Red Hot Betts

Earlier this month I showed off my Xander Bogaerts RC rainbow, but there's another significant Red Sox rookie from the past decade that I recently closed the loop on as well...

Five-tool superstar Mookie Betts, though no longer with the team (will he even play a single game with the Dodgers at this rate?), remains one of the most exciting players to come up with the franchise in the prior decade.

His true rookie card, pictured above, was available in the 2014 Topps Update set.

Also in that release, and also carrying the "RC" logo, is his 'Rookie Debut' card.  I actually like the photograph on this one better than the first, but it's not as desirable among collectors as these 'Rookie Debut' cards seem to be the red-headed step-children of the Topps rookies.

As you can see I managed to pick up both of these cards back in 2014, and in fact I even pulled a variation of his RC a couple of years later as well:

This remains the single greatest card I've ever pulled from a re-pack.  This came from a $5-for-100-cards repack I picked up at Rite-Aid down the street from my house in 2016.  Mookie was already a big deal by the time I pulled this card.  At the time it was a neat pull, and about a $20 card on the secondary market.

These days it's even more highly sought after, with the most recent raw copy on eBay selling ten days ago for over $180.  Insanity.

Since I was still doing more buying and trading of modern cards back in 2014 than I am these days, I ended up with the Gold parallel of both Mookie's standard rookie...

...and his Rookie Debut card.

I was also fortunate enough to land this fantastic Red Hot Foil parallel of the Rookie Debut card.  I believe this one came in a PWE from a trading buddy back in the fall or winter of 2014, if memory serves.

As the years have passed by since then, it always kind of nagged at me that I was missing one piece of this Mookie Betts RC puzzle, the Red Hot Foil parallel of his true rookie card.  I wanted it to complete the picture, and to complement the Red Hot Foil Xander Bogaerts RC that I already owned as well.

Well, last year I finally tracked one down!  I wasn't necessarily in the market for a graded copy, but in this case this PSA 9 was available for less money than any raw copies at the time that I finally decided to pull the trigger.

Despite only really being on the team for the latter half of it, Mookie was easily one of the most exciting and dynamic players to put in time with Boston during the 2010s.  Right up there with David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia and Xander Bogaerts on the offensive side of the ball anyway.  Having won both a World Series and an MVP Award with the Red Sox, he'll be remembered and talked about in Boston for many decades to come.

Feels great to plug the final hole and consider my quest for his Topps rookie cards complete.  Now that his cards have skyrocketed in value, combined with the fact that he's no longer with the team, I don't feel the need to search out any other parallels of this card.  I'm very content with the seven I have here in my Red Sox collection!

Thanks as always for stopping by...