Greetings!
Hope everyone is doing well. Congrats to the Rangers for winning their first World Series. It wasn't the matchup most of us were expecting, but a win is a win is a win, right? I heard that since Texas won, the Vikings are now the oldest active franchise from the major sports that has yet to win a championship. What do the Vikings have to do with this post? Nothing, really.
The interwebs say that 2020's version of A&G was released on September 16, 2020. Don't know if this was the true release date, since this is right in the middle of the pandemic. This is also before Topps and Panini raised their prices, so the blaster set me back $20. I very likely bought this from the Target website, since the Card Bros were out in full force back then. Ah, memories.
I grabbed one of the 7 packs for this post. Who did I get?
#189 - Brandon Lowe
#276 - Jose Urquidy (RC)
Pretty standard A&G fare. They say the latest release is more colorful, but the aforementioned price increase will very likely prevent me from making the sample purchase.
#193 - Nyjah Huston
Here's a taste of the non-MLBers in the set. Nyjah's a skateboarder who finished 7th in the Men's Street Skateboarding competition in the 2020 Summer Olympics (played in 2021, thanks to The Virus).
#237 - Nick Ahmed (Mini - A&G Back)
There's 300 cards in the base set as well as 50 base short prints. Here's the checklist for those who are interested. The website says the A&G back comes 1 in 5 packs.
LL-19 - Ryan Howard (Longball Lore)
The 50 card insert set discusses memorable home runs. The extra space to accommodate the A throws the whole thing off for me.
#24 - Shohei Ohtani
A pack is always a good pack when Ohtani's in it!
Here are the backs because why not:
Anyway, that's the pack...but not the end of the post!
-----
Back towards the end of September, Chris from the most excellent Nachos Grande blog, wrote about the passing of his friend Ryan. Ryan was a talented individual, who not only made custom wood bats, but dabbled in custom cards, specifically his "Munnatawket minis," based on the 2008 Allen & Ginter design.
To commemorate Ryan's efforts, Chris offered a giveaway of what he had left of Ryan's minis last month and I put in my request for some. Chris generously sent more than I was expecting, including a special surprise from my favorite team.
Who did I get?
#18 - Joey Votto
#26 - Troy Tulowitzki
#19 - Yasiel Puig
#11 - Billy The Marlin
#3 - Spider-Man
Ryan did an awesome job on these. The card stock is virtually identical to the real ones. Spidey is an instant favorite, although Billy The Marlin is pretty impressive as well.
#85 - Phil Mickelson
#23 - Dustin Pedroia
#20 - Mr. Met
#95 - Kris Bryant (Bazooka Red Back #18/25)
#83 - Felix Hernandez
#84 - Andrew McCutchen
Mr Met is a great looking card, but the clear winner in this group is the Kris Bryant Bazooka Red Back. Thanks, Chris!
Here are the backs of the cards. Simple and clean. That Bazooka back stands out nicely compared to the base backs.
#13 - Mike Trout
#31 - Lance Berkman
#5 - Justin Morneau
#40 - Jose Bautista
#15 - Giancarlo Stanton
All solid cards here. You can't go wrong with Trout, and Morneau's yellow background makes his card stand out, but I think smilin' Stanton is the winner of this group.
Overall, these customs are great and of very high quality. These will be treasured parts of my collection. I believe there are other posts out there from bloggers who also were the beneficiaries of Chris's (and Ryan's) kindness, so search them out!
Ryan, thank you for your contributions to the hobby. That's all for now...thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment