True Story

A redemption redeemed. 

It's an off night for the World Series and it's also a Monday, so a single card is all you're going to get out of me. On Friday, right on the heels of my Bowman Chrome Prospect redemption showing up, I got another mailer from the Scranton branch with my Trevor Story autograph. As you may recall, I took a rare dip into the hobby box pool earlier on in the year, and the Story redemption was my prize. (I'm actually not entirely sure I was promised a "hit".) Redemptions are always a bit of a head-scratcher for me when it turns out that the autograph is signed on a sticker. I can see a player promising to sign but not having time during the grueling season, but you would think that you wouldn't include someone in a set unless you already had the signed stickers in hand. This process seems like it should only apply to on-card items.

Oh well, it's a nice card of a good player. It's available for the time being, at least until I strike up a trade with a Rockies fan at some point down the road.

Update Time

Closing out the baseball card year with a #CrackinWaxMailday featuring Tommy Edman. 

Once Topps Update hits the shelves, it means that baseball cards are pretty much done for the year. Sure, there will be other releases before New Year's Eve, but it's mostly peripheral stuff. A retail holiday promotion here, some high end stuff there. There's nothing left that I would pay much attention to, personally.

As the final release in my group break Crackin' Wax subscription, Topps Update leaves a bit to be desired for the Cardinals fan. With virtually zero trade deadline movement, a single All-Star Game participant and only a few rookies that didn't make the cut for an earlier set, there are only 7 Cardinals in the entire 300 card base set.

Paul Goldschmidt finally gets a non-airbrushed card, but even his inclusion wasn't all that necessary. Lane Thomas suffered an unfortunately late season injury and Andrew Knizner was relegated to third catcher duties, meaning that we only see three other playoff participants in the set, along with the requisite Paul DeJong ASG card. It would have been nice to see Tyler Webb in the set, but fairly anonymous relievers get overlooked even if they become a key component of a team's bullpen. Randy Arozarena and (probably) long-time minor leaguer Rangel Ravelo will end up getting held over as RCs until the 2020 set.

Here's a "150 Years" parallel of Paul DeJong's All-Star card. There are far too many parallels in this year's set.

I'm a huge fan of the hobby-only Topps Black parallels from over the years, so it was nice to get this Tommy Edman card numbered to 67. Along with his base and rainbow foil parallel, I went from zero Edman cards to three. Not bad.

More Rainbow foil parallel action. I feel like Goldschmidt has a lot of boring looking cards.

Here's a foil parallel of a guy who should be a key member of the Cardinals staff for years to come. Since he's a reliever, however, we probably won't see many cards of his in the future.

The 1984 Topps love continues. Here's a blue bordered parallel of an insert.

There was only one Cardinal in this set's silver pack promotion - the aforementioned Lane Thomas. Hopefully he recovers well for next season, because he was exciting to watch in his limited appearances.

More 150 Years of Greatest things... like Bruce Sutter. The design is a little busy, but I still don't mind these cards. I just wish there weren't parallels of them.

Thanks for reading!

Good Luck Ducks, Week 9: The Cougar in the Room

Oregon looks to end a four-game losing streak to Washington State. 

There was a point last week where it looked like the Ducks were going to leave Husky Stadium searching for answers and facing an uphill battle towards regaining conference supremacy. Fortunately, this Oregon bunch looks like a completely different animal than has been seen around these parts in, well... ever? After trailing for most of the game, the Ducks quite confidently and calmly imposed their will against the smaller (?!!) Washington team and just ran right past their line. They bucked most conventional wisdom (and Pac-12 history for the most part) by running the ball when they were behind, even with a highly touted and experienced quarterback taking the snaps. It was an impressive feat to pull off, and it bodes well for the future of a program that seems to be in the process of being completely remade right before our eyes under their former lineman-turned head coach.

Next up are the pesky, dare I say it, dreaded Washington State Cougars. After seeing quarterbacks depart for the NFL for two straight years, it looks like the Cougars are down a bit this year. That doesn't make the four game losing streak to Wazzu any less imposing at this point, however. They're coming off a game where they hammered Colorado, which followed a very close loss to a good Arizona State team. It's a late night game tonight, and there's no doubt that the Ducks will be looking to put this team away early. Injuries and the recent transfer decision of senior Brenden Schooler have begun to limit Justin Herbert's passing targets even further, but they are still in good hands with the offensive line and the powerful running game at the moment.

