Dimebox Red Sox - Summer of 2017 Edition

Now that I've finally processed all the great buyback cards I received over the summer from my buddy Dimebox Nick, it's high time I gave some blog love to the awesome stack of Red Sox cardboard that was included in the same bubble mailer.

As is usually the case, Nick sent a very wide variety of cardboard spanning many years, players, and sets.  I chose this SP card of The Hawk to lead off with because of the great shot of the Green Monster (before the seats were installed) in the background.

Yes, there were even serial-numbered cards to be found in this delivery from Nick!  Not going to complain about a nice parallel of a World Series MVP.

I really, really, really need to get organized enough to get a want list together and finish up the 2001 Fleer Red Sox 100th set.  I definitely did not have this Yawkey's Heroes insert of the great Luis Tiant yet, I know that much.

I have to be honest and say that this Cover Glory subset from UD Choice kind of missed the mark in my humble opinion.  That is way too much orange there.  Regardless, a new Nomar is a new Nomar.

This Bowman International parallel has so much foil that you can barely tell based on the scan that the subject featured is Adam Everett.  I'd say it looks better in hand but it's too much foil in person too.

Here's a nice TCMA Renata Galasso George Kell.  I really enjoy these, have landed a handful of these over the years and I think just about every one of them has come in trade like this.

A 2016 Stadium Club need.  Cool that it's from the season were Porcello won the Cy Young against all odds.

My handful of authentic Cracker Jack cards are among my most prized pieces of cardboard, period.  I just love the design, possibly my overall favorite pre-war set.  Nice to welcome a modern reincarnation to my Red Sox collection.

Blake Swihart actually did manage to see some action this year with Boston thanks to September call-ups.  In 7 plate appearances he hit one single and drew two walks.

2013 Panini Select, also known as the set that most highlights "scanner dust"...

Here's a die-cut of one of the most expensive players in the history of AAA!  It's a shame that Rusney never could quite figure it out.

I've been slowly working through the painstaking process of inventorying my collection on The Trading Card Database in recent months.  I've got over 3,400 baseball cards entered in so far, and at this point the gold medal for player with most cards in my collection goes to David Ortiz, with Xander Bogaerts just a handful of cards behind.  It's kind of fun to see how it changes as I populate my collection.  Yes, I am a nerd.

A very dark photo on this Sports Illustrated Greats of the Game card.  Mike Torrez looks confused, if not terrified, seems like a perfect card for October!

A trio of 2017 Donruss were included in the package, with Dustin Pedroia...

...and Jackie Bradley being new to me.  I really think Panini did a great job with this release, at least as good a job as you can do without having a license.  If these only had logos and proper team names I probably would've gone for a set.  Oh well.

Actually, Nick did a great job with injecting a few new releases into my collection with this particular package.  I also received a trio of 2017 Archives Sox, including the surprise of the 2017 pitching staff, Drew Pomeranz.

It was pretty much inevitable that Hanley Ramirez was going to come back down to earth after his .286/30/111 season in 2016.  I don't think fans were expecting a 40 point plummet down to a career-low .242 though.  Shouldn't be all that surprising as Ramirez has turned in seasons of .243, .246 and .249 previously.  Let's hope he gets on a power tear in the playoffs here.

Lastly, the anchor (along with Pomeranz!) of the starting staff.  Chris and Drew are going to have their work cut out for them against the Astros in the ALDS.  The adage is that pitching trumps hitting in the playoffs, but Houston's lineup is scary good.

One last trio of 2017s, this time from the flagship set.

Still don't love this design, but I think I like it better than 2016 Topps.  Maybe.

Either way, completing a flagship Topps team set of your favorite franchise each year just kind of feels like a collecting rite of passage.

Nick even threw in a rainbow parallel!

I find it funny that Nick has had the same experience I have of ending up with way too many Henry Owens cards.  I assume it's because Henry is a good reliable signer or something, but Topps sure produced a whole lot of cardboard (or in this case acetate) for a guy who's had barely any success at the MLB level.

Second Rusney Castillo card in the package.  These would have been hot cards to have back in 2014/2015!

Here's a nice shiny insert of a man who's become a key member of a very good Boston pen.  Barnes has appeared in 132 games over the course of the past two seasons.  That's a whole lot of bullpen work right there.

This mid-2000s Donruss Champions set looks like one that was created specifically to highlight relics or autographs on the right side of the card.  I wasn't collecting at the time so I'm no expert here, but it seems like this was a trend for a couple of years at least.  I'm glad it didn't last because that's a whole lot of white space for the cards that aren't hits.

A nice, clean design from this Upper Deck Ovation set.  I don't recall having seen these before, but I like this one.

Another nice one from my collecting "dark days" here.  I like this one especially because, for whatever reason, Bobby Doerr seems to be criminally under-represented in my collection.

And the award for "most '90s card in the package" goes to...

I got a kick out of this John Valentin.  With the recent bankruptcy news surrounding Toys 'R' Us you have to wonder if their brick and mortar locations will end up being a thing of the past at some point.  I can envision myself as an old man telling the younger generation "I remember back before Amazon sonny, we had these things called 'stores'!".

Yet another new 2017 release, Gypsy Queen this time!

As a fan of shiny cards I've always enjoyed these Spring Fever promo cards.  I'll gladly accept this one.

Here's the only card in the post that can give that Mike Torrez Sports Illustrated card a run for most appropriate for October.

One last 2017, Nick really packed a wide variety of new releases into this package.  That's Bowman, Gypsy Queen, flagship, Archives and Donruss in this one package alone.

We'll close it out with a handful of these ProCards Pawtucket Red Sox cards from the late '80s.

These really take me back to my first run at collecting as a kid.

To this day I pick up minor league singles or team sets whenever I find them cheap, in fact I've got a binder devoted to them.

Well, that's a wrap for today.  It took me a while to get this one posted, but I think you can see why when it comes to the sheer number of new cards that I had to scan, crop and inventory.  In the meantime, Nick hit me with another delivery while I was working on this one.  Back to the scanner!