OK, so, this "Pinch Runner" deal

We were all looking forward to the anointment of the next Herb Washington this year. It seemed so simple....we'll see.

My time for blogging grows short again, as work will soon have me 150 miles from home, comfortably appointed in a big ole empty farmhouse, but without a scanner or my collection of Baseball Cards. Maaaaaayybeeee if I can ever get caught up on the joys of self-employment and filing taxes on my own, which means hours and hours of sorting receipts and horrible drudgery, I will celebrate and buy another scanner just for road use. But I doubt I will -ever- get 100% caught up on that dreary-ness.

Anyhow I do have a nice run of posts stockpiled for part ways into January and have been making tremendous progress on resolving stacks and stacks of Baseball Cards, which has been great. But one small stack of cards on the desk needs to be dissected...

Wait.

I'm showing you an actual "Pinch Runner" card? 

2024 Heritage card #407 just says "Outfield" on it; everyone has had to deal with this annoying card -

That's the mini version; quite annoyingly, I still don't have the full-size version. But luckily, I have a very sweet stash of some of the Minis.

The odd appearance of "Pinch Runner" is present on all the parallels:

This also holds true on the other full-size Heritage parallels, and also in the parallel Minis.

First I want to mention that I quite like the #407 2024 Heritage card. The Pink&Yellow combo in the '75 design is a great one, and it perfectly complements the selected Taveras image with the pink palms and striping on his batting glove, plus a nice appearance by the Alternate Blue uniform (never to be known if Home or Away), with a perfect display of the Texas flag shoulder patch, all on a crisp, unique image. Also included as a free gift bonus is even a stylish signature from Taveras, one not pointlessly dropped into a dark portion of the image as on so many 2024 Heritage cards, with each one depositing the facsimile signature in exactly the same place, courtesy of software. But really all the way around, a bang-up Baseball Card.

I also like that an obscure Taveras Rookie Card seems to have foreshadowed his elevation to Baseball Card fame, some 3 years before -

I picked up that card completely by chance discovery in the Buck Box, and pretty much just because of the basically pretty 24 Heritage card. I have no idea what I will do with that card, though it too is a darn nice combo of pink&blue.

But tonights topic is - why was such a simple thing as printing a "Pinch Runner" card in Heritage all screwed up, causing endless confusion and also basically costing every Heritage set collector an extra $15 just to finish a set? I don't know for sure, but through the year 2024 I found some clues on some other cards that might inform on this, at least a little bit.

Also this seems like a good place to point out: Herb Washington is still alive. Thus there is a chance he could still appear in some "2024" Heritage, via an autographed card, in the High Numbers set, which is said to be still "on the way," in "first quarter, 2025." His "autos" would sell very well, I expect, and that's what a lot of people want when they purchase a box of Baseball Cards, particularly the most vocal ones. Me, I just want the Baseball Cards; I'm weird like that.

My first, and prime, suspicion about what might have happened is this card:

See - there's Leody Taveras running the bases, he must be real, real good at that. He even brings a sliding mitt with him when he bats, indicating he might routinely get the "sign" from the bench. 

Another 2023 card maybe reinforces this a little:

Oh, I get it now. Taveras has to bunt his way on base; so he must be fast and then he must get used as a Pinch Runner a lot.

See how much you can figure out the game of Baseball just from Baseball Cards? It's easy.

So hurry, up, pick us a Pinch Runner and get these cards down to the printer already. Let's go get some stock tips from drunken traders enjoying Happy Hour down at the bar.

That doesn't explain why the regular card #407 says "Outfield" on the front though, and only the parallels say "Pinch Runner." Still a bit of a mystery to examine, but first I want to detour into another supposably key feature of Baseball Cards: accuracy.

There is a simple fact about Leody Taveras' play in the 2023 season, the one that should generate the results used on 2024 Baseball Cards.

In 2023, Leody Taveras was never used as a Pinch Runner, not even once.

As for stealing bases, he went 14-for-18, which does place him around 70th in MLB that year, for the "SB" stat. One could also tease out his exact ranking via consideration of the "CS" stat, and probably there is a website that already did that, if you can look more closely than me.

