(It's 10 days before Christmas and not a single gift from me is wrapped. I need at least 11 days to wrap presents given my limited skills. Think I can stuff everything in a mailer and wrap it in blue tape? Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 278th in a series):
The Chiefs' heartbreaking loss to the Chargers on Thursday will do little to quiet the hype around Mahomes, especially when it comes to the sports card and memorabilia market. "Browse Mahomes cards now!" has been COMC's front-page exclamation for weeks.
If I were one of the many who collected hot rookies, I would have looked at my meager football card collection to see whether I owned any Mahomes cards. But I know without even a glimpse that I don't.
Besides, when Mahomes' exploits blew up and owning his card became a thing to do, my first reaction wasn't to look for Chiefs' Mahomes cards in my collection. It was to look for Twins' Mahomes cards.
Dads think differently.
The exciting part to this whole situation for me isn't Mahomes' capabilities on the field and a winning K.C. program, but the father-son, baseball-football angle. I'm always into a pro sports dad creating a pro sports son. It suddenly makes the dad's cards more special to me. Forget about the kid, he'll have a bazillion cards made of him. What did the dad have? What do I have of the dad?
Oh, does that make me uncool? Do you think this dad cares?
It turns out I have five cards of father Pat. They are all Twins cards from early in his career (Mahomes played for many teams, major, minor, independent, in a 19-year pro career all the way until 2007). The 1993 Upper Deck card of Mahomes chilling in the dugout is my favorite.
The other cards focus on one particular feature that Pat Mahomes exhibited:
Mahomes imitated Michael Jordan flying toward the basket as the hurler displayed his tongue while unleashing a pitch.
Don't you love when card companies focus on one trait over and over?
That's probably why I like the '93 Upper Deck card the most. It's something different.
Although I should have turned the card over to the back. Not even the great '93 Upper Deck could resist.
Here is the lone Pat Mahomes card that I own in which his tongue is well-contained. I happen to like this card a lot, too. It's one of my favorites from 1995 Topps.
The year 1995 was a big one for Pat Mahomes, too.
No, it wasn't the 4-10 record that year or the hideous 6.37 ERA. It was that at the end of that season -- on Sept. 17 -- a future NFL quarterback sensation was born.
I'm sure one day I will own a card of young Patrick Mahomes, if only to have the father-son connection on display in my collection.
Probably won't get to see Patrick Mahomes' tongue on display though. Those damn helmets.
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