Harry Hoyle Comes Through, and So Much More

There are lots of scans in this one, but I am trying to catch things up here.

Up first, Harry Hoyle sent me a surprise package which contained the 2016 Topps Factory Team Set package.  This was a very welcome surprise.  I had just been thinking the night before about buying the set off of Ebay.  Now, I don't have to.

Of these cards, Ortiz, Price, Kimbrel, Swihart, and Porcello did not appear in Series One.  They took the Future Stars header off of Eduardo Rodriguez's card.  Kimbrel is obviously photo-shopped, but Price's picture was taken at the press conference announcing his signing, so it is the first card to actually show Price in a Red Sox uniform.  

Of these, Bogaerts and Bradley did not appear in Series One.  Most of these cards are players I would have expected to see in this set.  I would have liked it if Travis Shaw and Junichi Tazawa would have made appearances personally.  But this is about what I expected.

Thanks Harry!

Up next we have a couple of inserts that I acquired in trades:

The Mookie Betts card talks about the alternate uniform the team wore at one point.  This is an interesting concept for a card.  I know there are a number of special day uniforms to be worn this year.  Hopefully this will be a continuing trend.  David Ortiz's card talks about his prodigious power, and finally we have a Craig Kimbrel card.  I love the photo-shopped hat with the Red Sox logo.  This appears frequently on photo-shopped cards, but is kind of silly because Boston never wears hats like this. 

And finally, here is the 1984 Star Carl Yastrzemski set.  At one point, the number of Ted Williams cards in my collection was coming close to Yaz.  This set distances them by quite a bit.  What I like the best about this set is the wide range of years these photos represent.  There are a number of cards from the early 1980's, but there are also several from the 1970's and even a few from the 1960's.  Yaz had a very long career, the longest of anyone who spent their entire career with just one team.  So it is very nice to see a photos from his entire career.

There is one card missing from this set.  I had #12 several years ago.