2020 Topps Heritage High Numbers Hobby Box

Last winter I grabbed a hobby box of 2020 Topps Heritage High Numbers at the LCS in my hometown.  It was the only time I was able to add any High Numbers.  Like Update, this is supposed to be a set devoted to showing players in new uniforms.

Here are the results:

1.  Andrew Cashner.  And we immediately start things off kind of weird.  Cashner was Boston's big trade deadline pickup in 2019, but he was a free agent after the season.  He did not hook on with another team and has not pitched since 2019.  So yeah, no idea why he is here.

2.  Collin McHugh.  McHugh signed on with the Red Sox late in the offseason, then sat out the entire year recovering from surgery.  He pitched for the Rays in 2021.  This is a zero year card as he never pitched an inning with Boston.  I'm glad he shows up on a card.  Just surprised.

3.  Collin McHugh.  This is the purple refractor.

4.  Alex Verdugo.  This is better.  Verdugo was new to Boston in 2020 and arrived late enough that he was not able to appear in the base set.  This is also a purple refractor.

5.  Mitch Moreland.  Moreland came into the season as the starting first-baseman.  I do not know why he was not in the base set.  Also, Moreland was traded during the season to the Padres, so I really do not know why he is shown with the Red Sox.

6.  Jonathan Lucroy.  Lucroy was kind of the story of Spring Training for awhile, then made it into one game as a late defensive replacement...and that was it.  He never even had an at-bat with Boston.  Like McHugh, I am thrilled he made it onto some cards, but it is kind of odd.

7.  Kevin Pillar.  Pillar, like Moreland, was traded midseason.  Now Pillar was new to the team in 2020, so his appearance here is warranted, though he probably should have been shown with the Rockies.  Again, this is less of an issue.

So, who could have been in the set?  How about: Jose Peraza, Martin Perez, Chris Mazza, Phillips Valdez or Matt Hall?  Not the most interesting names, I know, but they all played much more than Cashner, McHugh and Lucroy for the Red Sox in 2020.

Panini National Treasures Triple Legend Trio

I have mentioned before my aversion to those folding cards.  There is no real good way to display them.  I do make exceptions in rare situations though, and that is typically based on the player.  The only one I had previously is an Al Simmons card, which represents the only Red Sox card I have yet seen of "Bucketfoot".  Until now.

So, who is in this card that I had to add it?  Well, let's look panel by panel to find out.

Well, first up we have Harry Hooper.  Hooper is a Hall of Famer from the Deadball Era that played for the Red Sox from 1909 through 1920.  There are three bat pieces here.  Now, Hooper is a nice get here, but I do have a number of cards of him in my collection.  This is the first relic card of him though, so there is that.  Still, as great as it is to add a relic card of this Hall of Famer, Hooper is not the primary reason I bought this card.

The second panel is Walter Alston.  Now, Alston is a Hall of Famer, known for managing the Dodgers from 1954 to 1976.  Under his leadership, the Dodgers won four World Championships.  I am not really sure why this has him listed with Brooklyn, he was helming the Dodgers for far longer in Los Angeles.  Obviously this cannot be the reason I bought this card.  I have no real desire to have Dodgers cards.  It must be something else...

...and here it is.  This is Elston Howard, who was with the Red Sox during the last two seasons of his career after spending much of his career with the Yankees.  With the Yankees, he was the A.L. MVP in 1963 and was a member of a few World Championship teams.  He did very little with Boston, but was the starting catcher during the Impossible Dream World Series.  Howard has very few cards with the Red Sox.  Just his 1968 card, a few reprints/reproductions, and a couple of oddballs.  I never thought I would see a relic.  So, despite the lack of a Major League license, I had to add this card.

So, there is one question about this card.  Why these three?  I have no clue.  There are two players from Boston and a manager from Brooklyn.  Howard was active while Alston was a manager, but never played for him, and Hooper's career was over thirty years before Alston became a manager.  Alston did play, but only one year and not with Hooper.  Hooper and Alston are Hall of Famers, but Howard is not.  It's baffling.  I have no clue why these three are together on this card.

More 2020 Topps Update Pulls

As I said before, I always await Topps Update.  The next scan though will show some issues with the set that fail to really grab my attention.

