More All-Stars on the List

A week ago today, Major League Baseball played its annual All-Star Game. I've loved this game since I was a kid, but I couldn't watch it this year. We had tournament baseball happening. As a follow up to my last post, both of my boys won their city championships and advanced to compete at the state level. My older boy's team (the one that I was coaching) performed well. We finished second in our group during pool play, but then hit a juggernaut in the first round of the elimination bracket. Our opponent came into the game undefeated and left undefeated. In fact, our 6-1 loss was the closest game they played all year until the state semifinals, and we were the first team to hold them to single digits. They ended up losing in the final four and taking third. So our Pony League season ended in the Sweet 16 of state, if you will. My younger son rolled through the regular season and city championship undefeated, then won every game at the state tournament into the finals. There they met their Waterloo, falling 7-2 in the championship game. My son was a bit disappointed (he really wanted that T-shirt!), overall satisfied with a one-loss season and a second place finish.

My point is, I had one kid playing in one city while another was playing (and I coaching) in another at the time of the All-Star Game. I didn't get to see it. But that doesn't mean it didn't affect my collection.

 

By my count, there were 31 players who made their first All-Star team this year. That means I'll need to track down cards for 28 new players for my All-Time All-Star project. I found these three already in my trader boxes and moved them into my collection. Well, Steele was in my Cubs binder, so I moved one of his cards over to my All-Star project.

And, of course, I always add the All-Star Game MVP to my collection. I only own one card of this year's MVP, Elias Diaz, so his page will take awhile to complete. Welcome to the collection, Elias! And thank you for finally getting the NL a win!

One of the downsides of rarely buying packs anymore is that I don't have many cards of these new guys who are turning into stars. But the chase is on now!