• The Last Game: Oregon overcame a two touchdown deficit to come back and win 35-31 over their bitter rivals Washington.
• Know Your Opponent: Some are standing up for WSU's defense, which is an interesting position for a team that lost a game 67-63 this season where I swear there were no hoops involved.
• The Unis!: Nightmare green. Thanks, Nike. I guess this is close enough to Halloween, and I am definitely not clamoring for black uniforms to come back.
• Mario Cristobal's "Crystal Ball" prediction: "Complete confidence in them entering this football game." Concentrate and ask again.

• Luke Skyywalker's Crystal Balls say: Uncle Luke apparently coaches high school football now, which would give him unfettered access to Cougar Town. Of course, he's got to be older than most of the players' parents, which is whole different thing altogether. Hood rat, hood rat, hoochie mama 

Game time is 7:30 PM PDT on ESPN. Steve Levy, Brian Griese, Todd McShay and Molly McGrath are on the call. Go Ducks!

Too Many Cards

Send help! 

I'm showing off another trade package courtesy of @forgotaboutblay (that's Dennis of Too Many Verlanders / Manninghams if you're not Twitter-inclined.) The note that was sent along with the cards said "Have a great summer!" which just goes to show long I've been hanging on to some of these cards.

I am buried in cards. If you get a bunch of cards from me out of the blue, it's because I'm trying to see my desk again. I forgot what it looks like.

Anyway, let's take a look at a few of the things I got back in June.

It was a bit of a surprise to me that I didn't already own this Yadi parallel from the 2011 Opening Day set, but I get these mixed up a lot with the Walmart blue parallels that debuted in the flagship set around this same time. It's always nice to get a numbered Molina card.

The foilboard era cards usually don't scan very well, but I think this made it through okay. I should see what other scanner options are out there, now that I've been doing this for more than a decade. I just loathe shopping for hardware for some reason.

Here's another numbered card (are you sensing a theme here?) Kolten Wong didn't have the best playoff run, but he certainly wasn't alone among Redbirds in this area. He was announced as a finalist (i.e. finished in the top 3 at his position) for a Gold Glove Award today along with several of his teammates. Hopefully he can build on what he did this season and bring it up yet another level next season.

Dennis likes to send me Ducks cards (yes!) but I'll often save them for game days. One of the ones he sent with this package is on deck for this Saturday's post. Instead, let's check out this crazy huge jumbo swatch card of Joe Young, who starred with the Ducks hoops team earlier this decade and played a few seasons for the Pacers before heading to China to play professionally. I like that there's a a bit of a wrinkle in the uniform. The more that I stare about something like this, however, the weirder it gets to think about how I'm admiring some random chunk of some dude's work clothes.

Sports cards are weird. Help me get rid of some of them if you've got some time.

Stickers, Glorious Stickers

I will treat these stickers like cards, yes I will. 

Back in the early summer, Angus of Dawg Day Cards sent over an envelope full of Cardinals album stickers from 1986. This was the first year I was really aware of baseball cards and collecting, and the 1986 Topps album was the first I ever laid my eyes on. I tried to complete it, of course, but I was a ten year old of very limited means at the time. I'll just show off a few of the stickers I received, all of which are headed to my binders unstuck.

With the Cardinals coming off of their pennant win in 1985, they were heavily featured in the sticker album. Here's a shot of Tito Landrum from the World Series, in which his team was unfortunately on the losing side.

Was this the "Go Crazy, Folks" swing? I'm gonna say... yes? I don't have the album to refer to anymore.

Here's another sticker of the Wizard, who shares time with the Brewers Danny Darwin.

The cool star players got the full sized oval stickers, like Willie here. McGee was coming off of his NL MVP performance, so it makes sense that he'd get top billing over Ozzie.

Of course, if you've traded with Angus before, you probably already suspected that there was something special about these stickers. They're O-Pee-Chee, which explains why they were big needs for my collection.

Thanks again to Angus. I need to find some good Cleveland Browns cards to send back one of these days.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 8: Rival Schools

It's time for the annual clash between the Ducks and the Huskies. 

Woof. Well, this seems like the least hyped Oregon team in a long while to also control their own destiny in terms of winning not only the conference, but also potentially earning a playoff spot. The latter assumes, of course, that the SEC is feeling generous about giving up one of their four spots. Honestly, this is an extremely weird position for me to be in as a fan, because I'm very well conditioned to be hyped about the Ducks and then eventually let down. This year, it feels like hardly anyone cares about them, and yet they have a clear path to a conference title and (maybe with a little luck) a shot at a playoff spot.

