Topps Project 2020 Mike Trout #100

I didn’t pounce on Ben Baller's first Project 2020 card, which featured Ichiro, but had to get his first Trout and this collaboration card with artist Blake Jamieson - for the ironic ‘bling’ factor, even if it has nothing to do with anything.

Where Trout is probably all country, the Ben Baller part of this card is supposed to be loud, garish and in your face - maybe the Jamieson part is a little iffy when looking up close at Trout's face, which looks a 'bit fishy,' but it's not like the image shows Trout from the neck up.

It’s funny I wouldn’t know Ben Baller except for intermittently checking his Twitter feed for at least the past few years because he tends to tweet out either something I get a laugh off or something real to think about - he is this prominent jeweler to all the rapper, hip hop guys, a dude who talks big with always something to say.

I found it ironic he would be commissioned to be one of the people to participate in creating this baseball card set for Topps - I can't do real bling, bling but trading cards are right up alley and when the first Baller Trout came out, figured these might be an alternative purchase to one of those damn Utz chips cards that I would never find out in the wild.

I missed on a couple of Trouts I didn't like at first [Thiele and Fucci], but moving forward I'm up for getting at least one Trout and the random non-Trout subject that may catch my eye - print runs and apparent future values be damned since Project 2020 has been a polarizing, yet captivating release through this COVID-19 pandemic.