NUMBER 6
Joe Mauer ‘07 UD Artifacts Jersey 194/199
You might think I’m crazy for ranking this higher than the Morneau bat and the Puckett quad jersey. Normally I would agree with you. Trust me, normally this card wouldn’t even be sniffing my top ten. Thankfully, it’s also far away from sniffing my bottom ten. No one should be sniffing my bottom ten. Especially Joe Mauer.
So, why on EARTH did I decide to rank this card in the middle of the pile? Is it the design? Uh, no. Is it the shiny, silvery foil stamped numbers? You’re getting warmer. Is it the tiny helping of fabric worn by one of my favorite Twins of all time? You’re starting to boil! Is it the front-and-center placement of Upper Deck’s logo? Whoa, now you’re getting colder. In fact, the real answer does have a little bit to do with the type of card it is and who is featured on it. Give up yet?
This particular card is the very first (and so far only) Twins "hit" that I have ever pulled. With as cool as it is to own all of these other cards that you’ll see above and below this card within the ranks of this top ten, none of them will hold the same quality as this plain looking card with a small swatch of "game used" Joe Mauer jersey. It’s too easy to just go to a card shop, card show, or eBay for that matter, and scoop up whatever card you like. Actually pulling a hit featuring one of your favorite all-time players from your favorite team, especially pulling that first hit, is a feeling that cannot be duplicated.
It was pulled from a box of Artifacts that I bought in mid-summer of ‘07. It was that time of my collecting return that my eyes were still glazed over at the prospect of pulling and owning anything with any amount of jersey in it. That sort of a pull is just too common nowadays, and thus nowhere near as cool. It was also at that point in my collecting return that I only opened one pack out of that hobby box per week. I no longer have that type of patience or willpower. Or naivety. Back then, I thought that each pack would bring something special and would be worth the wait. This is just plain stupid thinking. Especially in that particular product. Now that I’m a bit more seasoned, I just go right for the jugular and get it over with.
If you have an experience similar to this, I’d like to hear about it. Please share!
P.S.
I never noticed how ugly the Upper Deck logo was until they updated it in 2008.
