ring that bell

today is a good day to show juan bell's 1993 leaf card. especially the back

there are two bells there, in fact, making the card pretty meta. the liberty bell, as fans of the national treasure movies will tell you, was kept in the house of pass and stow (the steeple of what is now known as independence hall). you can see "pass and" on the card, but the big item that draws your eye is the crack which occurred in the early 19th century, well after pass and stow recast the original bell.

anyway, it's independence day and there are other cards that make sense to post. over the past few months, i've picked up a couple of topps' independence day parallels.

2022 has perhaps the lamest design - here's andre jackson

design aside, this card appealed to me slightly because it is numbered 01 out of 76

and it pairs nicely with this 2025 topps heritage high numbers evan phillips "color of the year" parallel

that is bookended at 76/76.

of course, this year is 2026 which makes it the country's semiquincentennial. earlier in the year, i was looking for cards that showcased the memorial patch that the brewers wore in 2025 to honor bob uecker and came across this isaac collins gold parallel

it is very patriotically numbered 1776/2026 on the back

and, while it won't represent the uecker patch in my collection, it is unique enough to land in my "meaningful and just because" collection.

semiquincentennial means 250th, and this tommy edman purple rainbow foil parallel

is numbered to 250 as most purple parallels are these days. however, this particular one is 250/250

and so is a semiquincentennial card in and of itself. 

more traditional 4th of july appropriate cards celebrate the red, white & blue, like this 2021 panini prizm justin turner parallel

although perhaps i should have turned it upside down.

and, last but not least, here is an independence day parallel from 2026 topps featuring blake snell

in recent years, topps has put more 'merica in the design of these. here's the back

jackie robinson number!

happy birthday america! i hope you survive another 250 years, but at least get through these next couple in a recognizable fashion.

2026 topps series 2 blaster review

i pre-ordered a mega box (not yet shipped) and a blaster/value box (arrived on release day - june 10) directly from topps back on may 11 when series 2 was first offered. let's take a look at the six packs i opened from the blaster.

pack 1:

not a lot to say now that this is the second go around for the card design. pitchers pitching, batters batting. one fielder and a couple of base runners.

the nolan arenado stars of mlb insert is the start of what was a fairly diamondback heavy blaster, and the jt realmuto holiday foil (base - sun) is the one "new" thing in the pack.

pack 2:

four dbacks in this pack. the adrian del castillo card is clearly showing off a dodger stadium background, so i suppose i will add it to that mini-collection. i've sort of begun gatekeeping that collection a bit more.

chase delauter is one of the rookie cards people were anticipating with series 2, but his bat has cooled off after a hot first week to the season. the last three cards are all inserts/parallels with the oswaldo cabrera card being a rainbow foil. the adrian beltre card is from the "glove works" insert set (no wes parker or steve garvey on the checklist), and the munetaka murakami stars of mlb insert was nice to find instead of someone else. as i write this, i note that murakami has either homered or struck out in exactly 50% of his at bats so far this season. that's 20 homers and 80 k's in 200 official at bats. 

pack 3:

paul gervase is my first series 2 dodger, and he's actually still with the team (although his card is airbrushed). the big news in this pack, however, is that someone at topps forgot to turn on a level in the "titans of the game" insert images before sending them to the printer.

that jackson chourio card at the bottom of the image looks empty. i knew what it was, but still turned the card over 

to confirm that it was indeed a titans of the game card. as a reminder, here is what these cards looked like in series 1

a bit different from series 2

let's cleanse the palate with a look at the back of gervase's card

gervase has appeared in a couple of games for the dodgers this season. if he had not, he would have been in zach lee and bruce brubaker territory in that he would have had a dodger card of his own while appearing in only one game for the club.

pack 4:

here we have justin verlander back in detroit, another diamondback, satchel paige keeping the browns' legacy alive, and a stars of mlb card featuring a red sox rookie that i am not familiar with.

pack 5:

the penultimate pack of the blaster was my favorite, largely because of kiké hernandez showing up, but it also included the "hit" of the blaster - the gold holofoil parallel of heston kjerstad. those are numbered to 399 on the back

speaking of backs, let's look at kiké's

nine-plus dodger seasons in the books for him, and he is the franchise's all-time leader in postseason games played. i am hopeful that he recovers from his injury and increases that number this fall.

pack 6:

perhaps the worst pack of the bunch. the combo card is strikingly boring compared to the action shots on the other cards, and the marcell ozuna card boasts a poor photoshop job. at least the juan soto insert is different - it's a league leader type card but is from the "crooked numbers" insert set.

i still have a mega box yet to be delivered, so i'll get another chance to rip some series 2 packs. i don't think i'll purchase any additional sealed product from this set, however. let me know if you have some dodgers to trade!

mr. baseball's memorial patch

here's another post to document one of the memorial patches worn during the 2025 season. today, memorial day, i'll share the card that represents the patch that the brewers wore in honor of bob uecker in my collection.

uecker was an army veteran - he reached the rank of corporal prior to his baseball career - and while that is not the focus of memorial day (hopefully we've all taken some time to recognize those who gave their lives in service to our armed forces) i figured i'd make this post today.

