Zero-Year Cards, Part 26

2008 Topps Update #UH126 Morgan Ensberg (Indians)

I'd guess that most of us have traditions when it comes to baseball cards.

Maybe you build the Topps flagship set every year. Maybe you try and get all the cards of your favorite team each card season. Maybe you always attend the same card show, perhaps always buying stuff from the same dealer. 

In dealing with cards, tradition equals devotion. Could you really imagine your collection without those "traditions" that you do every year, or even every month?

I've got a few of my own baseball card "traditions", but the one that sticks out is my year-in, year-out devotion to the Topps Update set.

I've bought a hobby box of Update every year since 2007. Seeing all the players in their new uniforms is one of my favorite things in the hobby, and no set does it better on a year-to-year basis than Update. (Although I do wish Topps would bring back the Heritage High Numbers sets.)

2008 was the year it became a tradition for me. 2007 was my first full year of my return to collecting baseball cards, and Topps Update was the only box I sampled that year.

Breaking that box in '07 was my first-ever introduction to Topps Update. I gave it another go-around in '08, and it was even better than before. 

From then on, I knew that this was something I had to do every year.

One of my big "pulls" from my '08 Update box was this Morgan Ensberg "zero-year" card. I'm a big Ensberg fan, although I'm not exactly sure why. It was odd seeing him in anything other than an Astros uniform, though. This was the first (and only) card produced of him as a part of any other organization besides Houston.

Unfortunately, it wound up being his final card as well.

He signed with the Yankees for the 2008 season, but was released after playing in just 28 games for them. The Indians signed him in June of '08, but he never got out of the minors in Cleveland's system. 

He'd have a spring training stint with the Rays in '09, but was released before the season began. He's been out of baseball since.

Even the most random collectors such as myself need a little bit of tradition in our day-to-day collecting lives.

Otherwise, there would be chaos.