Occasionally I indulge in ripping some Bowman(or Bowman Chrome or Bowman Draft, etc) or select other prospect heavy products. I am especially prone to doing this if I can find said product on clearance at my local retail outlet. A few years back I stumbled upon a discounted hanger box of 2013 Elite Extra Edition(didn't know hey did hangers in addition to blasters) which promised some set number of cards that I can't recall with one guaranteed autograph. I picked it up quickly and ended up pulling a die-cut Aaron Judge and an auto of Jake Bauers who at the time the card was printed was a San Diego prospect but had recently been dealt to the Rays as a part of the Wil Myers deal. Therefore, I was pretty excited to pull an auto of a guy I might get to watch with the Bulls. Tucked towards the back of the stack of cards was this U15 Team USA relic card:
I had never heard of this kid and I tucked it away in a box. I came across this card over the weekend while I was searching for some other cards. When I saw it I thought, 'Hey, I've heard/seen that name recently'... Where did I hear that name?
Oh yeah...that kid was just taken number one overall in the 2016 MLB Draft! Not that being the top draft pick guarantees big league success, but at least he's not just some random guy that played for Team USA as a teen, never to be heard from again. Kinda cool to get a bit of reinforcement that maybe some of those unknown guys pulled from products like these may actually amount to something someday. Guess I should probably follow his career a little bit. Thanks for reading.
Pretty cool you had this and didn't realize it! Can't hurt to own a relic of the #1 overall pick. Great baseball name too.
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the reasons I like ripping prospect products. They're fun to open at the time and nearly as fun to look at a few years down the line to see what you have.
ReplyDeleteWell, that worked out pretty well... and well down the road too! Still kind of weird to me that we, as adults, can acquire trading cards of kids halfway through their high school years.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Tony on this... I'm happy for your unexpected windfall - kinda like putting on a jacket in the fall and finding $20 in the pocket - but I find it a little disturbing that someone who's literally a kid had a relic card.
DeleteHe looks like he's 9 on the card.
ReplyDeleteSaw him last weekend in Orlando. Looks like a solid ball player.. that said it is weird there's cards for 15 year olds.
ReplyDeleteSaw him last weekend in Orlando. Looks like a solid ball player.. that said it is weird there's cards for 15 year olds.
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