A Bunch of Topps Online Cards

Packs have been tough to come by the last couple years and I have been too busy to organize my tradelist to make trades.  So, a lot of cards have been coming through the various Topps online sets.  Player selection is generally pretty good, particularly with Topps Now.  The big drawback is the price.  So I usually buy my singles through sellers on Ebay who offer discounts.  Here are a whole bunch of them from various sets:

From the Sports Illustrated covers set, comes this Pedro Martinez.  The magazine this was taken from was released very shortly after the Red Sox acquired Pedro and locked him up on a longterm deal.  This was before he even threw a pitch for Boston, but his best years were yet to come.  I had to get this one because I actually bought this magazine at the time.  I don't think I still have it though.

I have always liked multi-player cards, so I grabbed this one from the Throwback Thursday ongoing sets.  It is a little odd to put Xander Bogaerts with Bobby Dalbec, instead of Rafael Devers.  Dalbec of course was the big, hyped rookie last year for the Red Sox, so Topps wanted to take advantage of that.  Still, it seems more natural to put Bogaerts and Devers together since they play right next to each other and seem to have a very close friendship.

June 11, 2021

The Blue Jays led this game 5-1 going into the bottom of the sixth inning before the Red Sox bats came alive.  Jays reliever Tyler Chatwood came unglued, allowing two runs to score on a walk and a wild pitch.  In the eighth, Christian Arroyo homered to tie the game.  In the ninth, Alex Verdugo laced a single to left to score Danny Santana with the winning run.  Verdugo had three hits in four at-bats that game.

June 16, 2021

In one of the biggest clutch hits of the season, Christian Arroyo demolished a pitch in the seventh inning with the bases loaded.  Boston was down 7-6 at the time to the eventual World Champion Braves.  Arroyo was pinch-hitting in the pitcher's slot at the time.  You cannot ask for a bigger clutch hit.

July 17, 2021

Topps Now likes to highlight the first major achievements of the top prospects upon their debuts.  Jarren Duran was a bigtime prospect who made his Major League debut against the Yankees and ripped a single in his first at-bat.  Unfortunately, the Red Sox lost that game in a rain-shortened six innings 3-1.

Here is another multi-player card from Throwback Thursday.  The design here was the 1993 Topps All Star subset, which was a pretty decent design from the junk wax era.  Of course, the point at the time was to highlight players from each league at the same position.  Still, can't go wrong with the two most recent Red Sox Hall of Famers, David Ortiz and Pedro Martinez.

July 19, 2021

The Red Sox exploded for eight runs in the first inning against the Blue Jays en route to a 13-4 drubbing.  Duran drove in the first two runs with his first Major League home run, scoring Enrique Hernandez.  It was Duran's only hit of the day.