Red, White, and I Guess Blue.

There were a pair of NC State players on the USA Baseball roster this past summer, but it appears that neither of them made the checklist for the Panini Stars & Stripes product. Jacob Dudan and Derrick Smith were both freshman for the Wolfpack and played a starring role in helping the team reach the College World Series last spring. When Stars and Stripes originally dropped, they were the first two players I tried to find, unsuccessfully.  

Amazingly, Panini included a third Wolfpack player who never appeared in a game for USA Baseball Collegiate team, sophomore pitcher Dominic Fritton.  According to what I can find on the internet, Dominic Fritton was at the Collegiate National Team Training Camp, but did not make the team.  Apparently, that earns you a baseball card.  

It sounds like I am complaining, which I am to a degree. Yes, I wish there were cards of the two NC State players who were on the College National Team this summer. They're really good players with bright futures. No, I am not complaining that Panini made a card of Dominic Fritton for trying out for the team.  In fact, I hope Fritton got a whole pile of NIL money for signing these autographs and ends up have a long and prosperous professional baseball career.  

I have two Fritton cards, the first is a red patch card with a red ink autograph.   

Obviously the preferred card color for anything involving the Wolfpack.  Flipping the thickly stocked card over and it's serial numbered out of 25.  You can also check out the bio on Fritton who was a Freshman All-American at State. There are no Sophomore All-Americans and he had kind of a rough year.  

I also picked up a jersey relic card with a blue (boooooo) autograph.

This card has a thinner card stock and no serial number on the back of the card. Did UNC or Duke even have a player on the College National Team roster last summer? 

No. 

Go Pack! 

High School Kids at Target

I have largely avoided the card aisle at Target during the past six months. There is just nothing there that has sparked my interest this year. Maybe I will buy a Topps set at the end of the year, but the 2024 products have done little to move me to make any purchases. That all changed at the end of last week when I spotted a few blaster boxes of Panini's USA Baseball product.  

I always enjoy taking in games at USA Baseball, which is five minutes from my house, so it's nice to find cards of some of the players who appear there.  I was mainly looking for a few NC State players on the checklist, but knew I would most likely run into a bunch of high school kids. It's how USA Baseball cards work.  

I ended up with a Dominic Fritton card, NC State player, but no autograph. 

I typically do not watch the high school teams at USA Baseball, but they are loaded with future high draft picks. Similar to buying a box of Bowman, I open the packs and just file the cards away for a few years and revisit. I have pulled some nice cards over the years.  

So, what came out of my blaster boxes?

Wake Forest, North Carolina High Schooler Cameron Small.  

When I saw the 13U on the bottom of the card, I thought I had pulled my first middle schooler. Not so, but I think Cameron is a freshman, so he is not committed to a college or even does not have a college list. Maybe he will end up at NC State.  

Next up, Jackson, Mississippi high schooler Konnor Griffin.  

Konnor was actually drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first round, 9th pick, this summer. He would seem to have a bright future, so this card is a more immediate win than I am used to getting out of a USA Baseball pack.  

Last autograph.  

California high schooler Andrew Jimenez. He's a 15U player, so really young with no college commitment. 

I will file all three of these autographs away and see what becomes of these players in a few years.

Beyond the three autographs, I also got two relic cards of college players.  

First up, Rutgers pitcher Christian Coppola. Not sure what sort of pro prospects he has after college, but if he's pitching at USA Baseball, he has to be pretty good.  

Last card.  

TCU pitcher Ben Abeldt. Again, not sure about his professional prospects, but they have to be pretty good.  He looks like a high school kid.  

Upgraded To The Gift Shop Window

I bought a Ben Sheets autograph last week.  

 

This is from the per-pack-autograph product, Upper Deck Ultimate Signatures. 

I have long dabbled in Ben Sheets cards, but rarely post them.  

