Welcome back Grady Sizemore

[smapdi]

I admit I have been expecting a retirement announcement to come out at some point during the last couple years so yesterday was exciting for me. Grady has made it all the way back. Beating out hot prospect Jackie Bradley for the starting CF job, Grady opened the season 2-4, singling in his first AB and homering in his second (though just barely, apparently). While I'll still be on edge every time he throws himself around the field, it was very gratifying to see this.
[video]http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2014_03_31_bosmlb_balmlb_1&mode=vide o[/video]

Not to mention the slight buoyancy it gives me when I think of the thousands of dollars I've spent on his cards. I hope he can spend another 10 years in the majors, and close out a fine career on his terms.

 

[Russ S.]

He looked pretty good!
Hope he does well, just not against the O's.

 

[scotty216brs]

He is moving around well and swinging a GREAT bat. Very good to see! The Red Sox management will be smart about how they use Sizemore (he probably won't play in 3+ games in a row) so it's up to Grady himself as to how he plays in the field. So far so good and I hope he stays healthy for the whole year because if he does the loss of Ellsbury won't hurt as bad.

 

[smapdi]

So this post did not age well, but I still collect Sizemore fairly obsessively if not to the point of getting absolutely everything. There have been no new Sizemore cards since 2016, and nothing at all since the 70th Anniversary Buybacks in 2017 Bowman. However, Panini included him in their 2022 Flawless product in a small way with these patch autos. I was very happy to see these, and happier still to be able to acquire the shortest-printed copies to complete the rainbow. Some patches were from his brief stint with the Red Sox, obviously, despite the team city printed on the card. I assume that's a shamrock on the 1/1, so I suppose they had a St. Patrick's day jersey at some point in Spring Training, or he played for the Celtics when I wasn't looking.

I don't know about other players, but Sizemore was often left out of the main set but they'd put a jersey or auto of him in an insert set. He was also included in a 2022 Elite but only in the Passing the Torch dual auto set with Chase DeLauter (which I also got), so the tradition continues.

 

[nkdbacks]

That's awesome! I can relate as someone who still actively collects a player from around the same era. Even if you can only find a handful of pickups a year, the thrill is still the same.

 

[mrmopar]

I think there is a delicate balance, at least in my case. Garvey retired before inserts were really a thing. He was in a variety of odd Topps 80s issues and then hit the beginning of the box set era in the mid-late 80s, then he essentially disappeared until the late 90s. He had a handful of cards each year into the early 2000s, then it exploded for a decade or so! It slowed down again after that, but recently (since right around Covid/2020) it has exploded again and Leaf has basically ruined my desire to collect everything. 100s of under 10 copies junk GU dump cards, most if not all without his image on them and 6-7 or more versions of the same card with a different foil or holographic color to differentiate them.

I'd be happier with a handful of common and easy to find cards each year and maybe 1-2 tougher cards. The overuse of 1/1 cards didn't help either. Leaf again issued at least 20 of their 1/1 autographed cards in various color and prism patterns. Its too much and people who want to collect most of it can be discouraged easily if they don't have deep pockets and/or are willing to spend $1000s on cards that are almost guaranteed to be worth a fraction of the current buy price in the future.

The good news is as my Garvey collection numbers have watered down from a very solid percentage, my overall autograph collection has improved greatly across the 3 major sports.