[h=1]Redbirds' Neshek is a real card ... collector, that is[/h]
<aside id="asset-related" class="grid_3 left">
This Lou Brock card is part of Pat Neshek’s complete 1970 Topps set that is the third most valuable in the world.
</aside> Early last week four Cardinals and the club’s pied piper of wax packs filed in for a conference at the players’ union offices in Manhattan and found boxes upon boxes of baseball cards piled on a table. Inside each were 2014 and 2013 cards, shelf prices of $1 to $100 per pack, and, most importantly, they were unopened.
Four Cardinals went out of curiosity.
For Pat Neshek, this was Christmas.
“All the guys who went we didn’t know what to expect,” said rookie Kolten Wong. “Neshek — he’s such an avid collector. I got to sit next to him and every cool card I opened I showed him. ‘Oh, yeah, that’s a good card!’ Or, ‘Nah, that’s not a good card.’ Just being around him made us excited over the cards to see what we could pull.”
Neshek, a Cardinals righthanded reliever, makes this pilgrimage annually to the Major League Baseball Players’ Association headquarters and its bonanza of baseball cards. For most players, these cards are something they get in the mail, something they sign, and something they sometimes send back in self-addressed stamps envelope. Neshek is one of the people sending cards out to be signed. The sidearmer collects cards — vintage cards, mostly, and autographed cards — and his enthusiasm is so contagious that he’s changed some of the card culture in the Cardinals’ clubhouse. Neshek even collects them, competitively.
He has pieced together a complete set of 1970 Topps cards that he says is the third-ranked collection in the world, based on the quality of the cards. He slowly has found as many 10.0-graded cards — the score given flawless condition — as possible and the average grade of his 720-card set is the third highest. Since the end of spring training, he’s acquired enough 10s to inch up from 9.07 to 9.10.
“There’s the hunt of it,” Neshek said. “And the other thing I like about it is you learn about baseball history. I didn’t really know what the heck happened in baseball history before I was born in 1980. When you get into this and you start paying attention you learn about these guys, you’ll see them in the clubhouse and you’ll know what they did.
“In a way, you’re part of preserving history.”
Neshek, 33, came to baseball cards like most do, as a kid, drawn by the thrill of a new wax pack. If he was good in church, he got to go to Shinder’s, a newsstand chain in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. He spent his money earned on a paper route on packs. After youth baseball games, he’d turn his treat tickets in more packs, sold at the concession stands. These were the days of overproduced, overvalued cards, and Neshek came to love them. Jose Canseco’s 1986 Rated Rookie Donruss card might be in that next pack.
His roommate at college brought him along on some autograph hunts — the Connecticut women’s basketball team one weekend; the Ohio State men’s team the next — and eventually they started harvesting signatures at minor-league ballparks of future stars. He said he decided then that he wanted to live near a minor-league ballpark.
Within a few years, he was drafted and working at a minor-league ballpark.
Instead of a life in baseball as a collector, his life in baseball was baseball.
Neshek, a sixth-round pick by his hometown Twins in 2002, made his major-league debut in 2006. He set up a Web site that invited fans to send him cards for autographs and offered a barter system. He would trade them game-used items for memorabilia. He had a puck from the movie “Slap Shot,” signed footballs and stacks of other items. He sat at home while recovering from Tommy John surgery and had a revelation.
“Why do I have so many pieces?” he recalled. “I’ve got to narrow this down, get into categories. It was almost like I was a hoarder. I’m going to really focus on the things that I wanted to go after.”
He focused on cards.
The graded 1970 set became a quest. A year ago, he set out to get a complete set of 1985 Topps with an autograph on every card. This season, he’s working the same for 1970 — a complete set of autographed cards. Using collector sites such as SportsCollectors Net and VintageCardPrices.com, Neshek is able to monitor what cards are in circulation and their recent cost. The collectors track what retired players respond to autographs, and how long they take to return cards. He recently got an autographed card returned by Lou Marone, a lefty who pitched 2 1/3 innings for Pittsburgh in 1970. Neshek dutifully notified the card-collecting community he got the autograph back 120 days after he sent.
Recently he landed a Willie McCovey autographed 1970 card on eBay for $20. He was thrilled “not to break the bank.” He got Nolan Ryan to sign a card during a visit to Texas He talked Reggie Jackson to sign one during a visit. Neshek swapped a signed Joe Mauer card for a Darrell Porter autographed card.
Sometimes he slips a check in with the card hoping that increases the chances of a return. One of the final five cards he got to finish his 1985 autographed collection was from former MVP Fred Lynn. It came with a note.
“I loved facing sinker-ballers,” Lynn wrote, “so I’m signing your card. Good luck with your career.”