this 2026 topps heritage sal frelick card shows the patch the best

of all of the 2026 cards i have seen. here's an even closer look at the patch

uecker started his big league career in milwaukee with the braves, and returned to wisconsin to call brewers games in 1971 - their second season as the brewers. he was behind the microphone for their games for 54 consecutive seasons prior to his passing in january of 2025.

there's another card i purchased because of the patch (and one other reason) that i will show in a future post.

in other brewers memorial patch news, i have replaced the card i used to have in my collection for the ironworkers memorial patch from 1999 with this 2000 pacific prism geoff jenkins holographic gold parallel

you can read about that patch and the meaning behind it here.

i can't say i ever listened to any brewer broadcasts, but i read uecker's book "catcher in the wry" back when i was in junior high or high school, watched "mr. belvedere", and saw his miller lite commercials and appearances in the "major league" movies so i was well aware of his stature as an ambassador for baseball, not just the brew crew.

i remain unsetisfied - 1978 topps signed edition

i have a saved search for 1978 topps signed cards. i have no intention of completing the set in autographed fashion, but there are a few cards that i wouldn't mind adding to my effort, and after the national last year where i failed to fully peruse one vendor's wares, i felt the itch to add to this collection.

over the course of the last few months, i've added 36 cards to the collection. this put me over the two-thirds mark for the set, as i now have 501 unique cards signed out of 726, and 547 total cards signed. anyway, here are the new cards to share:

ron guidry

i had tried to get guidry via ttm a couple of times with no success, so i went the third party route. once i added this card, i decided i wanted to get to 66.7% which meant at least 18 more cards to track down.

the next card i added was ken brett's

brett passed away in 2003 and i was surprised to see this card for a pretty low price. his '78 topps card was well known in my neighborhood because of the back

he was good for a dinger when we played the game using card backs.

rick rhoden

i have a rhoden ttm signed card as part of my dodger collection, but i didn't have a second one for the (semi) set build. the only other dodgers i need a second signed card of are johnny oates and ted martinez.

i'd like to get as many of the manager cards in the set as i can, so i added a few more in this endeavor. here's bobby cox

i guess that could be his signature. it's a leap of faith with many of these, and i was sure to not spend too much on this one in particular.

bob lemon

i am pretty confident about this one, which was one of the cards i most wanted to add.

gene mauch

danny ozark

earl weaver

i think the only managers i still need are vern rapp and darrell johnson. nope. i just checked and i also need herman franks, sparky anderson, chuck tanner, and billy martin.

mike flanagan

mark fidrych

two guys gone too soon

for some reason, the tigers featured a lot of players i either didn't try or don't sign ttm. so, here's chuck scrivener

and fernando arroyo

brian downing

doesn't sign at all these days from what i can tell. i have his certified auto from 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams, but was glad to add this card.

amos otis

as with guidry up top, i had tried to get otis ttm but was unsuccessful. one of my favorite lines from ted lasso was "way to notice, amos otis".

jamie quirk

and jim slaton

represent the brew crew

with this bombo rivera card

i am just three cards away from having the full twins team set signed.

marty perez

is good to have, but the a's i really wanted were mitchell page

and manny sanguillen

i would be absolutely giddy if i were able to find a willie crawford signed 1978 topps card.

right after sandy alomar sr passed away, i picked up his signed card, along with three of his teammates

tom paciorek

the former dodger signed a 1974 topps card for me in a private signing, but i didn't send his '78 card, prioritizing a dodger card over this effort.

bill plummer

from what i can tell, plummer signed all of his 1978 cards the same way in the same place

pepe frias

love the shiny jacket that the then-future dodger was sporting

stan bahnsen

the former rookie of the year reminded me and my friends of lenny from laverne & shirley

bob davis

like plummer, all of the bob davis signed cards i've seen make use of his bat

pat scanlon

came from a seller who also sold me a dave freisleben signed 1978 topps card, except he sent a 1976 card

by mistake. i was refunded so no harm no foul

freddie patek

was one i really wanted for the set, and he doesn't sign. i also added the stolen bases league leader card

but have no path i am aware of to have frank taveras sign it. i did find taveras' individual card

which features one of the more eclectic photos in the set. colors and stripes and netting, oh my!

tony perez

and fergie jenkins

were high on my list of players to add. i have a 1978 topps perez buyback auto from one of the archives releases, but am happy to have this loose version in my set.

finally, one of the cards i really wanted to add the most was that of bobby bonds

i settled for this one that is made out "to bill". there were a couple of authenticated bonds cards i came across, but the prices were high and the autos maybe not as bold. i have a couple of things signed by bonds, and the auto looked good to me with a reasonable price. besides, i figure if it's a fake, it wouldn't have the endorsement.

i wish that young gcrl had taken some 1978 topps cards to the hot stove events i attended as a kid instead of a ball that has now almost completely faded or an autograph book that is not as fun to flip through as a binder of cards.

i haven't added any new cards to this collection for a bit, but i am sure i will eventually get that itch again. stay tuned!