Sons of Italy and More

This is the second part from yesterday's COMC package.  I could not resist adding some other Red Sox to my collection.

1.  David Price.  Nice-looking Stadium Club insert here.

2.  Carl Yastrzemski.  This is my favorite picture from this whole package.  Stadium Club is of course known for terrific photography and this is definitely one of the best photos I have seen for the Red Sox from last season.

3.  Xander Bogaerts.  This card would be really awesome with an MLB license.

4.  Xander Bogaerts.  With this card, Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley Jr. are now tied at 98 cards apiece.

5.  David Price.  It uses the same photo as the insert card from earlier.  I missed National Baseball Card Day.  Not having a local shop kind of sucks.

6.  Drew Pomeranz.  I counted this as a wantlist hit, even though the regular Chrome was the one listed.  Hey, I got one of them.

7.  David Price.  I added three new Price cards from this package, which is well behind Varitek, but he is up in the 30's now.  He could make it to 100 by the end of the season.

8.  Mookie Betts. Obligatory Mookie card here.

And now, the cards that I am the most excited about from the entire package, yes including the Varitek cards:

These are NEHF Sons of Italy cards, a set honoring Italian-American baseball players.  The set did not have an MLB license, so you kind of have to guess at the teams the players represent.  With these two, it was pretty easy.  There are a small handful of others out there that I will pick up as I go.  I really like this oddball set, just like the Jewish Major Leaguers set, the player selection is terrific.  Just look at the two players here:

1.  Doug Mirabelli.  Varitek's longtime backup catcher spent seven years  over two stints with Boston.  His best season was 2004 when he was .281/.368/.525 with nine home runs in 59 games.  He was the backup on the 2004 and 2007 World Championship teams.

2.  Dick Drago.  Like Mirabelli, Drago had two stints with the Red Sox and was an important bullpen piece for the 1975 AL Champions, which is likely when this picture was taken.  Drago led the team in saves that season with 15.  After a couple of seasons away, Drago returned to Boston in 1978 and continued to be a decent reliever for three more seasons.  Notably, Drago gave up Hank Aaron's final home run.

I really like these cards.