Blog Bat-Around - Proudest Collecting Achievements

     Oh boy, this is going to be a tough one for me....I don't have any great card-related achievements, and none of them are very good, I'm afraid...mostly things like when I got my first Macklin Celebrini card. I've been a little bit hit or miss when it comes to collecting these days...Well, might as well give it a shot; Torren' Up Cards worked so hard on his post.

    

    However, these three achievements by no means have to do with value of cards or of their importance. Rather, it has to do with the sentimental value these achievements hold in my eyes.

Achievement #3: Getting My First Macklin Celebrini Card

    Hey, I warned y'all this was gonna be on the list. Considering my super-fandom, I haven't really tried collecting any of Mack's cards. It doesn't help that my LCS stopped carrying any new hockey cards (hopefully they'll restart this year). Nonetheless, early this year I was able to get my hands on my first Celebrini card, which feels like a sort of achievement to me.

    Hopefully I'll be attending a Sharks game in the near future (post in the making...)

Achievement #2: My Humble Evan Carter PC

    I started building my Evan Carter PC right about the time this blog started up. It's still fairly small, though Mr. Carter has surpassed Buster Posey as my second-largest player collection (Ripken still sits on top). 

    As I slowly rise through the ranks at work and have taken on more responsibilities, as well as my poor time management skills, progress on the PC has slowed. I hope to add a couple more cards to it the next time I hit up the LCS (hopefully within a week).

    Here are my three favorite cards of the PC:

    

Achievement #1: Entering The Blogosphere

    I don't think it's so cliche. Before I started my blog on a whim over two and a half years ago, I knew nothing about baseball cards; I was just a guy who liked it when he got 'em; especially the shiny ones. Joining the community did a ton to further my knowledge of cards, not to mention the immersion with other proud collectors with way more impressive collections.

    The ride has been super fun...between posting about a bunch of random nonsense, commenting on blogs, partaking in contests, joining the TCDB, and a host of other things, I wouldn't trade it for anything...not even my grail card.

    And there you have it. To the ordinary collector, these aren't special - hardly achievements at all. But I have no shame. For me, they're each a memory of a time I did (or am still doing) something I'm passionate about. And that's what the hobby is all about. After all, they do say it's the little things in life that bring us the most joy. 

    That being said, I have a few goals to keep in mind for my New Year's post which would be a little more impressive...

    Thanks for checking out my blog! Make sure to go and find the various posts from this Blog Bat-Around, and to have a great rest of the week!

Random Question of the Post (you didn't think I'd forget it, did you?): If you fell off a cliff and had only one of these items to protect you, which would you choose: a suit or armor, or a lawn chair with as many balloons as possible tied to it?

FINALLY!

    I've been a Macklin Celebrini superfan for the better part of two seasons now (we've been over this on the blog before). However, I've never owned one of his cards. Tragic, isn't it? I typically prefer finding cards at the LCS or other stores that carry sports cards to ordering them online, but realize that my chances of pulling a Celebrini card are far worse and more expensive than just ordering one, especially since my LCS hasn't gotten any packs of hockey cards this year. So I did end up ordering one, for six dollars, which is more than I'd typically spend on a base card; but the way I see it, if he keeps performing at the level he's played at this season his cards are just going to get more and more expensive. And I want at least one of his cards without breaking the bank.

    I ordered the 2025-26 Upper Deck#136 base card of Macklin Celebrini, which is an awesome card, not to mention the cheapest of his I found. So it's a win-win, right? Well, not exactly.

    I ordered the card ages ago. It was 'scheduled' to arrive weeks before it actually did, and I was worried that it got lost in the mail. But in the end good ol' Macklin came through and I got the card. Better late than never, right? And it was a good test in patience too 😉

    This is such a great card. The picture is awesome; Macklin really does look like a shark on the attack. Though this card was on the cheaper end of his cards, the picture is my favorite of all of them. I appreciate how much space the card leaves for his picture as well. This instantly becomes my favorite card in my small hockey collection.

    The San Jose Sharks season has been....interesting, to say the least. I think 'tortuous' is a better word. It's like watching a happy kid's show and then accidentally leaning on the remote to change the channel to a horror film. And then you find that both shows are interesting and you keep switching between them. The Sharks were looking so good early on, and absolutely fell off a cliff the last few weeks before the Olympic break. And to make things worse they lost out on trading for Artemi Panarin, and he went to the Kings instead, one of the teams they're competing with for a playoff spot. Wow, I just spouted off a huge chunk of my hockey knowledge right there....

    No matter how well the Sharks play as a team, Macklin is performing like a beast, both in the NHL and Winter Olympics. He is in serious consideration for the MVP (Hart Memorial Trophy), with the likes of Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon. Should he win the Hart, that would make me a very happy superfan.

    If the Sharks end up pulling through to make the playoffs, and if I live through the rest of the season to witness it, I will be absolutely stoked. If not, people may want to keep their distance from me until the Rangers start looking like they'll make the playoffs.

    Well, now that I'm off this shark-fueled high, I'll leave y'all to the rest of your various card collecting. But not before asking a question: Do you have a favorite hockey player? If so, who?

    Now that I've opened up the floodgates to such a deep and thought-provoking question, I will leave you with your innermost sports-related thoughts. Have a great rest of the week, thanks for stopping by the blog, and happy collecting!

Why am I Even Here? (A Hockey Post)

    Man, I know absolutely nothing about hockey. All I know is that you hit the puck into the goal, and fight like there's no tomorrow. However, when some friends set up a fantasy hockey league a few weeks ago, I decided I'd give it a whirl. I'm afraid I'm not quite paying as much attention to it as fantasy baseball, mostly just putting my players in every day and leaving it at that.

    Just my luck I got twelfth draft position in the twelve-man league, but whatever, we'll make the best out of it. I drafted almost completely out of the pre-draft rankings that were given me.

   

 In the first round (twelfth overall), I drafted this guy: 

    I'm not entirely sure who J.T. Miller is, but he was ranked at pre-season 11 and was the highest ranked guy available, so I grabbed him. I guess he's really good, as he is 100% rostered and scored the most points last season out of anybody on my team. He plays his first game of the season today.

    In the second round and 13th overall pick I got Matthew Tkachuk. Again, I had no idea who this was, but he was pre-season 12. He played his first game (with the Florida Panthers) yesterday, and won 6-4.

    When I was asked by the people of my league which was my favorite hockey team, I used an interesting method to choose. Since the only two hockey players I really knew coming into the season were Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid (this shows just how little I know), I didn't really have a favorite team. So, I pulled up good old Hockey Reference and chose the worst team to be my favorite. This team happened to be the San Jose Sharks, who went 19-54-9 last season.  

    I very briefly looked at which Sharks players I should draft. I ended up drafting Matt Walman, but dropped in favor of what was said to be a better defenseman. However, there was this one hot young rookie, no more than 18 years of age, who I aimed to draft. That man, or kid rather, was no other than.....

    Unfortunately, I couldn't draft Macklin. But if somebody asked me who my favorite hockey player is, I think I would have to go with him. Let the records show that he's my favorite before he becomes a beast. Macklin hasn't played an NHL game yet, but the Sharks will play tomorrow against the Blues. 

    Well, there's my brief hockey history. I own probably about a dozen hockey cards, which cost a dollar or less at a card store, and all from the '90s. I expect to get shellacked in fantasy hockey, since a few of the guys in the league are big-time hockey followers. Oh well though. I'm in it for the fun.

    Y'all have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting! Now I gotta go get my mind back to baseball matters....