2022 Topps Series 2 : A Study in Disappointment

 

This blog post is about disappointment.

            Or working through disappointment.

            I tried finding a Mister Roger’s Neighborhood episode on the topic (Fred always gives me a boost) …but I couldn’t find one. And I ended up just watching those Land of Make-Believe puppets all afternoon.

            Here, let me show you what I’m talking about in terms of disappointment.

            That was the Silver Pack I opened from the Topps Series2 Hobby box that I opened. My opening salvo to Series2, if you will. I always open the Silver Pack first. I don’t like to wait on surprises. And I was…well…

            Disappointed.

            Marcus Stroman? Come on, man!

            I know there’s a Shane Baz rookie card there. But I don’t collect pitchers. I don’t see the point. Even ones I like. Pitchers get hurt. Shane Baz was already hurt. And I don’t like the way modern pitching is run. Gone are the days of the workhorse throwing 7 2/3 innings then the set-up man and closer come in to finish off the rest. Those days are gone…and I get that. You can’t pitch 7 2/3 innings when pitching is all about velocity and throwing 100 miles an hour. There’s no nuance to pitching. There’s no subtly or true craftsmanship. I get that.

I don’t have to like it.

            So, you can keep your Shane Baz card. Your Clayton Kershaw cards. Your Verlanders and Scherzers, and all the rest.

            But I digress…

            I’m not disappointed in the 2022 design. Not at all. I honestly like what Topps has done with their base design this season. Although getting a number of cards whose backs looked like this was a touch disappointing.

            Anyone else get cards like that?

I can’t really touch what I’m disappointed in, and that’s what’s bothering me. No, it’s not the fact that there were no rookie cards of Julio Rodriguez, Bobby Witt Jr., and Spencer Torkelson (a name I can only spell because Monkee, Peter Tork’s, real last name is Torkelson), other than SP cards…none of which I got by the way. I didn’t expect to get one of the short prints. I know my luck.

            If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.

            ***A brief aside, love my SP Vlady Jr. RC as I do (only because the photo is far superior than his Update one), I don't really appreciate the SP rookie card in base. In a world saturated with rookie cards, just do us all a favor Topps and give a player their one legit rookie card. Enough with the false scarcity....you do that enough with parallels and other bells and whistles***

           That said, two rookies that I was actually excited for are in Series2 as regular base cards.

            One is already playing for the Pirates and the other is currently in AAA, having his time manipulated by the Major League organization.

            I got the Pirates cards I needed.

            There’s plenty of star power in Series2.

            There’s even some fading star power.

            And there were even a good number of cards for all of those guys whose rookie cards we were all nuts over last season, who now have second year cards with Rookie Cups or Future Star plastered on their card, and only cost .18 cents on SportsLots, because who in the hell cares about someone’s SECOND card…right?

            Disappointed AND a touch cynical this week.

            Of course, there were the rookie cards.

            Fifty-Seven in Series2 to be exact. I managed to get forty-nine of those rookies in the Hobby Box that I opened. A quick check of them all revealed that thirty-two of the forty-nine rookies I pulled, the players were aged twenty-five or older. Now, I’m forty-eight. Twenty-five-year-olds blow my mind. I was twenty-five. Sometimes I can still taste twenty-five. Feel it in my soul. Sometimes I wish I could BE twenty-five again.

            But not if I were still a baseball prospect.

            Twenty-five is pushing it to still trying to be making it in baseball.

            Yet there are at least thirty-two cards featuring a rookie player twenty-five years or older.

            But even that doesn’t seem to touch why I’m disappointed.

            I got the requisite bells and whistles in my Hobby Box.

            The 1987 cards.

            Hey got Acuna! But he’s an effin’ Brave.

            A Jackie 1987.

            There are very few players for whom I collect post-playing-day cards. One is Roberto Clemente. One is Willie Stargell. Another is Henry Aaron. And the last one of those four is Jackie Robinson. Getting post-playing-day cards of Jackie Robinson in packs is special to me. It’s the closest I’m getting to the sensation of pulling a Jackie card. And I know I’m never going to own a real Jackie card from his playing days. These inserts are it.

