What Was I Thinking?

The last day of school before the holiday break, the average elementary school classroom teacher is bombarded with cards and gifts. Many of them these days are simply gift cards. Living in a double teacher household, there is a drawer in a kitchen that has a huge stack of them. My wife organizes them with some going towards specific days or events and others are just free to use whenever.

Earlier this week, I decided to use a Target gift card to buy a box of cards. The card aisle was completely stocked. I took a few minutes to soak in all of my choices, but decided to roll the dice on a box of Panini Capstone. It looked different and after all, I was not really paying for these cards.  

Not my actual box, but it stood out from the others. 

During that time, I could have easily taken out my phone and researched the product, but the fact that it was not one of the same five or six Topps products that have been lingering on the shelves for the past few months played a large role in my decision.  

Here is the base card.  

The scan does not show the card stock, but it's nice. That is what Capstone has going for it.  Card stock. The pictures are boring and the design is really lackluster. Is that Arial font?  

This card back is nothing special, but it might be better than the front of the card.  

So, here is the good news. I pulled an autograph and the design of that card is far superior than the rest of the cards in this product. Feels like a little throwback to the Pacific baseball cards with the crown theme in the background.  

Plus, Hoy Park is having an interesting off-season. He was on the Pirates at the end of last season. At some point he was traded to the Red Sox, who traded him to the Braves, who released him. Where will Hoy Park play next year?  Thinking I might need to see someone make a Red Sox and Braves cards of him.  

These are the "base cards" that I pulled out of my blaster.  What is the best card here?  

Personally, I like the Vidal Brujan card, because he was on the Durham Bulls the last two years. The answer is actually probably Bobby Witt.  The rest of these cards are going to get taped to the door of my classroom at school. Not even kidding. Might keep that Shane McClanahan card too. 

Blue parallels.  

No serial numbers, but the little Capstone logo is in the corner is blue. I like the Arenado, but just because it's an Arenado card. Not many other reasons to like the card.  

These are two other rarer parallels.  

The Trea Turner card has a gold Capstone logo, but again no serial number.  The Josiah Gray card is some sort of textured parallel.  You can see the raised squares in the scan.  This is actually a really nice card, not even being sarcastic. Seriously.  

I also pulled three insert cards.  

These two were decent.  Nice Wander Franco card to add to the collection.  

The last insert card is bizarre.  Here is the front.  

Let's talk. Card companies need to stop putting young, twenty-somethings on cards with Hall of Famers. These types of cards just rarely age well.  So, the front of the card is not that bad, considering Panini put Rickey Henderson on the same card as some random White Sox player. Which bring me to the back, which is a slippery slope of terrible.  

So, Rickey Henderson stole bases, but Luis Robert steals runs as a defender?

Did I read that correctly?  

Seems like a huge stretch.  

This whole box of cards was a huge stretch. I don't know what I was thinking.  

The Old Mall Card Shop

I am approaching ten years now in this space. During that time, I have made several vague references to a "mall card shop" near my house that I never really visited. I am not going to name names for this post.  Maybe in a future post. Mall card shops are not really ideal, I do not want to spend a lot of time rehashing all the various reasons. 

The mall with the card shop was in the process of closing prior to the pandemic.  The anchor stores were closed and the mall was filled with all sorts of odd shops.  One of the local high schools had even landed a space in the mall for their robotics teams.  I am not sure exactly when the mall officially closed, but the most recent pictures I can find show it completely shuttered. 

 

I had actually been to the mall card shop several times while the remaining stores were in the process of holding clearance and closeout sales, but it was primarily for a few large card boxes. I discovered a sweet table of old wax boxes on the last trip. I ended up buying a box of 1995 Emotion cards, which was a fun product back in the day.  

At some point in the last year, the mall card shop reappeared within a five minute drive of my house in a new development.  I was curious about the store, but did not make a visit. I figured it was likely going to be similar to its identity as a mall card shop and it's in a little bit of an odd place. The only thing I knew that was on that same street was a trailer park.  

Well, I needed some card boxes a few weeks back, so I loaded the little man in the car and made a visit to the card store.  Not my picture, but it looks nice from the exterior.  Yes, the trailer park is still there, just to the left in this picture. 

