I’ve been an overall fan of Rick Ankiel since 1999 and I appreciate his journey from pitching phenom to castaway to solid outfielder.

In 2013, which turned out to be Rick’s final Major League season, he had a blistering Spring Training with the Astros, going 19-46 with a 1.289 OPS. I attended one of the games in that session and saw him hit two dingers. When the manager replaced him late in the game and sent him back to the team training center, Rick walked up the third base sideline with his equipment bag over his shoulder and a giant smile on his face. That memory always brings me joy.

Now that I’m older and have disposable income, one of my collecting lanes is high-end parallel cards of players everyone was chasing when I was young. That’s why I grabbed this 1999 Upper Deck Encore F/X of Troy Glaus (#’d/125) and 1999 Bowman Chrome Refractor of Corey Patterson. These would’ve been monster pulls when I was 13…today, I grabbed them for less than a sawbuck combined.

When the sideline photographer nails the shot.

In three decades of collecting, I’ve never owned a serial-numbered card that matched the player’s jersey number - until lightning struck twice this week.

I nabbed this 2002 Upper Deck 40-Man Rainbow of Orlando Hudson #’d 3/40. When I received a shipment of cards from Burbank a few days later, I found that the 2004 Leaf Certified Materials Mirror Gold Richard Hidalgo I purchased was #’d 15/25. Just like that, $3 cards immediately became $5 cards (that’s retirement money!).

I recently picked up this gem mint Mirror Gold card for barely more than the cost of grading. This set is notoriously condition-sensitive, what with its easy scratching and bubbling, so a PSA 10 of a player even of Davis’ caliber is worth the price of admission.