Gettin' Zippy Zapped is Always a Good Thang (Part 2)

Aloha, everybody, 

Happy Sunday morning to y'all. We're waking up here in LA, still tasting the bitter ashes of last night's walk-off defeat at the hands of the hated Giants. 

The Dodgers will send their new teenage arm to the mound, and it should be a good one. Until then, let's look at some more of that cardboard goodness that ZZ sent my way...

I'm a big fan of the southpaw, Ryu, but unfortunately, he's been on the DL all year. He's on a rehab stint this week, so I hope he'll do well and bolster the Dodgers' shaky starting rotation. 

I haven't completed the team cards from this year's Topps vape set, so this one was needed.  
 

  
Speaking of pitchers coming off the DL, young De Leon just returned and hurled three perfect innings, with six strike outs. That was a big "Whew!" to those of us who were worried about his return. 

Look for this guy to be coming up soon (?) to the big club. 

 Raffi was a big favorite in my house back in his playing days; we even felt a little sad here when he recently retired from baseball. 

I've been trying, but can't recall why the Dodgers wore those red caps.

 Pitching prospect Richy was part of the trade with Philadelphia for Chase Utley. He's on their AA squad, with a 2-2 record and an ERA of 6. Thanks Richy, for helping to bring Utley to LA. 

Here come two more team cards to help me fill out my 2016 Dodgers set...

 JT has been fighting a season-long slump, and the worst part of it was manager Dave Roberts' insistence on batting Turner in the 2 or 3 spot, despite his being a rally killer. 

It got to the point where I named him the Red Albatross over on the Dodgers site I write for. Maybe it was a good thing, because the day after I wrote the Red Albatross story, he hit a game-winning home run, and has been breaking out of his slump against the Giants.

 Coming up is my first card from...
 

 Thompson here is showing some great promise, and quickly went from bench player to starter - mostly on the power of a big bat. I'm digging this kid very much, and very happy to have his card. 

That's Part 2 of the ZZ package, but stay tuned, because the final installment will contain the Dodger Blue vintage he sent my way. 

Aloha! 

Was It Hemingway Who Said: "No Inspiration? Rip Some Packs!" ?

 

Aloha everybody, 

It's been a while, I know. Hope ya missed me. 

I've been away for a few reasons - one was alluded to in the title. I simply didn't have any new cards or trade packages to write about, and nothing was particularly inspiring me to write about the cards already in my binders. 

Another reason I was away from here was a positive for the writing juices, as I've begun writing (and finding other inspiration) for a new Dodgers sports site - LAdodgerreport. 

Although some of you out there are not Dodger fans, if you enjoy my writing, I would appreciate you dropping by and reading my bylines there. If you follow me on Twitter (@omsports42), you can see the tweets when I post up an article. We've been discussing a podcast, so stay tuned for that to launch soon.

Finally, I've been away because I had in-home visitors for the past four days. They just left this afternoon. I presume you've heard the one about both fish and visitors stinking after three days - try four. I feel like I've finally got my home and my privacy back. 

Now on to the cards. As I mentioned, I didn't have any new cards to drop on you all, so in one of my trips to escape the visitors, I ran out to the local Target and bought a few packs, hoping to pull something exciting and keyboard-worthy. Let's see how I did...

Is that a lurking Clint Hurdle back there?

 Of course if you see cards here from the team you collect, you can rest assured these are dropping right into your team bags, Matt, Mark and ZZ. 

Why all these cards for east coasters? At least I broke the streak of always pulling Angels from packs.

Anybody collecting Jose Canseco? Or this Pressed Into Service subset?

So, I know you're all wondering (or at least Night Owl is wondering) if I pulled any Dodgers...

I got one ex-Dodger. Not close enough, you say? 

We need a guy in a Dodgers jersey throwing in Dodger Stadium, you say?

He's got glasses, but it aint Bulldog Orel Hershiser or Game Over Eric Gagne, it's the king of all jackasses. 

And THAT'S how I did with four packs. At least I escaped the visitors for an hour. 

Aloha!

 

I'm Fashionably Late to the Topps 2016 Party

Aloha, everybody, 

It took a long time, but I finally made it to Target, and today I got my hands on my first packs of 2016 Topps flagship. 

Just about everyone in the blogosphere has opined on the aesthetics of the product, and since I agree with most of your critiques, I won't be repeating those praises and criticisms here. 

There is one place where I want to add my perspective to the discussion, and I'll be mentioning that soon enough. Let's take a look at my first card of the year...

*Meh* On the bright side, Matt's trade pile just grew by one. 

This was my first in-hand look at the white noise that Topps added to the design of the cards. OK, that's my nomination for what to call this 2016 design - the White Noise set. 

Second up for 2016...

A damn Yankee. Welp, at least Zippy Zappy's trade pile has grown by one. 

Will the third card bring forth the ol' Dodgers charm? 

Bingo! Captain Clutch in what may well be his final Topps Dodger card. I'm glad to have it.

Lots of you out there have been calling that white background stuff clouds, fog and smoke. It looks to me like Topps has returned to the roots of baseball cards in a subliminal attempt to lure America's youth into collecting. 

Long ago, baseball cards were found in cigarette packages and were referred to as tobacco cards. In a stroke of daring marketing, Topps is alluding to vaping with that suggested smoke surrounding the players. They figure the kids will see all that vape smoke and think baseball is a cool, youthful sport. Genius? Or cynical marketing ploy? Time will tell.

How about some horizontal action? (lol) For anyone completing subsets, these are all yours...

 

Then I spied this card, which got my heart going for a half second...

I thought it was one of those buybacks. I know there's some backlash out there against the buybacks, but if I pulled a 1962 Roger Maris, that would be quite alright with me. Stamp, shmamp.

Alas, it was from some kind of reprint subset that is called Berger's Best. Bah! 

Here are the rest of the "highlights" from the packs, in no particular order...

It's another Dodger! Hey kids, let's vape with the Dodgers! 

 Who's collecting this Perspectives subset? 

Finally, a Wrigley Field card that has sparked an idea in my head. I don't make customs, but if I did ( ahem - Gavin), I wonder what a custom would look like that commemorates that Dodgers vs Cubs fans rhubharb that I covered in my past Baseball Bengals post? That might be a fun one. 

There's my first dive into the pool of 2016 baseball. A decent couple of packs, and I'm looking forward to many more. 

Aloha!