Last year, I posted a rant about how Ben Sheets name does not appear anywhere at the USA Baseball facility, which is five minutes from my house and I drive past it everyday driving to work. If you don't want to read the rant, Sheets single-handedly won the Gold Medal Game at the 2000 Olympics, but somehow is not recognized anywhere by USA Baseball. Other players who did not win an Olympic Gold Medal Game with an incredible pitching performance are recognized at the USA Baseball facility.  

Well, I recently had the chance to attend a game to watch the College National Team.  

There is actually a pretty significant expansion project taking place at the facility, which includes a new training building. 

Most importantly, there have also been changes to the gift shop, which now features a timeline of important events and accomplishments of the USA Baseball program. 

Look at that. Win a Gold Medal, appear on the gift shop window.  

Welcome, Middle School Graduates

I am a big fan of the USA Baseball cards, at least I used to be.  

I could always find some great autographs of local college players.  

Carlos Rodon. 

Marcus Stroman.  

and Trea Turner. 

and when there weren't local players, I could always find some players who ended up in the Majors and were enjoyable to watch.  

Tanner Houck is fun.  

The more recent USA Baseball sets have been a little thin on college players. 

I bought a few packs of Panini's latest USA Baseball Stars and Stripes product this past week. 

I am only going through the "hit" cards. The base cards have a decent checklist and the quality of the cards is much improved. They feel a lot like Topps Chrome base cards......

If only the cards were attached to a product that also had a decent autograph checklist. 

First up.....

is an autograph of Ayden Lockett. He is going to graduate high school in 2026. Do the math on that number, Mr. Lockett is a freshman in high school, or he's closer to his middle school graduation than his high school graduation.  Good for this kid for already having a baseball card, but I was not overly excited to pull this card.  

Maybe in five or six years I will feel differently.  

Next.  

Ross Felder is a junior in high school and is committed to play baseball at Arkansas.  

Easily the best card in my packs, which is a little sad. No actual college kids.  

The last card is different.......

Italian National Baseball Team?  

Under 18? 

I completely wasted my money.  

Friday Five: My Favorite 1988 Topps and Topps Traded Cards

I got a copy of the 1988 Topps set from my parents for Christmas that year. I was excited about getting a complete set, so I opened the set box and sorted out all of the cards. Everyone from the 1980s knows you are supposed to leave your complete Topps sets sealed, right? I was in fifth grade and baseball cards are fun, of course I opened the box. Also, it's the 1988 Topps set.  You can probably find a copy of the set at your local thrift shop for $5.  

There are probably multiple copies for less than $5 at your thrift shop.  

Is the 1988 Topps set unpopular because it's really that bad, or because it lacks a signature rookie card Truth be told, I kind of dig the 1988 Topps set. The design is underrated.  

Topps is using the 1988 design as an insert set with the 2023 Topps set. Many have not liked the 1988 Topps set for the past thirty years, but you're going to love it now and buy all the retail packs from Target and Wal-Mart.  

I personally like the Nolan Arenado card.  

Now, let me get to the countdown. I am going to include cards from the 1988 Topps Traded set in this post, because there are some good cards in there and it is also a $5 set.  

Shall we?  

5T. 1988 Topps Traded Andy Benes #14T 

5T. 1988 Topps Traded Ron Gant #39T 

I did not touch the 1988 Topps Traded set until the Cardinals signed Andy Benes and Ron Gant as a free agents before the 1996 season. There was a high-end card store that was a few minutes from my house back in the 1990s. When the Cardinals signed Benes and Gant, they set out a huge stack of 1988 Topps Traded sets on one of their counters with all the sets costing $10. I bought the set expecting it to have a Ron Gant rookie and a bunch of junky cards. 

Not the case.  

As a Cardinals fan, I got cards of Jose DeLeon, Luis Alicea, and Tom Brunansky on top of Gant and Andy Benes. There was also David Wells, Jim Abbott, and Roberto Alomar amongst others. It's a pretty good set and I have no idea how it is only crispy Alexander Hamilton.  

