This Former ERA Champ Did Something Amazing!

With the suspension of sports during this pandemic, a lot of professional athletes have extra time on their hands. Apparently some of them are using that free time to answer a backlog of fan mail.

In March of 2017, I bought a pack of Topps Series 1 and decided that I would send off every card in it to the player and ask for an autograph. I quickly got a response from Brewers pitcher Junior Guerra, as well as a "Return To Sender" from another player. A promising young outfielder responded during the off season, as well as a former award winner the following Spring. I figured that was all I could reasonably expect to get back.

3 years, 2 months, and 6 days after I mailed out those card, I received a PWE addressed to me in my own handwriting. Inside, tucked between some index cards, was my fourth successful return:

Kyle Hendricks had a magical 2016 season. Not only did he lead the National League in ERA (and ERA+ for you advanced stat-heads), he was a key contributor to the Cubs' epic World Championship. He finished behind winner Max Scherzer and teammate Jon Lester for the Cy Young that year.

I must say it was quite thrilling to get this after so long. It's good to see some players are still bringing joy to us fans, even if some patience is needed!

Repack Haiku #142 (Jeremy Hellickson)

Recently retired

With Gold Glove, Rookie award,

And World Series ring

2011 Topps #165 Jeremy Hellickson (RC)

Hellickson retired on Valentine's Day after another injury setback. He ended his career on top, having played last year for the World Champion Washington Nationals. Much farther down on his list of accomplishments: He is one of my few TTM successes!

Good luck with whatever future endeavor you pursue, Jeremy!

2018 Year In Review

Last Year I took a look at how 2017 impacted my collection, and I thought I should continue again this year and see what changed in 2018!

2018 Highlights

• The blog continues to go strong! I hit the one year mark in 2018, and have settled into a nice groove of posting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
• In honor of my one year anniversary, I held my first ever contest! It was fun to do, even if the prizes were pretty meager. Hopefully I can do a better one this year!
• Due to a prize win early in the year, I acquired a bunch of hockey cards which gave that collection some serious weight. Although I don't really target hockey cards in my collection, it was good to add some more cardboard of my second favorite sport! As an added bonus, the contest win had a strange effect on my viewership, as you'll see later on.
• I did more online trading than I ever have. A big reason for this was my Time Travel Trading series, which turned out to be a colossal success! 
• Of course, I'd be remiss to not mention the Red Sox wining the World Series! If that's not a 2018 Highlight for a Red Sox fan, I don't know what is!

2018 Diamond Jesters Blog Stats

Number of posts: 174
Month with the most posts: 19 posts in March (4 Time Travel updates, plus a week of posts from my trip to Spring Training gave this month a few extra posts)
Top 5 viewed posts: (Somehow, the Top 5 viewed posts were all posts about those hockey cards I won from Billy at Cardboard History. I can't explain it - the Top hockey post picked up almost 100 view this past month alone, even though it was originally published March 27. Someone out there really likes hockey cards!)

1. Cardboard History Radically Changed My Collection (253 views)
2. Hockey Cards From Cardboard History - Pack #7 (230 views)
3. Hockey Cards From Cardboard History - Pack #5 (221 views)
4. Hockey Cards From Cardboard History - Pack #6 (193 views)
5. Hockey Cards From Cardboard History - Pack #8 (190 views)

Most commented post: One Year, 200 Posts, And The World's Lamest Contest - 13 comments (Ha! I had to bribe you all with a giveaway to get this many comments! )
Most commented post (Non-Giveaway post): 6 Seriously WTF Moments I Had Opening A Pack Of 2018 Donruss - 10 comments (Only one of those was mine! I guess this made for an interesting discussion!)
Followers: 42 (The Ultimate Number! Up 14 new followers from last year! Thanks to each and every one of you!)

My Collection

(Stats courtesy of the Trading Card Database)

Total number of cards: 39,281 (Up 3,853 cards from last year, again with the caveat that I'm still cataloguing my collection!)
Cards from 2018 sets: 911 (A few hundred more than I bought of 2017 product. The base set was better, and the stock didn't get wiped out from Aaron Judge rookie card  hunters.)
Red Sox cards: 3,412 (Over twice as much as any other team - I guess I am a team collector at heart!)
Autographed cards: 14 (4 new this year: Jeremy Hellickson, Clay Buchholz, Michael Chavis, Austin Meadows)

Thanks Jeremy!

Graded cards: 1 (No new cards this year)
Relic cards: 9 (5 new this year: David Ortiz, Hanley Ramirez, and 3 Kevin Youkilis!)

Thanks Paul!

This Former ROY Winner Did Something Amazing!

Ah, nothing like a good click-bait heading to generate some excitement toward a post!

Amazing, to me at least, was getting this in the mail:

I sent out this last March, so it was an nice surprise to finally get it back. He's the 3rd TTM from last year I got back signed, following Junior Guerra and Christian Yelich. Hellickson is currently a free agent after splitting last season with the Phillies and Orioles.I hope he catches on somewhere so I'll have an opportunity to root for him. He seems like he'd be a decent depth option at the very least.

TTM Success!

Last March, I decided to do something different with the first pack of Topps base I opened. I didn't keep any of the cards. Instead, I sent each one off to the player with the hope to be autographed. I got one quick return that month (Brewers pitcher Junior Guerra) and a Return to Sender in April (Orioles infielder Johnny Giovotella). That was it. The season came and went, and to be honest I figured I wouldn't be getting anything else back.

Tuesday night, a white envelope with my handwriting was waiting for me. The return stamp hailed from Santa Clarita, CA - a Dodgers or Angels player perhaps? I couldn't recall what players I had sent to, or what team they played for. (I did recall about 1/4 of the cards featured players who were on new teams than what their 2017 card depicted, making this recollection exercise even more pointless.)

I opened it up, and there it was, a beautifully autographed card of one of baseball's young stars:

Yelich has been in the news lately, as one of the few notable players the Miami Jeters Marlins haven't traded (yet!). At 26 years old, with a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger already on his resume, he would be on any teams wish list.

Wherever he ends up, I wish him success!