Here's my First (and probabbly only) Blaster of 2018 Topps

Aloha, everybody, 

Everyone was showing off their brand new Topps 2018 cards and I just couldn't resist. I bolted out the door and went right over to my local Target. 

Topps hadn't been up 48 hours, and just as Dimebox Nick reported, the early bird pack searchers had already struck. Several hanger boxes were ripped open and jumbo packs showed signs of being "massaged". Ugh! 

I grabbed a blaster box and headed home. We'll start off the highlights of the box with the Dodgers I pulled...

With his ROY award, young Cody will be stuffed into a lot of packs, and I'm glad I pulled one in my first foray. 

Here's an awkward pull. While I liked finding this Alex Verdugo RC, Zippy Zappy already had one waiting for me, so it was raining Verdugos. 

A great shot of Justin Turner. I presume he's watching one of his dingers fly outta the park. Cody watches as well from the on-deck circle. 

Here's a nice shiny shiny League Leader. Boy, I wish that Turner card was one of these...

Four Dodgers isn't bad for my ten packs. It could have been five if the Dodgers hadn't traded away my favorite prospect in the quest for the Tipping Boy, Yu Darvish. The Rangers made out well with this trade...

Each blaster comes with one of these Weekend MLB patches. I got Wil Meyers. 

Gavin from Breakdown cards jumped on this one, so at least if I didn't get a Dodger, it was a card for one of my friends. That'll work. 

Next up are the inserts. As you all know, everything here is trade bait, so just give a shout if you are chasing any of these subsets or players. 

A.J., the Lost Collector set aside a couple of Bellingers for me from his 2018 pulls. Do you want either of these Yankees? (There's another Judge in the upcoming subsets)

Anybody for any of these? 

There you have it. Not a great blaster, but not really a disappointment either. One last note, the collation was excellent. I caught only one double, CC Sabathia, in an unflattering photo showing quite the tummy. lol 

Now all I need to complete the weekend is for the Cheatin' Pats to go down in flames. 

Aloha! 

Saturday Trade Bait Mania

Aloha, everybody, 

I'm happy to say trade and gifting season is heating up once again, as I'll be shipping cards out to Tim B and Tony L early next week. 

Relic and swatch cards are loved or hated, and I place myself thoroughly in the love 'em camp. Heck, I'll even take a plain old white jersey swatch from the early days of the relic phenomenon. 

Which brings me to this single-colored swatch card. The fans wanted him in LA, but the Dodgers' front office didn't, so he's now pitching for the enemy. I have no need for this card...

2012 Gypsy Queen David Price 

Here are a couple of 2001 All-Star game badges for The Captain. One red bordered offense...

...and one blue bordered defense...
 

Next up is another card that I just have no use for. I hate this guy. 

But it's the hate that comes from respecting the way he plays the game. Now that he plays for the hated Giants - you guessed it, I hate him even more.

 2011 Topps Triple Threads Unity Relics Autographs Number 41/99

It's definitely a nice card, but I hate the guy! 

Finally, a wildcard...

 1991 Classic Four Sport Card #1 featuring Brien Taylor, Larry Johnson, Russell Maryland, and Eric Lindros.

Happy trading, aloha! 

ATBATT'S All-time All-Stars Shortstop

Hey everybody,

Continuing with the greatest all-star infield ever, that's at least according to my humble little blog and collection.  Speaking of which, you might recall I mentioned these all-stars would be marginally determined by my card collection.  This is one such occasion. 

While I would accept an argument that Honus Wagner was a greater shortstop than Ozzie Smith, I only have two measly tribute cards of Wagner, and that would hardly be enough to fill out a post with some nice cards to look at.  Sorry Honus, The Wizard of Oz gets the nod on this one...

 

 Yankee fans might argue that Derek Jeter should have earned the pick here.  While I certainly have enough of his cards to fill out a post, Jeter was much more of a bat than a glove for the Yanks.

Jeter won several World Series rings, and put up impressive WS offensive numbers, but he was also surrounded by numerous other big bats on those Yankee juggernaut teams, which afforded much more of an advantage than Ozzie ever had playing with Ken Oberkfell and Darrell Porter. 

Ozzie was by no means a slouch with the bat.  He was an all-star 15 times, had 2,460 hits, and stole 580 bases!

 

 But I chose Ozzie over the polyglot of great shortstops in the modern era because he certainly knew how to use the leather out there.  He's got huge numbers for assists (8,375) and double plays (1,590) and won Gold Gloves for shortstop in THIRTEEN CONSECUTIVE SEASONS!

Great "D" will definitely get you included on my all-star team. Smith's career fielding percentage is a sick .978

Have you ever heard that famous home run broadcast call by Jack Buck, "Go crazy, folks! Go crazy!" ?  Yup, that was from a tater blasted by Smith.

"Not only did I wear Number 1, St. Louis retired it after me."

THANKS for reading everybody!

Next post: Trades galore! 

Sunday Night Trade Bait

Hey Everybody -

Last post I mentioned that I sprung for a few assorted packs.  I bought some 2013 Topps, cuz I dig those die-cuts and I'm still trying to pull one for myself.  In addition to those, I bought a few discounted 2010 and 2011 packs.  I got a whole mess of cards to add to various team piles, and no earth shattering hits, but I caught some subset cards that might be useful to those of you chasing them.  

Starting off with a coupla reprints...

In a week that featured the talk about Topps' scrubbing of Pete Rose, I managed to pull exactly one of the cards that was cited in the discussion.  Anybody out there chasing that History of Topps subset?

These cards are awesome. I'd chase this set myself, but I hardly see them around.

Anyone for a miiiiniiii Halladay or a Twins celebratory card?

 

Hey Arpsmith, you out there?  You interested in these cards of your boys?

How about some White Sox up and comers? 

 While I do like the Chasing History cards, I only like the shiny refractory ones.

 Anybody needs/want these miiiiiniiiiiiis?

And now a few of the Chasing History shinys....

These Dodger cards areawesome.

I'll close with a couple of shiny Yankees.  If you get tomorrow off, enjoy! 

Next Post:  ATBATT's 2nd Base All-Star