But in the 21st Century, it is easy to see who really was a Pinch Runner in 2023, courtesy of Baseball Reference, specifically at:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2023-appearances-fielding.shtml

The final column on the right of Player Appearances is labelled "PR" for, of course, Pinch Running; clicking on it will cause all of the players in 2023 MLB to be sorted by how many times they were a Pinch Runner in a Major League Baseball game in the 2023 season.

Now it should be noted there will never be another Herb Washington in Major League Baseball. Err, well, there certainly -could- be, but in the Data Mining era every game outcome probability is taken so seriously that the concept of a team using a roster spot on a speedy player who can't hit and can't field is incredibly unlikely.

Maybe the closest we could have gotten was the now ended career of Billy Hamilton, who did get picked up on a couple rosters with an eye to being a Pinch Runner during expanded rosters in September and possibly October. He would have made for a perfect Herb Washington tribute card, but his last game was in May, 2023 so that just couldn't work out.

Given the modern easy access to every baseball event statistic, Topps certainly could have made the Pinch Runner card using an actual Pinch Runner in 2023. Here are a few of their options, starting with a player who tied for 2nd in the stat at 14, and actually is in the 2024 Heritage set -

Sharing the lead at 15 PR insertions are 3 players:

That's Chavis' final card now, it appears; he did not play in MLB in 2024 and thus an accurate call @ Topps.

Hey, look, another sliding mitt. Caballero appeared in 104 Games in 2023, not enough to make a regular Heritage checklist when it has to have about 100 Rookie Card cards included in it first. Yes, a full 20% of the checklist = RC now.

And one more sliding mitt, a good photo choice for a serious threat on the basepaths. Despite making it into 69 games in 2023, that is Dairon Blanco's First Topps Card, which finally appeared in 2024 Update. He only has one other card so far, in one of the Chrome Platinum releases complete with the RC logo making it his One True Rookie Card (truly a rarity in 21st century Baseball Cards), but nobody ever knows what year those Platinum Chrome cards actually represent. It is nice to see the irony of a speedster sporting uniform #44 though.

Blanco, by the way, lead all of MLB in 2024 with 42 Pinch Running appearances, more than double the 2nd place player in the stat. The Leody Taveras stat for "PR" in 2024 was just, 2.

So real Pinch Runners do exist in MLB, though not in an exactly-like-Herb-Washington way; it is pretty interesting that the rules tweaks and new base size created a fair bit more Pinch Running in 2024.

But I believe there was yet more happening in the 2024 Heritage set that could have made things turn out differently. And, perhaps, some other certain path was planned before things went haywire, for who knows what reason.

As it turns out, "Herb Washington" is included in 2024 Heritage - on a card back -

It is of course a stinging bummer that these card backs are far easier to read after they have been scanned. I still struggle to believe how not-seriously Topps treated the Heritage brand this year, for one of the most popular sets in Topps' history.

This card clearly indicates that the whole concept of a Herb Washington tribute was on the mind of whomever was assigned to 2024 Heritage, probably some 13-14 months ago as I write, a bit more so than the parallels does, or the strangeness revolving around card #407, and card #82.

That is the Heritage card for a player who has been following me around some this year; this was my 1st card in my 2nd pack of 2024 Topps Baseball:

,

which was also my First Card in the one blaster of 2024 Topps Chrome that I tried out. (The Neon didn't really need Chrome-ing, it appeared to me; though I did hit the Judge base card so the blaster was only a $15 experiment later, instead of $35).

Jose Rodriguez made the 2024 Topps Baseball checklist there right in prime time Series One, on the strength of a pretty notable Major League Baseball career previously, in terms of just who gets a Baseball Card, and who doesn't. That's because that career consists of appearing in exactly one game in the 2023 season.

Now as things have played out, I believe he appears in 4 products with 4 different total images even with repeats in 2 pairs of products, plus one Bowman card and no shortage of Panini & Leaf cards available to commemorate this career. And I almost forgot one other card appearance, in 2024 Topps Chrome Update, where he had exactly one card. Not just one checklist spot, but just, one card. That was his 1/1 "Rookie Debut Patch" card, which sold for around $1,500, iirc. That sounded incredible until my friendly LCS owner pointed out that it is widely speculated that the players themselves tend to buy up those cards when they appear for sale.

