To start, I have to admit that the office space Defector rents in Brooklyn is more Fortress of Solitude than Daily Planet. It's great to have a physical location we can all call our own, and it comes in handy during times of need, but it is not hustle and bustle day by day. It's easy to go a little while without making the commute.
I say that all to try to justify how the mass of mail caught me by surprise. This morning, when I entered the office, I was greeted by about two dozen envelopes addressed to me or David Roth. I genuinely do not remember putting out any kind of call for this mail, and I promise this is not a request for more. But when I took the ones that had my name on them over to my desk, it was a rare delight to open the first and see, without any context whatsoever, a card of 1990 NBA Most Improved Player Rony Seikaly, featuring Michael Jordan. It was so clearly pleading to be remembered.
This continued for the next five minutes or so. Some individuals sent more modern cards—2019 second-round Islanders draft pick Samuel Bolduc appeared next, again with no note or anything. Then came recent Cowboys draft selection Luke Schoonmaker and negative-WAR infielder Drew Ellis. The back of the Ellis card calls him a "Buffalo Wild Wings enthusiast" who "likes playing Call of Duty."
Also arriving by his lonesome was this handsomely wrapped Šarūnas Marčiulionis, European basketball trailblazer and friend of the Grateful Dead.
Here are some more baseball cards I received. Darrin Fletcher is pictured as a member of the Phillies. A.J. Puk, currently a struggling Marlin, has a "Bowman Briefing" on the back that includes "Eats lunch with fellow pitcher Jesus Luzardo nearly every day." Eddie Murray, despite making the Hall of Fame, earns a kind of intangible Guy-ish status in this particular case for being catalogued as a Met. (The back of the card, in a neat twist, breaks down his 1991 stats against each and every NL team he faced.)
Finally, I give you this collection—the sports equivalent of a losing scratch-off. There is Blake Bortles, honored for throwing 37 TDs; John Broussard; Franklin Barreto; Jordan Balazovic ("Tacked on 30 pounds of beneficial weight since turning pro"); Mark "Crab" Appel; Garret Anderson and Mike Bibby, both unfairly included; and someone named Spencer Adams.
If you sent mail to Roth, I can't guarantee when he'll open it. But thank you for these. If you're interested, David and I are going to be on Twitch doing some remembrances Thursday at 4:00 p.m. ET.