 

1.  Alex Verdugo.  Okay, nothing really wrong with the first card.  Verdugo was acquired pretty late in the offseason in 2020.  The Mookie Betts trade was finalized just prior to Spring Training, so it is not THAT surprising that this was the first opportunity to include Verdugo in his Red Sox uniform in a basic Topps set.

2.  Pedro Martinez AS.  Since there was no All Star Game in 2020, Topps elected to use prior All Star Games in its base set.  This was kind of dumb, and pointless.  Just a way to get a bunch of star players into the set.

3.  Chris Sale.  This is an Active Leaders card.  Another way to include random star players into the set, instead of the players in their new uniforms and rookies that we all want in Update.

4.  David Ortiz.  This is a Home Run Derby card.  Ortiz won it several years ago.  See the above two explanations.

5.  Mookie Betts/Gleyber Torres.  What?

6.  David Ortiz Foil.  Here is a parallel of the Home Run Derby card.

7.  Brian Johnson.  For reasons I never quite understood, Johnson never pitched for Boston in 2020.  The team had pitching problems and Johnson had at least been a steady pitcher in the past.  It is bizarre that he appeared in this set because he never appeared for Boston that year.

8.  Mitch Moreland.  And the other problem.  Moreland should not have been in Update.  Certainly not with Boston.  Moreland was Boston's starting first-baseman coming into the year and had been with the team since 2017.  He was actually traded to the Padres during the season.  So if Topps was going to include a card of Moreland in Update, he should have been with the Padres.

Turn Back the Clock to 2013

I had this t-shirt.  I have no idea what happened to it.  Here we are looking back to 2013 when David Ortiz was named the World Series MVP.  Ortiz was on a different planet that Series.  Always known for his ability to hit in the clutch, Ortiz took it to a new level that year.  And that is not even counting his game-tying grand slam in the eighth inning of Game 2 of the ALCS.

Ortiz hit .688/.760/1.188 with two home runs and six RBIs.  He notched eleven hits with two doubles and seven runs scored, and walked eight times.  He struck out once.  Yes, once.  In 25 plate appearances.  The Cardinals simply could not get him out.  

A friend of mine, who is a huge Yankees fan, often tells me the greatest hitting performance he has ever seen was Ortiz in the 2013 World Series.  It's hard to disagree.

Photoshop Failure

Today, I am showing off an Independence Day parallel of Martin Perez from last year.  Now, I really liked Perez last year, and he had some moments this year.  He is a bit too inconsistent to be a reliable starting pitcher for long, but he's decent enough most of the time. 

I do want to direct attention to the obvious photoshop job here though.  Perez pitched for the Twins in 2019 and he is likely wearing a Twins uniform here.  The biggest giveaway here is the cap.  I have no idea why Topps photoshops the Red Sox logo with the two socks on the cap.  As far as I am aware, the team has NEVER worn a cap with this logo on it.  They always wear a "B" on the cap.  I have seen this on numerous cards over the years and it is always baffling.

R.I.P. Julio Lugo

 

Today, it was learned that Julio Lugo passed away in his native Dominican Republic.  Lugo was just 45 years old.  A shame, he was way too young.

Lugo was a member of the 2007 World Championship team.  He was signed prior to the season to be the team's starting shortstop, replacing Alex Gonzalez.  Lugo was a more offensive-minded player with some impressive speed.  Unfortunately, he did not really play that well throughout his time in Boston.  Over three seasons, Lugo hit .251/.319/.346 with ten home runs, 103 RBIs and 48 stolen bases.

2007 was the only season Lugo was a regular with Boston.  That year, he hit .237/.294/.349 with eight home runs, 71 runs scored, 36 doubles, 73 RBIs and a team-leading 33 stolen bases.  He ended the season on a bright note though, hitting .385 in the World Series.  He was mostly injury-prone the next two seasons, and was ultimately traded to the Cardinals in 2009 for Chris Duncan.

2020 Topps Update Pack Breaks

I always look forward to Topps Update.  The player selection is the key to the set for me.  Topps often includes more obscure players in Update, much moreso than in any other set, with the exception of the potentially now-defunct Total.  This is from last year's set as I am still trying to catch up. 

