What's in my LCS stash - 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen

For my mini-collections, cards like this one present a problem of sorts - do I save it for my 'awesome action' mini-collection or do I add it to my 'hats off' mini-collection.

Maybe the common sense solution is to go with the dominant quality on any particular card - in the case of Perez's card, it's about getting a Gatorade shower, so it goes into my 'awesome action' mini-collection.

Or maybe I'll just flip a coin to decide where a particular goes and hope to nail down a dupe for the mini-collection that doesn't have it - maybe a card like Werth's would really stand out in my 'hats off' mini-collection because it's not an image of a player lounging around, but a guy about to jump into home plate with the whole team waiting to give him his props.

I picked this up for no reason except the image of Bartolo Colon visible on the video screen in the background makes the card a little goofy - it's like the Goodyear Blimp making a cameo.

While Doby has been on countless retro cards, he's a baseball pioneer who may not have gotten as much credit for breaking the color barrier - since he was the second person to do it in Major League Baseball after Jackie Robinson in 1947.

2014 Topps Heritage retail blister recap

I picked up a three pack blister for $9.49 at Target - I like how the cards look, though I fancy myself more of a poor man's prospector looking for random 'first year' guys on cardboard as opposed to established major leaguers I've seen on cards for a number of years.

I don't think these blisters are harder to find than any other 'pack types,' though the lure of the black border parallel cards got me - once these blister packs are gone off the shelves, at least I can say I got one.

Black border pack
#447 Dustin Pedroia
#494 Carlos Gonzalez
#269 Albert Pujols

Pack one
#181 Nick Christiani / Tuffy Gosewisch - 2014 Rookie Stars
#204 Jonathan Papelbon
#15 Asdrubal Cabrera
#198 Eric Hosmer

#497 Curtis Granderson - SP
#63 Jacob Turner
#40 Carl Crawford
#206 John Lackey
#70 Paul Konerko

Pack two
#145 Edwin Encarnacion
#9 Max Scherzer / Bartolo Colon / Matt Moore / C.J. Wilson / Chris Tillman - 2013 AL Wins Leaders
#186 Jon Niese
#255 Darin Ruf
#489 Jean Segura - SP
#284 David Wright
#226 J.R. Murphy / Cesar Cabreal - 2014 Rookie Stars
#7 Anibal Sanchez / Bartolo Colon - 2013 AL ERA Leaders
#83 Justin Smoak

Pack three
#136 Jon Lester
#288 Jhonny Peralta
#305 Garrett Jones
#309 Brandon Barnes
#Topps 65MLB-JB 2 Johnny Bench - First Draft insert
#405 Danny Salazar
#66 Joe Maddon
#336 Andy Dirks
#38 Brett Lawrie 

Curtis Granderson

It sucks when a player like Granderson has to miss a considerable amount of time because of an injury - he's always been a pretty accomodating autograph signer when as a whole, MLB players are conditioned to say 'no' or be typically oblivious towards autographs collectors of any sort [once they reach the majors and gain some sort of prominence].

When the New York Yankees played the Angels in 2012, Granderson arrived fairly late [maybe around 4:30 p.m.] for a player getting to the stadium - he came through the Home Plate Gate and unlike a teammate like A-Rod [who isn't afraid of ignoring crowds even if he has to walk through them], Granderson must have stood and signed autographs for about 20 minutes.

I could see ballpark security was getting a little worried but Granderson was a champ about signing most of the things people put in his face - fast forward to now and it is too bad a classy player like him has to sit on the bench for the next three months or so.