Gatorade Baths

As the 2020 baseball season teeters on the brink I was reading some of the articles posted the past few months about some of the stipulations that would be put in place IF the season were to proceed. One of those included no player showers after games. I guess that's ok as long as players are no longer permitted to celebrate with the mobbing at home plate or the post game gatorade baths. Sure, it stinks "literally" but it's a different world we live in right now. That being said, yesterday I stumbled upon a couple of super short prints that I thought I would never own since they were so far out of my price range a year ago. These two cards together ran me the same price as it would if I had purchased just one of these a few months ago.

2017 Topps 288 SSP Joey Votto

2019 Topps US 50 SSP Nick Senzel

While I'm not a fan of the super short print concept, I think both of these cards are fantastic images and I'm glad that they're finally part of my collection.

Changeup

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of the term changeup is "a slow pitch in baseball thrown with the same motion as a fastball in order to deceive the batter". Wikipedia also mentions other names for the term changeup including: change, off-speed pitch, or change-of-pace. Over the weekend I was taking a look at the rookie cards I had acquired of Nick Senzel for my Senzational Rookies project and decided to change things up. While I could try to track down the numerous parallels of certain cards I had listed on the blog, specifically Bowman, Bowman's Best, Topps Update, Heritage and Chrome, I would be spending a large chunk of change on acquiring those cards just for different color borders and lower print runs. I've already attempted the rainbow thing with Joey Votto and his 2013 Topps Cards and I've been tracking down parallels for my 2008 Joey Votto rookie project. It just didn't make sense to me to throw a lot of money chasing parallels for this project too. Besides, it's been a while since I've devoted any funds to some of my vintage team sets and I would like to add more T206 and Goudey cards to my Reds binders before the end of the year. With that in mind, I've drastically pared down the number of Senzel rookie cards I'm chasing from 90 to 40. What boggles my mind is that out of those 50 cards I cut, all but 3 were parallels. I should definitely have this project wrapped up by the end of the year.

NOW we're talking!

I've been on the fence ever since Topps announced its Topps Now program. While the idea intrigued me that only a certain amount of cards would be produced to meet demand at that time, I didn't like $9.99 price tag for each card. That was a little too rich for me. That being said, I had an epiphany yesterday (or an apostrophy as Mr. Smee states in Hook). Why not limit my foray into Topps Now with just one player for just one year. I decided I would pick up any 2019 Topps Now Nick Senzel cards since Topps has yet to release any rookie cards of the outfielder in the flagship set this year, even though I'm sure that will change when Topps releases their Update and Highlight series this fall. I've become a fan of Senzel since he was called up earlier this year. His numbers have been decent with a .269 BA, 8 HR, and a .799 OPS in 60 games this season. Here are the four cards I have of Mr Senzel

 

2019 Topps Now #172 Print Run 2217

 

2019 Topps Now #174 Print Run 1271

 

2019 Topps Now #183 Print Run 887

 

2019 Topps Now Moment of the Week 5 Print Run 700

I think my favorite of the bunch is the Moment of the Week card. The 1869 Red Stockings throwback uniforms are fantastic and showing Senzel celebrate after hitting his first major league home run is icing on the cake. Just a fantastic card. I won't be chasing any other Topps Now cards after this year but it's nice to add something new to the collection even if it doesn't necessarily fit every now and then.