Rather than trying to figure out how to put a big spin on things and divide up the maildays, I figured I would just do one big catchup post. There's quite a bit of stuff in here, mostly Rafaela cards, but after this post I will be caught up through yesterday (I am not at home to collect the mail today, so there might be another post tomorrow for mail).
Up first is the Ceddanne Rafaela Presidential parallel from Donruss and this is serial-numbered to 46. The border features profiles of the various presidents. I have not done a deep look to see which ones I can recognize.
This one is pretty cool. I bought this from a guy on Twitter. This is the 2023 Bowman Platinum Patch card. I am not sure what uniform this would be from. It looks more like one of the City Connect jerseys, but for a 2023 product, it would be strange if they got a hold of one of those since he made his Major League debut late in the season. It seems more likely to be from a minor league uniform. At any rate, this is my first true 1/1 of Rafaela. I am not counting that Leaf Pre-Production Proof.
This is the black parallel of Connor Wong and I got this for just over a dollar. I was shocked by that. But that is how far down Wong's cards have fallen in popularity. He has been much better in recent weeks.
Up next is one of several TCDB trades in this post:
1. Fred Lynn. There was a 10-card insert set in last year's Heritage High Numbers devoted to Fred Lynn. That makes sense since the design was based on the 1975 Topps set and that was the year Lynn made history by becoming the first player to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season, a feat only matched once. I need to try to grab all of these, this is my first.
2. Naoyuki Uwasawa. Yet another Uwasawa card.
3. Ceddanne Rafaela. Yes, this was the card that started this trade. This is the Topps 206 card.
4. Mike Lowell. I finally got the base card of this, which I have been trying to do for some time. Lowell was in the Josh Beckett trade purely so the Marlins could get rid of his salary, but he turned into a valuable member of the team and won the World Series MVP in 2007.
1. This is the Dark Green parallel from this year's Heritage and it arrived in a one-for-one trade on TCDB for a Don Mattingly parallel from this year's Donruss.
2. This is the 2023 Leaf Special Release Draft Silver and I have no idea the context for its release. Some kind of special multi-sport set I guess.
1. I tried to get this A&G Gold Border parallel in a big trade with several Rafaelas, but the member on TCDB just declined the trade without a word even though we matched up on a lot of stuff. I hate that when it happens. I usually try to work something out with people if I can, and if I can't usually will write a note.
2. This is the Halloween parallel from last year's Update featuring the pumpkins. I like this Halloween parallels a lot more than the other ones.
3. Here we have the 2022 Leaf Metal Snakeskin Crystal parallel. I think these are pretty cool with the animal skin patterns. This was later taken up by Leaf Exotic.
1. Wade Boggs. This was a make-up package. The original trade had a Jarren Duran parallel and a Roman Anthony card, but the envelope arrived and had been clearly sliced open and the cards removed. The other party graciously sent me some replacements, but I really wanted that Roman Anthony.
2. Conrad Cason. A lot of teams are experimenting with two-way players now that Shohei Ohtani has been so successful, not that I think anyone will match him. Cason is Boston's attempt and he was an eighth-round pick last season. He made his professional debut this year, but has only played in a few games before getting hurt. He is just 18, so there is time to see what happens.
3. Franklin Arias. Currently Boston's top prospect, I think there is a reasonable chance Arias gets dealt for pitching or maybe some offense this offseason.
1. This is the Dark Yellow parallel from Heritage this year.
2. This is the base Holiday parallel from last year's Topps. I still have no idea what this design is supposed to be.
1. Jimmie Foxx. This is a short-print from 2022 Diamond Kings.
2. Ted Williams. A nice Williams shot that has not been over-used yet.
3. Garrett Crochet. Crochet will almost certainly be the runner-up in the Cy Young vote this year. He had been neck and neck with Tarik Skubal until the last couple of weeks, but Crochet had never thrown this many innings before and he seems a bit tired down the stretch.
4. David Ortiz. I never get tired of getting Ortiz cards, still one of the greatest Red Sox players of my lifetime, and probably the most likable as well, unless you're a Yankees fan. I have a friend, one of the prosecutors I deal with frequently, who is a Yankees fan and even he says that watching Ortiz on baseball games is fun because he is so likable.
5. Brayan Bello. Bello has also started to tire down the stretch, but he has put together the kind of season Boston envisioned when he was signed to his extension last year. Hopefully he keeps building on this success.
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