Return of the Bullpen Cart

OK this is ancient news since it happened back in 2018. For some baseball fans it isn't anything special to write about, but to some old-timers like myself it reaches back to our childhoods. I'm talking about the bullpen carts, modified golf carts designed to look like a motorized batting helmet. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s the MLB had bullpen carts to escort relief pitchers onto the field. Actually now-days they drive around the warning track. They probably did that back then as well, my recollection of them are more vivid because of the plastic toys of the time. More so the NFL helmet carts which were the carts they drive onto the field to take severely injured players off the field. The football carts of course had that full football helmet design. Back in the day the baseball carts were more shaped like a baseball cap and the carts for both sports looked a bit bulky.

So for the 2018 baseball season the bullpen cart returned. The design uses a batting helmet for the main body and the support bars are shaped like bats. The Arizona Diamondbacks were the team to debut the new wave of bullpen carts. If memory serves it was the Washington Nationals then closer Sean Doolittle who was the first pitcher to use it. Maybe he was the first visiting pitcher.

Long story short Topps made a Topps Now card to celebrate the event (there is even an Allen & Ginter card that I plan on getting) I eventually got it. I waited way too long to get it at the original under ten dollars prices. I even went through a period of it not being available on Ebay for a few months. When it finally did come back the prices were super high, higher than I like to pay. Anyway I eventually paid $15 for a copy. I almost had to go up to $20 or more. Also of interest with this card is the seller sent the Topps Now packet "case" the cards come in when you get them directly from Topps and not from some dealer who has already opened the pack to scan the card for their listings.

So here is the card:
Front:

Back:

and the packet/envelope front:

Topps Now: Harper Now

I did a little Topps Now splurging on Ebay a little while back. I purchased a total of 8 Topps Now cards from this year and last year. The ones from last year I've been sitting on for a little bit. You could say they were all technically Washington Nationals related, but yeah, technically these cards I'm about to show are not Nats cards they are Phillies cards with Bryce Harper. Huh? Oh yeah that tiny contract thing.

Now that Bryce is on a different team any new cards of him I get in his Philly uniform I'll yak about here on this my main blog. Old Nats Hawper cards I'll chat about on my Curly W Cards blog. I suppose I could also post the Harper Phillies cards on my Nats blog but I don't want to. Occasionally I will post Nats Alumni in team uniforms from their post-Nationals career, but I probably shouldn't. Then again these are my blogs my rules.

Before I get into the two new Harper Now cards I'll show the two copies of the technically first Bryce Harper as a Phillie card. Another blogger showed a new Bowman card which is the first released in packs product so he considers that one Harper's Philly debut card I hear that one is another dang super short print. UGH first 2012 Topps Archives SSP RC and now this? ACK! Anyway my "first" Bryce as a Phillie card I posted about on Curly W Cards when I ordered the two copies and gave the pertinent details of the order. The images I showed there were from the Ebay listing the images here are the actual copies in hand.

 I might eventually purge down to just one copy someday.

2019 Topps Now Baseball: ST-3 Bryce Harper Phillies

Now onto the other Now cards. Both I got from Ebay two different sellers. The first one is his Spring Training Debut with the Phillies I got for $7.50 Free Shipping.

2019 Topps Now Baseball: ST-4 Bryce Harper Phillies

The other card I got for $8.00 Free Shipping it is from the regular season. Harper's First Home Run as a Phillie.

2019 Topps Now Baseball: 24 Bryce Harper Phillies

I don't like the Now backs with no description of the event. Sometimes the card title on the front is not enough. And NO I will not pursue Bryce's "First Homer vs The Nationals" or "First Grand Slam vs Old Team".  You have to draw lines somewhere sometimes.

Secret Santa: 2018 Haul

Several of the Trading Card Blogging Brethern participated in a Secret Santa Gift Exchange this holiday season. A big thank you to Jon of A Penny Sleeve for Your Thoughts for managing the misfit gang o' traders this year. To see my pirate booty from last year you can follow this link. Any how for this year I had shipped out my Secret Santa package of Bo Soax to Shane of Off The Wall early in the month on Saturday 08 December. Then the next Monday 10 December I received my S. Santa package.

Secret Santa package showing inside note and team bags.

I opened the package carefully, trying not to see the cardboard goodies inside, in search of a note or card that ID'd my S. Santa.