This is moderately likely to be Jose Rodriguez' only year of appearances on Topps cards, which is because in the first few days of the 2024 season, the White Sox sold his contract to the Phillies. Upside: that was a decision by Dave Dombrowski. Downside: when the 2024 White Sox are selling your contract for cash, well...

But the more serious fact about Jose Rodriguez was that in mid-summer 2024, he had not cracked the Phillies Major League roster; rather he was suspended by MLB for a full year for violating the No Gambling rules. At only 23 years old as I write, losing a year of participation in Pro Ball isn't necessarily an automatic end to a career, but there is certainly no shortage of mid-20s players as good and many better in MLB systems.

And what happened in Jose Rodriguez' one and only one game in Major League Baseball? He was inserted into a game on June 20, 2023 at "The Rate," wherein he did not get an At Bat, but he did score a Run in Major League Baseball. He also played Second Base, not SS, for one complete, 3 outs inning. Just one, though that is one more than Herb Washington.

Thus the entirety of his offensive body-of-work in the Bigs was --

-- as a Pinch Runner.

10 Cards from the Dollar Box #11

It's that time again ... that time when I didn't have time to document some individual topic for a post today, and that time I need to put in to wipe out the stack of $ Box cards from the LCS, which sometimes lately grows taller, faster than it grows shorter. Let the scanning commence

Why I selected it: I really thought this one would scan better. And, I thought I would join up with the high-rollers, who can only collect ultra limited edition cards such as the ones found in "Sapphire" products. My plan is simple enough - accumulate just one Sapphire card, from each year it has been available. I won't really care whether the card came from Topps Chrome Sapphire, or Topps Chrome Update Sapphire; I find them both equally farcical. Bowman anything Sapphire is right out.

I also want to shade things toward picking a card not from a "blue" team, cuz the last thing one of these cards needs is more blue on it. The Guardians logo comes off better than most in the 23 design, and it looks like there is a lot of the green, green grass of a ballfield in the original image. So I was hoping for some more "Atomic" like refractor-ing, since the Sapphire pattern is just the older Atomic pattern but with a bucket of dark blue paint slopped over almost everything.

Which is why - I don't get it. These are just ... dark blue Baseball Cards. There is hardly any "pop" or razzle-dazzle at all here. The Oooohhhh, Shiny quotient is just - weak. 'course all anyone really wants from a Sapphire product is the Rookie of the Year vote-getters, and pretty much nothing else, so all of my complaints here are totally irrelevant, to anyone. The product sells out, reliably, every time it is produced, so it will be with us for a long time to come, I expect. 

I even tried examining this card under the lights of the Christmas Tree. No improvement. I don't get it. Maybe I should try a Sapphire Rookie Card card instead, that might help. I guess.

Why I selected it: I love Pink Baseball Cards. They remind me of Bubble Gum. I somehow started liking this design too; it looks like the Baseball player inside of the keyhole is going to unlock a World Series Championship for the team lucky enough to enjoy his services. Or something.

Sadly, another key element disappears in the scan: this is card # 001/299. After all these years of basically ignoring serial #d cards (except of course for the ones in 2013 Topps), I thought it would be fun to finally own a card #1.

So how'd that work out for me? Not too good. It seems these aren't actually the simple Pink parallel, these are technically the "Fuschia" parallel. Oh, I see. Did the whole Bowman universe have a Fuschia-Pink parallel in 2023? Maybe. I look at all Bowman cards as all part of the same exact set, the Bowman set. I don't care if they say Platinum or Strata or Invincible or Volcanic or whatever, it's all Bowman to me, but with an incredibly difficult time sorting out just what subset is what, because there are countless separate checklists running inside of each Bowman box, anyway. And in the end, old-timey just, paper Bowman cards have both a /299 Fuschia parallel, and a /175 Pink parallel too. But only these "Prospect" subset cards, with their own run of card numbers, have this cool keyhole design. 