            A small Oasis in an otherwise barren landscape.

            I got the foil cards.

            I got the one Gold Card.

            I got a SP card for a pitcher who plays for a team I’ve loathed for over thirty years.

            I got another SP for a star player for another team I absolutely loathe.

            (I’m going to try and get those out to people who actually like those teams)

            I was excited for the Diamond Greats Die-Cut cards because Willie Stargell has one. Instead, I got this guy.

            No disrespect to Randy Johnson and his Hall of Fame career. But if there is a post-playing-day card that I’m going to get…IN…ANYTHING…I…OPEN…it’s going to be Randy Johnson. I’m somehow fated to get a Randy Johnson card. It’s not a bad thing if you’re a Randy Johnson fan, but for someone, like me, who took barely a passing interest in his career (scroll up and read what I wrote about old school pitching and feel free to tap your HYPOCRITE button at home), I sort of shrug and move on.

            To these inserts.

            And another goddamned Red Sox.

            And these.

            Featuring a guy who regularly makes my Pirates look like fools…and another goddamned Red Sox.

            I didn’t get an auto card…par for the course.

            But I didn’t get a player relic.

            Instead, I got this.

            WTF?

            I don’t know if they were packaging my Hobby Box next to the Blaster Box section of the Topps Factory, but that card ain’t what was promised on the box, and…

            Shit.

            I think I know why I’m disappointed. It’s not the cards. It’s not the star cards. It’s not the rookie cards, or the fact that I was sweating it out until the second to last pack to even pull that Oneil Cruz rookie card. It’s not any of it.

            It’s the goddamned bells and whistle cards.

            What have I become?

            I often go OFF about how I don’t care about insert cards, and how I don’t understand them in regards to modern collecting. But…three years in…I expected...more? Maybe one player I liked or collected in that silver pack. Same with most of the 1987 inserts. All of my other inserts seem to be a Brave or a goddamned Red Sox. Then there’s my strange, twisted history with Randy Johnson cards.

            Yeah…I’m disappointed in the bell and whistle cards I got.

            But…

            Through disappointment comes understanding. I’ve been learning a lot about myself as a collector this year. I’m learning that I’m not the set-builder that I thought I was. I’m more of home team/single player (mostly for the home team) collector. Series2 would be underwhelming in that regard because there weren’t a lot of Pittsburgh Pirate cards, and I didn’t get a single Pirates player as an insert.

            So, I’ve thought about it. I think going forward, 2023 and beyond, I’m going to let other collectors spend their money and rip Hobby Boxes. Then I’m going to go onto SportLots/ComC and buy the singles of players, team players, and bells and whistles that I want. I seem to do that every single time I buy a Hobby box now, so why not save myself a couple hundred bucks every season. 

        I’m not going to stop ripping wax, even though giving up on Heritage and now Hobby base would appear that way. There’s Update and Archives after all. I might put my money toward ripping older wax now. I'm always on Baseball Card Exchange saying to myself, man, I'd love to buy that! If only I weren't ripping modern stuff. 

            And as for sets? I guess if I want that year’s set, I’ll just buy one when they become available during the summer.

            See?

            Not so disappointed now, right?

            Except…

            Remember last week’s post? When I said how excited I wad going to be to get a Michael Chavis card in a Pirates uniform? Remember that?

            Yeah...I got that Chavis card.

            In a Homestead Grays uniform instead of a Pirates one.

            Sigh.

 

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!

 

NEXT FRIDAY: Collecting…by the book. Interpret that as you see fit.

           

Rookies, Rookies, Everywhere...and Not a Drop to Drink

 

I’m wondering if it’s all our fault.

            I don’t blame Generation X for much. I don’t want to go into cultural stereotypes or touchstones here about this generation vs. that. There are plenty of other, way better, sources out there closely examining the cultural zeitgeist. But it is safe to say that Generation X has kind of taken, maybe sort of is fostering, a backseat, laissez faire attitude toward the culture at hand. While the Boomers try to hold onto their last grasps of power, and Millennials and Generation Z try to take it away from them; Generation X seems content to kick back (yes, I’m obviously generalizing here), and let it all play out as it may.

            Besides…we’ve already done our damage.

