2024 Adventures in Repacks - Part 30 - Back to Baseball

To stay with my alternating pattern, it looks like a baseball one is next.

This one, in particular. We open with a nicely laid-put horizontal photo.

 

And another interesting horizontal photo with Upton. Randa Bear rookie! Don Mattingly was given one of the double-zero positions in 1994's Topps set. So good for him on that! 

Sportflics in a repack? YES! That 1990 Donruss is one of the more red cards ever. I'll give slight props for them trying to create one of those multi-image cards with Surhoff. It just looks like he's melting.

Here's the hit! I had no idea who he was, but he got his start in the Jays system in 2012, debuted in 2019 with Colorado, spent 2023 in Japan, and finally looks to have caught on with the Marlins. Even if the ZOMG$$ types would hate this, I love interesting climbs to a major league roster spot.

That '86 Herr moves in late to tie the Sportflics of Orel for the oldest card in the repack. Random minor league cards in repacks rule! And keeping the flying facemask in the border of the design is a great choice.

Not the best finale, but it being Heritage makes it not among the blandest either.

But there were some nice, interesting cards in the middle. And that's all I ask for!

Baseball 2/14s

 Over to my COMC to-be-posted box, and it is time to start working my way through the 2/14 content in, broken up into 3 parts. There's baseball, hockey, and everything else. I'll stay topical to the World Series and begin with the baseball.

I didn't have any Yankees to show off in the box, so it will be Dodgers content to lead. This is probably my most obscure Len Gabrielson entry in the collection. At least until I add his 1964 Venezuelan parallel into the binder. 

This Sepia parallel makes it Dodgers 2 Yankees 0 for this post. Appropriate.

When I'm 70 deep into the cardboard history of John Marzano, you've got to leave his Red Sox career behind and make some deep dives. A minor league card, and a stadium giveaway version. 

Shiny! Shiny!

There's always room for Stadium Club in the collection, especially of the inked variety.

That is a (partial) background worthy of a 1989 Diamond Kings card. Me like!

And it ends with Brooks Lee, who both made his MLB debut, and his first appearance in my 2/14 collection this year. That's despite his having cards since 2022 Bowman Draft. That Lunar Glow parallel from this year's Bowman might be nice, but it doesn't have the greatness of his representation of the Wichita Wind Surge on his Pro Debut card. If only I'd known about its existence last year, it would have made my Top 10.

But there you have it!

Redeemed!

 In which this...

turned into this...

And it is pretty topical considering last night's game. Even if it is two years old. But it is a great looking card, and it the silver signature is a perfect combination with the design. It might have been a redemption, but at least the card was nice enough to be worth the wait.

There you have it!

2024 Adventures in Repacks - Part 29 - Alternating

 Do a baseball one of these, follow it up with the football version:

And it is this one. That might be the most compact photo I've seen on a base card in ages.

Cardale Jones was a draft pick of the Bills, so of course that counts as a card towards that binder. And, unlike with 2/14 fave Christian Hackenberg, he actually saw some game action with his drafting team. That's the second Sharpe that I've found in one of these repacks from the most recent restocking.

Punter card! Such a quaint time when a punter would receive a card in a draft-themed set. Also Junious > Buck.

Here's the hit! He may not have had the most stellar NFL career, but Ramses is a pretty great name. If only he'd been drafted by St. Louis back in 2009, his cards would have been a lot more memorable. 

Neil Smith will win the photo battle in this one with the interesting sideline shot. Len Ford doubles up on the Enor HOF cards. However, seeing as he's a Wolverines alum, that card has already been set aside for future outgoing mail. 

And the finale. 

A couple interesting cards for me, especially the Buchanan and Smith, are enough to make this a good repack.

There you have it!

Tip-Off

 Games may have officially started last night, but the season doesn't really start until your favourite team has hit the court in the regular season for the first time. That's tonight, and here are some Raptors to welcome the season.

I like completeness, and I was doubtful that Will Barton's 16 games in Toronto would earn him a card as the team. So, I added a collegiate card of his to the binder. But then Panini needed to dump some stickers, so he showed up in Elite as a Raptor. Fortunately, adding this to the collection was not an expensive proposition.

Speaking of collegiate cards, here's two featuring rookies that may, or may not, be debuting tonight. Walter was their first rounder, while Shead went in the second. A perfectly acceptable start to a collection that will likely add some actual Raptors cards as the season release season progresses.

A not so random VanVleet closes off the COMC portion of this post.

Not-so-random because I picked this up since the back salutes his record performance for an undrafted player.

Now, some group break cards from a part case of Phoenix. Phoenix did make a previous appearance as part of Chronicles, but this is its solo debut in basketball. Since it was a part case, I didn't get a complete team set, but it did result in Ochai Agbaji joining the binders. He actually had a pre-Raptors connection with Gradey Dick. They both weren't just Kansas alum, but Gradey got his dorm room when he left KU.

Here's the parallels. The McGrady is an unnumbered silver, with Poeltl coming in at /175 for his pink version.

