Just for the "F" of It #19 - 2004 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Philip Hughes Auto 0344/1485

Back when I lived in Southern California, I frequently attended an LCS called MVP Sportscards in Laguna Hills.  The store is still there and on the infrequent times I make it to Orange County I always stop in. It is run by a great husband and wife team and they had the perfect variety of cards for this collector.  They had boxes of all the new stuff, singles of new and vintage cards and stocked boxes of oddball cards from the late 90s and early 00s. 

I used to go in weekly and typically would buy a box of cards and perhaps some singles.  When there wasn't anything new to get, I would dabble in some of the cards that were a few years old.  I had lots of fun opening up cards a few years old and one of those boxes was a box of 2004 Donruss Elite Edition.  As I recall, each box had multiple hits and today's Just for the "F" of it card is one of the hits from that box.

The owner was a long time resident of the area and was instantly excited when I pulled this card:

Philip Hughes was a draftee of the Yankees and wasn't real well know, at least to me.  But the owner knew him because he grew up locally and was a pretty highly regarded prospect.  You can see from the write up on this back of his card that he went to high school in Santa Ana which is in north Orange County.

Because he was a local guy, I decided this card would be a keeper.  Hughes ended up having a decent career playing 12 seasons with the Yankees, Twins and Padres.  One year with the Twins he won 16 games and earned some Cy Young Award votes.  He retired after the 2018 season.

Recently I discovered that Phil is a fellow card collector which adds to my desire to keep this card in my collection.  He has a popular Youtube channel called Phil's Pulls that I have been watching for a few weeks.    He has over 37k subscribers and primarily breaks newer stuff.  Recently he started breaking some 90s stuff which has been fun to watch.

I have always appreciated the relationship I built with MVP Sportscards and the help they gave me with my collection.  I am also happy that they were in tune with the local high school baseball scene and demonstrated the enthusiasm over a Yankee draftee that results in me keeping this card, just of the fun of it.