Secret Santa Note

I caught a glimpse of some of the front and back cards of the two team bags that were waiting inside. I waited until Christmas Eve before I opened the team bags to see Exactly what was inside. What was inside? A Rock! NO NO NO WRONG HOLIDAY CHARLIE BROWN! Right there were two team bags one Filled with Some B'More O's and the other filled with a Mix of Washington Teams with a Sweet Walter Johnson card showing on the top.

My Secret Santa was Adam of Cardboard Clubhouse and he sent a nice batch of Washington and B'More cards. In total there were 44 cards and one card sized book. The team breakdown is 22 Orioles (1 was a logo), 23 Washington cards of Baseball, Football and Hockey: 4 Senators, 2 Redskins, 2 Capitals and 15 Nationals (1 in team USA uniform, 1 Notre Dame Uniform?).

Lets see the cards shall we? Starting with the Orioles stuff.

Top Row: 1982 Topps 232 Terry Crowley
1986 Topps 365 Mike Flanagan
1987 Topps 120 Eddie Murray
Middle Row: 1989 Topps 757 Brady Anderson
2016 Topps Heritage (1967 Topps Design) 669 Mychal Givens
2016 Topps Heritage (1967 Topps Design) 125 Zach Britton
Bottom Row: 2017 Topps Heritage (1968 Topps Design) 159 J.J. Hardy
2015 Panini Donruss: The Rookies: 13 Christian Walker
2012 Topps Archives: (1954 Topps Design) 32 Adam Jones

Top Row: 1989 Sportflics 134 Craig Worthington
2012 Topps 125 Adam Jones
Bottom Row: 1990 Fleer: Sticker: Baltimore Orioles Team Logo
2015 Topps Update: All Star Game: US159 Darren O'Day

2018 Topps Big League: 44 Trey Mancini - This is my first Big League card a big thanks to Adam for it.
2018 Topps 587 Chris Davis
2016 Topps Update US182 Hyun-Soo Kim

Front and back of Collect-A-Book

1991 Impell JBC Collect-A-Books 9 Ben Mcdonald

A Winning Hand of Cal Ripken Jr.s

1994 Topps Team Stadium Club Finest: 8 of 12
1991 Topps: 150
2016 Panini Donruss: 181
2015 Topps: Highlight of the Year: H-27 Final Season Appearance 2001
1989 Topps: Big: 286

Now we get into the Washington Stuff:

REDSKINS

1988 Topps 8 Doug Williams
2018 Panini Classics: 190 Clinton Portis

CAPITALS

1991 Pro Set: 511 Peter Bondra
1993 Stadium Club 234 Keith Jones

SENATORS
A few reprints and retro cards.

2010 Topps Update (Thank God for TCDB never would have known it was from the update set): Vintage Legends Collection: VLC-50 Walter Johnson - Front 1951 Topps Design.
2011 Topps 1916 Sporting News CMGR Reprint CMGR-19 Walter Johnson
1911 Turkey Red T3 Reprints (reprint date unknown argh 1982 Renata Galasso?):
99? Walter Johnson with Turkey Red Add on back
No 15 Norman Arthur "Kid" Elberfield

NATIONALS

Top Row: 2015 Topps: 207 Bryce Harper
2018 Donruss: 192 Bryce Harper "Mondo" variant
2018 Topps Heritage: 1969 Design: 230 Ryan Zimmerman
Middle Row: 2016 Topps Heritage: 1967 Design: 73 Jonathan Papelbon
2016 Topps Heritage: 1967 Design: 518 Jayson Werth
2016 Topps Bowman: BP140 Chris Bostick
Bottom Row: 2015 Donruss: 178 Jordan Zimmermann
2016 Topps: Washington Nationals Team Set: WN-15 Matt Den Dekker
2009 Upper Deck Baseball Series 2: 947 Shairon Martis RC

Top Row: 2017 Topps: 327 Danny Espinosa
2018 Topps: 355 Joe Ross
Middle Row: 2015 Topps Allen & Ginter: 106 Yunel Escobar
2015 Topps Allen & Ginter: 266 Drew Storen
Bottm Row: 2011 Contenders: Draft Ticket: DT88 Brian Dupra in Notre dame Uniform?
2015 Panini Donruss: USA Collegiate National Team: 13 Nicholas Banks USA team Uniform

Secret Santa 2017: Walked The Plank? NO He Homered!

