, is the challenge of finding ways to store them.

Along with the big 1989 cards, we found 2 framed cards hiding below it all in the box. One was an Orlando Cepeda card from some time in the 1960's, and also a huge Denny McLain card. McLain of course as you know had an enormous year in 1968, becoming the last pitcher in MLB History to win more than 3o games in a single season!

Laying on top of the tub was this Kelloggs Corn Flakes Baseball Greats poster thing, featuring cards from their Baseball Greats sets. This is a really cool piece and has some very impressive names on it!

Next was a Nabisco 1989 poster of Don Mattingly! I'm pretty sure the photos surrounding the close up shot of the Hitman are cards, but I'm not cutting them out. I think the poster looks great as is, and i want to hang it up sometime.

There was also a mini binder filled up with page after page of Don Mattingly cards. As you may know I collect him so it was really cool to have a bunch of his cards show up in the tub. One of these days I'll put together a list of what I have of Mattingly so that you guys can help me achieve my future goal of getting most of his older cards as well as a lot of his newer cards as well.

There were also some very assorted stuff. Ticket stubs from old Mets games, pins, and stamps were the coolest in my opinion of the various non-card items found. I don't know a lot about vintage stamps but I must say they're pretty cool to own. The pin commemorates Willie McCovey's induction into the Hall of Fame, becoming the first Padre to make it in. Real cool.

But that was just the beginning of amazing things to come! You'll see in an upcoming post!

Unfortunately, I might not have much time this week to post, because after school each day there will be JV/Varsity school tryouts. As you may know I've gotten cut from school ball 2 straight years and I really deserved to make it each year, and the same coach from those teams is moving up to coach JV. I'm going to have to prove myself and play to the best of my ability in order to make this team, and I feel like I can definitely make it if I play my heart out. Wish me luck everyone!

Thanks guys, and See Ya!