1.  Xander Bogaerts/Rafael Devers.  This is one way Topps has been including star players in Update.  Which is fine I guess.  This card features the top two stars on the team.

2.  Josh Taylor.  Taylor emerged this year as a very important member of the bullpen, but he barely pitched in 2020 as he struggled with COVID.  Taylor pitched in eight games in 2020, throwing 7.1 innings with an unsightly 9.82 ERA.  He was much better in 2021.

3.  Ryan Weber.  Weber was a big story in Spring Training in 2020, but the success did not really follow into the season.  He pitched in 17 games, starting five, primarily as an opener.  He had a record of 1-3 with a 4.40 ERA, striking out 27 and walking 14 in 43 innings.  He made it into one game in 2021, but also pitched for the Mariners and Brewers.

4.  Kevin Plawecki.  The backup catcher was named my Underrated Player of the Year.  He hit .341/.393/.463, with one home run, a triple, and five doubles.  He drove in 17 runs.  Great numbers for a backup catcher.  Plawecki is still with Boston to date and continues to play well for a backup catcher.

5.  Jose Peraza.  Peraza was signed to solidify second base in 2020, being one of the few Red Sox players with some speed.  Unfortunately, that did not really work out.  Peraza played in 34 games, hitting .225/.275/.342 with one home run, eight RBIs and just one stolen base.  He was allowed to leave as a free agent after the season.

More Wantlist Stuff

To date, this is the last trade I have made on the forums.  One of these days I need to update my tradelist and get back out there.  This is pretty base-heavy, but I don't mind deals like this if it knocks off cards from my wantlist.  As I recall, this finished off at least a few team sets.  

The first thing that probably jumps out is the number of star players here, particularly Nomar Garciaparra.  There is a pretty good reason for that.  I kind of get bored getting the same players all the time, even if they are favorites of mine.  So I tend to target fewer cards of them, particularly the base cards.  The last Nomar by the way is an insert reprint, not the 1998 Topps base card.  

 

Most of these cards I just missed.  The Andrew Cashner is the Vintage Stock parallel, and is probably the most interesting card of the bunch.

It is becoming harder and harder to complete team sets.  Cards are in short supply in stores and I have very little time to make trades online or go to the card shop in my hometown, since I rarely go back there anymore.  There are no shops where I am located.  Lately I have been buying case breaks of the Red Sox online.  That has helped somewhat, but is often more expensive than they should be.  I guess the other alternative would be to just buy the team set and whatever inserts, but that is not nearly as much fun.

Random Insert Package

 I am pretty sure this package came from a trade done on the forums.  

For the most part, these are just some basic insert cards, primarily superstars and Hall of Famers (I do think Terry Francona will be in the Hall of Fame some day).  Andrew Benintendi makes an appearance from the Turkey Red insert set though.  It is hard to believe now, but he looked like an upcoming superstar after his 2017 rookie season.  It's been pretty much all downhill from there though.  

The key to this trade for me was the Ted Williams card.  This is the All-Time Diamond Kings insert.  Panini took the Diamond King concept a step further and picked one player for each team's history.  Some of the choices were a little surprising (Mel Ott over Willie Mays?  Nolan Ryan for the Rangers?), but they definitely did the Red Sox right.  Really, who else could it be than Ted Williams?  I might cover this set in a future Diamond Kings roundup.  There are enough off-the-wall choices to make that worthwhile.

I Miss Topps Total (Sort Of)

Topps Total was one of my favorite sets in the early 2000's.  In a time of small, star-driven sets, Total was an absolute behemoth.  Each team had something like 30 cards.  Player selection was the key, though it also featured a lot of rookies and prospects.  Still, without Topps Total, I would not have cards of Red Sox legends like Joe Oliver, Ramon Vazquez, Blaine Neal and Austin Brice.  

Topps did not bring Total back this year, and a large part of that is likely due to the rather bizarre nature of the set since bringing it back in 2019.  10 card packs were only available online for the outrageous price of $10.00.  That simply was not going to be a good buy, no matter what.  So, I always just picked up the singles I wanted.  

