More Blogger Generosity and Contest Winnings!

A few weeks ago I entered a contest on the Project 1962 blog. The prizes were this autographed card of Donkey Kong champion Steve Wiebe and an unopened pack of Topps Donkey Cards from 1982. I entered, like I enter every contest, and didn’t expect anything. When the randomizer picked me I was stoked. I am trying to collect the 2009 A and G set autographed and I actually bought packs of Donkey Kong and chased this set as a kid. The ice cream trucks in my neighborhood sold cards. They didn’t have baseball cards, but over the years I bought Pac Man, ET, WWF wrestling, Garbage Pail Kids and even Donkey Kong cards. It was pretty awesome. It was more awesome that I actually won the contest. Along with the Donkey Kong related prizes, the winner (me!) was able to choose their favorite team and receive bonuses related to said team. I got greedy and picked the Rays, the Pirates and the Orioles. Well, this weekend I received my prize pack from Project 1962 and Gritz76 hooked it up beyond my wildest dreams. The hits just kept on coming. I am honestly in disbelief that he shared so much great stuff with me. Rays cards, Pirates cards, autographs, inserts and vintage, oh my goodness wait till you see the VINTAGE! I am working on limited time, so I will just post a few of the current cards for now. This includes inserts I needed for the 2010 Topps set, cool cards for my PCs and random Rays awesomeness. This is just a small sample of the goodies he sent… I will start off with the final card I needed for my Rays team set from 2009 Topps T206, card #253. I didn’t like these cards at all when I first saw them, they have seriously grown on me and now I love this years and really loving Topps attempt from 2002. The fun fact on the back of Aki’s card mentions that Aki had a framed Carl Crawford jersey at his home in Tokyo years before they became teammates. That is cool. Finishing off another team set is also cool. Some rad cards I needed for 2010 Topps include a Yo Mamma card of Steve Carlton, a Peak Performances card of Lefty. These were especially because Lefty Carlton was my favorite player back in the days when I was buying Donkey Kong Cards off the ice cream truck. Another card I needed that he included was card #TOG-7, the Tales of the Game card of one of my favorite moments in sports history, Bill Mazeroski’s walk off World Series homerun. I have updated my needs list for this set. A few other cards he included from 2010 Topps are this serial numbered Gold card of Pirates All Star starter Zach Duke and a black variation of Akinori Iwamura. The true gem of the package, the card that seriously made me cry is coming up next… I mentioned last week that the wife and I had celebrated our 4-year wedding anniversary. I didn’t go into much more detail, but when we got married we did it in Lake Wales, Florida. Lake Wales is a small town in Polk County; it has a population of about 10,000 people. It is the home of former MLB catcher Pat Borders. In 2004 the town was hit by hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jean. Much of the town was destroyed. We chose this town as our wedding site because we had our first date at the Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales and we spent a ton of time there. The Skydiving Center and much of the town and places we visited were destroyed by the hurricane. Going back afterwards was really emotional for both of us as there was a ton of destruction. I got off track a bit, but I mentioned that because Pat Borders in no longer the only player from Lake Wales to make the Major Leagues. He has been joined by Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Wade Davis who struck out 9 batters in his MLB debut last September against Detroit. I have wanted to add Davis to my collecting radar because of his hometown, I just didn’t think I would be able to afford too many of his cards right now. I am now the proud owner of a beautiful autographed card of Mr. Davis from 2010 Topps Peak Performance, thanks to Gritz76 and Project 1962. Thanks so much Gritz! You blew me away with this one!!! Words cannot express my appreciation or how happy I was with this package! Stay tuned for all of the vintage awesomeness that was included in the package. Stay tuned tomorrow for plenty more posting and the conclusion to this one. Go Rays! Troll out.