First pack of 2018

It's been awhile since my last card activity. Adding a baby, now toddler to the mix can have that effect. I'm sure a good many of you can attest.

I've followed the card blogs a bit, but seeing Stadium Club on the shelves at my local target finally led me to spend my first dollars on cardboard in 2018.

I asked my son to pick up a 36 card pack of Topps Series 1 and a 12 card pack of Stadium Club (there were four Stadium Club packs on the shelves. Next time I went to target they were all gone). I opened the Topps Series 1 pack first, and since my favorite player in the game today showed up in the pack, I'm calling it my first card of 2018.

Doesn't get much better in this hobby than opening up a pack and finding your favorite player.

You've seen plenty of base cards by this point, so here's one of the highlights of the pack for me. A World Series highlight, in fact. This is one of Springer's five home runs in the 2017 World Series.

This looks like a gold parallel, and it is. The window threw me off. The serial number on this one was 1812, which made me think, wouldn't it be cool to pull a team card with a serial number of the year of the team's first season or the team's founding? Anyone out there with a Dodgers card with a serial number of 1883? Anyone need this Justin Turner card?

And the interests from the pack. I guess Machado will make himself into a legend on another team here shortly. To all the Orioles fans out there, I feel for you and hope that the players coming back end up making a difference down the road.

The D-Backs just took two of three from the Braves before the All-Star break and Goldschmidt is a big part of the success they are seeing. With all the player movement these days, I appreciate seeing a guy stay with a team for the long term.

I would like the Superstar Sensations insert set better if the colors matched the team colors rather than seeing purple on every card.

Since Stadium Club is always my favorite set each year, I'll have to devote an entire post to that pack. Hopefully it's not another 11 months before the next post!

I'll be watching the All-Star game tonight. Mookie, Freddie Freeman, and Nick Markakis in his first AS game and starting - a lot to get excited about!

Stack from Cards On Cards Hits Every Part of Collection

Back in September, Kerry from Cards on Cards sent me a large stack of cards that hit just about every part of my wantlist and player collections, including a bunch of Indiana Pacer cards that fit nicely into my basketball collection, which I am starting to get back into and document here. While I opened the package from Kerry back in the Fall, life dictated that I am just getting around to sharing it now. More on that soon. What a stack of cards it is! And below are just the highlights!

I love getting new cards of Cesar Izturis. While I mainly followed him when he was playing for the Dodgers, he ended up on a number of different teams in his career, and these are the first post-Dodgers Izturis cards that go into my binder. Known for his work in the field, these two cards from 2012 Topps Update and 2008 Upper Deck show him at work there.

The Andruw Jones is from another one of the Ultra sets that I'm a big fan of. Will look to pick up the other Braves to complete a team set.

I wonder if we'll have any cards in Pizza products this year? These are the first two that go into my binder. I did open a few packs of these but didn't hit any of my guys. I'm still looking for the Freeman and then I'll have the ones I want.

  

Can't go wrong with a Heritage insert of one of my favorite players. Already a 3-time All-Star at age 24, what a career Manny could have if this level of play continues.

A trio of Ripken inserts. Almost any Ripken card is going to be new to me, so every package with Cal is like Christmas morning. Really digging the Gypsy Queen N174 insert. Would be a pretty set to display in a binder. The third card is from 2012 Panini Triple Play and is a neat design despite any logos. The second card from 1994 Stadium Club is so cool, I had to research to find out more about it.

Here is the card back. This is a Dugout Dirt insert from 1994 Stadium Club. All aboard the Ripken Express! This has to be one of my favorite cards, and especially card backs. Look out Lou Gehrig!

Yoan Moncada's time with the local Greenville Drive was fun and I'm glad I made it out to a game to see him play. Dirt was kept, player t-shirts were sold, there was lots of excitement around the team when he came to town. Even though he's since been traded to the White Sox in the deal for Chris Sale, I'm still glad to have cards of former Drive players in my collection. 

A trio of cards from the best pitcher in baseball? (Actually 4, an Opening Day card like the one in the middle was also included). Can't beat that. Right? Well it keeps getting better. Particularly like this Power Players insert from 2014 Topps, by the way.

Lastly we have a trio of Mookie cards that weren't already on my have list. Mookie has three cards from The Future is Now insert set from 2014 Topps, and now I can cross this one off.

