USA Baseball

We're gearing up for the Olympics in the Card Stacks house. When my wife and I first started dating in 2012 the Olympics were a big topic of conversation, something we were both interested in and had regular conversations about. What our favorite events were, keeping up with the medal counts, etc... We enjoyed the 2012 Olympics together. The Summer Olympics will always be special for us, and we've had to wait an extra year for the Summer Olympics to come back around. This year is the first year where my son is interested in baseball as well, so the Olympics and baseball will both be on center stage in our house. 

Naturally we had to prepare our boys for the Olympics by grabbing some Team USA gear, a few tshirts and a USA Baseball Hat for our 4 year old son. When the box arrived with the hat, which is awesome by the way, what do we find?

Well look at that, an unexpected surprise in our box. We immediately opened the pack, and here's what we found.

All base cards, it seems, but one name that I immediately recognized. Kyle Wright, a former 1st round pick for the Atlanta Braves, is currently in AAA Gwinnett and has 14 career starts for the big league club.

Here's a look at the back of the Kyle Wright card.

Solid design, and it's nice to see some Panini cards with logos, even USA baseball ones. The back of the Kyle Wright mentions his success from the 2016 Collegiate National Team, college success at Vanderbilt and being drafted in the first round by the Braves.

I did a quick eBay search to see if any former Greenville Drive players have USA cards. Tim Federowicz played for the Drive in 2009, but that was before I started watching the team. I actually remember him more from his days at North Carolina. His Tar Heels had some ACC matchups with my Virginia Tech Hokies when I was in school at Tech.

Triston Casas is on Team USA playing 1st base. He's in AA Portland in the Red Sox Organization, a former Boston 1st round draft pick, and is a guy I did see play for Greenville in person a handful of times in 2019.

I ended up picking up a card of Casas from 2017 Panini Stars and Stripes. This is my first card of Casas but I expect I'll end up with more. It shows Casas from his time with the 18U National Team, when he was 16 years old. He's 21 now and playing in the Olympics.

Hopefully the team has success in the Olympics in Tokyo. Since baseball was made an official Olympic sport in 1992, the United States has one Gold Medal (2000), and two Bronze Medals (1996, 2008). And 2008 was the last games where baseball was included until now. Excited to follow this team.

Since it appears Panini has a license to produce USA baseball cards, is anything stopping them from producing a set with players from Team USA Olympic team? Or a product from any company with players from all the countries participating in baseball in Tokyo? Topps has an Olympic and Paralympic Hopefuls product recently released, but no baseball players appear in that set. If there's no plans to either release a set with baseball players participating in the games in Tokyo, that seems like a missed opportunity. 

Who is else watching baseball in the Olympics this year? Any teams or players you're looking out for specifically?