Waiting Til Next Year, a Triple Auto, and More

Well Boston was eliminated from the postseason.  It bummed me out quite a bit, but life goes on.  The real disappointment was that this is the end of the road for David Ortiz.  His career ended with a walk in the postseason, but he had one of the greatest final seasons of all time.  Luckily, I received several packages that brightened up

The end of the Red Sox season is not the only reason for the title.  I received a package from Tom of the excellent Cubs-centric blog Waiting 'til Next Year.  I hope he doesn't mind that I stole his scan of the cards I received.  I am having some issues with Photobucket today.

1.  Harry Hooper.  This was an extra, and unfortunately I already have it, but extras are always welcome.  Hooper was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans' Committee is 1972, just three years before his death.  Hooper was an exceptional defensive right fielder that could also hit quite a bit.

2.  Wade Boggs.  This card was on my wantlist.  Boggs, as I have mentioned multiple times, was my first favorite player.  I will be covering his career more in-depth later, but with the benefit of Sabermetrics, it has become clear that Boggs was easily one of the top five players of the 1980's.

3.  Dustin Pedroia.  This is the gold parallel.  Pedroia had an incredible season this year and looked like the Pedroia of old.  If he has a few more seasons like this, he will be a shoo-in for Cooperstown.

Thanks Tom!

The next package was one of my Top 10 Most Wanted cards, though it was a new addition to the list:

Carlos Baerga.  This card comes from the 2016 Topps Archives Signature  Edition set, a set I am working hard on in my Sandy Alomar Jr. collection.  But there were two Red Sox players I identified that I wanted and Baerga was top on that list because of his brief Red Sox career and very few Red Sox cards.  This is a buyback autograph card of the former Indians great.  Baerga was a valuable bench player for Boston in 2002.

And finally, two orders from COMC and Ebay came in.  The first six cards all came from COMC.  I was browsing and found a card that I could not pass up.  Then the final three cards all came from an Ebay auction.

1 and 2.  Jin Ho Cho.  I was always a little disappointed that Cho was never given much of an opportunity in Boston.  Unfortunately, after two brief stints in the Majors, Cho started taking steps backwards.  He was a highly-touted pitching prospect for a time though and one of the crown jewels of Boston's focus on Asian scouting.

3.  Jonathan Papelbon/Takashi Saito/Jed Lowrie.  This is the card that I could not pass up.  A rare high-end card that I picked up because it was affordable and featured two players I did not have autographs from previously.  I am speaking of Saito and Lowrie.  All three players were on the 2009 team.  Papelbon was the All Star closer and saved 38 games with a 1.85 ERA.  Saito was a setup man who had a 2.43 ERA in 56 games.  Lowrie was in his second season, but struggled with injuries all season and only appeared in 32 games.

4 and 5.  Mo Vaughn.  There are still a ton of Mo Vaughn cards I don't have.  These are both inserts I had of players from other teams (though not anymore).  90's inserts still have a lot of appeal because they were so eye-catching.

6.  Jackie Bradley Jr.  Bradley had a very good year, though his streakiness can be aggravating.  His defense was predictably excellent and he showed some surprising power.

7-9.  Steven Wright.  One of my biggest disappointments was that Steven Wright went on the disabled list in August and never made it back.  He was having a great year and was named to the All Star team.  I am thrilled that Topps finally noticed.  He had no Red Sox cards coming into this season.  This is the Chrome, Refractor, and Purple Refractor.  I have put a Steven Wright have page on the side, if anyone has any Red Sox cards of him that I don't have, please contact me.