mariano rivera is in my hall of famer collection

it took a while, but i've finally added the only unanimously elected hall of famer to my hall of famer collection. here's the card representing mariano rivera in said collection:

that's a 2015 topps finest generations autograph, numbered 10/25. here's the back:

rivera took over the yankee closer role from john wetteland and elevated the position to new heights. he is baseball's all-time leader in saves with 652. he won five world series rings and was the mvp of the 1999 fall classic. he also has 42 postseason saves and a 0.70 era over 141 innings of postseason pitching. incredible. and, while he never won a cy young award, he did have five seasons in which he finished in the top 5 in terms of voting for the award.

i got to see him pitch in person just once. it was may 6, 1999 and the yankees were playing the twins at the metrodome. the game went into the 10th inning and the yankees took the lead on a ricky ledee hit. rivera came in and earned the save by getting matt lawton, brent gates, and doug mientkiewicz to each ground out. i don't have a strong memory of the inning, but baseball reference notes that two of the three groundouts were "weak" and the third one was a comebacker.

i did see the yankees play during rivera's final season - 2013 - but he did not get the call in the game that i attended. five years later, he became the first person to receive 100% of the baseball writer votes to gain election to the hall of fame.

as a reminder, you can see rivera and the rest of the players in my hall of famer collection here.

a debut and player that i remember

i used to make every effort to attend opening day (or night) for the dodgers and sometimes even the angels. this ritual began in the early 1990s when i was living in orange county and had the relative freedom and ability to get to the stadiums easily - i was an adult is what i am saying, i guess. i did this through 1997, but moved to minnesota later that summer and soon targeted opening day at the metrodome instead. i've only been back to dodger stadium for opening day once (2002) since, and i miss it. there is always pomp and circumstance and hope, not to mention usually some special guest or ceremony.

it was similar for the twins - in 1999, kenny rogers (the singer, not the pitcher) performed his song "the greatest" - but by far the most memorable opening day i attended in minny took place on april 5, 2004. that was the day that local boy and number one draft pick joe mauer debuted in the major leagues.

i was hit or miss as far as scoring twins games back then, and i couldn't find a program during a quick look, but here's my stub from that night - seventeen years ago tonight.

good times with friends in the good ol' hubert h. humphrey metrodome.

fast forward twelve years, and i was happy to see topps issue a mlb debut insert set back in 2016, and even happier to see that mauer was included in it. i've added all three versions, plus the medallion manu-patch card, to my "cards featuring games i've attended in person" mini-collection.

2016 topps mlb debut bronze

2016 topps mlb debut silver

2016 topps mlb debut gold

2016 topps mlb debut medallion

here's the back of the gold parallel

mauer's four times on base came about thanks to two hits and two walks in three official at bats. he contributed to the 11th inning rally that ended the game, which was exciting and a great way for the season to begin. the twins went on to win the american league central for the third straight year, but lost to the yankees for the second straight season. i don't think they've won a postseason game since the first game of the 2004 alds in fact.

i'll go ahead and kill another bird with this post and show the card that represents the metrodome in my "stadiums i've attended games in" mini-collection.

that's a card from 1994 score, and it really doesn't do the hubert h. humphrey metrodome justice. it was big and cramped at the same time, with football seats folded up in right field behind the hefty back right field "fence". true story - the first time i set foot in the stadium for a game was in may of 1998, and i laughed when i left the concourse to head to the seats and saw the field and roof for the first time. the fact that it was a day game only made it worse. i am not sorry it's gone.

finally, here are some cards from another mini-collection - the one where i keep a card for each of my "favorite non-dodger through the years".  vladimir guerrero preceded mauer as my favorite non-dodger (he was also my son's favorite player at the time), but mauer's exploits combined with the fact that he was right here in our own backyard pushed him to the top of the list, beginning in 2008. that was the year that i took my son to spring training in fort myers, and even though i got to chat with dusty baker for a couple of minutes before a game between the reds and twins, the real highlight of the trip for me was hanging out with my son and seeing him enjoy himself. one moment that stood out came while we were playing catch behind one of the practice fields and a golf cart approached. i told my son to turn around to see mauer and justin morneau passing by. he did, and mauer waved at him and said hello, and suddenly vladdy wasn't as much of a favorite anymore. 

here are the mauer cards that represent him in my aforementioned favorite non-dodger mini-collection:

2008: topps stadium club

2009: upper deck o-pee-chee moments subset black border

2010: upper deck pure heat insert

2011: topps diamond anniversary parallel

2012: topps allen & ginter

2013: topps target red parallel

2014: topps chrome

2015: topps finest

2016: topps archives

2017: topps chrome

2018: topps

i have another post about mauer in the pipeline, so i'll end this one by noting that i thought about and ultimately failed to attend what turned out to be mauer's final big league game at the end of the 2018 season. it would have been nice to have been there at the end, too.

a double dipping i did not expect to see

here is a card of matt kemp from 2014.

and here is a card of matt kemp from 2015.

kemp was my favorite player during his dodger tenure.  i was disappointed when he was traded to the padres, and i kept track of his performance even though we both moved on.  things bottomed out for kemp last season in atlanta with a negative war, and it seemed that he was destined for a dh job in oakland or tampa bay.

so, i was as surprised as anyone when the dodgers re-acquired kemp in a salary swap with the braves.  they tried to flip him and found no takers.  to kemp's credit, he saw the writing on the wall and did what he could to earn a roster spot.  now, thanks to his resurgence, i get to root for him in dodger blue and acquire cards like this 2018 topps gypsy queen issue.

kemp is the reigning nl player of the week, and is currently leading the league with a .344 average to go along with a 1.7 war.  he's on track for his highest war since 2011 - the year he posted an 8.0 war and finished second in the mvp voting to ryan braun.  as fate would have it, braun's name was thrown about as a possible dodger acquisition in the last year or so, but he's hitting .229 and playing at replacement level for the brew crew right now which makes the return of matt kemp all the more enjoyable.

here's to many more matt kemp dodger cards, hopefully with gaudy stats on the back!