This is a look back at #mybestnine on my @bravestarrcards Instagram account. I’ll put the same disclaimer as previous years… this is not “MY” best nine really, it’s more of your best nine. You made the little heart turn red and I just like looking at how many times you did that and trying to figure out why.
There are a couple consistent factors that help out for this. First, a big name it will get recognized. Second, Things skew toward newer players. And last but not least, I hashtag the crap out of these things. I put tags for the cities, nicknames and all sorts of things – anything that will get it recognized. I think with all the themed weeks I did this year that tends to bring some other people in sometimes and not just the TTM/collector crowd.
So here they are, the #mybestnine from Instagram…
Rocket Ismail
9/6/2020 – Rocket… Yeah… Satellite of love… (part of #backtoschool weekend)
Rocket’s post appeared for #backtoschool weekend so I think that general gets other people looking at the post. But I will also say that this was one of my favorite cards that I posted this year. I love the way he ends up circling himself with his signature on this card. I also just think its a great image for a card though.
Harold Baines
7/5/2020 – Harold Baines. (part of #halloffame week)
I’ll say that it never hurts to post a Hall of Famer for the likes and Harold appeared as part of my #halloffame week of themed posts so that helped him out too. What I can’t explain is that I had guys like Boggs and Sandberg to post that week as well and Harold ended up being the most liked out of all of them. I was really thinking that more from this week would appear but a lot of them were just under the cut to make it into the nine.
Luis Castillo
3/10/2020 – My first current player return of Spring Training.
There’s so much that this card made me think of. You can really say this was “before coronavirus” because that isn’t true. But it was before EVERYTHING shut down and Spring Training was done right around this time in March. I know that as of about three days later I didn’t end up going to the office again. The only thing that got me back to work was cleaning out the office of one of my employees who passed away. Bringing dates in March just bring up a lot of odd/bad memories.
George Kittle
3/17/2020 – Here Kittle, Kittle, Kittle.
This one came in in 2019 but the way my backlog was it just never got posted. The funny part here is that I don’t get much football and I REALLY don’t get much new football signed. So having a current player sign is almost odd to me. This is a good one though.
Dennis Lamp
10/3/2020 – An enlightening TTM success.
This is the first one that feels off the wall to me. I can’t explain how Dennis Lamp gets this high in My Best Nine list. It wasn’t even part of a themed week or anything like that. I will say it looks really good and Dennis’ signature is great, but I can’t explain if there was something else that got you all to like it. Was my Dad joke that good?
Sal Romano
7/12/2020 – Cousin Sal. (part of #queencity week)
Sal Romano was actually two returns in one. He definitely gets a bump for being a new card/current player. But this was a combo of a 2019 Spring Training attempt and a new return that I tried to his home address. I guess I wrote off the first attempt.
Pat Neshek
8/17/2020 – You’re gonna eat lightnin’ and crap thunder. (part of #cityofbrotherlylove week)
Pat is the only player to appear in this year’s and last year’s Best Nine. He’s obviously a fellow collector and is a great signer. But I think the reason he made it here this time is the sunglasses.
Jay Bell
9/9/2020 – You can ring my Bell.
Jay is the second guy that I can’t really explain as much. I feel like it honestly just might be the colors and that this picture maybe stood out on a feed a little bit.
Steve Garvey
8/9/2020 – Stevie G. (part of #cityofangels week)
Steve is one of those borderline Stars / Hall of Famers that tends to get a lot of likes. I think it helps when he is in a Dodgers uniform, but I don’t have data that would tell me that a Padres uniform gets him much less.
Thanks for the Likes!
I almost said thanks for a good year, but it’s hard to really write that. Still, I really appreciate all those that follow the blog, Twitter, and Instagram. I hope you at least get a chuckle out of a Dad joke everyone once in a while. And to those that read the posts I put together I hope you enjoy them and get something out of them. I appreciate the eyeballs on my stuff.
Here’s to hoping this year can be better in a lot of ways!
If you liked what you saw here, give me a follow @bravestarrcards on Instagram and Twitter.
Love the Garv and some of those modern guys have nice signatures even if you can’t read all the words!
I don’t always mind not being able to read it. I think there are times the sacrifice of being legible for arts sake is good. But when it’s different if there’s no style. Be distinct!