Another Mookie from 2014 Topps, this time from the Update set showing his MLB Debut. I love cards like these. Nice shot of Yankee Stadium in the background. Mookie went 1-3 with a walk, a hit, and a run scored. His first hit was a single to center in the top of the 4th inning.

Last card I'm showing- I thought this was a base card from 2015 Topps...

Turns out it is a Boston Red Sox version of the card. So I can cross that off my list as well! This stack of cards was full of surprises.

Thanks again Kerry- I've got a stack of Trail Blazers to send your way soon!

2015 Finest Stack

Over the past week I've been catching up on sorting and putting my 2015 cards into binders. While I prefer the 2014 Finest design over 2015, some of the cards below are pretty slick.

Oftentimes cards like this fail to scan as well as I'd like, but these scanned nicely. You can even tell which cards are refractors. Here we've got the base card, followed by a Prism Refractor of Manny Machado. Adam Jones really picked things up offensively in the month of June.

Base, refractor, and black refractor of Julio Teheran. Maybe I should go after the whole set of parallels for him. Teheran is quickly becoming one of my all-time favorite Braves. It's been fun to watch him pitch despite getting little to no run support.

And a base and black refractor of Freddie. 

I don't understand why the different parallels aren't labeled somewhere on the back. Pulling these from packs it'd be tough to tell what you have, especially if you've been out of the game awhile. I wouldn't know the difference between a prism parallel and a regular refractor. But overall, a solid design. Over the last several years, I rank them this way: 1) 2014 2) 2015 3) 2016

2015 Archives Stack

Someone's playing catch-up. Posting about last year's Archives well after I posted about this year's set. In general bloggers seem to like 2016 Archives better than previous years.

A closeup of Julio. Glad the Braves decided to hold onto this guy. Some of the text on his card is hard to read because of the Braves uniform. Same thing on the Freeman and Chipper. Nice cards otherwise. Hoping Freeman sees some better pitches to hit now that Matt Kemp is in town.

A trio of Orioles. Eddie Murray is my favorite in this row. Fancy sideburns. Gausman is turning in a pretty solid season for the Orioles, who are right in the playoff race despite a pretty poor rotation overall.

Love this card of Hahn, a former Virginia Tech Hokie pitcher. He's been in AAA Nashville for a good portion of this season, but recently had a strong start for the A's. Hopefully he gets another opportunity for some consistent starts before the end of the season. He's proven he can be a reliable starting option over the last few seasons.

I was sad to see Alex Wood traded as part of the deal to acquire Hector Olivera from the Dodgers. We saw how that played out for Atlanta. Looks like Alex Wood might be back from injury in September and used in a reliever role.

This Kershaw is probably the best card in this post. He sure has some great cards over the last few years, doesn't he?

I would like the Braves from this row if the top part of the border was red rather than purple. The Machado looks great! Both of the Braves are of course with other teams. Shelby Miller has not fared too well since leaving the Braves, making his trade look even more lopsided as of now.

I agree with the verdict that 2016 beats the 2015 version of Archives, as nice as a few of these 2015 cards look.

Talked About So Much, but Still Underrated

Stadium Club photography is talked about all over the blogosphere and it's now the identifying feature of a modern Stadium Club set. While it's widely discussed, the photography is far and away better than any other set that I still think it's underrated.

I just picked up my first cards from 2016 Stadium Club the other day, but I realized I hadn't even posted about a stack of 2015 Stadium Club I picked up last year! 

Will the Braves rotation ever get back to where it was in the mid-90s? Seems unlikely, but they are trying with all the young pitchers the team is accumulating.

For the second year in a row, Adam Jones has a memorable card in Stadium Club. In 2014 it was flags with Jones running onto the field.

The All-Star, MVP candidate, and first-round pick and 'captain' of my fantasy baseball team this year.

I love a good sliding shot. First one I can remember featuring Freeman, although it's possible there's another out there.

 Another young pitcher having a solid year for a first place team. Notice the tongue.

My second-round pick for my fantasy baseball team, and my favorite player in the game today. These horizontal shots are great.

Definitely missing this guy this season. Erick Aybar has been pretty painful to watch.

Another of the more memorable cards from this Stadium Club release, I'm sure. Best pitcher in the game.

He may not be an 'ace' on every team, but he's our ace and all-star. He's also one of only three starters listed on the active roster as of Friday when this post was written. Sad times for the Atlanta rotation.

