more thoughts on 2022 flagship (so far)

well, it's almost the end of march and the only baseball cards i've seen on a big box retailer shelf is 2022 topps flagship. and it was only hanger packs at that. i bought a couple and then ordered a blaster from target's online store.  the first card i am going to show came from a sportlots order, however.

the stars of mlb inserts seem to be the most prolific. this one is clayton kershaw

who is still a star but not an ace. it's been a long time since i've been able to witness a career arc like kershaw's contained to just one team. i hope he signs with the dodgers again after this season is over, but we will see how things go. he's still my favorite dodger and i will be keeping an eye out for a card to add to my mini-collection of favorite dodgers through the years.

i did add a card to another mini-collection with this shohei ohtani card:

ohtani's card represents the 2022 flagship set in my flagship representative collection. i need a catchier name for that.

speaking of ohtani, i found this checklist card and found it interesting

there are a few things going on. it's a photo taken at target field which is quite photogenic and shows up on a lot of cards these days, thanks in large parts to the camera well on the home plate side of the visitor dugout. if you see a card of a player in the on deck circle wearing away grays, it's a good bet the photo comes from target field.

there are also the big advertisements - ford and jack daniel's. reminds me of the days of the big brut and marlboro ads in yankee stadium and candlestick, respectively, showing up on cards.  finally, there is kenta maeda's t-shirt which is one that he had made for his teammates showing willians astudillo in a sumo wrestler caricature. 

maybe someday fanatics will do a proper insert set of team/fan t-shirts and not give them the photo variation treatment like topps did. i still have never picked up the max muncy "go get it out of the ocean" t-shirt card. i'll have to do that someday.

speaking of variations, it was nice to see this travis d'arnaud card

as his regular card. it's a card that features a photo from jackie robinson day (note the patch on his right sleeve), but it's not a variation. this happened last year in gypsy queen with andrew mccutchen's card even though there was a specific variation theme in gypsy queen for cards featuring images from jackie robinson day. oh well, this card does not go in to my "42" mini-collection because we can't see the 42 on the jersey. still, it gives me some hope that we might see a real 42 jersey on a regular old base card someday. there aren't too many of those around.

i found a 6-4 stars insert:

as a fan of the double play turn at second base, i was hoping for some double play action on these cards. i was disappointed.

some other dodger gets included david price

corey seager

a trea turner league leader card

and julio urias

i also found a 1987 insert of jackie robinson

that uses a less frequently seen image. i don't care for the superimposed or poorly colorized background, however. i assume the bright colors behind jackie are vendors? at first glance i thought it was the phillie phanatic but the color is a bit too flourescent.

i also found a fernando tatis jr. 1987 insert

that is going to represent tatis as my favorite non-dodger for 2022 in my favorite non-dodger through the years mini-collection. i assumed that this photo was of a walk-off home run given the a's catcher's reaction, but it was just a 3rd inning dong.

here's a die-cut mike trout insert

for some reason.

i did not find the wander franco rookie card, but i did get an insert of his

at first i thought this was the blue parallel and was excited about my riches that i would receive from someone out there, but alas, it is just the regular version of the insert.

bring on series 2 and let's see who sits at card #350!