Shohei Ohtani marches onto greater heights

He's not a ride-or-die guy for me anymore, but I had to get a copy [on eBay] of Shohei Ohtani's Topps Now card commemorating his 50 home runs / 50 stolen bases feat - understanding he just wasn't going to end up anywhere with his old team, a little part of me will be real excited in a couple of weeks when he is playing in the postseason for the first time in his MLB career.

I was passing through the duty free shops at an airport earlier in the year - here is some 'signage' of Ohtani being a face for a skincare product in Japan.

Thank you Shohei Ohtani and good luck

I did not want to get caught up in the news cycle of Shohei Ohtani signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers on social media - because in my own little way, I tend to want to share my two cents, interjecting my thoughts, where it ends up like trying to cope after he's left my home team.

It was a business decision on his end and strangely, I'm kind of glad he is still in So. Cal, where I wonder if the fandom for Ohtani supersedes the idea he is a Dodger - ideally, maybe it was better to see him in some far away place like Toronto, where he maybe he gets to be out of sight, out of mind.

I could understand where it was just about inevitable and logical - where it was always going to be the Dodgers or bust.

I’m probably not collecting his old team cards for one year where they are now dated, while my existing PC ends up being off cards from his old team - I can see where my interest in collecting Ohtani ends up being muted, until things settle down where softly remains one of those universally popular, easy guys to collect.

I abruptly cut the cord on the company that broadcasted Angel games late in 2022, where just before one of Ohtani's pitching starts, I found out there was no Angel channel to watch games anymore - the current streaming TV package that replaced the old cable TV one has the company that broadcasted Dodgers games locally, even though I barely ever tuned in through 2023.

Going forward, I’ll probably be glued into more Dodgers games due to Ohtani alone - even though the Angels are my team.

1.) Maybe said I would cease to be an Angels fan if and when Ohtani leaves - that probably won’t be the case, but losing this larger than life megastar it’s a whole new deal to process.

The Angels have been a bad organization for the past decade where as a fan, I can be a free agent too - but maybe I need to chill with my one lousy team and hope Ohtani defecting to the Dodgers ends up forcing the Angels to be more creative, where they need to do something radical.

2.) $700 million for a DH in the foreseesable season is ridiculous, but while I've always believed in the talent to come back - it softens the blow where Ohtani is only going to be doing one thing [and not two things at once].

3.) There is no reason to think that Ohtani will not have at least multiple seasons where he is pitching and hitting to his full capabilities - but maybe there is a part of me that wants to believe his first MLB team got his best three seasons ever.

Making the most of my low end finds

Even though I've only started going back to attending shows through this year - I don't know if there are 'go to' regular sellers I've sort of latched onto.

I always expect different sellers to get my fix in the meantime and at times it isn't as clear - where I'm going end up getting my game face on to start rummaging through the most random cards.

It may always be a case of stumbling onto a table and maybe going through a few cards to see if it's my type of material - during my latest card show trip, maybe I was a little desperate to find that first table to start off with.

I did find myself at one such table to pull some dollar cards [or 6 for $5] - that I maybe interested in and then started to go through the assorted quarter boxes.

I think the same seller had a setup 14-15 years ago at the more prominent collectible show in the area - he had that mix of assorted quarter boxes that made his spot a regular stop, even though his booth was sort of tucked away at the back of show warehouse.

It’s been a long time, but this person still looks the same - he doesn't seem like he has aged or maybe he was still fairly younger back then.

With visions of finding multiple dollar and under boxes off other tables, I'm afraid that I maybe spending too much time at this one place - but this could literally be the table with the most variety of loose baseball cards [in addition to a mix of other spots], so I had to make it count here before moving on.

This Topps Now Find was probably my most random find and the most unique card I've found for a quarter - I didn't even realize there was a card for the first professional team to wear braille jerseys to honor the blind.

I have seen the Naquin card in various forms and while I never know if it's a baserunning card, hats-off card or something else entirely in my collecting topics subset collection - it's a nice image that pops a bit more done refractor style.

I try to grab assorted cards to fill out in my decade stars collections - if a player makes it to my decade / binder stars collection, that may mean I collect them [as I find their cards], though there certain players will end up being more 'my guys' as opposed to other notable players.

There are 2020 Panini Prizm cards of Yu Darvish, Ozzie Albies and Matt Chapman I probably spent an hour on an idle afternoon looking up - it made my head hurt trying to figure out what parallels these card were...apparently they are Cosmic Haze parallels, inserted in MJ Holdings mega boxes...

