I saw there was Ohtani Topps Now cards offered for his latest feats, but only after I’d paid for a couple of 15% off promo purchases.
I don’t know how much I’ve really thought about adding any Ohtani’s packed pulled cards - but look to at least complete a rookie season's worth of Topps Now cards.
Ohtani has been a pretty good slugging rookie DH, though it remains to be seen whether he will pitch again this year - despite things ramping up as far getting ready for a comeback on the mound.
The combination of home runs and pitching makes Ohtani the intriguing Rookie of the Year candidate - but Ohtani hasn’t pitched and as a hitter, he’s been a platoon DH with some growing pains against left handers.
Team success matters less perhaps as far as Rookie of the Year consideration, but Miguel Andujar has played every day and piled up the counting numbers as a hitter for a contender - it wouldn't surprise me if Ohtani does win the American League Rookie of the Year, but Andujar maybe my non-homer choice.
I saved a screenshot of my favorite thing someone had to say about Ohtani all the way back in April - no truer words have been typed out.
The longtime MLB player and manager signed my trading cards in about three weeks - I didn't know where I expected to see Garner in-person, but I've had his cards in my Oakland Athletics box for the past five years or so.
He was a special advisor with the A's, but I don't think he is working for the team anymore - because I was never able to get the chance to approach him in-person to get him to sign some cards, he became a 'scratch the itch' guy for me TTM.
I haven't done any in-person graphing at a MLB ballpark in years, so I miss out on the miscellaneous rank-and-file guys I'd probably need for my Angels all-time autograph collection - as is, other options to get any number of player autographs are just an eBay search away.
Picking up certified autographs doesn't really give me the same sense of satisfaction as getting my own card(s) inked up in-person - but when IP is simply impractical, at least I have the means to keep up with what I'm trying to do as far as getting as many different players autographs who played on 'my team.'
I bought a couple of Angels certified autograph cards and I can imagine Topps probably contracted these two players to sign a 'bunch' of cards each - no offense to anyone in particular, but as far as players listed on a checklist, these maybe the worst guys to pull off any particular pack or box break from a 2018 Topps product.
2018 Topps Gypsy Queen Parker Bridwell Rookie Black & White auto serial #'d to 50 GQA-PB [$2.10 plus $2.66 s/h] - as first-year MLB pitchers occasionally do, Bridwell had a decent rookie season in 2017, but then he didn't really fit into the Angels' plans entering the 2018 season.
He was sent to AAA to start the year - but arm problems derailed Bridwell's chances of making good on his rookie year.
2018 Topps Allen & Ginter Troy Scribner Framed Mini auto #MA-TS [$0.99 plus $3.50 s/h] - from the bits and pieces I've read, Scribner really fought his way to make it to the majors, so there is a good back story to his professional career.
However, after making his MLB debut with the Angels in 2017, Scribner couldn't stick with the team past spring training - the Arizona Diamondbacks picked him up in April, released and then re-signed him in July.
At the end of July, I wanted to see if there were any Topps Now cards I was interested in and saw that Guerrero had autographs listed on the Topps Web site - not that I’ve been tempted before, but by the time I usually see see anything autographed offered, the listings are marked out of stock or the prices are a bit too extravagant to begin with.
I had to put an order for a copy of this card, because it was still available and it pictured a universally loved [if not universally collected] player - who was the centerpiece player for the Angels for much of the 2000s.
The card arrived in about three weeks, inside a BCW magnetic with Topps seal - I’ll probably leave the card in the holder as is, as opposed to breaking the seal and trying to move the card into a newer magnetic.
I want to say I was worried about the autograph quality but the autograph looks fairly clean on the card - up close, there maybe points where the stroke was light, but that is how it is with the Lumocolor pens I assume Topps used.
Sifting through the miscellaneous cards I've collected, maybe I want to start showcasing some of the 'hidden' gems over the years - I still think back to an old prehistoric Beckett Baseball Card Monthly story / contribution where a collector had these loose cards on his bookshelf [I specifically remember a 1992 Topps Stadium Club Will Clark as the picture used for the story] and how he cleaned up his bookshelf, through the cards he kept and cards he discarded.
The title of the 1990s article [something like Bookshelf of Doom] - was a riff off the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom movie of the 1980s.
Getting back to the cards, these were certified autographs I've collected over the past 15 years - they may have had spots in my personal collection listings, but when I revamped my PC a few years ago, these cards may have been rendered irrelevant.
I dug them out recently, so they aren't loose - to file them away in my A-Z inserts collection:
Phil Hughes [top right] - he was pretty hyped up as a young New York Yankees pitcher and FWIW, he was also a one-time card collector who used to post on Beckett Message Boards [circa 2007].
I thought this 2004 Donruss Elite Extra Edition auto was a great get for $5 at a spring training card show 11 or 12 years ago - but Hughes' star potential never really materialized over parts of his 12 year MLB career.
Eric Chavez [top left, top center] x2 - Chavez was a rising star third baseman back with the Moneyball A's of the early 2000s and I wanted to put away a couple of nicer looking certified autographs issues from early in his professional baseball career.
I kind of have an obsession with early autographs of professional athletes, particularly when their autographs devolve over time - Chavez's autographs tended to look like chicken scratch and were never as good looking as the ones on these cards.
Kevin Youkilis [bottom center, bottom right] - these certified autographs were a couple of my first COMC purchases in 2012; Youkilis was a Boston Red Sox fan favorite but not surprisingly, age caught up with him as he entered his 30s as a big leaguer.
Corey Hart [bottom left] - this card was most likely a pack pull and may have been worth a little something, when it was likely his only prospect era certified autograph; Hart was a two-time All-Star and a fan favorite in Milwaukee when he was doing good through his prime years, though he was essentially done as a productive MLB player after 30.
