Walgreens Magic

There is a Walgreens store that is a 5 minute walk from my house.  I have a bit of a love-hate relationship store.  The store is slow and disorganized.  I used to get my prescriptions filled there.  I dropped them when they started texting me to tell me that my prescriptions were ready, but I had to wait 20 minutes for them to fill the order when I actually went into the store.  They once lost a prescription for my daughter.  It was sent electronically.  I was speechless.  

On the plus side, it's convenient and some of the people who work there are entertaining.  There is an older women who works in the morning.  She has worked there for at least 10 years, but complains about working there every time I am in the store. Her latest complaint a few weeks back was something along these lines: "I am restocking the candy aisle this morning. I hate the candy aisle. It's all because people buy our candy and smuggle it into the theater. When the theater was shutdown during COVID, nobody bought candy." 

One women sings along to everything on the intercom and there is a college girl who dances to everything on the intercom.  If there was a lip-synching competition that revolved around only Haim songs, they would win.  

The store manager reminds people to fill out the customer surveys so he gets a bonus at the end of the year.  At least he is honest.  

In the 10-plus years I have owned my house down the street from Walgreens, I have never seen a current year pack of baseball cards in the store. I like those $5 repacks.  Always fun to see all the 1980s and 1990s junk wax in the packs.  Recently pulled a 1988 Topps Dodgers Leaders card out of one of those packs.  

Cardinal legends Pedro Guerrero and Fernando Valenzuela on the card.  

A few weeks back I went to Walgreens at 10 at night.  My wife and I sat outside on our patio while our daughter was playing in the sandbox and our son was hitting some wiffleballs.  She got bitten up by something and sent me down the street after the kids went to bed to buy some Caladryl.  I walked through the store to the back corner where all the First-Aid stuff is located, found what I came for and started walking to the checkout counter.  

I went through the toy aisle and was shocked to see a pack of 2021 Topps cards. 

A little Walgreens magic.  

I have bought single 2021 cards, but this was my first actual pack of Topps.  Pretty amazing to make it more than half a year without opening a single pack of these cards.  Even though it's August, I am going to post the first card I pull out of a pack along with the first Cardinals and former Durham Bulls player as well.  

Here we go.  First card out of a Topps pack in 2021 is.....

former Duke Blue Devil Marcus Stroman.  Long time fan.  I am old enough to remember when Marcus was a second baseman at Duke.  Almost positive I went to an NC State/Duke game at some point where the starting second basemen for the two teams were Marcus Stroman and Russell Wilson.  I like the action shot on this card.  I also like that he looks short here.  If you were not aware, Marcus is really short.  He has a whole line of merchandise he promotes based on the fact that he is short.  

Next.  

Jordan Hicks is my first Cardinal.  The yellow bordered cards are Walgreens exclusives.  Hicks is diabetic and did not play last year.  Nice to see Topps still include him in the set.  

Last one.  

Nick Solak played for the Durham Bulls in 2019, but was traded to the Rangers for Peter Fairbanks.  Solak is solid player.  Prototypical Rays guy who they ran out at 5 different positions.  The Rangers use him the same way.  He's got some pop in his bat too.  The best part of the card is the powder blue Rangers uniform.  So much better than the Cardinals.  

These aren't my favorite cards by any means, but I am happy that I finally got to open a pack of cards from this year.  

Last Year's Bulls

I did not get many cards of the Durham Bulls players last year.  I am not sure why exactly, there were plenty of older players on the team who had cards and certified autographs before joining the team.  I ended up with a few of them over the last two weeks since I have been at home.  Most of them are pretty inexpensive. 

All autographs.  

First up is former Phillies prospect Dylan Cozens.  He was only on the Bulls for two games, and I managed to be at one of those two appearances.  I had seen him before while he was playing for the Lehigh Valley, which is the Phillies Triple A team.  

This autograph is from last year's Gypsy Queen set.  It's an on card autograph, and a really inexpensive card.  Maybe waiting a year to collect these cards might be the way to go.  

Next.  

Jalen Beeks was another player who was barely in Durham.  A grand total of three games, but he pitched over 100 innings last year in Tampa.  Not the best player on the Rays, so I would not be surprised if he ends up back in Durham again at some point.  Beeks is another player I saw a few times playing for another team.  He was on Pawtucket for two seasons prior to joining the Rays last year.  

I like the Chrome autographs.  I think he actually has two of these, but one of them has a sticker autograph.  I like this card.  

Next.  

I saw Nick Solak while he was at Louisville.  He played half a year with the Bulls last season, and then got traded away to the Rangers.  They brought him up to the Majors at some point, and he ended up hitting.  I think Solak has a chance to be a decent player in the future.  I really like the 1985 Topps design on this card.  

Last one for tonight.  

I love when the Bulls have players like this on there roster.  Emilio Bonifacio has played 11 years in the Majors, and made more than enough money to retire.  Yet, he spent time as a 30 something year old playing baseball in Triple A.  I think you really have to like the game to stick around and ride the bus around in the Minors in that situation.  

This is an older autograph from the 2010 Upper Deck set.  Bonifacio actually has a bunch of autographs from earlier in his career.  Some are pretty nice.