Okay, so I was cleaning out the garage the other day, you know how it goes. Just piles of stuff everywhere. And I stumbled across this old box, tucked away behind some paint cans. Hadn’t seen it in years.
Curiosity got the better of me, so I dragged it out and popped it open. Full of old baseball cards! Man, the memories came flooding back. Spent hours as a kid trading these, organizing them. Anyway, digging through, I started thinking about Derek Jeter. What a player, right? The Captain. I specifically remembered having a couple of his cards, maybe even a rookie one, though my memory’s fuzzy on that.
So, I made it my mission for the afternoon. Forget the garage cleaning for a bit. I dumped that whole box out on a tarp on the floor. It was a mess, cards everywhere. Lots of players I barely recognized anymore, some stars, tons of common cards. It took a while, sorting through them stack by stack.
Finding the Yankee Captain
I was starting to think maybe I’d imagined having a good Jeter card. Found a few base cards from later in his career, nothing special. You know, the kind they printed millions of. Then, near the bottom of a stack held together by a brittle old rubber band, I saw it. Not the super valuable rookie card everyone dreams of finding, unfortunately. But it was an early one, maybe ’94 or ’95, can’t recall the exact year offhand right now. It wasn’t mint condition, edges were a little soft, maybe a slight corner ding. Definitely saw some handling back in the day.
Holding that card was pretty cool, though. Took me right back. I remembered watching him play, thinking he was the coolest guy on the field. It wasn’t about finding a lottery ticket in that box, not really. It was more about reconnecting with that time, you know? Simpler days, maybe.
It’s funny how something small like a piece of cardboard can do that. I spent a good few minutes just looking at it. Thinking about going to games, the smell of the ballpark. All that stuff.
What I Did Next
So, what did I do with it? Well, I didn’t rush off to get it graded or anything. It’s probably not worth much in that condition anyway.
- I carefully wiped off any surface dust.
- Found an old plastic sleeve and a top loader that wasn’t too scratched up.
- Slipped the Jeter card in there for a bit more protection.
For now, it’s sitting on my desk. Not gonna sell it. It’s just a nice little reminder. Maybe I’ll put it back in the box eventually, but for now, I like seeing it there. Finished cleaning the garage too, eventually. But finding that card was definitely the highlight of the day. Sometimes it’s the little finds that mean the most, you know?
