there is no the there

a recent card purchase had me wondering about the regional significance of said purchase, and i will get to that in a bit. first, here's a look at my newest freddie freeman card:

yes, this is a 2023 topps series 1 post!

i bought one of those hanger boxes with 67 cards at target and was lucky enough to get the freeman card above. lucky in that i joined a jumbo hobby case break, so would have no shot at those stars of mlb inserts, as they are retail only. one less card to track down in the wild. more on this insert set later...

here is the first card from the box:

gary sanchez. the guy who broke up the dodgers' perfect game in the bottom of the 8th, just as i was starting to think i might get to witness a no-hitter in person. thanks gary.

here are six of the next seven cards from the box:

so many twins! having purchased this box in a twin cities' suburb, i was amazed at the volume of twinkies right off the bat. however, this series of cards is pretty standard based on the bit of the aforementioned case break's video i watched.

i'll show the back of byron buxton's card

for a couple of reasons. first, topps respects buck enough to give him the uniform number/card number treatment. second, he is such a tease! he's hit 47 homers in his last 153 games, and as the text says, had a run of 55 in a 162 game span. i really hope he can play 140 games in 2023. had he been healthy all season, he would have replaced fernando tatis jr as my favorite non-dodger. and, if he is healthy in 2023, he may well do that yet. finally, i will point out that topps is using the correct, new twins "tc" logo. it's a bit more modern, i guess, than the original version that had the straight top to the "t". there's another logo centered on the "m" that is new this year as well.

here's another card back

which belongs to yadier molina. i set this card aside for my final tribute collection - the card front features a fitting photo

but i am not entirely sure that i will keep it there. that collection generally consists of hall of famers or prominent dodgers from my fandom, with a couple others (such as mark mcgwire) thrown in. i am not sold on the yadi hall of fame case (jaws shows him in jason kendall/darrell porter territory) but we will see. definitely a solid career.

first dodger card for me in the set was julio urias

and the second one was this checklist

that features just a random dugout photo - no real thought given to the combo cards this year, i guess. topps chose a perfect photo for the urias card relative to the card design. unfortunately that seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

i noted on a post over at the cardboard junkie that of course one of the hot rookies this year had a double play turn on his card, so i was happy to find it in my pack

to add to my mini collection. vaughn grissom cards are very popular right now, to say the least.

another card that was also found in dayf's pack as well as mine was this yasmani grandal card

this is a great addition to my "42" mini collection. nice to see topps use this photo for his base card rather than the ssp version. hopefully they get less stingy with the 42 uniform photos!

on to the inserts. the one rainbow foil card i received was a twin

in keeping with the theme of the pack.

my 1988 design insert featured miguel cabrera

it is a looooooooooooooong shot but i would be super happy if steve garvey were featured in the series 2 or update 1988 sets. ron cey, too.

i got a 2022 greatest hits insert of oneil cruz

he hit the ball real hard last year is the point of the card

and then there were four regular inserts like the chrome one up top

just like last year, topps (correctly) calls these inserts "stars of mlb". i have seen them referenced (on sportlots, for example) as "stars of the mlb" which doesn't make sense. "the" nfl, "the" nba, "the" nhl - all of those make sense, but to say "the" major league baseball does not. it's not "the" mlb network, it's just mlb network. just one of those things that i notice and get mildly annoyed by.

here's the last card in the "pack" i purchased

and of course it features a twin.

overall, i don't mind the design. i like white borders, but the team logos take up a lot of space. use 'em if you got 'em, i guess.

i'll have another 2023-centric post up soon as i went to the monthly card show last weekend and found a guy selling all the non-adley/vaughn/harris inserts for cheap. good times - stay tuned.