“I love it when I come home and there’s something waiting for me,” he said.
That joy he’s tried to share with his teammates.
Letters from kids and collectors alike gather in stacks at the Cardinals’ spring training facility and Busch Stadium. This spring, Neshek did as he has with previous teams, such as Oakland and Minnesota, and organized impromptu signing parties. Several times during spring training, Cardinals sat around the table in the clubhouse. Joe Kelly called it, “Fan Mail Friday.” Peter Bourjos and Kelly would open letters. Matt Carpenter would read a select few aloud. Michael Wacha would sign his cards. Neshek would pop the cards in the self-addressed stamped envelopes and then seal them. Then they would rotate. Carpenter would open. Kelly would read. Trevor Rosenthal would sign. And so on.
Neshek said he’ll organize similar signing parties during the regular season.
Neshek’s fondness for cards and well-known quests connected him to Evan Kaplan in about 2007. Kaplan, the union’s director of licensing and business development, invited Neshek to the union’s offices to see some of the new products.
On another visit they opened about $5,000 worth of cards or more. Neshek has recruited teammates to help promote collecting cards. And last week he led Wong, Kevin Siegrist, Seth Maness, and Randy Choate into the MLBPA’s business affairs conference room. Kaplan talked about each brand of card — the 2014 Topps cards, the 2014 Topps Gypsy Queen, 2014 Topps Heritage, and more – and then … let ’em rip.
Siegrist wondered why he didn’t have a card yet.
Within the first few packs opened, the players had found one.
Wong had the score of the day — or “pull,” in collector lingo — when he found a card, No. 26 of 50, that had a sliver of Babe Ruth’s bat embedded in it. He kept it. Most of the rest went to Neshek. He estimates that he has between 20,000 and 25,000 cards. He still has dozens of autographed 1970 cards to get to complete his collection, from Cookie Rojas’ to Ernie Banks’ to Bob Gibson’s. He was able to get Lou Brock’s during spring training. Some of the players have died, so he’ll apply autographs he can get to the cards, when possible.
At some point another consolidation is approaching.
The boy who collected baseball cards and grew up to be on baseball cards has his eye on an ultimate prize. The grail for card collectors is a Honus Wagner card from the early 1900s, the T206. Neshek would like to flip his many treasures into the biggest of them all.
“I would love that card. That might be the end game,” he said. “Then I could carry it with me.
<aside id="asset-related" class="grid_3 left">
This Lou Brock card is part of Pat Neshek’s complete 1970 Topps set that is the third most valuable in the world.
</aside> Early last week four Cardinals and the club’s pied piper of wax packs filed in for a conference at the players’ union offices in Manhattan and found boxes upon boxes of baseball cards piled on a table. Inside each were 2014 and 2013 cards, shelf prices of $1 to $100 per pack, and, most importantly, they were unopened.
Four Cardinals went out of curiosity.
For Pat Neshek, this was Christmas.
“All the guys who went we didn’t know what to expect,” said rookie Kolten Wong. “Neshek — he’s such an avid collector. I got to sit next to him and every cool card I opened I showed him. ‘Oh, yeah, that’s a good card!’ Or, ‘Nah, that’s not a good card.’ Just being around him made us excited over the cards to see what we could pull.”
Neshek, a Cardinals righthanded reliever, makes this pilgrimage annually to the Major League Baseball Players’ Association headquarters and its bonanza of baseball cards. For most players, these cards are something they get in the mail, something they sign, and something they sometimes send back in self-addressed stamps envelope. Neshek is one of the people sending cards out to be signed. The sidearmer collects cards — vintage cards, mostly, and autographed cards — and his enthusiasm is so contagious that he’s changed some of the card culture in the Cardinals’ clubhouse. Neshek even collects them, competitively.
He has pieced together a complete set of 1970 Topps cards that he says is the third-ranked collection in the world, based on the quality of the cards. He slowly has found as many 10.0-graded cards — the score given flawless condition — as possible and the average grade of his 720-card set is the third highest. Since the end of spring training, he’s acquired enough 10s to inch up from 9.07 to 9.10.
“There’s the hunt of it,” Neshek said. “And the other thing I like about it is you learn about baseball history. I didn’t really know what the heck happened in baseball history before I was born in 1980. When you get into this and you start paying attention you learn about these guys, you’ll see them in the clubhouse and you’ll know what they did.
“In a way, you’re part of preserving history.”
Neshek, 33, came to baseball cards like most do, as a kid, drawn by the thrill of a new wax pack. If he was good in church, he got to go to Shinder’s, a newsstand chain in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. He spent his money earned on a paper route on packs. After youth baseball games, he’d turn his treat tickets in more packs, sold at the concession stands. These were the days of overproduced, overvalued cards, and Neshek came to love them. Jose Canseco’s 1986 Rated Rookie Donruss card might be in that next pack.