Maybe I would enjoy owning 9 of these still-Pink-to-me Prospect cards? I looked through the checklist just now and that looks tough. I only knew roughly 10% of the players (of the "Tigers" I only knew 1 of 4, and I do generally know who they draft each year). Even after 2 full seasons of play should have brought all the hot Prospects to the Big Leagues, right? No. The vast majority of prospects fail, and thus the vast majority of Bowman cards are just money-lit-on-fire, by someone. The players I had heard of, all had stupid high prices on them. Every time I ever try and Bowman just a little tiny bit (one pack every 6 years or so, though they are no longer sold in packs anyway, just blasters and bigger boxe$), this is the result.

I only managed to burn about 3 quarters and a dime; it was surprisingly easy to get them to ignite. What has happened to Vincent Perozo? Not much. He didn't have any cards produced in 2024, an almost certain death knell to his Baseball Card oeuvre, and likely an end of his journey to The Show. No large ladies have sung on his career, and he might still end up on a Minor League card somewhere, maybe, possibly, perhaps. Or the Mets might have 4 Catchers injured in 4 days, Perozo is rushed to Queens to play for 3 days, and then Fanatics will put him in a half-dozen Topps products.

However although this same image is used in no less than 4 separate Bowman "products," it is still the only image used for a Baseball Card of Vincent Perozo. Ever. Across those 4 products I estimate there are at least 50 (technically) different versions of this card. Amazingly, he does not appear in any Leaf products, probably because Leaf employees are afraid to walk around teenager Baseball diamonds in Venezuela with cash in their pockets.

Thus it looks there might be a silver lining for me here in the end in that this card could well turn out to be a "One & Done," and I do like those. Normally that phrase only applies to Major League Baseball Cards, with MiLB and prospect cards sometimes conveniently ignored for the concept. To have only one pre-MLB Baseball Card here in the 2020s must be incredibly rare, or maybe isn't at all but is just completely unknown, because these hard working young Baseball players are completely unknown to everyone anyway. Could go either way. I will be stashing this card for a rainy day. Best of luck, Vincent.

Why I selected it: Props to whoever decided to shoot this photo around a batting cage, old-timey Baseball Card style. This 2022 Archives card is printed on the appropriate "vintage" stock as it is called these days. The photo resolution and print quality completely destroys oh so many of the 2012 Heritage cards that use this design, to the point of making '12 Heritage laughable really. If you like 1963 Topps, these cards are great. I would chase the whole 100 card checklist if a portion of them weren't created with those abysmal fake backdrops - unlike this card. So instead this card is a solid start to a nice one page homage to 1963. Looking forward to it.

Why I selected it: I am always hyp-mo-tized by a Baseball about to be caught on Baseball Card, when one is arriving @ glove horizontally, in the infield. I always like how the player is still focused on a point outside of the image frame, because Baseballs are thrown very fast by Professionals. I also like the lurking Umpire.

Why I selected it: This is a Short Print. So, I wanted to increase my bottom line by a profit of a couple three quarters, err Dolla Bills. Holla.

Why I selected it: I collect Manager cards. Sort of. When I see a Manager on a Baseball Card, I stick it in a box, one I haven't started pulling cards out of, yet. But I figured I should for once get with the in-crowd and collect Manager Rookie Card cards, like everyone else does, maybe.

Many a Tiger fan wished Francona had been available when Jim Leyland retired, alas. I am surprised / not-surprised that Francona's "health issues" were completely temporary. He is clearly a Lifer. The surprising part is he seems to be thinking he will see any different result in Cincinnati than most any other famous Manager has been able to achieve in the Central Division, ever since he lost the 2016 World Series. He must relish Challenge. I already root for essentially every team in the NL Central; 2025 will be even more challenging, for me, in that regard.

Why I selected it: I loved Bazooka comics too, surprise, surprise. Those are still made, I think. I guess seeing this "card" up on a screen now will make me a little more cognizant of my next sighting of Bazooka gum. I think it only comes in a box with 2 dozen or so pieces; a bit more than I would want. 

Oh well. I have another mid-00s Bazooka comic-card for Ichiro also. I bought this one hoping there might be a 3rd one kicking around the few years of Bazooka brand Baseball Card checklists. That would make a nice 3 "card" row on a 2nd page of Ichiro cards.

So, close. There are actually 2 more of these comic-cards for Ichiro. But, they are each horizontals. So, I can't make a row of them on either a page of verticals, or a page of horizontals. Back to the, yup, drawing board, I guess.