The Ducks also have a legitimate Heisman candidate, although it would seem very unlikely that Justin Herbert will get serious consideration. He could and probably will get drafted very highly, but with Oregon's focus on defense, it doesn't leave a ton of room for the quarterback to put up the video game numbers that are seemingly necessary to win such an award.

This is the rivalry week, and few others are hated at UO as frequently or deeply as the Washington Huskies. This is the kind of rivalry you're born into. After a long twelve game winning streak in the series was ended by Washington in 2016, the Ducks have been on the defensive. After two straight humilating Husky wins, the Ducks won out in overtime last season and are hoping to start another streak here. This will be the 112th meeting between the two rivals overall, and it should be fun.

• The Last Game: Oregon roasted Colorado 45-3, although they suffered another significant injury with Jacob Breeland being lost for the season.
• Know Your Opponent: The Huskies seem to be excited about their kicker.
• The Unis!: White jersey and pants, with a silver helmet. White walkers, I guess?
• Mario Cristobal's "Crystal Ball" prediction: "If the elements have it so it’s impossible to see five feet in front of you, then obviously you’ve got to change some of the things that you do." Reply hazy, try again.

• Luke Skyywalker's Crystal Balls say: Well, we're at the rough point in the season where we need to acknowledge our flaws and also mention that Luke, the hype man, was maybe not on the good side of things. Seven and Seven, we went to heaven

Game time is 12:30 PDT on ABC. Sean McDonough, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe are on the call. Go Ducks!

Nobody Feels Sorry for Cardinals Fans

The season is over, but there are still more cards. 

I was reflecting on the Cardinals sudden exit from the postseason and the 2019 season as a whole the other morning when a thought occurred to me. No one feels sorry for Cardinals fans. (No, that was not the thought. This has been obvious for quite some time.) My thought was - why should I feel sorry for anyone else's fanbase? I'm not going to resort to openly mocking other teams and fans of those teams unprovoked, but I think it's time that I stopped being so empathetic when it comes to sports. October is a time when baseball on televisions in public places suddenly stops being invisible to the masses, and random people start talking to random people about their rooting interests. If you don't like the team I root for, that's cool, but I feel like I have to stop putting myself in other people's shoes and try to consider all sides when it comes to these things. Sports are crazy. They make no sense. A lot of things are left to chance, especially in baseball. Humanity is best left to other aspects of life that are vastly more important than this stuff. (Okay, I might feel a little bad for Mariners fans. I cannot believe they are the last team left standing that hasn't gone to the World Series.)

Well, on to the cards. Fellow Cardinals fan (and commiserator) All Cardinals All The Time sent me a huge stack of doubles. This is often the most fruitful way to trade as a team collector. Find someone who also collects your team, swap your extras and both parties are thrilled.

Look at all these Cardinals cards! As is the norm with a stack of cards this big, it was quite a bit of work to get these all added to my collection. That's done now, and I've selected just a handful to show off here.

Most of the cards were from the late '90s to mid '00s, including this Ultimate Victory card of ultimate pro Ray Lankford.

Here's one from the old Upper Deck 40-Man (or is that F O R T Y M A N) set. I didn't know these sets had All-Star cards in them. Here we get a look at very Brewers looking ASG logo.

I picked out this card because it's... well... terrible. For some reason, they used a very closely cropped blurry photo of Scott Rolen on a card from a time when I assume photo editing software was readily available to for profit companies. Yeesh. Rolen deserves better than this. It does look like he's wearing a throwback with some sort of commemorative patch on it, which makes this picture all the more frustrating. Were other cards in this set like this?

He's a better shot of Rolen. These "Sweet Sigs" cards have a glossy finish.

So Taguchi. Rookie (MLB) year. Batting cage. Gold Label. Nice.

Fleer Greats is one of my favorites of the '00s, and I've always really liked the embossed framed look to the 2004 set.

Finally, the Topps Archives Reserve set brought old vintage cards from from the dead in a blindingly shiny way. This is pretty much the same look as the Chrome Refractors that we've seen from year to year in Topps Heritage, but they managed to create a whole standalone set of these.

And no, I'm not about to fight a dude over a sportsball game. That's ridiculous.

A Speedy Redemption

Well, that was quick. 

It was a rough and abrupt ending for the 2019 Cardinals season, but there was a surprise from Topps (the Scranton branch?!) waiting for me in the mailbox when I got home. Topps was able to already fulfill the Bowman Chrome Prospect autographed card that I snagged a couple of weeks ago.