            For proof, I gave you exhibit A.

            And exhibit B.

            (no…I don’t own a 1984 Donruss Mattingly card)

            Generation X might not be up to much politically or culturally these days, but if I try to pinpoint the generation who pushed The Hobby full force into Rookie Card Mania, I don’t need to look much further than us folks born between the years 1965-1980. We’re the ones responsible. We’re the reason The Hobby has been this way for almost forty years now. We’ve caused the bother. We’ve caused the pandemonium exhibited with every card release. We’re the reason you fly by every other card in a pack, looking for some twenty-one-year-old kid who batter .215 last season, but has tons of potential.

            I offer you exhibit C.

            (no...I don't own that one either)

            When I was twelve-year-old that Canseco card sold for $25 or more at card shows, when you could still pull it out of a pack. I didn’t know much about Jose Canseco in 1986, but you can bet I knew a ton about that card and coveted it as much as every other kid I knew who collected. We wanted the Canseco card. We wished there was a Wally Joyner card. We wanted Bo before Bo knew anything about anything, and that included hitting the ball for better than a .207 batting average. The ’86 Donruss Canseco was indicative of what The Hobby was becoming in 1986, what those ’84 Mattingly cards had popped off two years before. And its indicative of what The Hobby still is today.

Rookie-mania.

I offer you exhibit D from the crazy heyday of the Junk Wax Era.

All going to be worth a ton.

None of them worth much raw.

Not a Hall of Famer amongst them.

And even though their careers are said and done, I still get a twinge of excitement whenever I see their cards, or open their cards if I chance upon a pack of Topps from 1987.

I’m conditioned to.

Is it unfair to blame Generation X for the prominence of rookie cards in The Hobby? Yes...and no. Adult forces controlled The Hobby when I was a kid. Adults ran the major card companies. I bought cards from adults at my drug store, LCSs, and card shows. If you want to get technical, me and my ilk were hapless, helpless consumers at the mercy of the capitalist marketplace.

But…

We were the ones collecting the cards. We were the ones placing value on young players based on their performance, and the promise of their performance. We were the ones flying by late career cards of Mike Schmidt, Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton, hoping that Pete Incaviglia card was somewhere at the back of the pack...and not ruined by a gum or wax stain. We were the ones putting Corey Snyder cards in penny sleeves and top loaders having never seen him take a swing at the plate.

But…

Generation X was the first generation to experience the sports card Hobby truly explode. To you folks who began collecting in the 1960s, 1970s, and earlier…I know, I know; I’m extrapolating a lot here. I know you had your cards. I know you probably coveted a rookie here and there. I know you met with other collectors, traded with other collectors, and maybe even attended a card show here and there. And I’m not discounting that. But there’s a vast difference between how collecting was presented in the 1970s and the mania I witnessed during my youth.

It's weird to put it into words now, because of how prevalent the rookie card is in The Hobby. The excitement was palpable back then. The anticipation of the hunt was real. Wanting cards for players, and this is the 1980s here, that you most likely were never going to see play live OR on TV. And that (minus the access to games) has continued for forty years.

And we didn’t even have parallel and short print cards.

But we had a 1985 Doc.

If you don’t believe me, take a look at the big letdown amongst many card collectors when Topps released the checklist for 2022’s series 2. No Witt Jr? No J-Rod? No Torkleson? Fuck YOU Topps! 

****Yes, I know Topps put SPs of Torkleson, Rodriguez and Witt J in series two....and if Blogger had an eyeroll emoji I'd use it....I don't like SPs...that said, to be COMPLETELY hypocritical, I'm opening a Hobby Box of Series 2 and if I pull one of those SPs, I'd gladly trade it to someone who has a 2022 Heritage SP of Oneil Cruz.****

There are YouTube videos literally railing against the release, and some calling it the worst ever. I’m not yet willing to say that about a set that’s going to have some Pirates I’m excited for, and Yordan Alvarez’s base card in it.

But it’s his third-year card…so what do I know?

Look, I like rookie cards. I keep rookie cards.

See?

I even collect rookie cards

    

Nothing can separate me from me and my Vlady rookies.

