This Package is Fire

 
Cue the emojis. 

I figured I'd go into the Thanksgiving break on a high note with this one. A treasure trove of wondrous cards arrived from buckstorecards recently, which ticked boxes in all corners of my collections. (Well, maybe not the hockey ones. I'm still saving that for another time.)

I think this is my first 2016 Topps Pro Debut card. I am not sure if I've been inside of a card shop this year, and hobby stores (and the internet) are pretty much the only way to get minor league cards these days. The one I used to make a trek to a few times a year closed suddenly, and we hardly even have a pro baseball team to speak of.

I'm not sure where someone in Canada might dig up a card of the 2012 Texas League champs, but I'm glad to have it! This team featured a lot of players that are currently mainstays with the big league club. At center stage is Carlos Martinez, holding the trophy.

This is my annual reminder to those who read deep into blog posts that I'm actually kinda sorta an Eagles fan and kinda sorta will take on their cards. Brent Celek is a trooper who has been through some dark days and plenty of quarterback changes. I don't understand NFL fans, really.

Here's the latest guy, the #2 draft pick, a rookie that is supposed to make us all forget the horrible Vick days (please don't send me his cards) and the Chip Kelly/Sam Bradford experiments. He's had his ups and downs, like most rookie quarterbacks.

Back to baseball, here's a sponsored insert from this year's Topps Update. In a few years, I expect every baseball card to have some sort of corporate sponsored tie-in.

This is one of the first cards I got to see from any 2016-17 NBA set, so it got me excited about the new basketball season. I'm not sure I should get excited about Festus, however, as it seems like he's not very likely to be a part of the Blazers plans this season.

Here's the impetus of the trade, a numbered (69/99) rookie year autograph from the one and only Marcus Mariota. The former Duck all-everything player is starting to turn some heads in the No Fun League, and my personal assistant assures me that this card is a wise investment that will pay off dividends in the future.