Glove & Grace

It’s no secret that my family is a baseball family. For the past 15+ years, we’ve experienced Little League, travel ball, high school baseball, showcases, Perfect Game tournaments, college recruiting and even MLB scouting. All of our “vacations” are centered around summer tournaments — Cooperstown, Atlanta, Florida, Arizona, Texas… At one house, we’ve had not one but TWO batting cages in our backyard at one time. We’ve even moved because the neighbor (different house) always complained about our batting cage. One of our sons even has a name derived from our favorite MLB team. I’m sure there are some that think we spend too much time on the field, in the cages, at tournaments…but for my family, like America, it’s our favorite past time.

Enter Topps 2024 Holiday Baseball Box…

My husband has a huge baseball card and sports memorabilia collection that he’s curated over his lifetime. MLB/NFL/NBA/NHL cards from the 90s and beyond, MLB Starting Lineups, NBA Headliners, newspaper articles of his favorite sports moments, childhood posters of his favorite teams and players, autographed 8x11s, signed baseballs/basketballs/footballs and lots of other odds and ends. Every time we have moved — 5 times in 24 years — his collection has come along for the ride — all 30+ boxes. For years his collection would just sit in storage. Sometimes, he’d dig up something he thought our boys would like only for it to be packed back up again. But when we bought a house a couple of years ago, we turned the “formal living room” into a sports-themed family room that was perfect to showcase some of his prized possessions. But, then we moved (see “neighbor who didn’t like batting cage” above) and it all came down and back into the boxes the memorabilia went.

Since that move, some of that collection has been listed and sold on eBay. More than once, an effort has been made to spark the boys’ interest in selling the items but not much interest was ever shown.

So, imagine my surprise when our oldest, AK, comes home from college and spends one of his first nights with a friend buying and opening cards from the Topps 2024 Holiday Box set. And then taking his younger brother, DK, to the local card shop, Target, Wal-Mart, etc…to see what sets were available. Curiosity started to take over and they started asking my husband about his collection. This discussion led to a documentary about card collecting which led to a discussion about Michael Jordan’s rookie card being worth millions which led to my family convincing my husband we should open his 1996 NBA basketball set he’s had since 1996 because we could be sitting on that “vintage Michael Jordan rookie card worth millions”. We went as far as recording the “session” because we were that convinced we could have it. Spoiler alert — we didn’t get it. Instead, we got Jason Kidd who was a rookie in 1995 so not that vintage. Still a sensitive subject.

Remember when I said we are a “baseball family”? This is one of those moments when I feel like we earned the label. Even when the boys aren’t playing baseball, we are “playing baseball.” Everyone in my family is now obsessed with baseball cards. On Christmas Eve, each son opened up a baseball card set, immediately sat down at the table and opened the packs one by one to see what top players, relics and autographs they scored. It’s one thing to know the players simply from watching the past MLB season. It’s another to have your son’s first-hand commentary on all of the rookies he either played with on a team or against….or pausing to text a teammate to ask, “Is this your brother?” and then confirming that it is (knowing that it likely was considering the card look just like AK’s teammate).

So now the dining room table seems to be headquarters for the latest “unboxing”, discussions around how much a card is worth is constant and I’m living with remnants of baseball card openings all around the house. But, instead of getting annoyed by the clutter, I’m embracing these moments and feeling grateful for the laughs, inside jokes and memories Topps has unintentionally created for our family. So, thank you to Topps for sparking joy this holiday season.