But you know what? I prefer his 2020 card more.

I think it’s neat-o that Topps places an emphasis on rookie cards. I find it humorous that the RC logo gets us all wild to the point where we even argue about its placement on said card. I still like the promise inherent in rookie cards, even though I’m well-versed in the burn. And, boy, can you get burned more these days than you ever could when I was a kid. Yeah, some dope might’ve shelled out $50 for that ’86 Canseco. But what about the collector who shelled out $150 for the Evan White auto card from last year?

What about that poor schmuck?

It just surprises me, at times, that the rookie card still takes up so much space in The Hobby. Especially with all of the other bells and whistles attached. You might not be getting a J-Rod or Witt Jr. rookie card in Series 2…but you can still hunt for their autos. Maybe, as a collector, I should be excited that people are still so passionate about base cards. Even if they are rookie base cards. It gives me hope as a collector that people still care about base cards.

Or…

It's about the parallel cards…isn’t it?

The…goddamned…parallel cards.

I meant what I said about being excited for Yordan’s base card in Series 2. Manny Machado is in Series 2. So are Ozzie Albies, Cody Bellinger and Bryan Reynolds. Just to name a few. That’s some exciting young talent. More so if the real Cody Bellinger ever shows up again. As a Pirates fan, the Rookie Cards in Series 2 are actually pretty sweet: Oneil Cruz and Roansy Contreras look like cornerstones of the franchise in the years to come. There’s even a Pirates rookie card for some player named Connor Overton…whom I don’t even remember.

Maybe because he pitched all of 8 innings for the Pirates last year...and doesn't even play for them anymore.

And that’s a point of contention that I do have with rookie cards. There are 57 rookie cards in Series 2. That’s 57 cards out of 330 cards. Add that to all of the stupid team cards and combo cards Topps adds, and that a pretty big chunk of your base product right there. Yeah, rookie cards are cool, but if a rookie card ends up taking the place of a player who maybe more deservedly should have a base card, than some twenty-year-old prospect who played in two games; well…that’s where I’m decidedly not for the rookie card.

That’s where I draw the line on the big RC.

And for the record...those Oneil Cruz and Roansy Contreras rookie cards I'm looking forward to? They only played in a couple of games last year as well.

***That said, I would gladly trade someone the Nolan Ryan or Mookie Betts seen here for the 2022 Heritage SP of Oneil Cruz***

If Generation X caused this focus in The Hobby…then I’m truly sorry. I kid, I kid. I don’t really blame Generation X for the state of The Hobby. The lack of involvement in politics? Sure…I blame Generation X. As for The Hobby…it’s all fun. Enjoy the rookie cards, I say. But don’t forget about all of the cool base cards for star players, or team players that you root for in any released set. Those are the cards that are going to mean more going forward. They’re the ones that hold the memories for me, and the ones that are making the new memories.

I might not be getting a Julio Rodriguez in Series 2 (enough with the J-Rod shit).

But I’m getting my first Michael Chavis card in a Pirates uniform.

And that’s pretty cool.

Now…excuse me while I go on ComC and get me that that ’84 Donruss Mattingly I always wanted.

 

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!

 

NEXT FRIDAY: We do the inevitable…we talk 2022 Topps Series 2.

           

Searching for Meaning in a World that Doesn't Make Sense or....2022 Bowman Baseball Cards

 

When you’re a fan of a small market baseball team

            Sigh…yes…we’re talking about that again.

            When you’re a fan of a small market baseball team, you talk a lot about rebuilding. About youth movements. The windows of opportunity are…well…small. You probably pay more attention to the minor league teams than people in larger markets probably do. You’re always looking for some prospect to break out. To become the savior. The hero. The next legend…for as long as you get legends in small markets.

When you’re a fan of a small market baseball team you hope more.

You wish more.

            You speculate.

            As a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Club; I’ve been doing a bit more speculating with my collecting choices over the last few years than I have been collecting players with full assurance of their talent and value to the team the future. That’s not to say I’ve gone the full prospect route. No. But I’m probably investing more in my Pirates baseball cards than the actual owners and his organization guys are actually investing in the team. At least right now.

