Rescued from THE BOX - Ep. 6

     I hadn't had an encounter with THE BOX in a month and a half. I had kinda forgotten about its existence. And then last night it reared its ugly cardboard face once again.

    I went to open a drawer and it would hardly budge. I stuck my hand in the small opening and pushed down the binder that was blocking it from opening completely. 

    When the drawer opened I was shocked to see THE BOX leap out at me. Using my lightning-fast reflexes, I ducked out of the way as THE BOX came crashing into the wall. Getting that fixed is going to be expensive.

    I think THE BOX must have sensed that the rectangular hole in the wall peeved me, because it changed its tactics, and instead of attacking me it destroyed my personal property. Not cool bud.

    I watched in horror as THE BOX jumped onto my shelves and knocked over all my autographed baseballs and bobbleheads. Thankfully none of them were damaged, but it was still pretty rude. 

    As I was pondering how it's possible that I got stuck with the evil sentient box, it made another move, knocking all my lego sets that I had since I was a child onto the floor. Growing up with numerous siblings, I was surprised they lasted that long anyway, but my years of hard work preserving them was in serious danger. 

    Once THE BOX turned to my library is when I got particularly mad (library meaning a shelf of books). I was gonna maybe possibly read some of those books some day. 

    I lunged at THE BOX. It wasn't ready for my attack; I suppose boxes think they can destroy personal property without any consequence. Ain't no way.

    Being a human being, superior to a box, and especially since I had caught it by surprise, it wasn't much of a fight. 

    When the cops showed up to take THE BOX away, I was able to grab a single card from its disgustingly unbrushed maw. 

    As the police lights faded into the distance, I looked down at the card I rescued. I was surprised to see the face of....

    ...Ali Kazemaini?

    Let me be perfectly honest here. I've never heard of this guy in my life before. But this is why I enjoy freeing cards from THE BOX so much. Let's learn about Mr. Kazemaini, shall we?

    This card, from the 1987-88 design of the Pacific Trading Card Company, is a 'premier issue.' From looking at the front of this card, I would have guessed it was from the early 2000s. I guess I'm not very smart when it comes to soccer.

    

    Looking at his Wikipedia article, I found that Kazemaini was drafted in two soccer leagues, but ended up going with the Cleveland Force of the Major Indoor Soccer League (so that's where the MISL on the set's TCDB page comes from). He won the rookie of the year in the 1984-1985 season. Unfortunately for Kazemaini, his team folded after the 1987-88 season, so he went to play with the Tacoma Stars. Interesting, this card is from the last year the Force had a team. It's a shame to see teams fold like that. As a matter of fact, there were two professional teams I've been to games for that have folded within the last seven years.

    After his playing career, Kazemaini was the head soccer coach at John Carroll University in Ohio, a position he held for 14 years. He was extremely successful there, posting a record of 177-61-13 and winning seven Ohio Athletic Conference regular season titles and four postseason titles. 

    You know something? I still don't really know the rules of soccer. 

    Nonetheless, it was cool to discover Ali Kazemaini's card and rescue it from THE BOX's evil clutches. Other than the occasional hockey post I don't really talk about many sports other than baseball on the blog, so thanks for that Mr. Kazemaini. 

    As I close out this post, I realize that with THE BOX rotting in prison I will be unable to free any more cards. I'd best get on over to the police station and see if I can work something out. While I'm away, make sure to enjoy the rest of your week, and happy collecting! Thanks for checking out the blog.

A Quickie About My Favorite Prospect

    Coming into this season, it seems that a lot of people I know had a favorite prospect; JR Ritchie and Konnor Griffin were popular among my family members. My choice was Colt Emerson.

    It seems a little bit counter-intuitive since he's on a rival squad, but to be honest it doesn't really matter to me. Aside from being a man (hardly, he's 20 years old) of strong faith and a seemingly all-around good guy, Emerson is just a fun player to watch.

    I've been following Emerson for a while and was stoked when he made his MLB debut in mid-May. And he's done pretty well for himself in the big leagues too; (stats)

    I was pleasantly surprised to find the above card of Colt Emerson while at the LCS. I picked it up immediately and am very glad to add it to my collection. I'm excited to see what this kid can do the rest of this season. Who knows, maybe we have a great career in the making...

Life

    Life is a blessing. I would advise you not to take it for granted.

    That being said, life is a little bit crazy at the moment. It's been way too long since I've posted on the blog, and that saddens me. In fact, it is exactly one month since my last post.

    I got a new job that is taking up a good deal of my time. Aside from that I have made some commitments to family and friends, which is also taking up a lot of my time and energy. I could use an extra cup of coffee every now and then (where are ya at, Matt?). I go to bed tired every night.

Pauses to reflect on the logic of that last sentence lol

    As wild as my life has been the last few weeks, I wouldn't change it for a thing. However, I don't want to leave Don Cardwell here to rot. I'm afraid I haven't thought of it very much the last month. 

    For the forseeable future I think the posts on the blog are going to be a little bit on the shorter end (a handful of cards I picked up recently, Rescued from THE BOX posts, etc.) but that's fine. Hopefully I can hit up the LCS in the coming weeks and make a post out of that. In fact, I still have some cards waiting to go on the blog from my last trip, but I haven't had the time to work on that lately.

