FIRST COOL CARD AND ITS HIM AAAAA
Okay, so, I'm fucking hyped.
I'm an Ms fan from birth. Cheered this dude's name from the stands a handful of times when I was little. Talking maybe 7 years old, back in '07? Only got back into the team last year when I watched a playoff game for S&G and realized how much baseball speaks to me as an adult.
Fast forward to now, I'm totally obsessed with the Ms, and Ichiro's playstyle is still my favorite in baseball. At bat? Place the ball where you want it. In the field? Laser that shit right where it needs to be. Gotta be somewhere? *Fucking book it.* Makes for such a riveting viewing experience.
Anyway, I grabbed some Heritage cards, because *damn* does Josh Naylor have a cool one this year, and I got this! A 19/25 Ichiro Suzuki TBTC! It's gotta be the first card I've ever opened that's worth more than an entrée at Chili's.
Lemme tell you why I REALLY love it, though: In 1925, Seattle baseball was coming up out of infancy. We'd been graced with our first baseball-obsessed basketcase only 30 years prior in Daniel Dugdale, who built two fields, organized a couple leagues, started a couple teams, and won five pennants in that time.
Come the 1920s, and Seattle gets its first taste of greatness by means of two beautiful, power-hitting Babes visiting our city in one year: The Great Bambino, who played exhibition games in the area, and Floyd "Babe" Herman, who went on to play for the Brooklyn Robins (before they were ever the Dodgers, which is one of my other fav statistically weird teams in the MLB!) And that year was early in 1925! Our side babe, Floyd, played for the Seattle Indians (now the Rainiers, our AAA team) the year prior, leading them to their only Championship win sporting the Indians moniker (before becoming the Rainiers in '38, but that's a ways out from '25.)
Anyway, 7 years later, our wonderful Dugdale Field would be burnt to the ground by Seattle's first serial arsonist, necessitating a new field which helped Seattle baseball continue to expand to what it is today. 37 years later, we'd get the Pilots, and 8 years after that, our team would find its name and its final home.
...but not before the greens of Dugdale hosted Seattle's first pro American football game - because of course, we had work to do in that field, too!
What a fun hobby. Every time I see this card, our team's whole history crosses my mind. That's exactly the card I'd been waiting to see someday. Thanks for reading if you did =)