A Night to Remember

After going all in on Red Sox Topps NOW cards during the inaugural season last year, I vowed to stay away in 2017.  I've managed to stick to my guns, but I did make an exception a few weeks back.

On June 23rd, the Sox retired David Ortiz's #34.  It's not every day that your favorite franchise retires a number, and the team did a nice job with the ceremony.  There were plenty of former greats on hand for the proceedings, and Mother Nature cooperated and provided a beautiful summer night for the celebration as well.

Love the shot on the back of this one, featuring Ortiz as he emerged from the dugout to 35,000-plus appreciative fans.

As I mentioned, there were many former Red Sox stars in the house, including Wade Boggs, Jim Rice, Yaz, and of course Pedro Martinez.  Pedro spoke for a while, and the two really seemed to be enjoying the moment.

Of course Topps, in their infinite love for all things David Ortiz, decided to make not one but two Topps NOW cards commemorating the event.

So what was it about this pair that caused me to break my self-imposed Topps NOW ban?  Well, this is the first time a Topps NOW card has been issued for a game that I actually attended!

Here's a picture I took from our seats during the number retirement ceremony.  You can click for a larger image, but this was taken during Ortiz's speech.  You can see the retired stars branched out on either side of the podium, the #34 cut into the center field grass, the Green Monster and iconic Citgo sign, and the very early stages of a sunset.  Not bad for an amateur photographer with an iPhone, helped by the fact that we had really solid seats.

My best friend of 25 years and his longtime girlfriend joined my wife and I for the game.  The Angels were in town, but we did not get to see Mike Trout play as he was out with his thumb injury at the time.  The Sox got up early and never looked back en route to a 9-4 trouncing of LA.  Throw in some post-game celebrating around Boston, capped off with some really late-night pizza, and it was a night to remember for me.  Thanks to Topps I will do just that any time I see these two cards...