Which brings me to today's post.  These are two of the more obscure players to appear for the Red Sox: 

1.  Josh Osich.  Osich was one of the very first transactions Chaim Bloom made after he was claimed off waivers from the White Sox shortly after the 2019 World Series.  The southpaw reliever put up some decent numbers, striking out 20 batters while walking five in just 15.2 innings in the 2020 season.  He had a 1-1 record and a 5.74 ERA before being traded to the Cubs for pitching prospect Zach Bryant.  This is going to be the only card of Osich with the Red Sox.

2.  Ryan Weber.  Weber was with the Red Sox from 2019 into this season.  In 36 games during that three-year stint, he had a record of 3-7 with a 5.54 ERA.  He started eight games, primarily as an opener.  In 89.1 innings pitched, he struck out 63 while walking 24.  Weber was released by Boston earlier this summer and made appearances with the Brewers and Mariners.  

2020 Bowman Platinum Break

It has been so long on some of these things that I really do not remember them well.  I remember this was a break of some type, but I cannot remember what type of pack or box this was.  I only pulled a single Red Sox card and it was a base veteran player.   

Bowman Platinum is still focused on rookies and prospects, much like other Bowman products, so it was a little disappointing to not pull a Red Sox prospect card, but I am always happy to pull any Red Sox cards from packs.  And so we have Chris Sale, who finally made it back to the Red Sox from Tommy John surgery.  He pitched for the first time since 2019.  It was not always pretty, and he really struggled toward the end of the season, but hopefully he will build on it to return to form next season.

R.I.P. Jerry Remy

 

Sad news today as it was reported early this morning that longtime fan favorite broadcaster and player Jerry Remy has passed away.  He had been battling cancer for several years.  Remy was a Red Sox player from 1978 to 1984, and was an All Star in 1978.  He was the color commentator for Red Sox broadcasts since 2001.  Remy was massively popular with the Red Sox fanbase and was elected honorary President of Red Sox Nation.  Red Sox broadcasts will not be the same without him.

Topps Color Parallels

 

My next package to show off contained a couple of the retail-only parallels from 2019 Topps.  The yellow cards are exclusive to Walmart, while the purples were exclusive to Meijer, a store I do not have anywhere close to me.  So obviously these are difficult to come by for me.  So we have Mookie Betts and Rick Porcello here.  

I still pick up the occasional Mookie Betts card these days.  Tough not to, as he was simply one of the best players to wear a Red Sox uniform in my lifetime.  It is a shame he is no longer on the team, but it is time to move on, while recognizing his importance to the team's recent history.  

And then there is Porcello.  I have mentioned before that Porcello seems underrepresented in my collection.  I need to work on that.  Porcello is still the most recent Red Sox pitcher to win the Cy Young Award.  It may not have been the most deserving choice, though the field was wide open in 2016, but it is the way it is.

Boston Purple Sox

 

The next package is a pair of Topps Heritage Chrome Purple Refractors.  Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury came up around the same time period, with Pedroia making his debut late in the 2006 season and Ellsbury late in the 2007 season.  They were both big parts of the 2007 and 2013 World Championship teams.  

Pedroia will be remembered for spending his entire career with the Red Sox.  He will be a borderline Hall of Famer, with late career injuries being the only thing that could potentially keep him out.  Pedroia won the Rookie of the Year and the MVP in consecutive seasons, and was a four-time All Star, winning four Gold Glove Awards and a Silver Slugger.  He could have done more had he not been injured, but he was a terrific player who made the most of his abilities.

Ellsbury was known for his speed.  He broke the team's single-season stolen base record by swiping 70 bases in 2009.  He led the league in stolen bases three times.  He had a massive 2011 season which marked his only All Star appearance as well as his only Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Awards.  That season, he became the Red Sox first 30/30 man and finished second in the MVP vote.  Unfortunately, Ellsbury will not be remembered quite as fondly as Pedroia because he jumped over to the Yankees the first time he was a free agent.  His career also ended prematurely due to injuries.  

Wantlist-Heavy Package

As I said recently, it is time to get caught up again.  I have a couple of jury trials in the next few weeks, so do not be too surprised if I do not post often right away.

Let's get moving:

This package contained a lot of mid 2000's cards as well as a bunch of stuff from the '80's/'90's.  How else to explain the random appearance of Jody Reed?  I am more surprised that there were still Jody Reed cards I needed.  I was a pretty big fan of Reed in the early days.  The other cards in the first scan are superstar players like Roger Clemens, Mo Vaughn, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz.

