Topps Now is Taking Hold, O-Pee-Chee Baseball, and Other Wednesday Night Musings

Last night I was doing some research for work with the Red Sox game on in the background, pretty much a typical Tuesday here at Shoebox Legends World Headquarters.  Throughout the course of the evening I witnessed Mookie Betts club three home runs, and an interesting thing happened.  As I watched the third one clear the fence at Camden Yards my immediate first thought was "There's gonna be a Topps Now card of Mookie tomorrow".  So yeah, that whole promotion is working extremely well on me.

By the way, Mookie was indeed on one of today's Topps Now cards, as predicted.  Oh, and he smashed another two homers tonight, so maybe we'll see another one tomorrow?  My collecting side hopes so.  My wallet?  Not so much.

The other highlight of the game last night for me was that lefty Eduardo Rodriguez made his first start of 2016 after battling back from an injury suffered during Spring Training.  Though he's still not at 100%, he looked impressive enough giving up 2 runs over 6 innings for the win, while striking out three and walking nobody.  I really think this kid has the talent to slot in behind David Price as the #2 starter in the rotation, and I'll be watching him eagerly over his next few starts.

Alright, now that we've got that out of the way why don't we get to an extremely overdue trade/thank you post featuring a package from friend of the blog Angus that was just plan awesome?

Angus actually started up his own blog late last year over at Dawg Day Cards.  He's a very generous fellow, and I've been the recipient of several great packages of cards that he's sent over the past few years.  This latest one started out with a bang in the form of this Gypsy Queen on-card autograph of Anthony Ranaudo!

It's clear to me that Angus must read my posts regularly because he sure knows what I enjoy.  We go from a hard-signed Sox autograph to an acetate card.  This Tomo Ohka is my first base card from 2000 Pacific Invincible, and the entire top portion of the card is a light-blue-shaded acetate.  Awesome stuff.

Here's where things really get crazy though.  '76 Fred Lynn, coming hot off his Rookie of the Year and MVP season and sporting the beautiful Topps All-Star Rookie Cup no less!  The best part about this one though?

O-Pee-Chee!  In fact, this package had what was probably the single greatest lot of O-Pee-Chee cards I've ever received.

Before this package arrived I had not a single '76 OPC in my entire collection.  Not only did Angus rectify that, but he didn't exactly send scrubs or commons either.  We're talking about some of my favorite baseball cards from the entire decade in OPC format.

Hell, for starting a team set from this era from scratch you'd be hard pressed to find three better players not named Yastrzemski.  Lynn, Tiant and Evans?  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Oh, and Angus also threw in a fourth card from the set, featuring the #2 player on the all-time Red Sox roster when sorted alphabetically, Mr. Don Aase.

Let's work our way backwards, shall we?  A few weeks ago I had just two '72 OPC Sox in my possession...

...well that number has now been doubled.  The Rogelio Moret is nice indeed, but Rico Petrocelli?  Too cool.

Let's close out the OPC baseball with another set that's totally new to me, the 1970 release.  Another Topps All-Star Rookie Cup sighting on this Mike Nagy, love it!

There's the nice, easy-to-read back with the PRINTED IN CANADA marking along the bottom right.

Bat rack shot!  I wouldn't say I've ever been a huge fan of 1970 Topps, but there really are some under-rated photos and cards, and the set's kind of been growing on me in recent years.  This Gerry Moses is a good example of why.

We'll wrap it up with relief-pitching phenomenon that is Sparky Lyle.  Like I said, easily the best O-Pee-Chee baseball boost I've ever gotten from a single trade package.  But Angus didn't stop there, like any respectable Canadian would do, he tossed in a few hockey cards as well.

O-Pee-Chee RC of Miracle on Ice goalie Jim Craig!  This will pair very nicely with my Jim Craig Bruins certified auto.  What a random, yet totally on point and appreciated throw-in.

This one really brought a smile to my face.  One of just two cards I had left to complete a Whalers team set from '79-80 O-Pee-Chee, arguably the greatest hockey set ever made.  You know it's a '70s hockey card when the photo was taken against the Washington Capitals.

Absolutely my favorite card backs of all-time.  Any set, any sport, I can't think of a card back that I enjoy more than this one.  Cardboard perfection.

Last card of the night, a killer Thommy Abrahamsson New England Whalers O-Pee-Chee WHA card.  There really aren't that many OPC WHA cards featuring the Whalers in total, and as a die-hard Whalers collector it's really inexcusable that I don't own every single one of them already.  Angus got me one step closer with this one at least. 

My favorite thing about this card, hands down, is the outfit that the referee is wearing.  I don't think I ever knew that WHA referees had red stripes on their shirts instead of black, but there's something really odd about it.  Almost looks like a guy from the barber shop quartet that was scheduled to sing during intermission got lost and wandered out onto the ice.

Thanks for the great batch of cards Angus!  If you happen to see this, please drop me an email.  Been trying to reach out to you about getting you a return package to even things up a bit.