Aiva Arquette in 200 Words

     I first read about Arquette in a baseball magazine and thought he would be a cool topic for a 200-word post. Aiva John Uakea Arquette was born on October 17th, 2003 in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he played both baseball and basketball, and was named the 2022 Hawaii Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year. It turns out he found his calling in baseball however, a sport in which his 6-foot 5-inch frame stands out. Arquette was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the 18th round of the 2022 June Amateur Draft, but opted to play in college instead. He played ball at a few colleges, the most notable of which being with the Oregon State Beavers earlier this year, where in 65 games, Arquette batted .354 with 90 hits, 19 home runs, 66 RBI and 73 runs. Arquette is also an impressive fielder who sports elite range at the shortstop position and a cannon of an arm. He was drafted 7th overall in the 2025 draft by the Miami Marlins, and has played 27 games at High-A for the team thus far. His career is still very young, but Aiva Arquette is definitely a guy to be watching in the near future.

The Latest Grabs

     I went to the LCS a couple weeks ago for the first time in months. It was nice to be able to get down there again. 

    The format of the store is much different than the last time I went. I've mentioned in an earlier post that they've expanded to two buildings now, one of which houses sport cards and the other game cards such as Pokemon and the like. 

    Since the last time I've been, they've added some fun cards like Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Legos are being sold there too, which is cool (but expensive). They also added a dozen or so boxes full of just one player (Mike Trout, Dirk Nowitzki, Patrick Mahomes, and the like). More on that a little bit later though....

    Though the store has changed a little bit, I don't mind it at all and felt right at home going through quarter, dollar, and autograph boxes, and pulling out a number of cool cards.

    Why not start with the first card I pulled? To be honest, I had no idea who Houston Jimenez is, but there are two reasons I ended up grabbing this card. The first is that I found his first name interesting and also strongly Texan. The second reason is that we share last names. The day of my writing this paragraph (October 30th) is Houston's 68th birthday, so happy birthday to him!

    Perhaps it's from a lack of my looking, but I'd never seen the little stamp certifying the authenticity of an on-card autograph before. 

    I had never heard of Anthony Seigler before, but he had a nice autograph and the cards were cheap, so I picked these two up. I was also not familiar with Josh Breaux. 

    Seigler is a 26-year old catcher and infielder. He actually broke the majors this year with the Brewers and hit .194 in 62 at-bats. 

    Josh Breaux is 28 years of age and with the Phillies farm system. So it turns out none of them became franchise futures with the Yankees.

    This is the last autographed card I picked up, and my favorite card of the bunch, which is why it's unfortunate that the camera doesn't do it justice. Y'all probably know my affinity for shiny cards, and this certainly doesn't disappoint. There's a lot going on with the colors in the background of the card, but I'm cool with it. Harris is such a talented player -- I hope he can make an impact for the Rangers in 2026.

    The design of this card is really interesting....it looks as though Jared Jones is about to get sucked into a black hole. The top left corner is dinged just a little bit, but it's still a great-looking card. I'm a big fan of Jared Jones, and thought he and Skenes would make a dominating duo. I was so sad when that didn't happen this season. But, they're both young, so there's plenty of time for them both to assert their dominance in the league.

    Sometimes I love the way lighting affects my pictures. I also didn't notice until uploading this card onto the blog that the words 'Hometown Heroes' continue through Strider's body. He's another young pitcher who had to battle injuries this year, but I have a feeling he'll be just fine in 2026. I also bet that the Braves are headed back to the playoffs.

    I needed a little bit of help from TCDB to identify this card. The kind folks down there helped me to find out it's from 1947-1966 Exhibits. After asking on the TCDB which year the photo is from, users Musclebeech and BuccaneersDen hypothesize it would likely have been from 1948. If this is indeed the case, it would be one of my oldest cards. I made the picture larger to emphasize the dimensions of this card. At 3 3/8 inches by 5 3/8, it's a behemoth compared with the average 2.5 by 3.5 inch cards.

    For anybody (like myself) who isn't familiar with Eddie Waitkus, he was a left-handed first baseman who played with the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, and Baltimore Orioles from 1941-1955. In that time he collected 1,214 hits, 24 home runs and 528 runs. He was a two-time all-star, in 1948 and 1949. He was shot in the lung by a stalker in 1949 and almost killed. Thankfully he survived and ended up playing six seasons afterward. Wild. 

    I don't typically collect graded cards, but this one was priced so well that I couldn't resist. This is one of two graded cards I own. Mike Trout has a history of popularity among my family, which is definitely what induced me to purchase this card. We were pleased to see him play 130 games for the first time since his 2019 MVP season, even if it wasn't an amazing season.

    That'll wrap up my additions from the most recent LCS visit. I can't wait for 2025-2026 Upper Deck hockey to hit the store so I can get a few packs and hopefully pull a Macklin Celebrini card (he's my guy when it comes to hockey). Well, that's for a future post. For now, I shall leave you with this question: is it annoying when they stamp those price stickers onto a top loader or penny sleeve so that it leaves that streaky and sticky residue on the card protection? Just wondering.

    Until next time, have a wonderful rest of the weekend, and happy collecting!