I still consider trying to find all of the Generation Now cards of Jonathan Papelbon.  Then I decide that is just way too many Jonathan Papelbon cards.  Here are a couple more.  David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia also make appearances in this scan.

And here we have a bunch of Nomar Garciaparra cards, along with Carlton Fisk, Bobby Doerr, Kevin Youkilis and two players who never actually played for the Red Sox.  Edwin Almonte and Ian Bladergroen managed to have quite a few cards, despite never playing for Boston.  Almonte's Major League career consisted of just 12 games for the Mets in 2003.  Bladergroen, who was acquired in a deal from the Mets for Doug Mientkiewicz in 2005, never played in the Majors at all.

Finally, we return to the '80's for a couple of oddball cards of Bruce Hurst and Mike Greenwell, then close out with Nomar and Big Papi.  This was a nice mix of players.  Definitely star-heavy, but some surprise players as well.  All of the cards though, had been on my wantlist.  

Well That Sucked

I will get around to posting my usual recap of the season at some point.  Right now I am very disappointed in the finish.  The Red Sox looked like a team of destiny less than a week ago.  Since that time though, the offense completely shut down.  This has been the trend with the team all year long.  They were maddeningly inconsistent.  They could look great, then suddenly look like a team that was completely lost on the field.  

The one thing to remember though is that this team was not even supposed to get this far.  This looked like a rebuilding season at the outset.  The "experts" predicted a fourth place finish and that did not seem out of line.  Chris Sale was still recovering from Tommy John surgery and, other than Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers, the team did not have many star players.  A number of players were signed as stop-gaps, like Hunter Renfroe, Enrique Hernandez, Garrett Richards, Matt Andriese, Marwin Gonzalez and others.  Some of those players were terrific, others were decidedly not.  And yet, the team was in first place at the All Star Break.  They slumped badly down the stretch, but managed to put enough together to win the top Wild Card spot on the last day of the season, finishing with the same record as the Yankees, the team many picked to win the division.  Boston got the top spot and home field advantage in the Wild Card Game because they won 10 out of 19 games against the Yankees.

They were not expected to beat the Yankees.  And yet, they did.  They then played the Rays, a team they struggled against.  They were not expected to beat them.  And yet, they did.  So they drew the Astros in the ALCS, a team that blew them out more times then not.  Obviously they were not expected to beat them.  But after the first three games, they looked like they were in good shape.  Unfortunately, things turned quickly and they looked like a team that did not deserve to be there in the last three games.  It is what it is.

This team will be remembered as a surprise team that made it much further than anyone thought they would.  They certainly surprised me.  But it is perfectly okay to still be saddened and disappointed by what happened at the end, especially so soon.  In a few days, I will better be able to reflect on all of the great things that happened this season.  It is just too soon right now.

Trade Package

I am going to work on catching up here eventually.  I have a LONG way to go.  Unfortunately, part of that is due to trying to get my scanner working again.  That does not seem to be happening though, so I am having to use my phone, which is not ideal.

Anyway, this is a trade package I received over a year ago at this time.

Here we have several current stars, along with Red Sox legends Carl Yastrzemski and David Ortiz.  The big card here though is the Topps Now Road to Summer Camp Rafael Devers card.  Is Devers or Bogaerts the current best player on the team?  I would argue Devers is the best hitter, but Bogaerts is the better player overall.

And this is a bunch of random 2020 Topps cards I needed for the team set, at the time.  The flagship set generally does a decent job of getting the non-stars included.  Nathan Eovaldi is probably a star now, but was not as high profile at the time.  Darwinzon Hernandez is the somewhat out-of-leftfield pick here.  Hernandez has done a decent job at times in the bullpen.  He strikes out a lot of batters, but also walks too many hitters.

Your 1981 Red Sox Pt. 20: Tom Poquette

In this series, I will look at each player who played in 1981, the year I was born. Because, why not?

Tom Poquette was primarily a fourth outfielder throughout his career, splitting time between the corner spots with the occasional stint in center as well.  Poquette came up through the Royals system and had a couple of decent seasons early on in his career.  In his first full season, Poquette hit .302/.361/.430 with 18 doubles, ten triples and two home runs.  The next season he hit .292/.337/.412, but that was the last season he played in more than 100 games.  

