Back in January, one of the cardboard blogosphere's most beloved bloggers Wes (a.k.a. JBF) of Area 40 decided to hang 'em up. He decided to do so in grand fashion, collected what seemed to be a ton of unopened boxes and packs. And then - because he is the nicest guy on the Internet - he decided to give those cards away as a final farewell.
I was fortunate enough to have the Texas Rangers in the break. They netted me a number of awesome cards, the ones I like the most I will share with you here.
A 2004 Topps Clubhouse Collection relic of perhaps the greatest Ranger, Mark Teixeira. First, I like the card. It turns out that these were packed out in different tiers, meaning that some were harder to snag than others. Go figure. Second, I call Tex the greatest Ranger because his trade netted the Rangers Elvis Andrus (who is still our starting shortstop - check out his walkup music from yesterday's opening day), Neftali Feliz (the 2010 AL Rookie of the Year), and still one of my favorite players and main PC, Matt Harrison. Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Beau Jones were also included in the trade, but they had much less of an impact than the previous three.
Hank Blalock also had a card in the 2004 Topps Clubhouse Collection set. I always liked Blalock...I was certain he would have a much more significant career than he did. I received another card for this set featuring Chan Ho Park, but I didn't scan it.
This hails from the 2015 Topps Strata set, the first year of the line if I remember correctly. I always thought it was cool that Topps included the MLB certification sticker so you could look up the event.
Wes, I never traded with you prior to this, but I can say that I was a regular reader. Your trade wars with Bob Walk the Plank were epic. I always looked forward to seeing what you were going to fire off next. There are seemingly few good people in the Internet, but you are truly one of them. Godspeed on whatever you choose to do next. Thank you.