Why I selected it: Because it will look nice on a page in a flip-through binder of Baseball Cards. For that, 100% authenticity is not required. And for the price of an original, I could have a good 3-4 full binders of Baseball Cards to enjoy.

This is I think the 3rd card from this reprint set I have picked up from these $ boxes; they aren't perfectly identified on the back in terms of year of creation. So just now I un-lazied into figuring it out (why I write these posts) finally and that reveals this is a, surprise, 1994 Topps production. And a pretty well done attempt at this. The brightness of the yellow background might betray it's inauthenticity a bit more than some of the other colors in the 54 set. It is definitely better than some 21st century Topps attempts at 1950s reprints.

A particular charm of these 54 reprints though, is a sharp reproduction of the back of the card, on the same white base stock. This makes it very easy to enjoy the creative work that went into the backs of the cards.

Why I selected it: This is an insert set from 2020 Topps Baseball, called "Topps 2030," which was supposed to be an imagination of what Topps cards _might_ look like in the year.... The next year they did essentially the same thing by anointing some design Topps 2091 in 2021 Archives and I thought there are/were at least one more attempt at such a thematic "future" motif. I guess it can't be any easier to dream up new names for insert sets than it is to create new insert designs, this deep into the thing called Baseball Cards.

So I got confused and then it took me a fair long while to ever figure out where these cards came from (hint: the weirder the card #, the easier it is to find on COMC, something I often struggle to remember), or to remember that I had a couple straight pack fresh, from all the way back in 2020. I thought they were all a part of Archives.

But I like the Ooohhh, Shiny here and once I started using a thumbprint on my phone I got the reference on the front of this card, though it is now dated already too. Kind of an inherent risk for such an idea I guess.

The checklist proves to be 20 cards, with 3 Rookies now already looking just, ordinary. So I might make 2 full pages of this and delete a couple of the 3; but then there are also some failed Free Agent Stars as the Data Mining Era of Baseball relentlessly tarnishes Stars faster than ever before. The cards are cheap at least, except there is of course also a Judge & an Ohtani on the checklist. That is a +/- in that Superstars are great but after a while it gets old contemplating needing a $5 card on every single checklist ever made for a year, or 7. So maybe I just need 8 more of these after Bryce, we'll see.

And Ooohhh, Shiny.

Why I selected it: 1972 Topps is the best design to mess around with, I think. I am collecting a "Day-Glo" orange version of a 50 card Archives take on it, which looks just hideously purdy. And though I don't generally ooohhh and ahhh over Purple Baseball Cards like I do over Pink Baseball Cards, I had to have at least one Purple Refractor Psychedelic Tombstone. Is this the best possible Purple '72? I dunno. But I also want 9 cards of any player cheeky enough to wear Uni # Zero, so here I go.

Bonus Round

Why I selected these: It is so nice to see the 1988 design printed accurately, for one. And I like something about each of these cards. The Turner has a nifty stealth Logoman on it; I can't get enough Riley Greene Rookie Cards (this photo should have been his Topps Baseball issue, in a better world).

There are 150 subjects on the 2023-1988 checklist so it looks likely that my first constructed page of these will have to expand. Darn.

Bonus Bonus Round

Why I selected it: Johnny Bench always looks good on Baseball Cards.

My first 2024 completed Baseball Card project...was very Dangerous

Well in my eternal endeavor to be playing with Baseball Cards that are still relatively "current," I finished out a small project last night.

Here is the #9 card in the, you guessed it, Nifty Nine assemblage: 

That's a "Hobby Foilboard" parallel, obtained from a 5 card pack of such that comes inside a Complete Set as sold though "Hobby" distribution - i.e. not in the Big Box stores. It is numbered to /265. I am quite looking forward to sorting out the complete 2024 Topps Baseball set and placing it in a binder.

The scan is a bit of a surprise in that in-hand, the Foilboard pattern is a pleasing mithril-like silvery-blue that goes very well with all the red card elements delivered by both The Neon 2024 Topps Baseball design, and the always striking Red Home Alternate uniform for the Braves. Lately I have been thinking that colors on cards become reflected in scans of cards/parallels that have any variety of foil or refracting or chrome or whatever printing tech applied to them. i.e. that maybe if Kelenic was sporting the Blue Home Alternate uniform and 2024 Topps Baseball had selected blue in The Neon "BRAVES," — would the Foilboard then still show all this red coloring in the scan? Hmmm.

