Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Pitchers, Catchers, and Two More Inches of Snow

Pitchers and catchers are trickling into warmer weather towns.  But me?  I got an extra couple inches of snow today, and the 10 day forecast has one day above freezing...when it will be in the high 30's and rainy.

But...baseball!  And I decided an apt way to celebrate was to grab a pack of Topps while picking up some kitty litter today.  I already have my Pirates coming in from a group break, but I've been fighting the temptation to crack a pack or two since release day.  In fact, the only thing that stopped me was when I went to Target on the 4th, there wasn't any 2015 in sight.  We live by the saddest looking Wal Mart and Target I have ever seen, which is saying a little something after living in West Virginia and Ohio.

But I finally scratched the itch.  And while I'm not exactly jumping for joy, it was worth the $2.

So let me get this straight.  I have probably 5 or 6 team sets of Pirates cards coming.  And my first two cards of the pack are...Pirate cards?  I'm not sure whether to call that good luck or bad.  Fortunately Melancon and Watson are both good TTM signers, so those will be headed down to Spring Training to hopefully find their way back to me.

I don't know that I'm crazy about the design of this insert...something about it screams red light special to me.  But it is nice to see Topps use a photo of Hammerin Hank that I can't remember seeing before.  Of course that probably means it will be on 6 other cards this year.

 And it's always nice to see a familiar face.  Garrett was one of my favorite Pirates during his time in Pittsburgh, and this one will be headed into the "Pirate but not a Pirate" binder.
 Just don't look into his eyes.  This is a pretty cool card.  Better yet, check out the throwback jersey Jack White is wearing.  Anybody who appreciates Ebbets Field Flannels is a good guy in my book.  Just...don't look into the eyes.
 I now know who David Lough is.  And apparently Topps does too.  I still like my card better.
 Throwback jerseys!  That...look pretty much the same as the current jerseys.  Gotta give the Cubs credit for the sheer number of throwbacks they wore last season, though.

4 comments:

  1. Nice break Mark. I'm looking forward to seeing Garrett Jones play for the Yankees this season. If he discovers that left field fence in Yankee Stadium, he may get more playing time than expected.

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    1. I think the short porch will bost his power numbers, but he's definitely on the wrong side of 30 at this point in his career. But he was a rare bright spot on some otherwise drab teams in the late 00's.

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  2. Did you get the Holdzkom auto yet? I was pretty excited to see him in the set. Nachos Grande pulled one for me in his break.

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    1. I hit a Marte auto in the team break. That was the saving grace of the break - other than that I think I had one Rainbow parallel, and the Stargell/Cutch insert, and zero golds out of an entire jumbo case. I'm hoping the Holdzkom autos drop a bit, since I imagine Topps will have him in a bunch of products.

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