            But I am hedging my collecting bets more on the future than I ever did in the past.

            And a good place to do that is with Bowman.

            No, I’m not breaking my promise to myself and adding another set to collect into the mess of unfinished sets that I have on my shelf. And I’m not chasing every prospect out there looking to strike gold. But for the last year I have been buying Pittsburgh Pirates cards in Bowman. I started with collecting last year’s Bowman Pirates cards. Then I put the 2021 Bowman Prospects team together. And just a few weeks ago, these babies arrived for me.

            It’s almost the complete team.

            A prospect by the name of Maikol Escotto has yet to arrive.

            I’m not speculating. Not with the idea that I’m going to be making any money off of these cards. That’s never been what collecting has been about for me. To be honest, the prospects appearing on Bowman products are, well, more exciting than the players appearing of the big-league club’s team sets.

            With exceptions to these guys…of course.

            The players appearing on Bowman products come with…promise.

            This guy is already on the big-league club.

    

               

            This guy should already be on the big-league club...thanks Service Time manipulation!

            And these guys don’t feel too far behind.

            And, boy, could the Pirates use this guy behind the plate right now.

            But…patience…patience.

            Remember what I said about hope and small market teams?

            I shouldn’t be by now, but I’m always so surprised at how prospect-heavy the Bowman release is every year. You have to understand that I was right in my wheelhouse of collecting when Bowman came back in 1989. There were prospects, yes, but the checklist still catered heavily to the big-league clubs.

            Although this guy was in the set.

When rookies and prospects became more of Bowman’s bag (I’m going to say 1992 and beyond) I was done or almost done with collecting. When I got back into collecting in 2019, I didn’t even mess with Bowman. I kind of considered it a glorified minor-league set.

            But then somewhere in the middle of a 101-loss season last year.

            And necessity being the mother of invention.

            I began to view Bowman products a bit…differently.

            Ok...I just wanted the cards of players I could be excited for.

            Is that so wrong?

            And Bowman gives you the players to be excited for. The Pirates have four base cards in this year’s set, and three of them have the RC logo on them.

           So, what you get is a team set of excitement. Or potential excitement. The potential of excitement. How does that sound? And what’s more exciting than rookie potential? Am I being sarcastic here? I kid. I like rookie cards as much as an collector. Although Bowman could’ve put Bryan Reynolds in the set. I mean he did start in last year’s All-Star Game. I guess I can’t complain…they didn’t give Tim Anderson a card either.

            Excitement for prospects has to go a long way with Bowman because…well…the cards aren’t very interesting looking. There’s usually a bland border that seems interchangeable from each release. Topps does the basic work of putting the players name and position on the card; the team they play for.             The backs are also interchangeable from year to year. 

            I’m not going to lie, but I’ve spent more time looking at the copyright on the back of Bowman cards to determine what year the product was released in than I ever have with Topps base product.

            But there’s just something about the 1^st Bowman logo on a card.

            Especially for a player you hope to see in the big-leagues one day.

            As a returning collector (I’ve been back for 3 years now but I’m still going to call myself that) I do like what Bowman has become. A home for prospect cards. In 1989, it was such a weird anomaly in collecting. An over-sized throwback set that didn’t fit in sleeves or sheets is what 1989 Bowman was. The first “heritage” set of its kind. Us kid collectors were either turned-on or off by it

I was the former.

I loved 1989 Bowman baseball cards. Am a big fan of the minimalist approach they took in 1990 and 1991 too. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite in terms of my criticisms of current Bowman designs. But I felt like old Bowman was looking back, or, in their initial years (1989-1991) were trying to make a card that looked retro. I’m not sure what the modus operandi of Bowman designs is now. I’m not sure they have one other than to get cards of prospects out in the world on a design that doesn’t totally offend people aesthetic sensibilities.

If that’s the case Topps succeeds…mostly.

I just know that I’ve begun to find some enjoyment in the product.

It’s kind of fun, seeing a player on their 1^st Bowman card.

And then a few years later…this.

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!

NEXT FRIDAY: Rookie cards, rookie cards...everywhere rookie cards...I'm tired of rookie cards...so why does the Topps Series 2 checklist bum me out so much?