His roommate at college brought him along on some autograph hunts — the Connecticut women’s basketball team one weekend; the Ohio State men’s team the next — and eventually they started harvesting signatures at minor-league ballparks of future stars. He said he decided then that he wanted to live near a minor-league ballpark.
Within a few years, he was drafted and working at a minor-league ballpark.
Instead of a life in baseball as a collector, his life in baseball was baseball.
Neshek, a sixth-round pick by his hometown Twins in 2002, made his major-league debut in 2006. He set up a Web site that invited fans to send him cards for autographs and offered a barter system. He would trade them game-used items for memorabilia. He had a puck from the movie “Slap Shot,” signed footballs and stacks of other items. He sat at home while recovering from Tommy John surgery and had a revelation.
“Why do I have so many pieces?” he recalled. “I’ve got to narrow this down, get into categories. It was almost like I was a hoarder. I’m going to really focus on the things that I wanted to go after.”
He focused on cards.
The graded 1970 set became a quest. A year ago, he set out to get a complete set of 1985 Topps with an autograph on every card. This season, he’s working the same for 1970 — a complete set of autographed cards. Using collector sites such as SportsCollectors Net and VintageCardPrices.com, Neshek is able to monitor what cards are in circulation and their recent cost. The collectors track what retired players respond to autographs, and how long they take to return cards. He recently got an autographed card returned by Lou Marone, a lefty who pitched 2 1/3 innings for Pittsburgh in 1970. Neshek dutifully notified the card-collecting community he got the autograph back 120 days after he sent.
Recently he landed a Willie McCovey autographed 1970 card on eBay for $20. He was thrilled “not to break the bank.” He got Nolan Ryan to sign a card during a visit to Texas He talked Reggie Jackson to sign one during a visit. Neshek swapped a signed Joe Mauer card for a Darrell Porter autographed card.
Sometimes he slips a check in with the card hoping that increases the chances of a return. One of the final five cards he got to finish his 1985 autographed collection was from former MVP Fred Lynn. It came with a note.
“I loved facing sinker-ballers,” Lynn wrote, “so I’m signing your card. Good luck with your career.”
“I love it when I come home and there’s something waiting for me,” he said.
That joy he’s tried to share with his teammates.
Letters from kids and collectors alike gather in stacks at the Cardinals’ spring training facility and Busch Stadium. This spring, Neshek did as he has with previous teams, such as Oakland and Minnesota, and organized impromptu signing parties. Several times during spring training, Cardinals sat around the table in the clubhouse. Joe Kelly called it, “Fan Mail Friday.” Peter Bourjos and Kelly would open letters. Matt Carpenter would read a select few aloud. Michael Wacha would sign his cards. Neshek would pop the cards in the self-addressed stamped envelopes and then seal them. Then they would rotate. Carpenter would open. Kelly would read. Trevor Rosenthal would sign. And so on.
Neshek said he’ll organize similar signing parties during the regular season.
Neshek’s fondness for cards and well-known quests connected him to Evan Kaplan in about 2007. Kaplan, the union’s director of licensing and business development, invited Neshek to the union’s offices to see some of the new products.
On another visit they opened about $5,000 worth of cards or more. Neshek has recruited teammates to help promote collecting cards. And last week he led Wong, Kevin Siegrist, Seth Maness, and Randy Choate into the MLBPA’s business affairs conference room. Kaplan talked about each brand of card — the 2014 Topps cards, the 2014 Topps Gypsy Queen, 2014 Topps Heritage, and more – and then … let ’em rip.
Siegrist wondered why he didn’t have a card yet.
Within the first few packs opened, the players had found one.
Wong had the score of the day — or “pull,” in collector lingo — when he found a card, No. 26 of 50, that had a sliver of Babe Ruth’s bat embedded in it. He kept it. Most of the rest went to Neshek. He estimates that he has between 20,000 and 25,000 cards. He still has dozens of autographed 1970 cards to get to complete his collection, from Cookie Rojas’ to Ernie Banks’ to Bob Gibson’s. He was able to get Lou Brock’s during spring training. Some of the players have died, so he’ll apply autographs he can get to the cards, when possible.
At some point another consolidation is approaching.
The boy who collected baseball cards and grew up to be on baseball cards has his eye on an ultimate prize. The grail for card collectors is a Honus Wagner card from the early 1900s, the T206. Neshek would like to flip his many treasures into the biggest of them all.
“I would love that card. That might be the end game,” he said. “Then I could carry it with me.