HO HO HO. It's Cardsmas in January? February? Well not really but it is now that I am posting my Ill-Gotten Holiday Pirate Booty from last year's Card Exchange Apocalypse. As many of you bloggers out there know Matt from "Bob Walk The Plank" hosted a Blogger's Secret Santa Gift Exchange for the 2017 Holiday Season. Think a White Elephant Yankee Gift Exchange on PEDs or more accurately ON 2.5" x 3.5" pieces of Cardboard, and memorabilia sometimes smaller sometimes larger. Mostly sports related sometimes not.

I was a little hesitant about signing up because I am still delinquent on some cardboard trades in the trading card universe from several years ago now. A few I have made up some I have not. I have to remind myself of that occasionally in the hopes I'll speed up my recovery efforts.

I "blogged" about my Secret Santa Mail Day at my usual spots on TCC and TCZ. Those are mostly just listings of what I got with some detail, but rarely any pics. The true blogging with pics happens here. This post has extra Holiday Fat Pics.

On Saturday 23 Dec 2017 I  received my Blogger Secret Santa package to me on the same day I sent my Secret Santa package out to Greg. The small package came from Tim B. of "I love the Smell of Cardboard in the Morning" blog.

He hit a multi-run Homer I'd say it was a 3 runner. Total of 38 cards at least one from each of the 4US sports food groups some PC snacks and niche noschs.

BASEBALL: 27 cards the bulk of the package 1 or 2 dupes 3 at the very most.

2008 Donruss Threads Baseball: 50 Frank Howard Washington (dupe) No problem it's Hondo one of my fave Washington Senators of All-Time.

2012 Bowman Chrome Baseball: 61 Gio Gonzalez Nationals (possible dupe)
2014 Bowman Baseball: 55 Ian Desmond Nationals Blue Parallel 074/500

2015 Topps Chrome Baseball: 56 Ian Desmond Nationals
2015 Topps Baseball: National League: NL-9 Bryce Harper Nationals
2015 Topps Baseball: First Pitch: FP-22 Lars Ulrich Musician Giants - I love the First Pitch cards. I need to double check which ones I still need to get.

2015 Topps Baseball Update: Gold Parallel: US300 Max Scherzer Nationals AS Game 1064/2015

2016 Panini Black Friday Baseball: 19 Stephen Strasburg Washington - Wow this is one of the best Non-licensed Panini Baseball cards I've seen in a while. Almost looks like a licensed card. In fact I thought it was one at first glance then I saw it was Panini and just said "Washington".

2016 Topps Baseball: Purple Parallel: 342 Jayson Werth Nationals
2016 Topps Baseball: New Era?: 1 Bryce Harper Nationals

2016 Topps Baseball: First Pitch:
FP-1 Jeff Bauman Boston Bombing Survivor Red Sox
FP-2 Jake Gyllenhaal Actor Red Sox (cameo of Jeff Bauman)
FP-4 Brady Kahle Red Sox - Kid who sold baseball card collection to help pay for his friends brain cancer treatment. Cameo of Wally The Green Monster.
FP-5 Keith Urban Musician Dodgers
FP-7 Chance The Rapper Hip-Hop "artist" White Sox
FP-9 Craig Sager Reporter Cubs
FP-10 Jojo Fletcher Bachelorette (reality personality) Dodgers
FP-12 Tom Watson Golfer Royals

FP-6 Aubrey Plaza Actress Dodgers - Love her Mostly just seen her in commercials. At times she reminds me of Allison Scagliotti (Warehouse 13, Stitchers)

Allison Scagliotti as Claudia Donovan in Warehouse 13 Season 4 Episode 15 "Instinct"

2016 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots:
M-4 Wally The Green Monster Red Sox
M-13 Dinger Rockies
M-20 Fredbird Cardinals
Mascots are one of my niche PCs as is evident from my Mascot Monday series of posts.

2016 Topps Baseball: Spring Fever: SF-29 Bryce Harper Nationals
2017 Topps Stadium Club Baseball: Scoreless Streak: SS-SS Stephen Strasburg Nationals
2017 Topps Baseball: Refractor? 212 Tanner Roark Nationals

2017 Topps Baseball: Gold: 327 Danny Espinosa Nationals 1501/2017

2015 Topps Archives Baseball: WF-8 Will Ferrell Giants

BASKETBALL: 5 cards 1 sticker no dupes that I know of.