#127 Yadier Molina - play at the plate and a star on star card feat. two longtime NL Central stars [Votto].
#27 Michael Conforto - awesome outfield
#215 Wilson Contreras - play at the plate
#287 J.T. Realmuto - forced up in the air.
#15 Hanley Ramirez - mascot love for the deposed Boston Red Sox and if overzealous journalists and bloggers were to be believed, a supposed drug kingpin.
#188 Bob Gibson - old-timer legend action
#260 Amed Rosario - he almost looks like he is catching a pass in the NFL.
#219 Josh Donaldson [red foil] - game face action.
#272 Salvador Perez [red foil] - player hamming it up for the camera.
I picked this card up for a sampler run of PSA graded Topps cards from 1952-1980 - to be quite honest, the project has been in mothballs and with 7 of 29 cards towards my run, completion just isn't foreseeable at this point.
Once in a while, I might get impulsive and see if I could make a 'token' addition to see if I can even get halfway through - I don't know if it is possible to pick up a 'culturally significant' card for each of the years and I don't want to go through the trouble of doing so.
I've worked myself up as far as reading up on and wanting notable old-school / vintage rookie cards of Hall of Famers for my personal collection - but maybe the reasons for wanting this particular non-HOF rookie card are a little different.
Even as I'm only vaguely aware of Fidrych's impact as a cult figure during his only full season in Major League Baseball in 1976 - I consider his rookie as a trading card 'relic' of sorts, something I can look at and consider as a portal to the past.
A subjective exercise of picking out my favorite cards after grabbing 26 of them at a card shop stop for National Baseball Card Day - in particular these stood in among others considered [for full disclosure, a follow up post will be made to highlight those other cards].
#163 Ryan Zimmerman - it's a butt shot without Zimmerman's face on his own card, but his and the fans' reactions tell me all I need to know about the 'awesomeness' of this one.
#9 Zack Godley - pool shot
#190 Ian Happ
#263 Willie Calhoun - full extension
#56 Jon Lester - a veteran star pitcher hitting
#79 Mike Clevinger - retro uniform, retro hair; a 'fun' factoid about Clevinger's professional baseball career was he was originally an Angels minor leaguer.
#107 Keon Broxton - the angle makes things seem a bit more majestic.
#209 Dillon Peters - The Dime Box mention makes this a keeper.
#167 Dexter Fowler - the player is obscured but the horizontal card allows to get more of the ballpark in the picture.
#53 Jake Lamb - a play at the play card that belongs to a third baseman and not the catcher.
When the pitching half of Ohtani was shut down I thought his run of Topps Now cards was done for the year - there might have been closure as far as keeping up with the chase.
However, Ohtani has had some hitting highlights chronicled [1st pinch hit HR and 1st multi-HR game] - as well as this dual card with Ian Kinsler [since traded to the Boston Red Sox].
Ohtani needs to get back on the mound to continue the two-way 'Sho' but being in the Angels lineup on a regular basis has shown the athleticism and elite power that makes for a potential superstar - is there any conceivable way where he gets 500 at-bats in a season to see if he can hit 35-40 home runs?
I haven't gone out and chased many of Ohtani's pack-pulled cards, but I've continued to pick up his Topps Now cards - at least through his rookie year.
While baseball card collecting leads itself to being a hoarder, with the sheer number of cards - I see building up a book of decade stars is something I do with leftover cards and not a priority.
Maybe I get a little jealous at the binder guys who seem to have cards that pop like parallels and wonder if I should seek them out as well - as is, what I pull or find is basically what I end up with.
Jason Heyward and Joc Pederson are not 'highlights' of my collections - but they take up a page or two since they were hyped up prospects.
While basically 'meh' players who might be considered disappointments - they still have their moments of usefulness and I'll display their cards, hoping they still have potential to have an all-star season or two.
I don't have a particular order where cards are laid out on a plastic page - though I like to make it where the cards on a plastic page [pockets 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9] are facing into the center.
On the image posted, the Heyward cards displayed are on the center of a page, so whether or not a cards face a certain way doesn't matter - on the Pederson cards, they are all facing away from the page, which is a 'no-no' in my book, but what can I do when I don't have enough cards to make it where cards in pockets 3, 6, 9 are facing inward?
I guess technically, I can make things work, though it requires a bit of a mental stretch on my part - the Bowman Platinum card [pocket 3] has Pederson's image actually looking towards the corner border of the card, while the minor league card [pocket 6] has Pederson's image staring squarely towards the Hardee's logo and the Diamond Kings card [pocket 9] has Pederson's image looking away from the page, but there is a border on the card that sorts of 'boxes in' the image.
I tried filing away some loose inserts squirreled away in loose blaster / mega boxes into a 3,200 count box I have for my archive of insert cards - I pulled a couple of cards to go into a couple of mini-collections and if I can use a card in another collection, I should be proactive in grabbing pulling it because it would get lost.
My A-Z inserts collection maybe designed - as a final destination for miscellaneous finds or pulls.
I saw I had doubles of a Erik Goeddel certified autograph - I pulled one and went out and bought another, not realizing I had a copy already.
I added one to my bloodlines collection since his brother Tyler plays professionally - Erik has bounced around a little bit and ended up with the Los Angeles Dodgers this year.
The relief pitcher looks like he has posted decent numbers, though he is more of a long relief / mop-up guy - as opposed to having a more prominent role out of the bullpen.
Tyler was also picked up by the Dodgers this year and is currently playing in the minors - Tyler was a rule a Rule 5 pick by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2015 and spent the 2016 season in the major leagues.
I also set aside a Team USA jersey card of one time minor leaguer Hayden Hurst - professional baseball didn’t work out for him and now he is a rookie tight end in the NFL.