When I saw the envelope, I was actually hoping it was the Trevor Story redemption I pulled back in the summer, since I am facing a decision about whether or not to request something else now. I don't really want to make that decision. I don't know a ton of Rockies collectors, but Story is a good player. I figure I could easily end up with someone a lot worse than Story (or a Marlin!), so I'll let it sit for awhile longer.

Cards on Cards Fantasy Hoops Seeks New Participant

We have an open slot this year and it's free to participate. 

Let me know if anyone is interested in a casual free head-to-head fantasy basketball league. We draft on Sunday night (probably). Winner gets a prize (some sort of basketball thing.) If there's more than one person interested, I'll keep you on standby in case we have anyone else drop out.

Good Luck Ducks, Week 7: Friday Night Lights

Oregon hosts Colorado on a late Friday night. 

Are the Ducks officially a defensive juggernaut? Some of the stuff they're doing on the field hasn't been seen in this conference since the '90s. Oregon didn't get any points on the board until the third quarter last game, something that hadn't happened in about fifteen seasons, but panic was minimal. The defense was holding down their opponent. The offense did what they needed, and victory was assured.

Oregon also saw the return of no less than three receivers last week, all making their season debuts (if not their Duck debuts). Justin Herbert had no shortage of targets to throw to, but a conscious decision to (re)establish the run probably kept the overall numbers down a bit. (Cal's defense was also a factor.)

Next up is the better-than-expected Colorado Buffaloes in a night game on a short week. The Buffs are led by senior quarterback Steven Montez, who notched his first victory as a freshman against Oregon in Autzen back in 2016. It wasn't a good time for the Ducks, but it was glorious for the redshirt freshman. Montez is the Pac-12's second leading passer in the current season, which means he'll likely provide the strongest test to date for the Ducks secondary. (They've faced two backup QBs so far.)

• The Last Game: The Ducks ran the ball a lot, forgot how to take of the ball, and then figured out in the third quarter to overtake Cal in a predictably low scoring affair.
• Know Your Opponent: Steven Montez is still dreaming of 2016.
• The Unis!: Yellow yellow yellow. You can't miss 'em!
• Mario Cristobal's "Crystal Ball" prediction: "We saw a lot of progress and we expect to build on that." Outlook good.

• Luke Skyywalker's Crystal Balls say: Colorado was one of the first states to legalize weed for "fun" purposes. Get that weave out!

Game time is 7:00 PDT on FS1. Joe Davis, Brock Huard and Bruce Feldman are on the call. Go Ducks!

NLCS Series Preview

The Nationals/Cardinals series at a glance.

10-run first innings aside, the Divisional round more or less played out exactly how I predicted it would for the Cardinals. It was a closely matched series, but the Cardinals found a way to pull it off in five games, meaning that they had to clinch in Atlanta. Fortunately, the field wasn't littered with trash this time around. It was a nice catharsis for a fan who had witnessed the horrorshow that was the 1996 NLCS, but few players on the current roster are even old enough to remember it.

St. Louis faces the Washington Nationals for the pennant. By virtue of being a division winner, the Cardinals actually gained the home field advantage over the Nationals even though Washington had a better regular season record. It sucks to be a Wild Card team. Although the Cardinals were markedly better at home versus on the road in 2019, they showed a better ability to win away from St. Louis down the stretch (e.g. the four game sweep at Wrigley) and against Atlanta in the playoffs.

Once again, rosters are not finalized at present, so this is all based on shared speculation.

2019 Season Series: Cardinals won 5-2
The Cardinals took 3 of 4 at Nationals Park (boring name, but huge points for no corporate naming rights) back in late April/early May, and also took 2 of 3 at Busch in a crucial mid-September clash. As usual, the season series results tend to be overemphasized this time of year, especially between teams that don't see each other as often as division rivals do. Managers have tendencies to make different decisions at this time of year, there are different players involved, and there's the whole "playoff pressure" factor. (I'm not just talking about Clayton Kershaw here.) We can probably put a little more weight on the more recent series, with both teams at the time fighting for a playoff spot. Of note, Dakota Hudson, Adam Wainwright and Patrick Corbin all had strong outings in the series while Max Scherzer was roughed up by the Cards.