    Anyway, that's the update. I've gone awhile without posting on the blog before, but I don't really like doing it. I'll make sure to get a post out this week (with Memorial Day I get an extra day off work).

    Thanks for stopping by, have a great rest of the day, and happy collecting!

    Edit: My blog hit 100,000 views between posts, which is pretty cool. Thank you to all the readers who made reaching that milestone possible!

THIS IS SERIOUS NOW

     There's been a lot on my plate lately (pun intended), so posting has come either short or slowly. I'm hoping to get another post out soon with some LCS grabs, but in the meantime I would like to share what I found out this evening.

    I was rooting for the Rockies while watching the play-by-play on MLB gameday (it's a long story, but I almost always root for Colorado). When they scored their first run, the on-screen scoreboard lit up saying '6 more runs until we get tacos!' with the Taco Bell logo.

    I did something I probably shouldn't have done - in that I went to BR and typed in Taco Bell. AND I FOUND THIS: 

   This gave me a good ol' laugh. But at the same time, I wanted to know why he was gifted with one of the greatest nicknames on the planet.

    Apparently it comes from the 2007 World Series, when Ellsbury stole a base, therefore stealing a taco. As somebody who doesn't frequent Taco Bell, I never make use of this promotion, though I still find it entertaining. I wish more players had fun nicknames.

    

    And in the end the Rockies defeated the Mets 4-3, if anybody's wondering.

    Anyway, this was a fun ten minutes of my life, definitely well-spent. I'll make sure and get that LCS post up within the week. Until then, thanks for checking out the daily dose of nonsense, have a wonderful weekend, and happy collecting! 

Drew Gilbert in 200 Words

     Drew Gilbert was born on September 27th, 2000 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He played baseball at the University of Tennessee and was drafted by the Astros in the first round of the 2022 June Amateur Draft. Gilbert has a reputation as a goofball, which showed itself when he made his MLB debut with the Giants last season. In fact, he nicknamed himself "Chilly Goo Bear," which I find is one of the more interesting MLB nicknames in recent memory. His goofiness is combined with an energy on the field that makes him a fun young player to watch. I hope his teammates feel the same way....The outfielder showed potential in the minor leagues, and was the #53 prospect coming into the 2024 season, according to MLB. And while his short debut season of 2025 was underwhelming, he impressed enough in Triple-A early this season to merit another chance in the big leagues, reunited with his coach from Tennessee, Tony Vitello. Gilbert hit his first home run of the season yesterday against the Nationals. I hope he can contribute both offensively and in the field for a struggling Giants team and be an effective and fun addition to the lineup.

Anybody up for a challenge?

     By a challenge I mean another bracket challenge. The Stanley Cup Playoffs begin tomorrow at 2:00 PM CT, and I'll be doing another contest-like bracket such as the football bracket Fuji won a few months ago. 

    Unfortunately, my LCS didn't stock packs of hockey cards this year, so I have no choice but to offer a pack of 2026 Topps baseball to the winner of this one. I dunno, maybe that'll be more appreciated.

    Sadly, my San Jose Sharks will not be participating in the playoffs. But don't you worry, we'll be there next year. It stinks, I was fully ready to predict them winning it all 🤣

    Anyway, you can click here to join: ESPN Playoff Hockey Challenge

    The password to enter is: GoSharks
    (haha, now you have to say it)
    
    Again, I don't have very creative names for my brackets lol

    Also, I apologize if any other bloggers do this for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I promise I'm not trying to steal your idea!!

    Thanks for checking out the blog today, have a great rest of the week (one more day until the weekend!!), and happy collecting!

Rescued from THE BOX - Ep. 5

     THE BOX had been quiet for some time now. I was beginning to fear that the rest of the cards it held captive would never be feared. But THE BOX proved me wrong when it showed its ugly face again.

    By the looks of that Dean Palmer card THE BOX had trapped in a prison of packaging tape, I knew something needed to be done.

    I sprung into action. Being a human, my body is much more capable of taking hits than a cardboard box. I'm surprised THE BOX hasn't figured this out yet. Every time we have a showdown, it puts up less and less of a fight. I escaped this one with little more than a few scratches.

    Unfortunately for Dean Palmer, I was unable to free him from THE BOX's evil clutches. However, I was able to liberate one of his friends in......

    2004 Fleer Platinum Jose Vidro!

    I kinda like this card design. It's nice and simple, and the colors go well with Vidro's Expos. This is quite possibly the newest set that THE BOX contained. Interestingly, this was the last year of the Montreal Expos; they became the Washington Nationals for the 2005 season.

    By the looks of the picture, Jose Vidro is about to do something pretty cool on the field. The second baseman had a very successful playing career which spanned from 1997-2008. During that time he acquired 1524 hits, 128 home runs, and 720 runs while batting .298 in 1418 games. Vidro was a three-time all star in 2000, 2002 and 2003. 

    After his retirement, Vidro has not been publicly active in the sport of baseball. In fact, I couldn't find much else about him aside from his playing career. If anybody knows anything about him, feel free to share.

    Though I don't know too much about Jose Vidro, I enjoyed freeing his card from THE BOX. It was cool to learn about his playing career; I had never heard of him before finding this card, and he was quite a talented player. It just goes to show what you can find out when you free some cards you haven't seen in a long time.

    Thanks for checking out the blog today, have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting!