I have been on the lookout for an autograph of Cardinals rookie shortstop Aledmys Diaz and had sort of formulated this plan in my mind to skip over the Topps Update product in hopes of putting the time, effort, and money into tracking down that elusive Aledmys autograph. Welp.
I found myself walking in the door of my local card shop, The Trading Card Co-Op, and found myself standing face to face with Topps Update. I'd like to think about what happened next as a brief moment of weakness. Like driving through St. Louis and not stopping for Imos.....
I was trapped. Jimmy, one of the store owners, insisted that he picked out the Aledmys Diaz card in the box.
So, before we get to the good stuff, here are some of my "hot" takes on the Topps Update set. Let's start with a few base cards. I will narrow the few hundred base cards down to my favorite two cards, one from each of my two primary rooting interests....
My favorite Cardinals card in the base set belongs to "rookie" pitcher Seung-Hwan Oh. He actually spent years and years playing in both Korea and Japan before landing with the Cardinals last off season. While Aledmys Diaz got most of the rookie spot with the Cardinals, Oh had quite the rookie season too. I have picked up a few of his cards here later in the 2016 baseball card calendar. Plus, I like the action shot on this card.
My favorite Durham Bulls related card belongs to, sigh, former Rays infielder Taylor Motter. He was actually just traded to the Mariners this week. I am not even sure what the Rays got back in return, I have brought myself to even look up the players. More on Motter later this week. Cool to see a Topps base card of him with the cool long hair.
On to other things......
My favorite insert set in Topps Update is the Fire cards. Topps sold these last year as an online product, I picked up a Molina card off of Ebay. Not sure I every wrote the card up on this space, but it's a pretty cool card. The biggest difference being that the online cards were metal, these are cardboard. Still, they look cool.
On to the hit cards.
My two "relic" cards......
Kind of the typical Topps box. The All-Star relics have long been a staple of the Update sets. Jay Bruce is meh, but I pick the Padres colored uniform swatches. The Yaz "relic" or manu card is okay. I used to like these cards, but I am getting a little bit tired of coins and the whatnot. The picture is cool, the card background is cool, the jumbo coin? I could take it or leave it.
Last card. I bet you might have inferred from the title.....
I could not believe it when I pulled this card. I sat and stared at for a few minutes. When do you ever pull a card from a checklist, especially a hit card, when you buy a box? I can hardly think of a time that it has happened to me, but I am glad this came out of one of my packs. I am still thinking of adding another Aledmys autograph, I have my eye on one, but maybe I will be a little bit more patient with the next one....