4. 1988 Topps Traded Robin Ventura #124T

Robin Ventura is not quite a Hall of Famer. One of the best third baseman from the 1990s and early 2000s, just a step below players like Scott Rolen. In the aftermath of the 1982 Topps Traded set, every Topps Traded set had a potential Cal Ripken waiting to rising from the checklist. This was the "it" card from the 1988 Topps Traded set. Not sure it was every really all that expensive at any point, but the fact that the card costs less than a dollar is insanity.  

This card should cost at least a dollar at a minimum.  

3. 1988 Topps Vince Coleman #1 

I loved the design of the Record Breakers cards in the 1988 Topps set. That red background really pops and it was great to see a Cardinals player on the first card of a Topps set.  The Record Breaker was for Coleman's third consecutive season with more than 100 stolen bases. I believe that Topps has reused this design in one of their Throwback/Customer Direct products.  

Here is the moment.......

The previous record was held by Rickey Henderson.  

2. 1988 Topps Mark McGwire #580 

Mark McGwire with a Topps All-Star Rookie logo in the corner. It was a no-brainer. No goatee or crazy muscles, just skinny Mark McGwire holding a bat and posing for a picture. This is one of my favorite early McGwire cards. Topps also used a picture from this same photo shoot on McGwire's 1988 Glossy Mail-In card and the A's Team Leaders card.  

I am sure if I looked hard enough, Topps has probably recycled these photos on modern McGwire cards as well. It would be borderline shocking if they have not.  

1. 1988 Cardinals Leaders #351 

Great picture here with long-time Cardinals player, manager, and coach Red Schoendienst standing next to catcher Tony Pena. Most coaches do not get cards, so it was nice to see someone as high-profile as Red get the nod from Topps. It is somewhat surprising that Pena appeared on this card over some of the more popular 1980s Cardinals players like Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, or Vince Coleman. 

Still, not a complete reach.  

If you weren't around for 1980s baseball, Pena was the premier defensive catcher in the league and the Cardinals were loaded with Gold Glovers. The Cardinals had outfielders to spare, but no catcher. Prior to the 1987 season, the Cardinals traded Andy Van Slyke to the Pirates for Pena. The Cardinals ended up winning the National League that season, but injuries caught up with them in the World Series and they lost in seven games. 

A card back.  

Solid numbers on the Cardinals Team Leaders. I am sure Red helped somehow, someway. 

The Peak of Good Pitching

Remember that time NC State got eliminated from the College World Series in the middle of the night two years ago?

Yes, it was because of COVID.  

No, don't leave a comment about COVID below.  

Anyway, my Wolfpack reached the College World Series and was in a position to win the National Championship thanks to the efforts of pitcher, Sam Highfill who pitched a shut out against Vanderbilt opposite Rangers first-round pick, Jack Leiter.  

Highfill is from Apex, North Carolina, is best known for its abundance of trains and its cheesy water tower. It's also the town where I happen to live, just a few blocks from both the train tracks and the water tower.  Both are walkable from my house.  

The water tower has some art work on it and is stamped with the words, "The Peak of Good Living" and is located smack dab in the middle of the town. Nobody who lives in Apex is actually from Apex, but local legend has it that the water tower was built first and the town filled in around it.  

Seems plausible. 

Back to baseball. I am not going to rehash the whole reason as to why NC State was sent home from the College World Series at 2 in the morning, but the community rallied around Highfill and the mayor of the town started lighting up the water tower red at night.

Here is the famous/infamous water tower. Note the railroad crossing sign in the foreground.  

While half of that College World Series team is now playing in the Minors, since Highfill was only a freshman, he is still in college at NC State. He missed most of this past season, but did manage did manage to appear last summer in a few games for the USA Baseball National College team.  

The inclusion of Sam Highfill cards is part of the reason I have been opening packs of the USA Baseball cards. Unfortunately, there have been no sightings of good Sam Highfill cards. A few base cards, but nothing too exciting. 