I dare say, I was impressed with the store. They had a decent selection of single baseball cards and a lot of wax. The little man spent a good thirty minutes looking through the boxes trying to find some Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt cards. He ended up with a nice stack of cards. I also ended up buying a few inexpensive Jake Cronenworth cards, but I was just more impressed that the store had card supplies.

Enter this week. We have been in the process of replacing the floors in our house. Our furniture has been moved around. On Wednesday, the little man could not hang out in his room, because our contractor was working on our staircase. 

 

What to do?  

We made another trip to the former mall card shop. Again, I was impressed by the store. The little man was able to track down a few single cards from the Cardinals, Tigers, and Rays players he collects. Those are his three favorite teams. I also ended up with a bunch of single cards that I am posting now, but also ended up picking up some Topps Heritage Minors. That's for a different post.

Here was my haul. All of these cards averaged out to roughly a dollar per card minus the last card. 

I have not really done much with collecting Paul Goldschmidt cards since the Cardinals traded for him in 2019. He was a nice player on the Diamondbacks, but I was not a huge fan. I feel like I have come around a bit after this past year.  Good player, borderline Hall of Famer.  I will try harder on Goldschmidt in the coming year. 

Next up is a MacKenzie Gore. He's from North Carolina and I have a connection to him through work. Not the best year in 2021, but I still think he has a bright future. 

The late 90s Gold Label sets were much better, but still not bad cards.  Picked up a Pujols and Goldschmidt. Not sure if the Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3 cards are the same as the original sets.  Pujols is a Class 3 card, which is why I asked. I believe those were short-printed back in the day.

Next three are all of the newest Cardinal, Steven Matz. Just a bunch of Topps Chrome singles, nothing too fancy. 

 

 

The bottom 1984 style card from the 2019 Topps set is my favorite Matz card out of this group.  I need to go through my Mets and Blue Jays singles from the last few years and see what other Matz cards I have hanging around.   

The next three are cards are all NC State players.  First up is Russell Wilson and Trea Turner.

 

 

Nice to see Russell Wilson shown as a position player with a bat in his hands. There are several Panini cards floating around where he is shown as a pitcher.  Russ was actually a second baseman. Heard he also played for the football team.   

Two T.J. Warren cards.....

I am a team behind on T.J.. The last time I posted one of his cards he was still on the Phoenix Suns. That was two years ago. He's played well on the Pacers so far, although T.J. has still had problems staying on the court due to injuries. Last year, T.J only played four games. This season, he has already missed a game or two with a foot injury. Still my favorite former NC State basketball player.  

Last card for this post.  

An old Durham Bulls favorite, Anthony Banda.  

He was really good for the Bulls a few years back, but has had a few arm injuries and bounced around to the Giants, Mets, and Pirates.  The Pirates used him as a reliever during the second half of 2021 and he seemed to find his stuff again. 

I picked up two boxes of Topps Heritage Minors while I was there. Not very mall-like prices on the boxes, plus I love Minor League baseball cards. That post is for another day. 

Wolfpack are red. Blue Devils are blue. Tar Heels wear blue too.

Picked up a few new cards of some local players in the past week.  It just so happens that I managed to add one card from each of the local ACC baseball squads.  It was not my original intention to add a card of a player from each of these schools, it just worked out that way.  So, let's start with my beloved Wolfpack.....

This is the best card in this post for obvious reason.  First, it's an NC State player.  Second, it's an NC State player in an NC State uniform.  Third, it's a really nice looking card.

I have added a few Trea Turner Panini cards over the years.  A few of them have been from the USA Baseball sets, while the more recent ones have featured him in the red and white digs from his time in playing for the Wolfpack.  He was drafted in the first round of the 2014 draft by the Padres, behind teammate Carlos Rodon, who was viewed as the better at the time.  Turner was an excellent player during his college career.

The Padres traded him to the Nationals while he was a Minor Leaguer.  Still a little confused by that trade in so many ways.

My cool Trea Turner story: Five years ago, while Trea Turner was still in college, he actually favorited one of my tweets where I posted his average and slugging percentage from his summer play with USA Baseball.....

Hopefully, that tweet was liked out of some sort of motivation.  

Let's move on to the Duke card.  I am actually looking to add a few more cards of some of the players who are currently playing for the Blue Devils.  Griffin Conine is probably the biggest name, Jeff's son, but his cards are a little difficult to find.  Currently, Duke is a top ten team, and they have some really talented players on their roster.  That means that they have baseball cards from their days in high school.  