2013-14 Panini Basketball Stickers: 154 Bradley Beal Wizards

2003-04 Fleer Ultra Basketball:
33 Juan Dixon Wizards
130 Jared Jeffries Wizards
Gold Medallion: 130 Jared Jeffries Wizards die-cut curved corner

2002-03 Fleer Genuine Basketball: Names of the Game: NG 7 of 15 Michael Jordan Wizards

2001-02 Topps Basketball: Top Tandems: TT6 Michael Jordan and Richard Hamilton Wizards

FOOTBALL: 1 card not a dupe.

1971 Topps Football: Game Insert: 7 O.J. Simpson Bills

HOCKEY: 4 cards 3 possible dupes.

1993 Classic Games 4 Sport Collection: 253 Manon Rheaume Atlanta Knights

1993 Classic Games Pro Hockey Prospects: The possible dupes.
1 Manon Rheaume
2 Manon Rheaume
100 Manon Rheume
Manon Rheume one of my PC Players and sort of a niche PC as well.

So yeah this post barely makes it into the end of January to preserve my bare minimum one post a month quota.

2012 Opening Day Macots Set

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots Set

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-2 The Bird Baltimore Orioles

I originally started drafting this post ages ago. Like a ton of other posts on this blog. Yeah I have more than a few dusty posts in my drafting queue here and on my other two blogs. A very long while back (around 2013 something) from Ebay I got the 2012 Topps Baseball Opening Day Mascots insert set (numbered M1-M25). Got it for $22.99 + $3.50 shipping. Not a steal or a deal but I have seen them for way more.

The Opening Day set is almost identical to the flagship set with the exception of the "Opening Day" logo with the red, white, and blue bunting on the front. For players they usually use the same photo from the flagship set, but not always. The Mascots are not part of the regular flagship set they are the only picture in most cases of the mascot for that year. Some of them make cameo appearances on player cards or their team cards. I recall some years they have had variant picture cards for some of the players interacting with the mascots for special short prints. The backs of the cards are like the flagship backs not much different. The card numbers for the mascot cards for 2012 use the "M - #" format. There are 25 cards in the set. I used to mistakenly call it a "sub-set", but the numbering indicates it is a separate insert set.

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-2 The Bird Baltimore Orioles Back

Most of the 30 MLB teams have mascots, the Angels, Dodgers and Yankees are the only teams without an official, or unofficial mascot. Years ago the Yankees had a mascot from 1979-1981 named Dandy he was a strange looking beast. I couldn't decide which picture to post from my searching so I didn't. You'll have to Google, or Bing or Yahoo search to see what the fella looked like. I'm not sure if I'll get around to featuring him at all since I don't think he is officially on a card, even though the blog? Baseball Think Factory dot org has a mock-up 2011 Topps Opening Day card showing him. The Cubs used to be mascotless but in 2014 they announced Clark the Cub as their official mascot, their first official mascot in ages. In 2012 for this set Clark was not yet discovered. The only other team mascot NOT in this set is Lou Seal of the Giants, for some reason he was left out of this set, yet he is in others. In some cases a team has more than one mascot, but only the official mascot or the most popular one is shown in this set. I hate when they leave some of these guys out.

An odd thing about this set is the card for Homer The Brave of the Atlanta Braves is the only card that is landscape (horizontal) oriented. The rest are the standard portrait (normal vertical) orientation.

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-8 Homer Atlanta Braves

Front and Back

M-1 Bernie Brewer Brewers
M-2 The Oriole Bird Baltimore Orioles
M-3 Ace The Blue Jays
M-4 Baxter The Bob Cat Diamondbacks
M-5 Fredbird Cardinals
M-6 Raymond Rays
M-7 Mr. Met Mets
M-8 Homer The Brave Braves
M-9 Rangers Captain Rangers

M-10 Pirate Parrot Pirates
M-11 Billy The Marlin Marlins
M-12 Paws Tigers
M-13 Dinger Rockies
M-14 Phillie Phanatic Phillies
M-15 Slugger Royals
M-16 Wally The Green Monster Red Sox
M-17 Gapper Reds
M-18 Slider Indians

M-19 TC Bear Twins
M-20 Swinging Friar Padres
M-21 Southpaw White Sox
M-22 Screech Nationals
M-23 Mariner Moose Mariners
M-24 Stomper Athletics
M-25 Junction Jack Astros

Today (Monday 03 April, 2017) is Home Opening Day for my Homies the Washington Nationals they kick things off at home with the Marlins. Screech will be there cheering on the Nats.

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-22 Screech Washington Nationals
Front and Back

Look for my weekly occasional feature on this blog "Mascot Monday".