The town of Apex gets a nod at the bottom of the back of the card on the right side.  I like the green frame around the edge of the card and the green box used on the back as well.  More on the use of the color green later in the post.  

I just bought a pair of his autographs from Ebay from less than $10. Highfill is a well-thought of college pitcher, but I am not sure he's high on the board for the MLB Draft. Not quite the same energy level as when Carlos Rodon was at NC State.  

First up, the base autograph. Yes, it's a sticker autograph, which is a bit of a bummer. It is also the autograph of a college kid that cost less than $5. Panini has started using on-card autographs for the college players in Donruss Elite, so I thought they might change the USA Baseball cards too. Guess not.  Do you think that USA Baseball has to pay the college kids for autographs now that they have NIL rights?

Just curious. 

Hopefully Sam got paid some money for signing these cards.  

Notice that Panini went away from the green for this card with only the green bar at the bottom for the team name and another at the top as part of the design around the card brand logo.  

Next up, is a relic/autograph card.  

I like this card much better than the first one. The USA Baseball set has a lot of green included on the packaging this year, as the primary color of both the packs and boxes. Plus, green also shows up on the border and backs of the base cards. Feels like a good move, especially considering that their facility is very green with all of the trees around the field. Green is a prominent color.  

I wish Panini had used the green background on the base autograph as well.  The green on this card also has a star pattern, which actually lightens up the background quite a bit in places. They should have gone simple here and just used the dark color.  No matter, it's still a much better looking card than the first Highfill autograph, but both are welcome additions to the collection.  

The Never-Ending School Year and Retail Baseball Cards

My last school year ended midday on a Thursday afternoon last month. It was my last day at the school I have worked at for the past ten years. It was time for something different and new challenges. More importantly, something a little closer to my house. 

After moving a minivan load of books over to my new school, I went home to start my summer vacation. I was really tired at the end of the day, so I think I ended up going to bed around 9. A few hours later my alarm went off. I woke up, took a shower and got dressed, and drove into work. 

It was Friday. The first day of my new school year and my new school.  

My summer vacation was measured in hours this year rather than days or weeks. My last actual vacation day was on April 14th, which is a long time ago for someone who has worked the same schedule for the past 15 years. I teach for roughly nine weeks starting at the end of July and take three weeks off at the end. Multiply the schedule times four and you've got a complete school year.  

I am about to enter my fifth straight month of teaching with no significant break, which is a lot in my world. Even if you are on a traditional calendar, it's only four months between the beginning of the first day and Thanksgiving break.  

It has been a long time.    

There are a lot of little things I have been doing to cope with the extended workload. I have been trying to get more sleep, packing some good lunches, and getting extra fresh air. In addition, I have also been trying to be intentional about setting aside time to work on my baseball cards. Some of that time has been spent sorting out cards......

I am mostly trying to organize my single cards that are not attached to a set, or find the last few cards needed to complete some of the more recent near-sets that I have assembled. I have also been working on building a few new sets, and also opening up some retail packs. My most recent goal has been to complete the Topps Series 2 set.  It feels like a throwback to childhood when I bought a few packs of cards and spent a chunk of the spring and summer trying to assemble a complete set of Topps cards. 

I have been helped out along the way by a few Target gift cards which I received at the end of last year. It also doesn't hurt that my new school is located in the middle of a large retail area. Think of a large box store and there is probably one within five to ten minutes of my classroom.  

Here are two of the retail blaster boxes that I have picked up over the past few months.  

 

I thought I would share out a few of my favorite cards I picked up along the way.  

I had originally set out to collect Topps Series 2 with retail packs slowly over the first quarter of the year. I reached the goal in half a quarter, but was greatly aided by having two students at my previous school gift me retail blasters on the way out the door.  I used my gift certificates to buy two more Series 2 retail boxes. I have purchased one Topps Series 2 Blaster with my own money.  

