Blog Bat Around – My Centerpiece
The centerpiece of my collection? It’s an easy one for me to answer. Last year my then girlfriend and I would discuss the possibility of getting married. Sometimes I just spout off and say things jokingly not expecting her to take me serious or anything, this was one of those times.
“I have to go out spend like a grand or something on a ring, but you don’t have to get me a thing?? I should get like one of the cards I want the most or something.” She looked at me, laughed, and then something crazy happened, she agreed to it. This moment began a few month effort to find the right card. The cards bantered about, and then bid on, then lost were some of the following, Tom Brady SP Authentic Rookie, and Tom Brady 2000 Fleer Masterpiece 1 of 1. Those were the two big ones we went after, but there was one other card I had in mind as it was the number one card of my favorite baseball player with out any question. The Brady rookies were great, but there were other Brady cards that could be debated as his best rookie and since I already owned his 2000 Contenders autographed rookie they didn’t completely stand out from the rest.
So we waited for a bit, I had the money for a ring, she had the money for the card. Then in the summer we found the right card. Now we just had to win it. It was a PSA 10 Graded David Ortiz Donruss Signature Rookies Century Marks. David Ortiz is my all time favorite Baseball player. Growing up it was always Roger Clemens, but rift between him and the Red Sox, him going to the Yankees, plus the fact that David Ortiz hit the ball twice in 2004 on occasions that account for two of my top 10 happiest moments in life put Clemens down a few pegs.
The day the card was ending was when my fiancée was actually away visiting friends in upstate New York. I didn’t know about Snipe programs at the time, so we sat there on the phone as I put in my bid on the card at the last possible minute, and watched hoping that no one came in at the last second and blew me away. But on this occasion I didn’t lose, we had our card. It came in a few days later, and she would proceed to taunt me with it for quite some time.
Then one day she went away again for a few days, and left the card and the envelope it came in on my bed with a little note. We knew we would be getting engaged sometime soon, but I did not expect at all for her to do this. So I tore it open as fast as I could. I reveled in the sight of the card that truly was the top card that I could get. I couldn’t believe she would just leave it for me to have at that time. So I instantly called her to talk about it.
Well turns out she didn’t mean for me to have the card yet, and said she had taped it shut so I didn’t open. I didn’t notice any tape….. But I had my card, and on September 30th of last year she had her ring.
The card turns out to be her favorite I have as well, soon after I got that card I took her to her first Red Sox game. During that game David Ortiz hit a grand slam off the Angels, and became her favorite player as well. We have bought a good number of Ortiz cards since then, but to this day the Century Marks still is, and always will remain my favorite card.
Also as a side note to end this, at the time of our purchase of this card the PSA Population Report on it was one. There has been one other graded a 10 but it came out of Mooresville, North Carolina so I still feel good about mine being the only legit PSA 10.
Card Spotlight – Matt Laporta 2005 USA Red BGS 9.5
I wanted to write a little post about a card that I picked up a little less than a year ago from a BMB member. Last time I did a Spotlight it was on a card from 24 years ago, I decided to bring it a little closer time wise this time with the 2005 USA Red Autograph jersey card of Matt Laporta.
I’m personally a big fan of the Upper Deck USA cards, and anyone who has them knows that they are extremely condition sensitive. The card pictured above was in someone’s signature on BMB until they blew the boards up on there. I had checked it out, and then saw it at one point come up for auction on EBay. The population report of this card is that out of the 100 produced six have been graded. Five of the six have recieved an 8.5 grade for the card. This one is the only one to recieve a 9.5 of Matt Laporta and only one David Price has recieved a 9.5 from the red autographs besides this card.
So I picked the card up, and started following Matt online. He had a great journal last year on MILB.com, and for anyone who hadn’t followed him before he was the main player traded to the Indians last year for C.C. Sabathia. He also was on the Olympics roster for the USA and got beaned violently in the Olympics.
He came out as one of the most hyped players on message boards. But between family tragedy last year, the Olympic injury, and the pressure of being in such a profile trade, he had a rough second half of the year last year. Many people predict him to break out like Evan Longoria did last year in 2009.
I have collected a lot of his other cards, and hope nothing but the best for Matt in all his future endeavors.