I recently posted about high school kids having their own baseball cards.  I do not get it, but here is the card......

I have seen Herron a few times over the past few years.  I usually make it to at least one Duke baseball game every year, so I have now seen Herron play a few times.  Pretty impressive player who should probably go in the first few rounds of the Major League Draft.  Not an exciting video, but......

                                        

he's got a nice swing, just a little short in the power department.  Herron has only hit 2 home runs this year, but he also had an on base percentage of .424 entering this weekend's series against NC State.  That has some value to someone, somewhere.  Hello, Billy Beane.  He also is an outstanding defender in the outfield.  

which brings me to the Tar Heel in my post.  There are few redeeming qualities about the school in Chapel Hill.  Fake classes, tailgating at football games with preppy clothes and martinis, that fake folksy vibe that Roy Williams tries to give off......

How do you feel about UNC, Roy?  

There is no wiggle room for UNC basketball players after they leave school, but there is one former Tar Heel baseball player that I have made some peace with since he entered the pros.  He's a good player, whom I enjoy watching, and has a little personality too.  

Tar Heels card.....

is of Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager.  While Seager is not quite as popular as his brother, Corey from the Dodgers, he still has had a good career so for in Seattle.  He's entering his eighth season, seventh full, and has hit more than 20 home runs in 6 of those seasons.  In 2014, Seager made the All-Star team and won the American League Gold Glove at third base.  

Again, overlooked all of the time.  I liked his Player's Weekend jersey last year, which made fun of the fact that......

his brother is very popular with baseball fans.  I would agree with Corey being a better player, plus he was never on the UNC baseball team, but Corey is still a very good player in his own right.  I have a few other Kyle Seager autographs in my collection already, so I did not necessarily have to have this card, but when something is a really good deal, and it from a set that I really like, it's hard to pass up.  

Same School, Same Card, But.....

It's story time y'all.

Once upon a time there was a quarterback at NC State who also played on the school's baseball team.  We will call him Russell.  Now, while he played both sports in college, most people knew him for his football talents.

Russell had some pretty good wheels and was a really accurate passer.  The NC State football team had some pretty good years with Russell under center.  Most importantly they did not lose to the dreaded light blue team from Chapel Hill.  Best play was the two yard Hail Mary in 2010.

As I mentioned before Russell also played baseball for three years while he was in Raleigh.  He was mainly an infielder, although he pitched a little here and there too.  His best year on the diamond came in 2010 when he hit .306/.439/.490 in 47 games.  ACC is no slouchy baseball league, so those are solid numbers.  

Russell was drafted in the summer of 2010, but returned to State to play football in the fall.  The spring of 2011 was spent with the Rockies who eventually sent him to play with the Asheville Tourists.  He had an alright summer, but quit the Rockies towards the end of the Minor League season.  

Big Russ picked up his telephone and called Tom O'Brien, the NC State football coach, but was told that the school had another quarterback who was ready to start.  Mike Glennon was tall and looked a little bit awkward at times, but he also had some really good moments playing at State.  My favorite....

Russell Wilson transferred to some B1G school and won some games there.  Since the whole relationship was Russell has been weird.  People in Raleigh really want to still love Russell.  He got invited back to the spring football game have his jersey retired by the school.....

and Russell has come up with clever ways at times to merge the two schools together.....

Whole Pack of Badgers is pretty good, but Russell hasn't really dropped the whole thing about not getting his quarterback job back at NC State.  For whatever reason Wisconsin invited him as a graduation speaker a year or so ago and Russ rehashed the whole story about NC State not giving him his starting job back after he quit the team. 

Boo Hoo.  

Which leads to a baseball card.  If you go and look at a list of current baseball players who went to school at NC State you'd end up with Carlos Rodon and Trea Turner as the two most recognizable names.  Pretty good talent there.  

In fact that team was good enough to make a trip to the College World Series in 2013.  It was a pretty cool thing to see as a Wolfpack fan.  

You know who wasn't on that team?  Russell.  Russell Wilson never made a College World Series appearance.  In fact, he was never even on the same team as Trea Turner or Carlos Rodon.  The best Major League player that State had while Russ played with in Raleigh was Jake Buchanan.  

Nothing wrong with Jake.  It's just that he's not Trea Turner, nor Carlos Rodon.  So, here is the card....

