March Urbandale American Legion Card Show Part 3

Here's the final installment of my foray into the nickel (and 25/$1) boxes at the March Urbandale American Legion Card Show.

I found a nice batch of Padres rookies cards, including this 2007 TRISTAR Prospects Plus Mitch Canham, 1998 Bowman 1999 ROY Favorites Matt Clement, 1995 Gold Leaf Rookies Ray McDavid and 1997 Bowman 1998 ROY Favorites Juan Melo. Of this group, only Clement played at the MLB level for San Diego. McDavid and Melo spent six years in the Padres minor leagues, while Canham spent four. 

Canham was a tragic player for the Padres. After his mother died of a drug overdose in 2003, his younger brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Dustin Canham, died while serving in the African nation of Djibouti. Multiple investigations determined  Dustin, 21, died of natural causes while exercising in his tent.

My Trevor Hoffman collection got a nice boost with these cards - 1996 Finest, 1996 Topps Gallery, 2008 UD A Piece of History and 2002 Topps Gold Label Class 1. How can you go wrong with Trevor cards? It'll be interesting to see what impact he'll have on the pitchers in the Padres minor league system.

Ever find cards you were sure you already had in your collection, but turned out you didn't? That was the case with the following cards, a 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Future Stars FS14 Mat Latos,1995 Select Certified Roberto Petagine, 2002 Bowman Sean Burroughs and a 2002 Bowman Gold Xavier Nady.

And finally, a 1996 Emotion-XL Fernando Valenzuela, 2004 Ultra Khalil Greene and 1997 Pinnacle X-Press Andy Ashby. It's hard imagining Valenzuela as a Padres pitcher. However, during his three-year stint in San Diego, "El Toro" compiled a 23-19 record in 328.1 innings.

 

There's no show in April, so I'll now have to wait until May 18 for the next Urbandale show. I guess I'll just have to haunt my local brick-and-mortar stores until then.