Starting Pitching: Anibal Sanchez / Max Scherzer / Stephen Strasburg / Patrick Corbin vs. Miles Mikolas / Adam Wainwright / Jack Flaherty / Dakota Hudson
Sanchez will take the first turn for the Nationals in this series, and with the increased number of games you would expect to see Scherzer and Strasburg stick to regular starts instead of working out of the bullpen at times. As mentioned above, the Cardinals had recent success against the St. Louis native Scherzer, but historically this has not always been the case. Stasburg looked a bit fatigured in the finale vs. LA while Corbin allowed 7 ER in just 8 IP in 3 appearances in these playoffs. Something might be up with him. On the Cardinals side, the starters for the first two games (Mikolas, Wainwright) are set, with Waino trying to build on his successful last outing with another home start in game 2. Flaherty is the ace, but will be held back until game 3 due to his start on Wednesday. Dakota Hudson's defense crumbled around him in his first playoff start. His second will likely come on the road. ADVANTAGE: NATIONALS

Bullpen: Daniel Hudson vs. Carlos Martinez
Daniel Hudson took over the closer role late in the season and has pitched well, while Carlos Martinez did nearly all he could do to send the Cardinals home early this season with some rough work against Atlanta. The rest of the Nats pen features the closer-until-recently Sean Doolittle, the oldest active player in baseball (Fernando Rodney) and the shaky Hunter Strickland. St. Louis has better options than Martinez in John Brebbia, Tyler Webb, Giovanny Gallegos and occasionally Andrew Miller. Martinez is one of the longest tenured Cardinals not named Adam or Yadier, so perhaps manager Mike Shildt feels pressure not to make a change here. ADVANTAGE: PUSH

Catcher: Kurt Suzuki vs. Yadier Molina
There are long time veteran catchers on both sides. Suzuki was injured and left the field in the last game after being hit by a pitch on his wrist that also ricocheted off his helmet, so it's not a given that he starts the series in the lineup. Either way, Yan Gomes will do some catching as well. Molina has relegated his more than capable backup Matt Wieters to pinch-hit duty for the last month and a half. Both Nationals catchers are a bit more offensive minded than the defensive wizard Molina, though Yadi proved he could win with his bat in game 4 of the previous series. ADVANTAGE: CARDINALS

First Base: Ryan Zimmerman vs. Paul Goldschmidt
For the Nats, Howie Kendrick also logged some time at 1st, but there were questions about his defense. If Zimmerman hits, he stays in the lineup. It also happens to be Kendrick's bat that has kept him in the lineup no matter what position he's in, as proven by his series-winning grand slam against the Dodgers. On the Cardinals side, the only guy you're going to see at 1st is Paul Goldschmidt, whose bat seems to be heating up at the best time. ADVANTAGE: CARDINALS

Second Base: Howie Kendrick vs. Kolten Wong
Kendrick hit very well late in the season, as did Kolten Wong before his hamstring injury. Wong was able to start every game showing no ill effects of the injury, and his defense is miles above most at the position. ADVANTAGE: CARDINALS

Third Base: Anthony Rendon vs. Matt Carpenter
Rendon is having a mammoth offensive season, the best of his career so far and one worthy of MVP consideration. Carpenter was inserted back into the lineup to generate offense early on in the previous series, but his speed and defense are becoming a bit of a liability. He was hilariously removed for defensive purposes in the final game of the Divisional series before ever taking the field. We would see Edman back here if Bader is in the lineup for his glove. ADVANTAGE: NATIONALS

Shortstop: Trea Turner vs. Paul DeJong
Turner is one of the better base thieves in the league as well as one of the game's most well-rounded players. He has all of the tools as they say. DeJong is more of a power bat at this stage in his career than anything else, but his defense has improved. His pitch selection could use work. ADVANTAGE: NATIONALS

Right Field: Adam Eaton vs. Tommy Edman
To a somewhat lesser extent than Turner, Eaton is another Swiss Army knife of baseball. Edman moved to the outfield, somewhere he had never played professionally before this season, after Carpenter was slotted in at 3rd for his bat. So far, Edman has stood tall under the brightest lights of the season. ADVANTAGE: CARDINALS

Center Field: Michael Taylor vs. Dexter Fowler
Taylor was somewhat of a bit player for Washington this season and seems to be in the lineup for his glove more than anything else. If Victor Robles is healthy, this outfield improves substantially. Fowler manned center after the mid-series lineup change for the Cardinals, and he's solid there if not elite. ADVANTAGE: CARDINALS