Okay.  First, I was in school while Russell Wilson was the quarterback at State.  I really liked watching him play football and have great memories of sitting in the student section watching him do his thing.  Probably my favorite game I saw him play in was his freshman year against Miami.  Really did a lot of damage with his feet.  Great game to watch.  

I also understand why State did not give him his scholarship back.  You quit a team, they moved on.  End of story.  Back to the card.  

I have been looking for a Russell Wilson autographed card for awhile now.  I have some non-autographed cards of him with in a Wolfpack uni......

The problem with the Russell Wilson baseball autographs has always been price.  There are always a bunch up on Ebay, but they are way too expensive for what I would spend on a Russell Wilson baseball card.  

That's $299.99.  I did not pay that much for my copy of this card, or anything close to that price.  This is not just one of those jacked up prices on Ebay either.  The Russell Wilson NC State autographs are always priced like this by almost everyone who sells one.  Luckily I was able to trade for a copy of this card.  Hurt a lot less.  

Overall, there is something a little odd about this baseball card.  I know that Panini put them together on a card because they went to the same school, but.....

• They never played together
• I am not sure you could really argue that Russell Wilson was ever a great baseball player 
• I am not sure that Russell Wilson wants to have much to do with NC State at the moment
• Russell Wilson was not really a pitcher 
• Carlos Rodon makes a lot more sense for this card..or give me Dan Plesac.  Someone.  Anyone.  

Pack In Black

The official school colors of NC State are red and white, but if you watch enough of their sporting events you'd know that every great once in awhile the school breaks out some black uniforms.  I have never quite understood the timing of the events, but it usually happens at least once a year in most of the sports.

Black jerseys for basketball.....

Black Jerseys for football......

and of course State also wears black jerseys for baseball too.  However, of all the sports teams at the school I am pretty sure that the baseball teams wears their black uniforms more than the other sports.  True, they have a larger slate of games to wear alternate jerseys, but the black jerseys seem to pop up a little more frequently on the diamond.

The football jerseys are probably the shakiest unis out of the black alternate jerseys pictured here, and while I am usually not a fan of straying from the school's color scheme I must say that the black looks really nice with the red and white.  At least a lot better looking than some of the black jerseys that the two blue Carolina schools from down the street try to pull off.

Which leads me to my newest baseball card of a Wolfpack player.  They are wearing a black jersey on the card which is itself a black baseball card.  Looks really sharp.  There was a little glare from the scanner, the card has a really shiny finish......

This might be the nicest NC State baseball card that I own.  I have picked up a bunch over the years, and while I sure some of them have a lower print run or whatever, this card is just awesome in every way that a baseball card can be.  I know that Carlos Rodon also has a bunch of cards like this that Panini has put out, but Turner seems to suddenly be the player with the higher upside which was not the way it was viewed while they were playing in Raleigh.  The back of the card....

Very well done by Panini and very happy to own this card.  I hope that I can find another couple of cards from this set which fit into my collection.  Go Pack! Go Trea Turner, hope it's a good year!  

2016 International League All-Star Set

Why I am I posting this a few months after the set came out?  See the post from yesterday about the Durham Bulls set.  I picked this up at a Durham Bulls game and it features some really good talent from the International League which is Triple A level teams.  Sometimes the amount of high end talent in Triple A can be short lived, it seems that more and more teams get players past Double A and promote them very quickly.

Cards and a little snippet about one of the players, maybe two....

Out of this group I really like Josh Bell.  Berrios could be really good too, but he's been really shaky at the Major League level.  Bell made it to the Majors last year too, and while the pop in his bat did not shine through in the 40 or so games he played in Pittsburgh, he had more walks than strikeouts.  That translated into a .368 OBP.  Getting on base is always a good skill to have and a great way to stick around...

A lot of players to like here....Pompey is a great defensive player, should be around a long time as a good centerfielder.  Glasnow is going to be a good pitcher, Judge is going to hit, and I am still pretty high on Buxton.  Feel like people have gotten down about him, but he is still only 22 and has a lot of potential.  

Sanchez and Turner are the real standouts here, but there are others in this group who could be solid players.  My favorite here is obviously Snell, also good to see Shaffer in this set, but I think he's lost a lot of his luster as a prospect.  Severino and the two Red Sox could also be pretty good.....

Last three...

Hey, I like that Bacon USA jersey Nick Williams is wearing.....