Five boxes of Topps Series 2, one small COMC order, and I am done.  

My favorite card out of the base set is the Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina combo card. 

They have only been playing together since 2006. Not sure why it took this long for Wainwright and Molina to appear on a baseball card together before this year. I know I am really bias, but I hate that there is a checklist on the back. 

Yes, Blake Snell is card 414, but give me some information about Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright. If nothing else, just give me a photo of the Carlos Beltran strikeout at the end of the 2006 National League Championship Series.  

Moving on.

The Topps Series 2 boxes all come with a batting helmet card. They look a lot like the 2007 Sweet Spot autograph cards, but the helmet is made out of metal rather than plastic.  I pulled two different Cubs batting helmets.  

These are actually really nice for manufactured relics. There is a Goldschmidt and Arenado card in this set, so I am going to go ahead and add those to my Ebay watch list. They will be sitting there until I can find them for a few dollars.  

I also pulled a Joey Votto Home Field Advantage card.  

I love the plate of chili in the bottom corner. I don't eat chili, but it's the sort of local food reference that Topps should have put onto the Yadier Molina card. I needed some toasted raviolis or cans of mass-produced beer.  

More cards, but only the highlights.    

I bought a few packs of Donruss. Please, do not repeat my mistake. They are terrible, but I did get a Matt Manning autograph. If Matt Manning's arm does not fall off, I think he will be a good pitcher. Unfortunately, Matt Manning's arm is half-way off already.  

That's quite the signature.  

I also bought a few packs of Topps Gallery.  

This set is not nearly as good as it was in the 1990s, but I did land an autograph of Giants catching prospect Joey Bart. Pretty good pull for a retail pack of cards.  

Next up, a box of USA Baseball cards. I do not love the regular MLB cards of Panini, but ruining the USA Baseball card set is too far.  

Athlete Development Program?

National Team Development Program?  

What happened to the College National Team?  

According to the internet, the guy on the left is a freshman in high school. Not college, high school. Pretty wild having baseball cards, but not being able to drive.  The guy on the right is a senior in high school and committed to play college baseball at Alabama. At least he can drive himself to school.  

My two relic cards.

Yes, they are both in high school as well. 

The player on the left is a sophomore in high school.  

The player on the right is a junior in high school and committed to play at UCLA in college.  

Still wild to think that Panini is making baseball cards of high school kids.  

In ten years, one of these guys is going to be working an office job and give out his Panini baseball cards rather than a business card. 

Did I mention that my new classroom has a view of a Walgreens?

It came in handy the one day. Horrible headache. I just walked across the street and picked up some Advil and a few packs of Gypsy Queen. Felt much better afterwards.  

Gypsy Queen was decent. Similar to Gallery, this product has seen better days. I pulled a Jose Devers autograph out of a pack. Any retail autograph is a win.  

That brings me to my last retail product, which is easily the best.  

This is from the 2021 Topps Chrome Anniversary set. Which was it released in the middle of 2022?  I don't know. Do we need another set that borrows the design from the 1952 Topps set? Yes, we do if this is what the cards are going to look like.  

Here are my shiny, wavy, and colored cards I pulled out of my box.  

This is where my post veers from a bunch of cards that I pulled out of retail packs and into a future project.  

I really like this set and had contemplated printing off a checklist and tracking down all the cards. However, it has 700 cards and feels like it would take a ton of time and money to assemble. Instead, I am going to track down some of the Cardinals and Durham Bulls players in the set.  

My first former Bulls player arrived in the mail a few days back...... 

The autographs are not exactly cheap, but there are only three Cardinals and three Rays autographs. Well, I am now down to two Rays autographs. I think that Dylan Carlson and Scott Rolen are the two most difficult and expensive.  

Anyway, that was a fun post on retail baseball cards. I still have a few more weeks until I get a few weeks off. Maybe there will be another retail baseball card post or two along the way.