Members of the Club

Today is a scheduled day off for me (we work 9-hour days instead of 8-hour days so we get a day off every two weeks), and I've been trying to stay busy doing productive things instead of vegging out at my computer all day. It's gone pretty well, I guess. The current project is moving wargaming miniatures and LEGO kits into the attic so I have room to sort and organize my comic book and trading card collections. The other stuff will eventually come back out of the attic, but right now I need the space and those are the easiest things to move. All the packing and climbing around has kind of tuckered me out, but that's okay. It's good to be making progress. With all of the clutter in the basement, it's hard for me to enjoy any of my hobbies to any great extent.

I've picked up a couple more Members Only parallels from 2014 Topps Stadium Club over the last couple of months. With a rumored print run of less than ten each, they are pretty rare, but I've managed to acquire a couple dozen of them. Jeff Samardzija only spent half a season with the A's, moving on to the White Sox in 2015 and the Giants for 2016. He was recently announced as the Giants' fourth starter for 2017. I was kind of surprised to see that last year was his first season above .500 as a starter (he went 8-4 as a reliever for the Cubs in 2011), although I know pitcher wins are kind of an empty statistic. It seems like he had bad luck during his best statistical season in 2014, going 2-7 in the first half for the Cubs in spite of a 2.83 ERA across 17 starts, and then 5-6 in the second half for Oakland in spite of a 3.14 ERA over 16 starts. I guess the takeaway is that even a good pitcher needs run support.

Marcus Stroman made his big-league debut in 2014, and did pretty well for himself. He missed most of 2015 with an ACL injury, but came back for four starts at the end of the year, plus a few starts in the playoffs. His numbers dipped in 2016, but he is still the probable #3 starter for the Blue Jays this season.

I grabbed both of these cards from eBay on different occasions. Outside of the superstars, these tend to fly under the radar, as they aren't serially-numbered and don't stand out much. The only distinction between them and the base cards is the little foil Members Only stamp.