But the bigger surprise came when I did my Blogger Quality Control Check of looking at a large-scale preview of that scan, on my computer screen, before I uploaded it for y'all to look at. And there, it appeared:

Does Jarred Kelenic bear a Ring of Power? 

That scanned Foilboard suddenly looks like he is handling a shallow blooper there just above the Cracks of Doom.

If that IS a Ring of Power, it sure hasn't granted him much power hitting the Baseball, however. Let's hope he finds a way to wield the Power, for Good.

Looking for hidden cross-over symbolism on my Baseball Cards wasn't what the project was about though. It was a much simpler effort to simply "put away" some of the various 2024 Topps Baseball parallels I managed to pull from packs, last year (still sounds weird to think about 2024 that way).

They sure were purdy, it seemed to me, so I wanted to keep a few. Let's see what Topps sent out, to my collection:

Green Crackle Foil /499

I have no idea why the term "Cracked Ice" seems to have become "Crackle" now

Purple Crackle Foil /799

(are those Brewers Team Socks? An investigation is warranted, I think)

Blue Holofoil /999

I guess my scanner is just determined to show red in the holo, instead of the mithril.

Gold /2024

Gold Foil

Meijer Purple

Retail Royal Blue

The Royals get their own team color parallel and the entire rest of the checklist is forced to participate. Strong work, Kansas City!

Rainbow Foil

There are of course many more parallels than these. How many more? There one gets into the Baseball Card terminology weeds rather quickly. Is a card stamped on the front a "parallel?" Is a card printed sans ALL design elements (the "True Photo" cards) a "parallel?" How do Printing Plates count in the total? What about the Topps screw-up in creating the "First Card" 1/1s that weren't stamped on the front?

Beckett wisely mentioned there are "more than 30" parallels for 2024 Topps Baseball, and that seems the best way to think of the total. Way more than just one Gold to rule them all, as at some point in ancient Baseball Card history.

I'm sure I would enjoy owning even more than just these 9 styles, and commenting on them all, and these, some more. But that wasn't the point of this little collecting project, which was to just find a place to keep these purdy parallels I pulled this year — all of these reached my hands via purchasing the packs that held them. That gave the assemblage a little more Star Power this way. And overall is still a nice way to assemble some Baseball Cards without any personal bias about favorite, or least-favorite team, or player. Plus when Johan Rojas becomes a unanimous First Ballot Inner Circle GOAT after just his 4th season in MLB, I will be filthy rich with this page of Baseball Cards all safely tucked away down at the bank Safe Deposit box.

And mostly, I just wanted to see

The Result

Man, that sure is purdy.

And therein lies the danger.

I could sure enjoy owning 116 pages of these.

But, I think I am safe. The 2024 Topps Baseball design feels a little stronger than my beloved 2013 Topps Baseball design, something which probably flows out of the 2-tone, black-white border, something maintained on only 2 of those 9 cards. On the regular base cards, that border functions very well to highlight the color on the card, perhaps better than a pure white -or- a pure black border would do.

I also own a 10th parallel from 2024 Topps Baseball -

I -think- this is a Silver Crackled Ice, or whatever; unnumbered

I -think- these arrived in the retail "Super Boxes" as an exclusive

I guess that Riley Greene card can eventually land on an Oooohh, Shiny page of Riley Greene's cards; my only plan for now. But it sure is purdy, and purdy cards look even purdier in the company of other purdy cards, so

Sayin' Farewell to the Year...

...2023. Yup, still way behind on Baseball Cards. So today feels like a durn good day to catch up, a little. All year long, every year, I make a little stack of cards - just for: You. 

But now, these cards need to reach their permanent homes. It is already a year past time to share them but so it goes when I can't just work a regular day and come home to unwind with Baseball Cards, every single day. Maybe, some day. There's always next year, in Baseball Cards. 

Until that great day, I'll just keep on keepin' on — with these:

Best Beers Card

Best T-Ball Card

Most 20th Century Cards,

Tie

If this wasn't captured on Baseball Cards,

would we ever see it again?