Wish I had thought of this card for a July 4th post. Perfect way to end things in this one. 

Opening Day Stack

Last month I posted a pack of Opening Day I opened that served as the start of the blogging year for me. After getting a taste of 2016 cards I had to add more from this set to cover my player and team collections.

These three fit into individual player collections. Machado has developed into a true star. I worry he will leave Baltimore and go another team. Seeing him in pinstripes for the Yankees would be a nightmare. Mookie continues to lead off the Red Sox lineup where I expect him to stay for years to come. Sano's bat is slowly coming around after a cold start. His average is up to .250.

Teheran is pitching well below the level from his 2014 All-Star season. Through four starts his ERA is 5.64. Not what you want from your number one starter. It is April and surely he will pitch better than he has thus far. The Braves could certainly use the help as they wait on the returns from recent trades. Freeman appears to be rounding the bases in this one. Neat card.

The blue parallels might be my favorite part of 2016 Opening Day. Was pleased to find the Mookie in particular. Also on this row is the first of the inserts. Alternate reality is not necessarily a better reality in the case of this insert set. To me none of the inserts are particularly exciting. But they are cheap cards of my favorite players, and I'm glad to add them to my collection.

Three more Alternate Reality inserts. Same guys as above. The Mookie is my favorite of this row. I guess the uniform colors mesh better with the colors on the rest of the card.

Here's the last of the inserts. Miguel Sano's power is coming back. He's hit two home runs in his last three games after hitting one in his first 15 games of 2016. The insert design is even worse than the ones above. Reminds me of a mid-2000s Upper Deck insert of some sort. 

The blue parallels are definitely the highlight of this release and I plan to pick up the remainder of the blue parallels that fit into my collection. 

Finest Additions

When 2014 Finest first came out and started appearing on blogs, I wanted to run out and pick these up. I showed some restraint, though, and waited until I had enough on my Just Commons order so I could get free shipping. And so several months after everyone else it seems, I've got a few singles from the set to add to my collection. Considering how beautiful these cards are, I'd say it was worth the wait.

We'll start off with the National League MVP. Several reasons why I like this guy, in addition to the obvious, that he is a dominant pitcher: he's left handed, gotta support the lefties. And he's 6'3", same height as me. He also seems to be a pretty level headed guy. As for my collection, this card makes Kershaw  number 14.

Freddie Freeman will be carrying the offensive load for the Braves for the next few seasons, it appears, after the Braves have now traded three of the team's best hitters this offseason. You can include Evan Gattis in that list as of Wednesday.

I think my favorite is the Machado, ready to fire off a throw to first or second, I am thinking. I'm trying to be positive about his injury problems. Maybe he will be able to move on from these and have a full season. All reports say he's feeling good.

2014 Finest ranks third of my sets of the year, behind Heritage and Stadium Club. I'd love to bust some packs of this stuff but I'll refrain with it being a hobby only release, and settle for adding these three to my player collections. Eventually I'll go after some of the parallels as they are too good looking not to.

Bowman Chrome Card Backs

In previous posts I've ranked Topps Heritage as my top base set for 2014, and with the season coming to a close, chances are slim that Heritage will be topped. If I had to rank card backs though, 2014 Bowman Chrome would best that list.

I admit that the Orioles playoff run has led me to favor them slightly in my recent pickups over my other wants, and I think it's understandable. A recent lot of Bowman Chrome from Just Commons reflects that tendency.

The away Orioles uniforms are my favorite in baseball right now, followed by the Braves alternate navy uniforms. So that's led me to go after some team sets for this memorable O's squad. Let's start with the guys that played in the playoffs.

And the guys I wish could have played against the Royals.

Now for those card backs I was referring to. Stats are nice, but graphics combined with stats are where it's at.

Maybe my favorite graphic on these card backs, the Spray Chart. Look at all those arrows for Chris Davis, showing all 53 of his HRs from 2013. Looks like the most went to right center.

Schoop, being a rookie, gets minor league organizational ranks, stats compared the average, and some 'insight', which is a random stat. So this card back would suggest that Schoop has some power despite batting near the bottom of the O's order this season.

And for Machado we see how he hit against left and right handers in 2013. Look at those averages up and in!

While I've been focusing on Orioles lately, I'm still picking up non-Orioles that fit in my Braves and player collections. Really excited to see what Alex Wood will do in 2015.

