Baseball (Cards), T-Ball & Softball

Yes, a smorgasbord of ball & glove activities.

I'll start with t-ball, since Miss Payton is the main reason why the majority of my visitors make it over to this little corner of the internets.

Payton has now played three t-ball games & loves it. Lucky for you guys, I remembered my camera on two of those days.

Here are a couple of my favorite images:



Click on this picture to see the entire collection of shots:

Payton T-Ball

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As for myself, I will be helping out Joe Cuff in a pinch on Wednesday, filling a roster spot for his softball team. I haven't stepped into a batters box since 2002 and that was for only one game. I haven't played truly competitive softball since the late 90's. This could be ugly. Hopefully the knee will hold up and I'll play in the outfield, greatly reducing the risk of my jaw fielding another ground ball.

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I'm back into the baseball card collecting gig.

As a kid, I loved my baseball cards. I can look at an 1980 or 1981 Topps card and be instantly transported back to those years, at the Mystic IGA with Dad, picking up a rack pack during a grocery shopping trip.

I didn't get too many cards in the next few years until the collecting bug started again in 1985. In 1986, in 7th grade, I joined a baseball card collecting club in school and that was that. I was in deep. My collecting peaked in 1987, as I have tons & tons of 1987 Topps, Fleer & Donruss cards from that year. (Which for the record are basically worthless, since the rest of the world has tons & tons as well.)

When Upper Deck jumped on the scene in 1989, baseball card collecting started to become too difficult. All the companies produced too many different sets, too many inserts and I couldn't keep up, let alone afford all these new cards.

The 2001 Topps set was pretty cool and I amassed almost the entire Series 1 set for that year. I've picked up some cool Mookie Wilson cards as well as Roberto Clemente cards over the past five or so years. However, I now have a new focus.

I've narrowed my collecting to acquiring every Mets Topps card ever produced. I picked up a fantastic checklist on eBay & have been figuring out what I have & what I need over the past couple of weeks.


I managed to score a couple good deals on eBay and I hit a card shop and a card show (that was a blast from the past!) the past couple of weekends. There's nothing like digging through the common bins, finding a bunch of cards you need and spending less than $20 for your treasures.

Right now the process is fairly easy, as I need lots of cards. Save for 2001, I had practically zero cards from 1991 through the present day. Thankfully, these cards are cheap. Going back through the 70's & 60's will be a little more challenging, although there are bargains to be had.

I'm enjoying it and hopefully I'll be able to keep crossing off more & more years as the summer wears on.