More binder material guys - a random Bo Jackson football card, an Adrian Beltre shimmer refractor, another Jacob deGrom and some father and son Vladdy Daddy action.

These were thrown into my pile as various finds for the collecting topics subsets I try to keep up with - no matter how prominent or obscure the subjects are.

Some rookie stuff - when dealing with the quarter boxes, I take what I can find; I grabbed a 2018 Topps Nick Williams just because I thought it could be a mini-collection add, but I already had the card.

Some prospects from the past couple of years - with the cost of prospect products [Bowman, Bowman Chrome, Bowman Draft] at a premium, maybe I don't get much exposure to loose cards of young players, despite the idea I don't like them just the same, if they aren't first-year cards.

Some cards might be keepers just because I want to be able to keep up - where I'm not completely clueless about more than a few of these players.

My other sports pile - there is a Reggie Jackson [NBA] card I'll end up pairing with a card of Reggie Jackson [the MLB legend].

My 6 for $5 pile - nothing here that really pops out, but I like the 2020 Bowman Mega Box prospect parallel card of Alek Manoah.

2019 Topps Now Mike Trout Road to Opening Day promo

I probably this card in the mail for making at least one Topps Now purchase through Topps.com last year - while I bought my 2018 Topps Now cards from eBay, my lone Topps Now purchase off Topps.com was a Vladimir Guerrero autograph.

With the $300 million contract signed by Manny Machado and Bryce Harper still looking to sign a similar or likely better arrangement - the speculation over Trout's future has mushroomed.

It pisses me off because it has me uneasy about Trout's standing with the Angels - I think the Angels have always had Trout's back, even as fans [like me] have thought about how the best player in baseball should not be playing on a team that isn't contending for anything.

I want things to play out for the next two years and don't want to face the reality the face of my home team and yes, Major League Baseball - might be lured by the Philadelphia Phillies [his home team on the East Coast] or end up in the middle of the lineup for the New York Yankees.

I can't imagine Trout playing for another team and maybe an ideal extension would be a 7-8 year deal for something approaching $400 million of Angels owner Arte Moreno's money - if Trout does move on, the way I think about it is that someone else will get his 30s, but the Angels and their fans got his prime years.

Maybe the cliche don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened applies here - though the only acceptable scenario is Trout gets locked up as Angel for life and things turn around as far as getting other pieces to build around him.

Favorite Card of 2016 - Andrew Benintendi Topps Now #385

There may be a nonzero chance the image of Benintendi robbing a batter of a home run is re-used in a big league card in 2017 - but at the very least this was the first card to use this 'awesome outfield action' image and I had to wait only a month or so after the highlight for a card to be created, printed and be sent out.

I haven't really gotten into the Topps Now hype, but the idea of capturing the moment and putting it on cardboard in a relatively timely manner is something radical - Topps will be probably milk the idea for all its worth, so who knows how much impact future incarnations of the Topps Now brand will have as far as how people collect their cards.

Andrew Benintendi Topps Now #385

Benintendi zoomed to the big leagues in his full professional season and I'd wanted to grab his MLB debut Topps Now card - so I had a MLB/MLBPA issued rookie year card that is kind of an oddball, since Benintendi's actually rookie cards were held back for next year.

However, I ended up getting Benintendi's second 2016 Topps Now instead - I had a feeling there would be a Topps card of Benintendi crashing into the left field railing to rob a Tampa Bay Rays batter [Steven Souza Jr.] of a home run.

Who knows if Benintendi will do at least a few more things this year that will warrant another Topps Now cards made - but the home run robbing card [846 printed] is a keeper.

Before getting injured in August and being out a little bit of time, Benintendi was really getting comfortable hitting in the big leagues - he just came back on Sept. 15 and was 2-for-6 combined with two doubles in his last two games played.

Mike Trout All-Star Topps Now

Mike Trout is the brightest superstar in Major League Baseball, so most of his premium cards are in high demand - so I don't feel completely out of the loop as far as collecting the guy [on the team I collect], I'm looking out for any 'oddball type' cards like this one I picked up for $5 from the Topps booth at MLB All-Star Fan Fest.

A card like this one may not be autographed or serial #'d to a particular number - but Trout is the biggest baseball star in the planet and everyone wants a little piece of him, so when I can, I want to grab cards like these.