The grind

Back in 2003, I was not collecting baseball cards. But I had started going to a lot of games in Boston where I was living at the time. And let me tell you, going to baseball games is a grind. Especially back then. I lived in the North End, worked downtown and had to get all the way to Fenway Park. Oh, yes, my friends, it was a grind. Do you know what I mean? If I left from the office I had to grind my way through a two and a half mile walk through Boston Common and then grind my way west through the Back Bay to Kenmore Square. Walking up the hill/bridge over the Mass Pike was a grind, too. And then getting to my seat, that was a grind. If I walked from home -- like if I went home first to eat or change or whatever -- it added a mile of a grinding walk. If I took the train, fuggetaboutit. Grind to Haymarket and pray for the D line to either Kenmore Square or the Fenway stop. Grinding through rush hour humanity traffic. And then the train home? Well, if you have ever been to Boston you know the train is likely coming out of service at Park Street even if it was to go on to Lechmere.  A grind.

Fast forward to 2015 or so when I started getting back into baseball card collecting. I thought it was easy. But it was actually a grind, too. Especially if you get into the minutiae of looking for farkakte variations with periods here and commas there and nothing here and everything there. And I do, because I like quantity in my player collections. Learning about all this stuff when I got back into collecting proved to be a confusing grind, and I am still largely unsure of much about a decade in. Do you agree that it is a grind?

Ok, that is enough grind talk. I hope you figured out I was mocking every single baseball player, manager, coach, and entity involved in the game today. 

Today's cards are two 2003 John Kruk cards that are new to the collection. So, here we go. First up is the 2003 Topps Tribute World Series card for when Kruk was famously on the losing side of the 1993 Fall Classic against the Blue Jays.  That series was a grind.

Also that year, Fleer Ultra teamed up with Tastykake and MAB Paints to issue this Philadelphia Phillies All-Vet Team set. It seems to be in conjunction with SGA. The G there does not, it seems, stand for Grind; but it probably should. I guess it means "Stadium Give Away", from what I could find online. Though, of course, Giveaway is one word.

Spelling is a grind, too.

Thanks for stopping by.