Freeman basically feasted on right handed pitching in 2013 based on the right graphic.

And my second favorite back behind the HR spray chart, the strikeout chart for Kershaw. Look at all those swinging strikeouts against the curve.

Very impressed with these card backs, and the fronts aren't bad either. This moves Bowman Chrome into 2nd on my 2014 set rankings. Here's the top 5...

1. Topps Heritage
2. Bowman Chrome
3. Gypsy Queen
4. Allen & Ginter
5. Topps Chrome

I moved Ginter above Topps Chrome after getting a lot of Ginter in recently.

NBA season starts tonight, coinciding with the potential World Series clinching game, and although the NBA kickoff may not excite too many of you out there in the baseball card realm, it's one of my favorite times of year. I am expecting the excitement to wear off fairly quick this year, as it looks like the Pacers will be mediocre this season. Good luck to whoever you're cheering for tonight, whether it be baseball or basketball!

Bowman Platinum and My First Ever 2014 Set Rankings

Generally I like shiny cards, especially ones of my favorite players. That's why I decided to add a few cards from 2014 Bowman Platinum in my recent Just Commons order.

And honestly, the lack of color on the design with a blurry background leaves me feeling 'meh' on these cards. They do look slightly better in person than they scan, because of course they are shiny. And of course I am glad to add any cards of these guys to my collection, but I feel like this is a base set that's missing what makes cards appealing to me, good action shots where you can see more than just the player, and/or more color.

And here we have the backs of the cards, with minimal stats and the metallic look.

I realized while scanning these cards that I've developed a sort of internal ranking on the 2014 base sets as I've picked up at least a few base cards from a lot of them. So of course I feel like I should share these rankings with you. I am only going to include sets that I have actually picked up cards from. We're going from least favorite to favorite here.

8) Donruss - No logos, no likey. Donruss comes in last.

7) Bowman Platinum - For the reason's I've listed in this post, but at least these have team logos.

6) Topps Archives - I like some of these, but they have several different designs in the same base set. I'd rather Topps just stick to one design and go with it for that year. Maybe I'm alone on that.

5) Topps - Affordable, lots of players, and I like the design just fine.  I think 2015 Topps will come in higher on the rankings.

4) Allen & Ginter - I guess A&G comes in next. It was fun to read all the box break posts while not spending much on it myself. I don't know that this year's is my favorite Ginter design, but I like the unique cards that show up in the set.

3) Topps Chrome - I've already written about how much I enjoy Chrome. I like shiny base cards and I like any and all versions of refractors. I've still yet to pick up a refractor or base cards of my favorite players. I need to fix this!

2) Gypsy Queen - I enjoy this set each year and I think it would rank near the top in just about any year. I think the color in these cards is why I like it so much.

1) Topps Heritage - My favorite set every year. About the time I started this blog, I looked back through a box of all the baseball cards in my collection, and about a fourth of them are probably from Heritage sets over the years. I've bought more packs of Heritage sets over the years than any other, and 2014 might be my favorite base set yet. So it comes in at the top of my list.

And there you have it, my personal 2014 set rankings!

The New Donruss Set

A recent Donruss basketball release from Panini is actually one of my all-time favorite basketball sets, believe it or not. If you're curious, check out a link to the set checklist and images.  I opened several boxes and found some great cards, nicely designed base cards and rookies, creative inserts, and a box with relics of Magic Johnson and John Stockton.  So when I noticed Panini has put out Donruss baseball sets, I expected a similar result.  I've read some not so positive reviews of this product, but I was able to pick up some cards of my favorite players on the cheap.

These three actually look pretty good, the Orioles in particular.  The orange on the sides at least distinguish these cards from those of other teams.  The 'Baltimore' text at least resembles what is written on the Orioles away jerseys.  Now that I'm looking at them closer, I can get behind these three.

The two Freeman base cards look pretty similar from Series 1 to Series 2.  There's also no red at all in these cards, which makes these not actually look like Braves cards.

Same photos from the cards above.  But the things that I liked about some of the base cards, the colors, don't show up in the Donruss Elite cards.

While this set doesn't compare to the basketball Donruss release, I appreciated adding cards of my favorite players to my collection.  Looking at a checklist and insert images, some of the inserts do look more enticing, the Diamond Kings insert for example. Now to add that Freddie Freeman insert to my collection!