Stadium Club and Select Blaster Breaks

I do not recall if I bought both of these at the same time, but I am combining them into one post anyway.  In earlier posts I mentioned having bad luck with Stadium Club and uncommonly good luck with Panini products with Red Sox cards.  That's why I will never stop buying Panini.

1.  Marcelo Mayer.  This is it from the Stadium Club blaster, which is better than usual.  I have a lot of thoughts about Monday's trade of Mayer to the Giants.  It is clear he fell out of favor with the team.  I really do think they gave up on him too soon though.  The guy was the highest draft pick by the team since the 1970's (Mike Garman went #3).  He only had 114 games under his belt.  He finishes his Red Sox career with a .223/.278/.346 line with seven homers and 32 RBIs.  A lot more was expected of him, but he is still just 23.  I hope he succeeds elsewhere.  I am not happy about what happened here and I certainly think they should have gotten more than a reliever for him, but let's see what happens with Erik Miller.

1.  Tris Speaker.  I always do better with Panini.  Speaker was probably the first superstar Boston lost to a contract dispute, unfortunately a pattern that carried on with Babe Ruth, Carlton Fisk, Fred Lynn, Roger Clemens, Mo Vaughn, Nomar Garciaparra, Jon Lester, Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts.  They need to treat their homegrown stars better.  Speaker was traded to Cleveland for Sad Sam Jones and Fred "Pinch" Thomas.

2.  Manny Ramirez.  I still hope to see Manny make the Hall of Fame some day.

3.  Roman Anthony.  I am hoping that Anthony does not fall into the same trap as Mayer did.  He has also had trouble staying on the field, but with his contract, he should be given a longer leash.  Hopefully he comes back strong in a few weeks.

TCDB Mailday

I am still working my way through the backlog of cards to show off.  Today's post is a TCDB trade without any real common theme.  Just a bunch of random stuff, though the last two subjects of player collections are here. 

1.  Zach Penrod.  This is my first card of Penrod.  It took quite awhile to grab one of these even though he was in Topps Series 2 in 2025.  Penrod appeared in seven games for the Red Sox in 2024 and had 2.25 ERA.  And that has been the sum total of his Major League experience to date.  The fact he got a card is pretty surprising.

2.  Wilyer Abreu.  Abreu is rising in my collection finally.  He has become one of the more noteworthy hitters on the team.  

3.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  What a season he is having.  Rafaela has emerged as the best player on the team this year.  He could receive MVP consideration.  

4.  Connor Wong.  Wong has settled into a pretty stable role as he has bounced back in a big way from the rough season he had in 2025.  His role is a little more questionable after a major deadline trade that I will discuss in much greater detail soon.

5.  David Ortiz.  Probably the biggest player in this package.  I added three Big Papi cards in this trade.

6.  Joe Cronin.  Cronin is an interesting story because he went from player to manager to general manager to president of the American League.  Not many players can say that.

7.  David Ortiz.

8.  Carlton Fisk.  I swear I had this card before, but I can't find it.  I must not have had it after all.

9.  David Ortiz.

10.  Wade Boggs.  I'm sure I have mentioned that Boggs was my first favorite player.

11.  Koji Uehara.  Surprisingly this individual had a bunch of these Sega Card Gen cards from Japan, so I was able to add a few, including the great Koji Uehara who had one of the most dominant seasons I have ever seen from a reliever in 2013.

12.  Junichi Tazawa.  Tazawa had an underrated career as a very capable reliever.  He was one of my favorite under-the-radar players.

13.  Jarrod Saltalamacchia.  The first (and thus far only) Red Sox catcher to have 40 doubles in a season, Saltalamacchia also led the team in home runs in 2012 with 25.  Had he been a better defensive backstop, he might have had a lengthier career.

14.  Mike Aviles.  Aviles was traded to the Blue Jays in a deal made primarily for Boston to hire manager John Farrell away from Toronto.  

15.  Ryan Kalish.  I had big hopes for Kalish to be a prominent outfielder for the Red Sox.  He had a nice 2010 season, but injuries derailed his career.

16.  Victor Martinez.  I thought a lot about V-Mart yesterday as the Red Sox made that one big trade of the deadline.  He was acquired under similar circumstances back in 2009 and immediately brought a lethal bat to Boston.  We will see if the new guy does the same.

17.  John Lackey.  Lackey looked like a horrible free agent signing after he had a terrible 2010 and 2011 season, then missed the entirety of 2012 with Tommy John surgery, but he bounced back in a big way in 2013 and was a bulldog in the postseason.  He won the clinching World Series game in 2013 and is now a Red Sox legend.  That's what winning does.

18.  Roger Clemens.  I still want to see The Rocket in the Hall of Fame.  His career was worthy well before the steroid allegations.  He and Bonds should both be in with Manny Ramirez coming later.

19.  Wade Boggs.  And closing things out with the Chicken Man.