Only Red Teams

A #CrackinWaxMailDay bit of fun with some red teams in another batch of @CrackinWax breaks. 

 

Several years ago, the Cardinals went back to wearing red caps on the road after a couple of decades of wearing navy blue. They make an exception, however, when they're facing off against a team that wears red caps and predominantly red uniforms, keeping the blue hats in play for a handful of games each year. I was reminded of this because they're wearing them today as they wrap up their first series against the Reds, but it will likely be awhile before we see them again (at the Philles in July?) I was also reminded of this because it seems that I was only assigned "red teams" in the latest pair of group breaks at Crackin' Wax.

A 2021 Donruss break ended up being the most fruitful. Along with the numbered Yadier Molina Elite Series insert, I landed a pair of nice Adam Wainwright parallels. Panini has gone a little too wild with these in recent years. This is my first look at a "Liberty" parallel.

This is a red and white striped parallel numbered to 2021. It looks like a candy cane, of course. If there was a Donruss Holiday set, this would fit right in.

My randomly assigned red team in this break was, as it often is, the Arizona Diamondbacks. I actually can't recall if the Cardinals wear their navy blue caps when they play in Arizona as their uniforms have not been extremely consistent over the years, but I know it didn't seem too difficult to Photoshop Paul Goldschmidt into Cardinals gear when he was traded from the Snakes.

I didn't do so well on the Cardinals front in a 2021 Topps Archives break, but I did pick up a couple of interesting Reds cards. This is one of those "movie posters" inserts that tend to look better when blown up to more of a poster size.

And here we have last year's NL Rookie of the Year on the 1973 Topps design. If this looks oddly familiar to you, it's because it's also the design that Heritage is using this year. It would be an interesting project to put all of the cards on the '73 design from Archives last year side-by-side with their 2022 Topps Heritage counterparts. Does anyone have that kind of time?