Grand Cards: Where's Grandcards?

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Where's Grandcards?

Oh boy, has it ever been a week. Not a bad week, mind you, but just one of those weeks. My entire family was in town from Saturday through Tuesday, and I was actually called to New York on business first thing Tuesday morning. I had to stay over there and then drive straight back to the office Wednesday morning, and now is the start of the busiest two weeks of the work year for us. Whew. The obvious minus is that I haven't been able to scan any cards or pull any posts together. The plus side was this:





What, you think I'd be up in New York and not try to catch a game? I'm a stadium junkie and I was certainly not disappointed by what they did at the New Yankee Stadium. They spared no expense and ended up with a very nice stadium. Even better, it was packed on a Tuesday night, and had especially great atmosphere when Matsui and Posada hit back to back home runs to put the Yankees in the lead. I have only two complaints that really resonate with me.

1. When I walk around the main level concourse, I am completely blocked off from seeing any of the field from the outfield. I am stuck in a tunnel. Lame. I like being able to walk around a stadium and see the game from a variety of angles and I couldn't do that here--in fact, I couldn't do anything in the outfield except for walk.

2. The Yankees do not produce generic bobbleheads. Starting in middle school, every time I go to a new stadium, I get a generic bobblehead of that team. This task was made much harder when Twins Ent. went out of business--they made the best ones. Now, all anybody ever has are player bobble heads, which I don't care about. Still, there are some generics made nowadays (the "Big Head" variety by Forever Collectibles) but not in New York apparently. I couldn't get one when I made my only trip to Yankee Stadium for last year's All Star game and there wasn't one when I went to the new stadium this week. Sadness.

Other than that, I lucked out with some great seats and saw a great game. Now, for additional enjoyment, some Curtis Granderson cards that I've come upon recently.

2008 SP Authentic #62 Curtis Granderson Gold (#46/50)


This is a little known parallel version of one of my favorite cards of last year.

Speaking of last year, I'm slowly chipping away at this set (which I like more and more as the page fills up):
2008 UD Heroes #60 Curtis Granderson Emerald (#118/499)


And for something a little more "now" Upper Deck presents the same general card in two different sets. Notice the different logos though...


So, despite an exhausting week, it never hurts to take a moment and reflect on the good things, which were plentiful. And the Tigers finally won a game at Fenway on the back of Justin Verlander--perhaps a sign of good things still to come?