[osujeffrey]

Greetings and thanks for taking the time to read and have a look.

In 1993 when I joined the Navy I moved cross country to San Diego. One of the many socal perks other then long deployments and 20 yrs of Naval headaches was my first access to Major League Ballparks. I was amazed by the cheap bleacher seats (cheaper then a movie...yeah I sound and am old and fell in love with both the Angels and Padres.

Due to park proximity I went to more Padres games but always rooted for the Halos. I got to see the Padres series run, Tony Gwynn's last game and Rickey's 3000th hit to name a few highlights.

Unfortunetly, retirement in 2012 has seen me move to the UK where I am now.
This previous summer I was able to take our family back to California and the state they were both born in. Months before the trip I began writing the Angels public relations office trying to make the unusual request of a game day stadium tour due to our limited time in the area, ability to only visit the stadium once and the distance traveled (over 4000 miles).
The Angels could not have been more gracious. The head of pr greeted us at the gate, gave out free caps and provided an amzing tour of the park hours before the game. We got to see batting practice, the dugouts and visit the Autry family suite. Truly an amazing day and an Angels win!!

Anyway, I wanted to share some pics from my trip to the park as well as my progress on my first player collection. I love Shohei, his work ethic, his humble nature and ambition are straight out of a movie (Trout's as well for that matter). I normally only collect vintage but I hopped on the bandwagon in a big way!!

Thanks for looking, comments appreciated,
Respectfully,
Jeff

20180808_103418 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr

Topps1 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr
Topps2 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr
Topps3 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr
Topps5 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr
Topps6 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr
Topps4 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr
bgs4 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr
bgs1 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr
bgs3 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr

MORE SCANS IN MY NEXT POST ON THIS THREAD....thanks again if you made it this far

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Here Comes the rest....
bgs5 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr
bgs6 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr
Bow1 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr
Bow2 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr
DK1 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr
Druss1 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr

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20180808_203947 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr
20180808_103738 by Jeffrey Rucker, on Flickr

[rjcj2017]

Very nice, love the pics and the collection!

[DrMitchJ]

Awesome Ohtani collection ... thousands of dollars
Great Day at the Stadium w/ family .... priceless

Glad you were able to arrange an unforgettable memory for your kids!

[alstott9adams]

Very cool Nice stuff glad the kids enjoyed it

[bonds20001]

Thanks for sharing!!!

[scottzoe]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing and thanks to the Angels organization as well!

Scott

[zeprock]

Looks like an awesome adventure! Congrats! Very nice Ohtani collection too.

[mgruber2]

Nice story and nice Ohtani collection!

[northflacards]

Very cool story and collection

[osujeffrey]

Thanks everyone. I have been away forever and a day but just renewed my opg and am looking forward to checking out everyones posts. (Good to see some familier banners.

I have the topps ssp 700 hand on hat Ohtani and a few more tek #ds on the way will look for a place for a pc/player collections thread and keep updating!