Left Field: Juan Soto vs. Marcell Ozuna
Soto is one of the brightest young stars of the game, while Marcell Ozuna has caught fire at the right time, providing one of the scariest two-pronged attacks when he follows Paul Goldschmidt. ADVANTAGE: PUSH

Bench: Brian Dozier / Matt Adams / Yan Gomes / Victor Robles vs. Jose Martinez / Matt Wieters / Harrison Bader / Randy Arozarena
Whether it's due to matchups or injuries, the Nationals bench just seems very deep here. Actually, both teams should have plenty of capable hands on deck, although it remains to be seen if there will be roster changes for this round. The Nats may have the bigger bats, but the Cardinals have a couple of speed weapons they could deploy late in games. If Bader isn't starting his skills might be duplicated in Arozarena. ADVANTAGE: NATIONALS

Manager: Dave Martinez vs. Mike Shildt
Martinez was a journeyman player through much of the '80s and all of the '90s and tookover managing duties in 2018 with the Nationals after other coaching stints. He survived the Bryce Harper exodus and seems to have his club heading in the right direction. The not-former-player Shildt also seems to be heading in the same direction with his career, although questions about his bullpen usage will persist if this Carlos Martinez thing isn't straightened out once and for all. ADVANTAGE: PUSH

Prediction: CARDINALS IN 7

Game 1 is set for 7:00 PM CDT (local time) tomorrow on the Utz Network TBS. Go Cardinals!

Big Box Store Exclusives

No, not that store... the other one! 

There's no good reason that would send me anywhere close to a Walmart store. However, the giant behemoth has regularly had exclusive content in the sports cards department over the years. The other day, I caved in to FOMO or something and visited their website in order to snag a few of these Walmart-only card items.

I was never much of a fan of Bowman Platinum from year to year in the first place, but it totally faded from view when it stopped popping up at the other stores I shop at. I picked up two of the hanger packs, and they provided some decent content -- or at least some items that will end up in future trades.

Here's another one of the inserts. Devers had a huge year and is very young, much like many of the stars of the game these days.

As usual, the Bowman name means prospects-a-plenty. Montero had a rough season, so it may be awhile before we see more of his cards.

Another young star, Gleyber Torres homered last night for the Yankees in the playoffs.

I wasn't expecting a hit (this is retail, after all), so it was a nice surprise to get this sticker auto of a guy from last year's draft.

This is a purple prospect parallel. Lots of P-words!

Apparently the key four rookies in this set were inserted as short printed variations. This is one of them. I'm not really sure how short printed this is, however. They seem to be all over the place online.

I made a concerted effort to go after younger players for my fantasy teams this season. Touki wasn't exactly fantasy relevant this year, unfortunately. Check back next year?

Each box had a four card Topps Gallery "preview" pack insert into it, which was also some sort of tie-in with National Baseball Card Day? This is all very confusing. They also came with some $2 off coupons for future Topps Gallery blasters (or $5 off a "monster box".) These cards are extremely uninteresting to me, so it's doubtful that I will be headed back to the website to buy more when the Gallery set is released next month, let alone to a physical Walmart store to redeem the coupons. Any takers? It's nothing but stars in this preview set, though, making for more trade fodder.

For some reason I read this as "Asthmatic Prodigies" on first glance.

Prism... getting a little close to Panini territory there, Topps. (This is the company that also makes Prism refractors, which are definitely not the same thing as Prizm cards or Prizm parallels, because... you know... the "z".)

Finally, here's a prospect card of new Astros super slugger Yordan Alvarez.

I also picked up a Walmart-exclusive basketball hanger pack, which was considerably less successful.

In its second season (as far as I'm aware), the Panini Status set was a retail exclusive this year, and it was constructed in the worst way possible. In order to complete just the base set, you need to buy from both giant corporate overload chain stores. I had picked up some of this stuff at the red store but still have an incomplete Blazers set. I did not pull any Blazers I needed from the blue store.

Basically, the rookies in each set have two distinctly different cards with different card numbers. They generally aren't going to be considered inserts or parallels or variations because the numbering is sequentially ordered with the rest of the base set. Nice.

Here's the guy that brought the title to the second northernmost team in the league. And then he left.

This is one of the rookies, but you can only get this one at Walmart.

Here's another rookie, but this one is an insert. Actually, I think this is a parallel of an insert (note the orange background as compared to the earlier Evans card) which is just about the most obnoxious thing ever.

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday. I am going to head to an NBA preseason game tonight for some reason. Yes, it's that time of year again already.