The Itch to Rip - 2018 Stadium Club Blaster Finale

Time for the fourth and final installment of my recent 2018 Stadium Club blaster.  This has been my cheap way to satisfy the itch to rip these past few weeks, purchased off of eBay since I'm not venturing out much and I hear there are no retail cards available anyway.  Tonight we'll tear into the final pair of packs...

Just five cards per pack in retail, pack number seven, here we go...

BAM!  This is the rookie card I was most hoping to pull from the blaster, given that I already have the Devers, and that there are no Acuna or Soto cards on the checklist.  Really happy to have stumbled upon one in the second-to-last pack here.  Sure, I could have bought one on COMC for a couple bucks but again, this was all about the itch to rip. 

I'm sure everything else in this pack will be a letdown by comparison, but let's see the other four cards anyway...

Liked this guy when he was with Boston, and have been happy to see him achieve at least some measure of similar success with the Brew Crew.

Fantastic horizontal photograph on Manny Machado's card.  This was Manny's last season in Baltimore, as he'd be dealt to Los Angeles mid-season to finish out the year with the Dodgers (and lose the World Series to the Red Sox, just sayin'!).

I hate to be critical, but this is a pretty bland shot of Cody Bellinger.  Proof that not all of the horizontal cards in Stadium Club are masterpieces.

This kid had a really good season in 2019, going 11-8 in 33 starts with a very impressive 2.75 ERA.  Since this has the official rookie card logo on it, I'm sure it'll be worth a bazillion trillion dollars someday if Flaherty continues to pitch like that.

Final pack of the blaster...

Gotta be honest, I've never heard of Felix Jorge.  Some quick research shows that Topps thought it was appropriate to include a player with two career appearances that resulted in an ERA on the wrong side of 10.00 in the checklist for this set.  Head shaker there.  Moving on...

I've at least heard the name Aaron Altherr before.  He bounced around to three different MLB teams last season alone, and appears to now be playing in Korea.  Boy, this pack is off to a fantastic start.

A card of Rhys Hoskins is next.  This is a rookie card in that it has the official 'RC' logo.  It's not a rookie card though in that it's an insert.  I'm confused, but all I know for sure is that I don't intend to keep this as I do the base card needs from the blaster.  Off to the giveaway stack with Rhys. 

Ah, that's much, much better!  After those first couple of duds this Jackie Robinson pretty much saves the final pack of the blaster, actually.  I finally posted my first playing-era Jackie earlier this year, and while I don't necessarily keep all modern cards of his that I come across, this one is an absolute beauty.  Jackie gets fantastic cards any time he appears in Stadium Club, it seems to me.

Final card of the blaster is another good one, with your 2018 and 2019 NL Cy Young winner Jake DeGrom!  Dude has turned into a real stud for the Mets.  Can he nab a third straight Cy in this crazy, 60-game season we have upcoming?  I can't wait to find out, I only hope MLB can actually complete the abbreviated season before it all comes crashing down.  Fingers crossed!

So, that's a wrap for my 2018 Stadium Club blaster, the first retail product of any sort that I've opened in a good long time.  Thanks for tuning in and following along, and if you've got any extra base cards laying around from this set hit me up!