Most 21st Century 20th Century Card

I'm a sucker for the Foilboard, most every time

Worst Photoshop,

Tie

a) I think Nike should sue.

b) I normally get excited about seeing the red socks. But, 2023...

Whitest Card

most 2023 Topps squashed logo?

Best Team Card

first, "Team Card" should never be printed on a Baseball Card

but, the Phillies do OK on the 2023 Topps design, and this one, Yay

Best 2023 Topps Team Logo

Best Cleats, too

Most WTF? Card

this card was (justifiably) infamous in 2023

but it had some compatriots

these "Never Happened" cards happen too much to actually collect;

I'm sure I missed some in 2023, and every year.

So I'm keeping these only for Tigers cards now.

Worst Tigers Card

I still can't believe Topps used this photo for an Official Rookie Card©

Best Riley Greene Rookie Card Insert

Best Riley Greene Rookie Card Card

it's frequently a Good Thing there is >1 Rookie Card

Best Tigers Card

the Tigers didn't bust out the Detroit Stars unis in 2024. Bummer.

Best 2025 Heritage Oscar Gamble Audition

I doubt there is a 2nd place on this one.

Most Useful Stadium Club Parallel Single

Exception proves rule?

This is a "Red Foil" fyi

Best Sunset Card

Most Suspicious Card

I mean, it -might- be real

Worst Card Back

I've got an idea.

How about Topps just puts all the legalese logos, etc. -

out on the pack wrapper?

Double sided image cards are a great idea.

But, no.

Most Confusing Background

I think - this might be from the Polo Grounds?

Best I got.

Best Bubble Gum, In Action Card

Player Trope Topps Most Can't Let Go Of

The Curious Case, continues

Worst Baseball Card Trope Topps Refuses to Let Go Of

Stick a fork in this one already.

Or, better yet, dump these in the "Golden Mirrors"

for the Player Collection obsessives.

Best 1975 Topps Wrapper Homage

one of my favorite categories

this year, though

Best Shadows

Fantastic

Best Base-running Card

a pity Topps couldn't break the rules and make Red the Dodgers' Team Color,

just once

Coolest Base-running Card

Aaayyyy

This one's so good, Topps used it again in 2024

Favorite Spring Training Card

I don't even like the Yankees.

But I'm so happy to see them break out of all those

inside-the-jail cards, finally.

Most Chillax Card

yeah buddy

Best Leaf Blower Card

only Leaf Blower card, ever?

Perfect.

Meanest Rookie Card Card Image

Worst Baseball Card

Most Hated Baseball Card

there are more of these, too

Worst Horizontal Composition, daytime

Ok, I kinda like the lurking Umpire, but oh-what-could've-been here...

Worst Horizontal Composition, nighttime

Horizontal Baseball Cards are the best Baseball Cards.

Except, when they're not.

Like, when they are just slapped together to meet quota.

I have begun to think of 2023 Topps as the "Arms" set.

Warning time. Click away now. You can never un-see this.

Now, to be fair, this is a long-standing problem in Baseball Cards.

Here is a brief detour deep-ish into the past:

It's not just on horizontals in 2023 Topps, either:

this one is largely sunk by the design;

no matter what Kevin does here,

he just can't quite reach that wasted space.

But, your eye does, instantly.

Best Arm Card

I do love a good Twilight card though.

Best Horizontal Card

This Is The Way

Best Insert I Just Can't Collect

This is a great card.

But it makes me unhappy.

I did not watch the last World Baseball Classic.

That was dumb, but circumstances were circumstances.

I won't make this mistake again.

Thanks, Topps.

Best Empty Seats Card, Fielding Division

Best Empty Seats Card, Base-Running Division,

Tie

rare to find any entries for either of those categories

Hitting Division nowhere to be found in 2023

Best Empty Seats Card, Pitching Division,

Tie

Best Socks

I think Cincy might've won this one before.

There are a bunch of MLB Teams that need to get in gear on this.

Best Sequential Pull From a Single Pack

yeah, that happened

Most OK, Maybe I've Had Enough Cards

I used to complain that only Closers were allowed to celebrate

on Topps Baseball cards.

