I decided to take the show on the road a couple weeks ago and the results are in. Well, at least the episode that came out of a 2-hour stay at AZ Sports Cards in Phoenix is now ready for public consumption:-)
In actuality, I had no preconceived notion what might occur when I sat at the high top table with my phone, a microphone, some business cards, and a handful of 2025 Allen & Ginter packs John Gola, owner of AZ Sports Cards, had donated to the cause for me to hand to any brave souls who were open to chatting with me.
The first Conversation was an easy one. We caught up with former guest Don Drooker (S:1, E:11) whose sports fan journey is still one of the most popular shows in our four-plus season history. (Seriously, if you’ve not listened to that one yet, do yourself a favor and head over there ASAP. The man name drops Ted Williams, Bill Russell, and Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field … yes, there was one!)
Clockwise from upper left, during my Conversation with Achilles, his dad, siblings, and cousins served as an audience; Carrie and Melissa were in town from Wisconsin, enjoying the warm weather, and some Milwaukee Brewers’ baseball; John’s a fan of the Chicago White Sox and sounded an optimistic tone about the south siders for this season; Josh and Tim were part of my traveling team who were along on the Around the World in 80 Sporting Events journey for Cactus League action. (All photos by Stephen Miller)
From there, I was able to speak to seven customers who’d happened into AZ Sports Cards that Monday morning and I learned about who they were fans of and why they were in the store. As you can imagine, some were Arizonans but many others were snowbirds or vacationers who, like me, were in town for some Cactus League action. They got to open some packs and talk about some of their favorite finds as well and, Achilles, gifted my father a Ron Santo he pulled, which warmed my heart and made my dad smile when I told him about it.
To learn what AZ Sports Cards is up to, give their Facebook page a Like and Follow here.