"Court of the Kings"? Real creative there Panini. 

Naturally, inserts have parallels as well. This purple is /75.

But if that isn't low numbered enough. 

And you'd like a little more to the card than just that...

Here you go! We've got a yellow parallel /25 of Chris Bosh, the first person to have spent enough time with the Raptors that you think of him as a member of the team to end up in the HOF. While Vince Carter will have his jersey raised to the rafters in a few weeks, I'm surprised that Bosh's enshrinement wasn't also followed up with a #4 retirement. 

There you have it!

Player to be Named Later

 One of Toronto's most famous:

And one of Pittsburgh's most infamous.

Diaz was the PTBNL in the trade that brought Jose Bautista to the Blue Jays.

I might as well show the back of this as well if I'm only highlighting a single card.

New Faces of the 2/14 Collection

 A grand total of 4 new faces have been added to my 2/14 collection, and it is time to show them off!

My first surfer! More importantly, Caroline Marks might also be the first individual Olympic Gold Medalist in the collection, having picked up a surfing medal this past summer in Paris. All my others with the medal are in team events, such as Milan Hejduk, Angel di Maria and Kara Lawson. Of course, I may research my way to more to acquire, or to already be in there.

My policy of googling people I hadn't heard of beforehand ran into a bump here, as most of my results were of the character from the movie Get Out. But I didn't come across anything negative about any real Rod Williams, so I'll assume all is well with this one.

I had been seeing Juan Graterol's name on the list of Feb 14 birthdays over at baseball-reference for a few years, and just assumed I'd had at least one of his cards. Nope! Then again, this was about as close as things got to a mainstream card of his. Everything else was just a local minor-league issue. So, it is this - or nothing. Thank you, Topps Total, for your completeness.

Finally, a sticker to make this a four-sport post!

There you have it!

The Ranger Roundup

Today, it is the Kitchener Rangers content in my COMC to-be-posted box.

The start of the season has definitely been up-and-down. They got slammed in 12-2 loss on opening weekend, but as I write this, they're leading their division. As for everybody in the post so far, none of them are still on the team. Such is the nature of the CHL.

At least I don't really have to worry about that when getting NHL-level cards of alumni.

Shininess!

An autograph is up next. Mark spent a couple years with Kitchener, before starting a pro career with stops in New Jersey, Edmonton and Toronto. He's now working for the Leafs as their Director of Culture and Inclusion. 

Finally, a card that I'd wanted for a bit after seeing it on Puck Junk. Yeah, the facial expression is really goofy, but here, the real lowlight is the cityscape in the background. Why would a fan of that type of background call that a lowlight? Because, as the PJ article points out - that is Charlotte in the background, and not the actual home city for the Hurricanes, Raleigh.

At least they got the city factoid on the back correct by featuring a hurricane that hit the Carolinas. 

There you have it!

Chasing, and Capturing

2024 Upper Deck CFL dropped last week. I picked up two boxes, hoping to build the base set. Unfortunately, the base content in the box was remarkably similar and I ended up 25-ish short of the base set.

But that really didn't matter, since I landed what was probably my personal chase card in the product.

A Tre-Ford patch/auto! 

I've waxed nostalgic about Ford in the past, and as to why I was looking forward to a card that actually featured his photograph. Read that as to why I was so excited to see him on the checklist. While there are lower numbered base parallels /10 and /1, albeit without an autograph or relic, this had to be my most wanted card in the product.

It also looks like the patch might be the bottom of the elk horns on the green jersey, so it's also a pretty cool patch as well. 

I'll probably be the only collector to proclaim a CFL card as their pull of the year. 

Bonus: The box also provided me with my first auto of Ticat Stavros Katsantonis! 

Bills! Bills! Bills!

As the team crashes down to their expected reality over the past two games, let's see some 2024 Bills courtesy of a Score group break.

Here's the veteran/legend base. Sort of a 1990 Score vibe for the border, although it is killed with the addition of the additional white border to make things crowded. They also did that back in 2019 with the 1989 salute, but I really didn't feel that then. I'm not sure why - maybe I just liked the base photography more.

Here's the rookies, still in their college attire of various licensing and photoshopping. I'm not sure, but I think Frank Gore Sr and Jr are the first father/son combo in the Bills collection. 

Something I found interesting about the design is that photos are re-used for the rookies on the back of the card, but the veterans got new ones. 

There's a sports crossover on the only insert I got, with 1991 Baseball's "The Franchise" design being ported over to football. 

Let's see some autographs. Frank Gore Jr's experience with the Bills has been on the practice squad, but I want to complete the father/son set with a Gore Sr. Bills auto. There aren't too many of those out there, so my dream might have to be fulfilled with a Miami Hurricanes one.

Green autograph parallels were somewhat more SPd than the regular versions, but I'm not too sure as to what level. I don't really care too much other than for curiosity's sake, since this card of their top draft pick is a keeper. His first games have been perfectly fine for a rookie, especially with the way the targets have been spreadd around so far this season.

There you have it!