My Favorite card of 2018

Unlike some years, this one was pretty easy. I didn't really mention it until recently, on the Trading Card Database, but 2018 was the year of hockey. OK, last year was too, but this year, Hockey became #1. The NHL has surpassed the NBA and NASCAR for #1 in my interest list. (and it will soon surpass it in number of different people in my collection as well, update on that soon, probably next week.)

And for hockey, it all started with the Golden Knights. As you may recall, I got into hockey because I wanted to see what the new logo was, after seeing a thread discussing it (but not showing it) on the Trading Card Database. I put on NHL Network to see, and by the end of On the Fly (which was repeating the next morning, around 8AM based on my posts on the Database) I was hooked on the sport. Hockey has been a part of every single day of my life since then, and it's increasing in importance all the time. That, however, was November 2016. The Golden Knights debuted in the 2017-18 season, and it was magical. There are some teams that are just "special"- and that team was one of them. As an expansion team, they succeeded beyond anyone's expectations, including their own, and got all the way to the Stanley Cup finals! They were not able to win it all, but before the season began, the stated goal was to make it to the Finals within 6 years. Mission accomplished!

Even though they are not doing as well this year, they are still one of my favorite teams in all of sports (even though the Rangers actually are my #1 team, they got that spot during the final few months of the 2016-17 season before the Golden Knights began playing), and if they had won the Cup last year, I am pretty sure it would have been the greatest sports moment of my life, not something I say lightly as this is my 32nd year of being a sports fan.

My favorite card is from the 50 card boxed set that Upper Deck released to honor their first season.

It's #48 in the 50 card set, and shows not only most of the team celebrating, it also shows their mascot, and cheerleaders. I just noticed when making this post, even though I've seen the card dozens of times, in hand and on my computer- it's a UER. Upper Deck dated it 2019!

With all that said, if I had been able to get the promo card of Gritty that Upper Deck was giving away at the Expo, that probably would have been my card of the year. But, unfortunately, I have been unable to get a copy.

Don't forget to post your favorite card of the year. P-Town Tom is holding his now annual contest and it always brings out some great cards.