I Kind of Like These Uniforms

 

This was my first card with the City Connect uniforms.  When I first saw them, I thought they were kind of a dumb gimmick.  It was a commercial pairing between MLB and Nike and I just did not really see the point.  Besides, the uniforms were a vast difference from the team's traditional appearance.  But once I saw them in use, they kind of grew on me.  The Red Sox wore them quite a bit last year and even went on a bit of a tear at one point down the stretch in them.  Honestly, I kind of like them now.  

A Couple of Quintanas

Something that I feel I talk a lot about on this blog is how I was a big fan of Carlos Quintana when I first started watching baseball.  He was the first kind of obscure player of whom I was inexplicably a big fan.  Guys like Felix Doubront and Tzu-Wei Lin have joined him over the years.  I still grab cards when I can find them, though there are not too many left.  Last year, I picked up two off of Ebay on the same day.

Buybacks have been one was to expand this collection.  This is a Bowman buyback from his 1991 card.  That was not the most exciting set in the world.  Kind of boring design.  No action photos.

This one is a bit more interesting.  One of those unlicensed photo cards from the 1980's, commonly referred to as Broder's.  

On a somewhat related note, I kind of had this fascination with contributing to the SABR bio project by writing the bio on Quintana.  Unfortunately, someone beat me to it recently.  I was sort of devastated by that.  I had been harboring this idea for a few years now, but just had not gotten going on it.  I should have done it.  My biggest hangup was trying to find out what he was doing now.  How that was going to happen.  I will have to pick someone else to write about I guess.

A&G Blaster

Every once in awhile, I have been able to actually find cards at Walmart.  Usually when that happens I have to buy stuff quickly.  They never seem to last long.  It was on one of these trips that I managed to buy a box of Allen & Ginter.  That has never been my favorite set.  I may be in the minority, but I just do not really care for the non-baseball player cards.  But cards have been so scarce, I will buy just about anything.

My blaster netted me two base cards, but they are two of my favorite players: Rafael Devers and Alex Verdugo.  Devers is turning into a beast.  I really hope Boston manages to get him locked up for a long-term deal.  I am still waiting for Verdugo to break out in a big way.  Hopefully this will be the year he does just that.

Dalbec and Chavis Relics and More

One of these days I might get caught up.  I suppose it would help if I actually posted every day.  Anyway, here is a random insert/relic lot I picked up, primarily for the relics of Bobby Dalbec and Michael Chavis.  

This was my first relic of Dalbec.  I really do not have any idea what to expect from Dalbec this year.  He had a great Spring and he was excellent down the stretch last year, but he strikes out way too much.  Chavis is a cautionary tale.  He too came to Boston with some big power but high strikeout rates.  Eventually, the strikeouts ate him alive and he could not be a productive hitter with that strikeout rate.  He was dumped at the trading deadline last year for Austin "Big Fudge" Davis, a lefty middle reliever.  I did have a couple of Chavis autographs previously, but no relics.

Beyond the relics, the lot consisted of a bunch of inserts.  I really like the Select Phenom card of Dalbec and the die-cut Platinum Players card of Roger Clemens.  And then there is the parallel mini of Alex Verdugo, one of my favorite current Red Sox players.

The Jason Varitek Quest for 1,000: #970

Still going...strong...ish.

Anyway, 2021 had a few new Jason Varitek cards released.  Not enough to make the last hurdle easy, but there were some.  This is the Allen & Ginter relic card of Varitek.  Nothing too exciting.  Just a gray swatch of uniform, but still.  Any new Varitek cards are greatly appreciated.

Project 70: Rafael Devers/Nolan Arenado by Lauren Taylor

Of all of the artists that were involved with the Project 70 set last year, I have to say that Lauren Taylor was my favorite.  Her photo-realistic renderings of the players using elements from the cities in which they played caught my attention from the very beginning.  I seriously considered buying other cards from this set if there was not to be a Red Sox card.  Luckily, there would eventually be two. 

This one came from the subset of All Star starters that were released around the All Star Break.  Taylor had the two third base starters: Nolan Arenado from the Cardinals and Rafael Devers.  Devers made his first All Star team in 2021, though it likely should have been his second.  He had a huge season last year, hitting .279/.352/.538 with 38 home runs, 101 runs scored and 113 RBIs.  As good as he was, he is still just 25 years old.  The sky may very well be the limit with Devers.  Boston needs to lock him up.  Do not make the same mistake they made with Mookie Betts.