Be careful what you wish for?

Best Celebration Card

it's a fine line

Best Pirate Patch,

Tie

Home, and Away

Best Kids Card

that piñata looks scared

Laziest Baseball Card

Topps just can't quit doing this BS.

They dream up a theme for some inserts, or SPs.

Then they slap pictures on it that totally FAIL.

Worst Insert Design

I get it. 

Baseball Cards have to feature a picture of a Baseball Player.

But is this really the best way fun graffiti could be matched to "Baseball Cards?"

OK, you might want to click away, fer realz this time...

Baseball Card You Can Most Never Un-See, Ever Again

howz 'bout, we never do this one again?

Worst Parallel

Sorry, George, you didn't deserve this card.

Too many possible contenders for this one. Blech.

Best Chrome Clouds Card

OK, Chrome don't scan right.

Never thought I would find a good Clouds Card in a Chrome set.

You'll have to just take my word for it.

Best Card Back

Fantastic

"just the seventh pitcher

with at least three wins,

only one ER allowed,

more than 20 SOs

and as few as four BBs allowed

in the first four starts

of a season."

Stand Back. Professional Baseball Card Back Writers @ Work Here

Best Ankh Card

Only Ankh Card, ever?

Best On-Card Baseball

Fantastic

A scan doesn't do this one justice.

The seams, captured.

Worst Uniform Thingie You Knew Was Coming

But Can Never Avoid, Ever Again

yeah, Manny, you're inset photo sums this up perfectly

Worst NASCAR Card?

This will only get worse.

Most So, Close Throwback

Topps just can never figure out how to get this one on to cardboard, clearly.

Maybe I'm forgetting an old one. Hope so.

Best Throwback

I just hope they can capture this on a vertical for my Ray collection.

Best Classical City Connect Uniform

That shoulder patch.

Powder Blue accessories, oooh yeah.

Best City Connect Uniform, Runner-Up

Best Runner-Up City Connect Uniform Card

Boo-Yah

BEST CITY CONNECT UNIFORM

Also Best Shoulder Patch

ever?

Most Brew Crew Player

At one point on this blog recently, I lamented that

Rowdy Tellez might not have a Brew Crew Card.

I'm glad to be wrong.

Such a shame Rowdy couldn't quite bust an OPS about 100 points higher,

everywhere he has been.

Best "Relic" Pull

Only relic pull, too.

But this is the just exactly perfect (and only) one that I wanted.

Ultimately I doubt many people will connect Teoscar Hernandez

to the Toronto Blue Jays after his feats in LA.

I might hope to find a Powder Blue swatch card showing an actual Powder Blue uni in the picture. But this is a good start.

Most Powder Blue Card

a new collection is born

Best Powder Blue Rookie Card

rock & roll

Sorry about cutting the Cardinal in half though.

Best Powder Blue Baseball Card

Aroldis Chapman just deserves Horizontal cards

regardless of composition nitpicks

Most Welcome Back Card

Jesse Chavez was a 16 year Veteran in 2023 (17 years now).

This was his first Topps Baseball card since 2018.

Most Memorable Name

Best Baseball Name

Best Leg-Kick Card, too

Player Who Most Should Have Been Traded

And then, that happened.

No Baseball Cards, yet.

Let's hope.

Best Look-In Card

I love these.

Most 15 Minutes Card

I watched all of Drew Maggi's Rookie Debut game - on my "phone."

Mostly because it was the MLB.TV Free Game Of The Day.

I had never heard of Drew Maggi (like everyone else).

I'm glad he got a Baseball Card.

Weirdest Card

Most You Throw Like A Girl Card

Happiest Baseball Card,

Tie

there can never be enough Baseball Cards like these

Best High Five Card

For a time, I thought this might be my Card of the Year.

I would have to guess Philly fans might remember some particularly

epic Walk-Off by their Back-Up Catcher. And that's an epic Baseball Card.

However as I saw more and more Celebration cards in 2023 Topps, this became less #1 worthy, for that repetitious reason. But that worked out OK, with another Phillies card, because I also love candids. These aren't the same as portrait cards though there is always a mystery of whether a candid was especially posed, or not.

I always like a great Batting Helmet reflection, too...

2023 Card of the Year