A draft of Padres duplicates

You have to love our fellow sports card bloggers. Awhile back, Marcus Pond, author of "All the Way to the Backstop," proposed an interesting offer for us Padres card bloggers.

“As you might imagine, in my almost-year of having a card blog,” he wrote, “I've been able to accumulate quite an amount of great Padre cards. I've even come across some that are awesome but that I don't really want, or others that are great but I have doubles of. ..Well, I've got a semi-decent stash of Padres that I'm looking to send to all three of you, but I don't know what you want.”

His proposal – Listing 30-some of his extra cards and then having us rank them in order of our priorities. He then held a snake-draft to disseminate the cards.

 What I love about him, was his last part – “This one is completely free, because what’s a few cards among friends?”

What a guy. It’s been awhile since this has gone down (that’s how behind I am on things), but what a great idea (he says he borrowed the original concept from Jaybarkerfan).

Some of the cards, I already had, so I didn’t list them. Some of the cards, I really could use for my collection. However, what’s cool about a draft, as evidenced by the many fantasy sports drafts I’ve participated in, is you hope for the best and get what you get.
 
Needless to say, I was very happy with the cards Marcus sent. 

I was able to get my first five picks.

 

 

The Chris Young jersey was a no-brainer. Jersey cards are always fun (although autos are much better), and since I didn’t have any GU for Young, that was my first selection. The 2013 Topps Emerald Tom Layne was another nice selection. At the time I didn’t have any of the Padres emerald cards, so it was another nice option, As for the 1978 Topps Mike Champion, A) I didn’t have any of his cards; and B) I’m still in the process of accumulating some of the Padres’ earlier cards, so I was very happy with this pick.

 

Other cards I enjoyed receiving were the 1984 Topps Bruce Bochy – Isn’t it way cool to have a former player come back to the team as a coach? Bochy not only came back to skipper the Padres, he also earned the National League Manager of the Year award in 1996 and led the Friars to the 1998 World Series. I’ve always loved Trevor Hoffman and the playing of “Hells Bells,” in the ninth inning. You have to love the concentration on the face of Archi Cianfrocco on his 1993 SP card. Despite the sun, you can just feel the intensity as he tracks down the ball.

 

Hats off to Marcus for a wonderful draft. As soon as I get the time, I want to try and hold one of my own. I have plenty of Padres duplicates, and “what’s a few cards among friends?”