Poquette was traded to the Red Sox in June of 1979 for George "Boomer" Scott, who was nearing the end of his career.  Poquette was terrific in his first season in Boston, playing in 63 games, primarily in center field, and hitting .331/.365/.429 with nine doubles, two home runs and 23 RBIs.  Unfortunately, he was injured and missed the entire 1980 season.

That brings us to 1981.  Poquette played sparingly for the Red Sox, making it into just three games as a defensive replacement and had just two at-bats.  He did not have a hit.  In June, Poquette was placed on waivers and claimed by the Rangers.  He played in 30 games with Texas, but hit just .156.  He returned to Kansas City the next season, but still did not play well and his career as a player was over.  

Poquette's contributions to the 1981 Red Sox team were basically non-existent.  He had a nice 1979 season with them though.

A Large Package of Randomness

I do not have a really good intro here.  This is a decent-sized package with a variety of recent cards, a lot of them are unreasonably shiny or chrome.  

So a fair amount of cards of young players here, or rather, cards of players when they were young, such as the prospect cards of Rafael Devers and Andrew Benintendi.  I always enjoy the Talent Pipeline inserts from Bowman every year.  This one features Bobby Dalbec, who has enjoyed a monstrous second half in Boston this year, Bryan Mata, who has emerged as Boston's top pitching prospect and the stalled Josh Ockimey.  Michael Kopech also makes an appearance.  Kopech has been huge in the White Sox bullpen this year.

Here we have a number of Mookie Betts cards.  I still get them occasionally.  My favorite card here though is the Nickname Greats card of Dwight Evans.  Maybe one of these years he will get into the Hall of Fame.  We also have Jonathan Papelbon's brother Josh, who never made the Majors.

Again, here we have a bunch of early cards of players like Jacoby Ellsbury, Jed Lowrie, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Clay Buchholz.  My favorite card here though is the immortal Devern Hansack.  Hansack never pitched much for Boston, but I always liked the guy.  He threw a rain-shortened no-hitter on the last day of the season in 2006 against the Orioles.

And finally, we close things out with a Carlton Fisk card.  I love getting Fisk cards.

Mostly Wantlist Hits

I will pre-emptively apologize for the bad scan.  I decided to try to cram all ten cards into one scan.  There is not much exciting here, mostly just base cards with a couple of minor parallels so I will not be spending a lot of time on it. 

First up is some Bowman Platinum cards and the one I want to highlight is David Price.  Price will probably go down as something of a free agent bust, since he was signed to a huge contract for an ace starting pitcher and never really performed anywhere close to that.  But I will prefer to remember him as the one who stepped up huge in the 2018 postseason, particularly the World Series.  I still think he should have been the World Series MVP, or at least co-MVP with Steve Pearce.  

Up next is an A&G mini of Carlton Fisk.  If I had to pick one Hall of Famer whose cards I enjoy getting more than anyone else, it may very well be Fisk.  It's sort of odd I know.  Ted Williams is the greatest Red Sox player of all time.  Carl Yastrzemski spent more time in Boston than anyone, a record unlikely to be broken.  Even Jim Rice was a Red Sox player his whole career.  But there is just something about Fisk that I cannot explain.  Maybe it is the fact that he was a catcher, and I have always liked catchers.

Then we have a few random cards.  I love the picture on the J.D. Martinez Gallery card and obviously the Andrew Benintendi photo is terrific.  I am not sure what happened to Benintendi, since the All Star break in 2018, he has not been the same player.  I am still waiting to see who Boston gets in that deal other than Franchy Cordero.  

That brings me to Dustin Pedroia and what a sad ending to his career.  A few years ago I thought he was a lock for the Hall of Fame as long as he had a few more seasons to compile some numbers.  That unfortunately did not happen and his career effectively ended in 2017.  His numbers still look decent, with a career line of .299/.365/.439 as a second-baseman, but his counting stats really do not come very close, with less than 2,000 hits.  Unfortunately he is probably another Nomar Garciaparra, a player with a very good peak, but not a long enough career to justify making it into Cooperstown.  That's a shame.